in her lifetime to the reputation of a beatified woman, praying him to deliver it in person, with the hope, no doubt, of his being converted by the sight of so much holiness; and the princess afterwards caused an extra mass to be said for his safe voyage. Gondomar, the Count of Monterey, and other noblemen, were ordered to accompany the prince all the way to St. Andero, where the English fleet was lying under the command of Lord Rutland. But Philip himself, with his two brothers, would see his highness on his road; they travelled with him to the Escurial, where they entertained him splendidly for several days, and then, as if loath to part, they went on with he parted, there passed wonderful great endearments and embraces in divers postures between them a long time; and in that place there was a pillar to be erected as a monument to posterity."" Passing through Segovia, Valladolid, by the cell of the nun of Carrion, travelling by easy journeys, and lodging in the castles of the provincial nobility, who everywhere gave him a most kind and hospitable reception, Charles at length reached the seaport. He had a narrow escape from drowning while going in a boat from the town of St. Andero to the admiral's ship. His first remark on finding himself in safety was, that he had duped the Spaniards; that the Spaniards were fools to let him depart so freely! the shadow of a doubt. He fancied that, if he | the celebrated nun of Carrion, who had attained failed to give them satisfaction, or cast a slight upon their princess, the Spaniards would detain him as a state prisoner; and he was ready to promise and vow whatever they chose, in order to get safe out of their country, fully resolving to break all these engagements as soon as he conveniently might. He intimated to his Catholic majesty that his father, who was growing old and sick, had commanded him to return, and that his presence was indispensable to quiet the alarms of the English people at his long absence, as well as to prepare them for the reception of his Catholic wife, and for that toleration of all Catholics, which had been settled by treaty. Philip and Olivares readily agreed to take charge of the dis-him as far as Campillo. "When the king and pensation when it should arrive, and to have the espousals celebrated before Christmas, at the latest; and Charles agreed to lodge a procuration, with full powers, in the hands of the Earl of Bristol, who was to deliver it to Philip ten days after the arrival of the expected paper from Rome, and to name the king, or his brother, the Infant Don Carlos, as proxy. Charles, in the presence of the Patriarch of the Indies, solemnly swore with Philip upon the Scriptures, to observe and faithfully keep this agreement. The Infanta Donna Maria took the title of Princess of England, and a separate court was formed for her by her brother. Charles now prepared to depart, and Buckingham got all things ready with amazing alacrity. Philip presented the prince with some fine The voyage was most prosperous, and the Spanish and Barbary horses, various pictures by prince and Buckingham landed safely at Portsthe great Titian, a masterpiece of Correggio's, mouth on the 5th of October. For some days and various other articles indicative of his taste, there was nothing but a ringing of bells, a makas well as of his liberality. The young Queening of bonfires, with drums, guns, and fire-works; of Spain gave a great many bags of amber, with some dressed kid skins, and linen; Olivares gave a few choice Italian pictures, three sedan chairs of curious workmanship, and some costly articles of furniture; and the chief grandees all gave something, as horses, fine mules with trappings, &c. In return, the Prince of Wales gave to the king an enamelled hilt for a sword and a dagger, studded with precious stones, to the queen a pair of curious ear-rings, and to the infanta a string of pearls, and a diamond anchor as the emblem of his constancy. At his parting interview with the young queen and Donna Maria, Charles played the part of a disconsolate lover, forced from the object of his passionate affections. The infanta gave him a letter written with her own hand for There were doubts entertained as to his intentions; but so much did Charles deceive his own countrymen, that wagers of thirty to one were offered among the English at Madrid, that the marriage with the Spanish infanta would still take effect. Howell, Familiar Letters. 2 Mendoza (in the Italian translation). There is a letter from Buckingham to the king, announcing the fine things they were bringing away with them, at which it is impossible not to laugh. ** Four asses you I have sent, two hes and two shes. Five camels, VOL. II. and, without waiting for the word of command 153 tened on the same auspicious day. But, when all Madrid was at the height of its joy and pleasant expectations, when it wanted but three days of the day, three English couriers, despatched for greater certainty, arrived one upon the back of the other, with a new commission to my Lord of Bristol, countermanding the delivery of the proxy until full and absolute satisfaction should be given for the immediate surrender of the Palatinate, or war declared by the King of Spain for the obtaining of that surrender to the King of England's son-in-law. Philip indignantly countermanded the preparations for the marriage, broke up the household of his sister, and ordered her to quit the study of the English language, and relinquish the title of Princess of Wales, which, it is said, the infanta could not do without shedding some tears. When the Spanish sovereign's anger cooled, he entered into explanations with Bristol, for whom he entertained a high esteem. He said that the Palatinate was not his to give, and that it was scarcely to be expected he should enter into a war with his relative the emperor, and with half the Catholic powers of Europe, for its recovery: but if a friendly negotiation could secure it, he would guarantee it-nay, if, after a time, negotiations were found unavailing, he would take up arms to restore the Palatine to his hereditary dominions. The Spanish council, moreover, affirmed that his majesty was resolved to employ his utmost endeavours to satisfy the King of England; but to have it extorted from the pope's rescript was arrived, and thereupon Clerk desired to speak with my Lord Bristol, for he had something to deliver him from the prince; and "my lord ambassador being come to him, Mr. Clerk delivered a letter from the prince, the contents whereof were, that whereas he had left certain proxies in his hands to be delivered to the King of Spain after the dispensation was come, he desired and required him not to do it till he should receive further order from England." The only reason alleged by Charles was, that he feared that the infanta, immediately after the marriage by proxy, would shut herself up in a nunnery! Bristol, lost in amazement, would not see that this most absurd pretext was merely meant to cover over a fixed determination not to marry the princess at all. As the rumour which hastened Clerk's disclosure was premature, he had time, as he thought, to set matters right. He went straight to court, where Philip gave him every possible assurance that his sister would be sent into England at the time and in the manner already agreed upon, and where the infanta made herself very merry, saying, that she must confess she never in all her life had any mind to be a nun, and hardly thought she should be one now, only to avoid the Prince of Wales. He then despatched a courier with life and death speed to King James, telling him of the absolute removal of the only difficulty; and he continued to dress and furnish his household in velvet and silver lace, so that they might do honour to the ceremony of the espousals. But Charles and Bucking-him by way of menace, or that it should now be ham closeted James, and made him write to Bristol that he might deliver his proxy at Christmas, because "that holy and joyful time was best fitting so notable and blessed an action as the marriage." To this despatch Bristol replied in all speed, that (as Buckingham and the prince well knew) the powers in the proxy expired before Christmas; and it would be a most grievous insult to present it when it had ceased to be of value; that the pope had already signed the paper, and that he, Bristol, should consider himself bound by treaty, and by the oath he had taken to that treaty, to deliver the proxy whenever it should be asked for by the King of Spain, unless his master should send him positive orders to the contrary. Having given what he considered satisfactory assurances to his ambassadors at the English court, Philip, upon the actual arrival of the document from Rome, which came in about a fortnight, fixed the day for the marriage by proxy, invited the grandees and great ladies to the ceremony, and sent orders to all the towns and seaports to discharge their great ordnance. His infant daughter, of whom the queen had been delivered a little while before, was to be chris added to the marriage by way of condition, and that his own sister must be rejected, unless the king would make a war with the emperor, was too humiliating, and whatsoever his majesty's resolutions might be, he could neither with his honour, nor with the honour of his sister, whom he would in no way force or thrust upon the prince, make any more concessions at present. But, in a day or two, Philip put his signature to a formal promise written in the form of a letter to King James; and this, it was thought, would satisfy the English court. But Charles had resolved not to marry the infanta at any price, and he and Buckingham, encouraged by the popular feeling at home, had made up their minds to a war with Spain. Bristol received his recal, and Philip then prepared for a war with England. The ambassador represented to James, that having contracted a debt of 50,000 crowns, and pledged all his lady's jewels at Madrid for Prince Charles, he had not a quarter of the money necessary for his journey; and he humbly besought his majesty to consider that his leaving that court ought not to be like a running away in debt, though, rather than disobey his commands, he would go home on foot. It does not appear that James remitted a sixpence. But Philip commiserated the hard case of Bristol, gave him a rich sideboard of plate, and, being fully aware of the fate that Buckingham was preparing for him in England, he made him an offer, that if he would stay in any of his dominions, he would give him money and honour equal to what the highest of his enemies possessed; but Bristol declined the splendid offer, saying, that he feared no mischief in his native country, which he must ever love and prefer to every other. Though Charles and Buckingham were very anxious to get Bristol away from Madrid, they were by no means desirous of his presence in England: he was told to travel by slow stages, and when he arrived, he was ordered to go instantly to his house in the country, and there consider himself a prisoner. But for the opposition of the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Pembroke, the vindictive Buckingham would have had him committed to the Tower. As it was, without any trial-without a hearing--he was forbidden either to visit the court, or to take his seat as a peer in parlia ment.' that all that had passed should be disclosed to The king's joy for the return of the "dear boys" was soon overcast by a gloomy reflection upon the consequences of their rash journey. No money from Spain, fresh debts contracted, his jewels nearly all gone, his daughter still an outcast, a war in perspective--those thoughts harassed him to death, and made him forego his hunting and his hawking, and shut himself up in solitude. In other directions, Buckingham was eliciting the most deplorable exhibitions of human baseness. Cranfield the lord-treasurer, Bishop Williams the lord-keeper, and others of his creatures, who had joined in censuring his conduct during his absence, because they thought his influence was on the decline, were all brought to crawl like reptiles before him.2 Nothing remained for James but A.D. 1624. the last and painful resource of assembling a parliament. This time he issued no arbitrary proclamations, laid down no lessons to the electors; and when the houses met (on the 19th of February), he addressed them in a tone of great moderation and sweetness; but he could not conquer his nature or his inveterate habit, and, in the end, this falsetto give way to his real voice. He told them that he remembered and regretted former misunderstandings; that he earnestly desired to do his duty, and manifesting to the Spanish treaty, in presence of the two ambassadors, his love to his people. Forgetting previous declarations, he told them that he had been long engaged in treaties with Spain; that he had sent his own son with the man he most trusted, the faithfulest and best of counsellors, into Spain; Hardwicke State Papers; Clarendon Papers; Cabala; Journals of the Lords. 2 Cabala. Prynne: Hardwicke Papers. A Journals of the Lords. Rushworth gives the king's eloquence more at length than the journals. of the Palatinate as a preliminary; and that, in the insincerity of the Spaniards, for James infine, the prince, after enduring much ill-treat-terrupted him by saying, "Hold! you insinuate ment, was obliged to return home, bereft of all what I have never spoken. Buckingham hath hope of obtaining either the infanta or the Pala- made you a relation on which you are to judge; tinate. This tissue of misrepresentations was but I never yet declared my mind upon it."2 received with enthusiasm by parliament. Old Five days after this message, the question of Coke, in the House of Commons, called Buck- supplies came on in the commons. The king ingham the saviour of the nation, and out of asked for £700,000 to begin the war, and for doors the people sang his praises, lit bonfires, £150,000 per annum to pay his debts. These and insulted the Spanish ambassadors. These demands made the commons falter in their wargentlemen protested against the duke's speech like note: but Buckingham and the prince hinted as false and injurious to their sovereign's honour; that a smaller sum would be accepted; and, withbut the two houses defended the favourite, and out noticing the king's debts, they voted three presently proceeded to declare that their king subsidies and three fifteenths, making about could no longer negotiate with honour or safety. £300,000, which was all to be raised within a The people were eager for war; but James, in year, to be applied to the war, and to be put into growing old, had not grown warlike; he trembled, the hands of treasurers appointed by themselves, hung back, talked of the long standing of his who were to issue money on the warrant of the character as a righteous and pacific monarch, of council of war, and on no other orders. The his debts, of his poverty; but it was this very king then declared by proclamation, that the poverty that forwarded the views of Buckingham treaties with Spain were at an end. In their biand his son, who represented that money he gotry the lower house forgot their old jealousy must have; that there was no such sure way of of proclamations, and resolved to petition the obtaining a round supply as by declaring war king for another proclamation against the Caagainst his Catholic majesty; and, in the end, tholics; but the lords objected to this course, though with sore fears and misgivings, James and, in the end, a joint petition from both houses, resolved to assume the novel attitude of a belli- with some of the sting taken out of it, was pregerent. The idea made the Spaniards laugh. sented, praying the king to enforce the penal Gondomar had told them that there were no men statutes. James again called God to witness in England, and, if he meant public men, he was that it was his intention so to do; his determinanot far wrong; they despised this kingdom, as tion never to permit of any indulgence or toweak, poor, disunited, led by a timid king and an leration; and Prince Charles also swore that, inexperienced prince, whose anger they ridiculed, if it should please God to bestow upon him any comparing it to a revolt of the mice against the lady that was Popish, that she should have no cats. Such had become, in the hands of James, further liberty but for her own family, and no the thunderbolts of Elizabeth. But, with unusual advantage to the recusants at home. All misalacrity, the king told the commons that, if they sionaries were ordered by proclamation to leave would vote him money, he would apply it to a England under the penalty of death; the judges war with Spain; and, as he was well aware that and magistrates were instructed to act vigorously; the commons had no confidence in him, he gra- and the lord-mayor of London was especially ciously told them that the money voted might be admonished to arrest all such persons as went to given over to a committee of parliament, to be hear mass in the houses of the foreign ambasmanaged and paid out by them. sadors. The commons drew up a list of Catholics holding places under government, and unanimously petitioned for their removal; but these placemen were saved for the present by the interference of the lords. Patents and monopolies, and the bitter recollection of the manner in which parliament had been dissolved, still rankled in the hearts of the commons, and in their committee of grievances they pronounced some of the patents illegal, and reserved others for future examination. The king, much nettled, told them that he too had his grievances to complain of-that they, the commons, had encroached on his prerogative and condemned patents that were very useful, and had suffered themselves to be led by the lawyers, who were the greatest 2 Journals of the Lords. The commons took him at his word, and a joint address from both houses, with an offer to support him in the war with their persons and fortunes, was presented to him by Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury-a strange choice, both because it was unseemly that a churchman should deliver a message leading to war and blood, and because the archbishop had sworn with the lords of the council to the Spanish treaty. But Abbot had taken that oath most unwillingly, and it was probably with an expression of joy or even of triumph that he congratulated the king on his having become sensible of In the Hardwicke Papers, there is a curious letter from Buckingham to his "Dear dad and gossip," urging him to war. It is quite in the popular strain. 3 Journals. A fearful tragedy, enacted on a small island in the Eastern Ocean, should have seemed likely to make this Dutch alliance unpopular with the English people. Ever since the conclusion of the long truce at the Hague, the Dutch had been colonizing and trading on a most extensive scale in the seas of India and China. Among other islands they possessed Amboyna, one of the Molucca or Spice Islands, which they had taken from the Portuguese. They pretended not only an absolute sovereignty over this island—part of which continued to be occupied for some years by independent natives-but also an exclusive right to the spice trade in all that archipelago. Their friends and allies the English soon became desirous of sharing in this profitable traffic; they sent some ships to obtain cloves from the natives, and in 1612 the East India Company formed a little settlement at Cambello, in Amboyna, from which they were forced to retire two years after. In 1619 a treaty was concluded in London, by which the English thought themselves entitled to share in the trade; but the Dutch settlers and the local government were jealous in the extreme, and they had recently seized Captain Gabriel Towerson and nine Englishmen, with nine poor grievances of all. But the commous were bent | who had invaded their territory under the comupon striking a blow in higher quarters; they mand of the great Italian general Spinola.* had taken their measures for impeaching Cranfield, now Earl of Middlesex, the lord-treasurer of England, and master of the court of wards, for deficiency, bribery, and oppression. This lordtreasurer was one of the creatures of Buckingham, who had intrigued against him during his absence in Spain, and on his return he was less successful than Bishop Williams, the lord-keeper, in making his peace with the incensed favourite by vile prostrations and abjurations. Buckingham, moreover, in starting as a fiery Protestant and patriot, had cultivated a good understanding with some of the leaders of the opposition or country party. Now these men wanted a victim-not that the treasurer was not guilty--and Buckingham gladly gave him up. The king would fain have protected his servant, and he lost his temper both with Buckingham and Charles for favouring the impeachment; he told the duke that he was a fool, and was making a rod for his own breech, and the prince that he would live to have his bellyful of impeachments. Nor did he stop here; he wrote to tell the commons that the lord-treasurer had not, as they supposed, advised the dissolution of the last parliament, but, on the contrary, had begged on his knees for its continuance; he covered or palliated the treasurer's offences to the lords: but all this was of no avail, and Middlesex, being only allowed three days to prepare his defence, was convicted by the unanimous vote of the peers, condemned to pay a fine of about £5000, to be imprisoned during pleasure, and to be for ever excluded from his seat in parliament, and from the verge of the court.2 The country party had also intended to impeach the lord-keeper, Williams, but the supple prelate was protected by Buckingham, to whom, during the session, he rendered a most important piece of secret service. While James trembled, and talked of the blessedness of peace, his son and the duke, in his name and with the concurrence of parliament, attended to the raising of troops and the concluding of alliances against the house of Austria, for the humbling of Spain, and for the recovery of the Palatinate. "This spring gave birth to four brave regiments of foot (a new apparition in the English horizon), 1500 in a regiment, which were raised and transported into Holland, under four gallant colonels, the Earls of Oxford, Southampton, and Essex, and Lord Willoughby." Dutch were already at war with the Spaniards, 1 Clarendon. The 2 Journals; Rushworth. 3 Arthur Wilson. "James, though an able man, was a weak monarch. His quickness of apprehension and soundness of judgment were marred by his credulity and partialities, his childish fears and habit of vaccillation. Eminently qualified to advise as a counsellor, he wanted the spirit and resolution to act as a sovereign. 000 |