<317>The news that Charles had taken his father’s place was received with general satisfaction. “The joy of the people,” as a contemporary March 27.General satisfaction with the new reign.expressed it, “devoured their mourning.”[539] Of the character of the new King, silent and reserved as he was, little was known, and still less had reached the public ear of his questionable proceedings in the negotiation of the marriage treaty. It was enough that, ever since his return from Madrid, he had been the consistent advocate of war with Spain.
When Ville-aux-Clercs went back to France with the marriage treaty, Richelieu asked him what he thought of Charles. “Ville-aux-Clercs’ opinion of Charles.He is either an extraordinary man,” was the shrewd reply, “or his talents are very mean. If his reticence is affected in order not to give jealousy to his father, it is a sign of consummate prudence. If it is natural and unassumed, the contrary inference may be drawn.”[540]
The extreme reserve of the young King was doubtless closely connected with that want of imaginative power which lay His reticence.at the root of his faults. With all his confidence in his own thoughts, he failed to give to his ideas an expression which was satisfactory to others or even to himself. He did not like to be contradicted, and his father’s rapid utterance had swept away his slow conceptions as with a torrent before he could find out what he really meant to say. <318>The man who is too vain to bear contradiction and not sufficiently brilliant or wise to overpower it, must of necessity take refuge in silence.
Unfortunately the defect which hindered Charles from being a good talker hindered him also from being a good ruler. The firm His defects as a ruler.convictions of his mind were alike proof against arguments which he was unable to understand, and unalterable by the impression of passing events, which slipped by him unnoticed. The wisest of men, the most decisive of facts, were no more to him than the whistling of the storm is to the man who is seated by a warm fireside. They passed him by; or, if he heeded them at all, it was only to wonder that they did not conform to his own beneficent intentions. “I cannot,” he said on one occasion, “defend a bad, nor yield in a good cause.”[541] Conscious of the purity of his own motives, he never ceased to divide mankind into two simple classes — into those who agreed with him, and those who did not; into sheep to be cherished, and goats to be rejected. Such narrowness of view was no guarantee for fixity of purpose. When the moment came at last for the realities of life to break through the artificial atmosphere in which he had been living, when forms unknown and unimagined before crowded on his bewildered vision, it was too late to gain knowledge the acquisition of which had been so long deferred, or to exercise that strength of will which is only to be found where there is intelligent perception of the danger to be faced.
The same explanation will probably in a great measure account for the special fault which has, more than any other, cost Charles the respect of posterity. The truthful man must be able to image forth in his own mind the impression his engagements How far he was untruthful.leave upon those with whom they were made; and must either keep them in the sense in which they are understood by others, or must openly and candidly show cause why it is wrong or impossible so to keep them. The way in which Charles gave and broke his promises was the very reverse of this. He looked too much <319>into his own mind, too little into the minds of those with whom he was bargaining. When he entered into an engagement he either formed no clear conception of the circumstances under which he would be called upon to fulfil it, or he remembered too clearly this or that consideration which would render his promise illusory, or would at least, if it had been spoken out, have prevented those with whom he was dealing from accepting his word. When the time came for him to fulfil an engagement he could think of nothing but the limitations with which he had surrounded it, or with which he fancied that he had surrounded it, when his word had been given. Sometimes he went still farther, apparently thinking that it was lawful to use deception as a weapon against those who had no right to know the truth.
Of the defects in Charles’s character, the nation was as yet profoundly ignorant. All that was known of him was to his advantage. James died Beginning of the new reign.a little before noon. After some hours spent in private, the young King — he was but in his twenty-fifth year — came up from Theobalds to St. James’s. The next morning he gave orders that March 28.The Privy Council.all his father’s officers of state should retain their places. With the exception of the Catholic lords, Wotton and Baltimore, who were excluded, the new Privy Council was therefore identical with that which had existed at the close of the last reign. For though the names of Suffolk, Wallingford, Middlesex, Bristol, and Bacon were also removed, those who bore them had long ceased to appear at the board. The only addition to the number was Sir Humphrey May, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a man of some ability and of a very conciliatory disposition.[542]
The remainder of the week was passed by Charles in seclusion at St. James’s. Buckingham, who was alone admitted to Charles and Buckingham.share his privacy, ‘lay’ on the ‘first night of the reign in the King’s bedchamber, and three nights after in the next lodgings.’[543] There is nothing to show that <320>Buckingham’s familiarity with the King was in any way unpopular at this time, when the transactions relating to the French treaty were still involved in mystery. Of all men living Eliot was least open to the charge of undue subserviency. Yet Eliot wrote to Buckingham that he hoped to become ‘wholly devoted to the contemplation of’ his ‘excellence.’[544]
If the outer world was satisfied for the time, there were those at Court who knew too much to be at ease. Williams had instinctively Williams objects to the preparations for war.shrunk from the unpopularity which was sure to result as soon as the concessions made to the Catholics were known, and he had too much common sense to look with favour on Buckingham’s military projects, which he knew to be far too extensive for the means at his disposal. When the Lord Keeper was first admitted to the royal presence, he found Charles bent upon summoning Parliament immediately, to enable him to go on with his preparations by sea and land. The King even asked why the old Parliament of the preceding year might not be called, without the delay of fresh elections. Williams told him that this would be distinctly illegal, and hinted that it would be well to afford time to canvass the constituencies in favour of candidates of the right sort. But Charles was in no mood to hear of difficulties. Let the writs, he said, be despatched forthwith. Let not a day be lost. The fleet must go forth in the summer. War with Spain must be carried on vigorously. Williams did not venture to argue with his new master, but the few words which he spoke not being <321>sufficiently enthusiastic, the King turned his back upon him and dismissed him.[545]
In the Council, too, voices were raised against proceeding with the marriage treaty March 29.Objections to the marriage.as it stood. Matters had, however, gone too far to admit of hesitation now, and all opposition was put down by Buckingham with a high hand.[546]
A week after his father’s death, Charles removed to Whitehall, walking without state across St. James’s Park. His demeanour April 3.Charles at Whitehall.gained general approbation. His face was serious and pale. His attention to the services of religion was the object of almost universal remark. Men told one another with satisfaction that the new King was ‘very attentive and devout at prayer and sermons,’ and were especially pleased to hear that he had refused to make the customary present of mourning to a single recusant. A few weeks later the newsmongers reported that, as an Irish earl was talking in a loud voice in a room next to that in which the King was at prayers, Charles sent to him to leave off prating and come to prayers. “His Majesty,” said the Irishman, “knows well enough that I do not come to his prayers.” “If he will not come to my prayers,” replied Charles, “let him get out of my house.”[547]
Such anecdotes were sure to be favourably received. Nor was the restoration of the state which had been observed at Court Order at Court.in the days of Elizabeth likely to injure the King in the popular opinion. Almost anyone with a courtier’s introduction could gain access to James; Charles directed that no one should be admitted to his presence without special directions from himself.[548] Amongst those who were thus excluded was one who might have hoped for better treatment. Sir Francis Cottington had been Charles’s secretary when <322>he was Prince of Wales, and had served him faithfully in that capacity. It was, however, well known that, having fallen sick at Madrid, he had declared himself to be a Roman Catholic, at least till his recovery, and that he had since protested, like Bristol, his belief that, with the aid of the Spanish ministers, the restoration of the Palatinate need not be despaired of. He was now not only stripped of his official position and emoluments, but forbidden to appear at Court. Cottington, like a man of the world as he was, went straight to the Duke, asking him ‘whether it could not be in his power, by all dutiful application and all possible service, to be restored to the good opinion his Grace had once vouchsafed to have of him, and to be admitted to serve him?’ Buckingham had at least the merit of speaking out his thoughts. He told Cottington ‘that he would deal very clearly with him; that it was utterly impossible to bring that to pass which he had proposed; that he was not only firmly resolved never to trust him, or to have to do with him, but that he was and would be always his declared enemy; and that he would do always whatsoever should be in his power to ruin and destroy him, and of this he might be most assured.’
Cottington, seeing that all chance of advancement was at an end, replied that ‘he hoped, from his justice and generosity, that he would not suffer himself to gain by his loss,’ adding that he had not only by the Duke’s command laid out money in jewels and pictures, but had once, ‘in hope of his future favour,’ made him a present of a suit of hangings worth 800l. Buckingham told him that he should be at no loss. If he would send in his account, every penny should be repaid.[549]
Such an anecdote as this points to the special danger of the new reign so far as it was to be influenced by Buckingham. There would be no personal meanness; but whether anyone was to be treated as a friend or as an enemy would depend entirely on the accordance of his political views with those prevalent for the time at Court. There would be no largeness of mind, no readiness to hear all sides of disputed questions.
Charles’s heart was set upon greater things than on the <323>restoration of etiquette. On the 9th he directed the formation of a April 9.Committee on foreign affairs.Committee of the Privy Council to advise him on foreign affairs. Buckingham, of course, was one of the selected number. Of the other four members — Pembroke, Brooke, Ley, and Conway — Pembroke was the only one who had ventured to differ from Buckingham, and even he had never differed from him for any length of time.[550]
The first result of the consultations of this body was the removal of the bar to the employment of Mansfeld at Breda. Mansfeld allowed to assist the Dutch.The States-General were again applied to for money, and they consented to give their security for a loan of 40,000l. raised at Amsterdam. The English Government hoped that this sum would be sufficient to enable Mansfeld to take his way towards the Palatinate as soon as the fate of the besieged town was decided.[551] The demands of the Northern Powers were next taken into consideration. It appeared that the Congress at the Hague could not be brought together May 26.Money sent to the King of Denmark.as soon as was expected, and Charles therefore entered into a separate agreement with the King of Denmark. He offered to furnish him with 30,000l.[552] a month, and before May was at an end he paid over 46,000l. on account. He did not, however, abandon the hope that the co-operation of Gustavus might still be secured.[553]
If Charles was anxious for the success of Mansfeld and Christian, he was still more anxious for the success of his own fleet, which, April.The fleet got ready.thanks to a timely loan of 30,000l. from Buckingham, was being rapidly prepared for sea. The new King’s first recorded appearance in public after his father’s death was on the occasion of a visit to the shipping at Blackwall.[554] It had been finally settled that twelve ships of the Royal Navy, twenty armed merchantmen, and <324>fifty colliers to act as transports, should rendezvous at Plymouth in June. Something more than ordinary sea service was intended, and on May 1, May 1.Land soldiers to be pressed.the Privy Council ordered that 10,000 landsmen should be pressed to accompany the fleet as soldiers. Of these, 8,000 were to be at Plymouth on May 25. The remaining 2,000 were to be sent over to the Netherlands, there to be exchanged, if the consent of the States-General could be obtained, for the same number of disciplined men from the English regiments in the Dutch service. By this means some steadiness might be imparted to the raw levies, who were but too likely to be the mere offscouring of the streets, sent by justices of the peace to serve his Majesty because they were troublesome to their neighbours at home.[555]
The application made at the Hague for disciplined soldiers had been accompanied by a proposal that the Dutch should take The Dutch asked to take part.an active part in the expedition itself. When the demand reached the Netherlands, the soldier who had guided the Republic since the death of Barneveld had died, after a lingering illness. In his brother, Frederick Henry, April 13.Death of the Prince of Orange.who succeeded him as Prince of Orange, and as Stadtholder of five out of the seven Provinces, the States were eventually to find a soldier of a quality equal to that of Maurice; but he was as yet untried in his high post, and, with the fate of Breda trembling in the balance, the States-General naturally demurred to Charles’s request to be allowed to select two thousand picked men from all the April 17.Reply of the Dutch.English regiments in their service. Whatever men he took, they said, he must take by whole companies, the good and the bad together. They had, however, no objection to his invitation to share in a maritime attack upon Spain, and they agreed to furnish twenty ships to the proposed expedition. At the same time they expressed their desire to bring to trial the perpetrators of the massacre of Amboyna, and, for the time at least, this cause of dissension was removed.[556]
<325>The discussion then turned on the further arrangements to be made for the expedition. For some reason or other, perhaps May.Buckingham to command the expedition.to avoid subjecting England to reprisals from Spain,[557] Charles was unwilling actually to declare war, and it was arranged that Buckingham should take the command in person, but that he should receive his commission from Frederick the titular King of Bohemia.[558]
Where was the thunderbolt to fall? The intention had originally been to direct the fleet towards the coast of Spain, to occupy some fortified town there, and to watch for the treasure-ships returning from Mexico; but an idea dropped in conversation by some one in authority at the Hague was now taken up by Buckingham with characteristic warmth. The fleet and army might, he thought, be Plan of a campaign in Flanders.more usefully employed in an attack upon the ports of Flanders in combination with the Dutch forces. If those nests of privateers were taken and destroyed, both England and the Netherlands would be the better for the operation.[559]
Before such a scheme could be finally adopted it was necessary to obtain the approbation, if not the co-operation, of Necessity of consulting France.the French Government. Up to this time Charles had scrupulously carried out his engagements with Louis. By mutual consent the term within which the marriage was to be celebrated had been prolonged for a month as soon as James’s illness was known to be serious, and May 1.Celebration of the King’s marriage by proxy.before the month came to an end, the Pope, discovering that no attention would be paid to his remonstrances, ordered his Nuncio at Paris to deliver up the dispensation without waiting for further concessions from the English. The marriage was accordingly celebrated by proxy on May 1, in front of the great west door of <326>Notre Dame, after the precedent set at the marriage of Margaret of Valois with the Huguenot Henry of Navarre.[560]
On the same day Charles gave directions to the Lord Keeper to carry out the engagement which he had taken as Prince Favours to the Catholics.to remove the burdens weighing upon the Catholics in England. “We will and require you,” he wrote, “to give order to all such our officers to whom it may appertain, that all manner of prosecution against the said Roman Catholics, as well on their persons as goods, for the exercise of the said religion, be stayed and forborne, provided always that they behave themselves modestly therein, and yield us that obedience which good and true subjects owe unto their King.”[561]
Charles was represented at the marriage ceremony by the Duke of Chevreuse, a distant kinsman of his own,[562] who had Buckingham appointed to fetch home the Queen.attached himself warmly to the English alliance. As soon as the death of James had opened a prospect of greater political activity in England, Buckingham abandoned the idea of visiting Paris as proxy for his sovereign, and, setting himself down to the work before him, looked forward, at the most, to sailing across the Straits in command of the fleet which was to fetch home the young Queen.[563]
It is not likely that either Charles or Buckingham, in their sanguine optimism, foresaw the storm which they were raising in England Doubts about the French alliance.by their concessions to the Catholics; but they were beginning to doubt whether they would have anything except the person of the bride to show in return for what they had done. The league offensive and defensive between England and France, once promised as the crowning ornament of the marriage, had vanished amidst a cloud of compliments; and now, before the end of April, had <327>come a letter from Carlisle, arguing that, for Charles’s own sake, the less he said about such a league the better. No one could tell April 21.Carlisle’s warning.on which side the weight of the French monarchy would ultimately be thrown. On the one hand French troops were co-operating with the Duke of Savoy against Genoa. On the other hand, no peace had yet been made with Soubise and the Huguenots of Rochelle. The Pope had despatched his nephew, Cardinal Barberini, to Paris, to mediate an agreement between France and Spain. Under these circumstances Carlisle doubted the wisdom of urging a stricter alliance upon the French. “I am infinitely apprehensive,” he wrote, “of adventuring my gracious young master’s virgin reputation to a refusal.” The French, he argued, would break a treaty as easily as they would break their word. If they continued adverse to Spain they would of their own accord seek aid from England. If they made peace with Spain they would expect England to aid them against the Huguenots, a thing to which it would be impossible for the King of England to consent.[564]
This was excellent advice, such as Carlisle, mere courtier and spendthrift as he is generally represented, was usually accustomed to give. Yet Buckingham cannot abandon hope.how was it possible for Buckingham to follow it? The policy of waiting till France made up her mind what part she would play, he had long ago impetuously dashed aside. For the sake of the closest union with France he had sacrificed his own consistency; and with it, though as yet he knew it not, his popularity with the English nation.
Buckingham could not bear that doubt should be thrown upon the hopes on which he had buoyed himself up so long. He determines to go to France.One chance yet seemed to remain to him. Forgetting how little his personal presence in Spain had availed him, he would try whether his personal presence in France would not clear all difficulties away. He could offer the co-operation of that great English fleet which was in a forward state of preparation, the aid of which, as he <328>imagined, the French Government was hardly likely to despise. If he proposed to attack the Spanish Netherlands by sea and land from the north, in conjunction with the Dutch, whilst Louis, taking up in earnest his father’s last enterprise, directed his armies upon them from the south; if he promised that the Spanish province of Artois should be surrendered to France as her share of the spoils, what French heart could turn away from so much glory, combined with so much solid advantage to the monarchy? For the sake of such an alliance as this, Louis could hardly object to grant acceptable conditions to the Huguenots.[565]
Influenced by these hopes and fears Buckingham had ceased to wish to give English aid to France against Rochelle. He would rather, The English vessels for Rochelle.as far as we can judge from his acts, urge Louis to pardon the Huguenots, in order that he might make war, than help him to subdue the Huguenots with the same object. A few days before James died, contracts had been signed which temporarily made over to the King of France the ‘Vanguard,’ a ship of the Royal Navy, together with seven merchant vessels hired for the purpose from their owners. They were to be placed under the command of Pennington, the companion of Raleigh in his last voyage to Guiana, and were to be at the service of Louis for a time varying at his discretion from six to eighteen months. It was expressly stated that the vessels might be used ‘against whomsoever except the King of Great Britain.’[566] On May 8 the ships were ordered to cross the Channel, but on the 18th, a few days after <329>Buckingham had left England, Sir John Coke, who was the leading spirit They are not to serve against the Huguenots.amongst the Commissioners of the Navy, and who was deep in Buckingham’s confidence, wrote to Pennington directing him in no way to meddle with the civil war of France, or to take part in any attack upon Protestants there or elsewhere. The true intention of his employment was to serve against ‘the foreign enemies of France and England.’ These orders, in flagrant contradiction with the letter and spirit of the contract, were said to be for its ‘better understanding.’[567]
This change of front in the matter of the ships was accompanied by another in the matter of the recusancy laws. On May 11, Change in the treatment of the Catholics.the English Catholics were full of hope. The order sent to Williams on the 1st[568] was, as they believed, to be obeyed. Three thousand letters to the judges, the bishops, and other official personages, commanding them to desist from any further execution of the penal laws, were ready to be sent out. Before the 23rd the Catholics were told that they must wait a little longer, as it would be unwise to fly openly in the face of the coming Parliament. When the session was at an end their demands might be attended to.[569]
It was hardly wise of Buckingham to offer to the French Government in so public a manner the alternative between a Danger of Buckingham’s visit to France.complete alliance with England and an open rupture. To Richelieu, who was anxious to lead his sovereign in the path in which Buckingham desired him to tread, the advent of the impetuous young man must have been a sore trial. He knew that Louis, hesitating as he was between two opinions, almost equally loathing the domination of Spain and the independence of his own Protestant subjects, would be thrown off his balance by the slightest semblance of a threat on <330>either side; and that it was scarcely to be expected that the headstrong Englishman, whose whole political position was endangered, should abstain from threats.[570]
On May 14, Buckingham arrived in Paris. To the world in general he appeared to have May 14.He arrives at Paris.set his whole soul on displaying his handsome person and his jewelled attire at the Court festivities;[571] but those who knew that he was accompanied by the new secretary, Sir Albertus Morton, might suspect that he had more serious work in hand.[572]
Of Buckingham’s negotiations at Paris we merely learn that, with Richelieu’s warm support, the King sent a nobleman to Rochelle to Peace to be offered to the Huguenots.invite the Huguenots to send deputies to Paris to treat for peace.[573] After some delay caused by the state of the King’s health, the Court set out for Compiègne, where Louis was to take leave of his sister. <331>Buckingham employed the two days which he spent there in urging the French Government to join England in a declared war against Spain. Either Louis took umbrage at the Duke’s manner of negotiating, or he shrank from taking so decided a part. He would neither bind himself to reject any pacific overtures which Buckingham demands a strict alliance.might come from Spain, nor would he engage to take open part in a war for the recovery of the Palatinate. Even the proffered bribe of the annexation of Artois to France did not move him. He would give 100,000l. towards the expenses of the King of Denmark, and he would continue his share of Mansfeld’s pay for seven months longer, and would reinforce the Count’s shattered army with two thousand additional French horse.[574] More than this he refused to do.[575]
By a statesman accustomed to take hard facts as they were, the result of Buckingham’s mission would not have been regarded as Buckingham’s failure.so very pitiful. It was something that the French Court should show a disposition to treat with the Huguenots and to oppose Spain in its own time and its own way. Unfortunately Buckingham had staked his reputation on far more than this. Nothing but the most brilliant success would save his conduct with respect to the Catholics and Mansfeld’s expedition from the gravest animadversion in the coming Parliament. He had gone to France with inflated hopes of unbounded success; he returned bitterly disappointed. It is hardly too much to say that his visit to Paris in 1625 cut the ground from under his feet as completely as his visit to Madrid in 1623 had cut the ground from under the feet of <332>James. He had yielded much, and had nothing to show for it in return.
Is it wholly impossible that Buckingham’s vexation at his political failure may have vented itself in the extravagance of which he was guilty a few days later? Though Louis went no farther than Compiègne, his mother and his wife accompanied the young Queen of England some stages farther. At Amiens Buckingham spoke bitterly to Mary de Medicis. The Huguenots, he said, might come to Paris to ask for peace upon their knees, but they must bring their rapiers in their hands.[576] On the other hand, Buckingham and the Queen of France.he addressed Queen Anne in terms of such passionate devotion, as they were walking together in the shades of evening, that she was forced to call her attendants to her help. That the handsome Englishman had made an impression upon the poor young wife, who had been treated with complete neglect by her husband, there can be no doubt whatever; and Buckingham, especially in his present temper, was not the man to restrain himself from taking advantage of her weakness. June 7.After his departure, he met a courier at Abbeville bringing him instructions to impart certain information to the French Government. Hurrying back to Amiens, he informed Mary de Medicis of the State secret confided to him, and then asked for an audience of the young Queen. Being introduced, as was the fashion of those days, into the chamber in which Anne was in bed with her attendant ladies around her, he threw himself on his knees, and kissing the coverlet over her, poured forth a torrent of impassioned words such as would have beseemed a lover restored after long separation to the sight of his plighted mistress. Vanity and licentiousness were deeply rooted in Buckingham’s nature. Yet were vanity and licentiousness sufficient to account for conduct so strange? May there not have mingled with unchastened desire some feeling of pleasure in paying his addresses thus publicly to the wife of the man who had thwarted his policy?[577]
<333>Whilst Buckingham was making love or weaving political schemes at Amiens, the innocent pledge of the tottering alliance was June 12.Henrietta Maria lands at Dover.continuing her journey. On June 12 she landed at Dover. Charles, at the urgent entreaty of his mother-in-law, had retired to Canterbury, in order that he might not set eyes on his bride till she had recovered from June 13.Her first sight of Charles.the effects of sea-sickness. The next morning he rode over to Dover and took her by surprise. Running down stairs, as soon as she heard that he had come, she offered to kiss his hand. He caught her in his arms and kissed her. “Sire,” she said, as soon as she was able to speak, “I am come to this country to be used and commanded by Your Majesty.” By-and-by, seeing that she reached to his shoulder, Charles, who had heard much of her shortness of stature, glanced downwards to see if her feet were raised by artificial means. “Sire,” she said with the ready wit of her nation, “I stand upon my own feet; I have no helps by art. Thus high I am, and am neither higher nor lower.”[578]
Such passages between a sharp, bright-eyed girl of fifteen and a husband of twenty-four could not do more than gloss over the inherent difficulties of the situation. The young wife had been taught to regard herself as entrusted with the mission of comforting and protecting the persecuted members of her own Church. She had not crossed the sea forgetting her own people and her father’s house. Nor was Charles likely to fill a large space in her imagination. Affectionate himself towards her, he was eager for her affection in return; but he expected to be obeyed without showing that superiority which secures voluntary obedience. He was punctilious, harsh when contradicted, and without resource in moments of emergency. <334>Petty difficulties soon arose. Henrietta Maria had grown up Difficulty about Madame de St. Georges.under the care of Madame de St. Georges, and she begged not to be separated from her as she drove with her husband from Dover to Canterbury. She was told that the lady’s rank was not high enough to give her a claim to a place so near the Queen. While, therefore, Madame de St. Georges was excluded, Buckingham’s mother and sister, together with the Countess of Arundel, were allowed to seat themselves in the royal carriage. The first matrimonial conflict, rising at times almost to the dignity of a diplomatic dispute, sprang out of this question of precedence. The French ladies of the Queen’s suite took good care to keep the quarrel open, and to teach her to regard everything English with contemptuous dislike.[579]
On the 16th the King and Queen entered London by the highway of the river. Though the rain was falling fast, they kept June 16.Entry of the King and Queen into London.the windows of their barge open, so as to be seen by the multitude which awaited them. They were received with the utmost enthusiasm. The tops of the houses, the decks of vessels and lighters, were covered with a shouting crowd. Deeply laden wherries gave life to the surface of the river. The ordnance of the fleet at Blackwall, and after that the Tower guns, discharged a thundering welcome. The Queen, as she landed at Denmark House — the Somerset House of an earlier and a later generation — seemed to be well pleased with her reception. The London crowd knew no ill of her, and those who gathered to see her as she passed had it not in their hearts to be uncivil to one so young and fair. It was rumoured too that there were hopes of her conversion. Perhaps she had herself unwittingly given rise to the report. Some one had impertinently asked her whether she could abide a Huguenot. “Why not?” she quickly replied; “was not my father one?”[580]
Charles might well look merrily around him as he led his wife to his home. But for those terrible religious and political questions behind, he had no need to be alarmed at the little <335>disagreement about Madame de St. Georges’ precedence, or the important discovery of the French ladies in waiting that their mistress had to sleep in an old-fashioned bed which had done service in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Unhappily, two days before the royal entry into London, the first stroke had been aimed at the French alliance of which Henrietta Maria was the living symbol. Morton’s mission to the Netherlands.On June 14 Morton was despatched to the Netherlands to urge the Dutch to co-operate with England in the attack upon Flanders, in which Louis had refused to share.[581] If this project should be adopted, the war would assume a more exclusively Protestant character, and poor Henrietta Maria’s marriage would, politically at least, have lost its meaning.
For the moment, however, this risk was averted. It was by no means a propitious time for inviting the States-General May 26.Surrender of Breda.to take part in a hazardous enterprise. On May 26 Breda had surrendered, and there was nothing so stable in the military or financial strength of England as to induce the cautious Dutch Government to abandon its defensive policy for an attack upon the enemy in the very centre of his power, especially as there was every reason to suppose that the project was not regarded with favour at Paris. If indeed a warning were needed to keep the Dutch from placing too great confidence in the overtures of England, it was not far to seek. June.Deplorable condition of Mansfeld’s troops.The condition of Mansfeld’s troops was more deplorable than ever. As soon as Breda was lost, the States, anxious to be rid of him without delay, had done their best to forward him on his way towards the Palatinate. The attempt was no sooner made than its impracticability appeared. Beyond the frontier 19,000 of the enemy’s troops were waiting to swoop down upon him the moment that he abandoned the protection of the Dutch fortresses. In spite of the money which Carleton had succeeded in raising upon the security of the States-General, the men had, as usual, been infamously neglected. Four days passed after their arrival at the frontier before even a piece of bread was served out to the famished soldiers. The peasants, fearing the <336>consequences of the irruption of a starving mob, had fled at their approach. Of the whole force — English, French, and Germans together — but 6,000 marching men were left. “Our General,” wrote Lord Cromwell on June 7, “studies his profit and how to ruin us, I think; else he would give us that which might make us live like poor Christians, and as the King’s subjects.… I desire nought in this world but an honest life, and so doth my Lieutenant-Colonel, your servant. Let us but command men that may not die as if we had killed them by giving them neither meat nor money, and we will go anywhere where our noble conductor dare send us; but to command a regiment starved, now not 220 men, I scorn it.”[582]
Such was the position of England on the Continent when, on June 18, Parliament met at last. The only diplomatic effort and June 18.Military and diplomatic failure.the only military effort which had been seriously taken up had ended in failure. The French alliance had produced no visible results. The men who had followed Mansfeld in January were either lying under the green sod in the fields of Holland and Brabant, or were cowering for shelter under the guns of the Dutch forts. The projects for the future were Necessities of the future.uncertain, hazardous, and enormously expensive. In the course of the next year 360,000l. would be required for the King of Denmark, 240,000l. for Mansfeld, 100,000l. for the regiments in the Low Countries, and some 300,000l. for the fleet, making in all a sum of 1,000,000l., or more than three times the amount of the subsidies which had been granted in 1624 as an unprecedented contribution.
Yet it is probable that the mere extent of the demand would not have stood in the King’s way if the hearts of the Commons Probable state of feeling in the House of Commons.had been with him. Unless the new Parliament abandoned the position taken up by the old one, this was more than unlikely. At all events, in 1624 neither a close alliance with France, nor the embarkation of England upon a Continental war on a large scale, had been approved of by the Lower House. It remained to be seen whether the Commons of 1625 would be of a different opinion.
[539] Tilman to D’Ewes, April 8, Ellis, ser. 2, iii. 243.
[540] Mémoires de Brienne, i. 399.
[541] Laud’s Diary, Feb. 1, 1623.
[542] Proceedings of the Privy Council, March 28; Chamberlain to Carleton, April 9, S. P. Dom. i. 5, 46. Council Register, March 29.
[543] Neve to Hollonde, April 5, Court and Times, i. 3.
[544] Eliot to Buckingham, April 1; Forster’s Eliot, i. 111. Eliot had been coming to London to attend Buckingham on his visit to France, and Mr. Forster regarded the order, which met him, to remain in the West, as evidence of some intrigue countenanced by the Duke. But the order (Council Register, March 28) was plainly a bonâ fide one, giving him special duties to fulfil. In fact, Eliot was not wanted to accompany Buckingham, simply because Buckingham’s journey was indefinitely postponed. When the Duke went it was under other circumstances, and the suite which he proposed to take was left behind. There was no slight whatever put upon Eliot. As I shall hereafter show, the breach between Eliot and Buckingham cannot be proved to have taken place till much later than Mr. Forster supposed.
[545] Hacket, ii. 4.
[546] Effiat to Louis XIII., April 18⁄28, Harl. MSS. 4597, fol. 36.
[547] Neve to Hollonde, April 5; Chamberlain to Carleton, April 9; Meade to Stuteville, May 6, Court and Times, i. 3, 6, 20.
[548] Salvetti’s News-Letter, April 15⁄25.
[549] Clarendon, i. 33.
[550] The King to Ley and others, April 9, S. P. Dom. i. 43.
[551] Conway to Carleton, April 19; Carleton to Conway, April 19, S. P. Holland.
[552] Enrolments of Privy Seals, May 26; Anstruther to Carleton, May 28, S. P. Holland. Ley to Conway, June 11, S. P. Dom. iii. 52.
[553] Declared Accounts, Treasurer of the Navy. R. O.
[554] Meddus to Meade, April 22, Court and Times, i. 11.
[555] Enrolments of Privy Seals, Dec. 23, Feb. 2; Reply to Carleton’s Memorial, April 17, S. P. Holland. Council Register, May 1, 16.
[556] Reply to Carleton’s Memorial, April 17, S. P. Holland.
[557] That there was any wish to avoid attacking Spain is a theory impossible to maintain in the face of the evidence of the French ambassadors and others, who were watching Charles from day to day.
[558] Buckingham to Carleton, May 4, S. P. Holland.
[559] Compare Richelieu, Mémoires, ii. 461–4, with Morton’s instructions, June 14, S. P. Holland.
[560] Siri, Memorie Recondite, v. 835, 847.
[561] The King to Williams, May 1, S. P. Dom. ii. 1.
[562] Through his great-grandmother, Mary of Guise.
[563] Salvetti’s News-Letters, April 1, 29, May 6. That his final resolution to go to Paris was a sudden one, is plainly stated in a letter from Conway to Carleton, May 24, S. P. Holland. This explains why Eliot was not and could not be asked to attend. See p. 320, note 1.
[564] Carlisle to Buckingham, April 21, S. P. France.
[565] There are no despatches from Buckingham giving an account of his mission. But its main objects are to be found in Richelieu’s Mémoires (ii. 459), and his statement is confirmed, so far as relates to the proposed league, by Rusdorf (Rusdorf to Frederick, May 23⁄June 2, Mémoires, i. 578); and so far as relates to the attack upon Flanders, we know, from Morton’s instructions referred to at p. 325, that such a project was in contemplation. The proposal about the Huguenots is noticed in Langerac’s despatch of May 20⁄30, an extract from which has been communicated to me by Dr. Goll.
[566] Contracts, March 25, S. P. France. When Glanville afterwards stated that the vessels had been pressed, he probably meant, not that they had been pressed for the King of France, but that they had been first pressed for the service of the King of England, and then transferred to France.
[567] Warrant from Buckingham, May 8; Coke to Pennington, May 18; S. P. Dom. ii. 37, 74. I must ask those who think that Coke’s letter was written to throw dust in the eyes of Pennington, to suspend their judgment till I have told the whole story.
[569] The English Catholics to Ville-aux-Clercs, May 11, 23, Harl. MSS. 4597, 140 b, 170 b.
[570] Richelieu’s position is clearly defined in Langerac’s despatch of June 23⁄July 3. He was always urging the King to war abroad and peace at home. The same ambassador, writing on June 17⁄27, says that Buckingham told the Queen Mother that the Huguenots must seek peace on their knees, with rapiers in their hands. As far as I can gather Buckingham’s intentions, he seems to have come over in the spirit of this conversation, though probably he thought less of the rapier at the beginning, and more at the end, of his mission.
[571] The list of his clothes and attendants, printed in Ellis, ser. 1, iii. 189, of which so much use has been made by Buckingham’s biographers, is not a list of what he really had with him, but of what he intended to take if he had gone as proxy at the marriage. Instead of the long train there set down, only Montgomery, Morton, and Goring accompanied him (Salvetti’s News-Letter, May 13⁄23). He left England in such haste that he had to send back a gentleman “pour lui apporter ses nouveaux riches habits, afin qu’il se puisse montrer en ses vanités’ (Rusdorf, i. 579). Under these circumstances Eliot, of course, did not accompany him. The story told by Wotton, how he dropped a diamond in Paris which he subsequently recovered, is, I suspect, the origin of the incredible tale that he purposely left his diamonds so loosely fastened on to his dress as to fall off, and that he then refused to take them back from those who picked them up.
[572] Salvetti’s News-Letter, May 13⁄23.
[573] Langerac’s despatch, May 20⁄30.
[574] The destination of the French horse is not mentioned in the despatch of Chevreuse and Ville-aux-Clercs which refers to the offer (June 27⁄July 7, Harl. MSS. 4597, fol. 193). But Lorkin tells Conway, in a letter of June 22 (S. P. France), that Richelieu had informed him that ‘he had offered further a new succour of 2,000 horse for Count Mansfeld.’ In his letter of Aug. 18, Lorkin further says that Richelieu, in conversation, told him ‘that at Compiègne they had offered a million towards the King of Denmark’s entertainment, 2,000 horse towards the setting up of Mansfeld’s army again, and to continue their wonted pay for seven months longer, but could never, in all this time, get answer from England.’ S. P. France.
[575] Richelieu, Mémoires, ii. 461.
[576] Langerac’s despatch, June 17⁄27.
[577] The scene is described substantially in the same way in the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville, and in the Memoirs of Brienne. There is no very <333>clear account of the despatch which reached Buckingham at Amiens. It seems to have been connected with the Duke of Savoy (Ville-aux-Clercs to Louis XIII., June 27⁄July 7, and the subsequent correspondence: Harl. MSS. 4597, fol. 192, 213 b). Buckingham appears to have added a request that the 2,000 horse, instead of being placed under Mansfeld, should be lent to Charles to do what he pleased with them, probably to use them for the attack upon Flanders.
[578] Meade to Stuteville, June 17, Ellis, ser. 1, iii. 196, 197.
[579] Chevreuse and Ville-aux-Clercs to Louis XIII., undated, Harl. MSS. 4597, fol. 181.
[580] ——— to ———, June 17, Court and Times, i. 30.
[581] Instructions to Morton, June 14, S. P. Holland.
[582] Cromwell to Carleton, June 7, S. P. Holland.