<300>In offering his mediation in Germany, James believed that he had found a basis on which he might effect a reconciliation between Doncaster’s instructions.Ferdinand and his revolted subjects. The ideal which he had set before himself in The Peacemaker was now to be realised. “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 on both sides be released, and let the Protestants enjoy the rights and liberties to which they are entitled.”[487] The advice was excellent, but April.the man could have but little knowledge of human nature who fancied that a deep and envenomed quarrel could be appeased by such vague generalities.
On the whole, however, though James was on excellent terms with the Spanish agents, and honestly professed to be anxious for Tendency of James’s policy.a good understanding with Philip, his actions could not but be affected by the strong anti-Spanish feeling around him. It was not, therefore, without reason that Sanchez and Lafuente eagerly expected the return of Gondomar, as the best means of fixing James in his resolutions. They had much to tell which had given them little pleasure. At the time when Doncaster was preparing to start, orders were given to stop the equipment of the fleet, on <301>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.[488] What was more significant still, the Council was listening to a proposal from Arundel and Lennox to send out Roger North, one of Raleigh’s captains, to the Amazon. It is true that he was not to sail to the westward of the Oyapok.[489] 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.[490]
At last, after many delays, Doncaster set out, on May 12. At Brussels he made a fruitless effort to procure from the Archduke more than May.Doncaster sets out.a languid assent to his diplomatic efforts. On his arrival at Heidelberg he found that June.the Elector was absent at Heilbronn, presiding 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 Wotton at Heilbronn.the friendly dispositions of the Venetian Republic, and to urge them to join his master in a scheme for the erection of colleges for the reception of converts from Popery.[491]
For such solemn trifling the Princes of the Union had no time to spare. They were agitated by the news which reached them from various quarters. Silesia and Moravia had thrown <302>in their lot with the Bohemian Directors, and whilst Mansfeld was Steadfastness of Ferdinand.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 in the Netherlands for Ferdinand, and were cautiously picking their way across Germany from one Catholic territory to another.[492]
It was time for Frederick and his advisers to come to a resolution; but the curse which dogs the steps of impotent 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 impossibilities from the Duke of Savoy, who, Frederick and his advisers.when he found that they could no longer serve his purposes, 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 refused to give any indication of the purpose for which he intended the armament to be used.[493]
In the midst of these deliberations Frederick was summoned to Heidelberg, to meet his father-in-law’s ambassador. By the Elector and his whole Court Doncaster was treated with <303>every courtesy. In a moment he was carried away by the stream. Frederick’s reception of Doncaster.It would have been difficult, no doubt, for any but the most seasoned diplomatist to preserve his equanimity as he listened to the Prince descanting on the perils to which he was exposed 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 suggestion — 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 impressions from his Highness.’ His Highness, unhappily, had nothing 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 His demand for English aid.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 aid to which he was bound by his treaty with the Union.[494]
The demand was earnestly seconded by Doncaster. 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 July.It is refused by James.he would never know for what he was fighting, James at once protested. It was only in case of an unprovoked attack that he was bound to assist the <304>Union. To this unwelcome refusal, however, he added a vague assurance, that if the Bohemians were ready to yield to reasonable conditions, he would not desert them.[495]
With the view of Ferdinand’s character which Doncaster had acquired at Heidelberg, it was not likely that he would be very June.Successes of Ferdinand.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.’[496]
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 Protestant nobles were pressing him with threats of vengeance 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 malcontents dispersed in hopeless confusion, and a day or two afterwards Thurn was in full retreat.
Cajoled and flattered on his way through Munich,[497] by the politic Maximilian, Doncaster hurried on to meet Ferdinand, <305>before worse news could reach him. He found him at Salzburg, on his way July.Meeting of Ferdinand and Doncaster.to the Imperial election at Frankfort. Ferdinand received him civilly, but gave him to understand, through one of his Councillors, 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. The ambassador was told that he must go back to Frankfort, and that he should receive his answer there.[498]
On his arrival at Frankfort, Doncaster sought an interview with the Spanish ambassador, Oñate. The Spaniard justified Ferdinand Doncaster’s interview with Oñate.in his refusal to pass over the mediation of the four princcs 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?” To this question Oñate gave no direct reply. He talked of the danger of offending the German Princes by passing them by, and then proceeded to launch forth into a discourse on the state of the Empire. Doncaster <306>cut him short at once. 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 to 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. Oñate 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. As this proposal implied that the Bohemians were to give way on all the points in dispute, it was not likely to be accepted at Prague. Doncaster, however, caught at the suggestion, and declared his readiness to set out at once for Bohemia, if the King and the Spanish ambassador would confirm by their signatures the proposal which had just been made. Oñate 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.’
A whole week passed away before Doncaster heard anything further from either Ferdinand or the ambassador. At last Rejection of Doncaster’s offers.he received a long memoir, containing a defence of the King’s claims upon the allegiance of the Bohemians. The next day Oñate told him plainly that the time for a cessation of arms was past. “The victory,” he said, “inclines so much to the King’s party, that I am no longer in doubt of the event. There are 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, and contented himself with a diplomatic expression of regret that his mediation, undertaken at the request of the King of Spain, had not met with better success.[499]
<307>Nor was it only at Frankfort that failure had attended the thankless task which James had undertaken. From Salzburg Reception of his Secretary by the Bohemians.Doncaster had despatched one of his secretaries, named Norry, to Prague, to open communications with the Bohemians. Norry was received with open arms, till it was discovered that he had neither men nor money to offer. After this, 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.[500]
Doncaster was aware that there was nothing more for him to do at Frankfort. In order to escape the appearance of August.Doncaster retires to Spa.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.[501]
From time to time, as bad news from Germany reached England, the opponents of Spain were encouraged to do their utmost June.Efforts of the anti-Spanish party in England.to gain the King to their side. In June, the Dutch assured James that if he would give up the Infanta, and marry his son to a daughter of Maurice of Hesse-Cassel, they would take care that the lady should bring with her a portion large enough to pay all his debts. Their English friends told James that if he would give his son a Protestant wife, Parliament would grant him no less than 800,000l. in subsidies.[502] Such offers were not likely to make an impression on James’s mind. Those who made them were mistaken in supposing that because he was anxious to obtain a large portion with the Infanta he would, for the sake of any pecuniary advantage to himself, deliberately engage in a war which he believed to be unjustifiable. They misunderstood his character as completely as Raleigh had misunderstood it.
James still hoped everything from his alliance with Spain. <308>Even if he had wished to join a league in support of the Bohemians, it would soon have been too late. Events were hurrying on in Germany with too startling a rapidity to give him much longer time to decide upon his future course of action.
When the Electoral Diet was opened at Frankfort, it appeared that the three Ecclesiastical votes were, as a matter of course, August.The Electoral Diet.secured for Ferdinand. The Elector of Brandenburg 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 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, therefore, not unwisely, directed his representative at the Diet to refuse to take part in the election, till an attempt had been made to put an end to the war in Bohemia. Then, and not till then, he would be ready to give his vote to Ferdinand.[503]
As soon as Frederick heard of the Saxon proposition, he sent Baron Achatius 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 Frederick’s perversity was beyond all calculation. Dohna was instructed to revive the scheme of the candidature 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, rejected the overture with scorn; said hard things in his cups of the folly of Dohna’s master, and, in a fit of impatience, sent orders to his representatives at Frankfort to record his vote unconditionally <309>in favour of Ferdinand.[504] Accordingly, on August 18, Ferdinand was Election of Ferdinand.unanimously chosen Emperor, without a single guarantee for the future. Even the representative of the Elector Palatine did not venture to vote against him. The blunder committed in Bohemia in 1617 was thus repeated at Frankfort, in spite of the warning given by the events of the past two years.
Scarcely were the forms of the election completed when startling news arrived at Frankfort. Frederick chosen King of Bohemia.On the 16th, the Bohemian Estates, which had already solemnly decreed the deposition of Ferdinand, had elected Frederick as their king in his place.[505]
Frederick was at Amberg when the news of his election reached him. He had long been playing with the idea that Hesitation of Frederick.he might one day be king of Bohemia; and his ambassador, Achatius Dohna, had been actively canvassing the electors in his favour. But he had never 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 deposition. “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 <310>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.[506] And if it was intolerable to Maurice that the great conflict against Rome should dwindle down into a struggle for the aggrandisement 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 interruption, stretched away from the banks of the Moselle to the western slopes of the Carpathians.
Maurice, in truth, had hit upon the decisive point of the question. It is hard for us, amidst the changed circumstances of European politics, September.Objections to his acceptance.to estimate at its full worth the doctrine which at the commencement of the seventeenth century inculcated the divine right of territorial 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 in Germany. If every prince was to be at liberty to take advantage of the rebellion of his neighbour’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 <311>forces of the Duke of Bavaria, and by thus obtaining for them a breathing-space in which to reorganise their army. But, encircled as he was by jealous rivals and lukewarm friends, his acceptance of the crown was the greatest injury that he could do to their cause.
Frederick knew not what to think. His weak and helpless mind found it impossible to weigh the value of the prudential considerations He accepts the crown.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 Bohemians he was following a Divine vocation. “I beg you to believe,”[507] 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; and that I have tried to hinder this election rather than to further it. It is this which gives me the greater assurance that it is a Divine call which I ought not to neglect.” Thus, with his eyes blinded, he plunged headlong into the darkness before him.
Already, before his decision was made, Frederick had despatched Christopher Dohna to England to ask for the advice of his father-in-law. August.Dohna sent back to England.As the ambassador passed through the Hague, he received every encouragement 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 sympathized 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 <312>Electress say?” “She says,” replied the ambassador, “that she will sell her jewels to support the war.” “That is not enough,” replied Maurice, with a laugh. He could hardly have characterised more correctly the resources of the Elector himself than by the words “That is not enough.”
Dohna found James at Bagshot. If ever there was a case for swift decision, it was this. Even now, a word might have September.His interview with James.nipped the mischief in the bud. But James found it impossible to decide. The first words which he uttered in Dohna’s presence betrayed his irresoluteness. “Do not expect,” he said, “to return to Germany 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.[508]
Downcast and disappointed, Dohna followed the Court to Windsor,[509] and finally to Wanstead. At last James was so far The Council’s opinion asked.moved by his entreaties as to promise to consult his Council. On September 10, more than a week after Dohna’s arrival, Naunton, by the King’s directions, laid a full account of the past negotiations before the Board,[510] in order to elicit the opinion of the Councillors. Great expectations had been founded on their meeting by all who wished well to the Bohemian cause. A majority, it was said, would declare in favour of supporting the Elector energetically. But before the discussion was opened, news arrived that Frederick had made his choice.[511] Aware that the time was <313>past when their advice would be of avail, they referred the whole matter Frederick’s acceptance known in London.back 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.
The news had been brought to Dohna with a letter which he was charged to deliver into the hands of the King. By some mistake, Language of James.it was written in German instead of the customary 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 unlucky 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.
On the morning of the 12th the Council met. James would not allow a single word to be spoken in his son-in-law’s behalf. His speech to the Council.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 to be decided was the legal validity of the election. There was no hurry, he said. The winter was approaching. As soon as he could make up his mind as to the 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 between peace and war. Two days afterwards he informed Lafuente that he had refused to allow the question to be put to the vote, because he was sure that the majority would have been on the side of the Elector. Being an honest man, he was bound to convince the King of Spain of his sincerity in the late negotiations. Besides, Frederick’s conduct in asking for his advice, and then deciding for himself before first hearing it, was really unbearable. <314>Never had any man been so affronted as he had been by his son-in-law.[512]
On the 16th, Dohna took his leave. As he was going, James told him that he expected him, as soon as it was possible, to Dohna leaves England.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 unnecessary war.[513]
On the very day, perhaps at the very hour, in which James was announcing his intentions to the Council, the English war-party Abbot’s letter to Naunton.found a spokesman in Abbot. From a sickbed, which made his attendance at Wanstead 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 foretold in the Revelation. He trusted, therefore, that the cause would be seriously taken up, that the world might see that England was 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.[514]
It was not a wise letter. The Archbishop’s policy displayed gross ignorance of Abbot and James.the forces and the designs of the Continental powers. But there was that generosity of feeling, and sympathy with the oppressed, without <315>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 he found nothing better to say about Abbot’s crusade than 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?
In fact, the Bohemian cause was already lost. No Ziska had arisen, as in days of old, to touch the popular heart. The poor Condition of Bohemia.had little sympathy with what they regarded as the quarrel of the nobility. There was no general uprising of the nation from beneath, no organization from above. Everywhere there was weakness and disunion. Generals were at variance with one another, whilst their troops were unprovided with food and munitions. In spite of their superiority in 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 Rhine; 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 for themselves.
Frederick’s acceptance of the crown thus offered to him had been the result, not of wise consideration, but of the sudden October.Frederick leaves Heidelberg.resolution of a weak mind weary of its own indecision. Uncertain and perplexed, he set out from Heidelberg amidst the sobs and tears of his subjects. “He is carrying the Palatinate into Bohemia,” were the words which rose to his mother’s lips as she saw him passing through the gate of the castle which had been the home of his childhood. For a time indeed, amidst the pomp <316>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 been chosen. He hurried to Nuremberg to meet that assembly which, November.The assembly at Nuremberg.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 Protestant 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 the 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 mismanagement 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 calm down the seething cauldron of Bohemian jealousies and passions by the exercise of a firm and orderly government, to find pay and provisions for the army, and to enforce stern discipline upon the commanders, were but the least part of his undertaking. He had broken up the foundations upon which law and order 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 as 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 <317>has its roots planted in the courage and wisdom by which the new and better order is introduced for the benefit of the world.
The confidence which was lost to Frederick had passed over to the Catholics. They felt instinctively that their enemy was Confidence of the Catholics.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 thoroughgoing partisans 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,”[515] September.said the Jesuits. “When the summer comes he will be driven from the field.”
The leaders of the Catholic party in Germany had not been idle. As soon as he could decently leave Frankfort after coronation, The Duke of Bavaria.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 Ferdinand, he had the statesman’s capacity for holding the thread of complicated affairs in the grasp of a strong intellect. He knew not only what he wanted, but what were the precise steps by which his aim was to be attained. 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. <318>As one of his political opponents expressed it, whatever he did ‘had hands and feet.’[516]
If Maximilian was intellectually the superior of Ferdinand, he 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 provinces, 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 conquest; for it was a necessity of his nature to veil his ambition under the name of justice. But if the annexation 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 Germany. 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 presiding genius of the Catholic party.
Maximilian had up to this point steadily refused to give any assistance to Ferdinand; for he knew that, if the Protestants Ferdinand’s visit to Munich.were only wise enough to act with 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 of the Church. In Ferdinand he saw an Archduke of Austria supplicating a Duke of Bavaria for aid. That aid he was ready to afford, but he would take care to exact the full price for his services. His expenses <319>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.[517]
If Maximilian had stopped here it would have been well both for himself and for his country. But he was determined to The secret compact.use the hold which he hoped to acquire upon Austria to help forward his ambitious projects 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, when the time came, to relinquish his mortgage upon Austria.
To these terms Ferdinand consented.[518] 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 Rhine, 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 interposed against any future attack upon the ecclesiastical states.
If the Protestant populations of the Palatinate were to be entirely disregarded, and if there had been nothing in question beyond Ferdinand’s case against Frederick.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 warfare between the members of the confederation. It is childish to argue that Ferdinand was precluded from using his authority because he happened to be himself the prince who had been wronged. What was right for him to do in defence of the <320>Elector of Saxony or of the Elector of Brandenburg was right to be done in defence of the King of Bohemia. Unless men were prepared to say that the Imperial institutions were to be practically abolished, they could hardly, with any degree of fairness, claim for Frederick immunity from the consequences of his aggression.
But if Frederick could not justly complain of the Munich compact, it was a terrible blow to his Protestant subjects. Of them and The Protestant populations.of their rights it took no 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 were 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 Year’s War was not, as Protestant writers delight to affirm, simply the resistance of an oppressed people to Character of the Thirty Years’ War.the forcible reimposition of Catholicism. Neither was it, as Catholic historians assert, the defence of legitimate order against violence and fraud. It was a mortal struggle between anarchy and despotism.
So strong was the general feeling in favour of a compromise, which, leaving Bohemia in the hands of Ferdinand, would also November.The defence of Vienna.leave the Palatinate in the hands of Frederick, that neither Ferdinand nor Maximilian ventured 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 intricate than a foraging raid or a cavalry skirmish, and in <321>a few weeks the armies had melted away, leaving nothing behind them but the smoking ruins and devastated 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 Michaelmas.
The task of throwing himself into the beleaguered city had been assigned to Ferdinand. The higher duties of statesmanship December.Reconstruction of the League.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.
The reconstruction of the League was the smallest part of Maximilian’s labours. During the whole winter he was engaged in Negotiations with the Elector of Saxony.angling for the neutrality, if not for the active cooperation, 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 quicksighted enough. The voice of the Lutheran clergy summoned him to arm, lest the Antichrist of Rome should only be dethroned to make way for the worse Antichrist of Geneva.[519]
If, as seemed not unlikely, John George should accept the advances of Maximilian, Frederick’s position would be almost hopeless. and with Spain.But the politic Bavarian was not satisfied. To convert the probability of success into a certainty, he applied to the Court of Madrid.
The policy of the Spanish Government was very much the same as it had been ever since the outbreak at Prague. As a matter Policy of Spain.of abstract opinion, the ministers of Philip would have been delighted to see Protestantism swept away from the whole of Europe; but they knew their own weakness, and they dreaded a long and expensive war. They had readily sent assistance to Ferdinand for his campaign in <322>Bohemia; but at the same time they had done their utmost to maintain peace in the West of Europe. Being especially anxious to retain the friendship of the King of England, they had even at last consented to the signature of the treaty for the joint attack upon the pirates, thus opening the passage of the Straits of Gibraltar to their dreaded allies.[520] 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 his acceptance of the throne was the preconcerted signal for a general assault upon all Catholic governments.
Against such an attack they were prepared to put forth their utmost strength; yet it was with no hopeful feeling that they Gondomar’s forebodings.prepared for the struggle. When, in November, Gondomar was at last preparing to set out for England, he was filled with the most gloomy forebodings. He had served his master, he said, for six-and-thirty years, without putting a ducat in 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.[521]
The notion which Gondomar and Gondomar’s English opponents alike entertained, that James was always led by his interests, was altogether false, so far as it regarded him as a man ready to sacrifice his sense of justice to mere considerations of interest. At the very time when these lines were penned by Gondomar, James was deliberately refusing to enrich himself by means which appeared to him to be harsh. For many <323>months an investigation had been going on into the circumstances under which gold had been surreptitiously exported from England. 1618.Exportation of gold.The exportation of gold was, in those days, universally regarded as equivalent to robbery, and towards the end of 1618 it was discovered that the foreign merchants residing in London had long been in the habit of exporting gold to a large amount. It was said that since the King’s accession no less than 7,000,000l. 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. It proved less easy than had been expected to establish a case against the defendants. The necessary witnesses had been smuggled out of the country, and, in default of positive evidence, the prosecution was obliged to rely upon general inferences. 1619.As soon as the case had been heard, in the summer of 1619, it was adjourned, on the plea that it was hard to punish the eighteen without including in the sentence others who were equally guilty.[522] The real cause of delay was, doubtless, the desire of the Government to obtain more satisfactory evidence than that of which it was in possession.
During the vacation fresh proofs were discovered, and a number of persons who had hitherto escaped detection were Fines imposed.included in the accusation. In the autumn, both the new and the old defendants were sentenced to considerable fines, amounting altogether to 140,000l. Bacon pleaded hard that the whole sum might find its way into the Exchequer. James was more merciful, and contented himself with exacting rather less than 29,000l.[523]
<324>Such a sentence, coinciding as it did with the prevailing 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.[524]
James might always be trusted to set aside any temptation to enrich himself in a manner which he regarded as unjust; but he was, beyond measure, sensitive to any attack on his dignity as a king, or on his character for honesty.
At this crisis of European history, one absorbing thought had taken possession of the mind of the King of England. Doncaster sent to congratulate the Emperor.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 maintenance of the independence of the Palatinate. He had been seized with horror lest he should be thought capable 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.[525] Doncaster, sorely against his will, was to hurry back across half a continent to congratulate Ferdinand on his election, and to add a characteristic request, that if his master’s mediation were still acceptable, time might be allowed him to study the laws and constitutions of Bohemia.[526]
It was not likely that events would take the leisurely course which September.Movement of troops in the Netherlands.James desired to impress upon them. Even before Dohna left England, news arrived which would have convinced anyone but James that there were new complications to be dreaded, for which <325>he would find no remedy in the Bohemian law-books. Ten thousand troops had been rapidly collected under Spinola from the garrisons of the Spainish Netherlands, and it was said that they were ordered to rendezvous at Maestricht. Rumour 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,[527] and they directed their ambassador, Caron, to press James to take up arms in defence of his son-in-law and his religion.[528] For the moment, however, the storm blew over. The Spanish troops, it soon appeared, were for the time directed against the citizens of Brussels, who had hesitated to comply with a demand for increased taxation.
The danger was postponed, but it was not averted. On the grave questions of public law and of public convenience, which James’s irresolution.had been evoked by the mere rumour of a Spanish invasion of the Palatinate, James was as hesitating as ever. He asked Caron to thank 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. Dohna, on his return, might be able to find grounds for an honourable resolution in the arguments which he had been ordered to bring back from Prague.[529] 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 <326>upon his future course.[530] The same tone pervaded the instructions which were given in January to Sir Walter Aston, the new English Ambassador at Madrid.[531]
Great was the dissatisfaction in England at the course which James was taking. Partly from love of excitement and adventure, 1620.Dissatisfaction in England.partly from genuine sympathy with German Protestantism, the whole Court, with scarcely an exception, was eager for war. In the beginning of the new year the old enemies of Spain saw themselves 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.[532] 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 between politics and religion, had all the influence of modern newspapers. It was especially a subject of complaint that they were not allowed to pray for Frederick under the title of King of Bohemia. “James,” the Prince of Orange 1619.September.was reported to have said, “is a strange father; he will neither fight for his children nor pray for them.” And the words were eagerly repeated in England, with scarcely concealed bitterness.[533]
It would indeed have been disastrous to England if James had given the reins to the generous feelings of his subjects. James and his subjects.It would have becn 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 <327>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 the good intentions which he undoubtedly possessed.
A curious piece of evidence has reached us, by which light is thrown upon James’s state of mind at the most important crisis in his life. The Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer.A year before, he had written and printed[534] a little book entitled, Meditations upon the Lord’s Prayer. It was a strange farrago of pious observations 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 whose buoyant spirits have never known trouble. After the lapse of another year he is writing another meditation upon the verses of St. Matthew’s Gospel 1620.The Meditation on the crown of thorns.in which is narrated the mock coronation of the Saviour with the crown of thorns. This, he tells his son in the dedication, is the ‘pattern of a king’s inauguration.’ The whole book is pervaded by a deep melancholy. The hunting stories are gone. The jokes about the Puritans are almost entirely absent. The crown of thorns, James writes, is the pattern of the crown which kings are called on 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.’
[487] Instructions to Doncaster, April 14, 1619, Letters and Documents, 64.
[488] The Council to Sir T. Smith, March 18. Calvert to the Council, April 8. Resolution of the Council, April 28, 1619. Council Register.
[489] Resolution of the Council, March 14. The Council to Coventry, March 18, 1619. Ibid.
[490] Ibid. April 30. Salvetti’s News-Letter, May 13⁄23, 1619.
[491] Instructions to Wotton, March 1. Answer to Wotton, June 12. Letters and Documents, 46, 112. The idea had been Bacon’s. Letters and Life, iv. 254.
[492] Müller, Forschungen, iii. 162.
[493] Rommel, Gesch. von Hessen. Theil. iv. Abtheilung iii. 349.
[494] The Princes of the Union to the King, June 17⁄27. Doncaster to the King, June 18. Doncaster to Buckingham, June 18. Doncaster to Naunton, June 19, 1619. Letters and Documents, 115, 118, 120, 129.
[495] The King to the Princes of the Union, July 4. The King to the Elector Palatine, July 4, 1619. Letters and Documents, 50, 152.
[496] Doncaster to Naunton, June 19. Ibid. 129.
[497] 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 <305>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.
[498] Doncaster to Naunton, July 9. Ibid. 156.
[499] Doncaster to Oñate, July 31. Answer given to Doncaster, August 3. Memoir given to Doncaster, August 3. Doncaster to Naunton, August 7. Letters and Documents, 180–203.
[500] Credentials and instructions of W. Norry, July 9 (?) Doncaster to Naunton, August 7. Letters and Documents, 188.
[501] Doncaster to Naunton, August 7. Ibid. 188, 205.
[502] Lafuente to Philip III., June 22⁄July 2. Madrid Palace Library.
[503] Müller, Forschungen, iii, 229.
[504] Müller, Forschungen, iii. 234. Voigt in Raumer’s Historisches Taschenbuch, 1853, 134.
[505] Ibid. 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 Maximilian II., who presided at a diet in his father’s lifetime. It seems, therefore, to have been directed against a claim to actual kingship, like that put forward by the eldest son of our Henry II.
[506] Menzel, Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen, vi. 339. Haüsser, Geschichte der Rheinischen Pfalz, ii. 306. Ranke, Zur Deutschen Geschichte, 264.
[507] The Elector Palatine to Bouillon, Sept. 24⁄Oct. 4, 1619. Ambassade Extraordinaire de MM. les Duc d’Angoulesme, Comte de Bethune, &c. (Paris 1667) 95.
[508] Voigt in Raumer’s Historisches Taschenbuch, 1853, 141. Sanchez to Philip III., Sept. 17⁄27, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 22. The King’s visit to Bagshot is not mentioned in Nichols’ Progresses; but there is a proclamation dated there on the 2nd of September; and a letter written from thence by Buckingham (S. P. Holland) on the 4th.
[509] Dohna to Buckingham, Sept. 7⁄17. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 9.
[510] A brief of Naunton’s relation, Sept. 10. Ibid. Ser. ii. 13.
[511] Dohna, as quoted by Voigt, says the news arrived on the 12th; but this must be from a slip of the memory.
[512] Lafuente to Philip III., Sept. 16⁄26. Madrid Palace Library.
[513] Voigt, in Raumer’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. S. P. Dom. cx. 59, 83, 94. Herbert’s letter is erroneously calendared under the date of Sept. 26.
[514] Abbot to Naunton, Sept. 12. Cabala, 102.
[515] Carleton to Chamberlain, Jan. 3, 1620. S. 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 absurdity, called 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 lute-string Administration,” applied to the first Rockingham ministry.
[516] Memoir by Freyberg. Breyer, Geschichte des 30 Jährigen Kriegs, 100.
[517] Agreement between Ferdinand and Maximilian, Sept. 28⁄Oct. 8, 1619. Breyer, Beilage, iii.
[518] Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, Jan. 24⁄Feb. 3, 1620. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 154. Breyer, Beilage, vii. viii. ix. x.
[519] Müller, Forschungen, iii. 296–378. Breyer, 263–337.
[520] Consulta of the Commissioners, April 19⁄29; Instructions to Gondomar, July 28⁄Aug. 7, Simancas MSS. 2859, fol. 47; 2592, fol. 429. Undated treaty, S. P. Spain.
[521] Gondomar to Ciriza, Nov. 11⁄21, Simancas MSS. 2599, fol. 206.
[522] Smith to Carleton, Dec. 2, S. P. Dom. civ. 4. Bacon to Buckingham, Dec. 11, 1618, Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 364. Locke to Carleton, June 11. Herbert to Carleton, June 12. Report 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.
[523] Bacon to Buckingham, Oct. 9, Nov. 19, 26, Dec. 7, 1619, Works, ed. Montagu, xii. 263, 265, 377; xiii. 20. Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 4. List of fines, Dec. 8, 1619, S. P. Dom. cvi. 62, 66. Receipt-books of the Exchequer.
[524] Chamberlain to Carleton, June 19, 1619, S. P. Dom. cix. 102. Salvetti’s News-Letter, Dec. 10⁄20, 1619.
[525] Digby to Cottington. Sept., Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 59.
[526] Instructions sent to Doncaster by Nethersole, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 57.
[527] Carleton to Naunton, Sept. 12, Carleton Letters, 388.
[528] The States-General to the King, Sept. 11⁄21, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 19.
[529] Caron to the States-General, Sept. 23⁄Oct. 3, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 446.
[530] Instructions to Doncaster, Sept. 23, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 39.
[531] Instructions to Sir W. Aston, Jan. 5, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 119.
[533] Hall to Carleton, Sept. 22, 1619, S. P. Dom. cix. 71. Nethersole to Carleton, Jan. 8, 1620. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 132.
[534] 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.