CHAP. XLV. 1603. power of a family, which had been raised by fortune, should now be carried to an immeasurable height, by the wisdom and conduct of this monarch. But never were apprehensions found in the event to be more groundless. Slow without prudence, ambitious without enterprise, false without deceiving any body, and refined without any true judgment; such was the character of Philip, and such the character which, during his lifetime, and after his death, he impressed on the Spanish councils. Revolted or depopulated provinces, discontented or indolent inhabitants, were the spectacles which those dominions, lying in every climate of the globe, presented to Philip III., a weak prince, and to the Duke of Lerma, a minister weak and odious. But though military discipline, which still remained, was what alone gave some appearance of life and vigour to that languishing body, yet so great was the terror produced by former power and ambition, that the reduction of the house of Austria was the object of men's vows throughout all the states of Christendom. It was not perceived, that the French empire, now united in domestic peace, and governed by the most heroic and most amiable prince that adorns modern story, was become, of itself, a sufficient counterpoise to the Spanish greatness. Perhaps, that prince Rosni's himself did not perceive it, when he proposed, by his tions. minister, a league with James, in conjunction with Venice, the United Provinces, and the northern crowns; in order to attack the Austrian dominions on every side, and depress the exorbitant power of that ambitious family. But the genius of the English monarch was not equal to such vast enterprises. The love of peace was his ruling passion; and it was his peculiar felicity, that the conjunctures of the times rendered the same object which was agreeable to him in the highest degree advantageous to his people. The French ambassador, therefore, was obliged to depart from these extensive views, and to concert with James the means of providing for the safety of the United Provinces; nor was this object altogether without its difficulties. The king, before his accession, had entertained scruples with regard to the revolt of the Low d Sully's Memoirs. negotia XLV. 1603. CHAP. Countries; and being commonly open and sincere, he had, on many occasions, gone so far as to give to the Dutch the appellation of rebels'; but having conversed more fully with English ministers and courtiers, he found their attachment to that republic so strong, and their opinion of common interest so established, that he was obliged to sacrifice to politics his sense of justice; a quality which, even when erroneous, is respectable as well as rare in a monarch. He therefore agreed with Rosni, to support secretly the states-general, in concert with the King of France; lest their weakness and despair should oblige them to submit to their old master. The articles of the treaty were few and simple. It was stipulated, that the two kings should allow the Dutch to levy forces in their respective dominions; and should underhand remit to that republic the sum of one million four hundred thousand livres a year for the pay of these forces: that the whole sum should be advanced by the King of France; but that the third of it should be deducted from the debt due by him to Queen Elizabeth. And if the Spaniard attacked either of the princes, they agreed to assist each other: Henry with a force of ten thousand men, James with that of six. This treaty, one of the wisest and most equitable concluded by James during the course of his reign, was more the work of the prince himself than any of his ministers. Raleigh's Amidst the great tranquillity, both foreign and doconspiracy. mestic, with which the nation was blest, nothing could be more surprising than the discovery of a conspiracy to subvert the government, and to fix on the throne Arabella Stuart, a near relation of the king's by the family of Lenox, and descended equally from Henry VII. Every thing remains still mysterious in this conspiracy, and history can give us no clue to unravel it. Watson and Clarke, two catholic priests, were accused of the plot: Lord Grey, a puritan: Lord Cobham, a thoughtless man, of no fixed principle: and Sir Walter Raleigh, suspected to be of that philosophical sect, who were then extremely rare in England, and who have since received the appellation of free-thinkers: together e La Boderie, vol. i. P. 120. g Sully's Memoirs. f Winwood, vol. ii. p. 55. XLV. with these, Mr. Broke, brother to Lord Cobham, Sir CHAP. Griffin Markham, Mr. Copeley, Sir Edward Parham. What cement could unite men of such discordant prin- 1603. ciples in so dangerous a combination; what end they proposed, or what means proportioned to an undertaking of this nature, has never yet been explained, and cannot easily be imagined. As Raleigh, Grey, and Cobham, were commonly believed, after the queen's death, to have opposed proclaiming the king, till conditions should be made with him; they were, upon that account, extremely obnoxious to the court and ministry; and people were apt, at first, to suspect, that the plot was merely a contrivance of Secretary Cecil, to get rid of his old confederates, now become his most inveterate enemies. But the confession, as well as trial of the criminals, put the matter beyond doubt". And though no one could find any marks of a concerted enterprise, it appeared that men of furious and ambitious spirits, meeting frequently together, and believing all the world discontented, like themselves, had entertained very criminal projects, and had even entered, some of them at least, into a correspondence with Aremberg, the Flemish ambassador, in order to give disturbance to the new settlement. The two priests' and Broke were executed: Cobham, Grey, and Markham, were pardoned', after they had laid their heads upon the block". Raleigh too was reprieved, not pardoned; and he remained in confinement many years afterwards. It appears from Sully's Memoirs, that Raleigh secretly offered his services to the French ambassador; and we may thence presume that, meeting with a repulse from that quarter, he had recourse, for the same unwarrantable purposes, to the Flemish minister. Such a conjecture we are now enabled to form; but it must be confessed that, on his trial, there appeared no proof of this transaction, nor indeed any circumstance which could justify his condemnation. He was accused by Cobham alone, in a sudden fit of passion, upon hearing that Raleigh, when examined, had pointed out some circumstances, by h State Trials, p. 180, 2d edit. Winwood, vol. ii. p. 8. 11. m Winwood, vol. ii. p. 11. VOL. IV. 1 December 9. 1603. CHAP. which Cobham's guilt might be known and ascertained. XLV. This accusation Cobham afterwards retracted; and soon after he retracted his retractation. Yet upon the written evidence of this single witness, a man of no honour or understanding, and so contradictory in his testimony, not confronted with Raleigh, not supported by any concurring circumstance, was that great man, contrary to all law and equity, found guilty by the jury. His name was at that time extremely odious in England; and every man was pleased to give sentence against the capital enemy of Essex, the favourite of the people. 1604. Sir Edward Coke, the famous lawyer, then attorneygeneral, managed the cause for the crown, and threw out on Raleigh such gross abuse, as may be deemed a great reflection, not only on his own memory, but even, in some degree, on the manners of the age. Traitor, monster, viper, and spider of hell, are the terms which he employs against one of the most illustrious men of the kingdom, who was under trial for life and fortune, and who defended himself with temper, eloquence, and courage". The next occupation of the king was entirely according to his heart's content. He was employed in dictating magisterially to an assembly of divines, concerning points of faith and discipline, and in receiving the applauses of these holy men, for his superior zeal and learning. The religious disputes between the church and the puritans had induced him to call a conference at Hampton-court, on pretence of finding expedients which might reconcile both parties. Though the severities of Elizabeth towards the Catholics had much weakened that party, whose genius was opposite to the prevailing spirit of the nation; like severities had had so little influence on the puritans, who were encouraged by that spirit, that no less than seven hundred and fifty clergymen of that party signed a petition to the king on his accession; and many more seemed willing to adhere to it. They all hoped that James, having received his education in Scotland, and having sometimes professed an attachment to the church established there, would at least abate the rigour of the laws enacted in support of the ceremonies, and against puritans; if he did not show more particular grace and encouragement to that sect. But the king's disposition had taken strongly a contrary bias. The more he knew the puritanical clergy, the less favour he bore to them. He had remarked in their Scottish brethren a violent turn towards republicanism, and a zealous attachment to civil liberty; principles nearly allied to that religious enthusiasm with which they were actuated. He had found that, being mostly persons of low birth and mean education, the same lofty pretensions which attended them in their familiar addresses to their Maker, of whom they believed themselves the peculiar favourites, induced them to use the utmost freedoms with their earthly sovereign. In both capacities, of monarch and of theologian, he had experienced the little complaisance which they were disposed to show him; whilst they controlled his commands, disputed his tenets, and, to his face, before the whole people, censured his conduct and behaviour. If he had submitted to the indignity of courting their favour, he treasured up, on that account, the stronger resentment against them, and was determined to make them feel, in their turn, the weight of his authority. Though he had often met with resistance and faction and obstinacy in the Scottish nobility, he retained no illwill to that order; or rather, showed them favour and kindness in England, beyond what reason and sound policy could well justify: but the ascendant which the presbyterian clergy had assumed over him was what his monarchical pride could never thoroughly digest P. He dreaded likewise the popularity which attended this order of men in both kingdoms. As useless austerities and self-denial are imagined, in many religions, to render us acceptable to a benevolent Being, who created us solely for happiness, James remarked that the rustic severity of these clergymen, and of their whole sect, had given them, in the eyes of the multitude, the appearance of sanctity and virtue. Strongly inclined P James ventured to say, in his Basilicon Doron, published while he was in Scotland, "I protest before the great God, and since I am here as upon my Testament, it is no place for me to lie in, that ye shall never find with any Highland or Borderer Thieves greater ingratitude and more lies and vile perjuries, than with these fanatic spirits: and suffer not the principal of them to brook your land." King James's Works, p. 161. CHAP. XLV. 1604. |