PEINCE CHAELES

AND

THE SPANISH MAEKIAGE.

1617-1623.
VOL. i.

SlUBRAHV S

In 2 vols. 8vo, 30s., bound.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE DISGRACE
OF CHIEF JUSTICE COKE.

BY SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER,

LATE STUDENT OF CHRISTCHURCH.

"Mr. Gardiner's book is a very good one. We can recommend it to anyone
who desires a fair and reasonable history of the time." — Saturday Review.

" We thank Mr. Gardiner much for his able, intelligent, and interesting book.
We will not do him the injustice to say it is the best history of the period which
it covers ; it is the only history." — Spectator.

" Mr. Gardiner's history is a very good one. It is both full and fair, planned
and written in a manly spirit, and with diligent use of the materials within
reach. "—The Reader.

" In these volumes Mr. Gardiner has displayed deep research as well as sound
judgment. Every statement made is supported by documentary evidence, and
many a new light is thrown upon hitherto dark places. Mr. Gardiner puts the
characters of Cecil, Bacon, Coke, and other men of the time graphically before his
readers, details the steps by which Ulster was colonised and the Scottish Kirk
brought temporarily under the thumb of the State, treats of benevolences and mo-
nopolies, Spanish intrigues and Spanish pensions, and pronounces opinions on
Bancroft, Abbot, Laud, Raleigh, Monson, .Somerset, Villiers, &c. The work
must at once take its place as the standard history of the period to which it
relates." — United Service Magazine.

" The period of English history treated of in this work is of special interest to
those who wish to understand the great struggle of the seventeenth century.
Much thought and vast labour have evidently been expended by the author upon
this work ; and he has, in particular, taken considerable pains in drawing the
character of the celebrated Earl of Salisbury, and in defining the peculiar preju-
dices and principles of the day. The author has shown discretion and judgment
in the preparation of his work, and it will exercise a serious influence on the
reader s mind. " — Observer.

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH ST.

PKINCE CHAKLES

AND

THE SPANISH MAEKIAGE

1617-1623.

A CHAPTER OF ENGLISH HISTORY,

FOUNDED PRINCIPALLY UPON UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS

IN THIS COUNTRY, AND IN THE ARCHIVES OF

SIMANCAS, VENICE, AND BRUSSELS.

BY

SAMUEL EAWSON GAKDINER,

AUTHOR OF THE " HtSTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE DISGRACE OF
CHIEF JUSTICE COKE."

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON :

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISH!

13, GREAT MARLBOEOUGH STREET. /£ f \ V;

1869. 4£l LIBRARY

The Right of Translation is Reserved.

LONDON
BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRJARS.

PKEFACE.

THE wooing of princes is not in itself more worthy of
a place in history than the wooing of ordinary men ; and
there is certainly nothing in Charles's own character
which would lead us to make any exception in his
favour. But the Spanish alliance, of which the hand
of the Infanta was to have been the symbol and the
pledge, was a great event in our history, though chiefly
on account of the consequences which resulted from it
indirectly. When the marriage was first agitated, the
leading minds of the age were tending in a direction
adverse to Puritanism, and were casting about in search
of some system of belief which should soften down the
asperities which were the sad legacy of the last genera-
tion. When it was finally broken off, the leading minds
of the age were tending in a precisely opposite direction,
and that period of our history commenced which led up
to the anti-episcopalian fervour of the Long Parliament,
to the Puritan monarchy of Cromwell, and in general to
the re-invigoration of that which Mr. Matthew Arnold has
called the Hebrew element in our civilisation.

If, therefore, the causes of moral changes form the
most interesting subject of historical investigation, the
events of these seven years can yield in interest to but
few periods of our history. In the miserable catalogue
of errors and of crimes it is easy to detect the origin of
that repulsion which moulded the intellectual concep-
tions, as well as the political action, of the rising gene-

vi PREFACE.

ration. Few blunders have been greater than that which
has made the popular knowledge of the Stuart reigns
commence with the accession of Charles L, and which
would lay down the law upon the actions of the King
whilst knowing nothing of the Prince.

It is true, indeed, that there are some episodes in this
period which have been frequently handled by writers of
ability and research, and that the stories pf Raleigh's last
days, of Bacon's disgrace, and of the journey of Charles
and Buckingham to Madrid, are familiar to us from
repeated narration. But even if I had not been fortu-
nate enough to discover materials by which these narra-
tives may be amplified and corrected, it would be worth
while to see how the old evidence would look when it
was regarded in connection with other facts relating to
the less known parts of the history. A biographer, or a
writer of a special narrative, can indeed throw a brilliant
light upon the particular object of his study ; but unless
he is animated by a certain heroical virtue, he will not
investigate matters which have no direct connection with
his subject. And yet, how is it possible, for instance, for
anyone to write fairly about the Spanish marriage treaty,
if he is in ignorance of the Spanish policy with respect to
the Palatinate, or to judge fairly of Bacon's moral posi-
tion at the time of his fall, if he is ignorant of the true
history of his connection with the monopolies ?

It was at a very early point in my researches that I
discovered that the period which I had selected demanded
a very different kind of study from that which I had
thought sufficient for my former work. In examining
the evidence upon which my narrative of the first thir-
teen years of James's reign might be constructed, I felt
that I was treading upon exclusively English ground.
Here and there, perhaps, I might have found additional
light in the despatches of foreign ambassadors ; but I do
not suppose that, if I had been able at the time to consult

PREFACE. VI I

them, the story would have been materially affected. The
interest of the period, such as it was, turned upon consti-
tutional questions of purely English interest. With the
seven years which follow all this is changed, Every Eng-
lish interest rapidly becomes a continental one, and it can
only produce confusion to attempt to unravel the politics
of England without understanding the intentions of conti-
nental statesmen and the aims of continental diplomatists.
The point, for instance, which caused the breach between
James and the Parliament of 1621 was the question of
the part which it was fit for England to take in the war
in Germany ; and it is manifestly impossible to render
justice to either side of the dispute, unless we know more
about the nature of that war than is to be found in the
pages of writers who are content to re-echo, without in-
quiry, the speeches of the English popular leaders or the
declarations of one of the two contending parties in the
Empire.

Our information about Spain is even more defective.
What was the part really taken by the Spanish Govern-
ment in the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, and
what was its object in the attempt to fetter England by
the offer of the hand of the Infanta, are questions of which,
as far as I know, no serious solution has yet been at-
tempted. Even Gondomar, often as he is mentioned by
our historians, is a mere " nominis umbra," round which
a few apocryphal stories still cling. But to realise the
man and his work from any source in England, published
or unpublished, is a sheer impossibility.

My first attention, therefore, was directed to Simancas.
Amongst the mass of despatches, and documents of vari-
ous kinds there preserved, Gondomar' s own letters stand
out conspicuously with a kind of monumental rigidity ;
and it was not long before I began to understand what
were the powers of mind which had cast such a spell
upon the great Ambassador's contemporaries, and to

viii PREFACE.

wonder how unlike the man was to anything that tradi-
tion has represented him to be. Of Court gossip or
scandal there is no trace in these despatches. They are
plain business-like compositions, sticking close to the
point, and giving what information is needed on the busi-
ness in hand, with that conciseness which was likely to
result from the knowledge that they would be submitted,
not to the ear of a monarch in his hours of idleness, but
to the critical judgment of the members of one or other
of the Councils which managed the affairs of that depart-
ment to which they happened to refer. .

By the help of these letters and the accompanying
consultas, or opinions delivered in Council, I have been
able to trace out, for the first time, the course of this
long negotiation, I hope with tolerable accuracy. There
are, however, some gaps, and it was only when it was
too late, that I learned, from Don Pascual de Gayangos
thatt hey might probably be filled up from the MSS. in
his collection at Madrid.

Fortunately, however, the want is in some measure
supplied by the MS. narrative of Fray Francisco de
Jesus, of which a copy has lain for some years unnoticed
in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 14,043). This man, a
Carmelite friar, was himself engaged in the theological
debates on the marriage treaty, and was in possession of
official documents, from which he drew up the story of
the negotiation from beginning to end. His substantial
accuracy, wherever I have been able to compare his
statements with the original papers from Simancas, gives
me great confidence in his unsupported assertions.

But, however accurate a party writer may be, it is
hopeless to expect from him the whole truth ; and hap-
pily those secrets, which neither Gondomar nor Fray
Francisco cared to disclose, are revealed by the des-
patches of the Venetian Ambassadors preserved in the
Archives of Venice. All through this period there is

PREFACE. IX

much to be learned, both from the despatches and from
the published Relazioni, of the Venetian Ambassadors in
England. But the crowning glory of their revelations
is to be found in the passages in which Zen and Soranzo
relate the secret intelligence which they had received
from Cardinal Ludovisi, and in which Corner reports the
result of his conversations with the Papal Nuncio, De
Massimi. By this means we are admitted behind the
scenes, and discover secrets for which we should search
in vain amongst the staid records of the Spanish Council
of State.

It is impossible for me to quit the subject of the Vene-
tian Archives without recording my warmest gratitude
for the kindness of Mr. Rawdon Brown, who, though I
came to him without any introduction whatever, facili-
tated my inquiries in every conceivable way, and especi-
ally by allowing me to make use, at his house, of his
copies of despatches at hours when the Archives were
closed.

Very different from the interest of the Venetian MSS.
is that which attaches itself to the Archives of Brussels.
It is true that the papers in it rarely touch directly upon
English affairs, and that it is only now and then that
such a flash of light appears as that which revealed to
me the plot conceived by James and Buckingham in
1620 for the invasion and partition of the soil of the
Dutch Republic ; but they throw strong light upon con-
tinental affairs, at a time when a correct appreciation of
continental affairs is indispensable to the knowledge of
the true bearing of English politics. In Germany, espe-
cially, much has been done of late to throw light upon
this period, but the writers who have drawn new facts
from the various repositories of their respective States,
have often shown signs either of a narrow patriotism
which tempts them to explain facts in the interests of the
ancestors of their respective sovereigns, or of that reli-

x PREFACE.

gious partisanship which can see nothing good outside
its own creed. To investigate the numerous archives of
Germany thoroughly would be the work of many life-
times, and it is therefore fortunate for an inquirer whose
time is limited to be able to acquire some independent
knowledge of the men with whose actions those writers
are concerned. Such knowledge is to be gained most
easily at Brussels, from the correspondence of the Arch-
dukes with the Kings of Spain on the one hand, and with
the Emperor Ferdinand II. and Maximilian of Bavaria
on the other. In communications such as these, neces-
sarily of the most confidential nature, the thoughts and
designs of the leaders of the Catholic party stand re-
vealed, thus enabling the student to apply some sort of
test to the assertions of modern authors.

A similar source for the projects of the Elector Pala-
tine and his party will be found in various published col-
lections of letters, especially in the capacious volumes of
Londorp, and still more in the despatches of the English
Ambassadors preserved in our own Record Office. Such
letters as those of Nethersole, for instance, lay before us
the ideas prevalent at Frederick's Court far better than
any more laboured documents.

The despatches of Caron, the Dutch Ambassador, are,
fortunately, in transcript, in the British Museum. They
throw much light on the passing events of the day, and
are especially valuable, as giving the Dutch side of the
discussion which ended in the treaty upon the East India
trade, signed in 1619.

Curiously enough, the only one amongst the foreign
ambassadors in London during this period, of whose
despatches any use has hitherto been made, is incom-
parably the most valueless. Tillieres, extracts from
whose letters were published by Raumer in his " Briefe
aus Paris," had absolutely nothing to do in England,
except to listen to what gossip and scandal was floating

PREFACE. .\ l

about, and he availed himself of his opportunities with
particular good will, whenever the scandal was of a
nature to affect the character of a King who had the
bad taste to prefer Gondomar's society to his own. In
the Imperial Library at Paris, I was able to glean a few
passages which had been omitted by Raumer, and which
contained a few new facts. But if he is to be quoted as
an authority in future, I hope that care will be taken at
least to distinguish the evidence which he gives upon
hearsay from that for which he vouches his own personal
knowledge.

Next to the Ambassadors comes Salvetti, the agent of
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, whose chief business was to
write a news-letter once a week, in which he set down,
for the entertainment of his employer, everything worthy
of note which passed around him in public life. Tran-
scripts of the series (Add. MSS. 27,962), which commences
in 1616, have fortunately been recently acquired by the
British Museum. It is second — if second — in interest
only to the Chamberlain letters, as a chronicle of the
passing events of the day.

It is unnecessary to speak at length of the sources of
information on home affairs. The collections in the
Record Office and the Museum are too well known to
need remark. But I cannot leave unmentioned the
quarters from which I have been enabled to obtain infor-
mation which has not hitherto been made use of by
inquirers.

It will be seen that the East India disputes played an
important part in general history, by prejudicing James's
mind against the Dutch. The East India Papers in the
Record Office, however, are very scanty ; and it was
with great satisfaction that I learned that the Court
Minutes and the Original Correspondence of the East
India Company were in the hands of Mr. Sainsbury, in
order that they might be made in part the foundation of

xii PREFACE.

his Calendar of East India Papers. My application to the
India Office for permission to make use of them was at
once granted; and to all who know Mr. Sainsbury, I need
hardly say that the information which he had acquired,
together with the unpublished draft of his Calendar, so
far as it went, was at once placed at my disposal.

Much information, it will also be seen, has been gleaned
from the Patent Rolls, and other official papers, which
throw a remarkable light on the history of those mono-
polies which have so important a bearing upon Bacon's
life. Nor have my researches amongst the Order Books
of Chancery been fruitless, as I have succeeded in dis-
covering much which may enable us to have a better
knowledge of the cases in which corruption was subse-
quently alleged against the Chancellor. Here, however,
I should probably have frequently gone astray, but for
the kind assistance of Mr. Cecil Monro, the late Registrar
of the Court of Chancery, whose explanations of technical
terms often enabled me to understand the true meaning
of documents which might otherwise be easily misunder-
stood.

Within the last few months the close of Bacon's public
career has received illustration from a new and unex-
pected source. Several volumes of official MS. notes of
debates in the House of Lords during the last two Par-
liaments of James and the first three Parliaments of
Charles, were discovered at Crowcombe Court, near
Taunton, the seat of Colonel Carew. They were placed
for examination in the hands of Mr. Bruce, and proved
to be written by Henry Elsing, and to be of the most
valuable character, containing full notes of debates in the
House of Lords, of which nothing has hitherto been
known except from some passing reference in a contem-
porary letter. The debates which led to Bacon's sentence
are of particular interest ; and I have to express my
great obligations to Colonel Carew for having, at Mr.

PEEFACE. Xlll

Bruce's instance, given me permission to make use of
these books, which will be referred to as Elsing's
Notes.

Whilst I am upon the subject of this Parliament, I
may say that the well-known report of the debates of the
Lower House, printed at Oxford in 1766, is proved by
comparison with a fragment amongst the State Papers
(Dom. cxxv.), to have come from the pen of Edward
Nicholas. As, however, this fact has not hitherto been
known, I have referred to the volumes simply as Pro-
ceedings and Debates.

By the kind permission of Sir John Lefevre, and with
the helpful assistance of Mr. Thorns, I was allowed to
make use of the MSS. of the House of Lords relating to
the Session of 1621, with a result which threw consider-
able light upon the monopolies which were at that time
condemned.

An application to Mr. Digby of Sherborne Castle for
leave to examine any papers which might have come
down to him from the first Earl of Bristol, was most
generously acceeded to. Not only was I permitted to
see and copy whatever I pleased, but I was allowed to
bring the documents with me to London, where they
were lent to the Master of the Rolls, in order that copies
might be taken of them, to be placed in the Public Record
Office. If the other possessors of important historical
MSS. should follow in Mr. Digby's steps, the thanks of
all students of history will be justly due to him for setting
so admirable an example.

The papers thus laid open are perhaps not so numerous
as I had hoped for. But some of them are of considerable
interest, especially the instructions relating to the Nether-
lands in 1623, the account, by Bristol himself, of his
last interview with Olivares, and the interrogatories
administered by him to Endymion Porter after his
return.

PREFACE.

Iii the preface to my former work, I spoke of the un-
trustworthy character of such writers as Weldon. It
happens that twice in the following pages, in the case of
the story of the quarrel between Arundel and Spencer
(vol. ii. p. 7), and in the case of the well-known story of
"Here be twal' kings coming" (vol. ii. p. 140), I have
been able to restore the narrative to its original form, and
thus to demonstrate the fictitious nature of the anecdote
by which its place has been usurped in our histories.
To the list of writers whom it is impossible to use with
confidence, must, I am afraid, be added that agreeable
letter-writer, Howell. But there can be no doubt that
many of his letters are mere products of the bookmaker's
skill, drawn up from memory long afterwards. Take,
for instance, the letter marked as No. 12, in Book I.
sect. 2, and said to be written on the 19th of March, 1622.
In this the writer states as the news of the day, that
the Elector Palatine had arrived in Holland from Prague,
an event which took place in April, 1621 ; that " the old
Duke of Bavaria's uncle," whatever that may mean, had
been "chosen Elector," an event which apparently refers
to the transference of the Electorate in February, 1623 ;
thatMansfeld " begins to get a great name in Germany,"
having, with the Duke of Brunswick, a considerable
army on foot for the Lady Elizabeth, a description which
would be true of the state of things at the end of 1621
and the beginning of 1622 ; that Chichester had returned
from the Palatinate, an event which took place in 1622 ;
and that Buckingham had been made Lord High Admiral,
an event which took place in 1619. On the other hand,
some of the letters have all the look of being what they
purport to be, actually written at the time. But even
then, the dates at the end are frequently incorrectly
given.

It will be seen that the mass of hitherto unused ma-
terials at my disposal has been very large. Yet this

PREFACE. XV

very abundance of information is not without its draw-
backs. It has necessitated my going at greater length
into many matters than would have been sufficient if I
had been traversing a better known period, where a
hint would have been enough to call up a more or less
complete picture before the reader. It has also made it
altogether impossible to lay before inquirers the evidence
upon which many of my conclusions are based ; as to do
so in sufficient fulness to be of any real use would be to
lengthen out these volumes interminably. Yet there is
nothing which I more regret than to have to refer inquirers
from whose criticisms I might hope to profit, to distant
archives ; and it is therefore that I feel myself under
great obligations to the Camden Society, which has
allowed me to publish in their series two volumes con-
taining the principal letters and despatches relating to
the relations between England and Germany from the
outbreak of the Revolution in Bohemia to the return of
Gondomar to England in March, 1620, — thus enabling
me to -appeal to the original documents, at least for
a part of my narrative. The Members of the Society
will soon have in their hands the important work of
Francisco de Jesus ; and the Debates in the House
of Lords in 1621, from Elsing's Notes, will, I hope,
follow without long delay. On all points relating to
copies of unpublished MSS. in my possession, I shall
always be ready to give every information in my
power.

On looking over the first two or three pages of
Chapter XII., I am afraid that I have been led too far
by a desire to reconcile discrepant authorities. Charles
certainly knew of the main points of the four articles
some weeks before, and it is most probable that they
were formally accepted by him at the same time with
the rest of the treaty. In this case, Khevenhuller's story,
if it is true at all, must refer to an earlier time. But of

XVI PKEFACE.

the change in Olivares' tactics in consequence of Charles's
acceptance of all his demands, there can be no doubt ;
and this is the really important point.

I have only to add that all dates in the text are given
in the old style. There is some inconvenience in thus
applying to well-known events upon the Continent dates
differing from those which are to be found in the pages
of foreign writers, but it is far less than that which would
ensue from the adoption of a different chronology, in
speaking of continental affairs, from that which is neces-
sarily made use of in speaking of occurrences in England.
The use of the double date is of course more correct,
but it is "hardly suited to a narrative not specially
designed for scholars. In all cases, I need hardly say,
I have calculated the year as beginning on the 1st of
January.

S. E. G.

22, GORDON STREET,
February 19, 1869.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

THE SPANISH ALLIANCE.

PAGE

1617. Position of affairs after Coke's disgrace .... 1
Questions of foreign policy ...... 2

1598. Spain at the death of Philip II 3

Foreign policy of Lerma 4

1604. The Infanta Anne offered to Prince Henry ... 6

1612. Coolness between England and Spain .... 7

1613. Sarmiento in England 9

Affair of Donna Luisa de Carvajal . . . .11

The Spanish pensioners .13

Somerset's advocacy of a Spanish marriage . . .15

1614. The Parliament of 1614 16

Quarrel between James and the House of Commons . 17

The English Catholics 18

James turns to Spain for help 19

Sarmiento's scheme for the conversion of England . 23
Proposed marriage between Prince Charles and the

Infanta Maria 25

The Pope's objections . . . . . . .26

Digby's negotiations at Madrid ..... 27

1615. The marriage articles sent to England . ... 29

Hesitation of James ....... 30

His final acquiescence announced by Cotton ... 32

1616. The negotiation with France broken off ... 34

Embarrassment of James 35

The anti-Spanish party look to Raleigh . . .36

YOL. i. t>

XVlii CONTENTS OF

CHAPTER I. — (continued.)

PAGE

1594. Raleigh's early life 37

El Dorado 39

1595. The first voyage to Guiana 40

A gold mine pointed out to Keymis . . . .42

1596. Keymis returns to Guiana, and hears of the mine . . 44
1603. Voyages of Leigh and Harcourt 45

Raleigh's imprisonment 46

1612. He proposes to send Keymis to the mine ... 47

1616. His release from the Tower 48

Sarmiento's protest against his voyage . . . .49
Raleigh permitted to go at his own risk . . .51

His preparations 54

The war in Piedmont 57

Raleigh's scheme for an attack upon Genoa ... 59

1617. Raleigh's communications with the French . . .61

Last protests of Sarmiento 63

Raleigh sets out from London . . . . .65
The marriage treaty referred to a commission . . 66
Formal opening of the negotiation .... 68
Sarmiento created Count of Gondomar . . . .69
Bacon's views on the marriage . . . . .69

The Barbary Pirates 70

Story of Ward 72

Attempts to suppress piracy 74

Southampton's plan for an expedition against Algiers . 75

Consultations on the scheme 77

The question referred to the Spanish Government . . 78

CHAPTER II.

RALEIGH'S LAST VOYAGE.

1617. The King and the Privy Council 79

Official corruption . . . . . . .80

Rise of Buckingham .82

Resignation and death of Ellesmere .... 84

Bacon Lord Keeper 86

Yelverton Attorney - General — Buckingham's inter-
ference 86

Coventry Solicitor-General 88

Bacon takes his seat in Chancery 89

Coke and Lady Hatton 91

Proposed marriage between Sir John Villiers and

Frances Coke 93

Objections raised by Bacon 95

Lady Hatton's opposition 96

Bacon's remonstrances .... 97

Coke carries off his daughter from Oatlands ! ! 98

Lady Hatton's appeal to the Council . . . .99

THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER II. — (continued.)

PAGE

1617. James and Buckingham irritated with Bacon . .100
Bacon's restoration to favour . . . . .102

Marriage of Sir John Villiers 103

Coke restored to the Council Table . . . .104
Death of Win wood . . . . . . .105

1618. Naunton appointed Secretary 106

1617. Fresh demands of Spain 107

Digby at Madrid 109

1618. Demand of the repeal of the penal laws — Suspension of

the negotiation Ill

The expedition to Algiers discussed in Spain. . .112

1617. Raleigh's negotiations with Montmorency . . .113

Adventures of Faige and Belle 115

Raleigh sails from Plymouth 117

His proceedings in the Canaries 118

The voyage across the Atlantic. . . . . .119

Raleigh prepares to ascend the Orinoco . . .121
His instructions to Keymis 123

1618. Attack upon San Thome 125

Failure of the expedition 127

Suicide of Keymis . . . . . . .129

Proposed attack on the Mexico fleet . . . .130

The return to England 132

Gondomar demands satisfaction 133

Seizure of the Destiny 134

Gondomar's return to Spain — The attack upon the

Spanish Embassy . . . . . . .135

Raleigh's attempt to escape from Plymouth . . .137
He is carried up to London by Stukely . . . .138

Makes a fresh attempt to escape 139

Is lodged in the Tower . . . . . .140

His examination by the Commissioners . . . 141

Proposals of the Commissioners 145

Raleigh before the King's Bench 147

Prepares for death 148

His execution . 149

The King's declaration . . . . . .152

Deaths of Stukely and Cobham 153

CHAPTER III.

THE FALL OF THE HOWARDS.

1618. Buckingham and the Howards . . 155

The Villiers family .... . . 157

Suffolk deprived of the Treasurership . . 158

1617. Lord and Lady Roos .... . . 159

Lord Roos flies to Rome . .160

XX CONTENTS OF

CHAPTER III. — (continued.)

PAGE

1618. Star Chamber proceedings against the Lakes . 161

1619. The sentence 163

Calvert succeeds Lake as Secretary . . . .164

1618. Wallingford resigns the Mastership of the Wands . .165

1617. Financial difficulties 166

Kise of Cranfield 168

1618. Reforms in the Household and Wardrobe . . .170

1617. Hay's marriage 172

1618. The Navy Commission 173

1619. Buckingham Lord High Admiral . . 175

Improvement in the finances 176

Star Chamber proceedings against Suffolk . . .177

Increase of favouritism 180

Cranfield's wooing . 182

Sale of peerages 183

1618. The Recordership of the City . . .185

Moral and religious influences . . . . .188

The Puritan Conformists 191

School of Andrewes and Laud 193

1617. Laud at Gloucester 196

Change in the position of the Communion-table . .197

The observance of the Sabbath 198

Disturbances in Lancashire 199

Appeal to James 200

The Declaration of Sports 202

Prospects of the Church of England .... 203

1618. Selden's History of Tithes 204

Controversy aroused 206

Religious commotions in the Netherlands . . .208
The Revolution at the Hague . . . . .209

1619. The Synod of Dort 210

1614. The colony of Virginia 211

1616. Pocahontas in England 212

Administrations of Yeardley and Argali . . . 213

1619. Introduction of Parliamentary institutions . . .216

The English and Dutch in the East Indies . . .217

Free trade and monopoly 219

1615. The English in the Banda Islands . . . .221

1616. Loss of Puloway 222

Courthope's defence of Pularoon . .223

1618. Expedition of Sir Thomas Dale 225

Opening of negotiations in England .... 226
Question of the herring fishery . . . . 227

Courthope still holds out at Pularoon . .229

1619. Negotiation of the treaty with the Dutch . . .230

Dale's victory and death 234

English losses in the East . 235

1620. Death of Courthope . ! 236
1619. Fines upon the exportation of gold '. 237

THE FIRST VOLUME. XXI

CHAPTER III. — (continued.}

PAGE

1619. Illness and death of the Queen 238

Illness of the King 239

Thanksgiving for his recovery 240

Attempt to marry Christopher Villiers .... 241

The new Whitehall 242

Prosperity of James 243

CHAPTEK IV.

THE BOHEMIAN REVOLUTION.

1555. The Peace of Augsburg ^. .... 245

The Ecclesiastical Reservation . . . . .246

1582. The Catholic reaction 247

1608. The Union and the League 249

Growth of the House of Austria . . . . .250
Its attitude towards Protestantism . . . .251
The Bohemian Aristocracy 253

1609. The Eoyal Charter of Eudolph II 254

Dispute on the right of church-building . . . 255

1617. Ferdinand acknowledged King of Bohemia . . .256
His character and principles ..... 257

1618. Outbreak of the Revolution at Prague . . . . 259

Commencement of hostilities 260

Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany . . . .261
The Elector Palatine . . . " . . . .263

The Saxon offer of mediation 264

Frederick's intrigues with Savoy 265

Successes of the Bohemians 267

James called upon by Spain to mediate . . .268
Gondomar's report on English affairs .... 270
James accepts the mediation . . . . .271

1619. Decision of Spain to intervene in Bohemia . . . 272
Chistopher Dohna's mission to England . . . 273
Spanish naval preparations . . . . . .274

Counter-preparations in England 275

Doncaster's mission to Germany . . . . .277

Death of Matthias 278

Frederick continues his intrigues with Savoy . .279
Doncaster's instructions ...... 280

Wotton at Heilbronn 281

Doncaster at Heidelberg 283

Ferdinand's successes 284

Doncaster's negotiations with Ferdinand and Onate . 285

Failure of his mission 287

Election of Ferdinand at Frankfort and of Frederick at

Prague 288

Frederick's acceptance of the Crown of Bohemia . .290
Dohna's second mission to England . . . .291

CONTENTS OF

CHAPTER IV. — (continued.)

PAGE

1619. James's speech to the Privy Council .

Abbot's letter to Naunton 29J

Frederick at Nuremberg 295

Maximilian of Bavaria 29*>

His compact with Ferdinand 297

Ferdinand's defence of Vienna 29S

Maximilian's diplomacy • • • 300

Doncaster sent to congratulate Ferdinand . . .301
James and his subjects ...... 303

Proposed invasion of the Palatinate ..... 305

1620. Buwinckhausen's mission to England . 307
James investigates Frederick's title .... 308

Return of Gondomar to England 312

Failure of Buwinckhausen's mission . . . .315
Resumption of the marriage treaty . . .317

Concessions to the Recusants . . . . . 318
North's expedition to the Amazon . . . .320

The King at St. Paul's 321

The contribution for the Palatinate . . . .322

CHAPTER V.

THE INVASION OF THE PALATINATE.

1620. Fresh application from the Union rejected . . . 324

The volunteers for the Palatinate 326

Overtures from the Dutch 327

Buckingham's courtship and marriage .... 328

Sir H. Vere appointed to command the volunteers . . 332

Quarrel between Cecil and Dohna 333

Projected partition of the Netherlands .... 334

Embassies of Wotton and of Conway and Weston . . 335

Wotton at Vienna 337

The treaty of Ulm 338

Embarkation of the volunteers 339

Conway and Weston at Brussels 340

Renewed efforts of the Dutch to engage James in the

war 341

The invasion of the Palatinate 342

Annoyance of James ....... 344

His declaration before the Council 346

A benevolence attempted 347

Sailing of the expedition against Algiers . . . 348
Gondomar compels James to contradict himself . .350

Lafuente's mission to Rome 351

Bacon's draft of a proclamation rejected . . .352

Parliament summoned .354

Monopolies complained of . 355

THE FIRST VOLUME. Xxiii

CHAPTER V. — (continued.)

PAGE

1G20. The patent for inns 356

The patent for alehouses 358

The importation of salmon and lobsters . . . 361
The glass monopoly . . . . . . .362

The monopoly of gold and silver thread . . . 363

Bacon's part in the monopolies 366

The manufacture taken into the King's hands . .369

Failure of the scheme 372

Bacon's advice rejected 373

Disgrace of Yelverton 374

Lord Treasurer Mandeville 376

Bacon's prosperity 377

The " Novum Organum " 378

Bacon's philosophy the key to his politics . . . 380

Bad news from Bohemia ...... 383

Frederick's defeat at Prague 384

Excitement in London 386

Reception of the news by James . ... . . 387

Embassies of Morton, Anstruther, and Yilliers . . 388

1621. The Council of War 389

Cadenet's mission 390

Naunton's disgrace 392

Opening of Paliament — The King's speech . . . 394

The first debate 397

Usher's sermon ........ 398

Eeport of the Council of "War 399

Grant of two subsidies 400

Gondomar's licence to export ordnance . . . .401

Expulsion of Shepherd . . ... . . . 402

Foreign policy of the Commons 403

James's conversation with Gondomar on the Papal

claims . 405

CHAPTER VI.

THE FALL OF LORD CHANCELLOR BACON.

1621. Opposition in the House of Lords .... 407

The Peers' petition . 408

Grievances discussed in the Commons .... 409

The patent for inns 410

The patent for alehouses — Michell and Mompesson . 412

Flight of Mompesson 414

The referees attacked by Buckingham and Cranfield . 415
The patent for gold and silver thread . . . .417

The Commons demand justice upon the referees . .418
Conference with the Lords . . . . . .420

Advice given to Buckingham by Williams . . .421

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER VI. — (continued.)

PAGE

1621. Buckingham's declaration against monopolies

The Commons profess themselves satisfied . . .423

The Registrars in Chancery 424

Bills of Conformity 425

Bacon charged with bribery— Aubrey's case . .426

Egerton's case . . 428

The charges sent up to the Lords ....

Bacon's appeal to Buckingham ... . 434

The King proposes the formation of a new tribunal . 436
Debate in the Commons on the scheme . . .437

The plan abandoned 439

Lady Wharton's case 440

Bribes, fees, and gratuities 447

Extent of Bacon's culpability ..... 448

Cases of Holman and Smithwick 449

Churchill's list of further charges 450

The King's speech to the Houses 451

Sentence upon Mompesson 452

Buckingham urges a dissolution ..... 453

Bacon's memoranda . 456

His interview with the King 457

His case examined by the Lords ..... 458

He abandons his defence 460

The Lords demand an answer to the charges . .462

Bacon's answer and submission 463

Result of the evidence 467

His penitent confession 468

The Great Seal taken from him 469

Debate upon the sentence 470

The sentence 472

ERRATA.
Vol. i. page 60, line 17, for "they said," read "Scarnafissi reported to his master."

,, „ 364, line 14, for " Furatta," read " Turatta."
Vol. ii. ,, 173, line 12, for "Mathews," read "Matthew."

PBINCE CHAKLES

AND

THE SPANISH MARKIAGE.

CHAPTER I.

THE SPANISH ALLIANCE.

THE first years of the reign of James I. had been
mainly occupied with the constitutional struggle between 1617.
the King and the House of Commons. When, in the T^e c?n-
opening of 1617, the fourteenth anniversary of his struggle!
accession was approaching, it seemed as if all questions
at issue had been permanently settled in favour of the
Crown. Even in the midst of the gravest financial diffi-
culties, the representatives of the people had been unable
to force upon their Sovereign a policy of which he dis-
approved. Impositions which had never been granted
by Parliament were still collected at the ports. Every
country gentleman knew that, unless he were still alive
when his heir completed his twenty-first year, his death
would be the signal for the legalised plunder of his
estate by the officials of the Court of Wards. Two
Parliaments had been successively dissolved with every
mark of the Royal displeasure ; and, in the second
instance, the leaders of the Commons had, in defiance of
the privileges which they claimed, been thrown into
prison for words spoken in their places in the House.
The Judges had been taught by the misfortune which had
befallen their stoutest champion that they would not be
permitted to assume an independent position. It is true

VOL. I.

DOMESTIC QUIET.

that there had been no open and undisguised attack upon
the rights of the nation as those rights were understood at
the beginning of the seventeenth century. But practically
there had been a great change. Theories and precedents
which made in favour of the prerogative had been strained
further than Elizabeth would have cared to strain them,
and the countervailing checks to which the great Queen
had gracefully submitted had been allowed to drop out of
sight.

Quiet And yet, though dissatisfaction undoubtedly prevailed

amongst a large and influential section of the community,
it hacf nowhere ripened into open discontent. • England
was growing in wealth and prosperity ; and, in the midst
of increasing riches, it was hard to bring men to meditate
deeply on intricate constitutional questions by which
their immediate interests were scarcely, if at all, affected.
The owners of the soil were talking about the rise of
rents, and about the relative value of land under corn,
and of land under sheep. The city merchant was busily
calculating the advantage of sending English dyed cloth
to the Continent, or was deploring the amount of bullion
which, to the impoverishment of the realm, was being
carried away by the ships of the East India Company to
be exchanged for the useless spices of the East. The
letter- writers who retailed, for the benefit of their corre-
spondents, the gossip which they had picked up in the
antechambers of Whitehall, had nothing better with
which to fill their budgets than the latest scandal which
affected the honour of some lady of fashion, or the
integrity of some high officer of state.

Rise of In the course of the remaining years of James's life

Kre'ign a^ tnis was to ^e changed. Yet it was not by fresh
policy.0 aggressions upon the rights and liberties of his subjects
that the nation was roused from its apathy. Questions
of domestic interest, no doubt, arose, and some of them
were questions of no ordinary importance. But all such
matters were thrown into the background by the
increasing prominence of questions of foreign policy. A
great war broke out on the Continent : — a war in which
Englishmen, with almost entire unanimity, deemed it
incumbent on them to interfere. Partly from a confused

FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS. [

sense of duty, partly from a sincere love of peace, and GH- L
partly from mere poverty of spirit, James vacillated and 1617.
hung back. Unwise and improvident action alternated
with action, if possible, more unwise and improvident
still. Every post from the Continent brought the news
of some fresh disaster. At last the heart of the nation
was stirred to its depths. A cry rose, swelling in loud-
ness from day to day, that the honour of England was
not safe in the hands of such a King. Men who cared
little for ordinary politics were roused to a pitch of
excitement which boded no good to the monarchy. Even
the most unthinking were stung to the quick when they
were told that Spaniards and Bavarians were trampling
down the vineyards and massacring the villagers on the
banks of the Ehine ; that Protestant churches were
closed, and Protestant citizens driven into exile, whilst
the King of England, who dared not strike one blow for
the inheritance of his daughter's children, was dallying
with the oppressors of the people and the Church of God.

These things were yet in the future. But even now, intrigues
if the nation had been allowed to penetrate the veil ^h"168
which James had hung over his dealings with Spain, it sPain-
would have shuddered with horror at the depth of infamy
to which its Sovereign had already descended. That veil
has remained unlifted till the present day, and it is only
now that it has become possible to give anything like an
accurate account of the early stages of a negotiation
upon which, a few years later, the attention of the whole
civilised world was fixed.

If Philip II. had been able to carry out his schemes, he
would have re-established the old religion by the prowess nish
of the Spanish armies, and by the intrigues of which he
held the thread as he sat at his desk at the Escurial. of Philip
The Pope would once more have been looked up to as
the head of an undivided church. By his side would
have stood, in all the prominence of conscious superiority,
the King of Spain, realising in his person all, and more
than all that, in the middle ages, had been ascribed by
jurists and statesmen to the chief of the Holy Eoman
Empire, the lay pillar of the edifice of Catholic unity.
Kings would have existed only by his sufferance.

B 2

4 THE SPANISH MONARCHY.

OH. L_ Political independence and religious independence would
1598. have been stifled on every side. At last, perhaps, the
symbol would have followed the reality, and the Imperial
Crown would have rested on the brows of the true heir
of the House of Austria, the champion of the Church, the
master of the treasures of the West, the captain of armies
whose serried ranks and unbroken discipline would have
driven in headlong rout the feudal chivalry which in
bygone centuries had. followed the Othos and the
Fredericks through the passes of the Alps.

Failure This magnificent scheme had broken down completely,

schemes ^he long struggle of the sixteenth century had only
served to consolidate the power of the national dynasties.
The signature of the Peace of Vervins was the last act of
Philip II., and in accepting the treaty of London and the
truce of Antwerp, Philip III. was only setting his seal to
his father's acknowledgment of failure.

Spain still It was impossible that the memory of such a conflict
wShlus- cou^ be blotted out in a day. That Spain had never
picion. really withdrawn her pretensions to universal monarchy,
and that she had merely allowed herself a breathing time
in order to recruit her strength for the renewal of the
struggle, was the creed of thousands even in Catholic
France, and was held with peculiar tenacity by the
populations of the Protestant Netherlands, and of Pro-
testant England. For many years every petty aggression
on the part of Spain would be regarded as forming part
of a preconcerted plan for a general attack upon the
independence of Europe.

Renuncia- It was only by the most scrupulous respect for the
rlctag-di" rignts °f otner nations, and by a complete abstinence
grandise- from all meddling with their domestic affairs, that the
SpaiLby Spanish government could hope to allay the suspicion
of which it was the object. Unhappily there was but
little probability of such a thorough change of policy.
It is true that, under the guidance of Lerma, Philip III.,
a prince whose bigotry was only equalled by his listless-
ness and inefficiency, had definitely renounced all inten-
tion of extending his own dominions or of establishing
puppet sovereigns at London or at Paris. It is also
true, that now that there was no longer to be found

over>

SPANISH INTERFERENCE IN EUROPE. 5

in Europe any considerable body of Catholics who were GH- *•
the subjects of a Protestant sovereign, the policy of 1604.
stirring up disaffection in the Protestant states was of
necessity relinquished. But the old theories were still
dear to the heart of every Spaniard. Philip III. was
still the Catholic King, the pillar of the Church, the
protector of the faithful. Even Lerma, desirous as he
was of maintaining a peace which alone made it possible
for him to stave off a national bankruptcy, and to fill his
own pockets with the plunder of the state, could - not
wholly abandon the traditional principles of his nation.
If the doctrines of the advocates of tyrannicide were
suffered gradually to drop out of sight, it was only
because it seemed likely that the triumph of the Church
might be secured more easily in another way. The The go-
Spanish statesmen, if statesmen they can be called, saw to™ements
that the opposition to the aggressions of Spain had every- gained
where given rise to strong national governments, and
they fell into the mistake of supposing that the national
governments were everything, and that the national spirit
by which they were supported was nothing. Of the
strength of Protestantism they were utterly and hope-
lessly ignorant. They supposed it to be a mere congeries
of erroneous and absurd opinions, which had been intro-
duced by the princes for the .gratification of their own
selfish passions, and they never doubted that it would
fall to pieces from its own inherent weakness as soon as
the support of the princes was withdrawn.

The Spanish government, therefore, was no longer to
irritate the neighbouring sovereigns by cultivating rela-
tions with their discontented subjects. It would gain
their ear by acts of courtesy, and would offer to support
them against domestic opposition. Above all, in Pro-
testant countries, no stone should be left unturned to
induce the heretic king to seek repose in the bosom of
the Church of Eome. It was by such means as these
that sober men seriously hoped to undo the work of
Luther and of Elizabeth, and, accomplishing in peace
what Philip II. had failed to bring to pass by force of
arms, to lay the hitherto reluctant populations of Northern
Europe as an offering at the feet of the successor of St. Peter.

6 PRINCE HENRY AND THE INFANTA ANNE.

CH. I. In his first attempt to carry out the new policy,
1604. Lerma betrayed by his rashness and precipitancy that
Offer of he was handling a weapon with which he was as yet
fantaAnne unfamiliar. With a truly Spanish belief in the un-
to Prince approachable greatness of his country, it never occurred
to him that it was possible to put too high a price upon
the hand of his master's daughter. Immediately after
the signature of the treaty of London, the Count of Villa
Mediana, the resident ambassador in England, received
instructions to propose to James a marriage between
Prince Henry and the eldest daughter of the King of
Spain, the Infanta Anne. At that time no Prince of the
Asturias had been born, and it was therefore not im-
possible that the future husband of the little girl at the
Escurial might be honoured with the crown matrimonial
of Spain. James was therefore to be told that, in order
that his son might be sure of winning the affections of
his future subjects, he must not only be educated as a
Catholic, but must actually be sent to Madrid to be
brought up under the eye of Philip.* Most probably
Villa Mediana never ventured to make this extraordinary
proposal. At all events, the negotiation dragged slowly
on without any reference to such a scheme being trace-
able. In the winter of 1607, possibly as a result of the
King's quarrel with the Commons about the Scottish
Union, the marriage was again talked of. But it was
only after the utter failure of the Great Contract, in 1610,
The^'o- ^at *^e (luesti°n was seriously opened. As soon as the
tiationg° dissolution of Parliament made it evident that there
broken off. were no visible means of filling the empty exchequer,
there were those who looked to a league with the conti-
nental Protestants, and an open war with Spain, as the
best means of reconciling the King with his subjects,
and of supplying the deficiencies of the Crown. Other
counsels prevailed, and James, for the first time in his
reign, deliberately turned to a foreign sovereign for aid
in his difficulties with his own subjects. Digby was
ordered to carry to Madrid a formal proposal for the

* Notes left by the Constable of Castile with the Count of Villa Mediana,
Sept. ~, 1604. Simancas MSS. Est. 841.— Francisco de Jesus, I.

A FRENCH MARRIAGE PROPOSED. 7

hand of the Infanta. He was told that it was already CH- L
promised to the young King of France. It was added 1611
that her younger sister, the Infanta Maria, was at the
Prince's service, if only matters of religion could be
accommodated. To an enquiry as to the meaning of 1612.
these words, Lerma coolly answered that they meant
nothing less than the conversion of the Prince. As soon
as this answer was reported in England, James indignantly
broke off the negotiation.

The immediate result of the breach with Spain was an A^aJJce of
increase of the intercourse between James and the Pro- with the
testant powers. The Lady Elizabeth was given to the p™!^sstant
Elector Palatine, and overtures were made for a marriage
between Prince Henry and the Princess Christina of
France, a marriage which was looked upon with dis-
favour by the stricter Protestants, but which was welcome
to those who, like Kaleigh, gave more weight to their
political abhorrence of Spain than to their theological
disagreement with Eome. After Prince Henry's death
the negotiations were continued on behalf of his brother,
and at the close of 1612, it seemed to those whose obser-
vation did not look far beneath the surface, as if James
was about to take up the broken threads of the policy of
Elizabeth, and to place himself at the head of the anti-
Spanish party in Europe. So far had matters gone, that
in the spring of the following year the English privy isis.
council were calling out the musters, and were ordering o^ar * J
the beacons to be in readiness in expectation of a Spanish
invasion ; whilst Philip's ambassador in London was writ-
ing home to warn his master that, in all probability, it would
not be long before James declared war against Spain.

Such a war would no doubt have been popular in
England ; and in the council, since Salisbury's death,*

* The Simancas papers leave the story of Salisbury's connection with
Spain pretty much where I left it in my former volumes. He was one of
the earliest and largest recipients of Spanish gold. But from the very first
the Spanish aml>assadors speak of him as being opposed to them and their
designs. At the end of 1607, however, he offered to serve Spain more
faithfully, and showed the ambassador certain papers connected with the
negotiations in the Low Countries. But shortly after this he is again found
in opposition to Spain, and this continues till his death. On the whole, I
am disposed to adhere to my former opinion, that he took the pension with
the design of making use of the intercourse into which he would be brought

8 PACIFIC POLICY.

CH. I. it would have had the eager support of Ellesmere and of

1613. Abbot. But there was too much of the old buccaneering

spirit in the cry for war to enlist our sympathies in favour

of those from whom it proceeded,* and it is undeniable

that James's strong feeling against a war commenced for

purposes of plunder, or for the sake of gratifying sectarian

animosity, was of the greatest service to the nation.

dined to" ^n Pom^ °f fac^? whatever may have been the errors of

peace. >j which James was guilty, there can be no doubt that the

dominant idea of his foreign policy was true and just.

" Blessed are the peace-makers," was the motto which he

had chosen for himself, and from the day of his accession

to the English throne he strove, not always wisely, but

always persistently, to maintain the peace of Europe.

His abhorrence of violence and aggression was the most

honourable side of his character. It might be doubted

whether he would not stand in need of more than this to

steer his way through the storms which were even then

muttering in the distance, but for the present, at least,

he was in the right path. He had expressly assured the

German Protestants that his assistance was only to be

reckoned upon if they abstained from all aggression. If

he had done no more than to desire to live in friendship

with Spain, and to gain such influence over the Spanish

with the Spanish ambassador. His sudden fervour, in 1607, is accounted
for by the ambassador as the result of the increasing probability of the
marriage taking place, which made him anxious to secure the support of
that government, which would be all-powerful in a few years. He arranged
that all payments and all confidential communications should pass through
the hands of Lady Suffolk.

* Lord Hay, who was present at the scene he described, told Sarmiento
that " un dia, hecha ya la liga de los Protestantes de Alemana y Francia
con este Key, el Principe muerto y el Salberi le apretaron para que rom-
piese la guerra con V. Magd., dandole para esto algunas trazas y razones de
convemencia^y el Salberi concluya la platica con que, rota la guerra, 6 este
Key seria Senor de las Indias 6 de las flotas que fuesen y viniesen, y que
por lo menos no podria ninguna entrar ni salir de Sevilla sin pelear con la
armada Inglesa : y que lo que se aventurara a ganar era mucho, y a perder
The king replied that, as a Christian, he could not break the
treaty. Salisbury said it had already been broken by Spain a hundred times,
.lames said that might justify a defensive, but not an offensive war. Salis-
bury s reply was, that if he made everything a matter of conscience, he had
better go to his bishops for advice, which made James very angry. Hay
ed, that from that day Salisbury began to fall into disgrace, and that
ienry began to speak of his father with disrespect.— Sarmiento to
Philip III., Nov. ~, 1613. Simancas MSS. Est. 2590.

SARMIENTO IN ENGLAND. 9

government as would enable him to preserve peace upon CH- *•
the Continent, he would have deserved the thanks of 16i3-
posterity, even if he had seemed craven and pusillani-
mous to his own generation.

From necessity rather than from any real change of A« is als°
principle, the wishes of Lerma corresponded with those Lhgovern-
of James. The dilapidation of the Spanish finances, and ment-
the depopulation of the Spanish territory, made all
prudent Spaniards shrink from war, not because they
feared defeat, but because they dreaded expense. Even
the gold of Mexico and Peru was insufficient to meet the
wants of a monarchy from which the dead weight of poli-
tical and ecclesiastical absolutism had long ago pressed
out the vigour which freedom alone can give. Alarmed
by the rumours of war which reached him from London,
Lerma recalled the Spanish ambassador from his post, in
order that he might replace him by a man of more con-
spicuous ability, who might perhaps be able, whilst yet
there was time, to stave off the threatened hostilities.

The man who was selected for the purpose was Diego Sarmiento
Sarmiento de Acuna, so well known to all succeeding ^SLciorto
generations of Englishmen by his later title, as the Count England.
of Gondomar. For the service upon which he was sent
it would have been impossible to find a fitter person. It
is true that it would be absurd to speak of Sarmiento as
a man of genius, or even as a deep and far-sighted poli-
tician. He was altogether deficient in the essential
element of permanent success — the power of seeing things
of pre-eminent importance as they really are. During
his long residence amongst the English people, and with
his unrivalled opportunities for studying their character,
he never could comprehend for a moment that English
Protestantism had any deeper root than in the personal
predilections of the King. But if the idea of converting
the English nation by means of a court intrigue had ever
been anything more than an utter delusion, Sarmiento
would have been the man to carry it into execution. For His confi-
he cherished in his heart that unbending conviction of
the justice of his cause, without which nothing great can
ever be accomplished. He thoroughly believed, not
merely that the system of the Roman Church was true,

10 CHARACTER OF SARMIENTO.

CH.I. but that it was so evidently true that no one who was
1613. not either a knave or a fool could dispute it for an
instant. He believed no less thoroughly that his own
sovereign was the greatest and most powerful monarch
upon earth, whose friendship would be a tower of strength
to such of the lesser potentates as might be willing to
take refuge under his protecting care. Nor did it ever
interfere with the serenity of his conviction, that he was
from time to time made aware of facts which to ordinary
eyes would appear to be evidence that the strength of
Spain was greater in appearance than in reality. He
passed them by when they were thrust upon his notice
with the simple suggestion that, if anything had gone
wrong, it was no doubt because his Majesty had neglected
to give the necessary orders. It was this assumption of
superiority which formed the strength of his diplomacy.
All were inclined to give way to one who rated himself
so highly. There are passages in his despatches which
might have been penned by the Eoman who drew the
circle round the throne of the Eastern king, forbidding
him to leave it till he had conformed to the orders of the
Senate. There are other passages which remind us for-
cibly of Caleb Balderstone shutting his eyes, and doing
his best to make others shut their eyes, to the evidences
of the decline of his master's fortunes.

Hisdipio- In addition to this abounding confidence in himself
qualities. an(l m h*8 niission, Sarmiento was possessed of all those
qualities which are the envy of ordinary diplomatists.
He had that knowledge of character which told him
instinctively what, on every occasion, it was best to say,
and what was better left unsaid. His prompt, ready
tongue was always under control. No man at the court
could pay a more refined compliment, could jest with
greater ease, or could join with greater dignity in serious
conversation. Such a man was, above all others, qualified
to make an impression upon James. His conversational
powers were sure to prove attractive to one who was so
fond of chatting over all kinds of subjects, and his imper-
turbable firmness would go far to overawe that vacillating
nature which would cling for support to the strongly
expressed opinions of the Spanish ambassador. The con-

DONNA LUISA DE CARVAJAL. 11

trast between the strength of Sarmiento's character and
the weakness of his own, would be certain to call forth
the admiration of James, in the same way that the strong
limbs and the handsome features of Carr or Villiers gained
a hold upon his imagination from his own deficiency in
those very qualities which attracted him in them.

If Sarmiento had studied the character of James dur-
ing a lifelong intimacy, he could not have contrived any-
thing better calculated to make an ineffaceable impression CarvaJal-
upon his mind than the line of conduct which he adopted
in an affair which chance threw in his way not many
weeks after his arrival in England. There was a certain
lady, Donna Luisa de Carvajal, who had for more than
eight years been living in the house in the Barbican,
which had been occupied in turn by the Spanish ambas-
sadors. To zealous Protestants her mere presence without
any assignable reason was objectionable. She had sacri-
ficed a good estate to found a college in Flanders for the
education of English youths in her own religion, and she
had settled in England with the express intention of per-
suading every one who came within her reach to forsake
the paths of heresy. She had been a frequent visitor of
the priests shut up in prison, and had made herself no-
torious by the attentions which she had paid to the trai-
tors who had taken part in the gunpowder-plot. She had
herself been imprisoned for a short time in 1608, for at-
tempting to convert a shop-boy in Cheapside, and for
denying the legitimacy of Queen Elizabeth's birth.""' It
was well known that she kept a large retinue of English
servants, and it was rumoured that her household was
nothing less than a nunnery in disguise. Abbot espe-
cially had his eye upon her. One day he heard that she
had left the embassy, and had gone for change of air to a
house in Spitalfields. He immediately obtained from the Herim-
council an order for her arrest, and had her sent to Lam-
beth, to be kept in confinement under his own roof.

* I owe my information on this imprisonment of Donna Luisa, and on
the college she founded in Flanders, to the kindness of the late Sir Edmund
Head, who showed me an extract from a letter of Mr. Ticknor's, describing
a book in his library, giving an account of the lady's proceedings, and
printed at Seville immediately after her death, which took place in Sarmi-
ento's house in January, 1614.

12 SARMIENTO'S INTERFERENCE.

Sarmiento, as soon as he heard what had been done, di-
rected his wife to go immediately to Lambeth, and
ordered her to remain with the lady till she was liberated.
Having thus provided that at least a shadow of his pro-
tection should be extended over her, he went at once be-
fore the council, and demanded her release. Failing to
obtain redress, he sent one of his secretaries, late as it
was in the evening, with a letter to the King. James,
hearing a stir in the ante-chamber, came out to 'see what
was going on. As soon as he had read the letter, he told
the secretary that ever since Donna Luisa had been in
England, she had been busy in converting his subjects to
a religion which taught them to refuse obedience to a
King whose creed differed from their own. She had even
attempted to set up a nunnery in his dominions. If an
Englishman had played such tricks at Madrid, he would
soon have found his way into the Inquisition, with every
prospect of ending his life at the stake. He was, how-
ever, disposed to be merciful, and would give orders for
the immediate release of the lady, on condition of her
engaging to leave England without delay.

The next morning a formal message was brought to
fectediy Sarmiento, repeating the proposal which had thus been
Sarmiento. macie There are probably few men who, if they had
been in Sarmiento's place, would not have hesitated a
little before rejecting the offer. To refuse the King's
terms would be to affront the man upon whom so much
depended. Sarmiento did not hesitate for a moment.
The lady, he said, had done no wrong. If the King
wished it, she would no doubt be ready to leave England
at the shortest notice. But it must be clearly understood
that in that case he, as the ambassador of his Catholic
Majesty, would leave England at the same time. The
answer produced an immediate effect. That very even-
ing Donna Luisa was set at liberty, and Sarmiento was
informed that her liberation was entirely unconditional.*
Effect of There is nothing in Sanniento's account of the matter
ductou" which would lead us to suppose that he acted from any

the King's

mind. * Sarmiento to Philip III., Nov. £. Simancas MSS. Est. 2590. Sarmi-

ento to Northampton [?]. Sarmiento to the King, Oct. J? 1613. S. P. Spain.

HIS HOLD UPON THE KING. 13

deep design. But it is certain that the most consummate CH- L
skill could not have served him better. He had met 1613-
James, as it were, face to face, and James had quailed
before him. From henceforth the two men knew each
other ; and when the time arrived in which James would
be looking round him for the support of a stronger arm
than his own, he would bethink him of the Spanish
stranger in whom he had so unexpectedly found a master.

Sarmiento was not the man to be elated by success. Sarmien-
He knew well that over eagerness on his part would be {^uedTn-
fatal to his hopes of being able ultimately to divert James action.
from the French alliance. He could afford to wait till
an opportunity occurred in which he might assume for
his master the character of a disinterested friend, and
might thereby be enabled to throw his net with greater
skill. He had good friends at Court, who kept him well
informed, and he was aware that, for the time at least,
James had set his heart upon his son's marriage with the
French princess. Nor was he ignorant that in this desire
he was encouraged not only by the moderate English
Protestants, but also by his Scotch favourites, whose na-
tional predilection led them, as it had so often led their
ancestors, to look with favour upon an alliance with
France.

Those who have derived their ideas of Sarmiento from The pen-
the idle stories which were a few years later so readily
accepted by the credulous multitude, and which have
found their way into every history of the reign, will no
doubt imagine that he was occupied during this period of
inaction in winning over to his side, with offers of pen-
sions and rewards, all whose influence might hereafter be
of use to him. The truth is, that no ambassador of the
day was so little disposed to profusion as Sarmiento.
The tales of the floods of Spanish gold which were popu-
larly supposed to be flowing at regular intervals into the
pockets of every Englishman worth buying, if not quite
as imaginary as the stories of Pitt's English gold, which
still find their place in French histories of the great re-
volution, have but slight support in actually existing
facts. When Sarmiento arrived in England, there were
only four survivors out of the seven who had been placed

14 THE SPANISH PENSIONERS.

CH-L upon the pension list shortly after the signature of the
16ia peace of London'"". These four, the Earl of Northampton
and Lady Suffolk, Sir William Monson, the admiral of
the narrow seas, and Mrs. Drummond, the first lady of
the bedchamber to the Queen, continued as a matter of
course to draw their annual stipends. But Sarmiento as
yet made no proposal for increasing their number. He
no doubt knew perfectly well that if he could gain the
King he had gained everything, and that, excepting in
some special cases, as long as he could find his way to the
ear of James, the assistance of venal courtiers would be
perfectly worthless. The good offices of the Catholics,
and of those who were anxious to become Catholics, were
secured to him already.

The Amongst those of whose assistance he never doubted,

was the Queen. The influence which Anne exercised
over her husband was not great, but whatever it was she
was sure to use it on behalf of Spain. Mrs. Drummond,
in whom she placed all her confidence, was a fervent Ca-
tholic, and from her, it would seem, she had learned to
value the doctrines and principles of the Church of Rome.
She did not, indeed, make open profession of her faith.
She accompanied her husband to the services of the
Church of England, and listened with all outward show
of reverence to the sermons which were preached in the
chapel royal. But she never could be induced to partake
of the communion at the hands of a Protestant minister,
and those who were admitted to her privacy in Denmark
House f, knew well that, as often as she thought she
could escape observation, the Queen of England was in
the habit of repairing to a garret, for the purpose of

* The seven were— Salisbury, with 1500Z. a-year ; Northampton, Dorset,
and Lady Suffolk, 1000Z. ; Devonshire, 750J. ; Monson and Mrs. Drum-
mond, 350Z. In the first list, Nottingham's name was down for 1000Z., but
as it is not to be found in any later list, it may be hoped, for the credit of
the Admiral who led the fleet against the Armada, that he rejected the
proffered pension. The names of the Earl of Dunbar, Lord Kinloss, Sir
Thomas Lake, Sir John Ramsay (Earl of Haddington), and Sir James
Lindsay, are also given lor pensions either suspended for various reasons, or
not paid at all-Memoir left by Villa Mediana, July £, 1605. Simancas
MSS. Est. 2514. I keep the title " Mrs./' by which she was described by
contemporaries, and Avhich was then applied to unmarried ladies.

f This was the name given to Somerset House during her residence there.

SOMERSET AND SARMIENTO. 15

hearing mass from the lips of a Catholic priest, who was CH- L
smuggled in for the purpose.* 1613.

Keady as the Queen was to do everything in her power The Earl
to help forward the conversion of her son, and his mar- setS°mer
riage with a Spanish princess, her assistance would be of
far less value than that of the King's favourite companion,
the recently created Earl of Somerset. It is not likely
that Somerset cared much whether his future queen was
'to be a daughter of the King of Spain or a sister of the
King of France. But his insolent demeanour had in-
volved him in a quarrel with Lennox and Hay, the con-
sistent advocates of the French alliance, and his marriage
with the divorced Lady Essex had brought him into
close connection with her father, the Earl of Suffolk,
and her great-uncle the Earl of Northampton. He
had, therefore, suddenly become a warm advocate of
the marriage with a daughter of the Duke of Savoy,
which had been adopted by the partizans of Spain, as
soon as they saw that an apparently insuperable obstacle
had been raised in the way of the match with the In-
fanta, by Philip's declaration that it was impossible for
him to give a Spanish princess to a Protestant.

At the time of Somerset's marriage, Sarmiento had 1614-
followed the fashion, and had presented both the bride ^n"1 vfsit
and the bridegroom with a wedding present. But no to Sarmi-
peculiar intimacy had as yet sprung up between them, and e
indeed, it was not till after he had obtained permission
from the King that Somerset consented to accept the
jewels, of which the ambassador's gift consisted f. Sar-
miento was, therefore, somewhat surprised to receive a
visit from Cottington a few weeks after the marriage, who
announced to him that he had been charged with a mes-
sage from the favourite. Somerset, he said, was anxious
to put a stop to the negotiations with France, and in this
he was acting in concert with Lake, who was at the time

* Sarmiento to Philip III., ^j^~, 1613. Minutes of Sarmiento's De-
spatches, June |j., j"yf'23>244, 1614. Simancas MSS. Est. 2590, 2518.
f Accounts of the Spanish Embassy, Feb. ^ 1614. Sarmiento to Philip

III., May a|, 1616. Simancas MSS. Est. 2514, 2595. The Earl's jewel
was worth about 200Z. ; the Countess's rather less.

16

THE PARLIAMENT OF 1614.

CH. I.
1614.

Sarmien-
to's pru-
dence.

Breach
between
James
and the
Commons.

the candidate of the Howards for the secretaryship which
had been vacant ever since Salisbury's death. Cotting-
ton added that he was commissioned to request the am-
bassador to seek an audience of the King, and to urge him
by every argument in his power to have nothing further
to do with the French Court.

Samiiento was highly delighted at the overture. It
seemed, he wrote home a few days afterwards, as if God
had opened a way before him. But he was far too pru-
dent to comply with Somerset's request. He knew that
if he thrust himself prematurely forward, his words would
be regarded with suspicion ; and that no one would be-
lieve that anything that he might now say would not be
repudiated at Madrid as soon as it had served its purpose.
It was not from him that any open attack upon the French
alliance could safely come. He accordingly assured Cot-
tington that he was always ready to listen to advice from
such a quarter, but that he could not help thinking that
the step proposed would be rather premature. A few
weeks later Somerset made another attempt to drag the
cautious ambassador on to over hasty action. It was all in
vain. His suggestions were received with becoming defer-
ence. Nothing could be more polite than Sarmiento's lan-
guage. But the compliments in which he was so profuse
always ended in a refusal to compromise his master's cause
by the slightest appearance of eagerness to seize the prey.*

It was not long before his patience was rewarded. On
the 5th of April, 1614, Parliament met at Westminster.
If that session had ended harmoniously, James would
doubtless have accepted the French alliance. He had
only to speak the word and the Queen Mother would be
ready to close with his terms, f But the conditions under
which that Parliament assembled were hardly such as to
promise success. James had no capacity for understanding
the great principle which Bacon was constantly urging

* Sarmiento to Philip III. Jan. ^ Feb. ^ 1614. SimancasMSS. Est.
2592.

f This was Sarmiento's opinion. See the documents in the Appendix to
Francisco de Jesus. At p. 203 of the second volume of my former work I
was misled into supposing that the Queen Mother was playing a double
game.

BREACH BETWEEN THE KING AND THE COMMONS. 17

upon him, that if he wished to master the House of Com- CH- *•
mons, he must guide it to common action with himself. 1614.
He met the House without a defined purpose, and with-
out any prevision of the course which it was likely to
pursue.*

At the very outset of the session, the feeling of the Com- April.
mons was embittered by the attempt which had been made
by certain persons about the court, to tamper with the elec-
tions. When Winwood, who had been recently appointed
secretary, as a proof of the conciliatory disposition of the
King, rose to propose a vote of supply, he was met by an
outcry against the impositions, and by a renewal of the
old complaints of ecclesiastical grievances. Discussion
on such points was sure to be irritating, and, at the
same time that the House of Lords, in evident agreement
with the King, refused even to listen to the complaints of
the Commons, the members of the Lower House were
thrown into a state of frenzy by an insult which was
directed against their whole body by Bishop Neile.f

More than two-thirds of the members had never held May.
a seat before, and were new to the traditionary restraints withth
of parliamentary debate. A scene of angry recrimina- Kins-
tion followed, which could only serve to irritate the King.
One member proposed to inquire into the official conduct
of the bishop. Another poured forth a torrent of abuse
against the whole tribe of courtiers. A third boldly en-
tered upon the more tender subject of the Scottish

* I fully accept Mr. Spedding's argument (Bacon's Letters and Life, iv. 363),
in favour of Bacon's plan for dealing with the House. But unless the King
were prepared to give up the impositions, and to modify his ecclesiastical
policy, he could hardly have satisfied the Commons.

f In a speech delivered in 1624 by Sir John Eliot, who had been a
member of this Parliament, and quoted by Mr. Forster (Life of Eliot, i. 25),
the King is said to have been driven to dissolve the Parliament of 1614, by
the irritation shown by the Commons at the interference of the Court with
the elections. This is a curious instance of the tricks played by memory in
looking back even to so short a distance as ten years ; for it is certain that
the question of the elections was settled, and that it was the refusal of the
House of Lords to listen to the Commons about the impositions which
really caused the breach. Eliot's charge against that Parliament of having
needlessly caused a breach with the Crown must fall to the ground, though,
no doubt, the feeling about the elections had something to do with the
temper in which they expressed their feelings on other matters. The
quarrel must have come, and there was at that time no sufficient reason,
such as that which existed in 1621 and in 1624, for laying the matter in
dispute aside for a time.

VOL. I.

18 THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS.

CH. I. favourites, and even hinted the possibility of an imitation

1614. of the Sicilian vespers.

May- James's first impulse was at once to get rid of the mal-

Exaspera- contents bv a dissolution. But it was impossible for him

tion ot tne «/ i p i • i» i •

King. to conceal from himseli the gravity 01 his situation.
When he had dismissed his first parliament, four years
before, he had been able to persuade himself that his
quarrel was only with the existing House of Commons.
But a second election had produced the same results.
He could no longer doubt that the dissatisfaction which
he had caused extended, if not to the whole nation, at
least to those large and influential classes by which the
House of Commons was returned.

forsu^ort There was one direction in which James might turn
to the for help. Of all those whose opposition he had most to
Catholics. £ear^ ^here were none who cherished sentiments so com-
pletely at variance with the existing system of govern-
ment, or who expressed their sentiments with so little
reserve, as the men whose religious opinions were branded
with the name of Puritanism. Might it not be well then,
James appears to have thought, to do something to con-
ciliate his Catholic subjects, in whom he would without
difficulty find a support against what he regarded as the
common enemy. No doubt they had cause enough to
question his sincerity. It is easy to conceive the feelings
with which the Catholic regarded the law-makers who
had exacted from him the monthly 20/., which he was
bound to pay into the exchequer, or who had confiscated
those two-thirds of the hereditary estate, which he and
his children could only regain by apostacy. But in
establishing a harsh and oppressive system, the members
of the legislature at least had in view great public objects,
and their measures were to be justified, if they were to be
justified at all, as measures which they believed to be
absolutely required for the public safety. In the hands
of James the ^ system had, to a great extent, degenerated
into an engine for filling the pockets of his needy
courtiers. Of late years, wealthy recusants had been
igned to the hangers-on at Whitehall, that they might
extract from their fears whatever they chose to ask for,
by threatening them with the terrible penalties which

way '

THEIR TREATMENT BY JAMES. 19

awaited a refusal to take the oatli of allegiance. Nor was
James's conduct at the beginning of his reign reassuring.
He had granted a remission of the fines, to be continued *
as long as the Catholics conducted themselves properly,
and had retracted his grant without being able to charge
them as a body with any misconduct.! But whatever
indignation may have been caused by such treatment as
this, there could be little doubt that it would be condoned
by the sufferers if they had reason to hope for an allevia-
tion of their condition for the future.

Even if James had been influenced by any real love
for religious liberty, he would have found his path en-
cumbered with the gravest difficulties. Yet they were, toleration.
perhaps, not such as to be absolutely insurmountable to
a prince who was in sympathy with the Protestantism of
his subjects. But, if he was to succeed, there must at
least be no tampering with the cardinal principle of the
English Eeformation, the independence of the Crown in
ecclesiastical matters. For whatever priests and Jesuits
might say, there was something not so very unreasonable
in the distrust with which the Catholics were regarded
by their countrymen. They were part of a huge organi-
zation, of which the chief was a foreign potentate ; and
that potentate had in very recent times been able to
dispose of the armies of the King of Spain to carry out
his designs. If James was to succeed in securing any
sort of toleration for the Catholics, he must avoid all
appearance of entering into a bargain with the Pope, and,
above all things, he must avoid all appearance of entering
into a bargain with the King of Spain.

Unluckily for himself and for the Catholics, James Jal|jest
was thinking much more about his own interests than he Spain for
was about the sufferings of the recusants ; and, in his protection.
eyes, the support which he might gain from his Catholic
subjects was as nothing in comparison with the support
which he hoped to gain from a close alliance with

* History of England, 1603—1616, ii. 82. Amongst the uncalendared
addenda to the State Papers — a knowledge of which I owe to the kindness
of Mrs. Green — is a grant to Lord Hay of anything he could get out of one of
the wealthy recusants, over and above the 240£. a year which he was regu-
larly paying into the Exchequer.

t History of England, 1603—1616, i. 109, 220.

c 2

20 JAMES TURNS FOR HELP TO SPAIN.

CH. I. Spain. He was, therefore, by no means in a hurry to
1614. alleviate the misfortunes of the Catholics. Not a single
priest was set free from prison. Not a single layman
was excused the payment of his fine. The hardships of
the Catholics were to be exhibited in the eyes of Spain
as the means of extorting better terms, just as in barba-
rous warfare captives have sometimes been brought out
before the walls of a besieged city, and tortured in the
sight of their friends, in order to hasten the surrender of
the garrison.

^ *s difficult ^0 sav wna-t it was exactly that James
pectations. expected from the King of Spain. In the first place, no
doubt, he reckoned that the Infanta, if he could obtain
her for his son, would bring with her a portion far larger
than he could hope to receive from France, large enough,
at all events, to pay nearly the whole of the debt which
had made it necessary for him to ask the assistance of
Parliament.* Beyond this, his ideas were evidently
vague. He seems to have had no definite intention, such
as that with which his grandson sought the alliance of
Lewis XIV., of asking for any annual subsidy, or of
demanding military assistance against his subjects. He
appears, as far as it is possible to judge, to have felt
towards Philip merely as the weak and exhausted
swimmer feels towards the strong man whose hand is
held out to save him from drowning. To James, bearded
by his own subjects, the very name of the king of Spain
was a tower of strength. Keen observers might indeed
detect the evidences of feebleness even at Madrid. But
to James, the poor bigot who scarcely ever ventured upon
an act of his own, was the strongest of the strong. Was
not Philip the master of the finest army in the world,
and the possessor of treasures which seemed boundless to
a king whose experience of wealth had never gone beyond
the empty exchequer at Westminster ? Above all, there
was no parliamentary opposition in the Castiles. The

* On the 2nd of May the debt was 680,0002., whilst the portion which
was offered by Spain as soon as the negotiations were seriously opened, was
600,000/. That James was mainly influenced in his desire for the mar-
riage by a disinclination to match his son with a lady of any but the highest
ranis is ;i supposition, which, however generally adopted, finds no support
from any authority worthy of notice.

SARMIENTO CONSULTED. 21

Cortes met from time to time, but it was only to give CH- l-
their assent to the collection of the subsidies which they iei4.
were directed by the Government to vote. That the soul May.
had already fled from the huge carcase, James was in-
capable of perceiving.*

If James had been inclined to doubt the wisdom of the
course which he had determined to pursue, hesitation sage to
would have been impossible in the presence of Sarmiento, Saiirmento-
the impersonation, to a weak and wavering mind, of
moral and intellectual strength. He had been encouraged
by a letter, which he had two or three months before
received from Digby, telling him that 'Lerma had been
making fresh overtures for the renewal of the negotia-
tions for the marriage, and the information had probably
been confirmed by Digby himself, who had recently
returned from Spain, t But until he could be assured of
the approval of the Spanish Ambassador, he did not
venture to dissolve the Parliament. He accordingly sent
to Sarmiento, asking him to inform him whether, in the
event of his quarrelling with the House of Commons, he

JL O *

could depend upon his master's support.;]: Sarmiento,
unwilling to commit himself, vaguely answered that
Philip was always perfectly disinterested in his friend-
ships, and that he was undoubtedly desirous of being on

* There is a curious passage in a paper which undoubtedly proceeded from
Sarmiento's pen, after his return to Spain, in which he describes his method
of obtaining a mastery over James : — " El medio que el Conde de Gondomar
ha tenido para quitarle estos miedos" (i. e., his fears lest Spain should
deceive him) *' y Me empenando en la amistad con V. Magd, ha sido
mostrandole el gran poder de V. Magd, y una muy gran llaneza y con-
fian9a con muclia verdad en su tratto, encareciendole lo que se tratta en
Espana, la seguridad con que podra vivir en sus mismos Reynos, asentando
esta amistad ; pues viendole unido con esta Corona se aquietaran todos sin
que nadie ose menearsele : — que los mismos Catolicos de quien oy se rezela
tanto seran los mas seguros y de quien mejor se podra fiar, y juntamente con
esto ha procurado conserbar y aumentar en Inglaterra la religion Catolica,
particularmente entre los. ministros y personas mas poderosas de aquel
Reyno, para que estos de su parte ayudassen tambien a empenar a aquel
Rey en estrecha amistad con esta Corona y ser seguros de la parte de
V. Magd para en caso que se rompa y sea necesaria la guerra." Consulta by

Aliaga and Gondomar, Jan. ^ 1619. Simancas MSS. Est. 2518.

f Digby to the King, Jan. 3, 1615. Printed with a wrong date in Lords'
Journals, iii. 239, as having been written in 162-*

t Minutes of Sarmiento's despatches June |° j"°e 2g2' 233> ™' 1614. Si-
mancas MSS., Est. 2518. Printed in Ap. to Francisco de Jesus.

22 DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.

CH- I- good terms with England. This was enough for James.
1614. He plucked up courage at once, and Parliament was
June, dissolved.

He details ^ few ^ays later, James sent for Sarmiento, and poured
ancfsto into his willing ear his complaints of the insulting
Sdormbas" behaviour of the Commons. " I hope," he said, when he
had finished his story, " that you will send the news
to your master as you hear it from me, and not as
it is told by the gossips in the streets." As soon as the
ambassador had assured him that he would comply with
his wishes, James went on with his catalogue of grievances.
" The King of Spain," he said, " has more kingdoms and
subjects than I have, but there is one thing in which I
surpass him. He has not so large a Parliament. The
Cortes of Castile are composed of little more than thirty
persons. In my Parliament there are nearly five hundred.
The House of Commons is a body without a head. The
members give their opinions in a disorderly manner. At
their meetings nothing is heard but cries, shouts, and
confusion. I am surprised that my ancestors should ever
have permitted such an institution to come into existence.
I am a stranger, and I found it here when I came, so that
I am obliged to put up with what I cannot get rid of."
Here James coloured, and stopped short. He had been
betrayed into an admission that there was something in
his dominions which he could not get rid of if he pleased.
Sarmiento, with ready tact, came to his assistance, and
reminded him that he was able to summon and dismiss
this formidable body at his pleasure. "That is true,"
replied James, delighted at the turn which the con-
versation had taken ; " and what is more, without my
assent the words and acts of the Parliament are altogether
worthless." Having thus maintained his dignity, James
proceeded to assure Sarmiento that he would gladly break
off the negotiations with France, if only he could be sure
that the hand of the Infanta would not be accompanied
by conditions which it would be impossible for him to
grant. The Spaniard gave him every encouragement in
his power, and promised to write to Madrid for further
instructions.

If James could have looked over the ambassador's

SARMIENTOS SCHEMES. 23

shoulder as he was writing his next despatch, he would CH. I.
soon have been sickened of his scheme for freeing himself 1614.
from his own subjects by the help of Spain. Sarmiento's June,
plans aimed at something far more splendid than the ^""la1"
alleviation of the distress of a handful of Catholics in fo/Europe;
England. He believed, as many besides himself believed,
that a crisis was at hand in which the very existence of
the Catholic system would be at stake. He saw in the
overtures which had lately been made by James to the
continental Protestants, the foundation of an aggressive
league against the Catholic powers. The attack, he
thought, would be commenced by a demand that the
Catholic sovereigns should grant liberty of conscience to
their subjects, and he never doubted that such a conces-
sion would be fatal to the retention by the Pope of the
influence which he still possessed. He therefore proposed
to carry the war into the enemy's quarters. If liberty of
conscience, under the guarantee of England and the
German Union, would disintegrate Catholicism in the
South, why should not liberty of conscience, under the
guarantee of Spain, disintegrate Protestantism in the
North ? Nor had he any doubt that England was
the key-stone of Protestantism. If the countenance of
England were withdrawn from the Protestants on the
continent, the Catholic princes would be able to resume
their legitimate authority. The Dutch rebels would be
compelled to submit to their lawful sovereign. The
French Huguenots would be unable any longer to make
head against the King of France. The German Protes-
tants would find it impossible to resist the Emperor.
Sigismund of Poland would regain the throne of Sweden,
from which he had been driven by his usurping uncle
Charles IX., and his usurping cousin Gustavus Adolphus.
The restoration of Catholicism would go hand in hand
with the cause of legitimate monarchy. Law and order
would take the place of religious and political anarchy.
The only remaining Protestant sovereign, the King of
Denmark, it could not be doubted for an instant, would
conform to the counsels and example of his brother-in-
law, who, before many years were past, would be the
Eoman Catholic king of a Koman Catholic England.

24 PLANS FOR THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND,

L Nothing less than this was the mark at which Sar-

1614. miento aimed. It is true that he did not think it
June, necessary, as Philip and Lerma had thought it necessary
Enfik°nd. three years before, to ask that the conversion of the
Prince should precede his marriage. He had seen enough
of James to know that such a proposal would only
irritate him. He thought he could make sure of his
prey without difficulty in another way. If he could only,
by the political advantages which he had to offer, tempt
James to relax the penal laws, the cause of English Pro-
testantism was lost. Catholic truth, when once these
artificial obstacles were removed, would be certain to
prevail. A Catholic majority would soon be returned to
the House of Commons, and James himself, if he wished
to preserve his crown, would be driven to declare himself
a convert, and to lend his aid to the suppression of
heresy.*

Grounds There were not wanting a few facts which, with the
^ foSd exercise of considerable ingenuity, or by the instigation
his expec- of a hopeful imagination, might be made to serve as a
foundation for this stupendous edifice of fancy. The
cessation of the war with Spain had led to a reaction
against extreme Puritanism, now no longer strengthened
by the patriotic feeling that whatever was most opposed
to the Church of Rome was most opposed to the enemies
of England. And as the mass of the nation was settling
down into content with the rites and with the teaching
of the English Church, there were some who floated still
further with the returning tide, and who were beginning
to cast longing looks towards Borne. Four times a day
Sarmiento's chapel was filled to overflowing. From time
to time the priests brought him word that the number of
their converts was on the increase ; and they were occa-
sionally able to report that some great lord, or some
member of the Privy Council was added to the list.f
Already, he believed, a quarter of. the population were
Catholics at heart, and another quarter, being without

* Minutes of Sarmiento's despatches, June - June 22' 23' 24> 1614 Si-
mancasMSS. Est. 2518. ° July 2' *' *'

t These cases are occasionally mentioned in Sarmiento's despatches ; but
Lord Wotton s name is the only one which is not concealed.

SARMIENTO SUPPORTS THE MARRIAGE. 25

any religion at all, would be ready to rally to their side CH- L
if they proved to be the strongest."* An impartial ob- 1614.
server might, perhaps, have remarked that no weight June,
could be attached to such loose statistics as these, which
probably owed their origin to the fervid imaginations of
the priests and Jesuits who thronged the ambassador's
house, and that whatever might be said of the number
of the converts, there was not to be found amongst them
a single man of moral or intellectual pre-eminence.

Indeed, as far as we are able to judge, they were for
the most part persons who were very unlikely to influence
the age in which they lived. The giddy and thoughtless
courtier, or the man of the world who had never really
believed anything in his life, might forswear a Protes-
tantism which had never been more than nominal, and
England would be none the worse.

Notwithstanding his conviction of the soundness of his S^rg^
reasoning, Sarmiento knew that he would have considerable close with
difficulty in gaining the consent of Philip to his scheme ;
and especially in persuading him to withdraw his demand
for the immediate conversion of the Prince. He, there-
fore, began by assuring him that it would be altogether
useless to persist in asking for a concession which James
was unable to make without endangering both his own
life and that of his son. Even to grant liberty of con-
science by repealing the laws against the Catholics was
beyond the power of a King of England, unless he could
gain the consent of his Parliament. All that he could
do would be to connive at the breach of the penal laws
by releasing the priests from prison, and by refusing to
receive the fines of the laity. James was willing to do

* Sarmiento divides the population as follows : —

Recusants 300,000

Catholics who go to church . . . 600,000

Atheists 900,000

Puritans 600,000

Other Protestants 1,200,000

3,600,000
- Sarmiento to Philip III. ' 1614. Simancas MSS. Est. 2592.

26 THE POPE S OBJECTIONS.

CH. I. tliis ; and if this offer was accepted, everything else would
1614. follow in course of time.*

July- Sarmiento may well have doubted whether his sugges-

JppoS?'6'8 ti°ns would prove acceptable at Madrid. On the first
tion. news of Somerset's overtures, Philip, or the great man
who acted in his name, had determined upon consulting
the Pope.f The reply of Paul V. was anything but
favourable. The proposed union, he said, would not only
imperil the faith of the Infanta, and the faith of any
children that she might have, but would also bring about
increased facilities of communication between the two
countries which could not but be detrimental to the
purity of religion in Spain. Besides this, it was well
known that it was a maxim in England that a king was
justified in divorcing a childless wife. 'On these grounds
he was unable to give his approbation to the marriage.^
August. Even those to whom the Pope's objections are no
The junta objections at all cannot but wish that his judgment had
gians!° C been accepted as final in the matter. In his eyes mar-
riage was not to be trifled with, even when the political
advantages to be gained by it assumed the form of the
propagation of religion. In his inmost heart, most pro-
bably, Philip thought the same. But Philip was seldom
accustomed to take the initiative in matters of import-
ance, and, upon the advice of the Council of State, he
laid the whole question before a junta of theologians. It
was arranged that the theologians should be kept in
ignorance of the Pope's reply, in order that they might
not be biassed by it in giving their opinions. The hopes
of the conversion of England, which formed so brilliant
a picture in Sarmiento's despatches, overcame any scruples
which they may have felt, and they voted in favour
of the marriage on condition that the Pope's consent
could be obtained. The Council adopted their advice,

« Minutes of Sarmiento's despatches, June ??• *™* • **> f . Simancas
MSS. Eat. 2518.

f Philip III. to Paul V., June ^ Francisco de Jesus, 6. Guizot. Un
Projet du Mariage Royal, 43.

t The Count of Castro to Philip III., July i. Francisco de Jesus, 6.
Guizot, 46.

APPROBATION OF THE THEOLOGIANS. 27

and ordered that the articles should be prepared. On
one point only was there much discussion. Statesmen
and theologians were agreed that it was unwise to ask
for the conversion of the Prince. But they were uncer-
tain whether it would be safe to content themselves with marriage
the remission of the fines by the mere connivance of the
King. At last one argument turned the scale. A change
of law which would grant complete religious liberty
would probably include the Puritans and the other
Protestant sects. The remission of penalties by the
royal authority would benefit the Catholics alone.*

Digby was expected to return to his post at Madrid JJj^81
before the end of the year. With the men who, like Madrid.
Somerset, looked upon an intrigue with Spain as a good
political speculation, or whose vanity was flattered by
the cheap courtesies of Sarmiento, he had nothing in
common. The Spanish ambassador never ventured to
speak of him except as of a man of honesty and worth,
to whom his master's interests were dearer than his own.
No doubt, as long as human nature remains what it is,
a man through whose hands the most important business
of the day is passing can hardly help feeling a growing
interest in the success of the policy which is to gain him
a name in history, as well as to secure him the immediate
favour of his sovereign. Yet Digby had not accepted
the charge of the negotiations without a protest. He marriage,
had told the King that, -in his opinion, it would be far
better that his son's wife should be a Protestant. Why
should he not look for support to the affections of his
subjects rather than to the ducats of the Infanta ? A
Spanish Princess of Wales would bring with her elements
of trouble and confusion. Under her protection the
English Catholics would grow in numbers and authority,
till it would become impossible to repress their insolence
without adopting those harsh and violent measures which
had long been foreign to the spirit of the English law.
Having thus done his duty by warning James of the

* Consultas of the Council of State, ^-^, Aug. ^-~, Nov. ll, 1614,
Jan. i 1615 ; Consiilta of the junta of theologians, Sept. *-p 1614. Si-
mancas MSS. Est. 2518. Francisco de Jesus, 7.

28 DIGBY'S ADVICE.

danger which he was incurring, Digby proceeded to
assure him that whatever his wishes might be, he would
d0 j-^g utmost to conduct the negotiations to a successful
issue. If the future Princess of Wales was to be a
Catholic, he thought that a marriage with an Infanta
would be better than a marriage with the sister of the
King of France. In Spain the Prince would find the
most unquestionable royal blood, and from Spain a larger
portion might be obtained for the relief of the King's
necessities. The only question was whether the marriage
could be arranged with no worse conditions than those
with which other Catholic princes would be contented.*

^e wn°le f°reign policy of James was so mismanaged,
ance and and his attempt to conciliate Spain turned out so ill, that
ish match ^ *s Difficult to estimate at its true value so moderate a
protest. Knowing, as we do, the history of the miser-
able years which were to follow, it is not easy for us to
remember that, if there was nothing to be said in favour
of the Spanish marriage, there was much to be said in
favour of keeping up a good understanding with Spain. To
put ourselves in Digby's place, it is necessary to realise
the weariness which the long religious wars of the six-
teenth century had left behind them, and the anxious
desire which was felt in so many quarters that the peace
which had at last been gained might not be endangered
by zealots on either side. Was it, then, impossible that
England and Spain, the most powerful Protestant State,
and the most powerful Catholic State, might come to an
understanding on the simple basis of refraining from
aggression ? Perhaps even with that policy of meddling
which had not been entirely renounced at Madrid, it
might not have been altogether impossible, but for the
events which a few years later occurred in Germany to
reawaken the feverish antipathies of religious parties.
At all events, if Digby's advice had been regarded,
James would have found himself with his hands free,
when the crisis came, and would have occupied a position
which would have enabled him to mediate in reality as
well as in name.

* Digby to the Prince of Wales, 1617. State Trials, ii. 1408.

THE MARRIAGE ARTICLES. 29

Digby had not been many days at Madrid before he CH- *• _
showed that he was by no means inclined to be the 1615-
humble servant of the King of Spain. When the articles T1Marc^
were laid before him, there was scarcely one against which ciessent to
he had not some objection to raise, and it was not till Ell8land-
some months had passed that he agreed to forward them
to England for his master's perusal. Even then the
negotiations were not to be considered as formally opened.
Until James had given his consent to these articles, the
negotiation with France was not to be broken off, and all
that passed between Lerma and Digby was to bear an
unofficial character.

Before this paper reached England, Sarmiento was APri|-
surprised by a visit from Sir Kobert Cotton, the antiquary, vfsiuo'8
He told him that he was sent by the King and the Earl Sarmiento.
of Somerset, who were desirous to see the negotiation
taken out of Digby's hands. That ambassador, he said,
was in correspondence with Abbot and Pembroke ; and
much mischief would ensue if he were to let them know
that the King had decided to accede to the demands
which had been made by Spain. James had, therefore,
made up his mind to give a commission to Somerset,
authorising him to treat secretly, if only assurances were
given that Philip would not expect such concessions on
religious matters as he could not grant without risk to
his kingdom or his life.*

Scarcely had this extraordinary message been delivered, April.
when Digby's despatch, giving an account of the articles, j|^s h
arrived in England. It was the first time that James had article*.
seen the Spanish demands formally set down on paper.
He was asked to stipulate that any children that might
be born of the marriage should be baptized after the
Catholic ritual by a Catholic priest, that they should be
educated by their mother, and that, if upon coming of
age they chose to adopt their mothers religion, they
should be at liberty to do so, without being on that
account excluded from the succession. The servants
attached to the Infanta's household, and even the wet-

* The documents on which this is founded will be found in a paper
<>f mine in the Archceologia, vol. xli. and in the App. to Francisco de
Jesus.

30 CONCESSIONS REQUIRED.

nurses of the children, were to be exclusively Catholics.
There was to be a public chapel or church open to all
who chose to avail themselves of it. The ecclesiastics
attached to it were to wear their clerical habits when
they appeared in the streets ; and one of their number
was to exercise jurisdiction over the Infanta's household.
Finally, the execution of the penal laws was to be
suspended.

contdiwd Anything more fatal to the domestic peace of the
in them. Prince, and to the popularity of the monarchy, it is
impossible to conceive. Charles was required to admit
into his home a wife who would never cease to be
ostentatiously a foreigner, and to parade her attachment
to a foreign Church, and her devotion to a foreign
sovereign, before the eyes of all men. A religion which
England had shaken off was to be allowed to creep back
upon English soil, not by its own increasing persuasive-
ness, or by the growth of a more tolerant spirit in the
nation, but by the support of a monarch whom, of all
others, Englishmen most cordially detested. We have
ourselves seen two great nations engaged in an arduous
war rather than suffer a* third Power to establish a
religious protectorate over an empire which was not
their own. All that, in our own days, was refused by
England and France to Eussia in the East, James was
required to concede to Spain in the very heart of
England.

May- The King's first impulse was to scribble down some
notes on tne side °f tne PaPer on which the articles were
written, which, if they had been converted into a formal
reply, would have been equivalent to a declaration that
he meant to throw up the negotiation altogether.* These
notes were by no means deficient in that shrewdness
which was characteristic of the man. He was as fully
convinced, he wrote, of the truth of his own religion, as
the King of Spain could be of his ; and he intended to

* A translation of these notes will be found in the paper in vol. xli.
of the Arckceologia already referred to. I have no direct evidence of the
time when they were written ; but the internal probability is very great
that they were the result of the shock occasioned by the first reading of
the articles.

HESITATION OF JAMES. 31

educate his grandchildren in the doctrines which he CH- L
himself professed. He was, however, ready to promise 1615-
not to use compulsion, and would engage that, if they
became Catholics by their own choice, they should not
be debarred from the succession. The laws of England
enjoined obedience to the King, whatever his religion
might be. It was only by the Jesuits that the contrary
doctrine was maintained. The servants who accompanied
the Infanta might be of any religion they pleased ; and,
as to the wet-nurses, it would be better to leave the
selection of them to the physicians, who would be guided
in their choice by the health and constitution of the
candidates rather than by their religious opinions. The
Infanta might have a large chapel for her household, but
there was to be no public church. The permission to
the clergy to wear their ecclesiastical habits in the streets
would cause public scandal. As to the remission of the
penal laws, it would be time enough to consider the point
when everything else had been arranged.

Sarmiento was at first puzzled to account for this sud- Cause of
den change of tone. But he soon discovered the key to tion.es
the enigma. It was not merely that James had been
startled by the religious and political objections to the
treaty. He was the same man as he had always been ;
and, as usual, it was some petty question affecting his
own interests by which he had been turned aside. He
had taken fright lest the strength to be gained by the
alliance with Spain should prove to his son's advantage
rather than to his own. Charles, he fancied, supported
by the King of Spain, and by the English Catholics,
would be persuaded to head a rebellion against his father.
He saw his own dethronement in the future, and he pic-
tured himself an old and worn out man, reduced to end
his days in a dungeon, of which his son and the wife
with whom he was about to provide him would keep the
keys. It would be well if this were all. For, as he was
heard to say, a deposed king might easily be murdered
even by his own children. On another occasion he point-
edly asked Sarmiento what possible motive Charles V.
could have had for abdicating in favour of his son ; and
the tone in which he asked the question convinced the

32 JAMES ASSENTS TO THE MARRIAGE.

Spaniard that he had not the slightest inclination to
follow the emperor's example.*

James did not always talk like this. There was a con-
flict in his mind between fear of his own subjects, and
fear of the King of Spain. At last his irresolution came
to an end, and he sent to tell Sarmiento that, if some
slight modifications were made in the articles, he would
be ready to take them for the basis of the negotiation.

Cottoabert ^ie messenger wno brought the news to Sarmiento was
again Sir Eobert Cotton. He was mad with delight, he
said, at having been made the channel of such a commu-
nication. At last, he added, a prospect was opened of
his being able to live and die a professed Catholic, as
his ancestors had done before him. As soon as Sarmi-
ento heard this, he rose from his seat, and caught the
bearer of the welcome tidings in his arms. The time
would come when Cotton would find in his parchments
and precedents that his ancestors had been distinguished
for other things besides their attachment to the Church
of Rome. But for the present he was taking a part over
which, in later life, he probably cast a discreet veil in his
conversations with the parliamentary statesmen. The
man who was to be the friend of Eliot and Selden, now
assured the Spanish Ambassador that he was a Catholic at
heart, and that he could not understand how a man of
sense could be anything else.f

October Somerset's part in this negotiation quickly came to

Somersets n iTT'n i • r 11 -M p -i i />

an end. Within a lew weeks the all-powerful favourite
was hurled from his high estate, and was awaiting in
prison the summons which was to call him to plead for
his life, on the charge of having taken part in a cowardly

* Sarmiento to Philip III. ; Sarmiento to Lerma, May |? ; Simancas
MSS. Est. 2593. Francisco de Jesus, App.

f Quotation from Sarmiento's despatch of April *|, in Arch. xli. Sar-
miento to Philip III., j^j-^ ; Francisco de Jesus, App. In a pamphlet pub-
lished in 1624, there is a passage which shows that there were many
Catholics amongst Cotton's friends. In it Gondomar is made to say,—

There were few Catholics in England of note from whom ... I wrested
not out a good sum of money. Sir R. Cotton, a great antiquary, I hear,
much complaineth of me, that from his friends and acquaintances only I got
into my purse the sum, at the least, of 10,0001." The second part of the
Vox Populi.

RESULTS OF SOMERSET^ DISGRACE.

murder. Digby was not long in discovering the intrigue, CH- !•
and, upon his return to England, he complained bitterly 1615-
to the King of this underhand attempt to pass him by.
James threw the whole blame upon Somerset, who may
possibly to some extent have exceeded his instructions.
However this may have been, Digby thought it prudent
to believe what he was told.

But for Sarmiento's presence in England, the disgrace The Span-
of Somerset would have left the pensioners and confidants
of Spain without a head. The splendid incapacity of
Suffolk found no assistance in the more business-like
habits of the Cottingtons and the Lakes. Strong in their
victory over the fallen favourite, and secure, as they hoped,
of the support of their instrument Villiers, Ellesmere
and Abbot, Pembroke and Win wood, were pushing on to
more brilliant successes still, and were already cherishing
hopes, not merely of breaking off the marriage negotiations,
but of committing James to an open war with Spain.

Between these two factions, James' position was doubt-
less one of extreme difficulty. Yet he was not left
altogether without resources. In Bacon and Digby he Bacon and
possessed two advisers of the greatest ability, who might
easily have been brought to work together for the com-
mon good of the nation. To Bacon — the advocate of a
policy, which, by conciliating the House of Common s;
would have led James to look to his people, rather than to
any foreign state, for the supplies of which he stood so
sorely in need — all truckling to Spain was as odious as
was the miserable buccaneering spirit, which was not
without influence upon so many of his contemporaries, or
the bloodthirsty eagerness for a purposeless war, which was
the highest virtue of excited theological or political par-
tizans. From Digby, on the other hand, who had never
known what parliamentary life was, and who thought
more of the preservation of order than he did about the
interests of liberty or religion, the King might have learned
to meet Spain on equal terms, and to have put the sincerity
of Philip's ministers to an immediate test. But it was tin1
fate of this unhappy monarch never to know when he
was well served. That which was commonplace or mean
in his ministers he could support with the full weight
VOL. i. D

34 REJECTION OF THE FRENCH OFFERS.

of his authority; that which was wise and noble wa-
beyond his comprehension. And so it came to pass that
the two greatest statesmen of the day wasted their lives
in propping up a policy which was not tlu-ir own. The
tragedy of the years which were to come was to be the
tragedy of Bacon and of Digby, and, in their persons,
the tragedy of all that was greatest in the England of
their day.

1616. Sarmiento, at least, knew James well, and he was not
Pensions much discouraged at the loss of Somerset's support. The
King was the first to make approaches. He sent a mes-
sage to assure the Spaniard that the negotiation opened
through his late favourite should not be dropped. With
this prospect before his eyes, Sarmiento set steadily to work
to gain new adherents. Just before Somerset's disgrace he
had proposed to reward him with the pension of 15001.
a year, which had remained vacant since Salisbury's
death. He now offered to transfer it to Villiers, and
the name of Villiers from thenceforth occupied a place
upon the Spanish pension-list. But though the new
favourite made no objection to the questionable honour,
he resolutely refused to accept a penny of the money.
He would ask for the arrears, he used jestingly to say,
when the Infanta arrived in England. The sum of 5001.
a year, which had recently been granted to Lake, was
all that was actually paid to any English courtier at the
nomination of the ambassador who was popularly sup-
posed to be flinging about his gold in handfuls.*
The nego- Sarmiento's strength did not lie in his purse. It was
with"1 ty ^ne force of his will, by the hand of iron within the
France silken glove, that he gained the mastery over James, and
broken oft over ^e careless crowds who gathered round him when-
ever he made his appearance at Whitehall. He had now
to deal more than ever with the King in person. The
preparations for Somerset's trial, indeed, left James but
little time for other business. But Sarmiento was assured
that everything should be settled as he wished. The first
thing to be done would be to break with France, and in
that there should be no delay. Accordingly, in the

* Accounts of the Spanish Embassy. 1022 ; Si;;<«; Est. 2:>i:>.

ARTICLES OF THE SPANISH TREATY. 35

summer of 1616, Hay was sent over to Paris to demand CH- x-
conditions which, as James knew perfectly well, it would 1616.
he impossible for the French government to grant. The
ambassador returned, aft<T having served the purpose for
which he was sent. In the eyes of the world it seemed
a> if it was with the French court that the blame of
breaking oil' the marriage really lay.*

All through the spring of 1616, the Courts of London Jamea's
and Madrid were fencing with one another on a point of
considerable importance. Before James would consent to
discuss the terms of the marriage contract, he wished to
have some assurance that the Pope would grant the dis-
pensation, if reasonable concessions were made. Philip,
who knew that it was perfectly hopeless to expect the
Pope to promise anything of the kind, answered that it
would be an insult to His Holiness to ask him to consent
to articles which he had never seen. At last James,
finding that on this point the Spaniards were immoveable,
relinquished his demands, f

It is true that before Digby left Spain he had obtained
from Lerma some modification of the original articles.
The stipulation that the children should be baptized
Catholics was withdrawn. The condition that the ser-
vants should be exclusively Catholics was exchanged for
an engagement that they should be nominated by the
King of Spain. The question of the education of the
children, and the question of the boon to be granted to
the English Catholics, were allowed to drop out of sight
for the present.^ But the changes were greater in ap-
pe;ir;mce than in reality, as James was well aware that
though he was not called upon to express an immediate
opinion on these last subjects, the whole of the religious
difficulty would come up again for solution before the

*Sarmient<.to iM.ilipIIL,- : B "s MSS. Est 2595. I have

-ivt-n an iici-i.init <>( tlii- cml.assy in my former work (Hist, of England,
H;n:r ]<;H;, \\. ±t^ . },ut it \\a> nut till my visit to Simancas that I became
aware ho\v i-iUM].l.-t«-lv the «-inl>;i>sy was a nu-iv sham.

f Frunri.M-.. fa JeMft, i:i ; Sanniento to Philip 111., Max

-Wss. KM.

I Tin- artii-li-s aiv aiimii;_'<t thr Si | '// ; and aiv, with a

vrrl-al ilillnvnro, the same as the twenty articles in Prvnm-'> //,.''•/•
ll'nr!

36 SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

final arrangements were made. Even now, therefore, he
was not without occasional hesitation. One day he
told Sarmiento that there were "terrible things in tin-
articles," and suggested that ^t would be well if tln-y
could be reconsidered in England before a special aml>a<-
sador was sent to discuss them at Madrid. This was not
what Sarmiento wanted. He had no wish to be brought
into personal collision with James on questions of detail,
and with a few well chosen sentences about the impro-
priety of asking the lady's representative to argue the
conditions of the marriage treaty, he quietly set the
whole scheme aside. In giving an account to his master
of this conversation, he expressed his opinion that James
was desirous of reaping the political advantages of the
alliance, but that he would prove to be unwilling to
make the required concessions to the Catholics.* Yet,
whatever his future prospects might be, Sarmiento knew
that, for the present at least, James was in his net. It
would not be long before the negotiations were formally
opened at Madrid.

Plans of In these hours of hesitation, which had preceded the
s^ridT fo^ decision, Winwood and the anti-Spanish party had
faction. perceived their opportunity. Unable to take that middle
course which leads to fortune, James had been ready to
atone for his untimely concessions to one faction, by still
more untimely concessions to the other. In their horror
at the unutterable shame to which their master was
dragging the English nation, it is not strange that Win-
wood and his friends turned their eyes upon the man who
still survived as the foremost relic of the Elizabethan
age.

That age, indeed, had not been altogether of pure gold.
Side by side with its hardy daring, and its chivalrous de-
votion, were to be found its low intrigue, and its disregard
of moral restraint. The social and religious system of
the fifteenth century had fallen to the ground. The
social and r« ligious system of the 'seventeenth century
was not yet in being. The men who had served

* Francisco de Jesus, 15; Minute of Sarmiento's despatches,
;.t. y ; Simantas MS8. Est 2850, 2518.

HIS EARLY LIFE. 37

beth bad, indeed, for tbe most part, tbe root of tbe C**- L
matter iii tbeni. Their imaginations were fixed on nigh 1616-
and noble objects. But it was reserved for another gene-
ration to define, more strictly tban they had been able to
do, the boundary between right and wrong ; and to form
those habits of duty which stand like a wall of rock
against temptation, when the unaided heroism of the in-
dividual man would resist in vain.

Of this age, of its faults and vices, as well as of its 159i-
heroism, Sir Walter Raleigh was the most complete re-

- utative. There had been a time when men had
looked to him for counsel, and they had seldom looked in
vain. He had been the Ulysses of a time prolific in
heroes. His exploits had been achieved in many climes
and under every possible variety of circumstanc &
Amongst the bogs of Ireland, and under the walls of
Cadiz ; where the surf of the Atlantic dashes against the
rocks of the Western Isles ; and where the mighty flood
of the Orinoco freshens the salt waves of the ocean, he
had made his name known as that of a man fertile in
expedients and undaunted in valour.

Unfortunately Baleigh's heroism was the result rather
of high instinct than of high principle. It was certain
that he would never betray to the enemy, like !Sir
William Stanley, a post committed to his charge, or
accept a pension from Spain, like Salisbury and North-
ampton. But he never could learn the lesson that there
are times when inaction, or even failure, is better than
the most glorious success. He loved to bask in the sun-
shine of a court', and he tempted men to forget the bit
which he had dealt upon the Spaniard, in the ever-present

:acle of the monopolies with which his pur>
filled, and of the broad lands which he had torn from the
feeMe uia-p of the Church. Nor could he ever under-
stand that it was better to lose sight of the object which
he had in view, than to secure it by falsehood and deceit.
In his later In was most especially exp his

- iiiiii: temptation. For it was then that he was railed
upo: ix injustice with equanimity, and to submit

patiently to sutlerin^, rather than to put forth his hand
to work which he was unable honestly : .uplish.

38 SCHEMES OF AMERICAN CONQUEST.

I. Long before Kaleigh ever saw the face of James, he

1594. had been attracted to those countries which were to wit-
His ness the last exploits of his life. In 1594, he was living

occupied at Sherborne in forced retirement, and was undergoing
with the the penalty which had been inflicted upon him by Eliz-
abeth for the wrong which he had done to her whom he
had at last made his wife. He there found leisure to
ponder once more over the narratives of the Spanish
discoveries in America, in which he had taken so deep
an interest. As he read, the fire of ambition lighted up
within him. He, too, longed to place his name on the roll
of the conquerors of the New World. But the fame for
which he was eager was very different from that with
which Cortes and Pizarro had been contented. His mind
had been stirred to the depths by the tales of demoniac
cruelty which were wafted across the Atlantic with every
ship which returned in safety from 'the perils of the
western seas. Over these tales he brooded till he con-
ceived the idea of another conquest, of a conquest to be
undertaken for the preservation, not for the destruction,
of the natives of the land. Might there not be other
empires upon the American continent as rich and as
powerful as those which had succumbed to a handful of
Spanish adventurers ? To them he would present him-
self in the name of the Great Queen, whose servant he
was, in order that he might save them from the oppressors
of their race. He would train them to the use of arms,
and to habits of military discipline. Spain had degraded
the Indians to the lot of bondsmen. England should
raise them to the dignity of civilised and intelligent free-
men. For such services, he doubted not, the grateful
Indians would willingly pay tribute to their benefactors
out of the superfluity of their wealth. England would
no longer be over-matched in the battle which she was
waging for her very existence. ' The golden stream which
was ceaselessly flowing into the Tagus and the Guadal-
quiver would, at least in part, be diverted to the Thames.
No longer would complaints be heard of the difficulty of
meeting the expenses of the war with the miserable
revenue which was all that Elizabeth could call her own.
The gold which had been used by Philip to corrupt and

THE GOLDEN EMPIRE. 39

enslave would, in English hands, be all powerful to free CH. I.
the nations of Europe from his detested yoke. 1594.

The tract of country in which Kaleigh hoped to try the El Dorado,
grand experiment, was situated somewhere above the head
of the delta of the Orinoco, at an unknown distance from
the southern bank of the river. Here, if credit was to be
given to the reports generally current, was to be found
a kingdom whose treasures were at least equal to those
which, at the cost of so much blood and misery, had been
wrested from the Incas of Peru. It was said that the
sovereign of this mighty empire had his abode in the
city of Manoa, upon the shores of the lake of Parima, a
vast inland sea to which the Caspian alone amongst
eastern waters was to be compared. The name of El
Dorado, the Golden, was in these narratives sometimes
applied to the king himself, who was said to appear on
festive occasions with his bare limbs sprinkled with gold
dust ; but more generally to the city in which he was
supposed to hold his court. According to a legend, which
was probably of Spanish origin, he was a descendant of
a younger brother of the Inca Atahualpa, who had him-
self been treacherously slaughtered by Pizarro. The
remainder of this story was perhaps of native growth,
though the seeds from which it sprung had in all proba-
bility been quickened into life by the eager inquisitiveness
of Europeans.

The lake of Parima has long since resolved itself into
the inundations which, at certain seasons of the year, the fable,
spread over the level plains to the enormous extent of
fourteen thousand square miles.* For the fable of the
Golden City no similar foundation has been discovered.
Gold is indeed found amongst the rocks and in the river
beds of Guiana, but it does not exist in sufficient quan-
tities to repay the expenses of working. It must not,
however, be forgotten, that to give rise to such a tale, it
was enough that the wealth described should have been
of importance in the eyes of the first narrators, however
little its value may have been when judged by the

* Raleigh's Discovery of Guiana. Ed. Schomburgk, Introd. 54. I shall
always quote from this edition.

40 THE FIRST GUIANA VOYAGE.

CH. I. European standard. Whatever gold was in existence
1594. would soon find its way into the hands of the most
powerful and warlike of the neighbouring tribes, and it
is certain that the riches which had thus been acquired
would speedily be exaggerated by all who had suffered
from the violence of its possessors. When once the idea
of great wealth had been accepted, the tale would quickly
spread from tribe to tribe, and would be repeated with
peculiar emphasis whenever a white man happened to be
present. It was too well known that these strange beings
from beyond the sea had come to search for gold, and the
lesson was soon learned that the surest way to purchase
their aid was to impress them with a belief in the un-
bounded wealth of the enemy.

It is easy for us to laugh at such a tale as this. In
firstly-8 Ealeigh's day it would have been difficult to show any
*"e.to satisfactory reason for rejecting it. Ealeigh, at all events,

Guiana. -. ,. -, ./ -, , J. 9 1KftK °T.

believed it ; and the spring ot 1595 saw mm once more
upon the seas, bound for that new world which had filled
so large a place in his thoughts, but which he had never
yet seen with his bodily eyes.*

From Berreo, the Spanish governor of Trinidad, whom
he had contrived to capture, Ealeigh learned something
of the Golden Land of which he was in search. The
Spaniard, too, had joined in the quest, and had even
formed a settlement, named San Thome, not far from
the spot where the Coroni discharges its waters into the
Orinoco, which he had hoped to make the basis of his
future operations. But it was not long before the presence
of Spaniards produced its usual consequences. The Indians
were goaded into resistance by the cruelty of their oppres-
sors, and Berreo's little band found the post no longer
tenable. Berreo had accordingly been compelled to retire
to Trinidad, where he was awaiting reinforcements from
Spain at the time when Ealeigh appeared upon the coast.
The only Spanish force left on the Orinoco was a small
garrison occupying a village belonging to a chief named
Carapana ; but, as this place was situated below the head
of the delta, on the eastern branch of the river, Ealeigh

* It will be seen from this that I do not admit Mr. St. John's argument
in favour of an earlier voyage.

RALEIGH ON THE ORINOCO. 41

would find no difficulty in making his way unobserved CH. I.
up the western channel. 1594.

Hostile attacks, however, were not the only danger to The ascent
be encountered. For two hundred and fifty miles, a
distance which was magnified into four hundred by the
imagination of the weary rowers, Raleigh and his com-
panions struggled in open boats against the mighty
stream which was sweeping past them to the sea. The
unwholesome food which they carried with them was
barely sufficient in quantity to support their exhausted
frames. Day after day they were parched by the scorch-
ing sunbeams, and by night they were exposed to the
heavy dew. At last they arrived at Aromaia, a district
not far from Berreo's deserted settlement of San Thome.
The chief of the tribe by which that part of the country
was occupied had been put to death by Berreo's orders,
and his uncle and successor, Topiawari, was glad enough
to welcome in the English stranger an enemy of Spain.
The Indian told him all he knew, or thought he knew,
about the golden empire, and gave him guides to accom-
pany him amongst the neighbouring tribes. Raleigh, as
soon as he had left the friendly chief, ascended the stream
as far as the mouth of the Coroni, where he picked up
some stones in which fragments of gold were imbedded.
On his return, he held a long consultation with Topia-
wari. The Indian promised him the assistance of the
neighbouring tribes in his attack upon El Dorado, but
recommended him, on account of the lateness of the
season, to defer his enterprise till the following year.*

Raleigh, therefore, took leave of Topiawari, with a A gold
promise that he would soon be back again. A little
lower down the stream he was persuaded by his Indian out.
guide to leave the boats, and to strike off into a track
which ran along the foot of the hills at no great distance
from the southern bank of the river, and which led, as
the Indian assured him, to a mountain where stones of
the colour of gold were to be found. Raleigh accom-
panied him to the place, and saw the stones, but does
not seem to have thought them of any grea.t value. After

* Discovery of Guiana, 42 — 98.

42 THE GOLD MINE SHOWN TO KEYMIS.

GH. I. some further explorations, he returned to the boats, leaving
1595. Keymis, his faithful follower, who was a better walker
than himself, to accompany the Indian in a direction
parallel with the stream, so as to rejoin his comrades
lower down. In due course of time Keymis was taken
on board at the appointed place. At first he did not
speak of having seen anything remarkable. Afterwards
he remembered that, as he passed a certain spot, the guide
had made signs to him to follow him ; but that, supposing
that he merely wished to show him a waterfall, he had
refused to turn aside from the track. For the time, he
remembered the circumstance merely as an ordinary
incident of travel, and he little knew what an influence
that lonely spot amongst the hills was to exercise upon
the destinies of his master and of himself*

return?1'8 Raleigh's reception in England was not what he had
a right to expect. Elizabeth still looked coldly upon
him, and gave no sign of readiness to forward the enter-
prise upon which he had set his heart. Sober men, who
would have given him an enthusiastic welcome if he had
sailed into Plymouth Sound followed by a long train of
Spanish prizes, shook their heads dubiously when they
saw that he had returned empty handed, and came to
the conclusion that the story of the golden empire was
a mere fabrication, as baseless as the wonderful tales
about the armies composed of female warriors, or about
the men with heads beneath their shoulders which Raleigh
had found floating amongst the Indian tribes. Far more
galling were the charges which were circulated in secret
by his enemies. Some said that he had been hiding in
Cornwall, and had never crossed the Atlantic at all.
Others declared that he had gone as far as the coast of
Africa, and had there bought the pieces of gold which he
exhibited. After this, it was easy to say that his speci-
mens were not gold at all, but only pieces of some
glittering mineral of no use to any one.

tion^the Raleigh's reply to these calumnies was the publication

discovery of the whole history of the voyage from which he had

uaiia. jugj. returned. In other works he may have displayed

* Discovery of Guiana, 98.

RALEIGH'S RETURN.

higher genius, and in other achievements he may have
approached more nearly to success ; but whenever his
character is called in question, it is to this little book
that a hearing should first be given. To Raleigh, the
man of action, the discovery and conquest of Guiana was
what the New Atlantis was to Bacoft, the man of thought.
It shows not so much what he was as what he would
have been.* A great idea had taken possession of him,
and, in order to carry it out, he had spurned every ordi-
nary means of enriching himself. It was an idea which
was to haunt him through good fortune and through evil
fortune, till it brought him to his grave. He was now
looking forward to returning to Guiana under the Queen's
authority, that he might establish amongst those simple
tribes the empire of which he hoped to be the founder.

If Raleigh could have contented himself with merely
literary success, the reception which was accorded to his
book would have been sufficient to gladden his heart.
In two or three years it went through at least two editions
in England, at a time when second editions were far rarer
than they are at present. It was not long before it was
translated into almost every language of cultivated Europe.
From the banks of the Clyde to the banks of the Danube,
men were able to amuse themselves in the winter evenings
with the stories about the strange peoples who lived on
the shores of the Orinoco ; and opened their eyes in
wonder as they read of the Amazonian warriors, of the
men who scarcely bore a human shape, and, above all, of
the golden monarch of the golden city beside the lake of
Parima. But, as far as any practical result was con-
cerned, the book fell flat upon the world. Amongst the
thousands who amused themselves over its pages, it was
difficult to find one who would make any sacrifice,
however slight, to help on the realisation of Raleigh's
dream.t

Still, though the nation and the Queen looked coldly Th1596'
on, there were a few who were ready to trust him once ditUmTo

Cadiz.

* " A man's ideal," says Mr. Spedding, " though not necessarily a descrip-
tion of what he is, is almost always a description of what he would be."
Preface to the New Atlantis, Bacon's JVorks, iii. 122.

f Discovery of Guiana, Introd. 55.

44 KEYMISS VOYAGE.

CH. I. more. The aged Burgliley gave him 501. towards the
1596. expenses of another voyage, and Sir Eobert Cecil risked a
new ship, the mere hull of which cost SOOl But Ealeigh
could not leave England. The Queen needed his services
nearer home. He had tried in vain to interest her in
Guiana. Whilst Kaleigh was thinking of El Dorado,
Elizabeth was thinking of the great Spanish fleet lying
in Cadiz harbour. In obedience to her, he turned aside
to Cadiz, from whence he returned after having achieved,
in co-operation with the sailors of the Dutch Eepublic,
the most glorious victory which had for centuries been
won by English arms upon the Continent.

Voyage of But if Ealeigh could not go, at least he could send
Keymis to Keymis. His faithful follower sailed in the February
after his return.' In the Essequibo he heard fresh rumours
of Manoa, and was told of a new route by which it might
be approached ; but the news from the Orinoco was dis-
heartening. The rivalry which always existed between
the Spanish governors of the various towns along the
coast had broken out into a flame. Berreo had been
assaulted by the combined forces of his countrymen from
Cumana and Margarita. He had been overmatched, and
had fled up the river towards his old settlement on the
Coroni. Even there he had been in danger, but had
been relieved by the news of the arrival of the long-
expected reinforcements from Spain. As, however, there
was likely to be some little delay before the Spanish ves-
sels made their way up the Orinoco, Keymis determined
to profit by the opportunity, and to revisit the spot at the
mouth of the Coroni, where the specimens of ore had
been picked up the year before. On his arrival he found
that Topiawari was dead, and that the friendly Indians
had been won over by the Spaniards, or had been terri-
fied into submission. All attempts to reach the Coroni
were in vain, as Berreo had posted his handful of men in
a position which could not be attacked with any prospect
of success.

He^agam Keymis, therefore, dropped down the river in search of
the gold- the Indian guide who had accompanied him in the pre-
. ceding year, and who had pointed out, as he supposed, a
spot from which a view of a waterfall was to be obtained.

THE MINE AGAIN SHOWN TO HIM. 45

The man was not to be found, and inquiry soon con- _^H- L
vinced Keymis that the natives were completely cowed, 1596-
and could not be expected to join in an attack upon their
conquerors. But before he left the district his Indian pilot
directed his attention to the very spot on the mountain's
side where he imagined the waterfall to be. On inquiry,
he learned to his astonishment that he had misunderstood
the signs of his last year's companion, and that he had
missed the opportunity of visiting what all the natives
present concurred in describing as a gold mine of exceed-
ing richness. He did not consider himself justified in
making the attempt with the small force at his disposal ;
but he marked the spot, and he kept the information
which he had acquired for Raleigh's use.*

In the midst of the employments which were now Berry's
coming thickly upon him, Raleigh did not forget his dar- voyage<
ling scheme. He had not been many weeks in England,
after his return from Cadiz, before 'he commenced fitting
out another vessel which he dispatched to Guiana under
the command of Berry. Berry struck the coast at a point
further to the east than Keymis had done. He seems to
have been deterred, by the representation of the natives,
from proceeding farther than the mouth of the Oyapok,
and he returned without making any attempt to penetrate
to El Dorado.j

Here, for a time, Raleigh's active participation in the
Guiana voyages ceased. Leigh and Harcourt, who tionsof
attempted colonisation early in the reign of James, con-
fined their attention to the more easterly part of the coast
where there were no Spaniards to interfere with them ;
and, in the charter by which James gave his authority to
their proceedings, the western boundary of their intended
settlement was fixed at the Essequibo.J But if Raleigh
sent no more vessels to the Orinoco, he did not forget the
Indians who had received him with so hearty a welcome,
and whenever he heard of a ship bound for Guiana, he
took care to charge the commander with kindly messages
for his old friends.

* Keymis. A Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana.

f Hakluyt, iii. 692.

J Grant, Aug. 28, 1603. S. 1\ Grant Book, 126.

46

RALEIGH IN THE TO WEB.

Raleigh's
imprison-
ment.

Nor was the great white chief forgotten in the West.
Leigh's companions had to tell how an Indian had come
all the way from the Orinoco to inquire after Baleigh,
and to know when his promise to return was likely to be
fulfilled. Harcourt reported that Leonard, who had been
with Raleigh in England, bore him great affection, and
that he loved the English nation with all his heart.''5"

Evil days came upon Raleigh.")" As he lay in the Tower
he turned again, with almost desperate hope, to the
Western continent. The report which Keymis had
brought of the mine which had been pointed out to him
by the Indian took up an abiding place in his imagina-
tion. No doubt he had not forgotten his loftier schemes,
but he knew well that, to James, gold was a topic which

* Purchas, iv. 1264, 1270.

f I have seen many of Aremberg's despatches at Simancas, but the fol-
lowing passages are the only ones in which the names of Kaleigh and
Cobham occur : —

" A.yer a la tarde, despues de aver despachado mis cartas de 25 desto, me
vino a buscar un amigo, el qual me dixo que se murmurava de alguna con-
spiracion contra la persona del Rey por algunos Sen ores Yngleses, pero aun
no me supo dezir la verdadera rayz, bien que havian ellos depositado algunos
aqui (que quiere dezir puesto en manos de algunos Senores en guarda)
algunos Senores, cuyos nombres son Milort Drak," i. e., Brooke, " Ser Water
Rale, hermano menor de Milor Cobham, que le fueron a sacar de su casa,
cosa que tira a mayor. Despues otro me ha confirmado lo mismo, y que son
hasta diez personas, quiriendo dezir que havian determinado de tomar al
Rey> J prendelle yendo a caza, llevalle presso a un Castillo para hazelle
trocar la manera de governar, y quitar algunos del consejo, y entre otros
Cecil que a esta ora es tan enemigo de Ser Water Rale, y hombre de grande
opinion aqui, como havia sido otra vez amigo en tiempo de la Reyna ....
Todas estas cosas espero que no serviran poco a V. Alteza, porque [el Rey]
conoscera por ello lo que son rebeldes, y quanto le conviene tener amigos
fundados, y de no creer los que le aconsejan de fomentar tal gente y aban-
donar los verdaderos amigos."— Aremberg to the Archduke Albert, July ^.

" Por nuevas me ha dicho que anteayer fue presto uno llamado Griffin
Marques, que era el principal de una conspiracion hecha contra el Rey
moderno de Inglaterra, de la qual eran dos clerigos . . . Pareceme que son
dos conspiracies differentes, esta y la de Cobham, pero que comunicavan
juntos, segun el dicho Idonoit [?] me ha dicho ; y que todos dos proceden
de discontento que ellos dizen tener del Rey, por no havellos guardado
lo que les habe prometido." Aremberg to the Archduke Albert, July 28>
1603. These extracts seem to leave no reasonable doubt that Aremberggwas
not cognizant of any plot against James, though he might have had conver-
ations with Cobham on the subject of money to be given for procuring the
?T^Ce<> T;^only **?>?% evidence> on the other hand, is Beaumont's account
(Kings MSS. 124, fol. 577 b) of Cobham's deposition, and his direct state-
ment that he knew that the king had two compromising letters of Arem-
berg s in his hands. Unfortunately I was not able to discover any despatch
of Aremberg's written after the Winchester trial.

HIS SCHEMES ABOUT GUIANA. 47

never came amiss, and he saw in the secret of which he CH- L
believed himself to be possessed, the sure means of reco- 1603.
vering the favour which he had lost.

Ealeigh accordingly appealed vehemently for help to His wish
all whom he could induce to listen to his schemes. Had- *°
dington was the first whom he called to his assistance ;*
but Haddington was unable or unwilling to do anything
for him. Salisbury,")" to whom he next betook himself, had
perhaps no wish to help in setting such a rival at liberty,
and had himself lost too much money in Guiana voyages
to be very sanguine of the result. It was not till after the
death of the Lord Treasurer); that Raleigh again attempted
to seize the opportunity afforded by James's resentment
at the rejection of his offer for the hand of the Infanta, to send
Writing to the Lords of the Council, he offered to fit out Keymis*
two vessels at his own expense. He would himself
remain as a hostage in the Tower. The expedition should
be entrusted to Keymis. If Keymis brought back less
than half a ton of gold, he would be content to remain a
prisoner for life ; if, on the other hand, he brought more,
he was immediately to be set at liberty. The Spaniards
were not to be attacked " except themselves shall begin
the war."

The proposal thus made was rejected. It may be that His offer
James was too cautious to consent to an undertaking rejec1
which would have involved a risk of war with Spain. It
may be that the influence of Somerset was thrown into
the balance against him. But at last a gleam of hope
appeared : rumours were abroad that Somerset's influ-
ence was on the wane. An appeal to Winwood was sure
to go straight to the heart of that unbending hater of
Spain, and Villiers, now in the hands of the enemies of
Somerset and the Spanish faction, willingly gave ear to
the pleadings of the captive. §

* Raleigh to Haddington, 1610 ; Edwards' Life of Raleigh, ii. 392.

f Raleigh to Winwood, 1615 ; Ibid. ii. 339.

t Raleigh to the Lords of the Council, 1612 ; Edwards, ii. 337. I accept
Mr. Edwards' argument in favour of this date, to which the circumstances
noticed above give additional force.

§ In the Observations on Sanderson's History, we are told that " Sir
William St. John and Sir Edward Villiers procured Sir W. Raleigh's liberty
and had 1500Z. for their labour, and for 700/. more offered him his full
pardon and liberty not to go his voyage, if he pleased." This story has been

48 LIBERATION OF RALEIGH.

CH. I. -pile voices of Winwood and Villiers were not raised in
1616. vain> The Queen, too, who in her jealousy of Somerset's
influence, had shifted round to the side of those who
viewed a Spanish policy with suspicion, threw her weight
into the scale of the new favourite. On the 19th of
March* a warrant was issued to the Lieutenant of the
Tower, authorising him to permit Ealeigh to go abroad in
the company of a keeper to make preparations for his
voyage. At last, therefore, after a confinement of little
less than thirteen years, he stepped forth from his prison,
with the sentence of death still hanging over his head.

Against his liberation it is impossible to say a word ;
but that James should have thought of sending him
across the ocean to Guiana at a time when he was
secretly assuring Sarmiento of his intention to abide by
Somerset's policy of the Spanish alliance, is truly mar-
vellous. To choose with Bacon or with Digby a broad
ground of policy which would have raised him above the
contending factions was beyond his capacity. But to
intrigue with Sarmiento for the ducats of the Spanish
princess was a blunder of which he did not himself recog-
nise the full import. It always cost him much to turn a
deaf ear to his favourites and his courtiers, and if he
could not give up the portion of the Spanish bride in defer-
ence to the cries which sounded daily in his ears, he
could at least throw a sop to Winwood and Abbot,
by giving his consent to a voyage which might certainly

generally adopted by subsequent writers, some of whom speak of Sir W. St.
John as nearly connected in some way with Villiers' family, probably by con-
fusing him with Sir Oliver St. John. From Howel's letter to C. Raleigh it
appears that the original story was " that Sir W. St. John made an overture
to him of procuring his pardon for 1500Z.," which is a very different thing ;
"but whether he could have effected it," the writer proceeds, " I doubt a little,
when he had come, to negotiate really." Howel, at least, did not think the
money had been paid, and I suspect the story originated from some loose
talk. In the political situation, no bribery was necessary to gain the ear of
Villiers. Sir W. St. John appears to have 'been acting cordially in Raleigh's
interest. Sherburn to Carleton, March 23 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, March
27, 1616 ; S. P. -Dom, Ixxvi. 100, 111.

* The letter of the Privy Council of March 19, is printed by Mr. Edwards
(Life of Raleigh, i. 563), who has obligingly communicated to me the warrant
of the same date from the Losely MSS. He has also placed in my hands the
warrant upon which he had founded his statement that Raleigh's release had
taken place two months previously. It appears, however, that the true date
of this is Jan. 30, 1617, and it will be referred to in the proper place.

THE GUIANA VOYAGE. 49

lead to mischief, but of which he at least would not
have to bear the responsibility. Everybody would thus
be satisfied. Suffolk and Lake would know that the
marriage treaty was in progress. Winwood would know
that a match had been lighted which might possibly
blow the whole edifice of the Spanish treaty into the air.

As soon as it was known that Raleigh was bound for sarmien-
the Orinoco a fierce controversy arose, the echoes of which ^ pro-
are still sounding in our ears. Sarmiento at once pro-
tested against the voyage. The whole of Guiana, he said
belonged to his master, and besides that, he did not
believe that Raleigh had any intention of going to Guiana
at all. When he was once across the Atlantic, he would
turn pirate, and the Mexican fleet or the Spanish towns
on the coast would fall a prey to his rapacity. If he was
merely going in search of a mine, what need was there of
such extensive preparations ? The King of Spain would
gladly furnish him with an escort to conduct him in
safety to any spot which he might choose to name, and
would finally bring him back to England with all the
gold and silver that he could find. As might have been
expected, Raleigh declined this obliging offer.* He stoutly Raleigh's
declared that he had no intention of turning pirate. The
mine was no fiction : it was to be found not far from the
banks of the Orinoco. A visit to it would not be attended
with the slightest infringement of the rights of the King
of Spain ; for it " did not belong to his Majesty, but was
at a great distance from his territories."t

No doubt such language was not incompatible with the
assertion, made by Raleigh after his return, that all
Guiana belonged to the King of England by virtue of the
cession made by the natives in 1595 ; but as it is impos-
sible to find a trace of any such theory in his language
before he set out, or of the resistance which it would

* Raleigh's Apology.

f He said " que el con sus deudos y amigos haria una armada y iria a la
Guiana junto al Rio Arenoco, donde dezia que avia una mina de oro que
no se avia descubierto por nadie, ni era de su Majestad, antes muy distant e
de tierras suyas." — Minutes of Sarmiento's Despatch, ^ — * Simancas
MSS. Est. 2850.

VOL. I. E

50 SOVEREIGNTY IN AMERICA.

CH. I. inevitably have provoked, it is well to examine whether

1616. his words can be justified by other considerations.

Tenure by The fact was that James, when left to a sober consi-

occupa- ' deration of the matter, was not likely to accept either

the extreme view that all Guiana belonged to England,

or the extreme view that all America belonged to Spain.

For he had always maintained consistently that occupancy

alone gave dominion in America, and he had never, for

an instant, acknowledged the claim put forward by Spain

to exclusive sovereignty in the Indies. He had, therefore,

without difficulty, granted charters to the colonists of

Virginia, and had given permission for the formation of

an English settlement in that part of Guiana which lies

to the eastward of the Essequibo.

But it was one thing to assert a right to colonise un-
occupied land ; it was another thing to decide what land
was really unoccupied. What it was that constituted
occupancy was the very question upon which no two
Governments were agreed, and upon which the opinion
of every Government varied * in proportion as it expected
to profit by a strict or a lax interpretation of certain rules
of the old Eoman law, that is to say, of rules which had
been sensible enough, as long as they were applied to the
case of a man who picked up a piece of gold in a forest,
but which were utterly inapplicable to the acquisition of
large tracts of territory.")" If James did not choose to
adopt the old maritime theory of "no peace beyond the
line," or to base his claim to Guiana on the cession by
the Indians, in 1595, it was surely his duty to come to
some resolution on this knotty point. If the occupancy
of a settlement made the ground which it covered the
property of the colonists, how far did their rights extend ?
Was it to a distance of three miles, or of thirty, or of
three hundred? The details of the expedition might
safely be left to the commander, but it was the business

* Thus James, who had authorised the Essequibo settlement, remon-
strated with the Dutch for establishing a factory at the mouth of the
Hudson, though, at the time, there were no English nearer than James-
town.

f Maine's Ancient Law, 248/

THE QUESTION LEFT OPEN. 51

of the Government to lay down the principles on which CH. !•
he would be judged on his return.* 1616.

But whatever difficulty there may have been in deter- inexpedi-
mining the question of right, there ought not to have thevoyage.
been the slightest doubt that, on the simple ground of
expediency, it was James's duty to set his face decidedly
against the projected expedition. Since Kaleigh's first
visit to Guiana, an event had occurred affecting the
whole colonial policy of England. In 1595, the arrogant
pretensions of Spain to dominion over the vast regions
which stretched from the Straits of Magellan to the
Arctic Seas had not been overthrown. In combating
this preposterous theory, it was a matter of indifference
whether the right of England to a share in the Western
Continent were asserted on the banks of the Orinoco or
on the banks of the St. Lawrence. But, in 1616, the
claim of Spain had practically broken down. Virginia
had been colonised. It had, therefore, become the duty
of an English statesman to foster the seed which had
been nurtured in the face of every obstacle, rather than
to sprinkle broadcast over the two Continents an in-
definite number of colonies, all of them too weak to
stand without incessant aid from the mother country.
For whatever temptation might be lurking in the promise
of the golden mine, it was certain that the farther the
two nations could be kept apart, the better it would be
for both of them.

Such considerations, however, were far from the mind ^°™mi1^e"n
of James. As usual, he was only looking about for the to Raleigh,
easiest way out of the difficulty. On the one hand, Sar-
miento protested that a war with Spain would be the
inevitable result of the voyage. On the other hand, the
friends of Ealeigh at Court — and they were neither few
nor without influence — protested no less loudly that it
would be folly to throw away such an opportunity of
benefiting the nation and filling the Exchequer. James
was unwilling either to take the trouble of forming an

* In fact, I suppose, sovereignty over new colonial territory can only rest
upon the tacit or expressed consent of colonising nations. Native cession is
n mere farce : and, if actual occupation is ifecessary, there is nothing to pre-
vent the French from hoisting their flag at almost any spot in Northern
Australia.

E 2

52 CONDITIONS OF THE VOYAGE.

CH. I. opinion for himself, or to give offence by deciding the

1616. question one way or the other. He was a man, as a

keen observer afterwards remarked, " very quick-sighted

in discerning difficulties, and very slow in mastering

them, and untying the knots which he had made/'* He

was, therefore, only confirmed in his original resolution.

He would throw the whole responsibility on Raleigh ;

and Ealeigh had plainly stated that he had no intention

of injuring a single Spaniard in the Indies. Accordingly,

on the 26th of August, James issued a commission to

Raleigh, by which he gave him authority to take com-

mand of the expedition, from which the ordinary words

implying the royal grace and favour had been sedulously

erased,")" and in which he was expressly stated to be

" under the peril of the law," and it was as such that he

was authorised to visit those territories only which were

not under the dominion of any Christian prince.^: The

meaning of this was plain. James would wash his hands

of the whole matter. Raleigh had declared that the

mine of which he was in search was not within the

territories of Philip. If he had chosen to tell a lie, let

him take the consequences. That there might be no

mistake, he was called upon to give security that he

would not hart any subjects of the King of Spain, and

was plainly given to understand that, if these orders

were transgressed, he would pay the penalty with his

head.§

laid h Such was the miserable compact by which Raleigh and
and James James attempted to close their eves to the future. Yet,

at fault.

* Clarendon, ed. 1849, i. 16.

t Edwards, i. 591.

£ Rymer's Fcedera, xvi. 789.

§ " Escrive el Conde de Gondomar que aquel Key le avia asegurado que
no saldria Gualtero sin dar seguridad de que no haria dano a ningun vasallo
de su Magestad."— Minutes of Sarmiento's despatch, Oct. ^, 1616. Simancas
MS& Est. 2850. Four months later Winwood assured the Venetian ambas-
sador "che era ferma mente del R& che il Rale andasse il suo viaggio, nel
quale, se avesse contravenuto alle sue instruttioni che li sono stati dati, aveva
la testa con che pagharebbe la disubbidienza."— Lionello to the Doge,

, Winwood's name is important, as we can be sure that Raleigh knew
what he knew, and with this fajls to the ground the whole fabric of the
theory that Raleigh sailed in ignorance that an attack on Spaniards would
bring him to the scaffold.

CHANCES OF AVOIDING A COLLISION. 53

if both were to blame, it is upon the memory of James CH- L
that the heaviest load has weighed. He had refused, in 1616>
gross dereliction of duty, to investigate the conditions
under which the voyage was to be made. He would not
touch that burden with his little finger. For him there
was to be everything to gain. For Ealeigh there was to
be everything to lose.

If Ealeigh 's fault, too, was great, so was his tempta-
tion. Behind him was the gloomy monotony of his
prison-house. Before him was the free life upon the
seas, the joys of active enterprise, the chance of riches
and glory. Would not success cover all faults that he
might commit ?

It can hardly be maintained that Ealeigh did not look
forward to a combat with the Spaniards as at least a very
probable contingency. But it is not necessary to suppose
that he regarded it as a certainty. For he had every
reason to believe that no Spanish settlement would be
reached at any point lower than the mouth of the Coroni,
and as the mine which had been pointed out to Keymis
was situated some miles before the junction of the rivers
was reached, he had no difficulty in coming to the con-
clusion that it would be possible to reach the spot with-
out a conflict with the Spaniards. For it might well
happen that the settlers at San Thome would hear nothing
of his arrival for some little time ; and, even if they did,
they would hardly be rash enough to make an unprovoked
attack upon superior numbers. He would thus be enabled
to complete his search without molestation, though it was
unlikely that he would be allowed to enter upon any
permanent operations. So much, no doubt, he was willing
to leave to chance.*

* It is curious that none of Raleigh's biographers have seen the importance
of fixing the locality of the mine. There can be no doubt that it was the
same which had been pointed out to Keymis, in 1595, by the Indian guide,
and not the place at the mouth of the Coroni where Raleigh picked up spe-
cimens. It is of the former that Keymis speaks, on Indian authority, as being
" of all others, the richest and most plentiful." Every indication points to
the mine for which Raleigh was looking as being some way below the junction
of the rivers. Berreo's town he describes as being two leagues to the west-
ward of, i. e., above the mine (Raleigh to Keymis ; Cayley ii. 125). In
another place he says the mine is just past the mountain of Aio, which will
be found on Sir R. Schomburgk's map some way below the junction. It

54 POSITION OF THE MINE.

CH-T- All this time Kaleigh's preparations were going bravely
1616. on. He had called in the 8000Z. which had been lying

is perhaps worth noticing that in a chart preserved at Simancas, which
had once belonged to Raleigh, the only object on land marked is a mountain
about half way between the head of the Delta and the mouth of the
Coroni. It is evidently put in so as to catch the eye, and I have little
doubt that it was inserted in order to direct the attention of those who were
in the secret to the position of the mine. Wilson, too, in his history, speaks
of the mine as being known only to Keymis : and Howe, in his continua-
tion of Stowe, says that Raleigh's mine was one " which himself and one
Captain Keymis had discovered by the information of the Indians." More
conclusive still is the reference in News of Sir Walter Raleigh, published
in 1618, to " a wonderful great mine " pointed out by Putijma, the Indian
guide, who accompanied Keymis in his walk in 1595.

Another most important question relates to the position of San Thome.
It is acknowledged by all that it was founded in 1591 or 1592, at the mouth of
the Coroni, (Fray Simon, Setima Noticia, x. 1.), that it had been abandoned
in 1595, and that in 1618 it was found considerably lower down the stream,
at the spot now known as Guayana Vieja ; but it seems to have been taken
for granted that the removal took place either at Berreo's return in 1595,
after Raleigh left the river, or, at all events, early enough for the fact
to have been known in England in 1616 ; yet it is evident from Keymis's
narrative of his voyage in 1596, that, at that time, the Spanish settlement
had returned to its old position near the mouth of the Coroni. As to the
time of the change no help is to be got from Fray Simon, who, as Sir R.
Schomburgk pointed out, fancied that the town was at the mouth of the
Coroni, even in 1618, though his own narrative contradicts the supposition.
But the whole of the evidence upon Raleigh's voyage is unintelligible unless
it is admitted that he knew nothing of the change of site when he sailed
from England in 1617. In a letter written after his return (Raleigh to the
King, Sept. 24, 1618. Edwards, ii. 368), he speaks of the town as " newly
set up within three miles of the mine." More conclusive is the letter to
Keymis, written before the boats started for the ascent of the river, " I do
therefore," writes Raleigh, " advise you to suffer the captains and the compa-
nies of the English to pass up to the westward of the mountain of Aio, from
whence you have less" [not " no less" as usually printed], "than three miles
to the mine, and to lodge and encamp between the Spanish town and you, if
there be any town near it." If Raleigh had known of the existence of the town
where Keymis found it, that is to say, before the mine was reached, he could
not possibly have used this language. Besides the order which he gave to
Keymis to throw out a covering party to protect the workers from the
Spaniards presupposes that he expected them to appear from the west. The
same idea, too, appears in his fear lest the approach of the boats as they
passed up the river should be betrayed by an Indian lurking on the banks.
If the boats had to pass the town the inhabitants would have seen them with
their own eyes. So, too, a passage in a letter, written in England in
February, 1618, shows that when Raleigh sailed there was no general belief
that he would find the Orinoco guarded by Spaniards. "Captain Peter
Alley," says the writer, " a two days since arrived from Guiana. He left
Sir Walter anchored (I suppose) in his wished haven, from whence advanc-
ing higher, to his greater wonder, he found the Spaniards all alongst the
river."— Lovelace to Carleton, Feb. 10, 1616. S. P. Dom. xcvi. 10.

I believe, therefore, that Raleigh expected to find the mine at a little dis-
tance from the right bank of the river, and that he had no reason to believe
that (here was any Spanish settlement short of a spot at the mouth of the
Coroni, several miles farther on.

In the King's declaration, written by Bacon, it is said that the mine was

EQUIPMENT OF THE FLEET. 55

at interest ever since he had received it as part of the CH- L
compensation for the Sherborne estate. Lady Raleigh 1616-
had raised 2500Z. by the sale of some lands at Mitcham. ?aS's

v T)rCJJc*rdi*

50001. more were brought together by various expedients, tions.
and 15,000/. were contributed by Raleigh's friends, who
looked upon his enterprise much as men at the present
day would regard a promising but rather hazardous
investment.*

As far as the shipping was concerned, no obstacles
were to be apprehended. The splendid new vessel in
which Raleigh was himself to sail, and which was ap-
propriately named the Destiny, was rapidly approach-
ing completion. But it soon appeared that there would
be a difficulty in manning the fleet with suitable crews.
The mariners who had followed Raleigh to victory in
former days hung back. It was known that he was no
longer in favour with the King, and it was, perhaps, sus-
pected that there was little to be gained in following a
commander who was liable at any moment to be hurried
to the scaffold. He was obliged to look on with sorrow
whilst his ships were manned with crews which, if they
were not, as he afterwards called them in the bitterness
of his heart, "the scum of men/' were far inferior to
those gallant bands which had gathered round him in
the days of his prosperity.!

And so, chafing as he was under the treatment which His dissat-
he was receiving, rash thoughts took possession of his lsfactlon-
mind. Even if he had ever intended to conform strictly

moveable, for that which was said to be three miles short of San Thome,
was afterwards sought beyond it. Bacon saw the discrepancy, but did not,
I think, hit upon the right explanation. It was the town that was move-
abk', not the mine.

Since this note was written Mr. Edwards has argued that the change of
site must have been more recent than is generally supposed ; but he thinks
that " the Englishmen must needs have heard" of the removal, though " their
knowledge of the altered geography of the place was very slight." — Life of
Ralegh, i. 619. It seems to me that the arguments adduced above lead to a
still stronger conclusion.

f The seven hundred crowns paid by the King towards the building of
the Destiny was simply the statutable bounty on ship building, and is not
to be taken as a mark of special favour.

f For a discussion on the authenticity of the story of Bacon's alleged con-
versation with Raleigh, telling him that the commission was equal to a
pardon — see Napier, Sir W. Raleigh, 235. If it had really occurred, Raleigh
would surely have appealed to it in his Apology. Besides, both Bacon and
Raleigh knew perfectly well on what terms the voyage was undertaken.

56 SCHEME FOR ATTACKING THE MEXICO FLEET.

_J?1LL_ to his engagements, his head was now running upon
n;i6. wilder fancies. It might be, no doubt, that if he could
elude the vigilance of the Spaniards, he might succeed,
without shedding blood, in bringing back evidence of the
existence of the mine, and might thus overpower James's
aversion to his wider schemes of colonisation and conquest.
But he knew perfectly well that the chances were terribly
against him, and that if a single Spaniard lost his life in
the affray, nothing short of the most splendid success
would avail him to overcome the King's reluctance to be
dragged into a war of which he disapproved. The real
thoughts of the man began to ooze out in his conversa-
tion. One day, in talking with Bacon, he said some-
The thing about seizing the Mexican fleet. " But," replied
Mexico tke astonished Attorney-General, " that would be piracy."
" Oh no," was Raleigh's ready answer ; " did you ever
hear of men who are pirates for millions ? They who
aim at small things are pirates."* No doubt this may
have been said partly out of bravado, partly, perhaps, to
see how the notion would be received. But whatever
Bacon may have thought of the matter, Raleigh would
never have allowed that an attack upon a Spanish fleet
in the Indies was unlawful, in the sense in which it was
unlawful to sail into Lisbon or Dieppe with hostile intent
in time of peace. He had been educated in the school
of the Hawkins's and the Drakes ; and, if he had en-
gaged to sail under other conditions, the new principles
had never been accepted by him as having any weight
of their own. The Mexican fleet would probably carry
on board the value of two or three millions sterling in
solid gold and silver, f If he could bring but a tithe of
this into Plymouth Sound, would James be so very
anxious to repudiate the maxim of " no peace beyond
the line?"

• In a paper in the Gentleman's Magazine (April, 1858), Mr. Spedding
has shown that the conversation must have taken place before the voyage.
Mr. Jfidwarda has adopted the same opinion (i. 591) ; but places it before the
grant oi the commission. It is certainly more likely that he would then be

"PC? St0 C°nta?,t fith Bacon' but' on the other hand> ii; does not seem
probable that even Raleigh would have spoken in this rash wav as Ions as he
was hoping for a full pardon.

h The fleet of : 1618 the year in which Raleigh was in the Indies, brought
the value of 2,545,4542.— S. P. Spain.

SPAIN AND SAVOY. 57

Kaleigh and his friends must have felt that their CH- L
chance of bringing about a breach with Spain was even 1616.
less hopeful than it had been six months before. In the Progress
summer, whilst Raleigh's commission was still under dis- nance with
cussion, Hay's mission to Paris had been used to break off Spain,
the negotiation for the French alliance. It was, probably,
not generally known, that on the 1 7th of July the King
had taken Sarmiento by the hand, at a private audience,
and had assured him of his readiness to give all possible
satisfaction to Spain, in matters of religion ; or that Vil-
liers, turning round upon his old associates who had
borne him to power, had told the Spaniard that he
wished nothing so much as to see the marriage accom-
plished, and that he was ready to build his fortunes upon
the basis of the Spanish alliance.* But neither James nor
his favourite were distinguished for reticence, and it is
hardly likely that their sentiments would be long con-
cealed. It was, therefore, only natural that Raleigh
should be looking about for an opportunity of weaning the
King's mind from a policy which he regarded as at the same
time disastrous to his country, and ruinous to himself.

Before the year came to an end, that opportunity The war in
seemed to have arrived. In 1615, the war which had for Pledmont
some time been raging between Spain and the turbulent
Duke of Savoy, had been brought to an end by the treaty
of Asti. But though the government at Madrid did not
venture to question the obligations into which their re-
presentative at Milan had entered in their name, Philip
and his ministers -were deeply wounded by the necessity
of treating with so insignificant a potentate on a footing
of equality. The Marquis of Inojosa, by whom the
treaty had been signed, was recalled, and Pedro de To-
ledo, a hot-headed youth, was appointed to succeed him.
The new governor had no sooner arrived at Milan, than
he openly violated the agreement to which he was bound
by the acts of his predecessor. A mutual disarmament
had been expressly stipulated, but on various pretexts
Spanish troops were kept on foot in the Milanese, and

* Francisco de Jesus, 15.

58 SCARNAFISSI IN ENGLAND.

the Duke's demands for the execution of the treaty were
met with haughty insolence*. In the autumn of 1616,
hostilities had broken out afresh, and Charles Emmanuel
was looking to France and England for help.
Attitude In France the government was little disposed to render
French nml assistance. The Queen Mother and her favourite
govern- Concini leaned for support upon Spain. But the Protes-
tants and the warlike aristocracy of either creed were
ready to fly to his aid ; and the volunteers, who poured
over the Alps, were sufficient to enable him to make head
against his powerful adversary.

James At the same time that the Duke was receiving aid from

e

the French nobility, he despatched the Count of Scarna-
Savoy. fissi to England, to ask for his assistance. James, who
had the year before sent him 15,000/., out of his almost
empty exchequer,! and who, in spite of all that had
passed, had no wish to see the Spaniards over-running
the territories of their neighbours, was anxious to do
what he could to help him. If there was one thing more
than another upon which he prided himself, it was upon
his assumed position as the peace-maker of Europe. All at
once he grew cold in his effusive demonstrations of friend-
ship for Spain. It was rumoured that obstacles had arisen
in the way of the marriage treaty, and hopes were held out
to the Savoyard that a subsidy of 10,0002. a month would
be granted to his master. To Lionello, the Venetian am-
bassador, James went so far as to express his readiness to
join a league with Venice, Savoy, Holland, and the Ger-
man Protestants. He was under obligations, he said, to
assist the Duke, if the Spaniards refused to fulfil the con-
ditions of the treaty of Asti. He had applied to Sar-
miento to know what his master intended to do, and he
was now waiting for an answer. J Nor did James con-
fine himself to conversations with the Spanish ambas-
Mission of sador. Lord Eoos, the grandson of the Earl of Exeter,
}OS* had been already despatched on a special mission to Ma-

* Wake to Lake, Nov. |, 1612. 8. P. Savoy.
f Edmondes to Winwood, April 14, 1615. 8. P. France.
Lionello to the Doge, Dec. g, 1616, J^6,. 161 -. Venice MSS. Desp.

Ingli.

PROPOSED SEIZURE OF GENOA. 59

drid, ostensibly to gratify Philip on his recent marriages CH- L
of his children, but in reality to plead the cause of the 1616.
Duke of Savoy.*

With all that was passing in James's mind Raleigh was
doubtless well acquainted through his friend Win wood. Raleigh'
He did not lose a minute in seizing the chance thus pre-
sented to him. He knew well that if there was one hope
dearer than another to the heart of the Savoyard prince,
it was the hope of becoming master of Genoa. That
great city, once the not unworthy rival of Venice for the
commerce of the Mediterranean, had now become a
community of money-lenders, always ready to place its
wealth at the disposal of the needy government of Spain.
This very winter the bank of St. George had agreed to
advance to the Spanish government a sum equivalent to
more than a million pounds sterling f ; and there was
little doubt that a large part of this loan would be placed
at the disposal of the governor of Milan. Nor was it
only with her gold that Genoa gave support to Spain.
Her noble harbour was always ready to receive ids vessels,
and it was there, that, under cover of the neutrality of
the republic, the troops were disembarked which were
afterwards to be used against the Duke of Savoy.

Knowing these things, Ealeigh sent a message to Scar-
nafissi, suggesting that it would be well, if the consent of
James could be obtained, to make preparations to strike
a blow against Genoa. His own ships would be ready to
carry out the scheme, if his Majesty would add four ves-
sels from the royal- navy, and if they could be assisted by
others from Holland and France. He was so well in-
formed of the state of the defences of Genoa, that he
had little doubt of taking the city by surprise. If, how-
ever, this should fail, his forces would be sufficient to lay
siege to it with every prospect of success. J

Scarnafissi was delighted, and the proposal was at

* Cottington to Carleton, Nov. 8, 1616. 8. P. Spain.

t Cottington to Winwood, Dec. 10. 8. P. Spain.

f t The whole of our knowledge of this affair is derived from those letters
discovered by Mr. Rawdon Brown, and published by MM. Ceresole and
Fulin, in their Italian translation of the preface to the first volume of his
Calendar of the Venetian State Papers. Mr. Edwards has since republished
them in his Life of Ralegh.

60 FINALLY REJECTED BY JAMES.

_ CH. I. _ once carried to the King. He at least had no objection to
1617. raise against the violation of a neutrality which was only
January. a neutrality in name, and he promised to take the affair
into consideration. The interview with the King appa-
rently took place early in January. On the 12th, James
told Scarnafissi to consult with Winwood and Edmondes,
by whom he was required to show, in the first place,
that the enterprise was not too difficult; and, in the
second place, that his master would not take possession
of the whole of the booty for himself. Against the im-
putation contained in the latter question, Scarnafissi pro-
tested warmly, and suggested that if James wished to
secure his proper share, he had better send a force large
enough to defy opposition. With this Edmondes and
Winwood were completely satisfied, and talked of arming
no less than sixteen of the royal ships to accompany Ra-
leigh's squadron. Raleigh, they said, was eager " to attack
the Spaniards wherever he could, and to spare neither his
coasts, his lands, or his vessels, or anything else that de-
pended on- Spain, or where he could hope for gain."

And A few days afterwards the negotiation was broken off.

aban-y Scarnafissi was told that the King wished well to his

doned. master, but that he could not divert Raleigh from his
voyage to Guiana. On the 30th of January Raleigh was
finally released from the restrictions placed upon him
nine months before. He might now go where he would
without the attendance of a keeper. He was a free, but
not a pardoned man.*

The Venetian ambassador, who had heard the story from
Scarnafissi, attributed this sudden change of purpose
partly to James's unwillingness to break with Spain, and
partly to his distrust of Raleigh, who might be expected
to carry off the whole of the booty himself")". Such
thoughts may very probably have entered into James's

* Warrant, Jan. 30, 1617.— Losely MSS. Communicated by Mr. Ed-
wards.

t Lionello to the Council of Ten, Jan. A" ££** Edwards, i. 579. Mr.

li', .Zo x1 6D. o

Edwards thinks the plan originated with Scarnafissi. Lionello's language
is perhaps not quite plain ; but I believe he meant to speak of the idea as
originating with Raleigh. The question is of no practical importance, as
Raleigh certainly took it up warmly before it was communicated to James
or Winwood.

FRENCH INTRIGUES. Gl

mind. But it is only fair to remember that at the time CH- L
when the plan was finally rejected, intelligence had 1617.
reached England which made it appear likely that the Januai7-
quarrel between Spain and Savoy would be settled by amic-
able negotiation*, and that his information must have
appeared of the greater value, as it coincided with assur-
ances from Madrid of the pacific intentions of the Spanish
government f . The news thus received proved correct,
and peace was finally concluded in the folio wing September.

The effect of this sudden change of policy was felt Februair-
upon the negotiations for the marriage. Sarmiento's as- rft&ene-
surances were again listened to with approbation, J and s°rti{£ions
James now talked of sending Digby to Madrid, formally marriage.
to discuss the terms of the treaty.

It was a terrible blow for Ealeigh. But his busy brain
quickly turned in another direction. He had not been
speaking at random when he proposed to include French Protest-
vessels in the fleet which was to swoop down upon ants*
Genoa. He had long been in close communication with
the leaders of the French Protestants. Already, before
he left the Tower, a proposal had been made to him by
one of them that, as soon as he could procure his free-
dom, he should collect six or seven ships to join in an
attack upon the Mexico fleet. § Others were now
urging him to steer for the coast of France, and to oc-
cupy St. Valery, there to support the rebellion which
they projected against the authority of the Queen Mother.
Nor were there wanting voices at home to urge Kaleigh
along the evil path on which he was too willing to be
guided. Win wood, there can be little doubt, was
urging him to break the peace at all hazards, and to fall
upon the Mexico fleet as the best means, if all others
failed, of bringing the King to a rupture with Spain. ||

* Lionello to the Doge, J^y , Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. This despatch

was written on the same day as the more secret one containing the notice
of the King's rejection of the plan.

t Cottington to Lake, Jan. 10. S. P. Spain.

I Salvetti, News Letter, March ^

§ This is from Raleigh's own confession. Wilson to the King, Oct. 1618.
S. P. Dom. ciii. 16.

In his News Letter of —, 1618, Salvetti writes that the King had

62 RALEIGH AND DESMARETS.

Meanwhile the French ambassador, Desmarets, had
kept his eye upon Ealeigh. In January he seems to have
had information of the proposed attack upon St. Valery,
or at least to have had a suspicion that the expedition to
toRaieigh. Guiana might end in a sudden raid upon the coast of
France. On the 7th of March he informed his govern-
ment that he had visited the Admiral on board the
Destiny, in the hope of being able to discover what his
intentions were. Ealeigh, he said, had broken out into
bitter complaints against the King, had spoken of his own
attachment to France, and had ended by requesting a
more private interview, in order that he might communi-
cate to him a secret of importance.

Desmarets appears to have taken no further trouble about
the matter, as soon as he had discovered that the French
coast was safe from attack. On the 21st of March, a
fortnight after his visit to the ship, he wrote home that
he had been too busy to find time to see Ealeigh again *,
and it was only on the 14th of April, long after the
Destiny had left the Thames, that he wrote again to say
that Ealeigh had assured him that, "seeing himself so evilly
and tyrannically treated by his own King, he had made
up his mind, if God sent him good success, to leave his
country, and to make the King of France the first offer
of whatever might fall under his power, "f

In his public despatch, Desmarets contented himself
with saying that he had given good words to Ealeigh in

promised to punish the delinquents, " fra quali su segretario di stato Win-
wood, se fosse vivo, andarebbe a risico* d'essere ritrovato principale : — cre-
dendosi per certo che, como partigiano delli Hollandesi, et a loro persua-
sioni havesse indotto il Ralie a fare questi insulti per provocare i Spagnoli
a rompere la pace con questa Corona/' Contarini is still more explicit :—
" Nella inquisitione diligente che si e fatta per venir all' espeditione di Ser
Vat Rale, ha egli spontanamente confessato che quando parti per 1'Indie
Occidental!, fosse stato da alcuni principal! ministri et signori del consiglio
poco inclinati a Spagna et alienissimi da vedere 1'allianza con queUa Corona,
ira quali ha nominate il gik morto Secretario Vinut, consigliato e persuaso
abbracciare ogni occasione di attaccare le flotte, o li Stati del Re Catolico, da
che ne nascesse non solo diffidenza tra queste dice Corone, ina anco causa di
rottura."— Contarini to the Doge, Oct. g, 1618. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

* Desmarets to Richelieu, Jan. ~ March L P, Bibl. Imp. MSS. Dupuy,
420, fol. 2b.

t Quoted from the Despatch of April £, by Mr. Edwards. Life of Ra-
l«jlt, i. 595, note.

LAST EFFORTS OF SARMIENTO. 63

return. But there is reason to believe that he was cog- Cg- L
nisant of a message sent at this time by Ealeigh through 1617.
a Frenchman named Faige, to Montrnorency, the Admiral March-
of France, in order to beg his assistance in obtaining
from Louis permission to take refuge in a French port
upon his return.*

And now, just as the Destiny was ready to drop Sarmi-
down the river, Sarmiento made a last attempt to stop renewed
the expedition. It would have been well both for Ea- protests,
leigh and for James if he had succeeded. But it was not
so to be. James, indeed, was struck with Sarmiento's
reasoning, for he knew perfectly well that the Spaniards
would fall upon Ealeigh wherever they could find him;
and by this time he must have been able to form a pretty
shrewd guess at Ealeigh's real opinions on the doctrine of
" no peace beyond the line."

Yet, even if James had been inclined to throw obstacles
in the way of the voyage, there were those around him
who would not suffer him to do it. For, careless as he
was of the public opinion which found expression in the
House of Commons, he was extremely sensitive to the
opinion of those amongst whom his daily life was passed,
and he knew that many of them were Ealeigh's warmest
partisans. He told Sarmiento that if he stopped the expe-
dition now, the whole nation would cry out against him.
All that he could do was to lay the case before the Council.

The Council was accordingly summoned. But, as James

*Contarini in his despatch of Oct. -, 1618, distinctly states, that

Raleigh confessed having from Desmarets a promise of permission to take
refuge in France. " Essendole promesso de M. de Maretz . . . non solo la
sicurezza di potersi retirare in Francia, ma la protettione et favore in ogni
bisogno del Christianissimo." Salvetti speaks of it as being known
that Le Clerc the French Agent, after Desmarets' departure, and La Ches-
naye, the Interpreter of the Embassy, " havessero negoziato col Cavalier
Ralie avanti che facesse il suo viaggio di Guiana per farli fare quel que fece."

Salvetti's News-Letter, October — , 1618. One of the questions put to

La Chesnaye was : — " Is it true that through the influence of the last am-
bassador of France in England, Raleigh had a commission from the Most
Christian King, or from his Admiral, to go to sea ? " " Examination of La
Chesnaye, St. John's Life of Raleigh, ii, 315." On the other hand, Raleigh
denied on the scaffold having any intelligence with the French King, or his
Ambassador or Agent (Edwards, i. 700). But he would probably not con-
sider mere knowledge of this message as intelligence, Desmarets not being a
frincipal party. Raleigh's own confession will be quoted further on, when
come to speak of Montinorency's commission.

64

RALEIGH ALLOWED TO SAIL.

CH. I.

1617.

March.

Was

Raleigh

betrayed

had expected, Ealeigh's supporters mustered strongly.
They advised the King on no account to stop the expe-
dition, and some who were present offered to give secu-
rity that Ealeigh would refrain from any attack upon
Spanish territories. Win wood was accordingly ordered to
wait upon Sarmiento, and to place in his hand a letter *•
written by Ealeigh, in which he stated that he was really
bound for Guiana, and that he [would not commit out-
rages or spoils on the subjects of the King of Spain. At
the same time Win wood handed over to him a list of the
vessels of which the fleet was composed-!

As is well known, Ealeigh afterwards stigmatised this
as a betrayal of his confidence.^; It is difficult for impartial
persons to regard it in any such light. For there was
nothing in the papers placed in Gondomar's hands which
was not perfectly well known to him already. The num-
ber of Ealeigh's vessels was ascertainable by anyone who
chose to take the trouble to make the necessary inquiries
at London or Plymouth ; and that the expedition was
bound for a mine on the Orinoco was only what Ealeigh
had been reiterating for the last twelve months. Gondo-
mar believed these assertions to be false ; and all that he
had now gained was that he had forced Ealeigh to repeat
them in a more solemn form. In point of fact, the first
warning was despatched from Madrid to the Indies some
weeks before Win wood's interview with Sarmiento, though

* That James was influenced by popular clamour is plainly stated in the
King's declaration, and receives full confirmation from Sarmiento's de-
spatches, as does the story of the letter from Winwood. I may here say that
I cannot pass over the Declaration in so cavalier a manner as it is customary
to do. It was Bacon's production, and I for one, do not believe that Bacon
would purposely introduce false statements into such a document as this.
He had before him a great mass of evidence which is now lost, and though
I think he was led astray on the question of Raleigh's belief in the existence
of the mine, it is impossible to deny, that whenever a piece of fresh evi-
dence turns up, it confirms the accuracy of his statements.

f After the meeting of the Privy Council, " aviendose platicado en esta
materia (por los muchos valedores que tenia Gualtero) se acordo que antes
de su partida diesse fiances de que no ponia pie en tierra que estuviesse
por de V. Magd., ni haria d vasallos de V. Magd. el menor dafio del mundo."
" Minutes of Sarmiento's despatches, March fQ, &c." Simancas MSS. Est.
2514. Buckingham to Winwood, March 28th. Cayley, ii. 104. Compare
the language of the minutes with the King's declaration, which thus re-
ceives an unexpected vindication.

1 Carew Raleigh told Howel that James had promised his father to keep
his secret. But Raleigh himself says nothing of the kind.

RALEIGH STARTS FOR GUIANA. 65

it is true that more pressing orders were afterwards CH- *•
added. But so little weight did the ambassador attribute 1617.
to the information which he had received, that in a letter March-
which he wrote three months afterwards, he said that he
could not tell what Raleigh's course had been, and that
many persons supposed that he was bound for the East
Indies, and would not go to Guiana at all.*

Even amongst Raleigh's supporters there were not Anmdel's
wanting some, who feared that he intended to play them the De
false. Just as the Destiny was ready to leave the tiny-
Thames, Arundel came on board, and taking the Admiral
by the hand, asked him to give his word that, whether
his voyage turned out well or ill, he would come back to
England. Raleigh, fresh from his intrigue with the French
Ambassador solemnly declared that he would do so.

On the 29th of March, Raleigh left London to join his Raleigh
ship at Dover, to start on an expedition which could
hardly end well either for himself or for his country.
With the usual inconsistency of a weak man, James had
attempted to atone for his rashness in one direction by
still greater rashness in another. If he had given ear so
easily to those who were recommending to his favour an
enterprise which meant nothing if it did not mean hosti-
lity to Spain, it was doubtless because he was at that
very moment knitting more closely than ever the detested
ties which bound him to the Spanish Monarchy. For it
was during those very days in which Raleigh was com-
pleting the preparations for his voyage, that James made
the first public declaration on the subject of the marriage.

In order to open formal negotiations with decency, it

* Gondomar to Philip III., June ^, 1617. Simancas MSS. Est. 2572.
Cottington's Despatches from Madrid show plainly what the Spaniards
were afraid of. " The going of Sir W. Raleigh to sea," he writes, " is here
extremely ill taken: .... the truth is, they fear that Sir W. Raleigh,
failing of the gold he pretends to find, may (considering his strength) prove a
dangerous infester of the coast of their Indies, where doubtless, he shall find
very poor resistance." Again, in another letter, " I answer them, that with-
out doubt the thing in itself is lawful ;" yet, " I perceive they are so
much nettled with it, (not that they think Sir W. Raleigh will find any
gold in Guiana, but that, missing it, he will commit some outrages in
the coast of their Indies to repair the charge,) as they intend to move
some treaty for the prevention of the like or worse hereafter." Cotting-
ton to Winwood, April 26. Cottington to Lake, April 26, 1617. S. P.
Spain.

VOL. I. F

66 DISCUSSION ON THE MARRIAGE.

CH. I. was necessary to obtain at least the ostensible concur-
1617. rence of some independent body. Accordingly a corn-
March, mission of the Privy Council was summoned on the 2nd
The Com- f March, to advise the King on the subject. The names

missioiieib t T-vT CN .0? 11 A 11

on the of the commissioners, Bacon, Lennox, buttolk, Arundel,
marriage. pembroke> Fenton,* Wotton,f Lake, Digby, and Villiers,
who had recently been created Earl of Buckingham,
display a preponderance of feeling on the Spanish side ;
but they, nevertheless, show that every shade of opinion
excepting that of the extreme war party was represented.
Before such a body as this, therefore, James did not
venture to lay the whole question of the marriage. Philip,
he said, had assured him that he would not require him
to desert his Continental allies, and Lerma and Sarmiento
had declared that, not only would no demand be made
for the conversion of the Prince, but that they did not
expect " any liberty or toleration for his subjects, nor
other course in matter of religion which might be dis-
pleasing to his subjects."^

James must have been sanguine indeed, if he fancied
that such honeyed words expressed the ultimate determi-
nation of the Spanish Court. But he probably thought
that he should be able to make his own terms by playing
off the King of Spain and the House of Commons against
one another. § For the fears which had driven him three

* Who, as Sir J. Erskine. had succeeded Raleigh as Captain of the Guard.
He is described by Sarmiento as a moderate Protestant, whose wife had
lately become a Catholic.

f Lord Wotton, Sir Henry's elder brother. He afterwards became a
Catholic.

t King's speech. Harl. MSS. 1323, fol. 263. At*first I was inclined
to set down these words as intended by the King to deceive the Commis-
sioners. But the instructions which he gave to Digby soon afterwards
show that James really expected the Spaniards to agree to terms which
would not involve any considerable concessions, and the sudden eager-
ness for the marriage which seems to have sprung up after the relin-
quishment of the Genoa scheme, and which was noted by Salvetti in his
letter of March -g, is perhaps best to be explained by supposing that
Sarmiento, probably without committing himself, held out hopes that his
Government would be satisfied with James's promise to connive at the
breach of the penal laws. This was what had been put in force for some
months after James's accession without provoking any outburst of ill
feeling in England, and he could, therefore, say with probability that it would
not be displeasing to his subjects generally. I hope to return to the
subject in my preface to the Narrative of Francisco de Jesus.

§ Something of this kind was suggested towards the end of 1615, by

MOTIVES OF JAMES. 67

years before into Sarmiento's arms had now passed away.
Parliament had been dissolved, and the quiet surface of
English life had scarcely been ruffled for an instant. He
no longer needed the support of Philip's influence with
the English Catholics. But he was still in want of
Philip's purse. If the King of Spain would give him his
daughter, and with her a portion of 600,000^., all would
be well. If his debts were once paid, or likely to be
paid, the opposition in the Lower House would be com-
paratively harmless. If, on the other hand, he became
desirous for any reason of breaking off the match, he
would be sure of large subsidies as a bribe to encourage
him to persevere in so popular a course.

Such reasoning as this was not fit to be laid before the
Commissioners. Nor was he likely to ask their advice
on the all-important question of the extent to which

Bacon in a most valuable paper (Inner Temple Library, Petyt MSS.
vol. 37), a knowledge of which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Spedding.
In this he advises that a supply should be sought from Parliament by
" the opinion of some great offer for a marriage of the Prince with Spain ;
not that I shall easily advise that that should be really effected, but I
say the opinion of it may have singular use, both because it will easily
be believed that the offer may be so great from that hand as may at
onci' free the King's estate ; and chiefly, because it will be a notable at-
traction to the Parliament that hates the Spaniard, to do for the King, as
his state may not force him to fall upon that condition." James seems
to have preferred using the Parliament as a terror to the King of Spain,
though he had, perhaps, not altogether abandoned the idea of reversing
the process. " I thought," writes Digby, soon after his arrival in Spain,
" it would conduce more properly unto your Majesty's intentions, which
your Majesty may remember, you signified unto me were to have the
treaty of this match to go jointly together, with the calling of a Parlia-
ment, for that otherwise " the King of Spain " seeing the treaty with
France broken, and your Majesty out of necessity, as it were, cast upon
him, would thereupon stand on the stricter conditions ; whereas, other-
wise, if he shall find or be persuaded that your Majesty is likely to be
diverted from this match by the offers of your people, it is very probable
he will restrain himself to more moderate demands. So likewise, on the
other side, if the Parliament should see your Majesty in want or necessity,
without any hope or other means of relieving yourself but by the supplies
which should be granted unto your Majesty from them, I presume no dis-
creet man will presume to rely singly upon their courtesies. But if they
shall see your Majesty may be really and effectually supplied by the match
of your son with Spain, I conceive the Parliament is like to be a body so
composed that they will either stretch far for the diverting of your Ma-
jesty from the match ; or if that your Majesty's wants may be relieved by
the Princess's portion, and that your Majesty may speak to them as a Prince
not in necessity, or that cannot subsist without them, your Majesty will
doubtless find other language from them than in other times you have
done." Digby to the King, Oct. 8, 1617. S. P. Spain.

F 2

68 THE INFANTA TO BE DEMANDED.

CH. I. religious toleration could be safely carried. He merely
1617. told them of the large offers which had been made to him,
March. an(j requested them to look over the papers which Digby
would lay before them, and which would contain every-
thing that had passed between the two Governments on
the subject of the match.

Reply of To one at least of the Commissioners, this communica-
tion must have been highly distasteful. If Bacon dis-
liked a repetition of Salisbury's attempt to bargain with
the House of Commons, we may be quite sure that he
disliked still more this attempt to bargain with the King
of Spain. But whatever may have been the language
which he used amongst his fellow-commissioners, there was
no room for such objections in the reply which they were
called upon to make in common to the King. The tone
of that reply, indeed, is almost such as to give rise to the
idea, that the Commissioners regarded their consultations
as a solemn farce. The only question which was prac-
tically before them, was whether a Spanish princess, with
a portion of 600,000/. was not better worth having than
a French princess, with a portion of 2 00,0 OOl. To such
a question there could be but one reply ; and they told
James, that if the money could be obtained without
unworthy concessions it would be worth his while to
secure it. In saying this, however, they hinted pretty
intelligibly, that they were aware that they had not been
asked to decide upon the true merits of the case ; and
they gave their opinion, that it was highly probable that
the negotiation would be broken off on some point of
religion, and that if this were the case, his Majesty
would gain considerable reputation both at home and
abroad.*

^U°k a repty> drawn up by a body of men of his own
selection, might well have induced James to hesitate.
But mere good advice never had much effect upon him,
and he was the less inclined to draw back as, with his
usual readiness to postpone consideration of a crucial
point as long as possible, he had determined not
to entrust Digby with powers to conclude anything
with respect to the English Catholics. The articles, as

* The reply follows the King's speech in Harl MSS. 1323.

SARMIEXTO'S SATISFACTION. 69

they had been sent from Spain the year before, were to GH- *•
be made the basis of the negotiation, as far as the Infanta 1617.
and her household were concerned ; but the discussion APril-
of the treatment of the Catholics was to be reserved for
future consideration of James himself. The portion to
be asked for was on no account to be less than 500,000£,
and more was to be obtained if possible. The express
stipulation was to be added that it should not revert to
the Infanta if she were left a widow.*

The public declaration of James was justly regarded Sarmiento
by Sarmiento as the crowning glory of his diplomacy, counter
It was by no means to his own satisfaction that he was Gondomar.
still in England. He had long been wearying his
Government with repeated applications for permission to
return to his native land. He was suffering from a dis-
ease for which the medical skill of that age afforded no
remedy, and he was longing for repose in his stately
mansion at Valladolid. In his eyes the tawny plains
which lie along the banks of the Pisuerga were more lovely
than the green fields of pleasant England. Such a wish
as this it was difficult to grant. Again and again he was
told that he could not be spared from the post which he
filled so well. Another desire which he cherished, was
more readily acceded to. For some time he had been
pertinaciously begging for a title which would satisfy the
world that his labours had been graciously accepted by
his master. It was easier to honour his services, than
to dispense with them, and as soon as the news of
James's resolution arrived at Madrid, he was informed
that he would from thenceforward be known as the Count
of Gondomar,t but that he must remain in England a
little longer.

For most men there was nothing more to be said about views of
the marriage, till Digby had felt the ground at Madrid. Bacon'
But to Bacon it was intolerable to leave the matter so.
If there was to be a Spanish alliance at all, he must do his
best to raise it to a higher sphere than that in which
James's thoughts were grovelling. For though the re-

* Instructions to Digby, April 4. Prynne's Hidden Works, 2.
t Lerma to the President of the Council, April |-, 1617. SimancasMSS.
Est. 2572.

70 BACON'S VIEWS ON THE ALLIANCE.

CH. L__ conciliation of the great ecclesiastical sections into which
iei7.~ Europe was divided seemed less exclusively important to
April, }iml than it did to Digby, he had no sympathy with the
untiring bitterness against Spain by which Ealeigh and
Winwood were animated. Just as he had sought to put
an end to the domestic difficulties of his country, by
calling upon the King and the House of Commons to
join together in some noble work worthy of the nation,
he now sought, though probably without much hope,
to lead the two great nations which had been engaged so
long in an internecine struggle, to see that the only alli-
ance worth having was founded on joint service for
March 23. the common good of Europe. As soon, therefore, as it
was determined that Digby was to return to Madrid, he
drew up a paper, which he advised the King to issue as
an additional instruction to his ambassador.

His pro- Why should not, he argued, the two great monarchies
posed in- combine to establish a court of arbitration, by which all
for Digby. quarrels between Christian princes might be decided, and
a stop put to the effusion of Christian blood ? Another
suggestion was of a more practical nature. Might not
England and Spain make common cause against the
danger which still threatened Europe from the side of
the Turkish Empire ? That empire, indeed, had not yet
fallen into the decrepitude which has in our own day
caused such anxiety to Western Europe. Its strength
was still great, and was justly considered to be dangerous
to its neighbours. But it was evident to all that the tide
was on the turn, and it may well have seemed to Bacon
that a war half religious, half political, might justifiably
be waged with the object of setting bounds to the flood
of barbarism which was formidable even in its decline.*
The But whatever might be thought of the expediency of a

c^rect attack upon Constantinople, there was one part of
the Turkish Empire which called imperatively for the
interference of the maritime powers. Tunis and Algiers

* Additional instructions to Digby, March 23, 1617. Bacon's Works, ed.
Montagu, \\\. 313. See also Mr. Spedding's Preface to the Advertisement
touching a Holy War. Bacon's Works, vii. 3. The clause about " popular
estates and leagues," refers, I suppose, to the opposition of the Dutch in the
a Hair of the Merchants Adventurers, and to the plan which was at this time
warmly discussed for removing the staple from Middelburg to Antwerp.

THE BARBARY PIRATES. 71

still nominally formed part of the dominions of the Sultan, CH-

and the Pachas, who were supposed to govern the two 1617.
states, were duly nominated at Constantinople. But in
fact Tunis and Algiers were the seats of independent
communities. In each of them a militia, recruited from
every part of the empire, had real power in its hands.
Swarms of foreigners settled down like locusts upon the
wretched population, and held them in subjection, with
all the crushing weight of a military despotism. The
Beys of Tunis and the Dey of Algiers were elected by
this turbulent soldiery, and were in reality servants of
the uncontrollable hordes which had long bidden defiance
to the Sultan.

It was not in the nature of things that states thus con- Their
stituted should be content to live upon the resources r
furnished by their own dominions. With the full stream
of European commerce passing almost within sight of
their coasts, it is no wonder that they had learned to
quote with peculiar fervour the passages of the Koran
which enjoined upon all true believers the duty of making
war upon the infidel. In both of the states, and espe-
cially at Algiers, which was by far the more formidable
of the two, what the sufferers called piracy had long been
a regularly organised intitution.

Their mode of proceeding was extremely simple.
Whenever a member of the military community who was
rich enough to possess a vessel fitted for the purpose
wished to try his fortune at sea, he asked the Dey for
permission to leave the port ; a permission which was
invariably granted, excepting when the vessel was needed
for the public service. The adventurer s next step was
to go on board his ship, to hoist a flag, and to fire a
cannon. At the well known signal, troops of hardy
ruffians flocked on board. As soon as a selection had
been made, the captain put out to sea, and either lay in
wait for the richly freighted merchantmen which carried
the trade of Western Europe, or swept the coasts in the
hope of surprising persons of wealth and station, for
whose release a large ransom might be demanded. Strict
discipline was maintained, and it was rarely that the
pirates returned without a prize. At the end of the

72 ENGLISH RENEGADES.

JCH. I. cruise a fixed proportion of the booty was assigned to the
1617. Dey, whilst the remainder was shared amongst the crew.*
The greater number of the prisoners were detained in a
life-long slavery. No hope remained to them, unless they
were fortunate enough to be captured by the vessels of
some Christian sovereign. It was only a few who, like
Cervantes, owed their release to the payment of a ransom
by their wealthy friends. Still fewer, like Vincent de
Paul, were assisted to escape by the connivance of some
member of their captor's family. By the inhabitants of the
coasts of Southern Europe, slavery at Algiers was regarded
as a horrible misery, which might be the lot of any one.

The rene- It was not only amongst the natives of the Turkish
Empire that the pirate bands were recruited. Every man
who would join them was welcome in Algiers. The
offscourings of the Mediterranean ports — men with seared
consciences and broken fortunes — might there win their
way to wealth and to a certain kind of fame. Their
prosperity would be all the more brilliant if they would
renounce a Christianity of which they knew nothing but
the name. Even natives of the northern countries
occasionally joined in these atrocities. Not a few of the
mariners who had manned the English privateers which
had been so mischievous to the enemy during the Spanish
war, continued the work of plunder from the Barbary
ports. The heir of an ancient Buckinghamshire family,
Sir Francis Verney, took part for many years in these
nefarious enterprises.! An Englishman, named Ward,
and a Dutchman, named Dansker, were long the terror of
sailors of every nation ; and, at one time, it was said
that not a single vessel sailed out of Algiers which did
not carry an English pilot.

w°a?d°f • The kistory of Ward was, perhaps, in the main the
history of hundreds like him. In his youth he had taken
part in some of the buccaneering expeditions in which so
many English sailors had gambled away their lives, in the
hopes of filling their pockets with Spanish gold. He is next

* Zinkeisen. Geschichte des Osmanischen Reichs, iv. 325.

On the 28th of September, 1609, Cottington writes that Vernev had
taken three or four Poole ships, and one of Plymouth. 8. P. Spain. See
also Mr. Bruce s account of this worthy in the Verney Papers

ADVENTURES OF WARD. 73

heard of as a frequenter of ale-houses at Plymouth, where GH- *•
he is said to have left behind him the reputation of a 16 1 7.
spendthrift and a drunkard. Early in the reign of
James, he found employment as a common sailor on board
one of the king's ships. But the steady discipline and
the hard fare were not to his taste. One day, as his
vessel was lying in Portsmouth harbour, he heard that a
wealthy recusant, who had recently sold his estate, with
the intention of taking refuge in France, had sent 20001.
on board a little vessel which was waiting to convey
himself and his family to Havre. Ward had no difficulty
in persuading some of his boon companions to join him in
an attempt upon the prize. Soon after nightfall the crew
of desperadoes leaped upon the deck, battened down the
hatches upon the two men who were left in charge, and
stood out to sea.

To Ward's sore disappointment his search for the ex-
pected treasure proved unavailing. His colloquies with
his associates had attracted attention, and the money had
been removed to a place of safety. But it was too late to
go back. Off the Scilly Isles he sighted a French vessel
three times the size of his own, and armed with six guns.
Fertile in expedients, he ordered the greater part of
his crew to keep below whilst he ran alongside the
stranger, and engaged the Frenchmen in conversation.
At a given signal his men poured up from the hold, and
over the sides of the larger vessel. In a few seconds she
was a prize in the hands of pirates. After this exploit,
Ward had the effrontery to put into Cawsand Bay, and to
search for recruits amongst the comrades of his carouses
in the alehouses of Plymouth. As soon as his vessel was
manned, he made all sail for Tunis, where he was received
with open arms. His courage and skill soon placed him
on a level with the foremost of the pirate captains.
Wealth followed in the train of success, and it was said
that no English nobleman kept such state as the run-
away sailor.*

In itself, piracy was by no means regarded in England Feeling in
with the detestation which it merited. To plunder g an *

* A true and certain report of . . . . Captain Ward and Danshr, by
Andrew Barker, 1609.

74 MEASURES TAKEN AGAINST THE PIRATES.

TH. I. Frenchmen and Venetians was a very venial offence. To
i < ; 1 7. plunder Spani ards was almost a heroic achievement. But
indignation was roused when it was heard that many of
these men had " turned Turks/'* especially when it was
found that the renegades had no idea of sparing the
growing English commerce in the Mediterranean. In
the words of a contemporary annalist, these wretches,
" doubting their offences to be unpardonable by law and
nature, became runagates, renouncing their Christian faith,
exercising all manner of despites, and speaking blasphemy
against God, their king, and country ; and taught the
infidels the knowledge and use of navigation, to the great
hurt of Europe."

Attempts Attempts were occasionally made to arrest the evil.
James had set his heart, as far as he ever set his heart
upon anything, upon suppressing the pirates. In the first
years of his reign proclamation followed proclamation, in
which, as far as words could go, he made known his
abhorrence of their conduct. In 1608, nineteen pirates
were seen hanging in a row at Wapping, as a terror to all
who might be disposed to follow their example. On the
20th of July, 1609, the Spanish Admiral, Fajardo, suc-
ceeded in destroying no less than twenty vessels under
the command of Ward. But such losses were easily
repaired. Two months after Ward's defeat, Dansker
took one of the galleons of the Mexico fleet, and carried
it into Marseilles, in the expectation that a blow struck
against the commerce of Spain would be welcome in
France, from whatever quarter it might proceed. A few
days earlier, Sir Francis Verney had been making havoc
of his own countrymen, and had carried into Algiers
three or four prizes belonging to the merchants of Poole
and Plymouth.!

~^e Spaniards returned in kind the barbarous treat-
prisoners nient which they suffered. In houses of distinction at
in Spain. Madrid, slaves from Barbary were the regular atten-

* This feeling is illustrated by the prologue to Daborn's Play, " A Chris-
tian turned Turk."

f Stow's Annales, ed. Howes, 893. A relation of the success of the King
of Spain's Armada in 1609. £ P. Spain. The date is given by Howes
erroneously as 1608.

PROPOSED ATTACK UPON ALGIERS. 75

dants."" European pirates were more harshly treated. CH- L
In 1616, for instance, a Captain Kelway was taken with 1617.
thirty of his crew. They were all condemned to be
hanged ; but, as Cottington expresses it, " the Jesuits
dealt with them for their conversion in religion ; and such
as they could convert were immediately hanged with
great joy ; and such as keep their own religion live, and
are put to the gallies, so as twelve only are made saints,
and the others are kept for. devils, "f But neither the
hangman, nor the worse misery of the galleys, proved of
any avail, and in the early part of 1617 the crews of a
fleet of seventy sail found occupation in plundering the
commerce of the Mediterranean. J

Foremost amongst those who took to heart the inso- The Earl
lence of these miscreants, was Henry Wriothesley, Earl \
of Southampton. His shining talents and impetuous
courage had made him a marked man amongst the
paladins who guarded the throne of Elizabeth in her
declining years. Almost alone amongst his contempo-
raries, he had detected the genius of Shakspeare ; and
it has been even supposed by some that his were the
joys and sorrows embalmed by the great poet in his
immortal sonnets. He had thrown himself heart and
soul into the great struggle with Spain ; and wherever
his sword was drawn he brought back with him the
reputation of a brave and skilful warrior. He had many
great and some noble qualities ; but they were seriously
impaired by the vehemence of his temper. His judgment
was weak, and his power of self-restraint was very small.
At one time he was brawling in the Queen's palace ; at
another time his friendship for Essex beguiled him into
taking part in the spoiled favourite's senseless treason,
and brought him to the very edge of the scaffold. The
accession of James opened his prison doors, and he hoped
for a seat at the Council Table ; but his merits and his

" Few serve themselves with other than captive Turks and Moors, and
>o the multitude of them were very great." Cottington to Salisbury, June
3, 1610. When Buckingham was in Spain in 1623, he asked the Marquis
of Aytona to sell him a boy for 30£. Aston to Buckingham, Dec. 5, 1623.
S. P. Spain.

t Cottington to Win wood, Aug. 19, 1616. S. P. Spain.

t Cottington to Winwood, May 20, 1617. S, P. Spain.

76 OBJECTIONS OF GONDOMAR.

CH. I. faults alike barred the way to office against him. The
1617. promotion which he expected did not come. In 1604,
he gave offence to the King, and for a few days he was
under arrest. In 1610, the Court was amused by his
quarrel, at a game of tennis, with Pembroke's foolish
brother, Montgomery; and men were laughing at the
vehemence with which these two great lords used their
rackets about one another's ears."" But such scenes as
these were far from making up the whole of his life. He
found occupation for himself in the maiiy schemes which
were on foot for the colonisation of America, and he soon
became a busy member of the Virginia Company. He
was now engaged in consultations with the city mer-
chants who had suffered in the Mediterranean ; and with
their assistance he had prepared a plan which was sub-
mitted to the King. He proposed that an expedition
should be at once fitted out against Algiers. Twelve
thousand men, he said, would be sufficient to capture
that nest of pirates. The merchants expressed their
willingness to bear two-thirds of the expense, if the King
would take the remainder upon himself. If James re-
fused, it was thought that the Dutch would be ready to
take the matter up.

Gondo- If this had been all, there would have been enough to

poritfonT excite the apprehensions of Gondomar. He had no wish
to see an English fleet so near the coast of Spain. But
the informant from whom the ambassador derived his
knowledge told him more than this. He said, and it is
by no means unlikely to have been true,t that it was
resolved that if the expedition failed, an indemnity should
be found in the plunder of Genoa or of the states of the
Pope. Gondomar, therefore, without appearing publicly
in the affair, did his best to throw obstacles in its way.
As the merchants were desirous that Southampton should
himself take the command of the expedition, it was easy
to speak of the scheme as an arrangement concocted for
the mere purpose of furthering the Earl's ambition. Ac-

* Chamberlain to Win wood, May 2, 1610. Winw. Memorials, iii. 154.

t It must be remembered that a month or two earlier a proposal had been
made for a direct attack upon Genoa, by men with whom Southampton was
intimate.

THE PLAN DISCUSSED. 77

cording to Gondomar, all that he really wanted was to CH- L
bring about a war with Spain, in order that he might be 1617.
called upon to replace the aged Nottingham, as Lord
High Admiral of England.*

James laid the whole subject before the Commissioners Consul ta-
to whom the marriage treaty had been already referred. thTpro^
They immediately summoned before them the merchants P°sal-
whose interests were affected by the continuance of
piracy, and asked them whether they were prepared to
contribute a fair proportion of the expenses. They also
sent for a few old sea captains, in order to have their
opinion on the feasibility of the enterprise.

The merchants at once offered to find 40,000?. in two
years ; and, after a little pressing, said that if the enter-
prise were seriously taken in hand, they would not be
backward in increasing their contribution. But there
seemed some doubt whether the enterprise was likely to
serve any useful purpose after all. Both the merchants
and the sailors agreed that it was perfectly hopeless to
think of taking, by a sudden attack, a place so strongly
fortified; and Nottingham and Monson supported the
dissentients with all the weight of their authority, t A
long series of operations would be necessary. If the
fleet could keep the sea for a sufficient length of time, it
might be possible to wear out the enemy by destroying
his vessels, and by cutting off his prospects of plunder.
But if such a scheme as this was to be carried out, it was
evident that the assistance of Spain would be indispen-
sable. Yet every one, with the exception of one or two
of the Commissioners, shrunk from carrying on war with
such an ally. Still, it was madness to think that a
blockading squadron could keep the sea without a single
friendly port to retreat to in time of need ; and all that
could be said was, that the King of Spain might perhaps
consent to contribute in money to the undertaking, and
open his ports to the English and the Dutch, by whom
the real work would be done. That English and Spanish
sailors could not be brought together without coming to

* Gondomar to Philip III., July |2) 1617. Simancas MSS. Est. 2850.

t Nottingham's opinion. Simancas MSS. Naval Tracts of Sir W.
Monson, in Churchill's Voyages, iii. 167.

78 THE SPANIARDS TO BE CONSULTED.

CH- *• blows, was the opinion of all whose advice was asked
1617. upon the subject.*

May. As soon as these recommendations were reported to

Di| byd James» ne gave orders that Digby should take them for

support ° his guidance, and should excuse himself for asking for

the plan. m0ney only, on the plea that the Spanish ships were too

large to be usefully employed on coast service, t

Such was the promising opening of the first serious
effort to reap benefit from the Spanish alliance. But
before inquiring how Digby fared at Madrid, it will
be well to cast a glance upon the domestic affairs of
England.

* Commissioners for the Spanish business in London to those with the
King, April 30. 8. P. Dom. xci. 52, i.

f Commissioners with the King to those in London, May 6. 8. P. Dom.
xcii. 11.

CHAPTEK II.
RALEIGH'S LAST VOYAGE.

AT the time when James thought fit to lay his Spanish CH. II.
project before commissioners selected from the Privy 1617
Council, that body itself was hardly in a position to exer- March,
cise much influence over the course of affairs. It is true The Privy
that the new members who had lately taken their seats Council,
at the Board were such as were likely to add no small
weight to its authority. But its composition was so
heterogeneous, and those who sat at it had received pro-
motion for such opposite reasons, that it is strange that
their consultations did not terminate in open strife.
Abbot was there because he hated Kome, and Andrewes
because he detested Geneva. Edmondes had gained his
seat by his services in maintaining the French alliance,
and I)igby by his energetic efforts in favour of Spain.
One secretary, Sir Ealph Winwood, never ceased to call
for war with the Spanish monarchy. The other secretary,
Sir Thomas Lake, thought that such a war was to be
avoided by all possible means, and was himself in receipt
of a Spanish pension. Arundel, the heir of the eldest
branch of the Howards, brought with him the feelings
and the prejudices of the old nobility, whilst Bacon was
longing to transform the realm after the fashion which
his own genius had suggested to him.

A Council thus composed was admirably adapted to its treat-
serve as a consultative body, and James might have
learned far more from its deliberations than he could
possibly have gained from a Board at which there was
greater unity of sentiment. But James did not really
wish to learn. It would have been far better if he had
been either a little more in earnest, or a little less in
earnest, about public affairs. A King who, like Lewis
XIV., could have applied himself to the laborious task

80 THE GREAT OFFICIALS.

CH. II. Of overlooking the daily working of the machine of
1617. government might have obtained from such a Council
the materials for the exercise of an independent judg-
ment. A King who, like Lewis XIII. , cared for nothing
but dogs and falcons, might have found another Richelieu
who would relieve him from the task which was too
heavy for his own shoulders. But James thought enough
about politics to make him jealous of interference, and
not enough to make them the business of his life. The
Council was accordingly allowed to occupy itself with
matters of detail, to examine into accounts, and to re-
port on schemes for the improvement of the revenue.
Questions of higher importance were either neglected
altogether, or were reserved for the King's special con-
sideration, to be chatted over with his favourites in
some idle hour after a hard day's hunting at Theobalds
or Royston.

Official Nor was it only in the administration of political

tion.up" affairs that the looseness of James's hand was felt. That
official corruption was alarmingly prevalent at Whitehall
was a secret to no one,

The main causes of the evil admit of an easy explana-
tion. With merely a nominal salary, the great officers of
the Crown were left to depend, for the remuneration due
to their services, upon the payments which, under various
names, were made by those who needed their assistance.
In some cases these payments were limited by an autho-
rised scale of fees. In other cases they were restrained
by custom within the bounds of moderation. But there
would always be instances occurring to which no rules
could apply. Men who wanted to drive a bargain with the
Government soon discovered that official doors could only
be opened with a golden key, and the more questionable
the character of the petition was, the larger was the
bribe which the petitioner was willing to administer.
Even if there had been a recognised code of official
morality in existence, it would have been almost im-
possible to draw the line between money which might
honestly be accepted and money wThich must at all
hazards be refused. But, in truth, every man was left
to draw the line for himself. What the temptations

COEEUPTION AT COUHT. 81

were to which an official was exposed may be gathered
from the reply which was said to have been made by a
statesman,* who had himself held the office of Lord
Treasurer, to a friend who asked him what the profits
of the place might be. " Some thousand pounds," he
said, " to him who, after his death, would go to heaven ;
twice as much to him who would go to purgatory, and
no one knows how much to him who would adventure to
a worse place." f

In addition to the officials whose pay was merely TheCour-
nominal, the King was surrounded by a crowd of hungry 1
courtiers whose pay was nothing at all. To them flocked
day by day all who had any favour to beg, and who
hoped that a little money judiciously expended would
smooth the way before them. Some of the applicants, no
doubt, were honest men who merely wanted to get a
chance of doing honest work. But there were not a
few whose only object was to enrich themselves in
some discreditable way, and who were ready to share
the booty with those who would lend them a helping
hand in their roguery.

That it was his duty to make war upon this evil James's
system was a thought which never seems seriously to
have entered into James's head. Even if he had
felt the desire, he lacked the firmness and energy by
which alone great reforms are effected. Any glaring
instance of peculation, especially when his own interests
were touched, must of course be punished. But in general
he seems to have thought that, if his ministers could
secure payment for their services without dipping their
hands into the exchequer, it was so much the better for
him. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he may per-
haps have cherished the thought that purity was prefer-
able to corruption. But if he felt that the world was out
of joint, he never went so far as to imagine that it was
his business to take much trouble to set it right. " If
I were to imitate the conduct of your republic," he once
said to a Venetian ambassador, " and to begin to punish

* The Earl of Manchester.

f Lloyd's Mate Worthies (ed. 1706), ii. 351.

VOL. I. O

82

THE NEW FAVOUKITE.

1617.

His fa-
vouritism.

Rise of
Villiers.

CH. II. those who take bribes, I should soon not have a single
subject left." *

Nor was it only indirectly that the seeds of evil were
fostered by James. During the early years of his reign,
Salisbury had gained an influence over his mind ; and,
in spite of Salisbury's defects, the influence of a states-
man could not fail to be beneficial to the country. But
after Salisbury's death, and still more after the discovery
that he and so many others had been in the receipt of
pensions from Spain, James made up his mind never
again to give his full confidence to any of his ministers.
Hitherto he had had his favourite companions in the
chase and at the banquet. Montgomery and Haddington
had followed him in the field, and had laughed and jested
with him in his hours of privacy ; but they had taken no
part in the government of England. It was now to be
otherwise. He would have a favourite who was to be
his other self. He would form his opinions and mould
him to his own likeness. Through the companion of his
leisure hours he would communicate with his officers of
state. That such a man should prove indifferent to his
master's interests, seemed to James a sheer impossibility.
Would he not owe everything to him ; and would he not
be ready to repay him by the devotion of a life for the
benefits which he had received ?

First, in Somerset, and, after Somerset's disgrace, in
Villiers, James imagined that he had found the man of
whom he was in search. He had been attracted by the
strong animal spirits and the handsome features which
were common to both ; and habit soon forged firmly the
links of the chain which bound him to the inseparable
companions of his leisure hours. Nor was it enough for
him to pay his own worship to the idol which he had set
up. He whom the King delighted to honour, must be
honoured by his subjects. Eemembering but too well
the fatal facility with which he had squandered his
money and his lands upon unworthy claimants, and
thinking, perhaps, that his favourite might be able to
give a refusal which he was himself incapable of uttering,

* Mai ioni to the Doge, A"^f, 1618. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingliilterra.

HIS SUDDEN ELEVATION. 83

he determined to adopt it as a maxim that no honour CH- n.
should be granted, and no office bestowed, unless the 1617.
good word of Villiers were first obtained.

It was a dangerous experiment to place the patronage Patronage
of the Crown in the hands of a stripling. It would have J^L
been strange if so sudden an elevation had not turned his
head. Placed in the heyday of youth in a situation in
which he was courted by every one who sought advance-
ment, it required a stronger mind than his to resist the
fascinations of his position. It was so pleasant to feel
that all the learning and ability of England were at his
disposal, and that a smile or a frown from him could raise
or depress the spirits of men who had risen, by a life-long
toil, to the highest offices of the state. Nor was it only
with respectful words or ready service that those who
needed his assistance were prepared to pay for his favours.
Here and there, perhaps, might be found one who, like
Digby or Bacon, refused to bribe his way to office ; but
the great majority of aspirants thought it no disgrace to
offer large sums to any one who would help them to the
object of their desires ; and, at least within the limits
of the Court, no surprise was shown if the courtier
accepted without compunction, what was offered without
sense of shame.

And yet it was not avarice which was the besetting His
sin of Villiers. If ever, before the sudden close of his vamty-
career, he had leisure to look back upon the events of
his past life, he might well have exclaimed, in the words
which were long afterwards employed by a far greater
man, that he was astonished at his own moderation.
With a princely income of 15,000/. a-year,* he could
well afford, whenever any inclination was to be gratified,
to thrust away, with a lordly sweep of the hand, the
proffered bribe. It was vanity, which was gnawing like
a canker at his heart. The light-hearted, giddy youth,
who had won the approbation of Pembroke and Abbot
by his courtesy and kindliness, quickly learned to cherish,
with jealous fondness, the reputation of being the one

1 2

* Popularly believed to be 20,OOOZ. Lionello to the Doge, Dec. ~)t
1616. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. But see Suckling and others to Buck-
ingham, July 29, 1623. & P. Dom. cxliv. 91.

G 2

34 ELLESMERE'S RESIGNATION.

CH. II. man in England whose words were never whispered in

1617. the King's ear in vain. In his turn he was surrounded

by a crowd of hangers-on, and he soon made it a point

of honour to frustrate the suit of every man who refused

to swell the train.

January. On the 5th of January, 1617, Villiers, after enjoying

^IS ^Q °^ Viscount ^°r ^l& m0re ^an ^OUr months,

was raised, by the foolish fondness of James, to the
dignity of Earl of Buckingham. This sudden rise boded
ill for the realisation of the hopes which had been enter-
tained by the leading members of the Council after the
fall of Somerset. It was evident that it was not in their
hands that James intended to place the reins of govern-
ment.

1616. It was not long before the occurrence of a vacancy in
November. one Q£ faQ highest offices in the realm afforded an oppor-
mere's age tunity of impressing upon all who were looking for ad-
aud infir- vancement, that there was now but one road to the royal
favour. On the 18th of November, 1616, Ellesmere had
come down to Westminster Hall to receive the oath of
the new Chief Justice, Sir Henry Montague. It was his
last appearance in public. Worn out by age and infir-
mities, he had long been soliciting permission to with-
draw from the fatigues of office. Utterly opposed as
Ellesmere had been to the foreign policy which had lately
been adopted by the King, James was loath to lose the ser-
vices of one whom he had valued so highly, and who, in the
great struggle with Coke, had stood up manfully in defence
of the combined rights of the Crown and the Court of
Chancery. He accordingly replied by begging him to
remain at his post, and by conferring upon him the title
of Viscount Brackley. But it was not by compliments
that his health could be restored ; and though the King,
in answer to renewed applications for release, continued
to express hopes for his recovery, the old man was well
aware that he could not expect ever to take his seat in
Chancery again.* Finding, therefore, that James was
still resolved not to accept his resignation, he took the
decisive step of refusing to set the Great Seal to the

*- The Kin- to Brackley, Feb. 9. Bwg. Brit. Article Egerton, Note W.

DEATH OF THE CHANCELLOR. 8

patents which were brought him for the purpose.* It CH.JI.
was impossible to allow the business of the office to 1617.
remain at a standstill. James accordingly came to his March,
bedside, and, accepting the seal with tears in his eyes
froin his old servant, directed that it should be imme-
diately used to give currency to one of the patents in
question, leaving the other to be sealed on the following
day. It was not till it was needed for this purpose that
the symbol of office was finally removed from the sick
man's chamber. "("

The old lawyer did not long enjoy that relief from
official cares for which he had pleaded so earnestly. On
the 1 5th of March he was at the last extremity. James
had the bad taste to send Bacon to the dying man, to
console him with a promise of an earldom. At one time
he would have welcomed such a mark of his Sovereign's
favour, were it only for the sake of the heir who had
just been born to his only surviving son. But it was
now too late. He thanked the King for his goodness ;
but at such a moment, he said, questions of earthly rank
were vanities with which he had no concern. Half an
hour after Bacon had left him, he breathed his last.
James did not, indeed, forget the offer which he had
made. He conferred upon the son of the late Chancellor
the Earldom of Bridgewater ; but, if rumour spoke cor-
rectly, either he or the favourite extorted no less than
20,000/. from the new earl as the price of the honour.^

* " Withal, some say, he had vowed never to set the seal to two patents
that were sent him, the one for the sale of woods, the other for some impo-
sitions on inns. So the King, seeing all things of that nature to stand still
by reason of his sickness, went to visit him on Wednesday." Chamberlain
to Carlton, March 8. S. P. Dom. xc. 105. This does not, I think, imply
more than is stated above. It is the sickness that is the obstacle, not the
nature of the patents. It is very improbable that Ellesmere objected to
the latter patent as illegal. In another contemporary letter we are simply
told that when he saw that the King would not accept his resignation, " he
began to refuse all things that were sent him from the King to seal : he
refused my Lord Gerard's patent to be Lord President of the Marches of
Wales." Gerard to Carleton, March 20. S. P. Dom. xc. 135. The last-
mentioned refusal is natural enough, as he wished for the appointment for
his own son.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, March 8. 8. P. Dom. xc. 105. '

j Chamberlain to Carleton, March 29. S. P. Dom. xc. 146. The warrant,

adds the writer, " sticks now I know not where, unless it be that he must

give " more money. The delay was, however, merely owing to a question

of etiquette. Bacon to Buckingham, April 18. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 316.

86 PROMOTION OF BACON AND YELVERTON.

_CH. II. It can hardly be said that Buckingham had much to
i «•'!". do with the choice of the Chancellor s successor. It was,
March, indeed, reported that Sir John Bennett, who had risen
Bacon into notoriety at the time of the Essex divorce, had
Keener. offered ,30,OOOZ. for the vacant office. Others spoke of
Hobart, or even of Bishop Montague, the brother of the
Chief Justice, who had lately succeeded Bilson in the see
of Winchester, and had brought himself into notice by
editing a collection of the King's pamphlets and speeches.
A more improbable report pointed to Coke as the fortu-
nate man.* But it is not likely that James hesitated for
a moment. On the 7th of March, four days after the
Chancellor's resignation, he placed the great seal in the
hands of Bacon, who was to hold it with the inferior
title of Lord Keeper. The assiduous court which Bacon
had paid to Buckingham, preserved him from all opposi-
tion on the part of the favourite ; but his services as
Attorney-General had been too marked to make any
such opposition likely. For some time past the late
Chancellor had lost no opportunity of speaking a good
word for Bacon, and had expressly declared his wish that
he might be his successor. The same exalted idea of the
prerogative, — the same desire to limit the jurisdiction of
the Courts of Common Law animated them both.
Yelverton By Bacon's promotion the Attorney-Generalship be-
Attoniey- came vacant, and the King made up his mind to give the
General, appointment to Yelverton, who had now been Solicitor-
General for nearly four years. When he delivered the
great seal to Bacon, he turned to the Lords who were
present and said, jestingly, that he should look upon any
one who spoke against Yelverton as at least half a traitor.
The fortunate lawyer immediately received the congratu-
lations of his friends upon his promotion, and was told
to get the warrant ready for the royal signature.
K^op". Yelverton, however, was not long in discovering that
position, there was an obstacle in his path. The warrant was
drawn up, but for many days it remained unsigned. At
last he discovered that Buckingham was his enemy. He
had studiously avoided asking the favourite for his

* Sherburn to Carleton, Feb. 23. Chamberlain to Carleton, March 15.
Gerard to Carleton, March 20. 8. P. Dom. xc. 81, 122, 135.

BUCKINGHAM'S INTERFERENCE. 87

patronage, and lie had owed his former advancement CH- IL
to the good word of Somerset and the Howards. Nor 1617-
was this all. Sir James Ley had offered Buckingham Marclu
10,000/. for the place; and Ley was not a man whom it
was any discredit to support. He had served as Chief
Justice in Ireland, and, though he had been no favourite
with the Dublin Catholics, he had been honoured with
the thorough support of Chichester. Since his retirement
from the Irish Bench, he had returned to England, and
had held the lucrative appointment of Attorney of the
Court of Wards. So notorious was it, however, that it
was not by his professional merits that he had gained
Buckingham's support, that the leading members of the
Council were indignant at this barefaced attempt to set
aside the professed intentions of the King. Sharp words
were exchanged between Buckingham and Lennox.
Yelverton was however advised by his friends to submit
to necessity, and either to make interest with the
favourite, or to plead his cause with James in person.
Winwood offered to take him before the King with the
warrant in his hand. Yelverton, who during his whole
life oscillated between rugged independence and the
humblest compliance, was just now in an unbending
mood. The King, he replied, had wisdom enough to
choose his own servants, and he would leave the matter
in his Majesty's hands. But Buckingham was either
beginning to be ashamed of his conduct, or was startled
by the opposition which it had provoked. He now sent
for Yelverton, and assured him that he wished him well,
but that he feared that if so important an office were
disposed of without his influence being seen in the matter,
men would fancy that he had lost his credit with the
King. Yelverton replied sturdily, that it was not the
custom for the King's favourites to meddle with legal
appointments. No doubt he would wish to be certain
that the post was not occupied by an enemy, but he
hoped that he had never given him reason to complain
of any discourtesy. With this Buckingham professed Yeiver-
himself satisfied, and taking the warrant to the King, ton 'sap-
returned with it duly signed. That a man in Bucking- p01
ham's position should have behaved in such a manner

88 SCENE BETWEEN JAMES AND YELVERTON.

CH. II. is intelligible enough. But what is to be thought of
1617. the sovereign who gave his countenance to such pro-
March. Ceedings?

A few days after this scene had taken place, Yelverton
waited on the King, and told him that though he had
never promised anyone a farthing for the office, yet as an
acknowledgment of his duty, he had brought with him
4,000?., which he begged his Majesty to accept. James,
who had no expectation of such a windfall, jumped up,
caught his Attorney-General in his arms, and, after
thanking him profusely for his liberality, told him that
the gift would be extremely useful, as it would enable
him to buy some dishes of which he was much in need.*
Coventry it was the general opinion of the profession that the
General!" Solicitor-Generalship thus vacated, ought to have been
conferred upon Sir John Walter, the Prince's Attorney.!
But Walter's unbending temper was a bar to his promo-
tion. The man who was selected, was Coventry, who
had lately been appointed Recorder of the City of Lon-
don. When he had been chosen to that office, James
was inclined to look askance upon him, as one who had
lived on familiar terms with Coke. He had, however,
little difficulty in persuading the King that he had no
wish to join in an attack upon the prerogative. He was
not a man of brilliant parts, but to the end of his life he
maintained the reputation of a good lawyer. In political
questions, he was said to be possessed of a sound judg-
ment, but though he lived to hold offices of the highest
political importance in times of great excitement, he never
ventured to oppose his opinion to the doctrines which
happened for the moment to be in favour at Court.

othe?'' .N°? Were tliese the only leSal Preferments which at
legaipro- tm's tim^ came into the King's hands. A few weeks later,
motions, two puisne judgeships were given to Sir John Denham

* Whitelocke. Liber Famelicus, 55. Yelverton is sometimes praised for

t having taken part against Somerset, after owing his appointment as

r-beneral to his influence, and his conduct is contrasted with that

.con in the trial of Essex. It may have been the case that Yelverton

to act ; but it merely rests on Weldon's word, and Weldon thinks

that he was Attorney-General at the time, and was committed to the Tower

for his conduct.

t Whitelocke. Liber Famelicus, 54.

THE NEW LORD KEEPER. 89

and Serjeant Hutton. Both the new judges were dis- ClL

tinguished by their legal attainments, and with respect to 1617.
the independence of their character, it is sufficient to say Ma^-
that they both lived to deliver their opinions on the great
case of ship money, and that neither of them cou]d be
induced to give a judgment in accordance with the wishes
of the King.

It is impossible to deny that the character of these character
appointments was eminently satisfactory. Bacon may of these
well have been excused for thinking that the day was at ments!*"
last come when men of sagacity would be selected for
service in the state. But the episode of Buckingham's
opposition to Yelverton was of evil augury. It was just
possible that the new favourite might have received a

XT O

lesson, but, unfortunately, it was not very probable.

Immediately after these appointments had been made, May 7.
James set out for Scotland, where he purposed to remain Bacon
during the summer months. Bacon was of necessity S i^18
left behind. He could hardly be spared from the duties Chancery.
of his new office. On the 7th of May he rode in state
to take his seat in Chancery ; and though large numbers
had left London in consequence of a proclamation direct-
ing all country gentlemen not detained by special business,
to return to their homes,* not less than a hundred per-
sons of distinction presented themselves to ride in his
train. As soon as he had taken his seat, the new Lord
Keeper addressed his audience in a speecht which showed
that he had made up his mind that the dispute which he
had inherited from his predecessor should not degenerate
into a personal altercation between the judges of the rival
courts. It is true that he referred slightingly to the
"great rattle and noise of a praemunire," with -which
the claim put forward by the late Lord Chancellor
had been met. But he clearly stated that he should
reserve the exercise of his powers for cases of proved
injustice, and that he would on no account employ them
to satisfy the susceptibilities of the chancery lawyers, or
the hopes of suitors who applied to a second court only
because the weakness of their case made them apprehen-

* Rimer's Fcedera, xvii. 8.

t JVorJcs, ed. Montagu, vii. 243.

90 THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

CH.IL give of failure in the first. It is probably owing to
1617. Bacon's conciliatory language, as much as to any other
May- cause, that any further breach was avoided ; especially as
he took care to follow up his public declaration not only
by carrying out its principles upon the Bench, but by
maintaining a friendly intercourse with the judges, an
intercourse which was commenced at a magnificent ban-
quet to which he invited them on that very day.*
His To Bacon everything now was looking bright. If in

prospects. ^ keart Qf hearts? fa could hardly believe that James

was the best and wisest of kings, and Buckingham the
most unassuming and unselfish of favourites, he was at
least able to look at what virtues they possessed through
the rosy medium of his own brilliant imagination. His
view of the temper of the people was no less favourable.
The storms which had agitated the last two Parliaments
were, as he thought, forgotten, if indeed they were not
to be altogether ascribed to the factiousness of a few hot-
headed lawyers. If any dissatisfaction still remained, it
would soon be removed by attention to the equal ad-
ministration of justice. It would then be possible to
summon Parliament again, and the Commons would
at last be eager to pour out their treasures at the feet of
the King.

Bacon's For some little time after the departure of the Court
spondence for Scotland, Bacon continued to correspond with the
ck" favourite uPon tne most friendly terms. He begged him
to lay before the King a copy of his speech in Chancery.
The reply told him how completely it had received his
Majesty's approbation. t A few weeks later, the Lord
Keeper was able to announce that, in the short space of
June. a single month, his indefatigable industry had cleared off
the enormous arrears of his court, and that not a single
case had been left unheard.^ Before another month had
passed, a cloud had come over the scene, and the bark of
his fortunes was once more drifting out to sea from the
harbour which had been so laboriously gained.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, May 10. 8. P. Dom. xcii. 18.
t Bacon to Buckingham, May 8. Buckingham to Bacon, May 18. Works,
ed. Montagu, xii. 244, xiii. 10.

JBacon to Buckingham, June 8. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 318.

COKF/S DISCONTENT. 91

The danger arose from an unexpected quarter. He no CH- IL
doubt fancied that he should never again have to fear the 1616.
opposition of the late Chief Justice. Coke himself had November,
probably been of the same opinion. The final blow had havkmr™
fallen upon him like a clap of thunder. Men said in jest after his
that he had been ruined by four P;s — Pride, Prohibitions, dissi'ace-
Prsemunire, and Prerogative/* For the moment, however,
it seemed that Pride could be ascribed to him no longer.
When the news of his dismissal was brought to him, the
rugged old man burst into tears ; but he speedily re-
covered himself, and bore himself as manfully as ever.
When Montague sent to beg him to sell the official collar
for which he had now no further use, he refused to part with
it, saying that he would keep it for his posterity, in order
that they might know that they had had a Chief Justice
amongst their ancestors, f He had much to put up with.
The inquiry into the correctness of his reports was still 1617-
proceeding ; and though the King saw him occasionally,
and treated him with consideration, there was one at least
of the charges against him which it was necessary to
bring immediately to an issue. It was asserted, that he had
improperly admitted to bail a pirate, who had committed
depredations upon French subjects, and, as the offender
had taken advantage of the opportunity to make his
escape, the French Ambassador was pressing earnestly for
compensation. After some haggling, Coke agreed to pay
3,500/., in satisfaction of the injury, j

Meanwhile the Council had been called upon to settle His reia-
a still more thorny question. Coke's first wife had died h
in 1598, leaving him with a family of seven sons and
two daughters. Before the end of the year he was
married again to the grandchild of the Lord Treasurer
Burghley, the young and handsome widow of Sir William
Hatton. From the first the union was an unhappy one.
There was nothing in common between the spirited young
beauty, and the elderly lawyer, whose admiration was
reserved for his law books and his money bags. The very

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 14, 1616. 8. P. Dom. Ixxxix. 21.

t Castle to Miller, Nov. 19. Court and Times of James L, i. 439.
Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 23, 1616. 8. P. Dom. Ixxxix. 39.

J Winwood to Lake, June 2. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 4. 8. P.
Dom. xcii. 57, 61.

92 COKE AND LADY HATTON.

(<!I- n. first months of their married life were spent in a struggle
i(5i7. in which Coke attempted, not entirely without success, to
get his wife's property into his hands, and to exclude her
from all share in the estates of her former husband. The
lady, on her part, testified her resentment, by refusing to
bear the name of Coke, and by appealing to her powerful
relatives for assistance. By their help the quarrel was
hushed up for a time, and for some years no public scandal
resulted from the strife.

The Hat- At first it seemed as if the disgrace of the Chief Justice
ite* was likely to have a favourable effect upon his domestic
relations. When his wife learned that danger was
approaching, she drew closer to him than she had done
for many years.* But it was not long before the breach
was as wide as ever. One of the charges against Coke
related to certain lands which had belonged to the late
Lord Chancellor Hatton, who had died, owing to the
Crown a debt of 42,0 OOZ. Elizabeth, who had to provide
for the expenses of government out of a miserably inade-
quate revenue, knew better than to lose sight of such a
sum as this. She therefore took possession of his estates,
and leased them out till the debt was paid from the
accruing rents. This lease, which had been at one time
in Lady Hatton' s hands, was, by some arrangement, the
purpose of which we are unable to trace, transferred in
1608 to four persons, of whom Coke was one.t As the
annual profits of the land were in excess of the rent
payable to the Crown, Coke, in his anxiety to retain the
lease as long as possible, contrived to induce the heir to
enter into a bond not to redeem his property by paying
down the remainder of the debt. In 1616, however, the
outstanding portion of the debt was actually paid on his
behalf, and Coke not only lost his hold on the estate,;]:
but was threatened by the Crown lawyers with penalties
for his attempt to fill his own pockets at the expense of
the Exchequer. §

It seems that, in some way or another, Lady Hatton's

* Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22, 1616. S. P. Dom. Ixxxvii. 67.
t Patent Rolls, 5 Jac. I. Part 29.

1 Grant to Rich and Hatton. Grant to Rons and Shute, July 20, 1616.
S. P. Sign Manuals, vi. 68, 69.

§ Act of Council. Biog. Brit. Article Coke. Note R.

APPEAL TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 93

interests were affected, and that her signature was re- CH- IL
quired to the release which her husband was called upon 161?-
to execute. Her temper was not proof against the disco- Coke's
very that the estate must be surrendered. She accused withes
her husband of doing her grievous wrong, and made up wife-
her mind to live with him no longer. One day she
slipped away from the house in which he was, carrying
with her all the plate and valuables upon which she could
lay her hands. The quarrel became the standing jest of
all the newsmongers in London. But their amusement
was increased when they heard that she had appealed
to the Privy Council against her husband's tyranny.
He had threatened, she said, to indemnify himself out
of the estates which had been bequeathed to her by
her first husband. Coke, on his part, stoutly denied
that he had said anything of the kind. For some
weeks the Council were racking their brains over the
dispute. At last, some sort of superficial reconciliation
was effected.* One of the questions at issue was the
ownership of Hatton House. The Council decided that
it belonged to the lady, but added a sensible recommen-
dation, that she should allow her husband to live in it as
well as herse]f.f

The reconciliation did not last long. Not many hours 1616.
after the award of the Council was pronounced, the quarrel
broke out again on a fresh subject of difference. By and
her marriage with Coke, Lady Hatton was the mother of ces Coke
two daughters. In the autumn of 1616, the younger of
the two, Frances Coke, was growing up into early woman-

* Lansdowne MSS. 160, fol. 238. Sherburn to Carleton, May 25. Win-
wood to Lake, June 2. 8. P. Dora. xcii. 43, 57. Mr. Bruce, in his preface
to his Calendar of Domestic State Papers for 1634, has printed a paper in
which Lady Hatton recounts her wrongs. But I confess that I hesitate to
accept as evidence the statements of a lady whose memory is so bad, that
she assigns a date to her marriage which is some months after the birth of
her first child. In the same volume will be found an account of the for-
tunes of Coke's eldest daughter by his second marriage.

f Council Register, June 11. It is amusing to notice Lady Hatton's
oblique allusion to her husband in her will. " Having seriously considered,"
she says," how I have abounded with temporal felicity while I was the happy
wife of Sir W. Hatton, my first most faithful and dear deceased husband
. . . with whose breath all my transitory happiness expired, and then,
for want of spiritual consideration, the storms of a tempestuous life over-
taking me had for so many years so far eclipsed the comfort of this life, that
my very being was a burden to me," &c. Harl. AI8S. 7193, fol. 16.

94 THE WOOING OF FRANCES COKE.

II. hood, and was attracting all eyes by the beauty which

1616. she inherited from her mother. Amongst those who
were fascinated by her budding loveliness was Sir John
Villiers, the elder brother of the favourite. His attach-
ment was certainly not cooled by the knowledge that
after the death of her parents she would be possessed of
an estate valued at 1300/. a-year,* and that it was un-
likely that, even in their lifetime, they would send their
daughter forth as a penniless bride.

Sir John was anxious to make this rich prize his own
with as little delay as possible. But he had none of his
brother's brilliancy. He was weak in mind and in body,
and, if he had any sense at all, it was shown in his per-
ception that he was far more likely to succeed through
Court influence than by any attempt which he might
personally make to win the affections of the lady. He
accordingly placed his cause in his mother's hands.
Lady Buckingham's mother was now married a third time to

anther11 Sir Thomas Compton, a man whom she hated and des-
chiidren. pised, and to whom, as all the world knew, she had only
been attracted by the prospect of sharing his wealth. Her
whole heart was now set upon the congenial occupation
of making provision for her family. She had succeeded
so well in her speculation on the good looks of her second
son, that she had no fear of failure in her present enter-
prise. It is true that there were few ladies who were
likely to find any personal attractions in Sir John ; but
the prudent mother never doubted that, by a judicious
use of George's influence such a difficulty might easily
be overcome.

"entioneia Witl1 ^^ Hatton, at least, even this potent argument

her sons was unlikely to produce conviction. The two scheming

courtship. Women were too much alike to agree, and a bitter quarrel

had recently broken out between them, j But she thought

that something might be done with Coke. He had just

been suspended from his office, and in order to avert the

deprivation which was hanging over his head at the time

when the marriage was first mooted, he might be willing

to sacrifice not only his daughter, but his money. Yet

* Indenture between Coke and Burghley. Close Rolls, 41 Eliz. Part 25.
f Chamberlain to Carleton, July 6, 1616. & P. Dom. Ixxxviii. 6.

COKE'S BARGAIN. 95

spite of the temptation, Coke refused to give way. He CH- n-
did not indeed object to dispose of his daughter's hand to 1616.
suit his own interests ; but Lady Compton wanted more Coke re-
than this. He was told that he must give a portion of accept °her
] 0,000/. with the bride, if the King was to forgive his terms,
misdeeds. He refused to give more than two-thirds of
that sum, and Lady Compton would not abate a penny
of her terms.* Coke magniloquently told her that he
would not buy the King's favour too dear. The negotia-
tion was broken off, and he was called upon to resign his
seat on the Bench.

As the months slipped away, Coke felt the loss of his occu- 161 7.
pation more and more. His love of money was great. His ^rdf^T
rugged temper and impatience of opposition were greater lents.
still. But greatest "of all was his professional pride. If
Parliament had been sitting, he would doubtless have
thrown himself into opposition as vigorously as he did at
a later period of his life. But there was no such chance
before him. He had to sit quietly at home, whilst others
administered those laws which he had grown to consider
as his peculiar property. It was a hard trial, and he soon
began to repent of his obstinacy, and to bethink himself
whether it would not be worth while to sacrifice — not his
daughter, for on that point he had never felt any diffi-
culty, but the few thousand pounds which had caused
the disaster. At last he made up his mind, and told
Lady Compton that he was ready to comply with her
wishes.

It was not long before the compact reached the ears of Bacon's
Bacon. For the hardships of poor Frances Coke, indeed, objec
he cared -as little as his rival. It was not an age in which
such sorrows ever found much sympathy. He looked, or
fancied that he looked, upon the whole matter simply as a
political question. That his own personal and professional
rivalry with Coke, reaching as it did through so long a
series of years, had no influence on his judgment, it would
be hazardous in the extreme to affirm; but he had, at least,
persuaded himself that no memory of Coke's scornful in-
solence rankled in his bosom. He believed that he merely

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 9, 1616 ; March 15, 1617. S. P. Dom.
Ixxxix. 17 ; xc. 122.

96 BACON'S OPPOSITION.

saw a man whose connexion with the Government was
most injurious to the King's service, attempting to force
his way back into office by taking advantage of Bucking-
ham's affection for his brothers. Unable to speak either
with the favourite or the King, to warn them of the con-
sequence of their error, his vexation vented itself upon
Winwood, who had now made himself a thorough par-
tizan of Coke, and whose wild recklessness of conse-
quences in the affair of Ealeigh's voyage was not likely
to commend itself favourably to Bacon.
His quarrel Even by his best friends Win wood's manner was
allowed to be anything but conciliatory, and he was not
likely to take much trouble to avoid a quarrel. In a few
days the Lord Keeper and the Secretary had come to an
open rupture. When men meet in such a temper, a little
matter will kindle the hidden spark into a flame. Win-
wood coming into a room where Bacon was, found a dog
upon his chair. He was not in the best of tempers, and
he struck the animal. " Every gentleman," was Bacon's
remark, "loves a dog." A few days afterwards Bacon
fancied that Winwood pressed too close to him at the
Council Table, and bade him keep his distance.* When,
some months later, the Queen, who had taken Winwood's
part in the quarrel, asked Bacon what was the cause of
the difference between them, he turned the matter off
by answering, " Madam, I can say no more than that he
is proud, and I am proud, f

July. Coke fancied himself sure of his game. He acquainted
S^1" ^e -^n& w^ his intentions,}: and James, who was glad
position enough to see a provision made for Buckingham's brother,
marriage. whicK would save him from dipping his hand into his own
pocket, gave his hearty approbation to the scheme. But
Lady Hatton's consent was still to be gained, and her hus-
band knew that if she were to prove obstinate, he would
have to find the whole of his daughter's portion instead
of quartering Sir John and his bride upon the Hatton
estates. Coke soon found that he had no easy task

* Goodman, Court of King James, i. 283. Chamberlain to Carleton,
.1 iily 5, 1617. 8. P. Dom. xcii. 88.

f Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 11. S. P. Dom. xciii. 124.

t Coke to Buckingham, July 15. Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 298.

BACON'S REMONSTRANCES. 97

before him. Persuasion and menaces were alike in vain.
Win wood, who came to his friend's assistance, could
effect nothing. He left the unmanageable lady with the
threat that her daughter should be married in spite of all
that she could say or do.

Pressed on every side, Lady Hatton bethought herself she sends
of a device which would at least give her a little respite.""" teTt^Oat
She drew up a form of contract, by which her daughter lands.
was to engage herself to become the wife of the Earl of
Oxford, who, being at the time in Italy, could not come
forward to denounce the imposture. This paper the poor
child, glad to catch at a straw, consented to sign.f Keep-
ing this document for use at the last extremity, Lady
Hatton left her husband's house, and carrying her daughter
with her to Oatlands, committed her to the charge of her
cousin, Sir Edmund Withipole. J

As soon as Bacon heard what had taken place, he sat Bacon re-
down to write to Buckingham. He was not aware how
completely the favourite had set his heart upon the
match, and he thought that there was yet time to warn
him against the personal and political disadvantages of
an alliance with Coke. It would be unwise, he told him,
for his brother to marry into a family in which such
domestic discord prevailed, and he might find that, by so
close a connexion with the disgraced chief justice, he had
even alienated his best friends from himself. The revival
of the hopes of Coke and his allies would be injurious to
the King's service. The best thing which Buckingham
could do would be to write at once to his mother pro-
hibiting her from proceeding in the matter, at least till
his own return from Scotland. §

It is evident that Bacon's letter did not spring from
any sympathy with Frances Coke. He treated the ques-
tion of her marriage as ninety-nine men out of every
hundred would have treated it in those days, that is to
say, as a mere question of expediency, to be argued
about in much the same way as he would argue about

* Answer of Lady Hatton. Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 300.
t Obligation of Frances Coke, July 10. S. P. Dom. xciii. 28. i.
£ Chamberlain to Carleton, July 19. S. P. Dom. xcii. 96.
§ Bacon to Buckingham, July 12. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 245.
VOL. i. H

98 COKE'S VIOLENT PROCEEDINGS.

the purchase of an estate or the imposition of a tax.*
The position which he had taken was at least one from
which he could withdraw with dignity. If Buckingham
still wished the marriage to proceed, and if the King still
wished to restore Coke to his seat in the council, he had
done his duty in remonstrating, and would be quite
ready to carry out any orders which might be sent
to him.

Coke's as- The letter had scarcely been despatched when Lady
Compton made her appearance with a request for a war-
rant from the Council to enable Coke to regain possession
of his daughter. As Bacon had reason to believe that
this would only be the first step to a forced marriage, he
declined to give her any assistance, and, if the lady is to
be trusted, his refusal was couched in no very courteous
terms. Lady Compton then appealed to Winwood, and
easily obtained from him the authority which she desired.
Thus fortified, she hurried down to Oatlands, accompanied
by Coke. Around her carriage was gathered an armed
retinue, consisting of Coke's servants, at the head of
which might be distinguished his son Clement — Fight-
ing Clem Coke, as 'he was called by his companions—
who had warmly taken up the quarrel against his step-
mother. On their arrival at Oatlands they found the
door shut against them. Coke demanded entrance in
the name of the warrant which he had in his possession.
Being refused admittance, the late Chief Justice of Eng-
land snatched up a log which was lying on the ground,
battered in the door, and forcing his way into the house,

* A passage in Sir William Monson's advice to his Son, prefixed to his
Naval Tracts, coming as it does, in the niidst of the gravest exhortations to
morality, will serve as a good example of the views entertained generally
upon the subject.

" If you marry after my death," wrote the Admiral, " choose a wife as
near as you can suitable to your calling, years, and condition ; for such
marriages are made in Heaven, though celebrated on earth."

" If your estate were great, your choice might be the freer ; but where
the preferment of your sisters must depend upon your wife's portion, let
not your fancy over-rule your necessity. It is an old saying—' He that
marries for love has evil days and good nights.' Consider, if you marry for
affection, how long you will be raising portions for your sisters, and the
misery you shall live in all the days of your life ; for the greatest fortune
that a man can expect is in his marriage. A wise man is known by his
actions; but where passion and affection sway, that man is deprived of sense
and understanding.

INTERFERENCE OF THE COUNCIL. 99

dragged the trembling girl to the coach in which Lady GH- H.
Compton was waiting to receive her. 1617.

The next morning the Council had met for its usual July-
Sunday consultation, when Lady Hatton rushed in to *iady
make complaint, in an excited tone, of the outrage which appeals
had been committed. The Council listened to her tale, ?
and sent orders to Coke to appear before them on the
following Tuesday to give account of his proceedings.

An hour or two later Lady Hatton reappeared. Her
daughter, she said, was suffering from the violence to
which she had been subjected, and it would be necessary
to take immediate steps for her safety. A letter was
accordingly addressed to Coke directing him to surrender
the young lady to the custody of the Clerk of the Council.

On Tuesday Coke presented himself before the Board. Coke
He began by accusing Lady Hatton of a plot to carry off
his daughter to France, and added an irrelevant charge
against one of her servants who had been overheard slan-
dering Sir John Villiers. He was told that it was neces-
sary to prove accusations as well as to bring them, and
that, even if he could succeed in that, he would still have
to defend himself against a charge of riot. That defence
was not an easy one to make. He made no use of the
warrant which he had obtained, in all probability because
it directed him to apply for its execution to the ordinary
officers of the law. Having preferred to do himself jus-
tice with his own hands, he must now prove the legality
of his proceedings in some other way. He accordingly
declared boldly that the law would carry him out in all
that he had done, whether he had been provided with a
warrant or no. To the astounding doctrine that the
rights of a father over his child carried with them the
right of breaking into any house in which she might
happen to be, the Attorney-General, naturally enough,
demurred, and, in order to settle the question, it was
agreed that proceedings should be commenced against
Coke in the Star Chamber. In the meanwhile Yelverton
busied himself in the more pleasing task of putting an
end to the family quarrel. He succeeded in effecting a
show of reconciliation, and Frances Coke was allowed to
return to her parents, to find what comfort she could in

H 2

100 BACON'S DEFENCE OF HIS CONDUCT.

such a house. There was now no longer any occasion for
haste, and the Star Chamber proceedings were postponed
till the King's pleasure could be ascertained.*

As soon as the commotion had quieted down, Bacon
wrote once more to Buckingham and the King. To the
favourite he expressed his regret that he had received no
answer to his former letter, and, assuring him that he
had not changed his opinion, begged him to listen to the
advice which he had given, f To the King he was more
explicit. He knew now that James had taken up the
marriage warmly. J He therefore felt that he was placed
on his defence. He reiterated the arguments which
he had used to establish the inexpediency of showing
favour to Coke. But he acknowledged, as he could not
but acknowledge, that this was a question for his Majesty
to decide. If the King, after weighing his advice, re-
solved to proceed in the matter, he would do everything
in his power to carry out his wishes. He would even
use his influence with Lady Hatton to obtain her con-
sent to the marriage. But for this he must have direct
orders from the King. " For if," he said, " I should be
requested in it from my Lord of Buckingham, the answer
of a true friend ought to be that I had rather go against
his mind than against his good. But your Majesty I
must obey." §

August All this reasoning fell flat upon James's ear. His
repi^mg'8 Dissatisfaction with Coke's late proceedings was not
sharpened by any feeling of personal rivalry. He had
had but one encounter with him, and from that his posi-
tion had enabled him to come off victorious. We can
fancy him arguing that Coke knew better now than to
resist the all-powerful prerogative of the Crown. At the
Council table he would be out of harm's way. He might
be employed in matters of routine. There was that too
in Bacon's letters which was certain to offend both Buck-
ingham and his master. The suggestion that danger

* The King to Bacon. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 327. The Coun-
il to Lake, July 21 (?). Camden Miscellany, 1863. Gerard to Carleton, July
22. & P. Dora. xcii. 101.

t Bacon to Buckingham, July 25. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 249.

Chamberlain to Carleton, July 19. £ P. Dom. xcii 96
§ Bacon to the King, July 25. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 247.

IRRITATION OF THE KING. 101

might arise to either of them from the readmission of CH- IL
Coke to power, implied the possibility of their being un- 1617.
able to defend themselves against the turbulent lawyer. Auguiit-
If this had been all, it would have been enough to account
for James's irritation. But, in addition to Bacon's own
letters, complaints were carried northwards by every post
against the upstart Lord Keeper, whose head had been
turned by prosperity, and who had become reckless of
his duty in his desire to satisfy his hatred. James ac-
cordingly replied in an angry tone,* and Bacon, anxious
to carry out the King's wishes, sought a reconciliation with
Lady Compton, and assured her that he was ready to do
everything in his power to forward the match. f To the
King he sent a lengthy apology, assuring him that he
had acted for the best, and that he was now ready to
leave everything in his Majesty's hands. J If Bacon had
hitherto been actuated by any sympathy with Frances
Coke, or by any notion that the sacredness of marriage
would be profaned by the intrigues of Coke and Buck-
ingham, his present conduct would have been unutter-
ably base. As it was, he did nothing of which a man in
his day had any reason to be ashamed. He had done
his duty by remonstrating against a political evil. When
he learned that the King refused to listen to his remon-
strances, he proceeded to carry out his Majesty's orders.
To him it made no difference whether those orders were
to procure a wife for Sir John Villiers, or to seal a patent
conferring on him a pension out of the Exchequer.

He soon learned, however, that his motives had been
grievously misapprehended at Court. Buckingham con-
tented himself with a dry acknowledgment of the receipt
of his last letter. James indulged in a long tirade, to
which Bacon could only reply that he reserved his de-
fence till his Majesty's re turn. §

* The letter has not been preserved, but its tenour may be gathered from
Bacon's reply.

t Bacon to Buckingham, Aug. 23. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 250.

$ Bacon to the King. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 324. I suspect this letter
was written on the 23rd. At all events, the date giver is wrong.

§ Buckingham to Bacon, Aug. 25. The King to Bacon, Aug. 25 or 26.
Bacon to the King, July 31 (perhaps Aug. 31). Works, ed. Montagu, xii.
331,327 64.

102 BACON'S EXPLANATION ACCEPTED.

James had by this time, recrossed the Border, and
was making his way southward by slow journeys through
the northern counties. On the 28th of August, Coke
presented himself before him and was highly pleased

™ttothe witli kig receptiOIL* He had a fresh petition to make.
His wife, as a last resource, had lately produced the ima-
ginary contract between her daughter and the Earl of
Oxford, and he now appears to have obtained permission
to summon her before the Council. At least, it was im-
mediately after his return that she was, at his complaint,
committed to custody by the Board, f
Sept. A few days afterwards, Yelverton went down to give

tonwisit. his own version of the story. He found that Bucking-
ham had been openly declaiming against Bacon's ingrati-
tude, and that every one at Court looked upon his dis-
grace as certain. Nevertheless, Yelverton advised him
to maintain his ground boldly, and, whilst giving an un-
varnished account of everything that had passed, to
throw the blame upon the headstrong violence of his

rival. J

Bacon Yelverton's plain statement of the case was not with-

fevour.d 1 ° out Affect. It was very different from the story which
Buckingham had heard from Coke. He had imagined
Bacon as bent upon thwarting his wishes, and as being
resolved at all hazards to punish a political rival. He
found a friend whose intentions at least were undeni-
ably good. Two days after Yelverton left him, he wrote
to the Lord Keeper to assure him that he would no
longer listen to any unfavourable rumours in his absence,
and to convey a message from the King to the effect that
he would promise to keep one ear open to him.§ After
this Bacon could have but little difficulty in making his
peace. He completed his success by offering to apologise
in writing. Buckingham replied that he was now so
well satisfied, that he had forgiven everything ; adding
characteristically enough, that, if the King also had for-
gotten the past, it was entirely owing to his own inter-

* Lake to Winwood, Aug. 28. S. P. Dom. xciii. 69.

t Complaint against Lady Hatton. Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 300.
Council Register, Sept. 1 & 3.

% Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 341.
§ Buckingham to Bacon, Sept. 5. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 341.

MARRIAGE OF FRANCES COKE. 103

cession, and that he was sure that no other man in CH- IL
England could have done as much/"" 1617.

Throughout the whole of this wretched affair, Bacon's ^P*-
conduct had been thoroughly consistent. It was the Bacon's
King's business, and not his, to dispose of the patronage atfair!n1
of the Crown. Yet, it must undoubtedly have cost him
something to find his opinion slighted. But he did not
see, or did not care to see, that the King's prostration at
the feet of Buckingham was more than a temporary evil,
or that the disease which was growing up would require
a sharper cure than any that his statesmanship was able
to administer. To see this would not only have involved
his own retirement from office, and his condemnation to
a life of inaction and obscurity, but it would have driven
him to an acknowledgment of the insufficiency of those
monarchical theories to which he clung so tenaciously.
It was too late for him to discover that the work of pro-
viding checks upon the royal power would have to be
commenced anew. Such discoveries are never made but
by young or disappointed men. And so he went on
from day to day, doing his work unremittingly and
cheerfully ; half persuading himself that evil wrhich he
could not control was no evil at all, till at last his own
errors and the errors of others drove his bark upon the
rocks, and his course came to its sad and gloomy end
amongst those clouds which, almost to this day, have
rested heavily on his memory.

On the 28th of September, Coke once more took his Marriage

, -T i -i A. r\ -i t* IT • i of Frances

place at the council table. j On the following day Coke,
he paid the price of his restoration to favour. His
daughter's marriage was celebrated at Hampton Court.
The King gave away the bride.J Coke was in high
spirits, and almost fancied himself again upon the Bench.
His wife deliberately kept away. It was in vain that
her daughter had written, under dictation, to beg her
consent to the marriage, saying, truly enough, that she

* Buckingham to Bacon. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 342. Wei-
don's story of the meeting of Bacon and Buckingham, may be dismissed
at once. Perhaps he saw something on which he founded it, but who can
say what it was ]

t Herbert to Carleton, Oct. 6. 8. P. Dom. xciii. 114.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 11. 8. P. Dom. xciii. 124.

104 COKE AT THE COUNCIL TABLE.

was a mere child without understanding in the ways of
the world. She did not know, she added, what was
good for her, and she might perhaps, by yielding, put an
end to the sad quarrel between her parents, and regain
the King's favour for her father. As for Sir John, he
was well enough. He was a gentleman by birth, and she
had no reason to dislike him.* Lady Hatton was inexor-
able. She would not come to the wedding. Yet, if the
bridegroom had been a man capable of inspiring respect
or love, the marriage might still have been a happy one.
As it was, the issue of that day's work was a tragedy
hardly inferior to that which sprung from the marriage
of Lady Essex.
October, If Coke expected great things from the King, it was

a °kointd-1S" no^ l°n£ bef°re ne was "undeceived. He had been re-
ment. stored to his seat at the Council ; but he had got nothing
more. In addition to the 10,000?. which he had origin-
ally promised to his daughter, he had redeemed by a
payment of 20,000/. the estates which were settled upon
her at his death, and there was nothing more to be
extracted from him.")" The penalty for the wicked com-
pact was first exacted, as was most just, from the man
who should have been the last to enter into it. He
had sold his daughter for fairy gold, and it had turned
into dust in his hands. The day would come when,
weary of disappointment and neglect, he .would turn
round upon the system by which he had hoped to profit,
and would call to account the statesman whom he hated
and the favourite whom he despised. If he had shared
in Bacon's success, it is hardly likely that his eyes would
have opened so readily to the abuses of the Government.
November. Now, that Coke had no more to give, it was time
Lady Hat- to lay siege to Lady Hatton. On the 1st of November,
favollr. a^ London was astonished by the news that Bucking-
ham had driven up to the house in which she was a
prisoner, and, after informing her that she was now
at liberty, had carried her with him to her father, the
Earl of Exeter. On the 8th, she gave a grand ban-
quet at Hatton House. The King himself, who did not

* Frances Coke to Lady Hatton. Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 302.
t Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 31. S. P. Dom. xciii. 158.

THE KING AT HATTON HOUSE. 105

think it beneath him to take part in this discreditable _CH- n-
attempt upon the lady's purse, was present at the feast. 1617.
When he accepted the invitation, he expressed a hope November-
that she would consent to a reconciliation with her hus-
band. She replied that if Coke came in at one door,
she would walk out at the other, and she gave strict
injunctions to her servants to allow neither her husband
nor any of his sons to enter the house. Her anxiety
was unnecessary. Coke remained quietly in his chambers
at the Temple, whilst the King and the remainder of
his wife's guests were enjoying the hospitalities of
Hatton House. James was merry enough. He knighted
four of his hostess's friends in the course of the even-
ing, and gave her half a dozen kisses as he left the
house. For some time Lady Hatton was in high
favour at Court. But it soon appeared that she would
struggle as hard to avoid parting with her money to
her son-in-law, as she had formerly struggled to avoid
sharing it with her husband.* A year or two later,
when all other persuasions had failed, she was offered
a peerage, on condition that she would make over her
Corfe Castle estate to Sir John Villiers. Upon her re-
jection of the compact, she was told that, if she still
refused, her husband would be created a baron to spite
her. | Even such a threat as this was made in vain, and
the tide of her favour sunk as rapidly as it had risen.

Not many weeks after Coke's re-admission to the October.
Council, death removed his chief supporter from the Death of
scene of his former activity. J It may be that Win wood Wmwo(xL
saw in the attempt upon Buckingham's favour a path by
which his own anti-Spanish policy might regain the upper
hand. But however that may have been, he was probably
fortunate in the termination of his career. It can hardly
be doubted, that if he had lived till the following sum-
mer he would have shared in Kaleigh's ruin.

Many were the suitors for the vacant secretaryship. Candi.
Carleton hoped to succeed his political ally, and he had dates for

taryship.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 8. Pory to Carleton, Nov. 8. Peyton
to Carleton, Nov. S. P. Dom. xciv. 12, 15, 23.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, May 31, 1619. S. P. Dom. cix. 61.

I Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 25, 31, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciii. 140, 158.

106

WINWOOD SUCCEEDED BY NAUNTON.

CH. II.
1617.

1618.
Jan. 8.
Naunton
appointed.

Jan. 1.
Bucking-
ham cre-
ated a
marquis.

Jan. 7.
Bacon
Lord
Chancel-
lor.

many friends at Court. But unluckily for his prospects,
when he was last in England, Buckingham was only just
rising into power, and he had not been sufficiently quick-
sighted to detect the necessity of bowing down before the
new idol.*

Lord Houghton, who, as Sir John Holies, had been
fined for his audacity in questioning the verdict of the
jury in Weston's trial, had arguments in his favour of. a
different kind. He had bought forgiveness and a peer-
age with 10,000/., and he hoped that another 10,0001 '
would make him secretary. f

For some time it appeared as if no appointment
would be made. James said that he had never been so
well served as when, after Salisbury's death, he had been
his own secretary. He therefore placed the seals in
Buckingham's hands, and, making over the whole of
the foreign correspondence to Lake, attempted to perform
the rest of the business himself. But both James and
Buckingham were soon tired of the undertaking, and on
the 8th of January, less than three months after Win-
wood's death, the seals were given to Sir Robert Naunton,
a quiet second-rate man, whose opinions so far corre-
sponded with those of his predecessor, that he might be
safely employed to write despatches to Protestant Courts.
He was not likely, however, to have a will of his own,
and he consented to make Buckingham's youngest brother
Christopher heir to lands worth 5001. a year.J

Already Buckingham and Bacon had received an
almost simultaneous token of the King's regard. On the
1st of January, the favourite rose a step in the peerage,
and exchanged the Earldom for the Marquisate of Buck-
ingham. On the 7th, the Lord Keeper was elevated to
the dignity of Chancellor. Six months later he was raised
to the peerage, by the title of Lord Verulam, a name
which posterity has unanimously agreed to ignore. §

* Carleton to Chamberlain, Nov. 8, 1617. 8. P. Holland.
Sherburn to Carleton, Nov. 7, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciv. 11.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 8, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciv. 12, Council
Kegister, Jan. 8, 1618. Salvetti's News-Letter, Jan. ^, 1618.

§ The name, Lord Bacon, is that by which he was known whilst he was
Lord Keeper, or Lord Chancellor, before his elevation to the Peerage. In
the same way Lord Chief Justice Coke was spoken of shortly as Lord Coke.

FRESH DISCUSSIONS ON THE MARRIAGE. 107

In small things, Bacon's word was gladly listened to. CH. IL
In great things, unhappily, James followed his own de- 1617.
vices. Digby had sailed for Spain in August, boasting Aus- 28-
to Gondomar before he went that his master was about
to put a bit in the mouth of the Puritans, and assuring
the Spaniard that in matters of religion, thorough satis-
faction would be given to his Catholic Majesty.*

Digby no doubt fancied that he would be able to satisfy 101 6.
his Catholic Majesty very much more cheaply than was August.
really possible. For a whole twelvemonth at least before
the arrival of the English Ambassador, the Spanish
ministers had been engaged in anxious deliberations in
order to come to a final understanding amongst them-
selves upon the demands which they were to make. In
the autumn of 1616, Philip once more applied to the Pope
for advice. The reply which he received was most dis-
couraging. Paul said that his opinion was still unchanged.
He could not give his consent to any terms which did
not include the conversion of the Prince, and the legalised

? O

exercise of the Catholic religion in England. Still, if the
King of Spain thought it right to listen to any proposition
short of this, he would promise to give it his most serious
consideration. More than this he could not say. J"

Once more the Theologians were summoned to Madrid 1617-
to take counsel over this knotty point. They were in a logiana
different position from those who had been brought up again con-
for a similar purpose three years before. The Pope's
opposition was no longer a secret, and it was now known
that James, to say the least of it, had shown no re-
markable eagerness to alleviate the lot of the English
Catholics. It is no wonder, therefore, that they were
unanimous in requiring some unexceptionable guarantee
that James would perform his promises. The remission
of the penalties imposed upon the English Catholics
must be confirmed by some solemn and public act. Nor
would even this be enough. If James expected to see
the Infanta in England at all, he must carry his promises
into effect before her arrival. She must be detained in

* Francisco de Jesus, 17.

t Philip III. to Cardinal Borja, |™yj. Cardinal Borja to Philip III.,
Oct. y, 1616. Francisco de Jesus, 13, 14 Note.

108 PLANS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT.

II. Spain for three years in order that the value of the en-

1617. gagements of the English Government might be put to the
test of actual experience. When the three years were at
an end, the Prince was to come in person to Madrid to
fetch away his bride, as it was not unlikely that his
conversion might be effected during his visit.* The
marriage treaty was to be confirmed by Act of Par-
liament, and not a penny of the portion was to be paid
till its stipulations had been actually carried out in
England. The demands which followed were no less
exacting in their nature. James and his son were to bind
themselves not only to abstain from employing force
to compel the Infanta to change her religion, but to
abstain even from the use of persuasion. In other
words, Charles was to promise never to speak to his wife
on religious subjects at all. There was also to be a large
church in London open to all the world, and severe
punishment was to be inflicted upon those who in any
way insulted the worshippers. The priests were to be
allowed to walk about London in their ecclesiastical dress,
and were to be placed under similar protection.")"
Decision During the whole of the spring and summer, the ques-
Spauish tion of the English marriage was bandied about between
^he King and the Council of State, and between the Council
of State and the Theologians. At one time Philip was
inclined to throw up the whole negotiation. His third
and youngest daughter, the Infanta Margaret, a child of
seven years, died. She had been promised in marriage to
the young Archduke John, the eldest son of Ferdinand
of Styria. Ferdinand now offered to take the Infanta
Maria in her sister's place. The offer was a tempting one ;
for the boy, if he lived, would probably be emperor.^
But the hope of the conversion of England was too
enticing to be lightly thrown away, and the fear of

* " Porque puede ser algun medio para la conversion de aquel Principe,
y pertenece a la decencia y autoridad de la Seflora Infanta."

t Consulta of the Junta of Theologians, Jan. J-JJ. Simancas MSS. Est.

2518. Articles drawn up by the Theologians, ^J^, 1617. Francisco
de Jesus. App. 5.

^ He died in a few years. His "brother, who became the Emperor Ferdi-
nand III., was eventually the husband of the Infanta.

THE NEGOTIATION FORMALLY OPENED. 109

driving James into the arms of the enemies of Spain CH. II.
was ever present to the mind of Philip's ministers. It 1617.
was therefore finally determined that the Theologians
should draw up articles in conformity with the opinions
which they had expressed, and that these should be pre-
sented to Digby on his arrival. If he consented to the
proposed guarantees, a great step, it was thought, would,N
have been gained towards the overthrow of English Pro-
testantism. If not, the negotiation might be protracted
as long as possible, and when the breach came at last,
the blame might be thrown upon the inexorable firmness
of the Pope. On the 5th of September, the articles
were ready. If anything, they were more stringent even
than the resolutions which the Theologians had agreed
upon. In particular, James was required to promise that
he would as soon as possible obtain an Act of Parliament
repealing all the laws against the Catholics.*

How little these Spanish Theologians knew of England, Sept.
appears more plainly from another paper drawn up by Additional
them on the same day. The additional proposals which it of °theSThe-
contained were not, they said, to be pressed ; but they ol°gians-
thought them to be such as might be laid before Digby,
if a favourable opportunity occurred. The demands thus
made were certainly startling. The Prince was to be
asked to change his religion. Public- liberty of worship
was to be granted to the Catholics, with permission to
erect churches wherever they pleased, a permission which
was to be duly confirmed by Act of Parliament. Lastly,
Catholic professors were to be allowed to teach in the
universities.")"

These preposterous demands were not adopted by the s<
Spanish Government. The other articles were placed in tions ia
the hands of Aliaga, the King's confessor, the only one °ye™&

J with,

* Memoir on the state of the negotiations, May (?). Uzeda to the Cardinal
of Toledo, Aug. - -6> Articles drawn up by the Theologians, Sept. -j^
1617. Simancas MSS. Est. 2859, 2519, 2518. *M. Guizot has inferred
from the Consultas of July ^, and ^|y 2g4, that the only intention of the

Spanish Government was to spin out the negotiations. (Un Projet de
M 'triage Royale, 60.) The papers containing evidence of the scheme for
the conversion of England do not seem to have fallen into his hands.

t Additional articles, Sept. ^, 1617. Francisco de Jesus. App. 5.

HO DIGBY AND ALIAGA.

CH. II. amongst the Theologians, who was allowed to speak a

1617. word to Digby on the subject.* In the previous dis-
cussions, Aliaga's voice had always been raised against
unnecessary concessions, and it was therefore supposed
that he would be more likely to hold his own in the
diplomatic struggle which was impending.

No sooner had Digby arrived, than he was asked by
Aliaga whether he was prepared to grant liberty of con-
science,— that is to say, not merely connivance at the
breach of the penal statutes, but a total repeal of the
statutes themselves. Digby replied with courtesy. He
should be glad, he said, to see such a change in the law,
but for the present at least it was absolutely impracti-
cable. The consent of Parliament must be obtained, and
no possible Parliament would consent to the measure on
any consideration whatever. He had brought no instruc-
tions relating to the English Catholics. It was a matter
which must be reserved for direct negotiation with his
master. All that he was empowered to do was to discuss
the articles relating to the Infanta and her household,
and to come to an understanding on the amount of the
portion to be paid by the King of Spain.

1618. Aliaga at once saw that the struggle on the point in
confer-8 which he was chiefly interested was postponed. He was
enceswith far too skilful not to perceive that it was his interest to
Ahaga. avoid an irritating topics for the present. Instead, there-
fore, of producing the proposals of the Theologians, he
opened the discussion upon Digby 's twenty articles with
a determination to send him away as well pleased as
possible. Ignorant as he was of the Spaniard's real
feelings, Digby was delighted with his reception. Every-
thing, he assured James in his despatches, was going on
well. Some slight alterations in the articles had been
demanded, and he had noted them down for reference to
England. As to the portion, the full sum of 600,OOOZ.
would be given, and he had been assured that if the King
of England would only give satisfaction on the point of

* Lerma to Aliaga and others, ^-^. Consulta of the Council of State,
^j~> 1617. Simancas MSS. Est. 2859, 2518.

THE MAIN POINT REMAINS UNDECIDED. Ill

religion, he should have nothing to complain of with CH- IL
respect to money.* 1618.

After a few months' stay at Madrid, Digby 's work was May.
finished. He hastened his return to England, in order ^i^et_urn
that the important question of toleration might be settled land,
before Gondomar left his post. But the Spanish diploma-
tist was unable to bring even James to consent to the
new and exorbitant terms which were now demanded by
his master. James, indeed, was ready to promise any-
thing in vague generalities. He would do everything
that he could, but a complete revocation of the penal laws
was not his to grant, f

And so it seemed that, after four years of constant Thenego-
discussion, the project, from which so much had been
hoped on both sides, had come to nothing. James could
not give way if he would, and Lerma, speaking in Philip's
name, would not give way if he could. If, indeed, circum-
stances were to arise which would make it more than
ordinarily important to humour the King of England, it
was still possible that Lerma might be induced, at least
in appearance, to reconsider his decision. But, for the
present, it seemed hardly likely that anything of the kind
would take place. Yet neither party was willing to break
off the negotiation. James could not so easily give up
all hope of the 600,000£. which were to have paid his
debts, and, as usual, his indolence of temper led him
to postpone a decision as long as possible. On the other
hand, Lerma would have counted it a good stroke of
policy, if he could have gone on bandying the marriage
backwards and forwards between London and Madrid at
least as long as there was a single French princess left
unmarried.^

* Paper given by Digby to Aliaga, Dec. — , 1617. Digby to Aliaga,

Feb. ^. Memoir on the state of the negotiation, March (?), 1618. Si-

mancas MSS. Est. 2859. Digby to the King, Oct. 8, 1617. Jan. 15, March
20, 1618. S. P. Spain. Francisco de Jesu. Add. MSS. 14,043, fol. 65, 71, b.

f Francisco de Jesu, 22 — 24.

$ I did not meet at Simancas with any of Gondomar's despatches, con-
taining particulars of these final conversations. On the 28th of July, Sal-
vetti wrote that it was thought that the questions in dispute would have to
be referred to Rome. I suspect that Gondomar threw the blame of the
difficulty on the Pope, and perhaps hinted that Philip would be ready to
put a pressure on the Court of Rome.

112 THE BARBAEY PIRATES.

CH. II. The only man who had hitherto gained anything by

1618. the negotiation was Digby. So pleased was James with

Nov- his ability and zeal, that in the November after his

DigbJ return he raised him to the peerage by the title of Lord

raised to 01 , J

the peer- Digby ol boerborne.

*&*- The other negotiation with which Digby had been

1617' entrusted had hardly reached a more promising stage.

pose?™*- One obstacle indeed had been cleared out of the way of

pedition ^g expedition against Algiers before the ambassador left

pirates. ' London in 1617. The Dutch at least would not hear of

any co-operation with the Spanish fleet,* and Digby was

therefore spared the annoyance of proposing to unwilling

ears a close alliance between the countrymen of Alva and

the countrymen of Heemskerk.

Yet even if the English fleet was to come alone, the
prospect could not fail to be most distasteful to the
Spanish ministers. They listened to Digby's arguments,
1618. but it was only after a delay of several months that they
replied that the English might come if they pleased, but
under no circumstances could the two nations act to-
gether. Such was the promising commencement of that
alliance which was to be the guarantee for the peace of
Europe.f

Yet even this amount of cordiality did not last long.
Not many days after the concession had been made,
news arrived from America that a Spanish town had
been burned to the ground, and that Spaniards had
been massacred by a band of Englishmen.^ The Govern-
ment at once caught at the excuse, and refused to say
anything more about the pirates till reparation had been
made.§ For the jealousy with which Spaniards regarded

* Lake to Carleton, May 6. Winwood to Carleton, June 4. Carleton to
Lake, June 7. Carleton to Winwood, Aug. 12. Carleton Letters. 135, 136,
148, 160.

t Lenna to Ciriza, Oct. - Consultas of the Council of State,

30

J^-5, 1617. Philip III. to Gondomar, *£™^*Z. Consulta of the Council

of War, April ^. Consulta of the Council of State, April ^, 1618. Si-
mancas MSS. Est. 2850.

J Philip III. to Gondomar, ^±J, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2572.

§ Sanchez to Philip III., Jan. ^, 1618. Memoir on the Junction of the
Armadas. Simancas MSS. Est. 2599, 2601.

RALEIGH AT PLYMOUTH. 113

the entry of armed Englishmen into the Straits of Gib- CH- IL
raltar was as nothing to the jealousy with which they 1617.
regarded the presence of even unarmed Englishmen in
the Indies.

To understand the causes of the displeasure of the March 29-
Spanish Government, it is necessary to go back to the J^Jf11
point at which, more than a year before, Raleigh had London,
set out on his voyage. It was on the 29th of March,
1617, that he left London to join his ship at Dover,
from whence he made the best of his way to Plymouth.
Already, as he lay in that fair harbour, where the sloping
woods and the rocky shores must have been fraught for
him with memories of happier days, the shadows were
falling thickly upon him. One of his captains, Sir
Warham St. Leger, had been detained in the Downs by
an accident to his vessel. His vice-admiral, Pennington,
one of the most promising seamen of the day, had been
stopped off the Isle of Wight for want of money, and
had been unable to persuade the bakers to supply his
ship with bread for the voyage. In despair, he had
ridden up to London to appeal for help to Lady Raleigh.
Poor Lady Raleigh had no money to give him ; but she
wrote to a friend at Portsmouth, who advanced the
requisite 301. to enable him to provision his ship. Two
others of Raleigh's captains were in similar difficulties,
and it was only by selling his plate that he was able to
provide for their necessities.*

There can have been few in England who had much His nego-
hope of Raleigh's success. If he himself did not despair, with Mont-
it was only because he was determined that whatever m<>rency.
means he was driven to use, he would not fail. As he
was passing the Isle of Wight he was joined by Faige, the
emissary whom he had despatched to Montmorency, and
he immediately sent him back to France to complete the
arrangements with which he had been charged, f Faige
returned to him at Plymouth, bringing a letter from
Montmorency, by which the Admiral of France bound
himself to do his best to obtain from the King permis-

* Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 117.

t Examination of Belle, March ^, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2598.

VOL. I. I

114 RALEIGH'S INTRIGUE WITH FRANCE.

sion for him to put into a French port on his return
with his ships and men, together with any goods which
he might have acquired by trade or otherwise.*
Murder of Since Ealeigh had left London, an event had occurred
in Paris which served to raise his hopes of receiving assist-
ance from the French Government. Lewis had long
borne with equanimity his exclusion from power by his
mother and his mother's favourite ; for his nature was
singularly sluggish, and he loved better to amuse him-
self with his dogs and his falcons than to trouble himself
with affairs of state. But there were others who were
not equally resigned to insignificance. Luynes, the page
who kept his hawks, and Vitry, the captain of his guard,
hated Ancre as a rival, and they had little difficulty in
obtaining from their master an order for the assassination
of the man whom, king as he was, he was unable to
reach in any other way. The upstart Italian was, accord-
ingly, cut down in the streets of Paris, amidst the plaudits
of the whole nation.

The cry of exultation which was raised in France, was
echoed in all Protestant lands, f The Queen-Mother had
always been regarded as the chief supporter of the Spanish
party. James himself was carried away with the tide,
and for once found himself giving expression to opinions
in complete accordance with those of Winwood and
Ealeigh. No doubt their reasons were very different.
James wrote to congratulate the young sovereign of
France, because he had released himself — no matter by
what means — from the dominati on of a subj ect.J Kaleigh
wrote to congratulate the French statesmen who were
his friends, because he hoped that France had, once
for all, shaken off the yoke of Spain. § With grim
facetiousness, Winwood sent his congratulations to Gon-

* He was to be admitted "avec tons ses ports, navires, equipages, et biens
par lui trait^s ou conquis." Declaration by Montmorency, April *T, 1617.
Simancas MSS. Est. 2598.

f In England, a play was written on the subject, which was interdicted
by the Government. Collier's Annals of the Stage, i. 408
The original holograph letter is in the Bibl. Imperiale.

§ Raleigh to Bisseaux, May l~, 1617. Simancas MSS. Est. 2595.

HIS EMISSARY, FAIGE, DESERTS HIM. 115

domar, upon the nappy change which had taken place CH- IL
in France.* 1617.

The letter in which Ealeigh expressed his joy at Ancre's Faige re-
murder was carried by Faige, f who took with him another
French seaman, named Belle, who was equally in Kaleigh's
confidence. They were to take charge of four French
vessels which were fitting out at Havre and Dieppe, and
to follow the English squadron to the mouth of the

Orinoco.^

As usual, Ealeigh had not chosen his confidants wisely.
Faige and Belle had no thought of executing his orders.
They seem to have preferred the chances of a commer-
cial voyage in the Mediterranean to the risk of hard
blows in the Indies.§ They did not gain much by the
change. The vessel in which they sailed was taken by
pirates. Faige, landing at Genoa without a penny, soon

* Salvetti's News-Letter, , 1617.

t Mr. Edwards (ii. 345) asks what became of the answer to this, and how
Raleigh's letter in the original came to be carried to Madrid. He will see
that the letter was never delivered, and therefore remained in possession of
the bearer.

I Compare Raleigh's letter to Bisseaux, with Belle's examination, March i-Q*
Simancas MSS. Est. 2598. In the minutes of Gondomar's despatches of
Oct. ||, Nov. |:, the following passage occurs : — " El Conde de Gondomar . .

ha savido que desde alii," i.e. the Canaries, " escrivi6 el dicho Gualtero al
Conde de Sutanton que le avia parecido la mejor resolucion de todas, espe-
rar en aquellas islas la flota de Espana que trae la plata, y que con algunos
navios Franceses que se le avian juntado, se hallava tan fuerte que espa-
rava no se escaparia ninguna parte della." As it stands, this is, of course,
inadmissible. No French ships joined Raleigh at the Canaries. But as
nothing was known about Faige in London or Madrid at this time, it
is hardly likely that it is all pure invention. May not Raleigh have writ-
ten, that if he were joined by the French ships, he intended to attack the
Spanish, fleet ? Some such plan had been proposed apparently some years
before, when James had been requested by the Duke of Rohan to set Ra-
leigh free. Being reminded of this after his return, Raleigh answered,
" that for his negotiation with the Prince of Rohan and his brother, he
confessed there was a purpose, with seven or eight good ships to be fur-
nished by the French, to set upon the Indian fleet as they came homeward,
or else missing it, to pass on to the mine ; and he saith that the cause that
this succeeded not was that your Majesty would not let him go to the
Prince of Rohan, having denied him before to the King of Denmark, who
Mould have had him for his Admiral." Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, 1618.
S. P. Do/71, ciii. 16.

§ Belle's statement, that he left Raleigh because he did not like to join
a party of Huguenots, is, of course, only to be taken for what it is worth. But
I do not see that a nourish of this kind discredits his statement in other
respects.

i 2

116 RALEIGH'S PLANS BETRAYED TO SPAIN.

CH. II. found himself within the walls of a debtor's prison.

1617. Belle made his way to Kome. He unbosomed himself to

The plan his confessor, and was, at his own request, sent to Madrid

toetthfd to tell his story there.* Kaleigh, he said, intended to

Spaniards, commence by an examination of the mine ; after which,

if it proved to be of any value, he was to attack Trinidad

and Margarita. As soon as he had done what damage

he could by sea and land, he would return to Europe for

reinforcements. t The Spanish government listened to his

tale, took from him what papers he had, and tossed him

a hundred ducats to pay his expenses back to Dieppe.^

Kaieigh's What may have been the exact scheme which had

ms* taken possession of Kaieigh's mind, it is of course impos-

sible to say. Belle may have exaggerated what he heard,

* Cardinal Borja to Arostegui, enclosing Belle's memorial, Nov. -, 1617.

Simamas MSS. Est. 1866.

f " Preguntandole que intencion llevaba Guatterale, y la navegacion que
avia de hazer, dixo la costa hasta el rio Orinoco, y reconocer una mina que
hay alii cerca de la boca, y aviendo reconocido la sustancia y riqueza que
tenia, volverse corriendo la costa la vuelta de la Trinidad y Margarita con
intento de tomarlos ; haziendo el dano que pudiesse en mar y tierra, y
volver a rehacerse de gente y navios para hazer segundo viaje a Orinoco."

Belle's Examination, March ^, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2598.

Of the genuineness of these papers there cannot be the slightest doubt.
The internal evidence is in their favour. They tell much less than a forger
would have made them tell. The sentence given above is all that refers to
Raleigh's intentions. Everything of importance is left for Faige to tell by
word of mouth. Raleigh's autograph signature to the letter to De Bisseaux
is unmistakable, excepting on the supposition of a skilful forgery, which
would have been useless unless these papers were to be made public, which
they never were. Besides, Raleigh afterwards, as will be seen, acknow-
ledged having received the letter from Montmorency. It is another question
whether Belle told a true story. I incline to think he did, partly because
it is in itself probable, and partly because, if he had invented his account,
he would have invented something much more stirring. Of course it does
not follow that Raleigh may not have been speaking loosely. It is possible
to pick holes in every piece of evidence brought in his disfavour. The
strength of the case against him lies in the fact that a variety of indepen-
dent witnesses give evidence which all tends to the same point. Mr. St.
John, in his Life of Raleigh, says (ii. 230, note) :— " To these pirates Raleigh
is said to have intrusted his letters to Montmorency, of which, though they
must have delivered them, since answers they said were sent, they yet pre-
tended to possess the originals." This is, however, a mistake. The only
original produced was the one to De Bisseaux, which was never delivered ;
it is of this particular letter that Belle says, " y esta carta me la ha entregado
original."

I Consulta of the Council of State, ^||3, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2515.
Belle appears not to have asked for any reward beyond the payment of
his expenses, which is in his favour. The hundred ducats were only equi-
valent to 251 J

HE SAILS FROM PLYMOUTH. 117

or Kaleigh, as his wont was, may have flung about his CH- IL
words at random. Kaleigh's own account of the matter, 1617.
given at a time when he was no longer able to conceal
that he had sailed with the intention of breaking his
promise to the King, was that he intended to use the
Frenchmen in an attack upon San Thome, whilst he was
himself making the best of his way to the mine.* But
that the purpose of attacking Trinidad and Margarita
was at least floating in his head, is probable enough.
That the discovery of the mine, if it was to be of any
use, would ultimately lead to war with Spain, no man
knew better than Ealeigh ; and it was to the discovery
of the mine that he looked for the golden key which
would enable him to open the way to James's favour.
The idea that it was possible to establish a peaceable
colony around a gold mine in the centre of the Spanish
Indies, was, as he knew perfectly well, the veriest hallu-
cination that had ever crossed a madman's brain. Yet
it was to this, foolish and impracticable as it was, that
he was pledged by the most solemn promises to confine
himself. It was to success alone that he could look to
redeem the pledges by which he was bound. If, as soon
as he had found the mine, he could strike a blow which
would weaken the hold of Spain upon the whole district
of the Orinoco, he would be able, upon his return, to
present to England or to France, it hardly mattered
which, the attractive bait of a golden treasure, the
guardians of which had been already overpowered.

And so, with a mind full of anxiety for the future, Ealeigh
Ealeigh prepared for sea.f On the 12th of June, his pf™solltll
little squadron of fourteen vessels set sail from Plymouth.
Disaster attended him from the first. The winds were
contrary, and he was forced to seek for shelter in Fal-

* After his return, Ealeigh told Wilson " that his first dealing with Cap-
tain Faige was well known to your Majesty." That is to say, I suppose, his
sending him.to Montmorency, for permission to take shelter in France,
" and his last at Plymouth about bringing French ships and men to him to
displant the Spaniards at San Thome, that the English might after pass up
to the mine without ofience." Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, 1618. S. P.
Dom. ciii. 16.

t Raleigh's orders have often been quoted as a model of forethought and
perspicuity. They show his anxiety not to fight unless attacked by the
Spaniards, at least till he reached the Orinoco.

118 <t RALEIGH AT THE CANARIES.

CH. II. mouth harbour. Again he put to sea, and again the

1617. storm swept down upon his course. One of his vessels

He is sunk before his eyes. Another was driven for refuge to

^rvk?ninto Bristol. With the shattered remnants of his fleet he

found safety in the harbour of Cork. It was not till the

19th of August that he was once more ready to venture

upon the Atlantic.

His pro- On the 7th of September the fleet cast anchor at
Meetings Lanzarote? one Of the Canaries. The Spanish governor,
Canaries. wno had, no doubt, been warned of Ealeigh's approach,
regarded him with suspicion. He withdrew his troops
to the interior of the island, and refused to furnish the
English with the provisions of which they were in so
much need. Two of Ealeigh's sailors, wandering about
the island, fell in with the Spanish sentinels, and lost
their lives in attempting to drive them from their post.
It was not without difficulty that Ealeigh prevented his
crews from marching in a body to take revenge for their
comrades. Being unable to conciliate the governor, he
sailed away for the Grand Canary, where he met with
an equally inhospitable reception. Not only was per-
mission to buy provisions refused, but an attack was
made upon his men as they were filling their water-casks
on the beach. At Gomera, Ealeigh was more successful.
He persuaded the governor that he was not a pirate,
and was allowed to take in fresh provisions and water in
peace.*
Desertion Annoyances of this kind were nothing more than the

Of Bailey. _. ^ -.-no i • 1-1 & T-> i • i

ordinary difficulties which such men as Ealeigh were
accustomed to expect. The insubordination which mani-
fested itself in his fleet was a very different matter. He
had long known how terribly the policy of James had told
upon the discipline of his crews. He now learned that
the infection had spread to the officers. One of his com-
manders, Captain Bailey, had captured a small French
vessel, and wished to detain it on the plea that part of
its cargo was the produce of piracy. Ealeigh told him

* Raleigh's Diary. Discovery of Guiana, 179. Carew Letters, 134. Me-
moir of Lorenzo de Torres. Simancas MSS. Est. 2598. An English
prisoner taken on the Grand Canary, being asked where Raleigh was going,
prudently answered, that he was bound for Virginia, or anywhere else that
suited him better.

HIS VOYAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 119

that, even if this were the case, the Frenchman was jus- CH- n.
tified by the doctrine of no peace beyond the line.* At 1617.
this Bailey took offence, and, slipping away from the
fleet, made the best of his way to England. On his
arrival, he gave out that Ealeigh was going to turn
pirate, and was perhaps meditating high treason itself.
He was immediately summoned before the Council, and
committed to prison for traducing his commander. He
was only liberated, after an imprisonment of seven weeks,
upon making a humble acknowledgment of his offence, f
Here, at least, no traces are to be found of that settled
design to ruin Kaleigh, which is sometimes attributed to
the Government.

It seemed as if the elements were leagued against the Sufferings
ill-fated squadron. Ealeigh made for the Cape de Verde
Islands, intending to replenish his empty water-casks.
He had not cast anchor many hours before a hurricane
swept down upon him in the darkness of the night. The
cables parted, and, with imminent risk of shipwreck, the
whole fleet was driven out to sea. It was in vain that
Ealeigh attempted to regain the anchorage. The storm
continued to rage, and, with a heavy heart, he gave
orders to steer for the coast of Guiana. According to
all ordinary calculations, it was a passage of fifteen, or,
at the most, of twenty days. But in this voyage all
ordinary calculations were at fault. For forty days,
calms and contrary winds detained him upon the Atlantic.
The tropical rains came plashing down through the sultry
air. Water was running short, and the want of fresh
provisions was severely felt. Sickness was raging
amongst the crews, and scarcely a day passed in which
Ealeigh had not to chronicle, in the sad diary which he
kept,J the death of some one of those whom he valued
most. One day he was grieving over the loss of his
principal refiner, upon whose services he had counted.
Then it was one of his cousins who was gone. On one
day five corpses were cast overboard, and amongst them

* Raleigh's Apology. Carew Letters, 129.

t Proceedings before the Privy Council, Jan. 11, 1618. Camden Miscel-
lany (1863). Carew Letters, 133, 138.

t Raleigh's Diary in Schomburgk'a edition of The Discovery of Guiana,
185—197.

120 RALEIGH IN GUIANA.

those of Captain Pigott, who was to have been second in
command of the land forces, and of John Talbot, who
had lived with him during the whole of his imprisonment
in the Tower, and who was, as it stands recorded in the
diary, "an excellent general scholar, and a faithful, true
man as ever lived." Three days afterwards another of
his captains died. Next it was his cousin Peyton. And
so the list is lengthened, including only those names
which were held by the writer in special remembrance,
and passing by the forgotten misery of the nameless
mariners who were never again to see their English
homes, and whose bones are resting beneath the broad
Atlantic.

Kaieigh's At last Ealeigh himself was struck down by fever.
For ten days he was lying in his cot, tossing restlessly
in his pain, and eating nothing except now and then a
stewed prune. When at last the joyful cry of "land"
was heard, the Admiral was unable to come upon deck
to gaze upon the coast on which all his hopes were fixed.
It would have been well for him if he had found a
sailor's grave within sight of the shores which he longed
so earnestly to reach.

Ealeigh Ealeigh had struck the coast near the mouth of the

Oylpok; Oyapok. As soon as the anchor touched the ground, he
sent a boat to inquire for his old Indian servant, Leonard,
who had lived with him in England for three or four
years. After his return home he had not forgotten his
master. Ealeigh notes that he had cared for " Mr. Har-
court's brother and fifty of his men when they came
upon that coast, and were in extreme distress, having
neither meat to carry them home, nor means to live
there but by the help of this Indian, whom they made
believe that they were my men."* Such was the spell
which Ealeigh's name still exercised in Guiana. But
Leonard was not to be found, and the squadron stood
away for the mouth of the Cayenne in search of a better
anchorage.

and in the From the Cayenne, Ealeigh wrote to his wife by one

Cayenne. r» -\_ • , • -\ . *

ot his captains wno was returning. He was beginning

* Ealeigh's Diary.

HIS MESSAGES HOME. 121

to see that lie had undertaken the voyage on conditions CH- IL
which made success almost impossible. Forty-two of his 1617.
men, he said, had died upon the voyage, and the rest
were mutinous and discontented. The future was very
dark. No doubt Gondomar had warned his master, and
it was not unlikely that the Orinoco was already fortified.
Yet, come what might, he would not flinch. " We can
make the adventure/' he wrote, "and if we perish it shall
be no honour for England, nor gain for his Majesty, to
lose, among many others, one hundred as valiant gentle-
men as England hath in it. Eemernber niy services," he
added, " to Lord Carew and Mr. Secretary Winwood. I
write not to them, for I can write of nought but miseries."
Yet there was one bright gleam of sunshine amidst the
clouds. Here, too, the Indians had not forgotten the one
white man who had treated them like brothers. " To tell
you/' he said, " that I might be king of the Indians were
but vanity. But my name hath still lived among them
here. They feed me with fresh meat, and all that the
country yields."*

Ealeigh had other work on hand : but as he looked on He pre-
his men, he must have felt that their temper was not hLTsceiit
such as to warrant high hopes of success. On the passage of the
out he had done his best to encourage them, not always

* Ealeigh to Lady Ealeigh, Nov. 14, 1617. Edwards, ii. 347. A favour-
able account of Ealeigh's prospects went home by Captain Alley, who re-
turned in a Dutch vessel. It was published as "News from Guiana."
Bad rumours too accompanied it, as appears from the following extract : —
"Ha llegado aqui ahora d Porsemua un navio que viene de donde estd
Gualtero Ealle, y dize que en el viaje se le ha muerto mucha gente de
la mejor que llevaba, y el maestro de su Capitana ; y que assi havia
errado el puerto del rio de Arenoco, donde iva a buscar la mina, y se avia
entrado en un puerto donde eran tales las corrientes hazia dentro, que
podria mal salir del, que iva ya teniendo gran falta de bastimientos,
que la mas de la gente estaba desesperada, y que haviendole dado a este
navio algunas cartas para traer aqui, el Eall6 las avia despues tornado,
y . . . . abri6 una de un Cavallero que avisaba aqui a otro amigo suyo
la miseria en que stavan, y dezia que, si no se mejoraban las cosas,
estaban todos resueltos de hechar al Gualtero Ealle en la mar, y volver-
se ; que el Gualtero Ealle avia querido prender a este Cavallero, mos-
trandole su carta, y los demas no le avian consentido, y conformanse
todos que vienen en este navio en que esperan muy mal siiceso de este
viaje de Gualtero Ealle, y de los que estan con el, y les pareze que si
continuan la empresa se perderan 6 se haran piratas los que pudieran
salir de alii, y este es lo que yo tengo por mas cierto." Gondoniar to

Philip III., ~5, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2597.

122 RALEIGH'S PREPARATIONS.

CH. ii. wisely. If the mine failed, he told them they had the

1617. Mexico fleet to fall back upon.* Such exhortations had

proved but a poor substitute for the stern, self-denying

sense of duty by which the vilest natures are sometimes

overawed.

But for the present, at least, he had nobler work to
do. As soon as he was able to move, he put off for the
Triangle Isles,t to complete his preparations. Of the ten
vessels which remained to him after the accidents of the
voyage, five only were of sufficiently light draught to
pass the shoals at the mouth of the Orinoco. In these
he placed one hundred and fifty sailors, and two hundred
and fifty fighting men. If he had been able to take
the command in person, all might yet have gone well.
But the fever had left him very weak, and he was
still unable to walk. But even if he had been in perfect
health, there was another obstacle in the way. His
followers had been ready enough to grumble at him ; but
when the time of trial cattie, they knew well enough
what his value was. The officers who had been told off
for the service flocked round him, and with one voice
declared that, unless he remained behind, they would
refuse to go. A Spanish fleet might be upon them at
any moment, and Ealeigh was the only man who could
be trusted not to take to flight at the approach of danger.
They could place confidence on his word, and on his
alone, that he would not expose them to certain de-

* It is expressly stated in the King's Declaration that he spoke of taking
the Mexico fleet before as well as after the failure at the mine. In this
case, the Declaration is supported by Sir J. Caesar's notes of Raleigh's
examination (Lansd. MSS. 142, fol. 396. Camden Miscellany, 1863.)
" And being confronted with Captains St. Leger and Pennington, con-
fesseth, that he proposed the taking of the Mexico fleet if the mine failed."
If a proposal subsequent to the disaster at San Thome had been meant,
it would have been "after the mine failed." It cannot be said, that
these two witnesses are weak ones. In his letter to Winwood (Cayley
ii. 106), Raleigh writes : " The second ship was commanded by my Vice-
Admiral Captain John Pennington, of whom, to do him right, I dare say,
he is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea that England hath.
The third by Sir Warham St. Leger, an exceeding valiant and worthy
gentleman. Nor is it fair to say, as is sometimes done, that Csesar's
notes are only rough ones. He was an experienced note-taker, always
ready whenever any case of interest occurred ; and the chance of mis-
take is diminished to a minimum by his concordance on this point with
Bacon.

t Now known as the Isles de Salut.

KEYMIS SENT UP THE ORINOCO. 123

struction by leaving the entrance to the river open. CH- n-
Ealeigh gave them the promise they required. If the 1617.
enemy arrived, he said, he would fight to the last; but
he would never desert his post.*

On this condition they agreed to go ; but who was to He is left
take Raleigh's place in command of the expedition ? ^J^ ^f
Pigott had died on the passage, and St. Leger was lying the river,
sick on board his ship. Keymis was therefore entrusted
with the general supervision of the force. He knew the
country well, and he was the only man there who had
set eyes upon the spot where the mine was supposed
to be. He was brave and faithful ; but there his quali-
fications ended. Intelligence, forethought, and rapidity
of decision, were wanting to him.

The land forces were placed under the command of
George Ealeigh, a nephew of the Admiral. He was a
young man of spirit, and that was all that could be said
in his favour. Under him, served, at the head of a com-
pany, Raleigh's eldest son Walter, whose life was more
precious to him than all the gold in America.

Whatever else may have been in Raleigh's mind, there His in-
was no thought of paying the slightest attention to his
promise to the King. In considering what was to be
done, there had been some talk about an attack upon the
Spanish town as a preliminary to the search for the mine;')'
for the woods, as Raleigh knew, were thick, and he hesi-
tated to entangle his men amongst them, lest they should
be cut off by the Spaniards before they could regain their
boats. "It would be well," said Raleigh, " to take the
town at once." " But," replied one of those who were
standing by, " that will break the peace." " I have order,
by word of mouth from the King and Council," answered
Raleigh, with unblushing effrontery, " to take the town
if it is any hindrance to the digging of the mine." J

At last, however, he decided against this plan, and
gave directions that when the expedition drew near the

* Raleigh's Diary. Discovery of Guiana, 202. Raleigh to Win wood,
March 21, 1618. Raleigh's Apology. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 106, 124.

f The statement to this effect in the Declaration is borne out by Raleigh's
own words in the Address to Lord Carew. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 138.

t This stands on the authority of the Declaration, upon which I am quite
ready to accept it

124 RALEIGH'S LAST INSTRUCTIONS.

mine, Keymis should take with him six or seven men in
a boat to explore the ground, leaving the rest of his com-
panions behind. But soon after the flotilla started,
Raleigh again changed his mind, and sent a letter after
Keymis, Some Indian might be lurking on the bank,
and seeing a boat-load of Englishmen land, might carry
the news to the Spaniards. Before they could return from
the mine, the enemy would have time to cut them off
from the river. It would therefore be more prudent to
take the whole number to the landing-place. From that
point the mine was only three miles distant. It would be
«asy to post the soldiers in advance so as to guard the
road. If the mine proved not so rich as was expected,
Keymis was to bring away a basket or two of ore, as
a proof of its actual existence. But if, as was hoped,
gold were discovered in abundance, the troops were to
remain at their post to guard the working party from
aggression. If they were attacked by the Spaniards,
" then/' he wrote, " let the Sergeant-Major repel them,
if it be in his power, and drive them as far as he can."

One contingency remained to be provided for. A
rumour had reached him in the Cayenne, that a large
Spanish force had already made its way up the river.
If this were the case, he continued, and if, " without ma-
nifest peril of my son, yourself, and other captains, you
cannot pass toward the mine, then be well advised how
you land. For I know, " and we can fancy how the fire
flashed from his eyes as he wrote the words, " I know,
a few gentlemen excepted, what a scum of men you have,
and I would not for all the world receive a blow from the
Spaniard to the dishonour of our nation. I, myself, for
my weakness, cannot be present, neither will the company
land, except I stay with the ships, the galleons of Spain
being daily expected. Pigott, the sergeant-major, is dead;
Sir Warham, my lieutenant, without hope of life ; and my
nephew, your sergeant-major now, but a young man. It
is, therefore, on your judgment that I rely, whom I trust
God wiH direct for the best. Let me hear from you as
soon as you can. You shall find me at Punto Gallo, dead
or alive ; and if you find not my ships there, yet you shall
find their ashes. For I will fire with the galleons, if it

THEtfNEW SAN THOME. 125

come to extremity; but run away I will never/' * Braver GH- IL
words it was impossible to utter. Wiser instructions than 1617.
these last it was impossible to frame, unless he had been
prepared to think his promise to the King was worth
keeping at the risk of the overthrow of the enterprise.
One thing alone was wanting. He could not put his own
head upon Keymis's shoulders. The crisis of his fortunes
had come, and he had to stand aside, whilst the stake
upon which his life and his honour was set was being
played for by rough sailors and beardless boys.

For three weeks Keymis and his followers struggled 1618.
against the current of the Orinoco. Two out of his five ^^x"
vessels ran aground upon a shoal. But on the morning on the°n
of the 2nd of January, the remaining three had passed Orinoc°-
the head of the delta. The wind was favourable, and the
weary crews might hope that either that evening or the
following morning, they would reach the place from
whence a walk of a few miles would bring them to the
golden mine, for the sake of which they had risked their
lives.

It was mid-day when a sight met their eyes by which The new
they must have been entirely disconcerted; for there, upon Thome
the river bank in front of them, a cluster of huts appeared, seen.
A new San Thome, as they afterwards learned, had risen
to break the stillness of the forest. All hope of reaching
the mine unobserved was at an end.

It was at such a moment that the want of Raleigh's
presence was sure to be felt most deeply. It was still
possible to carry out his instructions in the spirit if not
in the letter. The object of the expedition was the mine,
not the town. Common sense should have warned Key-
mis to pass the town on the further side of the river, and
to take up a defensive position near the mine.

Instead of this, he came to an anchor about a ]eague Attacked
below the town, and immediately proceeded to land his and burnt*
men. If he intended to attack the place, and he can
hardly have taken these measures with any other purpose,
he was singularly slack in his movements. At nightfall
the three vessels weighed anchor, and steered towards
San Thome, whilst, at the same time, the 'land troops

* Raleigh to Keymis. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 125.

126 FIGHT IN THE W<JODS.

CH. II. put themselves in motion in the same direction. Mean-
1618. while the Spanish Governor had taken his measures
with skill. He had but forty-two men to dispose of,
but he had in his favour their thorough knowledge of
the locality, and the thickness of the woods through
which the English had to force their way. It was
about nine o'clock when the first shot was fired upon
the vessels. Not long afterwards ten Spaniards sprang
out from amongst the trees upon the advancing column.'*

* I have, not without some hesitation, taken my narrative thus far from
Fray Simon. (Noticias Historiales, 636.) It is a story in minute detail, and is
evidently founded upon the report of an eye-witness. Its most striking
difference from Kaleigh's account consists in this, that whilst the Spaniard
represents the English as landing below the town, and deliberately march-
ing to attack it, Raleigh describes them as landing between the mine and the
town, and therefore above the town, merely for the purpose of taking a
night's rest, and as being ignorant that the town was so near them as it was.
In the first place, it must be remembered that Raleigh had every motive to
falsify the narrative, so as to make it appear that his men were not the
aggressors. In the second place, his story is improbable in itself. It is
most unlikely that Keymis would not have discovered where the town was.
We are, however, not left to probabilities, as there exists an independent
account of the affair. In a letter written not long afterwards (Discovery of
Guiana, ed. Schomburgk), Captain Parker says, " At last we landed within
a league of San Thome, and about one of the clock at night we made the
assault, where we lost Captain Raleigh and Captain Cosmor, but Captain
Raleigh lost himself with his unadvised daringness, as you shall hear, for I
will acquaint you how we were ordered. Captain Cosmor led the forlorn
hope with some fifty men ; after him I brought up the first division of shot ;
next brought up Captain Raleigh, a division of pikes, who no sooner heard us
charged, but indiscreetly tcame from his command to us," &c. The whole
tenor of this pre-supposes that the English were formed for the attack when
they were charged by the Spaniards. Of any surprise whilst resting on the
river bank the writer knows nothing. Nor is there any reference to any
such surprise in Keymis's letter of the 8th January. Keymis says of young
Raleigh, " that had not his extraordinary valour and forwardness ....
led them all on, when some began to pause and recoil shamefully, this
action had neither been attempted as it was, nor performed as it is,
with this surviving honour." This is hardly the language of a man
to whom "this action" was a mere accident. In his letter to Carew,
Raleigh himself says, " Upon the return I examined the sergeant-major,
and Kemys why they followed not my last directions for the trial of
the mine before the taking of the town; and they answered me, that although
they durst hardly go to the mine, having a garrison of Spaniards between
them and their boats, yet they said they followed those latter directions and
did land between the town and the mine, and that the Spaniards without
any manner of parley, set upon them unawares and charged them, calling
them perros Ingleses, and by skirmishing with them drew them on to the
very entrance of the town, before they knew where they were." (Edwards,
ii. 379.) Now, though Raleigh here states that the Spaniards attacked first,
there is nothing really contradictory with Fray Simon's story. The charge
against the Spaniards of having rushed upon the English when quietly rest-
ing on the bank was, no doubt, an afterthought. The English were pre-
paring to attack, but the Spaniards actually struck the first blow.

CAPTURE OF THE TOWN. 127

The English were taken by surprise, and, by their own _PH- n-
confession, were almost driven into the river. Order, 1618.
however, was soon restored. Numbers began to tell,
•and the Spaniards, repulsed at every point, were forced
back towards the town. Young Walter Raleigh dashed
into the thick of the fight, shouting in words which
were one day to be remembered against his father,
" Come on, my men ; this is the only [mine you will
ever find." The next minute he was struck down, and
his followers were crying wildly over his corpse for
vengeance. As the English pushed their way into the
street, a galling fire was opened upon them from the
houses on either side. At last, in sheer self-defence,
they were driven to set fire to the buildings in which
the enemy was sheltered. The wooden huts were soon
in a blaze, and by one o'clock, the defenders of San
Thome were driven from their homes to find what refuge
they could in the surrounding woods.

When the morning dawned the English discovered Difficulties
that they had not improved their position by their vie- captors,
tory. In a thickly wooded country, the advantage is
always on the side of the defence, and it was that
advantage which, by their attack upon San Thome, they
had recklessly thrown away. Instead of being able, ac-
cording to Raleigh's instructions, to await in a well
chosen position the assault of the enemy, they were now
compelled, if the mine was to be reached at all, to make
their way through dense woods, in which every tree
would afford a shelter to a Spanish marksman. Keymis
did his best to execute his orders. At one time he tried
to force a passage through the forest. At another time
he placed his men in boats and rowed up the stream to
seek for a safer path. Everywhere he met with the
same reception. Volleys of musketry, fired by men
whom it was impossible to reach, told him, in unmis-
takable tones, that the great enterprise had failed.

For some days Keymis still lingered at San Thome. The retreat
It was hard to be the bearer of such tidings as those Thome.
which he must carry to the bereaved father whose son
w?is lying in his bloody grave. But the inevitable re-
treat could not much longer be delayed. His men were

128 RETREAT FROM SAN THOME.

CH- n- raving like madmen, and cursing him for having led
1018. them into such a snare. The mine, they told him, was a
pure invention of his own. As he listened to their angry
reproaches, he began, unconsciously perhaps, to look about
for excuses by which he might shield himself from blame.
A new light suddenly broke upon him. After all, what
would be the use of reaching the mine ? If the gold were
found, it would only fall into the hands of the Spaniards.
Even if he could preserve it from them, and could bring
it safe to England, would it not be immediately confis-
cated by the King ? He was told that the King had
granted it to Ealeigh under the great seal. His answer
was that Ealeigh was an attainted man, and that no
grant to him was of any force.

Keymis's determination was probably hastened by
some papers which he found at San Thome, from which
he learned that Spanish troops were on their way to the
Orinoco. The survivors of the band which, less than
three weeks before, had come up the river full of hope,
hurried on board the vessels with failure written on
their foreheads. From that moment nothing could stop
them in their eager haste to regain the sea. It was in
vain that Keymis, whose heart was sinking at the pro-
spect of meeting the master whom he had ruined, pointed
out a spot from whence, as he told them, the mine might
yet be reached. It was equally in vain that a friendly
Indian chief sent to invite them to another mine far
from any Spanish settlement. They pushed on, heedless
of such enticements, till they caught sight of the Admiral's
topmasts in the gulf of Paria.
Ealeigh The news of the disaster did not come upon Ealeigh

hears the , -. -, , —.. _ ... -t; o

news> at a single blow, first a stray Indian had brought a
rumour of the capture of San Thome.* Then had followed

* In the Declaration it is said that when Raleigh first heard the news, he
proposed to sail away to the Caribbees, leaving his forces in the river to
shift for themselves, and the inference drawn from it is, that he intended
to attack the Spaniards. Just before his death, however, he declared, (Se-
cond Testamentary Note ; Edwards, ii. 495,) " I never had it in my thoughts
to go to Trinidado and leave my companies to come after to the Salvage
Islands, as hath by Fern been falsely reported." Looking however, to the
extremely sharp practice of his denial of plots with the French in that very
paper, I cannot attribute more weight to this than that it may very likely
be literally true, and that perhaps he did have it in his mind to go to some
other island, not Trinidad. But I have not inserted the charge in the text,

RALEIGH'S ANGER. 129

a letter from Keymis with the bitter tidings of his son's CH- IL
death. At last, the whole truth was before him. The 1618.
great adventure was a total failure, and he must go back,
if he went back at all, a discredited and ruined man.

Before Raleigh could decide what to do. a new Suicide of

IT

tragedy came to shatter afresh his already shaken nerves. ym
When Keymis came on board to make his report, he
had received him kindly, as an old comrade should.
But it was not in the nature of things that he should
be satisfied with the story which he had to tell. If
Keymis had been content to plead the simple truth, to
acknowledge his error in attacking the town, and to lay
stress upon the impracticability of forcing a passage
through the woods, it is possible that Kaleigh would
have allowed himself to be convinced. But when he
said that after young Raleigh's death, there was no rea-
son why he should take the trouble to look any further
for the mine in order to enrich such a crew of rascals
as he had around him ; and that Raleigh being without
a pardon, he would be none the better for the discovery
of the gold, he was clearly talking nonsense. The man
who had everything to lose by the failure saw at a glance
that a basketful of ore, by which his sincerity might be
proved, would have been worth everything to him.
Knowing this as he did, he turned savagely upon
Keymis : " It is for you," he said, " to satisfy the King,
since you have chosen to take your own way : I cannot
do it."

Keymis listened to the bitter words, and turned away
sadly. A day or two afterwards he came back with a
letter to Lord Arundel in his hand, which he entreated
Raleigh to read. Raleigh refused to look at it. " You
have undone me," he said, " by your obstinacy, and I
will not favour or colour in any sort your former folly."
Keymis asked if this was his final resolution. Raleigh
answered that it was, and his downcast follower left the

as, even if it be accepted as generally correct, its value depends very much
upon the circumstances under which it was spoken, and the plans which
Raleigh may have formed at the same time for the relief of his crews in the
river. Besides, it would be hard to lay too much stress on words perhaps
liung out in a moment of agony.

VOL. I.

130 SUICIDE OF KEYMIS.

CH. II. cabin, saying as he went, " I know not, then, what course
1618. to take."

The old sailor knew that he had lost his master's respect.
How he had lost it was not so clear to him. Not long
after he had gone, the report of a pistol was heard.
Ealeigh, asking what it meant, was told that Keymis
had fired the shot to clean his arms. Half an hour after-
wards, a boy going into his cabin found him lying dead,
with a long knife driven into his heart. The pistol had
inflicted but a slight wound ; but the sturdy mariner,
who had faced death in a thousand forms, could not
bear to look again upon his commander s angry face.
Raleigh's Ealeigh himself was wellnigh distracted. With nothing
schemes. ^ut blank despair before him, his first thought was to
make a fresh attempt upon the mine. If Keymis had
failed to reach it, he had at least discovered fresh evidence
of its reality. Two ingots of gold had been brought from
San Thome, and papers had been found in which there
was mention of mines existing in the neighbourhood. If
Ealeigh could do nothing else, he could lay his bones by
the side of his son.*

From this desperate proposal his followers shrank.
Their necks were in no danger at home, and they had
no wish to expose themselves to almost certain destruc-
tion for the sake of a mine of the very existence of which
they were by this time thoroughly incredulous. The
Spanish war-ships would be upon them before long ; and
the sooner they left the mouth of the Orinoco the better.
One more plan was submitted to them by Ealeigh before
he gave orders for weighing anchor. He had long before
told them that if disaster should come it might be re-
trieved by an attack upon the Mexico fleet. The evil
which he had foreboded was now before his eyes ; and he
asked his captains whether they would be ready to join
him in the attempt. In his eyes such an undertaking
was perfectly legitimate, f There was no peace beyond

* Raleigh to Winwood, March. 21. Raleigh to Lady Raleigh, March 22,
1618. Raleigh's Apology. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 106, 112, 129.

The language in which Raleigh speaks of the French prize taken off
Cape St. Vincent, is the "best evidence of his real feeling on this point. His
officers urged him to seize it because it was thought that the crew, " had
robbed the Portugals and Spaniards." « But," he says, " because it is law-

THE MEXICO FLEET. 131

the line ; and why should not the Spaniards pay for the CH- IL
injury which they had inflicted upon his men, who had 1618.
been shot down like dogs in what he was pleased to call
the English territory of Guiana ? If Faige had been false
to him, and if the four French ships upon which he had
counted had failed him, might not something be done
even with the forces which still remained ? His captains
do not seem to have rejected the idea positively at first.
One who was present at the consultation asked, " What
shall we be the better ? For, when we come home, the
King will have what we have gotten, and we shall be
hanged." " We shall not need to fear that," was Kaleigh's
answer, " for I have a French commission, by which it is
lawful to take any beyond the Canaries." " And I have
another," said Sir John Fern, " and by that we may go
and lie under Brest or Belleisle, and with one part thereof
satisfy France, and with another procure our peace with
England."*

ful for the French to make prize of the Spanish King's subjects to the South
of the Canaries, and to the West of the Azores, and that it did not belong to
me to examine the subjects of the French King, I did not suffer my com-
pany to take from them any pennyworth of their goods."

* This conversation is taken from the report made by Sir T. Wilson
(Sept. 21, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcix. 58). It may be said that Wilson was a spy,
and therefore, is not to be believed. But those who will take the trouble
to go through Wilson's reports, will, I think, be struck by the internal evi-
dence of their credibility. The mere scraps of information that he is able
to give are very meagre. Nor can he have had any object in inventing
stories against Raleigh. It cannot be seriously maintained that he wished
to deceive the King, who would soon find out the truth or falsehood of
these reports. And even those who think that James himself deliberately
brought false charges against Raleigh can hardly explain why he should
have had them previously inserted in a series of private notes of which no
public use was to be made. But, it may be asked, how came Raleigh to
tell a story so damaging to himself? No doubt, because it had already been
brought in evidence against him. He repeated it in order to explain
it away. " But," the note goes on to say, " I had no such commission, but
spake it only to keep the fleet together, — which else he found apt to part
and sail on pirating."

The question next arises, how far this explanation is to be believed.
With respect to the commission, his statement is literally true, and that is
all that can be said for it. Montmorency's letter cannot strictly be called a
commission. Yet, in a letter written by Raleigh four days later to the King,
of which unfortunately only a Spanish translation has been preserved, he
uses these very words: " Viendo que V. Magd. deseava mucho saver la ver-
clad, y me mandava muy estrechamente que le escriviesse todo lo que era,
ugora por no tener yo a V. Magd. mas suspense y dudoso de la verdad,
viendome en conciencia muy obligado a dar contento a mi Rey y Prin-
cipe natural, y no a otro alguno, esperando que, como yo he siempre
desseado darle en esto satisfacion assi el tendra compasion de mi dura

K 2

132 DESPAIR OF RALEIGH.

CH. II. Upon this scene the curtain drops. We only know
1618. that the proposal came to nothing. When Ealeigh is

Raleigh at next heard of he is at St. Christopher's. Officers and
crews were alike becoming unmanageable. Whitney,
" for whom," he writes to his wife, " I sold all my plate at
Plymouth, and to whom I gave more credit and counte-
nance than to all the captains of my fleet, ran from me at
Granada, and Wollaston with him.* So as I have now
but five ships, and one of those I have sent home, and in
my fly-boat a rabble of idle rascals, which I know will not
spare to wound me ; but I care not. I am sure there is
never a base slave in all the fleet hath taken the pains
and care that I have done — that hath slept so little, and
travailed so much." These men, he had written the day
before to Win wood, "will wrong me all they can. I
beseech your honour that the scum of men may not be
believed of me, who have taken more pains, and suffered
more than the meanest rascal in the ship. These being
gone, I shall be able to keep the sea until the end of
August, with some four reasonable good ships." What
did he intend to do ? We cannot tell. Probably he

y cruda condition, y de mi vejez ; yo dire la veidad & V. Magd. Yo
tuve una comision de el Duque de Momorancy, Almirante de Francia
para yr a la mar, la qua! me di6 un Frances llamado Faggio, que me
dixo que el Embaxador de Francia M. de Maretz me favoresseria con
sus'cartas para el Duque de Momorancy para el dicho effecto." Raleigh
to the King, Sept. 25, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2597.

As to Raleigh's explanation of his proposal for attacking the fleet, no re-
liance can be placed on his mere word. The only external evidence I can
find is in a petition by Pennington, written after his return. He says that
he came back in great want, " without offending any of his Majesty's laws,
though much incited thereunto." There remains the test of probability; and,
when it is remembered that Raleigh had been, to say the least of it, playing
with the idea of attacking the fleet for several months, it seems hardly likely
that he did not mean anything serious. Besides, if he could honestly have
denied his intention of attacking the fleet, why did he not do so on the
scaffold ? He there certainly said everything which could be urged in his
defence.

* Wollaston and Collins " coming lately to the fishing-place," in New-
foundland, " met there with a French man-of-war, who laying them aboard
with intention to have taken them was taken by them, and brought into a
harbour, where they put the Frenchmen ashore, and remained with the ship;
and that they there understanding of a Flemish ship-of-war riding in a
harbour not far off, which had offered some hard measure to the English,
went and came to an anchor by her, and after some parley they fell to fight-
ing, and in a short space the Fleming was taken. One Captain Whitney,
who was also of Sir W. Raleigh's company, came now with this fleet to
Malaga, loaden with fish from the New-found-land, and is gone with the
jest to seek his market," Cottington to Lake, Oct. 29. S. P. Spain.

HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND. 133

could not tell himself. "My brains are broken," he CH- IL
writes to his wife, "and it is a torment to me to write, 1618-
especially of misery.""""

Kaleigh is next heard of at Newfoundland. But if he His return.
still cherished hopes of retrieving his ill-success, he was
not long in discovering that he must abandon them for
ever. His crews refused to follow him, and he was
forced to make sail for England. On the voyage home,
the poor frightened men mutinied, and compelled him to
swear that before he carried his ship into port he would
obtain their pardon from the King. Ealeigh himself
hardly knew what to do. At one time he offered
to make his ship over to his men, if they would put him
on board a French vessel. In truth, it was but a choice
of evils that was before him. As a penniless outcast, he
had as little chance of a good reception in Paris as in
London. At last, having first put into Kinsale harbour,
he persuaded his men to suffer him to steer for Ply-
mouth.t

As Ealeigh knew, it was no friendly tribunal that he Gondomar
would have to face. During the months which had
passed so wearily with him, Gondomar had been watching
for the news which, as he little doubted, would confirm
his worst suspicions. He had listened eagerly to the tale
of the deserter, Bailey, and had urged his Government to
lay an embargo upon the property of the English mer-
chants at Seville, till redress was afforded for the alleged
hostilities at the Canaries. ;(: Then, to his great delight,
came news from the Cayenne, telling of discontent
amongst the crews, and of the probabilities of failure. §

* Raleigh to Winwood, March 21. Raleigh to Lady Raleigh, March 22.
1618. Cayley, Life of Ealeigh, ii. 106, 112.

t The statement made by Raleigh on the scaffold, has been usually sup-
posed to contradict that in the King's Declaration. To my mind, they
mutually confirm one another. Raleigh does not contradict the story which
was afterwards embodied in the Declaration, but only tells another story.
Both were, no doubt, true. The same fear of punishment which made the
crews anxious to sail for England, rather than engage in an unknown enter-
prise, would make them shrink from landing in England, without assurance
of pardon.

t Minutes of Gondomar's despatches, Oct. -, and Nov. -, 1617. Siman-
cas MSS. Est. 2514.

§ Gondomar to Philip III., r~, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2597.

GONDOMAR'S APPEAL TO THE KING.

CH. II. Early in May,* two vessels arrived with the letters which
1618. had been written by Ealeigh from St. Christopher's. On
the 23rd,f Captain North told the King at full length
the miserable story, and three or four weeks later the
Destiny itself cast anchor in Plymouth sound. J

Gondomar lost no time in hurrying to the King to
demand satisfaction for the outrages committed at San
Thome. One of two things, he said, must be done.
Either Ealeigh must be punished in England, or he must
be placed in his hands to be sent as a prisoner to
Spain. §

June. James, to all appearance, was ready to comply with
his demands. On the 1 1th of June, he issued a proclama-
tion, inviting all persons who had any evidence to give
against Ealeigh to present themselves before the Coun-
cil. || The Lord High Admiral gave instructions that the
Destiny should be seized in the King's name as soon
as it made its appearance in English waters. IF Bucking-
ham was instructed to tell Gondomar that justice should
be done.** A week or two after Ealeigh's arrival, James
informed the Ambassador that, if the charge was proved
against him, he should be delivered up to the King of

Contarini to the Doge, May ^, 1618. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.
f Camden's Annals.

$ Contarini to the Doge, June — . Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Salvetti's
News-Letter, June £ ^f , 1618.

§ Contarini to the Doge, ^f , July ^. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.
Caron to the States General, July H. Add. MSS. 17,677, I; fol. 312. Sal-
vetti's News-Letter, J~|?, 1618. Not one of these writers says anything of
Howel's story of "Piratas, Piratas, Piratas." In most of the editions of
his letters, the letter in which this anecdote is given is dated about two
months before Raleigh's return. Even if we go back to the first edition,
which gives no dates, it is, to say the least of it, strange that two letters
should be written just as Howel was starting for the Continent, and that of
these, one should give the story of Ealeigh's return, which took place in
1618, and the other should give the story of the execution of the accom-
plices in Overbury's murder, which took place in 1615. The story is in
contradiction with all that I know of Gondomar's character. Howel, pro-
bably, found it floating about, and placed it in his letters when he was
dressing them up in order to sell them.

|| Proclamation, June 11, 1618. Rymer, xvii. 92.
IF Stukely's Apology. Raleigh's Works, viii. 783.
* Buckingham to Gondomar, June 26, 1818. S. P. Spain.

THE RIOT AT THE SPANISH EMBASSY. 135

Spain, to be treated as he deserved.* It was without GH- IL
much hope of success that Kaleigh's friends at Court en- 1618.
deavoured to stem the tide. Carew was especially urgent
in his behalf. " I may as well hang him," was the King's
reply, " as deliver him to the King of Spain ; and one of
these two I must do, if the case be as Gondomar has
represented it." Carew pressed for a more favourable
answer. " Why," said James, " the most thou canst
expect is that I should give him a hearing."")*

Ealeigh was in no hurry to present himself in London, July.
for he was well informed of all that was passing at ^r't°de-
Court ; and he knew that the man from whose influence parture.
he had most to dread was to leave England in a few
days. As far as James could carry his wishes into effect,
Gondomar' s departure from London on the 16th of July
was a kind of triumphal procession. It had often been
the practice to gratify the ambassadors of Eoman Catholic
states, by allowing them to carry with them a few priests,
who were liberated from prison on condition that they
would engage not to return to England. In honour of
Gondomar, every priest in prison was set at liberty at
once ; and as he rode down to Dover, he was followed by
at least a hundred, of whom the greater number had pro-
bably already made up their minds to make their way
back to England as soon as possible.

But if Gondomar was in high favour with the King, ™<^attack
he was not in high favour with the English people. A Spanish6
day or two before he left London, one of his suite, riding Embassy-
carelessly down Chancery Lane, rode over a ( little boy.
The child was more frightened than hurt ; but to the
angry crowd which gathered in an instant, it was enough
that the mischance was attributable to a Spaniard. In a
few minutes four or five thousand infuriated Englishmen
were rushing along the streets with a fixed determination
to tear the unlucky foreigner from his refuge at the
Spanish Embassy in the Barbican. Gondomar himself
was away, supping with the Earl of Worcester ; but his
frightened attendants were trembling at the execrations

* Salvetti's News-Letter, June ^, 1618.

f Lorkin to Puckering. Harl MSS. 7002, fol. 410.

13G PUNISHMENT OF THE RIOTERS.

CH- IL of the mob without, and were waiting amidst crashing
1618. windows and splintering doors, for the moment when
they might be hurried off to instant death.

Fortunately, when the confusion was at the highest,
Chief Justice Montague, accompanied by the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen, appeared upon the scene. Then was dis-
played the English respect for authority and law : in a
moment, the howling crowd was silent, and the work of
destruction was arrested. Upon an assurance from Mon-
tague that the offender should be put to a legal trial for
what he had done, they opened their ranks that the
culprit might be led away unharmed to prison, and
then quietly dispersed to their homes. As soon as the
disturbance was at an end, the Chief Justice, regardless of
his promise, ordered that the Spaniard should be peace-
fully restored to the Embassy.

The King's The next morning James sent Buckingham to Gon-
domar to express his regret at the untoward occurrence.
In the lofty tone which had always served him so well,
the ambassador replied that he was personally ready to
forgive the offence, but that he could not tell how his
master would receive the news.

Punish- James had already made the riot an affair of state.

offenders.6 The Lord Mayor was ordered to ask Gondomar's pardon,
and was told that if he did not punish the offenders him-
self, the King would come in person into the city to see that
justice was done. Gondomar now declared himself satis-
fied, and, before he left England, sent a message to the King,
begging hini not to deal harshly with the rioters.* Three
weeks afterwards, James, finding that the magistrates
were inclined to sympathize with the offenders, issued a
special commission for the trial of the culprits, f and seven
unlucky lads were sentenced to an imprisonment of six
months and a fine of 5001. a-piece.J Within a month after
the passing of the sentence, however, it was remitted at
the instance of Gondomar's secretary, Sanchez, who had

*Lorkin to Puckering, July 14. Harl MSS. 7002, fol. 414. Con-
tarini to the Doge, ^J^. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Salvetti's News-

t Bacon to Caesar, Aug. 6, 1618. Add. MSS. 12,507, fol. 79.
Chamberlain to Carleton, Aug. 13, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcviii. 17.

RALEIGH AT PLYMOUTH. 137

remained in England as agent for his Government, till a CH- n-
new ambassador should be appointed.* 1618.

Unfortunately for Raleigh, the knowledge that the Raleigh's
London mob, which had nearly torn him to pieces fifteen a
years before, would be sure to treat him with greater
respect now, was not likely to be of much service to him.
At last, knowing that further delay would be useless, he
determined to set out for London ; but he had not pro-
ceeded further -than Ashburton, when he met Sir Lewis
Stukely, a cousin of his own, who was Vice- Admiral of
Devon, and who was charged with orders to arrest him.
Stukely took him back to Plymouth, and having nothing
but verbal directions from the King, waited for a formal
commission to bring him up to London as a prisoner.
During the interval, Kaleigh, either being ill in reality,
or hoping to gain time by counterfeiting sickness, took
to his bed. Under these circumstances, Stukely left him
very much to himself, and omitted to take the usual pre-
cautions for the safe custody of the prisoner.")"

With the opportunity, the thought of escape presented juiy.
itself once more to Raleigh. He had lost all hopes of Heat-
regaining the favour of James. He commissioned Captain
King, the only one of his officers who had remained faith-
ful to the last, to make arrangements for flight with the
master of a French vessel which was lying in the Sound.
At nightfall the two slipped out of the house together,
and got into a boat. They had not rowed far before
Raleigh changed his mind, and ordered King to return.
He could not tell what to do. Next day he sent money
to the Frenchman, and begged him to wait for him
another night. Night came, but Raleigh did not stir.

His irresolution was soon brought to an end. Stukely

* Contarini to the Doge, Sept. i|. Proclamation, Sept. 10, 1618. 8. P.
Dom. clxxxvii. 59.

t It is sometimes supposed that Stukely intended to give him a chance
of escape, meaning to stop him, in order that he might have an additional
charge to bring against him. If so, Stukely must have been a great bun-
gler, as he made no preparations for preventing Raleigh from getting clear
off. Nor were the reasons which afterwards induced the King to favour a
trick of this kind as yet in existence. Caron's account of the matter, in all
probability, gives the true explanation. Raleigh was sick, or pretended to
be so. This would quite account for Stukely's neglect of him. See Caron to
the States General, J^j-^. Add. MSS. 17,677, 1 ; fol. 318. Salvetti's News-
Letter, July , 1618.

138

RALEIGH AND STUKELY.

CH. II.

1618.
August.

He is

earned up
to London.

His re-
newed at-
tempts to
escape.

received peremptory orders to take his prisoner to Lon-
don.* As Kaleigh passed through Sherborne he pointed
out the lands which had once been his, and told the by-
standers how they had been wrongfully taken from him.
Perhaps the recollection of his trial at Winchester made
him more than ever unwilling to face the King. His
fears again took possession of him. At Salisbury he sunk
so low as to feign illness, in order to gain a little time
upon the road. A French quack, named Mannourie, who
was in attendance upon him, gave him ointment to pro-
duce sores wherever it was applied. He was too ill, he
said, to travel. It happened that the Court was in the
town in the course of the progress, and Digby, as soon as
he heard of Kaleigh's condition, obtained for him permis-
sion to retire for a few days to his own house, as soon as
he was able to reach London. This was exactly what
Ealeigh wanted. He fancied that escape would now be
easy. His first thought was to bribe Stukely to aid him.
Upon Stukely 's refusal, he begged King to hurry on to
London, and to hire a vessel to wait at Gravesend till he
was able to go on board.

* " You have under your charge the person of Sir W. Ealeigh, Knt., touch-
ing whom and his safe bringing hither before us of his Majesty's Privy
Council, you have received many directions, signifying his Majesty's plea-
sure and commandment. Notwithstanding, we find no execution thereof as
had becomed you, but vain excuses, unworthy to be offered to his Majesty,
or to those of his Council, from whom you received his pleasure." Council
Register, July 25, 1618. Mr. Edwards (Life, i. 654) complains of Bacon as
having deliberately inserted a falsehood into the King's Declaration, by
saying, " That this first escape to France was made before Stukely's arri-
val at Plymouth." I do not find, however, that Bacon said anything like
this. The words are, " For about this time Sir W. Raleigh was come from
Ireland into England, into the port of Plymouth, where it was easy to dis-
cern with what good will he came thither, by his immediate attempt to
escape from thence ; for soon after his coming to Plymouth, before he was
under guard, he dealt with the owner of a French bark," &c. Bacon, there-
fore, does not say that the escape was made before Stukely's arrival, but
before Raleigh was under guard, and though a microscopic objector might
say that Raleigh was in some sort under guard from Stukely's first arrival,
yet he was practically left to do pretty much as he liked till the arrival of
the order from the Privy Council. The exact date of the attempt must
seemed of little moment to Bacon, if, as I believe, he was arguing

was a mere
rmouth es-

_ . _ _ - ._ „ by Sir L. Stukely,

or any other, to move or tempt him to an escape, but that he had a purpose
to fly and escape from his first arrival in England ;" and this, as far as I can
see, is strictly true.

RALEIGH AND THE FRENCH AGENT. 139

The master of the vessel took King's orders, and im- CH- H-
mediately gave information of what he knew. The story 1618.
was told to Sir William St. John, a captain of one of the Betrayed
King's ships. St. John decided upon riding down to g^
Salisbury to tell James. Before he reached Bagshot,
he met Stukely coming up with his prisoner, and ac-
quainted him with his discovery. Stukely told him, in
return, of Raleigh's dealings with himself and Mannourie,
and charged him to lay the whole matter before the
King*

The next day, Stukely had fresh news to write to August.
Court. La Chesnee, the interpreter of the French Em- ^wfth
bassy, who had had dealings with Raleigh before he LaChes-
sailed, had visited him at Brentford. He had brought a n6e*
message from Le Clerc, who since Desmarets' departure,
had been residing in England as agent for the King of
France, offering him a passage on board a French vessel,
together with letters of introduction, which would secure
him an honourable reception in Paris. Raleigh had
thanked him for his kindness, but had told him that he
had already provided for his escape.

All this Stukely, who seems to have thought it no ^jjF6
shame to act as a spy upon the man who had called upon attempt to
him to betray his trust, communicated to the King. escaPe-
James at once took alarm. A plot with France was a
serious matter. He accordingly directed Stukely to
counterfeit friendship with Raleigh, to aid him in his
escape, and only to arrest him at the last moment. By
this course, it would seem, he hoped to wheedle Raleigh
out of his secret, and perhaps to get possession of papers
which would afford evidence of his designs, f Raleigh
was, therefore, conducted upon his arrival in London to
his own house in Bread Street. Here he received a visit
from Le Clerc, who repeated his former offers. The next
morning he got into a boat, accompanied by Stukely and

* St. John's Declaration, Aug. 17, 1618. Harl MSS. 6854, fol. 1.

t " But why did you not execute your commission barely to his appre-
hension on him in his house ? Why, my commission was to the contrary,
to discover his other pretensions, and to seize his secret papers." Stukely's
Petition, 7. I incline to think this to be the true account. Those who
think Raleigh was helped to escape, in order that an additional excuse might
be found to hang him, are of course those who resolutely ignore the fact
that there was any real ground for proceeding against him already.

140 RALEIGH'S VINDICATION OF HIMSELF.

King. As had Ireen pre-arranged, he was arrested at
Woolwich, and was at once lodged in the Tower.*

From the moment that the Tower gates closed upon
^y' him, Kaleigh can have had little hope. For he must
have known well that, even if James had been disposed
to do him justice, his case would not bear the light. He
had already done his best to plead his cause before the
King. The apology which he drew up during those
miserable days in which he had counterfeited illness at
Salisbury was indeed, if it be simply considered as a lite-
rary effort, a masterly production. In language which
still rings like a clarion, Kaleigh hurled his last defiance
in the face of Spain. He vindicated the rights of the
English Crown to Guiana, and asserted that, had he
taken possession of the mine on the Orinoco in spite of
all the forces of Spain, he would merely have been doing
his duty as a faithful servant of the King of England.
His old conviction of the righteousness of his life-long
struggle with Spain glowed in every line.

As an appeal to posterity, the Apology has had all,
and more than all, the success which it deserved. To
James it must have appeared tantamount to a confession
of guilt. Utterly unable to deny that, after sailing under
an express promise not to meddle with the subjects of
the King of Spain, he had sent his men up the Orinoco
without any instructions which might lead them to sup-
pose that he thought the fulfilment of his promise worth
a moment's consideration, Ealeigh now turned round
upon the King, and represented his own dereliction of
duty as a high and noble deed. He had been content to
found his enterprise upon a lie, and his sin had found
him out. To all who knew what the facts were, he
stamped himself by his Apology as a liar convicted by
his own admission.

Yet, how could James exact from him the penalty of

comiTnm m'? fault? To impartial persons, it is clear that the

him ? King's own misconduct had its full share in bringing

about the catastrophe. It was James, who, in order to

* Oldys' Life of Raleigh, in Raleigh's Works, i. 519. Stukely's Apology
in Raleigh's Works, viii. 783. The King's Declaration. Stukely's Petition.
Council Register, Sept. 27, 1618.

THE KINGS INTENTIONS.

141

CH- IL

1618.

throw the whole responsibility upon Ealeigh, had required
from him a promise which, as the slightest consideration
would have told him, it was hardly possible for him to
keep. He had thought to save himself trouble, and now
it was come back upon him with tenfold weight. Out of
the difficulty which he had brought upon himself, there
was no way by which he could escape with credit. If he
pardoned Raleigh, he must not only break off his friend- -
ship with Spain, but he must announce to the world that
he was himself regardless of his plighted word, and that
he was as careless of the rights of other sovereigns, as he
was tenacious of his own. If he sent Raleigh to the scaf-
fold, he was condemning himself for the part which he
had taken, in spite of the warning of Gondomar, in pro-
moting an enterprise of which he now bitterly repented.
If justice demanded the execution of Raleigh, it also
demanded his own.

Such considerations, however, were far enough from A com-
the mind of James. Commissioners were appointed — ^pohSed
Bacon, Abbot, Worcester, Caesar, Coke, and Naunton, to to examine
examine the charges against the prisoner. That they
performed their duties conscientiously there is no reason
to doubt. The names are by no means such as to indi-
cate a packed tribunal. Yet, in one important point,
they certainly came to a wrong conclusion. Instead of
contenting themselves with supposing, as was really the
case, that Raleigh was careless whether he broke his pro-
mise or no, if he could only reach the mine, and that he
was equally indifferent to the means by which he might
indemnify himself, if the mine should prove a failure, they
adopted the theory that he never intended to go to the
mine at all, and that he had sailed with the purpose of at
once engaging in a piratical attack upon the colonies and
fleets of Spain. No doubt they knew as well as we do,
that the evidence required careful sifting before it could
be admitted as conclusive. For those who gave it were,
for the most part, angry and disappointed men ; and
Raleigh was at all times a free speaker, whose words could
seldom be regarded as an infallible ke)^ to his settled
purposes. But, in an inquiry for truth, they got no
assistance from Raleigh. Whatever else might be true,

142 EXAMINATION OF RALEIGH.

II- it was plain that his story at least was false. And as,

1618. one by one, admissions were wrung from him which were
utterly fatal to his honesty of purpose ; as the Commis-
sioners heard one day of his proposal to seize the
Mexico fleet, and another day of his underhand dealings
with Montmorency, it is hardly to be wondered that, ex-
asperated by the audacity of his lying, they came to the
conclusion that there was not a single word of truth in
his assertions, and that his belief in the very existence of
the mine was a mere fiction, invented for the purpose of
imposing upon his too credulous Sovereign.

Raleigh On the 17th of August, a week after his committal to
Council. e the Tower, Ealeigh was brought before the Council. He
had to listen to the charges, true and false, which Yel-
verton and Coventry had been instructed to bring against
him. He was never at a loss, and he threw the main
force of his defence upon the weak point in the prosecu-
tion. He indignantly repudiated the supposition that
the mine had no real existence, and he called attention
to the fact that he had ordered Keymis to keep his men
between San Thome and the mine, with the sole object ^of
securing the working party from interruption. It might
have been replied that as he had obviously only given
the order from considerations of expediency, it could
not be accepted as a substitute for an unconditional com-
mand to avoid meddling with the Spaniards at all hazards,
and that his own language had been such as to leave
Keymis under the impression that he was at liberty to
make the attack if he should find it to be worth his
while. The Attorney-General, however, preferred to in-
troduce Sir Warham St. Leger and Captain Pennington ;
and in their presence Ealeigh was driven to confess that
he had proposed the seizure of the Mexico fleet. It is
true that he qualified his confession by stating that he
had only spoken of it as a possibility contingent upon
the failure of the mine, and that either on this or on some
other occasion he endeavoured to explain away his words
as having been uttered without any serious intention.
But the fact that such words had been spoken at all was
enough to bring home to ordinary minds the conviction,
that he had sailed under false pretences, and to prepare

FURTHER INQUIRY. 143

them to disbelieve the most solemn protestations of a _5H- n-
man who had been proved to be so regardless of truth.* L618,

Other examinations Ealeigh had to undergo. But no inquiry
report of them has reached us, and it is impossible to F^ciT
say what answers he made to the further charges which plot.
were brought against him. On one point we know that
the Government was most anxious for information. The
plot with France, of which they had come upon the traces,
assumed gigantic proportions in their eyes. La Chesne'e
was summoned before the Council, and was examined on
his visit to Ealeigh at Brentford. To the astonishment
of his questioners, he replied by a blank denial that he
had ever spoken a word to Ealeigh on the subject of his
escape. Enraged at his mendacity, the Council ordered
him into custody, f In its anxiety for information, the
Government now decided upon setting a spy over
Ealeigh, who might gain his confidence, and win from
him an acknowledgment of the true character of his
dealings with the French.

The person selected for this miserable office was Sir "Wilson set
Thomas Wilson,^ the keeper of the State Papers, an old
spy of Queen Elizabeth's. He felt no repugnance to the
occupation. As soon as he was installed in the Tower,
he began to ply the prisoner with questions, and to hint
to him that by a full confession it might yet be possible
to regain the favour of the King. For more than a
fortnight Ealeigh remained upon his guard. He would
admit nothing. When he was pressed to acknowledge
that he had spoken words which he was unable to deny,
he took refuge in the assertion that it was indeed true
that he had used the words, but that he had meant
nothing by them. It was thus that he explained away
the fact that he had communicated to Stukely La ChesneVs
offer of a passage on board a French vessel. It was true,
he said, that he had told Stukely so ; but he had not
spoken the truth. It had been convenient for him at

* Proceedings against Raleigh, Aug. 17, 1618. Lansd. MSS. 142, fol. 396.
Camden Miscellany for 1863. See also the King's Declaration, and compare
note at p. 122.

t Declaration of the Council, Sept. 27, 1618. Council Register. Ches-
neVs examinations are at Simancas ; but a translation has been printed in
St. John's Life of Raleigh, i. 303, 313, 323.

£ The Commissioners to Wilson, Sept. 10, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcix. 7.

144 CONVERSATIONS WITH WILSON.

CH. II. the time to persuade Stukely that a French vessel was
1618. waiting for him in the Thames, and he had invented the
falsehood on the spot.* About a week later, Ealeigh told
Wilson the story of his proposal to his captains to seize
the Mexico fleet, which was already known by other
means to the Government. But it was only to accom-
pany it with the explanation, that, although he had laid
the scheme before his companions, he had done so only
in the hope of keeping his fleet together, without any
intention of carrying it into execution.

Sept. And so the wretched game of falsehood on both sides
Raleigh went on ; till at last, on the 25th of September, Ealeigh,
ledgeThis weary of the struggle, wrote to the King, acknowledging
wlth'the ^at ^e kad sa^e(^- w^h a commission from the Admiral
Trench, of France, and that La Chesne'e had, by Le Clerc's. direc-
tions, offered to assist him in his escape.f

Le Clerc was the first to suffer from this disclosure.
La Chesnee was again summoned before the Council, and
was no longer able to persist in his transparent false-
hoods. Le Clerc was then sent for. He boldly denied
having had any dealings with Ealeigh whatever. He
was told that he would no longer be treated as the
minister of the King of France ; and, not long after-
wards, finding that his presence was useless in England,
he left the kingdom. J

October. It would seem that several circumstances relating to
Ealeigh's intrigues with the French were brought to the
knowledge of the Commissioners ; for we find him doing
his best in his conversations with Wilson to explain away
his intercourse with Faige, his having taken into considera-
tion the plan for the surprise of St. Valery, and his listen-
ing to the proposal made to him before he left the Tower
for seizing the Mexico fleet with six or seven Eochellese
ships. §
Recharges At last Ealeigh turned to bay. If he had formed a

* Wilson's Notes, Sept. 12, 13, 14, 16, 18. S. P. Dom. xcix. 9, i.
- Raleigh to the King, Sept. 25, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2597. The
letter is quoted in a statement in the Council Register, Sept. 27, 1618, and a
translation will be found in St. John's Life of Raleigh, ii. 331.

t Statement of the proceedings with Le Clerc, Sept. 27, 1618. Council
Register. Finetti, Philoxenis.

§ Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, 1618. S. P. Dom. ciii. 16.

PROPOSAL OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 145

plot for the seizure of the fleet during his last voyage, CH- H.
it was, he said, at the instigation of Winwood and others, i6is.
who were members of the Privy Council. But Win- Winwood
wood's misdeeds were already known,* and Raleigh's
disclosures were received with indifference. He no longer
doubted that he must prepare to die. His friends at
Court had pleaded his cause in vain. Even the Queen,
forgetful, since her quarrel with Somerset, of her old
friendship with Spain, had, without success, urged Buck-
ingham to interfere in his favour.f

If Ealeigh's execution was still delayed, it was not Reference
because James had any compunction about sending him
to the block, but because, in one last futile effort to shift
the responsibility of his death from his own shoulders,
he had offered the King of Spain to deliver the prisoner
to him, to be dealt with as he pleased. Of course,
Philip declined to take the thankless task upon himself,
and requested James to execute his own criminals.^

Having thus made up his mind that Kaleigh was to The re-
die, James applied to the Commissioners to know how it commte-11
was to be done. Their reply was drawn up by Bacon, sioners.
It began by stating that it was impossible that Raleigh
could be tried for any offence which he had committed
as an attainted man. It was, therefore, necessary, if he
was to be executed at all, that he should be executed
upon his former sentence. It would not be illegal to
send him to the scaffold upon a simple warrant to the
Lieutenant of the Tower. But if this were done, it would
be well that a narrative should be published setting forth
the offences for which he was in reality to die. The
Commissioners evidently felt that if as a matter of legal
formality Kaleigh was to be put to death for his alleged in-
trigue with Spain in 1603, it should at all events be made
plain that this was nothing more than a legal formality.
But there can be little doubt that, in their hearts, they
preferred the alternative which they next suggested, Theypro-
namely, that, as far as the law would permit, Raleigh

* See note at p. 62.

t The Queen to Buckingham. Cayley's Life of Raleigh, ii. 164.

I Philip III. to Sanchez, ^-f , 1618. S. P. Dom. xcix. 74.

VOL. I. L

146 THE KING SHRINKS FROM A PUBLIC TRIAL.

CH. II. should have the advantage of a public trial. He was
1618. to be called before the Council, and the Council was on
trial before this occasion to be reinforced by the addition of some
the Coun- Q£ ^e Judges. The doors were to be thrown open to
certain noblemen and gentlemen who were to be sum-
moned as witnesses of the proceedings. After the ne-
cessity of this unusual form of trial had been explained,
the lawyers were to open the case, and the examinations
were to be read, just as would have been done in
"Westminster Hall. Raleigh was to be heard in his
own defence ; and that there might be no repetition of
the unfair treatment which he had received at Win-
chester, the witnesses against him were to be produced
in open court. Although no sentence could be formally
recorded, the Councillors and the Judges were to give
their opinions whether there was sufficient ground to
authorise the King in putting the law in force against
the prisoner.*

Their Such a trial as this, indeed, would still have been

rejectS1 deficient in many of those guarantees for fair dealing
by the which have been extended to the prisoners in modern
times. But it would have been justice itself as com-
pared with the other plan which had been suggested by
the Commissioners. James's reasons for rejecting the
proposal have not been recorded. But, in truth, they lie
upon the surface. How could he bear that Ealeigh should
be permitted to denounce with withering scorn that
alliance with Spain which was so dear to his heart.
His words would be sure to find a response in the hearts
of the spectators ; perhaps even in the hearts of his
judges. There would be division in the Council. Pem-
broke, Arundel, and Carew, might be found unwilling to
condemn the man whom they had favoured. It is true,
that a prudent and far-seeing Sovereign might easily have
replied to .Raleigh's arguments. He might have told him
that it was most dangerous that a subject who had sailed
under solemn promises not to assail the territories of any
foreign prince, should treat those promises as Raleigh had
treated his ; and that it was for the Government, and

* The Commissioners to the King, Oct. 18, 1618. Bacoris Works, ed.
Montagu, xii. 358.

RALEIGH BROUGHT UP FOR JUDGMENT. 147

not for any private person, to determine what interpre- CH. JI-
tation should be put upon the prevailing theories of 1618.
maritime law by the officers of a fleet sailing under a
royal commission. He might have told him, and no
impartial person would have been able to deny the
truth of the assertion, that, looking at the existing state
of Europe, it was not advisable either to risk prema-
turely a war with Spain, or to divert to Guiana any
portion of the strength of England which might soon be
needed on the Continent. But James had put it out of
his power to say anything of the kind. He would be
told that he should have thought of all this when he
signed Raleigh's commission two years before. How
completely he had become the tool of Spain was no
doubt hidden from his eyes ; but he knew that he
quailed before the man who might denounce him as the
tool of Spain in the eye of day. And so he did not dare
to allow him even the semblance of a public trial. It
would be better, he thought, to wait till the tongue of
his victim was silent before he laid before the people of
England the charges on which he was to die.

Accordingly a privy seal was directed to the Justices Proceed-
of the King's Bench, commanding them to award execu- 5£§^ tl]
tion upon the old sentence. James seems to have Bench,
expected that it would be unnecessary for Raleigh to
appear in Court. The Judges, however, declared that it
was impossible for them to act unless the prisoner were
produced, as he must have an opportunity afforded him
of giving a reason, if he could find one to give, why
execution should not be awarded.* On the 28th of
October, therefore, Raleigh, weak and suffering as he
was from an attack of ague, was brought to the bar.
Yelverton, in a few brief sentences, demanded the execu-
tion of the Winchester judgment. Raleigh, when called
upon to say what he could for himself, advanced the
argument that the Winchester judgment was virtually
discharged by the commission which had entrusted him
with the power of life and death over others. He then
began to speak of his late voyage. But he was imme-
diately interrupted by the Chief Justice, who told him

* Button's Rep. 21.

L 2

1'48 RALEIGH'S LAST HOUKS.

- II.

that he was not called in question for his voyage, but for
1618. the treason which he had committed in 1603. Unless
he could produce an express pardon from the King, no
argument that he could use would be admissible. Ea-
leigh answered, that if that were the case, he had nothing
to do but to throw himself upon the King's mercy. He
believed that most of those who were present knew what
the Winchester verdict was really worth ; and he was
sure that the King knew it too. As soon as he had
concluded, Montague, in words which stood in strong
contrast with the scurrility which would certainly have
been heard if Coke had been still upon the Bench,
awarded execution according to law.*

Raleigh James had no intention of granting any further re-
toX^68 spite. It was in vain that Ealeigh begged for a few days
to complete some writings which he had on hand ; he was
told that he must prepare for execution on the following
morning. As he was to suffer in Palace Yard, he was
taken to the Gatehouse at Westminster to pass the night.
His last With the certainty of death he had regained the composure
thfcLTe- to which he had long been a stranger. In the evening,
house. Lady Ealeigh came to take her farewell of her husband.
Thinking that he might like to know that the last rites
would be paid to his remains, she told him that she had
obtained permission to dispose of his body. He smiled,
and answered, "It is well, Bess, that thou mayest dis-
pose of that dead which thou hadst not always the dis-
posing of when it was alive, "t At midnight she left him,
Oct. 29. and he lay down to sleep for three or four hours. When
he woke he had a long conference with Dr. Townson, the
Dean of Westminster, who was surprised at the fearless-
ness which he exhibited at the prospect of death, and
begged him to consider whether it did not proceed from
carelessness or vain glory. Ealeigh, now as ever, un-
conscious of his real faults, did his best to disabuse him
of this idea, and told him that he was sure that no man
who knew and feared God could die with fearlessness and
courage, except he were certain of God's love and favour
to him. Eeassured by these words, Townson proceeded

* Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 161.

t Townson to Isham, Nov. 9, 1618. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 176.

PREPARATIONS FOR DEATH. 149

to administer the Communion to him; after he had CH- IL
received it, he appeared cheerful, and even merry. He 1618.
spoke of his expectation that he would be able to per-
suade the world of his innocence. The good Dean was
troubled with talk of this kind, and begged him not to
speak against the justice of the realm. Kaleigh acknow-
ledged that he had been condemned according to the law,
but said that, for all that, he must persist in asserting his
innocence.

As the hour for his execution approached, Ealeigh took ^ecjjjdc<£
his breakfast, and smoked his tobacco as usual. His thescaf-
spirits were excited by the prospect of the scene which fold-
was before him. Being asked how he liked the wine
which was brought to him, he said that " it was good
drink, if a man might tarry by it." At eight the officers
came to fetch him away. As he passed out to the scaffold
he noticed that one of his friends, who had come to be near
him at the last, was unable to push through the throng.
" I know not/' he said, " what shift you will make, but I
am sure to have a place." A minute after, catching sight
of an old man with a bald head, he asked him whether
he wanted anything. "Nothing," he replied, "but to
see you, and to pray God to have mercy on your soul."
" I thank thee, good friend," answered Ealeigh, " I am
sorry I have no better thing to return thee for thy good
will ; but take this nightcap, for thou hast more need of
it now than I." *

As soon as he had mounted the scaffold, he asked leave His last
to address the people. His speech had been carefully speedl-
prepared. Every word he spoke, was, as far as we can
judge, literally true; but it was not the whole truth,
and it was calculated in many points to produce a false
impression on his hearers, j1 On the commission which

* Chcamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 31. 8. P. J)om. ciii. 58. Lorkin to
Puckering, Nov. 3. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 420.

t The part which relates to the French commission is a marvel of inge-
nuity. Not a word of it is untrue, but the general impression is completely
i'aU'. In the MS. copy in the Record Office, it runs thus : —

" I do, therefore, call that great God to witness, before whom I am now
presently to appear to render an account of what I say, that as I hope to see
God, to 'live in the world to come, or to have any benefit or comfort by the
Passion of my Saviour, that I did never entertain any conspiracy, nor ever
had any plot or intelligence with the French King, nor ever had any advice

150 RALEIGH ON THE SCAFFOLD.

CH. II. he had received from the French admiral he was alto-
1618. gether silent, but he was emphatic in repudiating the
notion that he had ever received a commission from the
French King. He then said that Mannourie had charged
him falsely with uttering disloyal speeches, and he pro-
tested warmly against the accusations which had been
brought against him by Stukely. He spoke of the efforts
which it had cost him to induce his men to return to
England, and denied having wished to desert his com-
rades, whilst he was lying at the mouth of the Orinoco,
waiting for tidings of San Thome.* He then adverted
to a foolish tale which had long been current against him,
to the effect that at the execution of the Earl of Essex,
he had taken his place at a window in order to see him
die, and had puffed tobacco at him in derision. The story,
he said, was a pure fiction. " And now," he concluded by
saying, " I entreat that you all will join with me in prayer
to that Great God of Heaven whom I have so grievously
offended, being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a
sinful life in such callings as have been most inducing to it;
for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are
courses of wickedness and vice ; that His Almighty good-
ness will forgive me ; that He will cast away my sins from
me, and that He will receive me into everlasting life ; so
I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God."f
Theexecu- As soon as the preparations were completed, Ealeigh
turned to the executioner, and asked to see the axe. " I
prithee," said he, as the man held back, " let me see it ;
dost thou think that I am afraid of it ? " He ran his

or practice with the French agent, neither did I ever see the French King's
hand or seal, as some have reported, I had a commission from him at sea.
Neither, as 1 have a soul to be saved, did I know of the French agent's
coming till I saw him in my gallery, and if ever I knew of his coming or deny
the truth, O Lord, I renounce thy mercy !" 8. P. Dom. ciii. 53. The copy
in Oldys' Life (Works, i. 558) is to the same effect. In the copy printed
in the Works, viii. 775, Raleigh is made to say "I never had any practice
with the French King, or his ambassador, or agent, neither had I any intel-
ligence from thence." The last sentence would mean " intelligence from
nance, which would be false. But we may fairly give Raleigh the bene-
fit of the doubt between the different reports.

In this, no doubt, he is to be believed. Probably, however, he said
something on which the charge was founded. Stukely says that Penning-
on was the captain who refused to follow him. If so, the story is not
likely fo be a pure invention.
t S. P. Dom. ciii. 53.

THE EXECUTION. 151

finger down the edge, saying to himself, " This is sharp CH- n-
medicine, but it is a sound cure for all diseases/' He 1618.
then knelt down, and laid his head upon the block.
Some one objected that he ought to lay his face towards
the east : " What matter," he said, " how the head lie, so
the heart be right ? " After he had prayed for a little
while, he gave the appointed signal ; seeing that the
headsman was reluctant to do his duty, he called upon
him to strike. In two blows the head was severed from
the body. His remains were delivered to his wife, and
were by her buried in St. Margaret's at Westminster.

A copy of verses written by Ealeigh the night before Raleigh's
his execution was discovered, and was soon passed from lastverses-
hand to hand. It was a strange medley, in which faith
and confidence in God appear side by side with sarcasms
upon the lawyers and the courtiers. It was perhaps at
a later hour that he wrote on the fly leaf of his Bible
those touching lines in which the higher part of his nature
alone is visible : —

" Even such is time that takes on trust

Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust ;

Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days !
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
The Lord shall raise me up, I trust."

" No matter how the head lie, so the heart be right." General in-
Perhaps, after all, no better epitaph could be found to dlgna
inscribe upon Ealeigh's tomb. For him, the child of
the sixteenth century, it was still possible to hold truth
and falsehood lightly, without sinking into meanness.
In his chase after wealth, he was never sordid or covetous.
His sins had brought with them their own punishment,
a punishment which did not tarry, because he was so
utterly unconscious of them. Yet it was no mere blind-
ness to his errors which made all England feel that
Raleigh's death was a national dishonour. His country-
men knew that in his wildest enterprises he had always
before him the thought of England's greatness, and that,
in his eyes, England's greatness was indissolubly con-

152 CULPABILITY OF JAMES.

CH- H- nected with the truest welfare of all other nations. They
1618. knew that his heart was right.

The King's Against the flood of indignation which was so strongly
tionlara" setting against him, James attempted to make head in
vain. By his directions, Bacon drew up the Declaration,
which had been previously suggested by the Commis-
sioners. It was founded on the evidence which had been
taken, and there is not the smallest reason to suspect that
any false statement was intentionally inserted by James
or his ministers. But although the superstructure which
they raised on that foundation may have been true in
many respects, it was altogether false as a w^hole. For
the key by which the evidence was to be unlocked was
wanting. Starting from the theory that the mine was a
mere figment of Kaleigh's imagination, they could hardly
fail to misinterpret the facts before them.

To such a pass had James brought himself. Indolently
unwilling to make himself master of anything that could
be put off till a more convenient season, he had suffered
himself to float down the stream, till it was too late to
recover his ground, and till it was impossible to punish
an offender without perpetrating what can hardly be
dignified with the title of a judicial murder.
Fate of The public indignation which could not openly be
**• visited upon the King fell with all its weight upon
Stukely. He tried to hold up his head at Court, but not
a man would condescend to speak to him. He hurried
to James, and offered to take the Sacrament upon the
truth of the story which Kaleigh had denied upon the
scaffold. A bystander drily observed that if the King
would order him to be beheaded, and if he would then
confirm the truth of his story with an oath, it might per-
haps be possible to believe him.* Sir Judas Stukely, as
men called him, could find no one to listen to him. One
day he went to Nottingham, with whom, as Lord High
Admiral, his official duties in Devonshire had often
brought him in contact, and asked to be allowed to
speak to him. The old man turned upon him in an instant.
' What," he said, " thou base fellow ! Thou who art
reputed the scorn and contempt of men, how darest thou

* Lorkin to Puckering, Nov. 3. Harl. MSS. 7002, ful. 420.

DEATH OP STUKELY. 153

offer thyself into my presence ? Were it not in my own CH- IL
house, I would cudgel thee with my staff, for presuming 1619.
to be so saucy." Stukely ran off to complain to the King,
but even there he met with no redress. " What," said
James, " wouldst thou have me to do ? Wouldst thou
have me hang him ? On my soul, if I should hang all
that speak ill of thee, all the trees in the country would
not suffice."*

One triumph more was in store for Ealeigh's friends.
A few days after this scene, it was discovered that
both Stukely and his son had, for many years, been
engaged in the nefarious occupation of clipping coin. It
was even said that when his guilt was detected, he was
busy tampering with the very gold pieces — the blood-
money, as men called it — which had been paid him as the
price of his services in lodging Ealeigh in the Tower.t
The news was received with a shout of exultation, and
wishes were freely expressed that he might not be allowed
to cheat the gallows.J Eeady belief was for once accorded
to Mannourie, who, being found to be an accomplice in
his master's crime, was trying to purchase immunity for
himself by accusing Stukely of having urged him to bring
false charges against Ealeigh. § James, however, thought
that he owed something to his tool, and flung him a pardon
for his crime. 1 1 Stukely did not gain much by his escape.
He made his way home to his own county of Devon ; it
was hardly wise of him to go amongst a people who held
the name of Ealeigh in more than ordinary reverence.
He could not bear the looks of scorn with which his
appearance was everywhere greeted. He fled away to
hide his shame in the lonely Isle of Lundy, and in less
than two years after Ealeigh's execution he died a raving
madman amidst the howling of the Atlantic storms.il

Many months before the death of Stukely, another Death of
man, who had, to some extent, been the cause of

* Lorkin to Puckering, Jan. 5, 1619. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 435.
• Lorkin to Puckering, Jan. 12, 1619. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 438.

Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 9, 1619. £ P. Dom. cv. 7.
§ Lorkin to Puckering, Feb. (?), 1619. Harl MSS. 7002, fol. 450.
|| Pardon, Feb. 18, 1619. Pat. 16 Jac. I. Part 14.

IT Camden Annals, Howel to Carew Raleigh, May 5, 1645. Howcl's
Letters, ii. 368.

154 DEATH OF COBHAM.

CH. II. Kaleigh's ruin, had passed away from the world. At
1619. the time when Kaleigh was released from the Tower, in
1617, Cobham was still in prison. His health was
giving way ; and he petitioned the King to allow him
to visit Bath. His request was granted, upon condition
that he would engage to return to prison in the autumn.
In September he was accordingly making his way back
to London, and had reached Odiham, when a paralytic
stroke made it impossible for him to continue his journey.*
In this condition he lingered for more than a year, and it
was not till the 24th of January, 1619, that he died. The
feeling of detestation with which his memory was re-
garded, found expression in the fable that he died in
complete destitution. For this fable there was no founda-
tion whatever. But it was inconsistent with the popular
idea of justice, that any man who had contributed to
Kaleigh's misfortunes, should die in ordinary comfort, f

* Council Register, May 14, Sept. 28, 1617.

f He was allowed by the King 100Z. a year, besides 81 a week for his diet.
The payments were made with tolerable regularity to the last, a few
weeks after they were due, as appears from the Order Book of the Exchequer,
Nov. 7, Dec. 7, 1618, Feb. 6, 1619. The only support I have found for the
ordinary story is a letter, in which it is said that Cobham lay unburied for
want of money. Wynn to Carleton, Jan. 28, 1619. 8. P. Dom. cv. 67.
This, however, is easily accounted for. The Crown would refuse to pay the
funeral expenses, and his relations may have hung back, as wishing to throw
the burden upon the King.

CHAPTEE III.

THE FALL OF THE HOWARDS.

THE two or three years which had elapsed since the CH. III.
sudden rise of Buckingham had witnessed many changes igig.
of his fickle nature, according as he was driven this Bucking-
way or that by the shifting breezes of his personal cUktions"
vanity. Placing his first step on the ladder of fortune
by the help of the men who were most noted for their
opposition to Spain, he was soon found co-operating
with Gondomar to forward the Spanish alliance. A
few months later he seemed likely to come back into
the hands of Coke and Winwood, only to fall back
under the spell of Gondomar 's influence. And now once
more he was drifting away from his moorings, and men
began to think that he would finally cast in his lot with
the adversaries of Spain. If there was one object upon
which he was especially bent, it was upon having the
credit of seeing every office under the Crown filled with
his own creatures. But the process of waiting for vacan-
cies was a slow one, and there was a body of men high in
office who were by no means ready to truckle to the
favourite. The Howard family were not possessed either The
of commanding abilities or of any great influence in the Howards
country ; but they filled the most important posts in the
state. One Howard, the Earl of Nottingham, was Lord
High Admiral. Another Howard, the Earl of Suffolk,
was Lord High Treasurer. The Treasurer's son-in-law,
Lord Knollys, who had recently been created Viscount .
Wallingford, was Master of the Wards. One dependent
of the family, Sir Thomas Lake, was Secretary of
State ; and another, Sir Henry Yelverton, was Attorney-
General.

It was as a counterpoise to the influence of this great Opposed
family that Buckingham had been originally brought k~

156 BUCKINGHAM AND THE HOWARDS.

before the notice of the King. To the anti-Spanish party
at Court, and to the great body of the nation, the Howards
were odious as being all more or less openly Catholics at
heart, and as giving their undisguised support to the mar-
riage with the Infanta. For all this Buckingham cared but
little. But he cared very much that a body of men, whose
connection with his old rival Somerset was fresh in his
mind, should retain the favour of the King, and should
show him by word and look, as he jostled with them at
the Council Table, and at Whitehall, that they knew that
they did not owe their influence to his recommendation.
Monson at James had not long returned from Scotland, before open
war was declared between Buckingham and the Howards.
During the winter, either Suffolk, or as is more probable,
his domineering Countess, were looking about for another
Somerset, who might supersede the favourite in the good
graces of the King. One young man after another was
selected for his pleasing face and engaging manners to be
thrown in James's way. At last the choice of the party
fell upon the son of Sir William Monson. They made
the poor lad wash his face with curds every morning to
improve his complexion, and hopefully waited for the
result. It was not a wise choice to have made. Only
two years before, the youth's father and uncle had been
imprisoned, nominally on account of their supposed com-
plicity in the Overbury murder, but in reality because Sir
William at least was known to have received a pension
from Spain. James, in spite of the awe which he felt for
Gondomar, fancied that he could treat with the Court of
Madrid upon equal terms, and had no mind to throw
Buckingham over for the sake of a nominee of Philip.
He accordingly sent Pembroke to young Monson, to tell
him that " the King did not approve of his forwardness.
His father and uncle had been not long since called in
question for matters of no small moment, and his own
education had been in such places, and with such persons
as was not to be allowed of."* One more attempt was
made by Monson's friends to win the game which they
had lost. On Easter-day he was sent to receive the Com-

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 3, Feb. 21, 28, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcv. 5,
xcvi. 23, 37.

THE VILLIERS FAMILY. 157

munion from the hands of Archbishop Abbot, in order to CH- HI.
prove that he was not a Catholic. Often as the holy 1618.
bread and wine have been prostituted to serve personal
and political ends, they have been seldom, if ever, made
use of for a more degrading object. It is satisfactory to
know that nothing was gained by those who stooped to
to such a profanation.*

James was not slow in letting it be known that he still The
reposed unlimited confidence in Buckingham. In April,
he granted him the lease of the Irish customs, at a rent
low enough to enable him to put two or three thousand
pounds a-year into his pocket, f Two months later the
King seized an opportunity of declaring his feelings in a
more open manner. There had been a boyish quarrel
in a tennis court between the favourite and the Prince
of Wales, and hard words had been freely exchanged
between them. James enforced a reconciliation ; and, as
a pledge of its continuance, Buckingham gave a magni-
ficent banquet, which was called the Prince's feast. The
entertainment took place at Wanstead, an estate which
had been successively granted by Elizabeth to Leicester
and Mount] oy, and which had recently been given by
James to Buckingham in exchange for land not worth a
tenth part of its value.J As soon as the feast was ended,
the King stepped up to the table at which the ladies were
seated, and drank the health of the whole Villiers family.
" I desire," he said, " to advance it above all others. Of
myself I have no doubt, for I live to that end ; and I
hope that my posterity will so far regard their father's
commandments and instructions, as to advance that house
above all others whatever." §

* Chamberlain to Carleton, April 10, 1618. 8. P. Dom. xcvii. 13.

fSalvetti, in his News-Letter of the 8th of April, says that the rent
was 5000Z. and the revenue twice as much. But it appears from the inden-
ture between the King and Buckingham (May 23, 1618. Close Rolls, 16
Jac. I. Part 16), that the rent was 60001. and half of the remaining revenue.
If we take Salvetti's estimate of the profits, Buckingham would make about
20001. by the bargain. In 1613 the customs had been leased for 6000Z. with-
out any mention of half the surplus (Grants to Ingram and others, July 23,
1613. Patent Rolls, 11 Jac. I. Part 2). So that Buckingham does not
seem to have made more out of the customs than any other patentee would
have done.

I Salvetti's News-Letter, July ^ 1618.

§ Lorkin to Puckering, June 30* 1618 ; Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 410.

158 DISGRACE OF SUFFOLK.

CH. ill. Buckingham now found himself strong enough to carry

1618. the war into the enemy's quarters. In those times it was

Charges easy enough for any one who felt himself safe through

Suffolk. innocence or favour, to bring charges against any officer

of the Crown, which would be very difficult to refute.

For the revenue even of the most guarded official was

derived from sources which it was impossible to defend

on principle, and it was rarely if ever that any official

was so guarded as not sometimes to overstep the limits

recognised by the practice of the day.

To charges of this kind Suffolk was peculiarly open.
Through the whole of his life, his great difficulty had
been his avaricious and intriguing wife. It was by her
that he had been dragged into his connection with suc-
cessive Spanish ambassadors, and in every action of his
life he was contented to follow submissively in her wake.
For he was an easy-tempered man, and it was generally
thought that if he had been unmarried, he would have
fulfilled the duties of his office honestly enough to have
retained the white staff till his death.

He is Chance threw in Buckingham's way the opportunity

of theved for which he was looking. On the 18th of July, a Secre-

Treasurer- tary of Suffolk's son-in-law Wallingford, was detected in

robbing his master. To save himself, he accused the Lord

Treasurer of bribery, and of malpractices in which Lady

Suffolk and Sir John Bingley, one of the officials of the

Exchequer, had taken part. His assertions must have

been supported by evidence of greater weight than his

own ; for on the very next day, Suffolk was called upon

to resign his staff, and the Treasury was immediately put

into commission. The new Commissioners* were ordered

to examine into the state of the finances, and to report

upon the grounds which existed for prosecuting Suffolk, f

ham?8" Buckingham was not content with ruining the Trea-

treatment surer. He strongly suspected that Lake had taken part

in the abortive plot for bringing Monson into favour, and

had made up his mind to drive him, if possible, from Court.

In June an opportunity had presented itself, of which

he had not been slow to take advantage. James had

* Tliry were Bacon, Abbot, Andrewes, Naunton, Coke, and Greville.
•*• Camden's Annals.

LORD AND LADY RODS. 159

expressed himself strongly about Lady Suffolk in the CH. ill.
hearing of Lake. If the Lord Treasurer, he said, did not 1618.
send his wife away from London, he would have her
carted out of town like the vilest of her sex. Soon after-
wards James, having heard that his hasty words had been
repeated by Lake to his patron, sent for the Secretary,
and rated him soundly for betraying his secrets. In the
hope of recovering the ground which he had lost, Lake cast
himself at Buckingham's feet. He assured him that he
had had nothing to do with bringing Monson to Court, and
offered him 15,000£. to procure his restoration to favour.
His anxiety was the greater as he heard that Carleton
had got scent of his approaching fall, and had been per-
mitted to come over from Holland to sue for the post
which was likely to be vacated by his dismissal from
office. Finding that Buckingham turned a deaf ear to his
entreaties, he betook himself as a last resource to Lady
Compton, and the proffered bribe was in all probability
transferred to her pocket. At all events, she took up his
cause warmly ; and on the 10th of July Buckingham told
him that he was ready to listen to his explanations.
Three or four weeks later his submissive behaviour had
to all appearance replaced him in the favourite's good
graces, and Carleton was ordered to return to his post at
the Hague.*

Unfortunately, however, for Lake's prospects, he was Quarrel
already involved in a quarrel with the Cecils, who were at LorTand
this time deep in the confidence of Buckingham. Lord Lady RODS.
Eoos, the grandson and heir of the Earl of Exeter, was
married to the Secretary's daughter early in 1616. He
was a dissolute and heartless youth, and both Lady Eoos
and her mother, Lady Lake, were alike artful and unprin-
cipled women. The marriage had not lasted a year
before husband and wife were at open war. The osten-
sible cause of the quarrel was, like that which had
separated Coke and Lady Hatton, a question of money.
Koos had mortgaged his estate at Walthamstow to his
father-in-law, and Lake proposed that the lands should be
altogether made over to his daughter's separate use. If

*SalvettFs N^L*™, ^' June #%£ July ^^f

1618.

160 THE WALTHAMSTOW ESTATE.

CH. III. Roos Is to be believed, the Secretary made full use of the
1618. advantages of his official position to force the bargain
upon him. When he was making preparations for his
embassy to Madrid, he found that no money could be
obtained from the Exchequer ; and it was intimated to
him, that unless he made the required provision for his
wife, he would have to meet the expenses of his mis-
sion out of his private purse. Eumour went further, and
it was said that he was told that unless he yielded, Lady
Eoos would apply for a divorce on the same grounds as
those which had caused so much scandal in the case of
Lady Essex.* Intimidated by the threats held over him,
the frightened young man gave way ; and before setting
out for Madrid he commenced taking the legal steps
which would in time lead to the conveyance of the pro-
perty to his father-in-law.f
1617. Before the bargain was completed, the Earl of Exeter

LoniRoos s^ePPed m- His consent was in some way or other
required, and this he refused to give. Lord Eoos duly
returned from Spain, but there were no signs that the
Walthamstow lands would ever pass into the hands of his
wife or her family. The Lakes were furious. At the
instigation of her brother Arthur,^ Lady Eoos sent a mes-
sage to her husband, who was now living apart from her,
asking to see him, in order that she might return with
him to his house. Upon his arrival at her father's door,
he was attacked by Arthur Lake, at the head of a number
of his servants, and was hustled back into his coach.
Mortified and insulted, he was forced to return alone. §

His flight Yet, in spite of the reception which he had met with,
not many weeks passed before he was again living with
his wife at his grandfather's house at Wimbledon.
Whatever may have been the secrets of his married life,
it is plain that he was almost driven mad by the united
efforts of his wife and her mother. The most horrible
charges were kept hanging over his head, and he was told
that if he refused to do as he was bidden, they would be

* Chamberlain to Carleton, June 4, 1617. Eoos to the King, June 1,
1618. S. P. Dom. xcii. 61, xcvii. 89.

Feet of Fines. Manor of Walthamstow, Essex. Trin. Term. P. R. 0.
: So at least Lord Roos firmly believed.
§ Gerard to Carleton, June 4, 1617. S. P. Dom. xcii. 62.

CALUMNIES OF LADY ROOS. 161

brought publicly against him. At last he could bear it CH> IIL
no longer. Five months after his return from Spain, he 1617.
slipped away from his tormentors, and, with letters of
introduction from the Spanish Ambassador in his pocket,
made his way to Eome in the character of a convert.*

Next to her husband the person whom Lady Eoos Charges
hated most was the Countess of Exeter, the young wife
of her husband's aged grandfather, by whose influence
the Earl had been led to put a stop to the convey-
ance of the Walthamstow estate. Elated with the suc-
cess of her secret insinuations against her husband,
Lady Koos now began to charge him openly with an
incestuous connexion with his grandfather s wife. As
if this were not enough, she added that Lady Exeter
had attempted to poison her, in order to conceal her
guiltt

It seems as if she was unable to check herself in
her career of invention. In her haste to heap charges
upon Lady Exeter's head, she added the improbable
story that, by threats of disclosing what she knew, she
had brought the Countess to acknowledge, in writing,
the truth of her guilt in every particular ; and she even
produced a paper to this effect, which she asserted to be
in Lady Exeter's handwriting. To this she added an-
other, bearing the signature of Luke Hatton, a servant
of the Countess, in which his mistress was accused of
an attempt to poison Sir Thomas Lake as well as his
daughter. 1618

Such charges, reiterated as they were by the whole star-
Lake family, could not be allowed to pass unnoticed. C1h0ac"1e^er
Lady Exeter appealed to the King for justice, and it ings,
was agreed that the quarrel should be fought out in the
Star-Chamber. Deposition after deposition was taken
with the uniform result of leaving Lady Roos's case
blacker than it was before. It was proved that the
confession said to have been written by Lady Exeter,
and the paper to which Luke Hatton's signature was
attached, were both of them forgeries. It fared still

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 3, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcv. 5.
t The main facts of the story may be clearly made out from the Abstract
of proofs, &c. S. P. Dom. cv. 81, 82.

VOL.

1(52 THE SCENE AT WIMBLEDON.

CH. in. worse with Lady Roos's attempts to add weight to her
1618. own unsupported evidence. Her maid, Sarah Swarton,
had been induced by her to swear that she had been
placed behind the hangings at Wimbledon, to witness the
scene in which Lady Exeter acknowledged her guilt.
James, who prided himself upon his skill in the detec-
tion of imposture, took her down to Wimbledon, and
ordered her to stand in the place in which she said that
she had been stationed by her mistress. To her discom-
fiture, it was found that the hangings scarcely reached
below her knees, so that it was impossible that she could
have escaped detection in such a position.

An attempt to prove that Lady Exeter had written to
Lord Koos in unbecoming terms broke down no less com-
pletely. It was far from conclusive that one witness
said that he had once seen such a letter amongst some
old papers in a trunk, and that another said that he had
carried about a similar letter in his pocket, and had
finally used it to light his pipe. Further investigations
into the charge of poisoning only served to prove that
there was not one word of truth in the matter.
Behaviour From these inquiries the character of Sir Thomas Lake
Thomas ^ not come ou^ scatheless. It appeared that at the
Lake. time when his daughter was seeking for evidence against
her enemy, he had sent for a certain Gwilliams, and had
committed him to prison. His own account of the matter
was, that he had done so because he had been unable to
extract from him information about the flight of Lord
Eoos. Gwilliams, however, said that Lake had examined
him about Lady Exeter's conduct, and that Lady Eoos
had offered him a bribe to accuse the Countess, and had
pressed him to sign a folded paper, the contents of which
he had not been permitted to see. It was to his refusal to
comply with these demands, that he, naturally enough,
attributed his imprisonment. By-and-bye, it came out
that Hatton also had been imprisoned by Lake, and
he too stated that«his misfortunes were due to his re-
fusal to join in the accusation against Lady Exeter.
Death of James, who seems to have wished to see fair play,
' was anxious to obtain Lord Roos's own testimony. He
accordingly offered him a pardon for leaving the realm

DISGRACE OF SIR T. LAKE. 163

without licence, on condition of his immediate return.
Before the offer reached him he had died at Naples.
Kumour attributed his death to poison, but such a ru-
mour was too certain to spring up to merit attention
in the absence of all corroboration.*

It was not till the 13th of February, 1619, that the iei9.
cause was ready for sentence. James himself came down The,

•11- T T f T r* sentence.

to pronounce with his own lips the award ol the Court.
Sir Thomas and Lady Lake, with their daughter, were
condemned to imprisonment during pleasure, and to
fines, which, together with the damages awarded to Lady
Exeter, amounted to more than 20,OOOZ. Lake's eldest
son, who had put himself prominently forward as the
accuser of the Countess, was called upon to pay up-
wards of 1600Z., and Sarah Swarton, if she persisted in
denying her imposture, was to be whipped, and branded
on the cheek with the letters F.A., as a false accuser,
and then to be sent back to prison for the remainder of
her life.

Of the guilt of Lady Eoos and her maid there could be How far
no doubt whatever. Nor was it possible to acquit the
Secretary himself from blame. "Whatever may have been
the real history of the imprisonment of Gwilliams and
Hatton, he had certainly lent his name to the circulation
of his daughter's libels, and that too in spite of a warning
from the King, that he would do better to use his in-
fluence to induce her to withdraw them.|

It is more difficult to say what was the precise guilt of
Lady Lake. In giving sentence, the King compared her
to the serpent in Paradise, whilst he ascribed the part of
Eve to her daughter, and that of Adam to her husband.
But the general opinion of the day threw the chief blame
upon the younger lady, and not only did Lady Lake her-
self protest in the strongest possible manner that she was
guiltless of the subornation of witnesses, or of the forgery
itself, but whatever evidence has reached us is such as to
favour the theory that she was herself deceived by her

* Roos to the King, June 1. S. P. Dora, xcvii. 89. Lorkin to Pucker-
ing, July 14, 1618. Harl. MSB. 7002, fol. 414.

t Lorkin to Puckering, Feb. 16, 1619. Goodman's Court of King James,
ii. 176.

M 2

164 CONFESSION OF LADY ROOS.

CH. IIL artful daughter.* The most probable explanation is, that
1619. at the time of her quarrel with her husband, Lady Koos's
prurient imagination brought before her mind the chief
incidents of the Essex divorce, and th'at she weaved them
into a story which imposed upon her mother, and which
was intended to impose upon the rest of the world, f
Confes- Almost immediately after the sentence had been

thTco^- passed, it was intimated to the prisoners that they might
demned at any time obtain pardon by acknowledging the jus-
)ns' tice of their condemnation. Sarah Swarton was the first
to give way. The prospect of the pillory and the whip-
ping was too much for her. She confessed her own guilt,
throwing the whole blame upon Lady Roos, and exone-
rating as much as possible Sir Thomas and Lady Lake.
Her punishment was accordingly remitted, and, at the
end of a few months, she was set at liberty. J On the
9th of June, Lady Eoos confessed, and was allowed to
leave her prison. Not long afterwards her father was
released, and after some delay made his submission in due
form. His wife was more stubborn, and it was only after
more than two years' hesitation that she could be brought
to make even a formal acknowledgment that she had been
in any way in fault. § The whole fine was not exacted,
but Lake had to pay 10,200£ into the Exchequer in
addition to the damages to Lady Exeter.

Caivert Immediately after the sentence had been delivered the

SSTw8 Secretary was called upon to resign his office. His suc-

Secretary. cessor was Sir George Caivert, an industrious, modest

man, who might be trusted, like Naunton, to do his work

silently and well. In former times he had been a Secre-

* From the deposition of Mary Lake (S. P. Dom. cv. 82), it appears that
when on one occasion Lady Lake visited her daughter, Lady Roos pre-
tended to "be ill and took to her bed. This must have been to make her
mother believe the story of the poisoning which she had just invented.
Lady Lake's protestation of her innocence will be found in a letter to Lady
Exeter in Goodman's Court of King James, ii. 196.

t The poison Lady Roos said she had taken was roseacre, and the ground
upon which she threatened her husband with a divorce was precisely the
same as that with which Lord Essex was got rid of.

I Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 27, July 31, 1619. S. P. Dom. cv. 143,
cix. 161. Council Register, June 27, 1619.

§ Submission of Lady Roos, June 19. Chamberlain to Carleton, July 15,
31. Submission of Sir T. Lake, Jan. 28, 1620 ; May 2. 1621. S. P. Dom.
cix. 99, 133, 161; cxii. 43;cxxi. 5.

RESIGNATION OF WALLINGFORD. 165

tary of Salisbury, but his opinions fitted him to be the CH- IIL
channel of communications which could not safely be 1619.
entrusted to one who looked with extreme favour upon
the Continental Protestants ; for though he was anything
but a thorough-going partisan of the Spanish monarchy,
yet he had no sympathy whatever with those who thought
that a war with Spain was a thing to be desired for its
own sake.

Both Lake and Suffolk had woven the nets in which
their own feet were entangled. It was more difficult to
get rid of Suffolk's son-in-law, the Master of the Wards, lingford.
Wallingford's character was without a stain. When,
at the time of the Overbury murder, Mrs. Turner was
flinging out the fiercest charges against every one who
was connected with the house of Howard, she paused at
the name of Wallingford. " If ever there was a religious
man," she said, " it was he."

Wallingford's one unpardonable fault was the part
which he had taken in the introduction of young Mon-
son to Court. In the war of lampoons which was waged
between the two factions into which the Court was
divided, Lady Wallingford had taken an active part,
and she had not spared her sister, Lady Salisbury,* who,
if report was to be credited, had rewarded the guilty
passion of Buckingham with her favours, and who had
now joined her foolish husband and her sprightly para-
mour in their attack upon her own relations. It was not
difficult to shock James with the stories which were told
him of Lady Wallingford's biting tongue. Sending for
the Master of the Wards, he told him that he did not
wish to be any longer served by the husband of such a
wife. At first Wallingford refused to give way, and
courted inquiry into his conduct.")" It was not without
difficulty that he was at last induced, in spite of his
wife's opposition, to resign his office upon a promise of
compensation for his loss.J

It was impossible that the official changes should stop 1617-
here. Serious attention was now at last being paid to ^*£e

finances.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, March 27, Dec. 19, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcvi. 87
t Lorkin to Puckering, Oct. 20, 1618. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 418.
t Digby to Buckingham, Dec. 1, 1618. S. P. Spain.

166 THE EMPTY EXCHEQUER.

CH. Ill, the state of the finances. Amongst those who raised their
1617. voices the loudest on the side of economy, Bacon was
always to be found. Immediately after his restoration
to favour on the King's return from Scotland in 1617,
he had drawn James's attention once more to the condi-
tion of the Exchequer.* Yet bad as things seemed to be,
there were not wanting signs that . the worst was :past.
For the first time since James's accession it was possible
to prepare an estimate in which the regular and ordinary
expenses of the crown would be met by the revenue, and
though, when the irregular expenditure for which no
provision had been made came to be added to the
amount, there would probably be a deficit of eighty or a
hundred thousand pounds, even this was an immense
step in advance. The improvement was owing in part
to the increased economy of the King, but still more to
the marvellous elasticity of the revenue, an elasticity
which was the more satisfactory, as it was produced not
by the imposition of new taxes, but by the increasing
prosperity of the country, and by the rapid growth of
trade. Spaniards who had seen England complained
bitterly that the wealth to which the greatness of Lisbon
and Seville had been owing was now flowing into the
Thames.f The receipt books of the Exchequer told a
similar tale. The great customs, which at James's acces-
sion had produced less than 86,0002., were now leased for
140,0002. The wine duties had risen from 4,4002. to
15,9002., and all this without laying a single additional
penny upon the consumer.

The city Yet, though the prospect was more hopeful than it
had been, the immediate difficulties were by no means
light. The actual deficit for the past year had reached
150,0002. The deficit for the ensuing year would pro-
bably reach 100,0002. The money obtained by the sale
of the cautionary towns had all been spent, and a loan of
100,0002. which the city of London had, not without
difficulty, been induced to advance in the spring, had

* Memorial printed in Bacon's Worlds, ed. 1778, iii. 350.

t "Es cierto que desde las pazes aca ha crecido el comercio de
solo Londres mas de treinta millones," i.e. by 7,500,OOOZ. Gondomar to
Ciriza, Nov. ^, 1619. Simancas MSS. Est. 2599.

THE CITY LOAN. 167

also been swallowed up. The actual condition of the CH- HI.
exchequer was well represented by a caricature which 1617.
appeared about this time in Holland, in which James
was portrayed with his pockets turned inside out, and
which bore the sarcastic inscription : — " Have you any
more towns to sell ? "*

If it had been difficult to persuade the city authorities Difficulty
to promise the money, it had been still more difficult to i^on.01"
collect it. It had been left to the Government to compel
individual citizens to pay their quota, and not a few
resisted the demand. One man, named Eobinson, utterly '
denied that he was bound to lend his money against his
will. The Council could do nothing with him, and sent
him down to the King, who had already recrossed the
border on his return from Scotland. Kobinson was un-
lucky enough to find James in a bad humour. He had
expected to find at Carlisle money with which to pay the
daily expenses of his journey. It was not till he had
advanced thirty miles beyond that city that he met the
treasury escort carefully guarding a cart, in which was a
bag containing no more than 400?. Lake was directed
to expostulate with the officials in London upon the
smallness of the sum ; but he was met with the pertinent
question : — " If your wants are so great now, what will
they be after your return ? " Nettled with a question
to which it was impossible to reply, James visited his
displeasure upon Eobinson, and finding him still ob-
stinate, ordered him to follow his train on foot to Lon-
don. | We are not told whether the sturdy citizen
continued resolute in the face of the unusual exercise
thus suddenly required of him in the month of August.

The recollection of the examination of the cart on the Proposed
Cumberland road had, no doubt, as much effect upon
James as Bacon's more serious admonitions. His debts
now amounted to 726,000?., ;f and unless reforms were
speedily effected, they would soon be altogether beyond
his control. Accordingly he wrote to the Council, telling

* Lovelace to Carleton, March 11, 1617. 8. P. Dom. xc. 113.
t Lake to Winwood, Aug. 16. Winwood to Lake, Aug. 20, 1617. S. P
Dom. xciii. 25, 31.

I The Council to the King, Sept 27, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciii. 99.

ADMINISTRATIVE KEFORM.

CH. ill, them that he had determined to abate all superfluous
1617. expenses, and to dismiss all unnecessary officers. It was
for them to tell him how this was to be accomplished.
They might cut and carve at their pleasure. He did not
want an answer in writing. What he asked for was
immediate action. *

The councillors were delighted with the letter. They
determined to strike whilst the iron was hot. Officials
were summoned* from all quarters, and were directed to
make reports on the branches of the expenditure with
which they were practically acquainted. Pensions were
suspended and curtailed ; and there seemed to be at last
a chance that James would be able to pay his way.

The new Yet with all this • zeal, it may be doubted whether the

* r "1 y

efforts of the Council would have been crowned with
success, if it had not been for the assistance which they
received from a new class of officials who were now rising
into the places hitherto occupied either by great nobles
or by great statesmen. These men were men of business,
and they were nothing more. Accustomed to depen-
dence from their first entry upon public life, they cared
little or nothing for politics, and they made it the main
object of their activity to promote the interests of the
King. The increasing subserviency of the Privy Coun-
cillors was in itself an evil of no light importance. But
there can be no doubt that in matters of administrative
detail, James was far better served at the end of his
reign than he had been at the beginning.

Lionel Of the new men the foremost was undoubtedly Lionel

Cranfield. He had begun life as a London apprentice.
With his handsome face and ready wit, he had won the
affections of his master s daughter, and had started in
trade upon his own account with the SOOl which he
received as her marriage portion. Not long afterwards
the city was agitated by a dispute concerning the proper
manner of raising the money which was required for the
establishment of its colony at Londonderry. The Court
of Aldermen proposed that each of the city companies
should take upon themselves an equal share of the ex-

* The King to the Council, Nov. 21, 1617. Bacon's Works, eel. 1778,
in. 364.

RISE OF CRANFIELD. 169

pense. Naturally enough, the smaller and poorer so- CH- IIL
cieties objected to the scheme as essentially unfair. The 1617.
question was referred to the Privy Council, and Cranfield
was selected as the spokesman of the Mercers' Company,
of which he was a member. He had a good cause, and
he was sure to make the most of it. When he came
away, he had not only been successful in carrying his
point, but he had left upon all who heard him a deep
impression of his ability.

When Cranfield is next heard of, he had taken part, He comes
together with several other merchants, in a contract for notice of6
the purchase of a large quantity of land, which the King the King-
had been obliged, by his necessities, to sell. One day,
as the contractors were consulting on the best means of
making a profit by their bargain, Cranfield told them
that he knew that Northampton, who was at that time
at the height of his influence, wanted to purchase a small
portion of the land ; and he advised them, if they wished
to consult their own interests, to make him a present of
it. It is probable enough, that in this politic proposal
he may have given good advice to his companions. It
is certain that he could not have done better for himself.
Northampton, who had not forgotten his appearance
before the Council, introduced him to the King as a
young man of promise. From that moment his fortune
was made. He was never without constant employment.
After Salisbury's death, financial knowledge was rare at
the council-table, and Cranfield's services were invalu-
able. He was knighted by James in 1615, and was
appointed Surveyor-General of the Customs. In such
an occupation he displayed both zeal and honesty. His
city experience stood him in good stead in enabling him
to detect the malpractices of the officials.* He had a
thorough knowledge of business, and an unwavering
determination not to allow the King to be cheated.
Tradesmen, who had made a handsome profit, and more
than a handsome profit, out of the earls and barons with
- whom they had previously had to do, were taken aback
when they were called upon to deliver their accounts to

* Goodman's Court of King James, i. 296.

170 REFORMS IN THE HOUSEHOLD.

a man who knew to a farthing what was the wholesale
price of a yard of silk, and who was as deeply versed as
they were in the little mysteries of the art by which a
short bill might be made to wear the appearance of a
long one. But here the praise due to him must stop.
He was a careful and economical administrator ; but he
was nothing more. Of general politics he knew nothing,
and on the higher questions of statesmanship there was
neither good nor evil to be expected from Cranfield.
1618. In carrying out the proposed reforms, the foremost
Reforms in place was occupied by Cranfield. He had a hard fight
hoidH°USe" to Put down the abuses which were swarming about him.
The Household was one mass of peculation and extrava-
gance ; and from the officers, whose perquisites were
threatened, he was sure to meet with the most unre-
lenting opposition. Yet, in spite of all that they could
do, he succeeded in effecting an annual saving of no less
than 23,OOOZ.

The Ward- From the Household, Cranfield turned his attention to
the Wardrobe. The mastership was in the hands of
Hay, and it may well have seemed to be a hopeless task
to introduce economy into an office presided over by such
a man. And yet it was difficult to get rid of him. He
was a Privy Councillor, and high in favour with the
King. There was no likelihood that a quarrel would
spring up between him and Buckingham. He cared
nothing for political influence, and the amiability of his
temper was such that he never quarrelled with any one
in his life. Though he had been admitted to the King's
confidence when Buckingham was a child, he had never
taken the slightest umbrage at the sudden rise of the
new favourite.

^ Only a few months had passed since the fascination of
hig Banners had secured him the love of Lucy Percy, the
sparkling and attractive daughter of the Earl of North-
umberland. In the course of his wooing he had invited
her to be present at one of those splendid entertainments
which have given such a questionable 'celebrity to his name.
Doubtless there was no delicacy which art or nature
could provide wanting to tempt the palates of his guests.
It is not unlikely that on this occasion he may have dis-

HAY'S MARRIAGE. 171

played that particular form of extravagance by which he CH-

obtained considerable notoriety amongst his contempo- 1617.
raries. The invention of the double supper was peculiarly
his own. When he wished to show more than ordinary
hospitality, the guests were invited to take their seats at
a table covered with a profusion of the most exquisite
cold dishes. But before they had time to fill their plates,
the servants hurried in and, snatching the food from
before their faces, as if it had been unworthy of their
acceptance, replaced it by an array of hot dishes. It is
seldom that a man who is guilty of such extravagance as
this is not a fool. Yet Hay, though he was right in not
pressing into offices which would have called for the
exercise of the higher intellectual powers, had all those
qualities which fit their owner to shine in society.

On this evening the guests may have been well satisfied Diffipui-
with their entertainment, but the master of the house was way>
deeply disappointed. Lucy Percy, for whose sake the
festivities had been arranged, did not make her appear-
ance ; and as, in a few days, Hay would be obliged to
attend the King in his journey to Scotland, he had lost
his chance of seeing her for many months. It was not
long before he learned the cause of the lady's absence.
She had accompanied her sister, Lady Sidney, to visit
her father in the Tower. To the pride of the old English
nobility, Northumberland joined a special contempt for
the King's Scottish courtiers, which he perhaps derived
from the recollections of the old border feuds in which
his ancestors had taken so conspicuous a part. He had,
therefore, set his face against the marriage. As soon as
his daughter rose to leave him, he turned to Lady Sidney,
and told her to send one of her sister's servants, as he
should be glad of Lucy's company a little longer. " I
am a Percy/' he said, by way of explanation, " and I am
not fond of Scotch jigs." * It was not long, however,
before he learned that it was not easy to keep out love
by bolts and bars. He was indiscreet enough to allow
his daughter to fall in Lady Somerset's way, from whom
she received every encouragement to stand out against
her father. Finding his admonitions thrown away, he

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 22, March 8, 1617. S. P. Dom. xc. 79, 105.

172 ECONOMY IN THE WARDKOBE.

CH. in. at last allowed his daughter to return to her mother at
1617. Sion House, first taking care to inform her that, if she
married Hay, she must not expect any portion from him.
Perhaps he thought that this would be enough to cool the
ardour of a Scotchman. If so, he was disappointed. Hay
was far too careless of money to be stopped by an obstacle
of such a nature.

His Hay's courtship was characteristic of the man. He was

marriage. as ardent in love as in all other pursuits ; and as soon as
he returned to England he took a house close to Sion, so
as to be able to spend day after day in the society of his
betrothed. But though Lady Northumberland was very
well pleased with the attentions of her future son-in-law,
she altogether declined to allow him to take his meals in
her house. The humble fare, she said, which was good
enough for the Percys, was not sufficiently refined for
him. When, therefore, the hour arrived at which the
household was summoned to dinner or supper, the dis-
consolate lover was driven out of the house with orders
not to return till the meal was over.* After a few months
this inconvenient arrangement came to an end. The
marriage was solemnised on the 6th of November, in
the presence of the King and of a brilliant assembly of
courtiers.

^ WaS evident that sucl1 a man was ill-placed in the
Mastership of the Wardrobe, an office in which economy
robe. was imperatively demanded. Yet when it was first pro-
posed to him to relinquish it he refused to do so, and it
was with some difficulty that he was finally induced to
retire upon receiving a compensation of 20,000/.,j to
which, if report is to be trusted, was added 10,000/.
paid, according to the custom of the time, by CranfieRJ
who was nominated as his successor. § It was not long
before the savings which were realised under the manage-
ment of the new Master showed that the 20,000/. had

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Aug. 9, 1617. S. P. Dom.
t Contarini to the Doge, ^ |8, ]618. Venice MSS. List of Payments.
S. P. Dow,, cxvi. 122.

I Salvetti's News-Letter, lr 1618.

2> 1618- Patent K°lls 16 Jac- L

REPORT OF THE NAVY COMMISSION. 173

been profitably spent. Hay was further consoled by the CH- IIL
higher title of Viscount Doncaster. 1618.

Of still greater importance was an investigation, which The Navy
was at last commenced in earnest, into the condition of ^™m
the navy. For this purpose a commission was appointed,
of which Cranfield was a member, but in which, over-
burthened as he was with other business, the chief part of
the labour fell upon Sir John Coke, a man who was by
no means deficient in administrative capacity, though in
later life he made himself supremely ridiculous by his
pretensions to statesmanship. The appointment of this
commission was a sore blow to Nottingham. The Lord
High Admiral had succeeded in setting aside the report
of the commission of 1608, and in preventing altogether
the appointment of a fresh commission in 1613. But it
was impossible for him to resist inquiry any longer. The
expenses of the navy were growing with unexampled
rapidity, and as its expenses increased, its efficiency
declined.

After a full investigation, the Commissioners sent Report
in their report. Of the forty-three vessels of which Commis-
the navy was nominally composed, nearly half were sioners-
utterly unserviceable, and were with difficulty kept from
sinking by incessant repairs, without the slightest pro-
spect that they would ever again be fit for sea. So far
from its being any wonder that so much money had
been spent, the only wonder was that far more had not
been swallowed up in the bottomless gulf of the Admi-
ralty administration. The whole department was utterly
without organization. It sometimes happened that ex-
tensive works were taken in hand at the dockyards, and
that after large bodies of labourers had been engaged, it
was discovered that the proper officers had either ne-
glected to provide the necessary materials, or had been
left by their superiors without the money with which to
purchase them. Everything else was in equal disorder.
Unsound timber had been paid for as if it had been in
the best condition. Far higher prices had been given for
stores than any private purchaser would have cared to
pay. Incorrect entries in the books were of frequent oc-
currence. It was not unknown that when ships had been

174 STATE OF THE DOCKYARDS.

CH. Ill, ordered round to Deptford for repairs, it was only after
1618. the expense of moving them had been incurred that it
was discovered that they were so rotten that it was not
worth while to spend any more money upon them. The
root of the evil lay in the appointment of officers at high
salaries who did little or nothing, whilst the inferior
officers who did the work were left either to plunder the
Crown or to starve. In fact, this part of the report only
expressed in sober and official language what was per-
fectly well known to every one who lived near the dock-
yards. Long afterwards Bishop Goodman used to tell
how a friend with whom he was walking at Chatham drew
his attention to the stately mansions which had sprung
up like mushrooms round the yard. " All these goodly
houses/' he said, " are built of chips." The explanation
of the riddle was that the chips were considered to be the
perquisite of the officials.*

Proposals To their report the Commissioners appended a calcula-
increaseof ^on ^na^ f°r some years past the average annual expen-
thenavy. diture on the navy had been no less than 53,000/. They
added that they were themselves ready to meet all ne-
cessary expenses, and to build ten new ships within
the next five years without exceeding 30,000/. a-year.
The navy would then consist of thirty large vessels, be-
sides a few smaller craft. It is true that the number of
vessels left by Elizabeth had been forty-two. But the
tonnage of the fleet of 1603 had been only 14,060, whilst
17,110 tons would be measurement of that which was
promised by the Commissioners, f Nor were these mere
words, to be forgotten as soon as the momentary purpose
of displacing Nottingham was accomplished ; for when
the five years came to an end, it was found that all the
promises of the Commissioners had been -fulfilled.

After such an exposure it was impossible for anyone

Netting- who bore the name of Howard to remain longer at the

ham. Admiralty. Already at the beginning of the year it had

been proposed to Buckingham that he should take the

* Goodman's Court of King James, i.

t Appointment of the Commission, June 23, 1618. Patent Rolls, 16
Jac. I., Part 1. Report of the Commissioners, and other papers. S. P. Dom.
c. 2 ; cL 2, 3. The number of vessels is taken from the last-quoted docu-
ment, which seems to give the final determination of the Commissioners.

BUCKINGHAM LORD HIGH ADMIRAL. 175

place of the old man whose administration had been so CH- IIL
disastrous. At that time he hung back and pleaded his 1618.
youth and inexperience.* But after the report of the
Commissioners it was evident that a change was neces-
sary, and he gave way before the flattering solicitations
of those who told him that his influence with the King
would be the best guarantee for the good administration
of the navy. At first it was arranged that he was merely
to have the reversion of the post. But it was soon found
that this would hardly meet the necessities of the case.
The reforms which the Commissioners had suggested called
for immediate action, and the old Admiral naturally re-
sented a proposal that the commission by which his offi-
cial conduct had been condemned should be reappointed
as a permanent body, with the scarcely concealed object
of taking the administration of the dockyards out of his
hands. j~ A middle course was accordingly hit upon.
Buckingham was to be co-admiral with Nottingham,
leaving to the old sailor the dignity of the office, whilst
performing himself its functions in person or by deputy.
This arrangement, however, was never carried into effect.
Nottingham had at last the good sense to resign a post
for which he was altogether unqualified. A pension of
1000Z. a-year was assigned him by the King, and Buck-
ingham, who added a sum of 3000/. as an additional
compensation to • his predecessor, became Lord High
Admiral of England.;):

The immediate result of Buckingham's instalment in Bucking-
office was the reappointment of the Navy Commission as a High Ad-
permanent board. § Buckingham was as unlikely as Not- miral-
tingham had been to trouble himself with details about
dockyard expenditure. But whilst Nottingham would
neither do the work himself, nor allow anyone else to do
it for him, Buckingham had not the slightest objection

* Harwood to Carleton, Jan. 8, 1618. S. P. Dom. xcv. 8. The King's
Speech in opening the Parliament of 1621.

f Salvetti's News-Letters, Oct. ^9, Nov. i, 1618.

t Commission to Buckingham, Jan. 28, 1619. Patent Rolls, 16 Jac. I.,
Part 17. Rushworth, i. 306, 379. Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 6, 1619.
S. P. Dom. cv. 83.

§ Commission to Cranfield and others, Feb. 12, 1619. Patent Rolls, 16
Jac. I., Part 3.

176 ECONOMICAL ADMINISTRATION.

CH. Ill, to letting other people toil as hard as they pleased, pro-
1619. vided that he might himself enjoy the credit of their

labours.

Growing Buckingham was every day acquiring a firmer hold

o^S- uPon tne mmc* °f James. A year had not passed since

ingham. the introduction of Monson to Court before he saw all his

rivals at his feet. With the single exception of Yelver-

ton, not a Howard, or a dependent of the Howards,

remained in office. Buckingham was no longer the mere

favourite of the King. He was the all-powerful minister,

reigning unchecked in solitary grandeur.

Adminis- Yet, however much the change is to be attributed to
forms! r court intrigue, it must not be forgotten that it was some-
thing more. It was a blow struck at the claim to serve
the State on the ground of family connexion. It was an
attempt to secure efficiency of administration by personal
selection. And though the evil which would accompany
a change made in such a way was likely to outweigh the
good which it brought, it is undeniable that from this
time the King was better and more economically served
than he had ever been before. At Michaelmas, 1617, it
was thought a great thing that there was likely to be a
balance between the ordinary revenue and the ordinary
expenditure. At Michaelmas, 1618, the new Commis-
sioners of the Treasury looked forward to a surplus of
45,000£. to meet unforeseen expenses. Meanwhile, the
Household, the Treasury, the Wardrobe, and the Admi-
ralty had been subjected to sweeping and beneficial re-
forms. Everywhere retrenchment had been carried out
under the influence and with the co-operation of Buck-
ingham. It is no wonder that the King learned to place
implicit confidence in his youthful favourite, and to fancy
that he had at last discovered that of which he had been
in search during the whole of his life — the art of being
well served without taking any trouble about the matter
himself.

When, therefore, those who were jealous of Bucking-
ham's sudden rise remonstrated against the almost royal
power which had been placed in his hands, they only
wasted their words. It had been expected that upon
his promotion to the Admiralty he would at least have

THE COUNTESS OF BUCKINGHAM. 177

resigned the Mastership of the Horse, and some of those CH-

who had calculated their chances of succeeding to the 1619.
vacancy hinted pretty intelligibly to the King what their
opinion was. James contented himself with composing
some Latin couplets to the effect that, as in the classical
mythology Neptune, who presided over the sea, was also
celebrated for his horses, it was unreasonable to object to
the continued supervision of the new Admiral over the
royal stables.*

On one point alone James consented to make some Lady
concession to the opinion of his courtiers. Buckingham
himself, arrogant as he was, and ready to take offence at the Peer-
the slightest disrespect shown to himself, was still dis- age'
tinguished by the kindly and forgiving disposition which,
at his first appearance at court, had won all hearts. But
his greedy and unprincipled mother was altogether un-
bearable. It was perhaps at this time that the story
sprung up that Gondomar had written home to say that
he had more hope than ever of the conversion of Eng-
land, since he found that there were more prayers and
oblations offered to the mother than to the son.f In the
preceding autumn she had been created Countess of
Buckingham, on which occasion she had caused con-
siderable amusement by her refusal to share her honours
with the husband whom she despised. It is probable
that her new dignity made her more offensive than ever,
as James requested her to keep away from Court, and
told her that her meddling with state affairs could only
be injurious to the prospects of her son.|

A few days before Nottingham's removal from office, § star-
James at last made up his mind to take proceedings in proceed-

ings

* " Buckinghanms, lo ! maris est prsefectus, et idem

Qui dominatur equis, mine dominatur aquis.
Atque inter Superos liquidas qui temperat undas

Neptunus, celeres et moderatur equos.
Ne jam displiceat cuiquam geminata potestas

Exemplum Superis cum placuisse vident."

Salvetti's News-Letter, Nov. |°, 1618.
t Wilson in Kennet, ii. 728.

t Salvetti's News-Letter, Nov. fQ, 1618. Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 6,
1619. S. P. Dom. cv. 83.

§ Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 16, 1619. S. P. Dom. cv. 41.
VOL. i. N

178 SUFFOLK IN THE STAR-CHAMBER.

the Star-Chamber against the late Lord Treasurer. He
had always been friendly to Suffolk, and he would gladly
against have spared him the pain of the exposure ; but it was
necessary, as he told those who pleaded in his behalf, to
prove to the world that he had not taken the staff away
without reason.* An information was accordingly filed
against him, in which the Countess and Sir John Bingley
were included. The trial dragged its slow length along,
and it was not till October, 1619, that the case was ready
for a hearing.

The case According to the charge brought against him, the
him°s Treasurer had paid away money without demanding pro-
per accounts from those who received it ; he had been
careless or corrupt in allowing the King to be cheated in
a bargain relating to the Yorkshire alum works ; he had
kept for some time in his own hands a sum which ought
to have been paid immediately into the exchequer ; and
he had taken bribes for doing that which should have
been done as a mere matter of duty.f The evidence
before us is hardly sufficient to enable us to say how far
these charges were brought home to him. He may have
been wilfully corrupt ; more probably he was only lax in
SyS his interpretation of official rules. But whatever may
Suffolk. k&vQ been the extent of Suffolk's own guilt, there can be
no doubt as to his wife's criminality. The counsel em-
ployed by her must have been hard put to it, before they
allowed themselves to startle the ears of the judges with
the trash which they imported into the defence. They
actually urged on her behalf, that she could not have been
guilty of extortion, as she had only taken bribes in her
capacity of wife of the Earl of Suffolk, and not in her capa-
city of wife of the Lord Treasurer. After this incompre-
hensible argument, the lawyer to whom she had entrusted
her cause proceeded to quote from the civil law a text to
the effect that judges might, without impropriety, receive
xenia, or free gifts. Bacon, taking up the word in the sense
of new year's gifts, which it had gradually acquired, said,

* E. H. [i.e. Elizabeth Howard, Lady Howard of Walden] to the King.
Cabala, 234.

t The fullest account of the trial is in Caesar's notes. Add. MSS. 12,497,
fol. 69—74, 77—92. Compare the Answer of the Earl of Suffolk, and the
State of the proceedings. S. P. Dom. cxi. 17, 18.

HIS SENTENCE. 179

with a smile, that new year's gifts could not be given all CH- IIL
the year round. Unfortunate as the lawyers had been in 1619-
their general argument, they were still more unlucky in
their attempts to rebut particular charges. One of the
strongest pieces of evidence against the defendants was a
direct statement made by Lord Ridgway, that, during
the time that he had been Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, he
had never been able to obtain the money needed for the
public service unless his demand was accompanied by a
bribe to Suffolk. Suffolk denied having ever received
anything from Ridgway, except a gold cup which had
been sent him as a new year's gift ; and the probability
is that the money had found its way into the pockets of
the Countess, as her counsel could find nothing better to
say on her behalf, than that Lord Ridgway was a noble
gentleman, who might say or swear what he pleased.
Bacon, who looked with special horror upon any attempt
to intercept the supplies needed in Ireland, and who was
of opinion, as he expressed it, that " he that did draw or
milk treasure from Ireland, did not milk money, but
blood,"* thought that the farce had gone on long enough,
and stopped the speaker by telling him that it was at
all events not the part of a nobleman to tell lies.f

As soon as the pleadings came to an end, the Court The
proceeded to judgment. Coke, who never knew what sentence-
moderation was, voted for a fine of 100,OOOZ. on the
Earl, and of 5,000?. on Bingley. Against such an out-
rageous sentence, the milder Hobart raised his protest, and
succeeded in carrying with him the majority of the Court.
The fines actually imposed were 30,000/. on Suffolk, and
2,000/. on Bingley. All the three defendants were also
sentenced to imprisonment during the King's pleasure.

Neither Suffolk nor his Countess remained long in the its gradual
Tower ; after ten days' imprisonment, they were both set
at liberty. J They at once applied to Buckingham for
his good word with the King for the remission of their fine,
and Buckingham, who was never backward in lending a
helping hand to a fallen enemy, if he found him ready to

* Bacon to Buckingham, Oct. 27, 1619. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 374.
t Locke to Carleton, Nov. 6, 1619. 8. P. Dom. cxi. 8.
t Naunton to Carleton, Dec. 3, 1619. 8. P. Holland.

N 2

CONTINUANCE OF CORRUPTION.

CH. Ill, acknowledge his supremacy, promised to assist him. The
1619. application would probably have been immediately suc-
cessful if the over-cautious Earl had been willing to trust
to it entirely. When, however, the officials of the Ex-
chequer went to his magnificent mansion at Audley End,
which according to the exaggeration of popular rumour
had been built with Spanish gold, they were told, in
answer to their inquiries for property from which to raise
the fine, that the house had been stripped of its furniture,
and that the estate itself had been conveyed away to
trustees. Indignant at the trick, James threatened Suffolk
with a fresh prosecution, and ordered him to require his
sons to resign their places at Court.* It was only after
repeated supplications for forgiveness that James relented
and agreed to remit his fine, with the exception of 7,000£.
which he wanted in order to enable him to pay Lord
Haddington's debts, f

Bribery at If Buckingham had raised himself in James's favour by
Court. ^.]ie reforms to which he had lent his countenance, he had
gained no credit with the nation. For it was well enough
known that Suffolk and Lake differed from other officials
mainly in having been found out. A blow had indeed,
been struck at the peculation which directly menaced the
economy and regularity of the service of the Crown, and
there would probably be more care taken in future to avoid
doing anything by which the King's interest might be
affected. But nothing had been done to reach the root of
the evil; no attempt had been made to distinguish between
lawful and unlawful payments. As long as Buckingham
occupied the position which he did, any such step was ab-
solutely impossible. It was not exactly that offices were
set up for sale to the highest bidder ; whenever a vacancy
occurred in a post of any importance, an attempt was
almost invariably made to select, if not the fittest person
amongst the candidates, at least the person who appeared

* Goring to Buckingham, Nov. 16, Dec. 13, 1619. Harl MSS. 1580, fol.
411. Suffolk to the King. Cabala, 334. Edmondes to Carleton, Jan. 25,
1620. S. P. Dom. cxii. 35.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, July 27. Woodford to Nethercole, Aug. 3,
1620. S. P. Dom. cxvi. 48, 59. It appears from the receipt books of the
Exchequer that only 1,397J. was raised upon Suffolk's lands, whilst 2,0(XW.
was paid out to Haddington. Docquet, Sept. 21, 1620. S. P. Dom. The re-
mainder of the transaction may have been managed privately.

POSITION OF BUCKINGHAM. 181

to James and his favourite to be the fittest. It not un- CH- IIL
frequently happened that a rich man who offered a large 1619.
bribe was rejected, and a poor man who offered a small
bribe, or no bribe at all, was chosen. It was thus that
Bennett's attempt to seat himself in Chancery as Elles-
mere's successor,* and Ley's attempt to become Attorney-
General after Bacon's promotion, had £ ailed, f Upon
Win wood's death, Lord Houghton had offered 10,000/.
for the Secretaryship, and Houghton was the one amongst
the candidates who had no chance whatever.^ Of mean,
grasping avarice, Buckingham never showed a trace ;
but he allowed it to be understood, that whoever ex-
pected promotion on any grounds must give him some-
thing for his trouble in recommending him. Nor did the
mischief end here ; around the great man grew up a swarm
of parasites, who, like Endymion Porter, amassed wealth
as brokers of their patron's favours. That all things were
venal at the Court of James, was soon accepted as a
truism from the Land's End to the Cheviots.

Nor was this the worst. To pay a sum of money to a ^ourit"
favourite for his patronage, is a degradation to which no
man of sensitive conscience will stoop ; still men of worth
and ability might have been found to submit to the im-
position, if they could have preserved their independence
after they had once been raised to power. That which
more than anything else drove the talent of the rising
generation into opposition, was the persuasion that no
man who served the Crown, could ever be anything more
than a tool of Buckingham. He must not merely be pre-
pared to conform at any moment to the sudden caprices
of the youthful upstart ; he must publish his subservience
to the world, and must appear in public with the gilded
badge of slavery upon him. By such a system as this,
James might perhaps find himself served by excellent
clerks, but he would have no statesmen to consult.

No better example can be found of the dangers to Example

1*1 • ? T" • r» -IT i i •! °* ^ral1"

wlncn a courtier s life was exposed, than that which was field,
furnished by the experience of Cranfield. With the ex-

* Gerard to Carleton, March 20, 1617. S. P. Dom. xc. 135.

t Whitelocke. Liber Famelicus, 56.

t Slierburn to Carleton, Nov. 7, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciv. 11.

182 GENERAL SUBSERVIENCE.

CH. ill, ception of Bacon, no man in England had rendered
1619. greater services to the Crown. Nor had those services
been forgotten. In September, 1618, he had been
appointed Master of the Wardrobe ; in the January
following, he was chosen to succeed Wallingford, as
Master of the Wards.* Next month his name appeared
first among the Commissioners of the Navy.f He was
looking forward to a seat in the Privy Council, and no one
could deny that his promotion would be conducive to the
interests of the King. On the 24th of April, he was in
full expectation of being summoned on the following day
to take his seat at ,the Board. The summons did not
arrive. Suddenly a cloud had come over his prospects,
which nothing but an act of baseness could remove.

As usual, Buckingham's mother was at the bottom of
the mischief. The success which had attended her
attempt to procure a wife for Sir John Villiers had not
been lost upon the veteran schemer. What was the use of
having a son in high favour at Court, if he could not find
a rich husband for all the portionless young girls amongst
his relations ? There were men enough coming to him
every day to ask for promotion. Let them be told that
it was an indispensable qualification for office to marry a
kinswoman of the House of Villiers.

His mar- To this comfortable family arrangement, James made
no difficulty in lending his name, and Cranfield was
selected as the man upon whom the experiment was first
to be tried. He was now a widower, and with his abili-
ties, and with the favour of Buckingham, he was sure of
promotion, and of sufficient wealth to make him a desir-
able husband. It was therefore intimated to him, that if
he expected any further advancement, he must marry Lady
Buckingham's cousin, Anne Brett, whose fortune consisted
in her handsome face and her high kindred. J There was,

* Appointment of Cranfield, Jan. 15, 1619. Patent Rolls, 16 Jac. I.,
x art 21.

t Commission to Cranfield and others. Feb. 12, 1619. Patent Rolls, 16
Jac. I., Part 3.

$ " Cranfield's favour at Court is now almost as little as before it was
great, and will hardly come from this low ebb to a high flood, until he will
be contented to marry a handsome young waiting woman, who hath little
money but good friends." Brent to Carleton, May 29, 1619. 8. P. Dom.
cix. 59.

CRANFIELD'S MARRIAGE. 183

however, an obstacle in the way ; Cranfield had been pay- CH- IIL
ing his addresses to Lady Howard of Effingham, the widow 1619.
of Nottingham's eldest son.* The lady cannot have been
young, but she would have been a splendid match for the
city merchant ; and whether it was love or ambition which
tempted him, Cranfield was loth to take a wife at another
man's bidding. For some months he struggled hard for
freedom ; but at last he gave way, and before the end
of the year it was known that he had become a member of
the Privy Council, and the accepted lover of Anne Brett. |

Bad as this system was, yet, as far as the higher offices Sale of
were concerned, it was not without a check. It would
not do to entrust the Exchequer to men who were igno-
rant of the rudiments of finance, or to place upon the
Bench a lawyer who had never held a brief. But there
was no limit, excepting that of good feeling and propriety,
imposed upon the creation of titles of honour. Every-
body with a certain amount of money thought himself
good enough to be a baron or an earl ; and James, for-
getting that, by flooding a hereditary house with new"
creations, he would make two enemies for every friend
that he gained, fancied that the more barons and earls he
created, the greater would be his influence in the House
of Lords. At all events, he would find in the purses of
these ambitious men the means of replenishing his own,
or of rewarding the needy courtiers who complained that
since the fashion of economy had been set, he had nothing
left to give away. Just as, after Salisbury's attempt to
introduce order into the finances, courtiers had asked for
a recusant to squeeze, instead of petitioning for a grant
of lands or of money, so now that the negotiations for
the Spanish marriage had made it more necessary to be
careful of the feelings of the Catholics, the demand for a
recusant was superseded by the demand for a baron. J

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 6, 1619. 8. P. Dom. cv. 83. Bucking-
ham may, perhaps, have looked upon a marriage with the widow of a
Howard as a defection from his standard.

t Nethersole to Carleton, Feb. 6, 1619. S. P. Dom. cxii. 20. For some
reason or other, the marriage did not take place till the llth of Jan. 1621.

t It may be as well to point out in this place that a mistake is often
made by otherwise well-informed writers in the inference which they draw
from the fact that a baronet has had his creation money returned to him.
An author sometimes has, or thinks he has, ground for supposing that some

184 PEERAGES FOR SALE.

CH. in. The person whose request was granted immediately looked

1619. about for some one who was ready to pay him the sum

which he chose to ask. As a matter of course, unless he

had been singularly unfortunate in his selection, the

nomination was accepted, and a new member was added

to the peerage.

1618. A good example of the way in which James disposed

Earls?11' °f ^ne highest honours, may be found in the creation of
four new earls in the summer of 1618. Lord Lisle, the
brother of Sir Philip Sydney, became Earl of Leicester,
and his appointment was attributed not so much to his
late services as commander of the garrisons of the cau-
tionary towns, as to the recommendation of the Queen,
whose chamberlain he was. Lord Compton, the brother
of Lady Buckingham's husband, appears to have bought
his promotion to the Earldom of Northampton from the
King or from the favourite. About the motives which
led to the elevation of the other two there is no mystery
whatever. The King wanted money with which to defray
the expenses of his annual progress, and he preferred the
sale of two peerages to the loss of his hunting. For
1 0,000 1. apiece Lord Cavendish and Lord Eich exchanged
their baronies for the Earldoms of Devonshire and War-
wick. So little shame did James feel about the matter,
that he actually allowed the greater part of the price to
-be entered in the receipt books of the Exchequer.*

There was something peculiarly disgraceful in the pro-

.person was engaged in a Court intrigue. He knows that he became a
baronet about the time, and finds in the Exchequer books that his money
was repaid. This is enough. The man, it is taken for granted, must have
been in unusually high favour, and his connection with the intrigue in ques-
tion is then almost taken for granted. A little further examination would
however, show the evidence to be worthless. In the latter years of James
every baronet received back his money. Whether it remained in his
pocket, or was privately transferred to that of some courtier, is more than
1 or anybody else can say.

July ^eceiPt books> AuS- 8> 1618, June 29, 1619. Salvetti (News-Letter,
.Aa£T~2' 1618;) say8 that Devonshire and Warwick each paid 10,OOOZ. The
receipt books only give 8000J. as paid by Warwick, and 10,0001 by Devon-
is more likely that the remaining 2000J. was paid privately than
it any difference was made in the price of the two earldoms. Salvetti
Lets, that .Northampton's creation was at Buckingham's request. Accord-
ing to Contemn the King got 150,000 crowns from the three. I have en-
deavoured to reconcile the difference, by suggesting the possibility that
Northampton's money stuck in Buckingham's packet.

PIRATICAL SPECULATIONS, 185

motion of Kich. If there was one thing upon which CH- IIL
James prided himself, it was his hatred of piracy. At the 1618.
very moment at which the new earl's patent was being Rich's
sealed, the King was planning an attack upon Algiers, tdn
and was preparing to bring Ealeigh to the scaffold. Yet piracy.
Eich had done coolly and deliberately things infinitely
worse than anything which had been perpetrated by
Kaleigh under the strongest possible temptation. With
him piracy had degenerated into a mere commercial
speculation. In 1616, he had fitted out two vessels
under the flag of the Duke of Savoy, and had sent them
to the West Indies, from whence, after a cruise of eighteen
months, they had returned laden with Spanish treasures.*
Nor was his son, the inheritor of his title, and the future
Lord High Admiral of the Commonwealth, any better.
In conjunction with a Genoese merchant, residing in
London, he despatched two piratical vessels to the East.
Their first act was to attack a rich junk belonging to the
mother of the Great Mogul. If it had not been for the
fortunate interposition of the fleet of the East India
Company, which came up before the contest was de-
cided, the result of Kich's selfish enterprise would have
been the closing of the busiest marts in India to English
commerce.')"

Soon after his return from the progress of which the The
expenses had been paid by the sale of these peerages, an
opportunity was afforded to James of considering how far city.
his system of government was likely to secure popularity.
Besides the offices which were directly at his disposal,
there were a large number of appointments which were
filled by election. Of all such elections, there were few
which would serve as a test of national feeling better than
those in which the merchant princes of the city took
part.

* Contarini to the Doge, May |J, 1618. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Stith

in his History of Virginia, i. 531, seems to refer to the same voyage, though
there is a confusion in his narrative between the two Earls of Warwick.

f Pring to the Company, Nov. 12. Monox to the Company, Dec. 28,
1617. E. I. C. Orig. Corr. Court Minutes of the E. I. C., Feb. 24, 1618.
Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 2. Smith to Carleton. Jan. 7. Wynn to
Carleton, Jan. 28, 1619. £ P. Dom. cv. 2, 3, 67. Salvetti's News-Letter,
•March , 1619.

186 THE LONDON EECORDERSHIP.

^H. _III1 The Kecordership of London was in the gift of the
1618. Lord Mayor and Aldermen. But of late years it had
Candida- almost invariably been bestowed at the recommendation
whTte°-f of. the King. Such, however, was the growing unpopu-
locke and larity of the Court, that upon the occurrence of a vacancy,
some of the aldermen formed the design of vindicating
the freedom of election by choosing a candidate of their
own. They fixed upon Whitelocke, whose services ren-
dered in the debates on the impositions in 1610 and
1614, would be likely to conciliate in his favour the
greater number of the electors.

Whitelocke's success would have done no great harm
to the Government. But James had not forgotten the
reluctance of the city magistrates to punish the rioters
who had assaulted the house of the Spanish Ambas-
sador ; and he had made it a point of honour that no one
who had not secured the good word of Buckingham,
should carry the election. Buckingham had already
declared in favour of Shute, one of the least reputable of
his followers. No time was lost. The late Eecorder, Sir
The King's Anthony Ben, had died on a Saturday, and on Sunday
ence.fel morning the citizens who attended the service at St.
Paul's, saw the Chief Justice of England busily engaged
with unseemly haste in canvassing the Aldermen before
they had time to leave the church. On Monday Shute
presented himself before the electors, with a letter from
James. He was told that when the last Eecorder was
chosen, the King had promised to write no more such
letters ; and that he must not forget that, having for-
merly been outlawed, he was himself disqualified from
holding the post. Mortified at the rebuff, he hurried back
to Court, threatening the city with the vengeance of his
royal patron.

Remon- James, as soon as he heard of the reception which his

thTaWer-5 candidate had met with, sent for Bacon, and asked him

men. how he came to support Buckingham's recommendation

of such a man ? Bacon, seldom in haste to spy out

defects in any follower of Buckingham, replied that what

had occurred was merely the result of factious opposition.

As soon as he had left the King, he sent for some of the

aldermen, and asked them what objection they could pos-

INTERFERENCE OF THE CROWN. 187

sibly have to Shute ? To his astonishment, they replied GH- IIL
that he had no right to ask any question of the kind. If 1618.
his Majesty wished to interrogate them, they were ready
to answer ; but they declined to reply to any one else.
They accordingly chose a deputation to lay their objec-
tions before the King.

As soon as the aldermen were admitted, Buckingham,
who was standing by, tried to pass the matter off. It
was a pity, he said, to be hard upon a man because he
had committed a fault in his youth. " Not at all," was
the reply ; " he has been outlawed no less than fifteen
times." There was no answering this, and Buckingham
was silenced for a moment. But he quickly recovered
himself, and whispered a few words in the King's ear.
When this bye-play was at an end, James turned to the
Aldermen and told them that he did not wish to break
their privileges, but that he should consider it a personal
favour if they would pay some attention to his recom-
mendation. If they really objected to Shute, they could
say nothing against Eobert Heath, who was an honest
man and a sound lawyer.

Heath was indeed no less dependent upon Buckingham Heath be-
than Shute ; and of all the lawyers of the day there was ^rt can-
none in whose constitutional theories a larger place was (Mate,
assigned to the prerogative. But there was nothing to
be said against his moral character, and it was therefore
no longer possible to raise any personal objection to the
King's nominee. The question was reduced to a simple
issue. By choosing Whitelocke, the electors would be
protesting against what was practically a violation of the
freedom of election. By choosing Heath, they would
maintain that good understanding with the Government
which was in many respects so essential to their interest.
Again and again the aldermen attempted to escape from
the dilemma. They begged the King to allow them that
liberty of choice to which they were entitled by their
charter. Every plea was met by the answer, that no
compulsion would be used, but that the King expected
them to vote for Heath.

As soon as Whitelocke was informed how strongly the The elec-
King objected to his election, he declared his intention tlon*

188 HEATH'S ELECTION.

III. Of withdrawing from the contest. He knew that he was

1618. especially obnoxious at Court, and he therefore thought
that his name would be a bad rallying point for the
friends of liberty of election. His supporters immediately
determined to transfer their votes to Walter, the man
who, nearly two years before, had been fixed upon by
the almost unanimous voice of his profession, as best
qualified to be Yelverton's- successor as Solicitor-General.
In spite of his refusal to accept the nomination, his sup-
porters resolved to go to the poll. When the day of
election arrived, it was found that of the twenty-four
who were present to give their votes, eleven declared for
Walter, whilst thirteen recorded their names in favour of
Heath.*

Such a victory was equivalent to a defeat, If James
had been capable of taking warning, he would have seen
that so slender a majority obtained by such means indi-
cated a state of feeling into the causes of which he would
do well to inquire.

Yet, great as was the influence exercised upon society
SaSi ky James's personal conduct, the- real causes of the evil
anarchy, lay far deeper than the surface. It was not merely the
political institutions of the sixteenth century which had
ceased to be in accordance with the requirements of the
nation. Even the moral and religious watchwords of the
days of Elizabeth had grown antiquated. England was
in a position not very dissimilar from that in which an
army finds itself after peace has been made. As long as
the soldier is in the field, even the most reckless is kept
true to his colours by the excitement of the contest. It
is when the war is at an end that the difficulty of main-
taining discipline is felt. The perpetual round of seem-
ingly purposeless duties and the listlessness of inaction
break down the barriers which were strong enough to
keep off temptation in the presence of the enemy. A
call arises for even nobler qualities and more enduring
virtues than those by which the soldier is restrained from
disgracing himself amidst the clash of arms.

The first to feel the effect of the change were the courtiers
and politicians. The independence of England had been

* Whitelocke. Liber Famelicus, 63.

STATE OF MORALITY. 189

won. The idea for which Burghley and Walsingham had CH- IIL
contended through good repute and evil repute had been 1617.
realised. The councillors of James had no need to be The
anxiously taking precautions against invasion. Their
sleep was never disturbed by dreams of the Spanish fleet ticians-
at Cadiz, or the Spanish army in Flanders. With security
had come corruption. Men, who were living without a
purpose, and whose activity was limited to the regular
fulfilment of the ordinary routine of duty, soon found
the vacancy in their minds filled up by the consideration of
their own personal interests. The policy of war was at
an end. The policy of peace had, thanks to James, never
come into existence. The absence of political enthusiasm
was only equalled by the absence of religious enthusiasm.
Protestantism was never thought of by them as a rule of
life. It was a mere state .contrivance, to be supported
and encouraged for political reasons, or, at the most, a
standard round which they might gather to fling defiance
at their enemies. The one truth which admitted of no
doubt whatever was that money was worth having.*

Among such men as these, the missionaries of Kome Converts
found their converts most easily. That great Church *
which had once led the van in the progress of the world,
—which had lit the lamp of self-denial in the midst of
bloodshed and riot, had educed order out of anarchy, and
had given hope to those who had no hope in this world
or the next, — was now, as far as England was concerned,
little better than a hospital for the wounded in the
spiritual and moral conflict which was still, as ever, being
waged. It could point to the difficulties and dangers
of the way, and could lure to its arms those who were
frightened at the errors and mistakes of the combatants.
It could proscribe thought, and substitute belief in a
system for faith. It could give rest, but it could not
give victory.

It is no wonder that the better minds in England Protest-
antism in

* " Vede [sua Maesta] li principal! Signori dai quali e continuamente England-
cinto, pronti con 1'assistenza corporate al rito della Maesta sua, ma con
el pensiero interiore divisi in molte opinioni, non soddisfatti di se me-
desimi, mal contenti della volontfc, di chi comanda, poco uniti con Dio, ed
interessati nel proprio comodo, il quale solo pare che come idolo adoriiio."
Relazione di M. A. Correr, 1611. Belazioni Venete, Inghilterra, 114.

190 REACTION AGAINST IMMORALITY.

CH. in. turned fiercely upon those who would have dragged
1617. them back into the past, and that with unwise mistrust
of themselves they sought to bar out the evil which they
dreaded with penal and restrictive legislation. Yet, in
reality, it was with English Protestantism, as with the
prince in the Arabian tale, who could only obtain the
object of his desires by pressing forwards up the hill,
whilst he was turned into stone if he looked round for a
moment to combat the mocking voices which pealed in
his ears from behind. If it had not been for James's
foolish encouragement to Spanish intrigue, there would
have been less harshness towards the Catholics displayed,
and less bitter intolerance cherished, than was possible as
matters stood. Yet, even as it was, there was a great
change for the better. The old Puritanism which had
busied itself with caps and surplices, and with energetic
protests against everything which bore the slightest re-
semblance to the practices of the Koman Church, was
gradually dropping out of sight, and a movement was
taking place which careless and prejudiced writers have
attributed to the strictness of James and Bancroft, but
which is in reality derived from a far higher source. The
fact was, that thoughtful Englishmen were less occupied
in combating Spain and the Pope, and more occupied in
combating immorality and sin than they had been in the
days of Elizabeth.

fif Politics There was one great danger to which the men of this
and theo- day were exposed. They were under a strong temptation
to put their trust in systems. Systems of theology,
systems of law, systems of politics, would each, from
time to time, seem to be the one thing needful. As far as
they were builders of systems, indeed, the men of the
seventeenth century failed. The Government of England
has not shaped itself in accordance with the theories of
Bacon or of Vane. The Church of England has not
become what it would have been under the guidance of
Laud or of Baxter. Yet it would be wrong to pour upon
these systems the contempt with which they sometimes
meet. They were raised unconsciously as barriers against
the flood of immorality which was setting in ; against un-
scrupulous falsehood, such as that of Ealeigh; against

NEW SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT. 191

thoughtless vanity, such as that of Buckingham ; against CH- njL
mean wickedness, such as that of Lady Koos. There was 1617-
that in them which would live — the belief in the para-
mount claims of duty ; the faith in a Divine order in
political, in social, and in domestic life/which has stamped
itself indelibly on the English mind. It is this which
has never been effaced even in the worst of times, and
which shines forth with strange vitality whenever the
heart of the nation recovers its ancient vigour.

Sooner or later, no doubt, the time arrives when such
systems must be cast away at any cost. When it is dis-
covered that they exclude as much as they include ; when
they cease to strengthen the life, and become nothing
better than fetters to the mind, their day is past. But
until that secret is learnt, they are the safeguards against
anarchy. They form the barriers against which self-will
and self-confidence dash themselves in vain. They are
less than truth, but they are more than passion. In
the years that were coming, England would learn surely
enough what their tyranny was. But she had also to
learn that it is by enlarging them, not by casting them
aside, that progress alone is possible.*

Happily for England, the life and vigour of the Eliz- ^Jjfcon^"
abethan age had not been thrown away. The fear that formists.
the children of the generation which had watched with
Burghley and fought with Drake would crouch under the
leaden yoke of the Jesuits, was a mere chimera. That
there would be a reaction against the indefinite aims and
the moral weaknesses of the past was certain. But in
whatever form it came, it would be sure, in the very
midst of the order which it established, to leave wide
room for the freedom of the individual mind.

" Such views," writes Professor Max Miiller on a very different subject,
" may be right or wrong. Too hasty comparisons, or too narrow distinc-
tions, may have prevented the eye of the observer from discovering the
broad outline of nature's plan. Yet every system, however insufficient it
may prove hereafter, is a step in advance. If the mind of man is once im-
pressed with the conviction that there must be order and law everywhere,
it never rests again until all that seems irregular has been eliminated, until
the full beauty and harmony of nature has been perceived, and the eye of
man has caught the eye of God beaming out from the midst of His works.
The failures of the past prepare the triumphs of the future." Lectures on
the Science of Language, 16.

192 PURITAN CONFORMITY.

Already it seemed as if Puritanism was fitting itself
for its high mission. It was outgrowing the stern limits
within which it had wasted its energies in earlier times.
A generation was arising of Puritan conformists,* who
cared little for the battle against the surplice of the
minister and the ring of the bride, which had seemed all-
important to their fathers. They were not anxious to
see the now customary forms of the Church of England
give way to those of Scotland or Geneva. But what
they lost in logic they gained in breadth. They desired
that under the teaching of the Bible, interpreted as it
was to them through the medium of the Calvinistic theo-
logy, every Englishman should devote himself to the
fulfilment of those duties in which they saw the worthy
preparation for the life to come. They preached self-
restraint, not in the spirit of the mediaeval ascetic, because
they despised the world, but because they looked upon
the world as the kingdom of God, in which, as far as in
them lay, they would do their Master's will. In the
ideal England which rose before their eyes, the riotous
festivities of Whitehall, and the drunken revelries of the
village alehouse, were to be alike unknown. Soberness,
temperance, and chastity, were to be the results of a
reverent submission to the commands of God.

It was by its demand for a purer morality that
Puritanism retained its hold upon the laity. There was
springing up amongst men a consciousness that there was
work to be done in England very different from that in
which their fathers had been engaged. They saw around
them the mass of men living a life of practical hea-
thenism, regardless of anything beyond their immediate
wants; and they sought to rouse the idle and the profligate

* The phrase " Doctrinal Puritans " is generally used for these men in
ecclesiastical histories ; but it has the great demerit of expressing the point
of agreement with other Puritans, rather than the point of difference.
Indeed, the name Puritan itself is a constant source of trouble to the histo-
rian. It sometimes means men who objected to certain ceremonies, who
were non-conformists, or who would have been so if they could. Some-
times it includes all who held to the Calvinist theology. It is even used of
those who were opposed to the Court. Thus Doncaster, of all men in the
world, is sometimes called a Puritan, and, in the same way, Prince Charles
is said by Valaresso in 1624 to be " troppo Puritano " a phrase which it is
difficult to read without a smile.

MORAL STRENGTH OF PROTESTANTISM. 193

by evoking in their hearts a sense of personal responsibility CH-
to their Maker. For it was in this proclamation of the
closeness of the connection between the individual soul
and its God that the strength of Puritanism was to be
found. It was this that sent forth those armies of Chris-
tian warriors who were already silently working their
way beneath the surface of that society, in the high
places of which James and Buckingham were playing
tneir pranks in the sight of an astonished world. But
the loftiness of the standard which they had set before
them was not without its own peculiar dangers. They
were not seldom narrow-minded and egotistical. In their
hatred of vice, they were apt to become intolerant of
pleasure, and to look down with contempt upon those
who disregarded the barriers which they had erected for
the preservation of their own virtue. If ever they suc-
ceeded in achieving political power, they would find it
hard to avoid using it for the purpose of coercing the
world into morality.

The same tide which had swept the Puritans into con- School of
formity, was carrying on the original conformists to a
further development of their creed. What Baxter was
to Cartwright, that Andrewes and Laud were to Hooker.
That which may be termed the right wing of the body
which had accepted the Elizabethan compromise, was
becoming more distinctive in its doctrines, and more
systematic in its thought. It was no longer sufficient to
defend the rites of the Church of England upon grounds
of expediency, or to magnify the duty of obedience to the
civil power. They must be declared to be good in them-
selves, and, as such, entitled to the submission of all
honest Christians. The leading idea round which these
men gathered, was antagonism to the purely indi-
vidual religion of the Genevan doctor. They had faith
in a Divine operation upon men's souls addressing them
from without, in a work of God running through past
ages, acting upon the conscience by means of eccle-
siastical organization, and making use of the senses and
imagination to reach the heart. Such a system had its
charm for many minds, and was readily adopted by the
most promising students at the Universities. It found its

VOL. I.

194 ECCLESIASTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

CH. IIL SUpport in the increasing study of patristic theology, and
1617. in those portions of the liturgy and ritual of the English
Church which had been retained, with more or less
alteration, from the practices of the times which preceded
the Reformation. Relinquishing the attempt to raise by
a sudden impulse the vain and frivolous to a standard
which it was impossible for them, excepting under extra-
ordinary circumstances, to reach at a bound, it aimed at
sapping the evil, by the formation of habits, and by
surrounding the heart with the softening influences of
external example. That the view of human nature
upon which such a system was based was in many
respects larger and truer than that from which the
Puritan looked upon the world, it is impossible to
deny. But it was exposed to especial danger from its
shrinking from rash and violent remedies. Those who
thought it impossible to tear up evil by the root, and
who refused to include in one common denunciation the
well-meaning man of the world with the hardened and
abandoned sinner, might easily be led into a state of
mind in which the boundary line between good and evil
was almost obliterated ; or, what was still worse, might
grow blind to sin in high places where its denunciation
might seem to be injurious to the cause which it had at
heart. Nor was the danger less that, as the Puritan too
often made an idol of the system by which his faith was
supported, so these men might become idolators of the
organization in which they trusted, and might succumb to
the temptation of using political power for the purpose of
forcing upon an unwilling population ecclesiastical arrange-
ments which were foreign to their feelings and habits.

Services So evil in fact were the consequences of the attain?
ment of power by these men, that justice has seldom
been done them excepting by those whose testimony has
IHM-II invalidated by their narrow partisanship. And yet,
it is impossible to doubt that, even independently of the
worth of their opinions, they rendered incalculable ser-
vices to England ; for it was owing l<» t IK-HI that f<.-\v,
excepting the weak in mind and character, fell into the
meshes of the Jesuits. Their teaching satisfied the
of thousands whose iin;i^iiKition,s \\x-rc too warm,

DISCIPLINE AND DEVOTION. 195

and whoso admiration for external ceremony and order CH- m>
\\.-is too high to rest content with the standard of Puri- i«i7.
t; in ism. Between the two sections of the Church of
England compromise was possible; between Rome and
Geneva it was impossible. What the state of England
would have been if a large Roman Catholic minority li;id
been opposed to a Puritan majority is, happily for us,
only a matter of conjecture; but it is certain that nil
the bitterness of spirit, and the persecuting intolerance
of the two great parties in our civil strife, would have
been as nothing to the implacable hate with which such
a struggle would have been conducted.

In truth, however little the controversialists of the (In y
would have been willing to recognise the fact, each of
the theological parties was but the complement of the
other ; each of them clinging to elements of truth which
were ignored by the other. The cause of liberty and the
cause of order owed much to both of them. The Puritan
became the champion of moral liberty, by proclaiming
that the spirit of each individual entered into direct
communication with God without any intervention of
human ordinances ; whilst he found a principle of order
in a closely reasoned system of theology, and in a strict
observance of moral duties. His opponent opened wide
the doors of intellectual liberty, was tolerant of diversity
of opinion, and anxious to restrict within fixed limits
liis articles of faith; whilst he based his self-restraint
upon external obedience to a settled order, and upon
reverence for human authority as the representative of

i)ivine l;i\v.

Already in the latter school a two-fold tendency \v;is r.,,,1,., t
to be discerned. The mind of Andrewes was cast in a $SdrewCi
devotional and imaginative mould. Laud was above all and Laud.
tin n os ;i lover of order; for asceticism or mysticism
there \\.-is no room in his thoughts. But, as far as the
intellect was concerned, he was more truly Protestant
than any Puritan in England. His objection to the
Clmreli <>f Home, ;ind to t IK- ( 'limv.li of ({em-va, was not
NO nnicli ihii.t, (heir respective eiveds wen; false, as tli.'i.l-
lliey both insisted upon tin- .-idoption of ;irl id<!H of faith

he believed to be diaputable, or ;ii l«-,-ist unneces-

o 2

196

Laud Dean
of Glouces-
ter.

Alteration
in the po-
sition of
the com-
munion-
table.

LAUD AT GLOUCESTER.

sary to be enforced. But the liberty which he claimed
for men's minds, he denied to their actions. Here, at
least, order must prevail. No interference could be too
petty, no disregard of the feelings of others too great, for
the sake of establishing uniformity of practice.

How dangerous authority might become in his hands
had recently been shown. Towards the end of 1616, he
had been appointed to the Deanery of Gloucester. The
bishop of the see, Miles Smith, was well known as one
of the most distinguished for Hebrew scholarship amongst
the translators of the Bible ; and he had owed his bishopric
to the services which he had rendered in that capacity.
But it was not long before James looked back upon the
appointment with regret. Smith's theology was Calvin-
istic ; and in his dislike of ceremonial observance, he
shared the opinions of the extreme Puritans. Under his
influence, the fabric of the cathedral was allowed to fall
into decay, and the communion-table, which, in the
majority of the cathedrals, had been placed at the East
end of the chancel, had, at Gloucester, maintained its
position in the middle of the choir.

It is probable that Laud owed his promotion to the
King's dislike of these irregularities. As he was setting
out to visit his deanery, James sent for him, and told
him that he expected him to set in order whatever he
found amiss. The errand upon which he was thus sent
was one after his own heart. He looked upon the ques-
tion of the communion-table as one of vital importance.
To his mind it was not so much the symbol of the
presence of the invisible God, as it was the throne of the
invisible King. But however strongly he might have
felt, it would have been wise to set about his work with
some consideration for the feelings of those who conscien-
tiously differed from himself. The change which he
proposed was certain to arouse opposition. It would
have been worth while to have taken the congregation
into his confidence, and, if he could not hope to persuade
them to adopt his views, he might have deigned to give
some explanation of what he was doing. If he could not
bring himself to this, it would at least have been a grace-
ful act to enter, if possible, into friendly communication

THE COMMUNION TABLE IN THE CATHEDRAL. 197

with the bishop, and to acquaint him with the commis- CH- m-
sion which he had received from the King. 1617.

Nothing of this sort appears to have occurred to him
for an instant.* On his arrival at Gloucester he went
straight to the Chapter House, and laying before the
canons the King's commands, persuaded them to give the
necessary orders for the repair of the cathedral, and for
the change in the position of the communion-table. As
if this were not enough, he informed the cathedral offi-
cials that it was expected that they would bow towards
the now elevated table, whenever they entered the
church.

Of course all Gloucester was furious at this sudden Opposition
blow. The bishop declared that he would never again Jer. °
enter the doors of the cathedral till the cause of the of-
fence had been removed. The townsmen cried out loudly
against the stranger who had come to set up popery in
their midst. In the excitement of the moment, one of
the bishop's chaplains wrote a letter, in which the mem-
bers of the chapter were sharply taken to task for gross
neglect of duty in shrinking from resistance to the dean's
innovations. The letter quickly obtained publicity, and
copies of it were passed about from hand to hand. For
some time all efforts to stop the turmoil were unavailing.
It was in vain that one of the aldermen was persuaded
to summon before him as libellers those who had taken
part in the circulation of the letter, and that threats were
freely uttered that the chapter would appeal to the high
commission for redress.

Meanwhile Laud, who had quietly gone back to Oxford
as soon as he had done the mischief, was apprised of the
commotion which he had left behind him. All that

* Laud might have profitably studied the writings of a man inferior to
him in firmness and consistency, but far his superior in discretion. " As
concerning the ringing of bells upon Allhallow Day at night," wrote Cran-
iner, " and covering of images in Lent, and creeping to the Cross, he " (i. e.,
the Bishop of Worcester) " thought it necessary that a letter of your Ma-
jesty's pleasure therein should be sent by your Grace unto the two arch-
bishops ; and we to send the same to all other prelates within your Grace's
realm. . . . Nevertheless, in my opinion, when such things be altered or
taken away, there would be set forth some doctrine therewith which should
declare the cause of the abolishing or alteration, for to satisfy the conscience
of the people." Cranmer to Henry VIII., Jan. 24, 1546 ; Remains, i. 318.

198

THE PUKITAN SABBATH.

1617.

The ob-
servance
of the
Sabbath.

CH. in. could be extracted from him by the news, was a cold dry
letter to the bishop, calling upon him for assistance in
repressing the turbulence of the Puritans, and threaten-
ing him in no obscure terms with the vengeance of the
King.

By degrees the tumult subsided. The townsmen found
that remonstrances were of no avail, and withdrew from
a hopeless conflict. They did not know that with his
high-handed disregard of the feelings and prejudices of
his countrymen, Laud was preparing the way for the
success of their cause. Many of those who had taken
part in the outcry against the dean, would live to see the
forces of Charles I. recoil in discomfiture from before the
walls of Gloucester.*

Not less worthy of notice is another scene on which
men's eyes were directed a few months after Laud's visit
to Gloucester. It had become an article of belief amongst
the Puritans, that the first day of the week was the true
representative of the Jewish Sabbath, and as such was to
be observed with complete abstention, not only from all
work, but from every kind of amusement. Such a doc-
trine was peculiarly fitted to commend itself to their
minds. It afforded them an opportunity for the practice
of that self-restraint and self-denial which their creed
demanded, and at the same time it presented itself to
them under the semblance of a Divine command, which
it would be sheer impiety to disobey. The doctrine was,
perhaps, more readily accepted because it appealed to
another side of the Puritan character. The observance
was a duty lying upon Christians as individuals, not as
members of a congregation, nor of any ecclesiastical body
whatever. It demanded no co-operation with other men.
However desirable it might be to go to church upon the
Sabbath, the Puritan could do all that was necessary for
the observance of the day without crossing his own
threshold. The main thing lay in his own devotional
thoughts, and in his careful abstinence from all merely
secular labours and pleasures.

1t.°,Sl™th> Feb- 27 5 Laud to Neile, March 3, 1617. Works, vi.
239. Heylin s Life of Laud, 69, 75. Prynne's Canterbury's Uoom, 76.

DISTURBANCES IN LANCASHIRE. 199

It was but too probable that such men would soon be
brought into collision with their neighbours. To ordinary
Englishmen, Sunday was a very different day from that Resistance
which the Puritan wished it to become. From the puritean
privy councillor, who made a habit of attending the opinions-
meeting of the council upon Sunday, to the villager
who spent the afternoon in dancing upon the green,
all England had been accustomed from time imme-
morial to consider that at the close of the service
the religious duties of the day were at an end. It
was natural, therefore, that the Puritans should find
themselves greeted with a storm of obloquy. Ordinary
men of the world joined with the profligate and the
drunkard in the outcry against the sour fanatics, who
were doing their best to impose intolerable burdens upon
their neighbours.

If the controversy had been left to itself, nothing but
good could have come of it. The example of self-denial
would have told in the end. Englishmen would not, in-
deed, have been unanimous in adopting the doctrine that
the Christian festival was the direct representative of the
Jewish Sabbath ; but there would have been not a few
who would have learned what to them was the new
lesson, that man has higher objects in life than dancing
round a May-pole, or carousing at a tavern ; and they
would, before long, have become thoroughly ashamed of
the scenes by which a day thus set apart was too often
desecrated.

But unfortunately the Puritans were unwilling to leave Enforce-
the controversy to itself. When James passed through JJ^^
Lancashire, on his return from Scotland, he found the ance of the
subject forced upon his attention. Of all counties, Lan- Lanca-hm
cashire was the orie in which such questions required the shire.
most delicate handling. A large part of the population,
headed by some of the principal landowners, still clung
to the Church of Rome. On the other hand, those who
had adopted the Protestant opinions had imbibed them
in their most extreme form. The preachers who had
been sent down by Elizabeth, with a special mission to
withdraw the people from the influence of the priests,
had brought with them all those feelings and opinions

200 INTERFERENCE OF JAMES.

CH. Ill, which were most opposed to the doctrines of that Church
~1617. which they were engaged in combating.

Shortly before the King's arrival, an attempt had been
made by some of the magistrates to suppress the usual
Sunday amusements. The Catholic gentry were not slow
in taking advantage of such an opportunity of gaining a
little popularity. Putting themselves at the head of the
angry villagers, they lost no time in denouncing the
Appeal to tyranny of a morose and gloomy fanaticism. The quarrel
the King. was kec0ming serious just as James was passing through
the county. He listened to the complaints which were
brought to him against the magistrates, gave a hasty de-
cision in favour of the remonstrants, and went on his
way, thinking no more about the matter.

He had not gone far before news was brought to him
which obliged him to give more serious attention to the
subject. Advantage had been taken of his hasty words.
The country people who had been deprived of the archery
and the dancing to which they had been accustomed, had
given vent to their satisfaction at his decision in their
favour, by doing their best to annoy those who had
placed the restriction upon them. Instead of contenting
themselves, as heretofore, with their afternoon amuse-
ments, they gathered in groups near the doors of the
churches in' the morning, and at the time when the ser-
vice was commencing within, did their best to distract
the attention of the worshippers, by the sharpest notes
of their music, and by the loud shouts of laughter with
which they took care to increase the din.

forafnce8 Upon the receipt of this intelligence, James applied
to* Morton, for advice to the bishop of the diocese. He could not
have appealed to a better man. Bishop Morton had,
indeed, distinguished himself by the part which he had
taken in the controversy against the Puritans ; but it was
a distinction which he had earned by a rare absence of
acrimony, as much as by the arguments upon which he
relied. He was no mere courtier like Neile. He had
nothing of the domineering spirit of Laud. Almost
alone amongst the controversialists of his day, he knew
how to treat an adversary with respect. Above all, he
was in the fullest sense of the word a good man. In

THE ECCLESIASTICAL LORD'S DAY. 201

early life he had shown what stuff he was made of, by CH- In-
the unremitting persistence of his visits to the pesthouse, 1617.
when the plague was raging at York. On these occa-
sions he forbade his servants to follow him amidst the
infection, and carried on the crupper of his own horse
the food which was to solace the wants of the sufferers.
What he was in his youth he continued to be till his
death. Through a long and chequered career no poverty
was borne so cheerfully, no wealth distributed so wisely
and so bountifully, as that which fell to the lot of Thomas
Morton.

It was but natural that Morton should be far from Morton's
sharing the opinions of the Puritans on the subject now °^™*
brought before him. He and those who thought with subject
him were sure to deny the Sabbatical character of the
Lord's Day. Their reverence for Church authority led
them to shrink from tracing its institution higher than to
the earliest Christian times, and their whole tone of mind
was such as made them lay stress rather upon the due
attendance upon public worship, in which Christians met
together as an organized congregation, than upon the re-
straints which they might place upon themselves during
the remainder of the day. It was thus that when, not
many years later, the poet whose verses are the mirror of
the feelings and the sentiments of the school of divines
to which Morton belonged, celebrated the joys and duties
of the great Christian festival, it was in this key that all
his thoughts were pitched.

" Sundays observe : think when the bells do chime,
'Tis angels' music : " —

is the commencement of his exhortation. Through two
whole pages he continues in a similar strain. Of beha-
viour out of church, he has not a single word to say.*

With such views as these, Morton had little difficulty
in perceiving what was best to be done. On the one
hand, nothing should be permitted which might disturb
the congregation during the hours of service. On the

o o o

other hand, it must be left to every man's conscience to
decide whether or no he would take part in the accus-

* Herbert's Church Porch.

vice.

202 THE DECLARATION OF SPORTS.

CH. in. tomed amusements after the service was at an end. No

1617. compulsion was to be used. If the Puritans could per-
suade their neighbours that the practices in question were
sinful, they were at perfect liberty to do so. But further
than that they were not to be allowed to go.*

The deck- With the exception of a clause by which the benefit

sport" pub- of the liberty accorded was refused to all who had ab-

lisiied in sented themselves from the service — a clause by which

shire. it was intended to strike a blow at recusancy, but which

in reality bribed men to worship God by the alluring

prospect of a dance in the afternoon — there was little to

object to the general scope of the declaration which

James founded upon Morton's recommendations.")" If he

had contented himself with leaving it behind him for the

use of the Lancashire magistrates, it is probable that

little more would have been heard about the matter.

1618. But this would hardly have contented James. He had
siwiTo^the not ^en many months in London before he determined
rest of to publish, for the benefit of the whole kingdom, the
England, declaration which had been called forth by the peculiar

circumstances of Lancashire. In doing this, he hit upon
a plan which was calculated to rouse the greatest possible
amount of opposition. Instead of issuing a proclamation
or directing the Council to send round a circular letter to
the Justices of the Peace, warning them not to allow
themselves to be carried away by religious zeal to exceed
their legal powers, he transmitted orders to the clergy to
read the declaration from the pulpit. No doubt, in those
days, the clergy were regarded far more than they are at
present in the light of ministers of the Crown. Still

* Berwick's Life of Morton, 80.

\ Wilkins' Concilia, iv. 483. The most striking clause is the follow-

; :— And as for our good people's lawful recreation, our pleasure like-

mt, after the end of Divine service, our good people be not dis-

ed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation, such as dancing,

ir men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such

ss recreation, nor for having of May-games, Whitsun-ales and morris-

jes, and the setting up of May-poles and other sports therewith used, so

a™. b.e nad ln due and convenient time without impediment or

Divine service, and that women shall have leave to carry rushes

tiurch for the decoring of it, according to their old custom. But withal

o here account still as prohibited all unlawful games to be used on

lays only as bear and bull baitings, interludes and (at all times in the

meaner sort of people by law prohibited) bowling."

PROSPECTS OF PEACE. 203

James might have remembered that, by a large number CH- m-
amongst them, his declaration would be regarded as sheer 1618.
impiety, and that there was that in their position which
made it impossible to treat them as mere official depen-
dents, bound to carry out, without a murmur, every order
issued by superior authority.

As might have been expected, symptoms of resistance Resistance
showed themselves on every hand. Not a few amongst clergy,
the Puritan clergy, amongst whom, it is said, was the
Archbishop of Canterbury himself,* made up their minds
to refuse compliance at any cost ; and even, of those who
consented to obey, there were some who determined to
preach against the very declaration which they did not re-
fuse to read, and a still greater number were sure to declaim
in their private conversation against the principles of the
document which, as a matter of public duty, they had
brought before the notice of their congregations. James
quailed before the tumult which he had evoked, and
withdrew his order for the reading of the declaration. |

It was of good augury for the Church of England Prospects
that during the first ten or twelve years of Abbot's church of
primacy the ecclesiastical history of the country was England,
almost totally barren of events. The proceedings of Laud
at Gloucester, and of the Puritan magistrates in Lanca-
shire, were sufficient to indicate the quarter from which
danger might arise, but the very rareness of such occur-
rences gave reason to suppose that the terrible evils of an
internecine quarrel between the two great Church parties
might yet be averted. For the first time since the early
days of the Eeformation the Nonconformists were reduced
to insignificance. There were no longer any voices raised
loud enough to make themselves heard in favour of a
change in the ritual of the Church. There were, for the
first time, two parties opposed indeed in theology and in
practice, but both declaring themselves to be ready to
take their stand upon the Book of Common Prayer.
What was of still more importance, there was no strong
line of demarcation between them. Each party shaded
off into the other. Amongst the laity especially, there

* Wilson in Kennet, ii. 709.

t Fuller's Church History, v. 452.

204 SELDEN'S THEORY OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

CH. III. was a large and increasing body which took no part with
1618. the fanatics on either side, but which was growing in
piety and in moral progress under the influence of both.
In their zeal for religion, these men had no intention of
placing England under the yoke of a few clerical fire-
brands of any shade of opinion whatever.

johnSei- If there had been any doubt as to the direction in
which the current of public opinion was setting, it would
have been cleared up by the reception which was accorded
to the " History of Tithes," a book which was published
at the time when James was considering the propriety of
giving a general circulation to the Declaration of Sports.
The author of this book, which was distinguished by its
thorough opposition to all ecclesiastical claims to civil
authority, was John Selden, a lawyer of the Inner Temple,
who, at the early age of thirty-four, had established a
reputation of being the most learned man of the day.
To a knowledge of the constitution and antiquities of
his country, which even Coke could not venture to despise,
he added a marvellous familiarity with the most recondite
studies. He was as completely at home in the writings
of the Jewish Rabbis and the capitularies of Charlemagne
as he was in the works of the Fathers of the Church, or
the classical masterpieces of Greece and Rome. The very
names of the books which he had already published tes-
tified to the multifariousness of his knowledge. He had
written on the early laws of England, on duels, on titles
of honour, and on the religion of the ancient Syrians.
But of these various subjects there was none so thoroughly
to his taste as that which he had now taken in hand. Of
all men living, there was no one so completely imbued
with the spirit which had animated the political leaders
of the English Reformation. The supremacy of the civil
power over all ecclesiastical causes, and all ecclesiastical
persons, was the cardinal point of his doctrine ; and yet
that supremacy was to him something very different from
what it had been to Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. They
had wished the State to be supreme, in order that they
might enforce their own compromise upon opposing and
irreconcileable parties. Selden knew that times were
changed, and that the parties into which the Church

THE HISTORY OF TITHES. 205

of England was in his day divided were no longer CH. in.
irreconcileable. He, therefore, wished to see the Royal 1618.
Supremacy put forth with vigour, in order that it
might allow liberty to all, whilst it kept in check
every attempt at persecution from whatever quarter it
might arise.

The form into which he threw his work was a curious His " His-
one. He professed, with a modesty which deceived no !Hof,,
one, that the question whether or not tithes were due by
Divine right was above his comprehension. He left such
high matters to churchmen and canonists. As for him-
self, he was a mere student of the common law, and he
could not venture to express an opinion on questions so
far above his sphere. All he wished to do was to state
what the practice had actually been, not what it ought to
have been. In spite of this modest commencement, he
showed pretty well what his opinion was. He argued
that there was no proof whatever that tithes had ever
been claimed as of right 'during the first four hundred
years of the Christian era ; and in treating of their sub-
sequent history, he showed that the practice had been so
various, and that it had been so completely subjected to
local customs, and to the laws of the various European
nations, that the payment had in reality been accepted at
the hands of the State with whatever limitations the civil
authorities had chosen to impose.

It is evident that such a book was of greater import- Tendency
ance than its actual subject would indicate. It struck at
all claims on the part of the clergy to fix limits to the
power of the Legislature. It seemed to say to them : —
' We, the laity of England, will not limit our powers at
your demand. If you can persuade us that such and
such things are in accordance with the will of God, you
are at liberty to do so. As soon as we admit the force
of your reasoning, we shall be ready to give effect to
your arguments. If you claim a Divine right to money
or obedience, irrespective of the laws of England, you
must obtain what you ask from the voluntary consent of
those from whom you require it. If you wish to have
the assistance of pursuivants and judicial processes, you
must acknowledge that whatever you get by these means

"206 CLERICAL OUTCRY.

CH. in. proceeds from that authority by which such rough

1618. methods of compulsion are put in force."
its reoep- Such a book as this was sure to be received by the
clergy! tte clergy with a storm of indignation. They had never
once doubted the Divine right which Selden had so
quietly ignored ; and they may well be excused if they
saw in it the guarantee, not only of their own incomes,
but of the very existence of the Church of England.
They had good reason to put little faith in the tender
mercies of statesmen. They remembered but too well
how Ealeigh had become possessed of the manor of
Sherborne, and how Hatton House had been lost to the

TeaeiytoPthe SGe °^ ^^' ^ was no won(^er' then, that James was
King. besieged with supplications to come to the rescue of the
Church. He does not seem, at first, to have taken any
very great interest in the matter. After all, it was not
his prerogative that was attacked. The book was pub-
lished in April. It was not till December that the
author was summoned before the King. Nor was there
anything alarming in the interview itself. James had
something to talk about far more interesting than the
Divine Eight of Tithes. He wanted to hear Selden's
opinion on the number of the Beast in the Eevelations ;
and he was afraid, lest a passage in the book might be
understood to countenance the opinion that the nativity
of Christ did not occur upon the 25th of December, an
opinion which might be used with terrible effect by those
who held that Christmas Day ought not to be observed
at all. Selden promised to satisfy him on both these
points, and went away well pleased with the impression
which he had made.*

' "^e c^Tgy were not so easily pacified, and James
began to think that, whether Selden were right or wrong,
it would conduce to his own ease to stop their mouths.
"Without troubling himself any further about the merits
of the case, he allowed the Court of High Commission
to call upon Selden to sign a form of submission, in
which he was to acknowledge his regret for having
furnished any argument against the Divine Eight of

* Preiace to Three Tracts. Sdderis Works, iii. 1401.

sion.

SELDEN'S SUBMISSION. 207

Tithes. Such a regret was, of course, wholcly imagi- CH- HI.
nary, and it is sad that such a man should have set his 1619.
hand to any allegation of the kind. Yet it was one
which he was at least able to sign without any breach of
consistency, as he had always declared that he had no
intention of touching upon the question of Divine right
at all. The prohibition by the Court of the sale of his
book was probably felt by him as a severer blow.

Worse than this, however, was in store for Selden. ^jsfor"
One after another his antagonists came forward with repiy.nt
their answers to his book, claiming, in tones of defiance,
the victory over the man whom they had silenced. Yet
one thing was wanting to their security. If Selden was
prohibited from selling his original production, it was
always possible that he might publish a new work in
reply to their criticisms. It was not difficult to induce
James to come forward in their defence. Selden was
summoned once more before the King, and was told that
whatever might be written against him, he must not pre-
sume to reply.*

Selden's last word upon the subject was contained in 1620.
a letter addressed to Buckingham. The favourite had Seiden's
been simple enough to ask him why he had so carefully Bucking-
abstained from pronouncing an opinion on the Divine ham-
right. His reply was a masterpiece of irony. In it he
once more expressed his inability to cope with such intri-
cate questions. Whatever conclusion he came to, he was
sure to be in the wrong. If, after profound study, he
were to convince himself that no such right existed, what
sort of treatment must he expect from the King ? If, on
the other hand, he convinced himself that the right did
exist, he would be placing himself in direct opposition
to the law, which exacted payment only in so far as it
was in accordance with its own rules ; and to books for-
merly set forth by public authority, in which the doctrine
was denounced amongst the errors of the Papists.")"

Whether the repose of the English Church would be Course of
broken by any disputes more serious than those which thought!

* Extract from the Register of the High Commission Court. — Biog. 7.V/7.
Article, Selden ; note K.

f Selden to Buckingham, May 5, 1G20. Works, iii. 1394.

208 QUIET TIMES.

<1n. IIL^ had lately engaged the attention, without exciting the
1619. animosities, of the nation, was the secret of the future.
The history of human progress is closely connected with
the history of human misery. It is in contact with the
evils of the time that knowledge expands, and a new
sensitiveness is acquired by the moral feelings. The
course of morality, like the course of a river, is pro-
foundly modified by the obstacles which bar its way.
Like a mighty stream, after its escape from the iron por-
tals of the hills, the current of English religious thought
was now meandering at its own sweet will, forgetful of the
fierce struggles in the midst of which it had been tortured
into fanaticism, or cowed into subservience. Yet as the
stream does not change its nature, but is as ready as
ever to leap up into foam or to plunge into the abyss
as soon as some other rocky barrier stretches across its
path, so was it with English religion. Ten years of
government in the hands of men like Laud would make
nine-tenths of the earnest thinkers of the nation as fierce
as were the men who had concocted the Marprelate libels.
Ten years of government in the hands of men like the
Puritan magistrates of Lancashire would drive the great
majority of the English people into the warmest admira-
tion for the system of Laud. Of such violent changes as
these, however, there was not much danger as long as
James was alive. But there was a risk that the growth
of that spirit of mutual toleration, which had been
steadily on the increase, might receive a check, if any
events upon the Continent should intervene to threaten
a renewal of the strife with the Catholic powers ; and,
above all, if James should, in an evil hour, revert to his
wretched scheme of a Spanish marriage for his son, and
should thereby implant more deeply in the hearts of his
Protestant subjects that distrust and suspicion of their
Catholic neighbours which it should have been the object
of every far-sighted ruler to allay.

Already an example had been given, in the Dutch
Kepublic, of the violence with which the flames of reli-
gious faction may rage, when they are fanned by the
well-meant but injudicious attempts of a Government to
interfere with the natural current of opinion. It was not

CALVINISTS AND ARMINIANS. 20 9

long since a protest had been raised by Arminius and his CH. in.
followers against the Calvinistic doctrine of predestina- i«i*.
tion. In the province of Holland, the new teaching had Armini-
been eagerly welcomed by Barneveldt and by the com- ndiknd!
mercial oligarchy who had learned to look with jealousy
upon the popularity of the clergy. Undoubtedly Barne-
veldt's wish was to be tolerant ; but he thought that he
had done enough for religious liberty in obtaining from
the States of Holland an order that the rival theologians
should abstain from controversy, and should live in
mutual charity with one another. The compromise was
joyfully accepted by the Arminians, who were the weaker
party. By the Calvinists it was utterly rejected. Strong
in popular sympathy, they thundered from a thousand
pulpits against the new heresy, and refused to partake of
the Eucharistic bread and wine in communion with its
followers. The magistrates, ignorant that toleration, if
it is worthy of its name, must give free scope even to
folly and uncharitableness, retaliated by expelling these
clerical fire-brands from their pulpits. The result was that,
in many places, the supporters of a system which had
taken root in the soil together with the Eeformation itself,
and which was still cherished with excessive devotion by
the vast majority of the population, were either reduced
to silence, or were driven to hold their assemblies by stealth
in barns and farm-houses outside the walls of the towns.

All eyes were turned upon Maurice. To him the pro- Maurice at
ceedings of Barneveldt were thoroughly distasteful; yet J{jeCaid°f
he was in no hurry to interfere. For theology, indeed, vinists.
he cared little ; * but he saw that the unwise course
which Barneveldt was pursuing was weakening the mili-
tary strength of the Kepublic. At the same time he was
not ignorant that a revolution, however successful, would
bring weakness in its train. If Barneveldt could have
been brought to grant a real toleration, instead of one
which was essentially one-sided and unjust, the catas-
trophe which followed would probably have been averted.
It was only when the States of Holland ordered their

* The story, however, that he did not know whether the Calvinists or
the Arminians held the doctrine of predestination, is evidently a pure
invention.

VOL. I.

210 THE SYNOD OF DORT.

CH. Ill, contingent in the federal army to transfer its allegiance

1618. from the common government to themselves, and began
to raise new levies in their own name, that Maurice over-
came his reluctance to interfere. If such things as these
were permitted, it was plain that the unity of the Ee-
public was at an end, and that it was a mere question of
time when Leyden and Amsterdam would open their
gates to receive a Spanish garrison.

The revo- ? The overthrow of Barneveldt's power was easy, — easier,

lution. probably, than Maurice had expected. .In a few days the

leaders of the Arminians were in prison, and their places

were occupied by the devoted followers of the House of

Nassau.

Thus far the revolution had been directed to justifiable
objects. If Maurice's powers had been equal to the task
before him, his name would have gone down to posterity
surrounded by a glory as pure as that by which his father
had been honoured. He was now, by his elder brother's
death, Prince of Orange ; and the name which he inherited
should have reminded him that there are higher duties
than those which can be performed in the field. He
might have reorganized the Eepublic. He might have
become the founder of true religious liberty. But Maurice
was utterly deficient in the qualities needed for such a
task. He had done a soldier's work in a rough soldier's
way. He could do no more ; and he stood aside, whilst,
under the shadow of his great name, violent and unscru-
pulous partizans committed acts by which his memory
has been blackened for ever.

1619. The hour of the Calvinistic ministers was come. In
^e 8Prmg a national Synod met at Dort, to stamp with
its authority the foregone conclusions of its members.
Divines from all the Calvinistic churches of the Conti-
nent took part in its deliberations. Even James sent
deputies from England to sit upon its benches. The
Arminians were summoned as culprits to the bar. Brow-
beaten and insulted, they were finally deprived of their
offices. The States General then came to the aid of the
divines, and banished from the territory of the Eepublic
those of the deprived ministers who refused to engage
to abstain from preaching for the future.

EXECUTION OF BAHNEVELDT. 211

Even with this the Calvinists were not content. Bar- CH- HI.
neveldt was dragged before a tribunal specially appointed 1619.
for the purpose of trying him, and was accused of a ^Barne-11
treason of which he was as innocent as the wildest fanatic veldt.
who had voted down Arminianism at Dort. Yet the
temper of the dominant faction left him no hope of a fair
hearing. Maurice, who had been led to believe that his
antagonist was too dangerous to be spared, refused to
interfere in his behalf ; and, in his seventy- third year, the
aged statesman was hurried to the scaffold as a traitor to
the Republic which he had done so much to save.

James had not been an unconcerned spectator of these Attitude
events. For some time he had been profuse in advice ; of Jar
but not a word which would be of the slightest practical
use to either party had ever crossed his lips. He had
declared strongly in favour of moderation, but he had at
the same time recommended the convocation of the Synod
which made moderation impossible. His theological sym-
pathies were on the side of the Calvinists. If his political
sympathies were on the side of Barneveldt and the
supporters of the claim of the civil government to the
control of the clergy, they were neutralised by the recol-
lection of frequent collisions with that statesman in his
negotiations upon commercial matters. He little thought
that, in a few years, he would be copying Barneveldt's
abortive scheme of seeking peace by the imposition of
silence. Still less did he imagine that the revolution in
Holland was only the precursor of a greater revolution
in England, in which his own son was to take up the
part which had been played with such signal want of
success by Barneveldt.

In the year which was marked in Europe by the Virginia,
execution of Barneveldt and the triumph of the Calvinists
at Dort, an event, scarcely noticed at the time, took
place in America. In 1619, the first Colonial Parliament
assembled at James Town.

The five years which had passed since Gates* had left 16*4-
the colony, in 1614, had brought great changes to Vir- "

ginia. His successor, Sir Thomas Dale, ruled with firm- tion.
ness and ability. The land which had hitherto been held

* Hist, of England, 1603—1616, i. 363.

212 VIRGINIA.

CH. III. in common was divided* into private ho] dings, and this
1614. measure was attended with the best effects. If the set-
tlers did not acquire wealth rapidly, they were at least
1616. contented and prosperous. After two years, Dale returned
to England well satisfied with the results of his adminis-
tration.

visit of On board the vessel on which he recrossed the At-

teTtoEn lantic, was a passenger who was likely to attract far

iand.° ' more attention than the Governor. Pocahontas, the

daughter of the Indian chief Powhattan, who in the early

days of the colony had served as a friendly messenger

between her father and the settlers, was in the ship.

She was now the wife of an Englishman, and was

eagerly looking forward to the first sight of the land

which, in her childhood, had so powerfully attracted her

imagination.

Herpre- The history of her marriage was a strange one. In
vioushis- 1^12, a vessel came out to the colony, under the com-
mand of a daring and unscrupulous adventurer, named
Argall. Finding that hostilities prevailed between the
colonists and the natives, he formed the design of seizing
as a hostage the daughter of the principal chief in the
neighbourhood. By the bribe of a copper tea-kettle he
induced an Indian to entice Pocahontas on board his
vessel, and sailed away with his prize to James Town.
For some months it seemed that the outrage had been
committed in vain. Powhattan still refused to submit to
the terms demanded of him. At last, however, he was
informed that one of the settlers, named Thomas Eolfe,
wished to marry his daughter. The intelligence pleased
him, and a general pacification was the result. Poca-
hontas was instructed in the religion of her husband, and
was baptized by the name of Kebecca.*

Sanguine men believed that in this marriage they saw
the commencement of an union between the two races,
from which a great Christian nation would arise in Ame-
rica, under the protection of the English Crown. It was
not so to be. The story of Pocahontas herself was too sure
an indication of the fate which awaited her race. At

* Smith's History of Virginia, 112. Stitli's History of Virginia, 127.

DEATH OF POCAHONTAS. 213

first everything smiled upon her. Captain Smith, who
had known her well in Virginia, presented her to the
Queen. Anne received her kindly, and invited her to be
present at the Twelfth-Night masque. So delighted was at court,
the Indian girl with the brilliancy of the scenes which
opened before her, that she could hardly be brought to
accompany her husband on his return. She never saw Her death,
her Virginian home again. Her brain had been over-
tasked, and her imagination excited by the throng of new
sights and associations which had pressed upon her.
She died at Gravesend before she set foot on board the
vessel which was to have carried her back. She left one
child, a little boy. Sir Lewis Stukely, as yet unstained
by disloyalty to Raleigh, asked to be allowed to care for
his education. Stukely did not live long enough to cor-
rupt the child. After his death young Thomas Rolfe
was transferred to the care of an uncle. He afterwards
emigrated to his mother's country, and through him
many of the foremost families of Virginia have been
proud to trace their lineage to the Indian Pocahontas.*

In England, but for the audacious mendacity of Smith, ^"^
her name would probably soon have been forgotten along romance,
with those of so many of her race who have from time to
time visited our shores. He was at this time looking
about for fresh employment, and he saw that the best
chance of acquiring notoriety ]ay in connecting his name
with hers. He accordingly invented that touching story,
which has for two centuries and a half charmed readers
of all ages. Of the many poetical fictions which historical
inquiry in our day is clearing away, there is none which
will be surrendered with such regret as that which
tells how the captive Englishman condemned to death
was saved by the intervention of the daughter of his
captor. |

The short administration of Yeardley, who had been 1616-
left behind as Dale's deputy, was marked by the intro- J^fUth0
duction into the colony of the cultivation of the tobacco cultivation

of tobacco.

* Smith's History of Virginia, 121. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22,
1616 ; Jan. 28 ; March 29, 1617. 8. P. Dom., Ixxxvii. 67 ; xc. 25, 146.

t Smith's True Relation of Virginia (ed. Deane), 38, note 3; 72, note 1 ;
Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia (ed. Deane), 32, note 8. No doubt seems
any longer possible after Mr. Deane's arguments.

214 THE TOBACCO PLANT IN VIKGINIA.

CH. Ill, plant, to which the whole of its subsequent prosperity
1616. was owing. Hitherto the settlers had been engaged in
a struggle for existence ; they had now at last before
them an opportunity of acquiring wealth. Yet the
change was not of unmixed advantage. Everyone was
in haste to grow rich, and everyone forgot that tobacco
would not prove a substitute for bread. Every inch of
ground which had been cleared was devoted to tobacco.
The very streets of James Town were dug up to make
room for the precious leaf. Men had no time to speak
of anything but tobacco. The church, the bridge, the
palisades, were allowed to fall into decay, whilst every
available hand was engaged upon the crop which was
preparing for exportation.

Yeardiey's The natural result followed. Starvation once more
stared the settlers in the face. There was not corn
enough in James Town to last till another harvest.
Yeardley, a kindly, inefficient man, had not foreseen the
danger, or had been unable to make head against it ; and
the only remedy which he could devise was an attack
upon the Chickahominies for the purpose of enforcing
the payment of a corn tribute which had been for some
time in abeyance. The expedition was successful, and
was, doubtless, applauded at the time. But it did not
promise well for the union between the races which was
to have sprung from the marriage of Eolfe and Poca-
hontas.*

1617. Yeardley had held office for little more than a year
Argaii ar- when he was succeeded by Argall. The new Governor
Governor. was no^ *ne man *° imitate the remissness of his prede-
cessor ; and the colonists soon found that he was deter-
mined to be obeyed. The defences of James Town were
repaired. Harsh remedies were applied to the recent
disorders. Every act of the colonists was now to be
fenced about with prohibitions. The trader was to con-
tent himself with a profit of twenty-five per cent. No
intercourse was to be held with the Indians excepting
through the medium of the constituted authorities.
Whoever wasted his powder by firing a gun, excepting

* Smith's History of Virginia, 120. Stith's History of Virginia, 140.

TYRANNY OF ARGALL. 215

in self-defence, was to be condemned to penal servitude CH- ni.
for a year. Whoever taught the use of firearms to an 1617.
Indian was to be put to death.*

Even such regulations as these might have been Histy-
endured if Argall had been a man of integrity. But rauny*
when it came to be known that in the eyes of the
Governor he was himself the one man in Virginia who
was above the law, the whole Colony broke out into
open discontent. Every homeward-bound vessel carried
across the Atlantic complaints of his tyrannical conduct
to individuals, and of his shameless robbery of the public
stores.

As soon as these complaints reached London, the 1618.
Company requested Lord De la Warr to return to Ame- Appoint-

i , j -i i f T ment and

rica, and to save the colony once more from rum. In death of
the spring of 1618 he left England, accompanied by the
best wishes of all who took an interest in Virginia ; but
his weakly constitution was unable to bear up against
the hardships of the voyage, and he died before the pas-
sage was completed. Argall was in consequence left a
little longer in possession of the authority which he had
misused. With childish spite he took especial pleasure
in ruining the estates which, by De la Warr's death, had
become the property of his widow. He left no stone
unturned to drive Lady De la Warr's servants from her
employment, and to entice them to transfer their services
to himself. Hearing that Brewster, the agent in charge
of the estate, had remonstrated against his proceedings,
he ordered him to be seized, and sent before a court-
martial to answer for the words which he had used against
the Governor. Brewster was condemned to death, and Sentence
this monstrous sentence would have been carried into Brewster.
execution if the general voice of the Colony had not
compelled Argall, however unwillingly, to commute it to
one of banishment from Virginia.f

The news of these extraordinary proceedings excited He is re-

T-I-T • T rtn f* ~\ ca'le(i-

no little indignation in London. I he Company, warned,
by the failure of their attempt to substitute King Stork
for King Log, restored Yeardley to the post from which

* Smith's History of Virginia, 123 ; Stith's History of Virginia, 147.
f Stith's History of Virginia, 149.

216 THE FREE COLONIES OF ENGLAND.

Ill, they had recalled him, and ordered him to send Argall

1618. home to give an account of his conduct.

Yeardley's appointment was fortunately something
more than a mere change of governors. By the in-
structions which he carried out, he was directed to put
an end for ever to the system of martial law which had
been introduced by Dale, and which had recently been
so terribly abused. He was also ordered to call together
an assembly, freely elected by the colonists, before which
he was to lay a code of laws which had been prepared
for their use in England.

The new Governor arrived too late to secure the
His flight. puriishment of Argall. Timely notice had been given
The first him, and he had made his escape from the Colony. But

Colonial I- , „ , . fJ

Pariia- no time was lost in laying the foundations of a more
prosperous future. On the 30th of July, 1619, the first
Colonial Parliament gathered round Yeardley at James
Town.* From henceforth Virginia was to be governed
by its own laws, freely accepted by its own representa-
tives. England had stamped her own likeness upon her
creation, and the first of the free colonies of England
had taken firm root by the side of the flaunting glories
of the Spanish empire.

^n ChT Tlie clianges by which the Colony had been distracted
EngklTd. were not without effect upon the Company at home. At
the time when Yeardley sailed, Sir Thomas Smith still
presided over its fortunes with the title of Treasurer. It
had become the fashion in Virginia to look upon him as
the source of all the evil that had befallen the colony,
and though there was probably some exaggeration in
this, the charges brought against him were not without
foundation. His temper was easy, and he was lax in his
attention to the duties of his office. It was to his rela-
tionship with Smith that Argall owed his appointment.
Nor was Argall the only one of Smith's allies who brought
discredit upon the Company. His son, Sir John Smith,
had married a sister of Lord Eich, who, in the spring of
1619, succeeded to the Earldom of Warwick, which had
a few months before been purchased by his father. The

* The proceedings of this Assembly, the loss of which was regretted by
Mr. Bancroft, are m the Record Office. £ P. Colonial, i. 45.

SIR EDWIN SANDYS. 217

new earl, whose piratical adventures in the East were GH- m-
paralleled by his piratical adventures in the West,* was a 1(>19-
firm friend of Argall, and, strong in Court favour, he did
his best to secure the protection of the Company for the
deposed Governor.

But the Company were not so to be misled. They Sandys
refused to re-elect Smith to the office of Treasurer. His ^seurer
successor was Sir Edwin Sandys, who had taken a leading Company,
part in the preparation of the laws which had just been
sent out to Virginia, and whose services in the English
Parliament had well fitted him to preside over the intro-
duction of Parliamentary institutions in America. |

It is thus that the year 1619 becomes a date to
be remembered in the history of English colonisation.
The election of a leading member of the Parliamentary
opposition to the responsible office of Treasurer is an
evidence that in the Virginia Company, as in the City
of London, and as in every body of active and intelli-
gent men, the spirit of opposition to the Court and its
minions was on the increase. The breach thus made was
to grow wider every year till the Company was swept
away by the irritation of the King. But in the mean-
while Sandys had done his work. He had planted the
standard of free institutions at James Town, and under
the shadow of that standard Virginia grew and prospered
when the Company which had fostered it in its infancy
had ceased to exist.

The course of English adventure in America finds, in 1605.
some respects, its parallel in the long struggle of the ^^"f~
East India Company for the establishment of commercial Dutch in
relations with the extreme East. There, too, English *
enterprise was at first attracted to those parts which were
richest in the promise of a lucrative trade. As in Ame-
rica, it found them pre-occupied, and after a long and
fruitless struggle with its rivals, it discovered its Virginia
in the open ground of the peninsula of India. In many
respects, indeed, there is no parallel to be drawn between
the attitude of Spain towards the English in the West
Indies and the attitude of the Dutch in the Eastern Seas.

* Stith's History of Virginia, 153.
t Stith's History of Virginia, 158.

218 THE EAST INDIA TRADE.

CH. in. As far as the Continent, or even the larger islands were
1605. concerned, it would have been madness, at the beginning
of the seventeenth century, for either England or the Ne-
therlands to think of establishing an empire similar to
that which had been built up by Spain in America. The
native states were far too powerful, and the climate was
too unsuited for permanent occupation by large bodies of
the inhabitants of Northern Europe, that it was enough
if factories could be established at the points most suit-
able for commercial intercourse. That bitter jealousies
should arise between the merchants of the two nations
was only to be expected. Here and there a party of
Englishmen would come to blows with a party of Dutch-
men, and broken heads, or even the loss of a few lives,
would be the result. The chiefs of the rival factories
would intrigue with the native princes for exclusive pri-
vileges. But, on the whole, no very great harm would
have been done. The local hatreds would have been
bitter enough ; but they would not have blazed out into
internecine war, nor would they have been of sufficient
importance to call for more than a passing notice from
the Governments of London and the Hague.
The Spice There was one spot in the Indian Ocean where these
conditions were reversed. Pepper might be shipped at
any port in Java or Sumatra. It was a mere matter of
convenience at what point in the Indian Peninsula the
trade in calicoes should be conducted. But nutmegs
were, at that time, only to be found in the little group
of the Banda Isles, and cloves grew nowhere in the world
except on the five islands to which the name of Moluccas
had originally belonged, and on the more southerly archi-
pelago which clustered round the noble harbour of
Amboyna as its commercial centre.

The For- It was after a long and arduous struggle that the
ejSteJby Dutch nad succeeded in driving the Portuguese, at that
the Dutch, time counted amongst the subjects of the King of Spain,
out of Amboyna and the Moluccas. They did not pro-
fess to come as conquerors. They came, as Ealeigh had
come to Guiana, to defend the natives from the oppres-
sion of their tyrants. All that they required in return
from the grateful islanders, for whose sake, as they said,

THE DUTCH IN THE EAST. 219

they erected forts and kept up garrisons, was that they CH- IIL
should enter into an engagement to sell no spice to anyone 1605.
but themselves.

From Amboyna an expedition was fitted out in 1609 16°9-
to take possession of the Bandas. The fear of the Dutch 2tfc3£J
arms compelled the inhabitants of Neira, the principal, das.
though not the largest, island of the group, to grant to
them by treaty a monopoly of their trade ;* and this
treaty was long afterwards appealed to as conferring
upon the Dutch East India Company the sovereignty not
merely of the island of which they were actually in pos-
session, but of the whole surrounding group. Yet, in
spite of the treaty, the natives soon combined in an
attempt to drive out the invaders. The next year, how-
ever, David Middleton, coming to the Bandas in search
of nutmegs, found that a fort had been built, and that
Neira was in complete subjection, whilst the remaining
islands still maintained a precarious independence.")'

Such proceedings formed a strange comment upon the The Mare
Mare Liberum, the celebrated treatise published by
Grotius at Leyden, in the very year in which his country-
men were exacting a monopoly from the Bandanese, in
which he proved, to the logical discomfiture of the Por-
tuguese, that commercial monopolies were contrary to all
law, human and divine.

That Grotius was in the right no one in the present The com-
day will be found to question. Liberty of trade is a ^Tstion
good thing in all places and at all times. But what preceded
Grotius, working out his problem with all theoretical SorW.
correctness, failed to see, was that there was another
question to be settled before the commercial difficulty
could be even approached. It was, in fact, as impossible
to agree to freedom of trade before the territorial limits
of the European Powers in the newly-discovered coun-
tries had been settled, as it was to allow religious liberty
before the absolute independence of the national Govern-
ments was admitted. A French merchant landing at
Sydney in the nineteenth century, or an English mer-
chant landing at Surat in the seventeenth century, came

* Purchas, i. 717.
f Purchas. i. 238.

220 FREE TRADE AND MONOPOLY.

Ill, to buy wool and calico, and they came for nothing more.

1U09. But an English merchant asking for freedom of trade at
the harbour of Amboyna or at the mouth of the Orinoco
in the reign of James I. was not unreasonably regarded
with as much suspicion as a Jesuit asking for freedom of
conscience in England in the reign of Elizabeth. The
request was denied, not so much to the unarmed trader
by whom it was preferred, as to the armed force which
he was supposed to have at his back.

Free trade That the Dutch should form commercial establishments
impossible m a number of small islands without acquiring territorial
Spice Is- sovereignty was impossible. Wherever a civilised nation
lands. comes in contact with an uncivilised population, quarrels
inevitably spring up, which can only end in the sub-
jection of one or the other. It was still more impossible
to share this sovereignty with another European nation.
Englishmen and Dutchmen might continue to trade ami-
cably within the dominions of the Great Mogul, because,
under the sway of that powerful monarch, both the
English and the Dutch held their factories on sufferance.
But the presence of Englishmen and Dutchmen together
at Amboyna or the Bandas could produce nothing but
anarchy. Whenever the natives had real or imaginary
grounds of complaint against either factory they would
appeal to the other for support, and the mutual exaspe-
ration would end in a deadly quarrel, of which the in-
evitable result would be the expulsion or the annihilation
of one of the contending parties.

it is Looking back as we do from the vantage ground on

bytte which we stand, it is possible to see that in these islands

English, the establishment of territorial dominion must have pre-

ceded commercial freedom.* But it was hardly to be

expected that the English in the East would acquiesce

without a struggle in the sacrifice which such a conces-

sion demanded. As the weaker power, they cried out

loudly for liberty of trade. They had loaded their vessels

with cloves and nutmegs before the islands had been

_ * In fact, there was needed the adoption of a principle of cujus regio,
ejus commercium, analogous to the principle of cujus regio, ejus reliyio. Both
were steps of progress, yet both, look mean enough in comparison with that
which has been since attained.

ILL TREATMENT OF THE ENGLISH. 221

occupied by the Dutch, and why should they not do so CH- IIL
now I The Dutch cried out no less loudly against this 16U!j-
impertinent interference with their subjects, and com-
plained bitterly that it was unfair that, whilst their own
trade was burthened with the expense of maintaining
forts and garrisons to keep out the Portuguese, the
English, who were under no such obligations, should be
enabled to undersell them in the European market.

In 1613, Jourdain was sent out from the English head- 1613.
quarters at Bantam with orders to re-open the clove trade
at Amboyna and the neighbouring island of Ceram.
Everywhere the natives had the same story to tell him.
They would gladly sell him all the spice they had, but
the Dutch had threatened them with instant ruin if they
permitted a single bag of cloves to find its way on board
the English vessels.*

The next year no fresh attempt was made. But in
1615 Skinner was despatched with instructions to open
factories, if possible, both at the Bandas and at Amboyna.
At Neira the complaints of the natives were terrible.
" It was enough/' they said, " to make old men weep ;
and the child, too, that was yet unborn. God had given
the country to them and theirs ; but He had sent the
Dutch as a plague upon them to take it from them."
But those who heard the sad tale were powerless. The
Dutch Commanders ordered Skinner to leave the island,
and, in the face of seven well-armed vessels lying before
the fort, it was hopeless to resist. The English met with
similar treatment at Amboyna and Ceram, though Skinner
succeeded in leaving a pinnace to trade with the friendly
natives of Puloway, an island of the Banda group which
was as yet unoccupied by the Dutch.")"

As soon as the Dutch at Neira heard that Englishmen The Dutch
had been left at Puloway they determined to make a vigor-
ous effort to reduce the island before succour could arrive,
The attack was repulsed by the natives, \ and upon their

* Jourdain's Journal ; Sloane MSS. 858, fol. 83.

t Welding to Jourdain, May 23. Farie to the Company, July 26, 1614.
Instructions from Jourdain, Jan. 24. Boyle to the Company, Feb. 18.
Skinner to Denton, July 12. Cockayne to Smith, July 16. Jourdain to
the Company, Dec. 26, 1615. E. I. C. prig. Corr.

J Valentyn. Oud en Nieuw Ost-Indien, Deel. iii. Stuk. ii. 81.

222 LOSS OF PULOWAY.

ill, return to their head-quarters at Neira, the Dutch officers

1615. complained that they had found arms of English make
in the possession of those whom they chose to call rebels
against their authority. The English pinnace remained
at the island till August, and, when it sailed away with
its cargo of nutmegs, Eobert Hunt was left behind as
factor for the Company.

1616. In the following March, four English ships arrived at
Puioway Puloway under the command of Samuel Castleton.

sur* Scarcely had they cast anchor when eleven Dutch vessels
Put ou^ fr°m Neira to oppose them. The natives of
Puloway, and of the neighbouring island of Pularoon,
were encouraged by the presence of Castleton to make a
formal surrender of the islands to Hunt as the represen-
tative of the King of England. They were a warlike
race, and judging by what took place in these seas in
the following year, it would seem that with their assist-
ance it would not have been difficult to hold both the
islands. Castleton, however, thought otherwise, and
entered into negotiation with the Dutch. It was agreed
that Hunt should give no assistance to the natives, on
condition that the Dutch, if they proved successful,
would sha're the trade with the English. With this
promise Castleton professed himself satisfied, and sailed
Puloway away, leaving Puloway to its fate. As soon as he was
thee£utch gone, Hunt's native forces mutinied, and he was obliged
to fly from the island to save his life. The Dutch,
relieved from his presence, continued the struggle, and,
reducing the natives to subjection, thought no more of
their agreement.*

1617. News in the seventeenth century did not travel fast,
^theUti°u an(i ^ wasnottill September, 1617, that the Company
Company. m London heard that Puloway had been lost eighteen

months before. There was no sign of flinching. Ever
since the failure of the negotiations with the Dutch Com-
pany, in 1615,t they must have expected something of

* Compact with the Dutch, March 16. Directions to Hunt, March (?),
1616. E. I. C. Grig. Corr. Purchas, i. 608. Jourdain's Journal ; Shane
MSS. 858, foL 106. The information on Castleton's voyage is, however,
extremely imperfect.

t History of England, 1603—1616, ii. 202.

COURTHOPE'S DEFENCE OF PULAROON. 223

the kind. They at once ordered that six ships should be CH- m-
got ready in the spring to defend their interests in the 1617-
East. " By such strength," they say in their Minutes,
"the inhabitants of Banda and the Moluccas will be
encouraged to deal with the English when they shall
find them of power to resist the wrongs put on them by
the Hollanders." They did not intend to send the fleet
" to oppose the Hollanders in hostile manner, but to
countenance their business that they be not put down or
forced from their trade : — which it seems they do intend
in all parts : — but to send a good strength both to the
Moluccas and Banda, and do it to purpose once for all,
and try what the Hollanders will do, if a man of courage
may be had that will not endure their wrongs. But as
yet. they have only given words, and no deeds/'4 1616.

The last sentence was evidently aimed at Castleton. Conrthope
It was not till after the interval of a year that the ll
Company learned that the man of courage of whom
they had been in search had been found amongst their
servants in the East. Late in 1616, two vessels, the
Swan and the Defence, were despatched from Bantam
under the command of Nathaniel Courthope, one of
those forgotten worthies by whose stern self-sacrifice
in the face of the calls of duty the English Empire
has been built up in every quarter of the globe. In
fulfilment of his instructions,! he steered for Pularoon,
which was as yet unsubdued by the Dutch. His first
step was to convince himself by inquiry that the sur-
render of the two islands to Hunt had been made in
proper form. He then, having first accepted from the
natives a confirmation of their previous act, sent to
inform the Dutch Governor of Puloway that both islands
were included in the dominions of the King of England.

Courthope's message was at once treated as a chal-
lenge. On the 3rd of January, three Dutch ships sailed pels the

. J J ' 111 T4..X-V. 4.-

into Pularoon roads, and dropped anchor close to the
Swan and the Defence. If Courthope had not taken
the precaution of erecting two batteries on shore, his
case would have been hopeless. As it was, he was able

* E. I. C. Court Minutes, Sept. 25, 1617.

t Instructions to Courthope, Oct. 29, 1616. E. I. C. Orig, Corr.

Dutch to
retire.

224

COURTHOPE'S STUBBORN RESISTANCE.

CH. III.

1(317.

to

Capture
of the
Swan.

The Do-
fence
given up
to the
Dutch.

Courthope
holds out.

take a high tone with the new comers. He ordered
them to put to sea at once. If they were not gone
before midnight, they must take the consequences.

The Dutch Commanders glanced at the English bat-
teries on the shore, and at the swarms of hostile natives
crowding upon the beach. They shrunk from the con-
flict, and before midnight came they were on their way
back to Neira. A week later a Dutch pinnace, which by
accident or design stood in close to the shore, was greeted
with a storm of shot from the English .guns.

Courthope' s difficulties were only beginning. His
officers and men were insubordinate, and, against his
advice, Davey, the Master of the Swan, carried his
ship over to the Great Banda for water. Seeing that
he was determined to go, Courthope directed him to
visit the town of Weyre, on the Great Banda, and the
Island of Eossengain, as it was understood that the in-
habitants were anxious to cede their territory to the
English. Davey carried out his instructions, and the
cession was formally made ; but on his return to Pula-
roon he was intercepted by a Dutch vessel of far superior
strength to his own. After a severe fight, the Swan
was carried into Neira Koads with the English colours
trailing over the stern in derision.

It was some time before the news of the loss of the
Swan reached Pularoon. Undismayed at his misfor-
tune, Courthope set to work to complete his fortifi-
cations. But his own men were discontented. They
had come to Pularoon, they told him, to trade, and not
to fight. On the night of the 26th of March, whilst
the Commander was on shore, the crew of the Defence
mutinied, and carrying the vessel to Neira, delivered her
up to the Dutch.*

To complete Courthope' s misfortunes, he had no hope
of assistance till the westerly monsoon blew again at the
end of the year; and as the island on which he was,
was one of the westernmost of the group, he was
exposed to an attack from Neira for at least six months.

* Correspondence between Courthope and the Dutch Commanders, Jan.
—April, 1617. S. P. East Indies. Surrender of Pularoon and Puloway.
Spurway to the Company, Purchas, i, 701, 608.

SIR THOMAS DALE'S EXPEDITION. 225

He had but thirty-eight of his men on shore with him
when he was deserted by the Defence. Food, too, was
running short, and, if it had not been for the opportune
arrival of two junks laden with rice, starvation would
have done the enemy's work. All that he could do was
to send news to Bantam in a native boat, and to wait
hopefully for the help which was sure to come at last.

The Dutch made up their minds to proceed to extremi- Capture of
ties. The Speedwell, an English pinnace, sailing along weeii.P
the coast of Java, was fired at by the Dutch Admiral,
and captured. At Bantam, a declaration of war against
all who attempted to trade in the Spice Islands was fixed
to the door of the English factory. The two fleets were
only prevented from fighting in the Eoads by the inter-
position of the native king, who threatened, that if they
did not keep the peace, he would cut the throats of every
European on shore.*

It was high time that the Company should take some 1618-
steps to send help to the brave men who were imperil- JJjJj^*
ling their lives in its behalf. The winter of 1617 had England,
been spent in preparations for the expedition which was
to sail in the spring. It was not till April, 161 8,f more
than a year after the capture of Courthope's ]ast vessel,
that the fleet destined for his relief was ready to sail. It
was composed of six ships, and was placed, at South-
ampton's recommendation, under the command of Sir
Thomas Dale.J It was, perhaps, all that could be done ;
but the shareholders must have had great faith in Dale's
energy and talents if they thought that, with the miser-
ably insufficient force at his disposal, he would be able to
accomplish the object for which he was sent. His ad-
versaries had at their command a fleet of thirty sail, and
in case of necessity could fall back upon the twenty-two
fortified posts where the four thousand soldiers of the
great Dutch Company kept watch and ward over its
interests in the East.§

* Remonstrance of the state of the question, &c., Jan. (?), 1619, Holland.
News brought by a French vessel, 1618 (?), S. P. East Indies.
t Lovelace to Carleton, April 6, 1618. S. P. -Dora, xcvii. 9.
j E. I. C. Court Minutes, Sept. 30, 1617 ; Feb. 3, 1618.
§ Bell to Carleton, Sept. 12, 1618. 8. P. Holland.

VOL. I.

226 EFFORTS OF DIPLOMACY.

Dale's little squadron had hardly left the Thames when
a distorted account of the loss of the two vessels, in
which the whole blame was thrown upon Courthope,
reached England through a Dutch channel.*
The Dutch The Dutch were the first to move. The wealthy mer-
chants who presided over the fortunes of the East India
Company of the Netherlands were far from sharing in
the fierce antagonism against everything English which
animated their subordinates in the Indies. All they
wanted was to secure large dividends, and they were
well aware that their dividends would be seriously
affected by the outbreak of a war. Caron, the Dutch
Ambassador in London, was therefore at once directed to
propose the renewal of the negotiations which had failed
in 1615, and, at the same time, to present a complaint
against the assistance rendered by the English to the
Bandanese.f

For some time nothing was done. The Dutch Ee-
public was in the throes of its religious revolution, and
it was not till Maurice was thoroughly established in
power that any serious attempt was made to open nego-
tiations. By that time the indignation of the English
Company was excited. The news which they received
from their own agents in the East had told them what
Courthope's conduct had really been, and they presented
a petition to the King demanding justice for the outrages
to which they had been exposed. The party of the
Prince of Orange, which was now in power, had every
wish to remain on good terms with England, and early
in October Commissioners were appointed to go over to
London to discuss the matters in dispute.^

* Carleton to Chamberlain, April 25. Carleton to Lake, April 25.
Carleton to Beecher, April 30, 1618. S. P. Holland.

t Caron to the States General, ^-H8, May £ '^», 1618. Add.
MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 284, 289, 305. ^ " * ** '

t Contarini to the Doge, gg^5. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Salvetti's
News-Letter, %£*5. Naunton to Carleton, Sept. 8. S. P. Dom. civ. 62.
Bell to Carleton Sept 12. Carleton to Naunton, Sept. 15. Naunton to
Carleton, Sept. 24. Carleton to the King, Sept. 29 Eesolution of the
States General, Oct. -. Carleton to Naunton, Oct. 12, 1618. S. P. Hol-
land.

DUTCH COMMISSIONERS IN ENGLAND. 227

Just as the Commissioners were ready to start, an CH- in*_
incident occurred which threatened to interrupt the good 1618.
understanding prevailing between the two Governments. Attempted
News arrived in London that one of the vessels which onThe* *
had taken part in the capture of the Swan was in the Dutch.
Channel. With more zeal than discretion, the English
Company applied to the Admiralty Court for a commis-
sion to arrest it. The request was at once granted, but
before anything was done the vessel had passed the
Straits, and was safe in a Dutch port.

The Dutch Government was indignant at the insult.
They suspected the King of having authorised the at-
tempt to obtain satisfaction by force at a time when
negotiations had been already commenced, James, how-
ever, assured Caron that he knew nothing about the
matter, and Caron informed his masters that he had no
reason to doubt the truth of the King's assertion.* The
Commissioners were accordingly allowed to start.

On the 27th of November, the Dutch negotiators Arrival of
arrived in London, f Their instructions authorised them
to treat on the Spitzbergen whale-fishery, in which the
English and Dutch had lately come to blows, as well as
on the East India trade. But this was not enough for
James. He wished the whole of his grievances to be
settled once for all. There were matters relating to the
cloth trade, and to the relative value of the coinages,
which required adjustment. But his principal complaint
was that the Dutch refused to renounce their claim to
fish for herrings on the British coast.

In England and Scotland the herring-fishery had been The her-
almost totally neglected. Here and there in fine weather ™g hl
a few small boats would put off timidly a little distance
from the shore, and would bring home a supply for the

* Contarini (Nov. ^, 1618, Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.) speaks of the
order as emanating from the King. But Caron, writing on the same day
(Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 353), after giving the King's disclaimer, adds an
instance in which a similar order had been issued without any authority
from the King. James was at Royston at the time, and may not have been
consulted in a matter requiring such haste.

t Dutch Commissioners to the States General, ^-^-, 1618. Add. MSS.
17,677 I. fol. 363.

Q2

228 THE HERRING FISHERY.

CH. Ill, temporary wants of the local market.* Of late years
1618. the Dutch had discovered the value of the prize which
Englishmen had allowed to slip out of their hands, and
every season large fleets of well-built vessels put out
from the ports of Holland and Zealand to fish in English
waters.

Disputes James had long looked upon this disregard of his
Dutch*6 prerogative with displeasure. In 1607 he had issued a
proclamation f forbidding foreigners to fish on English
coasts without a licence. But little respect had been paid
to the prohibition ; and when, ten years later, an attempt
was made on the coast of Scotland to enforce the rights
of the Crown by the demand of the old customary tax
known as the size herring, the Dutch captain replied by
carrying the officer of the customs a prisoner to Holland.
As a matter of form, James required the offender to be
sent over to England. But he treated him kindly, and
contented himself with requiring that the Commissioners
who were shortly to negotiate on the business of the East
Indies should also be empowered to settle the disputes
relating to the fishery.^:

mentof6" ^Q ^^ ^m£ that James learnt, after the arrival of
the ques- the Commissioners, was that they had no instructions on
tion- the subject. He at once sent for them to Whitehall,
where they were soundly rated by Bacon for coming
with insufficient powers. In their answer the Commis-
sioners spoke of their claim to fish as being an imme-
morial possession. By this language they added fuel to
the flame, and at one time it seemed likely that they
would be sent back without a hearing upon the more
important matters with which they were charged. Even
if the Dutch Government had been willing to prohibit
the fishery, they would hardly have dared to take a step
which would have brought ruin on thousands of families.
James's anger seldom lasted long. The Commissioners
were allowed to explain away their words. They had

* Burroughs, Sovereignty of the Seas, 117.

t Proclamation, May 7, 1607, printed in Needham's Translation of Sel-
den's Mare Clausum.

t The Lords of the Council to Carleton, Aug. 4, 1617. Carleton Letters,
156. Salvetti's News-Letters, May 1, June t, 1618.

COURTHOPE AT PULAROON. 229

no intention, they said, to deny his right of regulating CH- Hi.
the fishery on his own coasts. But the struggle with the 1618-
Arminians was scarcely at an end, and in the midst of
these difficulties it was impossible for them to treat on so
delicate a subject. In reply, James disclaimed any wish
to deprive the fishermen of their bread; but if it cost
him his life, his crown, and all that he had, his preroga-
tive must be maintained. Messages were sent to and fro 1619.
between London and the Hague, and James finally con-
tented himself with an engagement that whenever the
Dutch Government was sufficiently settled, the matter
should be taken in hand.0

At last, after a delay of some weeks, the negotiations
on the East India trade were allowed to commence. Five
members of the Privy Council were joined with deputies India
of the Company to meet the Commissioners. The ques- l
tion of the restitution of the captured vessels and their
lading was the first to be discussed, and it was, after a
long dispute, agreed that the captors should not be
required to make good any losses sustained whilst the
prizes were in their hands, unless it could be distinctly
proved that the vessels had been employed in their service
at the time. |

Scarcely was this preliminary point settled, when news News from
arrived from the East which must have convinced every- the East*
one who was interested in the success of the negotiations
that there was no time to be lost. Through the whole
of the summer of 1617, Courthope had maintained his
ground at Pularoon, waiting for the westerly monsoon
which was to bring him help from Bantam. At length the
wind changed, and the hopes of the little garrison rose
as they heard it sweeping through the nutmeg-trees. But
still the weeks passed wearily away, and day after day

* Naunton to Carleton, Dec. 16, 21, 22, 29, 1618 ; Jan. 2, 21, 1619.
Carleton to the King, Jan. 3. Carleton's proposition, Jan. 22. Reply of
the States General, Feb. 13, 1619. S. P. Holland. The Dutch Commis-
sioners to the States General, Dec. i?, 1618, J*£-£ 161?, Jan. ^, jg£, 1619.
Add. MSS. 17,677 I. foL 367, 370, 374, 380.

f Dutch Commissioners to the States General, ^-p 1619- ^dd. MS^'
17,677 I. fol. 380. First article of the Treaty ; Ordre Regie" par les Com-
pagnies. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, v. ii. 333, 335.

230 FRESH LOSSES IN THE EAST.

CH. ill, they saw the sun sinking into a sailless sea. At last, on

1618. the morning of the 25th of March, more than fifteen

LOSS of the months after his arrival in the island, Courthope caught

and°theAs- sight of two vessels in the offing. They had been de-

sistance. tained by storms, and that very morning the wind

veered round to the east. Then the Dutch fleet from

Neira knew that its time was come, and bore down

upon its prey. The English ships, the Solomon and

the Assistance, were deeply laden with provisions for

the relief of their countrymen, and were in no condition

to resist the attack. Yet it was only after a combat

of seven hours that they surrendered, and were carried,

with every mark of the derision of the captors, into

Neira Roads. The crews were put in irons, and were

subjected to every possible hardship short of actual

starvation.

Courthope Courthope, who had witnessed the disaster from the

holds out. , • i 11 -r» TT

shore, contrived to send a letter to Bantam. He mar-
velled, he wrote, that so small a force had been sent. It
was idle to expect justice from the Dutch. He had held
Pularoon against them for more than a year. He and
his men had lived on rice and water, and had thought
themselves fortunate that even that was to be had. Now
another twelvemonth, with its want and misery, was
before them. The Dutch had eight ships at Neira, and
he was in hourly expectation of an attack ; yet he would
do his best till the monsoon changed. If the Dutch were
too strong for him, he trusted, with God's help, to make
them pay dearly for their victory.0

tiateionnsSin ^ would have been, indeed, to turn Courthope's dis-
London asters to account, if the English Government had been
led by them to consider, a little more deeply than before,
the real nature of the problem which they were called
upon to solve. The intelligence which every ship brought
from the scene of strife should have carried conviction to
the mind of James that the only hope of preserving peace
in the East lay in as strict a definition as possible of the

* Courthope's Journal. Purchas, I 664. Courthope to Bell, April 24,
18, E. I. C. Ong. Corr. The news which, according to Salvetti (News-
Letter, Jan. g-, 1619), reached England in January, 1619, was probably in
less detail, and perhaps through a Dutch channel.

COMMERCIAL JEALOUSY. 231

territorial limits of the two Companies. As long as CH- m-
human nature remained what it was, Dutchmen and 1619-
Englishmen, placed in too close contact, would fly at one
another's throats. Mercantile quarrels in the nineteenth
century are easily settled. In the remotest corner of the
globe in which there is any danger to be apprehended,
the presence of an armed force, commanded by officers
who are themselves strangers to the questions at issue, is
certain to enforce upon the combatants the duty of ap-
pealing for redress to their respective Governments. But
in the seventeenth century the armed force was com-
manded by the merchants themselves, and two years at
least must elapse before a letter written from the Bandas
could receive an answer from Europe.

By those who were on the spot some weight had been Views of
given to these considerations. In 1616, Courthope had chants'"
carried with him instructions to avoid places already in
the possession of the Dutch, and to content himself with
taking possession of unoccupied islands in the name of
the King of England. It was too much, however, to
expect that, till they had received the confirmation of a
bitter experience, such views would be favourably re-
garded in London, where the Company was inclined
either to under-estimate the preponderance of the Dutch
forces in the East, or to imagine that it would be pos-
sible to counterbalance them by the pressure which it
was in the power of the King of England to put upon
the States General.

By contenting themselves with asking for the islands
which had been ceded to Courthope, the Company would
have gained in security. But, undoubtedly, they would
have sacrificed the prospect of enormous gains. They
had taken up the cry of liberty of commerce without
the slightest idea of its real meaning. It was all very
well to demand free trade if there was nothing else to be
had. It was better than no trade at all. But, in the
seventeenth century, no one but a madman would have
denied that the smallest share in a monopoly was prefer-
able to the freest commerce in the world. The English
merchants, therefore, gave the Dutch Commissioners to
understand that if they would in any way admit them

232 THE EAST INDIAN MONOPOLY.

|0 a share of the trade, without requiring them to merge
their corporate existence in that of the Company of the
Netherlands, they would be ready to meet them half-
way.

Division On these terms the negotiators were not long in
commg to an agreement. Both Companies shrank from
the competition which would be the result of the division
of the Spice Islands, and it was resolved by both that
the monopoly should remain intact. The cloves and
nutmegs were from henceforth to be bought on a common
account, and after being divided in certain fixed propor-
tions between the Companies, to be sold in Europe at a
price determined by mutual agreement. What the exact
proportion was to be in which the spice was to be divided
it was more difficult to decide. The English asked for a
half. The Dutch thought they ought to be content with
a quarter. After much wrangling, it was determined
that it should be a third. The monopoly was also to
include the pepper trade of Java, but, as the Dutch
could lay no claim to the possession of the island, the
crop was to be equally divided between the two nations.
In the other ports in the Indian Ocean commerce was to
be open to both.*

Dispute One point remained to be settled. How were the Spice
fortresses. Islands to be fortified against the Portuguese ? It was
agreed, without difficulty, that the expenses of the defence
should be discharged out of a fund raised by a duty on
exports, and that a fleet, composed of an equal number
of English and Dutch ships, should be placed at the
disposal of a council at which each of the two nations
was represented by four members. It was also agreed
that existing fortifications should remain in the hands of
their original possessors ; or, in other words, that the
English garrison should be unmolested at Pularoon, and
that the other islands should be left in possession of the
Dutch. But the demand of the English negotiators to

* Dutch Commissioners to the States General, Feb. i> *^|, May £,
1619. Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 389, 392, 418. The Dutch proposed that
one-third of the trade in the whole of the Indies should be assigned to
the English, but this was refused.

MUTUAL DISTRUST. 233

be allowed to erect new fortifications wherever they CH- m-
thought fit was met by a flat refusal.* 1619.

The question of the fortifications contained, in truth,,
the kernel of the treaty. To the Dutch it was plain
that, if they gave way, the new forts would, sooner or
later, be used against themselves. To the English it was
equally plain that, without such protection, they would
be at the mercy of the Dutch. Neither side would give
way. Each party felt instinctively that the treaty would
not work, and neither was willing to find itself, when
war broke out afresh, in the power of its antagonist.

The puzzled negotiators appealed to the King. James Appeal to
had taken a deep interest in the progress of the discus- the Kins-
sion, and, from time to time, had interfered to soften
down the asperities which had been provoked. The
problem before him, however, was not one which could
be solved by a few civil words. He had to reconcile two
diametrically opposite pretensions. It was not in his
nature to go to the root of the difficulty, and; as usual,
he chose rather to go round the obstacle than to sur-
mount it. He contented himself with a recommenda-
tion that the question should be reserved for a more
convenient opportunity. In two or three years, he said,
experience would have shown at what points fortifications
would be most needed, and the negotiations would then
be resumed with a better prospect of success, f

The King's award was received with indignant protests Dissatis-
by all who had any interest in the English Company. J the^Eng0-
And yet it is difficult to see what more they could have lisjj Com-
asked him to do. It was notorious that their own forces pany*
in the East were far inferior to those at the disposal of
their rivals, and they could hardly expect, in such a
cause, to embroil England in the most unpopular and
impolitic of wars. The real weakness of the agreement

* Dutch Commissioners to the States General, April ^, 1619. Add. MSS.

17,677 I. fol. 413.

f Locke to Carleton, April 24. 8. P. Dom. cviii. 71. Balconqual to
Qarleton, May 20. 8. P. Holland. The Dutch Commissioners to the

States General, *****, 1619. Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 423.

J Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 5. £ P. Dom. cix. 75. Petition of the
E. I. C., June (?), 1619. 8. P. East Indies.

234 THE DUTCH TREATY.

CH. Ill, did not arise from the King's refusal to thrust English
1619. garrisons upon Dutch territory, but in the success of the
English merchants in establishing a treaty right to share
in the commerce of islands which were under the terri-
torial sovereignty of another nation.

Satfefac- By the politicians who looked with jealousy upon the
tion of the or0wm0. influence of Spain, the arrangement was wel-

anti-bpa- ft T/Y- m v» i i T

nish party, corned m a very different manner, lo r em broke and
Naunton, it was enough that an accommodation had been
brought about, whatever its terms might be, and they
trusted hopefully that the commercial union with Hol-
land would soon be followed by a political union.* Yet
even Pembroke and Naunton must sometimes have looked
wistfully for news from the East, knowing as they did
that a whole year must still elapse before an agreement
made in London could be published in the Bandas.
signature The treaty was signed on the 2nd of June, 1619.f On
treaty. the 15th of July the Dutch Commissioners were enter-
tained at a splendid banquet in Merchant Taylors' Hall.
After dinner they were informed by Digby that the King
^e Spitz- wouid not press them about the Spitsbergen whale
while11 fishery.:): He would give them three years to make
fishery. restitution to the English subjects whom they had
wronged.

Unfortunately, whilst the Commissioners were nego-
tiating in London, the conflict between the forces of the
two nations in the East had broken out into a flame. In
November, 1618, Dale arrived at Bantam, and at once
1618. declared war upon the Dutch. On the 23rd of December
feats the he came UP ^tn tne enemy off Jacatra, and compelled
Dutch. the Dutch fleet to seek refuge in flight. But he did not
improve the victory. Much precious time was lost in
the siege of the Dutch fort at Jacatra, and when the
spring came round he dispersed his fleet over every
quarter of the Indian Seas in search of trade. Before

* Pembroke to Carleton, July 11. Locke to Carleton, July 17, 1619.
S. P. Holland.

t Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, v. ii. 333.

t Commonly known as the Greenland fishery. In the Declaration of
the Dutch Commissioners, July 15, 1619, S. P. Holland, it is said to be

on the coast of Greenland, otherwise called King James' Newland." This
was Spitzbergen, supposed to be a continuation of Greenland.

THE WAR IN THE EAST. 235

the English ships could gather to their rendezvous on CH- m-
the coast of Sumatra, Dale died of sickness at Masuli- 1619.

patam.* His death.

Either the Dutch Admiral was less hampered by com- The loss
mercial necessities, or he knew better how to make use of star,°
his opportunities. With the easterly monsoon, which had
carried away Dale's ships, he returned with reinforce-
ments from Amboyna.f He reduced to ashes the native
town of Jacatra, the king of which had given aid to
the English, and on its ruins laid the foundations of the
new Batavia, which was 'one day to be to the Dutch Com-
pany what Calcutta became to their rivals. In August
the Star arrived from England, bringing news of the
opening of negotiations in London. As no treaty had
been signed at the date of its departure, the Dutch
seized the vessel, and despatched six ships to Sumatra to
look out for English traders. On the coast they found JP£ °fther
four of the Company's vessels busily engaged in lading ships.
pepper. The captain of one of these, the Bear, had
met Sir Thomas Eoe at the Cape on his return from
India. As it happened that a new Dutch admiral was
also there on his outward voyage, Eoe had opened com-
munications with him which had ended in an agreement
that hostilities should be suspended till the result of the
negotiations in London could be known. But in the
suddenness of the attack this agreement was either not
produced, or was disregarded. One of the English ships,
the Dragon, was forced to surrender after a combat of
an hour's duration, and the other three were too much
encumbered with their lading even to attempt a defence.^
The prisoners were treated with the greatest inhumanity,
and many of the wounded died from exposure to the
rain upon the open deck. Amongst the prizes on board,
the Dutch sailors found a handsome knife, which had
been sent out as a present from the King to the native
sovereign of Acheen. They carried it about the deck in

* The details of Dale's proceedings will be found in the E. I. G. Orig.
Corr. of the date.

t Churchman's relation. Undated E. I. C. Orig. Corr. News by the
« Union" pinnace, Aug. 5, 1619. S. P. Holland.

J Hore to the E. I. C. Purchas, i. 656.

236 PACIFICATION IN THE EAST.

CH. ill, uproarious procession, shouting out at the top of their
1619. voice, "Thou hast lost thy dagger, Jemmy."* A few

Further days later two other English vessels were taken at

Patani, and the captain of one of them was killed, f
162°- At last, on the 8th of March, 1620, news arrived of

SeTreaty tne actual signature of the treaty in London.^ A con-
ference was immediately held between the commanders
ast of the two nations, and for the moment, at least, the
most friendly disposition was evinced on both sides. A
council of war was at once formed, and the united fleets
were placed under its orders.

Death of The news of the treaty had been delayed too long to
save one valuable life. It was now three weary years
since Courthope landed at Pularoon. He still held out
alone and unsupported, and another six months must
pass before the change of wind would make it possible
to convey to him the intelligence that his labours were
at an end. When the news of peace reached Pularoon,
it was too late. Two months before, as Courthope was
crossing to the Great Banda in a native boat, he was
intercepted by two large vessels belonging to the Dutch
garrison at Puloway. In the unequal contest, " the
captain," as we are told in the simple narrative of his
successor in command, " behaved himself courageously,
until divers of the Banda men were slain. And the
captain also, receiving a shot in the breast, sat down,
and withal his piece being cloyed, threw it overboard,
and then leapt overboard himself in his clothes, the praw
being too hot to stay in."§ When the news of the treaty
at last arrived, the Dutch commander bore willing testi-
mony to the merits of his brave adversary. " The Cap-
tain Nathaniel," he wrote, " is killed in the praw, for
which, God knoweth, I am heartily sorry. We have
buried him so stately and honestly as ever we could,
fitting to such a man."|| So died, trusted by his coun-
trymen, and honoured by enemies who seldom showed

* A brief relation of the damages lately done by the Hollanders. Un
dated. S.P.Holland.
t Purchas, i. 687.
I Purchas, L 640.

§ Journal of Hayes. Purchas, i. 679.
|| Van Anton to Hayes, Dec. 9, 1620. Purchas, i. 681.

EXPORTATION OF GOLD. 237

honour to any who bore the name of Englishman, one of CH-

the noblest of those by whose unflagging zeal the English 1620.
Empire in the East was founded. The day of the Drakes
and the Kaleighs was passing away. The day of the
Blakes, the Kodneys, and the Nelsons was dawning.

At the time whilst the East India difficulty was being 1618.
settled by negotiation, James determined to take into his
own hands the redress of another grievance of which he
complained no less bitterly. The exportation of gold
was, in those days, universally regarded as equivalent to
robbery, and it was no secret that the foreign merchants
residing in London had long been in the habit of ex-
porting gold to a large amount. It was said that since
the King's accession no less than 7, 00 0,00 0£ had been
carried away surreptitiously. The indignation of James
and the Council knew no bounds. Eighteen of the
offenders, chiefly Dutchmen, were summoned before the
Star-Chamber. But it proved less easy than had been
expected to establish a case against the defendants. The
necessary witnesses had been smuggled out of the coun-
try, and, in default of positive evidence, the prosecution
was obliged to rely upon general inferences. As soon as
the case had been heard, it was adjourned, on the plea
that it was hard to punish the eighteen without including
in the sentence others who were equally guilty.* The
real cause of delay was, doubtless, the desire of the
Government to obtain more satisfactory evidence than
that of which they were in possession.

During the vacation fresh proofs were discovered, and
in the autumn both the new and the old defendants were
sentenced to considerable fines, amounting altogether to
140,000^. Bacon pleaded hard that the whole sum might
find its way into the Exchequer. James was more mer-
ciful, and contented himself with exacting rather less
than 29,000/.f

* Smith to Carleton, Dec. 2. S. P. Dom. civ. 4. Bacon to Bucking-
ham, Dec. 11, 1618. Works, ed. Montagu, xiL 364. Locke to Carleton,
June 11. Herbert to Carleton, June 12. Keport of the Proceedings, June
14, 1619. S. P. Dom. cix. 87, 90, 96. Papers relating to the process, Add.
MSS. 12,497, fol. 10—68.

f Bacon to Buckingham, Oct. 9, Nov. 19, 26, Dec. 7, 1619. Works,
ed. Montagu, xii. 263, 265, 377 ; xiii. 20. Chamberlain to Carleton,

238 LAST HOURS OF THE QUEEN.

CH. ill. Such a sentence, coinciding as it did with the prevail-
1619. ing ideas on political economy, was not likely to call
forth much opposition in England. Yet there were some
who remembered that a large amount of bullion was
every year smuggled out of Spain by English merchants,
and who shook their heads at the impolicy of provoking
measures of retaliation at Madrid.*

illness of The spring of 1619 had been marked by the death of
e Queen. ^e Queen. She had been long suffering from dropsy,
and, since the King's return from Scotland, her condition
had been such as to inspire her physicians with grave
anxiety. f She continued in a feeble state during the
following year, and it was evident to all but herself that
she had not long to live. On the 22nd of February she
took to her bed. On the 1st of March her case was con-
sidered hopeless. The King, who was absent from London,
was not within reach ; but the Prince was summoned to
his mother's bedside. Before he could arrive, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London were
admitted to see her. They were aware of the rumours
which were abroad respecting her religion ; and the first
words which were addressed to her by Abbot were in-
tended to be a test of her belief. " Madam," he said,
" we hope your Majesty doth not trust to your own merits,
nor to the mediation of saints, but only by the blood and
merits of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, you shall be saved."
" I do," was the reply, " and withal I renounce the medi-
ation of all saints, and my own merits, and do only rely
upon my Saviour, Christ, who has redeemed my soul with
his blood." In that hour of weakness the belief of her
maturer years passed away like a dark cloud, and she
had forgotten everything excepting the faith of her
childhood.

Her death. Still she would not believe that she was dying. When
her son arrived, she spoke to him a few light words, and
ordered him to leave the room. Nor were the bishops

Dec. 4. List of fines, Dec. 8, 1619. S. P. Dom. cvi. 62, 66. Eeceipt Books
of the Exchequer.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, June 19, 1619. 8. P. Dom. cix. 102. Sal-
vetti's News-Letter, Dec. |J, 1619.

f Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 25, 1617. S. P. Dom. xciii. 140.

THE KING'S ILLNESS. 239

allowed to remain. There was not much amiss, she said.
Those who were around her bed urged her to make her
will. " No," she replied, " to-morrow will do well enough."
It was one in the morning before she was aware that her
end was near. She sent again for her son, and, laying
her hands on his head, gave him her blessing. The lords
in attendance brought in her will, but she was unable to
sign it. She said that she left everything to the Prince,
and that she hoped that her servants would be rewarded.
The Bishop of London prayed with her. " Madam," he
said at last, when her speech had failed, " make a sign
that your Majesty is one with your God, and longs to be
with Him." She held up one of her hands, and when
that was exhausted she raised the other, till that, too,
sank down. In a few minutes she was no more.*

The Queen's death was of no political importance. Hercha
Her character was too impulsive to give her much r
influence with her husband, and she seldom attempted
to employ it with any settled and deliberate purpose.
As long as Mrs. Drummond was with her, she remained,
in secret, a professed Eoman Catholic, and welcomed
with pleasure the hope of seeing her son married to the
Infanta. Upon Mrs. Drummond's marriage and return
to Scotland, in 1613, her antipathy to Somerset took
entire possession of her mind. In the last years of her
life she had appeared as the advocate of Kaleigh, and as
the decided opponent of the Spanish party. Her real
sphere was at the banquet and the masque. Those who
had been acquainted with her in the midst of her butterfly
existence continued to speak of her with kindness. But
by the mass of the nation she was as completely forgotten
as though she had never lived.

James had not been with his wife during her last
illness. He had taken leave of her on the 6th of
February, and had gone down to Newmarket to enjoy
himself. Whilst there, he was taken ill. In the be-
ginning of March he thought himself well enough to
go out to see a horse-race ; but he was unable to remain
on the ground. For some days it was thought that he

* to , Abbotsford Club Miscellany, 81.

240 RECOVERY OF THE KING.

CH. III. was dying. He sent for his son and the principal lords,
1619. that they might receive his last commands.* A few
days afterwards he began to recover, and by the middle
of April he was well enough to be removed to Theobalds
in a litter. The first thing he did on his arrival was to
order the deer to be driven before his chair so that,
though he was too weak to mount his horse, he might
enjoy the pleasures of the chase in imagination. t As
soon as he was able to move about, some one told him
that the best cure for the weakness of the legs, from
which he was still suffering, was the warm blood of a
newly-killed deer. For some weeks, therefore, as soon as
the hunt was over, he was to be found with his feet
buried in the carcass of the animal which had just been
pulled down by the dogs.J

His verses James does not appear to have felt his wife's death

Queen's very deeply. During his illness, he had penned in her

death. remembrance a few lines, in which, characteristically

enough, his appreciation of the almost divine splendour

of Eoyalty left him no room for a single word to express

any personal grief for his loss. A great comet had lately

appeared in the sky, and this, too, he pressed into the

service of the English Monarchy : —

" Thee to invite the great God sent His star,
Whose friends and nearest kin good princes are,
Who, though they run the race of men and die,
Death serves but to refine their majesty.
So did my Queen from hence her court remove,
And left off earth to be enthroned above.
She's changed, not dead, for sure no good prince dies,
But, as the sun sets, only for to rise." §

The King's On the 1st of June, James made his entry into London

London. f°r the first time since his illness. He was still popular

with his subjects. When, at the first news of his recovery,

the Bishop of London had appeared at Paul's Cross to

* Lovelace to Carleton, Feb. 24. Chamberlain to Carleton, March 6,
April 10. Harwood to Carleton, April 4, 1619. S. P. Dom. cv. 132;
cvii. 6 ; cviii. 15, 33.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, March 27, April 24. 8. P. Dom. cvii. 54 ;
cviii 69.

J Chamberlain to Carleton, June 26. 8. P. Dom. cix. 113.

§ S. P. Dom. Imperfect MSS. No. 2, fol. 27.

THE KING'S VISIT TO LONDON. 241

return thanks for his preservation, a greater crowd than CH.

had been seen for many years had gathered round him 1619.
to express their joy.* Whatever the King's faults may
have been, men were unwilling to exchange their well-
meaning Sovereign for the uncertainties of the future.
They now flocked to see him ride once more in his
accustomed state. He was dressed in gay colours, and
looked, as one who saw him said, more like a wooer than
a mourner.

It would have been strange if this day of rejoicing Marriage
had been allowed to pass without some exhibition of the ^
King's weakness for his favourite. Lady Buckingham topher*
had now set her heart upon providing, by a wealthy mar- Vllliers
riage, for her youngest son Christopher in the way that
she had already provided for her eldest son John. But
it was difficult to find a lady rich enough to command a
choice of suitors who was willing to condemn herself to
pass the rest of her life with the unattractive and un-
intelligent lad. Siege had first been laid to the widow
of the eldest son of the Earl of Suffolk. But the lady
had laughed at the youth's presumption, and had given
her hand to Sir William Cavendish.f The Villierses
turned to the City. The Lord Mayor, Sir Sebastian
Harvey, had an only child, a girl of fourteen. It was
known that his property was worth at least 100,000/.^
Again the honour of the alliance was declined. The
King was easily induced to interfere. Message after
message was sent by James to the reluctant citizen.
But the course which had proved so successful with
Coke failed utterly with Harvey. His child, he said,
was too young to marry yet. James was highly dis-
pleased, and, as he rode into London, his first thought
was to rate the Lord Mayor soundly. But the Lord
Mayor was not to be seen. The old man was lying sick
at home, worn out by the importunity which he had
found it so difficult to resist.§ Six weeks afterwards

* Chamberlain to Carleton, April 17, 1619. S. P. Dom. cviii. 51.
t Lorkin to Puckering, July 14, 1618. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 414.

J Salvetti's News-Letter, July ^, 1619.

§ Lorkin to Puckering, May 24. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 476. Chamber-
lain to Carleton, May 31, June 5, 1619. S. P. Dom. cix. 61, 75.
VOL. i. R

242 THE BANQUETING HOUSE.

CH. ill. James suddenly appeared at the Mansion House, and

1619. used all his eloquence with the father of the heiress. But

Harvey needed neither place nor pension, and was

unconvinced. Christopher Villiers did not succeed in

finding a wife for many years to come.

sir John Lady Hatton had proved equally obdurate in her

SHO refusal to make over her Dorsetshire property to Sir

the peer- jonn Villiers. James was obliged to console him with

a peerage. The new Viscount Purbeck took his title

from the very lands which his mother-in-law had refused

him.

The new In passing through London, after his recovery, James
Whitehall. remajned a singie nignt at Whitehall. No doubt he

found time to look at the works which had been com-
menced under Inigo Jones. In 1 606, a stately banqueting-
house had been erected m the place of the old one in
which Elizabeth had kept state. The new building had
just been burnt down, and James, whose designs had
risen with his fortunes, now thought of nothing less
than of replacing the whole palace by a splendid pile
which would be worthy of his exalted dignity.

The banqueting-house, which still remains to look
down in fragmentary solitude upon the busy throng, was
all that was ever completed of this magnificent scheme.
Few buildings have been more closely associated with
events which have left their impress upon the history of
our country. From one of its windows Charles I. stepped
upon the scaffold. It witnessed the orgies of the second
Charles, and the intrigues of the second James. Within
its walls the crown, forfeited by the last of the Stuart
kings, was offered to William of Orange. From that
day its glory was at an end. The new Sovereign turned
away from a spot in which his health would not suffer
him to live ; and the deserted building remained to be as
completely a monument of the past as the wilderness of
brick which attracts the gay and thoughtless crowd of
sightseers to Versailles.

Yet, if stones can speak, it is of James I., rather than
of his successors, that the tall pile declares itself to be a
monument. It is the fitting memorial of a king whose
whole life was unfinished ; who never either counted the

APPARENT PROSPERITY. 243

cost of his undertakings, or put forth the energy which CH- HI.
was needed to overcome the difficulties in his way. Nor 1619.
was the long array of the columns which were to have
arisen in their marshalled ranks in the place of the
irregular and loosely-planned palace of the Tudors an
unsuitable emblem of the ideas of ordered government
which floated before his mind, and which he vainly
hoped to substitute for the uncouth but living forms of
the Elizabethan constitution.

The banqueting-house at Whitehall marks the culmi- Prosperity
nating point of James's life. He had just completed a
thorough reform of the administration. He had effected
considerable economy in his expenditure. He had crushed
the last semblance of independence amongst the officers
of state. He was bringing to terms the great commercial
Company of the Netherlands in the East, and he was
sending out a new Governor who would doubtless put an
end to the difficulties of the Virginian colony in the West.
Spain and France were bidding against one another for
his alliance, and his own people had thronged in multi-
tudes to St. Paul's to give thanks to God for his recovery
from sickness.

That the cloud had already risen in Germany which
was to overshadow this brilliant prospect, neither James
nor those who were around him knew. Everything
rather than this rose before men's minds as they tried
to peer into futurity in search of the evil to come. In
November, all England had been startled by the appear-
ance of a comet of astonishing brilliancy. For some
weeks the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant,
were asking one another what it could possibly portend.
The fate of the great man who had so recently perished
on the scaffold in Palace Yard was almost forgotten in
the general excitement. The comet, men said, had some-
thing to do with the fall of Barneveldt. It might be a
warning against the Spanish match, and the design which
James was supposed to entertain for the overthrow of the
Protestant religion. Perhaps some great disaster, famine,
plague, or war, was to be expected. It had come to herald
the funeral of the Queen, or to proclaim th*e death of the

K 2

244 APPROACHING TROUBLE.

CH- m- King himself.* But the name of Prague was never
1619. mentioned with anxiety. And yet the conflagration
which was to involve all Europe in its flames, and which
was incidentally to- ruin James's pretensions to states-
manship, had been for many months raging in Bohemia.

* Corbet's Poetical Epistle.

CHAPTEE IV.

THE BOHEMIAN REVOLUTION.

To the statesmen of the early part of the seventeenth CH. IV.
century Germany was what Spain became under the IGIS. ~
feeble rule of Charles II., and what the Turkish empire Troubled
is to the politicians of the present day. It was there, Germany,
if anywhere, that the outburst of smouldering pas-
sions would endanger the existing political system of
Europe. Henry IV. had proposed to apply a radical
cure to the evil which, whether it would have done any
good to Germany or not, would at least have established
the undisguised predominance of the French monarchy.
His successor had folded his arms in sluggish incapacity,
and had left the warring elements to themselves.

It was unfortunately far more easy to point out the 1518-
causes of the malady than to remove them. The Eefor- ^i?nhT
mation had come upon Germany before its national con- Germany,
solidation had been effected; and to the difficulty of
deciding whether its population was to be Protestant or
Catholic was added the difficulty of deciding where the
power of settling the question really lay.

In 1555 the preliminary question was resolved by the
Peace of Augsburg. The lay princes were to.be allowed,
without fear of opposition from the emperor, to introduce
Lutheranism into their territories. On the most impor-
tant subject of the day, the central government of the
empire relinquished its claim to be heard.

The maxim that the religion of a country belongs to
him to whom the country itself belongs, which was thus
adopted as the basis of the ecclesiastical settlement of the
empire, is seldom mentioned at the present day without
obloquy. It has been forgotten that it was once a land-
mark on the path to freedom. For it was directed not
against the religion of individuals, but against the juris-

246 RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES IN THE EMPIRE.

CH. IV. diction of the emperor. It was in the nature of things
1555. that local toleration should precede personal toleration,
and that before the claims of the individual conscience
could be listened to, the right of each state to resist ex-
ternal dictation should obtain recognition. That it was
the duty of the lawful magistrate to suppress false reli-
gion was never doubted. The only question was who
the persecutor was to be.

The smallness of the German territories was undoubt-
edly conducive to theological bitterness. Nowhere were
clerical coteries so narrow-minded, nowhere was the
circle of orthodoxy fenced about with such subtle dis-
tinctions as in these petty states. But the same cause
which narrowed the creed and soured the temper of the
court divines, rendered the lot of the defenders of un-
courtly opinions comparatively easy. It was better to be
persecuted in a state of which the frontier was only ten
miles from the capital than in a huge kingdom like
France or England. If the emperor had won the day,
and had imposed a uniform creed upon the whole of
Germany, escape would only have been possible at the
expense of exile in a foreign land. Banishment from
Saxony or Bavaria was a very different thing. In a few
hours the fugitive Lutheran or the fugitive Catholic
would be welcomed by crowds who spoke the same
mother tongue with himself, and would be invited by
a friendly prince to enjoy at once the satisfaction of
martyrdom and the sweets of popularity.

The Eccie- If the states of Germany had all been in the hands of

rServa- laymen, it is not unlikely that the treaty of 1555 would

tion. have been accepted as a final settlement. Though Lu-

theranism alone had been recognised by it, it is hardly

probable that any serious difficulty would have been caused

by the defection of several of the princes to Calvinism.

The rock upon which the religious peace of Germany
was wrecked was the ecclesiastical reservation. A stop
was to be put to the further secularisation of the Church
lands ; yet it was hardly wise to expect that this stipu-
lation would be scrupulously observed. Under the cover
of sympathy with the Protestant inhabitants of the
ecclesiastical districts, the princes were able to satisfy

THE CATHOLIC PARTY. 247

their greed of territory, and the remaining abbeys and CH- IV-
bishoprics in the north of Germany were, under one pre- 1555.
text or another, annexed by their Protestant neighbours.

At last a check was placed upon these encroachments. 1582.
An attempt to secularise the ecclesiastical electorate of rfh*
Cologne and the bishopric of Strasburg ended in total reaction,
failure. The prelates, whose lands stretched almost con-
tinuously along the banks of the Ehine, were too near
to the Spanish garrisons in the Netherlands to be assailed
with ease.

The repulse was followed by a Catholic reaction in the
ecclesiastical states. Protestant preachers were silenced or
driven into exile ; Protestant congregations were dispersed ;
and, before the end of the sixteenth century, the popula-
tions were once more contented members of the Koman
Catholic Church. The ease with which the change was
effected is not to be ascribed to the sword alone. The
selfishness of the princes and the wrangling of the Theo-
logians were little calculated to attract the hearts of men
by the side of the discipline and devotion of the Jesuits.
" Order is Heaven's first law," and it was only when Pro-
testants could appeal to an order more noble and more
divine that they had any chance of victory.

In this way, at the commencement of the seventeenth isos.
century, the Protestants saw themselves threatened in Protestant

J -t /. i • in T i demands.

turn, and a cry rose from their ranks demanding the
revision of the Peace of Augsburg. " Recognise," they
said in effect, "the changes which have been already
made, and we, on our part, will cease to encroach further
on the Church lands." In the same spirit they approached
the question of the imperial courts, which were naturally
inclined to decide disputed points in accordance with
the existing law, and it was impossible to deny that the
existing law was not on the side of the Protestants. A
demand was accordingly made that the disputes then
pending should not be brought before the courts at all,
but should be settled by amicable negotiation.

Few will be found at the present day to deny the fair-
ness of these terms. They were, in fact, substantially the
same as those which, after forty weary years, were con-
ceded at the Peace of Westphalia. The line drawn would

248 ANXIETY OF THE CATHOLIC STATESMEN.

CH. IV. liave separated not merely Protestant from Catholic go-
1608. vernments ; it would, with the single but most important
exception of the dominions of the House of Austria, have
separated Protestant from Catholic populations. The
proposal was one which contained the elements of per-
manency, because it was substantially just.

Objections Yet, unless the Catholics were prepared to take into
°f *he . consideration the wishes and interests of the people, it
was impossible for them to regard such terms otherwise
than with the deepest loathing. For, to them, the secu-
larisation of the Church lands was nothing better than an
act of high-handed robbery. They looked upon the eccle-
siastical territories very much in the light in which Italy
was regarded by the Government of Vienna during the
seven years which ensued upon the defeat of Solferino.
Whilst regretting the loss of Lombardy, Austria never
ceased to acknowledge the validity of the treaty by
which the cession had been completed. On the other
hand, she was ready to put forth all her strength rather
than allow her title to Venetia to be disputed. But
whilst she regarded the annexation of Tuscany and
Eomagna to the kingdom of Italy as altogether in-
defensible, she showed no signs of any intention to
vindicate, by force of arms, the claims of the de-
throned sovereigns whom she still recognised as legi-
timate rulers. In much the same way, whatever may
have been the ravings of Jesuits and fanatics, sober
Catholic statesmen were ready to abandon all hopes of
regaining for the Church the lands of which the secu-
larisation had been legalised by the Peace of Augsburg.
But they were equally ready to fight against all comers
for the territories which still remained in ecclesiastical
hands, and they continued to speak of the annexations
which had taken place since 1555 as mere acts of
violence which they were too weak to resist, but which
no power on earth should induce them to acknowledge
as legitimate.

Was the Great however as the difficulty was, it might not have
toT1'6 been impossible to overcome it,* if it had not formed
dissolved? part of another and a larger question. For the Catholics

* By some such compromise as that which was adopted at Miihlhausen in

DISORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 249

saw well enough that, for all practical purposes, they were CH. IV-
asked to decree the dissolution of the empire, and they 1608.
did not see that, in no other way, was its reconstruction
possible. The authority of that venerable institution had
been deeply impaired by the Peace of Augsburg. Would
any remnant of power be left to it, if it were unable
to vindicate the legal title of the suppressed ecclesiastical
foundations ? The Catholics were asked to surrender a
claim, based, in their eyes at least, upon the eternal prin-
ciples of justice. And this they were required to do, not
upon any opposite theory of right, but simply in the
name of what, in the political jargon of our own day,
is called "an accomplished fact." If they yielded now,
what possible guarantee was there that the aggression
would not be repeated ? If the empire were to fall,
what was to take its place ? It was easy to talk of
settling difficulties by amicable negotiation instead of
bringing them before a legal tribunal ; but could any
one seriously doubt that amicable negotiations carried
on between a hundred petty sovereigns would end in
anarchy at home and impotence abroad7?*

Such arguments were very difficult to answer. But
they could not be answered at all excepting by men who
were resolved to hold fast by the substance of order,
even when they were breaking up its existing form.
Unless, therefore, the Protestant leaders could make up
their minds to renounce all personal ambition, and,
above all, to keep themselves clear from every suspicion
of seeking to accomplish their own selfish objects under
the cover of the general confusion, they would find their
most legitimate designs fustrated by the swelling tide of
adverse opinion.

When, in 1608, the Protestant Union sprung into ex- The
istence as a confederacy formed in defence of religion, it uni
owed what sympathy it obtained to the idea that it was
in reality, as well as in name, a defensive body. Unhap-
pily this was not the case. Its nominal head, Frederick IV.,

1620, when the Catholics bound themselves not to use force to recover the
lands to which they still laid claim as of right.

* What Germany was in its disorganized state may be judged from the
one volume already published of Ritter's Geschichte der Deutschen Union.

on.

250 THE UNION AND THE LEAGUE.

CH. IV. the Elector Palatine of the day, was contemplating fresh
1608. annexations of ecclesiastical territory; and its guiding
spirit, Christian of Anhalt, was prepared to put forth all
his unrivalled powers of intrigue to sweep the House of
Austria and the Catholic religion out of the empire
together.*

The Full of suspicion that more was meant by the forma-

tion of the Union than appeared upon the surface, the
Catholics, with the Duke of Bavaria at their head, in
their turn joined in a league for the purpose of warding
off the danger which they feared, and for some time the
rival confederacies glared defiantly across the frontier by
which the two religions were geographically separated.
i6io. Yet, bitter as was the feeling with which the two
parties regarded one another, peace was still preserved
for many years. That the hostilities caused by the dis-
puted succession in Cleves were brought to an end with-
out any general conflict was of good augury for the
future. In fact, the Catholic League shrunk from a war
of which it dreaded the consequences; and, whatever
may have been the feelings of the leaders of the Union,
the imperial towns, by whose contributions its exchequer
was mainly filled, were all on the side of peace.

House of ^ was fr°m an°ther quarter that the dreaded evil at

Austria? last appeared. Men had been so long accustomed to
watch for the outbreak of hostilities on the banks of the
Rhine, that they had almost forgotten that in the wide
domains which submitted fitfully and uneasily to the
sway of the Austrian Archdukes, the waves were swelling
and heaving, as the prelude to the coming storm.

The fortunate marriages of the House of Austria have
passed into a proverb ; and there are probably many who
still accept the satirical distich f which affirms that
Austria has received from Venus the kingdoms which

* It is only lately that I have become aware of this ; but since I have
read Gindely's Rudolf II., doubt has become impossible. No one who
wishes to understand German history at this period should omit reading
this book. See especially his account (i. 159) of the Elector Palatine's
instructions to his ambassadors in the Diet of Ratisbon, ordering them to
admit no agreement which did not put an end to the principle of the Eccle-
siastical Reservation.

f " BeUa gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube ;
Nam quse Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus."

THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 251

others owe to Mars, as a sufficient explanation of the S^ IV-
strange fortune which has piled so many crowns upon the 1608.
heads of the descendants of Rudolph of Hapsburg.

As a matter of fact, however, for two centuries and a
half, the work of dissolution went on as rapidly as that
of annexation. It was in vain that one archduke after
another wedded in turn the heiress of each neighbouring
duchy or kingdom. The repulsion between rival dis-
tricts and rival races was too strong to be overcome,
and it was rarely that the second generation did not
see the tie broken, and the work of union to be com-
menced afresh.

What dynastic ambition was unable to accomplish, The
was effected at once by the fear of the Turkish power. £ars.lsl
After the terrible defeat of Mohacs in 1526, Hungary
and Bohemia threw themselves into the arms of Fer-
dinand I. ; and, as long as the conflict lasted, they
remained, on the whole, faithful to his successors. It
was not till the peace of Sitva Torok, in 1606, that the
terror of a Turkish conquest abated ; and scarcely was
the ink dry upon the treaty, when the commotions which
preceded the deposition of Rudolph II. gave an unmis-
takeable sign that the light band which had held the
various races together for eighty years, was being strained
to the utmost.

The fear of the janissaries, which had made the Arch- Attitude of
duke of Austria king of Hungary and Bohemia, also made $ ^Sk
him emperor. In both capacities he was brought face to towards
face with the Protestantism of his subjects. In the con-
flict which awaited him as soon as he should have assured
his eastern frontier from invasion, he could hardly take
any other side than that of which Charles V. had consti-
tuted himself the champion. It was not merely by their
Spanish blood, and by the memories of the ancient con-
nection of the Roman See with the great office which
they held, that the descendants of Ferdinand I. were
driven, sometimes almost against their will, into the arms
of the Catholic clergy. In their own peculiar domains,
as well as in the empire, they found themselves engaged
in a life-long contest with a Protestant aristocracy ; and
in the discipline of the Roman Church they grasped the

252 AUSTRIAN PROTESTANTISM.

CH- !V- lever by which they hoped to shake to the foundations

1608. the strongholds of their rivals.

Protest- It was the misfortune of the Protestantism which sprung
Austria™ ^n*° existence in the dominions of the House of Austria,
that its fate was intimately united with that of an anarch-
ical aristocracy. Nowhere in Europe had the Protestant
clergy so little influence. No Austrian Calvin or Knox,
not even a Latimer or a Eidley, had sprung into exist-
ence. The Bohemian Confession of Faith stands alone
amongst the countless Confessions of the sixteenth cen-
tury, as the work of a body composed entirely of laymen.
That amongst those vast populations there were thousands
whose faith was sincere, cannot be doubted for a moment.
That little band of mediaeval Puritans, the Bohemian
Brothers, had long submitted to an iron discipline ; and,
in the midst of trials and persecutions, had proved their
constancy long before the name of Protestantism had
been heard of. There were large numbers of Lutherans,
who, when the day of trial came, proved their attach-
ment to their creed by submitting to poverty and exile
for its sake ; and there were still larger numbers who
handed down their faith in secret to their children, to
burst forth once more when the edict of toleration was
issued by Joseph II. Nor is it possible to estimate how
far religion may have exercised its influence upon the
hearts even of those who had adopted it as the watch-
word of a political party. Yet, when every allowance
has been made, the dispassionate inquirer can hardly
come to any other conclusion than that, however badly
he may think of the religious system by which Protes-
tantism was superseded in these 'territories, he cannot do
otherwise than rejoice at the defeat of the political system
of the men by whom Protestantism was in the main
supported.*

To the great feudal families the adoption of the new
religion had commended itself as the readiest way of
shaking off the supremacy of the Crown. It gave them,

* Those who wish to know what crimes a great man in Bohemia might
DC guilty of without punishment, should read the story of Rudolph's na-
tural son, Julius, as told by Gindely, ii. 337. It is only superficially that
the cause oi the estates of Bohemia against Ferdinand resembled the cause
of the English Parliament against Charles I

FEUDALISM IN BOHEMIA. 253

upon their own estates, all the power which had been CH-

assumed by the German princes within their territories. 1608.
It enabled them to seize Church property by force or
fraud, and to trample at pleasure upon the wishes and
feelings of their serfs. It annihilated the authority of
the sovereign and of the clergy, to the sole profit of the
landowner.

Nor would the evil results of the victory of the
aristocracy have ended here. Entailing, as it would
necessarily have done, the dissolution of the ties which
bound German Austria to Hungary and Bohemia, it
would have thrown the whole of Eastern Europe into
confusion, and would have reopened the road into the
heart of Germany to the Mussulman hordes.

If aristocratical Protestantism had been able to organize The
itself anywhere, it would have been in Bohemia. Cut
off by a wall of mountains from Germany, and in a cracy.
great measure separated by race from their western
neighbours, the Bohemians ought to have formed a com-
pact national body, able to resist all attempts to force
upon them a religion which they detested. Once already
they had shown the world of what efforts a thoroughly
aroused nation is capable ; but that had been in the days
which had long passed by — when rich and poor had
gathered in brotherly union round the cup, as the symbol
of equality before God. The gigantic cups still held
their places outside the churches to which they had been
elevated by a past generation. To be an Utraquist was
still the official designation of a Protestant. But the
spirit of the old Utraquism had succumbed with its
doctrines ; and whatever enthusiasm might be excited by
the new Lutheranism which had too often been nothing
more than the cloak beneath which the landowners had
thrown off all authority in Church and State, it was
certain that it was very different from the wild fana-
ticism which had enabled the followers of Ziska and
Procopius to scatter the Imperial hosts of Sigismund like
chaff before the wind.* 1609.

The revolution which overthrew the tottering throne The R°yaJ

** Charter of

* See the remarks of Gindely, Geschichte der Ertheilung des BohmiscJien Bohemia-
Majesta tsbriefes, 116.

254 THE ROYAL CHARTER OF BOHEMIA.

CH. IV. Of. Rudolph II. had been a golden opportunity alike for
1609. the Protestants and the aristocracy. By the royal charter
which was extorted from the falling monarch, complete
liberty of conscience was accorded to every Bohemian,
from the noble to the serf, who adhered either to the
Bohemian Confession of 1575, or who belonged to the
Society of the Bohemian Brothers ; but, as in England,
liberty of conscience was not held to imply liberty of
worship. In the royal towns, indeed, and on the royal
domains, both Catholics and Protestants might build as
many churches as they pleased. But the Bohemian aris-
tocracy would indeed have changed its nature, if they
had proclaimed upon their own estates the freedom which
they forced upon the King. There they were still to be
the masters ; and they would take good care that their
serfs and dependents should not be admitted to the exer-
cise of a religion which was not to the taste of their lords,
itsinsuffi- This settlement, which was confirmed by Matthias
ciency. when, by the expulsion of his brother Rudolph, he
ascended the throne of Bohemia, was without any of the
elements of permanency. In many respects, the principle
thus adopted was similar to that which, for more than
half a century, had prevailed in Germany. But there
was one important difference. The German princes had
virtually become territorial sovereigns, and had taken
upon themselves the duties with the responsibilities of
sovereignty. The Bohemian nobles were still landowners
and nothing more. Their estates were too small, and
Constantinople was too near, to render feasible such a
change in their position as would place them on an equal
footing with an elector of Saxony or a landgrave of
Hesse. A king of Bohemia must still be retained, but the
King was one who was far more opposed to the nobility on
every possible point upon which they could come in col-
lision, than James II. was to the English people in 1688,
or than Charles X. was to the French people in 1830.

ingrre°vaoh' Su.ch a state of tnings coul(l not last. Either the
lution. nobility would set aside the King, or the King would
beat down the nobility. At first sight, the former con-
tingency might have appeared to be unavoidable. Three-
fourths of the population, and all the military forces of

IMPENDING STRIFE. 255

the kingdom were at the disposal of the Protestants. CH- IV-
They could count on the warm sympathy, if not upon 1609.
the active aid, of the great landowners in all the other
States of which the dominions of their Sovereign were
composed. But all this would avail them little, unless
they could ripen in a moment into wise and forecasting
statesmen, and could bow their heads to the stern yoke
of discipline and self-denial by which nations are founded ;
unless, in a word, men, with all and more than all the
failings of the English cavaliers, could learn at once to
display the virtues of the Burghers of Leyden and the
Ironsides of Cromwell.

They had already chosen the field of battle upon which
the conflict was to be waged. In popular language, the
Church lands were considered as the property of the
Crown ; and this interpretation had been accepted by all
parties at the time of the drawing up of the law by
which the details of the new arrangements introduced
by the royal charter were guaranteed. But the clergy
continued to hold a different opinion, and maintained
that they had as much right to regulate the religious
worship of their own territories as any of the temporal
magnates ; and this view of their position, in which the
strictly legal use of terms was adopted in preference to
the popular, received the hearty support of Matthias.*

The question was indeed of vital importance to him Question
from a political as well as from a religious point of view, of worship
The ecclesiastical domains were almost the last supports ^tlieh
on which his throne rested ; and to be deprived of these Lull

* On this subject Professor Gindely (Rudolf II. , i. 354) has retracted his
former opinion, and now cites the evidence of Slawata to the effect that the
agreement consequent upon the Royal Charter was understood at the time
to leave the ecclesiastical domains in the same position as those held by
the King, and consequently open to Protestant worship. From this he
deduces the conclusion that the Protestants were at least technically in
the right. But though the Catholics who assented to this agreement are
put out of Court, it does not follow that Matthias, who was not King
at the time, had not a sustainable case in arguing that he was not
bound to travel beyond the four corners of the law. If a strictly legal
interpretation did not make the Bishops' lands equivalent to Crown lands,
he might well hold that he had nothing to do with the views of the
individuals who c'omposed the Diet. The whole case turns upon the
interpretation of an agreement which had the force of law. That the
Royal Charter itself favoured the case of the Protestants is a pure delusion.

256 ELECTION OF FERDINAND.

CH. IV. was tantamount to surrendering his crown at once to the

1617. nobility.

Candida- In 1617, a golden opportunity was offered to the
Bohemians of fighting their battle on favourable ground.
The Emperor Matthias and his brothers were alike child-
less, and the Princes of the House had fixed upon his
cousin Ferdinand of Styria as the fittest person to be
entrusted with the united inheritance of the family. He
was accordingly presented to the Estates for acceptance
as their future king.

The terms in which the proposition was couched were
sufficient to show that the throne was now claimed by
hereditary right, and an attempt to postpone the Diet
with the object of proceeding to an election of some other
candidate failed signally before the overwhelming evi-
dence adduced in favour of the doctrine that, excepting
in the event of a failure of heirs, the Crown of Bohemia
was hereditary and not elective.* It is true that in the
midst of the confusions incident to the last revolution,
Matthias himself had been elected, and Rudolph, glad
enough to say or do anything which might in any way
affect the position of the brother whom he detested, had
acknowledged the crown to have passed to him in right
of this election. But so plain was it that constitutional
usage was on the other side, that the great majority of
the Protestant members of the Diet agreed to accept
Ferdinand as their king.

Yet, powerful as the force of argument had been, it
seems strange that no attempt was made to settle the
question of the ecclesiastical lands. The dispute had
been on foot for years, and it was evident that unless
the opportunity were seized for coming to an under-
standing on the question, it would survive as a standing
cause of discord between the nation and its King.

The Bohemians could have been under no misap-
nand.r * prehension of the charactered intentions of Ferdinand.
The friend and pupil of the Jesuits, he had already

* An exhaustive examination of this point, with a full account of the
debates in this Diet, will be found in Professor Gindely's paper in the
Proceedings of the Historical and Philosophical Class of the Vienna Academy
for 1859.

HIS POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 257

gained an evil reputation for intolerance which was even CH< IV.
worse than he deserved. 1617.

In fact, it was hard to form a clear conception of the
views and opinions of such a man in the very midst of
the contest in which he was involved. Even now his
distinct place in the scale which leads from the unques-
tioning intolerance of men like our Henry V., to the
large tolerance of men like William III., has still to be
recognised. Step by step, as each generation took its
place upon the stage, the political aspect of ecclesiastical
disputes presented itself more vividly to the minds of
the representative men of the age, whilst the theological
aspect was gradually dropping out of sight. The place
of Ferdinand is to be found midway between Philip II.
and Kichelieu. To the Spaniard of the sixteenth cen-
tury, Protestantism was still an odious heresy, which, if it
were allowed to spread, might perhaps be injurious to the
supremacy of the Spanish Monarchy, but which was
chiefly to be abominated as tainting the religious faith
of Christians. By the Frenchman of the seventeenth
century it was regarded entirely from a political point
of view. Ferdinand would have sympathized with
neither. To him Protestantism was hateful, but rather
as a source of moral and political disorder than as a
spiritual poison.*

It could not well have been otherwise. When he His
passed as a boy from his own distracted land into Ba- e
varia, where he was to receive his education from the
Jesuits of Ingolstadt, the language of the Catholic re-
action must have seemed to him almost like a Divine
revelation. At Munich he saw an orderly and welk
regulated Government walking hand in hand with an
honoured clergy. At home he knew that every land-
owner was doing what was right in the sight of his
own eyes. To him the religious condition of the Aus-
trian territories must have appeared even more anar-

* " So lange," he wrote to his sister in 1597, " die Pradicanten walten, ist
nichts als Aufruhr und Unrath zu erwarten, wie man es da, wo sie ge-
duldet werden, taglich erfahren kann." Quoted from the MS. at Vienna
by Hurter. Geschichte Ferdinands IL, iii. 410. In his will drawn up
in 1621, he charges the guardians of his son to banish from the land
all heretical doctrines. "Woraus Ungehorsam und Schwierigkeit der
Unterthanen entspringt."

VOL. I.

258 FERDINAND AND THE PROTESTANTS.

CH. IV. chical than it really was. Doubtless a Protestant ruler of
1617. ability might have succeeded in reducing the chaos to
order, and in beating down the arrogance of the nobles
without crushing the faith of the people. But such a
course was impossible for Ferdinand. He knew of but
one fountain of justice and order — the Church of Eome.

To a lifelong struggle against that which was in his
eyes the root of all evil, Ferdinand devoted himself by
a pilgrimage to Loretto. Yet it would be wrong to speak
of him as an ordinary persecutor. He never put himself
forward as a general extirpator of heresy. He never
displayed any personal animosity against heretics. His
own nature was kindly and forgiving, and he was, by
disposition, inclined to peace. The motto which he chose
for himself, " For those who strive lawfully/' * displays
his own measure of the work which he had undertaken.
The champion of the law, he would observe the law him-
self. Whatever he had sworn to his own hurt he would
execute ; but whatever rights the law gave him he
would unflinchingly maintain. No unintelligible theories
about the rights of conscience should weigh with him
for an instant. If Protestants could prove that the letter
of the law was on their side, he would be the first to
support them in their demands. If they had nothing
but its spirit to appeal to, he would be the first to close
his ear to them. His orderly and resolute mind was
thoroughly narrow. One side of the great question of
the day was the only one which he was able to see.
Eights which were clear enough to others were no rights
at all to him. In maintaining his position he was as
fearless as he was incapable of doubt. When called
upon to face a raging multitude, he would be as calm as
if he were standing in the midst of a circle of devoted
friends. For the statesman's task of balancing opposing
duties he was altogether unfitted. When complicated
questions forced themselves upon him, the undaunted
champion of the Church sunk at once into a perplexed
and vacillating politician.

His treat- If there was any one principle more generally accepted
in Germany than another, it was that which accorded to

* Legitiml certantibus.

BRAUNAU AND KLOSTERGRAB. 259

the Princes the right of regulating the religious affairs of CH- IV-
their own dominions. Ferdinand, therefore, who had in- 1617.
herited from his father the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia, mentofthe
and Carniola, had no sooner grasped the reins of govern- fntsTn his
ment firmly in his hands, than he proceeded to proscribe hereditary
Protestantism in his dominions by offering to his subjects
the choice between conversion and exile. The ease with
which the change was effected would seem to indicate
that Protestantism had not any very deep hold upon the
hearts of the mass of the population.

Such was the man who had been accepted by the ofdiS
Bohemians as their future King. He had, it is true, building in
sworn to observe the Eoyal Charter, and there is no l
reason to doubt that he would have scrupulously kept
his promise. But the Bohemian Protestants must have
been very ignorant or very simple if they imagined that
he would consent to the interpretation of the law which
in their opinion guaranteed to them the right of building
churches upon the ecclesiastical lands.

As might have been expected, the Catholics derived
new courage from the election. At Braunau, before the
end of the year, the Abbot brought his long struggle with
the townsmen to a close by locking the doors of the
Protestant Church in the faces of the congregation. At
Klostergrab a church built upon the domains of the see
of Prague was pulled down by the order of the Arch-
bishop.

The news was received with indignation by the Pro- Th*618'
testant nobility. The men who had done nothing and Bohemian
had foreseen nothing when action and foresight would
have availed them, burst into fury at what was, after all,
only the natural result of their own conduct. They flocked
to Prague to discuss their grievances in common with
the representatives of the towns. Matthias wrote to them
from Vienna, assuming the responsibility of all that had
been done,* and ordering them to suspend their meetings
for a time. The deputies of the towns now, as always, hesi-
tating in their opposition to the Sovereign by whom their
commercial interests were protected against the encroach-

* The letter is quoted in the First Apology of the Bohemian*.

s 2

260 THE BOHEMIAN RE VOLUTION.

CH- IV- ments of the aristocracy,* were inclined to obey the man-
1618. date ; but the nobles were unwilling to draw back. Armed
with pistols, and followed by an excited mob, the Protestant
leaders, with Count Thurn at their head, made their way
to the chamber where the Board of Eegency, to which
the government had been entrusted in the absence of
Matthias, held its sittings. After a fierce altercation they
seized Martinitz and Slawata, to whose counsels they at-
tributed the prohibition of their assembly, and dragging
them, together with the equally unpopular secretary Fa-
bricius, to the window^, hurled them out from a height of
little less than eighty feet. By a strange fortune which
pious Catholics have been accustomed to attribute to the
interposition of Him without whose permission a sparrow
does not fall to the ground, the three victims were able
to crawl away from the spot on which they fell, and not
a single life was lost.

It was a wild deed of vengeance, for which precedents
culled from Bohemian history could form no justification.
Yet for the moment it placed the rioters in possession of
Bohemia. In a few days, after what was technically
called the defenestration, the Estates had named thirty
Directors to administer the Government in their name, had
ordered a levy of troops to defend their privileges, and
had expelled the Jesuits from the country.

Com- After this the outbreak of hostilities could not long be

mente0f Postponed. Troops were sent by the Directors to reduce
hostilities. Budweis and Pilsen, two Catholic cities which had re-
sisted the authority of the Estates. Matthias could do
no less than send assistance to those who had remained
faithful to him ; and, in the beginning of August Buc-
quoi, a general who had been summoned from Brussels
to take the command of the Imperial forces, crossed the
frontier of Bohemia.^

Meanwhile Matthias was looking round in every direc-
tion for help ; but the prostration of Austrian rule was
so complete, that the Catholic powers shrunk from in-

<• In the Revolution which tore the greater parts of his dominions from Ru-
dolph, the Moravian towns, Protestant as they were, hung back. So, too, we
shall see the German towns long continuing Imperialist in the ensuing war.
Breyer Geschichtedes 30 Jahrigen Kriegs, 120. A continuation of Wolf's
Maximilian /., and frequently quoted under that writer's name.

PUBLIC OPINION IN GERMANY. ' 261

volving themselves in its ruin. In Hungary, in Silesia, CH. iv.
in Moravia, in Austria itself, the nobility was almost en- 1618.
tirely Protestant. The Duke of Bavaria, the politic Maxi-
milian, refused to stir. The Spanish Government sent
a paltry sum of a hundred thousand ducats,* and talked
of sending two hundred thousand more.f If the German
Protestants had been unanimous in the support of Bo-
hemia, the huge bulk of the dominions of the German
branch of the House of Austria, honeycombed as they
were with disaffection, would have broken up from its
own inherent weakness.

That the Bohemians, on the other hand, would be likely Feeling in
to meet with any general sympathy in Germany, was, Germany-
however, far from probable. Two different tendencies of
thought had been the moving agents of the men of
the past century, and their influences were still living.
On the one hand, there had been the spirit of religious
fellowship, the conviction that identity of creed formed
the strongest bond of union, and that all men were called
upon to suffer and to act on behalf of their co-religionists
in every part of the world. On the other hand, there had
been the belief in the divine authority of Government,
against intriguing priests and presbyters, and the convic-
tion that rebellion was in itself an evil. In the first years
of the seventeenth century these two views of life each
found a support in one of the great parties into which
German Protestantism was divided. Theological opposi-
tion to Eome formed the strength of Calvinism, whilst
Lutheranism was the creed of those who regarded religion
in its more secular aspect.

At the head of the Lutheran states stood John George, The Eiec-
Elector of Saxony. Spending his days in the hunting- |°arx°[
field, and his evenings in deep carouses, from which he
seldom retired sober, he had neither time nor inclination
for intellectual culture. If he hated anything at all it
was the turmoil of war, and the feverish excitement of
Calvinism. The politics of his family had long been
Imperialist. It was by the favour of one emperor that

* Equivalent to 25,OOOZ. English money.

t Onate to Philip III., Sept. ^, 1618. Simancas MSS. Est. 2503. Des-
patch of Khevenhuller, cited by Hurter. Geschichte Ferdinands II. vii. 334.

262 JOHN GEORGE OF SAXONY.

CH. IV. his great uncle, Maurice, had become an elector. It was
1618. by the favour of another emperor that his brother and
himself had prosecuted their claims to the Duchy of
Cleves. Yet sluggish and improvident as he was in poli-
tical matters, it would be unfair to speak of his Impe-
rialism as if it had been altogether personal and selfish. It
resulted in part from the old feeling of attachment to the
time-honoured institutions of the Empire, and in part
from the belief that in them might be found a shelter
against the anarchy which appeared likely to set in if
nothing better than the law of the strongest was to be
invoked in the disputes which might from time to time
arise between the members of the Empire.

strength of Nor did John George stand alone in the support
opinion!11 whicn ne gaye to the Emperor. Wherever anarchy was
feared, a public opinion was forming, which, if only
the religious rights of the Protestants could be placed
under an adequate safeguard, would have borne the
wearer of the Imperial Crown on to an authority which
his predecessors had not known for many a year. The
dismal results of the weakness of Kudolph and Matthias
had not been without fruit. Men were tired of hearing
that German soil had been harried by foreign soldiers, and
that German towns were garrisoned by Dutch or Spanish
troops. They were tired, too, of the perpetual threats
and rumours of war, and there could be little doubt that
an Emperor who could do justice to Catholic and Pro-
testant alike, would have won all hearts to his standard.
For still the notion that the Electors and Princes of the
Empire were but vassals of the Emperor, had retained its
vitality, and under favourable circumstances it might have
once more impressed itself upon the history of the nation.*
Yet, strong as this feeling was, there was room for
other considerations by its side. In remembering the
rights of princes and states, the Lutheran ran no slight
risk of forgetting the rights of human beings. If by no
other means it was possible to prevent the desolation of

* It is a source of great confusion whenever it is assumed that the view
taken of the relation between the Emperor and the Empire at this time
was the same as that taken in the eighteenth century, though it is true
that the ideas of the Palatine party were manifestly tending that way, if
they had not already reached the point afterwards gained.

Its weak-

THE ELECTOR PALATINE. 263

the soil, and the never-ending slaughter of defenceless
citizens, in the name of religion, it might perhaps be
necessary to look on whilst the masters of each territory
moulded the religious worship of their subjects at their
pleasure. But it was a heavy price to pay for civil order ;
and any one who could have struck out a larger theory
would have deserved well of his contemporaries.

Unhappily the southern princes, who, with Frede- Policy
rick V., the young Elector Palatine, at their head, formed
the main body of the Union, were not the men to give
popularity to their revolt against the merely legal settle-
ment which found favour with the Lutherans of the
north. It was not amongst them that the great principles
of religious liberty were likely to dawn upon the world.
Wedged in between Catholic Bavaria and the Franconian
bishoprics on the one side, and the states of the Rhenish
bishops on the other, they lived in constant apprehension
of danger. Calvinists from sheer antagonism to their
neighbours, their talk was ever of war ; and in their
familiarity with it, it lost all its terrors. Schemes of ag-
gression, which would have revolted the common-sense of
Northern Germany, and which they were obliged carefully
to conceal from the merchants of the cities of the south,
were lightly talked of by these princes. It was from
Heidelberg and Cassel that the idea had originated of call-
ing in the King of France to dictate terms to Germany at
his pleasure, -and it was at Heidelberg and Cassel that
the warmest support was given to any plan which would
reduce the power of the emperor to the most complete
insignificance, whilst no thought was ever wasted on the
more difficult task of discovering an authority by which
the legitimate action of the abased monarch might be re-
placed. Over the fortunes of men who were steering The
straight towards anarchy, the youthful Frederick was most
unfitted to preside. Too thoughtful to allow the world's
courses to pass unheeded by him, and too much in
earnest to be restrained from sacrificing himself for that
which he conceived to be the good of his people and his
Church, he was utterly deficient in the wisdom which
alone can guide great enterprises to a successful end.
Exposed by the position of his straggling territory to an

264 PROPOSED MEDIATION.

CH. IV. attack from Catholic states on every side, and knowing
ids. that, as a Calvinist, he was not covered by the letter of
the treaty of Augsburg, he had grown up with the
thought of possible war ever present to his mind. He
never forgot that he might one day have to fight for those
luxuriant vineyards, whose productiveness filled with asto-
nishment even Italians acquainted with the fertility of the
rich Lombard plain, and for the proud castle which looked
down upon the rushing stream of the Neckar. In the con-
stant prospect of war, he grew impatient of the restraints
of peace. His feeble intellect shed but a flickering and
uncertain light upon the path which stretched out into the
dark future before him. He was easily elated and easily
depressed. Conscious of his weakness, he was now drifting
helplessly along under the guidance of one whose will was
stronger than his own. The ruler of the hour was
Christian of Anhalt, whose eagerness to strike down the
hated Austrian family was unrestrained by any consider-
ation of prudence or morality.

The Saxon The characters of the two Electors were thrown into
mediation. tne strongest light by the reception which they severally

five to the news of the Bohemian revolution. The
lector of Saxony showed the utmost anxiety to maintain
peace. To one who asked him what he meant to do, he
replied simply, " Help to put out the fire." His offer of
mediation was thankfully accepted by Matthias, and for
some time he was able to flatter himself that he would
receive the support of the Elector Palatine.

derick's ^e Peace °^ Germany hung upon the decision of Fre-
want of derick. Unfortunately, the question was one upon which
plan. anv one might nave g0ne astray, and on which Frederick
was more likely to go astray than any one else. It is true,
that to a revolution in Bohemia and in Austria, which would
have followed the example of the Dutch revolution in the
preceding century, no real objection could be brought ;
and, if there were the least chance of producing such a
result, it would be far better to assist the Bohemians to
total independence than to patch up an agreement with
Matthias which was hardly likely to last. Of the diffi-
culties in the way of such a settlement, Frederick was,
unhappily, in complete ignorance. Of the obstacles

FREDERICK'S SCHEMES. 265

opposed by the character and the institutions of Bohemia CH- IV-
he knew nothing. Still more fatally ignorant was he that, 1618.
unless he could gain the good- will of Saxony, he would
himself be powerless, and that any assistance which he
might be able to give would be more than counter-
balanced by the opposition of those who dreaded rebellion
in any shape as the prelude to universal confusion. On
the whole, therefore, there can be little doubt that it was
his best policy to seek a close alliance with John George.
The maintenance of religious liberty in Bohemia under
the guarantee of Protestant Germany, would no doubt
have left room for future troubles. But it was evidently
attainable at the time, and any approximation between
the Courts of Heidelberg and Dresden, would have been
fraught with beneficent results for the whole of Germany.
That such a guarantee would not have been given in vain
is proved by the amount of religious liberty retained in
Silesia, even after the catastrophe of 1620, through the
interposition of Saxony alone.

Errors of judgment, however, are too common in poli- His wild
tical life to justify any serious complaint so far against d
Frederick and his advisers. The really unpardonable
offence which they committed was, that in the face of
the gravest difficulty which any German Prince had ever
been called to solve, they dared to look upon the troubles
in Bohemia as a band of pilferers might look upon a fire
in the streets, which, however serious it may be to others,
is to them a good opportunity for filling their pockets at
the expense of the sufferers and spectators.

To do Frederick justice, he was not the leader in the The pro-
evil path into which he had suffered himself to be dragged thTDuke
by his associates. He had given the Elector of Saxony of Savoy,
reason to understand that he was ready to join in the
proposed mediation, and it would be the grossest injustice
to doubt that he had the good of Germany and Bohemia
at heart. But in July, a proposal* reached him from that
arch intriguer, the Duke of Savoy, who happened to have

* Wake to the King, July 13, 1618. Letters and other documents, illus-
trating the relations between England and Germany at the commencement of the
Tliirty Years' War, 4. This collection, edited by me for the Camden Society,
will be quoted as Letters and Documents.

266 FREDERICK AND CHARLES EMMANUEL.

CH- IV- two thousand men in Germany under the command of
1618. the Count of Mansfeld, a soldier of fortune, who had
been driven by personal insults to forsake the Spanish
service, and wrho had, accordingly, vowed implacable
enmity against the House of Austria. These men had
been originally levied for service against Spain ; but as
peace had been signed, the Duke had no further use for
them. He now offered, for the sake of the influence which
he might gain in Germany, to continue to pay them, if the
princes of the Union were willing to take them into their
service. He had no doubt, he added, that the Venetians
would be ready to advance large sums of money, and
that the Elector would thus be able to appear at the head
of an imposing force in the spring.

For a time, Frederick hung back ; but the prospect
was too seducing to be long resisted. Christian of
Anhalt was beside himself with joy. Already he was
witnessing in imagination the dismemberment of the
dominions of the House of Austria ; the only question in
his mind, was how the spoil was to be divided. At one
time it was arranged that the Duke of Savoy was to be
Emperor, and that Frederick was to be King of Bohemia.
The ecclesiastical princes were to be stripped of their
dominions. Then there was a change of plan. The
Duke thought that he would like to keep Bohemia for
himself: Frederick should be the King of Hungary.
He might, if he pleased, annex Alsace to the Palatinate ;
if events were favourable, he might even lay claim to
some portions of Austria.* At first these schemes were
kept from Frederick's knowledge ; but he soon grew
accustomed to listen to them without showing any dis-
taste^ That they were not at once rejected, goes far to
explain the reluctance of the Elector of Saxony to be
found in close alliance with the Calvinist Prince. It was
this, too, which furnished to Ferdinand an excuse, un-
happily too valid, for looking down from the height of his
moral superiority upon Protestantism, as if it were only
another name for selfishness and unprincipled ambition.

Ii; was not til1 man7 months after the revolution at

* Londorp. Ada Publica, iii. 596—621. I suppose the portions of Austria
reierred to are the scattered territories in Swabia.

THE WAR IN BOHEMIA. 267

Prague, that the preparations for mediation were com- CH. IV.
pleted. At the Emperor's request, the names of the 1618.
Elector of Mentz and of the Duke of Bavaria had been
added to those of the two Protestant Electors.

One at least of the mediators was doing his best to Successes
make mediation impossible. Not venturing to speak out hernia^0
plainly his opinion on the prospects of peace, Frederick
was continuing, to all outward appearance, his good offices
in co-operation with the Elector of Saxony, at the same
time that, with the strictest injunctions to secrecy, he sent
Mansfeld to the assistance of the revolutionary chiefs.
Whatever the ultimate effect of such duplicity might be,
the immediate result was favourable to the Bohemian
cause. Pilsen was taken, and the Imperialists were
driven back on every side. Before the end of the year,
Budweis was the only place in Bohemia remaining in
the hands of the soldiers of Matthias. Heated by these
successes, and still more by the hope of further support
from Heidelberg, the Directors had become more than
ever averse to any terms short of complete independence.

It was only natural that the events which were passing The con-
in Bohemia, should engage the earnest attention of the ditionof

. , . . rrn • i • 1 • • IT Spam.

fepamsh ministers. I heir sympathies, religious and poli-
tical, urged them to place at once their whole force at
the disposal of the Emperor. But their poverty was great.
How desperate the condition of the monarchy was, is
best known from the celebrated report* which was at this
time in course of preparation by the Council of Castile.
Lerma had recently been driven from power by a palace
intrigue in which his own son, the Duke of Uzeda, had
taken part with Aliaga, the King's confessor. He was
now in retirement, enjoying, under the shadow of a
cardinal's hat, the ill-gotten wealth which he had amassed
during his years of office. The opportunity was seized
by the prudent statesmen, whose presence at the Council
alone preserved the monarchy from ruin, to call the
King's attention to the miserable condition of the country.
The population of the Castiles, they said, was decreasing
every day. The taxes were so heavy that it was im-

* Lafuente Historia de Espana, xv. 481. Compare the notices in the
Relazioni Venete. Spagna.

268 SPAIN AND ENGLAND.

possible to pay them. The landowners were absentees,
living at Court, and careless of the misery of their de-
pendants. Money had been squandered with unheard of
profusion by the King. The courtiers alone were en-
riched. The expenses of the Eoyal household exceeded
by two-thirds the sum which had sufficed for the wants
of Philip II. Impediments were thrown in the way of
the sale of the produce of the soil, and of its carriage to
the market. Finally, the number of the monasteries was
out of all proportion to the population, and was increasing
every day.

Anxiety Nothing was done in consequence of this representa-
Govern- tion. The men who succeeded Lerma, were busily imitat-
ment. ing nis example by filling their own purses, and had no
time to think about the misery of the people. But the
knowledge that such a state of things existed, could not
fail in influencing the decision of the Government when
it was called upon to engage in a long and expensive
war.* Above all, it made them anxious to know what
Proposed would be the course which England would adopt. For,
oTJames!1 whatever Castilian pride might suggest, they knew well
enough that to engage in a maritime contest with England,
at the same time that they were keeping on foot large
armies on the Danube and in Flanders, would tax the
resources of the monarchy to the uttermost. Accordingly
Cottington, now again agent at Madrid, during Digby's
absence in England, was asked to convey to James the
assurance that his good offices in the Bohemian quarrel
would readily be accepted by the King of Spain, f
His reply. To this overture, Cottington was directed to reply that,
if it were true, as the Bohemians alleged, that they had
been forced to take arms in defence of their lives and
property from massacre and spoliation, it was impossible
that the King of England could leave them to destruc-
tion. He would prefer, however, to see peace established,
and he would therefore joyfully accept the proposed me-
diation. J

* Cottington to Lake, June 25, 1618. Letters and Documents, 3.
Nauntons Notes, Sept. 10, 1618. Letters and Documents, series ii. 13.
Cottington to Naunton, Sept. 17. Buckingham to Gondomar, Sept.
30, 1618. Letters and Documents, 9, 13.

POSITION OF JAMES. 269

In short, the policy of James was the same as that of GH- IV-
the Elector of Saxony. Resembling one another in 1618.
character and position, they agreed in looking with His policy
favour upon the appeal of the Bohemians for help against ^th'that
religious persecution, and in dislike of any popular move- of the
ment which bore the slightest semblance of rebellion. saxony.°f

Yet whatever his policy may have been, James should
have remembered that his position was very different
from that of the Elector of Saxony. It was not on his
persona] qualities, that the right of John George to be
listened to in the Bohemian dispute was founded. He
was a Prince of the Empire. He was the nearest neigh-
bour of the territory where the dispute had arisen. He
was well acquainted with the characters of the leaders on
both sides. His religion made him the natural ally of
one party ; his politics made him the natural ally of the
other. He could bring into the field no inconsiderable
force of his own, and it was probable that his influence
would enable him, if not to dispose of, at least to neutralise,
the whole strength of the north of Germany.

All this was wanting to James. He was far from the -£'
scene of action, and he was utterly ignorant alike of the
real nature of the quarrel, and of the real character of
the disputants. What was scarcely of less consequence,
with no standing army at his disposal, and no surplus in
his exchequer, James would be unable to exercise any
appreciable influence over the course of events in the
centre of the Continent. If the two Protestant Electors
were agreed, they could carry out their views without
his aid. If they were at variance, his help would hardly
enable either of them to dispose of the fortunes of Ger-
many.

For all this James had no eyes. Puffed up with his
own inordinate vanity, he fancied that all Europe was
ready to stand aside with bated breath to listen to the
decision which he had yet to form.

If the evil consequences of James's acceptance of the
proposed mediation had been limited to the expenditure of
some 20,OOOZ. in a bootless embassage, no one but himself tion-
would have had any right to complain. Unhappily this
was not the case. The interest which the Spanish

270 GONDOMAR'S POLITICAL FORECAST.

Government took in the affairs of Bohemia, made it highly
probable that Philip would sooner or later send succours
to his kinsman, and though, even then, it would hardly
be wise, in a cause in which German opinion was hope-
lessly divided, to give the signal for a war which would
wrap the whole of the Continent in flames, it could never
be either right or prudent to smooth the way for the in-
tervention of Spain in the affairs of Germany. And
that the acceptance of the mediation without obtaining
a guarantee of the neutrality of Spain, was tantamount
almost to an invitation to Philip to persevere in his
interference, was evident to all who chose to think about
the matter.

1619. If there could be any doubt that, at this conjuncture,
mar't°re- a wise reticence would have had considerable effect upon
rt on the Spanish statesmen, it would be removed upon con-
sideration of the terms in which the English Government
was referred to in a memoir drawn up by Gondomar not
long after his return to Madrid. In spite, he said, of the
success which had attended his efforts to keep James out
of the hands of the war party, it was impossible to be
free from anxiety for the future. It was true that the
King's exchequer was empty; but the nation was rich,
<~and a declaration of war with Spain would immediately
be followed by a large grant of money. In a few days a
powerful fleet could be manned and equipped. On the
other hand, at no time had the Spanish navy been so
entirely unprepared for war. The sea would swarm with
English privateers, and wiioever was master at sea would
soon be master on land. The Dutch rebels, the. French
Huguenots, and the German heretics, would place James
at the head of a powerful confederacy, and it was im-
possible to say what injury he might not inflict upon the
Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy.

At any price, then, the friendship of James must be
secured. With that, everything would be possible, even
the reduction of England to the Catholic Church. The
marriage treaty must again be set on foot. It was true
that James had refused to concede religious liberty, on the
plea that the consent of Parliament was needed. This
was a mere excuse. Why could not James change the

JAMES AGREES TO MEDIATE. 271

religion of England as easily as his predecessors had done? CH- IV-
The truth was, that he was a heretic at heart, and was 1619.
afraid of any increase in the numbers of the English
Catholics.*

Already, before the memoir was written, the Spanish Anxiety of
ministers had begun to put in practice those arts which, Spam 5,

• i I i rf i 1*11 •

as experience had taught them, were most likely to impose neutrality
upon the irresolute mind of James. On the one hand,
they lost no opportunity of declaring ostentatiously their
resolution to crush the Bohemian rebellion, t On the
other hand, LafuenteJ who, having being Gondomar's
confessor, had been sent back to England to watch over
the interests of the Catholics, was directed to lose no
opportunity of holding out hopes that the obstacles to the
marriage treaty might yet be overcome.

In penning the memoir in which he had sketched out James's
the future policy of his Government, Gondomar had had Sfer of
before him a letter written at James's instigation by mediation.
Buckingham to Cottington, which had been placed by the
English agent in the hands of the Spanish secretary Ciriza.

In this letter Cottington was ordered to assure the
King of Spain that James had left unanswered the re-
peated applications of the Bohemians for assistance,
partly because he expected to be called upon to mediate,
and partly because, as yet, he had only heard one side of
the question. He wished, therefore, that Philip would
procure for him the Emperor's answer to their com-
plaints. He hoped that a cessation of arms would be
accorded to give time for negotiation, and that Matthias
would give security that, upon receiving the submission
of the Bohemians, he would leave them in the enjoyment
of the free exercise of their religion. §

Even at this distance of time, it is scarcely possible to

* Consulta by Gondomar and Aliaga, Jan. i, 1619. Simancas MSS.
Est. 2518. The two formed a junta for English affairs, but the paper is
evidently Gondomar's production.

t Cottington to Carleton, June 25, July 16, Oct. 8, Dec. 7. Cotting-
ton to Lake, July 16, Aug. 27, Sept. 17, 26, Oct. 29, Dec, 4. Cottington
to Naunton, Dec. 7, 1618. S. P. Spain.

J Commonly known in England as the Padre Maestro, which is some-
thing like calling a man " His Reverence " as a proper name.

§ Buckingham to Cottington, Nov. (?), 1618. Letters and Documents, 21.

272

SPANISH AID TO THE EMPEROR.

_CiL_IV.
1619.

Gondo-
mar's com-
ments.

The

English
mediation
accepted
by Spain.

V_ Overtures

from
France.

read Gondomar's comments upon this letter without a
smile. He believed, he said, that the King of England
meant well, and that he was desirous of maintaining
peace. It was only from vanity that he desired to have
a hand in the affairs of Germany. In the end, he would
be sure to attach himself to whichever of the two parties
proved the strongest. It would be well, therefore, to
accept his offer of mediation. It could do nobody any
harm, and it might do good ; for he might learn by it to
be ashamed of himself, and to use his influence on the
Emperor's behalf. Ciriza had better accept the offer,
taking care to treat it as if it had been a simple proposal
to assist in reducing the Bohemians to obedience. At the
same time, he might promise that the Spanish ambassador
at Vienna would do everything in his power to facilitate
the offered mediation.*

Accordingly, on the 22nd of January a formal letter,
embodying Gondomar's suggestions, was written to Cot-
tington by Ciriza. t At last Philip's hands were free.
On the 24th, two days after his acceptance of the English
mediation, he wrote to the Archduke Albert at Brussels,
telling him that he had now decided upon sending assist-
ance to the Emperor ; J and, on the 1st of February, he
sent word to Matthias that he was ready to make over to
him a large sum of money, adding that, if that were not
sufficient, troops should folio w.§ To make sure that
James should not break through the net in which he had
entangled himself, it was decided that Gondomar should
return to England to complete the work which he had so
successfully begun. ||

The Spanish ministers may have been the more anxious
to secure the neutrality of England, as they were aware
that the French Government had been leaving no stone
unturned to win over James to re-open the negotiations

* Consulta by Gondomar, Jan. ^, 1619. Letters and Documents, 27.
f Ciriza to Cottington, ^~, 1619. Letters and Documents, 36.

$ Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, ^_|4, 1619. Brussels MSS.
§ Khevenhiller, ix. 333.

|| Consulta of the Council of State, Feb. J? March 1? 1619. Simancas
MSS. Est. 2518, 2515.

DOHNA IN ENGLAND. 273

for his son's marriage with a sister of Lewis XIIL* The CH- IV-
Princess Christina was, it was true, on the eve of her 1619.
marriage with the Prince of Piedmont ; but the King of January.
England was given to understand that an offer for the
hand of her sister Henrietta Maria would be highly
welcome in Paris.

For the moment, the alliance of James was equally
courted by all parties. Whilst Cottington was waiting
at Madrid for the answer of the Spanish Government,
Baron Christopher Dohna arrived in England on a special
mission from the Elector Palatine, f Ostensibly he came
to ask James ^to renew the defensive treaty with the
Union, which was shortly about to expire. But his main
object was to sound the King of England, in order to dis-
cover whether he was likely to give his aid to the wild
schemes which had been suggested by the Duke of Savoy.

To the renewal of the treaty with the Union, James
made no objection whatever. J But when Dohna began
to hint, in cautious terms, at the possibility that upon
the death of Matthias the Bohemians would proceed to
elect his master in the place of Ferdinand, James cut
him short at once. In the case of a legal election, he
said, he would do his best to support his son-in-law.
But he would not hear of any aggression upon the rights
of others. " There are some of the Princes of Germany,"
he said, " who wish for war, in order that they may ag-
grandise themselves. Your master is young, and I am old.
Let him follow my example." He then proceeded to quote
from Virgil the lines in which the aged Latinus is repre-
sented as warning Turnus that his impetuous valour
needed to be balanced by his own sober judgment. § He

* Venetian despatch from Paris, Nov. *|, 1618. Quoted by Cousin,
Journal des Savans, 1861, 278. Consulta by Gondomar, Jan. -, 1619.

Add. MSS. 14,015, fol. 80.

f Voigt in Kaumer's Historisches Taschenbuch, 1853, 127.
j The new treaty was signed Jan. 17, and ratified May 6, 1619. Rymer,
xvii. 160.

§ " O prsestans animi juvenis, quantum ipse feroci
Virtute exnuperas, tanto me impensius sequuni est
Prospicere, atque omnes volventem expendere casus." — JEn. xii. 19.
The words in italics were substituted by James or Dohna for consulere and
metuentem.

vm. T T

274 NAVAL PREPAKATIONS IN SPAIN.

CH. IV. subsequently sent a message to Dohna requesting him not

1619. to forget that, if the Princes of the Union made an attack

January, upon their neighbours, they must expect no assistance

from him. He would give no help to those who were

exciting the subjects of other sovereigns to revolt. Yet,

within the limits of defensive warfare, he would do his best

to maintain their independence. He had, unfortunately,

no money to send them at present ; but he would ask

the Dutch to give enough to support two thousand men

for a few months.*

Character it was always easy for James to dip his hand into the
pockets of other people. He was seldom capable of
giving good advice. Yet in this instance, at least, if his
counsels had been adopted, Germany would have been
saved from incalculable evils. Unhappily, there was that
in the form in which his advice was couched which was
almost certain to frustrate his intentions. He looked
upon the politics of the Continent without sympathy and
without earnestness. He treated objects, for which mil-
lions of hearts were beating, in the dry style in which a
chief justice would decide in Westminster Hall upon a
right of way. The Bohemian Protestants were to be
deserted, not because it was impossible to protect them,
or because they were incapable of self-government, but
because their actions had not been technically legal. The
German Protestants were to be supported because their
position was, or was supposed to be, technically legal.
That the Court of Heidelberg, with its deep religious
feeling, and its ambitious love of meddling, should be
convinced by such arguments as these, was morally im-
possible.

At all events, at the very time at which Dohna was
transmitting this unwelcome intelligence to his master,

ments. James was giving signs that his words were not uttered
as a mere subterfuge for the sake of avoiding war at any
cost. For some time he had been receiving information
from Cottington, that great naval preparations were being
made in every port in the Spanish Empire. From Dun-

* Naunton to Carleton, Jan. 21. The King to the Elector Palatine,
July 4, 1619. Letters and Documents, 32, 152.

GENERAL ALARM. 275

kirk to Barcelona the arsenals and dockyards were ring- CH. IV.
ing with the equipment of a powerful fleet. It was said 1619.
that the ships were to rendezvous in April on the coast January.
of Sardinia, where they were to take on board a force of
no less than forty thousand soldiers. Cottington was
told that the armament was intended for an attack upon
Algiers ; and, if official documents are to be trusted, such
was in reality the intention of the Spanish Government.
A blow struck against the pirates at once, would obviate
the necessity of admitting the hated co-operation of an
English fleet in the Mediterranean.*

Such an explanation, however, would hardly be satis- Alarm
factory to those who had most to fear from any fresh venetians.
development of the power of Spain. The Venetians
believed that the attack was in reality directed against
themselves. During the whole of the past year they had
been living in constant dread of Spain. The Spanish
Viceroy of Naples had been carrying on hostilities against
them on his own account; and a terrible conspiracy,
which had been foiled by a timely discovery, was uni-
versally attributed to the instigations of the Spanish
Ambassador, Bedmar. It was reported to the Council of
Ten, that as Gondomar was leaving England he had con-
cluded a conversation with Sir Henry Mainwaring, the
Lieutenant of Dover Castle, with the significant words :
— " It will not be long before Spanish is spoken at
Venice." t

His words may have been a mere bravado ; but the
Republic was alarmed, and its ambassador was directed
to ask James for assistance. The real object of the Spanish
fleet, it was believed at Venice, was to seize the city
itself, or some point upon the Venetian coast which might
be made the basis of operations against Bohemia.

James was at once aroused. Thg.t ftpa.in should assist the. Naval
Emperor against his revolted subjects^was well enough ; but j^f*™"
an ~affiaclTupon VenlBS^wouTorbea gross violation of public England.

* Cottington to Naunton, Dec. 3. Cottiiigton to Lake, Dec. 4, 1618. >'. /'-
Npain, There is a bundle of papers at Simancas, relating to " the secret
expedition," as it is called.

t Information given to the Council of Ten, ^~, 1618. Venice MSS.

Communicazioni del Cons., di. x.

T 2

276 THE ENGLISH FLEET.

CH. IV. law. A courier was at once despatched to Cottington,

1619. directing him to interrogate Philip as to his intentions.

January. Nor were James's remonstrances confined to words. On

the pretext of reviving his own preparations against the

pirates, he ordered Buckingham, who had just been raised

to the direction of the Admiralty, to get ready six ships

of the royal navy for immediate service. Fourteen more

were to be equipped by the merchants, and orders were

given to the city companies to pay the 40,00 OZ. which

had been assessed upon them.* A few days later it

was determined that the old tax of ship-money should

once more be levied at the other ports ; and the magis-

trates were accordingly directed to make up the sum of

85 5 Ol. amongst them, f At the same time the lords

lieutenant of the counties were directed to see that the

trained bands were in a good state of discipline, and that

February, the beacons on the coast were ready for use. J

The Dutch The next step was to ask for the co-operation of the

co-operate. Dutch. James's plan was that the two fleets should pass1

the Straits of Gibraltar together, and should offer their

combined assistance to the Spanish Admiral in his pro-

jected attack upon Algiers. They would thus be in a

position to oppose him with superior force, if it proved

* The Council to Sir T. Smith, Jan. 17, 1619. Council Register. Lorkin
to Puckering, Feb. 9 ; Feb. (?), 1619. Harl MSS. 7002, fol. 442, 430. Car-
leton to Naunton, Jan. 25, 30. Naunton to Carleton, Jan. 27, Feb. 4,
1619. S. P. Holland. The Dutch Commissioners to the States General,

> 1619. Add. MSS. 17,677 L, fol. 380—386. Donato to the
Doge, Feb. ^~, 1619. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Salvetti's New*-

Letters, Jan. g, , 1619.

t The Council to the Mayors and Bailiffs of the Port Towns, Feb. 7, 1619.
Council Register. The sums assessed are interesting as showing the relative
importance of the towns. London, it must be remembered, paid 40,0001.

Bristol
Exeter .
Plymouth .
Dartmouth ,
Barnstaple .
Hull .
Weymouth .
Southampton
Newcastle .

.£2500 The Cinque Ports . . . £200

1000 Yarmouth .... 200

1000 Ipswich 150

1000 Colchester . . . .150

500 Poole 100

500 Chester .... 100

450 Lyme 100

300

Total . . . £8550

JThe Council to the Lords Lieutenant, &c.} Feb. 11, 1619. Council
Register.

JAMES S MEDIATION IN GERMANY. 277

that the hostilities against the pirates were only a cover Cte- IV-
for an attack upon Venice.* 1619.

For once in his life James had taken timely precautions February,
against an evil which he apprehended. For once in his Suspen-
life his policy was crowned with success. Before the Spanish* c
Dutch had time to express their objections to the plan,
news arrived in England that the Spanish preparations
had been suspended, and that all danger in the Adriatic
was at an end.f

In the meanwhile James had selected an ambassador Doncaster
for what he looked upon as the all-important mission to JJ!£1ellted
Bohemia. His choice at first fell upon Wotton, but the Bohemian
appointment was almost immediately cancelled in favour emba88y-
of Doncaster. We are left to conjecture the causes of
the change. The amiable and accomplished Wotton was
entirely devoid of diplomatic ability, and had been re-
cently suspected, however unjustly, of attempting to eke
out his scanty resources with a Spanish pension.J Don-
caster, on the other hand, like all Scotchmen, was a fiery
opponent of Spain, and the news of the Spanish prepa-
rations, combined with the influenced Buckingham, who,
ever since his quarrel with the Howards, had been
drawing nearer to the anti-Spanish party, may very pos-
sibly have lifted him into the post. If the work of
mediation bad been what James supposed it to be, a mere
arbitration beween two parties who were only too happy
to see their quarrels decided by the sentence of an Eng-
lish ambassador, Doncaster's courtesy and ready tact
would have stood him in good stead. As it was, there
was nothing to be hoped from his mission. What James
needed was such a man as Digby ; a shrewd, impartial
spectator who would penetrate the real intentions of the
various parties in the Empire, and who might perhaps
have been able to put into some practical shape the

* The Dutch Commissioners to the States General, Feb. ^ 1619. Add.

MSS. 17,677 L, fol. 389.

t Proposition of the States Commissioners, March 5, 1619. S. P. Holland.

Donate to the Doge, Feb. ^-g, 1619. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

t Lionello to the Doge, Aug. i. Contarini to the Doge, ^77 > 1617'
Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

278 DEATH OF MATTHIAS.

CH. IV. gOOC[ intentions of his master. But to the power of

1619. divining the truth which is obscured by jarring passions,

March. Doncaster could make no pretensions. He was sure to

throw himself at once into the arms of Frederick and

his ministers. He would see with the eyes, and think

with the thoughts, of the Court of Heidelberg. Even if

he had any idea of impartiality when he landed at Calais,

he would be a thorough partisan long before he left the

Palatinate.

Death The new Ambassador's departure was delayed for some

Emperor time, ^^ D7 ^ne seri°us illness of the King, and then by
MattSas. the news which reached England of the death of the Em-
peror Matthias.

its conse- In Bohemia the death of the Emperor hurried on a
Bohemia1" GT^S which had long been foreseen. Ferdinand at once
notified his accession to those whom he still treated as
his subjects, and offered to confirm all their privileges,
including the Eoyal Charter itself. But the Directors had
gone too far to retreat. They did not even vouchsafe a
reply to his overtures. Though the word dethronement
had not yet been formally uttered, it was plain that no-
thing less would satisfy the revolutionary leaders. The
proposed mediation of the four Princes fell at once to the
ground.

and in the To the Empire, the death of Matthias whilst the Bohe-
Lmpire< mian dispute was still undecided, was even of greater
moment. The coming election had long been looked for-
ward to as a time at which the vexed questions by
which Germany was distracted might at last be settled.
Few, if any, doubted that Ferdinand, as he was secure
of the three Ecclesiastical votes, as well as of that of the
kingdom of Bohemia, would carry the day. If it had
been possible to find a candidate to oppose to him with
any reasonable probability of success, the Protestants
would no doubt have been wise in voting against him.
But, as this was not the case, there was nothing left but
to accept the unwelcome necessity, and to be content with
imposing reasonable conditions on Ferdinand.

Nor would this be by any means an unsatisfactory
result. If only Dresden and Heidelberg were united in
their demands, not even when clothed with the whole of

FREDERICKS DIPLOMACY. 279

the Imperial prerogatives would Ferdinand be strong CH. IV.
enough to resist them. 1519.

For the growing variance between the two great March,
divisions of Protestant Germany, John George and Fre- Position
derick were alike answerable. For if the Elector of Elector of
Saxony took the common-sense view of the case, and pre- Saxony-
ferred to treat with Ferdinand rather than to oppose him,
he roused opposition in those whom he ought to have
conciliated by the contemptuous indifference with which
he regarded the wishes and fears of his brother Elector.

On the other hand Frederick was doing everything in Frede-
his power to alienate all who dreaded anarchy. At one ri?k'8 in*
time he had attempted in vain to induce the politic Maxi-
milian of Bavaria to put himself forward as a candidate.
He now took up again the thread of his intrigues with
the Duke of Savoy.

In January he had sent Mansfeld to Turin to make
arrangements for the coming attack upon the House of
Austria. As the despatches came in, each one more sig-
nificant than the other, telling of the great things which
Charles Emmanuel was ready to do for the common
cause, the Court of Heidelberg was beside itself with joy.
" Now," cried out Christian of Anhalt, " we have in our
hands the means of overturning the world." But when
it came to putting their plans upon paper it was less easy
to come to an agreement. Frederick's advisers wanted
the Duke to send them large sums of money, and to be
content with vague promises for the future. The Duke
wanted to make sure of the Bohemian Crown, and of his
election to the Empire, and to pay as little in ready
money as possible. The negotiation therefore broke down
completely. In April, one more attempt was made to
take up its broken threads, and Christian of Anhalt was
himself despatched to Turin to win over if possible the
wily Charles Emmanuel by dangling before him the Im-
perial Crown, in hopes of inducing him to come to the
point, and to concert measures for the contemplated
attack upon Bohemia and the Ecclesiastical territories.
But the envoy found the Duke in a less fiery mood than
he expected. If he could sack Genoa, with the aid of the
German Protestants, as he had hoped two years before to

280 DONCASTER'S MISSION TO GERMANY.

CH. IV. sack it with the aid of Kaleigh, it would be well enough.
1619. But he held out no hopes that he would allow Frederick
April, to make a tool of him in Germany.*

DePiessen At the same time one of Frederick's counsellors, De
in London. p}esseri) was despatched to England to interest James in
the scheme. | If James had had any real knowledge of
Wake's German politics, he would have seen its impracticability
Turin011 to a^ a glance- As it was, he ordered Sir Isaac Wake, his
agent with the Duke of Savoy, who happened to be in
London at the time, to return to his post. He was to
warn Charles Emmanuel of the dangers which he was in-
curring, but at the same time to assure him of support if
he could show that there was a reasonable prospect of
success in his candidature for the Imperial Crown. Upon
his arrival in Turin, Wake was not long in discovering
that the Duke, who cared far more about annexing Milan
or Genoa to his dominions than he did about the suffer-
ings of the Bohemians, had no wish to allow his name to
be used at the election, and that the intrigues from
which so much had been expected, had at last come to
nothing. J

Doncas- In the countenance which he thus gave to his son-in-
structions, law's plans, James went as far as it was possible to go
with any degree of prudence. It would have been well
if he had been able to give to Frederick those wise coun-
sels which he needed So sorely. Unhappily, to be cau-
tious without being wise was the utmost that could be
expected from him. Nowhere was his ignorance of human
nature more clearly revealed than in the instructions with
which Doncaster was furnished for his mission. James
at least fancied that he had found a basis upon which a
reconciliation was possible between Ferdinand and his re-
volted subjects. "Let the King," he said in effect, "keep
the oath which he took at his coronation. Let the Jesuits
cease to meddle with political affairs. Let all prisoners

* Compare with the original letters in Londorp. iii. 598 :— Uetterodt.
tirnest Qraf zu Mansfeld, 192 ; Reuss. Graf Ernest von Mansfeld im Bolim-
ischen Kmege, 35 ; Villermont. Ernest de Mansfeld, i. 108.

t The Dutch Commissioners to the States General, May-, 1619. Add.
MSS. 17,677 I., fol. 48.

J Wake to Buckingham, June 5, 1619. Letters and Documents, 107.

HIS ARRIVAL AT HEIDELBERG. 281

on both sides be released, and let the Protestants enjoy CH- Iy-
the rights and liberties to which they are entitled."* It ww>
is, indeed, difficult to conceive the state of mind of a man April,
who could think that a deep and envenomed quarrel could
be appeased by such vague generalities as these.

On the whole, however, the policy of James since the Ten^ency
alarm of the Spanish naval preparations had been slowly policy!6*
drifting into opposition to Spain. At the time when
Doncaster was preparing to start, orders were given to
stop the equipment of the fleet on the ground that it
was impossible at this conjuncture to join forces with
Spain against the pirates. So hopeless did the project
now appear to James, that he actually returned to the
merchants the money that he had levied from them for
the purpose. | What was more significant still, the Coun-
cil was listening to a proposal from Arundel and Lennox
to send out Koger North, one of Raleigh's captains, to the
Amazon. It is true that he was not to sail to the west-
ward of the OyapokJ But even with this restriction
his voyage would be extremely galling to the Spaniards.
Nor can they have been otherwise than annoyed at the
advancement, at Buckingham's request, of their declared
enemy, the Earl of Southampton, to a seat in the Privy
Council. § May

At last, after many delays, Doncaster set out upon the Doncaster
12th of May. At Brussels he made a fruitless effort to sets out.
procure from the Archduke more than a languid assent
to his diplomatic efforts. On his arrival at Heidelberg june.
he found that the Elector was absent at Heilbronn, pre-
siding over an assembly of the Union. As England was
represented at the meeting by Wotton, Doncaster did
not think it necessary to follow him.

Wotton was then upon his way home from Venice. He
had been commissioned to assure the Princes of the Union,
as he passed, of the friendly dispositions of the Venetian
Republic, and to urge them to join his master ma scheme

* Instructions to Doncaster, April 14, 1619. Letters and Documents, 64.

f The Council to Sir T. Smith, March 18. Calvert to the Council,
April 8. Resolution of the Council, April 28, 1619. Council Register.

t Resolution of the Council, March 14. The Council to Coventry, March
18, 1619. Council Register.

§ Council Register, April 30. Salvetti's News-Letter, May ^,

282 THE PRINCES OF THE UNIOK

,CH- IY- for the erection of colleges for the reception of converts
1619. from Popery.*

June. For such solemn trifling the Princes of the Union had
JembTat no ^me to sPare- They were agitated by the news which
Heiibionn. reached them from various quarters. Silesia and Moravia
had thrown in their lot with the Bohemian Directors, and
whilst Mansfeld was keeping Bucquoi in check, Thurn, at
the head of a second army, was thundering at the gates
of Vienna. It was only by the iron will of Ferdinand that
the Estates of Upper and Lower Austria were still kept
from openly giving in their adhesion to the cause of the
revolutionists at Prague. On the other hand, ten thousand
Spanish troops had been levied for Ferdinand, in the
Netherlands, and were cautiously picking their way
across Germany from one Catholic territory to another. f

It was time for Frederick and his advisers to come to a
resolution ; but the curse which dogs the steps of im-
potent intrigue was upon them. They had alienated the
Elector of Saxony by their reluctance to co-operate with
him in maintaining peace. They had hoped impossi-
bilities from the Duke of Savoy, and, when he found that
they could no longer serve his purposes, the Duke of
Savoy had all but laughed openly in the face of their
emissary. Even the members of the Union itself had not
been admitted to their confidence. Without definite aim
themselves, they could not guide others. It was in vain
that Maurice, the Landgrave of Hesse, the one really able
man of their party, urged them to summon a general
meeting of all Protestant States to deliberate upon the
difficulties of the time. The Union, he truly said, was too
weak to meet the danger. The permanent settlement of
Germany must rest upon a wider basis. Frederick, it is
true, gave his consent to Maurice's proposal, but only on
the condition that the assembly should not meet till the
Imperial election was over — that is to say, till it was too
late to be of the slightest use. With equal reluctance
either to act or to abstain from action, he persuaded the
Union to place its troops on a war footing, though he

* Instructions to Wotton, March 1. Answer to Wotton, June 12, 1619.
Letters and Documents, 46; 112. The idea had been Bacon's. Spedding,
Letters and Life, iv. 254. f Miiller, Forschungen iii. 162.

FREDERICK'S DEMAND FOR AID. 283

refused to give any indication of the purpose for which CH- IV-
he intended the armament to be used.* 1619.

In the midst of these deliberations Frederick was June-
summoned to Heidelberg, to meet his father-in-law's Jack's
ambassador. By the Elector and his whole Court Don- reception
caster was treated with every courtesy. In a moment
he was carried away by the stream. It would have been
difficult, no doubt, for any but the most seasoned diplo-
matist to preserve his equanimity as he listened to the
Prince descanting on the perils to which he was ex-
posed by the Spaniards and the Jesuits, or to look,
without yielding to the impressions of the moment, upon
the winning face of the youthful Electress, who, by the
magic of her presence, swayed all hearts around her.
Doncaster, at least, was not the man to note that in all
that was said to him there was not a single practical sug-
gestion— not a single sign of any definite plan. Instead
of raising a warning voice against the mischief which was
gathering, he told the Elector, with perfect truth, that he
had come " as a sheet of white paper to receive impression
from his Highness." His Highness, unhappily, had no-
thing worth reading to write upon it. Without the
statesman's resources to avert the danger which was at
his doors, he saw no prospect but war before him. How
that war was to be conducted, and on what principles it
was to be waged, were questions to which he had never
given serious consideration. One thing alone was plain to
him, that he was threatened with attack, and that it was,
therefore, the duty of his father-in-law to send him the English
aid to which he was bound by his treaty wlthjthe Union, j aid-

TheTTemand was earnestly seconded byDoncaster. The
Ambassador, indeed, had as little clear conception of the
object of the war as the Elector. The troops of the Union,
he informed James, were to be sent "into the Upper
Palatinate, under colour of defence thereof, but indeed
to be employed as occasion shall offer."

Against this attempt to drag him into a war in which

* Rommel. Gesch. von Hessen. Theil. iv. Abtheilung iii. 349.

t The Princes of the Union to the King, June ^. Doncaster to the
King, June 18. Doncaster to Buckingham, June 18. Doncaster to Naun-
ton, June 19, 1619. Letters and Documents, 115, 118, 120, 129.

284 VICISSITUDES OF THE WAR.

_CIL_IVL he Would never know for what he was fighting, James at

1619. once protested. It was only in case of an unprovoked

July- attack that he was bound to assist the Union. To this

it is re- unwelcome refusal, however, he added a vague assurance,

Jamesby that if the Bohemians were ready to yield to reasonable

conditions, he would not desert them.*

June. With the view of Ferdinand's character which Don-
of Sdi-8 caster had acquired at Heidelberg, it was not likely that
nand. he would be very hopeful of his chance of obtaining a
favourable hearing from him. He had lost all confidence
in the success of his mission. He saw well enough that,
with the ill-feeling which divided the Protestant Electors,
Ferdinand's election was certain, and instead of exerting
himself to remove the causes of the evil, he hurried
on towards Vienna to ask for a cessation of arms, in the
hope, as he expressed it, of "working upon his jealousy
of missing to be Emperor before he knew how safe his
cards were."f

It was not merely the policy of the Court of Dresden
which raised apprehensions in Doncaster's mind. Bad
news from the seat of war had reached him before he
started from Heidelberg. Mansfeld had been defeated
in Bohemia by Bucquoi. Thurn's great enterprise against
Vienna had signally failed. His blustering incapacity
was equal to an assault upon the unarmed Regents at
Prague, but he lost his head as soon as he was called upon
to force his way into a defended town. The personal
bravery which he undoubtedly possessed would serve him
but little here. He counted too much on his allies within
the city, and too little on himself. At the moment when
Ferdinand's cause appeared most hopeless, when the Pro-
testant nobles were pressing him with threats of ven-
geance if he refused to sign the act of their confederation
with the Bohemians, a regiment of horse dashed in
through an unguarded gate to his assistance. The mal-
contents dispersed in hopeless confusion, and a day or two
afterwards Thurn was in full retreat.
Meeting of Cajoled and flattered by the politic Maximilian, on his

* The King to the Princes of the Union, July 4. The King to the
Elector Palatine, July 4, 1619. Letters and Documents, 50, 152.
Doncaster to Naunton, June 19. Letters and Documents, 129.

DONCASTERS PLEADINGS. 285

way through Munich,5* Doncaster hurried on to meet CH-

Ferdinand, before worse news could reach him. He 1619.
found him at Salzburg, on his way to the Imperial July.
election at Frankfort. Ferdinand received him civilly, Ferdinand
but gave him to understand, through one of his council- caL?.011"
lors, that as the mediation had long ago been placed in
the hands of four Princes of the Empire, the King of
England's offer was altogether inadmissible. Doncaster
then asked whether a cessation of arms would be
granted ? At this the Councillor started. " It is a new
proposition," he said, " out of all reason and season. His
Majesty has, as it were, the Bohemians in his power."
"Then," replied Doncaster, "it seems as if his Majesty
will hearken to no peace but when he has need of it."
To this home thrust the Councillor answered that it was
impossible for his master to determine on such weighty
matters in the absence of his Council. "Well, then,"
said Doncaster," if his Majesty will command me, and
will promise, at my coming to Frankfort, to enter upon a
treaty, I will go post to the Bohemians, and bring from
them the most moderate demands I can get." To this
offer no answer was returned, and the conversation came
to an end. An attempt made on the following day to
elicit a satisfactory reply, was equally unsuccessful. He
was told that he must go back to Frankfort, and that he
should receive his answer there.")*

On his arrival at Frankfort, Doncaster sought an in- Don- ^
terview with the Spanish Ambassador, Onate. The ^rview
Spaniard justified Ferdinand in his refusal to pass over with
the mediation of the four Princes in favour of the King of
England. "Why, then," said Doncaster, "was my
master's intervention so earnestly requested by your
master, if it cannot be accepted now 1 " To this question
Onate gave no direct reply. He talked of the danger of
offending the German Princes by passing them by, and

* On receiving the King's letter, Maximilian assured Doncaster that " if
God had blessed him with any children, he would have left it to them as a
most precious piece, and charged them on his blessing to honour and serve
his Majesty." Doncaster wrote home in praise of the Duke, and especially
lauded him as not being "a Jesuited Prince." Doncaster to Naunton,
July 2, 1619. Letters and Documents, 144.

t Doncaster to Naunton, July 9. Letters and Document*, 156.

286 FAILURE OF DONCASTER S MISSION.

CH. IV. then proceeded to launch forth into a discourse on the
1619. state of the Empire. Doncaster cut him short at once.
July. With these matters, he said, he had nothing to do. He
wanted to know whether a cessation of hostilities would be
granted, and he would be glad if he could have an answer
on that point as soon as possible. Such an answer, he
told the Spaniard, could be easily obtained if he chose to
interest himself about it, as it was notorious that the men
and money for the war in Bohemia were furnished by the
King of Spain. Onate replied that as soon as the election
was over a cessation of arms would be granted, if only the
Bohemians would allow their King to enjoy his Crown on
the same conditions as his predecessors. Such an offer
did not mean much, for it implied the yielding by the
Bohemians of all the points in dispute. Doncaster, how-
ever, caught at the suggestion, and declared his readiness
to set out at once for Prague, if the King and the
Spanish Ambassador would give him their signatures to
the proposal which had just been made. Onate did not
seem very eager to comply with this request, " yet," as
Doncaster expressed it, " he promised fairly, but rather
as it seemed out of shame to eat his own words so hot,
than out of any good affection to satisfy me."

Rejection A whole week passed away before Doncaster heard any-

cL1te?s thing further from either Ferdinand or the Ambassador.

offers. At last a long memoir was sent him, containing a defence
of the King's claims upon the allegiance of the Bohemians.
The next day Onate told him plainly that the time for a
cessation of arms was past. " The victory," he said, " in-
clined so much to the King's party, that he was no
longer in doubt of the event. There were but two ways of
coming to a peace. Either the Bohemians must offer
their submission, or the sword must decide the quarrel."

It was with some difficulty that Doncaster kept his
temper. But discretion prevailed, and he contented him-
self with a diplomatic expression of regret that his medi-
ation, undertaken at the request of the King of Spain,
had not met with better success.*

* Doncaster to Onate, July 31. Answer given to Doncaster, August 3.
Memoir given to Doncaster, August 3. Doncaster to Naunton, August 7.
Letters and Documents, 180 — 203.

HE RETIRES FROM GERMANY. 287

Nor was it only at Frankfort that failure had attended
the thankless task which James had undertaken. From
Salzburg Doncaster had despatched one of his Secretaries
to Prague, to open communications with the Bohemians.
At first he was received with open arms. But as soon as secretary
it was discovered that he had neither men nor money hem?an?°"
to offer, he was treated with studied neglect, and was
finally dismissed, without even the courtesy of an answer
to the letter which he had brought from his master.* August.

Doncaster was aware that there was nothing more for
hinTto do at Frankfort. In order to escape the appear- Spa.
ance of responsibility for events over which he had no
control, he retired to Spa, under the pretence of drinking
the waters. He wrote home that he should remain there
till he received fresh orders from England, f

Fooled by the King of Spain, and repulsed with ill-
concealed contempt both by Ferdinand and the Bohemian
Directors, James must almost have begun to doubt the
wisdom of his interference, in concert with Philip, with
affairs the real bearing of which he had not given himself
the trouble to understand. But even if he could have
cast off for once his ingrained irresolution, events were
now hurrying on in Germany with too startling a
rapidity to give him time to decide upon his future course
of action.

Already the Electoral Diet had been opened at Frank-
fort. The three Ecclesiastical votes were, as a matter of Diet,
course, secured for Ferdinand. The Elector of Branden-
burg was ready to follow submissively in the wake of
the Elector Palatine. Frederick had a thousand schemes,
but he had never been able to decide which he was to
adopt. The only one of the Protestant Electors who came
forward with a definite policy, was the Elector of Saxony.
It was uncertain whether Ferdinand was legally entitled
to vote, as King of Bohemia, as long as he was not in
actual possession of the kingdom. John George, there-
fore, not unwisely directed his representative at the Diet

* Credentials and Instructions to W. Norry, July 9 ? Doncaster to
Naunton, August 7. Letters andJ)ocuments, 188.

t Doncaster to Naunton, August 7, 16. Letters and Documents,
188, 205.

288 ELECTIONS OF FERDINAND AND FREDERICK.

CH. IV. to refuse to take part in the election, till an attempt had
1619. been made to put an end to the war in Bohemia. Then,
August, and not till then, he would be ready to give his vote to
Ferdinand.*

As soon as Frederick heard of the Saxon proposition,
he sent Dohna to Dresden, to open communications with
the Elector. Nothing but the blindest obstinacy could
prevent him from accepting the hand thus offered to
him. By making common cause with John George, he
might have laid the foundations of a league which would
have changed the whole future of the Empire ; but 'Fre-
derick's perversity was beyond all calculation. Dohna
was instructed to revive the scheme of the candida-
ture of the Duke of Bavaria, which had long ago been
wrecked upon the absolute refusal of Maximilian. John
George, who knew perfectly well that Maximilian would
once more refuse to accept an advancement which would
be contrary both to his principles and his interests, re-
jected the overture with scorn ; said hard things in his
cups of the folly of Dohna' s master, and, in a fit of impa-
tience, sent orders to Frankfort to record his vote uncon-
Eiection of ditionally in favour of Ferdinand. | Accordingly, on the
Ferdinand, jg^ of August, Ferdinand was unanimously chosen Em-
peror, without a single guarantee for the future. Even
the representative of the Elector Palatine did not venture
to vote against him. The blunder which had been com-
mitted in Bohemia in 1617, was repeated at Frankfort, in
spite of the warning of the two years which were past.
Sosen"* Scarcely were the forms of the election completed,
King of when startling news arrived at Frankfort. On the 1 6th,
Bohemia, ^he Bohemian Estates, who had already solemnly decreed
the deposition of Ferdinand, had elected Frederick as
their king in his place.|

*• Miiller. Forschungen iii. 229.

t Miiller. Forschungen iii. 234. Voigt in Raumer's Historisches Taschen-
buch, 1853, 134.

t Miiller. Forschungen iii. 220. The deposition is sometimes justified on
the ground that Ferdinand was bound not to meddle with public affairs
during the lifetime of Matthias ; but a similar promise was given by Maxi-
milian II., who presided at a diet in his father's lifetime. It seems to have
been directed against a claim to actual Kingship, like that put forward by
the eldest son of our Henry II.

FREDERICK'S IRRESOLUTION. 289

Frederick was at Amberg when the news of his elec- CH. IV.
tion reached him. He had long been playing with the 1619.
idea that he might one day be king of Bohemia ; and his August,
ambassador, Baron Achatius Dohna, had been actively Hesitation
canvassing the electors in his favour. But he had never ^ck™
realised to himself the meaning of the words which he
used. His feeling was one of hopeless uncertainty. " I
never thought that they would have gone so far," he said,
when he first heard the bare news of his rival's deposi-
tion. " What shall I do if they choose me for their
king! " Irresolute himself, he looked on every side for
counsel. Of the Princes of the Union, three only — Prince
Christian of Anhalt, the Margrave of Anspach, and the
Margrave of Baden — recommended him to accept the
crown. His own councillors were almost unanimous in
dissuading him from giving ear to the seductive offer.
If his wife, with all the fervour of a young and high
spirited woman, and with all a woman's disregard of
consequences, urged him to listen to that which, in her
eyes, was the voice of honour and conscience, his mother,
with the prudence of years, warned him against the rash
and hazardous enterprise, for which neither his character
nor his resources fitted him. More significant still was
the opposition of Maurice of Hesse-Cassel. No bitterer
enemy of the House of Austria could be found in the
Empire. He would have been glad to join in a general
crusade against Ferdinand. But that Frederick, who
had a few days before raised no open objection to the
vote which had been tendered at Frankfort by his rival,
as King of Bohemia, should now seek to seat himself
upon his throne, appeared to him to be subversive of all
political morality.* And if it was intolerable to Maurice
that the great conflict against Eome should dwindle down
into a struggle for the aggrandizement of the Elector
Palatine, with what eyes would the Duke of Bavaria and
the Elector of Saxony be likely to regard the spectacle ?
Protestant as he was, John George would find it hard to
look calmly on, whilst Frederick, once his equal, was

lording it over the broad lands which, with scarcely an

*

* Menzel. Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen, vi. 339, Haiisser. Geschichte
der Rheinischen Pfak, ii. 306. Ranke. Zur Deutschen Geschichte, 264.
VOL. i. u

290 FREDERICK ACCEPTS THE CROWN.

CH. IV. interruption, stretched away from the banks of the Moselle
1619. to the western slopes of the Carpathians.
Sept. Maurice, in truth, had hit upon the decisive point of

Objectwus t]ie question. It is hard for us, amidst the changed

ceptauce! circumstances of European politics, to estimate at its full
worth the doctrine which at the commencement of the
seventeenth century inculcated the divine right of terri-
torial governments. We are apt to forget that in this
imperfect belief a protection was found for the time
against the anarchy which threatened to take the place
of the Imperial institutions. If every prince was to be
at liberty to take advantage of the rebellion of his neigh-
bour's subjects to enlarge his own dominions, men would
soon welcome Ferdinand and the Jesuits to rescue them
at any price from the turmoil and confusion which was
certain to ensue. If Frederick had wished to help the
Bohemians to maintain their independence, he might
have assisted them materially by keeping in check the
forces of the Duke of Bavaria, and by thus obtaining
for them a breathing-space in which to reorganize their
army. But, encircled as he was by jealous rivals and
lukewarm friends, his acceptance of the crown was the
greatest injury he could do to their cause.

He accepts Frederick knew not what to think. His weak and help-
wn' less mind found it impossible to weigh the value of the
prudential considerations which were set before him ;
and, in his despair of coming to a conclusion, he clutched
at the idea that by accepting the invitation of the Bohe-
mians he was following a Divine vocation. " I beg you
to believe,"* he wrote to the Duke of Bouillon, the friend
and guardian of his youth, " that this resolution does
not proceed from any ambitious desire to aggrandise my
House ; but that my only end is to serve God and his
Church. I can say with truth that, as you know, I have
not been eager for this, but that I have rather sought to
be content with the States which God has given me ;
und that I have tried to hinder this election rather than
to further it. It is this which gives me the greater

* The Elector Palatine to Bouillon, ^-f ' 1619. Ambassade Extraor-
dinaire de MM. les Due d'Angoulesme, Comte de Bethune, &c. (Paris,
1667,) 95.

DOHNA SENT TO ENGLAND. 291

assurance that it is a Divine call which I ought not to CH- IV-
neglect." And so, with his eyes blinded, and without a 1619.
thought that in those very considerations which he rejected Sept.
as worldly were to be found the surest indications of
Divine guidance, he plunged headlong into the darkness
which was before him. August.

Already, before his decision was made, Frederick had Dohna
despatched Christopher Dohna to England to ask for sent back
the advice of his father-in-law. As the ambassador
passed through the Hague, he received every encourage-
ment from the Prince of Orange. In the expectation of
a renewal of the war with Spain as soon as the truce
expired in 1621, the States had naturally been eager to
gain allies. They had sympathised heartily with the
Bohemians, and had granted them a considerable subsidy.
Maurice now asked Dohna whether Silesia and Moravia
had consented to Frederick's election ? Dohna assured
him that they had. " That is something," said Maurice ;
" but what does the Electress say ? " " She says," replied
the ambassador, " that she will sell her jewels to support
the war." Maurice laughed, and said, " That is not
enough." He could hardly have characterised more
correctly the resources of the Elector himself, than by the
words " That is not enough." Sept.

Dohna found James at Bag-shot. If ever there was a

. „ , . . . to -i . T-, T His inter-

Case for swift decision, it was this. Even now, a word view with

might have nipped the mischief in the bud. But James James-
found it impossible to decide. The first words which he
uttered in Dohna's presence, betrayed his irresoluteness
at once. " Do not expect," he said, " to return to Ger-
many in a hurry." It was in vain that Dohna urged the
importance of his advice as a reason for haste. ' Your
Majesty's son-in-law," he said, " has declared that he
will not determine upon his course till he can hear what
your opinion is." " I will consider of it," was the only
response that could be drawn from James.*

* Voigt in Ballmer's Historisches Taschenbuch, 1853, 141. Sanchez to
Philip III., Sept. i?- Letters and Documents, Ser. 'ii. 22. The King's
visit to Bagshot is not mentioned in Nichols' Progresses ; but there is a pro-
clamation dated there on the 2nd of September ; and a letter written from
thence by Buckingham (S. P. Holland) so. .the 4th, .

292 DOHNA'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND.

CH. IV. Downcast and disappointed, Dohna followed the Court
1619. to Windsor,* and finally to Wanstead. At last James
Sept. was so far moved by his entreaties as to promise to con-
The t suit his Council. On the 1 Oth of September, more than
opinion8 a week after Dohna's arrival, Naunton, by the King's
asked. directions, laid a full account of the past negotiations
before the Board, f in order to elicit from the Councillors
their opinion. Great expectations had been founded
on this meeting by all who wished well to the Bohe-
mian cause. A majority, it was said, would declare in
favour of supporting the Elector energetically. But
before the discussion was opened, news arrived that
derick's Frederick had made his choice. J The time was past
acceptance when their advice would be any longer of avail ; and all
known in that ^hey could do was to refer the whole matter back

London. •* , T_. ,

again to the King. James s reply was an order to come
down to Wanstead on the 12th, to hear what he had to
say upon the question.

"^e news nad keen brought to Dohna with a letter
which he was charged to deliver into the hands of the
King. By some mistake, it was written in German
instead of the usual French. As soon as he opened it,
James suspected it to be a forgery of the ambassador's,
concocted in the hope of bringing him to the point.
For some time he refused to speak to Dohna, and kept
him waiting in the garden whilst he was himself chatting
with the Spanish agent, and inveighing against the
heinousness of his son-in-law's offence. At last, the un-
lucky Dohna was sent for. James told him briefly that,
as his master had chosen to take his own counsel, he
must get out of his difficulties as best he could.

Qn the morning of the 12th the Council met. James
Council, would not allow a single word to be spoken on his
son-in-law's behalf. With his usual skill in discovering
expedients which would serve as an excuse for inaction,
he had come to the conclusion that the main question

* Dohna to Buckingham, Sept. 1. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 9.

• A brief of Naunton's relation, Sept. 10. Letters and Documents,
oer. 11. 13.

t Dohna, as quoted by Voigt, says the news arrived on the 12th ; but
tins must be from a slip of the, memory.

to be d

rni

ABBOT DECLARES FOR WAR. 293

to be decided was the legal validity of the election, CH.

There was no hurry, he said. The winter was approach- 1619.
ing. As soon as he could make up his mind as to the Sept.
justice of Frederick's cause, it would be time enough to
decide what to do. Seeing that some who were listening
showed signs of impatience at the announcement, he
ended by reminding the Council that it was for him, and
not for them, to decide upon peace or war.

On the 16th, Dohna took his leave. As he was going, Dohna
James told him that he expected him, as soon as it England,
was possible, to send him proofs of the legality of the
election. Unless he could convince him on this head,
his son-in-law must look for no assistance from England.
His subjects were as dear to him as his children, and he
had no mind to embroil them in an unjust and unne-
cessary war.*

On the very day, perhaps at the very hour, in which Abbot's

J J\ r . f J > letter to

James was announcing his intentions to the Council, the Naunton.
English war-party found a spokesman in Abbot. From
a sick-bed, which made his attendance at Wan stead
impossible, the Archbishop addressed a letter to Naunton.
His humble advice, he wrote, was, that there should be
no hanging back. The cause was a just one. He was
glad that the Bohemians had rejected that proud and
bloody man. It was God who had set up the Elector in
his stead to propagate the Gospel and to protect the
oppressed. The kings of the earth were about to tear
the whore, and to make her desolate, as had been fore-
told in the Eevelations. He trusted, therefore, that the
cause would be seriously taken up, that the world might
see that they were awake to the call of God. As for the
means, God would supply them. The Parliament was
the old and honourable way. It would seem that God
had provided the jewels left by the late Queen, that they
might be used for her daughter's preservation.!

It was not a wise letter. And yet so miserably had

* Voigt, in Eaumer's Historisches Taschenbuch, 1853, 144. to —

Sept. 16, 17. Court and Times, ii. 187. Harwood to Carleton, Sept, 14.
Herbert to Carleton, Sept. 16. Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 2. 8. P. Dom.
ex. 59, 83, 94. Herbert's letter is erroneously calendared under the date of
Sept. 26.

t Abbot to Naunton, Sept. 12. Cabala, 102.

294 ANARCHY IN BOHEMIA.

CH- IV- everything been mismanaged by the King, that it might
K'i9. well seem to an honest man to be better to be wrong
Sept. with Abbot than to be right with James. In the Arch-
bishop's policy there was gross ignorance of the forces
and the designs of the Continental powers. J3ut there
was that generosity of feeling, and sympathy with the
oppressed, without which no successful statesmanship is
possible. It was James's misfortune, and his fault, that
he never knew how to place his actions, even when they
were right, upon the broad ground of principle. How
could he expect to carry the nation with him, if all that
he could find to say about Abbot's crusade was, that
before he could decide whether he was to engage in it
or not, he must devote some months to the study of the
niceties of Bohemian constitutional law ?

Condition In ^ac^> the Bohemian cause was already lost. No

of Bohe- Ziska had arisen, as in days of old, to touch the popular
heart. The poor had little sympathy with what they
regarded as the quarrel of the nobility. There was no
general uprising of the. nation from beneath, no organi-
zation from above. Everywhere there was weakness
and disunion. Generals were at variance with one an-
other, whilst their troops were unprovided with food and
munition. In spite of their superiority of numbers and
position, in spite of their friendly relations with the
aristocracy of Hungary and Austria, the Directors saw
that the whole plan of their campaign had hopelessly
broken down. They had offered the crown to Frederick,
not because they saw in him the man who could organize
the nation, far less because there was any attraction
between the Slavonians of Bohemia and the Germans
of the Valley of the Ehine ; but simply because he had
good friends, — because he was the son-in-law of the King
of England, the nephew of the Prince of Orange, and
the head of the Union, — because, in short, they hoped
that he would be able to induce foreign nations to do
that for them which they had deplorably failed in doing
October. for themselves.

Frederick . Frederick's acceptance of the crown thus offered to

Heldei- him had been tlie result> not of wise consideration, but
berg.6 °f the sudden resolution of a weak mind weary of its

FREDERICK AT NUREMBERG.

295

own indecision. Uncertain and perplexed, he set out CH- IV-
from Heidelberg amidst the sobs and tears of his sub- 1619:
jects. " He is carrying the Palatinate into Bohemia," October,
were the words which rose to his mother's lips as she
saw him passing through the gate of the proud castle
which had been the home of his childhood. For a time
indeed, amidst the pomp of his coronation at Prague, he
forgot his anxiety. Elizabeth was by his side, sprightly
and hopeful as ever, and in her presence despondency
was as yet impossible. Scarcely, however, was he seated
upon his new throne, when he discovered how little he
was able to fulfil the hopes of those by whom he had November,
been chosen. He hurried to Nuremberg to meet that
assembly which, if he had listened to the advice of
Maurice of Hesse-Cassel, would have been filled with
the representatives of the princes and states of all Pro- berg>
testant Germany. A glance round the hall of meeting,
as he entered it, must have told him how completely he '
had lost the sympathy of his countrymen. From the
Lutheran north scarcely a face was to be seen. The
Calvinists of the south, it is true, still gathered round
him. But no sooner did he ask for their aid in the
coming campaign in Bohemia, than they intimated pretty
plainly that they had no intention of drawing the sword
in such a quarrel. They would defend the territory of
the Union, including the Palatinate, but they would do
nothing more. Disappointed and disheartened, Frederick
returned to Prague to look on helplessly at the mis-
management which he was unable to correct ; to waste
in banquets and festivities the money that was sorely
needed for the war ; and to offend his Catholic and
Lutheran subjects by destroying, with every mark of
contumely, the images in the cathedral of Prague, which,
from its situation in the midst of the Hradschin, he
chose to regard as his own private chapel.

Not for a moment did Frederick's narrow intellect
grasp the vast proportions of the work to which he
had put his hand. To reduce the seething caldron of
.Bohemian 'jealousies and passions by the exercise of a
firm and orderly government ; to find pay and provisions
for the army, and stern discipline for the commanders,

296 THE WINTER-KING.

CH. IV. was but the least part of his undertaking. He had

1619. broken up the foundations upon which law and order

November, had hitherto rested alike in Bohemia and in the Empire,

and it was his imperative duty to re-establish them upon

a sounder basis. Such deeds fcas his are indeed only to be

justified by that nobler success which alone is permanent,

because it does not base itself upon the flaunting glories

of military power, but has its roots planted in the courage

and wisdom by which the world is attracted and overawed.

The confidence which was lost to Frederick had passed

of°thfiedencc over to tne Catholics. They felt instinctively that their

Catholics, enemy was playing their game. They saw that the

assistance which Frederick might have given to the

Bohemians, if he had firmly resisted all temptation to

aggrandise himself, it was no longer in his power to

give. They saw that he had placed his own cause in

the worst possible light, and that the attachment of all

but the most thorough-going partizans had been sensibly

cooled towards him. The old Pope perceived at a glance

that Frederick had squandered away his last chance.

" That prince," he said, when he heard the news of his

acceptance of the crown, "has thrown himself into a

fine labyrinth." " He will only be a winter-king,"* said

the Jesuits. " When the summer comes he will be

Sept. driven from the field."

The Duke ^e leaders of the Catholic party in Germany had not
of Bavaria, been idle. As soon as he could decently leave Frank-
fort after his coronation, Ferdinand had hurried to
Munich to consult his kinsman, the politic Maximilian.
In many respects the two cousins resembled one another
closely. Like Ferdinand, Maximilian was a man of deep
and sincere piety. His temperate and abstemious life
was the admiration of his panegyrists. But, unlike Fer-
dinand, he had the statesman's capacity for holding the
thread of complicated affairs in the grasp of a strong

* Carleton to Chamberlain, Jan. 3, 1620. 8. P. Holland. The epithet,
" winter-king," as applied "by historians to Frederick, is ridiculous, as he
reigned through the summer of 1620. French writers, to escape the absur-
dity, call him " roi de neige," implying simply that his reign was short.
The fact is, that the term was used as a prediction, like Charles Townshend's
name of " the lutestring administration," applied to the first Rockingham
ministry.

MAXIMILIAN OF BAVARIA. 297

intellect. He knew not only what lie wanted, but what CH- IV-
were the precise steps by which it was to be obtained.
He was never in a hurry ; but when the time for action
came, it was certain to be found that everything had
been done that human ingenuity could devise to secure
success. As one of his political opponents expressed it,
whatever he did " had hands and feet." *

But if he was intellectually the superior of Ferdinand,
Maximilian was morally his inferior. The victory of the
Catholic cause was more distinctly present to his mind as
the means of his own aggrandisement. He had no idea
of being a disinterested champion of the Church. He
had long had his eye upon Frederick's straggling pro-
vinces, and he knew that the Upper Palatinate would
serve to round off his own dominions. He would have
shrunk from an aggressive war for the purposes of con-
quest ; for it was a necessity of his nature to veil his
ambition under the name of justice. But if the annexa-
tion could be effected in a regular and orderly way, he
would take care that no earthly consideration should
baulk him of his prey.

He had long been preparing for the storm. His people
were happy and contented under his rule. He had the
best filled treasury and the best appointed army in Ger-
many. The general at the head of his forces, the Walloon
Tilly, was one of the ablest commanders in Europe. It
was evident that, if the long-expected war broke out at
last, Maximilian, and not Ferdinand, would be the pre-
siding genius of the Catholic party.

Maximilian had up to this point steadily refused to
give any assistance to Ferdinand ; for he knew that, if Jjjf £
the Protestants had only been wise enough to act with Munich,
common prudence, no assistance which he could bring
would be of any avail. But with silent heedfulness he
had observed them making one blunder after another,
and he now saw that, after infinite hesitations, his rival
had at last rushed upon his ruin. It remained for him to
make his own terms. He had no intention of chivalrously
devoting himself to the salvation of the Empire or the
Church. In Ferdinand he saw an Archduke of Austria

* Memoir by Freybeig. Breyer. Geschichte des ZQjahrigen Kriegs, 100.

298 FERDINAND AND MAXIMILIAN.

CH- IV- supplicating a Duke of Bavaria for aid. That aid he was
1619. ready to afford, but he would take care to exact the full
Sept. price for his services. His expenses must be paid, and
till Ferdinand could raise the money, whatever territory
might be wrested from the rebels in the Archduchy of
Austria by the Bavarian troops, was to remain in his
hands as a pledge for the fulfilment of the contract.*
The secret If Maximilian had stopped here it would have been
compact. well both for himself and for his country. But he was
determined only to use the hold which he hoped to
acquire upon Austria to help forward his ambitious pro-
jects in another quarter. The Palatine House must be
utterly ruined. The electoral dignity must be transferred
from Frederick to himself. Frederick's dominions in
whole, or in part, must be annexed to Bavaria. At this
price he would be willing to relinquish his mortgage
upon Austria.

To these terms Ferdinand consented.")' There was
nothing to shock him in the proposal. Frederick had
chosen to appeal to the sword, and he must take the
consequences. The extension of the Bavarian dominions
to the Ehine, and the transfer of an electorate from a
Protestant to a Catholic prince, would be welcome to
him, not merely as opening a prospect of freeing his own
dominions from invasion, but as a change good in itself.
Order would be maintained in the Empire, and a firm
barrier would be interposed against any future attack
upon the ecclesiastical states.

If the Protestant populations of the Palatinate were to

aSnst*** ^e ^ircly disregarded, and if there had been nothing in
Frederick, question beyond the merits and demerits of Frederick
himself, there would have been little to say against the
compact thus formed. If a federal Government is to
exist at all, its first duty is to prohibit all internal war-
fare between the members of the confederation. It is
childish to argue that Ferdinand was precluded from

* Agreement between Ferdinand and Maximilian, Sept 28, 1619. Breyer.

n 'i "• Oct. 8

Beilage, 111.

t Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, J^-^J 1620. Letters and Docu-
ments, Ser. ii. 154. Breyer. Beilage, vii. viii. ix. x.

IMPENDING MISERY. 299

using his authority because he happened to be himself (<il IV-
the prince who had been wronged. What was right loin.
for him to do in defence of the Elector of Saxony or of Sept.
the Elector of Brandenburg was right to be done in
defence of the King of Bohemia. Unless men were pre-
pared to say that the imperial institutions were to be
practically abolished, they could hardly, with any de-
gree of fairness, claim for Frederick immunity from the
consequences of his aggression.

But if Frederick could not justly complain of the The Pro-
Munich compact, it was a terrible blow to his Protes- ^^L
tant subjects. Of them and of their rights it took no tions-
account whatever. That religious liberty was anything
more than another name for insubordination, Ferdinand
was never able to conceive. For him, as for all others,
the good and the evil was to bear each its own fruit.
By his resolution to restrain the turbulence of Frederick,
he laid the foundation of the victory of Prague. By his
contempt for those rights of conscience, which could not
place themselves under a technically legal guarantee, he
was signing the death warrant of the imperial authority.

The Thirty Years' War was not, as Protestant writers character
delight to affirm, simply the resistance of an oppressed Thirty
people to the forcible reimposition of Catholicism. Neither Years'
was it, as Catholic historians assert, the defence of legi-
timate order against violence and fraud. It was a mortal
struggle between anarchy and despotism. November.

So strong was the general feeling in favour of a com- The de-
promise, which, leaving Bohemia in the hands of Ferdi-
nand would also leave the Palatinate in the hands of
Frederick, that neither Ferdinand nor Maximilian ven-
tured to give publicity to the agreement by which they
hoped to secure the permanent supremacy of their party
in the Empire. Maximilian at once set about the task
which he had undertaken. He dismissed Ferdinand to
Vienna. The presence of the Emperor was sadly needed.
Under Bethlen Gabor, the Prince of Transylvania, the
Hungarians had risen in insurrection, and 25,000 men
of the combined forces of Hungary and Bohemia were
sweeping round the walls. But in that vast host there
was not a single head capable of planning anything more

300 MAXIMILIAN'S PLANS.

CH- IV- intricate than a foraging raid or a cavalry skirmish, and
1619. in a few weeks the armies had melted away, leaving

November, nothing behind them but the smoking ruins and devas-
tated fields by which they marked their track. Before
the end of January, Bethlen Gabor signed a truce, which
guaranteed Ferdinand's eastern frontier from attack till

December. Michaelmas.

Recon- The task of throwing himself into the beleaguered city

struction had been assigned to Ferdinand. The higher duties of
League. statesmanship Maximilian reserved for himself. Early
in December he summoned a meeting of the Catholic
League. His advances were met with cordiality, and
his plans for the reconstruction of the alliance were at
once adopted. A force of 25,000 men, to be placed
under his orders, was voted without difficulty.
Ne otia_ The reconstruction of the League was the smallest part
tionswith of Maximilian's labours. During the whole winter he
of Saxony* was engage(l in angling for the neutrality, if not for the
active co-operation, of the Elector of Saxony. John
George was easily entangled. To the dangers which
would ensue upon a Catholic victory he was altogether
blind. To the dangers to himself and his religion, from
the advancement of a Calvinist prince, he was quick-
sighted enough. The voice of the Lutheran clergy sum-
moned him to arm, lest the Antichrist of Eome should
only be dethroned to make way for the worse Antichrist
of Geneva.*

and with If, as seemed not unlikely, John George should accept

Spain. the advances of Maximilian, Frederick's position would

be almost hopeless. But the politic Bavarian was not

satisfied. To convert the probability of success into a

certainty, he applied to the Court of Madrid.

Policy of The policy of the Spanish Government was very much

Spain. the same as it had been ever since the outbreak at Prague.

As a matter of abstract opinion, the ministers of Philip

^ would have been delighted to see Protestantism swept

\ away from the whole of Europe ; but tKey knew their

[^ own weakness, and they dreaded a long and expensive

war. They had readily sent assistance to Ferdinand for

* Miiller. Forschungen, iii. 296—378. Breyer, 263—337.

GONDOMAR SENT BACK TO ENGLAND. 301

his campaign in Bohemia. But at the same time they CH- IV-
had done their utmost to maintain peace in the west of 1619.
Europe. They were especially anxious to retain the November,
friendship of the King of England, and had even at
last consented to the signature of a treaty for a joint
attack upon the pirates, which would open the passage
of the Straits of Gibraltar to their dreaded allies.* The
news of Frederick's election filled them with additional
apprehension. Too far from the centres of German
opinion to know that the new king had ruined himself
by the step which he had taken, they imagined that it
was the preconcerted signal for a general assault upon all
Catholic governments. Against such an attack they were
determined to put forth their utmost strength ; yet it
was with no hopeful feeling that they prepared for the
struggle. When at last, on the 21st of November,t

, . • T-I i -i -i Gondomar

(jrondomar set out to return to his post in England, he sets out for
was filled with the most gloomy anticipations. He had En8land-
served his master, he said, for six -and -thirty years,
without putting a ducat into his purse, or adding a stone
to the house which had been bequeathed him by his
ancestors. Now that the time of difficulty had come,
he would not shrink from doing his duty ; but he had no
hope of being able to preserve peace with England. The
religion of James consisted in a warm attachment to his
own interests. He was always to be found on the
strongest side, and, as the world was going now, he
would not be found on the side of Spain. J

Whatever may have been the value of Gondomar's Doncaster
predictions, he was certainly justified in the contempt congratu-
which he expressed for the character of James. At this late the
crisis of European history, one absorbing thought had
taken possession of the mind of the King of England.
Whilst all others were occupied in forecasting the future,
he had no time to spare for such trivial subjects as the
preservation of the German Protestants, or the main-

*' Consulta of the Commissioners, April ^- Instructions to Gondomar,
Srf' Simancas MSS. Est. 2850, 2572. Treaty. Undated. S.P.Spain.
t Cottington to Naunton, Dec. 31. S. P. Spain.
J Gondomar to Ciriza, Nov. -^ Simanais MSS. Est. 2599.

302 WARLIKE PREPARATIONS.

CH. IV. tenance of the independence of the Palatinate. He had
1619. been seized with horror lest he should be thought capable
SePt- of complicity in his son-in-law's aggression ; and till his
honour, as he called it, was cleared, he could think of
nothing else. At every Court in Europe, the English
Ambassador was obliged to make himself ridiculous by
vehement protests of his master's innocence. Cottington
was to give himself no rest till he had convinced the
incredulous Spaniards.* Doncaster, sorely against his
will, was to hurry back across half a continent to con-
gratulate Ferdinand on his election, and to add a cha-
racteristic request, that if his master's mediation were
still acceptable, time might be allowed him to study the
laws and constitutions of Bohemia.!

It was not likely that events would take the leisurely
course which James desired to impress upon them. Even
in the * before Dohna left England, news arrived which would
lands!1 nave convinced anyone but James that there were new
complications to be dreaded, for which he would find
no remedy in the Bohemian law-books. Ten thousand
troops had been rapidly collected from the garrisons of
the Spanish Netherlands, and it was said that they were
ordered to rendezvous at Maestricht. Eumour affirmed
that either immediately, or in the following summer, the
Palatinate would be attacked.

The Dutch were the first to take alarm. They at once
gave orders to an equal number of their own troops to
occupy a position as a corps of observation on the right
-bank of the Rhine, J and they directed their_ ambassad or,
Caron, to press James to take up_arms in defencejrf his
ftnn-jp-1fl.w frnr| his i^jgi^n K For the moment,Tiowever,
"the storm blew over/The Spanish troops, it soon ap-
peared, were directed againt the citizens of Brussels, who
had hesitated to comply with a demand for increased
taxation.

to Cottington, Sept. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 59.
f Instructions sent to Doncaster by Nethersole. Letters and Documents.
Ser. ii. 57. -

J Carleton to Naunton, Sept 12. Carleton Letters, 388.

§ The States General to the King, Sept. £ Letters and Documents,
Ser. ii. 19.

HESITATION OF JAMES. 303

The danger was postponed, but it was not averted. CH-

On the grave questions of public law and of public con- 1619.
venience, which had been evoked by the mere rumour of Sept.
a Spanish invasion of the Palatinate, James was as hesi- James's
jating asJeveT. He asked Qaiun Lu thaiiL the~States
General for the promptness of their measures. As for
himself, he could do nothing. He had no troops to
dispose of. The winter was at hand, and would give
him plenty of time for consultation. He had published
to the world, in his books, his opinion about rebellion ;
and it would be most disreputable if he were to act in
opposition to it now. Still, he could not desert his
_children._ When Dohna returned, he might be able to
find grounds for an honourable resolution in the argu-
ments which he had been ordered to bring back from
Prague.* In like manner, Doncaster was ordered to visit
the Hague on his return from his mission, and to inform
the States that, till his master's honour was cleared from
the imputation of complicity with his son-in-law, it
would be impossible for him to decide upon his future
course, f The same tone pervaded the instructions which
were given in January to Sir Walter Aston, the new
English Ambassador at Madrid.J

Great^was the dissatisfaction in England at the course
which Jamea was taking] Partly from love of excite- England"
ment and adventure, partly from genuine sympathy with
German Protestantism, the whole Court, with scarcely an
exception, was^ eager. f Qrjarat. The old enemies of Spain
saw them selves "reinforced by the giddy Buckingham, and
by the Prince of Wales himself, who, silent and reserved
as he usually was, did not hesitate to declare himself
openly on his sister's side.§ In the cry for war they had
the hearty support of the great body of the clergy, who,
in matters- which lay upon the ill-defined border-ground

* Caron to the States General, - Add. MSS. 17,677, I. Fol.

446.

t Instructions to Doncaster, Sept. 23. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii.
39.

£ Instructions to Sir W. Aston, Jan. 5. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii.
119.

§ Lando to the Doge, Jan. ^- Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 146.

304 THE WAR-PAETY IN ENGLAND.

CH. IV. between politics and religion, had all the influence of the
1619. modem newspapers. It was especially a subject of com-
Sept. plaint that they were not allowed to pray for Frederick
under the title of King of Bohemia. " James," the
Prince of Orange was reported to have said, " was a
strange father ; he would neither fight for his children
nor" pray for them." 'And "the words were eagerly re-
peated in England with scarcely concealed bitterness.*
James It would indeed ha ve been disastrous' jtoJEngland if

and his James_had_given the reins to the generous feelings of his
subjects. It would have been madness to waste the
energies of the country in an attempt to prop up the
tottering throne which, in all Protestant Germany, could
scarcely number a single hearty supporter beyond the
limits of the Court of Heidelberg. But it was not enough
to be right in his resistance to the popular feeling, unless
he could lead that feeling into worthier channels. A
statesman, who could have discerned the limit which
separates the possible from the impossible, and who could
have spoken wisely and firmly in the name of England
to the enraged disputants, would soon have regained the
confidence which he had lost by opposition to Quixotic
enterprises. But when men looked at James and saw
that he was pottering over Bohemian antiquities, and
that, in the midst of the absorbing occupation of clearing
his own reputation, he was altogether forgetful of the
desolation with which Europe was threatened, it was
impossible for them to give him credit even for what
little wisdom he had.

The Medi- A curious piece of evidence has reached us, by which
the1 Lord's hght is thrown upon James's state of mind at the most
Prayer. important crisis in his life. A year before, he had written
and printed t a little book entitled, " Meditations upon the
Lord's Prayer." It was a strange farrago of pious obser-
vations and of shrewd onslaughts upon his enemies the
Puritans, mingled with reminiscences of the hunting-
field. The whole work is conspicuously that of a man

* Hall to Carleton, Sept. 22, 1619. 8. P. Dom. cix. 71. Nethersole to
Carleton, Jan. 8, 1620. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 132.

f Early in 1619. Compare the preface with a letter from the Countess of
Buckingham to her son in Goodman's Court of James, ii. 183.

PROJECTED INVASION OF THE PALATINATE. 305

whose buoyant spirits have never known trouble. And CH. IV.
now, after the lapse of a year, he was writing another 1620.
meditation upon the verses in St. Matthew's gospel, in TheMedi-
which is narrated the mock coronation of the Saviour with ^l* crown
the crown of thorns. This, he tells his son in the dedi- of thorns,
cation, is the et pattern of a king's inauguration." The
whole book is pervaded by a tone of melancholy. The
hunting stories are gone. The jokes about the Puritans
are almost entirely absent. The crown of thorns, he says,
is the pattern of the crown which kings are called upon
to wear. Their heads are surrounded with anxious and
intricate* cares. They must therefore, he adds, with a
return of his old self-confidence, " exercise their wisdom
in handling so wisely these knotty difficulties with so
great a moderation, that too great extremity in one kind
may not prove hurtful in another ; but, by a musical
skill, temper and turn all these discords into a sweet
harmony."

James's prospect of harmony was still a distant one.
A diversion upon the Palatinate, by a Spanish force,
occupied a large place in the Duke of Bavaria's plan for signs upon
the ensuing campaign. Such a diversion would, no JJj^*1**1"
doubt, weaken Frederick's chances of defending Bohemia.
But to Maximilian it was chiefly valuable as facilitating
the projected aggrandisement of his own dominions.

The plan was eagerly adopted by Ferdinand, * and
found a warm supporter in the Archduke Albert, who
replied to a hesitating suggestion of Philip'sf by a recom-
mendation to send thirty-five thousand men across the
Ehine in the following spring.^

The reception of the Archduke's letter at Madrid was Discussion
by no means what Maximilian would have desired. The |JnJJ*drid
Spanish ministers had not ceased to dread the cost and proposed
danger of a general European war. In the Council of l
State opinions were freely expressed upon the Archduke's
motives. Of course, it was said, the war was popular ;it
Brussels. The stream of gold which would flow through

* Breyer, 339.

t Philip III. to the Archduke Albert. ^-^. Letters aiul LOCUM™ t«.
Ser. ii. 86.
t The Archduke Albert to Philip III. ^J~. Brussels MSS.

VOL. T. X

306 ALIAGA AND KHEVENHUELLER.

CH. IV. the hands of the officials there would be welcome enough.
1619. But the King of Spain must look at the question from a
November, different point of view. *

Opposition These sentiments derived great weight from the oppo-
sition of the King's Confessor Aliaga, who since Lerma's
fall, had become the most influential personage in Spain.
The same good sense which had led him to oppose the
attempt to overthrow English Protestantism by the aid of
a Spanish Infanta, led him to look with dissatisfaction
upon a scheme which would leave Spain in a hopeless
entanglement with the disputes of Germany. Kheven-
htiller, the Imperial Ambassador, had tried argument in
vain. He at last resorted to menace. " If the Palatinate
is not invaded," he said, " the Emperor will make common
cause with his enemies, and will attack the outlying
territories of Spain." " Such language," said Aliaga,
" may cost you your life." " For the sake of the truth
and the House of Austria," was Khevenh tiller's magni-
loquent answer, " I would gladly die. I should then be
better off than you, for I should be in eternal glory,
whilst the deepest place in hell, deeper than that ap-
pointed for Luther and Calvin, is prepared for you."f
wa With the poor bigot who occupied the throne of
Charles V., such words had more effect than with the
patriotic priest whose first thought was of his country.
Frightened at the idea of passing at his death into the
company of Luther and Calvin, Philip at once gave direc-
tions that a favourable consideration should be given to
Maximilian's overtures, and before the end of January,
iary> he wrote to the Archduke in approval of the dismem-
berment of the Palatinate, and of the transference of the
Electorate, either to the Duke of Bavaria, or to the Duke
of Neuburg, who laid claim to it as the next of kin after
Frederick's immediate relations.:):

The details of these deliberations were veiled in pro-
mission. * Consulta of the Council of State. £?IiB 1619. Simancas MSS. Est.
712.

t Khevenhiiller, ix. 702. The date is not given, but judging from the
change ot tone m Philip's letters, it is probable that the conversation took
place about the end of December.

I Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, ^|, 1620. Letters and Docu-
ments. Ser. ii. 156.

BUWINCKHAUSEN IN ENGLAND. 307

found secresy. But it was notorious that negotiations CH. IV.
were in progress of which Maximilian kept the key, 1620.
and the movement of troops in the Low Countries had January,
excited serious apprehension in Germany. The princes of
the Union knew that an attack upon the Palatinate would
be a crushing blow to themselves, and in January they
resolved upon sending an ambassador to London and
the Hague, to demand the succour to which they were
entitled by the existing league, as soon as they could
show that their territories were exposed to unprovoked
attack.*

The ambassador thus despatched was Buwinckhausen, February,
a councillor of the Duke of Wirtemberg. He had no Hisrecep-
reason to complain of his reception in Holland. The Holland.
Dutch had regularly remitted to Bohemia a contribution
of 50,000 florins a month. They now promised to give
a similar subsidy to the princes of the Union, and
declared that, if necessity for further aid should arise,
they would send four thousand men to their assistance.")"

On the 21st of February, Buwinckhausen arrived in His^amvai
London. J No mission of equal importance had ever been
received by James. The demand which the ambassador
was directed to make may well have appeared at first
sight unreasonable ; it was hard that Englishmen should
be called upon to shed their blood in defence of a
territory which was only endangered by the senseless
folly of its own rulers. But to inflict penalties for past
errors is no part of a statesman's work. His duty is to
frame his measures so as to produce the greatest possible
amount of good, at the expense of the least possible
amount of evil.

It was undeniable that the occupation of the Palatinate
by a Spanish force would be an evil of no ordinary mag- defence
nitude. Heidelberg was the key of the Protestant posi-
tion in the empire. The victory, of Ferdinand in Bohemia
would be a local success, and it would be nothing more.
His victory on the Ehine would carry with it the dis-
solution of the Union, and the dissolution of the Union

* Trumbull to Carleton. Feb. 5. Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 161.
t Carleton to Naunton. Feb. 17. Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 169.

J Lando to the Doge. ^-j*.- Venice MSS- DesP- InSh-

x 2

308 JAMES INQUIRES INTO FREDERICKS TITLE.

OH, rv^ would be followed by a struggle for the resumption of the

i«2o. secularised domains, and for the re-establishment of the

February. Imperial authority over the whole of Germany. A blow

would have been struck, of which every Protestant state

in Europe would feel the consequences.

Nor was it likely that the sacrifices which the defence
of the Palatinate would demand of James would be in any
degree disproportionate to the results. If the Spaniards
could be assured that war with England and Holland
would be the consequence of an invasion, the military
reasons for the proposed diversion would be at an end.
It is evident that without the prospect of the neutrality
of England, the Spanish Government would have turned
a deaf ear to Maximilian's entreaties, and that they would
have refused to light up the flames of a continental war
merely to satisfy the Duke of Bavaria's ambition. When
the struggle in Bohemia was at last brought to a close,
James would have been on the way to realise the great
object of his life. He would fairly have earned the honour-
able title of the peacemaker. The sympathies of Northern
Germany which had been estranged by Frederick's accept-
ance of the Bohemian crown would be regained, when
the only question at issue was the defence of the Protes-
tant populations of the Palatinate from Catholic aggres-
sion. The settlement of the peace of Westphalia might have
been anticipated by more than a quarter of a century.

Such statesmanship was not to be found in James,
vestf Sates ^° ^™ *^e meres^ personal questions were all in all. In the
Fre-18 midst of the convulsions by which Europe was shaken to
title*' * *ts cen^re> fte fixed his eyes upon two points alone ; on
the fact that Frederick was his_ son-in-law, and on the
fact that Frederick wgg_an usurper. When he thought
of one of these facts, hlTpersuaded himself that he ought
to do something. When he thought of the other, he per-
suaded himself that he ought to do nothing.

James had now for some weeks been busily engaged in
an investigation of Frederick's title. Early in January,
Doncaster had returned to England, eager to embark his
master in a crusade against the Catholic powers. At the
same time Dohna's brother, Achatius, had arrived to per-
form the duties of ambassador from the new King of

THE LOAN FOR BOHEMIA. 309

Bohemia, and had brought with him documents by which CH- IV-
he hoped to make good his masters claims.* n;2<>.

Donna's arguments, however, were not left without an January.
answer. Gondomar's confessor, Lafuente, who had been
left behind in England to assist the Spanish agent in
all matters requiring the help of an ecclesiastic, plied
the King with reasonings on the other side. James was
sadly perplexed. All he wanted, he said, was to learn
the truth. He was in great strait. Affection for his
own flesh and blood urged him in one direction ; justice
and his friendship for the House of Austria urged him in
the other. I

At last, after two or three weeks' consideration, James February.
announced that he had convinced himself of the ground-
lessness of Ferdinand's claim to~reign^1n" '" Boh p/ryji aT"T>y"
But he had still toconsider whether

the deposition of a king, once elected, was valid by the
constitution of Bohemia. Buckingham and Doncaster
were delighted at the progress which had been made, and
Dohna, in order to strike while the iron was hot, told
James that he was authorised to raise a loan of £100,000 Proposed
in the City, and asked him to assist him with his recom- Bohemia.
mendation. The request was met by a refusal. It was
equally in vain that Buckingham asked permission to
visit the Aldermen, and at least to hint that His Majesty
would not be displeased if they opened their purses to his
son-in-law. Dohna was therefore compelled to go in his
own name, and was told, that without the King's permis-
sion the loan could not be raised.^

Equally hesitating was James's treatment of Sir Andrew Gray asks
Gray, a Scotch officer in the Bohemian service, who came ^^°
to ask leave to levy a regiment for his master, the ex- troops.
penses of which were intended to be met out of the City
loan. Together with his credentials, § he placed in the
King's hands a letter from his little grandchild, in which

* Lando to the Doge, Jan. 1, ^. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

t Edinondes to Carleton. Jan. 25. S. P. Dom. cxii. 35. Lafuente to
Philip III. Feb. ~. Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 157.

J Nethersole to Carleton. Feb. 20. Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 176.

§ Frederick to the King. Jan. 16. Elizabeth to the King. Jan. 17.
Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 142, 144.

310 CONCESSIONS TO BUWINCKHAUSEN.

the boy had been taught to appeal in piteous terms for help-
For a moment James was deeply moved. But he could
not be induced to give any positive reply to Gray.*
Something however, he said, should be done. He would
order Trumbull, his agent at Brussels, to send in a pro-
test to the Archduke, as soon as it appeared clearly
that Spinola's army was .directed against the Palatinate.
To this order Trumbull respectfully replied, that by
the time that he had learned positively in what direc-
tion the army was marching, it would be too late to
interfere.!

Such was the position of affairs when Buwinckhausen
reception, arrived. He soon found that his very presence irritated
James. The King met him with a torrent of abuse ; he
would scarcely suffer him to speak, and he kept him
waiting for his answer more than a fortnight. He then
told him that the present danger of the princes was the
result of the aggression upon Bohemia, and that he was
not bound to furnish any assistance whatever.;}:
March. In a few days, however, James's language assumed a
more favourable tone. Gray received permission to levy
a thousand men in England, and a similar force in Scot-
land^ Sir Eobert Anstruther was ordered to get ready
to go to the King of Denmark, to borrow a large sum of
money; and this money was to be placed at Frederick's
disposal, upon condition that it should be employed
in the defence of the Palatinate. || At the same time,
James announced that he intended to co-operate with
the French in an attempt to put an end to the war in
Germany.^

It was, it would seem, in part at least, to Digby's advice
that these resolutions were owing, and we shall hardly

* S&lvetti'aNews-Letter. Feb. -, Feb' 25.

, _ -in ^° March 6 *

Irumbull to Naunton. Feb. 26. Letters and Documents. Ser. ii. 185.
J Chamberlain to Carleton. Feb. 26. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 104. Salvetti's
News-Letter. March ^. Trumbull to Carleton. March 7. Letters and Do-
cuments. Ser. ii. 188. Lando to the Doge. March ^ Venice MSS. L>esp.
Ingh.

§ Chamberlain to Carleton. March 11. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 18.
Nethersole to Carleton. March 10. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 33.
Naunton to Carleton. March 10. S. P. Holland.

ANXIETY OF PHILIP. 311

be wrong in attributing to him the whole of a plan which CH- IV-
would have held out the olive branch to Spain, but which 1620.
would have taken care that it should be known that the
olive branch concealed the sword.*

It is usually to little purpose to speculate on the result Philip's
of events which might have happened, but there is evi-
dence in a letter written about this time by the King of
Spain to the Archduke Albert, which can hardly leave a
doubt in any candid mind that a little firmness pn_James>s
part_would have saveTTthirPalatmate from invasion. " It
is thought," wrote Philip, "that the invasion of the Pala-
tinate will give the English a fair pretext for openly inter-
fering in Germany, and for sending all their forces to the
assistance of the Dutch. They will take the ground that
it is one thing to assist their king's son-in-law in his
attempt to seize the property of others, and another thing
to protect him from the loss of his own patrimony. You
will thus be attacked by the combined forces of England
and Holland, and then, if we are to take part in the Bo-
hemian war, we shall be at the expense of maintaining
two armies, and we shall have to fight with England,
though a war with that power has always been held

* In the following August Nethersole, in giving an account of his recep-
tion by Frederick and Elizabeth, stated that he had delivered a letter from
Digby, and had said that the King, his master, " Having found my Lord
Digby mistaken by some of his own people at home by occasion of his being
by him employed in the affairs with Spain, and having thereupon conceived
a jealousy that the same noble lord might be also misrepresented hither to
their Majesties, had in that respect given me a particular commandment to
assure His Majesty that he had no more nor more truly affectionate servant
in England ; and for proof thereof to let His Majesty understand that,
whereas the Baron Dohna had, since his coming thither, obtained but three
general points for His Majesty's service ; to wit, the loan of money from the
King of Denmark, the contributions in England of the city and country,
and the sending of ambassadors to the contrary parts, that the Lord Digby
had been the first propounder of all this to the King, my master, before his
Majesty's ambassador or any other of his servants in England, although his
lordship had been contented that other (who were but set on) should carry
away the thanks and praise, because his being known to be the first mover
therein might possibly weaken the credit he hath in Spain, and so render
him the more unable to serve both his own master and His Majesty, in
which respect I humbly prayed His Majesty also to keep this to himself.
Nethersole to Calvert. Aug. 11, 1620. S. P. Germany. The whole
passage is very instructive on Digby's character and policy. One would,
however, like to know what instructions he would have given to the
ambassadors. Probably very different from those which they actually
received.

312 GONDOMAR'S RETURN.

IV. by us to be most impolitic. Its inconvenience at tins

1620. time will be especially great, on account of our

March. poverty."*

It is true that Philip went on to say, that in spite of
all obstacles the Palatinate must be invaded. But it
may fairly be argued that if James had adopted a more
manly tone, Philip's letter would have ended in a very
different way.

Gomio- Whatever Philip or his ministers may have thought,

tum^T" the war party in England knew better than to trust to

England. James's fitful manifestations of zeal on behalf of the

independence of the Palatinate. They knew well that

Gondomar would soon be once more amongst them, and

they exhausted all their efforts in a vain endeavour to

• force their views upon the King, before the arrival of the

dreaded Spaniard.

On the 5th of March, Gondomar landed at Dover. To
the compliments of the old buccaneer, Sir Henry Main-
waring, who was now the Lieutenant of the castle, he
replied by telling him that he would repay him for his
courtesy by forgiving him twelve crowns out of the
million which he had taken from the subjects of the King
of Spain, if only he would promise to make good the rest.f
The ambassador was then conducted in state to-London,J
and was lodged at the Bishop of Ely's house in Hatton
Garden, which had been prepared for his accommodation
by the express orders of the King. It was the first time
for more than sixty years, as men bitterly reminded one
another, that the chapel of an English bishop had been
decked for the service of the mass.

Gondomar was scarcely settled in his new abode,
when Gray's drums were heard beating in the streets.
The next morning a placard, inviting volunteers to
enlist, was found nailed to his door. He was far too
wise to take any serious notice of the affront. The
Elector, he said, had no better friend than himself, for,
as soon as he had arrived, he had obtained for him that

* Philip III. to the Archduke Albert. March g. Brussels MSS.
t Mainwaring to Zouch. March 5, 6. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 8, 10.
J Salvetti's News-Letter. March --.

GONDOMAR AND DIGBY. 313

for which he had been for many weeks petitioning in ^H- IV-

van.*

Much which was by no means to his taste had been
done during his absence. The East India Treaty had
been concluded with the Dutch, and was by this time in
operation, to the detriment of Spanish interests. The
Howards, his firm allies, had been driven from office.
The Court was full of men to whom the very name of
Spain was an abomination. Even Buckingham was in
league with Pembroke and Southampton. All was lost,
unless he could regain his mastery over the feeble mind of
James.

His first audience took place on the 12th of March. His first
He was received with a hearty welcome in the presence a
of the whole Court, and was asked to return the next
morning for a private conference.!

As he went back to Ely House, the courtiers trooped
after him, eager to know what he had to say about the
troubles in Germany. With ready wit he contrived to
elude their questionings, so as to avoid rousing their
master's susceptibilities by telling to others what he had
not as yet told to him. He took care, however, to let his
dissatisfaction appear by the dryness of his answers.

The next morning as he was waiting to be admitted to £jjV-s
his audience, Digby took him aside, and appealed to him
not to push matters to extremities. Spain, he said, had
not a single friend in England but himself. The Court
swarmed with Puritans. But he must speak plainly.
The whole mischief was attributable to the conduct of the
Spanish Government. His master had been anxious to
repose confidence in Spain, but he had met with no
response to his overtures. If he had been driven to make
common cause with the Dutch in the East, it was
because the Spaniards had turned a deaf ear to his offers.

The name of the Palatinate had not been mentioned.
But it is plain that Digby intended to intimate that on

* Chamberlain to Carleton. March 11. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 18. Salvetti's.
New's-Letter. March — .

t Chamberlain to Careleton. March 20. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 32. Gondo-
mar to Philip III. March i? Simancas MSS. Est. 2600.

314 GONDOMAK, AND JAMES.

IV- that question, too, the just demands of England must be

1620. satisfied, if James was not to be thrown into the hands of
March, the war party. Such language from James would doubt-
less have had its effect ; coming from Digby, Gondomar
could afford to pass it by. He assumed in his reply that
lofty tone which was his chief weapon. Spain, he said,
had not behaved badly. Whatever blame there was lay
with the King of England, who had broken the promises
which he had made. It was in order to complain of his
master's wrongs that he had returned to London ; and
he was ready to be cut in pieces in defence of the truth
of his assertions.

At this point the conversation was interrupted. Digby
was summoned into the King's presence, leaving the wily
ambassador to congratulate himself on the probability that
his words would be repeated, and would frighten James
sufficiently to make his morning's work the easier.
Gondo- He was not mistaken. He found the King whimpering

second like a beaten hound. The moment he entered the room,
audience. James began to speak, as if for the purpose of stopping
his mouth. " I hear/' he said, " from Buckingham, that
when you shook his hand you squeezed his sore finger
hard enough to hurt him. I remember hearing that Lord
Montague once did the same to Lord Treasurer Burghley
when he had the gout." He then proceeded to interpret
his parable. He was in a sad plight, and he must not
be squeezed too hard. He had done everything in his
power not to offend the King of Spain or the Emperor.
He had tried not to do anything wrong ; yet everybody
was complaining of him. Four years ago he had been
warned against Winwood, and now he had three hundred
Win woods in his palace. " I give you my word," he
ended by saying, taking Gondomar's hand as he spoke,
" as a king, as a gentleman, as a Christian, and as an
honest man, that I have no wish to marry my son to any
one except your master's daughter, and that I desire no
alliance but that of Spain." At these words he took off
his hat, as if exhausted by the effort, and wiped his
heated forehead with his handkerchief.

This pitiable spectacle was enough for Gondomar. He
saw that his work was done to his hand. He answered

BUWINCKHAUSEN S REPULSE. 315

gravely that he was very sorry for what he had just CH- IVL
heard. He could not, however, forget that His Majesty 1620.
had the power to remedy these disorders, and that words, March.
not followed by acts, were useless.

James blushed, as well he might. " All that is needed,"
he said, " is that we two should talk over these matters
together/' The conversation then took a different turn.
At last James ventured to approach the great question of
the day. "Do you think," he said, "that the Emperor
intends to attack the Palatinate ? " " What would you
do," was the answer, "if any one had taken London
from you ? " " Well," said James, " I hope that God will
arrange everything for the best ! " and with this demon-
stration of his helplessness he brought the audience to a
close.*

The effect of this conversation was not long in showing James's
itself. The next day James despatched a letter to the Jfefttoces
Princes of the Union. No one was likely to- attack them, of the
he wrote, and he should, therefore, send them no assist- Umon-
ance. He hoped to bring about a ^general pacification,
which would make all warlike preparations needless.")"

Buwinckhausen was still in England His indignation Buwinck-
was great. "If this is the way," he said, "that the demands.
Princes are to be treated, the sooner they come to terms
with the Emperor the better." He now asked for a cate-
gorical reply to certain questions. Would the Princes be
allowed to levy troops in England \ If they were at-
tacked, would James fulfil his engagements ? Did he
mean that they were to provide for the defence of the
Palatinate as well as for that of their own territories ?
Were they to submit to such terms as might be proposed
by the French ? If these included the dissolution of the
Union, were they to obey ? \

Buwinckhausen's plain speaking, supported as it doubt- The levy of

i 'J.-L volunteers

less was by Buckingham and the courtiers, was not witn- accorded
out effect. James was always ready to yield to pressure,
if he could give satisfaction without bringing responsi-

* Gondomar to Philip III. March ^. Simancas MSS. Est. 2GOO.
f The King to the Princes of the Union. March 14. Add. MSS. 12,
485, fol. 406.

t Buwinckhausen to the King. March 14. »Sf. P. (Herman if.

316 THE CITY LOAN AGAIN.

CH. IV. "bility upon himself. He now agreed to extend to the
1620. Princes the permission to levy volunteers, which had
March, been granted to Gray in the King of Bohemia's name.
Buwinckhausen asked how the expenses of the levy were
The city to be met ? " I do not wish, for many reasons," was the
cautious reply, " that my name should be mentioned in the
matter. But if you and Dohna will ask the city and the
clergy for money, I will take care to make your way easy/'*
Thus encouraged, Buwinckhausen and Dohna hurried to
the City to ask for a loan of 100,000/. Again the autho-
rities, to whom the request was made, wished to know
what the King had to say upon the subject, and the Lord
Mayor and the Eecorder were deputed to ask the
question. "I will neither command you nor entreat
you," was the answer which they received from James ;
" but if you do anything for my son-in-law, I shall take
it kindly." The matter was then referred to the wardens
of the several companies, in order that they might raise
their quotas from the estates belonging to the various
societies. But the wardens hesitated to make themselves
responsible, by the payment of public money, on so slight
a security as a verbal recommendation from the King. If
they could have an Act of Parliament, or even an official
warrant from the Privy Council, they would see what
they could do.f

The clergy To this request no satisfactory reply was given, and

comribu- everything remained at a standstill in the City. The

tions. clergy, not having to deal with corporate property, were

less scrupulous. A circular was issued by the Archbishop

of Canterbury, and two other Bishops, requesting contri-

butions to a loan to be placed in Dohna's hands.;); .

James It was a poor result of Buwinckhausen 's mission. On

Buwfock*. tne 23rd of March he was dismissed by the King with a

hausen. final answer to his demands. The Princes, James said,

might levy as many volunteers as they pleased, but, for

the present at least, they must expect no money from

* Lando to the Doge. , 1620. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

t Salvetti's News-Letter. March p. Chamberlain to Carleton. March 20.
Nethersole to Carleton. March 21, 1620. S. P. fiom. cxiii. 32, 33.

I The Archbishop of Canterbury. &c., to the Bishop of Peterborough.
March 21 (? , 1620. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 34.

BUWINCKHAUSEN'S DEPARTURE. 317

him. He must first be assured that they had renounced CH- IV-
all aggressive designs. If they thought it right to defend 1620.
the Palatinate, he should be well pleased at their doing March.
so. When he saw the instructions given to the French
ambassadors, he would give an opinion upon them. If
the Emperor's demand for a dissolution of the Union
were a legal one, they had better submit to it ; if not, he
would help them to resist it.*

At this solemn trifling Buwinckhausen was deeply
exasperated. Three times he sent back the present of
plate which, as was customary at the departure of ambas-
sadors, had been sent him by the King. At last he gave
way ungraciously enough. If his Majesty was affronted,
he said, he was ready to accept the gift ; but he would
leave it behind in Dohna's charge. He had no means to
guard so much silver, and it would be conveyed more
safely under the protection of the volunteers who were
about to leave England for the defence of the Pala-
tinate .f

James probably fancied that he had done nothing, and Result of
had incurred no responsibility. He was grievously mis-
taken. By his_hesitating inaction, he Jiad conveyed to
Gondoniar s mind the "assurance that the Palatinate .
might be assailed without fear^of interruption from ^
England. If the Bohemian war grew into a German
war, if the thirty years' war has rested as a dark blot
upon the history of Europe, it is James who must share
with Frederick and Maximilian the heavy responsibi-
lity which from sheer dread of responsibility he had
incurred.

For the present, at least, Gondomar was secure of the Resnmp-
neutrality of England. His next step was to bind more ^arri^e'
fastly the chains which he had laid upon James, by pro- treaty."
posing the resumption of the marriage treaty. His
master, he said, was anxious for the alliaTnce, and would
be ready to advance 150,000/. out of the Infanta's portion,

* The King's reply to Buwinckhausen. March 23, 1620. S. P. Ger-
many.

t Lando to the Doge. "ah 2*. Venice MSS. Desp. Inyh. Salvetti's

News-Letter. , 1620.

April 3

318 THE MARRIAGE TREATY RESUMED.

as soon as the articles were agreed upon.* James swal-
lowed the golden bait at once. He wrote to Philip,
stating the the terms to which he was willing to agree.
Within the walls of her husband's palace, the Princess of
Wales and her servants would be allowed the free exercise
of their religion. No Catholic should suffer death for
conscience sake. It was impossible to repeal the penal
laws, without the consent of Parliament ; but they should
be mitigated in practice, and all complaints should
receive his most careful attention.!

It is strange that James's suspicions were not roused
by Gondomar's ready acquiescence in a series of proposi-
tions so startlingly different from those which, two years
before, had been put forward on behalf of the Spanish
Government. The fact was, that as soon as it was known
in Spain that liberty of worship was not to be secured for
the English Catholics, all desire for the match had come
to an end. Yet, as long as Bohemia remained uncon-
quered, Philip could not afford to put a slight upon the
King of England. The negotiations, therefore, which had
been originally commenced in order that they might pave
the way for the conversion of England, were now re-
opened with the more practicable object of cajoling James
for a time into obsequiousness towards the policy of
Spain. When they had served their turn, it would be
easy to throw the blame of failure upon the broad shoul-
ders of the Pope.

In one point, at least, Gondomar was able to use his
influence on behalf of the unhappy Catholics. It had
been found that even the moderation with which the
penal laws had been recently administered had been at-
tended by evil consequences. The recusant from whom
the utmost penalty of the law had not been demanded,
found himself at the mercy of a host of informers who
were able to extort large sums of money from him by
threats of further prosecution. Amongst these wretches
the pursuivants of the Ecclesiastical Courts bore a pecu-

* Defence of the Earl of Bristol. 1624. Tanner MSS. Ixxiii. 449.
Consulta by Alliaga. July J?. Simancas MSS. Est. 2518.

t The King to Philip III. April 17. Prynne's Hidden Works of Dark-
ness, 8.

THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 319

liarly evil name. Where a bribe was refused them, they CH- IV-
would sweep away the plate from the sideboard, or the 1620.
pearls and rubies from the jewel-box, whilst the victim, March,
well knowing that in the eye of the law all his personal
property was already forfeited, did not venture to breathe
a complaint. Before he left England, Gondomar had
obtained from James a promise that the mischief should
be remedied. James had, no doubt, intended to keep his
word. But scarcely had the ambassador crossed the
channel, when the priests who had been released on the
express engagement that they would never show their
faces in England- again, began to re-appear. James
replied by ordering the law to be put in force against
them, and some at least amongst their number would
have been sent to the scaffold if his anger had not
been appeased by the pleadings of the Spanish agent.
In his displeasure against the breach of promise of which
the priests had been guilty, James forgot that he had
broken his own word. The exactions of the pursuivants
remained without a check*

With Gondomar's arrival all this was changed. Com- Mav-
missions were issued to inquire into the misdeeds of ^^
these harpies, and to take in hand the leasing of the therecu-
recusants' lands, and the compositions for offences &
against the penal laws. The Catholic who had satisfied
the Commissioners would be free from all further moles-
tation. The miserable trade of extortion fell to the
ground at once."(" At the same time, all persons who were
imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance
were set at liberty on condition that they would leave the
kingdom within forty days.J These measures were a
great boon to the Catholics. But it was of evil omen
alike to them and to the Sovereign from whom the relief
proceeded that the concessions were made, not to a

* Digby to Buckingham, Oct. 12 ; Dec. 1, 1618. Earl. MSS. 1580, fol.
104, 102. Salvetti's News-Letter, Nov. 27 ; Dec. 10, 1618.

t Statement of the vexations inflicted upon Recusants. May. S. P. Dom.
cxv. 9. Commission to inquire into Informers, &c. May 13. Rymer, xvii.
212. Commission to lease Recusants' lands. May 14. Pat. 18 Jac. I.,
Part 18.

£ There were ten of them. Order for release, April 24. Rymer, xvii.
193.

320

NORTH'S VOYAGE TO THE AMAZON.

CH. IV.

1620.

May.
Expedi-
tion of
Captain
Noith.

Gondomar
pleads for
Lake.

March.
The King's
visit to St.
Paul's.

growing sense of justice, but to the representations of a
foreign ambassador.

Equally offensive to English feeling was the successful
interference of Gondomar with Captain North's expedi-
tion to the Amazon. His objections were supported by
Digby, who was wise enough to see that no good could
come of an attempt to establish an English trade in the
midst of the Spanish Indies. But North, like Ealeigh,
had powerful friends at Court, and before the order for
stopping his voyage was issued, he had slipped out of
Plymouth harbour, and was well on his way across the
Atlantic. When it was too late, a proclamation was
issued to arrest him, and his brother, Lord North, was
imprisoned for a few days on the charge of complicity
with his evasion.*

Even Gondomar's influence, however, had its limits.
He was extremely anxious to see his old friend and
pensioner Lake restored to office. But though James
consented to re-admit him to Court, and to a certain
degree of favour, he resolutely refused to give him back
the Secretaryship, f To a request that he would show in-
dulgence to Lady Lake, who had not yet acknowledged
the justice of her sentence, he was equally deaf. "As for
my Lady Lake," he said, "I must both confess to have pro-
nounced an unjust sentence, and break my promise to my
Lady Exeter in a matter of justice, if I grant her any ease
at this time. Besides this cause hath no respect to reli-
gion, except the Romish religion be composed of the
seven deadly sins, for I dare swear she is guilty of them
all. If Spain trouble me with suits of this nature both
against my justice and honour, their friendship will be
more burdensome than useful to me."J

In the meanwhile the public excitement was increasing

* Sanchez to the King, Feb. 19. Sanchez to Buckingham, Feb. 19. S.P.
Spain. Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 26. S. P. Dom. cxii. 104. Salvetti's
News -Letter, May ||, ~ Proclamation, May 15. Rymer, xvii. 215. The
Council to the Warden of the Fleet, May 21, 1620. Council ^Register.

t Salvetti's News-Letter, May ^|. Woodward to Windebank, May 22.
8. P. Dom. cxv. 50.

M I The King to Buckingham. HalliwelVs Letters of the Kings of England,
11. 149. The letter is without a date, but it may be safely assigned to April
or May, 1620.

THE FABRIC OF ST. PAUL'S.

321

as the rumours of an approaching attack upon the Pala-
tinate acquired consistency. On the 26th of March
James went in state to hear the Bishop of London preach
at Paul's Cross. Various rumours were afloat as to the
reason for this unusual display. Some thought that an
opportunity would be taken to announce the conclusion
of the marriage treaty with Spain. Others were sanguine
enough to expect a declaration in favour of the Bohe-
mians. Those who were better informed knew that
James merely wished to give effect to the Bishop's appeal
for contributions for the repair of the ruinous fabric of
the Cathedral, and for the rebuilding of the steeple which
had been destroyed by fire at the commencement of the
reign of Elizabeth.*

The Bishop's text was selected by the King. " Thou The
shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion ; for the time to
favour her, yea, the set time is come. For thy servants
take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof."
He had been strictly forbidden to touch upon the politics
of the day. Yet, as he spoke of the necessity of prayer and
action on behalf of the spiritual Zion, and exhorted his
hearers to nourish the truth of the Gospel in every place,
there were probably many present who would have re-
sponded to the words with which one of the bystanders
recorded his impressions. " The Bishop," he wrote, " said
that there was not the poorest hewer of wood who would
not give one penny out of twopence to build up the walls
of Zion. He did not, he durst not apply it; but gave
every man liberty to make the application ; but I believe
his heart was then in Bohemia."")"

As far as the immediate object of the sermon was con-
cerned, nothing whatever was effected. The heart of many
of the citizens, like the heart of their Bishop, may or may
not have been in Bohemia. But, in spite of the appoint-
ment of a Commission J to watch over the restoration
of the church, the money which had been asked for did
not come in.

There were other demands upon the purses of those

* Chamberlain to Carleton, March 20. 8. P. Dpm. cxiii. 32.

t Young to Zouch, March 27. 8. P. Dom. cxiii. 32.

$ Commissions, April 15; Nov. 17. Pat. 18 Jac. I., Parts 9 Ud R

VOL. I. Y

322 THE CONTRIBUTION FOR THE PALATINATE.

CH. IV. who had listened to the sermon. Before he left the

1620. city, James, who had now taken up warmly the idea that

March, he might assist his son-in-law without incurring any res-

tribution Possibility himself, asked the Aldermen to imitate the

f"r the°Pa- example of the clergy, and to raise a fund by voluntary

latinate. contribution for the defence of the Palatinate. The diffi-

culty which had stood in the way of the loan would thus

be avoided, as there would be no need to ask for a formal

authorisation of the Council when the money was no

longer to be levied out of the public property of the

companies.

The step taken by the clergy had already found imi-
tators. The Earl of Dorset had sent 5001 to Dohna,
with an intimation that the payment would be continued
for five years, if the war lasted as long. Similar offers
had been made by others of the chief nobility. Still the
Aldermen hung back. They were willing, they said, to
give, but they disliked a renewal of the system of benevo-
lences. Let Parliament be summoned, arid it would then
appear what they would do.*

At last, with some hesitation, they gave way. They
were plainly told that they must not expect a Parliament,
and they were unwilling to incur the responsibility of a
refusal. Nominally, at least, the payment was to be vo-
luntary. But it was soon seen that popular bodies were
not slow in imitating the evil example which the Govern-
ment had set. A house to house visitation made refusal
difficult. Each citizen, in turn, was exhorted to show
himself a good Christian by a liberal payment, and the
names of those who refused to give were taken down,
in order that they might be held up to public repro-
bation.f

Yet, with all this, money came in but slowly.

April. £100,000 had been expected. The partizans of Spain

had contented themselves with predicting that the con-

tribution would not exceed £50,000.;): Yet, on the 28th

* Lando to the Doge, ~. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Nethersole
to Carleton, March 21. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 33.
f Salvetti's News-Letter, ~

Salvetti's News-Letter, April I.

SMALL RESULTS. 323

of April, four weeks after the collection had been com-
menced, only £13,000 had been obtained. * The short-
coming may, perhaps, in some measure be attributed to
the ordinary difficulties of raising money by voluntary
subscription. But it can hardly be doubted that, however
deeply the misfortunes of the continental Protestants
were felt by individuals, the mass of the citizens was
comparatively little affected by the distress of a country
so distant and unknown as that mountain-girded land
which had not long ago been brought upon the stage as
the scene of the shipwreck of the "Winter's Tale."

It was to this that James had come at last. For
seventeen years he had been carrying on with the repre-

r» ,1 i 1,1111-1 i suicide of

sentatives 01 the people what he had plainly seen to be james.
a struggle for sovereignty. The issue which was being
tried was, whether England should be a Monarchy under
the forms of the old constitution, or a Eepublic under the
forms of the old monarchy. And now, at the first
moment when there was a call for the fulfilment of
duties as well as for the assertion of rights, it was James
who struck the first blow at his own pretensions. To
have adopted an erroneous policy at such a crisis, would
have been bad enough. But to have no policy at all, — ^

to drift Tiplplpaaly from airlp. tp side as |EejvanousjrgU-

ments jwere presented to him thatjay uponjthe^ outside
of the problem Jntojhe Jieart of which he was jumble to
look, and finally to throw the burden of decision and of
action upon mayors and aldermen, upon country gentle-
men and country clergymen, — was an act of political
suicide. By his own mouth, James had declared himself
incapable of giving any guidance to_tbe nation.

* Lando to the Doge,
News-Letter

Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Salvetti's

T 2

CHAPTEE V.

THE INVASION OF THE PALATINATE.

DURING the weeks in which the fate of the Continent
was being decided at Munich and Brussels, James pre-
sented a pitiable spectacle. One day he was stirred to
passion by a rumour that his son-in-law had invited the
Turkg into Hungary> « if ^ ^e the case," he said, " I

will myself declare war against him ; and, if I die, my
bones shall be carried in front of the army which is to
attack him."* A few days afterwards he was calmly
discussing the prospects of the mediation which he was
about to undertake in conjunction with the French, t If
he were to do more than this, he said, fresh provocation
would be given to the Catholic powers, and they would
enter into a closer confederacy than ever. J

Such a view of the case was not likely to commend
from the itself to the Princes of the Union. Once more, towards
the end of April, they applied to James for aid. The
Duke of Bavaria, it was now known, had come to terms
with the Elector of Saxony, and they had every reason
to fear the worst. But nothing could stir James from
his apathy. In private he assured Dohna that if the
princes were really attacked, he would send twenty or
thirty thousand men to help them ; whilst to the princes
themselves he replied by. a long scolding letter, warning
them not to make an unprovoked assault upon their
neighbours, and entirely omitting all reference to the

* Tillierea' Despatch, April ^. Baumer, Brief e aus Pans, ii. 299.

t The King to the Duke of Lorraine, April 12. Add. MSS.
l. 42.

J Tillieres' Despatch, April ^ Raumer, Briefe aus Paris, ii. 300.

GONDOMAR'S INFLUENCE. 325

point at issue, — the anticipated invasion of the Palati- CH- v-
nate.* 1620.

In Gondomar 's presence his tone was more miserable May-
still. Under the firm eye of the Spanish diplomatist, James's
everything was forgotten excepting the wickedness of his ttonTith
son-in-law's usurpation. " You have good cause," he Goudomar-
one day said to him, " to complain of the treatment of
the English Catholics, of Captain North's voyage, and of
the aid which has been given to the Palatinate. But it
is not my fault. It is all the doing of the traitors around
me. For the wrongs of the Catholics you must lay the
blame upon the Archbishop, who is a godless Puritan.
North was permitted to escape by that traitor Bucking-
ham. He is young and inexperienced, and he sold him
a passport." Buckingham was then called into the room.
" George," said the King, " why did you sell a passport
without telKng me ?" " Because," answered Buckingham
in the same jesting tone, " you never give me any money
yourself." James pulled his hair, kissed him twice, and
told him to leave the room.

All this was sufficiently undignified ; but its impolicy
was nothing to what followed. "The Palatine," said
James, " is a godless man, and a usurper. I will give him
no help. It is much more reasonable that he, young
as he is, should listen to an old man like me, and do
what is right by surrendering Bohemia, than that I
should be involved in a bad cause. The Princes of the
Union want my help ; but I give you my word that they
shall not have it." t After this it is not strange that
Gondomar wrote to his master to strike the blow at
once. J

Such language as this was not likely to pass unchal- He is
lenged. James was daily urged by the war-party to is- defcLrthe
sue a declaration of his intention to preserve from invasion Palatinate,
the hereditary dominions^fjiis^son-in-law. Let an army
of ten or twelve thousand menpEhey said> be sent *°

* The King to the Princes of the Union, May 22. S. P. Germcvny.
f Tillieres' Despatch, ^^ 1620. Kaumer, Brief e aus Paris, ii. 300.
t Gondomar to Philip IIL, June |, 1620. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

326 THE VOLUNTEERS.

Heidelberg or Mannheim, with strict orders to take no
part in the struggle in Bohemia. If this were impossible,
let a garrison of a thousand men be thrown into Heidel-
berg, which, by the mere presence of the English flag,
would be enough to deter the Spaniards from their
purpose. •

His The proposal was certain to be rejected by James. It

refusal. was j^e more unpalatable to him, as he was asked to

give the command of the force to Southampton, whom

he thoroughly detested.* As usual he fell back upon

half measures. He would allow Dohna, if he wished it,

The to levy a body of volunteers at his own cost, and to issue

general a circular to the whole kingdom, calling upon the gentry

tiouand" to imrkate the example of the London citizens by con-

the voiun- tributing to the expenses of the force, t He would

the'pSati- think seriously of sending ambassadors to bring about

nate. a pacification, and he would order Trumbull to put a

direct question to the Archduke Albert as to the future

movements of the army which was preparing to take the

field under Spinola's command.

June. Gondomar had no reason to be dissatisfied. If, for
form's sake, he uttered loud protests against the enrol-
ment of the volunteers, he was inwardly congratulating
Albert. himself upon this fresh evidence of James's weakness. J
The fears of English intervention^ which had been the
object of such consultation _at Madrid in the previous
year, had long ceased to be seriously entertained. The
Court of Bruss"els~Ka^n^ame3 to treat James as dis-
respectfully as Gondomar himself had ever done. It
was not till the 19th of June that the Archduke deigned
to reply to Trumbull's inquiries. He had always been
desirous, he said, to remain on good terms with the King
of England. He hoped, therefore, that in order that no
jealousy might spring up between them, James would
persuade his son-in-law to submit to reason. Such an

duke

* Gondomar to Philip III., June ^-—f. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.
Dohna to Packer, May 27, 1620. 8. P. 'Germany.

t Dohna to the Lord Lieutenant of Northampton, May 31. 1620. 8. P.
Germany.

Buckingham to Gondomar, June f Gondomar to Philip III.,

Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

PLEADINGS OF THE DUTCH. 327

answer, in which all mention of the invasion of the Pala-
tinate was as carefully avoided as it had been by James
in his letter to the Princes of the Union, could leave no
doubt in any reasonable mind what the Spanish inten-
tions were.*

To the Dutch, at least, no doubt was any longer pos-
sible. James, as his manner was, had asked them to
def end1:h"e~ Palatinate, without signifying any intention
of jaking a direct part in the war lumself. Theyjceplied
thai; they could do nothing alone. Twelve thousand men
were STe ufmbsf "that Uiey could spare. If James would
send but six thousand Englishmen, a sufficient force
would be collected to enable the Princes of the Union to
defend themselves. Less than this would be entirely
useless, t A few days later, on the very day on which
the Archduke was replying to Trumbull at Brussels,
Carleton was able to forward to Naunton a detailed list
of the forces which the Dutch offered to bring into the
field. " What more," wrote Carleton, with scarcely con-
cealed irony, "can be from hence, — I say not expected,
— but desired. I will make no doubt but if his Majesty
lay this aside in his wisdom, he seeth other ways to attain
to the same end. Kings are gods upon earth, and they
have this property, to see when mortals are fearful be-
yond measure ; but in the mean time, those must be
pardoned for their fear and apprehension, who know no
more than I do." f

To this appeal Naunton's reply was most desponding. JJg*"
James had just arrived from a hard day in the saddle the King,
when Carleton's despatch was placed in his hands. He
was much obliged to the Dutch, he said, for their offers ;
but he supposed that they only wanted to entangle him
in some engagement. Perhaps they had not heard that
he had allowed volunteers to be levied for the Palatinate.
Naunton pointed to a paragraph which showed that they
were perfectly aware of this ; but that they thought that
the small force that could in this way be raised would be

* Trumbull to Naunton, June 17—21. The Archduke Albert to the King,
June 19, 1620. 8. P. Flanders.

f Carleton to Naunton, June 12. Carleton Letters, 469. Carleton to the
King, June 14, 1620. S. P. Holland.

$ Carleton to Naunton, June 19, 1620. S. P. Holland.

328 BUCKINGHAM'S TERGIVERSATION.

CH. V. entirely useless. James fell back upon his old excuses.
1620. He was quite sure that Spinola would march straight for
June. Bohemia without meddling with the Palatinate. Even
if the Dutch were in the right, what could he do more
than had been done already? They talked of supply-
ing him with munitions of war. He did not see any-
thing in their letter about supplying him with money.
If they would do that, they might have as many English
volunteers as they pleased.*

The news It was something more than his usual love of inaction
£astthe which at this moment embittered James against the
indies. Dutch. News had recently arrived t of the outrages
committed upon English vessels in the East, in spite of
the knowledge of the opening of the conference in Lon-
don. The King had been deeply irritated, and he had
been encouraged in his irritation by Buckingham. For
Buckingham, to whom political motives were as nothing
in comparison with personal motives, saw in the sufferings
of the English sailors an insult to himself as Lord High
Bucking. Admiral of England. Suddenly the war-party discovered
seartiondof ^na^ "their powerful advocate was growing cool in the
the war cause. Only a few weeks had passed since the King had
been hardly able to restrain him from heading the list of
contributions to the defence of the Palatinate with a
magnificent donation of £10,000, and now he was deep
in the confidence of Gondomar, and responding eagerly
to the hard things which it pleased the Spaniard to say
about Frederick and his partisans. In return, he was
compelled to listen to language long unheard, and to
know that the men who had been his staunch friends in
his contest with the Howards, were murmuring against
his exorbitant influence over the King. J

ham^iug" ^° some ex^ent, perhaps, Buckingham's change of
courtship temper, — it can hardly be dignified with the name of a
clSne change of policy, — may be attributed to his recent mar-
Manners, riage with a Roman Catholic lady. His match-making

* Naunton to Carleton, June 26. S. P. Holland.

f About the Middle of May. Woodward to Windebank, May 22. S. P.
Dom. cxv. 50.

J Gondomar to Philip III., 3~~. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

WILLIAMS AT COURT. 329

mother had suggested to him that he would find a CH- v-
suitable wife in Lady Catherine Manners, the daughter
of the Earl of Rutland. Her high birth would cast a
lustre upon the son of a Leicestershire squire ; and it
was to be hoped that the child of the wealthiest noble-
man in England would bring with her a portion such as
was rarely to be found to the west of Temple Bar. Yet
Lady Buckingham acted as though she were conferring
rather than asking a favour. Her terms were high.
She must have £10,000 in ready money, and land worth
£4000 a-year. Yet strange as she probably thought it,
the Earl showed no anxiety to strike a bargain. He was
himself a strict Roman Catholic, and Lady Catherine
had been educated in her father's creed. To make matters
worse, the King openly declared that his favourite should
not marry a recusant. Buckingham's wife, he said, must
go to church.*

There happened to be a man about the Court who Rise of
now saw his own opportunity in Lady Buckingham's dif- WU1
ficulties. John Williams, the youngest son of a Welsh
gentleman, had come up to Cambridge to study, had
taken orders, and had attracted Ellesmere's notice by
his ability. The Chancellor had made him his chaplain.
When Ellesmere died, Bacon offered to renew the appoint-
ment, but Williams, whose ambition was not satisfied with
his position, declined the offer, and, through the influence
of Bishop Montague, obtained a nomination as one of the
royal chaplains. From that. moment his fortune was
made. He was the very man to win James's favour.
He was not only an immense reader, but a ready and
fluent talker. Multifarious as were the subjects which
James loved to chat over, Williams was at home amongst
them all. On the last work of Bellarmin, the latest news
from Heidelberg or Vienna, or the newest scandal at
Court, he had always something to say, and that some-
thing was sure to please. Amongst the minor difficulties
of statesmanship his shrewdness was seldom at fault His

* Brent to Carleton, Aug. 20,1619. Nethersole to Carle ton, Jan. 20,
1620. S. P. Dom. ex. 22 ; cxii. 20. Salvetti's News-Letter, -^b--7>— ^-51;

Feb. 25
March 4*

330 LADY CATHERINE MANNERS.

CH. V. eye was quick to discern the narrow path of safety. But
1620. his intellect was keen, without being strong. In those
powers of imagination which distinguish genius from
talent he was entirely deficient. He was of the earth,
earthy. The existence of any firm belief either religious
or political was altogether incomprehensible to him, and
after years of experience he dashed himself to pieces
against the peristent singlemindedness of Laud, and the
no less persistent singlemindedness of the Puritans of the
Long Parliament, as a bird dashes itself against a window
pane from very ignorance that it is there.

His inter- For the present, however, the way was clear before
favour11 ^ kim- ^e soon became indispensable to the King. One
of the day James dropped a hint that, if he wished to rise at
marriage. Qourt, j^ ^a(j better secure a place in Buckingham's
regard. Upon this hint Williams acted. Belvoir Castle
was not far from his rectory of Walgrave, and he was
already known to the Earl of Eutland. He used what
influence he possessed to smooth down the difficulties in
the way of the match. Long afterwards, he was accus-
tomed to boast that it was owing to his intervention that
Lady Buckingham's exorbitant demands were finally con-
ceded. But it is not probable that he had much to do with
the matter. Upon the death of her brother in March,
Lady Catherine was left the only surviving child of the
Earl. Under these circumstances it hardly needed Wil-
liams's persuasive tongue to urge him to make over a
larger portion to his daughter than he would have been
willing to do in his son's lifetime.
His inter- The religious difficulty was still unsolved, and to this

VieWS With TIT'lV T -l i • in TF -t 1

Lady Williams now applied himself. He was not despondent.

Catherine. He knew that Lady Catherine was deeply in love with
Buckingham, and that she only wanted an excuse to
yield. The method which he adopted was characteristic
of himself. A Puritan would have denounced the Pope
as Antichrist. Laud would have protested against the
burden which the Church of Eome was laying upon the
conscience by imposing its own traditions as articles of
faith. Williams took the easier course of praising the
catechism, and of pointing out the excellence of the forms
under which the marriage service was conducted. For

VIOLENCE OP THE EARL OF RUTLAND. 331

the moment his success was all that could be desired. Q"- V-
Whether the conversion which he effected was likely to 1620.
be permanent was a question which he, perhaps, hardly March,
cared to ask.*

Still, however, there were obstacles in the way of Quarrel
the marriage. Eutland was deeply irritated at the possi- iffiE-
bility of his daughter's apostasy. Whilst he was in this ham an<*
mood he was told that the young lady had left the house *
in the morning in company with Lady Buckingham, and
had not returned at night. The fact seems to have been
that she had been taken ill, and had been kept by Lady
Buckingham in her own apartment till the next morn-
ing, f But the angry father was not to be convinced.
His daughter, he fancied, having first abandoned her
religion, had consummated her guilt by sacrificing her
own chastity and the honour of her family to the im-
patience of her lover. He refused to admit her again
into his house, and forced her to take refuge with Lady
Buckingham. Upon Buckingham himself he poured out
his indignation in no measured terms. But for the inter-
vention of the Prince, the two noblemen would have
come to blows.;): Eutland insisted that the marriage
should take place immediately, as the only way to clear
his daughter's fame. Buckingham replied that Lady
Catherine's fame was safe from everything except her
father's tongue ; and that, if he was to be spoken to in such
a style as this, he would have nothing more to do with the
match. § When he was by himself, Buckingham was
inclined to treat the whole affair as a jest. He drew up
a petition on the subject, which he presented to the King.
" I most humbly beseech your Majesty," he wrote, "that,
for the preserving me from the foul blemish of unthank-
fulness, you would lay a strait charge upon my Lord
of Eutland to call home his daughter again, or at least I

* Racket, Life of Williams, 41.

f This was the story told by Lady Buckingham, and judging by her
son's language afterwards, I see no reason to doubt its accuracy. Sir. E.
Zouch to Lord Zouch, March 23. S. P. Dom. cxiii. 38.

J Salvetti's News-Letter,

§ Buckingham to Rutland, March (?) Goodman, Court of King James,
ii. 191.

332

CH. V.

1620.
March,

May.
Bucking-
ham's
marriage.

Bucking-
ham
intends
Cecil to
command
the volun-
teers.

June.
Appoint-
ment of
Vere.

BUCKINGHAM'S MARRIAGE.

may be secured that in case I should marry her, I may
have so much respite of time given me as I may see one
act of wisdom in the foresaid lord, as may put me in hope
that of his stock 1 may sometime beget one able to serve
you in some mean employment."

To all this there was only one ending possible. Lady
Catherine declared that she was convinced by the argu-
ments which she had heard, and received the communion
according to the rites of the English Church, f On the
1 6th of May the couple were married by Williams, After
all that had passed, it was thought inexpedient that there
should be any public festivities, and no one but the King
and the bride's father were present at the wedding. J
Williams received the deanery of Westminster in reward
for his services.

Whether Buckingham's marriage had any part in his
desertion of the popular party is a matter of conjecture.
But there can be no doubt that at this time his vanity
had conceived a special irritation against Frederick. He
had been annoyed, because, in the midst of his multifa-
rious occupations, the new King of Bohemia had not
found time to write to him.§ A fresh offence had now
been added. As long as it was supposed that James
might be induced. to send troops in his own name into
the Palatinate, the favourite had been besieged with
applications for the command. He had engaged to
give his support to Sir Edward Cecil, a son of the
Earl of Exeter, whose family had stood by him in his
contest with the Howards. The choice, however, of
a commander was no longer in the hands of the King,
and Dohna declined to entrust his master's forces to
Cecil.

The Ambassador's choice fell upon Sir Horace Vere,
who had not even asked for the appointment. It seems
that Dohna had private reasons for passing over Cecil,
who had, in some way or another, given personal offence

* Buckingham to the King, March (?). Harl. MSS. 6986, fol. 112.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, April 29. 8. P. Horn, cxiii. 92.

t " Si tiene segreto per taciti respetti." Salvetti's News-Letter, June ^

§ Nethersole to Buckingham, Aug. 11. 8. P. Germany.

SIR HORACE VERE.

to Elizabeth.* But his decision was fully justified upon CH- v-
military grounds. Both Vere and Cecil had long served 1620.
in the army of the States, and Cecil had commanded the June.
English contingent at the seige of Juliers. But such was
Vere's reputation as the first English soldier of the day
that, as soon as his appointment was known, the fore-
most of the young nobility were pressing forward for the
honour of serving as subordinates under so distinguished
a captain.

Vere's military capacity was his smallest qualification
for command. To perform his duty strictly, and to allow
no personal disputes or vanities to distract him, were
the objects which he set before him.

It was not long before Cecil justified Dohna's wisdom July,
in rejecting him. His own imagination had already JjJJIJJ^
placed him in command of the expedition. Secure of Cecil and
Buckingham's good word, he had gone about prating of Dohna-
the honours in store for him, and had even distributed
commissions amongst his friends. Furious at his disap-
pointment, he vented his ill-humour upon Dohna, assailed
him with unseemly abuse, and gave him to understand
that it was only by his character as an ambassador that
he was protected from a demand for personal satisfaction.
Buckingham took the matter up warmly, and, as his
manner was, treated the rejection of his nominee as a
personal insult to himself. The estrangement between
the volatile favourite and the popular party was com-
plete.f

By this time Gondomar must have formed a tolerably June,
correct estimate of Buckingham's character. Yet even {^ioS-
Gondomar can scarcely have been prepared for the over- plains to
tures made to him. One day, in the second or third G
week in June, when Buckingham, bringing Digby with
him, came to pay him a private visit, Buckingham was
greatly excited. He began to talk about the treatment
of the English sailors in the East. He was obliged, he
said, for very shame, to go about the streets in a covered
chair. "It is all your fault," was Gondomar's reply,

* Young to Zouch, June 14. S. P. Dom. cxv. 73. Roe to Elizabeth,
June 7. S. P. Germany. Vere to Carleton, June 14. S. P. Holland.

t Account by Dohna of his conversation with Cecil, July (?). Cecils
account, July 31. Cecil to Buckingham, July 31 (?). S. P.

334 PROJECTED WAR WITH THE DUTCH.

CH. V. " and the fault of your master. The Dutch have robbed

1620. England of her fisheries, of her trade, and of her gold.

June. The next thing they will do will be to carry off the

country itself and to make a republic of it." The words

had the effect which Gondomar desired. " I hope/' said

Buckingham, " that the King of Spain will not renew his

truce with the Dutch next spring/' " Why," replied the

cunning diplomatist, " should not the King of England

Plan for declare war upon them as well ? " The bait was eagerly

tion^ftlie taken, and the terms of an alliance were discussed. As

Nether- some difficulty arose, Digby, who can hardly have looked

with much satisfaction upon the scene, broke in. " Why,"

he said, " they used to tell me at Madrid that your master

would willingly make over the revolted provinces to

England for a very small consideration." Gondomar

shook his head. But by degrees he appeared to relent.

If James would give real assistance towards the conquest

of the country, one or two provinces might perhaps be

assigned to him as a reward for his services. The offer

was, after some hesitation, accepted on condition that the

two provinces should be Holland and Zealand.

The next question was how James was to be brought
to take part in the conspiracy. Gondomar doubted whe-
ther he could be trusted to keep the secret. Buckingham
replied that he was no longer on good terms with the
Dutch, and that, before he trusted him, he would make
him swear not to reveal the mystery.

assents Buckingham was as good as his word. James swore

to it. to hold his tongue, seemed pleased with what he heard,
and asked that the Prince of Wales might participate in
the secret. The result was that Buckingham was sent
back to the ambassador to beg him to write to Madrid
for further instructions. The King, he was to say, em-
braced the scheme with pleasure, and would further
engage not to meddle any more with the West Indies,
if the King of Spain would agree^ that the East Indies
should be fairly divided between the two'iiations.*
The plan In his childish delight at hav5^" discovered _ a chance
of taking vengeance on the'Uutch, Janies had closed his

* Gondomar to Philip III., 3™e 2?7. Brussels MSS.

PLAN FOR THE SURPRISE OF THEIR GARRISONS. 335

eyes to the bearing of his conduct upon the tangled w< •!>
of the German difficulty. He held long and anxious
consultations with Gondomar. At last he hit upon a
plan which, as he thought, was certain to be crowned
with success. He calculated that there were 8000 Eng-
lishmen in the Dutch service. He would send orders to
their officers to rise on a given day, and to seize the
strong places which were entrusted to their charge. A
powerful fleet, under Buckingham's command, should be
sent to the assistance of the mutineers, and a numerous
army, with the Prince of Wales at its head, would soon
put an end to all further resistance. Such was the plan
which, at the moment when the very existence of Pro-
testantism was at stake over half the Continent, an Eng-
lish King thought himself justified in proposing to the
great enemy of the Protestant cause.*

This astounding proposal, the infamy of which was Dec.
only equalled by its imbecility, was laid by Gondomar Remarks
before the Court of Madrid, and, in due course of busi- Archduke
ness, was forwarded to Brussels for the consideration of Albert-
the Archduke Albert, f For the straightforward mind of
the Archduke the scheme possessed no attractions. He
was curious1 to know, he observed, where the King of
England proposed to find the fleet and army of which he
talked so glibly. As to the 8000 English soldiers in the
Netherlands, they were scattered over the country, and
could effect but little. Nor was it likely that even their
King's orders would induce them to act as traitors to
the Eepublic which they had served faithfully for so
many years.J

Before the scheme was brought under the Archduke's
notice, much had changed. The plot had been abandoned,
if it had not been forgotten, by its author. As for Gon-
domar, all he wanted was to amuse James for the moment,
and his object had been fully gained.

At the time when he first began to lend an ear to this
disgraceful project, James announced his intention of

* Gondomar to Philip III., ^y. Brussels MSS.

t Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, Oct. *-jj. Brussels MSS.

t The Archduke Albert to Philip III., Dec. ^. Brussels MSS.

336 THE EMBASSIES.

CH- V- sending out ambassadors to pacify the Continent. Sir
1620. Henry Wotton was to return to his post at Venice, and
June, was to stop at Vienna on his way, in order to put an
end to the war in Bohemia. Sir Edward Conway and
Sir Richard Weston were to visit Brussels and the States
on the Rhine in company. From thence they were to
pass on through Dresden to Prague, from which place it
was hoped that they would be able to open communica-
tions with Wotton at Vienna.

sir Henry It was an utterly hopeless task ; so .hopeless that it is
hardly worth while to take note of the inefficiency of
the ambassadors. Wotton indeed could write in an easy
and flowing style. His opinions were moderate, and his
thoughts free from extravagance. For the embassy at
Venice, where there was nothing to do but to chronicle
for his master's amusement the passing events of the day,
he was admirably fitted. But, in a diplomatic mission of
importance, he was sadly out of place. He never even
found out how extremely ridiculous his present embassy
was. He went about his work under the impression that
he was going to be of some use. When he left England,
he boasted to the officers of Vere's regiment, that he was
about to do that which would keep their swords in their
scabbards.*

Conway was an old soldier, who had commanded the
garrison at Brill before the surrender of the cautionary
towns. He had imbibed in Holland a thorough dislike
of Spain, which saved him the trouble of thinking out a
policy for himself. His mind was devoid of all origi-
nality of thought. In an age when every one stooped
to flatter the magnificent favourite, Conway surpassed
them all in fulsomeness of phrase.

Weston was destined to rise to higher dignities than
either Wotton or Conway. His was one of those natures
which the possession of power serves only to deteriorate.
At present he was favourably known as a good man of
business. He had been a collector of the customs in the
port of London, and had taken part in the late reforms
of the navy.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, July 8. S. P. Lorn. cxvi. 13.

WOTTON AT VIENNA. 337

Weston owed his present appointment to the favour CH- V.
with which he was regarded by Gondomar. Yet, as far ~ 1620.
as it is possible to judge from the evidence which has June.
reached us, neither he nor the other politicians who at Thc .
this time formed what was called the Spanish Party, had
any wish to see Spain the mistress of the Continent, and
far less wish to place the government of England in the
hands of the Spanish ambassador. They looked with
justifiable dislike upon an aggressive and sectarian hos-
tility against the Catholic States. They wished, by
entering upon a good understanding with the chief
Catholic Power, to make a religious war impossible for
the future. They were unfortunate, not so much from
the badness of their cause as from the inefficiency of
their leader. A King of England of consummate ability,
who knew how to mingle firmness with conciliation,
might perhaps have made his voice heard by the con-
tending parties. But with James at their head, Digby
and Calvert, Weston and Cranfield, were foredoomed to
toil in vain.

Wotton started on the 28th of June. He visited the
South German Courts with due deliberation, and finally
reached Vienna, where he proposed, with all fitting
gravity, terms which were utterly unacceptable to both
sides. He was able to write a few lengthy despatches.
But he never had a chance of doing any more serious
work.

The mediation in Bohemia with which Wotton had Conway
been charged, was beyond the powers of any man. The Alton'
mission of Conway and Weston was of a more practical mission.
nature. For they were entrusted with a protest, to be
delivered at Brussels, against the invasion of the Pala-
tinate, and their protest was to be supported by a
vigorous remonstrance at Madrid.*

But James had been careful that the words of his
ambassadors should be taken for no more than they
were worth. Under Gondomar's manipulation, his mind
was thoroughly bewildered. The ambassador had never
ceased to assert that the invasion of JjiaPalatinate was

* Aston to Carleton, . S. P. Spain.

VOL. I.

338 THE TREATY OF ULM.

CH. V. the only road to peace. " It is an idea/' he said on one
1620. occasion, " only fit for a book of knight-errantry, to
June, imagine that the Palatine is to remain quietly at Prague,
and that we are not to dislodge him by any means in
our power. Let Bohemia be restored to its rightful
owner, and the war will be at an end."5* But he pro-
fessed to know nothing of the intentions of the Spanish
Government. So far as he was aware, he asserted, no
decision had been taken. His own impression was, that
Spinola's troops would march straight upon Bohemia.
He had himself written to Brussels to urge the aban-
donment of the attack upon the Palatinate.

James did not wish to see through all this. To his
poor confused mind, Gondomar's personal assurances
were all-sufficient. " If Spinola touches the Palatinate,"
he was one day heard to say, " the Count of Gondomar
is a man without faith, and without God." f
The treaty Whilst James was talking, the French Government
lm' had been acting. Early in July, just after Conway and
Weston had started on their bootless errand, news arrived
in London that, through the mediation of Lewis's ambas-
sadors, a treaty had been signed at Ulm on the 23rd of
June, between the Union and the League.

The forces of the Duke of Bavaria would now be free
to march upon Prague without any fear of molestation

* Gondomar to Philip III., ~^. Simancas MSS. Est. 1601.

f " Tuttavia Tistesso Ambasciator di Spagna professa con sua Maesta
che lo Spinola non andera all aggressione di esso Palatinato ancioche a
lei stessa pure soggionga che questo sarebbe il vero modo per fare la
pace, haviendo giurato et scongiurato piu volte di havere scritto in
Fiandra perche non invada. Onde il Re 1'alterhieri a suoi favoriti di
ci6 parlando dice, o che lo Spinola non assalera il Palatinato, o che il
Conde di Gondomar e senza fede, e senza Dio." Lando to the Doge,
July - . Venice MSS. I have not ventured to put Gondomar's assurances
as strongly as this. Upon comparison with his own despatches, and
with his decided language when the King afterwards taxed him with
having misled him, I have little doubt that he took care to put his
assurances as proceeding personally from himself. This would corre-
spond with the language used at Brussels to Conway and Weston. That
Gondomar had in some way or other asserted that Spinola was going to
Bohemia, is evident from Caron's despatch of the ^th of September. " Den
Spaenschen Ambassadeur," he writes, " hadde haer altyt verseeckert dat
syne forcen tegen den Coninck van Bohemen ende tot secours van den
Keyser souden gaen." Add. MSS. 17,677K, fol. 66.

EMBARKATION OF THE VOLUNTEERS.

339

in the rear. Of still greater importance was it, that the CH-V-
Archduke Albert was not included in the treaty. That 1620.
the omission was intentional there could be no doubt June-
whatever. Even James could hardly shut his eyes now
to Spinola's aim. Yet at the moment when it was in
his power to localise the strife, and to prevent the Bohe-
mian war from growing into a German war, he was
silent. It was plain that he at least would not be the
peace-maker of Europe.

It was thus that James was using the prerogative
which he valued so highly. Each of the great parties
into which English politicians were unequally divided
had opinions and principles of its own. But James had
none. He stood between the contending statesmen, not
because he was above them, but because he was infinitely
beneath them. To talk much, and to do little — to be-
lieve all rumours, however improbable, which would save
him from the necessity of acting — to trust blindly to the
good intentions of those very Governments which were
most strongly tempted to deceive him ; — these were the
arts by which James was, in his wilful ignorance, cutting
away the supports of loyalty and obedience upon which
the throne, which he had received from Elizabeth, had
hitherto rested in security.

The treaty of Ulm was not without effect in England. July-
Up to this time, the contributions for the payment of ti™n *Jf a
Vere's troops had come in but slowly. Instead of the 4000
men which were to have followed him across the sea,
Dohna was now obliged to announce that a regiment of
half the number would be all that he could provide for.
The whole sum which had been levied from the counties
did not exceed 10,000£. But the news from Germany
touched to the quick those who had hitherto hung back.
7000Z. were subscribed in a single week. On the 22nd
of July the little force embarked for Holland, from whence
it was to be escorted to the seat of war by a body of
Dutch cavalry.

Amongst the officers who took service under Vere was
the dissolute and reckless Earl of Oxford, fresh from his
dissipations at Venice, and the sturdy, half Puritan, Earl
of Essex. In this enterprise there was room alike for

z 2

340 MISSION OF CONWAY AND WESTON.

CH. V. the spirit which twenty years afterwards animated the

1620. Parliamentary bands, and for the spirit which inspired

July- the troopers who followed .Rupert to the charge.

James's The treaty of Ulm wrought no change in James which

jlmgs* was of the slightest consequence. In June he had

refused to believe that the Palatinate would be invaded

at all. In July he refused to believe that any harm

would come of the invasion. Tlis language now was,

that it was a mere diversion, for the_sakejc)f_ getting back

Bohemia. The Spaniards were far too friendly not to

Yelinquish their conquests in his favour as soon as they

had accomplished their object He probably thought

that if they were ready to~~act in concert with him in

his attack upon the Dutch, it was impossible that they

would strip his son-in-law of his hereditary dominions.

Whenever he spoke of Frederick, his voice grew louder,

and his language more excited. '" It is only by force,"

he said, " that he will ever be brought to reason." " The

Palatine," said Buckingham, " is mounted upon a high

horse, but he must be pulled off in order to make him

listen to his father-in-law's advice." *

Conway When such was James's own language, it was not
Weston likely that much respect would be shown to his ambas-
sadors at Brussels. They were informed that no decision
had as yet been taken as to the destination of Spinola's
army. With this they were forced to be content. Their
mission, they found, was everywhere regarded as a mere
formality. Men told them to their faces that it was well
known that their master "would not be drawn into a war
upon any condition." f

August. In London, Gondomar now began to speak plainly.
Nothing more was heard of his own desire to avert the
invasion. The conquest of the Palatinate, he boldly

* Camden's Annals. Gondomar to Philip III., ^ 2g4. Simancas MSS.
Sir E. Sackville is frequently said to have accompanied Vere. This was
not the case. Camden tells us that he and Lord Lisle refused to serve,
« out of I know not what ambition and emulation." In the autumn he was
in the Netherlands with the Prince of Orange.

t The Archduke Albert to the King, July 22. Conway and Weston to
Naunton, July 22 ; 24; 29. Pecquius to Conway and Weston, July 24.
8. P. Flanders. Weston to Buckingham, July 22 ; 23. Conway to Buck-
ingham, July 24. Harl. MSS. 1581, fol. 192, 194 ; 1580, fol. 279. Con-
way to Buckingham, July 29. S. P. Germany.

DUTCH OVERTURES. 341

averred, was the indispensable prelude to a lasting
peace.*

James took the Archduke's reply very easily. " If my
son-in-law/' he said, " wishes to save the Palatinate, he
had better at once consent to a suspension of arms in
Bohemia."|

Partly from sheer irresolution, partly perhaps from
some confused notions of morality, James had thus
settled down into the view of the case which had been
presented to him so industriously by Gondomar. If
Frederick had robbed the Emperor of his property, why
might not the Emperor seize upon Frederick's property
as a security for the restitution of his own. Such rea-
soning could only be answered by those who knew that
the Palatinate was not Frederick's property at all, but a
land filled with thousands of living souls whose rights
were infinitely more precious than those for which the
rival Kings of Bohemia were doing battle.

The Dutch at least had learned from their own ex- Fresh
perience to value a people's rights. One more desperate
effort they made to drag James into resistance. He had Dutch,
now a fleet of twenty ships ready for sea. The expedi-
tion against the pirates, so often taken up and laid aside,
was at last approaching realisation. Why should he not,
—such was the reasoning of the Dutch, — divert them to
a nobler purpose still ? Let him launch this fleet against
the Spanish treasure-house in the Indies. Spinola would
quickly be brought to reason, and the Palatinate would
be saved.

Far froin_ thinking of Aiding the Dutch against Spain,
James was~ thinking of aiding {Spam against_,^aJkLtch.
NewaTof fresh outrages inT the East nad just come to
irritate him ; and he rejected the request with scorn. In
language which sounds strange from the lips of a man
who was planning a mutiny in the garrisons of a
friendly State, he replied, that an attack upon Spain

* " Fieramente rispose, con tralasciere assolutamente li concetti prima
usati per tenere in speranza che non sarebbe assalito, che vero mezzo per
fare la pace era, a piinto quello, non altro di lasciar cadere esso Palati-
nato." Lando to the Doge, Aug. ^. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

f Naunton to Conway and Weston, Aug. 12. S. P. Germany.

342 THE BAVARIANS IN AUSTRIA.

CH. V. . would be "most dishonourable, and ill beseeming his
1620. sincerity." *
July. Already it was too late to stop the torrent. Maxi-

The inva- milian had completed his preparations. On the 1 3th of

Austria. July, the first detachment of his troops crossed the
Austrian frontier. On the 25th he was at Linz, and
in six days after his arrival the nobility of Upper Austria
were crouching at his feet. Already Lower Austria had
submitted unconditionally to Ferdinand, and it was not
long before the Bavarians and the Imperialists were ready
to march upon Prague. The Elector of Saxony had
agreed to attack Lusatia and Silesia, and to keep the
Bohemians well employed upon their northern frontier.
August. It was now Spinola's turn to move. Eighteen thou-

Spinoia's gand men were left in the Netherlands to keep the Dutch
in checkf With an army of twenty-four thousand,
Spinola himself made straight for the Ehine ; he crossed
the river below Coblenz, in order to keep up as long as
possible the belief that he was aiming at Bohemia. Sud-
denly wheeling round he recrossed the Ehine, and when
Con way and Weston entered Mentz on the 19th of
August, they found the town full of Spanish troops.J

The army Startled by the imminence of the peril, the English
ambassadors hurried to Oppenheim, to confer with the
princes of the Union. They found them at the head of
an army of twenty thousand men,§ a force sufficient
under favourable circumstances, to act o.n the defensive
against the slightly superior numbers of the Spanish
general. But the circumstances were not favourable.
The long straggling territory of the Palatinate was by
nature as indefensible as the Prussia which Frederick the
Great received from his father ; and in the army of the
Union no Frederick was to be found to counterbalance

* Carleton to Naunton, Aug. 9. Naunton to Carleton, Aug. 27. 8. P.
Holland. The King to the Princes of the Union, Aug. 27. Add. MSS.
12,485, fol. 496.

f Tkeatrum Europium, i. 358. Trumball to Naunton, Aug. 10 ; 24.
S. P. Flanders. I cannot but think that the instructions for Spinola's di-
rection, printed in Londorp, ii. 170, are forged. The tone assumed is dia-
metrically opposed to that which appears in every one of the papers which
I have seen at Simancas.

J Conway and Weston to Naunton, Aug. 21. S. P. Germany.
Conway and Weston to Naunton, Aug. 18. S. P. Germany.

SPINOLA AT MENTZ. 343

the defects of his position. Nominally the troops were Cn- v-
under the command of the Margrave of Anspach, but he J<^<>-
was surrounded by a cavalcade of dukes and counts, August,
each of whom fancied, perhaps not without reason, that
he knew as much about war as the General.

At this critical moment, the princes appealed to the Conway
English ambassador for advice. It was evident, that weston
Spinola intended to attack them. He was busy esta- consulted,
blishing a basis of operations at Mentz. Would they
not, therefore, be justified in anticipating the blow ?
The ambassadors replied that they "conceived his
Majesty's desire was, that the fault of hostility might be
on their adversaries' parts." To a second and more urgent
entreaty, they answered that they had no authority to
speak in the King's name, but that as private persons
their opinion was that it was certain that Spinola was
meditating an attack, and, if so, it would be within the
limits of defensive warfare to anticipate it.

The discussion was of no practical importance. Spinola
had taken good care that his military position should be
unassailable. Already, before the ambassadors were con-
sulted, an attack planned against one of the Spanish
posts had been relinquished as impracticable.

When misfortune came, the princes attempted to shift
the blame upon the English envoys, who, as they said,
had prevented them from attacking the enemy. It
would have been well for James if all the charges brought
against himself and his ministers could be met as easily
as this.*

* Conway and Weston to Naunton, Aug. 27 ; Oct. 13. Conway to Buck-
ingham, Aug. 27 ; Oct. 13(?). Balconqual to Carleton, Oct. 14. </S. P.
Germany. The accusation has been usually accepted without hesitation by
later writers. A passage in a letter written by the Duke of Deux Fonts to
the King shows how it sprung up. " Sur lesquelles entrefaites, les ambas-
sadeurs de V. Mte., estants transportez vers les Princes Unis, et les ayants
exhortez fort serieusement et instamment de ne faire aucun commence-
ment d'hostilite, ains d'attendre jusques a ce qu'on peust juger au yray
des intentions dudit Spinola, avec ceste adjection que s'ila en usoient
autrement, vostre Mte 1'auroit desaggreable, et qu'au contraire, si de
1'autre coste on faisoit le commencement d'aggression V. Mt<£ enibras-
seroit asseurement le parti et la defense du Palatinat." Sept. 8. S. P.
Germany. There is no mention here of the personal explanation given by
the ambassadors ; and from saying that they urged the Princes to I
till Spinola's intentions could be discovered, to saying that they ui
them to wait till the attack was made, the step was easy.

344 THE PALATINATE tNVADED.

CH- v- The blow was not long in falling. On the 30th of
1620. August, Spinola, with the spring of a lion, threw himself
August, upon Kreuznach. Ill-fortified and ill-defended, the town
Stick*'8 surrendered on the following day. Alzei was the next
to capitulate, and the princes, whose communications
were threatened, retreated in disorder to Worms, where
they hoped to find a more defensible position. On the
4th of September, Spinola entered Oppenheim in triumph.*
Sept. At first it seemed that not even by such news as this
James's^ was James to be brought seriously to consider his position.
ofCthe101' He told Dohna, that the Emperor was perfectly justified
new?. m wnat he had done. To Caron, who produced an inter-
cepted despatch, which proved that the English ambas-
sadors had been intentionally hoodwinked at Brussels, he
replied by suggesting that the Dutch should lend him
some money. He ordered a courier to start for Prague,
to inquire on what terms his son-in-law would now be
ready to make peace. To the Duke of Deux Fonts, the
Administrator of the Palatinate in Frederick's absence,
he wrote a vague letter, promising that in the proper
time and place he would be ready to defend the inheri-
tance of his grandchildren. For the present he hoped
that the princes would do their best. With the help of
the English volunteers and of the Dutch escort which
accompanied them, he had little doubt that they would
be able to make head against the enemy.f

James Yet the revelation of the intercepted despatch had not

Condon iar been altogether thrown away. James's letter to the Duke
°^ •^eux P°nts was written on the 23rd of September.
The next morning, Gondomar was admitted to an audi-
ence at Hampton Court. To the surprise of all around,
the moment that he entered the presence chamber, James
broke out impatiently in an unwonted strain. For
months, he said, he had been cheated into the belief that
Spinola was going to Bohemia. He was bound not to

* Advertisement from Heidelberg, Sept. 1. S. P. Germany. Theatrum
Europceum, i. 381.

f Naunton to Nethersole, Sept. 13; 23. S. P. Germany. Caron to the
States General, Sept. 14. Add. MSS. 17,677K, fol. 66. Notes of Ofiate's
despatch, July. S. P. Spain. Dohna's reply to the King's objection, Sept.
16. 8. P. Germany. The King to the Duke of Deux Fonts. Sept. 23. Add.
MSS. 12,485, fol. 50.

ANNOYANCE OF JA

345

allow his children to perish, or his religion to be over- &*• Y-
thrown. He had been treated with the grossest dis- 1620.
respect. The King of France had known all about the
projected attack, whilst he had been kept in the dark.

Gondomar had long been prepared for some such out-
burst as this. He haughtily denied that he had ever
used any deception at all He had always said that his
master would risk all he had to recover Bohemia. He
had given no engagement that the Palatinate should not
be attacked He had never been even asked to do so,
and if he had been asked, he could not have given any
satisfactory reply, as the intentions of the Spanish Go-
vernment had not been communicated to him.

To this James had in reality nothing to reply. If he
had chosen to interpret according to his own wishes
the purposely vague language of the Spanish ambassador,
he had no one but himself to blame. In the conscious-
ness that the fault was his, he lost his temper. No king
upon earth, he screamed out, should prevent him from
defending his children. When he had said this he burst
into tears of impotent rage.*

Such was the first intimation of James's intention to
interfere in the Palatinate. What chance was there that
any good could come of a policy conceived by hazard in
a moment of irritation ?

A few days afterwards he heard that two of his grand- His pro-
children had been removed from Heidelberg, and had S^hnaand
been sent to seek the protection of the Duke of Wirtem-
burg. He was sensibly affected by the news, and almost
forgot for a moment that his son-in-law was an usurper.
Dohna was at last satisfied with the tone in which he
spoke. He would bear Gondomar's tricks no longer ; he
would declare publicly his resolution to embark in the
support of the princes.f To Caron he was still more

* Caron to the States General,

Add. MSS. 17,677K, foL 70.

Lando to the Doge, Oct. i. Vance MSS. Desp. Ingh. Tillieres to
Puisieui, Oct. £. BM. Imperial* MSS. Harl 223 : 16, foL 524. It is a
pity that Raumer did not include this despatch in his selection. The
extremely silly remarks of the Frenchman might have served as a warning
to those English writers who have built their narratives on his guesses*
f Extract from Dohna's despatch, -. Add. MSS. 17,G77K, foL 74.

346

JAMES DECLARES AGAINST SPINOLA.

CH. T.
1620.

Sept.

His letter
to the
princes of
the Union.

emphatic. In his recent displeasure against the Spaniard,
his old displeasure against the Dutch had passed out of
his mind. The conspiracy for the partition of the Nether-
lands was forgotten. He might not, he said, be able to
do at once all that he wished, but he was thoroughly in
earnest. Caron answered by apologizing for the unto-
ward occurrences in the East, and by engaging that the
States would speedily send ambassadors to clear up all
matters in dispute.*

Great were the rejoicings at this unexpected turn of
affairs. " There was never/' wrote one who took a deep
interest in the Protestant cause, "so joyful a court here
as this declaration hath made. I see men's hearts risen
into their faces. Some few are dejected, and will shortly
be as contemptible as they deserve to be despised."f

On the 29th, James despatched a fresh letter to the
princes of the Union. He intended, he said, to preserve
his neutrality as far as Bohemia was concerned, but with
respect to the inheritance of his children, he would not
be neutral. He could not do anything now, as winter
was coming on, but if peace could not be obtained before
the spring, he would aid them with all the assistance in
his power. J

The next day James came up to Whitehall, to make a
public declaration of his intentions in the presence of the
Council. But already the dread of giving encouragement
to rebellion was regaining possession of his mind. The
day before he had offered his support to the Princes un-
conditionally. He now informed the Council that if
Frederick expected aid, he must listen to the advice
given him by the English ambassadors at Prague, § or, in
other words, that he must agree to renounce the crown
of Bohemia. 1 1 The personal view of the question was
still uppermost in James's mind.

* Caron to the States General, S^|-8. Add. MSS. 17,677K, fol. 70.

f Rudyard to Nethersole, Sept. 27.' S. P. Germany.

t The King to the Princes of the Union, Sept. 29. Add. MSS. 12,485,
fol. 51. Naunton to Carleton, Sept. 30. 8. P. Holland.

§ Morton to Zouch, Oct. 7. 8. P. Dom. cxvii. 5.

|| Wotton to the King, Sept. 7. Wotton to Con way and Weston, Sept. 7.
Nauuton to Nethersole, Sept. 23. 8. P. Germany.

THE BENEVOLENCE. 347

Yet, in spite of this limitation, the King's declaration °H-

was received by the Council with rapturous applause. J^^ 1620.
benevolence^ was agreed, should be raised for the pur- Thebene-
pose of carrying on the_war. The Prince of Wales, as volence-
ready 'now to lead" an army against the Spaniards, as he
had been three weeks before to lead an army against the
Dutch, rated himself at 5,000£. ; Buckingham, whose
exigencies had been satisfied by an apology from Frederick,
and who loved the display of a lavish munificence in any
cause, offered 1,000?. The remaining councillors followed
his example with subscriptions in proportion to their
rank.*

Yet none knew better than the men who were thus October.
widely opening their purses, that a benevolence would Apariia-

J r /r, P i • , /. T-» i • "lent pro-

prove no efficient substitute tor a Parliamentary grant. posed.
The result of Dohna's appeal to the nation had barely
sufficed to support a regiment of two thousand men.
James was therefore plainly told that, if anything serious
was to be done, Parliament must be summoned.")" The
King replied vaguely that he would think it over. He
however consented to the appointment of a Commission
to consider what measures would be fit to lay before the

Houses.^

It is refreshing to turn, if but for a moment, to a states- Policy of
man who kept himself free alike from the ignorant im- I)lgby'
petuosity of the popular party, and the sluggish listless-
ness of the King. In Digby, James possessed a minister
who would have taught him to be a king indeed, and
who would have raised England to that high position
amongst European states which is denied alike to selfish
folly and to military glory, but which is willingly con-
ceded to wise devotion to the common good. Unde-
monstrative, and careless of his own fame, Digby had
allowed men to count him amongst the blindest partizans
of Spain, but those who knew what his opinions really
were did not do him this injustice. Gondomar was well
aware that, whatever else he might do, he could never

* Naunton to Nethersole, Oct. 2. S. P. Germany. Contributions to the
Palatinate. S. P. Dom. cxvii. 21.

t Rudyard to Nethersole, Oct. 2. S. P. Germany.

£ Bacon to the King, Oct. 2. Work*, ed. Montagu, xiii. 23.

348 POLICY OF DIGBY.

make a tool of Digby. If Digby could have had his way,
there would have been no Spanish match, and no religious
concessions to the demands of a foreign sovereign.* But
he saw clearly that an alliance between Spain and
England, honestly carried out on both sides, would put
an end to the barbarous wars of religion by which Europe
had been so long distracted, and he saw too, what James
never could see, that it was hopeless to count on the
mere goodwill of Spain, unless the Court of Madrid could
be brought to understand that a war with England would
be the inevitable result of a persistence in the evil paths
of Philip II. It was in this spirit that he had never lost
an opportunity of offering frankly the choice between
the olive-branch and the sword, that whilst he had re-
commended the sending of ambassadors upon a mission
of conciliation, he had at the same time advised the
application to the King of Denmark for a loan to be used
for the defence of the Palatinate, and the authorisation of
the levy of Dohna's volunteers. In the same spirit, when
he was made an involuntary witness of Buckingham's
conversation with Gondomar about the proposed attack
upon the Netherlands, he took care to warn the Spaniard
of the risk he would run of throwing away the friendship
of the English Government, by thwarting its policy on
the Continent; and now, as ever, he seized upon the first
opportunity which presented itself, of proving to Gondomar
that England was not to be trifled with.

August. By the end of August the fleet which had been so
aeahwuhe ^onS PreParmg f°r the Algiers expedition was ready for
pirates. sea. It was now lying at Plymouth waiting for a
fresh store of provisions, f

The Spanish Government was seriously alarmed at
the prospect. Orders were accordingly sent to Gon-
domar to stop the expedition at ah1 hazards.^ But
the ambassador did not find it easy to carry out his

* Digby to the Prince of Wales, 1617. State Trials, ii. 1408.

t Salvetti's Neuters, -1**" Lando to the Doge,

, , ,

Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh. Carleton to Nethersole, Oct. 22. S.P.Holland.
1 Minutes on the expedition against the pirates, Aug. (?). Simancas MSS.

Est. 2607.

HIS FIRMNESS TOWARDS GONDOMAR. 349

instructions. Digby would not listen to his objections. GH-
For the attack upon the pirates he cared but little.
For he had argued two years before that the chief loss Sept.
fell upon the subjects of the King of Spain, and that it
was, therefore, fitting that the brunt of the undertaking
should be borne by Spain.* But he knew as well as
Gondomar that if war broke out in the spring it would
be advantageous that an English fleet should be pre-
pared for action in the Mediterranean.!

It was therefore in vain that Gondomar urged that
after the King's declaration to the Council, it was im-
possible that his master could treat an English fleet on
terms of assured friendship. The King, replied Digby,
had no wish to quarrel with Spain. He had only pro-
mised to assist his son-in-law if he listened to reason.
The people were wildly excited by Spinola's proceedings.
The King could not do less than he had done. If Gon-
domar had orders to break with England he had better
say so at once. Whether the King of Spain liked it or
not, the fleet would sail. There were many persons in
England who would be only too glad to see it used in an
attack upon Flanders, or upon Spain itself. By such
language as this the ambassador was reduced to silence,
and the fleet sailed from Plymouth without any further
difficulty.;):

It was more easy to deal with the King than with
Digby. For a few days after the interview at Hampton
Court, James had maintained his ground. But the am-
bassador knew that it would not be long before the old
relation between them would be restored. Yet his first
effort was not crowned with success. He made a formal
complaint that Naunton was treating the Catholics
harshly. " I hope," said James, in language which would
have suited Elizabeth, " that in future you will show
more respect to me than to bring such charges against my

* Digby to Buckingham, Oct. 12, 1618. Harl. MSS. 1580, fol. 102.
f Digby to the Commissioners for Spanish Affairs, July 26, 1621. Cla-
rendon State Papers, i. App. vi.
$ Buckingham to Gondomar, Oct. 3. Londorp, ii. 218. Gondomar 1

Philip III., Oct. g|. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

350 JAMES COWED BY GONDOMAR.

CH. V. ministers. My secretary is not in the habit of acting in
1620. matters of importance without my directions." :
October. Gondomar returned to the charge. This time his com-
plaint was that there were rumours abroad by which his
honour was affected. Persons in high places did not
scruple to assert that he had promised that Spinola would
not enter the Palatinate. He now called upon the King,
his eyes flashing with well-assumed anger as he spoke ,f
to defend him publicly against the liars who had tra-
duced him. If not, he must clear his own reputation
with his sword.

This time Gondomar had struck home. Literally at
least, his words were true. He had made many assertions,
but he had given no positive engagement. James
quailed before the energy of the man who held in his
hands the evidence of the conspiracy against the Dutch.
He came down to the Council and declared openly that
there was no truth in the charges which had been
brought against the Spanish ambassador. He ordered
Buckingham to convey to Gondomar his acknowledg-
ment that no one had ever engaged on the King of
Spain's behalf that Spinola would not enter the Palati-
nate, but that on the contrary, no hope had ever been
given that any other course would be taken.J

By the last clause James deliberately contradicted
the assertion which he had made in his passion at
Hampton Court. It was all the more welcome to Gon-
domar. As a certificate of his own honesty he cared
but little for it. But it was something to have lowered
James in the eyes of his own subjects, to have forced him
to eat his own words in public, and to have made an open
display of his inertness and incapacity. Digby's demon-
stration of independence was now thrown back upon
itself. Since the day on which, in obedience to his

* Lando to the Doge, Oct. 1. Venice MSS. Desp. Ingh.

f " Y cierto es que se lo dixe con la severidad y modo che el caso
pidi6, y la colera y sentimiento con que yo estaba." Gondomar to Philip
III., Oct. ^. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

t Buckingham to Gondomar, Oct. 2. S. P. Spain. Gondomar to Philip
III., Oct. j-. Simancas MSS. Est. 2601.

THE MARRIAGE TREATY AGAIN. 351

menaces, Donna Luisa de Carvajal had been set at CH- V*
liberty, Gondomar's supremacy at Whitehall had never i(;-"-
been so uncontested as now. August.

Yet Gondomar did not trust to blows alone. He The
tamed James with a whip in one hand, and a dainty
morsel in the other. Early in September he had re-
ceived a letter from Madrid, which he was to take care
to throw in James's way. The letter, which was written
in Philip's name, contained an assurance that an answer
would soon be returned to the overtures of the King of
England on the subject of the marriage. At the same
time the ambassador was informed in a private note, that
the English proposals were altogether inadmissible. No-
thing short of complete religious liberty could be accepted.
He was therefore to keep James amused till the winter set
in, by which time the result of the campaign in Germany
would be known.* At the moment when these letters
were written, Philip was listening complacently to the
overtures of Ferdinand's ambassador, Khevenhiiller, who
was instructed to propose a marriage between the Infanta
and the Archduke Ferdinand, now the eldest surviving
son of the Emperor. After some consideration, he for- SePt-
mally gave his consent to the arrangement, adding a sug-
gestion that the Prince of Wales might be consoled with
the hand of an Archduchess, who would doubtless be
better fitted for a life amongst heretics than was possible
for a Spanish Princess. There could be little doubt that
the Pope would take the burden of the change upon his
own shoulders. But if that could not be, the Infanta
might be told to say that she would rather go into a nun-
nery than marry a heretic, upon which Philip might
magnanimously refuse to force the inclinations of his
daughter, even for the sake of an alliance with the King
of England.f

Before Gondomar received his master s letters the news ££££n
of the invasion of the Palatinate had reached England, mission to
He saw clearly that this was not the time to raise the Rome-

* Philip III. to Gondomar (Two letters), |^f • Printed in Francisco de

Jesus, Appendix vii.

f Khevenhiiller, ix. 1191.

352 PREPARATIONS FOR A PARLIAMENT.

CH. V. slightest suspicion in James's mind, and there must be
1620. no delay in despatching Lafuente, who had been charged
October, with a mission to Kome, with the purpose of opening nego-
tiations there on the basis of the English proposals. Ac-
cordingly, on the 16th of October, Lafuente started for
Madrid on his way to Eome, leaving James in the belief
that the Spaniards meant what they said.*

Bacon's All this while the Commissioners appointed to prepare
drociama- measures f°r a Parliament were busy drawing up bills
tion. and investigating grievances. But they, knew that it was
in the foreign policy of the Crown that the key-note
of the coming session would be struck. On the 18th
therefore, they forwarded to the King the draft of a pro-
clamation which had been drawn up by Bacon for the
purpose of defining the position which they hoped that
James would be ready to take up.

" While we contained ourselves in this moderation,"
James was made to say, after recounting his reasons for
taking no part in the Bohemian war, "we find the event
of war hath much altered the case by the late invasion
of the Palatinate, whereby (however under the pretence
of a diversion) we find our son, in fact, expulsed in part,
and in danger to be totally dispossessed of his ancient
inheritance and patrimony, so long continued in that
noble line, whereof we cannot but highly resent if it
should be alienated and ravished from him in our times,
and to the prejudice of our grandchildren and line royal.
Neither can we think it safe for us in reason of state
that the County Palatine, carrying with itself an electo-
rate, and having been so long in the hands of the Princes
of our religion, and no way depending upon the House
of Austria, should now become at the disposing of that
House, being a matter that indeed might alter the balance
of our state, and the estate of our best friends and con-
federates.

' Wherefore, finding a concurrence of reasons and re-
spects of religion, nature, honour, and estate, all of them
inducing us in no wise to endure so great an alteration,
we are resolved to employ the uttermost of our forces and

* Salvetti's News-Letter, Oct. £?. Philip III. to Gondomar, ^Jf°. Sir
mancas MSS. Est. 2573.

REJECTION OF BACONS PROCLAMATION.

means to recover and resettle the said Palatinate to our CH- v-
son and our descendants, purposing, nevertheless, accord- 1620.
ing to our former inclination so well grounded, not to in- October,
termit (if the occasions give us leave) the treaties of
peace and accord which we have already begun, and
whereof the coming of winter and the counterpoise of the
k actions of war hitherto may give us as yet some ap-
pearance of hope."

This was statesmanlike language. Such a proclamation, its rejec-
so temperate, and yet so firm, would have served as a t]
rallying point for the whole nation. It would have
formed a common ground upon which Pembroke and
Abbot could join hands with Digby and Calvert. A
king who could in the name of England put forth such
a manifesto as this, would speedily have become a power
in Europe which neither Spain nor Austria could afford
to despise.

Such a proclamation was too good for James. Now, as
ever, he shrunk from committing himself to ajiy jDpJJ£Y_at_.
all. It would be Better, he informed" Bacon, to reserve
what he had to say till the opening of the session.
Matters of state, such as those upon which the procla-
mation touched, were above the comprehension of the
common people.t

Meanwhile the excitement was great amongst the com-
mon people, who were treated so contemptuously by
James. Everywhere men were heard discussing the
chances of a Parliament. The simplest occurrences were
caught at as affording an indication of the King's inten-
tions. One day, Bacon had said that " whatever some
unlearned lawyers might prattle to the contrary, the pre-
rogative was the accomplishment and perfection of the com-
mon law ;" and his words were supposed to convey an
intimation that supplies would be raised without the in-
tervention of a Parliament.^ Another day it was rumoured
that the King had been talking about demanding Spi-
nola's head, and that some one had expressed a doubt of

* Draft of a Proclamation. Bacon's Works, eel. Montagu, xii. 269.
f Buckingham to Bacon, Oct. 19. Bacon to Buckingham, Oct. 19. Works,
ed. Montagu, xiii. 24 ; xii. 396.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 14. S. P. Dom. cxvii. 13.
VOL. i. A A

354 PARLIAMENT SUMMONED.

CH. V. the likelihood of the King of Spain granting his demand.
1620. " Then," James was said to have replied, "I wish Kaleigh's
October. hea(i were again upon his shoulders."
The Bene- At last it seemed that all hope of a Parliament must
pressed6. ^e abandoned. On the 25th of October, circulars were
issued to the peers, and to other wealthy persons, urging
them to contribute to the Benevolence. The leaders of
the popular party threw their whole weight into the scale.
Nor did they, when it was a question of enforcing
the payment of money, shrink from the adoption of the
most questionable means. In Hampshire, at the instance
of Pembroke and Southampton, Sir Thomas Lambert was
punished by a nomination to the shrievalty for his re-
fusal to contribute, and complaints were heard from many
other parts of the country of the unfairness with which
burdens were laid at the musters of the county militia
upon those who had closed their purses to the demand. Yet
the result was by no means proportionate to the efforts
which were made. One nobleman after another sent an
excuse. One was too poor, another had paid large sums
to Dohna in the summer, whilst a third would be ready
to contribute in a parliamentary way. The Prince of
Wales, the members of the Privy Council, and the City of
London, had in a few days brought together 28,000/. It
was with difficulty that after some delay a paltry sum of
6000/. could be levied from all the rest of England, f

It was not long before the failure of the appeal was
known. If James did not mean to abandon the Pala-
moned. tinate altogether, there was but one course before him.
On the 6th of November, a proclamation appeared, sum-
moning a Parliament to meet on the 16th of January.

The proclamation was a weak and colourless produc-
tion. To those who had eyes to see, it told that the King
would meet his Parliament without a policy, and without
sympathy with the feelings of his people. A vague
allusion to the necessity of taking into consideration the
state of Christendom, " so miserably and dangerously dis-

* Burton to Carnsew, Oct. 11. 8. P. Dom. cxvii. 10.

The Council to the Peers, Oct. 25. Rudyard to Nethersole, Nov. 8. Pay-
ments to the Benevolence. 8. P. Dom. cxvii. 30 ; 64 ; cxix. 14. Many
letters of excuse will be found amongst the State Papers of the time.

BACON AND THE PATENTS. 355

tract ed at this time/' was all that was said upon a subject CH> v-
upon which it most imported James to rally the nation to 1620.
his standard. Nov.

So completely were men's minds occupied with ques-
tions of foreign policy, that if James could only have
satisfied the House of Commons that he was in earnest
on these points, he might safely have looked forward to
the prospect of a peaceful session. Yet there were not
wanting complaints of domestic misgovernment, which
might easily give rise to considerable agitation, if the
Commons met in a discontented mood.

" Indeed," wrote a calm and dispassionate observer in
the course of the past summer, " the world is now much
terrified with the Star-Chamber, there being not so little
an offence against any proclamation, but is liable and sub-
ject to the censure of that Court ; and for proclamations
and patents, they are become so ordinary that there is no
end, every day bringing forth some new project or other.
In truth, the world doth even groan under the burthen of
these perpetual patents, which are become so frequent that
whereas, at the King's coming in there were complaints of
some eight or nine monopolies then in being, they are
now said to be multiplied by so many scores."*

The history of these monopolies is especially interesting, Bacon's
as the character of no less a man than Bacon is deeply
affected by the judgment passed upon them. It is puerile
to speak of him as if he could be untouched by the result.
Many of them passed the great seal whilst it was in his
hands. Some of them were backed by his recommenda-
tion ; and the most unpopular of them received his tho-
rough support, at a time when other men were hanging
back from fear of the clamour raised against them. If he
really thought as badly of them as modern historians have
thought of them, Pope's notorious line would be true to
the letter. He must have been, in sober truth, " the
meanest of mankind."

If we wish to know what the views of Bacon and other
officers of state really were, the first thing to be done is to
consult the original patents. No doubt there is much

* Chamberlain to Carleton, July 8. S. P. Dom. cxvi. 13.

A A 2

356 SIR GILES MOMPESSON.

CH. V. which will not be learned there. We shall not find any
1620. light thrown on the personal motives of those through
whose influence they were obtained. But if we find a
large number of official declarations spread over a long
series of years, and emanating from men who differed
from one another in character, in position, and in political
opinion, we shall be able to discover whether they contain
indications of a settled policy, or are mere makeshifts put
forward to cover the greed of unprincipled courtiers.

Of the patents subsequently complained of there were
two — the patent for inns and the patent for alehouses,
which were objected to, partly as encroaching upon the
jurisdiction of the justices of the peace, and partly as
having been made the excuse for gross injustice and
oppression.

1617. The patent for inns had been originally suggested by
^ne notorious Sir Giles Mompesson, a kinsman of Buck-
ingham, whose fertile brain teemed with projects by
which his own purse was to be replenished and the public
benefited at the same time. At first sight, indeed, there
was much to be said for his scheme ; for he proposed that
a commission should be issued for the purpose of granting
licences to inns. The innkeepers would thus be brought
under control. They would be prevented from charging
extravagant prices for the food which they served out to
their guests. At this point, however, a legal difficulty
arose. It was plain that the justices of the peace had no
power to grant such licences. But it was not certain
whether the power did not reside in the justices of assize,
and it was upon their authority that the whole plan was
founded. The Commissioners were to make out the
licences — the justices of assize were, by their signature, to
give validity to these documents, of the merits of which
they were totally unable to judge. The legal question
was accordingly brought before Bacon, when he was still
Attorney-General. Unwilling to take the responsibility
upon himself, he asked that three of the judges might be
associated with him in the inquiry. The result was an
unanimous report in favour of the plan. The question of
its general policy was then submitted to Suffolk, Monta-
gue, Winwood, Lake, and Sergeant Finch, and these men,

THE PATENT FOR INXS.

differing from one another in character and in politics, CH. V.
concurred in recommending the adoption of the scheme.* i<^<>.

The patent was accordingly drawn up, nominating
Mompesson, and two other persons, as commissioners for
the purpose.")" It was one of those which was brought to
the bedside of the dying Ellesmere, and which he, either
from dislike of the grant itself, or as is more probable,
merely in order to force the King to accept his resigna-
tion, refused to pass. The great seal was accordingly
affixed to it by the King's special direction, before the
new Lord Keeper was appointed.

Bacon's part in the matter, it will thus be seen, was Bacon's
confined to the opinion, which, in common with others, par
he expressed upon the legality of the patent. No doubt
such an opinion was in direct opposition to that at which
the judges arrived seven years afterwards.^: Yet it does
not appear that his view of the case differed much from
that which commended itself generally to lawyers at the
time,§ and it is certain that Coke, who of all men in
England, was most likely to have opposed him on a legal
question, distinctly stated it to be his opinion that the
patent was good in law.||

Yet, however this may have been, it soon appeared that Abuses
it was intolerable in practice. Mompesson and his fellow-
commissioners were responsible to no one. No scale of
payments had been settled by the patent, and it was there-
fore their interest to grant as many licences as possible,
and to sell them as dear as they could. For though it
had been arranged that the money collected was to go
into the exchequer, it seems for the most part to have
found its way into Mompesson's pocket. It was not long
before men were talking all over England of the ease with
which keepers of disorderly houses contrived to obtain
licences from the commissioners, and of the harsh and

* Bacon to Buckingham, Oct. 18, 1616. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 486.
Charge of the Commons against Mompesson. House of Lords M8S.

f Commission to Mompesson and others. Patent Rolls, 14 Jac. 1.
Part 22.

£ Hutton Rep. 100.

§ Bulstrode Rep. i. 109. Viner's Abridgment, xix. 437. Artu .ns,
sec. 9.

|| 5 & 6 Ed. VI. cap. 25.

358 THE PATENT FOR ALEHOUSES.

CH. V. oppressive treatment of those who had refused to conform

to their demands.*

1618. Whatever arguments might be used in defence of the
The patent exercise of a supervision over inns, applied with double
houses. force to the attempt to bring under a strict control the
petty alehouses, which might so easily degenerate into
haunts of thieves and drunkards. It was a subject which
had long attracted the notice of Parliament. By an act
passed in 1552,f alehouse-keepers were required to be
licensed by the justices of the peace, and this licence
they could only obtain by entering upon recognisances
for the maintenance of good order. The first Parliament
of James had passed no less than three acts for the
restraint of drunken ness.J The efforts of Parliament had
been seconded by the Council. In many parts of the
country the justices had been careless of their duties, and
licences had been granted in profusion. The justices were
accordingly admonished to be more careful in future. §
Certain forms were to be observed in the granting of
licences, and the proceedings were to be certified to the
Council. A small fee was to be charged upon the li-
cences, for the benefit of the Exchequer. Against this
latter innovation, the Commons protested in 1610, as an
infringement of their rights of taxation ; and the order
for the fee was at once withdrawn. As, however, no
objection was raised to the demand fora certificate to the
Council, it is to be inferred that no scruple was felt on
that score. 1 1

Still, in spite of all that the Council could do, the
number of alehouses increased. In 1616, James com-
plained bitterly of the evil.H These houses, he said, were
the lurking-places of thieves and desperadoes. They even
afforded shelter to deer stealers. At last some one pro-
posed that he should take them under his own super-
vision. There was, it was true, a legal difficulty in the

* On this subject I have given full particulars in a paper on Bacon's let-
ters to Christian IV. Archceologia, vol. xli.

f 5 & 6 Ed. VI. cap. 25.

£ 1 Jac. I. cap. 9 ; 4 Jac. I. cap. 5 ; and 7 Jac. I. cap. 10.

§ The King to the Mayor and Justices of Southampton. March 3. 1608,
•Cott.MSS. Tit. B. iii. foL 1.

|| Cott. MSS. Tit, B. iii. fol. 2.

IT Speech in the Star-Chamber. King James's Works, 522.

ILL-FEELING AROUSED. 359

way. The right of granting licences was vested by Act Ctf- v-
of Parliament in the justices of the peace. But, as usual, 1618.
a device was discovered by which the act could be circum-
vented. The justices were to continue to grant the
licences, and to take the recognisances ; but the recog-
nisances, as soon as they were taken, were to be certified
into the King's Bench. Two persons, Dixon and Almon,
were nominated by patent to keep an eye upon offenders,
and to see that those alehouse-keepers who deserved
punishment did not escape through the undue leniency of
the justices.

Such an arrangement may possibly have been needed
in many parts of the country, but it conveyed a deadly
affront to the country gentlemen, who were held to be
incapable of keeping order in their own neighbourhood.
Nor was the ill-feeling aroused likely to be allayed, when
it was known that the forfeitures accruing to the Ex-
chequer from the activity of the patentees, were already
shared in advance by half-a-dozen courtiers, amongst
whom the name of Christopher Villiers was conspi-
cuous.*

* Grant to Dixon and Almon, March 11, 1618. Patent Rolls, 15 Jac. I.,
Part 23. Buckingham to Bacon, Jan. 11. Bacon to Buckingham, June 25,
1618. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 346, 254. The following notes
show that after the patent was granted the affair was laid before the
j udges : —

" Conference of the King with the judges at Greenwich, June 28,
1618."

"Then touching alehouses there was a project, as it seems, delivered
to the King, which he read ; whereupon it was thought fit, (because it
was said that the Justices of the Peace were to blame, either in not
taking or not certifying their recognisances,) that therefore no licences
should be granted but in open sessions, and that they should be of the
sufficienter sort of men."

" But where it was now put in practice that all such recognisances
were by certiorari fetched into the King's Bench, it was holden very
inconvenient, for it is said that every recognisance brought in doth
cost in fees more than 20s. there. When they are there, they are asleep ;
for who can come hither to inform the breach ? It was used for a favour
when a recusant was indicted, to remove the indictment into the King's
Bench ; for that made a surcease of proceedings. And when the pre-
tence was that recognisances were not returned, and that this way should
discover that abuse :— Nihil minus ; for how shall they know what
recognisances are wanting, except they be sure of all the alehouses
licensed through the several shires, which is impossible for the judges
ever to take knowledge of. But in the several counties it is not hard
both to know all the faults both in the justices and in the alehouses,
and to punish and redress them; and therefore the law left them there
to be prosecuted."

360 MONOPOLIES.

Such patents as these were objectionable on many
grounds. But a far greater storm of indignation was
directed against those which conferred grants upon which
the hated name of monopoly could be affixed. Yet a
careful examination of these grants will convince us that
they are not open to the charges which are habitually
brought against them. They were not made with the
object of filling the Exchequer. They were not made,
primarily, at least, with the object of filling the pockets of
the courtiers. They were, it is impossible to doubt, the
result of a desire on the part of official persons to encou-
rage commerce, and to promote the welfare of the State,
though it cannot be denied that their zeal was often
greater than their knowledge, and that their best efforts
were not unfrequently tainted by that atmosphere of
favouritism and corruption, which clung like a dank ex-
halation to everything that was best at the Court of James.
Theories The general principle which was almost universally
recognised at this time on the subject of monopolies, was
very much the same as that which has lain at the root of
all subsequent legislation. As a rule, such grants were
held to be illegal, as encroaching upon the rights of the
subject to the exercise of his trade, But exceptions
might be made whenever any one either invented or
introduced from other countries a new method of manu-
facture. By such a grant no one, except the purchaser,
would be injured ; and even he would, in the long run,
be compensated for the high price which he would at
first be called upon to pay, by the cheapness which would
be the eventual result of enterprise and invention.

Such a rule having once been laid down, it is evident
that there would be considerable difference of opinion as
to the proper mode of applying it in practice. The great
body of purchasers would demand that the rule should
be interpreted as strictly as possible, and that nothing

" In the end his Majesty left it to the consideration of the judges
in point of conveniency touching this new use of recovering the recog-
nisances." Tanner MSS. Ixxiv. fol. 79.

Unfortunately we have not the final answer of the judges. But it will "be
seen that no point of law was raised against the patent, and that though the
opinion of the judges, so far as it went, was adverse, there was no attempt
to override it, hut that the question was left to their further consideration.

IMPORTATION OF FISH. 361

beyond the actual invention should be covered by the CH- v-
guarantee ; whilst the official, who had to consider the 1618.
propriety of making the grant, might either be induced
through negligence to encourage a lax interpretation of
the rule, or might even, from a mistaken sense of duty,
be led to stretch the concession so as to cover manufac-
tures which were not in any sense new inventions, but
which it was thought to be in accordance with the public
interest to place under a special supervision.

Of the many grants of this nature which are to be
found upon the patent rolls, there are not a few which
never provoked any adverse criticism at all. They were
mere protections to new inventions, such as might be
granted at the present day. But the features of others
were more or less objectionable. In 1616, two men i6io.
named Bassano and Vandrey asked for a patent on the Salmon
ground that they had invented a method by which fish
might be kept alive in boats, thereby enabling them to
bring salmon and lobsters from Ireland to the London
market. Their petition was supported by the Company
of Fishmongers, and they obtained a patent granting to
them the sole right of bringing in fish from such rivers
and seas as had not hitherto furnished supplies to the
population of London. It was a patent which would
not indeed be in accordance with modern practice ; for
it was always possible that it might prevent some other
person from attaining the same result by a different and
improved method. But practically no great harm would
have been done, if the patentees had kept within the letter
of their privilege. But they soon found that it was
easier to plunder poor fishermen than to establish ex-
tensive fisheries in Ireland. Their agents lay in wait for
the boatmen at the mouth of the Thames, and ordered
them to make over to them the contents of their lobster-
pots for a mere pittance, far below the value of the fish,
in order that they might themselves sell them at a
monopoly price.*

Such grievances as these were widely felt. But they
were rather caused by the difficulty of obtaining redress

* Grant to Bassano and Vandrey, Jan. 27, 1616. Patent Rolh, 13 Jac. I.,
Part 16. Proceedings and Debates, i. 295.

362 THE GLASS PATENT.

CH. V. from a patentee than by the inherent defects of the

1620. patents themselves. There were other cases which were
calculated to rouse far deeper indignation ; for in these
it seemed that the rule, which was generally accepted,
had been deliberately broken through. It will be suffi-
cient to mention two instances, — that of the patent for
the manufacture of glass, and that of the patent for the
manufacture of gold and silver thread.

1574. In 1574, an attempt was made by a Venetian, named
The mann- Yersellini, to rival in England the products of the world-
famous glassworks of Murano. A patent was accordingly
granted to him by Elizabeth, conferring upon him the
sole right of making such glass in England. Upon the
expiration of the patent it was regranted to Sir Jerome
Bowes.*

The glass thus made had been produced in furnaces

leu. heated with wood. In 1611, Sir Edward Zouch and
three other persons obtained a patent for a process which

1613. enabled them to use coal, t In 1613, Zouch and his
partners applied for an extension of their powers. They
had been originally directed not to infringe upon Bowes's
patent, and they had accordingly confined themselves to
the manufacture of the commoner kinds of glass. They
now stated that their furnaces had been put to the test
of experience, and were answering their purpose ad-
mirably. They had spent 50001. in the process, and they
could not expect to recover their expenses unless the
whole manufacture were placed in their hands by the
overthrow of all existing patents except their own.

As a mere matter of political economy, no demand
could be more outrageous. But to the Privy Council it
was something more than a mere matter of political
economy. For some time the waste of wood in England
had attracted attention, and fears were frequently ex-
pressed that unless some remedy were provided it would

* Grant to V.ersellini, Dec. 15, 1574. Patent Rolls, 17 Eliz., Part 13.
Grant to Bowes, Oct. 5, 1606. Patent Rolls, 4 Jac. L, Part 21. Its rever-
sion was granted to Hart and Forset, Oct. 8, 1607. Patent Rolls, 5 Jac. L,
Part 24. On Feb. 15, 1609, there was a grant to Salter for making certain
glass, not mentioned in Bowes' patent.

t Grant to Zouch and others, March 25, 1611. Patent Rolls, 9 Jac. L,
Part 29.

PROGRESS OF UESTRICTION. ;}(>;j

soon be impossible to find timber for the navy. Bowes Cg* V-
was accordingly informed that his patent was injurious 1613.
to the commonwealth. After some negotiation, a com-
promise was effected. A new patent was granted to his
rivals, by which a rent of 10 00 1. a-year was reserved to
the Crown ; and this sum was made over to Bowes in
the form of an annual pension from the Exchequer.* In
1615, several fresh names were introduced into the IGIS.
patent, t amongst which are to be found those of the
Earl of Montgomery and Sir Eobert Mansell. It was
well understood that the accession of one or two persons
possessing influence at Court, might easily be worth
many thousand pounds to the patentees.

One other step remained to be taken. Up to this
time, if English glass could only be bought from the
patentees, it was still possible, upon payment of a heavy
duty, to obtain glass from the Continent. This was no
longer to be allowed. On the 15th of May, 1615, a pro-
clamation appeared forbidding the further importation of
foreign glass, f

The history of this patent is well worth studying by
those who think that the monopolies were solely the
work of Buckingham and Bacon. For it will be seen,
that before Buckingham had risen into favour, and before
Bacon had received the great seal, a monopoly was made
out which placed the entire sale of glass in the hands of
a single body of patentees ; and that that body consisted
in part of idle courtiers, in part of men whose sole claim
was that they had discovered a mode of producing glass
by which, without special protection, it would be im-
possible for them ever to make a profit. It was by
considerations of public policy that the scale was turned
in their favour.

Comparatively few objections were raised against the
monopoly of glass. In 1624 it was specially exempted sii0veran<
from the operation of the act against monopolies, thread.
Against the patent for the manufacture of gold and

* Grant to Zcmch and others, March 4, 1614. Patent Rolls, 11 Jac. I.,
Part 16. Suffolk to Lake, Nov. 17, 1613. S. P. Dom. Ixxv. 9.

f Grant to Montgomery and others, Jan. 19, 1615. Patent Rolls, 12 Jac. I.,
Part 3.

£ Proclamation, May 23, 1615. S. P. Dom. clxxxvii. 42.

3G4 GOLD AND SILVER THREAD.

V. silver thread, on the other hand, a storm of indignation

1611. was raised which has not yet subsided. If all that is
said of it be true, Bacon's character as an honest man is
irretrievable. The investigation into the facts of the case,
therefore, assumes a special importance.

The first During the early years of James's reign, the gold and
patent. silver thread used in making lace was imported from the
Continent. Attempts had been made to introduce the
manufacture into England ; but they had been conducted
on a very small scale, and they do not appear to have
given rise to any serious competition with the imported
commodity. At last, at Lady Bedford's request, Bur-
lomachi, the great capitalist of the day, brought over to
England a Frenchwoman, named Madame Furatta, who
engaged to give lessons in the manufacture ; * and an
application was made, under Lady Bedford's patronage,
for the protection of a patent by four persons named
Dike, Fowle, Phipps, and Dade. They intended, tliey
urged, to introduce the manufacture on a considerable
scale, and thereby to give work to Englishmen, which
had hitherto been in the hands of Frenchmen and
Italians. They engaged to make over a share in the
patent, or, according to other accounts, a sum of 1000/.
to Lady Bedford, as a reward for the part which she had
taken in bringing Madame Furatta into the kingdom.
Their application was successful ; and in 1611 the patent
for which they asked was granted.

It was not long before attempts were made to infringe
upon it. In 1613 and 1614, we find Sir Henry Mon-
tague, at that time Kecorder of London, imprisoning
offenders and taking away their tools.

1616. The attention of the Council was accordingly drawn to
the question. Both sides were heard. The deliberation
was long and anxious. For no less than seventeen
months, Ellesmere refused to affix the great seal to a
new patent which had been drawn up. At last he gave
way, satisfied, it would seem, that the manufacture was

* Lady Bedford's part has hitherto been enigmatical, and I had supposed
in my paper on this subject in the Archceologia, that it was an ordinary case
of Court favour. But the difficulty is cleared up by a passage in Yelverton's
Defence, April 30, 1621, as given in Elsing's Notes.

INTERFERENCE OF BUCKINGHAM.

practically a new one, and that in it lay the only chance CH. V.
of competing with the Continent. 1616.

The new patent was made out in the names of Dike,
Fowle, and Dorrington. They were to have, for twenty-
one years, the sole right of making gold and silver
thread as it was made in France and Italy. In return,
they were to engage to import bullion to the yearly
amount of 5000/., and to pay to the King a rent equal
to the sum which he obtained from the duty upon im-
portation, which might now be expected to fall off in
consequence of the growth of the domestic manufacture.
The Privy Council, it was said in explanation, had ex-
amined the truth of the allegation that the thread in
question had been made by others before the grant of
the first patent, and had come to the conclusion that,
though the manufacture " had been formerly in handling
and endeavoured to be settled within this kingdom/' it
had "never been established and perfected within this
realm, nor constantly or openly used before the granting
of the said letters patents."

The patentees knew as well as the patentees for the Share
monopoly of glass the value of Court favour, and they ££e£ 1>y
gladly welcomed the accession of Sir Edward Villiers, vmiere.
the half brother of the rising favourite, who consented to
invest 400 OZ. in the undertaking.

From some cause or other the business did not prosper. 1617.
The goldsmiths, who had been heard at the council-table Resistance
previously to the grant of the second patent, persisted in
maintaining its illegality. In April, 1617, Sir Edward
Villiers brought their grievances before his brother and
the King. On the 16th of April, Buckingham wrote to
Yelverton requesting him to support the patent. About
the same time the affair was commended by the King
to the consideration of the Council ; and on the 25th
Yelverton was instructed to lay an information in the
Court of Exchequer against the offenders.

Proceedings were accordingly commenced. But the at-
tempt to obtain a legal decision was speedily abandoned.
No depositions were taken, and no judgment was de-
manded. Scarcely had the bill been filed in the Ex-
chequer, when Villiers and Fowle brought Yelverton a

3G6 BACON SUPPORTS THE MONOPOLY.

letter written by the King, who was at that time in
Scotland, in which he was ordered to commit the
offenders to prison, in what capacity does not appear.
This letter, he afterwards stated, "he kept by him,
thinking the King not well informed."

1618. In due course of time James returned to England. A

The mono- project was adopted which, it was hoped, would inspire

Intoth?*1 offenders with greater terror. The manufacture was to

King's be taken altogether into the King's hands. Fowle became

the agent of the Crown. The profits were to be the

King's, and out of these a pension of 5001. a-year was to

be allowed to Sir Edward Villiers, who had sunk 4000?.

in the scheme ; and another pension of 800?. a-year to

Christopher Villiers, for no reason at all.

A proclamation, authorising this arrangement, was
issued on the 22nd of March, 1618. Its substitution
for the patent of 1616 was a virtual acknowledgment
that the case of the Government was legally untenable,
and that the Court of Exchequer could not be depended
upon to support its claims. Yet the act, unjustifiable
as it seems to us, was undoubtedly in great measure
Bacon's own.* He was now, for the first time, consulted
in the business. With the grant of the monopoly itself,
Bacon tad nothing to do. In 1616, as in 1611, the
great seal had been in Ellesmere's hands. But the step
now taken went so far beyond the mere grant of a
monopoly, that it becomes important to inquire what his
motives were.

His It is true that a sentence has frequently been quoted

opinions from Bacon's writings which is supposed to preclude the

on mono- . <p t -r 111

poiies, necessity of any further inquiry. In 1615 he had warned
the rising favourite to take care that " monopolies, which
are the cankers of all trading, be not admitted under spe-
cious colours of public good." Yet a sweeping expres-
sion of this kind, by whomsoever put forth, is certain to
be mentally accompanied by limitations which are for-
gotten by those whom it reaches in later generations. In
truth, it would be as reasonable to charge with incon-
sistency any one amongst the numerous agitators who,

* Yelverton subsequently spoke of him as "mending many points therein
with his own hand."

HIS THEORIES ON THE SUBJECT. 3G7

within our own times, declaimed against the Corn Laws CH. v.
as a monopoly, because he took out a patent for a newly- 1618.
invented machine, as it is to speak of Bacon as neces-
sarily contradicting his own principles by his conduct on
this occasion. In 1621, Yelverton declared before a hos-
tile audience his belief that this patent was no monopoly ; *
and though no similar expression from Bacon's lips has
reached us, there happens to be a curious piece of evi-
dence which indirectly shows what his opinion was. In
1619 a declaration which had, many years before, been
issued for the guidance of suitors, was reprinted. It con-
tained information as to the classes of suits which the
King bound himself to reject, and at the very head of
these classes occurs the word "monopolies." Is it con-
ceivable that this declaration could have been published
without Bacon's knowledge ? And if he had believed
that the grants in question were monopolies in the objec-
tionable sense of the word, would he not have obtained
the suppression of the condemnatory document ?

Already in the House of Commons, in 1601, Bacon
had declared his opinion on the subject. He had there
spoken of patents as commendable in cases in which
" any man out of his own industry or endeavour finds
anything beneficial for the commonwealth, or brings in
any new invention," meaning, it would seem, introduces
it from a foreign country.

Nor is this concession of an equality of privilege to Patents for
original inventors and to persons who merely introduce Sre"h£"
an invention from a foreign country peculiar to Bacon, troduced
Its principle was taken for granted by both sides in the abroad,
conflict which ensued. It was left untouched by the sta-
tute of monopolies in 1624, and it is to this day held by
lawyers to be in accordance with the law of England, f

The objection which was raised in the following session

* " He never conceived it to be a monopoly, nor doth .... He
never thought it a monopoly." Yelverton's Defence, April 30, 1621.
Elsing's Notes.

f By the statute of monopolies patents for fourteen years may be granted
for the " sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within

446, note* 6.

368 BACON'S POLITICAL ECONOMY.

CH- v- against the patents of 1611 and 1616 therefore was not
that they conferred a monopoly upon a manufacture in-
troduced from abroad, but that, in point of fact, the
manufacture was not introduced by the patentees at all.
To do them justice, those who spoke on behalf of the
Government always acknowledged that, according to the
strict letter of the law, this was true. Gold thread, they
said, had been manufactured in England before. Stripped
of its technicalities, their language amounts to this : —
Though the patentees were not the first to make the
thread in England, they were the first to set up a manu-
facture on a sufficient scale to compete with the impor-
tation from the Continent. The object of the grant
had not been primarily to reward the patentees, but
to benefit the nation ; and, if it had been shown that,
owing to the efforts of the patentees, the manufacture
could be introduced on a large scale into England, the
Government had been justified in overriding the
claims of those whose labours, whatever they were,
had failed in bringing the manufacture into English
hands.

Such ideas, which had justified the monopoly in the
eyes of Ellesmere, were likely to have their full weight
with Bacon. Yet it must be acknowledged that, in pass-
ing by the Court of Exchequer, he can hardly fail to have
been led by stronger reasoning than this. Nor is it diffi-
cult to discover what that reasoning was. To him and
to his contemporaries a trade in gold and silver stood
upon a peculiar footing. To us a dealer in the precious
metals is no more than a dealer in cotton or iron. To
the men of the seventeenth century he was a dealer in
the very wealth .of the country. To allow gold and silver
to be tampered with by artisans w^ho were under no
supervision, was to authorise the most unblushing rob-
bery of the commonwealth. The patentees had offered
to meet the difficulty. They had engaged to import
5000/. worth of bullion every year, and the King's agents
would of course inherit the engagements of the patentees.
If wealth were to be frittered away in adorning the dress
of fine ladies and fine gentlemen, it should be the wealth
of Spaniards and Frenchmen, and not the wealth of Eng-

THE MONOPOLY IN THE KINGS HANDS.

369

lishmen. Such arguments sound strange enough to us,
but it is hopeless to arrive at truth if we do not take them
into consideration.

In an act of the reign of Henry VII. , Bacon found the
weapon that he needed. The goldsmiths had urged, that
they had made gold thread before Dike and Fowle. The
reply of the Government was that, if this was the case,
they had broken the law ; for the law expressly forbade
any goldsmith to melt or sell gold and silver except for
certain special objects, amongst which the manufacture of
gold or silver lace was not to be found. The action in
the Court of Exchequer had therefore become irrele-
vant, and as no one else had a right to make the thread,
the King might properly take the manufacture into his
own hands.

That in pursuance of a great public object Bacon should
have thought himself justified in raking up an obsolete
statute is easily conceivable. But it must have required
all his belief in the prerogative to bring him to consent
to set aside entirely the jurisdiction of the ordinary
law courts by the issue of a commission for the dis-
covery and punishment of offenders against the procla-
mation.

It was not long before the new Commissioners, the most
active of whom was Sir Francis Michell, were hard at
work. Instruments were seized and artificers imprisoned
on every side. Yet even these stringent measures were
insufficient to suppress competition. The King was again
appealed to, and, upon the advice of Bacon, Montague
and Yelverton, a fresh commission was issued in October,
increasing the powers of the members and authorising the
prosecution of offenders in the Star-Chamber. Several
new names were added to the list of Commissioners,
amongst others, that of the notorious Mompesson, whose
unscrupulous energy in carrying out the patent for inns,
marked him out as a person who would render good ser-
vice in hunting down the opponents of the monopoly of
gold and silver thread.

A prosecution was accordingly commenced in the Star-
Chamber ; but for some reason or another it was not
proceeded with. The Commissioners on the other hand

B B

CH. V.

1618.

The act of

Henry

VII.

The first
commis-
sion.

Imprison-
ment of
workmen.

Second
commis-
sion.

1619.
Renewed

imprison-
ments.

VOL. I.

370 UNPOPULARITY OF THE MONOPOLY.

CH. V. were more active than ever. In the spring of 1619 there
1619. were fresh imprisonments ; houses were broken into, and

tools and engines seized.

Bonds It was at this time that a new plan was suggested to

upondthe James by Bacon and Montague.* The goldsmiths and
gold- silkmen, they thought, might be required to enter into
siikmenand bonds not to sell their wares to unlicensed persons. The
King accepted the proposal, and wrote a letter recom-
mending it to the Commissioners. | Mompesson and
Michell at once hastened to carry the scheme into execu-
tion. Five silkmercers were brought before the Commis-
sion. Mompesson told them that if they refused to seal
the bond " all the prisons in London should be filled, and
thousands should rot in prison." But those who were
interested in the monopoly were anxious to secure higher
authority on their side than Mompesson and Michell.
Yelverton was one of the Commissioners, and his sup-
port would be worth having ; but it was known that he
was growing cold in the affair. He was frightened at the
irritation which had been aroused. Sir Edward Villiers
accordingly visited him, hoping to spur him on to action.
The business, he said, lay a bleeding, and, if he did not
help him, all would be lost. Yelverton hardly knew what
to do. He was afraid of giving offence to Buckingham, and
he was no less afraid of giving offence to everybody
else. At last he decided upon a middle course. He
committed the silk-mercers to the Fleet, but at the same
time threw the whole burden of the responsibility upon
Bacon. If the Lord Chancellor, he said, did not confirm
the commitment, he would instantly release them. Bacon,
who never shrunk from responsibility, had the men brought
before him, heard what they had to say, and sent them
back to prison.

The whole city was in an uproar. Four aldermen
offered to stand bail for the prisoners in 100,0002. A
deputation was sent to the King, who listened to the
objections against the proceedings of the Commissioners,
answered that he would not govern his subjects by bond,
and ordered the men to be set at liberty.^

* Elsing's Notes, April 30, 1621. f Ibid.

I The fact that the liberation by the King occurred at this stage of the

BACON S ARGUMENT.

371

The concession thus made was, however, only the result CH. V.
of momentary good nature. It was not the commence- 1619.
ment of any change of policy. On the 10th of October a Second
fresh proclamation was issued authorising the continuance
of the system.

:< Whereas," such was the tenor of the argument upon
which the proclamation was based, " the art or mystery
of making gold and silver thread (a commodity of con-
tinual use in this our kingdom of England) hath formerly
been used and made by strangers in foreign parts only,
and from thence transported into this our realm, but of
late hath been practised by some of our loving subjects,
who by their great charge and industry have so well pro-
fited therein, and attained to such perfection in that art
that they equal the strangers in the skilful making thereof,
and are able by the labours of our own people to make
such store as shall be sufficient to furnish the expense of
this whole kingdom : — And whereas we, esteeming it a
principal part of our office as a king and sovereign prince
to cherish and encourage the knowledge and invention of
good and profitable arts and mysteries, and to make them
frequent amongst our own people, especially such wherein
our people may employ their labours comfortably and pro-
fitably, and many thereby may be kept from idleness,
hereby to preserve and increase the honour and wealth
of our State and people: — And finding that the exercising
of this art or mystery (considering the continual use of bul-
lion to be spent in the manufacture thereof) is a matter of
great importance, and therefore fitter for our own imme-
diate care than to be trusted into the hands of any private
persons, for that the consumption or preservation of bul-
lion, whereof our coins, the sinews and strength of our
state are made, is a matter of so high consequence, as it
is only proper for ourself to take care and account of : —
We have heretofore, to the good liking of the inventors
thereof, taken the said manufacture of gold and silver
thread into our hands, and so purpose to retain and con-
proceedings, which was a matter of inference before, is placed beyond doubt
by a passage in Serjeant Crowe's statement before the House of Lords on
the 18th of April, 1621. "The second proclamation came after the com-
mitment and the King's enlargement." Elsintfs Notes.

B B 2

372

FAILURE OF THE MONOPOLY.

CH. V.
1619.

Bacon's
policy.

Failure of
the mono-
poly.

1620.

Nov.
Bacon's
advice to
withdraw

tinue it, to be exercised only by agents for ourselves, who
shall from time to time be accountable to us for the same/'
These words may fairly be taken as Bacon's defence of
himself. It is impossible for any candid person to read
them without coming to the conclusion that he was con-
tending for a great public policy. That his policy was
erroneous there can be no doubt whatever. It was not
really of the slightest importance that bullion should be
kept within the realm by artificial means. It was of the
very highest importance that • questions arising from
royal grants should not be withdrawn from the jurisdic-
tion of the ordinary courts, to be placed in the hands of
a Eoyal Commission. But in justice to Bacon it must be
remembered that his constitutional theory was never fairly
carried out. He would have assigned large powers to
the Crown, but he would have kept those powers from
being used abusively, by providing that the King should
be constantly enlightened by frequent Parliaments. Ac-
cording to him, the constitutional relation between the
Crown and the representatives of the people was very
similar to that which prevails in France under the second
empire. That such a relation is in the long run untenable,
it is impossible to doubt. In England it never had a fair
chance. James took one half of Bacon's policy, and
rejected the other.

The system thus formally authorised was rigorously
carried out. Unlicensed packets of thread were seized
in every direction. Bonds were forced upon the unwilling
silkmen. But it was all in vain. The manufacture did
not pay. The bullion which was to have been imported
was not imported. The coin of the realm was melted
down. The city was in a state of increasing exasperation,
and no result had been obtained.*

Such was the state of feeling on the subject, when
Bacon, in common with the two Chief Justices, was
called upon to consider the course to be adopted in meet-
ing the expected Parliament, f He saw how unpopular

* I have printed many of the principal documents on this subject in
a paper "On four letters from Lord Bacon to Christian IV." in the
41st volume of the Archaologia, where will be found references to further
evidence.

t Burton to Carnsew, Nov. 4. £ P. Dom. cxvii. 55.

BACON'S ADVICE REJECTED. :l>7:i

many of the patents had become, and in accordance with CH- V-
his wise principle that the strength of the Government 1620.
depended on its capacity for leading the country, he re- someofthu
commended that the patents should be examined by the pat
Privy Council, and that those of them against which just
exception could be taken should be called in. * In a pri-
vate note written at the same time to Buckingham, he
pointed out that his brother Christopher and some of his
followers were interested in the most obnoxious patents,
and urged him to " put off the envy of these things."
In themselves they bore " no great fruit," and it would
be better to " take the thanks for ceasing them, than the
note for maintaining them."f Buckingham, it would seem,
refused to be convinced. The question was discussed in the *
Council, and was decided against Bacon. The patents rejected.
were to be left to Parliament to deal with as it pleased.
In other words, the King, in domestic matters as well as
in foreign affairs, was to abdicate the highest functions
of government, and to present himself to the Houses
without a policy.

"The King," wrote Bacon to the favourite, "did
wisely put it upon a consult, whether the patents were at
this time to be removed by Act of Council before Par-
liament. I opined (but yet somewhat like Ovid's mis-
tress, that strove, but yet as one that would be overcome),
that yes." J The words were characteristic of the writer.
Of open relinquishment of his own opinions, or of delibe-
rate action in contradiction to them, he may fairly be ac-
quitted. There can be as little doubt that he regarded
the patents as good things in themselves, as that he held
it to be unwise to persevere in the face of the opposition
which they had provoked. But seeing, as he did, the only
safety for the State in the restraint placed upon pedantic
lawyers and unintelligent country gentlemen by the full
exercise of the prerogative, he was as blind to the evils
with which the extension of the prerogative was accom-
panied, as Canning was blind to the evils which accom-

* Bacon, Montague, and Hobart to Buckingham, Nov. 29. Bacon's Works,
ed. Montagu, xiii. 105.

t Bacon to Buckingham, Nov. 29. Works, ed. Montagu, xiii. 398.
' J Bacon to Buckingham, Dec. 16. Works, ed. Montagu, xiii. 26.

374 PROFITS OF THE COURTIERS.

V. panied the existence of the rotten boroughs. Nor did

1620. he think it a shame to descend to the petty arts
of cajolery in order to gain a motive power for the
work upon which he was bent, or to make use of such
tools as he found ready to his hand. Where he reposed
his trust, he trusted wholly. The Mompessons and
Michells were left without restraint to interpret their
own patents, and to ride rough shod over opposition as
they pleased. Nor, regarding, as he did, the patents
as good things in themselves, was Bacon likely to be
startled by the discredit brought upon his policy by
the profit which accrued from them to the King and

courtiers, to the courtiers. In truth, that profit was not great.
From the whole number of them the Exchequer was not
the richer by more than the modest sum of 900Z. a year.*
It cannot be shown that a single penny found its way
into Buckingham's pocket. Sir Edward Villiers, indeed,
received a guarantee of a pension out of the patent for
gold and silver thread ; but this pension was nothing
more than a fair dividend upon the money which he
had actually invested. Whether it was paid or not, we
do not know, but we do know that, though a pension of
8001. a year was secured upon the same patent to Chris-
topher Villiers, the whole affair turned out so badly,
that in reality he received no more than 1501. during the
whole existence of the monopoly.")" An uncertain sum
was also reserved to Christopher Villiers out of the patent
for alehouses. Lord Purbeck, the remaining brother,
received nothing. It was amongst the courtiers of the
second and third rank, the royal cup-bearers, and the
gentlemen of the bedchamber, that the booty, such as it
was, was for the most part divided.

Disgrace of Yet small as was the sum brought by the monopolies

Yelverton. • , ,-t n p T* i • i > r n • i

into tne pockets of Buckingham s followers, it was enough
to make him take a personal interest in their mainte-
nance, infinitely more vehement than the political interest
which was felt by Bacon. Already it was known that

* In the paper in the Archceologia, I quoted an estimate (8. P. Dom. ex.
35), of 18831. of which 1000J. came from the glass patent. The latter sum
should not, however, have been reckoned, as it was paid out again in the
pension to Bowes.

f Dike's examination, Proceedings and Debates, i. 127.

YELVERTON IN THE STAR-CHAMBER. 375

to be lukewarm in the defence of the monopolies, was to CH- v.
offer a direct insult to Buckingham. The weight of his 1620.
indignation had fallen heavily upon Yelverton. No one,
it might be thought, would have been less open to a
charge of slackness in defence of the prerogative. He
was no hunter after popularity. In 1610 he had spoken
warmly in defence of the impositions. In 1616, he was
standing at Bacon's side in opposition to Coke. He had
lately assented to the patent for gold and silver thread.
But if his opinions were courtly, his nature was rugged
and independent. He had owed his advancement to the
favour of the Howards, and he had submitted with im-
patience to the yoke of Buckingham. Against the patents
themselves he had raised no objection when an objection
would have availed ; but his indignation was roused by
the interference of Buckingham's brothers, and of Buck-
ingham's dependants. The course which he adopted was
the worst possible for himself. He disgusted the nation
by lending his name to everything ; he disgusted the
Court by the reluctant and perfunctory manner in which
he carried out the bidding of the favourite.

As usual, Buckingham looked upon all opposition as a His sen-
personal insult to himself. No revenge was beneath his thTstor-
dignity. He took care that the lucrative business which Chamber,
was looked upon as the perquisite of the Attorney-
General should find its way into other channels.* At
last an opportunity presented itself for striking a heavier
blow. In drawing up a new charter for the City of
London, Yelverton inserted clauses for which he was
unable to produce a warrant. The worst that could be
said was that he had, through inadvertence, misunder-
stood the verbal directions of the King. No imputation of
corruption was brought against him, yet he was suspended
from his office and prosecuted in the Star-Chamber. He
was there sentenced to dismissal from his post, to a fine of
4,000£, and to imprisonment during the Royal pleasure. f

In regular succession the place vacated by Yelverton Le^! rr°-

* motions.

* Proceedings and Debates.

f Chamberlain to Carleton, June 28, July 8, Sept. 9, Oct. 28. Speech.

of Sir H. Yelverton, Oct. 27. Locke to Carleton, Nov. 11. - - to ,

Nov. 15. S. P. Dom. cxv. 122 ; cxvi. 13, 92 ; cxvii. 37, 35, 71, 76. Sir H.
Yelverton's submission. Cabala (1696), 375.

376 THE XEW LORD TREASURER.

V. was occupied by Coventry. Heath became Solicitor-

1620. General ; and this time the City was forced to accept
Shute as their Recorder, in the place of Heath. It was
soon whispered that something more than mere favouritism
had led to these last appointments. Heath and Shute,
it was said, had agreed to relinquish to Buckingham the
pensions which were paid to them as the price for the use
of their names in the office in the King's Bench, which
had practically been granted to himself.* Fortunately
for the citizens, they were soon set free, by Shute's death,
from their disreputable Recorder, and in Heneage Finch
they obtained a successor of a very different character.
December. J"or £wo years Montague had been grasping at promo-
hecom£ie ti°n of another kind. He had never felt himself
Lord thoroughly at home in Coke's seat, and soon after the
dismissal of Suffolk, he had not scrupled to offer 10,000/.
to the favourite for the Treasurer's staff. f At the time
his offer was rejected, as the King wished that the state
of the finances should undergo a thorough investigation
before a new appointment was made. The reasons for
delay had now lost their force, and hints were allowed to
reach Montague's ears, that the Treasurership was within
his reach, whilst at the same time it was intimated to
him that the King would accept a liberal present. After
some haggling, a bargain was struck at 20,000?., and
Montague became Viscount Mandeville, and Lord High
Treasurer of England. As he was starting for New-
market, to receive at the King's hands the white staff
which was the symbol of his office, Bacon met him.
' Take care, my lord," he drily remarked, " wood is dearer
at Newmarket than in any other place in England.;):

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 3, 1621. S. P. Dom. cxix. 64. See
History of England, 1603—1616, ii. 290.

t Montague to Buckingham, Jan. 3, 1619. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu,
xvi. 227.

$ Bacon's Apophthegms. PForks,vii. 181. Buckingham afterwards asserted
that the money was only a loan for a year (Rushworth, i. 334, 387). But it
would seem from the letters published by Montagu (Bacon's Works, xvi.
228), that this was not the case. An unpublished letter of Mandeville's
points in the same direction. Writing in 1623 to the King, he says "I
know well the necessity of the time. But my own, occasioned by your
service, so presses me, that your Majesty will pardon the presumption
and allow me the liberty to remember that your Majesty called me from
the place of Chief Justice to be Lord Treasurer, in which place, after I
had served you some nine months, I freely rendered up the place into your

BACON'S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY. 377

Mandeville's successor on the Bench was Sir James CH- v-
Ley. Four years before, he had offered 10,OOOZ. in vain 1620.
for the Attorney-Generalship. He now declared himself December,
ready, at the age of sixty-eight, to marry Elizabeth ?irj^™6il

T» 1 • i 11' 1 • •! J»T- ^ey ^lle^

rmtler, a young girl who had the privilege 01 being justice.
Buckingham's niece. The jesters had their laugh at the
ill-assorted match. The Countess of Buckingham, it was
said, deserved high praise for taking such care of her
relations. It was a special work of charity. There were
already six or seven more young women hurrying up to
London to look for husbands with her help.* Other
promotions of less importance followed. The King's old
favourite, Haddington, the Kamsay who had stood so
manfully by him at the time of the Gowry conspiracy,
became Earl of Holderness in the English peerage. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Fulk Greville, obtained
a seat in the House of Lords by the title of Lord Brooke.

Nor was Bacon left without a share of the Koyal 1621-
favour. On the 27th of January, he was raised to a ^
higher grade in the peerage by the title of Viscount St. created
Alban. He was now at the height of his prosperity. On
the 22nd, there was high feasting at York House, the
stately mansion which had once been tenanted by his
father, and which had become the official residence of the
Chancellor of the day. It was the last birthday which
he was destined to spend in the full consciousness of
honour and success. Ben Jonson was there amongst the Ben
guests, bringing with him the lines which he had pre-
pared to recite in celebration of the greatness of his
patron. "This," he said, addressing his words to the
fabled genius of the house : —

" This is the sixtieth year
Since Bacon and thy Lord was born, and here,
Son to the grave, wise keeper of the Seal,
Fame and foundation of the English weal.

hands, putting myself upon your Koyal promise, secured also by the
word of my Lord of Buckingham, which, in honour, I doubt not but he
will make good." Mandeville to the King, April 2, 1623. Harl MSS.
1581, fol. 264. There can hardly, I think, be a doubt that the money
was originally a gift to Buckingham, but that afterwards, when Mande-
ville was dismissed, James promised that it should be treated as a loan
to be repaid within a year.

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 3, 1621. S. P. cxix. 64.

378 THE "NOVUM ORGANUM."

CH. V. What then his father was, that since is he,

Now with a title more to his degree :

ib^°- England's High Chancellor, the destined heir,

In his soft cradle, to his father's chair ;
Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full,
Out of their choicest and their whitest wool."

"N<mim ^ o the outward adornments of rank, to its pomp and
Organuni.' splendour, to the new grandeur of the old abode which
had sheltered him in his infancy, to the flowery lawns
and soft beauty of the woods at Gorhambury, Bacon
clung fondly in sunshine and in storm. But he had not
made these things the purpose of his life. In the midst
of the state which he kept, in the midst of the poli-
tical occupations by which he hoped to serve his King
and his country, he had kept steadily in view that great
scientific object to which, above all things, he had devoted
himself. And now at last the "Novum Organum," the frag-
mentary relic of that grand scheme for the restoration of
the sciences which had floated before his youthful imagi-
nation in the days when he boasted that he had " taken
all knowledge for his province/' had passed through the
press. For the reception with which it met, he cared
but little : Coke might recommend him with a snarl to
restore the justice and the laws of England, before he
meddled with the doctrines of the old philosophers ;
James might meet him with the silly jest that the book
was like the peace of God, because it passed all under-
standing. It was for posterity that he worked, and for
the judgment of posterity he was content to wait,
its defects Yet in truth, it was not altogether the fault of Bacon's
contemporaries that they failed in appreciating the merits
of his work. As a practical book, addressed to practical
men, it was as complete a failure as was the commercial
policy of its writer. He fancied, indeed, that he had dis-
covered a method by which the whole domain of nature
might be explored with a very moderate amount of labour,
and by which the acquisition and retention of knowledge
might be reduced almost to a mechanical certainty.* Yet,

* " Absolute certainty and a mechanical mode of procedure such that
all men should be capable of employing itj are the two great features of
the Baconian method." Ellis. Introduction to the Philosophical Works.
Works, i. 23.

BACON'S SCIENTIFIC PREVISION. 379

in fact, the method which he invented, has never been of CH- v-
the slightest use to any scientific inquirer. Nor was it 1621.
Bacon's method alone that was at fault. In spite of the
value which he placed upon experiments, he seems to
have been intellectually incapable of conducting a single
experiment properly. The great preacher of accurate
investigation, was constantly casting ridicule upon his
own pretensions by accepting the most ludicrous blun-
ders as undoubted truths. He tells us, for instance,
that metals never expand when heated, and that a wooden
arrow will penetrate more deeply into a wooden target
than one pointed with iron.* He did not even take
the trouble to acquaint himself with the labours of con-
temporary investigators ; and he actually ventured to
write about astronomy, in ignorance of the discoveries of
Kepler, and to write about mathematics, in ignorance of
the discoveries of Napier.f

Yet, strange to say, these errors, instead of detracting and merits,
from Bacon's greatness, serve but to increase our admi-
ration of his powers. There would be nothing wonderful
if a man in the foremost ranks of science, the Newton
or the Faraday of his day, were to indicate the probable
direction of future inquiry. But that which gives to
the author of the "Novum Organum" a place apart
amongst " those who know," is, that being, as he was, far
behind some of his contemporaries in scientific knowledge,
and possessing scarcely any of the qualifications needed
for scientific investigation, he was yet able, by a singular
and intuitive prescience, to make the vision of the coming
age his own, and not only to point out the course which
would be taken by the stream even then springing into
life, but to make his very errors and shortcomings re-
plete with the highest spirit of that patient and toilsome
progress from which he himself was turning aside.

A great writer who has been unjust to Bacon, not Bacon's
because he loved Bacon less, but because he loved England phLai°
more, has compared him to Moses looking from the heights position.

* Nov. Org. ii. 18, 25.

f Ellis. Preface to the " Descriptio globi intellectualis." Compare Mr.
Spedding's remarks in his preface to the " De interpretatione natures
procemium." Bacon's Works, lii. 705, 507.

380 BACON'S STATESMANSHIP.

CH- V- of Pisgah upon the Promised Land which was hidden from
1621. the eyes of the multitudes below. It would perhaps Le
more just to compare him to the traveller who from some
lofty peak surveys a mountain region without the assist-
ance of a map, than to one who looks down upon a plain
stretched beneath his feet. Such an one gains a new and
overpowering sense of the general geographical features
of the landscape. He sees the mountain forms piled con-
fusedly around him, and, for the most part, he can dis-
tinguish the furrows of the greater valleys. Here and
there the gleam of a lake, half concealed by intervening
obstacles, will catch the eye, and he learns to discern the
softened greenness of the distant plain. As he descends,
he carries with him in his mind's eye that which no
map could have given him. Yet, to construct even the
roughest map from the knowledge thus gained would be
far beyond his powers. He will remember how soon
the course of the stream or of the pathway was hidden
amongst the windings of the hills; and even if he is aware
of the geographical position of the city to which his steps
were directed, he will know that any attempt to reach
it in a straight line would be met by the intervention of
some precipitous abyss abruptly barring his passage. He
will be condemned to wander hopelessly amongst a net-
work of undistinguished tracks, until he resigns himself
to the guidance of some peasant whose practical acquaint-
ance with the path is greater than his own.

It is in Bacon's philosophy that the key to his political

position, life ig to be found. In its general conceptions, his states-
manship was admirable. The change which was to make
religion thoughtful and tolerant, and the change which
was to make England the home of peaceful industry and
commercial activity, were ever .present to his mind. He
took no part in the wrangling disputations of contending
theologians ; he turned a deaf ear to the interruptions
of legal pedants whenever he thought them likely to
check the rise of the Birminghams and the Liverpools of
the future.

His ideas It is only natural that we should expect that one so
m'gnly endowed with prescience by nature should have
been able to see more clearly than his contemporaries

HIS CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY.

381

what was lying beneath his feet. But it was not so. In _9H- v-
political economy especially, the absurdities which were 1021.
indisputable truths to the ordinary country gentleman
and to the ordinary city merchant, were no less indis-
putable truths to him. But whilst ordinary men were
not easily hindered by any logical inconsistency from
raising a wild outcry against the consequences of the
principles which they professed, Bacon was slow to be
deterred, by any dislike of the immediate results, from
carrying out to the end a policy which he had once
adopted as beneficial to the country. It was very well
for lawyers and aldermen to forget all that they had
ever believed about the value of the precious metals, in
their sympathy for a few imprisoned workmen, and their
disgust at the overbearing lawlessness of Mompesson.
But Bacon could not forget it. The workmen might be
honest men. Mompesson might be a scoundrel. But if
gold was not kept in the country, England would be ruined.

No point of Bacon's political system has been so Onpariia-
thoroughly discarded by later generations as that which m0evne^[y
deals with the relation between the Crown and the ment.
Houses of Parliament. Yet even here his mistake lay
rather in the application of his principles than in the
spirit by which they were animated. His hardest blows
were directed against the error of which the French Con-
stituent Assembly of 1789 has furnished the weightiest
example ; the error which regards the Executive Power
and the Representative Body as capable, indeed, of treat-
ing with one another on a friendly footing, but as in-
capable of merging their distinct personalities in each
other. It was thus that the Great Contract of 1610 was
utterly distasteful to him. The King and the Lower '
House, he held, were not adverse parties to enter into
bargains. They were members of the same Common-
wealth, each charged with its appropriate functions. It
was not well that the King should redress grievances
merely because he expected to receive something in re-
turn. It was not well that the Commons should vote sup-
plies as the purchase-money of the redress of grievances.
If the King wished to have obedient and liberal subjects,
let him place himself at their head as one who knew how

382 BACON'S FOREIGN POLICY.

CH. V. to lead them. Let the administration of justice be pure.

1621. Let the exercise of the prerogative be beneficent. Let

Parliament be summoned frequently, to throw light upon

the necessities of the country. If mutual confidence

could be thus restored, everything would be gained.*

In proclaiming this doctrine, Bacon showed that he
had entered into the spirit of the future growth of the
constitution as completely as he showed, in the " Novum
Organum," that he had entered into the spirit of the
future growth of European science. That it is the
business of the Government to rule, and that it is also
the business of the Government to retain the confidence
of the representatives of the people, are the principles
which, taken together, distinguish the later English Con-
stitution from constitutions resting upon assemblies
formed either after the model of the first French Empire
or after the model of the Popular Assembly of Athens.
Yet no man would have been more astonished than
Bacon, if he had been told what changes would be re-
quired to realise the idea which he had so deeply at
heart. Clinging to the old forms, he hoped against
hope that James would yet win the confidence of the
nation, and he shut his eyes to the weakness and folly
which rendered such a consummation impossible.
forei^8 ^° ^ar> mdeed, is it from being true that the domestic

policy. policy of James must of necessity have been opposed to
Bacon's views, that we have every reason to believe that in
its main lines it was dictated, as far as it went, by Bacon
himself. It was otherwise with James's foreign policy.
For, though Bacon looked forward with hopefulness to the
time when Europe should no longer be distracted by
religious difficulties, he regarded Spain with the deepest
distrust, and he cherished the belief that it was a national
duty to prevent any further aggression of the Catholic
Powers upon the Protestant States on the Continent. In
this spirit, he had broken a silence of three years,f by

* See especially a remarkable paper (the knowledge of which I owe to
Mr. Spedding), called " Sir F. Bacon on Parliaments." It was written in
1615, and is now in the Inner Temple Library. Petyt MSS. vol. 37.

t This silence, which I cannot consider as broken by a fragmentary paper
on war against Spain, which he appears never to have used, is an uncontro-
vertible argument against those who hold that he suited his political

BAD NEWS FROM BOHEMIA. 383

preparing the draft of the proclamation which had been CH- v-
rejected by the King. But unless James was roused
from his apathy by some terrible disaster upon the Con-
tinent, there was little hope that the approaching session
would be marked by that reconciliation between the
nation and the Crown which Bacon so eagerly desired.

Every day that passed as the winter drew on increased 162°-
the probability of the speedy arrival of decisive news Bohemia'11
from Bohemia. The despatches of Sir Francis Nether-
sole, who, under the modest title of Agent with the
Princes of the Union and Secretary to the Electress Pala-
tine, was in reality the English Minister at the Court of
Prague, had kept James well informed of the chances of
the combatants. Nethersple had been Doncaster's secre- August,
tary during his embassy ; and, as a thorough partizan of ^0™yh
Frederick and Elizabeth, he was naturally inclined to of Nether-8
over-estimate their chances of success. Yet, on the 25th sole-
of August, he was forced to describe their situation in
the gloomiest colours. The kingdom, he wrote, was in
a dangerous and almost desperate estate. The Elector
of Saxony was within two leagues of Bautzen, and the
Bavarians had crossed the southern frontier of Bohemia.
The King intended to go in person against the enemy
as soon as the new levies were completed. " They say,"
he continued, " they are I know not how many thousands.
But when all that, either out of fear or worse affection or
doubtfulness of the issue, will stay away themselves and
stay others shall be deducted, I doubt they will shrink
like the trained bands of this town, which since I came
hither did not muster 4000, though I have heard them
reckoned at a far greater number." Thurn's army had
dwindled away from 9000 to 5000 men. Nor was this
the worst. " For towns," Nethersole went on to say,
"there is not anyone in this kingdom, saving the enemy's,
fortified enough to hold out three days. For though his
Majesty have been often counselled by strangers to
strengthen himself by that means, yet the great com-
manders and councillors of this kingdom, whom it is not

opinions to the humour of the King. A mere flatterer would have had
plenty to say in support of James's pacific policy.

384

OVERTHROW OF FREDERICK.

CH. V.

1620.
August.

Sept.
Hopeless-
ness of Fre-
derick's
cause.

Oct. 29.
The battle
of Prague.

safe for his Majesty to over-rule, have always dissuaded
him from that course upon pretence of their want of
means ; but, as some think, indeed, because they have
more respect to the preservation of the liberties than of
the safety of their country, wherein I pray God they do
not too late see their error." *

With an apathetic peasantry, and a nobility whose
thoughts were fixed upon the maintenance of their
own privileges far more than upon the independence
of their country, a Napoleon might well have thrown
up the game in despair. In blissful ignorance of all
that was passing around, Frederick closed his eyes to
the danger with which his course was beset. On the
18th of September he rode out of the gates of Prague
amidst the plaudits of the populace, to join his army.
There were some bright gleams upon the scene. Bethlen
Gabor had been elected King of Hungary, and was
hurrying to the assistance of the Bohemians. Mansfeld
was fortifying Pilsen. Sickness was raging in the Bava-
rian camp. Yet, in spite of all this, the enemy was
making fearful strides. Bautzen was besieged by the
Saxons. The Bavarians and the Imperialists had met with
no serious opposition, and were every day drawing nearer
to the capital, f On the 24th, Nethersole had still worse
news to give. The Imperialists had taken Pisek, " a con-
siderable place, because it is capable of being fortified,

which the enemy will not neglect, though our friends
have, who had no mind to dig wells till they grew
athirst." The town had resisted, and all within it had
been put to the sword. A few days later, Prachatitz
suffered the same fate. Frederick was anxious to fight,
but the enemy was too strongly posted, and no battle
was to be had.J

At last, on the 29th of October, Frederick had his
wish. Outside the walls of Prague, upon the White Hill,
the decisive struggle took place. The Hungarians, upon
whose assistance he had placed such reliance, set the ex-
ample of flight. The battle was lost ; and the next day

*• Nethersole to Naunton, Aug. 15. 8. P. Germany.
t Nethersole to Naunton, Sept. 22. 8. P. Germany.
J Nethersole to Naunton, Sept. 24, Oct. 1. S. P. Germany.

FERDINAND S TRIUMPH.

385

CH-

Frederick was flying for his life towards the passes which

lead through the giant mountains into Silesia. 1020.

There are defeats from which recovery is possible, but November.
the rout of Prague was not one of these. It was no
merely military disaster. Frederick had placed himself
at the head of an armed mob without national cohesion,
without organization, and without definite purpose. The
chiefs were as incompetent as the soldiery. Mansfeld,
offended that a post to which he laid claim had been
given to another, was sulking at Pilsen without a
thought for the common cause. The Prince of Anhalt's
command of the main army was merely nominal. Thurn
and Hohenlohe each thought himself better qualified for
command than any one else. Whilst the generals were
disputing, the soldiers, without pay, and almost without
provisions, were on the verge of mutiny, and were sup-
porting a precarious existence by robbery and pillage.

Frederick himself had done but little to sustain his
falling cause. His was not the spirit which could breathe
life into the dead bones of the Bohemian nationality.
At the council table and in the camp he was equally
powerless. At the moment when the fate of his dynasty
was decided on the field, he was hiding his incapacity
within the walls of the city, and was busily engaged
in entertaining at dinner the English ambassadors, Con-
way and Weston, who had reached Prague just in time
to witness the catastrophe which destroyed for ever the
hopes of their master's son-in-law.*

The reign of the Bohemian aristocracy was at an end. Fail of the
Protestantism, unhappy in its champions, was lying emu
bleeding at the feet of the conqueror. The Royal Charter
was sent in triumph to Vienna. After some months'
delay, twenty-six of the revolutionary leaders, protest-
ing to the last the justice of their cause, perished on
the scaffold. The men who preserved the traditions of

* " On the Sunday morning news came that . . . the horse
upon the outflanks of the army did skirmish. We were invited to dine
with the King, where, for ought we could discover, there was confidence
enough, and opined that both the armies were apter to decline than to give
a battle. After dinner the King resolved to go to horse to see the army.
But, before the King could get out of the gate, the news came of the loss
of the Bohemian cannon." Conway to Buckingham, Nov. 18. Harl. MSS.
1580, fol. 281.

VOL. i. c c

arist0
cracy.

386 RUIN OF BOHEMIA.

_CH. V. Bohemian independence were scattered over the Conti-

1620. nent. Upon the estates torn from the vanquished a new

November, aristocracy arose, German by birth and interest, in whose

hands the possession of the confiscated estates of the

great native families was the surest pledge of fidelity to

the House of Austria.

The new The lost supremacy of a feudal aristocracy is hardly
monarchy. to be regretted in itself. But in Ferdinand's hands the
change became the instrument of unmixed evil. In
his hatred of anarchy the Emperor could see no good
thing in Protestantism. The Bohemian Brothers, the
faithful guardians of the religious life of the country,
were at once forbidden the exercise of their religion.
The monster cups, the symbol, in the popular mind,
of the triumphs of Ziska and Procopius, were dragged
down with contumely from the walls of the churches.
The Lutherans indeed still held a precarious existence,
till circumstances made it convenient to suppress them.
All free thought, all independent national life was crushed
out under the leaden rule of an alien aristocracy, and the
leaden discipline of the returning Jesuits. Dull ad-
herence to routine and unquestioning submission to au-
thority were the principles upon which the renovated
monarchy of the Hapsburgs was to take its stand. Even
this, no doubt, was better for the moment than the an-
archy and helplessness which was surging around. But
the day would come when greater warriors than Frederick
would test the strength of the new edifice with the sword,
and when the artificial arrangements of Ferdinand and
his successors would prove all too weak to resist the
living energy of national organization. The tree which
was planted on the White Hill before the walls of Prague
was to bear its bitter fruit at Leuthen, and at Marengo, at
Splferino, and at Sadowa ; perhaps too, in spite of the
higher wisdom which seems at last to be finding its way
to the council-table at Vienna, at other unfought fields
more disastrous still.

November. The first news of Frederick's defeat reached London

m*nt7n on the 24th of November. The agitation was great. It

London, was easy to see that, in their hearts, the citizens laid the

blame of all that had taken place upon the King. Not

EXCITEMENT IN ENGLAND. 387

a few took refuge in incredulity. The stoiy, it was said, CH- v-
had come through Brussels, and had probably been in- 1620.
vented by the Papists. Many days passed before the November,
unwelcome news was accepted. A full week after its
announcement a strange tale gladdened the hearts of all
good Protestants. A Scotch horseman, it was said, had
dashed into the streets late at night, with news that a
fresh battle had been fought, that Prague had been re-
taken, and that Bucquoi, with many thousands of his
troops, had been slain. One enthusiastic lady went so far
as to order that a bonfire should be lighted in the streets
before her door. But it soon appeared that the whole
story about the Scotchman was a pure fabrication. A
full account of the battle arrived from Trumbull. Yet,
for some time, there were not wanting men who conti-
nued obstinate in their disbelief, and bets were freely offered
that the Imperialists had never entered Prague at all.

The day on which the news arrived in London, an Gondomar
anonymous message reached Gondomar, warning him of ened?"
a plot to murder him, and recommending him to move to
a place of safety. He was seriously alarmed by the in-
telligence. At midnight he confessed, and, as being in
peril of life, received the communion together with his
household. His attendants kept watch till morning
dawned. He then sent to ask protection of the Council,
and was promised a guard to preserve him from insult.
Even then he was not without anxiety. He had no wish,
he said, to be knocked on the head by an enraged Puritan.
For some days he did not venture to appear in the streets,
and he even talked seriously of retreating to Dunkirk.

The King and the Prince were at Eoyston. Charles, Reception

i re • r -i - J ' of the

whose anection for his sister had never wavered, was news by
greatly distressed. For two days he shut himself up in James-
his room, and would speak to no one. James, on the
other hand, though at first he seemed stupified by the
intelligence, soon recovered his spirits. " I have long
expected this/' were the first words that he uttered.*
James may well have felt that a load was taken off his

* Salvetti's News-Letters, *™ ™> Dec ^ ^ Van Male to De la Faille,

l^f- Br^clsMSS. '

c c 2

388

JAMES'S ACTIVITY.

Viliiers.

r!!il ic-s of
the future,

mind. There would no longer be a conflict between Iris
wishes and his principles. It would, now at least, be
possible to defend Ilie Palatinate without giving a sanc-
tion to his son-in-law's aggression. He began again to
dream of becoming the peace-maker of Europe.

With unusual celerity James hastened to take ad-
vantage of the short breathing time which the, winter
an£°r(^e(^- Wotton's nephew, Sir Albertus Morton, was
hurried off to Worms with the 30,000£. which had been
produced by the benevolence.* The King, he was in-
structed to say, would " use all means and ways possible
by a vigorous war,* not only of defence, but of diversion,
if need be, for defence and recovery of the Palatinate."
At the same time, Sir Robert Anstruther, who, in the
past summer had succeeded in borrowing a sum of
50,000£. from the King of Denmark, was sent back to ask
for a fresh loan; whilst Sir Edward Viliiers was despatched
as one who could speak with authority, to tell Frederick
himself that assistance would be given him, on condition
that he would enter into an engagement to relinquish the
Bohemian crown. As soon as Viliiers could announce
that he had received a satisfactory reply, Digby was to
start for the Continent to open the negotiations which, it
was hoped, would lead to a lasting peace. Con way and
Weston were to be recalled from their purposeless mission,
and Wotton, who was of little use where business of real
importance was to be transacted, was directed, after urging
the Emperor to abstain from harsh measures against Fre-
derick, to return to his dignified retirement at Venice.

^ *s se^om *nat fortune plays so completely into the
hands of any one as it had played into the hands of
James. He had now a plain course before him. The
policy which he had always adopted, so far as he had a
policy at all, was now undeniably the right one. It was
the only one which could unite all .Protestant Europe in

* Naimton to Carleton, Dec. 2. £ P. Holland. The King' to the Princes

(>l (1"' Union, 1W. .1,1,1. .WN.s'. l-J,.JS5. lol. 551). From the Dormant /Vm/
S-,// /;,),»/,•. it u]>|u'urs that, on the 8th of January. ;?1.(HHV. hud Kvn paid to
r.urlamarhi out of tlu> IViu'Volemv. for whii-h lu> had ^ivon Inters of BX-
chan-v t<> Morton. ir>oo/. inoiv wore paid on the lOth'of .January ; 1000/.
«"» tii«« Nth «>f I'Vl.ruary : and 200/. on tin* I'Tlh of July. On the 10th of
February llu- sun. nvchvd In the Kin- had bem&jSlU, and L'Wi/. Avu.s
aid r\\ards paid in.

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 389

its defence. It was the only one which Catholic Europe CH- v-
could accept without dishonour. 1620.

Unhappily, the success of this policy was far from December,
being assured ; for Frederick was irritated and unrea-
sonable, and it would be a hard matter to bring him
to see that his cause in Bohemia was hopeless. The
Catholic powers on the other hand, in the full tide of
victory, would not be easily restrained by a few soft
words from pushing on to inflict condign punishment
on the aggressor. The military position of the House of
Austria was undoubtedly a strong one. It was hardly to
be expected that Mansfeld could make a prolonged
resistance at Pilsen. Silesia was lying prostrate at the
feet of the Elector of Saxony. The Catholic inhabitants
of the Valtelline had lately massacred the Protestant
minority who had oppressed them in the name of the
neighbouring Eepublic of the Orisons; and an excuse had
thus been afforded to the Spanish Governor of Milan, to
occupy a valley which gave him an independent line of
communication through Tyrol with Vienna. On the
Rhine, nothing had been accomplished against Spinola,
and, in spite of the arrival of Vere's reinforcements, the
Spaniards had firmly established themselves in the West-
ern districts of the Palatinate.

Even James perceived that, if peace was to be had, he 1621-
must appeal to the fears as well as to the goodwill of the council ot
combatants. On the 13th of January, a council of war War.
was appointed, for the purpose of deliberating on the
measures to be taken for the defence of the Palatinate.
The names of its members were such as to inspire confi-
dence in its decisions. By the side of Essex* and Oxford,
who had hurried back from Germany as soon as the cam-
paign was at an end, sat Sir Edward Cecil and the Earl
of Leicester, both of whom had been trained to war in
the Netherlands. To them were added five veteran
officers, who had gone through the rough schooling of the
Irish wars. |

* It is amusing to find historians of the Civil War justifying Essex's ap-
pointment as Parliamentary General, on the ground of the experience which
he acquired in the Palatinate. He saw the enemy once, but he never drew
sword against him.

f Appointment of the Council of War, Jan. 13. S. P. Dum. cxix. 21.

390 FRENCH OVERTURES.

CH. V. At the time at which the council of war was being

1620. formed, a splendid opportunity was offered to James of
impressing Gondomar and the Spanish Government with
Mission ftlQ beiief that he was at last determined to follow his
Buisson. own independent judgment. In the past summer an
attendant upon the Prince of Conde, a gentleman named
Du Buisson, had made his appearance in England, on the
pretext that he had come to buy horses for his master.
At an audience which had been granted to him, he had
blurted out a proposal that the Prince of Wales should
marry the Princess Henrietta Maria. James stared at him,
and told him that he was much obliged for the honour
done to him, but that he could not break his engagements
with Spain so lightly. Du Buisson accordingly soon re-
turned to France. But James had not heard the last of
his proposal. Sir Edward Herbert, the future Lord Her-
bert of Cherbury, who was at this time Ambassador in
Paris, took it up with all the warmth of his disposition.
An alliance with England, he wrote, would be generally
acceptable to the French nation. The Princess herself
would gladly consent to the marriage. Some one had
spoken in her presence of the difficulties which might
arise from the diversity of religion. "A wife/' she had
replied, "ought to have no will but that of her
husband."*

December. It was easy for James to dispose of disagreeable over-
tures ma>&Q a^ter tn^s fashion. But it was not without
considerable annoyance that he learned in December that
the brother of the favourite Luynes, the Marquis of Ca-
denet, was about to visit England upon an extraordinary
mission, the purpose of which he could hardly fail to
divine. In fact, the French ministers were in a position
of no little difficulty. They were beginning to perceive,
that in negotiating the treaty of Ulm, they had signed
away the supremacy over Germany in favour of the
House of Austria. At the same time the clouds were
gathering for a fresh civil war at home. Angry at the
restoration of the ecclesiastical lands in Beam to the
Catholic clergy, the Protestant malcontents, in defiance

* Herbert to the King, Aug. 14, 1620. Harl. MSS. 1581, fol. 15. Me-
moires du Comte Leveneur de Tillitres, 25.

CADENET IN ENGLAND. 391

of the royal authority, had issued a summons for an ille- CH- v-
gal assembly to be held at Kochelle. Luynes's object was, 1620.
therefore, to make sure of the co-operation of England December,
against the House of Austria abroad, and to make sure of
its neutrality in the impending civil war at home.

Cadenet was unfortunately a man to whom no one but 1621.
the most partial of brothers would have thought of January,
entrusting a delicate negotiation. The first thing that Cadenef
he did upon his arrival in England, was to quarrel with
Arundel on a point of etiquette. The next thing that he
did was to quarrel with Tillieres, the ambassador of his
own sovereign, upon a similar question.* At a magnifi-
cent banquet at which he was entertained by the King,
the young French nobles of his train disgusted by their
insolence the English who were present. Some of these
hot-headed youths actually had the impertinence to leave
the hall because they were not allowed to take precedence
of the gentlemen of the long robe, as they disdainfully
called the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice of
England, j" Bacon, at least, had already formed a correct
opinion of the splendid diplomatist. " What think you,"
said the King, " of the French Ambassador ? " " He is a
tall, proper man," was the guarded reply. " Ay/' per-
sisted James, " but what think you of his head-piece ?
Is he a proper man for the office of an ambassador ? "
" Sir," said the Chancellor, " tall men are like high houses,
of four or five stories, wherein commonly the uppermost
room is worst furnished.":);

In such hands a difficult negotiation was unlikely to His recep-
prosper. A hint on the subject of the marriage dropped tlon-
in conversation with Buckingham was so coolly received

* Memoires du Gomte Leveneur de Tillieres, 32.

t Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 13. S. P. Dom. cxix. 24. Salvetti's

News-Letter, Jan. ^. Finetti Philoxenis, 67.

£ The story is told by Howel. Letters, ed. 1726, 81. The date given is
wrong, but the dates are frequently wrong, having been added pretty much
at random after the publication of the first edition. What is of more im-
portance is, that Bacon is called Lord Keeper, which, unless it be considered
the mistake of a man just returned from the Continent, looks as if the letter
itself, like many others in the series, had been got up for publication long
afterwards. Yet the story may, I think, be accepted. It finds a place in the
Apophthegms (Bacon's Works, viii.182), though without mention of the name
of the ambassador referred to.

392 CADENET'S REPULSE.

CH. V. that Cadenet did not venture to repeat it. He could get
i<>2i. no definite answer to his suggestions about the Pala-
January. tinate and the Yaltelline. It was still worse when he
spoke of the disloyalty of the French Protestants. James
turned sharply upon him. He was sorry, he said, to hear
such language. If they rebelled against their King, they
deserved to be punished. But if it was intended to
trump up a charge against them to serve as a pretext for
the ruin of the Eeformed religion, he would not hear it.
It would be better for the King of France to walk in his
father's steps, than to do what he was doing now.

Thus repulsed, there was nothing left to the Ambas-
sador but to take his leave. James was hardly to be con-
gratulated for the success of his diplomacy. The strength
of his position lay in his adoption of the principle of ter-
ritorial independence, the only principle which at that
time could give peace to the distracted Continent. And
it was this very principle which, in his impotent meddle-
someness he was recklessly throwing away. It was very
doubtful whether, even if he wished it, he would be able
to render any effectual service to the French Protestants.
It was certain that he would never make up his mind to
give them anything more than words. Yet for the sake of
this he turned his back upon the alliance which alone would
have enabled him to speak with authority in Europe, and
placed himself in the ridiculous position of being the
defender of the rights of sovereigns against their subjects
in Bohemia, and the defender of the rights of subjects
against their sovereign in France. Driven about with
every gust of momentary feeling, in one thing only was
he consistent ; in the tenacity with which he clung to
any theory, however false, to any phantom, however delu-
sive, which might stave off for the time the dreaded
necessity of action.

^ All this was not lost upon Gondomar. The wily
Spaniard took a pleasure, only second to that with which
he enjoyed the triumph of his master's armies, in forcing
James to proclaim to the world his own weakness. Much to
his delight he heard that Cadenet, in his eagerness to obtain
support in every quarter, had sent one of his attendants
to ask Naunton's opinion on the prospects of the French

NAUNTON'S DISGRACE. 393

alliance, and that Naunton had incautiously answered that ^H- v-
he knew the King to be in great want of money, and that 162L
he therefore advised the French, if they wished to be
listened to, to offer a portion with their Princess at
least as large as that which would be given with the
Infanta.*

The story was at once carried by Gondomar, not with-
out exaggeration, to the King. James was indignant.
The allusion to his anxiety about the portion of his future
daughter-in-law, contained truth enough to put him into
a passion. He gave orders at once that Naunton should
be suspended from his office, and should place himself in
confinement within the walls of his house at Charing
Cross, f

Gondomar 's influence was evidently in the ascendant.
Captain North, returning after a peaceful voyage to the
Amazon, was imprisoned for having sailed in disobedience
to orders.;}; Donna, who had been led by imprudent zeal
into an attempt to convict James of inconsistency in pro-
mising more than he had performed, was forbidden to
show himself at Court, and was forced, not long after-
wards, to leave England. § Even Abbot, upon some
charge the nature of which we do not know, barely
escaped exclusion from the Council. ||

All the while that James was thus frittering away Political
whatever character for decision remained to him, the hk
popular indignation against everything Spanish was daily
growing. It was in vain that the Government attempted
to stem the tide. A proclamation appeared, warning all
persons " to take heed how they intermeddled by pen or
speech with causes of state, or secrets of empire, either at
home or abroad." f James might as well have spoken to
the winds. Men's hearts were too full to be silent.

* Memoires du Comte Leveneur de Tillieres, 43. Caron to the States Ge-
neral. Add. MSS. 17,677K, fol. 91.

f Gondomar to Philip III., ^-^ Simancas MSS. Est. 2602.

J Salvetti's News-Letter, Jan. |j.

§ Donna's Memorial, Jan. 8. Dohna to Calvert, Jan. 18. S. P. Germany.
The King to Frederick, Jan. 26. Add. MSS. 12,485, fol. 61.

|i Gondomar to Philip III., j£-fj. Simancas MSS. Est. 2602.
IT Proclamation, Dec. 24, 1620. Rymer, xvii. 279.

394 THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.

CH. V. jn the midst of the excitement, general attention was
1621. especially attracted by a pamphlet, remarkable for the
January, ability with which it was written, and the skill with
The ''Vox which it caught the passing feeling of the hour.* It was
the work of a Norwich minister, Thomas Scot. Under
the title of " Vox Populi," it purported to give an ac-
count of Gondomar's reception by the Council of State,
upon his return to Madrid in 1618. The Ambassador is
there made to explain his schemes for bringing England
into subjection to Spain, to tell with evident satisfaction
of the throngs which had crowded to mass in his chapel,
and to recount how he had won over the leading courtiers
by his bribes. He then describes, with great glee, the
failure of Raleigh's expedition. As a matter of course, he
receives the congratulations of the Council on the ap-
proaching realisation of his hopes, and on the coming
establishment of the universal monarchy of Spain over
the whole world. Suddenly a courier arrives with news
of the imprisonment of Barneveldt, and the Council
breaks up in confusion, upon hearing of the fall of the
man who is depicted as their principal supporter.

With Gondomar's despatches in our hands, it is easy
for us to discover that the whole story was an impudent
fabrication. At the time it was widely received as a
piece of genuine history.

Opening of In the midst of this excitement, the day appointed for
ment the meeting of the new Parliament was approaching. On
account of the pressure of business, caused by the recep-
tion of the French embassy, the opening of the session
had been postponed from the 16th to the 30th of January.
On that day, after listening to a sermon from Andrewes
bristling with Greek and Hebrew, James passed, seem-
ingly in high spirits, to the House of Lords.
Jan. so. The Commons were summoned to the bar, and the
King's King began his speech with the exposition of those con-
speech, stitutional theories, which, however they may grate upon
our ears at the present day, would not have been formally
repelled by any of his hearers. A Parliament, he said,

* I suspect from the slight mention of Bohemia, that it was written about
the spring of 1619, and perhaps circulated in MS. till the course of events
made the writer think that it would be worth while to print it.

THE KING'S SPEECH. 395

was an assembly forming part of a monarchy, and acting ^H- v-
under a monarch. Without a monarch there might, 1621.
indeed, be Councils, but not a Parliament. It was sum- Jan. so.
moned by the King to give him advice, and it was able
to give that advice, because it represented the wishes and
the wants of the various classes of his subjects. The
King was thus enabled to make good laws for the benefit
of the whole commonwealth. The House of Commons,
in particular, had special functions to perform. It was
by its means that cases of maladministration or de-
fault of justice could reach the ears of the King ; and
it was the peculiar duty of that House to supply the
King's necessities, as it was his duty to afford them
justice and mercy in return.

James then turned to a subject upon which the House
took a far deeper interest than on any question of consti-
tutional politics. Eeligion, he said, was to be maintained
in the first place by persuasion, and it was only when
that failed that recourse was to be had to compulsion. It
had been rumoured that the marriage treaty with Spain
would be followed by a grant of toleration to the Catho-
lics. He would, however, have them to understand, that
he would do nothing dishonourable or contrary to the
interests of religion.

After this brief and enigmatical declaration, James
quickly passed to what was, to him, the far more im-
portant subject of his own wants. For ten years, he
said, he had not received a penny from Parliament. The
time when they might reasonably have objected to grant
a supply was now past. His treasure was no longer
squandered. During the last two years a strict economy
had been practised. Large sums had been saved by the
reform of the household. With the help of the young
Lord Admiral, who was standing by his side, he had
effected a considerable saving by the reforms of the navy.
If they would give him money now, he would answer
for it that it should no longer fall into a bottomless
purse.

The next cause for which he had summoned them was
the miserable state of Christendom. He had clone all that
was in his power to put an end to the war in Bohemia,

396 PATRIOTISM OF THE COMMONS.

__CH. V._ In the hope of saving the Palatinate, he had spent thou-
1621. sands of pounds upon embassies. He had borrowed
Jan. 30. money from the King of Denmark. He had authorised
the collection of voluntary contributions. " And I am
now," he said, " to take care of a worse danger against
the next summer. I will leave no travail untried to
obtain a happy peace. But I have thought it good to be
armed against a worse turn, it being best to treat of
peace with a sword in my hand. Now I shall labour to
preserve the rest ; wherein I declare that, if by fair
means I cannot get it, my Crown, my blood, and all
shall be spent, with my son's blood also, but I will get it
for him. And this is the cause of all, that the cause of
religion is involved in it ; for they will alter religion
where they conquer, and so perhaps my grandchild also
may suffer, who hath committed no fault at all." Let
them, therefore, make haste to grant a supply. This Par-
liament had been of great expectation. At his first Par-
liament he had been ignorant of the customs of the land.
At his second Parliament a strange kind of beast called
undertakers had come between him and his subjects. The
present Parliament had been called of his own free motion.
It would be his greatest happiness if it could be shown
that he had acquired the love and reverence of his people,
" Then," he ended by saying, " I shall be even honoured
•of my neighbour Princes, and peradventure my Govern-
ment made an example for posterity to follow."*
Temper of By a critical audience this speech would have been
of com"86 coolly received. James had spoken first about himself,
mons. and last about the Palatinate. But the House of Com-
mons was not disposed to be critical. Its members had
come up to Westminster eager to co-operate with the
King. The old constitutional disputes, and the old con-
stitutional suspicions were forgotten. No one thought for
a moment of reviving the quarrel about the impositions.
This time, at least, James would not have to complain of
factious opposition. If he would only be a King in
reality as well as in name — if he would reform abuses at
home, and defend Protestantism abroad, the representa-

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 2.

AGGRESSIVE PROTESTANTISM. 397

tives of the nation were prepared to follow him with CH- Y-
almost unquestioning fidelity. 1621.

On the 5th of February, the House of Commons met Feb. 5.
for business. The first debate was somewhat desultory. Jehbeaferst
The strong Protestant feeling of the members found a
mouthpiece in Sir James Perrot, the son of the Lord
Deputy of Ireland, who had been so harshly treated by
Elizabeth, and who was himself, unless rumour spoke
falsely, an illegitimate son of Henry VIII. Perrot now
moved that the House should receive the communion at
St. Margaret's, for the detection of recusants." :

Perrot's motion was a signal for the pouring out of a
flood of abuse against the Catholics. Sir Eobert Phelips,
the son of the Speaker of the first Parliament of the
reign, a busy, active man, whose undoubted powers were
not always under the control of prudence, on this day
commenced his brilliant career as a Parliamentary orator.
The Catholics, he said, had lit bonfires in their halls, at
the news of the defeat in Bohemia. They were gathering
in great numbers to London, and were perhaps even now
meditating a repetition of the gunpowder plot.

Another subject next engaged the attention of the
House. Since the last Parliament, members had been
imprisoned for words spoken in their places. It was
suggested that the King might now be asked for an
acknowledgment of their right to liberty of speech. Cal-
vert on the other hand, whose conciliatory temper would,
in happier times, have gained him the respect of the

* Under the date of the 5th of February, Mrs. Green has calendared the
celebrated speech of Sir E. Cecil on the importance of granting an imme-
diate supply to the Palatinate. It may, however, be asked why no trace of
it occurs in the full reports which we have, from various hands, of that day's
debate. The fact is, the speech was a forgery. On Dec. 3, 1622, Carleton
(S. P. Hollatid), expresses his suspicions to Chamberlain, and on the 21st
Chamberlain replies : — " Upon inquiry, I am fully of your opinion touching
Sir Edward Cecil's speech, that he was not guilty of it ; but that one Turner
about him was the true father." Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 21, 1622.
S. P. .Dow. cxxxiv. 80. There appears to have been some doubt on the
matter at the time. On the 15th of May, 1621, Meade speaks of it as " made
(as they say) in the beginning of this session." Harl. MSS. 389, fol. 67b.
But whoever was the author, the speech does him great credit. There is a
fine ring in its language from beginning to end. Nothing, in the course of
writing this work, has been more painful than the act of drawing my pen,
in obedience to the laws of historical veracity, through the extracts which
I had credulously inserted in the text.

398 ST. MARGARET'S AND THE TEMPLE.

CH. V.^ House, tlien rose and pressed for an immediate supply.
1621. It was finally resolved that the various questions which

February, had been raised should be referred to a committee of the
whole House.

Usher's The first difficulty of the Commons arose from an un-

sermon. expected quarter. They had entrusted the sermon at St.
Margaret's to Usher, whose abilities had recently pro-
cured for him, young as he was, the Bishopric of Meath.
The appointment was regarded by the Chapter of West-
minster, now under the guidance of Williams, as an in-
fringement of its rights. The House was accordingly told
that it had exceeded its powers. If the members would
come to the Abbey one of the canons should preach to
them, and no attempt would be made to force upon them
the wafer bread which was ordinarily used there. But
Williams, in his hot-headed jealousy for his new dignity,
had miscalculated the temper of those with whom he had
to deal. His offer was contemptuously rejected by the
Commons. If they could not hear Usher preach in St.
Margaret's, they would hear him in the Temple church.
Williams, however, was not allowed to push matters to
these extremities. James himself interfered, and the
Chapter at once withdrew their opposition to the original
plan.*

If the Commons could have listened to the King's con-
versation with Usher, they would hardly have thanked
him for his mediation. " You have got," he said, " an
unruly flock to look to next Sunday." He then asked
him how it was possible for the members to be in charity
with one another, and ended by begging him to urge his
audience to pass a vote of supply as soon as possible. f

Petition In the meanwhile the Commons were busily considering
^e case °f tne obnoxious Eecusants, and in drawing up a
petition for the enforcement of the penal laws, in which
the Lords expressed their willingness to join.|
Feb. is. On the 15th of February the Committee brought up

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 14, 19. Commons' Journals, L 517. Cham-
berlain to Carleton, Feb. 10. S. P. Dora. cxix. 90.

f Eirington's Life of Usher. Works, i. 53
$ Lords' Journals, iii. 18, 19. Woodford

__,__. Woodford to Nethersole, Feb. 17. S. P.
Dom. cxix. 102.

THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 399

its report upon liberty of speech. It recommended an
appeal to the King, and the introduction of a bill by
which the imprisonment of members for words uttered in Feb- 15-
their places might be rendered impossible for the future.*
At this suggestion Calvert rose. The King, he said, had
directed him to tell the House that he marvelled that
they troubled themselves so much about the matter.
Had he not already assented to their Speaker's petition
for such freedom of speech as had been anciently granted ?
His Majesty therefore hoped that no one would " so far
transgress the bounds of duty as to give any cause to be
questioned for speaking that which becomes him not." If
any such offence should be given, he was sure that the
House would be more ready to censure him than his
Majesty to require it.f

So eager were the Commons to avoid any semblance of
altercation with the King, that even this vague and un-
satisfactory message was accepted not only without remon-
strance but even with gratitude. Ten months later they
had reason to regret that the reply had not been more
explicit.

For the moment James's course was an easy one. The Supply.
Commons formally returned him thanks for his gracious
assurance, and on that very afternoon the question of
supply was for the first time seriously taken up in com-
mittee. J

On the 13th the Council of War had delivered its The report
report. To levy a force worthy of England a sum of ^nciio!
250,0002. would be needed immediately, and the pay War kid
and expenses of the army would call for an annual vote *h
of 900,0002. a-year. By this means 30,000 men could
be sent to the defence of the Palatinate, and the members
of the Council were too experienced soldiers not to know
that to appear in the field at once with an army which
could bear down all opposition was in the end the surest
way to avoid expense. §

Such a sum was undoubtedly enormous. No larger
grant than 140,0002. had ever yet been made in any one

* Commons' Journals, i. 522.

f Calvert's Speech, Feb. 15. £ P. Dom. cxix. 97.

t Proceedings and Debates, i. 47.

§ Report of the Council of War, Feb. 12. S. P. Dom. cxk. 93.

400 SUBSIDIES GRANTED.

CH. V. year by Parliament. It was therefore incumbent upon
1621. James to reconsider his position, and, after frankly laying
Feb. is. before the House the information which he had received,
to prepare the nation for the sacrifices which would be
needed if its wishes were to be carried out. A very dif-
ferent course commended itself to James. It was at all
events a good opportunity for getting a vote of money,
and the adequacy of the supplies was a matter of very
little moment. Calvert was accordingly directed to state
that 30,000 men would be needed, and that at least
500,0001. would be required for their support.
Effect of The expense of the troops was absurdly underestimated,
speech! S But this was not the only, or even the worst, fault of the
speech in which he brought the question forward. Of the
policy which the King intended to pursue he had not a
word to say. The Commons were informed what the
cost of an army would be. They were not told how it
would be used. Over the state of the negotiations, and
the chances of peace and war, an impenetrable veil was
thrown. Such treatment was enough to chill the temper
of the most loyal. It would be time enough, it was felt,
to vote a supply on such a scale as this when the King
should condescend to tell them what he meant to do with
it. Yet they shrank from leaving the appeal of their
Sovereign altogether without response. In spite of the
dearth of the precious metals caused by the debasement
of the coinage on the Continent ; in spite too of the con-
stitutional scruples which forbade the grant of money at
so early a period in the session, the Commons unani-
mously agreed to a resolution for the levying of two sub-
Grant of sidies, a sum equivalent to about 160,000^.* The money,
U however, was not to be regarded as a contribution towards
the expenses of the war, for which it would have been
utterly inadequate, but simply as a testimony of their

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 48. It is important to understand the cir-
cumstances under which the grant was made, as unfounded inferences have
often been drawn from a partial appreciation of the facts. Even Mr.
Fprster (Life of Pym, 9), who is not usually given to underestimate the
virtues of the House of Commons, says that the grant was " so small a sum
in fact, that it only left the King more completely at their feet." In his
report from the Committee on the 16th, Coke, on the other hand, said dis-
tinctly that the money was voted " freely, not on any consideration or
condition for or concerning the Palatinate." Proceedings and, Debates, i. 50.

THE EXPORTATION OF ORDNANCE. 401

devotion to a king who, as they still hoped almost against Cn- v-
hope, was at last preparing to stand forward as the leader 1621.
of the nation over which he ruled. Feb- l5-

For these explanations James cared little. With the
prospect of a grant of money he was beyond measure de-
lighted. He ordered one of the Privy Councillors to
inform the Commons that their conduct had made a
great impression upon him. They had given reputation
to his affairs at home and abroad. For his part, he was
ready to meet them half way in giving satisfaction to
their just demands.*

The readiness with which the Commons granted these Gondo-
subsidies is the more noticeable, as they had lately met ™nce to
with a rebuff upon a point which they considered to be exP°rt
of no slight importance. At that time ordnance of Eng-
lish manufacture was highly esteemed upon the Conti-
nent. Its exportation was strictly forbidden, and the
prohibition was only occasionally suspended as a special
favour to the representatives of foreign nations. When,
therefore, it was known that leave had been given to
Gondomar to send a hundred guns out of the kingdom,
the Commons were roused to an indignant remonstrance
against the impolicy of furnishing arms to the enemies of
the German Protestants. They listened with sullen dis-
pleasure to Calvert's explanation. James himself was
obliged to come to the support of his secretary. The
licence, he said, had been granted two years before, and
could not now be revoked. No harm would be done, as
Gondomar had engaged that the guns should be sent to
Portugal for use against pirates. The House received
the information in silence, but it is hardly probable that
a single member allowed his convictions to be changed
by it.t

There were other subjects on which the Commons felt Proposed
even more strongly than on the exportation of ordnance, o^ftlf10
On the 15th there was a debate on a Bill for the stricter Sabbath,
observance of the Sabbath. A young barrister named
Shepherd stood up to oppose the measure. Everybody

* Speech of a Privy Councillor, Feb. 16. 8. P. Doni. cxix. 98.
t Proceedings and Debates, i. 36
VOL. i. D D

402 THE SABBATH QUESTION.

CH- v- knew, he said, that Saturday and not Sunday was the
1621. true Sabbath. The Bill was conceived in a spirit of defi-
Feb. is. ance against the King's Declaration of Sports, for it for-
bade dancing on Sunday. Did not David praise God in
a dance ? What right had they to fly in the teeth of
both King David and King James ? Whoever brought
in the Bill was a Puritan and a disturber of the peace.
Such language was intolerable to his hearers, who, in
their antagonism to Spain, were clinging to the stricter
Protestantism which their fathers had learned in the
midst of the struggle with the Armada. An indignant
Expulsion shout warned him to desist. He was ordered to leave
henihep" ^ne House. The next day his case was taken into con-
sideration, and, without a dissentient voice, he was de-
clared to have forfeited his seat by his profanity.* Yet
even here, excited as they were, the Commons evinced
their determination to give way at the slightest remon-
strance from the King. They replied to a message from
James by ordering that whatever clauses might be in con-
tradiction with the Declaration of Sports should at once
be expunged from the Bill.f

Feb. 17. In fact, during the first fortnight of the session, it

King's seemed as if James could do anything he pleased with

reply to the Commons. On the 1 7th he gave his promised reply

tionPon" ^° ^ne petition for increased severities against the Eecu-

recusancy. sants which had been presented to him jointly by the

two Houses. His answer was virtually a refusal of their

demand. There were, he said, laws enough already. It

was against his nature to be too rigorous in matters of

conscience. He was continually called upon to intercede

with other princes on behalf of oppressed Protestants,

and he could hardly hope to succeed if he were himself

to treat the English Catholics with undue rigour.;); With

this reply the House was highly discontented. There

were those who believed that if the resolution for the

grant of the subsidies had not been already passed, it

would now be in danger of rejection. § But so admirably

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 45, 51.

t Proceedings and Debates, i. 60.

I Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 27. S. P. Dom. cxk. 103-

§ Salvetti's News-Letter, Feb. 23.

THE POLICY OF THE COMMONS. 403

was the temper of the House under control, that, in public CH- y-
at least, no signs of dissatisfaction appeared. 1621.

Evidently beneath the thin crust of reconciliation the FebrualT-
fires of discord were smouldering still. Yet, since James F°J®ig^f
had summoned his first Parliament to meet him in 1604, the Coni-
no such House, so profoundly loyal, so heartily anxious mons'
to sacrifice all claims but those of honour and of duty,
had answered to his call. In the great and pressing
questions of foreign policy especially its sympathies were
true and generous. Composed as it was, to a great ex-
tent, of men of substance, who would eventually have to
bear the chief burden of war, it had no wish to throw
England headlong into that endless Protestant crusade
which tickled the imagination of Abbot and the preachers.
But there was scarcely a member who did not see that the
encroachment of Catholic domination upon Protestant
territory was full of immediate danger to the Protestant
states of the Continent, and of ultimate danger to Eng-
land itself. They saw, too, that the power of the Impe-
rialist party in Germany could only be made available for
evil by the support of Spain, and that if the torrent of
destruction was to be stopped it was to Spain that their
demands must be addressed.

The merits of this policy of the Commons were pecu-
liarly their own. The defects were incidental to their
position. Depending for information upon rumour, it
was impossible that they should gain that acquaintance
with the characters and motives of foreign princes, which
alone could determine the choice of the method by which
the object which they had at heart could best be attained.
Black and white were the only colours on their canvas. To
them every Protestant was a model of saintly virtue. Every
Catholic was a dark conspirator against the peace and
the religion of the world. Of the weakness and rashness
of Frederick, of the low intrigues by which his election
had been preceded, of the anarchical character of the
Bohemian aristocracy, they had simply no conception
whatever. And as they could see nothing but light
on one side, they could see nothing but darkness on
the other. In the very centre of the more than Eem-
brantesque gloom, in which one part of their picture was

D D 2

404 THE KING AND THE COMMONS.

OH. V. shrouded, stood the King of Spain, not as he really was,
1621. anxious to avoid war, hesitating to spend his money, and
February, shrinking from doing anything which would split up
Europe into two hostile camps, but bearing the likeness
which his father had borne in the imaginations of Eng-
lishmen forty years before, the aspirant, by force or
fraud, to universal empire for his own bad purposes, the
restless, ambitious, insatiable vice-gerent of Satan upon
earth.

The King With such a House, a wise Government would not
Holseof have found it difficult to deal. Cowardice and sloth,
Commons, vanity and obtuseness, are hard to guide, but the igno-
rance of a high-spirited and loyal people is easily met.
A king who would deal frankly with his subjects, who
would tell them plainly what his objects were, and how
it was possible to accomplish them, who would take the
two Houses into his confidence, who would speak as Bacon
would have had him speak, and act as Digby would have
had him act, might have wielded the strength of England
at his pleasure. A wise love of peace would have found
no obstacle in those who were crying for war, not for the
sake of its excitement and its booty, but because they
believed that the miseries of war were outweighed by the
mischief which peace was every day bringing nearer to
their doors.

And as is always the case, such a union of action
between the king and his subjects, would have been
followed by effects reaching far beyond the political
question which was actually in hand. It would have
resulted, not as Bacon seems to have thought, in the re-
newal of the attachment of the people to the forms of
the Elizabethan constitution, but in softening the aspe-
rities of the change which those forms were destined to
undergo. It was impossible that a people growing in
intelligence and wealth, undistracted by vital differences
of opinion, and trained to political action by the discipline
of centuries, could long be kept back from taking a far
more active part in public affairs than had been possible
under the sceptre of Elizabeth. That the doors of the
constitution would soon open more widely than before to
the House of Commons, was inevitable. The choice which

THE KING AND GONDOMAR. 405

lay before James was whether he would place himself at CH- v-
the head of the change or not. The representatives of 1621.
the people, freely associated with the Crown in the respon- February,
sibilities of a policy, the chief burthen of which they were
called upon to bear, would be prepared peacefully and
gradually for the duties which lay before them. The
other path led surely to revolution ; to a revolution,
indeed, necessary in itself, and not unaccompanied by
high thoughts and heroic actions, but none the less soiled
by the bitterness of party strife, by the fierce passions
which it evoked, and, worse than all, by the moral pro-
stration which followed hard upon the excitement of the
struggle.

It is almost a superfluous task to accumulate fresh His policy
evidence of James's incapacity for understanding the
feelings of his people. Yet if there was a subject on lies,
which he might be expected to speak with prudence and
moderation it was the question of the protection to be
extended to the English Catholics. His answer to the
petition of the two Houses had been sensible, so sensible
that, if he could have been trusted to keep without
deviation upon the track which he had marked out, it
would probably have made an impression upon all who
were not blinded by fanaticism. The general belief that
he could not be trusted was that which goaded on the
Houses to persecution. Nor was their belief altogether
imaginary. On the 2nd of February, three days after His con-
Parliament met, he had used language in a conversation
with Gondomar in which the poverty of his intellect and
of his heart was conspicuously displayed. He began by
talking about the speech with which he had opened the
session, softening down the words he had used in speaking
of religious matters. He was ready, he said, to five and
die in friendship with the King of Spain. As for the
Puritans, they were the common enemies of both. After
some further talk about his son-in-law, he described his
own reception by the clergy in Westminster Abbey.
The whole of the service, he said, had been chanted in
Latin. So far, at least, he had conformed to the usage
of the Catholic Church. Upon this hint, Gondomar spoke
out. He hoped, he said, to see him restored to the

406 GONDOMAE/S OPINION OF JAMES.

Church, and to the obedience of the Pope. " If," replied
James, " these things could be treated without passion, it
is certain that we could come to an agreement." A few
minutes more brought him to acknowledge his readiness
to recognise the Pope as the head of the Church in
matters spiritual, and to allow appeals to lie to him from
the English bishops, provided that he would refrain from
meddling with temporal jurisdiction in his kingdoms, and
would renounce his claim to depose kings at pleasure.
If in his writings he had spoken of the Pope as Anti-
christ, it was because of his usurped power over kings, not
because he called himself head of the Church. Gondo-
mar, upon this, asked James to give him his hand in token
that he meant what he was saying. The King at once
held out his hand, and told the ambassador to write an
account of the conversation to his master.

No one knew better than the Spanish ambassador that
all this meant nothing. If he had just landed in England,
he wrote, he might perhaps have considered the infor-
mation of importance. All he could say now was that
nothing was impossible to God.*

Such was the sovereign to whom, at this crisis of her
history, the destinies of England were entrusted.

* Gondomar to Philip III., Feb. . Simancas MSS. Est. 2602.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FALL OF LORD CHANCELLOR BACON.

No stronger contrast can be imagined than is to be CH. VI.
found between the subjects which agitated the two 1621.
Houses at the commencement of the eventful session of February.
1621. Whilst the growth of the power of Spain, and Opposition
the miseries of the German Protestants, were occupying House of
the attention of the Commons, the Lords were agitated Lords-
by personal questions which interested no one but them-
selves.

At the accession of James, the peerage had, indeed, ^& old
lost much of those powers which had filled Elizabeth peers.eW
with anxiety. But it was still strong in its social posi-
tion, and in historical associations. Side by side with
the Veres and the Cliffords, whose honours dated from
the reigns of the Plantagenets, sat the Eiches and the
Eussells, who had risen to eminence in the course of the
Reformation struggle. But with rare exceptions, the
ancestors of these men had won their titles by services to
the State or to the Sovereign, by high family connection, or
by strong local influence. All this, it seemed, was now
to be at an end. The descendants of Elizabeth's peers
would soon be in a minority in their own house. Of the
ninety-one lay peers, no less than forty-two had been
either created or elevated to a higher title by James.
Amongst these were a few who, like Bacon and Digby,
might have risen to eminence under any system ; but
far too many were known to have purchased their
advancement with hard cash, or with the still baser coin
of obsequious servility to the favourite.

Nor was it only of the number and the character of
their new associates that the Lords complained. A

408 THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

CH. VL_ smooth tongue and a supple knee was seldom rewarded
1621. with anything less than a viscountcy, and barons whose
February, ancestors had sat for generations in the Upper House,
were forced to yield precedency to upstarts, whose brand-
new titles were unrelieved either by wealth or by merit.
Ouarrci ^ was n0^ ^on& Before ^e smouldering discontent burst

between out into a flame. Not a month before the meeting of
Parliamentj Lord Norris was created Earl of Berkshire ;
owing his rise, it was said, to the expectation that he
would give his only child, the heiress of his wealth, to
Edward Wray, a young gentleman of the bedchamber,
who had contrived to secure the patronage of Buckingham.*
One day, as he was entering the House in full consciousness
of his new dignity, he saw Lord Scrope, whose barony
dated from the reign of Edward I., walking in front of
him. He rushed forward, and thrusting Scrope violently
aside, asserted his precedency as an earl. But the House
was in no mood to allow the old peerage of England to
be insulted with impunity, and Berkshire was committed
to the Fleet, from which he was only allowed to emerge
upon making an ample apology for his rudeness, f
The Scotch Yet, whatever their feelings might be, it was impossible
Lords?8 f°r the Peers to make any formal complaint against the
exercise of the King's undoubted prerogative in the new
creations; and they therefore chose another point of attack.
For some time, it had been usual to confer Irish peerages
upon Englishmen who had distinguished themselves in
that country ; but as the officials thus advanced had for the
most part remained in Ireland, their titles had given no
umbrage to the English nobility. James had now taken
a further step in the same direction. He raised Sir Henry
Carey, the Comptroller of the Household, to the Scottish
peerage by the title of Viscount Falkland. The whole
The Peers' body of the English Lords who were not under the in-
fluence of the Court, were at once in arms. They did
not dispute the King's right to make as many Scotch
viscounts as he pleased, but they drew up a petition, to
which the names of thirty-three peers were appended,
begging that no Scotch nobleman might take precedence

* Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 31. S. P. Dom. cxix. 24.
f Lords' Journals, iii. 19, 21, 22.

GRIEVANCES OF THE COMMONS. 409

in England of the lowest member of the English baronage. CH-

Then arose a strange and unseemly altercation between

the King and the petitioners. Hearing of the existence February.

of the paper which they had signed, James ordered them

to deliver it up to the Privy Council. He was told that

it was addressed to himself, and to himself alone would it

be given. One by one the thirty-three were summoned

into the Eoyal presence, and were asked in whose custody

the petition was. Each one, as he passed in, told the

same story. If the King wanted to see the petition, he

must receive them in a body, and listen to their com-

plaints. James blustered for some time, and finally

agreed to a compromise, by which the petition was placed

in the hands of the Prince of Wales.*

In themselves, such ebullitions of temper would right-
fully be excluded from a place in history ; but the per-
sonal grievances of the Peers were not without their
weight in securing to the popular side the services of so
many of the nobility in the approaching conflict. Feb. 17.

In the Lower House there were no factions. On the
17th of February, the King had declared that if they
chose to inquire into grievances, he would be ready to
meet them half way. The Commons took him at his
word, perhaps all the more readily as their mouths were
closed upon the great questions of foreign policy by the
coldness with which their overtures had been received.
On the 19th, Noy, a Cornish lawyer, whose name is now Feb. 19.
chiefly remembered by the part which he subsequently
took in the imposition of ship-money, moved for an in- coke.
quiry into the monopolies. These grants, of which the
nation was now weary, had, he said, always been preceded
by a favourable report from a committee either of lawyers
or of statesmen, to which they had been referred. He
therefore moved that these referees might be sent for, in
order that the House might know upon what grounds
they had acted.

Noy's proposal was seconded by Coke. The old
lawyer, now once more after a long lapse of years a

House.

* Meade to Stuteville, Feb. 24. Harl MSS. 389, fol. 21. Chamberlain
to Carleton, Feb. 27. 8. P. Dmn. cxix. 133. Council Register, Feb. 19.
Sir E. Brydges' Memoirs of the Peers, 128.

410 COKE'S POSITION.

GH- VL member of the House of Commons, took up at once the
1621. foremost position amongst his colleagues. His amazing

Feb. 19. self-confidence, and the facility with which he drew, from
the vast stores of his legal knowledge, the precise argu-
ment which was most applicable to the occasion, made
his services indispensable to an assembly of which the
great majority were without much experience in the de-
tails of public business. With the feelings and prejudices
of the House he was on his own narrow ground thoroughly
in unison. It is true that he knew that in attacking
the referees he was attacking Bacon, and that long ri-
valry, ending as it did in his own final discomfiture, had
embittered his feelings towards the Chancellor. But it
would be unfair to think of him as merely actuated by
personal motives. Of justice in the highest sense of the
word he knew nothing. Of the worth of liberty, or of
the principles of political economy, he knew as little.
But he had high ideas of his own duty to wage war with
corruption and mal-administration, and the idolatry with
which he regarded the system of the Common Law made
him intolerant of any attempt to thrust it aside from its
supremacy. He was fortunate in the disgrace which
deprived him of the power to oppress, and converted him
into the opponent of oppression. He was, above all,
fortunate in the epoch in which he lived. Two hundred
years later his name would have gone down to posterity,
with Eldon's, as that of a bigoted adversary of all reform.
As it was, his lot was cast in an age in which the de-
fence of the technicalities of law was almost equivalent
to a defence of law itself. It is better, in the end, that
the popular ideas of right should be enlargpd, than that
the administration of justice should be improved ; and
so it came to pass that Coke, in the stand which he made
against the arbitrary tribunals which had of late years
been so plentifully introduced, was, in his blind and
rugged fashion, paving the way for the advent of a
justice which he would himself have been the first to
denounce.

The patent Great was the joy of the House at this accession of a

: lima. Privy Councillor to the views which the vast majority

entertained. " This," said Alford, an old member, who

THE PATENT FOR INNS. 411

had represented Colchester ever since the death of Eliza- CH- VL
beth, " is the first Parliament that ever I saw Councillors 162 1.
of State have such care of the State." The Commons Feb. 19.
did not indeed adopt Noy's proposal for an inquiry into
the conduct of the referees, but the next day a Com- Feb. 20.
mittee of the whole House commenced an investigation
into the patent for inns. Mompesson, who was himself
a member of the House, was subjected to a rigorous
examination. One speaker after another rose to de-
nounce his extortions. At last a letter was produced in
which he had threatened a justice of the peace with
punishment unless he desisted from his efforts to shut up
an inn which was notoriously a mere haunt of thieves
and drunkards. Bad as were Mompesson's own oppres-
sions, those of his subordinates were infinitely worse.
One evening, the Committee was informed, an agent of
the Commissioners, named Ferrett, knocked at the door of
a certain Cooke, an old man of eighty, who kept an ale-
house at Brewood, in Staffordshire, but who, not having
an innkeeper's licence, was, at least according to Mom-
pesson's interpretation of the law, liable to a fine if he
took in strangers at night. Eager to appropriate a por-
tion of the expected fine, the informer hit upon a mode
of proceeding as simple as it was infamous. The night,
he said, was coming on, and unless shelter were given
him, he was certain to fall into the hands of thieves.
Cooke listened to his tale with compassion, left his own
bed to make room for him, and turned his cow into the
field to provide shelter for the traveller's horse. Ferrett
had got what he wanted. He turned sharply upon his
bewildered host. " This is well," he said. " You are
one of those that I look for ; you keep an inn, you
receive a horse and man." It is true that the Commis-
sioners did not support their agent in his iniquity ; but
it was no slight matter that the poor old man should
have been compelled to incur the trouble and expense of
pleading his cause in London before redress was to be
had.* So at least the Committee thought. The patent

* The story was adopted by the House and inserted in their charge against
Mompesson, from which I have printed extracts in a paper On Four Letters
from Lord Bacon, in vol. xli. of the Archceologia.

412 THE PATENT FOR ALEHOUSES.

was unanimously condemned, and Coke was chosen to
report the decision to the House.*

The patent for alehouses came next. It was disco-
vered that behind the names of Dixon and Almon, the
nominal patentees, were concealed those of Christopher
Villiers and other hangers-on of the Court. Instead of
seriously setting to work to suppress drunkenness, the
patentees had contented themselves with extorting fines
from such alehouse-keepers as were ready to purchase
permission to break the law with impunity. |

In the course of the inquiry the name of Sir Francis
Michell had been prominently brought forward as having
abused his powers as a magistrate by using them to
support the iniquities complained of. He replied by
handing in a petition in defence of his conduct. All
that he had done, he said, had been approved by the
most eminent lawyers. The House refused to listen to
his excuse. He was, it was said, one of the first advisers
of the patent. He had appropriated a large share of the
booty. He had written letters authorising some of the
worst extortions. Coke moved that he should be sent to
the Tower, and declared to be unfit to remain on the
Commission of the Peace. The excitement in the House
rose with the prospect of finding a victim. Member
after member declared that this would not be enough.
Let the wretch be disabled from sitting upon any com-
mission whatever. Let a paper setting forth his offences
be fixed upon his hat as he rode to the Tower. Let him
for the future be dubbed an Ale-knight. Let him be
exempted from the general pardon at the end of the
session. At last, however, Coke's motion was carried
without any substantial alteration.^

Those who declaim against Bacon's dread of placing
the supreme power at once in the hands of the House of
Commons, would do well to ponder over these pro-
ceedings. Michell was no doubt a knave ; but, for the
sake of innocent men, it is not well that even knaves
should be treated thus. He had not been heard in

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 63, 69, 73.
t Proceedings and Debates, i. 75, 78.
J Proceedings and Debates, i. 85.

MICHELL AND MOMPESSON. 413

his own defence. So far from having been brought _CH- VI-
to a legal trial, he had not even been allowed the ordi- 1621.
nary formality of a stated charge. Never, in its worst February,
days, was the Star-Chamber guilty of a more contemp-
tuous disregard of the barriers which have been thrown
up for the preservation of innocence by the laws of
England.

Alarmed by MichelTs fate, Mompesson threw himself Sir G-,
upon the mercy of the House. He acknowledged that
the patent for inns had been justly condemned as a
grievance, and. that he had been to blame for permitting
the abuses which had attended its execution. His ad-
mission was treated by the House with the silence of
contempt. On the 27th, Coke reported that Mompesson
had been the original projector of the scheme ; that
much oppression had been exercised by him as a Com-
missioner ; and that no less than 3320 innkeepers had
been vexed with prosecutions for the breach of obsolete
statutes. Finally, he added, that it had been proved
that out of sixty inns licensed in the single county of
Hants, no less than sixteen had been previously closed
by the justices as disorderly houses.*

Yet, in spite of the severity of his language, Coke did The juris-

11 -0.1 ^ J.-L TV/T 111 diction

not conclude with a motion that Mompesson should Of the
share the fortunes of Michell. He had been reminded, Commons,
no doubt, that the House had not merely broken through
the usual safeguards of justice, but that it had assumed
a jurisdiction to which it had no claim whatever. He
now spoke as a man who is put upon his defence. With
his usual fertility of resource, he acknowledged that the
Commons had no jurisdiction over Michell's original
crime ; but he had presented an insolent petition, and
they had a right to punish him for that, as for an insult
to themselves. Having thus covered his retreat, he made
no opposition to a proposal that Noy and Hakewill should
be sent to search for precedents amongst the records in
the Tower.f

A very short time sufficed for the investigation. As
every lawyer knew, no precedent was in existence, by

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 89, 100, 102.

f Proceedings and Debates, i. 103. Commons'' Journals, i. 530.

414 FLIGHT OF MOMPESSON.

CH- V!-_ which the jurisdiction assumed in the case of Mich ell
1621. could be justified for an instant. Coke accordingly

February, turned round with the stream, and poured forth a flood
of precedents in condemnation of a claim which had
been put forward at his own motion a few days before.
The House at once followed him in his retractation, and
acknowledged by its vote that it had no right to inflict
punishment for any general grievance without the con-
currence of the House of Lords. If Mompesson had been
committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms, it was
merely as a measure of precaution, till the Lords had
decided upon his fate.*

The Commons accordingly asked for a Conference.
Every day charges were accumulating against Mom-
pesson. The part which he had played in carrying out
the patent for gold and silver thread, and another patent
for the discovery of Crown estates which had improperly
found their way into the hands of private owners, was
not forgotten. Before the last-named patent, it wjis said,
no man's property would be safe. A century of quiet
possession would not suffice, if the slightest flaw could
be discovered in his title. Coke immediately brought in
a bill to bar the claim of the Crown after sixty years'
possession. But it was evident, from the language used,
that the House would not be satisfied with providing for
the future. Mompesson was thoroughly alarmed. When
the officers were sent to arrest him, he asked leave to step
for an instant into another room, jumped out of win-
dow, and fled for his life across the Channel, f As soon
as his escape was known, the ports were stopped ; and at
the request of the two Houses a proclamation was issued
for his apprehension. But it was too late ; and the
Commons were forced to content themselves with the
expulsion of the fugitive from the seat in their House
which he was hardly likely to re-occupy.

hancfsing~ Tlie feeling tnat tne Commons were in earnest spread

alarm. rapidly. Even Buckingham, insolent as he usually was

in the face of opposition, partook of the alarm. He

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 108. Commons' Journals,].. 531.
t Proceedings and Debates, i. 112, 114. Commons' Journals, i. 532, 533.
Locke to Carleton, March 3, 1621. S. P. Dom. cxx. 6.

THE REFEREES. 415

knew that his declared enemies could muster a consider- CH- VI-
able party amongst the Lords, and that the petition 1621.
against the Scotch and Irish Peers had been, in reality, February.
a demonstration against himself.* If the Commons
chose to turn upon him as the real author of the ob-
noxious patents, was he certain of finding an impartial
tribunal in the Upper House ? The base metal which
lay concealed beneath the splendid tinsel of his arrogance
stood revealed at the touch of danger. He chose a March 3-
moment when Coke happened to be present at the bar, J^*^
to tell the Lords that he had always believed that the referees,
patents were for the good of the country. If it were
not so, the blame lay with the referees, who had reported
in their favour.f

Even if Buckingham had refrained from this ungene-
rous attack, it was hardly possible that the burning ques-
tion of the referees could be avoided much longer.
How could security be obtained for the future, unless
the circumstances were investigated under which Mom-
pesson's abuses had received the countenance of these
great officers of state. If Bacon were right in his inter-
pretation of the law, it was the law that must be altered.
If he were wrong, the true interpretation of the law must
be placed beyond doubt. It was a further question,
whether, if the law had been broken, it had been broken
with the interested connivance of its highest guardians,
the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice. If
there had been no higher motive at work, it would have
been both unjust and impolitic in the Commons to turn
their vengeance upon the subordinate ministers of ini-
quity, whilst they closed their eyes to the sanction which
had been given in high places to their evil work.

Yet, in spite of the weight of these considerations, so February,
anxious was the House to remain on good terms with the ^ands
King, that during the fortnight which had elapsed since investiga-
Noy and Coke had opened the attack upon the referees, tlon*
only a single voice had been raised in support of their
proposal. That voice was Cranfield's, and Cranfield re-

* Despatch of Tillifcres, March ^. Raumer, ii. 306.
t Common^ Journals, i. 537.

416 BACON AND CRANFIELD.

CH. VI. garded Bacon with that supercilious contempt which a
1621. man who has risen in the world by a thorough knowledge

February, of the details of business is too frequently accustomed
to feel for the more polished intellect of a philosophic
statesman. Nor was Cranfield inclined to measure his
words in speaking of those whom he disliked. His lan-
guage was rough and uncourteous. If, for the time
being, he stooped to flatter Buckingham, he made amends
by barking at everybody else. It was from no enlarged
views of political economy that he opposed the patents.
He would have found it difficult to give any reason
against them which would have squared with his ideas
on the general course of trade. But just as Coke regarded
them from the point of view of a Common-Law Judge, so
Cranfield looked upon them from the point of view of a
city tradesman. Why they were injudicious he would
have found it hard to say. But he saw that their imme-
diate effect was to disarrange the course of trade. It is
thus that the experience of practical men corrects the
mistaken theories of the learned, and that Coke and
Cranfield, inconsistent as they were with themselves, were
able to raise a warning voice against the splendid mischief
which Bacon, consistent in his errors, had conceived.

Cranfield's hostility to Bacon was, no doubt, rendered
more acute by a dispute which had arisen on a point of
jurisdiction between the Court of Wards and the Court of
Chancery. When, early in the session, complaints had
been brought against his own Court, he had cleverly
placed himself at the head of the movement, and had
ostentatiously courted inquiry.* Strong in the popu-
larity which he had thus acquired, he was not long in
assuming the offensive. On the 24th of February, he
asked that, to clear the honour of the King, the referees
should be subjected to an examination. On the 27th he
repeated his demand. He wished to know why they
had presumed to certify the lawfulness of any patent
that was a grievance.f But the House made no response.
Even in the matter of the disputed jurisdiction he found
but little support. A committee was appointed to inves-

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 44.

t Proceedings and Debates, i. 89, 103.

EXAMINATION OF YELVERTON. 417

tigate the question, and recommended that counsel should CH> VI-
be heard on both sides. Against this remissness Cranfield 1621.
protested. It was not enough for him to obtain a decision Feb. 27.
that Bacon's claim to jurisdiction was unfounded. He
wished to have it proclaimed to the world that Bacon's
judgment had been unjust*

Events were fighting on Cranfield's side. On the 3rd March 3-
of March, the very day on which Buckingham was a
frightened into his declaration against the referees, the thread.
House of Commons, at the motion of Sir Eobert Phelips,
turned its attention to the patent for gold and silver
thread. A committee was appointed to examine Michell
and Yelverton in the Tower,f and its report was delivered
on the 5th by Phelips. He told the story of the successive
patents and proclamations, each one more stringent than
the last. Bacon, Mandeville, and Yelverton had certified
in favour of the monopoly. The whole business, it ap-
peared, had been utterly mismanaged. The silver and
gold had been alloyed with lead. The coin had been
melted down. Measures of such doubtful legality, that
Yelverton shrank from sharing in them, had been em-
ployed to maintain the villany. But he had yielded at last
to the threats of Sir Edward Villiers, and to fear of the ill
consequences of resisting a brother of the favourite.;);

Phelips's statement was confirmed by further inquiry.
The names of Mompesson and Michell acquired a fresh
notoriety as the active members of the commission by
which the monopoly was enforced. It was since Mom-
pesson's name had been added to the list that the work-
men complained of increased tyranny and harshness.

Every element of opposition in the House was united
in disgust at these revelations. The champions of the
common law were justly dissatisfied with the creation of
an arbitrary tribunal which sent men to prison without
the interference of a jury. The advocates, or those who
thought themselves the advocates, of liberty of trade were
displeased by the restriction placed upon the freedom of
labour, whilst those whose great commercial doctrine was

* Commons' Journals, i. 537.

t Proceedings and Debates, i. 117.

% Proceedings and Debates, i. 120.

VOL. I. E E

418 ATTACK UPON THE REFEREES.

the preservation of the precious metals were horrified
when they heard of the treatment to which the coin had
been subjected. On the 8th of March a committee was
ordered, not only to lay before the Lords the complaint
of the House against Mompesson, but to demand, in set
terms, an inquiry into the conduct of the referees.*
The That afternoon the Lords listened to the long com-

dem^icT plaint of the Lower House. The grievances of the inns,
inquiry of the concealed lands, and of the gold and silver thread,
conduct were recited in order. But not a word was said about
of the £ne referees. This part of the charge had been entrusted
to two lawyers, Sir Heneage Finch and Thomas Crew,
and it was no light thing for two lawyers to bring a
complaint against the Chancellor. But Finch and Crew
were not allowed to persist in their prudential silence.
They were bidden to go back the next day, and to neglect
to deliver their message at their peril, f

It was all very well for Buckingham to shift the blame
from his own shoulders to those of the referees. But no
such course was possible for James. Whatever might be
the exact forms assumed by the inquiry into the conduct
of Bacon and Mandeville, it was plain that it would be,
in effect, a revival of the old parliamentary system of
impeachment, and that it would carry with it a reversal
of the whole constitutional policy of the Tudors. Within
the memory of living man no minister of the Crown had
been practically regarded as responsible to any one but
the Sovereign. For James, therefore, to allow the Lord
Chancellor and the Lord Treasurer to be called in ques-
tion by Parliament would be to sacrifice that claim to
sovereignty for which he had always so persistently
struggled.

March 10. With his usual blundering impetuosity, James at-
temPted to stem the tide. On the morning of the
day °n which Finch and Crew were to return with the
message which they had omitted to deliver, he sum-
moned the Commons to appear before him in the Upper
House. He wished to know, he said, upon what they

* Commons' Journals, i. 546.

t Commons' Journals, i. 547. Woodford to Nethersole, March 15. S. P.
Germany.

INTERFERENCE OF THE KING. 419

had founded their claim to omnipotence \ They had no CH- VI-
precedents for what they were doing excepting from 1621-
times of confusion and anarchy. What had such cases March 10-
to do with the age in which they were living? The
sceptre was now in the hands of a wise and legiti-
mate Sovereign, and it was to him that the honour of
directing the Government should be left.

" Before Parliament met/' he added, " my subjects,
whenever they had any favour to ask, used to come
either to me or to Buckingham. But now, as if we
had both ceased to exist, they go to the Parliament.
All this is most disrespectful. I will, therefore, tell you
a fable. In the days when animals could speak, there
was a cow burthened with too heavy a tail, and, before
the end of the winter, she had it cut off. When the
summer came, and the flies began to annoy her, she
would gladly have had her tail back again. I and.
Buckingham are like the cow's tail, and when the session
is over you will be glad to have us back again to defend
you from abuses."

Never was a grave constitutional question argued in a Persistence

mi IT-- t i n i of the

stranger way. The Kings apologue, as may well be commons,
imagined, made but very little impression on his hearers.
The first act of the Commons, on returning from the
scene, was to send messengers to make fresh arrange-
ments for the conference in the afternoon. The King,
who was still within the precincts of the House of Lords,
was deeply annoyed. Hurrying back in a passion, he
seized upon the first excuse that came to hand as a
channel for his dissatisfaction. It happened that the
Subsidy Bill, which was to carry out the resolution
which had been passed a fortnight before, was to have
gone through committee in the Commons on that very
afternoon. James chose to believe that by asking for a
conference, the Lower House was deliberately postpon-
ing the relief of the Exchequer to its own grievances.
With an angry face, and a volley of oaths, he told the
Peers that they must forbid the Commons from meddling
with any business whatever till the Subsidy Bill was
passed. The Lords begged to be excused. They had
arranged, they said, that the conference was to take

E E 2

420 PERSISTENCE OF THE COMMONS.

CH- VI- place that afternoon, and they could not break their
1621. word. If his Majesty wished, he could send the message
March 10. himself.

James was accordingly driven to send his own impe-
rious commands through the Attorney-General. Coventry
was received with all due respect by the Commons. The
conference, he was told, could not now be abandoned.
But as soon as it was over they would return to their
own House, and would take good care that the Subsidy Bill
should go through committee, if they sat till ten at night.*
charge The Commons had shown that they at least knew how

agailifuhe to ^eeP tne"< temper, and James learnt that his intempe-
reterees. rate resistance had done him no service. In the after-
noon Finch and Crew laid before the Lords their
charges against the referees. It was then that a scene
occurred which showed how deeply the spirit of oppo-
sition had penetrated the Upper House. Bacon and
Mandeville attempted to reply to the charges which
affected them so deeply. As soon as they had finished,
Coke asked whether this reply was to be taken as pro-
ceeding from the House. With one accord the Lords
who were present answered with a bare negative. Not
March 12. a voice was raised on behalf of the King's theory that
the Commons had no right to interfere with the conduct
of his ministers. Nor was this all. At the next sitting
Bacon and Mandeville were taken sharply to task by
Pembroke for speaking at a conference without permis-
sion,, and were compelled to apologize to the House for
their breach of its rules. Even Pembroke's language was
not sufficiently guarded for the members of his party.
He spoke of the offenders, in the common language of
the day, as " two great lords." At the motion of Lord
Spencer, the friend and warm political supporter of
Southampton, it was unanimously resolved that "no
lords of this House are to be named great lords, for
they are all peers." f

* Woodford to Nethersole, March 15. S. P. Germany. Salvetti's News-
Letter, March l£. Salvetti's ignorance of the forms of the House has led to
some inaccuracies in his account of the affair of the Subsidy Bill. But
these mistakes are easily corrected, and are not of a nature to throw any
doubt over the general correctness of his narrative.

t Commons' Journals, i. 550. Lords' Journals, iii. 42.

SUGGESTIONS OF WILLIAMS. 421

These signs were not lost upon Buckingham. Though CH- VL
his name had not been mentioned, he knew well that by 1621.
a large party in both Houses he was regarded with March,
marked disfavour, and that in the private conversa- Bucking-
tion of the members, his downfall was not unfrequently
spoken of as the necessary sequence of the measures
which had been taken against the referees.* As the
readiest mode of escaping the danger, therefore, he be-
gan to put forth his influence with the King in favour of
a speedy dissolution.

In his distress he turned towards Williams for advice.
The worldly -wise Dean of Westminster was shrewd
enough to discern the risks which attended the course
upon which his patron was entering. " Do not quarrel
with the Parliament," he said in effect, "for hunting
down delinquents. It is its proper work. Have no fear
lest your reputation should suffer. Put yourself at the
head of the movement. Swim with the tide, and you
cannot be drowned. If, in order to save some cormo-
rants, you assist to break up this Parliament, which is
now in pursuit of justice, you will pluck up a sluice
which will overwhelm yourself. The King will find it a
great disservice before the year is out. The storm will
gather again, and your counsel will be remembered
against you. Eather let those empty fellows, Mompes-
son and Michell, be made victims of the public wrath.
Cast all monopolies into the Dead Sea after them. I
have searched in the signet office, and have collected
almost forty. Kevoke them all. Hearken not to Reho-
boam's earwigs, who would advise the King to levy
money otherwise than by a Parliamentary grant." f

* "'II Signer Marchese . . . cerca di giustificarsi col Parlamento
dell' impressions die hanno di lui. II quale se sapra con venti tanto
contrarii guidare la sua barca non fara poco." Salvetti's News-Letter,

March i. Compare the letter of March ^.

f Racket's Life of Williams, 50. In the speech as it there stands, the
following often-quoted passage occurs : — " Delay not a day before you give
your brother, Sir Edward, a commission for an embassage to some of the
Princes of Germany or the Netherlands, and dispatch him over the seas
before he be missed." Such is the prevailing ignorance of the details of
this reign, that even well-informed writers have allowed themselves to
believe that this nonsense is a genuine report of Williams's words. Of
course Williams said nothing of the kind. Villiers left England in January,

422
CH. VI.

1621.
March.

Its accept-
ance.

March 12.
The
King's
message.

March 13.

Bucking-
ham's de-
claration
against
mono-
polies.

THE KING GIVES WAY.

Buckingham was charmed with such advice as this.
He hurried the dean off to James, who received the
counsel as if it had been a revelation from heaven. In
the main it coincided with that which Bacon had given
before the meeting of Parliament. That James should
lead the Commons rather than contend with them was
an easy recommendation. But it was one thing to ad-
vise the King to take note of the current of popular
opinion, and to anticipate complaint by the correction
of abuses. It was another thing to urge him to turn
savagely upon the agents of those abuses, and to sacri-
fice to popular clamour the tools whose misdemeanours
might, for the most part, be traced to his own careless-
ness and inefficiency.

James was not long in acting upon the advice which
was thus given him.* On the 1 2th he sent a message to
the Commons in which not a trace was to be found of
the asperity which he had so recently manifested. He
thanked them for their alacrity in pushing on the Subsidy
Bill, and assured them of his readiness to redress their
grievances."}" In the Upper House, Buckingham played
his part with the readiness of an accomplished actor. At
a conference which took place on the 13th he stepped
forward to speak, though he was not a member of the
Committee. Before such a breach of order the fault
committed by Bacon and Mandeville shrunk into insigni-

and returned in April. When he left there was no expectation of any dis-
turbance in Parliament. I suspect Williams said, " Keep your brother from
returning," or something of the kind. Some such plan was in contempla-
tion. Salvetti, writing on the ^th of March, says, " Villiers non dovr&

ritornare cosi presto, o almeno fino che questa assemblea del Parlamento
duri."

The speech is however, too characteristic to be altogether imaginary, and
was perhaps set down from memory, when the exact nature of the advice
given about Villiers was forgotten. In the same speech " Lord Posthumius"
is of course a mere printer's or copyist's blunder, for L. i.e. Lucius Post-
humiua, an error which would hardly be worth notice, if it had not been
sometimes supposed to be an allusion to Lord Bacon. In the next page
Racket boldly states that " Sir E. Villiers was sent abroad and returned
not till September following." This is an evident confusion arising from a
dim recollection of Villiers's second mission in the autumn.

* We are not told what was the date of Williams's interview. But judging
trom the change in the King's tone, I should suppose it to have taken place
on the llth.

t Proceedings and Debates, I 143.

BUCKINGHAM ON HIS DEFENCE. 423

ficance, and he was at once reduced to silence by South- CH- VI-
ampton. But Buckingham was not to be restrained so 1621.
easily. He stepped back into the House, and returned March is.
with leave to say what he pleased.

When he came back, he spoke with unexpected vehe-
mence. His brother Edward, he said, and his brother
Christopher, had been named in the complaints of the
Commons. If his father had begotten two sons to be
grievances to the Commonwealth, he must tell them that
the same father had begotten a third son who would help
in punishing them. It was the first time that he had
known what a Parliament was, and he was ready to do
everything in his power to further the welfare of the
King and of the nation.

Smarting under the humiliation which he was under- His
going, Buckingham hastened back to the House of Lords, ^ta"el
to complain of Southampton's interruption. Hot words South-
passed on both sides, and it was said that, but for the amPton-
interposition of the Prince of Wales, swords would have
been drawn. The arrogant favourite was obliged to ex-
plain that he had been absent when the censure was
passed upon Bacon and Mandeville, and that he was con-
sequently ignorant of the order against which he had
offended.

Very different was the bearing of the Lower House The
when Buckingham's words were reported to them. The
Commons had no personal animosities to gratify. In their
zeal for the public good they did not care to scrutinise
too closely the motives of the magnificent favourite's
conversion. All thought of opposition to him was at
once abandoned. On the 14th the Bill against mono-
polies, which had been brought in by Coke three days
before, was read a second time. On the 15th the charge
against Mompesson was put into its final shape, and was
carried up to the House of Lords. This time not a
syllable was breathed against the referees.*

The Commons had shown that they were possessed of J^ ,
that political tact which is of more value than any tern- BUI.
porary success. It is true that the right of inquiry into

* Woodforcl to Nethersole, March 15. 8. P. Germany. Meddus to Mead.
Harl MSS. 389, fol. 26, b. Proceedings and Debates, i. 150. ii. App. 6.

424 CHURCHILL'S DELINQUENCIES.

CH- VI- the conduct of high officers of state was the key-stone of
1621. their position. But for the time, it was of greater im-
Mavch. portance to define the law than to punish offenders. It
was certain that it was impossible to proceed against the
referees without alienating the King. If, on the other
hand, they could convert into law the Bill which was
before them, it would never again be in the power of any
minister, however high in favour, to divert disputes re-
lating to commercial privileges from the ordinary courts.
The law of inventions protected by patent, whatever it
might be, would from henceforth be placed under the
safeguard of a jury.

Bacon's Bacon must have felt that, though the immediate
IOD< danger had passed by, his position was by no means
secure. In the House of Lords, though he had no per-
sonal ill-feeling to complain of, his connection with
Buckingham was a complete bar to his general popu-
larity. The Commons, it was true, had withdrawn their
charges against him out of deference for the King, but
they were in no humour to criticize very closely any
accusation against him which did not involve an attack
upon the Royal prerogative. For whatever may be the
judgment finally passed upon his conduct with respect
to the patents, it is absolutely impossible that he can
have been regarded by his political opponents in the full
blaze of the revelations of Mompesson's villany, in any
other light than in that of a sycophant and a tyrant.
Since its appointment at the commencement of the

Chancery! session, the committee for inquiring into abuses in the
Courts of Justice had held its regular sittings on Wed-
nesday afternoons. On the 28th of February, the atten-
tion of its members was drawn to the delinquencies ol
the registrars of the Court of Chancery. These men,
amongst whom a certain John Churchill was especially
notorious, were accustomed to add to their regular fees
by the practice of forging orders, and entering them as if
they had been delivered by the Court. Bacon's cha-
racter was not, of course, affected by this discovery in the
slightest degree, but it gave the delinquent a motive for
purchasing impunity by informing against his superiors."''

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 109. These forgeries must, as a rule, have

CRANFIELD'S ATTACK UPON BACON. 425

The Committee did not meet again till the 14th of CH- VL
March. Cranfield,* who saw that, since Buckingham's 162L
speech on the preceding day, his opportunity of calling March li-
the referees to account was slipping away, led the attack °f
against Bacon by complaining of his practice of issuing
Bills of Conformity. These Bills, by which the Court of
Chancery had been in the habit of extending its protection
over insolvent debtors who were able to make out a case
for its interference, were attacked by the Master of the
Wards in the true spirit of a London shopkeeper. Cran-
field even went so far as to declare, that, compared with
these, Mompesson's knaveries were but a trifle. " It were
as good," he said, " a man took away a purse as hinder
him recover by justice his due debt." Coke followed on
the same side. He could not believe that there were
such proceedings in any court of justice. Sir Dudley
Digges, who had just returned from a mission on behalf of
the East India Company to Amsterdam, spoke the senti-
ments of the more reasonable traders, who did not alto-
gether regard a debtor as a wild beast to be hunted down
without mercy. In old times, he said, there were certain
definite cases in which these Bills had been granted, " but
now, it is to be feared, that the latitude of the jurisdic-
tion of that Court had brought in many mischiefs." He
wished that something might be done, in order that it

related to matters of small weight, which would escape the notice of the
Court. On one occasion on which Churchill ventured to tamper with a
decree of importance he was, as will be seen, detected immediately.

* In his anxiety to prove that there was a good understanding between
Buckingham and Cranfield, Mr. Hepworth Dixon (Story of Lord Bacon's
Life, 371) says that Cranfield received a grant of " a considerable share of
the fines which belonged of right to the officers of Bacon's court," by which
he got " a pretext for overhauling the Entry Books and scrutinising the
receipt of fees." No doubt Mrs. Green in her Calendar states that Cranfield
received a grant of the alienation fines on the 22nd of December, 1620.
But her statement that it was made to Lord Cranfield at once provokes
suspicion, as there was no such person in existence at the date, and a re-
ference to the Patent Rolls shows that she was led into error by a mistake
in an old index. The grant was made, not in 1620 but in 1621. It could
not well be otherwise, as the fines belonged not to Bacon's officers, but to
Bacon himself, and till he surrendered them after his sentence it was not in
the King's power to grant them to Cranfield. Mrs. Green's reputation for
accuracy stands deservedly so high, that it is always worth while to notice
any of the slips which are to be found, few and far between, in that
calendar which few have had the opportunity of testing so thoroughly as
myself.

426 CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST BACON.

CH. VI. might " not lie in the breast of one man, be it whosoever,
1621. to use so large a power, but that he might be tied to the
March 14. old rules and bounds of Chancery, which is only to miti-
gate the rigour of the law."*

Digges had evidently made out a case for inquiry. Dis-
like of technicalities, and confidence in his own powers,
were the fertile sources of Bacon's errors. In his eager-
ness to supersede the imperfections of the existing law, he
sometimes forgot to calculate the risk of pouring contempt
upon law itself, or to remember that it is only by the
establishment of general rules that progress is possible.
In his desire to crush opposition to the gold and silver
thread patent, which had, as he firmly believed, been
established for the benefit of the Commonwealth, he had
sanctioned the operations of an arbitrary tribunal, which
might in after times be imitated for the worst of pur-
poses, and it is by no means impossible that in the hope
of giving protection to a struggling debtor, he may
have countenanced measures which, if reduced into a rule,
would have made honest trade impossible.

Bacon Every day was thus increasing the alienation between

charged gacon an(j the House of Commons. Yet there can have

bribery, been few amongst the members who did not feel a shock

when Christopher Aubrey appeared at the bar with a

petition in which the Chancellor was directly charged

with bribery.

Aubrey's Aubrey had many years previously been employed by
Sir William Brunker, as a receiver of certain fines, called
the Issues of Jurors, which had been leased to him by the
King. The two men had quarrelled, and an action at
Common Law resulted in a judgment in Aubrey's favour.
Brunker appealed to the Court of Chancery, and in April,
1618, the suit came on for a hearing before Bacon. On
the whole he expressed himself in Brunker's favour,
but he declined to give any positive opinion till the
accounts had been subjected to a strict examination. |
Some weeks passed by, and no satisfactory explanation

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 157 — 159.

t Affidavits of Brunker and Twine, Oct. 23, 1617. Chancery Affidavits,
Mich. T. 1617, Nos. 157, 158. Orders. Brunker v. Aubrey, Oct. 20, 1617 ;
April 29, 1618. Order Book, 1617, A. fol. 71, 955.

AUBREY'S CASE. 427

of his claims could be extracted from Aubrey.* It was CH- VL
not, it would seem, in the correctness of his figures that the 1621.
strength of his case was to be found. He had already, March 14.
unless he is grossly belied, bribed and cajoled at least
two witnesses to give evidence in his favour. He now
ventured on a bolder step. On the 1st of June, he placed
1001. in the hands of his counsel, Sir George Hastings,
and requested him to give it to the Chancellor himself.
The money, he was subsequently informed, had been
given and accepted, and he confidently looked forward to
a favourable decision upon his case. In less than a fort-
night, however, he was undeceived. On the 13th, "a
killing order/' as he afterwards termed it, ejected him
from his post, and appointed a new receiver in his
place. Under these circumstances, the production of his
accounts became a necessity. His case occupied the
court for more than two years ; and it was not till
November 1620, that Bacon finally announced his award,
which acknowledged the justice of many of his claims,
but which, as it did not give him all that he had asked,
left him a dissatisfied man.f

Brooding over his injuries, he determined to appeal Hispeti-
to the House of Commons. According to the petition commons!
which he now presented, he had met with nothing but
delay, through no fault of his own. It was at Hastings's
advice that he had sent the 100Z. to the Chancellor. But
though the money had been taken, justice had not been
done.

Aubrey's petition at once called up Hastings, who Expiana-
happened to be a member of the House. He denied that Hastings,
he had ever given any advice of the kind. Aubrey had
placed in his hands a box, which he presented to the
Chancellor, without knowing what was in it. Mr.

* Orders, Brunkerv. Aubrey, May 5. 16, 17, 1618. Order Book, 1617, A.
fol. 931, 937, 1246.

t Affidavits of Ware, Jolly, and Worrall, April 21, June 25, July 24,
1618. Chancery Affidavit*. Hil. T. 1617-18, No. 634. Trin. T. 1618.
Nos. 186, 211. Orders, Brunker v. Aubrey, June 13, 1618 ; Nov. 14,
1620. Order Book, 1617, A. fol. 1101, 1620, B. fol. 460. In Proceedings and
Debates, the date of the " killing order" is erroneously given as July 13,
and the bribe is said to have been given on July 1. No doubt both these
should be June. The mistake would easily be made in transcribing from
Nicholas's shorthand notes.

428 EGERTQN'S CASE.

CH. VI. Aubrey, lie had said, had been a bountiful client to him,

1621. and he therefore begged his lordship to accept the present.

March 14. At the same time he had asked him to do the poor man

justice without delay. Bacon had hesitated for a moment,

had said that it was too much, and had finally accepted

it as a present from himself, and not from Aubrey.*

Though the witnesses contradicted one another upon
points of detail, the story was sufficiently startling to
arrest the attention of the House. It was followed by
revelations more startling still.

Early ins- Edward Egerton was one of those impracticable per-
Edward sons w^° never ^ *° ga^her round themselves every
Egerton. element of disturbance, and who pass their lives in com-
plaining of misfortunes which are for the most part the
fruit of their own wrongheadedness. He had inherited
from his father the estate of Wrynehill in Staffordshire,
together with other ]ands in the neighbourhood. But he
was burthened with a load of debt, and he applied for
assistance to Sir John Egerton, the head of the Cheshire
family of Egertons, to which he was very distantly re-
lated.")" Sir John consented to help him, and paid his debts.
Edward Egerton, in return, executed two conveyances, by
the first of which he assured to his benefactor the succes-
sion of his estates in case of his own death without issue,
and by the second, which was probably educed by fresh
assistance to him in his difficulties, he unconditionally
made over to Sir John the whole of his landed property.
It was noticed that the two men continued on friendly
terms with one another, and were frequently seen
riding about in company. Yet when Sir John died, in
1614, it was not without surprise that his neighbours
learned that, after making provision for his widow, he had
bequeathed the whole of his property to his spendthrift
cousin, to the entire exclusion of his own children.^

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 160. 164. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xvi.
Note G. G. G.

f The common ancestor lived in the reign of Edward I. Ormerod's His-
tory of Cheshire, iii. 350.

J Chancery Depositions, James I. E. 4, E. 15. Egerton v. Egerton.
Will of Sir J . Egerton, recited in the Inquisition, p.m. Chancery Inquisi-
tions, 21 Jac. I. Part 2, No. 104. It is only fair to E. Egerton to say that
he was not present when Sir John's will was made.

THE EGERTON CHANCERY SUIT. 429

The heir, thus strangely nominated, took possession of CH- vl-
the whole estate, and .Rowland Egerton, Sir John's eldest 1621.
son, lost no time in appealing to Chancery for redress. March u.

In December 1615, Ellesmere delivered judgment, as Hisdis-
far as the case was then ripe for a decision. Sir John
had, a few years before his death, executed a deed by
which a large part of his lands was conveyed to the
trustees of his son Rowland's marriage settlement, and
Ellesmere had no difficulty in deciding that their claim Eiies-
came before that of Edward Egerton. As to the remaining
lands, which alone would be affected by the will, he sus-
pended his judgment till the validity of that document
had been tested in the Prerogative Court, and till this
decision could be obtained, each claimant was to remain
in possession of those lands which had belonged to their
respective fathers.*

Fair as this judgment was, Edward Egerton was grie- Edward ^
vously dissatisfied. He had made up his mind that
the second conveyance, by which he had surrendered his
own lands to Sir John, was a mere formality, and the
discovery that his kinsman had taken it in earnest, and
had, by including his manor-house at Wrynehill in his
son's marriage settlement, put it out of his power to
return to the home of his fathers, was a grievous blow.
He determined to spare no effort to overthrow the deci-
sion of the Chancellor. He threw every obstacle in the
way of the division of the lands, and attempted to get
into his possession the deed by which he had relinquished
his rights. Bacon's first action in the matter after he
received the seal, was to order that his application for this
document should be refused. All deeds were to remain
in Court till the question of the validity of the will had
been determined else where, f

As soon as this order was delivered, Bacon may well His at-
have thought that the question, as far as he was con- Sf*'
cerned, was finally settled. The battle which had hitherto Bacon.

* Orders. Egerton v. Egerton, June 28, 1614; Dec. 4, 1615. Order Book,
1613 A. fol. 955 ; 1615 A. fol. 574.

f Orders. Egerton v. Egerton, April 18, May 11, 1616 ; May 28, June 2,
1617. Order Book, 1615 A. fol. 647, 804 ; 1616 A. fol. 818, 798. It was
stated in the House (Proceedings and Debates, i. 184), that there was another
order dated June 16. But of this I can find no trace in the Order Books.

430 EGERTON'S BAG OF MONEY.

CH. VI. been carried on in the Court of Chancery, was to be trans-
1621. ferred to the Prerogative Court, and in the natural course

March 14. of things, the Court of King's Bench would be called upon,
if necessary to pronounce a final sentence upon the owner-
ship. It was not, therefore, likely, that Bacon would have
anything further to do with the matter, except perhaps to
give his formal assent to the decision of other judges.

Eight days afterwards, Egerton asked to speak to
Bacon, and was told by Sir Richard Young, that the
Lord Keeper was 'too busy to see him. Upon this he
produced a bag containing 40 0£., which Young took, and,
in the presence of Hastings, delivered to his patron. But
for one circumstance, it is not improbable that Bacon
would at once have rejected the money. It is true that it
was the ordinary custom to present the Chancellor with
a gratuity at the conclusion of a suit. But it had been
Ellesmere and not Bacon who had given judgment on the
main point, and what little had been done by Bacon in
the matter, had not been of a nature to call for any ex-
travagant gratitude on the part of the suitor who was
now waiting at the door. It happened, however, that
Edward Egerton had been his client in the earlier stages
of the dispute, and it was in this capacity that he now
approached him. The money, he was told, was offered
as a thankful remembrance from a client. He was to
buy with it a suit of hangings for his new abode at
York House. Yet even with this explanation, Bacon
was surprised at the largeness of the sum. Not long
before, a present of plate had been brought him by the

accTteth same clieirt- He now took the purse, poised it in his

money! ' hand, said that it was too much, and that he could not
accept it. Yet at last he gave way to the repeated
assurance that payment for past services was intended.
He put the money aside, and told Young to assure the
donor that " he had not only enriched him, but had laid a
tie on him to do him justice in all his rightful causes."*

thTtuit.°f T^at the money was intended as a bribe it is im-
possible to doubt. In a few months, the whole question

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 161. Bacon's Works, eel. Montagu, xvi.
Note G. G. G.

PROGRESS OF THE LITIGATION. 431

was re-opened. The will had been declared valid, but CH- VI>
the two parties, unwilling to prosecute the matter further 162L
in a Common Law Court, begged the King to refer it to March 14.
Bacon's arbitration.

When at last the Chancellor's decision was pronounced,
Egerton found, as Aubrey had found before, that his
money had been thrown away. By a statute of the reign
of Henry VIIL, only two-thirds of such lands as were
held by knight service were devisable by will. Bacon
accordingly decided, that two-thirds of the lands not
included in the settlement were to go to Edward Egerton,
and the other third to Kowland.

The judgment, in the eyes of unprejudiced persons, was
unassailable. The validity of the disputed will had been
acknowledged, and everything was now done for Edward
Egerton that the law permitted. But in the eye of this
litigious and impracticable suitor all this was as nothing.
He wanted the reversal of Ellesmere's judgment and the
declaration of the nullity of his own conveyance to Sir
John. As long as the hated Rowland was master of
Wrynehill, his life was embittered. He at once refused
to submit to the decree, and Bacon was obliged to direct
that the arbitration should be converted into a formal
suit. At last, in 1619, he re-affirmed his previous judg-
ment in the shape of a binding decree.*

There can be no doubt that this decision was substan- ^^erof
tially just. By Bacon's permission, Edward Egerton Edward0
brought his case in another form before the King's Egerton-
Bench; and in 1620 judgment was given against him.
In 1622 he applied to Williams for redress, and Wil-
liams referred him once more to the courts of Common
Law, a permission which was only rendered useless by
Egerton's stubborn refusal to try the case on any of the
issues which were tendered to him. In the next reign,
after the disgrace of Williams, he lost no time in apply-
ing to Coventry, the new Lord Keeper. The judges to
whom the matter was referred by Coventry, reported
against re-opening the case. Yet, in spite of this, he was
allowed a fresh hearing ; and once more he failed to

* Order. Egerton v. Egerton, June 16, 1619. Order Book, 1618 A.
fol. 1409.

432 THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

make out his claims. Seldom has any judgment been
subjected to such an ordeal, with such triumphant success.*
Such, as far as it is now possible to recover the truth,
is the history of the two cases which were brought before
a Committee of the whole House by the disappointed
bribers. In one respect, indeed, they differed widely
from ordinary cases of corruption. For, in both of them,
the complaint was, not that the Chancellor had decided
for, but that he had decided against, the person by whom
the money was given. Yet there was surely enough to
justify further investigation, especially as Egerton pro-
duced written evidence to prove that he had not only
attempted to bribe the Chancellor, but had promised to
pay 60001. to one of Bacon's servants named Davenport,
and to Dr. Field, who had subsequently become Bishop
of Llandaff, as soon as they could procure a judgment
in his favour.

March is. The case was not much altered by further inquiry.

Further A fortnight before, it seemed, Hastings had told Bacon
that Aubrey intended to complain against him. " Well,
George," had been the Chancellor's reply, " if you lay it
on me, I must deny it on my honour ; " and, unless he
had been misunderstood, he had recently made a similar
declaration with respect to Egerton's story. An attempt
was made by John Finch to turn the current of indigna-
tion against Hastings. He believed, he said, that it was
true that Aubrey's money had been given to Hastings,
but that Hastings had kept it in his pocket. Such
assertions were out of place at this stage of the proceed-
ings. The question was not whether the charges against
Bacon were true, but whether there was sufficient evi-
dence to make it worth while to set on foot any further
inquiry. The Committee therefore wisely decided upon
reporting to the House that in both cases there were
causes depending in Chancery at the time when the
money was given.

March 16. That the Commons were in some degree prejudiced
agamst Bacon on account of his conduct in the affair of

* Report of Doderidge, Hutton, and Yelverton, Nov. 19, 1627. Egerton
v. Egcrton. Musics Reports. Order. Egerton v. Egerton, June 16,
1632. Order Book, 1631 A. fol. 794.

ITS ADOPTION BY THE HOUSE.

433

the patents, it would be impossible to deny. But there
was no wish to deal with him unjustly. On the 16th,
the question of the disputed jurisdiction between the
Chancery and the Court of Wards came up for discus-
sion. The debate was opened by Cranfield with his
usual arrogance. But the House decided that there had
been faults 011 both sides, and forced a member who had
cast aspersions upon Bacon's character, to give a less
offensive meaning to his words.*

On the 17th, the report of the Committee on the
charges of bribery was brought in by Phelips. His lan-
guage was singularly temperate. He reviewed the
evidence at some length, and pointed out the absolute
necessity of a complete investigation. " It is a cause,"
he said, " of great weight. It concerns every man here.
For, if the fountains be muddy, what will the streams
be ? If the great dispenser of the King's conscience be
corrupt, who can have any courage to plead before
him ? " He concluded by moving that they should
" present this business singly to the Lords, and deliver
it without exasperation." It would be impossible to get
at the truth in any other way. The Commons had no
power to summon to their bar a peer of the realm, and
they were equally incapacitated from examining his
accusers upon oath. The best course for them to take
would be to leave the matter entirely in the hands of
the Upper House.

So precisely did this proposal meet the exigencies of
the case, that Bacon's friends only wasted their breath in
pointing out discrepancies in the evidence. Calvert's
suggestion, that the King should be asked to institute an
inquiry, and the wild rants of Christopher Neville about
the Chancellor sitting " like a minotaur in the labyrinth
of his court, gormandizing and devouring all that came
before him," were equally disregarded by the House.
The feeling of the vast majority was well expressed by
Sir George More. " Were the Lord Chancellor," he said,
" never so great, never so dear unto me, yet the Com-
monwealth, the mother of us all, is to be preferred before

CH. VI.

1621.
March 16.

March 17.

The debate
on the
charges of
bribery.

They are
sent up to
the Lords.

* Commons' Journals, i. 558. Proceedings and Debates, i. 183.

VOL. I. F F

434 BACON'S ASTONISHMENT.

VI. aJL I will not speak in favour, nor against the Lord

1621. Chancellor. For, if it be gold, why should we fear to
March 17. try it ? I would have us go to the Lords, because we
cannot do the Chancellor right without it." To such
reasoning there was no reply ; and Phelips was ordered
to lay the evidence before the Peers, " without prejudice
or opinion." *

Bacon's Meanwhile Bacon was presiding for the last time in
the Upper House. The blow which had fallen was
entirely unexpected. He seems to have had no concep-
tion that any really well-founded charge could be
brought against him ; and to have fancied that the
Commons, baffled in their attack upon him as a referee,
were eagerly adopting a few trumped-up stories in order
to punish him for his support of Mompesson.f The
conduct of the House was, therefore, in his eyes, a mere
factious attack upon authority, to be resisted at all
hazards. It was not merely his personal honour which
was at stake, — the highest interests of the Crown and of
the State were involved in the contest.

^s ^rs^ thought was to hurry to Buckingham, and to
beg for his good offices with the King. Buckingham
replied that he stood too high in his master's favour to
need any aid from him. " That may be true/' said
Bacon, " but I have always observed that however bright
a fire may be, it burns more brightly if it is blown."
Something then seems to have been said about the
Chancellor's being in purgatory, from which the favourite
perhaps wished him a speedy release.^ On his return
home, Bacon poured out his feelings in a letter which
came straight from his heart if any letter ever did.
" Your lordship," he wrote, " spoke of purgatory ; I am
now in it, but my mind is in a calm, for my fortune is
not my felicity. I know I have clean hands, and a clean
heart ; and, I hope, a clean house for friends or servants.

* Common*? Journals, i. 560. Proceedings and Debates, i. 188.

f Such is the feeling which seems to lie at the root of all his sayings at
this time, and to be the explanation of the words used by his friend Meautys,
" He seeth the way is already chalked out." Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu,
xvi. Note G. G. G.

£ Extract from a letter by M. le Chevalier Digby, i.e., I suppose, Sir
Kenelm Digby. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xvi. Note G. G. G.

HIS ILLNESS. 435

But Job himself, or whoever was the justest judge, by CH. VI.
such hunting for matters against him as hath been used 10^1.
against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a March 17.
time when greatness is the mark, and accusation is the
game. And if this be to be a Chancellor, I think if the
great seal lay upon Hounslow Heath nobody would take
it up. But the King and your lordship will, I hope, put
an end to these my straits one way or other. And, in
truth, that which I fear most, is, lest continual attend-
ance and business, together with these cares, and want of
time to do my weak body right this spring by diet and
physic, will cast me down, and that it will be thought
feigning or fainting. But I hope in God I shall hold
out/' *

It was perhaps at this time that he replied to some
one who recommended him to look around him, " I look
above me." J"

That which Bacon feared was not long in coming March is.
upon him. Under the pressure of anxiety, his health, His illness,
never very strong at the best, broke down completely.
On the morning of the 18th he was unable to leave his
house.

In this state he received a visit from Buckingham, Leyap-
who found him, as he afterwards reported, " very sick preside iu°
and heavy/' £ In one respect, the Chancellor's illness th.e House
served him well. It would have been impossible for
him to take his seat on the woolsack till the charges
against him were cleared up to the satisfaction of the
Peers ; and his sickness afforded a good excuse for the
temporary appointment of Chief-Justice Ley to preside
in the House of Lords during his absence. §

* Bacon to Buckingham. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 406. There is no
date to this letter or to Digby's story of Bacon's interview with Buck-
ingham. I have placed them in what appears to me their natural place.
They both evidently relate to the earliest time of Bacon's troubles, and
the reference in the letter to his health would seem to have been writ-
ten before March 18, when it actually gave way.

t Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xvi., p. cccxxix.

£ Buckingham's Declaration, Lords' Journals, iii. 54.

§ That Ley was brought in out of opposition to Bacon is, as will be
shown, a theory which can only be supported by distorting the evidence.
At the same time I wish it to be understood that my explanation is
merely given as that which appears to flow naturally from the known
facts.

F F 2

436 THE KING INTERVENES.

CH. vi. The result of Buckingham's interview with Bacon
1621. may no doubt be traced in the proceedings of the Corn-
March 19. mons on the following morning. "His Majesty," said
The King Calvert, " hath understood of the crimes that are laid to
ETtakTthe tne Lord Chancellor's charge, and is sorry that a man
case into whom he hath preferred should be guilty of such great
crimes." He was, therefore, unwilling that accusations
of such a nature " should lie long on so great a person ;"
and was ready, in order to expedite the business, to
direct a special commission to six members of the House
of Lords and to twelve members of the House of Com-
mons. He would see that they took up the matter
vigorously, and that their inquiry was carried on during
the Easter vacation, which was now at hand. He
accordingly wished to have their opinion on the course
thus proposed. If they approved of it, he would send
a similar message to the Lords. He hoped that the
Chancellor would be able to establish his innocence ; but
if he failed, he was then prepared " to show himself a
most just King."

The proposal was no doubt made in all honesty. By
his conduct at the time of the attack upon the referees,
James had shown that he had no intention of sacrificing
his ministers to popular clamour. But the moment that
a direct charge of malversation was brought, he was as
ready to consent to a strict and impartial inquiry, as he
had six years before been ready to consent to a similar
inquiry in the case of Somerset. All he asked was that
he should have the appointment of the judges.

No doubt there was much to be said in favour of the
scheme. The House of Lords was, with the single ex-
ception of the House of Commons, the most unfit body
in existence for conducting a political trial. Of all its
members, now that the Lord Chancellor was set aside,
Mandeville alone had received a legal education. There
were many honourable men amongst them, and there
were many who by no means deserved that title. But
there were few, even amongst the best of them, who
were not swayed one way or another by party feelings,
and who could be depended upon to give a strictly judi-
cial vote. But if some of the Peers wrere factious, and

DEBATE ON THE KING'S PROPOSAL. 437

some were servile, the House was still, as a body, toler- CH- VI-
ably independent, and this was more than could be said 1621-
of the new tribunal which James proposed to create. March 19.
That the innovation, if once permitted to come into
existence, would be converted into a precedent, was cer-
tain ; and it was no less certain that whatever confidence
might be reposed in the fairness of the King's intentions
in the present instance, it would be highly unwise to
entrust the power of finally deciding upon the guilt or
innocence of government officials to a shifting and tem-
porary court nominated from time to time by the Crown;
especially as there would be no other check upon the
natural tendency of the Sovereign to support his
ministers, than the very slight difficulty which he might
find in selecting eighteen satellites of the Court from so
numerous a body as that which was composed of the two
Houses.

Yet in spite of all the objections which might be Reception
brought against his scheme, James was very nearly carry- £^Jby°"
ing his point. There was something enticing to super- the Com-

n • i i J , • • ,1 1 , 1 C , H10I1S.

ncial observation in the proposal to give twelve votes out
of eighteen to members of the Lower House. Popular
speakers like Perrot and Alford gave in their adhesion
to the plan. But Coke, whose natural acuteness was on Coke's
this occasion sharpened by his dislike of Bacon, threw
the weight of his authority into the opposite scale. " Let
us see," he said, " that this gracious message taketh not
away our parliamentary proceeding." It was not fit, he
held, that any answer should be returned till the Lords
had been consulted.

If there was a man in all that assembly qualified to sir E.
express the opinions of those moderate politicians who Sackvill<;-
recoiled from extremes on either side, it was Sir Edward
Sackville, the brother and heir of the childless Earl of
Dorset. Pre-eminent in beauty of person, and in the
vigour of a cultivated intellect, he wanted nothing to fit
him for the highest places in the Commonwealth but
that stern sense of duty without which no man can be
truly great. Protestantism, as a great revolt from op-
pression, he could understand and sympathize with.
But Protestantism as a rule of life was beyond his ken.

438 SIR EDWARD SACKVILLE.

_??iZ?: He had early broken away from the restraints of mar-
1621 • riage, and had followed the seductions of his roving

March 19. fancy wherever he was attracted by a bright eye or a
tender glance. One dark day had passed over him
without startling him from his evil course. His guilty
love had in some way or other entangled him in a
quarrel with Lord Bruce of Kinloss, which led to a chal-
lenge. The duel was fought on the frontier, half way
between Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, amongst the
grassy fields which stretch out their level surface to the
low horizon. Young Bruce wa,s left bleeding to death
upon the sward, and Sackville returned to find the
reward of his prowess in the arms of the light wanton
for whose sake he had stained his sword with the life-
blood of a fellow-creature.

Such deeds, it is true, are not always followed by
penalties of which the world takes cognizance. A man
may do them, and yet may die in the full possession of
wealth, and of all that wealth can give. But he who
does such things is at least morally the worse for them.
The shape in which Sackville's punishment came was,
that when the great crisis came, when England was
marshalled into two opposing camps, he, the man of
splendid acquirements, the delight of listening senates,
could not choose but take the side on which the arousing
voice of Puritanism was hushed, and that he lived to be
the minister of Charles in his conspiracy against the
liberties of England.

Supports That time, however, had not yet arrived. His known
good will towards the cause of the German Protestants,
his recent determination to accompany Vere to the
Palatinate, which had been characteristically retracted
on account of some personal affront, had given him the
confidence of the popular party ; whilst his respect for
the prerogative made him equally a favourite with those
who looked with dread on the encroachments of the
•House of Commons. He had been chosen at the begin-
ning of the session to the chairmanship of the Committee
for inquiry into the abuses in Courts of Justice, and
it had only been by ill health that he had been compelled
to resign its functions into the hands of Phelips. Pie

THE CHARGES SENT UP TO THE LORDS. 439

thoroughly detested everything that savoured of violence CH- VI-
or exaggeration ; and it might have been expected that 1621.
he would gladly have yielded to the apparent modera- March 19.
tion of the King's suggestion. His personal friendship
for Bacon was likely to draw him in the same direction.
Yet, in spite of all this, when he stood up it was to
second Coke's motion, with some unimportant modifica-
tions. No farther resistance was possible ; and the
House resolved that the King should be informed that if
he would lay his scheme before the Lords, they would be
ready to join the Upper House in giving him a joint
reply. As a matter of course, Phelips was allowed to go
before the Peers with his demand for a Conference on
the charges against Bacon.*

James's first thought upon hearing what had passed,
was to prosecute his design. He told Calvert to thank
the Commons for their reply, and to assure them that he <iulslie(i-
had already sent to the Lords the message which they
desired. If this was the case, his messenger was speedily
recalled. At all events, nothing more was heard of the
royal scheme. If Bacon were consulted on the matter,
it may well be supposed that he would be the first to
point out that it was now hopeless. If the Lower House
could have been induced to give a warm support to the
Crown, the Lords might perhaps have given way. But
with the Commons lukewarm or hostile, it was madness
to suppose that the Peers would relinquish one tittle of
their ancient jurisdiction. Any attempt to press the
matter now, would only be to the detriment of the
accused.

That very afternoon had been appointed for the Con- Tj* ^
ference between the Houses. Not a word was breathed Lidlefi.re
on the subject which had been in agitation during the the Lords,
morning. Phelips contented himself with laying before
the Upper House the evidence collected in the cases of

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 193. Commons' Journals; i. 563. The theory
that Phelips went to demand a conference contrary to the intention of
the Commons is not only unsupported by evidence, but appears to me
to involve a thorough misunderstanding" of the temper of the House,
and of its intentions in adopting the proposal to wait for the opinion of
the Lords.

440 LADY WHARTOtf's CASE.

CH- VI- Aubrey and Egerton, and with respectfully demanding
1621. inquiry.*

March ID. After the Conference was at an end, Buckingham
Bacon's hastened to York House to inform the Chancellor of the
thePeere. events of the day. He found him more cheerful than he
had been of late, and full of confidence that the Lords
would do him justice. When he left, he carried with
him a letter in which the sick man begged for time to
answer his accusers. He thought it likely, he said, that
more petitions would be put up against him ; but he
trusted that they would not give any weight to the mere
number of the complainants. He had made more than
2000 decrees yearly ; and it was easy to make a great
show by hunting for accusations. Whatever the charges
might be, he trusted that time would be granted him to
answer them severally.

March 20. The next day the Lords resolved to proceed at once
to the examination of witnesses ; and at Southampton's
motion an answer, drawn up in rather curt terms, was
returned to the Chancellor's letter. He was briefly in-
formed that justice would be done.f

Lady Bacon was right in supposing that the attack thus

' commence(i would not rest here. The next morning a
petition was presented to the Commons, demanding in-
quiry into his acceptance of a bribe of 30 Ol. from Lady
Wharton.

Lady Wharton, such is the story which may yet be
gleaned from the records of her endless litigations, had
been three times married. Her second husband, Sir
Francis Willoughby, had left her a considerable property,
which had given rise to long and bitter contention in the
law courts. Her last appearance in Chancery, at least,
had not arisen from any fault of her own. A discon-
tented servant rummaging amongst her papers, lit upon
a deed by which Sir Francis, long before he married her,
had made over to his daughters by his first wife, a large
portion of those very lands which he subsequently be-
queathed to his widow. The man saw in his discovery

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 194. Common? Journals, i. 563. Lords'
Journals, iii. 51, 53.

t Lords' Journals, iii. 54.

BACON'S DECISION. 441

an opportunity for revenge, took a note of the contents CH-

of the document, and, as soon as an opportunity offered, 1621.
communicated what he had learned to the husbands of March 20.
Sir Francis' three surviving daughters. The consequence
was, that in the spring of 1618 a Chancery suit was
commenced by these three gentlemen to compel the
surrender of the deed, whilst Lady Wharton filed a
cross bill to obtain a judicial declaration of its inva-
lidity.

On the 30th of October, 1619, Bacon delivered judg- Bacon's
ment in the cause. Sir Francis, it appeared, had reserved JU gmt
to himself a power of revocation ; and, though there was
no legal proof that he had made use of any such power,
there was sufficient evidence that he had again and again
acted in such a way as to show that he considered the
deed no longer to be binding upon him. Upon these
grounds the Chancellor decided that the deed must be
considered to have been revoked, and that there were no
grounds for compelling Lady Wharton to surrender a
document which was no longer of any importance.*

Practically, the whole question was settled by this
decision. But Lady Wharton's demand for a formal
condemnation of the deed had yet to be heard. Accord-
ingly, the lawyers on both sides were summoned to York
House to argue what must have appeared to Bacon to
be a question now devoid of interest. The deed was
produced, and Serjeant Ashley, the counsel for Lady
Wharton's opponents, brought forward some arguments
in favour of his clients which had not been used in court
before. Bacon, accordingly, was about to direct that the
questions thus raised should be formally argued before
him, when Shute, who was acting as counsel for Lady
Wharton, interposed. His opponents, he said, should
have no benefit by his client's bill. She would at once
withdraw her demand for a declaration of its validity.
In fact, she had got all that she wanted. As she was
now entitled to keep the document in her own hands,

* Order. Willoughby v. Wharton, Oct. 30, 1619, Feb. 12, 1621. Order
Book, 1619 A, fol. 978, 1620 A, fol. 749. Miscellaneous Chancery Pro-
ceedings. Eliz. to James II. Bills and Answers. Single Bills, 1620—24,
Part 33, No. 98. Dalston -o. Willoughby, May 11, 1622.

442 DISMISSAL OF THE CASE.

CH- VL it was of no importance whatever to her whether its
1621. invalidity were formally declared or not. Upon this the

March 20. lawyers on the other side, who probably knew well enough
that Serjeant Ashley's arguments were worth little or
nothing, expressed their willingness to withdraw their
bill also. Bacon, accordingly, agreed to the dismissal
of both bills by the consent of the parties, taking care
however to direct Churchill, the registrar, to see that,
in entering the order, the reasons which he had recently
alleged against the validity of the deed were allowed to
appear.*

* "E. Willoughby,Esqre.,Wuii- "The Lord and Lady Whar-

fred his wife, W. Pargiter and ton, Sir R. Lovelace, and E. Mo-

Abigail his wife, M. Wood and lineux, Defendants, ete contra.
Frances his wife, Plaintiffs.

"William Pargiter maketh oath that My Lord Chancellor having ap-
pointed one counsellor of a side to attend him at his house, where Mr.
Serjeant Ashley, being of counsel with the plaintiffs, read a deed of my
lady's brought thither by Mr. Shute being of her counsel, and after the
reading of the said deed used some reasons to his Lordship on the plain-
tiff's behalf, which my Lord confessed he had not heard before ; where-
upon it was desired on the plaintiffs' behalf, that my Lord would be
pleased to appoint a time to hear them, for those reasons were the sub-
stance of my lady's cross bill. His Lordship was well pleased so to do,
but Mr. Shute, being of counsel with my lady, refused to go to a hear-
ing upon that bill, affirming that the plaintiffs should have no benefit
by my lady's cross bill, for they would let it fall, and desired his Lord-
ship to dismiss it ; whereupon the counsel of the plaintiffs desired a
dismission of their bill also ; whereupon his Lordship did pronounce a
dismission of both bills with some reasons to be inserted against the
validity of the plaintiff's deed; and the Registrar, Mr. Churchill, did
draw up an order for dismission of both bills accordingly about the lat-
ter end of Michaelmas Term last.

Intratum. Juratum 27° Junii, 1620.

Jo: Amye."

Chancery Affidavits, Trin. T. 1620, No. 90. I have inserted the whole
of this affidavit because it is partly upon this that Mr. Hep worth Dixon's
account of the Wharton case in his story of Lord Bacon's life is made to
turn. His story is in every important particular contradicted by the evi-
dence. He speaks of the suit itself as the reopening of an old one.
He gives no authority for this statement, and it is refuted by the order
of Feb. 12, 1620 (Order Book, 1620 A, fol. 749), and by Dalston's Bill
already quoted. He then speaks of an order forged by Churchill, by
which I suppose he means the order of Oct. 30, 1619, as he speaks of
' it as prior to the affidavit of June 27, 1620, and there is no other to
which he can possibly refer. He says that Ashley attended "with a
deed drawn up by Shute for Lady Wharton, in accordance with the forged
entry, and explained the reasons for this deed, that Bacon stopped him
short with an intimation that those reasons were new to him, and that
Ashley, surprised, appealed for a new hearing, which Bacon, though the
case was closed and the fee paid, could not refuse." The facts are that
Ashley was not Lady Wharton's lawyer, but was retained on the oppo-

THE QUESTION REOPENED. 41:1

Bacon's decision had satisfied the lawyers, and foul °H-

satisfied the claims of justice ; but, as is not uiifiv<|u,.ntly 1621.
the case, it had not satisfied the suitors. Nothing short March 20.
of an absolute condemnation of the deed, pronounced in
the most formal manner, would be acceptable to Lady
Wharton. She would not hear of the withdrawal of her
bill. She earned Churchill with her in her coach to York
House, and entreated the Chancellor to rescind his order,
and to allow the suit to proceed. Nor was it only from
Lady Wharton's side that the pressure came. Her
opponents, who knew that they had nothing to lose by
reopening the case which had hitherto gone so com-
pletely against them, urged the same request. In face of
this united demand, Bacon was powerless. He withdrew
the order for the dismissal of the suits, and directed that
the judgment by which he had granted her the custody
of the disputed deed, should be entered on the books at
once. Yet upon this latter point he subsequently gave
way, on a fresh petition from the lady's opponents ; and
the whole affair was allowed to stand over as an open
question till a future day.*

As it would not be long before a final decision must be
given, the concession was of no great importance. Such
however was not the opinion of Lady Wharton. She

site side : that there was no deed drawn up by Shute, or by anybody else,
for Lady Wharton ; that no entry had yet been forged, for the only de-
cree of importance, viz. that of the 30th of October, 1619, was not yet
entered at the time of the hearing referred to in the affidavit, as we
know from an order of the 29th of June, 1620 (Order Book, 1619 A,
fol. 1541) ; and lastly, as I shall afterwards show, that the fee, by which
Mr. Dixon means the money-payment to Bacon in receiving which he
was considered to have been guilty of corruption, was also not paid before
this hearing, which according to this affidavit was followed by an order
drawn up " about the latter end of Michaelmas Term," 1619. There are,
as will be seen, difficulties about this Wharton case, but no solution of
them is to be hoped for, as long as the plainest facts are misapprehended.

* Churchill afterwards represented Bacon's agreement to rescind his
order for the dismissal of the suits as a special favour to Lady Wharton.
But the words of the order of Dec. 9, 1619, are decisive against
view of the case. It commences thus :— "Upon a petition exhibit.', i
the Ricrht Honourable the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the said ttirgi
ter and others, the co-heirs of Sir Francis Willoughby, it was desu
for the reasons therein expressed that the lady might procure 1
upon her cross bill to be heard in Court before his lordship the r
term, &c." Order Book, 1619 A, fol. 370. Again, in an order of Jui I 1,
1620 (Order Book, 1619 A, fol. 1290), the delay is ascribed to a pet on,
not from Lady Wharton, but from the plaintiffs.

444 LADY WHARTON'S PURSE.

VI. was indignant that her adversaries should have had any

1621. respite whatever ; and she convinced herself that the
March 20. favour shown to them was owing to some sinister influ-
ence. She fancied, as Aubrey and Egerton had fancied
before, that a bribe given to the Chancellor would be
followed by the utter discomfiture of her enemies. She
consulted with her attorney, a man named Keeling.
The result was that she put IOOL in a purse, and, accom-
panied by his servant Gardner, drove straight to York
House. " What is that," said Bacon, as soon as she was
admitted, " that you have in your hand ? " It was, she
replied, a purse of her own working, which she hoped his
Lordship would accept. " What Lord/' he said, "could
refuse a purse of so fair a lady's working ? " Before she
left him, she told him that 200/. more would be at his
disposal as soon as the decree was really passed.

Such was the scene which took place three days before
the 29th of June, the day on which the final argument of
the lawyers was heard. The result was what might
have been expected. Bacon adhered to the decision
which he had announced seven months before. The Order
of the 30th of October was to be passed and entered.
A few days later, Lady Wharton returned to York
House with the promised sum of 2001. The money was
taken, and the long delayed decree was entered on the
books.*

The So much, at least, is clear. But it seems that in pro-

nouncing judgment on the 30th of October in the pre-
ceding year, Bacon had said something which did not find
its way into the books in which the orders of the Court
were entered by the registrar ; and the Chancellor after-
wards expressed his belief that Lady Wharton's lawyer,
that very Shute who had been so strongly recommended
by himself for the Eecordership of the City, had been tam-
pering with Churchill, the Deputy Eegistrar. It was not
long before the audacity of the deceit was detected. An
attempt on the part of Lady Wharton's opponents to
reopen the case at Common Law, was met by an appeal
to Chancery; and though Bacon, at first, granted the

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 203, 206. Order. Willougliby v. Wharton,
June 29, 1620. Order Book, 1619 A, fol. 1541.

ACCUSATION BEFORE THE COMM 445

injunction asked for, yet as soon as his attention was Cg- VI-
specially called to the order in question as having been 1621.
drawn up "contrary to the true intent and meaning of March 20.
the Lord Chancellor," he acknowledged the justice of the
objection. The decree, he said, had been "not duly ob-
tained ;" and Lady Wharton must, therefore, either show
cause why the whole case should not be reopened, or
must be content to fight out her battles at Common
Law.*

What was the precise point upon which the order as
entered differed from the order which was actually de-
livered, we have no means of knowing with certainty.
Judging, however, from what we do know, it seems pro-
bable that an appeal on some question or other to the
Common Law was intended to be given ; and that Lady
Wharton, who had impudently begun by bribing the
Chancellor to pronounce a decree in her favour, ended
by no less impudently bribing the Registrar to alter the
decree when she found it not altogether to her liking.

Lady Wharton had been playing a game in which it The
behoved her to keep her counsel well. But she could $»
not hold her tongue. It was soon known to her oppo- mon8
nents that she had paid 300Z. into Bacon's hands. It
was no longer a secret that Bacon's judgment had been
tampered with. And they now discovered that the lady

* Orders. Willoughby v. Wharton, Feb. 12. Pargiter v. Wharton,
March 12, 1621. Order Book, 1620 A, fol. 749, 801. Compare two
orders by Williams— Wharton v. Willoughby, Nov. 3, 1621, and Wil-
loughby v. Wharton, Feb. 20, 1622. Order Book, 1621 A, fol. 88, 428. The
case was afterwards sent by Williams to the King's Bench for a decision
on the validity of the conveyances. The decree which was tampered with
is stated expressly in the order of Feb. 20, 1622, to have been that of the
30th Oct. 1619, which is in fact the only substantive decree in the whole
case. The final order to enter it was only given on the 29th of June,
1620, and therefore any attempt to explain the story by supposing that the
falsification took place earlier may be rejected at once. We are now able
to get at the date of the payment of the money. Keeling said it was
" about the time of the passing of the decree." (Proceedings and Debates, i.
202.) Gardner said more distinctly, "three days before the decree was
made " (Proceedings and Debates, i. 206), meaning, as appears from the
context, the decree of the 29th of June, 1620. If there were any reason to
doubt this evidence it would be removed by Bacon's own confession that the
money was received " pendente lite." If the first 100/. had not been received
till after his judgment of the 29th of June, ordering the entry of the October
decree, he would surely have pointed out that, practically at least, the case,
as fur as lie was concerned, was closed.

446

EVIDENCE AGAINST BACON.

CH. VI.
1621.

March 20.

and sent
up to the
House of
Lords.

Inquiry
into
Bacon's
conduct.

had been to Bacon to complain of the reopening of the
case, and that he had consoled her by reminding her that
a rehearing did not necessarily imply defeat. Is it to be
wondered at that they came to the conclusion that the
whole affair was a swindle carried on between Lady
Wharton and the Chancellor, and that the last concession
made to them was merely a device to put off the final
decision till Parliament was no longer sitting ? Under
this impression, they heard how the House of Commons
had listened to the petitions of Aubrey and Egerton, and
they at once laid their own grievances before the same
tribunal.

Inquiry was accordingly made. Churchill was ex-
amined, but was found to be too prudent to tell a story
which would compromise himself. Keeling and Gardner
were more explicit ; and the fact of the acceptance of the
3001. was established beyond dispute. Coke was de-
lighted at the turn which matters were taking. "A
corrupt judge," he said, "was the grievance of grievances."*
Bacon's friends were reduced to a general appeal to his
character, and to a denunciation of the little credit due
to the informers. As a matter of course, Phelips was
ordered to bring this case too to the knowledge of the
Lords.t

The Wharton case is undoubtedly the one upon which
the assailants of Bacon's good name may fairly elect to
take issue. In the Aubrey case it is impossible, in the
present state of the evidence, to know with what words
the nakedness of the bribe was disguised. In the Egerton
case the disguise was such that, amidst the pressure of
business, it was not impossible that an honest man might
have failed to penetrate it. But in the Wharton case all
was open. No doubt the evidence laid before the Com-
mons was misleading. Churchill, for his own purposes,
represented Bacon as far more pliant in Lady Wharton's
hands than he really was. The accidental circumstance
that the last order reopening the case was not delivered

* Chamberlain to Carleton, March 24. S. P. Dom. cxx. 38. The writer
does not state on what occasion the words were used. But it can hardly
have been at any other moment than when this revelation was made.

f Proceedings and Debates, i. 208.

BRIBES, FEES, AND GRATUITIES. 447

till after the meeting of Parliament, was calculated to GH- VT-
give rise to unfounded suspicions. But after all deduc- i«2i.
tions have been made for misrepresentation and mis- March 20.
understanding, the fact that money was actually taken
from a suitor before judgment was delivered remains
unaffected by any explanations, and was afterwards
admitted to be true by the Chancellor himself.

There were three ways in which, according to the Distinc-
notions of the day, a public official might receive money, between
A bribe was, what it has always been in every age, va"ous

• a xu c A. j.- £ J.T. modes of

money given to influence the iuture action ot the person payment,
in authority. A fee was a certain definite payment, the
amount of which was settled by custom or authority, and
which was regarded as the proper mode of obtaining
payment for official services in an age when official
salaries were purely nominal. But besides these there
had grown up a class of payments, especially to persons
high in authority, which were neither fees nor bribes.
Under the name of gratuities, it was the custom to
reward the Lord High Treasurer or the Secretary of State
with presents, undefined in amount, as a reward for the
trouble which they had taken, and as a retainer of their
good will in case of a necessity arising for troubling
them again. It was thus that, after the treaty with the
Dutch in 1619, Digby, who had taken a leading part in
the negotiations, openly received a present of plate from
the East India Company; and that Carleton, who be-
lieved that he had contributed, by his efforts at the
Hague, to the success of the negotiations, complained
bitterly and without reserve that a few hundred pounds
had not been placed at his disposal by the same body.
Under any circumstances, such a custom must have been
attended by grave abuses. But it reached its height
when it was adopted by a judge in a court of law; for
amongst the multiplicity of business it was always pos-
sible that the most innocent transaction might be clothed
with the semblance of corruption. A suit once closed
might be reopened, or the successful litigant might have
a second suit on hand with a third party. In either case
the Chancellor who accepted the gratuity as soon as his
decision was pronounced, was at any time liable to the

448 EXTENT OF BACONS FAULT.

discovery that the donor had other objects in view than
the simple payment for past services.

If, therefore, all that could be said against Bacon was
that he had occasionally made mistakes, — that he had
"eryhai fancied that suits were ended when they were not ended,
or that he had not detected the intention with which
money, ostensibly given under other pretences, had in
reality been offered, there would be cause for regret
that he had not been more sharpsighted, or that he had
not endeavoured to reform the abuses by the simple
remedy of substituting fees for gratuities ; but there
would hardly be sufficient ground for charging him with
any deep moral culpability.

Unfortunately, however, in the face of the Wharton
case no such explanation is possible. Bacon knew per-
fectly well when he took the purse that the suit was not
concluded; and he was certainly not ignorant that to
accept money from, a suitor under such circumstances
was to do that which, in any other person except himself,
he would have been the first to stigmatize as proof of the
vilest corruption.

HOW far Yet, if no flaw is to be found in the evidence which
Toof^f snows that Bacon's conduct was utterly inexcusable, it is
moral °cor- by no means so plain that he was aware at the time of
ruption ? faQ enormity of his actions. Whatever Churchill might
choose to say, it is certain that it was not Bacon's fault
that the whole case was not closed six or seven months
before he touched a penny of Lady Wharton's money. He
had dismissed the whole affair, and had given a judgment
which was entirely satisfactory to the lawyers on both
sides, when Lady Wharton's litigiousness brought the
case again before him. Again and again his time had
been occupied by this quarrelsome old lady's folly. The
approaching decision which he was to deliver in court, he
may have argued, was a pure formality. His decision
had been given long ago, and all that he intended to do
was to reaffirm it. What, then, did it matter whether he
took the purse now or a week later? It would not affect
his judgment one way or another.

That it did not affect his judgment is certain. All
that followed upon the reception of the purse was a

FURTHER CHARGES AGAINST BACON. 449

direction tliat an order given nine months before should
be entered in the books. Nor is it true that Lady Whar-
ton's case was in any way expedited by her gift. For
on the 1st of June, at least three weeks before the purse
was given, he had fixed upon the 29th as the day on
which he was to dispose of the affair.*

The charge, therefore, that Bacon knowingly and cor-
ruptly sold or delayed justice falls entirely to the ground.
The only possible explanation of his conduct is that, with
his usual carelessness of forms, he contented himself with
knowing that the immediate reception of the money,
which he believed himself to have fairly earned, would
not influence his decision ; in other words, that, without
a corrupt motive, he accepted money corruptly tendered.
The suspicions to which his conduct would be exposed,
and the evil lesson which he was teaching to the anxious
and unscrupulous crowd of suitors did not enter into his
calculations.

As it was most improbable that the man who had
taken Lady Wharton's purse had not laid himself open to
other charges, the Lords can hardly have been surprised wick
that when the case of Lady Wharton was brought before
their House it was accompanied by two others. As the
Peers subsequently refused to entertain one of these com-
plaints, it may be taken for granted that it could not be
substantiated. The other proceeded from a merchant
named Smithwick, who asserted that he had improperly
paid over 200Z. to the receiver of the Lord Chancellor's
fines. It did not, however, appear that Bacon knew any-

* " Whereas Mr. Shute, being of the defendants'," i.e., Lady Wharton's
"counsel, came this present day and moved the Rt. Honble. the Lord
Chancellor for the signing and passing of a decree drawn up by the
Registrar upon the hearing of the said several causes the 30th of October
last, the signing whereof hath been hitherto forborne by reason of the
petition preferred by the plaintiffs ; which decree his lordship would
not yet pass, being a matter of great moment in regard it hath
rested so long without the hearing of the plaintiff's counsel what
they can say to maintain their suggestions contained in their petition.
For which purpose it is ordered that counsel on both sides shall at-
tend in Court on the second Tuesday in the next term, when such further
order shall be taken touching the passing of the said decree as shall be fit ;
and the plaintiffs or one of them are to have notice hereof ; to the end they
may be provided at the time aforesaid, and the cause to be entered into the
paper of that day." Order. Willoughby v. Wharton, June 1, 1620. Order
Book, 1619 A, fol. 1290.

VOL. I. G G

450 BACON'S CHEERFULNESS.

CH- VI- thing about the matter at the time, and Smithwick him-
1621. self allowed that he had petitioned the Chancellor for

March 20. relief, and that the money had been repaid.

Churchill's These five complaints, then, were all that were volun-
tarily brought before the House by persons who felt
themselves aggrieved. But a long list of Bacon's evil
deeds was draw^n up by Churchill. Knowing well that a
man who is anxious to divert attention from his own
misdemeanors is unlikely to be scrupulously accurate
about the faults of others, the Commons, in that spirit of
judicial fairness which had characterized the whole of
their proceedings in this lamentable affair, took care to
avoid all responsibility for the assertions of the guilty
registrar, and laid his paper before the Lords without
note or comment.*

March 23. Bacon had recovered his cheerfulness as soon as it be-

iegains his came plain that his conduct was not to be submitted to a

cheerful- vote of the House of Commons, but to a judicial inquiry in
the House of Lords. " His most judicious friends," says
a letter writer of the day, " have already given him for
gone. Notwithstanding, himself is merry, and doubteth
not that he shall be able to calm all the tempests raised
against him,"f His own feeling appears to have been
one of bewilderment. "When I look into myself," he

March 25. wrote to the King, " I find not the materials of such a
tempest as is come upon me/' He had never, he said,
" been the author of any immoderate counsel." He had
"been no haughty, or intolerable, or hateful man in" his
"conversation or character." Even now, it seems, he
could not understand how unpopular many of his acts
had been.

Of the charges brought against him he spoke like a
man of honour who is opening his eyes to the possibility
that he may have committed faults, but who is still
blind to their heinous nature. " For briberies and gifts
wherewith I am charged," he wrote, " when the book of
hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not be found to
have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart in a de-

* Proceedings and Debates, i. 206. Lords' Journals, iii. 61.

t Brent to Beaumont, March 23. Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xvi. 328.

THE KING'S ADDRESS TO THE HOUSES. 451

praved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice, how- CH- VL
ever I may be frail and partake of the abuses of the 1021.
times. And therefore I am resolved, when I come to my March 25.
answer, not to trick my innocency, as I writ to the Lords,
by cavillations or voidances ; but to speak to them the
language which my heart speaketh to me, in excusing,
extenuating, or ingenuous confessing; praying God to
give me the grace to see to the bottom of my faults, and
that no hardness of heart do steal upon me under show of
more neatness of conscience than is cause."*

It was perhaps in consequence of this letter of Bacon's March 26.
that James resolved upon addressing one of his usual dis- JJJ* >s
cursive speeches to the two Houses. The Commons, he speech
said, had at last learned to treat him with respect. The Houses.
Lords had always behaved well. He was, therefore, glad
to see his son sitting amongst them. The whole world
was talking of bribes, and he supposed that they had
bribed the Prince to plead their cause. He would at
once call in the obnoxious patents by proclamation. He
would gladly give his consent to a Bill against informers.
Buckingham had said that he had never had so much
quiet as since the meeting of Parliament, as he was now
freed from the crowd of projectors and informers, who,
at other times, miserably vexed him at all hours. As
for himself, he must acknowledge that in looking upon
the face of the Government, he had thought, as every
man would have done, that the people were never so
happy. Yet it now seemed that the country resembled
some of his own coppices. When he rode round them
they appeared on the outside very thick and well grown ;
but when he entered into the midst of them they were
discovered to be full of plains and bare spots. So it was
with the kingdom. The external government was good ;
but he was ashamed, and it made his hair stand upright,
to consider how his people had been vexed and polled.

He then proceeded to touch upon Bacon's case. He
doubted not, he said, that there were matters before
them, some complained of out of passion, and some out
of just cause of grievance. Let them weigh both, with-

* Bacon to the King, March 25. Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 66

G G "2

452 MOMPESSON S SENTENCE.

VI. out allowing themselves to be carried away by the im-

1621. pertinent discourses of those who named innocent men as
March 26. well as guilty. Let their judgment take hold of the
guilty only. Let them proceed judicially, and spare
none where they found just cause to punish.*
Position of A speech like this may fairly be taken as a genuine
Ling' expression of the King's feelings. With the House of
Commons he had every reason to be well satisfied. It
had, at his bidding, refrained from trenching upon his
prerogative by questioning the referees. It had granted
two subsidies with unprecedented alacrity. It had ab-
stained from pressing upon him its undoubted opinion in
favour of an immediate declaration of war. The attack
upon Michell and Mompesson did not touch the rights of
the Crown. Nor, though he evidently wished well to
Bacon, had he any desire to shelter him from a well-
founded accusation. To hold a chancellor responsible for
his legal opinion given in good faith was one thing ; to
hold him responsible for corruption was another. And
to do James justice, during the whole course of his reign
he never once allowed personal favour to shield anyone
whom he had reason to believe guilty of actual crime.
What Bacon asked for was a fair inquiry, and to secure
him this was the object to which the King addressed
himself. In placing the Houses in a good humour by
assuring them of his intentions to cancel the obnoxious
patents, he did everything in his power to bring them to
a temper which would enable them to consider the ques-
tion of Bacon's conduct upon its own merits.
Sentence Upon the first part of the speech at least the Upper
Mompes- House was prepared to act. That afternoon sentence was
sou- delivered upon Mompesson in his absence. He was to be

degraded from the order of knighthood, and to be con-
demned to perpetual outlawry. His testimony was never
to be received in any court. He was to be exempted from
all general pardons. If ever he returned to England, he
was to be imprisoned for life, and never to be allowed to
come within twelve miles of the Court. His property

* Lords' Journals, iii. 68. In a letter written to Meade, (Harl MSS. 389,
fol. 43,) it is said that the King spoke directly of the Chancellor. This
does not appear from the printed speech. But the allusion is evident.

THE PATENTS RECALLED. 453

was to be forfeited, and he was to pay, from what source CH- VI.
does not appear, a fine of 10,OOOZ. Lastly, he was to be 1621.
held for ever an infamous person. March 27.

For the first time since the evil days of Henry VI. the The Easter
House of Lords had sat in judgment upon a subject v
accused of official malversation. The revival of the prac-
tice was undoubtedly an indirect censure upon the
Sovereign whose want of energy and circumspection had
allowed Mompesson's oppressions to flourish under the
shadow of his name. But it was only for direct aggres-
sions upon his prerogative that James had eyes, and he
was blind to the lesson conveyed by the history which
had been unrolled before him. The Lords were in high
spirits. They ordered that the 26th of March, the day
of the King's last speech, should be yearly held as a
sermon day through all England. The two Houses then
adjourned for the Easter vacation till the 17th of April.

The Lords' Committees appointed to examine into March 30.
Bacon's case were directed to remain sitting during The
the vacation.* But three weeks would, however, pass
before their report could be made, and there would be
time for the animosities of party warfare to cool down.
If the charges against him had proceeded, as he once
thought, from mere faction, James was doing everything
in his power to allay the resentment of the popular
party. On the 30th of March he followed up his recent
speech by a proclamation cancelling the patent for gold
and silver thread, the patent for inns, and the patent for
concealed lands, f

But there was one at least by James's side who was
not content with such sober measures as these. With the
headlong impetuosity which was natural to him, Bucking- solution,
ham had now thrown himself heart and soul into his
friend's defence, and he was all the more eager because
rumours had reached him that there was a party in the
two Houses which had formed the intention of directing
against himself the weapons which had proved so ser-
viceable against Bacon. Once more the fears which had
driven him to his base desertion of the referees disturbed

* Lords' Journals, iii. 73.

f Proclamation. S. P. Dom. clxxxvii. 91.

454 BUCKINGHAM'S ANXIETY.

CH- VL his mind. He had taken Williams's advice in vain. He
1621. had courted popularity only to make the way to his ruin

March so. more easy. For the evil which he dreaded there was but
one remedy, — the immediate dissolution of Parliament.
Yet, unaccustomed as he was to plead in vain, he now
found the King's ear closed to his appeals. James was
indeed capable of quarrelling with a Parliament upon
some petty point of personal dignity ; but the great
wrong which his favourite now urged him to commit
was utterly distasteful to his nature. He would not
allow the representatives of the people to return to their
homes with the tale, that when grave charges of pecula-
tion had been brought against a minister of the Crown,
their King had refused them even the common justice of
an investigation into the truth of their eornpkints. So
urgent had Buckingham's language been, and so public
was the rebuff with which he was met, that for some time
it was believed at Court that the breach between himself
and his Sovereign was irreparable, and that the often-
foretold downfall of the arrogant favourite was at last at
hand.*

* "Aspettiamo adesso Pesito del resto, et sopra tutto clella causa del
Gran Cancilliere, et forse d'altri di qualche qualita perche il dire che
fece il Re che non risguardassero . a persona, non n'eccettando il suo
proprio figliuolo, ha dato loro tanto animo che sono d'oppinione che faranno
quanto potranno per essaminare le azioni del Signer Marchese di Buck-
ingham, et tanto phi quanto credono che questa franca permissione di
Sua Maesta proceda da stracchezza verso la parte, la quale se punto ap-

Sarisca, ognuno puol poi fare giudizio del resto." Salvetti's News-Letter,
arch 30
April 9 "

"II Gran Cancelliere se prepara per fare i suoi difesi ; ma con appa-
renza che gli habbino da servire a poco ; non scuoprendo nel Parlamento
inclinatione nessuna di ammettergliene, et contra del Marchese se bene
gli humori sono preparatissimi, credo per6 che se la passeranno con questa
voglia." Salvetti, April -.

peult venir a bout, non plus que de la rupture du Parlement, qu'il a
fort souhaitee ; ce que fait juger a aucuns que ce Roy s'en veut deffaire
par le moyen dudict Parlement, comme il fist du Comte de Sommerset,

generale pour se reconcilier les cceurs de ses subjects." Til-
lieres to Puysieux, April J-. Bill. Imp. MSS. HarL 123, 17, fol. 47.

HIS CONDUCT TOWARDS BACON. 455

It is hard work to follow out with accuracy the Pro- CH- VI-
tean changes of such a mind as Buckingham's. Perhaps 1621.
he took counsel once more with the cautious Williams. APril-
Perhaps he was really influenced by the arguments of the .Bucki"--

TT« 1 1-1 i i-i-i- '1:mi '

King, or by rumours which may have reached him of the way.
disclosures which were being made before the Lords'
Committees. Before the vacation was at an end, he had
completely shifted his ground. As he could not save
himself by throwing over the Parliament, he would try
to save himself by throwing over Bacon. He was sorry,
he was now heard to say, that the Chancellor's conduct
had been so bad. He could not be sorry for his disgrace,
for that, at least, he had richly deserved. There were
not, however, wanting those who thought that Bucking-
ham was merely making a virtue of necessity, and that
he shrunk from Bacon's defence, merely because he saw
that it was impossible to save him.*

These extracts will, I hope, put an end to the theory which has had ex-
traordinary vitality, that Bacon's fall was caused by Buckingham's weari-
ness of him. Mr. Hepworth Dixon has lately gone so far as to suppose
that there was a set conspiracy to ruin Bacon, in which Buckingham took
part, and in support of this supposition he brings forward a string of refer-
ences to original documents. A search among these documents will, how-
ever, be sufficient to convince any competent inquirer that their purport
has been completely misapprehended by Mr. Dixon, and that they not
unfrequently are in direct contradiction with the statements in his text.
One instance will suffice. Mr. Dixon asserts (Story of Lord Bacon's Life,
412), that Buckingham and his party in the House of Lords, "were re-
solved to have their way in this business, either through the law or against
the law. By rule of Parliament, the Lord Chancellor, and of course an
inferior person acting in his place, sat on the Woolsack while the Lords
were in session, and removed to his seat while they were in Committee.
Ley, not being a baron, should have dropped to a back bench on the motion
for a committee being carried ; but Sir James on a back bench, obscure,
unnoticed, without a vote, would have added no strength to Lady Buck-
ingham's party, while the peer in the chair would probably be just, and
possibly favourable, to Lord St. Albans. So, setting at nought the forms of
Parliament, they proposed that Ley should return to the chair, and direct
the House, while they sat in committee on Churchill's charge. Some pro-
tested against this course, but the Prince and Buckingham being present,
the vote was carried." It is almost incredible, but it is nevertheless true,
that every word of this is the product of Mr. Dixon's too vivid imagination.
The Lords' Journals (iii. 55) tell us, that upon Pembroke's motion the
House went into committee : " Whereupon the Lord Chief Justice removed
to his place as an assistant," that is to say, he did precisely that which
Mr. Dixon says he did not do — he went to a back bench. Then " after
much debate thereof, the Lord Chief Justice returned to the place as speaker,
and it was agreed," &c. ; that is to say, after the committee was over, the
House resumed. Ley of course returned to the chair, and put the question.

* " Pour le Chancelier il n'est remis sur le trottoir, mais il y sera

456

BACONS SELF-EX AMINATIOK

But whatever the truth may have been, Buckingham's
insane demand for a dissolution had never been supported
by Bacon. Every letter tha,t he wrote, every word that
he uttered, gave token of his readiness to see the charges
against him sifted to the uttermost. At first he had be-
lieved them to be pure inventions trumped up to gratify
the malice of his enemies ; but as the vacation passed, and
rumours reached him of the progress of the evidence, he
was driven to abandon the ground which he had taken up.
He now could no longer deny that, at least through inad-
vertence, he might have erred. He was sufficiently re-
covered to leave his house, and he requested the King to
grant him an audience. James accorded his petition,
having first taken the precaution of informing the Council
of his intention.

^e PaPers on which the Chancellor jotted down the
memoranda of which he intended to avail himself, have
fortunately been preserved. "There be three causes of
bribery," he wrote, " charged or supposed in a judge.

" The first, of bargain or contract for reward, to per-
vert justice.

" The second, where the judge conceives the cause to
be at an end by the information of the party or otherwise,
and useth not such diligence as he ought to inquire of it.

" And the third, when the cause is really ended, and it
is sine fraude, without relation to any precedent promise.

"Now, if I may see the particulars of my charge, I
should deal plaioly with your Majesty, in whether of
these causes my particular case falls. But for the first of

bientost avec asseurance de sa perte. Je l'ay apris de M. le Marquis de
Bouquinguam, qui est son amy, et lequel m'a tesmoigne de recepvoir
a deplaisir non pas sa ruyne, car il dit qu'il Pa bien meritee, mais

son mauvais gouvernement, estant homme qui avoit de bonnes partyes,
et mis de sa main en la charge qu'il possede, mais que pour luy il est
si affectionne au service de son maitre et du bien de son pays, qu'il,
abandonneroit son propre frere s'il avoit malverse. Quelqu'uns croyent
que ceste sincerite n'est qu'en parolles, et qu'en effect il a fait son pou-
voir pour le sauver, mais qu'il ne Fa peu, ce qui donne subject aux plu-
sieurs autres considerations de coiitinuer {'opinion que je vous ay mariclee
par quelques unes de mes depeches de la defaveur dudit M. de Boquin-
guam, laquelle est fondu sur des autres apparences, dont les unes sont
entierement speculatives et par un rapport du present au passe, les
autres plus apparentes, mais toutes incertaines." Tillieres to Pu

uyseux,

mi Imp. MS&flarJ.223,17,fol.60.

HIS PETITION FOR A FAIR TRIAL. 457

them I take myself to be as innocent as any born upon CH- VI-
St. Innocents' day in my heart. For the second, I doubt, 1(!-L
in some particulars I may be faulty ; and for the last, I APril-
conceived it to be no fault, but therein I desire to be
better informed, that I may be twice penitent, once for
the fact, and again for the error. For I had rather be a
briber than a defender of bribes.

" I must likewise confess to your Majesty that, at new
year's tides, and likewise at my first coming in, (whieh
was, as it were, my wedding,) I did not so precisely, as
perhaps I ought, examine whether those that presented
me had causes before me, yea or no. And this is simply
all that I can say for the present concerning my charge,
until I may receive it more particularly."41

Accordingly on the 16th of April, the last day of the APri116-
vacation, Bacon was admitted to an audience. How far ^™v"jjfth
he carried out the programme which he had laid down the King.
for himself we do not know, but there was one point upon
which he was specially desirous of the King's assistance.
Properly enough, he had not yet received a copy of the
charges made against him : for till the witnesses had been
examined, it was impossible to say how far their state-
ments would be adopted by the House of Lords, and till
the Lords had adopted them, there was no formal accusa-
tion in existence to which he could be called upon to
answer. | Bacon, however, seems to have feared lest he
should be judged in the dark. He therefore begged the
King to request the Lords to grant him a fair trial, and
to allow him an opportunity of making his defence. To
this very reasonable demand, James at once acceded, so
far as to direct the Lord Treasurer to inform the House
of what had passed between them.|

* Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, xvi. Note G. G. G.

f There has been considerable misunderstanding on this point, aris-
ing probably from a careless supposition that Bacon had been impeached
by the Commons. This was not the case. No accusation had as yet
been brought against him. The examination of witnesses was merely a
preliminary investigation for the purpose of giving information to the
Lords. When they had made up their minds to act upon it, then, an. I
not till then, Bacon would be put on his trial, and then he would have
a right to a copy of the charges.

I Lords' Journals, iii. 75. A story told by Bushel, who was at this time
in the Chancellor's service, has been frequently quoted in support of the
theory that Bacon was sacrificed by the King. " There arose," he says,

458

BACON'S CASE BEFORE THE LORDS.

CH. VL
1621,

April 17.
Re-assem-
bly of the
Houses.

April 18.

Accordingly, as soon as the Houses met on the follow-
ing day, the Lords were informed by Mandeville of
Bacon's request, and of the King's reply. Fresh witnesses
were then sworn, and fresh names were added to the
Committees.* On the 18th it was resolved, at Arundel's
motion, that a report of the examinations should be
brought in on the following day, to the end their Lord-
ships might give the Lord Chancellor such particulars of
his charge as their Lordships should judge fit. The next
morning, as soon as the evidence taken by the committee
over which Arundel presided, had been read, Buckingham

" such complaints against his Lordship and the then favourite at Court,
that for some days put the King to this quaere whether he should
permit the favourite of his affection, or the oracle of his council to sink
in his service ; whereupon his Lordship was sent for by the King, who,
after some discourse, gave him this positive advice, to submit him-
self to his House of Peers, and that, (upon his princely word,) he would
then restore him again, if they (in their honours) should not be sen-
sible of his merits. Now, though my lord saw his approaching ruin,
and told his Majesty there was little hope of mercy in a multitude,
when his enemies were to give fire, if he did not plead for himself.
Yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being, that
he resolved his Majesty's will should be his only law, and so took leave
of him with these words, * Those that strike at your Chancellor, it is
much to be feared, will strike at your Crown,' and wished that, as he was
the first, so he might be the last of sacrifices." Bushel, was no doubt, in
some respects, a good authority. But his story was not given to the world
till 1659, thirty-eight years after the events which he narrated. The most
important point of his story is, to say the least of it, by no means consonant
with Bacon's own language. "Your Majesty," wrote the Chancellor, only four
days after the scene took place, " can bear me witness that at my last so
comfortable access I did not so much as move your Majesty by your abso-
lute power of pardon or otherwise, to take my cause into your own hands,
or to interpose between the sentence of the House, and according to my
desire your Majesty left it to the sentence of the House by my Lord Trea-
surer's report." Bacon to the King, May 2. Works, ed; Montagu, xiii. 30.
Compare Chamberlain to Carleton, April 18. S. P. Dom. cxx. 97. The
question, therefore, was not whether Bacon was to be allowed to plead, but
whether he was to be judged by the House, and this was settled in the affir-
mative by Bacon's own advice. The message by the Lord Treasurer re-
ferred to was to ask that he might have a fair trial. It is impossible that
Bacon should have spoken of this in such a way, if he had received an order
not to plead. Nor is this part of the story less flatly contradicted by his
letter of April 20th, in which he still expresses his intention of answering
the charges against him. Still I do not altogether give Bushel's story up
as a pure invention. I suspect that after the main question was settled,
Bacon referred to the possibility that the Lords might condemn him from
party spirit against clear evidence. To this James may well have answered,
" If that be the case, I give you my princely word to restore you." And
Bacon may have gone on to warn him against allowing faction to triumph,
and may easily have said, " They who strike at your Chancellor, strike at
your Crown."

* Lords' Journals, iii. 75.

THE THREE COMMITTEES.

rose. The attitude which he now assume.]. .-.f't.T SOUK- CH. VI.
vacillation, was that of an advocate who, without, yen- icai.
turing to deny his client's guilt, watches the case witii AJ.I.
the intention of taking advantage of any point that nuiv
be raised in his favour. The evidence, just m-id, In- imw
pointed out, was altogether in the hand-writing of tin- '
persons who had been interrogated. There might, there-
fore, have been a conspiracy to insert statements which
had never really been made. To this Arundel replied,
that the answers had been written down in the presence
of the committee, and that they tallied exactly with the
spoken evidence. To this statement, confirmed as it was
by other members of the committee, no answer was
possible.* The remainder of the reports was read, and
finally the three committees were amalgamated, in order
to draw up a connected statement of the whole evidence.
The Peers then adjourned to. the 24th.f

The joint Committee thus constituted, consisted of six- temper of
teen peers and prelates. Their names may be at once *
accepted as a proof that the Lords, as a body, desired
to approach the delicate inquiry before them in a spirit of
impartiality. The only section of the House which was
not represented upon it was that which was composed of
the connexions of the Villiers family, and of the syco-
phants who basked in the favouritejs smile. Arundel and
Sheffield, and Neile were there, ready to resist any ex-
cesses of factious animosity against a faithful servant of
the Crown, whilst the names of the pure-minded Andrewes,
of the virtuous Morton, and of that Russell who, long
afterwards, in times when few knew what moderation was,
carried to the grave, as Earl of Bedford, amidst the regrets
of all honest Englishmen, a well-earned reputation for
singular moderation and discretion, were a sufficient
guarantee that in the discussions which were impending,
nothing would be left undone to secure the furtherance of
equal justice without respect of persons. J

Of the general effect of the examinations read, some ink-
ling seems to have been carried to Bacon. From a fresh

\MltrS

* Elsing's Notes.

f Lords' Journals, iii. 78, 179.

j Lords' Journals, iii. 74.

460

BACON'S SUBMISSION.

VI.

1621.

20.
in to^

He reim-

April 22.
His sub-

theSLonrds.

letter which he addressed to the King on the 20th, it is
evident that his hope of being able to resist the accusa-
tions against him was growing faint. He trusted, he said,
^hat ^he Lords would be like his Majesty in imitating
Him who had refused to break the broken reed, or to quench
the smoking flax. "It is not possible/' he concluded by
saying, " nor it were not safe for me to answer particulars
till I have my charge ; which, when I shall receive, I
shall, without fig-leaves or disguise, excuse what I can
excuse, extenuate what I can extenuate,, and ingenuously
confess what I can neither clear nor extenuate. And if
there be anything which I might conceive to be no offence,
and yet is, I desire to be informed, that I may be twice
penitent^, once for my fault, and the second time for my
error/'*

Scarcely was this letter written, when some friendly
nand brought him a copy of the examinations which had
been read in the House of Lords. The effect was instan-
taneous. All thought that he was struggling against a
factious opposition was now at an end. He saw, as in a
mirror, the hidden secrets of his life revealed. Actions
which had long ago slipped out of his memory, and which,
at the time, had seemed utterly unimportant, now stood out
in strange distinctness before him. In his last letter, he
had talked of excuse and extenuation. He now knew
that he had done that for which there was no excuse, and
for which extenuation would be of no avail.

Yet even in this hour of trial, conscious of the integrity
of his motives, and knowing well that if there had been
corruption in his actions, there had at least been none in
his heart, he was unable to realise the effect which the
revelation would produce upon others. He hoped that
the Lords would be satisfied with his resignation of the
great seal, and would spare him any further disgrace.

On the 22nd, therefore, he wrote to the House a letter,
in which his mingled feelings were characteristically de-
picte^- His words, he said, came " from wasted spirits
and an oppressed mind." Yet, strange as it might seem,
though in the midst of as great affliction as mortal man

* Bacon to the King, April 20. Works, ed. Montagu, xiii. 29.

HIS GENERAL CONFESSION.

could endure, honour being above life, lie would be<nn c»- VI
with a profession of gladness; for he could not but°re- UBL
joice that, for the future, the greatness of a judge would
be no sanctuary or protection of guiltiness (and that wafl in
a word, the beginning of a golden world), and that ma^is-
trates would learn, by his example, to fly from the very
semblance of corruption as from a serpent.

Even in his misery Bacon's first thoughts were for his
country. He then turned to his own case. "But to
pass," he wrote, " from the motions of my heart, whereof
God is only judge, to the merits of my cause, whereof
your lordships are judges under God and His Lieutenant,
! do understand there hath been heretofore expected
from me some justification, and therefore I have chosen
one only justification, instead of all other, out of the justi-
fications of Job. For, after the clear submission and
confession which I shall now make unto your lordships,
I hope I may say and justify with Job, in these words :

-' I have not hid my sin as did Adam, nor concealed
my thoughts in my bosom/ This is the only justifica-
tion which I will use.

" It resteth therefore that, without fig-leaves, I do in-
genuously confess and acknowledge that, having under-
stood the particulars of the charge, not formally from the
House, but enough to inform my conscience and memory,
I find matter sufficient and full, both to move me to
desert the defence, and to move your lordships to condemn
and censure me."

It was useless, he went on to say, to trouble them by
singling out particulars against which he might justly
except, to raise scruples touching the credit of the wit-
nesses, or to plead extenuating circumstances. He was
about to resign his office, " and therefore," he ended by
saying, " my humble suit to your lordships is that my
penitent submission may be my sentence, and the loss of
the seal my punishment; and that your lordships will
spare any further sentence, but recommend me to his
Majesty's grace and pardon for all that is past. Gods
Holy Spirit be amongst you/'*

* Bacon to the Lords, April 22. Lords' Journals, iii. 84

462 WAS BACON TO APPEAR AT THE BAR ?

CH. VI. Bacon had forgotten that it is not the business of a
1621, court of law to inquire into motives, and that the Lords
April 24. would only stultify themselves if at this point they gave up
it does not the investigation without recording their sentence upon
Lord? the ac^s which he had himself admitted to be indefensible.
It was in vain, therefore, that his letter was brought
before them by a personage no less influential than the
Prince of Wales. As soon as it had been read, there
was silence for a long time throughout the House. Then
Pembroke rose. It was a question, he said, whether the
Lord Chancellor's submission was sufficient for them to
ground a judgment upon without further inquiry. As
soon .as the House had gone into Committee to discuss
the point thus raised, it became evident that the submis-
sion would not be accepted in the form in which it had
been tendered. Certain definite accusations had been
made, and the Lords wanted to know in so many words,
whether they were true or not. The submission was
therefore unanimously rejected.

In the course of the discussion a new question had been
started by Spencer : — Was the Lord Chancellor to be
summoned to the bar to answer to the charges in person ?
Buckingham .once more interposed in Bacon's behalf. He
hoped, he said, that they would make a charitable exposi-
tion of the case, and would "attribute this thing to the cor-
ruption of the time in respect of the quality of the person/'
The Chancellor had already acknowledged himself to be
guilty in general, though not in particular. Let a message
be sent to him, in order that he might have an oppor-
tunity of making a full acknowledgment of his fault, before
they resorted to the extreme step of sending for him in
person. Arundel and Pembroke followed in support of
the same view. " Shall the Great Seal," said Pembroke,
" come to the bar 1 " It was in vain that Say, then as
ever, bitterly one-sided, urged that Bacon should be sent
for ; and that Suffolk, not unmindful of the day when the
Lord Chancellor had sat in judgment upon himself, argued
on the same side. Wallingford probably expressed the
general opinion. His lordship's submission, he said, was
too short, and it was unfit that he should presume to
dictate his own punishment. Nor was it becoming that

HE ACKNOWLEDGES SPECIAL OFFENCES.

he should throw the blame of his faults upon tln» up <*'• vi.
rather than upon himself. He had all due respect for the W2i.
person of the accused man, but if a reformation waa in-
tended, the proceedings should be as public as possibl. .
Yet, after all, how could the Chancellor come to the bar
with the seals ? The House felt on this point, at least,
with Pembroke and Wallingford, and it was decided that
Bacon should be applied to for a fuller answer.* A copy
of the evidence against him was accordingly transmitted to
him, together with the articles of accusation as they had
proceeded from the comrnittee.f

The next day, after an unsuccessful attempt to re-open April 25.
the question of summoning the Chancellor to the bar,
messengers were sent to inquire into his intentions. "The
Lord Chancellor," they reported, " will make no manner
of defence to the charge, but meaneth to acknowledge
corruption, and to make a particular confession to every
point, and after that an humble submission." He desired
them, however, tg add an explanation on some particular
points. Five days were accordingly allowed him to pre-
pare his statement ; and, in spite of Suffolk's renewed
opposition, it was resolved that this statement should be
made in writing.^

On the 30th of April, accordingly, the promised con- Apriuo.
fession was handed in, with some insignificant exceptions.§ ^J^e* ta
The examinations of the witnesses have unfortunately not on th«-
been preserved, but by those who have learned by expe-
rience to place unreserved confidence in Bacon's truthful-
ness, his own declarations, together with the additional
light which can be thrown upon them by the help of the
records of the Court of Chancery, will be sufficient to
give a tolerably clear idea of the nature of his delinquencies.

In answer to one at least of the charges, he could offer
no excuse. " He had given away," it was said, " to great Vants.
exactions by his servants." He at once acknowledged
that it was a great fault of neglect, that he looked no
better to them.

* Elsing's Notes.
f Lords' Journals, iii. 85.
j Elsing's Notes.

§ These are amongst the House of Lords1 MSS. and were published 1>\ nu-
in the Archceoloyia, vol. xli.

464 PARTICULAR CHARGES.

GH- VI- From the remaining twenty-seven* articles, ten may,
162L for all practical purposes, be summarily excluded. They
April so. related to presents given after the closing of the various
Payments suits, and which were, therefore, according to the ideas of
close ofthe the day, to be regarded as legitimate payments.! Of the
suit. res^ £ve cases may also be .dismissed as of no real import-
where the ance- When Bacon accepted 5001. from Sir Eowland
fault was Egerton, it was in total ignorance that the old question
formal would be again stirred by Edward Egerton's wilfulness.
Smithwick's case has been already commented on. It
concerned the Chancellor's servants rather than himself.
Three more gifts had been received from rival companies
which had submitted to his arbitration ; but this was
merely in accordance with the practice of the day, which
held that an arbitrator Bought to be rewarded for his
trouble, without fixing any scale of payment.
Cases more Still twelve cases remain, all of them open to grave
objection- objection, some of them to the severest reprobation,
able. From Sir John Trevor, Bacon had accepted 100L, as a

Trevor new 7ear's $ffi> ^u^ na^ neglected to inquire whether his
cause was ended or not. The truth was, that it had been
dismissed to a trial at common-law, but that as the equity
was reserved, it might again come before him judicially.

LordMon- He had received 6001. or 70 Ol. from Lord Montague
after the decision had been given. But the decision was
resisted by the other party, and the case came up again
before him. He was obliged to. acknowledge that he had
received fair warning that this was likely to occur ; for
when the money was brought, the bearer told him, " that
my lord would be further thankful if he could once get his
quiet." All that Bacon was able to say in defence of his
conduct was that he had paid no attention to the message.^

Sh-j. Ken- From Sir John Kennedy he had received a rich cabinet,
whilst a suit was depending. Bacon had seen it, and had
ordered it to be carried back. When he afterwards heard

* I adopt Bacon's numbering in preference to that of the Lords.

t These were the gifts brought by Hody, Monk, Holman, Fisher, Scott,
Lenthall, Wroth, Dunch, Ruswell, and Barker.

£ The particulars of the case will be found in the Order Books, under the
heading " Dominus St. John v. Englefield." In Trin. T. and Mich. T. 1617,
there are two Masters' Reports headed " Viscount Montague v. Englefield."

HANSBY'S CASE. 465

that it was still in the house, he was offended at the Cn- VI
neglect of his orders. But he had not insisted on obedi- 162L~
cnce, and the cabinet was still only ready to be returned April so.
to whom their lordships should appoint.

Of the cases of Aubrey, of Edward Egerton, and of Aub«y. &
Lady Wharton, enough has been said already. JJJJ'EJ

In one respect Hansby's case resembles that of Lady Barton.
Wharton. There is the clearest possible evidence that Bacon Hanaby-
did that which was utterly indefensible. But there is also
the clearest possible evidence that the money which he
improperly received did not, in the slightest degree, affect
his judgment.

On the 17th of July, 1617, Bacon had decided in favour
of Ealph Hansby, a question respecting the validity of a
deed by which he derived a large estate from his uncle.
There still, however, remained a further question as to the
property, upon which certain legacies were chargeable.
The point was referred by Bacon to some of the Masters
in Chancery, upon whose report he would have to deliver
his final j udgment. Under these circumstances he accepted
a present of 5001. from Hansby, in whose favour the suit
about the legacies was finally decided. In itself, this last
judgment was, no doubt, open to grave suspicion. But
fortunately for his credit, Bacon gave the reasons upon
which it was based. The question turned upon the in-
tention of the old man at the time when he was signing
the deed in favour of his nephew, and it so happened that
not only the lawyers who had drawn it up were unani-
mously in favour of Hansby's interpretation of the clauses,
but that evidence was given to the effect that his uncle,
before he signed the deed, had entered into an explana-
tion in which he spoke of other property on which he
intended that the legacies should be charged, and by which,
therefore, his intention to exonerate his nephew was placed
beyond a doubt. Once more then, in a case in which the
presumptions against Bacon are undoubtedly strong, the
evidence in favour of his integrity is overwhelming.*

The next case, if it had stood alone, was sufficient to
procure Bacon's condemnation. In 1614, Ellesmere had

* Orders. Hansby v. Hansby. Order Book, 1616 A, fol. 1257, 1617 A,
fol. 661, 965, 1051, 1228.

VOL. I.

H H

466 FURTHER CASES.

CH. VI. decided in favour of Peacock in a suit against Sir George
1621. KeynelL* Difficulties arose in carrying out the judg-

Aprii so. ment, and interrogatories were administered to various
persons, with the view of ascertaining the facts of the
case with greater accuracy. Before sufficient time had
elapsed for raising the question again in Court, the
great seal was transferred to Bacon, and Reynell, who was
connected with him by marriage, brought him 2001 to
buy furniture for York House, of which he was then
about to take possession. It was not till the succeeding
winter that Eeynell made application for a re-hearing,f
and it was either on the following or on some subsequent
New Year's Day, that he brought to the Chancellor a
diamond ring, which was, as Bacon admitted, of too
great a value for a New Year's gift. What was still
worse, before the suit was ended, Bacon borrowed from

Peacock. Peacock 1000/., and submitted to receive an assurance
that no interest or written acknowledgment of the debt
would be required.

Vaniore. The case of Vanlore was similar to that of Peacock.
It was proved that Bacon had borrowed from him 20001.
at a time when he was a suitor in the Court.

Compton. Compton's case is more peculiar. Bacon had asked
him to lend him 500?., and had met with a refusal, on the
ground that the Chancellor had interfered with his
attempt to proceed to extremities against a debtor, and
that he now owed 400?. to a certain Huxley. Upon this
Bacon wrote to Huxley, begging him to refrain from
pressing his claim for six months ; and Compton accord-
ingly retracted his refusal, and sent the loan which had
been demanded. By and by, however, Huxley repented
of his concession, and proceeded against Compton at
Common Law. Compton appealed to Chancery, alleging
that he was merely a surety, and that Huxley ought first
to have applied to those from whom he had actually
received the money. Sir Charles Rich, one of the Masters
of the Court, reported that Compton's story was a mere
tissue of falsehoods, and Bacon ordered him to pay the

* Order. Peacock v. Reynell, June 27, 1614. Order Book, 1614 A,
fol. 1308.

t Order. Reynell v. Peacock, Dec. 20, 1617. Order Book, 1617 A, fol. 389.

THE FRENCH MERCHANTS.

debt with costs. Unseemly as the Chancellor's position CH. VI.
was towards the plaintiff, it cannot be affirmed that there 1021.
was any denial of justice here. April so.

The last case to be mentioned was an affair of a very
different kind. The Company of French Merchants h.ul
complained to Bacon, that the London Vintners had
entered into a combination not to buy wine at reason-
able prices, and offered him WOOL as a reward for the
services which they expected him to render. Bacon at
once drew up a tariff by which he considered that the
vintners would make a profit of Gl. a tun. His scheme
was, however, rejected by the vintners, and the mer-
chants appealed to the King. James, on the ground
that his customs would be injuriously affected by the
cessation of trade, commissioned Bacon to settle the
dispute. Thus authorised, he dealt with the vintners, as
he himself acknowledged, "more stiffly and peremptorily."
He imprisoned "for a day or two some that were the
most stiff." Unable to resist such arguments as these,
the vintners withdrew their opposition, though they com-
plained bitterly that they had been forced " to buy wines
whereof they had no need nor use," at higher rates than
they were vendible. The merchants, on the other hand,
presented the Chancellor with the WOOL which they had
promised him, assuring him that " he had kept them from
a kind of ruin ;" and maintaining that " the vintners,
if they were not insatiably minded, had a very compe-
tent gain." No candid person who reads Bacon's account
of the matter, can doubt that he acted precisely as, with
his notions on trade, he would have been likely to act if
he had never been offered a penny for his trouble. But
no candid person can deny that in listening to the offer
of payment before the service was rendered, he did pre-
cisely what in the most corrupt times would have been
done by the most corrupt of ministers.

In every one of these cases, additional inquiry tells the ™aering
same tale. The volumes of the Order Books may be of the
searched through, but they will never reveal an excuse ^dne^
for Bacon's actions. But wherever they throw any light question of
upon his motives, that light is invariably favourable. c
He takes Lady Wharton's purse, but he does nothing

II H 2

468 BACONS CONTEITION.

VI. kut repeat a sentence delivered months before. He

1621. accepts a sum of money from Hansby, but he decides en
April so. evidence so conclusive that no other course is open to
him. May it not fairly be supposed that the result thus
gained would hold good in other instances, and that the
misdeeds of the great Chancellor were attributable to
contempt of forms, to the carelessness of haste, and to an
overweening confidence in his own integrity ? His own
language during the progress of the investigation is in
every respect honourable to his character. Believing at
first that no case can be established against him, his only
demand is for a fair and open trial. As day by day
brings fresh presumption against him, he reiterates his
demand, adding the assurance that no prevarication on
his part shall stand in the way of justice. When the
blow falls, it is a crushing one. He sees the truth, and
he makes no attempt to blind the eyes of his judges.
He never admits that his intentions had been corrupt,
nor does he ever affirm that his actions had been inno-
pression of cen^ " I do again confess," — such are the words with
penitence, which his long answer closes, "that in the points charged
upon me, although they should be taken as myself have
declared them, there is a great deal of corruption and
neglect, for which I am heartily and penitently sorry/' *
As soon as this submission was read in the House, a
committee was appointed to visit him, in order to learn
whether his signature was genuine. " My lords," was
his reply, "it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech
your lordships, be merciful unto a broken reed."

It was in the midst of racking pain, physical and
mental, that this cry of agony was wrung from him. He
believed that he was dying. He knew that few amongst
his countrymen would from henceforth regard him other-
wise than as corrupt in heart and feeling. Nor was this
all. A man who is in act innocent, may look forward
to the day when it will be proved that he never com-
mitted the crime of which he is accused. No such proof
could ever come for Bacon. To admit his innocence
men must read his heart, and must learn to look upon

* Bacon's confession. Lords' Journals, iii. 98.

LOSS OF THE GREAT SEAL. 4(J9

fie world with his eyes. "For my name and iii<>ni..ry,"
he declared in his last will, " I leave it to men's charitable
speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages." But
he must have known that the next ages would have a
difficult task. They would have to show, what of all
things is the hardest to prove, that his heart was pun-
whilst his actions were guilty.*

With such inquiries the House of Lords had no con- Mfty i-
cern. They were called upon — not to solve a psycholo- gjjj uken
gical problem, but to punish corrupt actions, in order from him*
that they might not be imitated for the future. Their
first step was to ask the King to take away the Great
Seal from the man in whose custody it had been sur-
rounded with an atmosphere of venality. James at once
assented. " He would have done it," he said, " if he had
not been nqoved therein." The next day, Mandevillr,
Pembroke, Lennox, and Arundel, were sent to the sick
man to require the surrender of the Seal. They found
him " very sick." " We wish," said one of them, " that
it had been better with you." In his weariness of life,
Bacon replied, " The worse, the better." Then, after a
little, he added, " By the King's great favour I received
the Great Seal ; by my own great fault I have lost it."
After this melancholy scene the messengers departed,
carrying with them the symbol of the King's authority,
which they had been directed to retain in their own

* The following verses are valuable as giving an idea of the mode in
which Bacon's case was regarded by a not unfavourable looker on : —
" Vicecomes Sanctus Albanus Cancellarius Anglicanus
Miris dotibus imbutus, ingeniosus et acutus,
Lingui! nemini secundus (ah ! si esset manu mundus)
Eloquens et literatus repetundarum accusatus
Accusatus haud convictus (utinam haud rithmus fictus)
Tanquam passer plumbo ictus est segrotus, aut sic dictus,
Morte precor moriatur reus antequam damnatur,
Morte dico naturali ; (munus, non est pO3na tali),
Ab amico accusatus ; miser tu, at es ingratus.
Actseon tu propriis manibus, prseda focta tuis canibus
Pereant canes hi latrantes te famamque vulnerantes.
Tua sors est deploranda, quid si culpa perdonata,
Fama est per orbem flata quod sigilla sunt sublata.
Mali semel accusatus, etsi peena liberatus,
Manet malum et reatus, absit hie sit tuus status.
Vive tu, si vitam cupis, vita cara ursis, lupis,
Et si quid fecisti male, redime et bene vale."

S. P. Dom. ex*. 39.

470 DEBATE ON THE SENTENCE.

_CH. VI. hands, as Commissioners, till a permanent successor was
1621. appointed." * At the same time, Ley was authorised to
continue his attendance as Speaker of the House of
Lords."]"

May 2. Bacon made one more effort to induce James to spare
him from further disgrace, by bringing his influence to
bear upon the Peers. Was it not enough, he asked, that
the Seal had been taken away ? " But," he concluded,
in words which showed that his old buoyancy of spirit
was still uncrushed, " because he that hath taken bribes
is apt to give bribes, I will go farther, and present your
Majesty with a bribe. For, if your Majesty give me
peace and leisure, and God give me life, I will present
you with a good history of England, and a better digest
of your laws." |

To this request James wisely turned a deaf ear.
Even if he had wished, it would have been a hopeless
task to persuade the Lords to leave the faults which had
been dragged to light without the brand of a sentence.
Bacon was not long in learning that he had pleaded in
vain. At Southampton's motion, the officers of the
House had been sent to m summon him to the bar. The
Great Seal, which had hitherto protected him, was no
longer his. But he was still able to appeal to the weak-
ness of his physical frame. He was in bed when the
officers arrived. He told them that they asked for an
impossibility. He was not making excuses. If he had
been well, he would willingly have come.

May 3. The reply thus framed was accepted without difficulty
sentence on ^e f°ll°wmg morning. The question was then put
debated, whether the late Lord Chancellor was guilty of the mat-
ters with which he was charged, and it was agreed to
without a dissentient voice. The House then went into
Committee to discuss the penalty to be inflicted upon
him. That it should consist of fine and imprisonment
was accepted without difficulty. Lord Sheffield moved,
amidst signs of approbation, that he should be incapable
for the future of holding any office of judicature, or of a

* Elsing's Notes.

t Lords' Journals, iii. 103 — 104.

j Bacon to the King, May 2. Works, ed. Montagu, xiii. 30.

DECISION OF THi: U>RDS, 471

seat at the Privy Council. To this, Say, erer n.ncorous
m his indignation against guilt, proposed th.-it degrade
tion from the peerage should be added. Against this
extremity, Arundel and Pembroke protested, ii soon
appeared that Say's proposal would be made a question
between the supporters of the Court and the Opposition.
t was adopted by Spencer and Southampton, the latter
of whom took credit to himself in not recommending the
addition of banishment, of which he declared the°late
Chancellor to be worthy ; whilst Lennox, Mandeville,
Hamilton, and the Prince himself, spoke in Bacon's
favour. At last a compromise was suggested by Hamil-
ton. Let him be spared from personal degradation ; but
let him lose his right of sitting in the House, or of
coming to Court. After this, Arundel, who had earlier
in the debate acknowledged the foulness of the offence,
yet nevertheless again deprecated the idea of expulsion
from the peerage. It was not usual, he said, to degrade
a peer excepting by Act of Parliament. Bishop Neile
added a more peculiar reason. It would be well, he said,
to leave him his title that he might remember from
whence he had fallen. To these arguments no reply was
made ; but Southampton, fearing perhaps lest Bacon
might escape altogether, rose again. "Is it well," he
said, "that he whom this House thinks unfit to be a
constable, shall come to the Parliament ? " After this
the exclusion from Parliament was voted without a
dissentient voice. As soon as it was carried, Bucking-
ham, apparently with the intention of averting any
further addition to the sentence, observed that Bacon was
so sick that he could not live long.

The House then resumed, and the sentence was for-
mally put into shape. The late Chancellor was to pay a
fine of 40,000?., to be imprisoned in the Tower during
the King's pleasure, to be incapable of any place or
employment in the State or Commonwealth, and to be
disabled from sitting in Parliament, or from coming
within twelve miles of the Court. An attempt made
by Suffolk's son, Lord Howard de Walden, to gratify the
animosities of his family, by the suspension during life of
Bacon's titles of nobility, was repulsed by the good sense

472 THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED.

CH- VL of the House. Such a sentence would have been more
1621. than a penalty for a crime ; it would have been a per-
May 3. sonal disgrace inflicted upon the offender. The Prince
and Buckingham came to his aid, and it is said that the
Bishops voted as one man on the side of lenity. Their
efforts were successful, and the proposition was rejected
by a majority. The remainder of the proposed sentence
was then put to the vote, and was carried with a single
dissentient voice — the voice of Buckingham, who had
found little to say in extenuation of such faults as those
with which Bacon had been charged, but had made it a
point of honour not to abandon his constant supporter
in extremity.*

^e ^ommons were tnen summoned to the bar, and
the judgment resolved upon was pronounced. It was a
heavy sentence, but not more heavy than the circum-
stances of the case demanded. It was well that the
House of Lords should declare its opinion that the late
Lord Chancellor could no longer be employed with ad-
vantage in the service of the State. The fine and
imprisonment were, as every one knew, worse in appear-
ance than in reality. Such penalties were in those days
little more than a strong expression of opinion : if the
condemned person sought for a remission of his sen-
tence from the King in sufficiently humble terms, the
remission was almost certain to be accorded ; and no
one could doubt that Bacon was likely to be humble, and
that James was likely to be forgiving.

When the history of the debate was told to Bacon,
he remarked "that he was only bound to thank his
clergy." Some weeks later, looking back upon the past
in a more serious mood, he said that though he was
bound to acknowledge " the sentence just, and for refor-
mation's sake fit," yet he had been the justest Chancellor
since his father's death. The judgment thus recorded by
himself may be accepted by history as final.
Bacon's Thus fell Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, from the
highest eminence to which a subject could climb.
Neither of the great English parties which were so soon
to spring into existence could claim him as their own ;

* Elsing's Notes.

BACONS QUALITIES. 473

and as long as the influence of those parties continued CH- VL
to lay its spell upon history, his memory was left with-
out a champion. His name was used by satirists, who
knew nothing of his life, to point the common-place
moral that intellect dissociated from virtue must f-iil to
command success. In our own days, the most brilliant
of historians, exasperated by the absurdities of a wi-;ik
and ignorant panegyrist, took the case against Bacon
under his patronage, and in language which will be re;i<l
as long as the English tongue endures, painted the great
statesman and the great philosopher in colours as odious
as they are untrue to nature, because his thoughts ami
principles did not square with the system of a \\ i
politician of the nineteenth century.* After this, it
hardly to be wondered at that a great German chemist
should have boldly declared him to be a charlatan and
an impostor, because he was neither a Kepler nor a
Faraday. It is time that Bacon should be known as he
really was. He was not the faultless monster which it
has pleased some of his too enthusiastic worshippers to
represent him. But far less was he that strange conge-
ries of discordant qualities which were never found
united in any human being. He was not one man as a
thinker, and another man as a politician. In every part
of his career he was indefatigable in his pursuit of truth
and justice. His faults as a philosopher, as a states-
man, and as a judge, arose alike from the same source.
" I have taken all knowledge for my province," he once
exclaimed in the enthusiasm of youth. He laid him-
self open to the criticism of chemists and astronomers,
because he believed that the whole intellectual world
was at his feet, and that a single generation wouM

* It will be seen that I have little sympathy with Lord Macaulay's
view of Bacon's character. But there are wonderful flashes of com-
mon sense in his essay. For instance, when have the writers who
believe in Bacon's faultlessness, answered such an argument as this ? — " It
seems strange that Mr. Montagu should not perceive, that while attempting
to vindicate Bacon's reputation, he, is really casting on it th«- foul.-
aspersions. He imputes to his idol a drgive of meanings and <Irpr:r
more loathsome than judicial corruption itself. A corrupt jmlgi- may li.
many good qualities. I'ut a man who, to please a powerful j>atn>u. solemnly
declares himself guilty of corruption when he knows liiniM-lf to be innocent,
must be a monster of servility and impudence."

474 UNITY OF BACON'S LIFE.

^L suffice to classify and arrange the infinite phenomen ,
1621. nature. He laid himself open to the criticism of states
May 3. men and lawyers, because, in his reverence for the powei
of intellect, he despised the checks upon the exercise c
sovereign power which in a free constitution are neces
sarily placed in the hands of common-place and i!
educated men. He laid himself open to the criticism c
the moralist, by fancying that integrity of heart might b
left to its own guidance ; and that a vivid intelligent
and a direct honesty of purpose might safely dispens
with the forms which are needed for the guidance c
smaller men, and might even, on occasion, overstep th
line at which courtesy passes into insincerity. Yet, i]
the end, the wisest and greatest of his generation had t
learn that he too was fallible, and that even for bin
forms were necessary.

. The traged7 of Bacon's final catastrophe has brande<
itself upon the memory of succeeding generations. Ye
his failure as a judge is not to be compared, in rea
interest, with his failure as a statesman. The one
attractive as a psychological problem, the other contain
a lesson to which it is well to give ear at all times anc
in all seasons. His ideal of government was the sarn<
as that upon which, in our own day, the institutions o
Imperial France have been modelled, so far as the dif
ferences of two such distant stages of civilisation woulc
permit. In the speculative ideal which he set forth tc
the world in the New Atlantis, he proposed that differen
classes of labourers in the cause of science should b<
distributed each to its appointed task, not one of whicl
was to share in the duties of the other. The collector o:
facts was not to conduct experiments. The conductor o:
experiments was not to pronounce upon their value
whilst it was to be the duty of a body of men standing
apart from the vulgar contamination of the laboratory
and the observatory, to make use of the results by
raising the scattered truths to the dignity of a highei
science. In the same spirit he would have assigned tc
all men their position in the State. The country gentle-
men might administer a rude justice in their respective
districts. The judges might decide moot points of law

FAULTS OF HIS STATESMANSHIP. 475

bearing upon the rights of property. Parliaments might _2?- VL.

vote subsidies, might, subject to the veto of the Crown, icai.

Assent to laws for the benefit of the commonwealth, and May 3.

might give useful information of the state of public

feeling, or of the existence of popular grievances. But,

knowing as he did, that the highest work of legislation

and government calls forth the highest faculties of man,

lie did not venture to confide the chief interests of the

ation to common hands. In the Sovereign who had

ecognized his own merit, he saw, or fancied that he

aw, a patriotic King, who would control the hard tech-

icalities of the judges by his Court of Chancery ; who

rould supply the weakness of criminal justice by his

^ourt of Star-Chamber ; and would regulate, by means

f his Privy Council, questions of high policy with which

'arliament was unfit to be trusted. How it ended we

11 know. On the great questions on which his advice

srould have been truly valuable, on the reform of the

aw, on the Spanish alliance, on the war in Germany, he

pas probably never seriously consulted during the four

ears of his tenure of the Great Seal; and his opinion,

whenever, at long intervals, he ventured to tender it, was

ertainly never adopted. Yet it is not to the incapacity

f James, or the arrogance of Buckingham, that we must

ook for the heaviest condemnation of Bacon's system.

f ever a man was fitted, by nature and study, to be the

ader of a nation, it was he : and yet this man, great

s he was, failed ignominiously no less in that which he

id, than in that which he was compelled to leave

ndone. Narrow as, in many respects, the commercial

olicy of the House of Commons was, it was not so

larrow as Bacon's. It saw by instinct what Bacon

ould not see, — the intolerable abuses to which the

owers which he claimed for the Crown must necessarily

[ive rise. In condemning Bacon it condemned, in a

ude and accidental fashion, the theory of government

fhich draws a distinct line of separation between the

executive and the representatives of the people, and

rhich affords no scope for that mutual play of special

nowledge and of popular instinct which may sometimes

heck the speed at which an enlightened government

169005

476 NOBLENESS OF BACON IN HIS ERRORS.

CH- YL would fain advance, but which has saved us from in-
1621. calculable blunders on either side, and which, above all,
May 3. has made our slow progress more certain than that of
other nations, because it has ensured that the ameliora-
tion of the laws shall go hand in hand with the growth
of the national conscience.
His mo- yet, whatever we may think of Bacon's political ideas,

narchical . . ... •( . . . -f

theories, it is grossly unfair to mm to confuse his devotion to
monarchy with the narrowminded partisanship of the
Cavaliers of the Restoration, or with the no less narrow-
minded theories 'of the non-jurors of a later age. In his
eyes the cause of monarchy was the cause of intellect
in the eternal battle against ignorance, pedantry and
routine. He believed that, on the whole, the King
would choose wiser servants than a body so inexperienced
as the House of Commons was likely to do. He feared
the encroachments of the popular party for the same
reasons as those which, in later times, have led a Can-
ning and a Lowe to throw their weight into the scale
in opposition to the advocates of popular reform. And
then, as now, the victory was to be won, not by mere
declamation on constitutional privileges, or on the rights
of the people, but by the spread of political knowledge,
and of that moral self-restraint which, in every noble
people, is the surest result of increased responsibility.
Bacon failed, because he placed confidence in James andj
Buckingham, in MichelL and Mompesson, in Lad}j
Wharton and in Edward Egerton. Eliot and Pym,
Hampden and Cromwell, were to take the lead of
the next generation, because they placed confidence in
the people of England.

END OF VOL. I.

BKADHURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

i/n

V.I SMC

GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON,

1829-1902.
PRINCE CHARLES AND THE

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