1618. CHAP. No measure of James's reign was attended with more XLVIII. public dissatisfaction than the punishment of Sir Walter Raleigh. To execute a sentence which was originally so hard, which had been so long suspended, and which seemed to have been tacitly pardoned, by conferring on him a new trust and commission, was deemed an instance of cruelty and injustice. To sacrifice, to a concealed enemy of England, the life of the only man in the nation who had a high reputation for valour and military experience, was regarded as meanness and indiscretion: and the intimate connexions which the king was now entering into with Spain, being universally distasteful, rendered this proof of his complaisance still more invidious and unpopular. James had entertained an opinion, which was peculiar to himself, and which had been adopted by none of his predecessors, that any alliance below that of a great king was unworthy of a Prince of Wales; and he never would allow any princess but a daughter of France or Spain to be mentioned as a match for his son. This instance of pride, which really implies meanness, as if he could receive honour from any alliance, was so well known, that Spain had founded on it the hopes of governing, in the most important transactions, this monarch, so little celebrated for politics or prudence. During the life of Henry, the King of Spain had dropped some hints of bestowing on that prince his eldest daughter, whom he afterwards disposed of in marriage to the young King of France, Lewis XIII. At that time the views of the Spaniards were to engage James into a neutrality with regard to the succession of Cleves, which was disputed between the Protestant and popish line: but the bait did not then take; and James, in consequence of his alliance with the Dutch, and with Henry IV. of France, marched four thousand men, under the command of Sir Edward Cecil, who joined these two powers, and put the Marquis of Brandenburgh and the Palatine of Newbourg in possession of that duchy. Gondomar was, at this time, the Spanish ambassador in England; a man whose flattery was the more artful, because covered with the appearance of frankness and e Kennet, p. 703. 748. f Rushworth, vol. i. p. 2. g 1610. XLVIII. 1618. sincerity; whose politics were the more dangerous, be- CHAP. cause disguised under the mask of mirth and pleasantry. He now made offer of the second daughter of Spain to Prince Charles; and, that he might render the temptation irresistible to the necessitous monarch, he gave hopes of an immense fortune, which should attend the princess. The court of Spain, though determined to contract no alliance with a heretic ", entered into negotiations with James, which they artfully protracted, and, amidst every disappointment, they still redoubled his hopes of success'. The transactions in Germany, so important to the Austrian greatness, became every day a new motive for this duplicity of conduct. tions in Bohemia. In that great revolution of manners which happened Insurrecduring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the only nations who had the honourable, though often melancholy advantage of making an effort for their expiring privileges, were such as, together with the principles of civil liberty, were animated with a zeal for religious parties and opinions. Besides the irresistible force of standing armies, the European princes possessed this advantage, that they were descended from the ancient royal families; that they continued the same appellations of magistrates, the same appearance of civil government; and restraining themselves by all the forms of legal administration, could insensibly impose the yoke on their unguarded subjects. Even the German nations, who formerly broke the Roman chains, and restored liberty to mankind, now lost their own liberty, and saw with grief the absolute authority of their princes firmly established among them. In their circumstances, nothing but a pious zeal, which disregards all motives of human prudence, could have made them entertain hopes of preserving any longer those privileges which their ancestors, through so many ages, had transmitted to them. As the house of Austria, throughout all her extensive dominions, had ever made religion the pretence for her usurpations, she now met with resistance from a like principle; and the Catholic religion, as usual, had ranged itself on the side of monarchy; the Protestant, on that of liberty. The states of Bohemia, having taken arms i Franklyn, p. 71. h La Boderie, vol. ii. p. 30. XLVIII. 1618. CHAP. against the Emperor Matthias, continued their revolt against his successor Ferdinand, and claimed the observance of all the edicts enacted in favour of the new religion, together with the restoration of their ancient laws and constitution. The neighbouring principalities, Silesia, Moravia, Lusatia, Austria, even the kingdom of Hungary, took part in the quarrel; and throughout all these populous and martial provinces, the spirit of discord and civil war had universally diffused itself. 1619. Ferdinand II., who possessed more vigour and greater abilities, though not more lenity and moderation, than are usual with the Austrian princes, strongly armed himself for the recovery of his authority; and besides employing the assistance of his subjects, who professed the ancient religion, he engaged on his side a powerful alliance of the neighbouring potentates. All the Catholic princes of the empire had embraced his defence; even Saxony, the most powerful of the Protestant: Poland had declared itself in his favour'; and, above all, the Spanish monarch, deeming his own interest closely connected with that of the younger branch of his family, prepared powerful succours from Italy, and from the Low Countries; and he also advanced large sums for the support of Ferdinand and of the Catholic religion. The states of Bohemia, alarmed at these mighty preparations, began also to solicit foreign assistance; and, together with that support which they obtained from the evangelical union in Germany, they endeavoured to establish connexions with greater princes. They cast their eyes on Frederic, Elector Palatine. They considered that, besides commanding no despicable force of his own, he was son-in-law to the King of England, and nephew to Prince Maurice, whose authority was become almost absolute in the United Provinces. They hoped that these princes, moved by the connexions of blood, as well as by the tie of their common religion, would interest themselves in all the fortunes of Frederic, and would promote his greatness. They therefore made him a tender of their crown, which they considered as elective; and the young Palatine, stimulated by ambition, without k Rushworth, vol. i. p. 7, 8. 1 Ibid. p. 13, 14. m consulting either James " or Maurice, whose opposition CHAP. he foresaw, immediately accepted the offer, and marched all his forces into Bohemia, in support of his new subjects. The news of these events no sooner reached England, than the whole kingdom was on fire to engage in the quarrel. Scarcely was the ardour greater, with which all the states of Europe, in former ages, flew to rescue the Holy Land from the dominion of infidels. The nation was, as yet, sincerely attached to the blood of their monarchs, and they considered their connexion with the Palatine, who had married a daughter of England, as very close and intimate; and when they heard of Catholics carrying on wars and persecutions against Protestants, they thought their own interest deeply concerned, and regarded their neutrality as a base desertion of the cause of God, and of his holy religion. In such a quarrel, they would gladly have marched to the opposite extremity of Europe, have plunged themselves into a chaos of German politics, and have expended all the blood and treasure of the nation, by maintaining a contest with the whole house of Austria, at the very time and in the very place, in which it was the most potent, and almost irresistible. But James, besides that his temper was too little enterprising for such vast undertakings, was restrained by another motive, which had a mighty influence over him: he refused to patronize the revolt of subjects against their sovereign. From the very first he denied to his son-in-law the title of King of Bohemia": he forbade him to be prayed for in the churches under that appellation and though he owned that he had nowise examined the pretensions, privileges, and constitution of the revolted states, so exalted was his idea of the rights of kings, that he concluded subjects must ever be in the wrong, when they stood in opposition to those who had acquired or assumed that majestic title. Thus, even in measures founded on true politics, James intermixed so many narrow prejudices, as diminished his authority, and exposed him to the imputation of weakness and of error. XLVIII. 1619. m Franklyn, p. 49. n Rushworth, vol. i. p. 12, 13. • Franklyn, p. 48. CHAP. Meanwhile affairs every where hastened to a crisis. XLVIII. Ferdinand levied a great force, under the command of 1620. the Duke of Bavaria and the Count of Bucquoy; and advanced upon his enemy in Bohemia. In the Low Countries, Spinola collected a veteran army of thirty thousand men. When Edmonds, the king's resident at Brussels, made remonstrances to the Archduke Albert, he was answered, that the orders for this armament had been transmitted to Spinola from Madrid, and that he alone knew the secret destination of it. Spinola again told the minister, that his orders were still sealed; but, if Edmonds would accompany him in his march to Coblentz, he would there open them, and give him full satisfaction. It was more easy to see his intentions, than to prevent their success. Almost at one time, it was known in England that Frederic, being defeated in the great and decisive battle of Prague, had fled with his family into Holland, and that Spinola had invaded the Loss of the Palatinate, and, meeting with no resistance, except from some princes of the union, and from one English regiment of two thousand four hundred men, commanded by the brave Sir Horace Vere, had, in a little time, reduced the greater part of that principality. Palatinate. High were now the murmurs and complaints against the king's neutrality and inactive disposition. The happiness and tranquillity of their own country became distasteful to the English, when they reflected on the grievances and distresses of their Protestant brethren in Germany. They considered not, that their interposition in the wars of the continent, though agreeable to religious zeal, could not, at that time, be justified by any sound maxims of politics; that, however exorbitant the Austrian greatness, the danger was still too distant to give any just alarm to England; that mighty resistance would yet be made by so many potent and warlike princes and states in Germany, ere they would yield their neck to the yoke; that France, now engaged to contract a double alliance with the Austrian family, must necessarily be soon roused from her lethargy, and oppose the progress of so hated a rival; that in the farther advance of conquests, P Franklyn, p. 44. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 14. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 15. Kennet, p. 723. |