66 66 and then he "stood upon his tip-toes," resolving not to abate a jot of the articles of religion, and of liberty to the Catholics of England, which had been agreed upon_with Spain. This was excessively inconvenient to King James and Prince Charles, who only six months before had both solemnly vowed that they would never tolerate the Papists. In fact, when the proposal was made, they were permitting a fresh persecution of the recusants. James, however, signed a private paper, promising favour to the Catholics, without which the pope would not grant the dispensation.* Carlisle presented this document, and endeavoured to convince Richelieu and his colleagues that it was security enough. "But," say they, we did sing a song to the deaf, for they would not endure to hear of it." "In the next place," continue these diplomatists, we offered the same to be signed by his highness (Prince Charles) and a secretary of state, wherein we pretended to come home to their own asking; but this would not serve the turn neither." Carlisle made a good stand, and would have bartered a toleration in England for French troops to be sent into the Palatinate. He repeated words which they had used at the first opening of the negotiation-"Give us priests," said the cardinal, "and we will give you colonels." "Give us pomp and ceremony to content the pope," said another, and we will throw ourselves wholly in your interests.' "Yes," said the chancellor, 66 we will espouse all your interests as if they were our own." They confessed to these expressions, but pretended that they had already done enough in joining the league. Carlisle made several good struggles, but he was badly supported. Secretary Conway, whose instructions and despatches seem to have been dictated entirely by Charles and Buckingham, became very obscure or ambiguous." After some negotiation, Richelieu consented to the écrit secret, as it was styled in French diplomacy, and Carlisle dropped the * Lord Nithsdale, a Catholic, was sent to Rome to make promises and compliments to the pope, in the name of King James and his son. Hardwicke State Papers. question of the French army for the Palatinate. The secret promise imported that James would permit all his Roman Catholic subjects to enjoy greater franchise and freedom of religion than they would have enjoyed in virtue of any articles of the Spanish treaty of marriage. This paper was duly signed in November, by James, by Charles, and by a secretary of state; and a copy of the engagement was signed by Carlisle and Holland. The marriage treaty was signed and ratified by the solemn oaths of King James and King Louis. But even after this the French ministers raised a fresh objection. They represented that the secret promise was conceived in general or vague terms, and they demanded that James should specify the favours he intended. Carlisle was indignant, and recommended a resistance to this demand. James and his son feared to try the temper of Richelieu and the queen-mother, and they submitted to the specification of the three following articles:-1. That all Catholics in prison for their religion since the rising of parliament should be set free. 2. That all fines levied on them since that period should be repaid. 3. That, for the future, they might freely exercise their own worship in private. There was another incident of a very different kind, which occurred during the latter part of these negotiations, to the great alarm of James. The Huguenots, or "those of the religion," as they were called in France, had received harsh treatment from Louis Soubise, who was now at their head, and who at one time had maintained very friendly relations with some members of the English government, seized upon the island of Rhé, near Rochelle, fortified it, fitted out some ships, and proclaimed that he would not lay down his arms till he obtained a better security for the observation of the public faith and the edicts granting toleration to French Protestants. Carlisle declared this proceeding to be unadvised, unseasonable, shameful; the French court agreed to believe that the English Protestants had nothing to do with the movement; and the lively Henrietta Maria prepared for her removal to England. Her portion was fixed at eight hundred thousand crowns; a : small sum compared with the dower which had been promised with the Infanta. But James did not live to see the arrival either of the money or of the long-sought daughter-in-law. His health had long been breaking under the united influences of anxiety, fear, full-feeding, and continual use of sweet wines; and he returned to Theobald's from his last hunting party with a disease which the doctors called a tertian ague. But it should appear that he had also the worst kind of gout upon him. He had always entertained a great aversion to medicine and physicians, but at this extremity all the court doctors were called in. While they were in attendance, Buckingham's mother presented her self with an infallible remedy, in the shape of a plaster and a posset, which she had procured from one Remington, a quack, living in Essex, where, it was said, he had cured many agues. It should appear that the plaster was applied and the drink given contrary to the advice of the physicians. They may have produced irritation and done mischief; but we cannot believe that they were the cause of the death of James, or even intended to hasten his end. On the fourteenth day of his illness, being Sunday, the 27th of March,* he sent before day-break for the prince, who rose out of his bed and went to him in his night-gown. The king seemed to have some earnest thing to say to him, and so endeavoured to raise himself upon his pillow; but his spirits were so spent that he had not strength to make his words audible. He lingered for a few hours, and then "went to his last rest, upon the day of rest, presently after sermon was done." t James was in his fifty-ninth year, and he had been twentytwo years king of England. As soon as the breath was out of his body the privy council, or all the members of it that were at Theobald's, assembled, and in less than a quarter of an hour King Charles was proclaimed at Theobald's court-gate by Sir Edward Zouch, knight-marshal. * That is, the 8th of April, N. S. † Howell. CHARLES I. A.D. 1625.-On the afternoon of Monday, the 28th of March, Charles took coach at Theobald's with the Duke of Buckingham, and came to Whitehall. On the same day he was proclaimed at Whitehall-gate and in Cheapside, in the midst of a sad shower of rain; and the weather was thought suitable to the condition in which he found the kingdom. A few days after, the plague broke out in Whitechapel, whence it extended its ravages to every part of London. It was said to be even a worse plague than that which raged at the time of his father's coronation. Charles re-appointed the council and the officers of government, making scarcely any change. Buckingham stood forward more powerful and vain-glorious than ever. There was, however, some change for the better at court; the fools, and buffoons, and other familiars of James were dismissed, the courtiers were required to be attentive to religion, and modest and quiet in their demeanour, and they generally became, if not more moral, far more decorous. In a few days after the accession, it was reported of the new sovereign that he was zealous for God's truth, a diligent frequenter of the church, and an attentive listener to prayers and sermons; that he intended to pay all his father's, mother's, and brother's debts, and that, by disparking most of his remote parks and chases; to reform the court of unnecessary charges, and to drive from it all recusant Papists. On the 30th of March, three days after his father's death, Charles ratified, as king, the treaty with France; and on the 1st of May the marriage ceremony was performed at Paris-the Duke of Chevreuse, a member of the House of Guise, acting as Charles's proxy. Buckingham was ap pointed to bring the bride to England, and he proceeded with an immense retinue to Paris, where he dazzled all eyes with his splendour. This man's gallantry was not checked by the national shyness of Englishmen; for he had scarcely set foot in the French court, when he declared love to the young Queen, Anne of Austria. The Cardinal Richelieu made all the haste he decently could to get him back to England, and, after eight days, Buckingham left Paris, with Henrietta Maria. They travelled very slowly, or stopped very frequently; for though they began their journey on the 23rd of May, they did not reach Dover till the 12th of June in the evening. That night the young queen slept in Dover Castle. On the morrow morning Charles, who had slept at Canterbury, rode to Dover to receive his wife. They met in the castle: the bride knelt down at his feet, and would have kissed his hand, but the king took her up in his arms and kissed her with many kisses. The royal couple proceeded together to Canterbury, on the following day to Rochester, the day after to Gravesend, and, on the 16th, there being a very great shower, the king and queen, in the royal barge, passed through London-bridge to Whitehall. Notwithstanding the rain and the plague, the Londoners crowded the river and its banks to get a sight of the bride, whose appearance and cheerful manners gave them much satisfaction. Stories were soon circulated of her wit, and freedom from bigotry. It was said (and the thing was considered very important) that she had eaten pheasant and venison on a fast-day, notwithstanding the remonstrance of her confessor, and that, upon being asked if she could abide a Huguenot, she replied, "Why not?-was not my father one ?" In short, before she had been four-and-twenty hours at Whitehall, it was joyfully announced that she had already given some good signs of hope that she might ere long become a very good Protestant. But in a few days these bright hopes seemed to fade; and people began to count the great number of priests she had brought over in her train, and to murmur at the idolatry of the mass being again set up in the palaces of their king. She had twenty-nine priests, fourteen of them Theatines,* and fifteen seculars, * An order founded at Rome in 1524, by John Peter Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV., then archbishop of Chieti, or Theate, in the province of Abruzzi, in the kingdom of Naples. |