CAMEO
XIV.

The Huguenots.

as if submission would be imperative, and that for a time there was a lull in the tempest.

The Huguenots were in the meantime losing ground in France The most able statesmen of his time, Cardinal Armand de Richelieu, was guiding the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici, and her influence had for the time prevailed over the King. Richelieu was too great a man to be a persecutor. He wished to make France united and powerful, and he saw that the only chance of making the two parties live at peace together was to put an end to the jealousies excited by the possession of the cities intrusted as pledges of security to the Huguenots. There was open war going on. Louis XIII. and the Prince of Condé returned in 1622 to the siege of Montpellier, which held out desperately. The Duke of Rohan went to England to intreat for aid, but in vain, and when all hope was over he obtained permission to enter the city, where he persuaded the people to surrender, on condition of being allowed freedom of worship, keeping up their university, and being exempted from having a royal garrison among them. Peace was again made, and the Huguenots still kept Rochelle and Montauban.

In 1622 Cardinal de Richelieu was admitted as one of the King's privy council, and soon was the only real ruler of France. The Court quarrelled and intrigued about the King, but the Cardinal sat, as it were, above and out of reach of them all, and directed everything both at home and abroad. His object, like that of Henri IV., was to make the crown powerful at home and France supreme abroad; and in order to weaken the house of Austria he threw the influence of his country into the scale of the Protestants of Germany, without as yet taking up

arms.

Thus too he encouraged the Dutch in their resistance to the Spaniards. Maurice was commanding them, but his treatment of the Arminians had rendered him unpopular, and the sons of Barneveldt plotted against his life. They were discovered; one was put to death and the other escaped, but Maurice met with little sympathy. Spinola out-generalled him, and Philip IV. and his minister Olivares had high hopes. Philip sent the following orders in 1624

Breda was actually a possession of the Orange family, and Maurice was doubly anxious to save it, but the Dutch hung back from him; and though James I., in his anger at the breaking off of the Spanish match, made promises of help, no one trusted much to them, and Maurice fell into a gloomy, hopeless state of low spirits. The town was still holding out, though he could not relieve it, when he died in utter despondency at the age of sixty, leaving his principality to his brother, Frederick Henry, in the April of 1625; and in June, Breda, after holding out for ten months, capitulated to the Spaniards.

The

Parliament summoned,

1624.

THE Palatinate was lost to King James's daughter, and the Spanish | CAMEO XV. marriage had failed for his son; the King was angered, and Buckingham, who had resumed all his ascendency, was still more set against the whole House of Austria. The Privy Council, especially the Lord Treasurer Cranfield and the Lord Keeper Williams, who had hoped to overthrow the duke in his absence, were obliged to make the best apologies in their power. Williams went so far as to beg the favourite to receive his soul in gage and pawn; and obtained the haughty answer, "I will not seek your ruin, though I shall cease to study your fortune.

The nation was, as usual, eager to sustain the cause of their princess, and as this was impossible without supplies, James ventured again to summon a Parliament. The duke had taken a Puritan chaplain named Preston, and through him came to an understanding with the chief lords of that party, Southampton, Saye and Sele, and some of the Commons, and it was agreed that the duke should surrender some of his dependants whose rapacity had angered the country, and that he should join the war party, while the Commons assured him that supplies should be granted.

The meeting of Parliament was postponed for a week by the sudden death of the Lord Steward, the Duke of Richmond, who, as Lennox, had been the King's friend and companion from his youth up. Williams preached his funeral sermon, with the textZabul, the son of Nathan, was principal officer and the king's friend."

The session began with a speech from the throne, in which James related, from his own point of view, all his negotiations concerning his

CAMEO XV. Disputes. 1624.

son-in-law's domains and his son's marriage, declaring that, though he had sometimes permitted relaxation of the penal statutes, he had never dispensed with any, nor intended to alter any, that concerned religion. He ended by bidding the members follow S. Paul's advice to beware of genealogies and curious questions, nor let any stir them up to law questions, debates, quirks, tricks, and jerks. Lord Keeper Williams then followed-“A Lacedæmonian being invited to hear a man that could counterfeit very well the notes of a nightingale, put him off with these words, avтǹS ǹкоÚσα, 'I have heard the nightingale herself.' And why should you be troubled with the croaking of a Chancellor that have heard the words of a most eloquent King?"

After more of the same style of compliment he bade the Commons choose a Speaker, when they elected Serjeant Crowe. Numerous petitions were presented by the Commons against the Lords Treasurer and Keeper, but they were not followed up, and Buckingham told the story of the Spanish match in his own way, not venturing to allude to despatches, lest they should be called for and found to contradict him. He made out that it was all the fault of the Spaniard's double-dealing that the affair had been broken off, and that public spirit had taken himself and the prince to Madrid, as the only means of discovering the real design of the Spanish court, and that they returned when it proved that there was no chance of obtaining the restitution of the Palatinate, or indeed anything but false professions. The prince vouched for his accuracy, and Lord Bristol, who might have explained the matter in an inconvenient manner, was confined to his house by an order from the council.

The Spanish ambassadors were, however, greatly offended, and declared that if one of their own countrymen had so spoken of a great king at amity with their sovereign, he would have paid the forfeit with his head. The two houses of Parliament, however, defended the duke, declaring that his speech denounced the acts of the ministers of the King of Spain, not himself. Sir Edward Coke called Buckingham the saviour of his country, and the people hooted the Spanish ambassadors, and lit bonfires for joy at the breaking off of the treaty with the nation whom they hated.

The Parliament declared that the negotiations with Spain could not be continued with honour, and the whole cry of the nation was for war ; but James was still unwilling. He had loved and followed peace all his days; he viewed the quietness of his reign as one of his resemblances to Solomon, and dreaded war with so powerful a nation with all the nervous timidity of his character.

The Spaniards laughed the war to scorn, for they believed, on Gondomar's authority, that it would be revolt of mice against cats, for there were no men in England, the King was timid, and the prince weak and inexperienced.

However, James told the Commons that the war should begin if they would grant him supplies, for his treasury was empty, his navy decayed,

his allies poor; and he added that the sums raised should be intrusted to commissioners appointed by themselves, so that they should be satisfied that all was rightly applied.

Yet, when Archbishop Abbot brought him an address promising the grant, and congratulating him on having his eyes opened to the Spanish insincerity, he broke in, declaring that he had expressed no opinion. Buckingham had made a narration from which they might judge, but he had not declared what he thought of it. In fact he wanted to be able, in case of need, to protest that he had been forced unwillingly into the war, and he must have known, at the bottom of his heart, that Buckingham was the last person who should have complained of Spanish double-dealing.

Still, the ambassadors had not left England, though they could not succeed in having a private interview with the King. Just as a Crusade always began with a persecution of the Jews, so a war with Spain was sure to lead to severities on the Romanists, and with more reason, since every Papist was assumed to be naturally on the side of the enemy, and though many were loyal and patriotic, it was really by an inconsistency on their part. The mission priests were banished on pain of death, the Lord Mayor was charged to arrest all persons coming from mass in the houses of the ambassadors, and James consulted his Bishops on the means of educating the children of Roman families in the Anglican doctrine. The Commons proceeded to draw up lists of all the persons holding office in their several towns and counties whom they suspected of Popery, thirty-six in number, and drew up a petition for their removal. But the Lords objected that this petition condemned the persons named without evidence, and therefore they could not 'concur in it, so it was only given privately to the Prince to lay before the King, and no more was heard of it.

Besides this, the Parliament wished to impeach the Lord Keeper, Bishop Williams, and Lionel Cranfield, the Lord Treasurer, now Earl of Middlesex, both of whom Buckingham held to have poisoned the King's ear against him during his absence in Spain. Williams had made his peace, but Middlesex was to be surrendered. The King was unwilling to consent, but was drawn on by the Prince and Duke. Middlesex was tried without being permitted counsel, and being found guilty, his sentence was pronounced by his late associate Williams. It was the forfeiture of all his offices, banishment from court, and a fine of 50,000l. The King, when the sentence was reported to him, told Buckingham that he was furnishing a rod for his own back, and the prince that he would have his bellyful of impeachments. Williams, however, conferred a benefit on all future state prisoners, by inducing the Lords to pass a resolution that they should henceforward be allowed counsel to plead for them, and have copies of the depositions against them.

Williams and Buckingham were soon making common cause again. One of the Spanish ambassadors named Ynojosa, brother-in-law to the

CAMEO XV. Impeachments.

1624.

CAMEO XV. Count Duke of Olivares, contrived at an audience to give the King a little billet, which James slipped into his pocket, and which told him that he was a prisoner in his own palace, and that François Carandolet, Archdeacon of Cambrai, the Flemish secretary, had much to reveal to him, only it must be in private.

Supposed Plot. 1625.

Accordingly Carandolet was smuggled into the palace while the Prince and the favourite were out, and James was pathetically warned of the ruin they were bringing on him. After several visits of this kind, the Fleming brought a paper, telling James that he was no more free than King John of France had been in London, or Francis I. at Madrid, and that the ambassadors knew that he was soon to be shut up in a country house while the government was put into other hands. The Duke, having reconciled himself to the country party, intended to marry his daughter to the young heir of the Palatinate who stood next in the succession after Charles, and the country was now governed by a triumvirate, whereof Buckingham was the chief member, Charles the second, and James the last, all looking towards solem orientem. The King was therefore advised to show himself, as he really was, the oldest and wisest monarch in Christendom, by cutting off such a dangerous affecter of popularity.

James was very loth to believe such things of Baby Charles and Steenie, though he allowed that Buckingham had changed since his journey to Spain, and seemed to have he knew not how many devils in him; but finally he declared that if the Spaniards could find any definite charge, the Duke should be proceeded against.

His manner, however, betrayed his uneasiness, and the prince and duke were very anxious, especially when James suddenly set off to Windsor, taking his son with him, but forbidding Buckingham to follow, though the favourite knelt at the coach door and implored to be told his offence, and then withdrew to Wallingford House, where he lay like one stupefied. Thus he was found by the Lord Keeper, who gave him some hope.

Meanwhile, James wept all the way to Windsor, complaining that he was forsaken and betrayed by those nearest and dearest to him. The Prince could not discover much of what thus affected his Majesty, but what he did perceive made him ride back to London in the morning, and finding Williams at the House of Lords before prayers, took him aside, acknowledged his past services, and said, “You may receive greater thanks of us both if you will spread open that back contrivance which hath lost him the good opinion of my father, and I myself am in little. better condition."

"The curtain of privacy is drawn before the picture, so that I cannot guess at the colours," returned the Lord Keeper.

"Well, my Lord Keeper," said the Prince," I expected better service from you, for if that (probably meaning the House of Lords) is the picture drawer's shop, no councillor in the kingdom is better acquainted than yourself with the works and workmen."