YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

COMMENTARIES

ON

THE LIFE AND REIGN

OP

CHARLES THE FIRST,

KING OF ENGLAND.

BY I. DTSRAELI.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1828.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY S. AND tt. BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

PREFACE.

As the following Wprk possesses some
novelty in its construction, it is incumbent
upon the Author to explain the reason of his
method. When a writer adopts a novelty of plan,
he may be allowed, for a moment, to be his
own critic ; for should he fail in convincing
his reader's judgment, it is not probable
that any future critic will be more success
ful. The manner which I have chosen, after
long consideration, in the composition of the
present Commentaries, makes me anxious to
claim this privilege.
I have sometimes doubted whether we
have derived all that instruction and de
light from History, of which a study invol
ving such extensive speculations on human

IV PREFACE.
affairs, and such a perpetual developement
of the moral faculties of man, would appear
to be susceptible.
When philosophers became historians, and
we were taught that the Commemoration of
the Past was of secondary importance when
compared with the Instruction of the Pre
sent, the regular narrative of incidents in
the natural order of their occurrence, exhi
biting a vast multiplicity of facts, from their
position always incoherent, in their nature
often trite, trivial, and inconsequential, was
superseded by a systematic arrangement
which conveyed the great results of human
action. Instead of the distraction of mul
tifarious events, of which the reader had
neither detected the causes, nor compre
hended the effects, the philosopher disco
vered the inseparable connection of circum
stances, which are often distinctly removed
from each other in the order of time. Hence
causes were developed, like secrets in Na
ture, and principles deduced, which, like
laws, govern society.

PREFACE.

A new and greater inconvenience was,
however, often incurred by this modern me
thod of writing history. To establish a
pre-conceived theory, either of political feel
ing or curious novelty, the historian some
times distorted facts, or joined together
events which were no otherwise connected
than by his own fallacious imagination.
But the page of the popular historian,
even when unalloyed by this depreciating
quality, and even when guided by a search
ing spirit, still necessarily retained some of
the objectionable characteristics of the mere
annalist. In the rapid succession of events
which he records, the imagination is little
affected ; in the history of a people, for a
tale we find but a catastrophe, and a great
character becomes little more than a name.
We are startled by extraordinary results
which violate our conception of nature and
truth, and our sympathies are little excited
by the shadowy appearances of personages
who vanish ere we can penetrate into the

VI PREFACE.

constituent principles of the minds, whose
acts are exhibited. But the harmony of
historical proportion would be destroyed,
were the historian to pursue investigations,
or agitate inquiries, which would increase
our experience of our fellow-creatures, con
firm our self-knowledge, and throw light
upon the obscure, though regulating, prin
ciples of society.
It is the object of these Commentaries
to form this necessary supplement to our
knowledge, by combining secret with pub
lic history — these reflect light on each
other. The revelations of private history
give completeness to the imperfect tale
of the popular historian, and the great
results of human events, which the private
memoir cannot afford, are to be found in
the record he opens for us. Vast and in
numerable are the sources of secret history
which, during the last half-century, have
accumulated in masses ; and we are fur
nished with materials for the history of hu
man nature, to which the ancients could

PREFACE. VU
have no access. One particular depart
ment seems peculiar to our own times — the
history of negotiations in the dispatches
of ambassadors. Immense archives of con
temporary documents are opened to us in
the entire correspondence of eminent men,
and the inedited history of Manuscripts. By
these we may best learn the genius which
prevailed when the transactions occurred ;
by these the interest deepens of the great
drama of history. The narrative opens a
living scene, and the motives of the per
sonages are sometimes as apparent as their
actions. It is not fanciful to say, that we
often know more of our ancestors than they
themselves knew. Many a secret for them
is none for us. The letter which was pray
ed to be thrown into, the flames when read,
we hold in our hands ; the cabinet conver
sation, unheard but by two great statesmen,
we can listen to. They viewed the man in
his occasional actions ; we scrutinize into his
entire life. They marked the beginnings,
but we the ends.

Viii PREFACE.
From such sources, and with these views,
have these impertect Commentaries been
composed. I have long considered the age
of Charles the First as the most favour
able epoch for the purposes of historical and
philosophical investigation. It was an age
when unsettled opinions and contested prin
ciples, produced such a variety of human
conduct that all that has happened, or is
happening since, seems only a repetition of
attempts at what was then first discovered to
be impossible ; a consummation of what
was then left unfinished ; or a furtherance
of what then remained imperfect.
This history has been frequently written,
and even now occupies the studies of fo
reigners. It has excited such vehement
but opposite feelings among the most emi
nent men in our nation, that we almost des
pair of an impartial narrative. An intel
ligent foreigner has recently observed, that
since the days of our first Charles, English
histories are the polemics of politics. The

PREIWCE. ix
Monarchist and the Commonwealth-man have
bequeathed their mutual recriminations and
their reciprocal calumnies. At a later pe
riod, when Whigs and Tories infused their
controversies into their degraded history, try
ing events and persons by their own conven
tional tests, they judged of their ancestors
as of their contemporaries ; narrowing their
views by their own notions, their own inte
rests, and their own passions. Such partial
estimates of human actions, and modes of
thinking, may become anachronisms in mo
rals and in politics.
It must, however, be acknowledged that
historical truth is of a relative nature. There
is a difficulty in deciding on events, al
though the. facts be ascertained, and on his
torical characters, although the persons are
well known ; for different men will deduce
different results from the same event, and
the motives of the most open actions may
be mixed and ambiguous. One fatal truth
is alone incontestable, that all parties stand
in need of mutual compassion, and may cer-

X PREFACE.
tainly triumph in mutual recrimination ; and
thus the passions, the prejudices, and the
parties, which it has ever been the interest of
the Few, to excite, to confirm, and to create
among the Many, have prevented mankind
from advancing so much as they flatter them
selves by the " fore-passed miseries'" of their
experience. When a great critic declared that an his
torian should be of no religion and of no
country, it might have excited inquiry, whe
ther he himself was this "perfect monster"
of passionless integrity ? Was there ever
man impartial whose business is with the pas
sions of mankind ? Rushworth says of him
self that, "It is possible for an ingenuous
man to be oi a party without being partial;"
-—an airy clench which hardly suited the
sobriety of a preface to " Historical Collec
tions," and seems to betray the weak pang
of a half-conscience.
Nevertheless, with all these hopeless im
perfections of human historians, we must
discriminate between the philosophical and

PREFACE. XI
the mere party spirit. The former ad
dresses mankind — he opens a volume for
their perpetual instruction, and the noble
end of this historian cannot be obtained, un
less he pass beyond the limit of temporary
passions and transient interests. The latter
is narrowed and devoted to the purposes of
a Few ; the writer sets off with the predi
lections and the prejudices often inherited
or taken up in early life ; time will not
soften this temper, knowledge will not alter
these pre-judgments. His history, reflect
ing back all the calumnies, the heats, and
the misrepresentations of a former period,
gratuitously assuming principles, and de
ducing results accordant with its own sys
tem — collecting its materials with sinister
industry, and in a spirit of indiscriminate
animosity, must necessarily be unjust,
often untrue. The philosophical histo
rian, in developing characters, looks into
Human Nature alone for the principles
which are to guide him ; but the party-
spirit raises up the creatures of its own pas-

Xll PREFACE.
sions— men whom it would elevate above
humanity, or disguise into political chime
ras. He who looks round for Nature, and
consults Truth, faithful copyist of the mu
table and uncertain purposes of mankind,
may perhaps emancipate himself from the
bondage of a party ; careful of Truth, but
careless of its tendency* he will show men
as they are — for never will man be improved
by flattery or by calumny.
We must not then, I fear, be allowed to
imagine that an historian may resemble the
ancient Herault, who was equally regarded
by both camps, and allowed to pass from
one to the other, the hallowed bearer of
their messages, but not the armed champion
of either party.
It may be due to the reader to offer him
the confession of the Author of these Com
mentaries. He has lived long enough to
have been gratified by observing his his
torical researches, as well as his opinions,
referred to by writers of opposite parties ;
and were it a cause of exultation, he might

Al:*,

PREFACE. Xlll
exult with the great poet of Reason, that
Whigs have denounced his Toryism, and
Tories have misliked his independence. But
lately he must confess he was mortified, in
discovering in the ardent volumes of Mr.
Hallam, that after referring to him for an
instance of the arbitrary proceedings of he
administration under Charles the First, that
writer gives him but an indifferent character
to that very party, for whom, at that instant,
he had been pressed into service, and had
honestly done his duty. " This ingenious
author is too much imbued with
' The monstrous faith of many made for one,'
and sets the private feelings of Charles, for
an unworthy and dangerous minion, above
the liberties and interests of the nation."
" Let the galled jade wince, our withers are
unwrung." I fear there is more of scepticism
than of faith in my composition. I described
the private feelings of Charles, and in the

XIV PREFACE.
present work have taken still more enlarged
views of the historical "Minion." Nor would
I omit a moral portrait of striking singu
larity, even to obtain " a better character
from my last place," aiming still to be " the
servant of posterity." Should the reader,
like myself, be satisfied that I have unfolded
to him the true state of all the parties, he
will feel that I am not raising any paradox
of " monstrous faith/' studious only to paint
the human nature before me.
The most copious source of the historical
materials for the reign of Charles the First,
must be drawn from the collections of Rush-
worth. To Rushworth, Clerk-assistant to the
Long Parliament, and their frequent agent,
whose ruling passion was the amassing of
State-papers, posterity owes a vast debt of
gratitude; but we cannot forget that our
collector may have exerted his diligence in
suppression, as well as in preservation ; since
he laboured under the eye of Cromwell, de-

PREFACE. XV
dicated his earlier volumes to his son, and
since Whitelocke was employed as their offi
cial reviser. We sometimes find remarkable
curtailments on the plea of abridgment : in
the proceedings of the House of Lords, he
carefully gave those which concurred with
the resolutions of his masters the Commons,
and as carefully omitted the others. He
was, however, an eye and an ear-witness of
the greatest transactions of the times, ad
mitted to the most secret results of councils
of war, and Charles himself once applied to
Rushworth to have a copy shown to him of
the speech which he had delivered that day
to the Houses. It cannot, however, be as
serted that this valuable collection, which
professes to " set forth only matter of fact,
without observation or reflection," is as im
partial as the collector asserts.
Rapin, from the circumstance of being
a foreigner, is generally received as the most
impartial of all our historians of this period ;
and there is a great appearance of imparti-

XVI PREFACE.
ality in his history. There is often a frank
ness in the confession of his perplexities,
and he has exercised considerable sagacity in
detecting the artifices and the evasions, the
errors and the passions of the King and the
Parliament. The materials of his history
are little more than comments on Rush-
worth ; he had not even seen Whitelocke's
Diary ; and at the period he wrote, he could
not have any compass of research. His
position in society was also unfavourable to
an historian of this ambiguous epoch. An
expatriated Huguenot and French Calvinist,
in his terror of Papistry he sympathized
with the Puritans of the Parliament. Con
vinced that Charles the First was no Ro
manist, yet persuaded that the Queen and
some of the Ministry had conceived the
most extensive projects to restore the ab
rogated religion, and that Charles the First
in imitation of his father, (according to
the popular notions of that father) had re
solved to reign by the most arbitrary mea-

PREFACE. XVII
sures, Rapin hit on this fatal expedient,
which he calls his " scheme" to adjust all
his perplexities. To this " scheme," he is
always appealing ; and we cannot but smile
when he acknowledges, that having made
collections from Frankland, Nalson and Cla
rendon, he did not use them, because " they
let no fact, nor paper pass without apply
ing their " scheme" to it, which is not
always agreeable to mine." This mode of
writing history by a " scheme" is perhaps
not peculiar to Rapin ; but the honesty of
the confession is.
We have a life of Charles the First by
Dr. William Harris, whose collected
writings have been not long since republish
ed. Harris is a curious researcher; but
what appears more striking in his historical
character, is the impartiality with which he
quotes authorities which make against his
own opinions and statements. Yet is Har
ris a writer likely to impose on many read
ers. The extraordinary impartiality which he
vol. i. b

XVU1 PREFACE.

affects in his faithful quotations from wri
ters on opposite sides, is only the more like
ly to deceive us ; for with that unalterable
party-feeling which never forsakes the Pres
byter, the facts against him he studiously
weakens by doubts, surmises, and sugges
tions ; a character sinks to the level of his
notions by a single stroke ; and from the
arguments adverse to his purpose, he wrests
the most violent inferences. , All party
writers must submit to practise such mean
and disingenuous arts, if they attempt to
disguise themselves under a mask of impar
tiality. Harris announces in his title-page,
"After the manner of Mr. Bayle." This is
but a literary imposition, which perhaps he
might have practised on his own judgment ;
for Harris is, perhaps, the meanest writer
in our language, both for style and philoso
phical thinking. Bayle, intent on collecting
facts, was indifferent to their results; but
Harris is more intent on the deductions
than the facts. The truth is, Harris wrote to

PREFACE. XIX
please his patron, the republican Hollis, who
supplied him with books and every friendly
aid, and probably imagined that he had dis
covered another Bayle.
Hume, of late, has suffered considerable
depreciation. We writers are but sheep ;
and one bell-wether will serve to lead the
flock. The contagion of our criticism even
infects the foreigner, and Monsieur Guizot
exclaims " Hume ne sitffit plus d, personne !"
Dr. Lingard absolutely refuses to open his
volumes. Hume composed his immortal
pages before our great historical collections
were given to the world ; and ere the pub
lic repository of our national history was yet
opened. Our epicurean philosopher, when
librarian of the Advocates' library, loved to
indulge his inquiries reclining on his sofa, ra
ther than busying himself among the shelves.
Hume looked to obvious sources and ac
cepted the general accounts. Without a
tithe of his penetrating genius, we can mul
tiply his scanty information ; but with more

XX PREFACE.
knowledge we shall often be compelled to
come to the conclusions of this philosophical
historian. The inimitable charm of his style,
the indifference of his contemplative temper
to the politics and the religion of factions,
and the lucid results which his philoso
phical sagacity was accustomed to deduce
from all objects of his meditations, are a
spell of immortality.
This philosophical historian is accused of
being the apologist of Charles the First. Be
it remembered, that if his history is to be
considered as apologe ticai, it was the result
of his after- thoughts, not of his first no
tions. If the great philosopher be a party
writer, at least it was not from any prepos
sessions ; for in his first editions, Hume was
more favourable to the opponents of Charles
the First than in his maturer revisions, and
altered his history in above one hundred
places in favour of the prerogative and the
Tories. But to a commonwealth lady, as was Mrs.

PREFACE. Xxi
Macauley ; or to a Scotch covenanter as
Mr. Brodie, Hume would appear a per
son " betraying the rawness of a solitary
student who has not surveyed society with
a practical eye ;" and " not devoid of a spe
cies of intolerant bigotry, though of a dif
ferent kind from that he every where cen
sures, as well as of an interested predilec
tion for the aristocracy of Letters."
Such is the fiat of Mr. Brodie, who in
deed had his precursor in Mrs. Macauley.
That female historian was a person of high
passions, which wero. displayed in the ex
travagant incidents of her life ; but a mas
culine genius invigorated her historical com
positions ; and her levelling reveries, which
at the time had the delusion of novelty, and
perhaps her sex, created about her a party
of political enthusiasts. She beheld a sta
tue raised to herself, but she lived to see it
pulled down for ever ; and her unquoted
name has long been deserted by every his
torical writer.

XXII PREFACE.
Mr. Brodie's recent work is devoted to
the degradation of the character of Charles
the First, and like a voluminous counsellor's
brief, is a clumsy accumulation of ex parte
evidence. The most tyrannical motives are
assigned to Charles's conduct ; the meanest
notions are given of his capacity ; and end
less misrepresentations, unfounded surmises,
and extravagant inferences, are industriously
worked into the dark narrative. But the
historian cannot boast of the skill of the
executioner of Charles, who at least per
formed his evil task with the dexterity of a
master. With such warmth, and such bit
terness, one might have expected at least
an animated narrative ; yet such as it is,
it may still be accepted as authentic history,
should there still remain some Rumpers of
that secret society of which we used to
hear something in our youth ; and in that
case, we would hail Mr. Brodie, as the his
toriographer of " The Calves-head Club \"
Some years have passed, since I observed

• PREFACE. xxiii
that " the French Revolution is the Com
mentary of the English." Monsieur Guizot,
in his recent " Histoire de la Revolution
d' Angle terre," has more happily expressed
my idea, and conveyed a new truth : " Such,
in a word, is the analogy of the two Revo
lutions, that the first could never have been
perfectly understood had not the second burst
forth." It is indeed among the most extraordi
nary instances of the great change operat
ing in the national character of France, that
Monsieur Guizot has been enabled by the
sole patronage of public opinion, to com
plete a collection of original Memoirs of the
times of Charles the First, and that the curi
osity of his readers was not overcome by
the twenty-fifth volume ; a collection of our
own history which, — shall we record it to our
shame ? — we possess not ! It is another cir
cumstance, almost as remarkable, that se-
i
veral French writers have recently com
posed the history of this period. The his-

XXIV PREFACE.
tory of Cromwell has furnished an elaborate
subject to Monsieur Villemain ; and a volu
minous drama to a Monsieur Victor Hugo ;
while Monsieur Mazure, in his History of the
Eno-lish Revolution under William the Third,
by his admission to the State Paper office
of France, has even added to the original
stores of English History.
But will these ingenious and animated
French writers pardon me, when I assert
that French historians must ever remain in
competent to the task of writing on the criti
cal and impassioned times of our Charles the
First ; for them it is a difficulty as insur
mountable as the idiom of Shakespeare. It
is not by following closely the great autho
rities of our history, as Clarendon, White
locke, and Rushworth, that Frenchmen can
acquire the intimate knowledge, and catch
the sympathy of an English writer. Re
searches, which must escape the notice of
him, who is not a native ; shades of truth,
which may colour the style of a writer ; se-

PREFACE. XXV

cret history, which corrects so many errors
of the individual, and so many prejudices of
the populace, — even the character and situa
tion of the writer of a volume, or of a letter,
which may be as necessary as any infor
mation they may contain— all this minuter
knowledge in the trepidations of the scales
of research, will be found to have more
weight than size. The results of a sagacious
historian are as much the work of deli
cacy as of labour. In the present state
of historical inquiry, when all the promi
nent events of history are familiar to us,
these alone can create that critical spirit
which searches into the obscure, strikes out
novelty from the old, and fixes in certitude
what before floated in conjecture and doubt.
It is my intention to pursue the system of
investigation commenced in these Volumes
throughout the whole of the life and reign of
Charles the First, and it is my fervent hope
that this intention will be fulfilled. Great
subjects are before me — and long meditated !

XXVI PREFACE.
But there are many causes which make this
result uncertain ; nor do I offer the present
Volumes as an imperfect wprk, since a con
tinuation is uncertain, and since they com
plete an important period in the life of this
monarch. With regard to my authorities, I have not
chosen to cover the margins with perpetual
references for facts with which few readers
are unacquainted, and to books top well
known to require a transcription of their
titles. Whenever my narrative, or my
opinions, are founded on manuscript in
formation, I have scrupulously registered
the authorities. During the many years
in which this period has attracted my
study, I have, at various times, examined
a variety of unpublished diaries and a
vast mass of unpublished correspondence
connected with it. These are chiefly
preserved in our great national reposi
tory. I ought, however, among other li
terary favours conferred on me by that re-

PREFACE. XXVII

spected gentleman, to express my acknow
ledgments to my learned friend, Charles
Butler, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, for the loan
of a manuscript copy of Panzani's Me
moirs, by which I discovered that the late
editor of that volume had castrated it on
various essential points. Nor should I for
get to state, that I am indebted to the
obliging conduct of my publisher, for a
very curious Memoir drawn up by one of
the Capuchins who attended on Henrietta
Maria, till the day of her flight from her
palace.

NOTE ON THE MERCUKE FRANgOIS.
The reader will not fail to observe, that the Mercure
Francois is frequently quoted in these Volumes as
authority. Some years have elapsed since, struck by the curious
and important information, which was constantly afford
ed by this journal, I observed that " the ancient Mer
cure Francois is a sort of official annual register of the
times, and contains a good deal of our own secret his
tory, which I have found to my surprise, so accurate,
that I am. convinced that it must have come from a
l 6

XXVIII PREFACE.
well-informed correspondent in England. It is, per
haps, singular enough that I have found in two or three
instances, circumstances and conversations in this Mer
cure which I have myself drawn from contemporary
manuscripts, and which had never been printed in any
English Work."
Since these observations were made, I have dis
covered a fact apparently unknown even to the French
Bibliographers ; viz., that Cardinal Richelieu was a fre
quent correspondent of this journal, and that even the
King himself, Louis the Thirteenth, often contributed
to its columns. Many articles in the royal hand-writing
and coi cted by the royal hand, are still in existence.
With regard to the Cardinal, the style and the hand of
the great Minister are easily to be recognized. Besides
exercising a constant supervision over the Mercure,
and himself waging the war of words whenever the con
test was important, Richelieu furnished treaties of alli
ances, capitulations, narratives of Battles and sieges,
written by the commanders, and the despatches of Am
bassadors whenever they contained any facts which he
desired should be known to Europe. Many of these
articles are found in the Manuscripts of De Bethune.

CONTENTS

FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.
CHARLES THE FIRST ...... 1
CHAPTER II.
OF CHARLES THE FIRST DURING HIS BOYHOOD 8
CHAPTER III.
OF THE STUDY OF POLEMICAL DIVINITY, PREVALENT
AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SEVENTEENTH CEN
TURY . . . • . . .28
CHAPTER IV.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE SPANISH MATCH . . 50
CHAPTER V.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH MATCH. — ROYAL AND
POLITICAL MARRIAGES ..... 92

XXX CONTEXTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Page.
OF THE CRITICAL AND VARIABLE SITUATION OF THE
ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS, WITH REGARD TO THEIR
ROMAN CATHOLIC SUBJECTS .... 147
CHAPTER VII.
THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY ¦ , • • • 213
CHAPTER VIII.
CHARLES ASCENDS THE THRONE. — THE FIRST PARLIA
MENT. — ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN. — SECRET HISTOEY
OF THE KING'S FIRST MINISTERS. — BUCKINGHAM.—
WILLIAMS. — LAUD ...... 237
CHAPTER IX.
j THE CORONATION: POLITICAL ETIQUETTE . . 273
CHAPTER X.
THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ . . . 284
CHAPTER XI.
MEETING OF THE SECOND PARLIAMENT. — THE CON
TENTION BETWEEN THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM AND
THE EARL OF BRISTOL ..... 295
CHAPTER XII.
IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM BY THE COMMONS

CONTENTS. XXXI
CHAPTER XIII.
Tage.
OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLE OF THE IMPEACHMENT OF
BUCKINGHAM. — SECRET HISTORY OF THE LOAN OF
ENGLISH SHIPS TO SERVE AGAINST THE FRENCH PRO
TESTANTS  342

LIFE AND REIGN

OF

CHARLES THE FIRST.

CHAPTER I.
CHARLES THE FIRST.
Two centuries have elapsed — a short period
in the history of national revolutions, since
Charles the First ascended the throne of
England, and the name of this monarch still
awakens the most conflicting opinions. Yet a
right understanding of the character and con
duct of one who involuntarily became a most
eminent actor in a mighty revolution, can never
be a matter of indifference to the philosopher
and the politician ; nor should such an exhi
bition of human nature, where the ennobling
and the degrading passions are at the same
time called forth, fail to interest the sympathies
of man.

2 CHARLES THE FIRST.
Charles the First ascended the throne under
circumstances in which no monarch had hither,
to been placed.
The course of events had rendered necessary
a great change in the condition of mankind
throughout Europe ; for the social system was
constructed on a scale which bore no relation
to the increased and complicated interests of
society. The impending Revolution was not
to be a partial change, as had sometimes hap
pened, when the rule and power had been
merely transferred to the aristocracy, or to the
hierarchy, or assumed by the absolute sove
reign ; nor was it to be a temporary concession
to the excited apathy of a suffering people, a
change which merely reduced the privileges of
the few and the miseries of the many. But it
was a total and perfect change of all the prin
ciples of human action. It contradicted the
fundamental doctrines of the existing order.
It was to mark out new classes in society, to
form new interests, to define new rights, and to
substitute new modes of thinking. And chiefly
and finally, it was to develope the true prin
ciples of government, and to explain and con
firm the source and object of all delegated
authority. It was long doubtful in which country the

CHARLES THE FIRST. 3
great Revolution was to commence. The mino
rity of Louis the Thirteenth, in the ambition of
the turbulent princes of France, and the republi
can spirit of the Duke of Rohan and the Hugo-
nots, exhibits some faint outlines of the Revolu
tion under our Charles the First, which it had
preceded. In an ingenious parallel, we might
detect some very apt resemblances. Long after
wards, the Frondeurs under the administration
of Mazarine, often appealed to the English re
volt under Charles the First; and finally the
vast concussion of France opened in imitation
of our own, and terminated with a similar ca
tastrophe. The genius of one man directed for
a time the tempest from France, and conse
quently from the Continent ; for there are rea
sons to believe that the social condition of the
Continent of Europe will never be materially
affected, except through the agency of our great
neighbour. There were peculiar reasons which might
have justified the supposition, that England
would be the spot in which the important
struggle would commence. The establishment
of the reformed faith had habituated the Eng
lish to a greater freedom of inquiry than their
neighbours, a freedom of inquiry unknown in
preceding times, when authority was the sole
b 2

4 CHARLES THE FIRST.
test of opinion ; and a long and luxuriant peace
had raised up among the Commons of Eng
land a new class of men ;— new, by possessing a
weight and influence in society which they had
never before held. There were other causes,
which, though not so evident, were scarcely less
influential, but which must be developed as we
proceed. It was fated that England should be
the theatre of the first of a series of Revolutions
which is not yet finished.
Authorised by the doctrines of the age, by
his consequent education, and by the natural
gravity and elevation of his own mind, to as
cend the throne as the anointed of his Creator,
it was the doom of Charles the First to witness
the divine authority of his crown trampled
upon, the might of his magnificent hierar
chy overwhelmed, the civil institutions of his
realm swept away, all that he deemed sacred
profaned, all that he held received denied, all
that he considered estabhshed subverted; and
in their stead new doctrines and new practices
introduced, much of which was monstrous, and
all extraordinary.
In this unparalleled state of affairs, for we
must never forget that in our Revolution his
tory afforded no parallel to instruct and to
wrarn, instead of disappearing from the stage,

CHARLES THE FIRST. 5
like an insignificant actor overwhelmed by the
unexpected importance of his part, we find,
on the contrary, the Enghsh monarch the most
eminent, the most energetic, and the most in
teresting personage, during the long, the fear
ful, and the dubious struggle. When the
struggle was over the King came forward, and
closed his career by a most memorable death —
dying with the same decision with which he
had lived ; and while he was covered with ex
ecration and obloquy as the Tyrant by one
party, who feared that if he were not a ty
rant they might perhaps be considered traitors,
he was hailed by the greater portion of the na
tion with prayers and tears as the Martyr.
It is difficult to believe, that a man who thus
lived and thus died could have been the in
dividual whom it has always been the sup
posed interest of a successful party to repre
sent him. Tyrant and Martyr are rarer charac
ters than mankind is accustomed to consider
them; and they often vanish before the im
partial student, who, searching neither for
the tyrant nor the martyr, dares to seek into
history for the man.
We have hitherto obtained but a slight
acquaintance with the personal character of
Charles the First ; for it has been assumed

6 CHARLES THE FIRST.
by those who have been unable to make the
King despicable, that the private character of
a monarch stands unconnected with his public
one. But it is as impossible to form a just
conception of the character of a king without
becoming acquainted with his private history,
his motives as wrell as his conduct, as it is to
form a just conception of the individual, with
out becoming acquainted with the times in
which he lived. We are not, therefore, sur
prised that those who maintain that the private
character of Charles the First is unconnected
with his public one, have judged of that pub
lic character as if he were their contemporary.
The characteristic of the mind of Charles
the First was that inflexible firmness to
which we attach the idea of strength of cha
racter. Constancy of purpose, perseverance to
obtain it, and fortitude to suffer for it, this
is the beautiful unity of a strong charac
ter. We should, however, observe, that this
strength of character is not necessarily asso
ciated with the most comprehensive under
standing, any more than the most comprehen
sive understanding is necessarily supported by
this moral force. Hence the stronger the cha
racter of the man the stronger may be its
errors, and thus its very strength may become

CHARLES THE FIRST. 7
its greatest infirmity. In speculating upon
the Hfe of Charles the First, through all the
stages of his varied existence from the throne
to the scaffold, we may discover the same
inteUectual and moral being. HumiHated by
fortune, beneath the humblest of his people,
the King himself remained unchanged; and
whether we come to reproach, or to sympa
thise, something of pity and terror must blend
with the story of a noble mind wrestling with
unconquerable Fate.

CHARLES THE FIRST

CHAPTER II.
OF CHARLES THE FIRST DURING HIS
BOYHOOD.
We may be excused for unfolding the mi
nuter characteristics of a young prince, those ob
scure intimations of the future personal dispo
sitions, which Alfieri has caUed Sviluppo dell
indole indicato da vari fattarelli, " developement
of the natural disposition indicated by various
Httle matters," for in this respect, princes differ
from other men ; their early characteristics are
not likely to change. The youth of princes is
seldom passed in submission. Surrounded by
those who seek by compliance, or officiousness,
to cultivate a friendship with their future sove
reign, princes are unfortunate enough to be
flattered even in their boyhood. This and the
impossibility of being influenced by those cir
cumstances which make other men the crea
tures of events, and dependent on the caprice

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 9
of fortune, effectuaUy prevent their early cha
racter from changing, and render the conduct
of their life subordinate to their constitutional
dispositions. In the history of one who was afterwards
remarkable for a hardy frame tried by un
wearied activity, and who, at his death, exhi
bited those physical appearances which are indi
cative of long life, it may deserve notice that
he was born, and lived some years, in a state
of extreme debility, and that he struggled with,
and overcame, several personal defects.
Circumstances, apparently trivial, in the his
tory of Charles the First, had often the
fatality of connecting themselves with the un
settled disputes of the Church and the State.
The accidental circumstance of the birth of
this royal babe in a state of weakness, which
even threatened a speedy dissolution, occa
sioned a hasty baptism ; the place of ceremony
unrecorded, the officiating person unnamed,
whose was the episcopal hand which had sprin
kled the Martyr of the Church ? or had a
Presbyterian teacher, as it was rumoured, ad
ministered the baptismal rite ?•
Such were the tormenting inquiries which
agitated Churchmen and Dissenters, in the pro
tracted controversy of Lay-baptism. The eccle-

10 CHARLES THE FIRST
siastics insisted that all non-conformists were
mere laymen, a principle which was designed
to invahdate their baptisms. Burnet, not hos
tile to the Presbyterian cause, having at a later
period aUuded, in one of his charges, to the
circumstance recorded of Charles's unepiscopal
baptism, this Bishop's opinion renewed the old
heats with those who persevered in their axiom,
that " Bishops and Presbyters were the same."
The Dissenters had long exulted, and the
Churchmen had long been mortified, that
Charles had not received any of the benefits
of episcopal baptism, when a hundred and
fifty years after the event, Carte startled the
contending parties, and settled the dispute
on the side he wished to favour, by refer
ring to the document of " John Blinsale, Hay
Herald, who assisted at the baptism." In
that hitherto undiscovered narrative was spe
cified the name of the bishop, the royal cha
pel where the ceremony had passed, the mi
nutest occurrences of the magnificent solem
nity, the pall of gold, silver, and silk, wrought
" as it was spoken, by his Majesty's um-
qhuhe mother," on which the bairn was laid,
the names of the lords who bore the ducal
crown, the lawver, the towel, the bason, and,
finally, the " Marchioness of Huntley, who bare

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 11
the bairn instead of the nourrice." This dis
covery of Carte's instantly changed the former
appearance of the question, and the Dissenters
could no longer triumph in the obscure bap
tism of a prince, administered by a Presbyter.
But if the ceremony of Charles's baptism
had been thus solemnly performed, with all the
pomp and regality of the Court, could it pos
sibly have escaped the knowledge, or the notice
of Spotswood, who tells us, that " the christen
ing was hastened because of the weakness of
the child," or of Perinchief, the eulogist and
advocate of Charles, who positively informs
us, that " he was deprived of the usual cere
monies wherewith such royal infants are ad
mitted into the Church." Who then is this
Hay Herald who has marshaUed knights, lords,
and ladies, and heralds, preluding with a
flourish of trumpets ? Harris asserts from in
ternal evidence, the whole narrative to be a
clumsy forgery !
Thus at the very threshold of our history
we stumble on error, or imposture, a circum
stance not uncommon in more important mat
ters than the present.*
'* An idle antiquary might employ an hour in examining
into the authenticity of this suspected record, it being in MS.
in the Heralds' Office at Edinburgh, (the Lyons' Office)

12 CHARLES THE FIRST
It must, however, be observed, that some
circumstances which Harris brings forward as
the mere inventions of an ignorant person,
are not of the nature which he supposes them.
The Hay Herald, he observes, represents " the
Chancellor Cassils, as present at the solemnity,
though there was no such Chancellor then in
being ; and he tells us that Monsieur de Ro
han, and his brother called Monsieur de Sou-
bise, were his Majesty's gossips, though the
Scotch historians never mention their being in
that kingdom." The Chancellor Cassils I must
leave to the researches of the Scottish anti
quary ; but as for Monsieur Soubise standing
at the christening in Scotland as Charles's god
father, I find this very circumstance inciden
tally noticed in the Diary of Sir John Finett,
the Master of the Ceremonies. Soubise's bro
ther, the Duke of Rohan, the eminent chief
of the French Hugunots, was also in Scot-
written by John Blinsale, Hay Herald, who assisted at the
baptism. It is entitled " an account of the birth and bap
tism of King Charles the First." The subject ceases to in
terest us, but the detection of an historical forgery is always
gratifying. This document was first printed by the Rev.
Henry Cantrell, in " the Royal Martyr, a true Christian,"
&c &c. 1716, long before Carte wrote. The Presbyter
Harris fiercely disputed its authenticity, merely from party-
feeling.

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 13
land, and by the desire of James, stood as god
father to Charles, which circumstance is men
tioned in his life. This strongly corroborates
the suspected narrative of the Hay Herald.
By the expression of Spotswood, we can by
no means infer that the episcopal and regal
ceremonies were not performed, and as for the
vague style of Perinchief, as that book was
written by one man, and published under the
name of another, a circumstance none of our
writers notice, its authority is not unquestion
able* It is certain, that the infant Duke long con
tinued in a weakly state, for many ladies who
had been proud suitors for the keeping of the
royal child, were now detained from soliciting
this anxious charge. When in his fourth year,
he was delivered to Lady Cary, that perfect
courtier, her husband, (afterwards the Earl of
* Perinchief's Life of Charles the First is of little value,
but that little may be authentic, and it is frequently referred
to. Perinchief must not, however, be considered as writing
from his own knowledge, for the materials were chiefly col
lected by the learned William Fulman, who at his death
left them unfinished. Colonel Titus, the author of the fa
mous political pamphlet " Killing no Murder," also sup
plied him with some notices for the two latter years of the
King's life. Such assistance only proves that Perinchief
himself was a poor workman.

14 CHARLES THE FIRST
Monmouth) declares, that " those who wished
him no good were glad of it, thinking that if
the Duke should die in our charge, then it
would not be thought fit that we should remain
in court after."
The Earl's candour is as admirable as his
loyalty, for he was at least as fearful of losing
his place, as of losing his prince. The Earl of
Monmouth has also aUuded to " many a battle
my wife had with the King, about shtting the
string under the child's tongue, and putting his
legs into iron boots." The parental care of
James was accompanied by aU the force of ar
gument, but, as was usual with him, he yielded
up the point of debate.
This physical weakness cast a sullen air over
the manners of the young Prince, and Lilly
sends down a tradition of the evil nature of his
infancy " from the old Scottish lady his nurse."
His debility withdrew him from those sports
and exercises in which his brother exceUed, and
contracting retired habits, Charles loved the
hours of study. It is probable that these un
toward circumstances led to the early formation
of the reserved and thoughtful character of the
future monarch, as weU as conduced to the va
riety of his acquired knowledge. Charles had
a vigilant tutor in Thomas Murray, a learned

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 15
Scotchman, whom afterwards he chose for his
secretary, and whose zeal he finaUy remunerated
by, the provostship of Eton. The unalterable
affection of the pupU for the tutor is a strong
indication of the man.
Charles was educated to ascend the throne.
His learned father, who has been so freely
taxed with pusillanimity and folly, cannot
however be reproached with having engen
dered them, and the anxious care he bestow
ed on aU his progeny appeared in Henry, in
Charles, and in EHzabeth, who alike sustained
their princely character in the heroic elevation
of their minds. There was no royal family in
Europe which then equalled the English Court
in the early promise put forth hj its accom
plished princes. Jonson was struck by the pa
ternal zeal of James the First, whom, without
court flattery, he addressed in a masque :
" You are an honest, good man, and have care of your bairns !"*

* I find a curious anecdote of that zealous paternal atten
tion of our " pedant king," which I have not met elsewhere.
James took such minute care of their education, that " the
children of James were well instructed in music and dan
cing : his Majesty desired them to keep up their dancing
privately, though they whistle and sing to one another
for music." Harl. MSS. 6987, (24.)

16 CHARLES THE FIRST
King James, to provoke Henry to apply
himself more ardently to his closet studies, had
intimated that his brother, who already loved
his books, would prove more able in the ma
nagement of affairs, and the science of his
favourite " king-craft," than he, who chiefly
consumed his days in the tilt-yard, and passion
ately pursued his military exercises. The fa
therly admonition was received in silence, but
when his tutor, Sir Adam Newton, reiterated
the King's reprimand, the Prince asked whether
he really thought that his brother would prove
so good a scholar? Sir Adam was of that
opinion. " Then," rejoined Henry, ". wul I
make him Archbishop of Canterbury."
A spark of rivalry had been kindled between
the royal brothers. When Charles was about'
ten years of age, the young Prince had aheady
attracted observation by the progress of his stu
dies, and by the warmth of his temper. The
princes, with Abbot, the Archbishop of Canter
bury, and other noblemen, were waiting in
the privy-chamber for an audience. Henry, in
aUusion to his brother's proficiency in his stu
dies, jocularly placed the Archbishop's cap on
his head, observing, " that if he continued a
good boy, and followed his books, he would
make him one day Archbishop of Canterbury."

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 17
The Httle Prince indignantly flung down the
square cap, and trampled on it. Duke Charles,
it would seem, had heard too frequently of the
future Archbishopric, and the taunts from his
heroic brother stung the Httle Prince into an
ebuUition of momentary feeHng. This feeling
was constitutional. Warm and hasty passion
was long an infirmity with Charles, and one
of which he was very sensible. At various
periods of his life, the King used preventive
means against being overcome by his natural
impatience. In more than one interview,
which was likely to turn on subjects where his
feelings gnight seize on him unawares, it was
preconcerted that they should not be debated
by him with the Ambassador, but left to his
council. This defect in his temperament was
one which, Hke his stammering, could only be
mastered by a stronger impulse of the mind,
as when he stood calm and unsubdued in the
greatest day of his adversity.
From this anecdote of the royal boys, the
contemporaries of Charles, in the taste of the
times, deduce opposite inferences. One detects
a mystical presage of the future fall of episco
pacy under his administration ; to another it
seemed peculiarly ominous of the fall of the
archbishop himself, who afterwards was sus-
c

18 CHARLES THE FIRST
pended from his offices by the displeasure of
his sovereign ; a third, with the malignity of a
commonwealth's man, accepts it as an evidence
of the latent suUenness and stubbornness of the
future monarch ; while an ultra-royalist, in the
depth of his wisdom, discovers in it " a sign of
bigness of spirit, and a humour that did not
love jesting or levity." It is evident, that every
one of these philosophers would have composed
the history of Charles, on the principle which
they had aheady so happUy discriminated. So
many historians, so many Charles's !
The fraternal intercourse between the sons of
James was however rarely interruptedf for we
have still left several familiar note* written in
English, French, and Latin, by the Duke to
the Prince. They are dispatches of the hour,
perhaps also the playful exercises of his stu
dies. " Sweet sweet brother, I thank you for
your letter. I will give any thing that I
have to you, but my toys and my books."
Sometimes the little Duke visits Prince Henry's
stables, and mounts his great horses, " that on
his return he may wait on him in that noble
exercise." Then there are thanks for two bidets
which Henry sends him— or it is an invitation
to walk together— or a detail of the studies of
the week.

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 19
Welwood says of Charles, that he wrote " a
tolerable hand for a King." The republican
whig, if we may call him so, grudgingly aUows
a Stuart and a monarch, even the humble dis
tinction of caUigraphy. The truth is, that the
hand-writing of Charles, Hke aU his other ac
quirements, was elegant, and opposite to the
slovenly scribble of his father, who, careless in
aU exterior things, too Hghtly esteemed the
habit of distinct writing ; a habit, it may be
worth observing to some, which gives pleasure
in the intercourse of friendship, and promotes
accuracy in that of business. The skilful in
autogwphs may like to learn, that Charles the
First's hand-writing, and, perhaps, no man ever
wrote more, always free and flowing, as he
advanced in life and in reflection became more
and more regularly formed, and- finaUy con
tracted into slender elegance. In a French
letter to Prince Rupert unsigned, he observes,
J'espere que vous connoitre% ma petite main. I
have seen some notes to his children, written
during his close confinement in his latter days,
which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
italic character. In the long leisure and still
meditations of imprisoned solitude, the fond
remembrance of his children seems to have
moved the pen in tracing every word.
C 2

20 CHABLES THE FIRST
Charles overcame his corporeal infirmities in
his youth, but his defective speech seems to
have lasted some years. It was probably the
real cause of his brevity in conversation : he
used few words ; and we smile at Sir Henry
Herbert, the Master of the Revels, entering
the royal words in his diary, on some occasion
when the King gave him a favourable answer
to his request, "because his master's custom
affords not so many words." The singular
gravity, the deficient freedom in conversa
tion, and the reserved manners of Charles the
First, struck the Count de Brienne as circum
stances so uncommon as to make it difiyult to
decide on the prince's character. When Car
dinal de Richelieu curiously pressed the Count
to be informed of the genius of the Monarch,
De Brienne replied, " To me he appeared ex
tremely reserved, and this induces me to judge
that he is either an extraordinary man, or one
of a very middling capacity. If he affected this
retenue to prevent any jealousy on the late king
his father's side, this would be a mark of his
consummate prudence ; but if it be quite na
tural to him, and without any finesse, I should
draw very opposite conclusions." From this
oracular style the cardinal could not have ga
thered much. The truth is, that it was too

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 21
nice a point for the critical and youthful di
plomatist, recently returned from the English
Court, to venture a decision upon, for the
prime minister ; nor could he know that the
» habitual reserve of the prince originated, in
great part, in the pain which conversation oc
casions him whose speech is not fluent.
The King's difficult utterance rendered his
addresses from the throne, painful to himself
and the Parliament. This early compeUed him
to have the Lord-Keeper recite his speeches, a
circumstance Which his friends considered, how
ever trivial it may appear, as having had an un
favourable influence on his affairs. It is our
own voice alone, whose modulations can give
sanction to our feelings. Charles closed his
first speech to Parliament, the only ungracious
passage in it, by this declaration : — " Now, be
cause I am unfit for much speaking, I mean to
bring up the fashion of my predecessors, to have
my Lord-Keeper speak for me in most things,
therefore have commanded him to speak some
thing unto you at this time, which is more
for formality, than any great matter he hath
to say unto you."
After the death of his brother Henry, Charles
appears to have felt the propriety of turning
his attention to those hardier pursuits, which he

22 CHARLES THE FIRST
had hitherto avoided ; and it was not long ere
he exceUed in the fashionable accomplishments
of the gentleman of that day ; the manly exer
cises of vaulting, archery, running at the ring,
and the manege of the great horse ; shooting in
the cross-bow, musket, and " the great ord
nance." In the tennis-court he toiled with the
racquet ; and to his last days, those of his im
prisonment, loved the tranquil recreation of the
bowling-green. By active sports he invigorated
his frame. One who knew Charles, describes
him as " a laborious fieldsman ;" and another
tells us, that he was thought to be the most
adroit manager of the great horse of any man
in the three nations, and a sharp marksman ; he
chased a winter-deer as skilfuUy, which is one of
the hardest tasks of " a woodsman," as he ex
ceUed in shooting one. At the age of nineteen
he distinguished himself among the young no
bility in a feat of arms at a justing at White-
haU, and in such a manner, that it was imagined
that Prince Charles would become as eminently
military as his late brother ; and at the later
period of his marriage, the Count de Brienne
noticed the adroitness of our royal cavalier, " in
breaking some lances, in this chivalric exercise.''
Whatever art and practice could acquire, he
gained ; the lighter graces were denied him.

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 23
Thus early Charles surmounted the obstacles
which nature had cast in his way. The languid
indolence of the closet, deeply attached as he
was to study and to the more pleasing arts,
failed to seduce him entirely, and the intrepi
dity of his after-life, through all its vicissitudes,
was never interrupted by his personal depriva
tions; not even the many, who watched him
with no friendly eyes, have presumed to accuse
him of that impatient querulousness, which be
trays its moments of weakness.
At the age of sixteen, Charles was created
Prince of Wales, and held a court ; but he lived
in no pohtical opposition to his father, a habit
which has been assumed by some heirs of the
Enghsh crown. His late brother had opened
with a different career, and had roused the
jealousy of his father, and the fears of Cecil.
Whatever may be the pohcy of the heir to the
crown in conducting himself in direct opposi
tion to the interests and views of the cabinet,
some dangerous results must occur, both at
home and abroad. At home his cause wiU com
bine together the dispersed and insulated mem
bers of perhaps very heterogeneous factions into
one formidable body. A common interest is
thus created for those who else would never
have acted together. It is certain that the

24 CHARLES THE FIRST
family politics of the English court have not
been indifferent to foreign cabinets. The Gaul,
the Spaniard, and the Austrian, have often been
solicitous to raise a party in this kingdom sub
servient to their own peculiar interests ; and
whenever the heir of the Enghsh throne suffers
his inclinations to be controled by intriguers
around him, he runs the risk of becoming,
unconsciously, the ally of the enemies of his
country. The Ambassador La Boderie" advises the
French Cabinet not to neglect granting cer
tain pensions to four or five of Prince Henry's
Court, by whom it seems these favours were
expected, since that young Prince was entirely
under their influence, and had resolved to main
tain a political independence at the Court of
his father.
There were not wanting in that day, some
busy spirits, who, now finding " their occupa
tion gone," ascribed to the sedate temper of
the youthful Charles a narrowness of genius,
and natural incapability of entering into their
higher pohtical speculations. But Charles most
certainly looked up to his father with reverence
and affection ; and if the name of James the
First faU in some degree to excite the same
feehngs in the minds of this later age, we

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 25
must attribute this result to the unjust obli
vion of some virtues, and of no inconsiderable
talents, and, above all, to the artificiaHy dis
torted appearance of an historical personage,
who has been equaUy injured by the libels of
a party, and the indolent acquiescence of in
competent judges in the deductions of inte
rested slanderers.
In his youth, Charles must have been lay
ing the foundations of that various knowledge,
and that habitual and curious observation in
all the arts, both the fine and the mechanical,
which once induced this ingenious Prince to
declare, that " he thought he could get his
living, if driven by necessity, by any of the
arts and trades which he knew to practise."
Once, in familiar conversation, the Prince made
a remarkable observation, that if he were ne
cessitated to take any particular profession for
a Hving, he could not be a lawyer, for, said
Charles, " I cannot defend a bad cause ; nor
yield in a good cause ;" a principle from which
he never swerved, if we are to decide by the
actions of his after-life.
Charles had studied the art of war, and
indeed the King afterwards proved himself to
be one of the most able generals in the civil
wars. He was not unskiUed in fortification ;

26 CHARLES THE FIRST
and that science which has been called naval
architecture, a study not unworthy the pursuits
of an island-monarch, had particularly engaged
his attention ; for one of his most magnificent
measures was " building that miracle of ships
called the Royal Sovereign ;" and when he was
reminded of the vast charge it required, he
observed, "that while some nobles prodigaUy
spent their patrimony in luxurious courses, no
thing either to their credits or reputations, or
beneficial to the kingdom, as King he might
be allowed to build that ship for his pleasure,
which might be useful for the service of the
kingdom.* The more delightful arts he pursued with
intense pleasure, for this monarch was not
only a lover of art; but could himself have
aspired to the honours of an artist. These,
however, had not absorbed his studies. The
library of St. James's, before the CivU Wars,
contained a manuscript volume, which Charles
in his youth had presented to his father, con
sisting of his literary collections and other
epitomes, the fruits of juvenile studies.
But these philosophical and ingenious pur
suits have been barbarously censured as mean
and trivial in a monarch. The arts and sciences
* Ldly.

DURING HIS BOYHOOD. 27
were considered by the rigid puritanic poli
ticians merely as sources of emolument for the
mechanics who professed them. The inteUec-
tual part of these studies — the meditation, and
the elegance, and the knowledge, which disci
pline the mind in the progress, of invention,
had never rectified their crude principles, soft
ened their harsh tempers, or illumined their
dark minds. These studies, not unworthy of
a sovereign, would have reflected his tastes
among a people, whose fanaticism had so long
persecuted the finer arts, and our nation would
not have suffered the reproach of foreign critics,
who, ignorant of our history, ventured to as
sign the natural causes which, as they imagined,
incapacitated us from excelling in the practice
of the arts of imagination and sensibility.
Charles the First, had it been his happiness to
have reigned in peace, would have anticipated
by a century, the glory of English art.

28 CHARLES THE FIRST

CHAPTER III.
OF THE STUDY OF POLEMICAL DIVINITY,
PREVALENT AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
There was one particular course of studies
in which James the First himself had in
structed his son — that of the dogmas and the
controversies of the theology of the times. In
these pursuits Charles was a docile pupU, and
in his first speech to Parhament, to repel the
malicious rumour of his inclination towards
the Roman See, he proudly declared, " I may,
with St. Paul, say, that I have been trained up
at Gamaliel's feet."
His father advised the Prince's chaplains,
who went to Spain, not to engage in unne
cessary disputations on religion ; but if chal
lenged, the Prince would be moderator, and
observing them smile, he earnestly added — it is
said he swore, that " Charles could manage a
point in controversy with the best studied di-

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 29
vine of ye ah." Nor was the commendation
partial. In his conference with the Presbyter
Henderson, the King, without books for refer
ence, or a secretary by his side, during a tedious
fortnight,* fought that memorable theological
logomachy, till the hoary adversary of episco
pacy, covered with the dust of his Hbrary,
retired with a broken spirit. It is probable
that neither convinced the other ; but this did
not the less exhaust the old man's vexation, and
may have accelerated his death.
To these studies Whitelocke ascribes that
aptitude of Charles the First which made him
so skilful a summer-up of arguments, and en
dowed him with such a clear perception in
dehvering his decisions. The King's readiness
in contracting a lengthened and methodising
an involved discussion, was remarked by ano
ther great lawyer, Sir Robert Holborne : he
observed that " the King could drive a matter
into a head with more sharpness than any of
his privy council." This readiness was his pro
minent characteristic, and the King himself
was well aware of it. Sensible that he could
* By the Gesta Britannorum of Sir George Wharton, it
appears that " this dispute between the King and Mr. Hen
derson began at Newcastle, May 29th, and it did not end till
June 16."

30 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
correct with acute judgment, rather than com
pose with freedom and fertiHty, the King care
fully revised the papers which he commanded
others to write, observing that " he was a bet
ter cobler than a shoemaker."
Lord Bolingbroke has severely ridiculed James
the First for his polemical divinity, and a hun
dred echoes are stiU multiplying Pope's " Pe
dant King." But this it is, to be a philosopher
without being an antiquary ; the generalizations
of history are too often substituted for the real
knowledge of particulars, merely because the
philosopher is ignorant of them. An invec
tive against royal pedantry would always be
plausible ; but the inquiry, whether there were
any pedantry at all displayed on this occasion,
could not occur to those who find it convenient
to try events and opinions by the standard of
their own age ; and who seem to narrow hu
man nature to their own horizon. But to
transform our forefathers into ourselves, is to
lose all Hkeness of the originals, and to throw
into the back ages the notions of our own times
has often been a source as fertUe of errors in
our history, as the passions of parties have been
of more unjust misrepresentations. The true
historian is a contemporary of the past.
Polemical studies were not the peculiar tastes

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 31
of James and Charles, as is commonly imagined.
Ere the reign of the " Pedant King," and long
after, they occupied the most eminent scholars
in our nation. They had not been considered
unworthy of royalty itself, and it is from a
slender volume of polemical divinity, that our
Sovereigns still derive one of their regal dis
tinctions. Even Elizabeth acknowledged that
she had read as much controversial divinity as
any divine, and maintained her supremacy in
the church, as well as in the state, by the argu
ments of which she was a mistress.
Laud put forth his elaborate reply to Fisher,
the Jesuit, to repair the open breaches of the
beleaguring Romanist ; a volume which Charles
recommended to his son, to guard him from
the artifices of Rome, which even extorted
from the great puritanic repubHcan, Sir Ed
ward Deering, the applause, that Laud had
struck the papist on the fifth rib. The " Apo
logy for the English Church," by Jewel, was
chained in churches, to be opened at all times
by the way-faring reader. Were not the
days of the learned Usher harassed by the chal
lenges of Jesuits ? And after all, however skil
fully these might be refuted, that great con
troversialist felt not always sure that the anti
dote completely operated against the poison ;

32 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
for, in addressing the Oxford librarian, Usher
advised him to be careful that " the English
papist-books be kept in a place by themselves,
and not placed in the library, for they may
prove dangerous." So that a Protestant Arch
bishop could even resort to the arts of a Spanish
Inquisitor, who casts all the volumes of heresy
into the darkest corners, or incarcerates them
under the strongest locks. Did not Lord Falk
land enter the Hsts with the Roman CathoHc,
Thomas White, with " A Discourse of Infal-
libUity ?" Are that accomphshed Lord's learn
ed speech in the House, and his friend the
great Chillingworth's treatise on " Episco
pacy," to be condemned for that pedantry of
polemical divinity which Lord Bolingbroke,
with so many others unlearned in British his
tory, ridicule with such a reckless phUosophy
in James and Charles ?
I must perpetually repeat, that if we are not
weU acquainted with the age, we shaU never
know the man. The phUosopher must be an
antiquary of human nature. His inquiries,
pursued by close studies and patient medita
tion, can alone prevent those continued false
decisions and erroneous conceptions with which
modern writers of history sometimes blunder as
grossly as modern writers of romance.

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 33
But the age of the first Stuarts was pre
eminently an age of polemical divinity ;
an age of doctrines and controversies, and what
may be justly termed artificial theology. And
it was then not only a warfare of the Roman
tenets with the Protestant creed, but of new
races split into Arians and Arminians, and Cal-
vinists, who ambitiously had combined with
political parties. The affairs even of Protest
ant nations were then connected with synods.
Church politicians concealed themselves under
the short mantle and band of doctors of divi
nity. The awful themes of predestination, —
free-will, — election, — reprobation, — and the re-
sistibility or irresistibility of grace, — the ques
tions whether the essence of God was quale and
tantum ; whether his eternity was only an evi-
ternity ; and how the Divinity could multiply
himself in himself — such were the melancholy
studies which agitated the irascible spirits of
the age. Men seemed to rest their future sal
vation in enormous folios, which it was easier
to devour than to digest. These controversies
now only attract the eye by their formidable
array as we view their champions marshalled on
the shelves of a public library ; there only can
we judge of that vast consumption of human
Hfe which they cost their victims — their writers
VOL. I. D

34 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
and their readers ! After the labours and the
persecutions, the hatreds and the agonies of
long centuries, these doctrines and these dog
mas, defended or confuted, were found to be
interminable as that memorable dispute be
tween the Dominicans and the Franciscans,
which the Pope wisely set at rest by decreeing
that it should never be decided ! The great
policy of Rome, to avoid schisms, has always
been to elude the discussion of inconvenient
topics. Futile and nugatory as were the subjects
of these, disputations between Roman Catholics
and Protestants, and ludicrously mean those
between the Presbyter and the Episcopalian,
yet in that learned age these themes involved
the dignity of erudition and the powers of
logic; aU the resources of a ready, an acute,
and a luminous mind. He was the most suc
cessful polemic, whose disciplined memory
could most promptly flourish the keenest wea
pons on his own side, and at the same time be
not less familiar with the blunted and broken
arms of his antagonist — then was he to press
on his triumph. The assailant was slowly to
circumvent, or rapidly to storm, the weakest
points of his opponent ; but the art to retreat
was as great as the skill to attack. In the vaeil-

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 35
lation of the disputants, victory hung on the
subtilty of an argument ; and the omission of
an authoritative text, or the surprise of an am
biguous one, might shake the whole arrange
ment of a doctrine.
Had these vain and offuscating disputations
only tormented the heated heads of a few
dreaming recluses, or a few acrid partizans,
they would have merited but an obscure notice
in the history of England ; but they had pe
netrated into the recesses of domestic life, and
theological disputations were constantly carry
ing on in private houses, in the presence of the
head of a family who was gained or lost by the
fortune of the Thesis ; and there have been fa-
mflies where the disputation, like a law-suit,
has devolved from the grandfather to the grand
son. The gentry were reading and writing
tomes of religious controversy ; in the country,
whole parishes were disturbed by the public
disputations held by the Papist or the Puritan,
and many were the lapses of the backsliders
into Romanism. Some Protestants, to humble
the Puritans, were earnestly looking about for
a reunion with the Roman Catholics, for they
had observed, not without dread, the puritanic
party, like the Methodists of our own times,
starting up among aU ranks of society.
d 2

36 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
Let us now draw the curtain, and exhi
bit the domestic pictures of the Romanist
and the Puritan in the days of Charles the
First. The most complete picture of the English
Catholics is one by their own hand, touched
by the warmth and fullness of secret confi
dence. Panzani, the concealed agent of Rome, in a
secret report, reckons the English CathoHcs at
one hundred and fifty thousand, forming no
inconsiderable portion of the higher class of
English subjects. In the first rank of nobility
were Catholics, who without any open profes
sion, and consequently living in great fear,
were anxious to preserve the royal favour.
When these entertain a disguised priest in
their house, it is unknown to their servants,
and not even confided to their children. Others,
as Protestants, frequent churches, take the
oaths, and occasionally speak against CathoHcs;
yet in their hearts they are papistical, and
conceal one or more priests under their roof.
Panzani assures his master that almost aU of
the principal Protestant nobility, secular and
ecclesiastical, who died when he was in Lon
don, although generally reputed Protestants,
had died in the Catholic faith.

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 37
However partial Panzani's account may be
deemed, it is unquestionable that in these
times sudden conversions and the flight of
many eminent persons to the Continent were
frequent. Certain it is also, that persons high
in office were secret Romanists. In the curious
manuscript memoir of the Capuchins who
came over to Henrietta, I found an account of
an interview between Charles the First and
the Lord Treasurer Weston, who died Earl
of Portland. In his last illness, having called
for his priest, and embraced all the infaUibility
of the Roman Catholic Church, his lordship
requested to see the King once more, to return
into the royal hands his staff, as Lord High
Treasurer. The following dialogue ensued : —
" Sire, I replace, with respect and gratitude,
this staff into the hands of your Majesty, while
I deeply regret that I have been less faithful
to the service of God than to your Majesty's."
" No, no !" replied Charles : , " this staff has
been well placed in your hands, and there I
will have it remain." " Sire," once more re
plied the relapsed Lord Treasurer ; " I am no
longer capable of bearing it : first, because I
can never recover from my present malady ;
and secondly, though it may seem odious, I
should no longer conceal from your Majesty,

38 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
that, by the grace of God, I am now a Catho
lic." " Get but weU," said the King, " and the
Catholic religion need not hinder you to keep
this staff as an able minister." This case of the
Earl of Portland, placed at the head of the
King's cabinet, affords a curious instance of the
duties of office not unfaithfully performed by
an Englishman, who at the same time anxiously
concealed the real state of his conscience. Cla
rendon teUs us, the Romanists only were those
who did not believe him to be a Catholic ; yet
the English only suspected his inclination to
Papistry, or as the Capuchin writes the term,
which he says is used by our nation, auPapism,
from the tranquilhty the Romanists under his
administration were aUowed to enjoy. No
thing in his open conduct or his language be
trayed the concealed CathoHc. It now appears,
by this authentic manuscript, that the Earl
held a private correspondence with the famous
Pere Joseph of Paris, a Capuchin, who trans
acted all the secret affairs of Cardinal de Riche
lieu. It is evident also that some divinity stu
dents were lost in the mists . of the artificial
theology of Rome ; and the secret domination
of the missionary priests was so great as fo ex
cite the jealousy of the Papal agent, who has

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 39
described in terms which a Protestant might
repeat to reproach their craft, that " the mis
sionaries enjoy many conveniences in the houses
of their patrons, and, being the directors of the
masters and servants, and admitted to all the
secrets qf the mind, any one may judge what
ascendancy they acquire." Such, then, was the
state of the English Catholics at home; and
the sanctity of the domestic abode was fre
quently troubled by two rehgions abhorring
each other under the same paternal roof.
The Romanists more particularly practised
on the infirm sympathies of females : their ner
vous and seraphic temperament was more easily
entranced by an imaginative religion, by the
divinities they embraced, by the miracles which
flashed before their eyes, by the gorgeous scene
of the Roman ceremonial, the altar, the censer,
and the chaunt. The iUusion of the magical
service of the Catholic worship is acknowledged
by Panzani. But the female, by her personal
influence, was still more actively propagating
the espoused doctrines.
The Roman hierarchy has ever experienced
the tenderness of the sex ; among the first
temporal dominions of the Popes appears the
donation of a countess, and one of the pontiffs
obtained the sobriquet of Matronarum Auris-

40 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
calpius, " the ear-picker of the ladies," from his
adroitness in the art of wheedling.
It is only by entering into the recesses of
domestic Hfe, that we can be enabled to form a
clear notion of the extraordinary scenes which
now occupied the passions of the people. We
discover perpetual conferences in private, or,
rather, a severe wrestling match between a Je
suit and a divine. Lord Mordaunt and his lady
invite the learned Usher to confer with a priest
whom his Lordship kept in his house, on the
points in dispute between the two Churches.
The conference was held several days, when
Usher maintaining that the Church of England
was no new religion, the lady, whose great fear
had been its ambiguous novelty, was confirmed
in her Protestantism, and the argument against
its novelty proved so strikingly novel to his
lordship, that he became a convert from Pa
pistry. But Usher was not always at hand; his
absence, and twenty-four hours to unravel his
twisted logic, might have enabled the pervert
ing priest to produce a new point, and occasion
a fresh lapse.
Lady Falkland suddenly declared herself to
be a Papist. All her friends, sensible of the dis
grace, fly to her with an argument, or a menace,
Mr. Montague would terrify her Ladyship, that

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 41
she, dying an English Papist, would die in a
state of damnation; — but this was only his as
sertion ! Cozens (afterwards the Bishop) told
her that she had sinned damnably, in departing
from that Church wherein she was baptized,
before she had consulted with its heads ; how-
ever, he gave her ladyship a few notes, which
she sent to her drunken Irish priest, for such he
was, and who returned such silly answers, that
Cozens would not reply. " If I turn again,"
said Lady Falkland, " I will turn Puritan, not
moderate Protestant ; for moderate Protestants,
such as Mr. Cozens, are farther from Catholics
than Puritans."
This Lady Falkland was one of those Me
thodists or Evangelicals, who appeared long be
fore the founder of the sect; — and what she
observed of the Puritans is true, for they, as
weU as the Presbyterians, were driving on by
a new road of their own to the same point,
which they publicly avowed they had deserted;
being, when in power, like the Romanists,
equaUy intolerant, and asserting the supremacy
of the Church over the State.
But it was the Countess of Buckingham,
the mother of the favourite, who formed the
highest hope of the Romanists. She had great
power over her son. Gondomar, that exquisite

42 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
wit, wrote to Spain, with an allusion to their
own impious custom, " that now, indeed, they
might have great hopes of the English revert
ing to Catholicism, because, Hke all good Ca
tholics, more intercession was made to the Mo
ther than to the Son!" When this old lady
was passing away to the Church of Rome,
James the First, in his zeal, insisted on a con
ference between the Dean of Carlisle and Fisher
the Jesuit. It was at first imagined, that the
Dean had given the Jesuit " foU after foil ;"
but the feminine weakness of the old Coun
tess wavered, and a second conference was re
quired. James then himself would be the arbi
trator ; and observing that the cunning Jesuit
aU along had eluded the arguments brought
against him, whUe, in the confirmation of his
own tenets, he was extremely weak, his Ma
jesty insisted on setting down in writing the
nine points, or questions. To these the Jesuit
duly returned " a close and well-wrought an
swer." A third conference therefore became
necessary. The chief point at which the aged
Dowager stuck was, what the Jesuit had urged
about " an infallible visible Church." Bishop
Williams, to cut the matter short, — in giving
but not in conceding some points to the Jesuit,
yielding in appearance that he might carry his

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 43
point the more directly, retreating only to ad
vance, seemed to use the jockey metaphor of the
Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, — " to have
put the Jesuit out of his ordinary trot ; yet he
fell into a shuffling pace, and carried the lady
behind him."
But in these religious conferences the women
were not the sole actresses. The times were
" pendulous," says HeyHn. Amidst these fluc
tuations of faith, the disturbed mind found no
resting-place, while it seemed only to weary
itself by its incessant activity. It was a world
of waters where the perishing dove could only
live on its wing. It is a curious fact, that
Archbishop Laud, on his trial, in order to
convince his judges of his faithful attachment
to the Established Church, read a list of per
sons whom he had recovered from their lapses
into Papistry ; and among them is the Lord-
duke of Buckingham, who, he adds, " was
almost quite gone between the lady, his mo
ther, and his sister." Indeed the Protestantism
of the royal favourite must have been in a
very ticklish state ; for, on his departure to
Spain, James told the chaplains, " that he had
trained up George so far as to hold the con
clusion, though he had not yet made him
able to prove the premises." Laud congratu-

44 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
lates himself, that of the number he had re
covered, only two had relapsed — the Coun
tess of Buckingham and Sir William Spen
cer ; " it being only in God's power," he ob
served, " not mine, to preserve them from
relapse." But the member of the Church of England
was not only assailed by the English Papist;
the peace of the country was equaUy violated
by the English Puritan.
In the manuscript diary of Sir Symond
D'Ewes a puritanic scene opens to us. His
father and himself and a clergyman held a
" passionate dispute " about the assurances
of salvation. The clergyman maintained that
there could be no real assurance in this world ;
for men, subject to many sins, were apt to de
ceive themselves. D'Ewes affirmed, that this
was the tenet of the Romanists ; but that the
Church of England held that God's children,
or " the elect," in this Hfe might attain to a
certain knowledge of their own future salva
tion by faith. His -father sided with the
clergyman. " A man," adds D'Ewes, " who,
holding two livings in two several shires, did
not much trouble himself in making sure his
inheritance in a better world." Some time
after, the clergyman returning home, and hav-

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 45
ing in the meanwhile conned over a certain
book by one Perkins, it had overset his whole
system, and drew an acknowledgment from
him to the father, of the soundness of his
son's principles. This appears to have been
an unexpected triumph for young D'Ewes.
He now felt uneasy, having converted a clergy
man, lest his arguments could possibly admit
of any refutation. He set down more earnestly
to watch his syUogisms, and to see there was
no leak between his premises and his corolla
ries ; ringing them at all corners to try their
soundness. Having got his servant to tran
scribe them fairly, his father read and ap
proved. This family document of faith is
perhaps still coffered among the antiquities of
our antiquaries' collections. Such incidents
were daily occurring in families, without al
ways terminating so peaceably.
At this day, what should we think of the
Premier and the highest officers of Govern
ment summoning a cabinet council to meet at
York House, where Buckingham presided, to
attend a conference between four divines on
metaphysical points of religious doctrines — on
predestination, grace, and free-will? — Or the
House of Commons debating on the heresy
of Dr. Richard Montague; on which occa-

46 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
sion, Pym delivered a report which electri
fied the House, who, no longer conceiving that
only divines were capable to decide on divi
nity, decreed that the Doctor's doctrines were
Pelagian and Arminian, tending to the dis
turbance of Church and State. The Arminian
doctrine, which the Synod of Dort condemned,
and of which we hear so much during this pe
riod of our history, has been reduced to five
articles against predestination, in favour of free
will, of the nature of grace, and on similar points.
It would be very difficult for the reader unac
quainted with these subjects, to associate any po
litical principles of Popery, or arbitrary power,
with such mystical notions. Yet Rapin, aFrench
Protestant, and aU the writers of the Puritanic
party, attached this odium to them ; and be
cause some of the early patrons of Arminius
(such as Laud) advocated arbitrary govern
ment, Arminianism became the sin of the
Court. Was not Arminianism a paUiative for
the terrible Calvinism of the Articles and Ho
milies ? These five Arminian articles were so
far from being connected with Popery and arbi
trary power, that Tindal observes that they are
generaUy received by the Church of England,
and are the creed of thousands: John Wesley
founded the system of faith on Arminian prin-

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 47
ciples. So faiths change — -and what must re
main for ever obscure becomes at length re
ceived as matter of fact !
A reader of our popular histories has possi
bly entertained no notion of the state of af
fairs which we have described, yet effects will
always be imperfectly comprehended without
a knowledge of their causes. We are apt to
consider the reigns of James and Charles only
as the epoch of the struggle of popular free
dom ; but that glorious struggle was deeply
obscured by exertions not less energetic, though
less pure, less patriotic, less ennobling, by the
mean designs of contracted minds, and by the
intrigues of rival factions, who alike have con
demned the sovereign, who would yield to nei
ther, and sunk beneath both.
If James and Charles, then, were versed in
the disputations of the Romanists and the
Puritans, it was not only the feelings of the
age which might have occasioned such scho
lastic skill, but the interests of their Crown,
since in these disputations they were defending
the principles of their government in Church
and State. In England, the Romanists were a
faction suppressed, but not extinguished ; and a
suppressed faction, though it run into aU cor
ners to hide itself, yet loses nothing of its dan-

48 POLEMICAL DIVINITY.
gerous activity. In fact, the subtle Papists
were now playing fast and loose ; while their
priests were masking themselves under ficti
tious names, and dressing themselves in lay
characters. At this day we may smile at
James the First in his retirement, having at
his leisure hours the Bishop of Winchester to
read over to him the four tomes of Cardinal
Bellarmine's Controversies, and dispatching a
special messenger to the libraries at Cambridge
for volumes to collate his quotations, and to
refute his arguments. We may smile too at
his lively conference at Hampton Court; but
he knew well the " men of parity," who were
for modelling the Government, each man ac
cording to his particular notion ; the rabid
Presbyters, who, howling at the surplice as "a
rag of prelacy," and dashing into pieces tjie
idolatry of painted glass, aimed at nothing ,
short of abolishing the sovereignty and the hier
archy together. Thus these polemical studies
were, in fact, political ones. The Reformation
had made the study of Polemical Divinity in
England a general pursuit— a study for which,
it may be said, mankind have a natural disposi
tion. Doubtless there were some disputants
who, gifted with a more enlarged comprehen
sion, felt that in these controversies were im-

POLEMICAL DIVINITY. 49
phcated other interests than those of the soul,
and other attributes than those of omnipotence.
Doubtless, in combating the infallibility of the
Pope, the iUustrious Falkland felt that he was
vindicating the political independence of his
country ; and are we to believe that, in sup
porting that infallibility, the Jesuit White
was unmindful of the lustre which, from the
success of his syllogism, must necessarily be re
flected on his order ? But the motives of the
great mass of the nation were more spiritual
and less enlightened. The study, however,
was universal, and its effects consequently not
less general. Doubt and dogmatism pervaded
all ranks, and, as usually happens where new
systems are broached and ancient ones can
vassed, in most cases the scepticism was as to
the propriety of the existing order, and the
certainty as to the fitness of the theoretical.
Was the monarch then, of all men, alone to be
ignorant, uninterested, and inactive, when he
surely, of all men, was most interested in the
result ? which, to say the least, was a decision
whether he and his people should bend to the
foreign despotism of the Romish tiara, or de
generate into the mongrel rabble of the Pres
bytery of Geneva !

50 SECRET HISTORY OF

CHAPTER IV.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE SPANISH MATCH.
The hour arrived when the romantic spirit
of Charles the First broke forth in the high
and mysterious adventure of " the Spanish
Match." The gaUantry of Charles was, Hke
the other parts of his character, somewhat se
rious and intense. The state of the youthful
Prince at this moment is ingeniously described
in a letter ab Ignoto, to the Conde" de Gondo
mar, in which the writer points at the danger
of a cold delay with a spirit so youthfully
eager, and so fanciful !
" The Prince is extremely sharp set upon
this match ; and you know that a hawk, when
she is first dressed and made ready to fly, hav
ing a great will upon her, if the falconer do
not follow it at the time, she is in danger to be
duUed for ever after. The Prince, you know,
was thought slow enough to begin to be eager
after the feminine prey ; take heed, therefore,

THE SPANISH MATCH. 51
lest in the fault of your delays, he grows duU,
and in short time he will not stoop to the
lure, though it were thrown out to him."
Modern history affords no paraUel to the nar
rative of the projected, proffered, accepted, and
at length broken-off match of Prince Charles
of England with the Infanta of Spain. In
the suspended march of that mysterious story,
the thread so finely spun and so often drop
ped, is still taken up with " the eagerness and
trembling of the fancy." We have to trace
the open shows of things, and their under- work
ings — the contrasted characters of the Ulus-
trious actors in the combination of uncommon
incidents— the chivalry of the English Prince
embraced by Castilian magnanimity — the ho
nour of two great nations awaiting the issue
of a love-story, and the winding up of its ac
tion in the grand unexpected catastrophe of
a naval war. When the reality exceeded the
probabiHties of invention, there was enough
for " the Spanish fancy to frame one of those
romances which are frequent among those
barren rosemary mountains, the fume whereof
is pleasant and helpful to the brain." TUts
and tournaments had become obsolete; and
no single knight-errant was suspected to be
abroad on a pilgrimage of love, when Charles,
e 2

52 SECRET HISTORY OF
by one audacious flight, startled the slumber
ing genius of the folio romance.
The Spanish Match is one of those passages
in our history, which, inexplicable to its con
temporaries, has been found equally perplexing
to our latest historical inquirers. This poli
tical enigma still remains for solution. Of the
parties concerned, who were the deceivers, and
who the deceived ? Or, if there were any sin
cerity in the treaty, what causes broke off the
projected alliance ? Sir David Dalrymple
observed " how imperfect aU the printed ac
counts were of the Spanish Match ; yet the
learned in British history," said he, " well
ktiow that these secret and interesting trans
actions may be explained from papers hitherto
unpublished." Dalrymple must have alluded
to that ample correspondence which, twelve
years after this announcement, Lord Hard-
wicke drew from the Harleian Collection, for
his ' Miscellaneous State Papers.' Since then,
I have discovered a memoir of Sir Balthazar
Gerbier, the secret agent of James and Charles,
which has thrown a clearer light on this in
volved piece of secret history, and with the aid
of some fresh materials, holding this " goodly
clue" of many threads in our hand, we shall
perhaps now feel our way through the laby
rinth.

THE SPANISH MATCH. 53
James the First had often regretted that
the dignity of an English monarch was im
paired by his religion, for none of the great
Continental sovereigns being Protestants, the
Prince of Wales could not be matched in his
own rank. The project of a Spanish family al
liance had in it all the magnificence he desired.
It is known how that delightful Hterary am
bassador, Gondomar, kept James in play, some
seven years, with merry tales, and quaint quips,
and most compliant promises, which it was
the business of Olivarez to mystify by the re
turn of the courier.
James endured the reproaches of his own day,
and his character must still bear the traditional
obloquy, for not precipitating a Continental war,
to maintain the weak Palsgrave in the ambi
tious career by which he lost his patrimony, when
he assumed a crown which he could not hold.
To the English nation, the vital interests of the
reformed rehgion seemed in peril; and when our
religion formed a part of civil freedom, rehgion
was politics. James was censured for indiffer
ence to the Protestant cause, an inclination to
Popery, and deficient zeal as to the condition
of his rash son-in-law. Yet, though James, from
his notions, could never sanction the Palsgrave's
assumption of the Bohemian Crown, he seems

54 SECRET HISTORY OF
nevertheless to have been unjustly blamed, for
the restitution of the Palatinate was the un
ceasing object of his thoughts, as a father and
a sovereign ; or, as Lord Bristol elegantly ex
pressed it, " in nature and honour." The res
toration of the Palatinate had been attempted
in all the multiform shapes, and through all the
open and indirect roads of patient and delusive
negociations. We shall find too, that it equally
engaged the attention of Charles the First, and
that these monarchs have been unjustly con
demned for neglecting the Protestant interest.
James the First had dispatched Gerbier to
sound the German princes. This secret agent
discovered that ' the union,' or the Protestant
League, as ' unions' in pohtics are often found
to be, was widely disunited ; and the Calvinist
and the Lutheran were hateful rivals. Neither
the French nor the Hollanders, nor even Swe
den and Denmark, would stir for the Palatinate.
A few poor German princes were not un wiUing
to be subsidized monthly ; but James had no
periodical bullion casks to keep up their parade
days. The little Protestant princes were either
averse to risk their own equivocal condition, or
were divided by opposite interests, while many
of these very Protestant princes were actually
the allies of the Romish Emperor. The Eng-

THE SPANISH MATCH. 55
lish agent Gerbier was treated so coolly on this
occasion, that the Prince Elector of Treves and
another prince, hinted at " such public incen
diaries who would engage princes in unneces
sary wars with their neighbours ; besides," they
added, " in these days, God did not send pro
phets more to the Protestants than to others."
And yet the clamour for war continued, year
after year, in our country. It may be some
times a question, whether a war, originating
in the passions of the English people, or even
tending to their beneficial interest, is necessarily
to be adopted by the British Cabinet. Even
in. the great cause of freedom, we are too apt
to imagine the sympathies of foreigners ; we
forget that they have their own national pre
judices, their ancient customs, and the rooted
interests of predominant parties, — affections
stronger than even the love of freedom !
The pacific King certainly long hesitated, as
he himself expresses it, " to undertake a pubhc
war of rehgion through all the world at once ;"
and our popular writers of history are stiU echo
ing the politics of the Puritanic party, ever in a
panic of Papistry ; the wise " walkers in Paul's,"
who were for levying armies without raising
subsidies. The negociations for the Palatinate had been

56 SECRET HISTORY OF
grafted on the family alliance ; both were lan
guishing through all the tediousness of diplo
macy. A grand coup-d'etat was projected at
once to strike at the secret, whether the Court
of Madrid were in earnest, and could be induced
to terminate both these important discussions,
by accepting the proffered alliance with the
family of Stuart, breathed from the lips of the
princely Celadon himself to the fair Infanta.
With whom this eccentric project originated,
has been often and vainly asked. Was it a
flower of the Spanish fancy of Gondomar?
The Earl of Bristol charges Buckingham with
having concerted measures with the Spaniard,
to carry away the Prince to Madrid. Charles,
indeed, declared in Parliament, as Bishop
Hacket expresses it, that " the heroic thought
started out of his own brain to visit the Court
of Madrid;" but that declaration might have
been designed to screen Buckingham from
Parliamentary responsibility ; or the Prince,
yet green in manhood, might have mistaken
the whispered suggestion for his own pre-con-
ceived design. The Duke confidentiaUy im
parted to Gerbier, that it was himself who
struck out this bold invention. Clarendon has
recorded of the high-spirited Charles, that " the
I 'rince loved adventures." One of unexampled

THE SPANISH MATCH. 57
splendour was now open to him ! The
universal fears of the nation for the personal
safety of the Prince in the hands of Spain,
Buckingham told Gerbier, he considered as
groundless ; Spain could acquire nothing even
by the loss of the Prince of Wales; for the
Protestant succession was secured in the pro
geny of EHzabeth of Bohemia, and the honour
of Spain was immaculate.
We are told in the declaration to Parliament,
in the account given of the motives of this ex
traordinary journey, that James the First had
commanded the Duke to accompany the Prince ;
but the truth is, that when this knight-errantry
was discussed, James, as usual, wisely remon
strated ; and that Charles, Hke a young Prince,
only shed tears in silence, till Buckingham's
violence threw the aged and infirm monarch
into an agony ; for no council was to be held
on. this occasion ; the pilgrims were to wrander
in secrecy and silence. James was reminded
that he had himself set the gallant example ;
for when the Scottish fleet had caught the first
fresh breezes, to waft over Anne of Denmark,
the monarch, unobserved of any, conveyed
himself on board : " A resolution," the Scottish
monarch nobly said, " which he would not con
fide to any of his council, that no one might

58 SECRET HISTORY OF
incur responsibility for having consented to the
absence of the Sovereign."
The Prince and the Premier, journeying to
gether incog, accompanied only by Sir Richard
Graham, a creature of the Marquis, unpractised
travellers ! strangely blundered, or found their
faces too eminent to be hidden. Though their
persons were disguised by long beards, and
Tom and Jack Smith famiHarized their names,
they were often at a fault. They flung a piece
of gold to a ferrymen at Gravesend, which cast
the fellow into such a melting tenderness, that,
to prevent the deadly quarrel he imagined these
unhappy but Hberal gentlemen were hastening
beyond sea to terminate, he raised a hue and
cry, which, as they journeyed on sorry hacks,
arrested them at Canterbury. The heir appa
rent, and the Lord- Admiral, stood before the
Mayor, when Buckingham, taking his worship
aside, was compeUed to unbeard, and assure
him that they were going secretly to inspect
the fleet. The trembling magistrate was let
into a state secret ! At Dover, Sir Francis
Cottington and Endymion Porter had a vessel
ready, which landed them at Boulogne. They
had left their beards on the shores of Britain,
and on the road to Paris chanced to fall into
company with two German gentlemen return-

THE SPANISH MATCH. 59
ing from England, perfectly acquainted with
Steenie's fair countenance, and with the stately
personage of his prince, both of whom they had
not long ago seen at Newmarket. The Ger
mans expressed their opinion ; but Dick Gra
ham had the ingenuity to un-persuade them ;
though they could not avoid hinting that " the
hardest thing in the world is to unbelieve our
senses." At Paris, having bought perriwigs,
" to overshadow their foreheads," they were
admitted among the crowd at the French Court,
where Charles, for the first time, saw the Prin
cess Henrietta, rehearsing a masquing dance.
There is no algebra to discover the unknown
quahties of moral probabilities : what vaccina
tor would have ventured to predict, — least of all
men would Charles himself have believed — that
his Queen was then before him ? By an auto
graph letter I have seen of the Prince, to his
father, among the royal letters at the British
Museum, he appears not to have been struck
by any mysterious sympathies. The splendid
fairness of the Queen of France seems to have
engaged aU his attention, rather than the young
Princess. It is curious to observe, that the
Count de Brienne, in his contemporary me
moirs, relates that the Prince and the Duke
were " surprised by the beauty of the ladies at

60 SECRET HISTORY OF
Court ; but that no one struck the Prince more
than Madame Henriette." I give this as an in
stance of those self suggestions which a writer
of memoirs is apt to indulge, by connecting
in his mind preceding events with subsequent
ones. When the Earl of Holland was afterwards at
Paris to negotiate the French match, the Queen
of Louis XIII. regretted that when Prince
Charles saw them practise their masques,
Madame, her sister, (Henriette,) " was seen at
so much disadvantage by him, afar off, and in
a dark room, whose person and face has most
loveliness when considered nearly." Charles
did not pretend that he had carried away any
impression of the Princess ; but his letter to his
father shows, that he was struck by the beauty
of the more important personage, at that mo
ment, the Queen of France, the radiant white
ness of whose complexion and whose arts of
coquetry afterwards produced such a madness
in Buckingham.
The companions escaped through France,
not without peril. Floating rumours preceded,
and couriers were behind them. The Go
vernment had already some intimation of the
two extraordinary traveUers. At Bourdeaux,
the Duke d'Epernon balanced in his mind,

THE SPANISH MATCH. 61
whether he should allow them to proceed ; and
at Bayonne, where they wore "five riding coats,
all of one colour and fashion, in a kind of
noble simplicity," the governor considered them
as five ambiguous personages. A slight occur
rence might have brought some trouble. It
was Lent-time, and no meat was procurable at
the inns. Near Bayonne they met a herd of
goats, on which Dick Graham, now master of
the horse to the Marquis, but erst, " an under
ling of low degree in his stable," and moreover
a Scotchman, told the Marquis that " he could
snap up one of those kids, and make a shift to
carry it to their lodgings." The Prince, over
hearing the proposal, cried out, " Richard, do
you think that you may practise here your old
border tricks ?" After having ordered the goat
herd to be paid for his kid, the Prince himself
rode after the animal, and shot the prey in the
head. To prevent observation, the Marquis and the
Prince arrived at Madrid alone on a Friday
night, alighting at the house of Lord Bristol,
"never merrier in their lives." Tom Smith
(the Marquis) entered with his portmanteau
under his arm, but Jack kept in the dark
on the opposite side of the street, with the
postilion. Tom opened with a story about

62 SECRET HISTORY OF
some messenger of the Earl's, who, he said, had
been robbed. While he was speaking, Bucking
ham was recognised ; and they flew to conduct
the Prince to his chamber. On this occasion
we have a letter from Lord Bristol, which he
calls " a distracted dispatch," so fuU " of admi
ration, of joy," and had he written his thoughts,
he might have added, " of despair. " This secret
journey was a thunderstroke. It reversed the
whole system of politics : a treaty which had
been maturing for years, and which, as it
appeared to Bristol, was on the very point of
conclusion, was now to be thrown into the
hands of his ungovernable rival, amidst all the
inconveniences which his political brain could
conjure up.
Bristol now dreaded " those accidents which
ordinarily fall out at the interview of princes,
wherein difference of custom or rehgion may
raise disasters, and the emulation which grow-
eth between their chief servants and ministers,
whereby often the affairs of their masters are
disordered and hazarded, so that friendship and
amity is seldom bettered or increased."
On Saturday morning, after Secretary Cot-
tington and Endymion Porter had come, a
message was sent to Gondomar, who, learning
Buckingham's arrival, apprehended that the

THE SPANISH MATCH. 63
Prince was not far off. An intervieAv of Buck
ingham with Olivarez foUowed. The Lord Ad
miral was introduced by a secret passage to
the King's private room, and in this audience
the feelings of the youthful monarch of Spain
are described by Bristol : — " I never saw the
Spanish gravity laid aside before, nor any man
more overtaken with joy than the King was,
for he secretly understood of the Prince's being
here." The Conde OHvarez hastens to cast
himself on his knees. In his rapture he ex
claims, that " the Infanta ought to be thrown
into his arms ; she should be his mistress, if she
could not be his wife !" and turning to Buck
ingham, he said, " Now our masters may divide
the world !" The Prince intimating his desire
to see the Infanta, a royal party was made to
meet in their coaches in the Prado. Thrice
they passed; the Infanta wore a blue ribbon
about her arm to distinguish her ; and all the
world witnessed, if we may trust Howel, the
deep blush mantling her face as Charles gazed
on her. The young Spanish monarch, impa
tient to embrace his chivalric guest, offered to
wait on the Prince, who in return, proposed
going to the palace; but in the struggle of
courtesy, it was fixed that they should meet at
night on the Prado. Charles found the King

64 SECRET HISTORY OF
waiting, with his eloak muffling his face, and
with a sword and buckler. He hastened to the
Prince, who met him half-way, and embracing,
the Spanish Monarch and the English Prince
entered the royal coach together with Bristol
for their interpreter.
The pleasant, subtile Gondomar, having on
the following day been sworn into the council
of state, told the Prince, with his accustomed
political mystification, that he had strange news
to communicate, which was that an EngHsh-
man had been sworn in as a privy counsellor
of Spain. The humour was more deep than
obvious. Gondomar was perpetually declaring
that he was an Englishman in his heart, not
withstanding the affronts he had so often re
ceived from the English mob, or apprentices,
of whom the mob then chiefly consisted, and
whom he caUed " the London boys."
AU honours were decreed, all rejoicings were
commanded. It was ordered in council that
Prince Charles should enter the palace accom
panied by those ceremonials of state which
were observed at the Coronation of the Spanish
Monarchs ; and that the Prince should take pre
cedence of the King, attended by a numerous
guard of honour. The King sent the Prince
a golden or gilt key, which opened the royal
privy apartments; that he might have free

THE SPANISH MATCH. 65
access at all hours ; and the Queen sent her pre
sents to the English Prince, with the taste of a
female, elegant as well as rich. They consisted
of a great basin of massy gold, which was borne
by two men ; a curiously embroidered night
gown was folded in it. Two trunks bound
with bands of pure gold, and studded with
nails of gold, with locks and keys of gold ; the
coverings and Hnings of amber leather, and
fiUed with fine linen and perfumes These
were accompanied by a rich writing-desk, every
drawer of which was full of rarities and cu
riosities. And that every public appearance
might respond to the joyous occasion, the
sumptuary laws against excess in apparel were
suspended, and the people were invited to
ruin their families in emulative costliness.
The rapture was universal. At Charles's pub
lic entrance into Madrid, hangings of arras,
and pictures, adorned the houses ; scaffolds were
raised in the streets ; knots of people were all
day shouting ; orations and poems were recited
in every corner — processions were passing —
trains of magnificent equipages were moving,
and gorgeous liveries flamed in the sun. The
royalty of Spain was abroad, and the glory of
the court and kingdom adorned a day, such
as Madrid had never seen.

66 SECRET HISTORY OF
The pubhc voice had already married the
Infanta ; and the burthen of a song, by Lope
de Vega, was echoed by the populace :—
" Carlos Estuardo soy
Que, siendo amor mi guia,
Al cielo d'Espana voy
Per ver mi e.strella Maria.
Charles Stuart I am,
Whom love has guided afar ;
To the heaven of Spain I came,
To see Maria my star.
But what was the rumour ? What were the
politics of the people ? " The Prince of England
had come for a wife, and to be a Christian ?"
The purport of this extraordinary visit was
imagined to be Charles's determination to make
his conversion secretly or openly, and this ap
pears at first to have been the notion even of
Olivarez. Indeed it was difficult for a Spaniard
to conceive any other.
Among a superstitious people, whatever they
desire must be sanctioned by augury or omen,
and whenever a great public event happens,
they require nothing less than the attestation of
a particular interposition of Providence. Hea
ven and nature must move to consecrate their
temporary passions. This irrational devotion

THE SPANISH MATCH. 67
regulates the feehngs of a papistical people, and
according to the inclinations of the governors,
blind ignorance is supplied with favourable or
unfavourable demonstrations. In the rapture
with which Charles was received by the Spanish
nation, and perhaps with some vague preposses
sion of his conversion to Papistry, these were
not wanting, and the priest had prepared the
miracle ! Seven months previous to the arrival
of Charles, the eountry had suffered greatly
from draught. On the Prince's arrival, the
weather changed ; genial showers fell, and
abundant harvests succeeded the dread of
famine. The most fruitful season known in
the memory of man was, they said, brought by
the English Prince. This was a great and par
ticular Providence for all Spain ; but it was
necessary to have a minor omen for Madrid;
something which the court and the mob might
witness with their own eyes ; and behold !
since Charles had lodged in the palace, a single
pigeon — a pigeon, where pigeon had never been
seen before — roosted continually above the win
dow of his apartment, fed by no human hand,
yet never quitting its chosen seat to travel for
food. " These Httle trifles, among those super
stitious people, are very much observed," says
one of Charles's suite. F 2

68 SECRET HISTORY OF
AU now was the holiday of life, and the
romance of the princely lover was at length
opened. He ran at the ring, in presence of his
mistress, and had the good fortune to carry it
at the first course ; and this chivalric achieve
ment was one more auspicious omen. Al
though Castilian etiquette did not allow the
Prince to be in private with the Infanta, this
circumstance only the more inflamed his ideal
passion. At the court theatre the Prince stood
with his eyes immovably fixed upon the In
fanta for half an hour together, and as Howel
expresses the enamouring reverie, "in a thought
ful speculative, posture." Charles watched her
progress from church to church, and tracked
her carriage through the streets. The Infanta
having gone one morning to the Casa di Campo,
to gather maydew, the Prince rose with the
sun, and accompanied by Endymion Porter,
explored the house and garden. Not finding
La Dame de ses pensees, the rover pursued
his way into the orchard, where a waU and a
double-bolted door opposed his passage. Love
hath wings, the Prince scaled the wall, and
resolutely leaping down from the height, has
tened towards her: the Infanta shrieked. and
fled ! The old Marquis, her guardian, faUing
on his knees, implored the Prince to consider

THE SPANISH MATCH. 69
for a moment that the hoary head of his sup
pliant was at stake. This incident might
arouse a gallant of Madrid from his siesta.
A sedate majesty in Prince Charles, a manly
beauty, temperate habits, and a thoughtful
mind, were congenial with this grave people.
The romantic visit by which the Prince had
thrown himself into their arms, had electrified
the nation, and drawn all Spanish hearts to
wards the hope of England. The Prince of
Wales was covered with the prodigal ho
nours of the Court of Madrid ; but the name
of Carlos Estuardo moved on the lips of the
people. But Charles stood alone among his country
men ; and above aU, Buckingham offered a
provoking contrast to his master. The airy
freedom of his manners often degenerating
into the grossest Hcentiousness of conduct, was
never to be forgiven by the offended Majesty
of Philip, and the contemptuous pride of Oli-
varez. Buckingham's indecorous habits, like
all his actions, lie open to the world ; and his
inconsiderate familiarity had often provoked
many serious altercations with the Prince du
ring their residence at Madrid.* But there was
* There exists in MS. a voluminous catalogue of his mi
nutest improprieties, and his more flagrant outrages by one

70 SECRET HISTORY OF
a charm in the frankness of his nature, a joy
ousness in his temper, which partly redeemed
the foUies of the hour, though these left a
wound which could never be healed in the
moral gravity and the stateliness of the Spa
niard. The English in the suite of Charles acted
as freely as they talked: they were mostly
ill-chosen. Some of them were the hare-brain
ed parvenus of Buckingham. A groom had
been promoted to be the Duke's " Master of
the Horse ;" another menial attendant was now
" Gentleman of the Bed-chamber." The na
tional antipathies in religion and in manners,
were perpetually clashing. The superstitions
of this " kingdom of priests" were more parti
cularly brought under the English eye : when
the Irish priests would tamper with the Eng-
Wadsworth, who taught the English language to the In
fanta. This man, an English Jesuit, on his return home
renounced his Catholicism, and dubbing himself Captain,
the renegado proselyte appears to have been himself a loose
liver. The charges were doubtless exaggerated, for the mi
nutest is not lost in the enumeration. Buckingham called
the Prince ridiculous names, in mere playfulness, and admit
ted the lowest- women into the King's palace. He fell ill
at Madrid, from political vexation, or some other cause, and
the Court of Spain declared that " they would rather put
the Infanta into a well than into his hands."

THE SPANISH MATCH. 71
lish, the sturdy Protestant often closed a tough
point of theology on the broken head of the
weaker Papist ; and all this in a land where
the haughtiest Don trembled to touch irreve
rently the meanest friar. The interposition of
Gondomar, or the policy of the Government at
that moment, saved more than one Briton from
the remorseless tribunal of the priesthood. A
rumour, that the heretics had no religious ser
vice (prayers being only read in Charles's apart
ment,) occasioned the printing of our Liturgy
in Spanish, which was dispatched from Eng
land to repel the aspersion, and must now be
among the rarest books in Spain. The ridicu
lous contrast, as it seemed to the London " gal
lant," of Spanish pride and Spanish poverty, the
sombre Madrid, and the ceremonious Hidalgo,
wearied those who had ever on their tongues
" Sweet England !" — " Most of our company,"
says one of them, "did nothing else but play
at cards ; for to say truth, there was nothing to
be done else. The only precious commodity
they wished to take from Spain, when they
had traveUed through its sterile land, was " their
good air to join our earth, that England might
be the happiest spot on earth."
From this close intercourse among persons
of such different customs, and such opposite

72 SECRET HISTORY OF
nations, our ambassador had foreseen from the
moment of the Prince's arrival, the consequence
of all those incidents which were now follow
ing fast one on the other. Buckingham's po
litical conduct was not less offensive than his
moral. His native rashness was urged on by a
double spur; he was receiving accounts from
England of formidable intrigues against him ;
even Bishop Williams, the Lord Keeper, was
confidentially warning his patron of some " un
grateful devils ;" a corps diplomatique, by the
way, of which he himself was the great demon,
for he was the double of himself, the Fouche of
the day. Buckingham would have broken by
violence the dilatoriness from time immemo
rial, of the Spanish Cabinet ; he kicked at the
tortoise to quicken its motion, but secure in
its sacred shell, he only rendered it motionless.
The King refused any longer to treat with him;
and Olivarez having insinuated that the Duke
had given some hope of the Prince's conver
sion, — to his diplomatic consternation, received
the lie ! At moments, with aU his faults, Buck
ingham would burst forth with the proud in
dignant feelings of an Englishman.
The Prince had aheady lost his wager of " a
horse of forty pieces" with Sir Richard Wynne,
that he would land in England in June, — it

THE SPANISH MxVTCH. 73
was now September. England with one voice
was caUing for her Charles ; the father was in
tears for his son. In Madrid, the sight of the
Prince of England had become cheap and com
mon. At an earlier period, on a report of the
rout of Tilly's army, the great minister in con
sternation and haste, had knelt to Charles, and
talked of offering a blank for him to fill up with
his own conditions, for the restitution of the
Palatinate ; but now, when the authentic news
arrived that Brunswick was utterly defeated,
Olivarez became silent, and his visits rare ; his
palabras de complimiento, as he sometimes called
all his fine promises, condescended to become
very coarse and familiar. He said now, that
" the Prince was watching the Infanta Hke a cat
does a mouse ;" and when pressed to hasten the
departure of the English, Charles himself has
given the ambiguous kindness of his answer ;
that " he would throw us all out of Spain as
soon as he could !" The same old difficulties
were ever and anon starting up. The Conde'
would patch this " mingled yarn," and auda
ciously propose, that the son of the Palatine
should marry the Emperor's daughter, and be
brought up in the Court of Vienna, which im
phed a conversion. And when Charles de
manded whether, in case the Emperor proved

74 SECRET HISTORY OF
refractory, the King of Spain would assist with
arms to bring him to reasonable terms, the
Conde replied, that it was a state maxim, that
the King of Spain must not employ his army
against the House of Austria. On this, Charles
protested to Olivarez. " Look to it, Sir ! for
if you hold yourself to that, there is an end of
aU ! for without this, you may not rely upon
either marriage or friendship !" Neither James
nor Charles merit the popular reproach of their
cold neglect of the Palatinate. I have read
in a letter of the times, that when the Enghsh
Minister pressed Olivarez to oblige his master
in the affair of the Palatinate, which would
preserve for Spain a friend for Hfe, that pro
found statesman observed, " Ah Sir ! Kings
have no gratitude !"
Olivarez, however,* sometimes indulged in
a vein of good Spanish humour. When they
seemed to be waiting only for the ratification
by the new Pope, the Conde! told the Duke,
" now certainly it must be a match, and
the devil could not break it!" The Duke
thought so, and added, " the match had need
be very firm and strong, for it had been
seven years in soldering!" The Conde, as a
mark of his unreserved confidence, then show
ed the Duke a letter from the King with his
answer. This was designed as a proof that

THE SPANISH MATCH. 75
the match had not been really intended seven
months ! a State secret which mystified the
whole business ; — they were now walking in a
mist. This royal letter has come down to us,
merely from the recollections of Sir Walter
Aston, who, though aUowed to translate it
before the Prince, was not suffered to take a
copy. We may suspect it to have been a po
litical ruse of the subtile Spaniard. Sometimes
the Conde proposed that the marriage treaty
should conclude without the difficult appendix
of the Palatinate, " for then," said the Cer-
vantic Olivarez, "it could not fail; for the
Infanta might beg it on her knees !" That
zealous explosion of feeling which flung the
He into the face of the grave diplomatist, to
beat back the treasonable insinuation of the
Prince's conversion, concluded the interviews
of these ministers. This discourtesy had be
come absolutely necessary ; even the Earl of
Bristol had been alarmed by the Madrid re
ports, and Olivarez had unquestionably for
feited his pledge, that he would never touch
on the Prince's rehgion. The proud minister
told Charles, that if he would profess himself
a son of the Roman Church, Spain would
yield all his desires, and it lay with himself
to be the wealthiest and the most powerful
monarch in Europe. The reply of the young

76 SECRET HISTORY OF
Prince has come down to us — " My Lord,
you have broken your word with me ; but I
will not break my faith with God !"
There was an idle report that Prince Charles
designed to decamp secretly from Spain, as if
he had considered himself in personal danger ;
a suspicion in which Castilian honour was in
volved. It was nobly answered on Charles's
side, that " if love had brought him there, it
was not fear that should drive him away."
While the ministers were thus playing at
cross-purposes, the chief personages themselves
were more tenderly intimate. The King urged
the Prince to delay his return tiU spring, that
he might accompany the Infanta home. She,
not tearless, complained with aU a woman's
feelings, that " if the Prince loved her he
would stay for her :" — and when Charles as
sured her, that " his heart would never be out
of anxiety till her feet had pressed on British
land," she answered with a modest blush, so
accurate is the record of love ! " that should
she be in danger on the ocean, or indisposed
by the rolling waves, she would be cheered by
remembering aU the way to whom she was
going." These formal speeches seem to have
been taken out of " the Academy of Compli
ments ;" and as Charles did not converse in

THE SPANISH MATCH. 77
Spanish, and as the Infanta had hardly begun.
her English, and as moreover, their interviews
took place in the presence of the family, this
tenderness in all probability was but the tem
porary enthralment of the eyes. The deep-
thriUing emotions, the genuine outpourings of
the heart, never ratified this cold and protract
ed Spanish courtship ; and Charles, who had
flown to Madrid a romantic lover, was now,
we may suspect, leaving it more warmed by
politics than passion.
Buckingham set off alone to the ships, with
out taking a ceremonious leave at Court. He
was now utterly anti-Spanish, and sullenly
brooding over a French alliance. The Spanish
monarch himself, with all the magnificence of
his Court, would accompany Prince Charles.
On their way to the sea-side, a festival awaited
them at the Escurial, that Spanish eighth won
der of the world ! On leaving this palace and its
enchanting gardens, a stag lodged in their way
— the horn was blown and the chase was roused.
The stag, which was breathed well, dropped be
side a wood, where, the ceremonies of the death
performed, the hunters were reminded of their
exercise by their keen appetite. Turning into
the wood, a scene, as if prepared by magic,
opened ; a magnificent repast was spread before

78 SECRET HISTORY OF
them, on a table canopied with green boughs.
Cool shades and exquisite viands in a moment
dissipated heat and hunger. After this refec
tion, Philip once more repeated, that the con
fidence of the Prince in having entrusted his
royal person to his care had for ever endeared
him in his brotherly affection : Charles again
reiterated his vows for PhUip's fair sister. A
marble column had aheady been erected as a
monument of alliance and amity. These royal
personages, laying their hands on the piUar, in
a mutual embrace ratified the marriage-treaty
that was on the point of rupture, and the
grand alliance which was about to terminate
in a war. Politics is an art, admitting neither
love nor friendship.
From the moment of Prince Charles's land
ing at Portsmouth, the whole nation was struck
with that popular madness which has often
seized on us. All eyes sought the idol of their
hearts, the aged blessed the day they had lived
to witness, public societies and private families
were offering up their religious thanks. On his
entrance into London, the universal joy made
an universal festival : tables were spread in the
streets, the wine and sack were flowing; from
the conduits. London, and far beyond its en
virons, appeared day after day in a conflagra-

THE SPANISH MATCH. 79
tion of bonfires, and the bells pealing through
the night proclaimed the return of the soli
tary hope of the nation.* Charles more than
once received the same ardent testimonies from
the populace. Is it strange that a Prince, once
so loved, should afterwards have been at a loss
to account for the estrangement of the affec
tions of "the headstrong multitude?" They
who are the victims of such passions can rarely
discover the causes of what Sir Henry Wotton
so happUy describes as " the lubricity of popu
lar favour." The memory of early gratitude
or early flattery is scarcely to be effaced even
by injuries ; and he, whp in his perplexity, is
forced to sit in judgment upon himself, will
appeal to the people against the people.
The Prince and Buckingham hastened to
Royston. The King met them on the stairs,
and the Prince and the Duke kneeling, the
* The most preposterous terrors were formed by the people
of the effects of the Spanish Match. In the MS. Journal
of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, it appears that some dreaded an
intention of the Jesuits to get rid of the King and Prince,
by poison or other means, whenever " the Spanish Lady," who
would then survive them, could train up her children in the
Romish religion, and re-establish Popery in England ! The
same national terror was by no means dissipated afterwards
by the French Match.

80 SECRET HISTORY OF
old King fell on their necks, and wept. Then
shutting all out, they held a conference for
four hours, late in the night. The secrets of
palaces are hard to get at, but the news-letter
writers have speculated on this conference.
The eaves-droppers, on these critical inter
views, are not without authority for us minute
chroniclers ! The attendants at the door some
times heard a stiU voice, and then a loud one;
sometimes it was laughter, and sometimes cha
fing ; but such was the variety of tones, that
they could not conjecture the tendency or the
close of this conference. In a word, these very
reports present the true and fantastic image of
this whole history. The grand secret was
supposed to have broken out at supper, when
James openly expressed his content, that since
the restitution qf the Palatinate was no farther
advanced by the Spaniards, matters should rest
as they were. The old King, with that point
ed sententiousness he frequently used, said,
that " he liked not to marry his son with a
portion of his daughter's tears."
We might infer, from the language which
James publicly used on this occasion, that on
the English side the project of a famUy union
had been entirely given up. James, however,
still temporised, still dreading a war. In Spain,

THE SPANISH MATCH. 81
after the departure of the Prince, the King
continued to be, to all appearance, seriously oc
cupied in favour of the match. He had a gal
lery erected in the streets, covered with the
richest tapestry, to conduct " the Princess of
Wales" in the magnificent solemnity of the
deposorios. When the dispensation arrived
from Rome, the ordnance resounded the joy
ful news, and the illuminated city reflected the
zeal of the populace. The household of the
Infanta was arranged, the presents and the
large portion prepared, even the love-letter to
the Prince, and the dutiful epistle to the father,
to be dispatched on the day, were already com
posed.* What then was the consternation in
Madrid, when the proxy which Charles had
deposited with Bristol was ordered to be kept
back tiU its power was suffered to expire !
These open preparations were afterwards the
derision of the Gazettes over Europe ; but it
must be confessed that they most clearly prove
the earnestness of the Spaniards. We cannot
therefore believe, as it is usuaUy maintained,
that the Spanish match was merely a bait de-
* In the collection of Royal Letters at the British Mu
seum will be found a Spanish letter from the Infanta to
her future father, as she undoubtedly considered James I.
G

82 SECRET HISTORY OF
signed to be gorged by James's credulity. Nei
ther had Philip been duped by James ; for in
England, as we may find by manuscript letters
of the time, the same preparations had occurred.
We hear that " the new chapel for the Infanta
goes on in building ;" * and there was a chapel
erected for her at St. James's, of which Don
Carlos Colonna laid the first stone. We find
also that a deputation of the nobiUty had set out
for Southampton to receive the Spanish Prin
cess, to repair the high roads, and to get ready
shows and pageants, for which latter purpose
Inigo Jones, and Allen the player, accompanied
them. The sincerity of both the principal par
ties, therefore, is unquestionable ; but the rival
jealousies of. Buckingham and Bristol, and the
mighty hatred of Olivarez and Buckingham,
are not less so ; and their masters, the young
Princes, were but the state puppets, which the
hands of these intriguing Ministers secretly
moved with an artificial life.
* The Romanists, who have made history a lie by their le
gendary taste, are at all times imagining miracles, and describe
the most human events in the celestial style of the golden
legends. In a letter of Sir Henry Bourgchier, he notices the
workmen of the Romish chapel :— " The new chapel for the
Infanta goes on in building, and our London Papists report
that the angels descend every night and build part of it.

THE SPANISH MATCH. 83
In the Spanish match James had a complex
object. If the marriage restored the Palatinate,
the Palatinate would make the match popular.
In his reign, the formidable and active CathoHc
party in England would be concihated by an
English Catholic Queen. Strange as this con
sideration now sounds in our ear, it, however,
greatly entered into the pohtics of the times.
But the restoration of the Palatinate was in
truth an English and Protestant, and not a
Spanish and Catholic, interest. Philip, indeed,
had promised it ; yet when James positively
required that the Spanish monarch should unite
his forces with the EngUsh in protecting its
independence, it was then that insurmountable
difficulties hemmed in both parties. In restor
ing the Palatinate to the protestant son-in-law
of James, which was then a sine qua non in the
marriage treaty, the King of Spain, as Olivarez
declared, would, in giving his sister to Charles
on those terms, be preparing for his new bro
ther a desperate war with the Catholic party,
within three months of his marriage ; and
would ensure for himself a war with his uncle
the Duke of Bavaria, the Emperor Ferdinand,
and the whole Catholic league. It was one of
James's difficulties, in contracting this wished-
for alliance with Philip, that the English in-

84 SECRET HISTORY OF
terest being to league and confederate with
all the enemies of the House of Austria, it
would perpetuaUy disturb the peace of this
new aUiance. To James, aUiance or war seem
ed alike unfriendly ; he was aged and poor ;
and how could the good man, who once said
in Parliament, that " he had the honour in his
titles and impresses, to be stiled Rex pacifi-
cus," hawk and hunt at Theobald's, if once
fairly embroiled in a general war.
Spain, in the proposed aUiance with the
Royal Family of England, had only adopted a
favourite system, which had even become pro
verbial with the nation —
Guerra con todo el mundo
Y Paz con la Inglaterra !
To keep England from any close aUiance with
France, and to estrange her from the Nether
lands, was the poUcy of the cabinet of Madrid.
The famUy union had been the dream of Spa
nish pohtics— since the day, perhaps, that saw a
PhiHp on the English throne. Once they had
dared to propose Prince Henry's conversion;
and though the proposition was repulsed with
scorn and indignation, yet the arrival of Charles
in person, in their own city, seemed of itself half

THE SPANISH MATCH. 85
a conversion. The Spanish Catholics cherished
a sanguine fancy about the mutabUity of the
EngUsh in rehgion. If the wUl of one English
monarch had altered, that of another had rein
stated, the ancient faith. They were informed
by the EngUsh Catholics that their holy mother
the Church, had many children here ; and Sir
Toby Matthews, one of their most active heads,
in a letter to the King of Spain, pressing on the
marriage, declares that " should it be broken
off, no CathoHc but must expect the extremity
of rigour from the common people, and the im
portunate malice of the Puritans." To reUeve
the Irish and the English Catholics, would be
securing Spanish adherents ; and in war, half the
nation might subdue the other ! England was
a land which hitherto the heavens had guarded
from their dark dominion ; but a Spanish prin
cess, Hke another Virgin Mary, might alight
among the martyrs of Rome, and mitigate, per
haps annul, " the penal laws and statutes."
With Spain, the emancipation of the English
and Irish CathoHcs was one of the great points
of the negociation, and the temporizing pohtics
of James and Charles flattered the Spaniards
that the English princes had a leaning towards
Rome. In one of the Papal state-papers,

86 SECRET HISTORY OF
where his Holiness appHed the term " Catholic
Church" to his own, James inserted " Roman,"
asserting that he held himself to be as good
a Catholic as the Bishop of Rome himself:
Charles, on the other hand, wrote a compli
mentary letter of submission to the Pope,
which astounded the zealous Protestants, as
amounting, in their mind, to a declaration of
Papistry. The truth is, that our sovereigns, at
that period, were earnestly intent on reHeving
a very considerable body of their subjects from
almost intolerable restrictions. During the pre
sent negociation, the Spanish ambassador had
become the organ of the fearful and distrustful
Roman Catholics of our country ; and he had
obtained from James, under his Majesty's seal,
the grant of a pardon for the past, and a dis
pensation and immunity from their legal re
strictions for the future. The Catholics con
sidered that this pardon and dispensation were
revocable at the King's pleasure, and not bind
ing on his successor. They therefore urged for
the more pubhc concession of a proclamation.
But James, though wilHng to grant the grace
under the great seal, addressed to the judges,
justices, and other pubhc officers, shrunk in ter
ror from the public avowal of this secret article
in the treaty. " A proclamation," said he in his '

THE SPANISH MATCH. 87
pointed manner, " is only for the vulgar people,
who had no interest in the business, nor were
capable of any thing but fear and rumour."
The Spaniards reproached him with evasion ;
but James was not such an apprentice in his
famous " king-craft," as to set to hazard, with
all its " divine and indefeasible rights," the
Crown itself; and this monarch repeatedly
declared, that the Romanists in this country
must expect nothing more than a connivance,
and not a toleration.
The political workings of the two Crowns
began to develope themselves, soon after the
enthusiastic reception of Charles at Madrid
The negociation doubled through all the bland
windings of concession and conciliation ; but
in vain, for the concealed objects were irrecon
cilable. There was also a subterraneous plot
on both sides, which was gradually undermining
the specious but false fabric. Olivarez used as
his instrument the Spanish Ambassador at our
Court, who appears to have held secret inter
views at midnight with James, and to have
terrified the doating monarch with the tor
menting idea that he was about to become a
mere prisoner in his palace under Buckingham
and Charles. The artful Spaniard succeeded in
a considerable degree, and the fall of Bucking-

88 SECRET HISTORY OF
ham had nearly occurred. The secret corre
spondence of both parties was betrayed to each
other ; for Charles teUs James, " by the French
ambassador's means the Spanish ambassador has
seen all the letters that we have written to you ;
you are betrayed in your bed-chamber." This
however was trivial, compared with the magni
tude of our own ambassador's doings at Ma
drid; for Lord Bristol put forth some claims
for the value of his services when he declared
that there was not a letter sent by the King of
Spain to any other state, of which James had
not a copy before it came to the place of its
destination ; not a port in Spain which had not
been sounded ; not an expedition but its inten
tion had been revealed. One extraordinary
fact, perhaps unrivalled in the annals of diplo
macy, the Earl thus relates : —
" I used such industry as to get all the papers
of the King's private cabinet into my hands ;
took copies and notes of such of them as I
thought useful ; and upon every of them set
my private mark before they were conveyed
back again, to the end that, if I should have
had an occasion to have charged him with any
thing mentioned in the same papers, I might
let him see I knew it, by telling him in what
paper it was, and marked with such a mark."

THE SPANISH MATCH. 89
It is however curious to add, that even this
subtile and profound statesman entertained, in
his own house, a spy placed over him by Buck
ingham, who had in his pocket a power ready,
at a critical moment, to paralyse, as it finally did,
all the machinations and stratagems of Bristol
himself. Such was the political march of " the
Spanish Match ;" but these mutual deceptions
had so multipHed, these crooked paths had so
perversely crossed each other, that the actors
could no longer extricate themselves from the
labyrinth in which their folly had involved
them. The only real difficulty that now re
mained was, to determine which should bear
the infamy of the rupture.
On the side of England, whenever the spirit
was high, the restoration of the Palatinate was
insisted on as a preliminary article of the treaty ;
whenever, the Spaniard was to be soothed, this
matter, it was agreed, might be conveniently
postponed tiU the marriage had been solemnized.
When Buckingham was busied to break the
treaty, the Palatinate was again urged as a sine
qua non ; and although the Cabinet of Madrid
understood the tendency of the demand, Philip
actuaUy conceded this important point, as far as
words could bind. But how could the Spanish
monarch have kept to this engagement? The

90 SECRET HISTORY OF
immediate object of the Spanish interest was
to conclude the marriage, and, by this family
aUiance, to separate the Court of St. James's from
that of the Louvre. The English, on their
side, it is probable now suspected that Philip
could not perform his promise. Mutual recri
minations followed ; and then it was that Philip
ordered the Infanta to drop her title of Princess
of Wales. The parties had had time enough,
now they had come to a closer explanation, to
detect the utter incompatibility of their mutual
design. A Catholic and a Protestant interest
run counter to each other; and paraUel lines
can no more join together in pohtics than in
geometry : hence the long negociation of a po
litical marriage was terminated by a war.
I trust that I have now been enabled to
throw a clearer light on one of the most puz
zling passages in our history — one in regard
to which Hume himself has remarked, " that
James having, by means inexplicable from all
rules of politics, conducted so near an honour
able end, the marriage of his son,^and| the
restoration of his son-in-law, failed at last of
his purpose by means equally unaccountable."
James however, in his speech to Parliament
on the project of the French Match, appears
to have rightly touched on these " unaccount-

THE SPANISH MATCH. 91
able means," by acknowledging, that by the
Spanish negociation " he had been taught
this piece of wisdom, — that generaUty brings
nothing to good issue, but that before any
matter can be fuUy finished, it must be brought
to particulars."

92 SECRET HISTORY OF

CHAPTER V.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH MATCH.
ROYAL AND POLITICAL MARRIAGES.
We now change the scene and the actors,
but it is only a second part of the same
comedy. After the return of the Prince from Madrid,
the ancient connection between the two Go
vernments — for in political history an uninter
rupted aUiance of more than twenty years may
be deemed ancient — was virtuaUy, though not
yet openly dissolved. In a change of councils,
new measures were meditated ; but before a
Parliament was caUed, and a tale was framed
to captivate the listeners, and humour the na
tion already prepared for a Spanish war, Buck
ingham was busied by domestic and foreign
arrangements. Our Duke had strangely wrested, from the fears
of the good people of England for the safety of
their Prince, a popularity for which it seems he

THE FRENCH MATCH. 93
had a taste, which had never hitherto been grati
fied. Whenever a people labour under a political
panic, however unfounded, he who accidentally
removes the illusory fear, may chance to receive
a nation's unmerited gratitude. The person of
the Prince, which had been placed in possible
danger by the hardy imprudence of the adven
turous minister, had been more secured by the
inviolability of Spanish honour, than by any
wisdom of his conductor — yet, in the heat of
English prejudices and English fears, Spain
appeared an enemy, and Buckingham a patriot.
Coke saluted the Duke as " the saviour of his
country." In this blaze of popularity, when
the name of Buckingham echoed from the
mouths of the people, the Duke found no diffi
culty in intriguing with the Opposition through
the agency of Dr. Preston, a courtly Puritan,
and chaplain of the Prince, and in laying the
foundation of a coalition with his former ad
versaries in Parliament.
After these precautionary measures at home,
he had to look abroad and to substitute a new
influence in Europe for that which had ceased
to be. He was to search into the long-neg
lected cabinet of France.
A quarrel with Spain was a certain means
of uniting the Gaul with the Briton ; for in po-

94 SECRET HISTORY OF
litics there exists no impediment to the for
mation of a strict alliance, whenever a common
prey is pointed out.
In the new system, France was to fill up the
vacancy of Spain ; and the pohtical marriage,
which had failed at Madrid, was to be consum
mated at Paris. The movements of states
men are not always complicate; the mechan
ism of cabinets is sometimes a very simple ope
ration. A treaty, however, is always uncertain in
its termination ; and, however simple its objects,
the treaty itself may chance to be extremely
complicate ; and, even after signature, utterly
incapable of being executed.
As Hymen had now to lead the diplomatic
corps, two ambassadors extraordinary, the per
fect representations of Love himself, were se
lected by the volatile and impetuous Minister
of England. These graceful emissaries were
two congenial friends, — the Earl of HoUand and
the Earl of Carlisle ; two courtiers " as accom
plished as were to be found in the palaces of
all the Princes of Europe ;" — heroes of a draw
ing-room, personages to figure in a masque
or a baUet, whose glittering and lovely forms
were idolised by the women.
The Earl of Carlisle was the modeller of

THE FRENCH MATCH. 95
fashions, from whose inventions the vainest did
" but transcribe copies." His boundless passion
for magnificence was cultivated with all the
earnestness of business, though Clarendon ob
serves that " his universal understanding would
have taken as much delight in any other way."
His great abUities, and his firm and elevated
views in negociation, are displayed in his cor
respondence ; and it is difficult to comprehend
how so capacious a mind could contract itself
into so diminutive a passion, so petty seems
its object, so vehement its pursuit ! He con
sumed the vast revenues which Royal favour
and two splendid marriages had provided ; and
having thus expended nearly half a million of
money in this personal lustre, " he left not a
house nor an acre of land to be remembered
by." He was a Scotchman, who, bred in France,
and living in England, had wisely cast off his
nationaHty when it could only occasion pain,
and he was perhaps the only Scotch follower of
James whom Englishmen loved.
A Hfe of pleasure — to delight himself and
to be the delight of others — he considered
more .innocent than a life in which, though
inspired by severer virtues, the hearts of men
rankle with rivalry, or are criminal through
ambition. The Earl died as he had lived :

96 SECRET HISTORY OF
the Epicurean calmly withdrew from this festi
val of existence, careless even of death !
Henry Rich, Lord Kensington, and, in the
progress of the French treaty, the Earl of
Holland, from the moment he was received at
Court, had attached himself to the Duke of
Buckingham, whose vehement friendship was
sure to accelerate the prosperity of the crea
tures of his favour. He had fixed Lord Ken
sington about the person of Prince Charles, as
gentleman of his bed-chamber, and had thus
secured at all times one who would protect his
interest with the heir of the Crown. The
4
Earl's conversation was attractive ; — Clarendon
notices his "lovely presence," and a contem
porary poet describes it—
"Thy beauty too exceeds the sex of men."
The correspondence of these lords is cha
racteristic, and to the political investigator
their letters are highly instructive. These two
accompHshed courtiers, though intimates, are
of an opposite character. We see the soft,
corrupt creature of place and power in the
Earl of Holland, pliant in his principles, inex
haustible in his adulation ; but we are struck
by the force of dignity, and the elevation of
inteUect, in the profound councils of the Earl

THE FRENCH MATCH. 97

o

of CarHsle, who, with the talent of developing
truth, had too much greatness of mind to dis
guise or to conceal it.
Lord Kensington was first dispatched, not
bearing any official character, on the secret
mission of France. It was a voyage of dis
covery, preHminary to a more settled inter
course. Mary of Medicis, the Queen-Mother of
France, however, had long desired this political
marriage. As far back as in 1620, five years
before the present time, it appears by some let
ters recently published of Lord Herbert, that
he wrote from Paris to James the First, that
" a proposition of marriage had been carried
by the Lord Buisson to England ; but that
James had answered that he was now too far
engaged with Spain." The match was popu
lar with the French nation ; and when the
diversity of religion was opposed, it was said
with characteristic levity, that " a wife ought
to have no will but that of her husband."
The English envoy on his arrival found that
the Queen-Mother governed the state ; and
his first visit was to the Louvre. So little was
Louis XIII. interested by the arrival of the
great stranger, that the young monarch did not
suspend his perpetual movements, and on the
foUowing day went to the country ; but the
H

98 SECRET HISTORY OF
presence of the EngUsh Earl produced not
quite so slight an impression on the Spanish
Ambassador, who, disturbed and agitated, ap
pears to have had a full conception of the pur
port of his visit. The Spaniard instantly sent
forth a rumour that the alliance between the
two Courts of Spain and England was com
pleted, and that the marriage was on the point
of taking place ; so that, as this Spanish com
ment ran, Lord Kensington might have spared
himself the journey, which was only designed,
as it was mahciously insinuated, to hasten his
master to do that, which he considered the same
as done. To paralyse the efforts of the Eng
lish visitor, and to conciliate the confidence of
the French, was the first business of the poli
tic Spaniard.
The Queen-Mother, however, was only the
more curious in her inquiries about the terms
on which the Spanish alliance stood.
Lord Kensington was guarded in his first
answers. He did not deem it prudent to open
at once, and he only complained of the Spanish
tediousness, which, according to their old cus
tom, had out-wearied the King and the Prince,
and he thought that the Spanish alliance would
soon have an end.
As the term " Spanish Alliance," included

THE FRENCH MATCH. 99
both the treaty and the marriage, it was still
ambiguous. The Queen-Mother on this point,
more a woman than a politician, then directly
touched on the marriage. His Lordship, by
repeating more strongly that he considered
the treaty was at an end, delicately insinuated
that the marriage would never take place.
Day-light was breaking on this dark business,
to the comfort of both parties.
Lord Kensington, though unfurnished with
official powers to address himself direct to the
Ministers, had however taken up his station.
They knew where to communicate with him,
and politicians lose not a day. They contrived
to acquaint him with their dispositions of
amity and alliance. Not only the Ministers
secretly communicated their wishes, but the
Queen-Mother added her part, assuring his
lordship that she had often indulged the hope
that her daughter should be given to the
Prince of Wales, " but," she significantly ob
served, " the female must be sought ; she
may be no suitor !"
Thus Lord Kensington was treading a path
of roses. The Ministers were as eagerly com
pliant for the political union, as the Queen-
Mother gloried in the more tender one, in spite,
it seems, of the manoeuvres of the Spanish am-
H 2

100 SECRET HISTORY OF
bassador, who having at first indulged his Cer-
vantic vein by putting the question to every
one — " Whether the Prince of Wales could
have two wives, since he is married to the In
fanta ?" — afterwards, more angrily, in his rho-
domontades, talked of the armies his master
could shortly bring into the field. Olivarez, in
process of time, sent bigger words from Ma
drid ; for there he told our ambassador, that
if the Pope granted a dispensation for the
match with France, the King of Spain would
march to Rome and sack it ! On which Mary
of Medicis, that long experienced pohtician,
promptly answered — Vraiment nous tempeche-
rons bien, car nous lui taglierons asses de be-
sogne ailleurs. — A year afterwards she was
herself a solitary exile !
The Spaniard was moving heaven and earth
against the aUiance of France and England—
the Pope, the press, and cabinet intrigues.
The Court of Madrid long influenced his
Holiness to refuse the Dispensation, without
which the marriage would be invalid. They
got up a mysterious conspiracy against Buck
ingham and Charles, in secret midnight inter
views with James, and unquestionably had suc
ceeded in terrifying the aged monarch, who
was on the point of dismissing the favourite

THE FRENCH MATCH. 101
from his councils. They opened the presses
of Italy, Germany, and Flanders, with a volley
of pamphlets. They procured a German Jesuit
to publish two, on the unnatural alliance be
tween a Catholic monarch and Lutheran he
retics, which made the more noise when the
Sorbonne condemned them as libels*
But Lord Kensington, however he might
feel the roses springing under his feet, seemed
unambitious of handling the thorny politics.
He therefore suggested to his Court, the pro
priety of separating the propositions of the
treaty from the arrangement of the marriage ;
for in the delicacy of his fears he considered
that by insisting on both together, it would
"* These were Admonitio ad Ludovicum XIII. — and Mys
teria Politica. The author was Keller, or, as the name is
translated into Latin, Cellarius. There is a curious account
of this famous Mysteria Politica in the Mercure Francois
XI. 34. It is a collection of pretended letters from eminent
persons in different parts of Europe. The writer ingeniously
enters into the views of the different cabinets with unsparing
freedom. The art of this political writer consists in infusing
jealousies among the Combined Powers. He appears to
have been well furnished with information ; he would alarm
France that her new ally is again " entering the garden of
the fleurs de lis ;" and while he treats James with irony for
his warlike preparations, he attempts more solemnly to kin
dle suspicions between the father and the son ; the Parlia
ment ; the Anglican Church ; and the Puritans.

102 SECRET HISTORY OF
look as if the one were designed to force the
French king to the other. He dreaded the
mutual jealousies of both parties in framing
a treaty, incited, as they might be, by the
crafty wisdom of the Spaniard, who, in des
pair, would do every thing to win over one
side. In France they imagined that Spain
would seduce England by the restitution of
the Palatinate; but in England they might
dread that France would be divided from us
by the restoration of the Valtoline.
Such is a picture of the mutual suspicions
which harrass our Cabinet politicians— and of
the unhappiness of their far-sighted views of
that mutual susceptibiHty of inconstancy, so
prevalent whenever new state interests are to
be substituted for former ones.
A fresh impulse came from London. The
favourable dispositions of the French Cabi
net, which Lord Kensington transmitted to the
Duke, induced the Minister to touch a secret
spring of communication, in an overture to the
Count de TilHeres, the French Ambassador.
A gentleman is hastened with a secret dispatch
for the French King, containing the joyful in
telligence ; the royal answer arrives immediately*
that no one more than the French monarch va
lued the alliance of so great a monarch as his

THE FRENCH MATCH. 103
Britannic Majesty. The Earl of Carlisle pro
vided with ample powers, sets off to open the
negotiation, which was to combine the strength
of two great nations, and change the face of
Europe. There was no difficulty in conveying to the
French the arguments of the English Minis
try, for breaking with Spain : at Paris, they
were most valid, since both parties found their
political interest to be the same. It is curi
ous to observe the arguments of the Count de
Brienne, the French first secretary of state, and
afterwards minister, in favour of this new al
liance with England. The justice of the com
plaints of the Cabinet of St. James's against
that of Madrid, are allowed to the full ; and
the policy demonstrated by the most subtle
reasoning, of the restitution of the Palatinate,
that favourite object of the Protestant cause,
and of the EngUsh nation. The English in
terests in an instant are identified with the
French. The Minister, the Duke de la VieuvUle, had
earnestly opened this amicable intercourse with
England. The French Cabinet was strongly
disposed for a Spanish war ; but sometimes it
is difficult even to raise a pretext for an open
declaration, and the Minister therefore, now

104 SECRET HISTORY OF
gladly took up the Protestant and forlorn cause
of the Palatinate, while his most Christian
Majesty in the style of diplomacy, or of the
French Mercure, with "all justice and piety,"
acted with the disinterested resolution of suc
couring the allies of France, the United Pro
vinces, the Swiss, the Northern powers, and
even the Turks — to check the growing am
bition of Spain pressing on its neighbours. In
a treaty of alliance, and a royal marriage with
England, each was a pledge of that unity of
power and coalition of interests, which were to
strike at the preponderancy of Imperial Aus
tria in the wide career of her ambition ; and
divide Europe into two vast confederacies,
where the Protestant interest was not only to
oppose the Roman Catholic, but the flame once
kindled, political interests were even to unite
the Lutheran with the Catholics. The Vene
tian who feared Spain, and did not love France,
was to combine with the Swiss, the Hollander,
and the Dane : while the far distant Bohemian
was invited to plunder certain cities of Ger
many, and quaff the wines of the Moselle,
which it seems the Emperor had accorded to
be their " honourable stipend."
Lord Kensington had imagined, by the
ardour with which he himself and the Earl of

THE FRENCH MATCH. 105
Carlisle were entertained, that no possible ob
structions could arise in the smooth progress
of the treaty, and still less in that of the mar
riage, and he counted on the accomplishment of
these important objects as on an affair of ten
days. The Duke de la VieuvUle was a zealous,
but a weak prime minister,, directing a cabinet
divided into small parties. He sought for an
accession of influence by conciliating the
Queen-Mother's favour in procuring her fa
vourite, the Bishop of Lucon, who soon be
came the redoubted Cardinal de Richelieu, to
be admitted into the Cabinet Council. If was
the Minister's intention, as the young King
made no scruple to inform the secretaries, not
to admit the Bishop to the more interior se
crets of state, but to advise with him onlv in oc-
casional consultations; a custom which it seems
the Premier had been wont to adopt with
others to whom he had never yielded his
entire confidence : least of aU men, did he
deshe to yield this confidence to the Bishop
of Lucon, whose character he was so judicious
as to dislike, but whose aid he was so weak
as to require.
The King, who was governed by his mother,
wished, on the contrary, to grant the most

106 SECRET HISTORY OF
unreserved confidence to this political aspirant,
whose talents were already felt by those about
him. Mediocrity, seeking for an aUy in Ge
nius, is inviting the most dangerous of its ene
mies ; and such half-measures as the present,
are sure to end in the very evil they dread.
All this is verified in the fate of the Duke de
la VieuvUle — his weak precautions ensured
his ruin. Even whUe the treaty with England
was in progress, the obscure favourite of Mary
de Medicis was to. be the man who was adroitly
to expel from the royal councils those who
had called him there ; to cast into exile his
unhappy patroness ; to hold his sovereign in
bondage ; to guide the destinies of Europe ;
and unquestionably contribute to the destruc
tion of Charles the First, the very prince,
whose double union with France, at present so
deeply engaged his labours. What a career
may a mighty genius run, unconscious to itself!
The treaty of marriage was the more favou
rite negotiation with Lord Kensington, and this
hymeneal ambassador, faithful to his charge,
was studying how to make the Prince of Wales
and the Princess of France enamoured of each
other. A confidential letter was sometimes ad
dressed to Charles, as well as to the Minister.
His Lordship repeats how all in France repute

THE FRENCH MATCH. 107
his Royal Highness to be " the most complete
young prince and person in the world."
" The sweet Princess Madame" long felt a
passionate desire to view " the shadow of the
person so honoured," the Prince's picture,
which his Lordship wore about his neck, yet
this poor young lady durst not, like the Queen
and other princesses, open it, and consider it,
and admire it ; she only saw it afar off, " she
whose heart was nearer it than any of the
others that did most gaze upon it." Impatient
for a leisurely inspection of a physiognomy
doomed by politics, if not by love, to be the
arbiter of her happiness or her glory, a confi
dential lady was the messenger to his Lordship
to entreat for a short loan of the portrait of
Prince Charles. Our flowery courtier may
teU the romantic incident in his own words, a
curious specimen of an amatorial embassy.
We seem to read a passage from the Arcadia
of Sidney.
" As soon as she saw the party that brought
it, she retired into her cabinet, calling only
her in, when she opened the picture in such
haste as showed a true picture of her pas
sion, blushing in the instant at her own guilti
ness. She kept it an hour in her hands, and
when she returned it, she gave it many praises

108 SECRET HISTORY OF
of your person. Sir, this is a business so fit
for your secrecy, as I know it shall never go
farther than unto the King your father, my
Lord Duke of Buckingham, and my Lord
of Carlile's knowledge. A tenderness in this
is honourable, for I would rather die a thou
sand times than it should be published, since
I am by this lady trusted, that is for beauty
and goodness an angel."
There was, however, something more seri
ous in this diplomatic correspondence, between
Kensington and the Prince, for his Lordship
records his Royal Highness's opinion, as he
had received it from Buckingham, that the
treaty of aUiance should precede that of the
marriage, so that business, as well as love,
engaged the attention of the intended bride
groom. But to return from love to politics !
Lord Kensington arrived at Paris in Fe
bruary, where, though he found aU parties dis
posed to his purpose, yet France required a
public demonstration from the English Court,
that her ancient amity with Spain had termi
nated. This was now no longer any obstacle
in this negotiation with France; Buckingham
told his own tale in his own way ; Charles had
sanctioned it ; war with Spain was decreed
by the voice of Parliament, and the pacific

THE FRENCH MATCH. 109
James reluctantly armed for the Palatinate in
the succeeding month.
As in the Spanish, so in the French nego
tiation, the most intractable article concerned
the English CathoHcs. At first the French
had appeared less catholicised than the Spa
niard: the pulse of the Minister beat tempe
rately, and he seemed satisfied by certain ex
planations of Lord Kensington, which threw
a new light over the ambiguous conduct of
James, whose frequent revival of the penal
laws against his Catholic subjects, had been
in compliance with the cries of his Parliaments
and his people. The French Minister only
requested that the English Monarch would
not tie his hands up so strictly as to be dis
abled from bestowing some moderate favours
on his Catholics ; and that he would allow of
the mediation of France, in case the alliance
should take place, " Else," observed the French
statesman, " we shall not save our honour, and
shall hardly be reputed Catholics."
But a sudden change interrupts the ne
gotiation. They rise in their demands. The
English ambassadors declare that what they
asked in favour of the Catholics, to be allow
ed an Established Church, was contrary to the
laws of England, and they would never con-

110 SECRET HISTORY OF
sent to it. The French then appeal to the
Spanish treaty, and they declare that their
Princess is not to be treated for, on inferior
terms than the Infanta.
The English now were forced to propose,
that in their high consideration of the King
and Madame, the Catholics should be as fa
vourably treated as the articles concerted with
Spain had aUowed, provided this article was
not inserted in the contract. The King and
the Prince should sign a letter, which was
to contain the offensive obligation which they
dared not disclose to the English nation.
But a letter, it was observed, might be easily
disavowed, while a marriage contract was a so
lemn act perpetuating its object.
The distressed negotiators looked on each
other in dismay. Both sides seemed to dread
a renewal of the seven years treaty of Madrid.
The Queen-Mother had openly said" Qu'il me-
ritoit d'etre lapide qui s'y opposeroit." Confe
rences multiplied, difficulties were debated, and
the Minister de VieuvUle, in equal impatience
and embarrassment, agreed with the English
ambassadors, that, provided the letter were
written in very strong and positive terms, he
would satisfy his own Sovereign ; and to gain
over the other French Commissioners, he pro-

THE FRENCH MATCH. Ill
posed that Lord Kensington should hasten to
England, bearing a letter of credit from Louis
the Thirteenth to James the First, finaUy to
adjust the more difficult points. After this
suggestion, the Minister foUowed the French
King to the country, and on his return com
manded the Count de Brienne to expedite this
letter of credit to Lord Kensington, consti
tuting his Lordship the secret agent of the
French Monarch, and which letter he and
the ambassadors of England had concerted
together. The Count de Brienne, or Lomenie, first
Secretary of State, and one of the Commis
sioners for the Treaties, was evidently engaged
in the interests of an opposite party. Struck
at the consequence of writing a letter confer
ring such secret powers on Lord Kensington,
and suspecting that the Minister had gone far
beyond the intentions of the Cabinet, and fur
ther considering that where doubt was so de
cided, disobedience might be a prudent duty,
the Secretary of State played off a trick on
the Minister and the Ambassador. Aware that
Lord Kensington understood the French lan
guage but very imperfectly, as he tells us, in
stead of drawing up a letter of this confidential
nature, he composed one in which was no men-

112 SECRET HISTORY OF
tion of business ; it only described the amuse
ments which then occupied His Most Christian
Majesty.* The English Ambassador proceeded to Eng
land with this amusing letter ; but as soon as
Richelieu arrived at Paris, an extraordinary
eclaircissement occurred. The Count de Brienne
in raillery reproached the Cardinal's reserve
towards him, in having concealed his consent in
so important an affair as the King's letter of
credit. The news startled the Cardinal, and he
ruminated ; lauding, however, the sage precau
tion taken in a matter of infinite deHcacy, by
his most judicious friend the Count de Brienne.
The result of this communication appeared
not long after. The Cardinal is now Chef du
Conseil. De Brienne, or Lomenie's, signature
is affixed to the royal ordonnances, and the late
minister is thrust into an old castle. He stands
charged with abusing the King's confidence
* Whether Count De Brienne has told a pleasant story to
enliven the memoirs which he composed for the instruction
of his family, or flattered himself on his dexterity more than
was his due, I cannot decide ; but it seems not probable that
the Earl of Holland, afterwards a great favourite with Hen
rietta Maria, was so inexpert in the French language. Dur
ing the present negotiation he has given in his letters some
conversations in their native idioms.

THE FRENCH MATCH. 113
while treating with foreign ambassadors, and
with other accusations, such as a faUen minister
is Uable to. He is accused of a chimerical
enterprise to convey water to Paris, which was
much in want of it ; of squeezing purses in the
disposal of places, by some who could not get
promotion ; of a design to take possession of a
house which did n6t belong to him — in a word,
De VieuviUe furnished the colporteurs of the
Pont-neuf for a month, with pamphlets sous le
manteau, in which, among other charges, it was
asserted that he was so penurious that no one
could get any thing by him ; but the pet of
scandal was entitled, " The public voice to the
King," though it might be considered as a
private one coming as it did from a person who
had been struck off the Pension List when
the Minister attempted an economical reform.
Thus that very impracticable treaty about
English CathoHcs, which had cost fruitless
years in Spain, in a few months turned out the
French Premier*
* Mercure Francois, X. 671. — Memoires du Comte De
Brienne. — Biog. Universelle, Art. de Vieuville. This minister,
after having been expatriated, outlived his great enemy, and
returned to France, resuming all his honours under Louis the
Fourteenth, with the character of a disinterested and zealous
minister. The fact is, that Vieuville was far too accommo-
I

114 SECRET HISTORY OF
The disavowal of the acts of a minister threw
every thing back. It shook the councils of
James the Fhst, who concluded that " the
French King was taking up the fashion of
Spain to entangle this business." The Count
De TUHeres is recalled, and a new French
Ambassador, the Marquis d'Effiat, is to repair
the mischances of the past. Of an insinuating
character, he winds into the good graces of the
King, the Prince, and Buckingham.
In proportion to the Cardinal's ascendancy in
the cabinet, the treaties moved the more slug
gishly. Richelieu was inflexibly bent on the
CathoHc cause in England. The most extra
ordinary argument the Marquis d'Effiat urged
for the emancipation of the Enghsh Catholics
was, that if that were granted, the Protestants
would have the greater chance of their conver
sion, since then each party would fairly debate,
dating to satisfy the Catholic party. We gather this from
the Mercure. The writer having observed the advantages of
the treaty, in having gained thirteen years for the education
of the children as Catholics, instead of ten, as had been
granted to the Spaniards, he adds, " Had not the Marquis
de la Vieuville passed over too many other points in this
treaty, the interests of religion had been better served; had
he continued in office, we should not even have succeeded
thus far : — it was the happy change of administration which
procured for us what has happened." — Mercure Francois, XII.
901.

THE FRENCH MATCH. 115
and openly enlighten one another. Truth at
least would prove infaUible. It was imagined
that the Protestant could not deny the force of
free discussion ; but " what is truth ?" jest
ingly said PUate, or rather Lord Bacon, par
ticularly when both parties proclaim that they
alone ppssess her, and also that they will both
combat for her.
It was on this occasion that the French
Ambassador, according to the Mercure Fran
cois, held out as an illustration of his argument,
that the late monarch of France, Henry the
Fourth, by allowing freedom of religion, had
by this means gained over many of the " Reh
gion pretendue," whom the monarchs his pre
decessors had thrown into rebellion, and made
more obstinate in their opinions, by multiply
ing their persecutions. It is curious to listen
to a Catholic advocating the cause of toleration,
but it is always in a Protestant land ! Of the
present remarkable argument of the Marquis
d'Effiat, which we shall have occasion again to
refer to, we may discover the fallacy by noticing
the close of a Catholic's toleration in the cruel
revocation of this very Edict of Nantes, on
which he grounds his argument for Catholic
emancipation in England.
The negotiation thus advanced and retro-
i 2

116 SECRET HISTORY OF
graded, the agents on both sides were shocked
at the vaciUations of their own cabinets ; at
their ambiguous instructions, or their fresh
demands. What had been agreed on was re
tracted ; what mentioned, explained in a sense
quite contrary to what the other party under
stood. Lord Carlisle at length was compelled
to take down in writing their resolutions, and
on one occasion sUenced the debate by dehver
ing them their former words. The Marquis
d'Effiat was so wearied of the part he had to
play, that he requested to be recalled.
At one period, both parties being at a loss to
proceed, the French agreed to be satisfied with
a solemn promise, that the Roman Catholics
in England should at least be not less favour
ably treated than they were to have been if
the Spanish match had been concluded. De
Brienne observes, " We would not explain
particulars, or enter into conditions; and the
ambassadors then consented that this hitherto
insurmountable article should, in such general
terms, appear in the contract."
But when they came to particulars, they did
not find their work the clearer by such clumsy
botching. On another occasion, when a fair
copy was made of the Ecrit Secret, which
James and Charles were to sign, concerning

THE FRENCH MATCH. 117
the English Catholics, to use Lord CarHsle's
words, " the infamous word Liberty was, by
the false suggestions and artifices of Ville aux
Clercs, foisted in." By this " infamous word
Liberty," we must infer that it was a covert
attempt on the French side to disguise Catholic
emancipation. But if at one moment they re
laxed into general terms, defining nothing, at
another they rigidly assumed the most specific
and absolute conditions.
The real cause of the phases of this nego
tiation was the anxiety of James, who, know
ing that Spain was practising with France upon
any terms to break off this treaty, and who
alarmed lest this rupture should a second time
expose him to the laughter of the world, was
evidently more compHant to the Marquis d'Ef
fiat at London, than the Earl of Carlisle was to
RicheHeu at Paris. James even consented to
" the infamous word," if it could not be razed
out without disturbing the amity of France ;
observing that " it carries with it a great deal
more show than substance ;" and unquestion
ably it would hereafter, by the force of royal
logic, signify nothing. But this facUity at
home, traversed the efforts of our ambassador,
who was often singing to the deaf; and he re
quested that they would speak to the French

118 SECRET HISTORY OF
ambassador in a higher tone. Lord Carlisle
writes home, with great force and discrimina
tion : "Quarrel with the Marquis d'Effiat;
not with his person, for that is worthy of all-
favour and esteem ; but quarrel with his charge,
with his commission, and with his minister's
arts ; who, when they find 'tis inflexible, set
him awork. If any thing be granted to him,
then they stop our mouths withal ; if he pro
mise any thing, that they disavow, as having
no commission to treat."
When Lord Carlisle alluded to the French
agreement of furnishing their quota of troops
in the common league, the Cardinal rephed
by alluding to the freedom of the Catholic
priests. " Donnez nous des PrStres, et nous
vous donnerons des Colonels /" exclaimed Riche
lieu in the combined spirit of a cardinal and a
comman der-in- chief .
The dispensation from the Pope was used as
a great machine, to be worked or to be stopped
as suited the French party.
At Rome it was ever delayed. We had
there a Roman Catholic lord acting for us
against the close intrigues of Spain. The
French Archbishop of Ambrun came over
here, and has left us a mystifying memoir, in
which he either persuaded himself, or would

THE FRENCH MATCH. 119
others, that James was a Roman CathoHc.
The situation of James was pitiable. Every
endeavour on his part to relieve his Roman
Catholic subjects, then far more numerous
than in our times ; every expression of a con-
cUiatory nature ; every vain dream of the re
union of the opposite churches, was sure to be
construed far beyond its meaning by those who
stiU Hngered in hope.
The French Cabinet could not confide to his
Holiness their own secrets of state; and the
Pope lightly appreciated the bare word of an
heretical sovereign. Could " the Father of the
Faithful" sanction a league of the " pretended
reformed" against his own ancient chUdren?
The true child of the Pope was his beloved
Spain, and she was on her knees before him.
But as the Papal Cabinet was stUl the arena
of the political wrestlers, Father BeruUe, not
long after Cardinal, was despatched on the
French interest, to demonstrate to his Holiness
that from this royal marriage great advantages
would accrue to the Catholics of England.
The secret history of this dispensation would
form no incurious tale. It was slowly wrung
from St. Peter, and was long in coming. A
menace from Cardinal Richelieu hastened its
last steps. When the Minister grew impatient

120 SECRET HISTORY OF
for the state-espousal, he declared that the mar
riage should take place without the dispensa^
tion, which might arrive after.
At length De Brienne himself was dispatch
ed to England ostensibly to ratify the articles,
but reaUy to procure what he caUs " an act
sealed by the Lord Keeper," which should
secure the favourable conditions demanded for
the Roman Catholics. These were probably
those secret articles which were of so extraor
dinary a nature that they startled the world
when they were revealed to the public eye.
The feelings of the Romanists were sadly
put to the test by a circumstance which now
occurred. The King, among other civilities,
had desired the Lord Keeper WiUiams to in
vite the French ambassadors-extraordinary to
a supper. His lordship resolved to give his
banquet in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westmin
ster Abbey, but to precede it by an episcopal
collation of his own contrivance. Having got
the resident ambassador to consent to be pre-
sent at a prayer for the King, it being Christ
mas-day, the prelate had planned the perform
ance of the whole Christmas service with the
foreigners, to show the Romanists that there
was "no corruption of doctrine, much less of
heresy," so that they might report favourably

THE FRENCH MATCH. 121
to the Princess Henrietta. The French Hu
guenots who were of the Presbytery of Ge
neva, had decried the service of the Anglican
church ; and it was probably to make the
French Catholic party witnesses how nearly
the English service approximated to the Ro
man, that the Lord Keeper, as Dean of West
minster, had taken the advantage of the loca
lity to introduce these bigoted Romanists into
the heretical church. At the north gate of the
Abbey, his lordship, at the head of his clergy,
received them in his pontifical state; the ex
terior and interior of the Abbey were every
where illuminated with torches, that the stran
gers might lose nothing of the pomp and so
lemnity of the ceremonies. Intreating the am
bassadors, with their nobles and gentlemen,
to enter, he promised, on the word of a bishop,
that nothing should happen which could offend
their feelings. The organ was played by the
great musician of the times, Orlando Gibbons ;
the choristers, in their rich copes and with
exquisite voices, chaunted three anthems ; and
the Lord Keeper presented to each of the fo
reigners the Liturgy printed in their own lan
guage. The story is told in triumph by the
biographer of the archbishop.*
* Racket's Life of Archbishop Williams, p. 210.

122 SECRET HISTORY OF
The French company behaved decorously,
and departed with a due impression of " that
form of holiness in which the English mo
narch worshipped." However, the ambassadors
themselves, for whom the treat was designed,
had not only no reverence to bestow on this
occasion, but were strongly affected, both by
their religious and diplomatic character. Ville
aux Clercs alone kept on his hat, and when
all others carried away their French book of
prayers, he alone left his, in the stall of the
choir in which he sat, as if it had been forgot
ten, and no one thought proper to bring it to
him. The truth is, that there were two causes
why this ecclesiastical entertainment proved so
trying to the feelings of the French ambassa
dors. To assist at the service of Protestants
was accounted no light sin, and the English
Romanists were watchful of the conduct of the
French party, that they might report it to the
Spanish. One of the French ambassadors, the
Count de Brienne, whose name does not appear
in the biography of the Lord Keeper, has re
corded the horrors of that evening;. " I re-
proached," he says, " Monsieur d'Effiat ever to
have consented to this invitation of hearing a
prayer for the King of England. I pointed
out to him the consequences of French am-

THE FRENCH MATCH. 123
bassadors joining in prayer with Protestants.
It was a trap which I resolved to elude, and,
leaving my lodging late, meant to go straight
to the deanery, and not to the church. But I
found the Lord Keeper dressed in his pontifical
habits, advancing with his clergy to receive us
at the porch : he obHged us to follow him, and
conducted us, in spite of ourselves, to seats
which had been prepared for us. I therefore re
solved, while they chaunted anthems, to kneel ;
and to show that I did not participate in their
prayers, I said my chapelet, counting my beads.
This greatly edified the English Catholics."*
De Brienne, however, was more particularly
gratified by the political civility of the English
Cabinet, in quahfying his Most Christian Ma
jesty, " King of France and Navarre," and not
according to the ancient custom of England, as
" the French King." " For the Enghsh," he
tells us, " argue, that if the people of France
acknowledge this Prince and obey him, that
nevertheless his Britannic Majesty possesses a
legitimate claim to the country and the terri
tory of France.f
* Memoires du Comte de Brienne i. 193.
f This obsolete absurdity of a pretension to the Crown of
France, by a nation who could not maintain an army there,
was carried on through a long series of reigns, and has been

124 SECRET HISTORY; OF
But at the very moment that De Brienne
was here engaged in a solemn ratification of the
treaties, he was himself suddenly shocked at
their infraction by his own Court. The Eng
hsh army, already collected at Dover, under
Mansfeldt, was preparing for their passage
through France, where they were to be joined
by their new aUies. This was a point long
agreed on.
De Brienne was on the eve of departure : he
had to partake of a magnificent supper given
by Buckingham. A courier arrived from
Paris, which, as he says, in his mind threat
ened to put an end to aU such fetes, and in
deed violently agitated his honourable feel
ings. His dispatches contained an order from
the French Monarch, notwithstanding our
convention, adds De Brienne, that the Eng
lish would not be allowed to land at Calais,
on the frivolous excuse, that the Treaty of
only recently corrected. The Dutch edition of De Brienne's
Memoirs observes, that the addresses of our Parliament, when
levelled against Louis the Fourteenth, always contemptuously
treated this monarch as " the French King," but that his
most Christian Majesty was sure to recover his titles in times
of peace ; and he adds, that children in their quarrels treat
one another in the same way. It is thus great nations have
sometimes perpetuated follies consecrated by ancient pre
judices.

THE FRENCH MATCH. 125
Alliance would not take place tiU after the
marriage. At midnight he hastened to con
sult the French ambassador on this fatal in
telligence, this first open violation of the
treaties; and however subtlely the Marquis
d'Effiat afterwards practised on the heedless
Buckingham, it only added one more decep
tion to the chain of duplicity, by which afl
parties were involved. This insincerity of the
French Monarch is perfectly explained by an
observation which De Brienne has elsewhere
thrown out, and it offers an interesting pic
ture of that conflict of adverse interests which
will often torment the breast of a sovereign.
After all these negotiations, Louis the Thir
teenth was irresolute in his own mind to
break with Spain, whose sinister power, though
it was suspected, was not more so than that
of the English Monarch ; for it was known
to Louis that his Huguenots, who were then
acquiring daily strength, looked towards Eng
land as the true champion of their cause; and
Httle was the French Monarch solicitous to
contribute in caUing forth the force of Eng
land. Although the policy of his cabinet had
resolved upon aiding the Prince Palatine to re
cover his States, two contrary phantoms were
continually haunting the mind of Louis. On

126 SECRET HISTORY OF '
one side he beheld with dread the elevation
of the House of Austria, and on the other he
feared that of England.
At length, on the 10th of November, 1624,
the treaties had been signed by both parties,
and it was imagined that, after almost a year's
anxious labours, the moment of repose had
arrived. In politics, it seems, that affairs may
be finished, but not concluded. Three months
afterwards we have an energetic and an ad
mirable letter from Lord CarHsle, from which
I shall make some extracts, as not only con
tinuing our narrative, but as also being an
evidence, that the epistolary style in the days
of James the First, when not the work of
pedantry and affectation, seems to lose nothing
in force and beauty when compared with our
own. " They are grown so indiscreetly and un
reasonably presumptuous, as to impose a new
treaty upon us, after a perfect treaty conclud
ed, signed and sworn by his Majesty : under
the Pope's borrowed name they would exact
not only all the dishonourable and prejudicial
circumstances which, with much labour and
contestation, we had avoided or rejected, but
would inforce no less than a direct and pub-
He toleration, not by connivance, promise, or

THE FRENCH MATCH. 127
ecrit secret, but by a public notification to
aU the Roman Catholics of aU his Majesty's
kingdoms whatsoever, confirmed by his Ma
jesty's and the Prince's oath, and attested by
a public act. This holdeth proportion, I must
confess, with the whole course of their former
proceedings." Lord Carlisle had British feelings. Indig
nant at Richelieu's manoeuvres, in an elevated
strain, by which few ministers are so fortunate
as to be addressed by their political agents, he
solemnly charges Buckingham to maintain the
dignity of the crown, and secure the hearts of
the people.
" Now, last of all, by pretence of the Pope's
authority, they would impose upon us real
alterations and new additions, extravagant in
themselves, and incompatible with his Majesty's
honour and the peace of his kingdom. Do
but remember, my most noble Lord, how
much your noble and generous proceedings in
Spain did endear you to the loves and hearts
of his Majesty's people, all which you will lose,
(I beseech your lordship to pardon my Uberty,
proceeding from a fast and sincere friendship,)
if you give way in this. The world will now
conclude it was nothing but a particular pas
sion and animosity, and not care of the public,

128 SECRET HISTORY OF
which excited you thereunto. Nothing can
more justify and advantage Digby, than the
admission of the last of these new conditions,
which carry with them more prejudice and dis
honour than the conditions of the Spanish
treaty, which might seem out of necessity to
be extorted, the Prince's precious person being
in their hands ; but now, there being no such
necessity, the envy wiU be whoUy cast upon
the negotiators. I beseech your lordship to
give your humble, faithful servant, who hath
made a league offensive and defensive with
your friendship, leave to assure you, that you
wUl find little faith or fast friendship in any
but the true British hearts ; much less, in
these inconstant and perfidious monsters, who
wiU make little scruple to ruin their best
friends, so as they may not fail to compass their
ends." In the treaty, it is specified that " the chil
dren of the future marriage shall be brought
up by their mother tUl the age of thirteen
years."* This would have made an English
* The Dutch, and doubtless, Protestant Editor of De
Brienne's Memoirs, not without reason, seems astonished
at this article, as he finds it given by De Brienne.
" James the First," he says, " here betrayed the cause of
his religion, and thus drew on his posterity all their calami-

THE FRENCH MATCH. 129
Protestant's cheek tingle with indignation ;
yet, after having extorted this impracticable
concession from the British Cabinet, when the
dispensation was finally sent, it came clogged
with a clause, so insurmountable, that even
ties." It must be confessed that Hume was somewhat
perplexed on this discovery ; but his philosophical genius,
in my opinion, as I shall shortly show, has struck into
the right vein. He says, " It can scarce be questioned, but
this article, which has so odd an appearance, was inserted only
to amuse the Pope, and was never intended by either party
to be executed."
Dr. Lingard has vaguely stated that " the children should
remain under the Queen's care until they were thirteen years
old." But should not our historian have noticed the sense
in which the Catholics accepted this article ? The words in
Rymer are more precise. Les Enfans seront nourris et eleves
apres de ma dite dame Reyne. With the Catholics it was a
stipulation for the religion of the children. It is always so
asserted by one of the negotiators, De Brienne, in his Me
moirs, vol. i. p. 188, and it is confirmed by Pere Griffet in his
excellent History of Louis XIII. vol. xiii. p. 422. Ce qu'il y
a d'etonnant, c'est quils ne faisoient pas tant de difficult i
sur Varticle qui regardoit I'Education des Enfans dans la
religion Catholique jusques a I'age de do-me ans, qui devoit ce
semble leur paroitre d'une si grande importance." The reader
has found here, at page 114, the self-congratulations of
the Mercure, on the Cardinal's success in obtaining thirteen
years instead of ten, for the education of the children as
Catholics. K

130 SECRET HISTORY OF
James or Charles, with all their facUity, dared
not perform it. It was nothing less than a
Catholic emancipation, in the form of a treaty
with the Roman Pontiff, to be sanctioned by
an oath of the Enghsh sovereigns, which
violated the fundamental laws of our Consti
tution. Although the Gallican Church, in some re
spect, has freed herself from the Papal omni
potence, yet in the affairs of religion, and on
points of doctrine, her enslaved intellect is still
fettered by its holy chains. Even De Brienne
confesses as a plea for these repeated tergiver
sations, that they usuaUy arose from Rome.
" There," he says, " the least matters are not
easily obtained, and on this occasion they had
raised many difficulties to follow up the inten
tions of the King, because we did not disclose
the acts which we had passed with England, and
that we were satisfied with the concession of his
Britannic Majesty." This was a dilemma which
seemed inextricable ; but when affairs are in
extricable, statesmen discover expedients. The
hand of the English Monarch was paralysed,
he dared not put his signature, and to proffer
his oath to Antichrist, might have raised a
general revolt in his three kingdoms. To sa-

THE FRENCH MATCH. 131
tisfy the conscience or the dignity of the Pon
tiff, observes the acute commentator on " Bas-
sompierre's Memoirs," a mez%o termine was con
trived ; and the French Monarch engaged on
the part of the King of England for those
points in which the latter could not, or dared
not, treat directly and openly with the Pope.
To such miserable shifts were the greatest mo
narchs of the world driven by a power which
they disavowed in terms, resisted in substance,
and submitted to in form.*
In politics too much has been conceded to
obsolete forms, which only adds to the insin-
* Memoirs of the Embassy of the Marshal de Bassom-
pierre to the Court of England in 1626. Translated with
Notes. 8vo. 1819. I recollect no volume of the size in
our historical literature so desirable for the general reader
as the present. Its varied information is perpetually en
livened by a searching spirit, which strikes at the results
of historical evidence, deducing inferences, and detecting
nice discriminations, such as a mind practised in the busi
ness of life, and drawing from its own experience, could
alone discover, and which prove that the writer has been
conversant with courts more modern than those of the his
torical antiquary. The writer, or the Editor, as in the coy
ness, or the pride of his talents, he styles himself, is John
Wilson Croker, Esquire, M.P. Secretary of the Admiralty ;
a gentleman in office, who has had the rare merit of occu
pying his leisure by literature. K 2

132 SECRET HISTORY OF
cerity of the parties. By this hoUow etiquette,
this veil that never hid what it covered, have
the weak been flattered by the potent ! States
men sometimes have to act very ridiculous
parts, and it is not strange that their views
should be so often misconstrued by the people,
and adroitly pointed against themselves, by the
artifices of an opposing party.
At length the Duke de Chevreuse, by proxy,
espoused, in the name of the King of England,
Madame Henrietta Maria. In the Mercure
Francois, the splendid ceremony, and the
public rejoicings from Paris to Amiens, occupy
a moveable page of festivals, processions, and
triumphal arches. AU the magnificence of
France was radiant, and the detaUs from the
mantles of violet velvet, spotted ermine, and
cloth of beaten gold, to the allegorical entrances
into towns, the comfits from the mouths of
Dragons, or the verses from Sibyls or Muses,
with an exhibition of all the daughters of
France who had been Queens of England,
represented as so many different virtues, were
all unquestionably to the taste of Louis the
Thirteenth, who perhaps edited, with particular
care, the splendid chronicle in this Book of
Kings. A circumstance in the marriage-cere
mony was remarkable. Although the French

THE FRENCH MATCH. 133
had obstinately persisted, during their nego
tiation, in requiring a secret article respecting
the education of the children of the marriage,
under their Roman Catholic mother, yet when
mass was performed at Notre Dame, with great
delicacy they permitted the Duke de Chevreuse,
as representative of the Enghsh monarch, to
withdraw from the mass, and accompany the
two English Ambassadors, who were not pre
sent during its celebration ; but who returned
to the French monarch to take their rank in
the procession, the instant it was concluded.
Scarcely had the marriage ceremony closed,
when to the astonishment of the whole Court,
the unexpected arrival was announced of the
Duke of Buckingham, accompanied by a train
of Enghsh gentlemen. The hostile Count De
Brienne observes, " This Englishman appeared
to the Court to have his head filled with chi
meras that broke out in his conversation ; he
pressed for the departure of the Queen of Eng
land, and every one earnestly wished for that
of the presumptuous stranger." The depar
ture of her Britannic Majesty was delayed by
the indisposition of the King, who was desi
rous of accompanying his sister to Compiegne.
Our comet of fortune blazed with intole
rable Hght. Even the severity of the sullen

134 SECRET HISTORY OF
Secretary of State softens, as his reminis
cences sparkle, in describing the singular beauty
of his person, the grace of his movements,
the strange magnificence of his dress. We
hear from our own quarters, of Buckingham's
twenty-seven suits, the richest that embroidery,
lace, silk, velvet, silver, gold and pearls could
ornament ; and more particularly of the white
uncut velvet, set all over, both suit and cloak,
with diamonds, valued at four-score thousand
pounds, set off with great diamond buttons,
and diamonded feathers. To the females,
Buckingham seemed a degree above a mortal ;
for among the seductions of his gaUantries, he
practised one pecuUar to his own fantasy— he
had his diamonds tacked so loosely on, that
when he willed, some graceful motion would
shake off a few — and he obtained aU the ce
lebrity he desired from the pickers-up— the
Dames de la Cour ; whatever any fair hand
condescended to take from the ground, the
Duke conferred on her as an unalienable pos
session. But alas ! his presence at the Court of
France was fatal to her who seemed placed be
yond the reach of Fate— to Anne of Austria, the
Queen of Louis the Thirteenth. The splendour
of that Queen's complexion was unsufferably

THE FRENCH MATCH. 135
fair, and he who had all the world of women
for his victims, was himself the weakest of that
all. The lady too, was one whose pride was to
subdue the hearts of distinguished persons; and
who, in Europe, was as distinguished as the
magnificent and fascinating EngUsh Duke ?
Buckingham shed tears on the Queen's hand
at his departure. Were those drops the melt
ing effusions of his mind, or the burning heat of
his senses ? The annals of gallantry, usually so
circumstantial with the French, have preserved
a suUen and royal sUence. Was the passion of
Buckingham refined, as Hume in the calmness
of his phflosophy would conjecture, who tells us,
" that attachment at least of the mind which ap
pears so delicious, and is so dangerous, seems to
have been encouraged by the Princess." But the
discontent of her royal husband, the rage of
the Cardinal, here a double rival to Bucking
ham, and the covert style of the Secretary of
State, indicate the treason. " Had this Prin
cess followed my advice," says De Brienne,
(which was to remain at Paris with her sick
husband) " she would have received great ad
vantages ; but she preferred the counsels of
Madame de Bervay," who probably was not
unacquainted with her Majesty's confidential
inclinations, nor the promised festivals of every

136 SECRET HISTORY OF
day, which were to make gay the progress to
the coast. We fear that Hume is here but an
apologist for the French Queen, when we find
in the graver historian, Pere Griffet, that " se-
veral of the Queen's household were suddenly
dismissed, the Marchioness de Vernet, her
dame d'atours, and Ribera her physician, as
persons who had proved to have been too fa
vourable to the design of the Duke." And
farther, when we recollect the reply of Voi-
ture, when her Majesty met him musing in
the garden of Ruel. " What are you thinking
on?" inquired the Queen. "I am thinking,"
replied the wit, in impromptu verses, " that if
at this instant the Duke of Buckingham should
appear before your Majesty, who would lose
the day, the Duke, or Pere Vincent?" the
Queen's Confessor. The mystery of the loves
of Anne of Austria and Buckingham, is not
diminished by a letter of the Earl of Holland to
our Duke, in which, among other state affairs,
we discover certain hieroglyphics of love—
a crown to designate the King of France, a
heart the female lover, and an anchor our Lord
High Admiral. It appears that the anchor was
most urgent to revisit Paris, but the crown con
tinued in its strongest suspicions, and the heart
" hath infinite affections." A threat of the young

THE FRENCH MATCH. 137
bravadoes of the Court, set on by the crafty
Cardinal, that he is not a good Frenchman who
would suffer the anchor ever to return from
France, might have its effect. " You are the
most happy unhappy man alive, for the heart
is beyond imagination right, and would do
things to destroy her fortune, rather than want
satisfaction in her mind. I dare not speak as I
would. I tremble to think whether this will
find a safe conveyance to you. Do what you
will, I dare not advise you — to come is danger
ous, not to come is unfortunate." — A specimen
of love-letters inclosed in the despatches of
ministers of state !
The calamity of these Roman Catholic and
Protestant Marriages in the royal family, for
calamitous they have always proved to be, by
exciting the fears and jealousies of the nation, in
an age of controversial faiths, was so far from
having yet been ascertained, that on the con
trary both parties then calculated on mutual
advantages from this forced union of opposite
interests. The first difficulty lay in the pre-
Hminaries ; for while one party required so
many concessions which could never be con
ceded, the other, in its perplexity, accommo
dated matters by promises which could never
be performed. It seemed the art of one party

138 ROYAL AND
to evade what the other at length would aban
don ; and it appears that, notwithstanding the
secret articles of the treaty ostensibly signed,
there were others stiU more secret, which an
nulled them, as the English Cabinet, in their
subsequent discussions and rupture with France
always asserted.
Rapin wonders what could induce the Eng
lish to have acceded to this treaty ; and Mr.
Croker, whose enlarged views are those of a
statesman, has, in this particular instance, as I
think, too easily adopted Rapin's suggestion—
that it was owing to three causes ; James the
First's avarice, vanity, and indifference to the
Protestant rehgion. Such assumptions too
easily pass into history ; and it is as necessary
to exercise a critical spirit upon historians
themselves, as on the materials with which
their histories are composed. Our honest Hu
guenot emigrant, influenced by the horrors of
intolerant Papistry, which once massacred the
brothers of his faith, and at the moment of his
writing had hunted him and his from their
hearths— Rapin, a suffering Protestant, adopted
the Puritanic prejudice, that the father and the
son were really indifferent to the rehgious
establishment of their country. Were James
and Charles then indifferent to retain their

POLITICAL MARRIAGES. 139
crowns, and did they prefer the private inte
rests of a minority to the universal feeling of
the nation ?
We have shown that the restitution of the
Palatinate was the ceaseless and tormenting
burthen of the Spanish negotiation ; and among
the last letters still extant, which Charles the
First wrote to the Prince, afterwards Charles
the Second, may be found a reiterated and
solemn charge to obey his mother in all things,
saving in religion ; on this head he was to
guide himself by the English Bishop (Cousens),
and the excellent council which Charles had
provided for his son. The governors of Charles
the Second, from his infancy, were Protestants.
Charles the Second was indeed so flexibly fiHal,
that he appears to have equally obeyed his
father and mother, for on the throne he lived a
Protestant, and died a Catholic. He probably
acquired his Roman faith abroad, where every
day he experienced the benefits of perpetual
absolution. Rapin's observation then is merely popular
and superficial ; nor perhaps had that diligent
historian a mind sufficiently comprehensive of
the nature and character of these political mar
riages ; and much less of the state-reason or
policy of the present one.

140 ROYAL AND
The French marriage with Henrietta Ma
ria was the natural consequence of an entire
change in the foreign relations of the Eng
lish cabinets. An alliance with France had
been resolved on to balance the loss of the
other great power ; a political marriage
would doubly cement the union of interests.
Whoever would ascribe it, with Rapin, to
" the avarice and vanity" of James, at least
must allow a great deal to the political wis
dom of his " king-craft," in preferring the
potent alliance with France to one with a
secondary power, and of secondary powers only
consisted the reformed. What had James
acquired by his marriage and alliance with
Protestant Denmark? In war she was but a
weak ally, but in her own troubles she hung
upon the strength of England.
The nature and character of these poli
tical marriages in our own history, since
the time of the Reformation, is a subject of
some curiosity and importance. Royal mar
riages with us were long the results of poli
tical combinations, and the contract of mar
riage was nothing more than a clause in a
treaty ; the treaty itself being an act of poli
tical co-partnership, framed by all the fears
and jealousies of the high-contracting parties.

POLITICAL MARRIAGES. 141
In the wooing of the crowned and conjugal
pair, the ambassadors, who were the adroit
match-makers, and the grave Ministers of
State, who did not forbid the banns, had no
other motive than what ItaUan politicians term
the JZagion di Stato. A daughter or a sister
were the victims, if they are to be considered
as such, whenever by their means a great po
litical purpose could be obtained. Henry the
Eighth enjoined his executors to effectuate
a marriage between Edward the Sixth and
Mary of Scotland. The Scots, however, being
under the influence of French councUs, re
jected the overture. The Protestants then
resolved to bring about an alliance and union
by arms ; and it was on this occasion that a
Scottish nobleman said, " I Hke the marriage,
but fancy not the wooing."
In that darling project of Catherine of Me
dicis, of uniting our Elizabeth with a Prince
of the royal line of France, when after the
first repulse, it was proposed by the French
Court, that the Duke of Alencon should suc
ceed his brother the Duke of Anjou, and the
English Ministers seemed as desirous of the
arrangement as the French Monarch, the
King impatiently observed, " You have now
only to change the name of my brother, the

142 ROYAL AND
Duke of Anjou, and insert in its place that
of my brother, the Duke of Aleneon, in the
articles which were agreed on; as was ex
tremely well observed to you by my Lord the
great Treasurer (Burleigh)." So simple is the
style of these plotters of political marriages !
James has suffered an animadversion, be
cause when Prince Henry died on the 6th of
November, his brother Charles was offered to
the Spanish Princess on the 9th. But in po
litical marriages, it appears that not a single
post is to be lost. Love neither preceded,
nor accompanied, the Hymen of the corps di
plomatique, who often waved a smoky torch
over the diplomatic treaty of a poUtical mar
riage. Royal marriages are a tribute paid to the
interests of the state. A Duke of Orleans is
selected for a Princess of the House of Man
tua, which means that France resolves to main
tain her footing in Italy ; or, they are the
price of new projects of ambition, and as such
they were considered by Napoleon, when he
long vacillated between an Austrian or a
Russian Arch-duchess, a pohtical marriage, on
which the fate of Europe revolved ! The po
tent Monarch of Spain condescended to cross
the seas to unite himself with an English

POLITICAL MARRIAGES. 143
Queen, and could afterwards bend the knee
to her renowned sister ; and because the sup
pliant but haughty Castilian could not obtain
a political marriage, his unsuccessful wooing
was concluded, as usual, by a political war.
The double marriage of Louis the Thirteenth
with Anne of Austria, the Infanta of Spain,
and Madame EHzabeth of France with Phillip,
Prince of Spain, spread a general alarm among
the Protestant States. England and Holland,
by means of their respective ambassadors,
strained every effort to break off this nuptial
union. Even some of the French Catholics
approved of the resolution of Henry the
Fourth, to avoid a family connexion with the
Spanish Court, aheady too formidable for the
peace of Europe. The double political marriage
was designed by Spain to maintain the pre
dominance of the House of Austria in Germany,
and to deprive France of the confidence of her
numerous Protestants. The poHcy of the bi
goted Mary de Medicis, changed the political
system of Henry the Fourth after his death,
and Elizabeth of France sunk the victim of
love and the criminal of state.
It may, however, be a question how far these
domestic unions operate upon the public in
terests of princes, and whether a royal mar-

144 ROYAL AND
riage necessarily includes the adoption of the
same system of politics. In general, having
been originally designed for a political purpose,
it is evident that whenever the proposal of a
royal marriage is broken off, it wiU close in a
change of measures, and these powers, from
having been pacific, wUl become belHgerent.
But it has been sometimes insisted on that a
royal marriage has no connexion with the
higher interests of the state ; and that the
new brother or the new father, are as likely to
declare war against each other as any other
sovereign. In the present case, when the Pro
testants were alarmed at the double marriages
of France and Spain, the Constable Lesdi-
guieres assured the French Protestants, that a
Prince in espousing his daughter to his neigh
bour did not espouse his councUs, and that the
French monarch would never put his kingdom
in flames for the pleasure of the Spanish So
vereign. This principle of royal conduct seems,
however, more plausible than true ; for, how
ever it be disguised, the real design of the two
Cabinets at first manifested itself in these
royal marriages, though circumstances after
wards, occurred, as they did in the case before
us, to alter the pohtical position of the royal
relatives.

POLITICAL MARRIAGES. 145
A royal marriage must, in general, be consi
dered as the confirmation, and not the cause, of
a particular line of policy. It is a public an
nouncement of an alliance, which the supposed
interests of the contracting parties have aheady
cemented, and not an union, which is to create
interests between the nations, which do not
exist. The monstrous union of our Elizabeth with
the Dukes of Anjou and Alencon, made the
Puritan, who wrote a book against the French
marriages, and lost for it the hand which wrote
it, exclaim, that " a daughter of God was
united with a son of Antichrist," while foreign
CathoHcs said of Charles the First, when that
Prince was proposed to the Infanta of Spain,
and afterwards to a Princess of France, that
it was the abomination of " a Heretic with a
Christian ;" and some in England ascribed the
calamities of the present reign according to the
expression of Hamon I'Estrange, as " an ire
ful stroke of divine justice, from his Majesty
marrying a lady of misbeHef."
The nature of these royal marriages indeed
was never comprehended by the people, either
at home, or abroad. The people are occasion
aUy mystified by statesmen, but they are too
impatient to inquire how the tricks of political
jugglers are performed. L

146 ROYAL AND POLITICAL MARRIAGES.
Even Charles the Second cheerfully sub
mitted to a grave and tawny Princess of Por
tugal, repulsive in her person ; and we now
hold Bombay from this marriage. The over
tures and proposals of the conjugal union of
William the Third with the daughter of James
the Second, at the time were unwiUingly
consented to by the royal parent, and as coldly
received by the Prince of Orange, yet how
vast the results of this memorable union !
Of such adverse elements has been often
compounded the royal aUiance of persons
whom nature and affection had never brought
together; nor is this natural communication
necessary for the designs and the ends of go
vernment ; and it may be curious to observe,
that such marriages are so strictly poUtical, that
whenever it has happened that they have been
unexpectedly broken off, inasmuch as such
rupture is the consequence of a most con
trary change in the policy of both parties, they
have usually terminated by a declaration of
war.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 147

CHAPTER VI.
OF THE CRITICAL AND VARIABLE SITUATION
OF THE ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS,, WITH RE
GARD TO THEIR ROMAN CATHOLIC SUBJECTS.
The difficulties which were insurmountable
in the Spanish Match, and which were only
eluded in the French, wUl lead to the consider
ation of an important subject.
I know of no historian who has yet developed
the critical, and often the variable, situation of
the Sovereigns of England, in regard to their
Roman Catholic subjects. Elizabeth was de
nounced by Romanist and Protestant ; James
and Charles, perpetuaUy accused of sacrificing
the national cause, were reproached by the Ro
man CathoHcs for deception and evasion.
To form a just conception of the state of the
English Roman CathoHcs, we must not only
view their condition at home, a picture, which
I have already exhibited, but we must also be-
L 2

148 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
come acquainted with their external relations,
as they stood connected with the Continental
powers. The secret history of England may be often
looked for among the great family of European
Governments, and the solution of many a poli
tical enigma in our own country, may be thus
detected in the poUcy of foreign cabinets. It
is there we find how many paradoxes are only
truths unexplained; how conflicting interests
have been forced to unite ; and how consistency
of conduct may be developed among the most
contradictory schemes. Statesmen have been
fascinated by a fond error, in imagining that
their closet-intrigues can make permanent in
compatible things, which from their very na
ture cannot stand together ; and that the expe
dients, so ingeniously formed by their mutual
deceptions, will avail against the eternal force
of principles. I have drawn this reflection from
the history of the English Romanists, and the
difficulties into which our sovereigns have been
so frequently thrown in their conduct towards
this class of their subjects.
In this history, we must not at once leap
from the Papistry of Mary to the Protestant
ism of Elizabeth; an awful interval lies between,

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 149
which is lost in the perspective view of the
historian. It is asserted that the great change in reli
gion, under EHzabeth, was carried by six votes,
and passed in a single session ; that " a super
stitious" practice (the striking the breast with
an exclamation) observed at the elevation of
the Host, was abrogated only by a single vote,
and that no greater majority decided on the
abolishment of parts of the ceremonial. At first
it was announced that no change should take
place in religion till Parliament met ! Affairs
were best arranged when not put to a lottery
of public opinion, which seemed to depend on
uncertain chance. The term of transubstantia-
tion was saved by a vague description of the
elements, by which the Romanist was enabled
to partake of the Sacrament with the Protest
ant. Of " the Supremacy in Church and
State," assumed by Henry the Eighth, that
eternal stumbling-block of Papistry, the bill
having long been tossed to and fro in Par
liament, EHzabeth softened the oath, as we
are told, by her great statesman Walsingham,
" Her Majesty not liking to make windows
into men's hearts and secret thoughts, except
the abundance did overflow into overt acts,

150 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
impeaching her Majesty's supreme power by
maintaining a foreign jurisdiction." * That is,
her Majesty wisely resolved to maintain her
supremacy, though in the oath " she removed
the hardness of the name and appeUation of
supreme head." In pohtics they often yield
the name while they preserve the thing.
The Queen dreaded what she foresaw would
occur, controversies and contentions; and to
prevent these, she inhibited all preaching, both
by Papist and Protestant. She even expressed
her displeasure when the late exiles of Pro
testantism attempted to exercise their ministry
— and, as honest Strype truly observes, " thus
even and impartially did the state carry it to
both parties." During forty years continuance,
every project was tried to reconcUe the Papist
to what was caUed " the new Rehgion," and
in that dawn of religious controversy great
results were expected from " the force of
truth." But a Protestant writer has told us,
that, by this means, many true Protestants
were lost.f
On the accession of EHzabeth, the Romanists
were so numerous, that one of their English
historians asserts that they formed two-thirds
* Cabala, p. 407.
t Hamon I'Estrange, " The Observator Observed," p. 28.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 151
of the nation. Possibly at a particular period
they might have reached to this number, for
the great body of the people were always to be
reconverted to the rehgion of their new sove
reign, and the multitude, stupified by the
changeful times, seemed to have passed as easUy
from the accommodating protestantism of " the
chUd-king," to the heated papistry of the bigot,
as to the mingled settlement of the virgin reign.
EHzabeth herself, half Protestant and half Ca
tholic, was the true representative of her own
people. She deemed it advisable, that a Ro
man CathoHc Bishop should place the crown
on her head, and in her royal councUs, CathoHcs
were mixed with Anti-cathoHcs. The Queen,
from the first, looked forward to that conformity
in the national religion, which to enforce after
wards, caused the despair of our statesmen, the
unhappiness of the people, and the faU of the
Government. But if EHzabeth were studious of the feel
ings of her Papists on several nice points, she
received no indulgence from them; that sort
of gratitude could not be returned by an im
placable and immutable power.
StiU, however, the Romanist entered the
same church with the new religionist.' EHza
beth, herself a lover of stately magnificence,

152 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
stiU lingered amidst the grandeurs of the pon
tifical rites and ceremonies. Her feminine eye
had been aUured by the snowy alb, the flow
ing amice, and the gorgeous stole, and her
imagination had yielded to the sculpture and
the painting — to her, yet hallowed accessaries
to devotion ! A crucifix, pale in the light of
tapers, consecrated her chapel, as long as it
Was — legal, and it was some time before the
Queen would consent to degrade the Image or
the Picture into " superstition" — by Act of
Parliament ! So obscure, so cautious, and so
undetermined were the first steps to withdraw
from the ancient Papistical customs, that Eliza
beth would not forgive a Bishop for marrying;
and auricular confession, however condemned
as a point of Popery, was stiU adhered to by
many. Bishop Andrews would loiter in the
aisles of Paul's to afford his spiritual comfort
to the unburtheners of their conscience.*
But Elizabeth had to rule over those terrible
men with aU their dark hatreds — pohtical theo-
logists ; many of whom were Papists, or Puri-
* This last remains of Popery may still be traced among
us ; for since the days of our Eighth Henry, the place of
Confessor to the royal household has never been abolished.
I am told that it is no sinecure. A respectable clergyman
retains the obsolete designation.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 153
tans, as Walsingham expresses it, " not so much
in conscience as in faction."
The English exiles, who had flown to the
Reformed of Switzerland during the Marian
persecution, many of whom had imbibed the
republican notions of the petty Presbytery of
Geneva, were now urging the Queen to what
they called " a thorough reformation," a fa
vourite term with all rising parties, but always
ambiguous ; and, in the present instance, most
perilous to the balancing and cautious wisdom
of the royal councils. At that crisis, between
Romanists and Protestantism, England might
have bled through all her veins ; a spirit more
exterminating than that of her civil wars, was
on the watch to be let loose among the people ;
for a war of religion breathes a more terrible
inspiration than the decaying interests of poli
tical parties, whose contests are but temporary,
and whose passions at least are mortal.
What was passing among the people at
these critical times, we gather from the letters
of Bishop Jewell, the famous author of " The
Apology for the Church of England." This
venerable Protestant was so disgusted at the
lenient measures pursued by the Queen, and
so dubious of the awful issue, that in despair
he threatened to return to his former exile at

154 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
Zurich. He did not find our " insular" people
at first so Protestant as he had imagined ; the
Clergy, for the most part, were Papistical, and
the brutish and indifferent multitude had not
yet had sufficient time to recover from a reign
of terror; but the people are always people,
and their torpid natures are ever to be acted on
by some happy artifice. A petty incident in
the great history of the Reformation seems to
have accelerated its impulse among the humbler
classes of society. Psalm-singing, which had
already spread with such popular success in
Switzerland, was introduced into our churches;
and when three or four hundred persons joined
in chorus, the new religion excited more sym
pathy ; at length, when "the boys in the street
spat upon the priests," JeweU puts off his re
turn to Zurich, and exults in the improved
state of the Reformation.
But when the " monuments of antiquity"
were defaced, and the parish crucifix was drag
ged by those who had worshipped before it,
to kindle a new fire in Smithfield, in vengeful
memory for other fires which had there been
lit; though EHzabeth punished the rioters,
yet then many of the Romanists took a sad
farewell of their father-land — the horror of he
resy was gathering round. Divided power was

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 155
scorned equally by the implacable haughtiness
of the Roman Pontiff, and the vindictive spirit
of his former victims. The Romanist and the
Reformed could only meet for mutual anni-
hUation. Now roUed the thunders of the Vatican.
Pius the Fifth, blest with the spirit of St.
Dominic, the great Extirpator of Heresy, ana
thematized the English Queen, and delivered
her dominions to Mary of Scotland, The joy
ful martyr, who in open day affixed the Bull of
Excommunication at the gate of the Bishop of
London, was executed as an English traitor.
" A pious Conspiracy," as the Catholic histo
rian terms an attempted insurrection in the
North, was to have been aided by the Spaniards
of Alva in the Netherlands. Whenever a party
rushes to an extremity, the opposite interest
either sinks in its weakness, or establishes it
self in its strength. This very rebellion partly
purged the ill-humours of the realm, observed
that statesman, Walsingham. The Bishop of
Rome now discovered his inept infallibility,
and perhaps regretted his impolitic impatience.
In order to repair the irreparable breach, both
himself and his successors granted a dispensa
tion to their English Romanists, to aUow them
to show outward obedience to the Queen — till

156 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES AVITH
a happier opportunity ! But the Catholic poli
tics and the Catholic faith of Rome had be
trayed their immutable nature.
Thus, a single blow for ever separated Eng-
lishmen from Englishmen : Papist and Pro
testant now became distinctive names. In the
fashion of that day, the rising religion called
themselves, in glory, " Gospellers," and their
adversaries, in contempt, " Papelins." In the
ascending scale of the odium theohgicum, the
more odious designation of Recusant at length
branded the Romanist; though it had anciently
been confined to those disturbers of the public
repose, who refused to acknowledge all legiti
mate authority. The papal supremacy was
treason against the native sovereign.
The sacred bolt was launched ! and a dark
cloud was hanging over England, stUl replete
with all its fulminating matter, and about to
burst over this Island of Heresy, but above all,
to strike the devoted head of her sovereign.
The anathema of Rome deprived the English
Queen of the loyalty of a considerable part of
her subjects, whUe it inflamed the passions of a
new party, who themselves had become pro
testers against " the good protestants of Eliza
beth," as the first moderate Reformers attached
to the Hierarchy were afterwards distinguished

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 157
in the succeeding reign. At this crisis, the
tempered wisdom of the Queen saved the
nation. She maintained her shaken throne, as
a Queen of Protestants.
Thus early sprung the critical difficulties of
our sovereigns. Now Rehgion was running
into factions, conscience inspiring acts of trea
son ; and the Missionary of Rome, or the Pres
byter of Geneva, the Jesuit, or the Mar-Prelate,
were fired by the same ambition of predomi
nance. Roman Catholic and Protestant writers
are still discussing whether the victims of the
State under Elizabeth and James perished as
Martyrs for their Faith, or as traitors to the
Government; and the same difficult distinction
occurs in the history of Catholic France. Louis
the Thirteenth insisted that he did not war
with and persecute the French Reformed for
their religion as they imagined, but for their
rebellion. It is the philosopher alone, who has
discovered that monster in politics, whose her
maphrodite condition he has called " political
reHgionism." *
The day that the royal anathema was nailed
on the Episcopal gate at London, may serve
as the date for a new asra in modern history —
* See an article on that subject in the second series of
Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii.

158 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
the estabhshment of the civil liberties of Eu
rope ; and the martyred slave of passive obedi
ence, who had perished as an Enghsh traitor,
sealed with his blood the emancipation of his
feUow-countrymen from the supremacy and the
despotism of Rome.
From that day, England was pohticaUy sepa
rated from her potent neighbours ; and this
novel state of affairs was productive of some
phenomena in history which have not always
admitted of explanation.
The great monarchies of Europe were Pa
pistical, and the proscribed sovereign of Eng
land had to open new principles of conduct-r-
to raise up new interests — and whUe on the
Continent the balance of power long prepon
derated against the advocates of civfl and reli
gious freedom ; the poUcy of England was to
ally herself with the secondary governments of
the Christian world, and to sustain the weak
ness of the Reformed, who flew for aid to the
only formidable power in Europe who could
be their protector.
Although the distinctive titles were not yet
assumed, which in the progress of time were
adopted; the secret springs which now were
moving the Cabinets of Europe, and which
were to raise such continued intrigues— act by

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 159
such mysterious motives — and show themselves
by such contradictory measures, at home as
weU as abroad, were the Roman Catholic
and the Protestant Cause.
In the darkness of the Court of Rome, one
prolonged dream hovered about the Tiara — it
was the conquest of England by invasion ; or —
scheme more consonant to the subtile genius of
Italian policy — the rule over England by in
trigue. Clement the Eighth, unlike the pro
found Sixtus the Fifth, imagined that there
was no insurmountable difficulty to the vice
gerent of Heaven gathering once more his
Annates in the lost Island. The busy spirits
of Cardinal AUen, of Father Parsons, and other
expatriated Romanists, were most active after
the faUure of the Spanish Armada, and stiU
later, when the Father, one of the most poh
tical heads in Europe, ineffectuaUy laboured
to secure James on the Roman side. After
the failure of the invasion, it was the great
object of Father Parsons and his party to ex
clude James from the English crown in favour
of the Infanta of Spain or the Duke of Parma.
This great political Jesuit repeatedly declared,
that the possession of the throne was a matter
of perfect indifference, provided that the pos
sessor were a Catholic — leaving to the princes

160 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
who were interested in the settlement of this
Crown, to appoint among "themselves the Eng
lish sovereign*
This settlement, however, could not have
been accomplished with aU the facUity which
in their Papal fascination was imagined by these
able English agents of the Court of Rome.
The verse of VirgU had separated the Isle of
Britain from the world, when Rome, as it
seemed to the Roman, was the whole universe ;
but in the vast revolutions of time the sohtary
Island had become the arbitrator of dominion.
The two potent monarchies of Spain and
France, amidst their rival jealousies, courted
the insular sovereign as their mistress ; and the
alliance of England was a casting weight in
the government of the world. By its locality,
as much as by the power of its ruler, England
had protected Europe from the universal mo
narchy of Spain, as long afterwards Anne did
from the universal monarchy of France ; a glo
rious office, which has been inherited by the
British nation, whose title, as the protector of
the freedom of Europe, has been confirmed by
the Great Captain of the age.
Yet, with aU our physical force, and all the
* The Rev. Charles Plowden, p. 151, on Berington's Panzani.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 161
wisdom of our councils, which extorted the
admiration of that great statesman, Cardinal
d'Ossat ;* the confessions of the Spanish secre
tary of state, Antonio Perez ;f and the admis
sion of the official writer in the Mercure Fran-
cais ;f in our own country the Catholic interest
* Cardinal d'Ossat, when he saw James the First quietly
ascend the English throne, without the interposition of foreign
powers, which they flattered themselves the English would
have called in on this occasion, writes, " The people of this
island have shown that they know how to settle their own
affairs, and tfiat in the surest way ; and those out of doors
(ceux de dehors) are very much mistaken in their designs
and their hopes ; particularly the Spaniards," adds our French
ambassador, " who, though most vexed at this event, will be
among the first to get over the King of Scotland on their side,
if you do not prevent it." Lettres, vol. v. 254.
f Antonio Perez, in sending a book to the Earl of Essex,
in a Latin letter, alluding to a passage in that volume, ob
served, " What is here said of the equilibrium of France and
Spain, and of England being the balancer of Europe, while
those two kingdoms are the scales, is not to be lightly treated
by any prudent observer/' The original may be found in
Obras de Antonio Perez, p. 693.
% Mercure Franpais, 1626, p. 891. " The most power
ful Crown in Christendom, after those of France and Spain,
is that of Great Britain ; and it is indeed of such consequence,
that it can give a predominance to either of those two Crowns
to which it may choose to unite itself, to the great prejudice
of the other." M

162 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES AVITH
was stiU active, and the Enghsh Romanists
were still looking to their aUies on the Con
tinent. A knowledge of the secret policy of the Court
of Rome we acquire from a conversation of
the French ambassador, Cardinal d'Ossat, with
the Pope, Clement VIII. The Frenchman,
dreading the subjugation of England by Spain,
brought forwards all the difficulties' of a pro
jected invasion, reminding his Holiness of the
former discomfiture of the Spaniards. To
quiet the alarm of the French ambassador, his
HoHness opened a different project; and to
allay the rival jealousies of the two powerful
monarchies, Clement VIII. proposed that a
third monarch should be placed on the English
throne, who should be their mutual friend.
Should this arrangement fail, a partition of
England between France and Spain would
equally serve the purpose, as his HoHness ex-
emphfied by that partition of Naples which the
combined nations had effectuated in the time
of Louis XII.* We have witnessed, in our
own times, this political artifice of partitioning
a great kingdom, and sacrificing the independ-
* Cardinal d'Ossat's Lettres, ii. 363.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 163
ence of one nation to the coalition of injustice
and rapacity.
The machinations of the Papal Cabinet were
more numerous than appear on public records.
Mary of Scotland was long the sustaining hope
of France, of Spain, and of Rome ; and her po
litical immolation was a martyrdom of Catho-
Hcism. In the Roman scheme of subjugation,
they had seated on the throne of England the
phantom of an Italian cardinal, who by a dis
pensation was to marry the hapless Arabella
Stuart. They continued to dispute even the
claims of the son of Mary to the English
Crown. A Pope had also fixed on one of his
courtiers to be the King of Ireland. Such
were the dreams of the Roman pontiff !
We long stood alone in Europe, and often
the object of the systematic intrigues of the
Papal Court. In a confidential letter, which
was lately read at the Society of Antiquaries,
Lord Leicester, in the reign of Elizabeth, de
scribing the state of public affairs, impresses on
his friend the urgent necessity of a close and
common union among themselves ; for at this
moment they stood unconnected with any one
of the great Continental powers, who are all
Catholics. The whole letter offers a striking
M 2

164 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
evidence of the unsettled state of home affairs ;
and the solitary existence of England, 'left
to herself among the great governments of
Europe. In England the Catholic interest was as an
under-current, working its dark and silent pas
sage against the mightier stream ; and abroad
the Protestant cause was at times in the most
imminent peril. What could be the conse
quence of this cruel condition, which placed
our friends among their enemies, and held our
enemies within ourselves? The state policy
of the English Cabinet, and of the Cabinet of
the Romanists, became uniform, for it consisted
in secretly aiding their own parties in foreign
lands. The Papal Court, and its allies of
France and of Spain, fostered the vain hopes
of, or silently acquiesced in, the conspiracies
against heretical princes by their own Catholic
subjects. On our side, we had to sustain the
minority of mankind in Europe against their
masters. This perpetual reaction throughout
Europe between Catholics and Protestants may
be often traced in our own history ; yet the
true springs of action were rarely revealed to
contemporaries, although by some they seem to
have been obscurely surmised. Old Camden

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 165
observed, that the Papists were ever most bu
sied in fermenting divisions at home whenever
the nation was attacked from abroad.
In this unhappy condition, long were the Pa
pists under the government of the Reformed,
and the Protestants in the dominion of the
CathoHc, dangerous subjects. History abounds
with their intrigues, their conspiracies, and
their mutual persecutions. From the days of
Elizabeth we had to aid, openly or covertly,
the oppressed or the rebellious Protestants of
France ; and that infant republic in the Spa
nish Netherlands, whose glorious emancipation
forms one of the most interesting revolutions
in modern history. In a large correspondence
which I have turned over of Charles IX. of
France with his ambassador at London, I dis
covered reiterated complaints of the insidious
conduct of our Elizabeth, who, at the moment
she was professing the most sisterly love, was
in fact secretly aiding the French Huguenots ;
but it must also be confessed, that Charles, on
his side, was not more innocent ; for his close
and secret correspendence with the Scotch,
by his active agents, might have furnished an
ample recrimination to the English Queen.
The same conduct may be observed in the

166 CRITICALJDIFFICULTIES WITH
political relations of England and Spain. In
1585, while we were yet at peace with that po
tent monarchy, Philip was actively fomenting
the insurrection in Ireland, and Elizabeth not
less earnestly assisting in the formation of a
republic in the Spanish Netherlands. The po
litical system , of aiding Protestants who were
the subjects of a foreign prince, became a case
of conscience with the pacific and casuistical
James the First, ^with whose** high notions of
divine right ill accorded an alhance with insur
gents or rebels. It was a question'^ with/ him,
" How far a Christian and Protestant king may
concur to assist his neighbours to shake off their
obedience to their own sovereign ?" In what
manner this delicate point was resolved by the
casuistry of Archbishop Abbot is not material ;
the ministers of James, or the gunpowder of the
Catholics, might have speedily settled this case of
conscience. Charles the First, who had entered
into a bolder system of politics than his father,
eagerly adopted the cause of the Duke of Ro
han at the head of the Huguenots of France.
This indeed was an English and a Protestant in
terest; but it provoked a potent enemy without
injuring him. This interference of the English
sovereign in the civU wars of France was aveng
ed by the great and implacable Cardinal, who,

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 167
patient and watchful through a series of fifteen
years, was silently active in his dark intrigues
with the Scots, till he worked them into open re
volt; — and the vengeance of this great statesman
was at least a secondary cause of the destruction
of Charles the First. The open scene in which
the Catholic and Protestant interests assumed a
palpable form, was the memorable war which
so long disturbed Europe with the groans of
Germany. It was in one continued battle
of thirty years, — such these awful and pro
tracted conflicts may be deemed, — that the
Evangelical Union finally liberated itself from
the Catholic League ; — for by these undisguised
names they are recognised in history.
It was however, by a fortunate accident, the
state policy of France, and its jealousies and
fears of the House of Austria, that the foreign
Reformed saved their independence; as formerly
in their outset, it is considered, that Charles V.,
from a similar pohtical jealousy of the power of
his own German princes, to balance contending
interests, silently acquiesced in the growth of
his heretics. The Emperor spared the monk
Luther from the seduction of a cardinal's pur
ple. France, who had ever been the persecutor
of the Reformed, now, to keep down Aus
tria and to wrestle with Spain, raised up an

168 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
intermediate power, by confederating with the
Protestant princes. The councils of her states
men were aUowed to prevail over those of her
ecclesiastics. Kings are more tender of their
sovereignty than of their religion. For France,
the predominance of Austria or Spain was an
immediate danger ; but points of faith may
be safely adjourned. The security of empire
would necessarily include the security of reli
gion. Had France confederated with the other
great Catholic powers, the Reformation, and
with it the cause of political independence
and civil freedom, had possibly sunk into an
obscure schism. Spain and Italy have shown
the astonished world how human opinion can
be walled out by the frontiers of a spurious
faith. The foreign Reformed might have
been left without a single independent State,
and without a sanctuary for refuge, save the
solitary Island to which they would in vain
have turned their eyes. Thus, the Protestants
owe their political existence possibly to the aid
of that France, which afterwards expelled her
children of heresy from their hearths.
Those only who have read the letters of the
times, can form any adequate notion of the
agonising and universal interest which per-

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 169
vaded the English people at every advance
or retreat of the Austrian TiUy, the Danish
Christern, and the Swedish Gustavus — the fate
of Protestantism, in the battle of Lutzen, hung
on the thread of victory ; but the victory itself
brought no consolation for the loss of " the
Liberator and Deliverer of Germany," for the
fears of the Reformed survived their victory
many succeeding years.
At this later period, the critical difficulties of
our Sovereign arose from two causes. First,
from the refusal of the EngUsh Romanists to
take the Oath of Allegiance to their native Sove
reign — and, secondly, from the vacUlating con
duct of the English Monarchs in their occasi
onal suspension, or occasional enforcement of
the utmost severity of the penal laws against
the Catholics.
The Pope, who succeeded the excommuni
cato: of Elizabeth, guided by the same invari
able principle, admonished his English flock
to refuse the oath of allegiance to her suc
cessor-— " for the salvation of their souls."
Here many affected to treat this brief
lightly, as not emanating from his own will,
— but a second ratified the irrevocable fiat ;
and those who had taken the oath of aUegi
ance were held infamous by their own party.

170 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
This conduct of Paul the Fifth, opened a
source of misery to the English Romanists,
and to their Sovereigns. Charles the First
conceded to his Catholics that he would not
press their acknowledgment of him as supreme
head of the Ecclesiastical state, but this Monarch
could never be convinced that his EngUsh Ca
thoHcs should refuse that oath of aUegiance,
which merely bound the subject to his Sove
reign; it was a pledge for civil, and not for
religious purposes. But in the spiritual go
vernment, the Monarchy of the earth was not
the least of its prerogatives. The oath of alle
giance, which had originated in the gunpowder
plot, necessarily included an unequivocal dis-
vowal of the deposing power qf the Pope ; an
inviolable doctrine bound up with the Papacy,
by which " the Servant of the Servants of
God" remained the real, though not the osten
sible, sovereign of his EngUsh slaves.
Hence all the sufferings of the Romanists
of England ! Whenever it became necessary
to tender the oath of allegiance, and whenever
it was conscientiously refused, the consequence,
as a Catholic feelingly observed, was " worse
than excommunication." Of such undefinable
horror is composed a premunire which they

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 171
incurred. Pursuivants, or King's Messengers,
might at all times enter the abodes of Catho
lics ; children might seize on the property of
their parents ; all the charities of life were de
nied the proscribed Papist.
The Romanists in the days of Charles the
First, as they would appear to be now, were
divided in opinion respecting the oath of alle
giance ; some offering vague arguments and
subtile coroUaries, which tended to separate the
temporal from the spiritual dominion of the
Roman Pontiff; but what seemed perfect lo
gic at London, was rank heresy at Rome. The
great body of the Romanists in England dis
dained the subterfuge. Panzani sympathizing
with the English Monarch, whose forbearance
he acknowledged, and compassionating his bro
thers, whose interminable sufferings he fore
saw, suggested a conciliatory modification of
the oath of aUegiance.
But there was nothing human in the ter
restrial Omnipotence. This enlightened, at
least this humane, agent of the Romish see,
was sentenced to eternal silence, and was soon
recaUed by his Court. Such is the immutable
despotism of the Papacy ! and fervent as we are
at this day to alleviate these sufferings of our

172 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
fellow-countrymen, have we found that these
cruel exigencies form but a vanished tale?
The insurmountable difficulties seem still to be
lying before us. Like the hero of antiquity
we are combating in darkness, and against an
Immortal* We have witnessed, but yester
day, the principles and the conduct of the two
parties among the English Romanists ; — the one,
wholly Papal from ancient days, have sur
rendered to the chair of St. Peter, the heavens
and the earth ; the other would throw into
speculative doubt, the secular jurisdiction of
their spiritual sovereign. We have seen how,
in their attempts to win over their brothers,
they have cast themselves into inextricable
* A Jesuit inclining to the liberal feelings of Panzani,
and therefore in odium with the Society, Father Blackloe
(or Mr. White) has expressed himself with the utmost force
of words, on the Pope's infallibility. " It were a less crime to
violate a maid upon an altar, than to settle amongst us the
belief of the Pope's infallibility." Our Jesuit has branded
the doctrine of opus operatmn with the censure of pagan cu-
perstition, hypocritical witchcraft. Further he writes, " Mr.
Montague and others are sending to Rome for his Holiness's
Bulls, to beat English calves." He tells Sir Kenelm Digby
what doubtless he would still have repeated : " Our clergy
are fools, not worth the pains you take for them; they will never
dare to act without a Breve from Rome."

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 173
confusion; a protestation drawn up by their
own hand, with some names subscribed and
deposited in our national Hbrary, has only en
countered other protests ; has been refused
signatures, and the faithless instrument has
even been called for by some to retract their
own subscriptions.
It is remarkable that these two parties of
Romanists are nowhere to be discovered, but
among Protestants. It is in a land of Protes
tants, that the Romanist elevates his tone, ad
vocates the freedom of mankind, and eloquently
cries for toleration. James the Second, who
suffered the martyrdom of a kingdom for his
Romish creed, eagerly sought to remove all
tests from the Dissenters;* but in a land of
Romanists, the soil has been kept sacred from
poUuters.f Toleration is a term which the
* When James the Second put out a declaration for liberty
of conscience, in which he was sure that all Nonconformists
would join with him, Baron Wallop, famous for his repar
tees, said, " All this is but scaffolding; he intends to build
another House (Popery), and when that House is built, he
will take down his scaffold." — Dr. H. Sampson's Diary. MS.
f It is rather a curious fact, that the Roman Catholics
themselves have been alarmed at the tyranny which the
Protestants would exercise over them, as much as the Pro
testants have been frightened at their persecutors. Guy

174 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
very Roman CathoHc lexicographers never ad
mitted into their dictionaries, and which they
dare not explain.*
That party among the Romanists who would
emancipate themselves from the temporal
thraldom of Rome, has not originated in our
times. The attempt was made in the reign
of Charles the First. As that monarch only
required from the Romanists a political or
civil oath of allegiance as their Sovereign,
in refusing this, they incapacitated themselves
from becoming his subjects. The monarch
and his Cabinet, were therefore, anxiously
concerting measures with this party, and pro
tecting these Roman Catholics. Both sides
Patin has conjured up this phantom of dreaded retribution.
" All the Huguenots of Europe will one day agree together,
and occasion a general revolt under the name of Religion ;
particularly whenever they shall have for their chief an en
terprising genius like that of the King of Sweden— Charles
the Twelfth. If these people get the upper hand of us, they
will treat us savagely, very different from what we do them.
They will not suffer us to hold our mass. The Huguenots
are dangerous politicians, as has been lately shown in Eng
land and in France." Such at least was the opinion of that
day. * See the last edition of the Dictionnaire de TrevouXj
1 771 — " Tolerance is a word getting into use. It is the weak
who raise such outcries for Toleration."— Curiosities of Lite
rature, second series, ii. 397.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 175
were straining to reconcUe the most repulsive
difficulties. We are now to open some extraordinary
incidents which seemed equally inexplicable
and alarming to contemporaries, and which
many stUl consider as no doubtful evidence of
the concealed disposition to Popery of Charles
the First.
There were divisions among the Romish
priests in England. The celebrity of the Je
suits, and the favouritism they enjoyed with
the Roman Pontiff, had awakened the com
plaints and jealousies of the secular priests :
and between the Jesuits and their foreign
principles, and these priests of English birth,
who though they were rigid Roman Catholics,
cherished the feelings of Englishmen, existed
irreconcUeable hatreds.
The hopeless reunion of the two Churches,
the real source of aU James's compHances and
arts, was stUl the fatal seduction of the Mi
nister of Charles'. Like James, Laud would
probably have acknowledged the Church of
Rome to be the mother-church, provided she
would have owned her daughter. The loyalty
and allegiance of his own Catholics only, was
required by the Sovereign. What else could
he want from the Court of Rome?

176 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
This reunion was often discussed, and great
indulgences were granted to the pacifying
priests. The Queen's Confessor, Father Philip,
was for softening and smoothing and even
altering some insurmountable points ; Panzani
was desirous of assisting in this work of amity ;
and on this system of reconciliation several
books were published by the priests. Charles
had long been prepared to trust to this chi
merical project ; for James was disposed to
treat some of the Roman doctrines — their tran-
substantiation, invocation of saints, and tenets
of similar concoction, merely as " scholastic
questions," as he termed them in one of his
speeches. But the whole fabric of Roman su
perstitions stands, as it were, like witchcraft ;
and would the Thaumaturgus throw open his
mystical bulwarks, that the creeping spirit of
Protestantism might, with a Judas-kiss, plant
its revolutionary standard there ?
Charles the First was particularly pleased
with a work of Franciscus a San eta Clara, a
Franciscan friar, alias Father Davenport : it
was designed to bend the Roman Catholic sys
tem as nearly as it could, to the Protestant.
But, however it gratified the Enghsh monarch,
at Rome it was immediately condemned, and
the writer summoned to appear before a tri-

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 177
bunal, where to appear is to be guUty. Father
PhUip incessantly interceded with the Papal
Cabinet to forbear rigorous proceedings against
Davenport, who, while he was a favourite with
the English Court and the Learned, at the
same time professed perfect obedience to the
Papal decisions. The book was condemned,
but the censure was not published, and the
writer's excuse of personal infirmity was ac
cepted for the journey to Rome.
But what the intolerant genius of Rome
deemed of the tendency of this work, so grate
ful to Charles and Laud, appears in one of
those numerous passages in the manuscript
copy of Panzani's Memoirs, which the editor
has suppressed in the printed volume. " This
work in Rome was thought very dangerous,
because it laboured to accord together the same
Enghsh schismatical- Church with the Roman
Catholic ; that is to say, Hell with Heaven ; or
rather, as the English Catholics used to say,
the author would join together Christ with
Luther." Another edition came forth. The Jesuits,
enraged at this new offence, instantly published
the censure it lay under at Rome. Davenport
apologised, declaring that the new edition had
appeared without his consent, and submitted
N

178 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
himself entirely to the decision of his Holiness.
However, the Franciscan would not trust
himself with his ItaUan sovereign, while he
reposed under the protection of his English
monarch. The fact, however, of the condemnation of
the book could no longer be concealed from the
King, while another work by Father Courtenay,
which Rome had highly approved, asserted the
Pope's deposing power. Charles was so deeply
irritated, that Panzani found that it was scarce
ly in the Queen's power to pacify the English
monarch respecting these artful proceedings of
the Roman pontiff.
To me it is evident, although I do not find
the fact noticed by former historians, that
Government secretly patronised these Eng
hsh priests, who in this country were assid
uously employed in emancipating the Ro
man CathoHcs from their temporal slavery
to the Court of Rome. I proceed to show
that these priests looked up to the English
Court for protection from theh implacable
enemies the Jesuits.
An extraordinary incident occurred, which
at the time alarmed the English public, and
apparently sanctioned the prevalent notion of
Charles's devotion to Rome.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 179
In the prison of the Clink, several priests
had long found an asylum. Some who had
been condemned to imprisonment for the space
of sixteen years since, (the gunpowder trea
son,) and had been discharged more than seven
years, stUl voluntarUy remained in prison. By
some officious informer, the Marshal of Mid
dlesex was urged to obtain a warrant from the
Attorney General to search the Clink, " to
seize aU Popish and superstitious matters." A
very extraordinary scene was now exhibited.
The Marshal discovered a number of priests
who were attended by men and women ser
vants. One Father Preston occupied a range
of three or four apartments, part of the Bishop
of Winchester's house, forming a large library,
" supposed to be worth two thousand pounds
at least," and described " with shelves like a
bookseUer's shop." There he found also altars
ready furnished for mass, rich crucifixes, cha
lices of silver and of gold, bags of money un
opened, and abundance of manuscripts. In the
apartments of one Father Cannon, among simi
lar things, particularly " his holy water, which
he instantly cast out into the chimney," there
was a smaU coUection of pictures, a crucifixion,
a Magdalen, all of high price. What seemed
remarkable, there were pictures of Queen Eli-
N2

180 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
zabeth, King James, and King Charles— "the
taking of the pictures did exceedingly move
the priests to impatience." There was a portrait
of an old priest, named Collington, of whom
Cannon affirmed, in his scoffing manner, " that
that man's beard had done King James more
hurt than an army of ten thousand men could
have done." Other chambers were stored
with similar objects, abundance of books, great
wealth, boxes of oU for extreme unction, much
trash, with plenty of " church stuff."
On the first assault of the Marshal, the
priests were melancholy and thoughtful ; and
while the Marshal was so busily occupied in
locking up the apartments, or in breaking into
them, the priests seemed only anxious to con
vey a notice of their situation to the Arch
bishop ; and when they heard that their message
had reached his Grace, they suddenly expressed
their joy, that now nothing would be suffered
to be removed away. " And it came to pass
accordingly," says the Marshal in his report.
For having locked up stores of wealth in va
rious apartments, and while we were in full
search in the third chamber, a countermand
was brought from the Archbishop and the At
torney General, and the Marshal and his men
forbidden to take away as much as a paper.*
* Rushworth, i. 240.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 181
This scene is somewhat strange, and exhibits
several mysterious circumstances.
It is evident, whoever these English priests
might be, and there were others in the same
predicament in other prisons, that they consider
ed themselves tenants for life. They accepted
even a voluntary imprisonment ; they turned
their prison into a monastery, and their labours
were their studies — their large libraries, their
catalogues of books priced, their great wealth,
their rich church-ornaments, and every object
about them, indicated that they were neither
obscure nor forgotten. They could not be dis
loyal subjects, for Father Cannon had discover
ed in his pictures, not only curiosity of taste,
but curiosity of loyalty ; for he would not have
coUected a series of the portraits of our English
monarchs, had he looked on them with the
eyes of a Jesuit.
We are let into the secret history of these
priests by the letter which the Archbishop
(Abbot) wrote to the Attorney General on the
Marshal's seizure and disturbance of this nest
of priests. " Good Mr. Attorney,
" I thank you for acquainting me what was
done yesterday at the CHnk ; but I am of opi
nion, that if you had curiously inquired upon

182 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
the gentleman who gave the information, you
should have found him to be a disciple of the
Jesuits ; for they do nothing but put tricks on
these poor men, who do live more miserable
lives than if they were in the Inquisition in
many parts beyond the sea.
" By taking the oath of allegiance, and writ
ing in defence of it, and opening some points
of high consequence, they have so displeased
the Pope, that if by any cunning they could
catch them, they are sure to be burnt or stran
gled for it. And once there was a plot to have
taken Preston as he passed the Thames, and to
have shipped him into a bigger vessel, and so to
have transported him into Flanders, there to
have made a martyr of him* In respect of
* Father Preston was the great champion for the oath of
allegiance, and wrote several books in its defence, in answer
to Bellarmine, Suarez, &c. under the name of Roger Wid-
drington. He was a learned Benedictine, and missionary in
the reign of James and Charles. He stood out long against
the intreaties of his friends, and the menaces of Rome ; but
after this firm and even successful resistance having prevailed
with many, both clergy and regular, to join with him, I find
that this able champion in so noble a cause, Englishman as
he was, surrendered all his rights and his understanding to
despotic Rome ! How, therefore, could a Protestant, for a
moment, depend on the conviction of a Romanist, since the
firmest advocates for tendering allegiance to their English

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 183
these things, King James always gave his pro
tection to Preston and Warrington, as may be
easily shown. Cannon is an old man well-
affected to the cause, but meddleth not with
any factions or seditions.
" They complain their books were taken
f rom them,, and a crucifix of gold, with some
other things, which, I hope, are not carried out
of the house, but may be restored again unto
them; for it is in vain to think that priests
wiU be without their beads or pictures, models
of their saints ; and it is not improbable that
before a crucifix they do often say their prayers.
" I leave the things to your best considera
tion, and hope that this deed of yours, together
with my word, wiU restrain them for giving
offence hereafter, if so be that lately they did
give any. I heartUy recommend me unto you,
and so rest Your loving friend, G. Cant."
We have now an idea of the real occupation
of these priests, and the necessity of their volun-
sovereign, in the face of their own arguments, and against
tke very oaths they have offered, were backsliders into the
supernatural darkness of the Roman cavern. — Dodd's Church
History, ii. 420.

184 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
tary confinement, for their own personal safety.
Their object was to emancipate their fellow
Romanists from their foreign despotism ; they
were in heart, or at least in outward appear
ance, true-born Englishmen; but they were
not the less Roman Catholics ; and while the
series of the coUected portraits of the English
monarchs marks their patriotic feehng, the flout
of old Father Cannon, " that CoUington's beard
had done James the First more damage than
an army of ten thousand men," shows that
though ready to acknowledge the English mo
narch as his Sovereign, the priest held but
Hghtly his skUl in divinity.
The ignoble means practised by the Papal
Court to silence their refractory subjects, is not
exaggerated by the Archbishop. The historian
of the Roman Catholics himself notices the fate
of an unfortunate Benedictine, who, having
written against the temporal power of the
Pope and the loose casuistry of the Jesuits,
was decoyed abroad, and confined for twenty
years a prisoner at Rome.* That implacable
tribunal could not even forgive the miserable
apostate who returned to its bosom ; for while it
pardoned it pronounced his death, as appeared
by the mysterious fate of the Archbishop of
* Dodd's Church History, iii. 101.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 185
Spalatro, who was lured to quit England, and
to expiate his apostasy at Rome. The more
modern fate of the great historian of Naples,
whose learned genius dared to investigate the
sources of the ecclesiastical power, attests that
Power's unrelenting intolerance. Giannone,
enticed from his retreat in a neutral dominion,
betrayed, and cast into a tower, in the tender
ness of Papal mercy was suffered to exist in
Solitude. We have now ascertained the design of
Charles the First and his minister in their in
tercourse and protection of that smaU party of
the English Roman Catholics who would not
refuse their oath of allegiance to their native
sovereign, and who occupied themselves in wri
ting books to enlighten their fellow Roman
ists. Their little success attests the desperate
cause they advocated. The result of this tem
porising spirit of the English Government,
which we have with some pains developed,
was to renew the jealousies of their own people,
and to leave their own character in history
doubtful and ambiguous.
It is said that Charles the First, in the course
of his reign, discharged more than eleven thou
sand priests. They were sent to prison by
shoals, and regularly every year great numbers

186 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
were Hberated by privy seal. This appeared
very strange to the public. A statute of EH
zabeth, confirmed by James, had declared that
aU natural subjects in priest's orders by the
authority of the Roman See, were traitors, and
were condemned for execution. It was con
sidered by Parliament, in 1640, that Charles I.
was censurably remiss in not hanging aU these
priests ; and the King's conduct on that occa
sion discovers his perplexity.
One John Goodman, convicted of being a
Romish priest, was condemned, but reprieved
by the King ; on this reprieve the Commons
hold a conference with the Lords, and petition
for his execution. The King, in his answer,
observed that when the Recorder had attended
on him, as usual, with the names and crimes of
convicts, he had found that Goodman had been
condemned for being in priest's orders ; but
that he had been acquitted of perverting the
people in their belief. Tender of blood in cases
of conscience, the King considered that such a
man was fitter to be banished or imprisoned.
This produced a remonstrance, urging the jus
tice of the law* A deputation of the Houses
waited on the King ; when one of the King's
arguments was, that " Elizabeth and James did
* Rushworth, iv. 158.

.•»

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 187
never avow that any priest in their time was
executed merely for religion." The King how
ever (it was in 1640) declares that since he is
pressed for execution, he would not discontent
the people, and he whoUy remits the prisoner
to the mercy of both Houses ; but he adds, " I
desire ye to take, into consideration the incon
veniences "which may on this occasion fall on
my subjects and other Protestants abroad, since
it may seem to other States to be a severity.
I have told you this, and now think myself
discharged from aU ill consequences that may
ensue from the execution of this priest."
The Royal answer Was received with hum
ming, as BaiUie informs us ; and this mark of
their approbation attests that the majority of
the members were not yet perfectly trained
up for mere party purposes.
In this dUemma, the noble conduct of the
unhappy convict himself appears to have re
lieved both parties. Goodman petitioned to
be executed, that " he might not live the sub
ject of so great discontent in your people
against your Majesty. If this storm be raised
for my sake, let me be cast into the sea, that
others may avoid the tempest: my blood will
be well shed to cement the breach between
your Majesty and your subjects on this

188 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
occasion." This magnanimous offer of his
life seemed to have disarmed the Com
mons, for nothing more occurred about this
priest. On this case, I must observe on two histo
rians. Even Mr. Brodie alludes to " the in
tolerance of the Commons," and would apo
logise for it, by insinuating that the secret
motive of persecuting this priest after the
reprieve, was the fear of the rising party in
the Commons, " lest the suspension of the
law in the case of Goodman, should pave the
way for the pardon of Strafford." It must be
confessed, that he here makes our patriots as
tute pupils in the school of Machiavel ; for
with this motive we must suppose them to
have preconcerted their plans, and taken long
views of their future operations. The Presby
ter Neale, in composing his own history of
the sufferings of Nonconformity, one might
have imagined, would have felt a more tole
rant spirit ; yet he not only asserts that it was
strange in Charles to allege that Elizabeth
and James did not hang men for being Papists,
since many were executed for denying the
Supremacy, &c, but, without any reserve, he
condemns the King for not hanging the priests;
and he has favoured us with the secret motive

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 189
of the unhappy monarch. " Such was his Ma
jesty's attachment to this people, to the appa
rent hazard of the Protestant religion, and the
peace of the kingdom." Such are the passion
ate historians of party ! They take up the
vulgar impressions of the great objects of their
inquiries when these are convenient, and rarely
view them as Statesmen, and much less as
philosophers. Charles's hint of the probable
retaHation abroad had, no doubt, raised the
" humming" of the wiser members.
A year afterwards, however, the same prin
ciple was acted on, and terminated in the same
result. The scene, however, was on a wider
scale, for in one week they petitioned to have
seven priests hanged.
At this moment, in December 1641, Charles
was still more subdued, while the patriotic party
was still more popular. The King did not, how
ever, alter his conduct, which finally produced
the same result. The recent Irish massacre had
embittered the spirit of the Commons, and
offers some excuse for their unworthy persecu
tion of seven miserable men.
Seven priests were convicted in one week,
and, as usual, reprieved by the King, who, in
a message to the House, informed them that
the French ambassador had interceded to have

190 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
their sentence changed into banishment. The
Commons desire the concurrence of the Lords
to hang five of the seven priests; and the Lords
confer with them to learn the curious reason
why five should be executed and two saved ?
I do not find the reason recorded. If it were
on any principle of mercy, it lost that virtue in
its progress ; for I find the House petitioning to
hang without exception. The King repHed,
that if the Houses would consent, he would
banish these seven priests ; and as they returned
no answer, the King suspended this sanguinary
execution. It appears that, two months afterwards, when
the Venetian ambassador reported that the
Pope threatened to land an army in Ireland
if these priests were executed, the Commons
indignantly renewed their petition. The King
now hinted at the dread of retaHation by
the Irish Rebels and again left the priests to
the mercy of the Parliament. As they could
neither agree to pardon or to hang, they were
silent.* * I find a memorandum, that on this occasion, in the
Lords, the Bishops withdrew themselves before the voting
of the question, it being in agitatione causa sanguinis. On
this principle, the Inquisition burn men, that they may not
shed blood. Had the Bishops betrayed this humanity in the

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 191
But these difficulties of the King greatly
prejudiced him in the public opinion, and the
clemency shown to Goodman and the seven
priests was easily ascribed alike by Royalist and
by Puritan, equally alarmed, to the influence of
the Queen. Charles was always protesting
that he would put the laws in execution, yet
he never faded in contriving some means to
elude them. Our honest Rapin is sadly per
plexed to account for such contrary proceed
ings ; for whUe he candidly confesses that
Charles was not " possibly affected," yet during
the first fifteen years of his reign he not only
screened the Roman Catholics from the rigours
of the law, but even countenanced them by
confiding to their care some of the most im
portant offices, — as those of Privy- CounciUors,
Secretaries of State, and Lords Lieutenants of
counties. The opinions and motives of con
duct of this monarch may be more obvious
Star Chamber, they would have shown to the world that they
did not resemble the Spanish Inquisition. The story of the
seven priests I drew from Nalson, ii. 732-740. I wished to
confront his statement with Rushworth ; but, to my surprise,
I find no notice of the conferences of the Houses about
hanging these seven priests. Did Rushworth judge that
this piece of history would be little honourable to the wisdom
or the humanity of the popular party ? The omission must
have been voluntary, and impeaches his integrity.

192 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
to us than to his contemporaries. Charles
unquestionably had often conciUated his nu
merous Roman Catholic subjects, and most
of them afterwards displayed their inviolable
loyalty, for in the civil wars that loyalty did
not interfere with that creed which bound them
to their foreign sovereign at Rome. , The
King and his Minister feU victims to the
vain hope of amalgamating them with the
great body of the Protestants. As for the
affair of these priests, Charles weU knew that
they were not of that class which had terrified
his father as well as Elizabeth : they were not
gunpowder traitors, poisoners of saddles, or ra
pier men who were to fall on the beefeaters ;
some were bookmen, who had engaged their
inkstands in the cause which the monarch was
so desirous to maintain. He knew them to
be zealots, who at least suffered for conscience
sake ; many were condemned merely for having
taken priest's orders, though Hving obscurely
as the disguised dependents of some ancient
Roman Catholic famUy. Could he, divesting
himself of the true dignity of a sovereign, and
of that intelligence which the office of sove
reignty should include, run with the clamours
of a party and the illusions of the people?
Charles could not have imagined that the com-

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 193
monweal was to be preserved by a hecatomb
of miserable priests. Much we grant to the
panic of those unhappy times, and more to the
passions ; but can we entertain a doubt that
the merciless persecutions of these priests was
one of the stalking-horses of party ?
I cannot quit this subject without pausing
on one of the most pathetic incidents in this
history of human nature — the situation and the
feelings of these most miserable men, the Ro
man Catholic priests. How many inevitable
crimes, and how many untold sufferings never
appear in the history of a people !
One of the Capuchins, who attended on
Henrietta, has left a memoir, which affords us
the secret history of that devoted party. Pere
Gamache writes with the simplicity of a child,
and he convinces me of his sincerity, even
when he describes some miracles which he him
self witnessed. He perpetuaUy reiterates that
there can be no other religion than the Catholic
Apostolical and Roman ; it is the true religion,
founded by Jesus Christ, and was the only one
in which a mortal soul could be saved.
It appears, that by " the solid reasons" which
his great genius could enforce, Pere Gamache
was very adroit in converting young ladies
and old gentlemen. He exults in the mar-
o

194 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
tyrdoms which he certainly witnessed in Eng
land, under " the detestable Parliament."
The pursuivants, who were employed to
hunt out Romanists, he describes generally as
persons of an infamous character ; the greater
number consisting of apostates, whose intimacy
with the haunts and customs of their former
associates assisted their pursuits. They had
free entrance into the houses of Romanists at-
all hours, and priest-catching became actually
a wicked trade, in which they laid traps and di
rected decoys to inveigle their victims. These
pursuivants resembled the worst class of Bow-
street runners, if it be true that some of them
verify an old proverb. The priests, aU En
glishmen, were dragged to prison, and from the
prison conducted to the gaUows. On the mere
conviction of being a priest, either by their
own confession, or the deposition of witnesses,
these men were condemned to execution by act
of Parliament. These helpless beings, whose
profession the Government had made a state-
crime, passed through that most revolting of
tortures — the bloody tragedy of quartering
alive. The Capuchins, who still remained in Eng
land, after the departure of Henrietta, awaiting

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 195
her return, now disguised in their persons, for
their beards would have been in their way, by
bribing the jailors, were admitted to visit the
condemned priests, and offer their spiritual aid ;
and as the matter was understood, the jailor's
Protestantism melting away in his hand, he
would lock them all night in the cells, and thus
secure the imprisoned the rites of their religion.
The priests said the mass, received the con
fessions, distributed the adorable sacrament of
the Eucharist, and received from the hands of
those who in a few hours were to be saints,
images bearing some signature from their
blessed hands, and relics which the Romanists
would coUect with avidity. Such were the
Vigils of Martyrdom !
" These faithful and generous warriors of
God," exclaims Pere Gamache, " issued from
the prison-gate to their glory." At the tree,
some disguised priest would insinuate himself
among the crowd to grant absolution to the
condemned man ; it was done by a secret sign
agreed on, either by holding down the head or
Hfting the arms, but if the disguised Capuchin,
in the fervour of his act, should have betrayed
himself, the barbarous cry from the mob, of
"Priest ! Priest !" was a fatal signal that imme-
o 2

196 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
diate disappearance could alone save his life.
I shall not detail the succeeding horrors : they
have been already told. *
Some of these priests rejoiced when they
listened to their barbarous sentence — it secured
them the martyrdom they aspired to. There
were others who loved Hfe, without yielding
up their religious faith. Gamache one night
waited on five condemned priests. One was
more sullen than the others ; he had flattered
himself, by his great interest, that he should
be saved, but the King at that moment could
not exert his clemency, and yielded to the
Parliament these five priests. The news was
brought to the suUen priest that he must die
in the morning. At that moment, when all
hope failed, a sudden change took place ; he
was now as desirous to die, as he had before
been reluctant. " It is better for me," he
cried, " that I perish to-morrow in the cause
of Jesus ! Fathers ! let us rejoice for this di
vine favour!" The supper was before them,
" Hold !" he cried, " we will rejoice !" and giv
ing money to the attendants, he bid them
go and fetch some Spanish wine. He passed
* See the History of Chidiock Titchbourne, in Curiosities
of Literature. — First Series, vol. iii.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 197
the supper-hour in innocent gaiety, and then
they prayed till the break of morning, and he
died with the same courage as the others.
One of these priests, by an ingenious trick,
resolved to give a singular testimony of his re
ligious faith before an innumerable multitude.
" This generous soldier of Jesus" on the scaf
fold, the cord already about his neck, addressing
the sheriff, said, " Sir, you see me condemned
to death, not for any crime against the King or
the State, but simply for having said mass, and
being a priest. Death is terrible of itself even
for the most resolute, — what will be done for
me if I renounce the Catholic religion, and
become Protestant ?" " You shall be saved
from this shameful and bloody death, you shall
have Hfe, and the means of living." This offer
he expected, and it gave him an opportunity of
turning to the people, to show that life had
been offered to him, and that he now rejected
it for his religion. The sheriff provoked or
dered immediate execution, but the Romanists
rejoiced, and some Protestants were touched by
pity — it is well that Pere Gamache did not add
that they were all converted.*
* Although I give more credit to Pere Gamache's Me
moirs than some of my readers will incline to, I .nust at the
same time observe, that his feelings are so perfectly papistical

198 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
To the Catholic, the deaths of these priests
were so many martyrdoms, and deeming them
such, they used every means, and spared no cost
to procure some of their remains, as the most
precious and authentic relics. To dip some me
morial in their blood, — to snatch a heart still
beating with life from the flame,— to preserve
the dismembered Hmb of a victim, — were ob
jects which the Romanists had at heart, and
which it appears, were often supplied by the ava
rice of the executioner. The pious ambassador
of Portugal was desirous of procuring the head
of one of these priests — this was a most difficult
acquisition, for the heads were always placed on
spikes over London-bridge, all counted and out
of reach. The ambassador, however, sent for
that they at times deeply imbue, and give a false colour to
his style. I will not think that the Capuchin was capable of
inventing stories, but that he told them to great advantage
for his own cause. In the present anecdote he says, that
the sheriff offered the priest, in case of his abjuring his po
pery, that he should be recompensed de quelque opulent bene
fice. Now it is not probable that a Roman Catholic, with
a rope about his neck, abjuring his creed for his life, could
ever be trusted with any church preferment, and therefore,
Pere Gamache must here, and elsewhere, be charged with a
little pious fraud, and with twisting facts, which are true in
themselves, to his own particular purpose, which makes
them false.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 199
the executioner, offered a large sum for a par
ticular head, and paid half the money down.
Ketch, if he took one head, found it absolutely
necessary to place another, to prevent any
inquiry. He hit on an expedient worthy of
himself. At night he opened a fresh grave,
cut off the head of his neighbour, and climbing
to the top over the bridge, succeeded in spik
ing the Protestant's head and carrying off the
martyr's, but in his trepidation he fractured
a limb, and just escaping from the Thames,
carried the remembrance of converting a pro-
testant's head into a papist's to the day of his
death. Such were these fated priests, and such the
adoration of the Romanists !
In the cause of civil and religious freedom,
we have persecuted — 'but our persecutions at
least have been in detaU. A principle more
terrific is the eternal reproach of the Romanist,
the massacre — the auto-da-fe" — the expulsion of
a whole people of fellow-citizens — these are
written in blood, in the histories of Italy, of
France, and of Spain. Centuries of persecu
tion have passed over, yet of all men, the
religious are least reconciled to one another !
We must not look in the Gospel for the cause
— it is among themselves.

200 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
To return to our original subject. The other
critical difficulty of our sovereign arose out of
the state-reasons, which often interfered with a
rash compliance with the reiterated petitions of
Parliament, against the Romanists. At every
proclamation which our Government issued
against this unhappy race, at the instigation of
their alarmed and jealous Protestants, remon
strances were renewed by the great European
powers ; retaliation was provoked, and one fre
quent cause of relaxing the severity of our penal
code was the desire to abate that spirit of per
secution, which Rome busily revived against
the Continental reformed. The emancipation
of the British Romanists was one of the great
state-interests of France and Spain. It always
formed one of the chief articles in their treaties,
and was the subject of the incessant represen
tations of their resident ambassadors. When
ever James the First had to propitiate the fo
reign powers, a habit which his pacific system
too often indulged, a conciliatory style to
wards the CathoHcs was held out to his Par
liament, which was sure to revive the dread
response of "the alarming growth of the
Austrian power, and the state of our poor
oppressed brethren abroad." To further the
projected alliances with Spain, and afterwards

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 201
with France, the execution of the penal laws
against the Romanists was suspended ; but
Fuller describes the popular uneasiness in his
own manner. " The people, suspected that
if the treaties took effect, more water of the
Tyber, than of the Thames, would run down
London-bridge." It is to these cabinet mea
sures which James aUuded in one of his later
speeches. " It is true, that at times, for reasons
best known to myself, I did not so fully put the
laws in execution, but did wink and connive at
some things that might have hindered more
weighty affairs." Charles also assigned the
reason of his lenient conduct to the Roman
Catholics, when his third Parliament seemed
in dread of the designs of Popery. " It had
been with the hope that foreign Princes would
have used the like moderation towards the
Protestants, but not finding the fruits of it, he
was now resolved to add some farther severity
to what the petition desired." A statesman
like answer ! The King could not contend with
the voice of the people, but in yielding to it,
he gave this public warning to foreign powers,
of the necessity of a reciprocal forbearance.
Foreign cabinets imagined that it only de
pended on the will of the English Monarch to
grant an open toleration to his Catholics ; and

202 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
therefore the repugnance which James and
Charles showed to put forth an open declaration
in their favour, at the very time they consent
ed to a suspension of the penal laws, argued to
them an uncertain grant, and seemed a gross
duplicity. And whenever it happened, as it
frequently occurred, that the temporary quiet
which the CathoHcs enjoyed, roused the fears
of the people, and Parliament, too often ope
rating on these panics, caUed out for the severe
execution of the penal laws against the Catho
lics, the EngUsh Sovereign was denounced by
France, and Spain, and Italy, for disingenuous-
ness and perfidy. James always assured the
foreign ambassadors that he could only grant
a connivance, but not an open toleration, to his
Catholic subjects.
These critical difficulties were perpetuaUy re
curring. The secret though slight intercourse
which Charles held with Rome, diffused a ter
ror through the nation ; yet we may now learn
that on his side the sole objects of that inter
course were the restitution of the Palatinate—
and perpetual projects to alleviate the state of
his own Roman CathoHc subjects, and secure
his royal supremacy, by passing over in silence
his ecclesiastical. The administration of his
Minister Laud was, on the same principle, to

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 203
melt two opposite faiths into one, by a reunion
of the churches ; and thus to reconcile contra
ries which attempt ended so fatally.
Yet the popular error run, that the Protestant
cause had been utterly abandoned ; and those
popular panics a party knew well how to direct
for their own purposes. The prejudices against
Charles for his connivance of Popery, proved
fatal to him in many of the -most critical pe
riods of his reign. The Queen's "idolatry" was
always a lively reveil, for the Royalists were
as jealous of the King in this respect as the
Parliamentarians and the Puritans.
The mysterious conduct of Charles the First
in the transactions of Ireland is explained by
the principle we have developed. Speaking
of the Irish Rebels, i. e. the Roman Catholics
in 1643, Warburton, with his usual candour
and sagacity, in his notes on Clarendon, excul
pates the King, as " perfectly free from blame
throughout this whole Irish affair from first to
last." The Parliament had raised a clamour
that Charles had instigated this rebeUion to dis
tress the nation ; the King gaUantly offered to
go in person to quell it, but they were averse
to trust him. The truth, however, appears
to be that Charles was most earnest to have, a
peace on any terms.

204 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
The later transaction with the romantic and
self-devoted Glamorgan, was long a tale of
mystery, and still affords a triumph to those
who imagine they obtain one when they black
en the character of an unfortunate Monarch in
a most hopeless condition.
This chivalric Earl, a Papist, who fought for
his King as for his God, and whose noble mu
nificence maintained a small army for the Sove
reign, was just the hero to grace a desperate
cause. Charles had looked towards Ireland for
aid, and had long experienced the devotion
of the Catholic Glamorgan, for whom he had
a personal affection. The vision of lost sove
reignty seemed at times to hover on the island
of loyalty and Catholicism. By the means of
Glamorgan, unknown to his own council in
Ireland, Charles had more than hopes that he
should succeed in engaging the Roman Ca
tholics on his side. Glamorgan, afterwards
the famed Marquess of Worcester, in rap
ture flew to the secret mission, furnished
with blank commissions, and with perhaps un-
Hmited credentials to negotiate with the Nun
cio of his Holiness, who had arrived in Ire
land " to propagate the Catholic religion,'' and
probably for a more politic purpose. Every
thing now feU into its usual course ; the Pope

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 205
pressing on a monarch without sovereignty,
wrenched from the distressed Prince whatever
favours he claimed. The Irish CathoHcs ap
peared exercising independent power, under a
supreme council of their own, flattering them
selves too that they were about to have a Ro
mish sovereign in the yielding Charles. The
Earl closed a most accommodating treaty with
his Catholics, and by one of those petty, yet
extraordinary accidents which have sometimes
disconcerted the deepest laid plans, the treaty
fell into the hands of the Parliament, who
eagerly published what was so well adapted
to excite the clamours and the fears of the
English nation, — the popery of Charles ! The
King's friends were equally astonished ; and in
Dublin, the Duke of Ormond, for the King's
honour, immediately arrested, under a charge
of high treason, the noble adventurer. Charles,
in this inevitable necessity, as statesmen have
too often practised, publicly disclaimed his
knowledge of the conduct of Glamorgan ; as
sured the Duke of Ormond that he had never
intended Glamorgan should have acted with
out his privity, while he wrote to Glamorgan,
to express his unbounded affection, and to la
ment over their mutual unhappy condition.
The Catholics and the Protestants were struck

206 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
with equal consternation, and the unhappy Mo
narch tasted the bitterness in his solitude.
Glamorgan, had he betrayed his master's state-
secret, could have proved the authority of
his acts, but he willingly took on himself the
odium of this fatal negotiation. Indiscretion
and zeal to restore his King and his religion,
had inspired this political religious adventure,
but Glamorgan was more fortunately ardent in
his scientific " inventions," than in his pohtical
ones. The close of this affair long lay con
cealed in mystery ; the RoyaHsts asserting that
Glamorgan's commission was of his own con
trivance, a pretended or a forged one.*
* It was only when Dr. Birch published his curious " In
quiry into the share which Charles the First had in the
transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan," that we were fur
nished with those genuine documents of modern history —
the letters of the parties concerned. This volume set the
affair at rest : we have here complete evidence of the duplicity
of the King's conduct in this project, and it still affords a
triumph to a certain party, who, though they can criminate
a helpless man in a hopeless condition, want the sagacity to
judge of political conduct by human nature and philosophy.
Hume has delivered his opinion with the charm of philoso
phical simplicity. " Some, even at present, when the an
cient bigotry is somewhat abated, are desirous of representing
this very innocent transaction, in which the King was engaged
by the most violent necessity, as a stain on the memory of
that unfortunate Prince !" vii. 68.

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 207
Miserable was the condition of the king who
was so often driven to these miserable expedi
ents. Left alone to act in the midst of vio
lence and war, after the loss of the battle of
Naseby, he had resolved, in despair, to engage
the Irish Romanists. Their forces cast into the
scales of fortune might have turned them.
But in this attempt Charles placed himself in a
dUemma. To have done this openly would
have struck with jealousies and terrors his
Protestant people, and the doing it secretly
has countenanced an opinion with some that
Charles would have sacrificed the religion and
constitution of his country. His success would
have been pronounced a coup d'etat ; his Hi-for
tune has cast on him the odium of a duplicity
of conduct into which his hard fate too often
hurried him. This frequent contradiction in the
conduct of the EngUsh sovereigns, has seemed
inexplicable both to their apologists and their
censurers. Mr. Brodie, observing on Charles
the First's " insincere deahng in regard to recu
sants," which he teUs us, " even his apologists
admit," cannot account for " the line of po
Ucy which the ministers of the crown pursued,
when they endeavoured to alarm ParUament by
the audacious proceedings of Jesuits.''* In the
* Brodie, ii. 174.

208 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
one case the King protected these unhappy Ro
manists, the Recusants, from the fury of the
popular prejudices as long as he could ; and in
the other xie was compelled to sacrifice them to
the popular feeling, to obtain supplies from the
Commons. This is the true picture of the complicated
state in which James and Charles were involved
between the jarring interests of their Romanists
and their Protestants.
The subject before us may be illustrated by
the position of other monarchs and ministers
abroad, since the Reformation ; and we shall
invariably find that the people so little com
prehended their designs, that these eminent
personages have incurred the same public cen
sure, though, in fact, they were devoting them
selves to the pubhc cause.
Henry the Fourth of France, a genius born
for empire, himself a Protestant Monarch,
doomed to rule over a Roman Catholic nation,
could see no stability in his Government, if he
persisted in protesting against the authority of
Papal Rome ; his state-policy cut the gordian
knot of theological politics, and with equal
fortitude and prudence he bent to human cir
cumstances. The one was sacrificed to the
many. But the hand which subscribed a public
profession of Popery, at the same time signed

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 209
the benevolent Edict of Nantes, which con
ferred toleration on his oppressed Protes
tants. But Henry has incurred the usual
odium of apostasy from the Protestants he
loved ! Cardinal Richelieu found himself
much in the same predicament, and by act
ing in the same manner, drew on himself the
odium of his own Romanists. The Cardinal,
having granted a peace to his Huguenots,
was instantly assailed by his enemies as a
man of no rehgion. Libels were showered
on him from every part of Roman Catholic
Europe. He was caUed " the Cardinal de la
Rochelle ; the Patriarch of Atheists ; the Pope
of the Calvinists." He felt these aspersions
sensibly, and the burning of these libels did not
suppress them. Yet certainly it was not any
lukewarmness in the cause of Papistry which
had induced this subtile Cardinal to treat here
tics with forbe.arance ; his secret intention was
far opposite to what appeared, and it was not
necessary to inform the Huguenots that he
had only deceived them. After 1628, no one
accused Richelieu of tolerating heretics. " He
never discovered more ability as a statesman," ob
serves Le Clerc, "than at the moment his conduct
suffered such popular censure," and which cen
sure came from those for whose cause he acted.

210 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH
In the great intercourse of European nations,
politicians seem doomed to act by indirect
means. An open avowal of the real purpose
of the negotiator would close at once aU ne
gotiation ; for such complicate and clashing
interests can only be accorded by the tedious-
ness of mutual accommodation. In the most
successful negotiation, the most active genius
has only gained the most he could, and yielded
the least he was forced to. Hence those dark
and intricate practices of state-poHcy, state-
secrecy, and state-craft; subterfuges, expedi
ents, connivances, and the juggle of deeeptious
treaties. We may smile at the mystifying
style of James the First, but it vefls a dark
truth— " You must not dip too deep in what
kings reserve among themselves, among the
arcana imperii." He alluded to those dflem-
mas whose horns transfix both the sovereign
and the people.
And this unhappy result must happen, that
often, while the statesman is earnestly engaged
in obtaining the objects of popular interest, by
means which appear quite contrary to their
purpose, — like James and Charles, and Henry
and Richelieu, — he is suspected and condemned.
Yet who but the statesman in office can know

CATHOLIC SUBJECTS. 211
the secrets of Cabinets ? the humours of the
influential persons — the projects of the mo
ment — the divided interests, the strength and
the weakness of the parties? These can
never reach the people at large, and may not
always be comprehended, even by their re
presentatives. Such are the cabals of statesmen ! In ac
cording incongruous interests, and with all
the infirmities of human nature about them, a
more open conduct on their part seems hope
less. The perfectibility of politics must be
deferred to the day of the perfectibUity of
man : a miUenarian poHtician would be a very
romantic historian.
The critical and variable situation of our
sovereigns, in regard to their Roman CathoHc
subjects, long formed a political phenomenon
which perplexed contemporaries, and has puz
zled historians. It occasioned the English
monarch, as we have shown, sometimes to ex
cite the clamours of his own people, and some
times the murmurs of foreign Cabinets, and
has caused an apparent contradiction in the
professions and the acts of the sovereign. The
mysterious motives and the involved principles
which led to this paradoxical result, could not
p 2

212 CRITICAL DIFFICULTIES, &C
have escaped the scrutiny of our historians,
had they written with less partiality, and with
far more philosophical investigation : in a word,
had they dared to look upwards to the fair
countenance of Truth, which aU parties have
so often veiled.

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 213

CHAPTER VII.
THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
It was a single blow, I repeat, which for
ever separated our fellow-countrymen among
themselves, but the stroke Was not human !
The supernatural royalty of the Papacy was an
invisible dominion placed beyond the reach of
a human hand.
It is absolutely necessary that the student of
modern history should form some notion of the
genius of the Papacy, if he would comprehend
the astonishing effects of that anomalous power
which startle us in the sobriety of history.
No phUospphical genius has yet composed
the vast history of the Papacy. The elaborate
researches of Giannone in his Lstoria del regno
di Napoli wiU provide the curious inquirer
with an intimate knowledge of the Ecclesias
tical Constitution, should his curiosity not
weary in accompanying the erudite Juriscon-

214 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
suit through his five discussive quartos.* We
would not draw our waters from the troubled
* Giannone was betrayed and condemned to perpetual
solitude. The occasion of his flight from the realms whose
history he had composed, is characteristic of the Papal Go
vernment. On the first publication, the ecclesiastics practised
every art of calumny to kindle the hatred of the populace
against Giannone, who soon discovered that he could not
venture to- walk in safety the streets of Naples. I translate
his words. " They invented a diabolical rumour that I had
denied the evident periodical miracle of the prodigious lique
faction of the blood of St. Januarius." The rumour was fol
lowed by a menace that should the blood of the Saint, on
the approaching day, be obdurate, and the piiracle cease, the
people would now know to whom they were to ascribe the
loss of their celestial patron. Giannone was advised by his
friends not to stand the trial.
By the style of his narrative, it would seem as if the his
torian by no means denied the miracle. Indeed, when at
Geneva, he professed the Roman Catholic faith ; and it was
to perform the Papistical rites more publicly that he was in
veigled by a Piedmontese officer, an agent of Rome, to the
Paschal communion in an Italian village ; this Mouton finally
conducted the credulous historian to his dungeon. Giannone,
hostile to the Popes, was not so to Papistry. He bitterly cen
sures our Henry VIII. for usurping the supremacy in the
Anglican Church ; but the deformity of this error was much
greater, he says, when Elizabeth ascended the throne ; and
contemptuously adds, " Then, for the first time a woman
bore the title of the Head of the Church, — an event which of
fered to the universe the ridiculous scene of a spiritual sove
reignty degraded to the distaff." I fear we must despair of
finding a philosopher in a Roman Catholic .

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 215
streams of the early Protestants ; the amiable
Huguenot Plessis de Mornay,* and the vin
dictive Calvinist Jurieu;f nor from that heap
of works which were thrown out in heat and
passion. The tribunal of posterity admits not
suffering witnesses to sit among the jury, or
decree with the judge. One glorious fragment
indeed, long suppressed from the world, is con
secrated by genius — and it comes, too, from
Rome itself! The indignant and Protestant
spirit of the grave historian of Italy broke
forth, till, startled by the force and multitude
* In his Mysterium Iniquilatis, seu Historia Papatus, &c.
This pure and noble spirit Voltaire paints as the most de
lightful of men. —
Censeur des Courtisans mais a la cour aime ;
Fier ennemi de Rome, et de Rome estime.
Were this so, it would do great honour to Rome ; for Mornay
labours to demonstrate, that his Holiness is the Antichrist ;
however, as one sobriquet is as valid as another, the Roman
ists call Mornay " The Pope of the Huguenots."
t Histoire du Calvinisme et celle du Papisme mises en
parallele, 2 vols. 4to., abounds with curious matters, but their
correctness sometimes has been impeached. It is a volumi
nous answer to Father Mainbourg's History of Calvinism.
Bayle took up the subject, and proved to be the greater
favourite with the public. Jurieu, who was no half-hater,
and the friend of Bayle, never forgave his friend his eminent
success; and the mortified controversialist, irascible and vi
sionary as he was, finished by hating the philosopher as well
as the Pope.

216 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
of his own truths, he apologizes for his noble
ardour— il dolore giustissimo del danno publico,
m'aveva piu, ardentamente, che non conviene
alia lege dell' Lstoria traportalo* — as if history
had laws to suppress the emotions which it
would inspire ! The error was not in Guic-
ciardini, but in human weakness; in that
Roman Catholicism, which stands confused be
tween what it deems sacred and knows to be
criminal. The Papistical nephew who sup
pressed the passage may claim our pardon and
our gratitude for the conscientious impulse
which prevented its annihilation.
Concealed among polemical disquisitions, or
traced by the curious idleness of mere antiqua
ries, we have stUl to explore into the secret
principles, by which a power more than human
has arisen among mankind. The philosophical
inquirer will not Hmit his researches by simple
dates, for dates, which commemorate events,
* Guicciardini, lib. iv. — towards the close. The reader
must not look for it in the contents appended to each book,
which were probably taken from the original edition, in
which it was cautiously omitted. The authentic passage,
recovered from the autograph of the author, after having
been published by Protestant collectors, was not finally in
serted till the Florence edition of 1775 appeared under the
imprint of Friburg. The MS. is preserved in the Maglia-
bechian Library.

THE GENIUS OF THE PxVPACY. 217
furnish no discovery of their causes. The
principle of actions often Hes remote from the
actions themselves ; nor must we, in the no
velty of a name, lose the recollection of the
antiquity of the thing. The genius of the
Papacy existed before there were Popes. On
this critical principle of historical investigation,
the future historian of the Papacy may yet
detect, how the religion of modern Rome has
disguised Polytheism, and mimicked Judaism.
We can hardly recognize the mystical Being
whose growth shadowed the earth by an uni
versal dominion, when we would trace him
through the obscurity and neglect of the first
centuries of his existence. The pastor of Rome
with his flock, often suppHants, even to Pagans,
for a precarious aid, claimed but a portion of the
common alms devoted to the poor, or piously
coUected for the building of a church. As yet
was there no pride of supremacy in that meek
bosom, no avarice for Jewish tythes, no long
ing forXevitical first-fruits. Pasce oves meas,
was the apostolical command, and the humble
Presbyter or Bishop knew only to obey. The
sole vestige of his poverty is retained in the
title prefixed to his BuUa and his Breves, of
" The Servant of the Servants of God ;" but
in the Ceremoniale Pontificate, we find his truer

218 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
style, for there the tiarred Pope rules " the
Lord of Lords, and the King of Kings."
At length, when the Episcopal jurisdiction
grew stronger in the mental darkness of Europe,
in those ages when even the chieftains of nations
might be classed among the meanest of their
own hordes, it was assumed that the Bishop
of Rome had been divinely instituted by Jesus,
in the person of the first Bishop, whom they
asserted to have been the apostle Peter.
When men were famiUarised with miracles,
and a Pope was elected among his rival can
didates, from the circumstance of a dove rest
ing on his head, it was hardly accounted mi
raculous, that a mortal Bishop should be the
Vicegerent of Heaven. Certain it is, that the
West received what the East rejected. In the
possession of the invisible world, the usur
per became irresistible on earth — and a mortal
omnipotence was founded on a pun, a pro
verb, and a metaphor, and authenticated by a
legend and a forgery.*
* Blount— but he was a Roman Catholic— might have
placed the Papal titles to their fabulous domains among his
" Jocular tenures."
The celestial empire and the divine institution of the
Papacy, are founded on Matthew xvi. 18, 19. Our tran
slation runs—" Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 219
The Papa became the vicar of Christ, and
was saluted as God! It is scarcely credible,
build my church ;" but in the original Greek, the name
Peter has the equivocal signification of stone. In the ver
sions of the New Testament in French, Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese, they have been enabled to preserve this play
on words ; the French by their Pierre, the Italians by their
Pietro, the Spanish and Portuguese by their Pedro. By
converting the stone into a rock, our version gains in dignity
and Protestantism, but the Pope's title, dependant on the
Antonomasia, has been left to our Catholic neighbours.
The keys of the Papacy, and their terrific consequences,
were furnished by a metaphor. " I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of Heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven ; and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on Earth, shall be loosed in Heaven."
This power the Romanists apply solely to the Apostle Peter,
and hence derive the Papal dispensing powers. Some Pro
testants have inferred that this power was equally conferred
on all the Apostles, but it is impossible to deny that it was
solely addressed to Peter. Bishop Horsley at once concedes
the point, but triumphantly asks the Romanist to prove that
Peter had ever any successors.
Their purgatory, that new-found-land in the regions of
Theology, originates, in a proverbial expression in the 1st of
Corinthians iii. 13. 15. To save their own "stubble" from
the " fires,'' the Pope clemently levied his " indulgences"
and his " masses" pro redemptione attimarum.
To make Peter confer the succession of the Roman See
in his own right, it was necessary to conduct the Missionary
there. The Scriptural authority not furnishing any evidence,
a Romanist desperately asserts that Peter's epistle, dated

220 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
but it rests on multiplied authorities, that the
papal divine institution could have occasioned
this extreme idolatry, even among the barba
rians of the age when it rose. The Pope has
been held as " Un Dio in terra" Giannone
affirms in his " Profession of Faith," p. 12.
The Canonists have impiously caUed his Ho-
from Babylon, was written at Rome, in his reply to our
learned Pearson. The adventures of Peter at Rome may
prove their own authenticity, where Simon Magus chal
lenged Peter to fly, and broke his own legs to show he
could not himself.
Even a Romanist acknowledges —
An Petrus fuerit Romce sub judice lis est.
The Ecclesiastical forgeries of Rome are too numerous, to
specify, beginning with the fabulous donation of Constan
tine. The pretended original is preserved in the Vatican.
Du Plessis Mornay tells us, that the scribe has ventured to
add at the end this strange paragraph ; — Quam fabulam
longi temporis mendacia fnxit. Mornay's Mysterium Iniqui-
tatis, p. 35. As I have not seen the Instrument, I almost
doubt this honest confession.
However, Peter the fisherman of Galilee, at all events was
quite a different person from the Bishop of Rome : even
Pope Sylvester several hundred years after, preferred holding
his title from the Emperor, rather than from St. Peter ; and
refused wearing a golden crown as not fit for a religious
head, as Platina tells us. It was long afterwards that a
Pope placed his foot on the neck of an Emperor. These
are the materials of Papal history.

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 221
liness, Dominus noster Deus Papa — " Our Lord
God the Pope."* The same style was adopted
by the Council of Lateran, sess. 4th. The
title of Pont. Opt. Max. is common on papal
medals, and in dedications ; the epithets are
the same which are given to the Divinity.
There is a curious treatise on schism, by Car
dinal Zaberella, Archbishop of Florence ; where
he declares, aUuding to the Popes, whose am
bition he wished to control by holding fre
quent councils — Quod omnia possint quicquid
liberet, etiam illicita, et sit plus quam Deus,
p. 703. — " That all things are permitted them,
even what is unlawful, and so they can do
more than God himself." This treatise on
schism was put into the index, and has been
frequently reprinted by Protestants. It must
however be acknowledged, that some of the
Canonists, pretending to be more moderate on
the divine person, have been more confused.
These assert Papa, nee Deus est, nee homo ; sed
* The famous Jesuit, Father Parsons, had the ingenious
impudence to affirm, that he could not find any such ex
pressions, though he had troubled himself in looking after
them. Foulis, who has written an extraordinary folio against
the Romanists, supplied him with a catalogue of ten editions
of Paris and Leyden, where he might read them. The
learned Giannone, however, is the best of authorities.

222 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
neuter est inter utrumque. " The Pope is
neither God nor man, but neuter, partaking
of both natures." In books printed at the Va
tican, its master has been imperiously styled
" the vice-God." Constantine, it seems, ac
tuaUy saluted the Pope as God ! Such a re
volting piece of idolatry has been solemnly
aUeged as an authority for the divine honours
conferred on the pretended successor of Peter.
But was Constantine a Christian? On this
perverse association of ideas, which some of
the advocates for Popery have joined together,
of a God in Heaven, and a vice-God on Earth,
Warburton has observed, that they accuse
those who deny the , infallibihty of the Tiara,
of a direct tendency to Atheism.
In this divine institution of the Roman
Bishop, in this immediate connection with the
Supreme Being, — we behold the re-institution
of the Jewish Theocracy, and earth is again
haUowed by the presence of a " kingdom of
priests." The consequence of this impious, but
successful, mockery, appears in what is at once
the object and the foundation of the papistical
Empire. Gifted with the attributes of the
Deity, was it unreasonable in the Pope to
demand, or in the people to yield, a passive
obedience to one, who was all-knowing, and

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 223
aU-mighty? A despotism was thus established,
in comparison with which the rule of an East
ern monarch was the lightest of governments,
for the despotism of modern Rome was not an
empire only over the body, but also over the
mind. Passive obedience was demanded not
merely from the animal man, but from the sen
sible being. The power of an earthly tyrant is
transient, and the theatre of his rule is limited
— but in the successor of St. Peter, mankind
beheld a terrestrial deity, and in an empire
half divine, and half human, Heaven might be
lost by an Excommunication, and Earth become
a desert by an Interdict.
The philosopher will pause to inquire by
what miraculous contrivance the neck of his
feUow-creatures was so nicely fitted to this un
paralleled yoke — He will ask by what means
such a degree of mental terror could have been
infused into the minds of men without the aid
of material force. It is here that we shaU de
tect the secret principle of the papal govern
ment. The very power which ventured to
invoke from the silence of its Jewish tomb,
the severe and sacred spirit of the abrogated
theocracy, with the same wave of the wand,
summoned from its gay funereal urn, the wan
ton genius of departed Paganism, and dared to
combine in the novel system, the characteristics

224 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
of both. The Pope, seated on his eternal
throne, smiled even amidst his subHmity, and
the same power that founded its rule on eternal
terror, established its empire by endless indul
gence. Roman Catholicism is a combination
of the supernatural agency of the Judaic Theo
cracy, and the seductive ceremonies of ancient
Polytheism. Is it wonderful, then, that none
resisted the enchantment ? Is it wonderful
that all hurried to propitiate and prostrate
themselves before that power, which secured
their spiritual existence, whUe it indulged
their earthly carnality ?
Such Avas the Papacy ? The sacerdotal
throne, like some miraculous vision, hung
amidst the triple regions of Heaven, of Earth,
and of Purgatory. A bewildering and mys
tical fabric of curious superstitions was thrown
open to mankind. What they touched were
shadows, what they heard were fictions, ma
gical iUusions of a scenical religion from the
JubUee to the Tenebres. There all things
were made holy,— their bread, their water, their
beads, and their bones ; these were " the love
tokens " which enchanted the people's affections
—and for the children of society they had their
shows, and their festivals, and rabbinical ro
mances of St. Dominic and St. Francis; for
the imaginative, a glory of beatitude ; for the

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 225
impassioned, celestial loves ! There sat the
judge who could never be judged, changing
unrighteousness into righteousness, absolving,
dispensing, indulging, squaring the circle and
rounding the square. To him alone upon this
earth is permitted to prohibit virtues, which
then become vices; or to consecrate vices,
which then become virtues ; for to obey his
commands is the greatest of virtues, and to do
what he forbids is the greatest of crimes*
Such is the Pope ! This mystical being, kings
made more than regal, emperors more than im
perial ; while the multitude, like the slaves of
Ava, cast themselves on the earth, nor dared to
lift their eyes on the human being before them.
The awful prostration of the understanding in
the being who was distinguished as ter catho-
licus, even among minds of inteUect and spirits
of enterprise, is one of the most mortifying
examples of self-degradation. The victories of
French monarchs were gained for the Vicar of
Christ, and their successors stiU pride them
selves on the cheap reward of the peerless title
of " The Most Christian King." None more
willingly surrendered themselves to their holy
Father than the wealthy and the wicked. These
* See the language of Bellarmin Giannone. Professione
diFede, p. 11. Q

226 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
covered the land with abbeys and priories,
chauntrles and shrines, gorgeously erected and
munificently endowed, for the salvation of
their own souls, and the redemption of their
ancestors. The charter of donation, by the
largeness of its grant " to God and the Church,"
often attested the criminal votary. Thus the
empire of Papal Christianity found an unfail
ing growth in the crimes and the remorse of
men, and even in the refuse of human nature
it could inspire heroes and victims.
Whether the triple crown denote, as the
Pope's great antiquary, Angelo Rocca, teUs us,
three powers — the imperial, the regal, and the
sacerdotal, investing the sacred personage with
universal authority over the globe; or whether,
as some explain, it be the awful emblem of his
three mysterious dominions, certain it is, that
his Holiness was a human being, whose likeness
never had been seen on this earth, and it is not
strange that he should have been so frequently
demonstrated to be the Antichrist.
His terrestrial pride was viewed on the
day of his election. Mounted on a white pal
frey, he rode under a canopy supported by
Italian nobles or foreign ambassadors ; and
when emperors and kings were at Rome, an
emperor was to hold the golden stirrup, a king

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 227
was to guide the silken reins. If too aged
to ride, the royal personages were to bear him
on their shoulders. At the Pope's banquet,
beneath the state, covered with cloth of
gold, were placed his plain chair and table :
an emperor was permitted to sit on his left
hand, but a king was to take his station at
the lower table of Cardinals. Who shall have
the blessedness of carrying the laver to wash
the hands of the Pontiff? — An emperor shall
have the blessedness of carrying the laver to
wash the hands of the Pontiff. Who shall
set his plate before him? — Both emperors and
kings might contend for that honour. The
people only beheved what they saw. The
masters of the world they knew to be subjects,
like themselves, of that mystical being whose
human divinity was a mystery too great to
be comprehended, too certain to be denied.
They knew that the sovereigns of the earth
were chained together at the chair of St. Pe
ter ; whUe the sealed edict of a soldier-less chief
dispersed armies, or dethroned monarchs, and
partitioned out empires which were not yet
discovered. God himself, in the Roman creed,
was in the hands of the Pontiff. Whenever
he went forth, he was accompanied by the di
vinity. The Eucharist preceded him, inclosed
q 2

228 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
in a small case, cautiously steadied on the back
of a snow-white steed, beautiful in form and
proud with ornaments, around whose neck the
small bell tinkled which ushers in the pre
sence of the body of Christ ! If, as the crowd
cast themselves on their knees before that small
case, one truly pious and philosophic mind, un-
dazzled by the processional pomp, had dared
to turn aside and think, he might have been
reminded of the ark of the God of Israel,
of the time when the Lord of Hosts was car
ried before the people, while the eyes of twelve
armies were bent towards the ark, as they
guided their march by the presence of the
Deity. This Papacy was a monstrous sovereignty,
which the profane legislators of antiquity had
never contemplated. It was a polity without
a public. In fact, there was no public mind
throughout Europe, for Europe was Roman
ized. The ancients, indeed, had invested the
sovereign with the sacerdotal character; for
with them religion was a subordinate and ac
cessory part of their political system ; but mo
dern Rome had invested its prelate with so
vereignty. The difference is immense. When
the monarch was also the priest, he bowed to
the gods, as to the protecting power of the

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 229
State. When the priest was also the monarch,
he trampled upon man, as upon the creature
of his omnipotence. When the monarch offi
ciated at the altar, he trusted that the sa
credness of his office might render his tempo
ral authority more respected. When the priest
was seated on the throne, he knew his tem
poral power could enforce his spiritual tyranny.
The monarch consulted the interests of his
people, for whom he exercised the priest
hood. The priest only consulted the interests
of his order, by whom he had risen to the
monarchy. With the monarch, the people was
the great object : with the priest, the people
was the great subject.
In these latter ages, it would have been a
moral impossibUity to have reared the divine
and human government of the Papacy, which,
we must repeat, was a portentous compilation
of Oriental despotism, Polytheistical idolatry,
and the Judaic theocracy. The most potent of
aU governments could only have originated in
the rudest ages ; for in the history of mankind
it wUl be found, that every excess of delegated
power has ever been proportioned to the
wants and infirmities of men. In the poHtical
infancy of Europe, the evils of universal bar
barism were alleviated by an universal govern-

230 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
ment, where, in the person of one common
father, the paternal hand sustained the feeble,
for he required slaves ; and stayed the indomi
table, for he would suffer no rival. The great
political secret of supporting the inferior against
the superior, was known to Rome. Meanwhile,
a supernatural power seemed to guard the holy
patrimony. There the conqueror arrested his
invasion; there the marauder dropped his ra
pacious grasp, more terrified by excommunica
tion than by the commandment of Heaven.
Had Christianity purified its barbarous nations,
Europe would have now formed the platonic
dream of the poHtician — an apostoHcal com
monwealth ; but the barbarous nations corrupt
ed Christianity, and he who was caUed the
father was more corrupt than the sons.
In more refined ages, the mundane father of
Christianity was not ignorant how to maintain
his terrestrial influence, by the intrigues of the
cabinet — by infusing mutual jealousies among
his own children, and by exciting a war in
Europe, or preaching a crusade in Asia, often
averting the danger of the times, which might
have reached the holy see itself. The machia-
veHsm of the Roman Pontiff has inflicted suf
ferings on Christianity far deeper than it ever
received from the vagrant Hebrew and the ex-

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 231
pelled Morisco. The Court of Rome, in affect
ing spiritual and temporal influence, necessarily
made its religion its politics, and its politics its
religion. But aU human institutions partake of the
mortal nature of man ; and at length we view
the Vicegerent of Heaven figuring only as the
uninfluential sovereign of a tract of Italy.
In considering, however, the Pope as an
aged prince, whose territories might be swept
away in one morning by any of the petty
sovereigns who have partitioned out among
themselves the Eden of Europe, we must be
ware lest we form a very erroneous conception
of the pontifical domination. No inglorious
conquest of the Pope can remove the principles
of an unextinguishable Papacy.
Were I writing a volume instead of a chap
ter, it might not perhaps be difficult to show,
in examining the consequences of the civiliza
tion of Europe, that while the individual Pope
has become less influential, the Papal system
may not have faUen into any decline ; and that
the very causes which have reduced the Vicar
of Christ to a state of comparative insignifi
cance, have also, and necessarily, rendered the
Papacy independent of the Pope. In these
days the Pope may be a prisoner in the Castle

232 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
of St. Angelo, whUe the Papal system may he
all dominant at Madrid ; and while the nominal
head of the Papacy may be owing his safety to
the exertions of a Protestant prince, the genius
of the Papacy, at the same time, wUl be at
tacking the interests of that very Protestant
prince, in Portugal, in Ireland, or in Mexico.
In an age when we flatter ourselves that
even the castes of the Hindoos are losing their
fatal distinctions, it will be considered too bold
to avow that the empire of modern Rome is
as eternal in its principles as the empire of
ancient Rome was in its pretensions. Yet
we cannot forget that the most ancient of reH-
gions, and the most ancient of nations, in spite
of millenniums of war and captivity and per
secution, count at this day members and vota
ries not less numerous than when they con
founded the chariots of Assyria, or sacrificed
on the banks of Siloah. Like the old Theo
cracy, has the imitative Papacy also separated
its followers from all other beings. In ceasing
to be CathoHcs, they cease to be a peculiar and
a favoured people— a people before whom are
placed, and for whom alone are reserved, both
earth and heaven— a people who may possess
the one, without losing their confidence in the
other. Who would reason if he be happy ?

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 233
Who would relinquish his own certainty for
the doubts of others ? The God which his lip
presses is a God ; the saint which he invokes is
a saint ; the religion he adores is the only true
rehgion. Passive obedience, the grand politic
cal secret of unity and conformity which some
statesmen have perished to obtain, is secured in
this Government by the immutable imagination
of its slaves. Sovereigns indeed have wrestled
for their freedom — a nation indeed has rejected
this creed ; but were I a Catholic, I should per
haps consider that in lapsing. from Rome we
fell like Lucifer, and that our daring rebeUion
only conduced to render Omnipotence more
omnipotent. Long previous to Luther, heresy in the
Celestial Empire had enraged, without alarming,
its divine chieftain. With Moses and Maho
met he had aheady waged a successful war ;
and in his unrelenting dominion, where man
often ceases to be a brother, the flame was con
secrated as an act of faith, assassination incul
cated as a doctrine, massacre honoured with a
panegyric, and the expulsion of a whole peo
ple of feUow-citizens twice formed a Papal
triumph * But before the sin of clamorous
* By their expulsions, Spain lost by her Moriscoes her
agriculture, which she has never recovered, and by her He-

234 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
Reformation, the abomination of sUent heresy
was as dust in the balance ; and the might of
Rome was never more evidenced than when a
whole nation had emancipated itself from its
influence. To counteract the new rebels, even
the Inquisition was not deemed sufficient — that
mercfless tribunal where they search for the
thoughts of man by the torture which annihi
lates them. Even this Inquisition was a power
which seemed not omnipotent : the Pope dared
to create another power even greater than him
self. Modern Rome sent forth her flower of
chivalry in " the order of Jesus." The soldier,
its founder, had stamped his miUtary character
on these novel adventurers. Ambition to con
quer the world for Rome, was the genius of
the order. They flew at the signal of their
monarchical general to take possession of all
countries. They had chiefs of legions in both
hemispheres — sentinels at all posts. Life was
not valued by its first enthusiasts, but their
successors were masters of all the wisdom which
brews her trades and manufactures— truer sources of wealth
than her galleons of Mexico. France, in violating her public
faith by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and by re
jecting from her bosom the most ingenious of her children,
enriched by their arts the looms and workshops of her Pro
testant rival.

THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY. 235
preserves it. But the atom of glory still work
ed through the system, and they sacrificed
aU private interests to their pubhc cause, which
terminated at Rome. PoHticians in the cabi
nets of Europe, they were sapping the govern
ments which they themselves were conducting.
Casuists in domestic life, their relaxed mo
rality moulded the conscience to the inclina
tions of the austere or the licentious. Slaves of
Rome, every where else rebels : arrogant and
meek, obdurate and indulgent, they were the
ornaments of society whose happiness was in
compatible with their secret government. The
character of this versatile body is a solecism in
human nature ; their history is an enigma un
solved, and their dissolution is even a subject
of sceptical inquiry.
These were the men who, during the reigns
of our early Protestant sovereigns, were at
tempting by aU means, and in all countries,
the subjugation to the Roman yoke of this
sohtary and rebeUious Island of England.
When Charles ascended the throne, the Je
suits, from their conduct under EHzabeth and
James, were a proscribed race by the law of
the land ; nevertheless, they swarmed through
out his kingdom. Disguised, but active, they
were concealed in lay dresses, in the recesses of

236 THE GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.
private houses, and, finally, they were busied
even in the royal palace. Under these circum
stances, amidst the exultation of the Romanists,
and the alarm of the Protestants, Charles the
First led to the altar a Roman CathoHc prin
cess, and upon this aUiance were most probably
founded the hopes of aU Romanists, that the
great result, which they hitherto had failed in
bringing about by force, might finally be con
summated by intrigue. The monarch could not
have been unconscious of their expectations;
but his tenderness for a portion of his subjects,
then numerous and valued, as a sovereign would
influence his conduct in the cabinet, and at
times his feelings as a man. Alternately to
keep down and to protect the Romanist, as we
have seen, was a labour of danger and difficulty.
The King's conscientious profession of Protest
antism, and the strength of his character, were
the best guarantees against the kingdom of
England sinking once more beneath the
Genius of the Papacy.

CHARLES ASCENDS THE THRONE. 237

CHAPTER VIII.
CHARLES ASCENDS THE THRONE. — THE FIRST
PARLIAMENT. — ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN. —
SECRET HISTORY OF THE KING'S FIRST MI
NISTERS. — BUCKINGHAM. — WILLIAMS. —
LAUD.The youthfid Charles ascended the EngUsh
throne with all the prodigal hopes of sovereign
ty. At this moment, in the warmth of his age,
and with his own sanguine temper, the King
was not perhaps the least happy man in his
dominions. A daughter of France, in the
bloom of sixteen, was his bride ; his favourite's
quarrel with Spain had faUen in with the pas
sions of the people, and the rupture of the
threatened Spanish treaties had obtained even
for Buckingham, a few months' popularity.
The nation had long wantoned in the luxuri
ance of peace. England stood the envy of the

238 CHARLES ASCENDS THE THRONE.
Continental powers. When we turn to the
French Mercure, which may be often consider
ed as an official state paper, and always as an
useful commentary on the times, we discover
that our country was the only kingdom in Eu
rope untroubled by foreign or intestine war;
an asylum to which many had flown, to pur
sue their industrious trades, and where shortly
after they sought a royal patronage for the
more deHghtful arts. The poHtical watchword
" Grievances" from the lips of party leaders
had not yet been multiplied by the echoes of
the populace ; the undefined terms of the royal
prerogative, and the privUeges of the Commons,
had yet been only touched on by the scholastic
fancies of James, and not expressly insisted on
by the ParUament itself; pohtics had not yet
been artfully grafted on religion ; and the su
pernatural doctrines which imphed a critical
knowledge of the wiU of Heaven, and treated
theology as a system of the schools, had not
yet been mixed with privy loans and subsidies.
AU these were seeds of evU which were lying,
or were to lie, in the soil. It must be confessed,
that the affairs of a people may look better in
perspective, than they are found to be in a
more interior view.
A new era, however, was about to be opened

CHARLES ASCENDS THE THRONE. 239
by an enterprise of a hardier nature than the
nation had long been accustomed to; and the
eyes of Europe were watchful over the first
great act of the spirited young Prince.
Charles the First, on his accession, was
desirous of changing his style to that of the
King qf Great Britain, in aU legal or civil acts,
as weU as in acts of state. This comprehensive
style was probably suggested by a design of
amalgamating the diversified portions of his
dominions, of giving coherence and unity
where the jealousies of three distinct races
had often carried their rival feuds. This first
thought of Charles anticipated the " Unions"
of happier days ; but it was so little compre
hended at the time, that when the King inti
mated his design to his judges, the sages of
the law agreed after consultation, that this
change of the regal title could not be effected,
and the two Houses, with equal wisdom, de
livered the same judgment.*
* After this was written, I find that James took the title
of King of Great Britain in the second year of his reign ; but
Mr. Hallam observes, that " it was not long afterwards aban
doned." The very change of name to Great Britain was ob
jected to ;— one of those hard and minute acts of jealousy in
the Commons, which delighted to thwart the. first Stuart, and
made James threaten to live alternately in the two kingdoms,
and keep his Court at York.

240 THE FIRST PARLIAMENT.
The King's earliest act was to assemble the
great national Council. Awaiting the arrival
of the Queen, Charles, not without expressions
of impatience, delayed for a very limited time
the meeting of the Houses. An unexpected
incident appeared likely to suspend the open
ing of Parliament.
Henrietta was on her way to England, when
a legate from Rome arrested her at Amiens,
requiring the Princess to perform a penance,
which was to last sixteen days, for marrying
Charles informaUy, she not having received the
Papal dispensation. The Queen obediently
stopped her journey, apprising the King of the
occasion of her delay.
Charles, then waiting at Canterbury, in
stantly dispatched a messenger, commanding
the Queen to proceed without delay, otherwise
he should certainly return alone to London on
business which admitted of no postponement.
If this were not the wooing of the Lnamorato
of romance, it was at least a style befitting an
EngUsh monarch, who, either by his wisdom
or his impatience, detected the aim of the Ro
man Pontiff; for had his HoHness been per
mitted to arrest the progress of a Queen of
England during sixteen days, in the face of all
Europe, it would have been a tacit admission

ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN. 241
of his supremacy. Henrietta Maria hastened
to her new kingdom.*
Charles attended by his Court had sojourned
* This anecdote of the Roman Legate arresting the Queen
of England at Amiens, I draw from a manuscript letter,
4177, Sloane MSS- Our common historians, such as Baker
and Echard, inform us that the Queen remained a fortnight
at Amiens ; but no one assigns the occasion of this remark
able stoppage in her Majesty's journey. The Pope, as we
have before mentioned, had long postponed this required
dispensation — till Richelieu informed his Holiness, that th.e
Royal marriage would take place without it. This circum
stance probably countenanced this piece of secret history of
the Legate's arresting the Queen, to perform a penance for hav
ing married our heretical prince,without the papal dispensation.
One difficulty, however, remains. If the penance of a
fortnight's arrest were inflicted, the penance would appear
to have been performed. Was it for a month, and did the
King's letter to Henrietta shorten it ? The letter-writer too,
gives the King a different tone of language to that which Rush-
worth has put into his Collections, who tells us that the King
sent the Duchess of Buckingham " to kiss the Queen's hands,
desiring her to take her own time of coming over." Charles
was not then so impatient for her arrival as here represented,
nor could Love well use this authoritative style. There are
other parts of the information which do not accord with the
general account. I much suspect the truth of thfe story.
Such difficulties occur in adjusting the minuter parts of his
tory; dates, circumstances, and speeches, are frequently at
variance with themselves, when given by different persons.
Since writing this long note, which I leave as I had first
written, that the reader may have an instance before him of
R

242 ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN.
at Canterbury. He went for some days to
Dover, to direct the accommodations for the
Queen, — and then returned to Canterbury,
that the Queen on landing, might have time
to recover from the voyage, before their first
meeting. The ordnance from the French coast
proclaimed the Queen's departure, and after a
stormy passage, at seven in the evening, she
stepped " out of her boat on shore by an artifi
cial bridge, framed for that use only. Master
Tirwhit brought the news of her arrival within
the difficulty which exists in ascertaining the minuter points of
history, I am induced to think that the whole story of the
Pope's Legate arresting the Queen in her journey, was only a
popular rumour of the day, got up to alarm the people on
the papal power and influence. In consulting the Count de
Brienne's Memoirs, who accompanied the Queen to Eng
land, and was with her during her stay at Amiens, I find
no mention of the fact, too important for him to have passed
over. The Mercure has described the remarkable Fetes
during the Queen's stay at Amiens, and the Count dwells
on the mutual courtesies of the English and the French.
The illness of the Queen-Mother, who could proceed no
further to the sea-side, was the real cause which so long in
terrupted the arrival of Henrietta to the impatient Charles. —
I have since discovered that the Papal dispensation was
brought to Paris on the 10th of February, 1625; the mar
riage took place on the 11th of May. The story of the
Legate is therefore merely a malicious rumour. Pere Grifet,
Hist, de France, xm. 440.

ARRIVxVL OF THE QUEEN. 243
half an hour and six minutes" to the King at
Canterbury. The messenger of royal love had
wings swifter in flight than our jockeys can
calculate. The King and his Court arrived at Dover
Castle at ten in the morning ; and though at
that moment unprepared to meet the impatient
bridegroom, Henrietta flew from her apart
ment to receive him. Kneeling at his feet,
with all her spontaneous grace and native
vivacity, she kissed his hand ; the King bend
ing over her, wrapt her in his arms, and kissed
her with many kisses. This royal and youth
ful pair, unlike others of their rank, met with
the eagerness of lovers, and the first words of
Henrietta were those of devotion. " Sire !
je suis venue en ce pais de votre Majeste pour
litre usee et commandee de vous." Her dark
eyes sparkled, and her motions were quick
and volatile. It had been rumoured that she
was short in stature, but she reached to the
King's shoulders. As Charles cast his eyes
down to her feet, anticipating his thoughts,
Henrietta playfully showing them, declared
that " she stood upon her own feet, for thus
high I am, neither higher nor lower." After
an hour's conversation in privacy, they pro
ceeded to Canterbury, and on Barham Downs
R 2

244 ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN.
the Queen found a number of the Ladies of
the Court waiting her arrival. Descending
from her carriage, they were presented to Hen
rietta in this rural levee by the King. Hen
rietta took her dinner surrounded by the Court.
The King performed the office of her carver, in
cutting up a pheasant and some venison.
By the side of the Queen stood her ghostly
confessor, solemnly reminding her that this
was the eve of John the Baptist, and was to
be fasted, exhorting her Majesty to set no
scandalous example on her first arrival. But
Charles and his Court were now to be gained
over as much as John the Baptist. Henrietta
affected to eat very heartily of the forbidden
meat, which gave great comfort, it seems, to
several of her heretical subjects. She carried
her dissimulation so far, that being asked,
whether she could abide a Huguenot, she re
plied, " Why not ? Was not my father one ?"
In all this conduct Henrietta was acting a
part the most distressing to her feelings. Her
ready smiles, the graceful wave of her hand,
the many " good signs of hope," as are men
tioned in a manuscript letter, induced some
of the English to conclude that their Queen
would become one of themselves. Even the
grave Sir Symonds D'Ewes, the puritanic
antiquary, struck by her deportment to her

ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN. 245
women, and her looks to her servants, " which
were so sweet and humble, could not abstain
from deep-fetched sighs, to consider that she
wanted the knowledge of true religion ;" a
circumstance, however, that Henrietta would
have as zealously regretted in Sir Symonds
himself. It is evident that this vivacious
French lady, at her first moments, resolved
that all England should fall in love with
her ; but a few days after, at Whitehall, she
dispensed " a frown," as an alarmed courtier
writes, which indicated that her " pleasing
countenance", was capable of expressing " a
spirit and vigour" which, in the mind of the
observer, seems to have connected itself with
a terror of Papistry ! The Queen at dinner
feehng inconvenienced by the heat and the
company, " drove us all out of the chamber.
I suppose none but a Queen could have cast
such a scowl." Nature had formed Henrietta
to be charming and haughty ; a volatile, viva
cious woman, who sometimes remembered that
she was the daughter of Henry the Fourth.
In his new Parliament Charles discovered a
more sullen bride, and the youthful Monarch,
warm with hope and glory, with all the im
patience of a lover, was ungraciously repulsed
even in the first favours.
Charles, in his anxiety to assemble Parlia-

246 SECRET HISTORY OF
ment, had proposed to summon the body which
had last met. The Lord-Keeper Williams, re
minded the King, that the late Parliament had
naturally expired with him who had called it
in his own name. Charles then commanded
that writs should be issued " without the loss
of a day." The Lord-Keeper observed, that it
had been usual to take certain precautionary
measures to aUow the King's trustiest friends
" to deal with the counties, cities, and boroughs
where they were known, to procure a promise
for their elections." The. King refused the
counsel, and Buckingham opposed Williams.
With the generous earnestness of his age,
Charles had resolved to throw himself unre
servedly into the arms of his Parliament, look
ing to no other party to maintain a Avar of their
own, than the ParUament itself. t
Amidst the pomp of the regal office, and in
the view of the French nobility who had ac
companied his Queen, Charles studiously dig
nified his first meeting with the Representatives
of his people by the peculiar solemnity of its
ceremonial. As yet uncrowned, on this day,
the first on which he addressed the Lords and
Commons, Charles wore his crown, and vaUed
it at the opening and at the close of his speech,
a circumstance to which the Parliament had
not been accustomed. Still more to solemnize

THE KING S FIRST MINISTERS. 247
this meeting, the King would not enter into
business, till they had united in prayer ; com
manding the doors to be closed, and a bishop
to perform the office. The suddenness of this
unexpected order is said to have disconcerted
the Roman Catholic Lords, of whom the less
rigid knelt, and the moderate stood ; one star
tled Papist did nothing but cross himself.
The King addressed both the Houses with an
earnestness of manner, and a plainness of style
which strongly contrasted with the oratorical
elocution of the late monarch, and with the so
lemn honours by which Charles had, as it were,
recognised their dignity and their authority.
The speech may be found in Rushworth —
the friendly tone must be shown here :
" I hope that you do remember that you
were pleased to employ me to advise my father
to break off the treaties (with Spain). I came
into this business wilHngly and freely, like a
young man, and consequently rashly; but it
was by your interest, your engagement. I
pray you remember that this being my first
action, and begun by your advice and entreaty,
what a great dishonour it were to you, and me,
that it should fail for that assistance you are
able to give me."
It cannot be alleged against Charles the First
that he preceded the Parliament in the war of

248 SECRET HISTORY OF
words, or in those slights and insolences which
laid the seeds of civil war. But the simplicity
of his style, the friendhness of his demeanour,
the modest allusion to his own youth, and the
gentle intimation that this war had been en
tered into by their desire, excited no sympathy.
They voted not a seventh part of the necessary
expenditure. Unquestionably this first reception which the
King met with from ParUament was, by him,
altogether unexpected. Thus early his first
Parliamentary distresses opened on him. His
ardent and impatient hopes were baffled, the
season for action had advanced ; that frequent
affliction of the times, a pestUence, was raging
in the metropolis ; most of the members were
flying from their station ; few remained but a
party which was, as it seemed, that wormwood
from which his servants in office could never
extract the bitterness. To keep them together
with death hovering about them, when as
one of the speakers emphatically exclaimed,
" while they were now speaking the bell was
tolling every minute," was deemed a cruel ma
noeuvre to hasten their supplies, and to break
up the Parliament was the ruin of the Sove
reign's hopes, his honour, and his power.
There was also a fatal discord among the
King's intimate counsellors. The secret his-

THE KINGS FIRST MINISTERS. 249
tory of the Lord- Keeper Williams, and Buck
ingham and Laud, would show a chain of
cabinet intrigues, whose links are more percep
tible to us, than they were probably to the par
ties themselves.
Of these eminent political rivals, the Lord-
Keeper Williams — then Bishop of Lincoln,
and afterwards Archbishop of York, was the
master genius. As a scholar he partook, in
common with many of that learned age, of
that prodigal erudition which delights in in
exhaustible quotations from writers whom we
now deem obscure — but whose aptitude or feli
city startle us, while we are reminded, that what
lies forgotten may be as valuable as that which is
remembered. But the native faculties of Wil
liams exceUed his acquired powers. His scin-
tillant wit, his acute discrimination, his vigo
rous eloquence, come vitiated to our taste, by
the quaintness or the pedantry of the preva
lent style ; his great powers seem encumbered
by their worthless ornaments, but this ecclesi
astical Lord-Keeper had far advanced beyond
his age in the wide comprehension of his mind.
His practised touch opened the hearts of men,
and his commanding spirit appeared as much
in the magnificence of his life, as in the might
of lhVgenius.
As a statesman, his quick apprehension acted

250 SECRET HISTORY OF
like inspiration ; his sagacity struck with the
force of prediction ; but his restless ambition,
though capable of more noble designs, and even
of more generous feelings, had systematised
intrigue ; and what he could not obtain by
wisdom and integrity, he would circumvent by
servility and cunning. A great politician, but
as subtle a Machiavellian, he maintained a
whole establishment of the "juggling fiends" of
espionage, and a long line of secret communi
cation made him the centre of every political
movement. It was a maxim with him, that
no one could be a Statesman without a great
deal of money, and he once confessed that from
his studies of divinity he had gleaned another
principle, licet uti altero peccato, to make the
sins of others useful. As he was not scrupu
lous in his means, among other extraordinary
methods of gaining men for a temporary pur
pose, he exercised a peculiar faculty, which, if
it deserve a name, we may caU political imagi
nation. Clarendon tells us, that on any parti
cular occasion he could invent entire scenes
and lengthened conversations, perfectly appro
priate to the persons, all which had never oc
curred. Such artful fictions had all the force
and nature of truth. These apparent confiden
tial disclosures made the stubborn, credulous ;
and the irresolute, firm.

THE KING'S FIRST MINISTERS. 251
During the absence of the Favourite in
Spain, the Lord-Keeper had practised on the
fears, and perhaps on the wisdom, of the
aged monarch. We discover papers slipped by
slight of hand into that lion's mouth for state-
accusations, — the pocket of the King, — mid
night interviews — addresses ab Lgnoto — myste
rious suggestions, — by which our wily politi
cian at length possessed himself of the royal
confidence, and had so effectually undermined
his patron Buckingham, that had James not
died at the critical moment, the decline of the
great Favourite's influence had certainly been
resolved. With the most refined duplicity,
this Episcopal Lord-Keeper was conducting
tw6 opposite systems. He was combining
with the Earl of Bristol and the Spanish in
terest, at the moment the faithless confidant
was warning his absent patron of " ingrate-
ful devUs at home." Williams displayed the
ambi-dextrous felicity of one who pursues his
certain end by uncertain means. Master of
himself on aU occasions, he would show himself
in all forms ; and versatility with him seemed
no change in the unity of his designs.
But these subterranean workers are frer
quently countermined, and are often taken by
surprise as they grapple together in darkness.

252 SECRET HISTORY OF
The mysterious conduct of the Lord-Keeper
could not entirely hide itself from the jealous
eyes of the Duke, who once avowed to Lord
Bacon, as his settled principle, that " the man
who would not live by his smile, should perish
by his frown." On his return from Spain,
Buckingham found that Williams was running
a course opposite to his. The Lord-Keeper
was neglected ; their intercourse was neither
friendly nor frequent ; his counsels were no
longer required ; and though he remained in
office, he was in fact discarded.
When the Parliament met, the practices of
the Lord-Keeper, with some of the leading
men in the House of Commons, had insured
him a strong party. This party was an awful
engine, which his potent hand might wield at
a secret touch. The Lord-Keeper, observing
the rising faction which had threatened to call
him to account, in the very presence of the
King, on the first day he delivered his official
speech, — s©on turned round. He knew the
lawyers were more particularly vehement against
a churchman holding the seals, which they
deemed to be the privilege of their brotherhood.
Williams, conscious that he himself was one of
"the fatted calves" for sacrifice, directed the
storm from bursting on his own head. By his
reluctant confession it appears that he had held

THE KINGS FIRST MINISTERS. 253
a secret intercourse with some of that party
whom the courtiers called "the chief tribunes
of the Parliament." He urged them to look
about for nobler game, " fitter for such hunters
than a silly priest." The suggestion was not
whispered - to the deaf or the dumb. The
hunters soon chased the Duke, and in the re
action the Duke chased the Lord- Keeper !
Intriguers usually drink out of the same poi
soned chalice. The betrayer of his patron, in
his turn was betrayed by him whom he had
patronized. This person was the famous Laud ;
he for whom Williams had procured his first
rochet, and who then declared that " his Hfe
would be too short to requite that goodness."
This new Bishop, ere his linen robe had hardly
fallen into its folds, within eighteen months of
his gratitude, — so short is its term in politics !
— observing that his patron was incurring the
anger of Buckingham, avoided the falling
greatness ; while in that fall he meditated,
night and day, on his own rise. If €ie worldly
passions of a mere laic can work among church
men at the distant prospect of a peaceable
mitre, they rise with redoubled violence when
churchmen are ministers of state, and ascend
to pre-eminence in power by the dislodging of
a rival. In this particular instance these pas-

254 SECRET HISTORY OF
sions so strongly affected the busy brain of
Laud, that they painted their scenes in his very
dreams. These he has superstitiously chroni
cled ; they were the terrors and the jealousies,
the hopes and the pleasantness of his poHti
cal day.*
* Certainly Land had " an alacrity" at dreaming ; but at
that day, which, in the annals of human nature, is not very
distant from our own times, dreams — omens — apparitions,
and a long train of vanished superstitions, were chronicled in
diaries. I shall leave to the reflection of the reader those re
lating to his rival, the Lord-Keeper, Williams. Such dreams,
combining politics and fancy, form a very entertaining mode
of writing secret history.
" October 3, Friday. I was with my Lord-Keeper, to whom
I found some had done me some very ill offices. And he was
very jealous of L. B's. (Lord Buckingham's) favour.
" December 14, Sunday night. I did dream that the Lord-
Keeper was dead ; that I passed by one of his men that was
about a monument for him ; that I heard him say, his lower
lip was infinitely swelled and fallen, and he rotten already.
This dream did trouble me.
" December 15. On Monday morning I went about busi
ness to my Lord Duke of Buckingham. We had speech in
the shield gallery at Whitehall. There I found that the
Lord-Keeper had strangely forgotten himself to him ; and I
think was dead in his affections.
" December 27, St. John's Day. I was with my Lord of
Buckingham. I found that all went not right with the Lord-
Keeper, &c.
" January 25. It was Sunday. I was alone, and Ian-

THE KINGS FIRST MINISTERS. 255
At the accession of the new Sovereign, the
Lord-Keeper, ere he sunk on the arena, would
wrestle with his mightier rival, the Duke.
The young King was unhappUy placed amidst
guishing with I know not what sadness. I was much con
cerned at the envy and undeserved hatred borne to me by the
Lord-Keeper. " February 18, Wednesday. My Lord Duke of Buck
ingham told me of the reconciliation and submission of my
Lord-Keeper; and that it was confessed unto him that his
favour unto me was a chief cause. Invidia quo tendis ? &c.
At ille de novo fedus pepigit.
" March 17. Lord- Keeper his complimenting with me."
A year after, his political dreams of Williams followed fast
on one another.
" January 13, Sunday. The Bishop of Lincoln desired re
conciliation with the Duke of Buckingham, &c.
" January 14, Sunday. Towards morning I dreamed that
the Bishop of Lincoln came, I know not whither, with iron
chains. But, returning, loosed from them, leaped on horse
back ; went away; neither could I overtake him."
However Laud did overtake Williams some years after,
and kept him in the Tower for three long years.
" March 27. A certain person appeared to him who was
dead, and whispering in my ear, told me that I was the
cause why the Bishop of London was not again admitted
into favour and to court."
I have sometimes thought that some of these strange
dreams were an allegorical representation of his own state of
mind and circumstances, which he wished to conceal by
this cryptical mode of writing.

256 SECRET HISTORY OF
the struggle, and had to choose between the
cold policy of an artful statesman, whom
his Father's wisdom had sanctioned, and the
warmer influence of affection for the com
panion of his youth, and one on whom his
hope now rested, as the hero and administrator
of his glory.
When Charles found that the inexorable
Parliament would offer but scanty supplies,
and that the contagion at London was spread
ing, he was at a loss how to act. To dis
solve them was to leave himself amidst his
utmost wants. Buckingham proposed to ad
journ to Oxford; but was immediately op
posed by the Lord-Keeper, who advised the
prorogation. " It was not," he said, " a change
of place, but a change of time, to which the
King might look for a favourable change;
six months hence might alter the spirit of the
Commons." The Duke, casting an angry look
on his opponent, impatiently cried out, that
" Public necessity must guide us more than
one man's jealousy !" On this the Lord-Keeper
prayed the King for a private audience, which
was granted. In this interview, Williams in
formed his Majesty that the Lord-Duke had
enemies in the House of Commons, who had
no other aim but to bring the Duke on the

THE KINGS FIRST MINISTERS. 257
stage. " Let this malady, or maHce, caU it
which you will, sleep till after Christmas.
There is no time lost in whetting the scythe
weU. At that time I hope to give such an
account, by managing the chief sticklers, that
they shall abate their bitterness against your
great servant, and your Councils shall be peace
able." The King was startled. This was probably
the first moment, that he learnt that a faction
was formed against his minister and his friend.
" Why," he asked, " do you conceal all this
from Buckingham?"
" Good Lord, Sir !" was the reply, " fain
would I begin at that end, but he will not
treat me with moderation."
It was obvious that the Lord-Keeper was
now staking aU his winnings on a single card,
in a desperate game of political intrigue. He
had succeeded in alarming the Father, and
now he hoped to catch the son into an early
tutelage. He failed with Charles, whose
affections were too real to be shaken, and
whose fears were not less genuine of trusting
himself in the hands of a powerful intriguer.
The Parliament, therefore, according to the
advice of Buckingham, assembled at Oxford.
Charles now expressed his disappointment

258 SECRET HISTORY OF
at their ineffectual grant. Still no echo of
sympathy responded in the House ! And
now they asserted in a vague and quibbling
manner, that " this ParUament was not
bound by another Parliament," and, with
a cruel mockery, suggested that " the King
should help the cause of the Palatinate with
his own money." The King in vain pressed
for dispatch of business, lest the season should
be lost for the navy ; observing that, " it
was the first request that he had ever made
to them." The words " first request" had an
instant effect on some few ; but his " poor
Commons" offer their " dear and dread Sove
reign" only protestations of duty, alarms of
Popery, and petitions on grievances ; a term
which Coke acknowledged to be premature at
so early a period of this reign. There were a
few whose hearts had stiU a pulse to vibrate
for a young Prince perplexed by a war which
themselves had instigated, and which, by hav
ing placed him at the head of a confederacy in
Europe, had involved his own and the national
honour in the awful issue. But " the chief
sticklers," as the Lord-Keeper had caUed the
rising opposition, and which afterwards he
designated by a variety of denominations, as
" the stirring men,"— and " the dangerous per-

THE KING'S FIRST MINISTERS. 259
sons of the House of Commons," — and " those
disaffected persons who appeared so opposite
to the royal ends" — these chief sticklers,
when the pressing necessity of the times was
urged, rejected Necessity as a dangerous coun
sellor, who would be always furnishing ar
guments for supplies. " If the King were in
danger and necessity, let them answer for it
who have put both King and kingdom into
this peril." This obHque stroke, which aimed
at the Favourite, Charles resented, declaring
his ignorance of the cause by which the Duke
had incurred their dislike, — he whom, not long
since, they had spoken of with the language
of idolatry. The King, in despair, dissolved
this uncompHant Parliament.
To judge rightly of the feelings of Charles
at this moment, we must adopt them, in assi
milating ourselves to himself and his situation.
The writers of history are too apt to invest
their personages with aU the knowledge, and
make them influenced by aU the views, which
time unroUs in that vast commentary, which
can only be opened for their posterity. It
would not be difficult to account for the oppo
sition to Government which had partly shown
itself under James, but which started up so
.unexpectedly in the new reign, when Charles
s 2

260 BUCKINGHAM. — WILLIAMS.
felt that he was abandoned by his Parlia
ment. Although the Lord-Keeper had failed in the
hardy attempt to carry away the royal favour,
he had left behind him aU the awf ulness of
a predictor. AU things had occurred in the
Oxford Parliament which he had anticipated.
But the fulfilment of his prophecy was no con
solation for the loss of his power. Williams
summoned up his strength. One great last
stroke seemed reserved. If he could not go
vern his royal master, might he not conduct
the favourite bj7" his hopes and his fears ?
While the King and the Duke disconcerted,
were deciding on a dissolution of Parhament,
at this very moment the Lord-Keeper, with aU
the devotion of ancient friendship, though un-
sent for, suddenly appeared before the Duke.
The creature of his favour addressed his old
Patron. "Your Grace made me, and I must and
wUl serve you, though you are one who will
destroy that which you made. I am as earnest
as any friend your Grace hath, to save you
from perishing. You brought the two Houses
hither, my Lord, against my counsel, and my
suspicion is confirmed that your Grace would
suffer from it. What 's now to be done, but
wind up a session quickly ? Let the members

BUCKINGHAM. — WILLIAMS. 261
be promised that they shall meet again after
Christmas. Requite their injuries done to you
with benefits, and not revenge ; for no man
who is wise will show himself angry with the
people of England. Fear them not when they
meet again in the same body. I wiU instigate
their ill affections ; if they proceed, trust me
with your cause ; and when it comes to the
House of Lords, I wUl lay my life upon it to
preserve you from the least dishonour."
The haughty Buckingham felt the insult of
equality of power ; and was indignant at the
proffered protection of the political vassal, who
had once professed " to love and hate as the
Duke loved and hated ;" and who, in his let
ters, which I have seen, advising Buckingham
to accept a place by which he would be always
nearer the King, used this emphatic style : —
" In your young, your middle, your decreasing,
age, be upon earth, as your piety will one day
make you in Heaven, an everlasting favourite !"
Thus had spoke the sycophant. At the pre
sent moment the Duke started at the winding
serpent which had once Hcked the dust, but
which he now viewed climbing amidst the
topmost branches of the forbidden tree.
Buckingham sent forth a mingled glance of
anger and contempt on Williams. " I will look

262 WILLIAMS.
whom I trust to," exclaimed the Duke, and
flung out of the chamber with a menacing-
countenance. It is evident that by this master-stroke to
inveigle the favourite into his net, the wily
politician would have entangled the noble vic
tim, either for his destruction or his subser
viency, as his own superior genius wiUed.
This political game for place and power
was not played iU by the Bishop of Lincoln,
although his Lordship lost his stake.
The Lord-Keeper perceived that his real
power depended on its exercise in the House ;
and that an opposition, presuming to act on
popular principles, was the only means to ba
lance the preponderating influence of the fa
vourite, and to awe and overshadow the Court.
He therefore studied to flatter the Parliament,
and at that moment, he saw no danger in run
ning all lengths with their accelerating pace :
he had provided for them the State victim,
whose head would save his own. He now
affected the highest reverence for Parliament,
he entreated Charles not to break with them,
that it might not disseminate unkindness
through all the counties of his realm. He
told the King, " the love of the people is the
palladium of your crown. Continue this as-

WILLIAMS. 26S
sembly to another Session, and expect altera
tion for the better. If you do not so, the
next swarm will come out of the same hive."
Such was the patriotism and sagacity of the
Lord-Keeper ! Fenelon could not have ex
pressed himself with more political wisdom to
his Telemachus ; but so ambiguous is the cha
racter of the mere politician, that we must
suspect the Lord-Keeper to have been a pa
triot out of pique, and wise from the spirit
of opposition. We do not discover him the
same under James, as he was under Charles.
Not further back than three years, our Lord-
Keeper did not profess this reverence for the
House of Commons, nor this earnestness to
prolong their sessions. Then the party with
whom he now sided, were alluded to as " the
spiders which infest that noble House of Com
mons, who convert the honey of his Majesty's
letter into poison to feed upon." He then
deemed their privileges to be only favours of
former kings, and not their inheritance, or
their birthright. Where were the Commons
before Henry the First gave them authority
to meet in Parliament? and he advises that
the King should " break up this ParUament
without any prorogation, that the kingdom
may know their undutifulness and obstinacy,"

264 WILLIAMS.
and proposes that his Majesty should " supply
the present wants by other means ;" in a word,
that the Sovereign should make himself inde
pendent of Parliament! So diametrically op
posite were the principles adopted by WU-
liams, that the chance was equal on which side
of the House he took his seat.
The Lord-Keeper, in his dark and secret in
tercourse with the heads of the opposition, was
like that lover who stole in the winter nights
to his mistress tiU at length his footsteps were
tracked in the snow. Buckingham had de
tected and reproached the insidious courtier,
who could no longer deny that he was engaged
with the Earl of Pembroke, and others, to
labour the redress of the people's grievances,
and concluded that " he was now resolved to
stand on his own legs." — " If that be your re
solution, look you stand fast !" rephed the
Duke, and they parted.
The Lord-Keeper now found it necessary to
lay before Charles an account of " my car
riage aU this last Parliament." In this paper,
he artfully declares that he never spake at Ox
ford with any of " the stirring men." These
were they, whom he had formerly designated
as " the sticklers." As he proceeds, however,
he excepts some. This paper was graciously

WILLIAMS. 265
received, and the fate of the Lord-Keeper was
suspended. Meanwhile, as politicians in dis
tress, like frightened mice, will creep into new
corners, the Lord-Keeper now turned his views
towards the Queen. He had ingratiated him
self with her, on the occasion of the introduc
tion of the bishops to her Majesty, by fasci
nating the young princess with a French
oration, which he had most happily studied ;
and by showing himself an active patron to
her servants. This perfect politician had
anticipated an influence, which did not yet
exist. It is a curious trait in the character of the
subdolous WiUiams, that during the Spanish
Match, he applied himself to the Spanish lan
guage, and under his eye entertained a Spa
niard to translate the English liturgy, and
printing a limited number, presented them to
the Court of Spain. Williams must have
been enabled to taste the Spanish humour of
Cervantes, for he had sufficient time allowed
him, during the Spanish Match, to study his
Don Quixote. On the appearance of the
French Match, the political bishop dropped
the Spanish, and was as earnestly conning his
French task — which he appears, however has
tily he got through the grammar, and how-

266 WILLIAMS.
ever unaccented his orthography, to have suf
ficiently well accomplished in the smiles of the
French Princess. This perhaps is the only
instance on record, where a learned Bishop
learnt two languages — to cajole a Queen, and
possess her ear by whispering in her own
idiom. The Lord-Keeper was doomed to fall, but
he was a body too weighty and considerable
to be precipitated at a blow. His genius re
buked even the impetuous spirit of Bucking
ham ; nor was the elected counseUor of his
father, whose mind seemed wisdom, and whose
voice seemed prophecy, lightly reverenced by
the royal son. Charles appears for some time
to have been awed by the statesman, whom
he equally feared to disgrace or to employ.
The intended removal of the Lord-Keeper
threw " the Duke's cabinet," as it was called,
into a variety of dilemmas ; perhaps the great
est was the difficulty of framing some decent
excuse for the act. They proposed his imme
diate dismission, on the plea of certain accusa
tions, for which afterwards they were to look
for their proofs in his conversations and his
letters, both of which seem to have been occa
sionally free and pungent. This having reached
the Lord-Keeper's ear, he let them know by a

WILLIAMS. 267
friendly messenger, that at the Council-table,
speaking in the style of the times, " He would
not fly the tilt," — but if they designed first to
punish, and afterwards to judge a man, he bade
them have a care, lest such a preposterous
course would not make every man in Eng
land feel himself in danger. The greatness of
Williams lay not in his place, but in his popu
larity ; and no one was yet found hardy enough
to beard the Hon in his lair.
But Buckingham and Laud had not relent
ed, and the King was urged to rid himself of
one whom they considered as a communicator
with his enemies, and whose counsels tended to
lower his sovereignty. Once more, WUHams,
in a letter to the King, asserts that he could
not have held any intercourse with those dan
gerous persons of the House of Commons — these
were his former " sticklers" and " stirring men"
— and at the same time have concealed this
intercourse in " a family of sixty persons," of
which his large establishment consisted.
It is evident that Charles, notwithstanding
the importunity of Buckingham, would not
consent to dismiss the Lord-Keeper with any
impeachment of his services. A less painful
decHne, a smoother passage, was to break the
abruptness of the fall.

268 WILLIAMS. '
At length a searching eye peered into a
dormant resolution in council, which, whatever
had been the occasion that gave rise to it,
neither James nor Charles had thought on —
that the Keeper of the Great Seal of England?
should not continue in that high office longer
than a limited period, to be renewed every
three years.
On this principle, a message was conveyed
by Lord Conway, to command the Lord-
Keeper to dehver up the Great Seal at " All-
hallow-tide," and a desire was intimated, that
his Lordship should retire to his bishoprick.
The Lord-Keeper now read his fate. He fell
with dignity, and on terms. His firmness car
ried every point throughout the whole of this
poHtical transaction. He demanded to be ad
mitted to a last conference with the King.
Charles, who in more than one instance has
shown that he was conscious of the infirmity
of his own warm temper, declared that he
would not, in conversation, assign any reasons
for his Lordship's dismissal ; and it seems that
the King was troubled, lest this subdolous and
eloquent man should shake his resolution.
It was therefore preconcerted, as is not un
common on such occasions, that this painful to
pic should not be touched on. A letter from

.' WILLIAMS. 269
Williams was presented to his Majesty after
dinner, while the writer waited for an audience ;
in this again he protests, that he was " as great
a stranger as any Lord who served his Majesty,
to all those disaffected persons who appeared so
Opposite to the royal ends in the House of Com
mons.''' One more description of the rising
opposition. The King admitted him into his presence,
and twice held out his hand to kiss, granting
all his requests, relating to his places and pen
sions, for which he betrayed great anxiety, and
farther, the King renewed his promise of future
church preferment. Williams in treated the
King would intercede for him with the Lord-
Duke. Charles replied, " that it became not
him, a King, to take up the quarrels between
his subjects ; nor had the Duke ever expressed
such enmity in his presence." " Your Ma
jesty," said the Lord-Keeper, " may hear reports
of my discontent, which I pray may not be
credited, comfortable as I feel in your Majes
ty's favour." The King replied, that " He
would do him that justice," adding, that " he
little valued reports." Presenting his hand
once more to the discarded statesman, the King
dismissed him with a smiling countenance, and
a cordial farewell.

270 WILLIAMS.
When Sir John Suckling brought the war
rant to receive the great seal, WUHams gave
it with an unusual solemnity of form, which
may account for Heylin's observation, that
" it was unwillingly done." The dismissed
Lord-Keeper inclosed the great seal in a costly
cabinet in Sir John's presence ; but he refused
to trust the key to Sir John's hand. Folding
it up in a letter addressed to the King, he
sealed it with the episcopal seal of Lincoln.
This would appear to have been designed as a
reprimand for the inferior rank of the messen
ger, or as a last hint to the sovereign, that he
should be cautious into whose hands he con
fided the custody.
From that moment, with no diminished
greatness, Bishop Williams retreated to the
princely hospitality of his seat, where he busied
himself in his studies and the cultivation of
his grounds, and, at that day a novel taste, in
forming a gaUery of pictures. But his sympo
sia attracted a closer observation from the free
dom of his conversation, and some cursory stric
tures on the poHtical movements of those infe
rior minds, who had ejected the master-spirit
from their councils.
Bishop Williams, great in his retirement,
still presented the same object of uneasiness to

WILLIAMS. — LAUD. 271
the jealous Laud, who surrounded him with
spies and eavesdroppers, too faithful reporters
of the biting sarcasms of his late rival. WU
Hams was teased by the petty persecutions of
the irritable Laud. Their principles were for
ever irreconcilable. These political rivals stood
on the sharpest and the extremest points of
opposition. Laud stigmatised Williams as a
Puritan ; WUHams inveighed against Laud as
a Papist : the Umited capacity of Laud would
have approached without uniting with the
Church of Rome, and inculcated passive obedi
ence ; the hardier character of WiUiams had
cast him among the innovators of the age, with
whom he went on, tiU he found that bishopricks
were in danger : Laud detested Williams for
his deficient zeal in church discipline, and Wil
liams held Laud in contempt for his unstates-
manHke qualities. Often must WiUiams have
remembered the prescient sagacity of James
the First, when Laud was thrust on him by
WUHams himself and Buckingham : " Laud,"
observed James, " is a restless spirit, to be kept
back from all places of authority, for he can
not see when matters are weU, but loves to
toss and change and bring things to a refor
mation floating in his own brain." And when
at length the old monarch, as was usual with

272 WILLIAMS. — LAUD.
him, yielded to their importunities, he exclaim
ed, " Take him to you, but on my saul you 'U
repent it!" This was not the only political
prediction of his father which Charles lived to
see verified.
At length Williams overwhelmed Laud with
all his learning, his wit, and his severity, in the
volume which he published against him ; but
the vindictive Laud grovelled in a meaner and
more cruel victory, by inflicting ruin on his
antagonist in dragging him before the inquisi
torial Star-chamber.
Such mutual persecutions do the heads of
parties endure from each other, — and so often
do they involve the pubUc in their private
hatreds.

THE CORONATION.

CHAPTER IX.
THE CORONATION : POLITICAL ETIQUETTE.
At this gloomy moment the Coronation was
to take place. The King had been compelled
to practise the most humiliating economy, and
the Coronation, as a contemporary letter-writer
observes, seemed a private, not a public cere
mony. The customary pomp of the procession
from the Tower through the City to Whitehall
was omitted ; the alleged reason was, " to save
the charges for more noble undertakings," that
is, for means to carry on the Spanish war with
out supplies !
The Bishop of Lincoln, as Dean of West
minster, should have performed the service of
the Coronation, but receiving no summons to
attend, he addressed his late patron. The co
ronation had stirred a courtier's flame in a bosom
still agitated by its reminiscences. The Bishop
thus writes to the Duke—" Beseeching your
Grace to revive a creature of your own, struck
T

274 THE CORONATION.
dead only with your displeasure, by bringing of
me to kiss his Majesty's hand, with whom I
took leave in no disfavour at all. I was never
hitherto brought into the presence of a king by
any saint besides yourself; turn me not over to
offer my prayers at new altars"
This last paragraph is an extraordinary amal
gamation of flattery and menace, and the whole
an example of that sycophantic blasphemy,
which the Court-bishops of that day carried to
an incredible excess ; a perpetual blot on these
political prelates ! Poets, mad with poverty
and dedication, at aU times have transgressed
on decency and sense in their bribing panegy
rics ; but the present inflated court style in
epistolary composition, was not the natural style
of that day, for the letters of Mede, and other
contemporaries, to which I have so often re
ferred, are examples of colloquial force and sim
plicity, free of those pedantic and far-fetched
allusions. The bishop received a royal command to
depute one of the prebendaries ; this, to use
the quaint style of Heylin, "put him into
some dispute with himself ;" a dispute, how
ever, from which he extricated himself with his
usual prudence. As he did not care to honour
his co-rival Laud, and as the putting him aside,

THE CORONATION. 275
by electing another, might have gained him the
ungracious reproach of malice, the Dean fur
nished his Majesty with a list of the Preben
daries, that the King might make his own
election. Laud was nominated.
The Coronation, it was imagined, would
prove a joyous season, in an oblivion of all
miscarriages, and a renewal of the loyalty of
the people, whose imagination, awakened by
their senses, would be struck by the hallowing
ceremonies, and the binding oaths of that regal
solemnity. But Fate had commenced her work
early with him who was to be crowned, and
the scene which naturally tended to reconcile
the popular spirit, aroused its jealousy under
the conduct of Laud.
It is a curious fact, that among many things
left unreformed by the Reformation, the forms
and order of the Coronation had retained the
rites, the ceremonies, and the style of the Ro
man Pontificals. Edward the Sixth and Eli
zabeth had been crowned after their predeces
sors' custom, and the Coronation of James, which
had been got up in haste, had retained many
ceremonies of the old leaven. Charles, there
fore, issued a commission that this solemn cere
mony should be altered in happier accordance
with the spirit of the Church of England. Al-
? t 2

276 THE CORONATION.
terations and additions were left to Laud.
Among the innovations he restored a clause in
a prayer, that " the King might have Peter's
key of discipline, and Paul's doctrine." The
clause had been omitted since the day of
Henry the Sixth, as it seemed to confer a
higher ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the Sove
reign than accorded with the Papal supremacy ;
but as extremes of opposition may at length
meet when opposite means are pointing to the
same end,, and as under a different name the
same thing may be concealed, so it happened
here, for the Pontiff and the Presbyter, however
they reverse each other's scheme, finally agree
that the monarchs of the world are " .to lick
the dust of the feet of the Church." This re
storation, therefore, offended the Puritans ! But
the suspicions of the Parliamentarians were
awakened by another clause, in which Laud,
placing the Sovereign next to the Divinity,
ranks the clergy in an odious pre-eminence
over the laity, and exhorts the King to medi
ate between them. This imprudent division of
subjects was not forgotten many years after,
for in the trial of Laud, the Long Parliament
accused him of altering the coronation oath,
and of conferring on the King absolute power,
to the detriment of the people.

THE CORONATION. 277
Some persons at the Coronation watched with
jealous eyes, and listened with a malicious ear.
Laud, having accidentally found an ancient
crucifix among the antique regalia, which was
always locked up with great secrecy in the
abbey, and brought out on these occasions, and
which consisted of the staff, the sword, the spurs,
and the sceptre of Edward the Confessor —
the Bishop displayed this ancient crucifix with
great form on the altar, and this was alleged
as evidence of a papistical prelate ! • In restor
ing, however, that clause which the Pope had
rejected, Laud had performed a Protestant's
part, and in transferring the Pope's supremacy
to the King as the Head of the Church, he
heeded no reproach.
As this too was an age of omens, Charles
himself fell under their observation ; and trifles
Hght as air, were afterwards expounded into
presages. His grave character had already at
the meeting of his first Parliament given some
indications of that solemn dignity which would
consecrate every great public ceremony — and
in the present, contrary to the custom of his
predecessors, who when crowned were clothed
in purple, the King now appeared in white
satin. Perhaps he fancifully considered that
the day of his coronation was as the marriage

278 THE CORONATION.
of the Sovereign with his people ; but the rejec
tion of the regal purple for the robe of purity,
was variously commented on. Heylin, consi
dering it ominous, as " fore-signifying that he
should divest himself of his regal majesty,
which might have kept him from affront and
scorn, to rely solely on the innocence of a vir
tuous Hfe, which finaUy exposed him to cala
mitous ruin." A wing of the gold dove on
the sceptre was discovered to be quite broken
off, " by what casualty God himself knows,"
observes Fuller, who calls the omen, " a maim
on the emblem of peace." Another omen was
the unlucky text of his chaplain, " I wiU give
thee a crown of Hfe." Apoc. ii. 10. This was
thought to be a text reminding the King more
of his death than his crown ; and the expound
ers of presages discovered, that it seemed " as
if the King was to Hsten to his funeral sermon
when he was alive, as if he were to have none
when he was to be buried."
Such was the temper of the age; and though
these, to us, are very foolish trifles, yet the
modes of public feeling are to be recognised by
them, as a straw or a feather, light as they are,
serve to point the course of the wind, as much
as the most elaborate weather-vane.
The Queen refused to be present in the Ab-

THE CORONATION. 279
bey church at the ceremony of the Coronation ;
and the Marquis de Blainville, the French
Ambassador, who had recently arrived, had
also excused himself. His motive was evi
dent ; for though Blainville, among the apolo
gies offered to the Master of the Ceremonies,
had declared that, from respect to the King of
England, he would have risked making a smaU
breach in his conscience, being bound by his
religion not to assist at our prayers and church
ceremonies, yet it would be incongruous that
he should be a spectator where the Queen, his
master's sister, had excused her participation of
the solemnity of crowning, and even her pre
sence ; ahd to this declaration he added, as he
was perpetuaUy doing throughout his short
embassy, some captious " exceptions'' of eti
quette. A place was offered to be fitted up
for her Majesty, but she chose for her station
the window of an apartment at the gate-house
of the Palace-yard. The good CathoHcs made
it a jour define ; the Queen and her ladies were
seen " frisking and dancing in the room," during
the procession and on its return, in company
with the Marquis, who attended not as ambas
sador, but in his private character. Henrietta
was never crowned Queen of England; and, for
a long whUe, she did not seek to create popular

280 POLITICAL ETIQUETTE.
favour by any appearance of public regard,
estranged as were her tastes, her language, and
her manners, from those of the people.
The refusal of the French ambassador to be
present at the Coronation, occasioned much
inquiry. Was the spirit of Catholicism impla
cable ? or was it the prognostic of a war ? In
that golden age of Court-etiquette, when the
peace of empires sometimes was disturbed by
the jealousies of the drawing-room, this unex
pected absence of the French threw into con
sternation the Venetian ambassador, who pre
sumed to be his equal and his ally. This crea
ture of etiquette, " tremblingly alive all o'er,"
breathed only by the nicest punctilios, and
rested the glory, if not the existence of his re
public, on the jealous maintenance of being
considered pare alle teste coronate ; an unques
tioned parity with crowned heads.
When precedence becomes politics in the
wars of peace, the diary of a master of the
ceremonies becomes a record of mischances
and misadventures, of despair and of strata
gem, which must be consulted to be credited.
A visit out of time, may be a visit never to be
returned ; an informal invitation may occasion
a fit of indisposition ; or a reception at the
stairs '-head, or at the door, may produce a pro-

POLITICAL ETIQUETTE. 281
test or a remonstrance ; and a political contest
about a chair, or a stool, may open a campaign.
It happened unhappily for our Venetian victim
of etiquette, that he had recently been most
deeply affected by an irregular invitation to the
funeral of the late monarch. His Excellen-
tissimo did not deny that he had received " the
Blacks in the same full proportion for quality
and goodness of cloth, as were sent to the two
French ambassadors," who were then at the
English Court. But Sir Lewis Lewknor, our
first Master of the Ceremonies, was suspected
to be of the Spanish faction, and not disin
clined to put a slight on the jealous Venetian,
who stood with the French. The two French
ambassadors, the resident and the extraordi
nary, having inspected the programme of the
procession, on a sudden changed their mind,
and refused to assist at the solemnity. The
Venetian, in consequence, was compelled to in
vent some excuse for his own absence, and,
with Italian astuzia, he fell upon the Master of
the Ceremonies for an informality : a message
having been sent, which should have been per
sonally delivered. On this the remonstrance
was so serious, and the Spanish partiality of
Sir Lewis Lewknor so strongly insinuated, that
to appease the Venetian, our Master of the

282 POLITICAL ETIQUETTE.
Ceremonies was actuaUy put under restraint, and
suspended from his office. Yet the real cause
of the Venetian's mortification, as the secret
was rumoured among the diplomatic corps, was,
that one of the French ambassadors could not
stomach having a third person — and that, too,
the Venetian ambassador ! — marching in even
rank with the representatives of France.
The Venetian, thus already too sensitive by
the malice of a former French ambassador at
the funeral, was now thunderstruck that the
same affront had again been put on him at the
Coronation. This forlorn victim of political
etiquette, in his dUemma, debated the whole
affair with himself — "If the French ambas
sador be absent at the Coronation, I cannot be
present ; not from any scruples of conscience
-as the Frenchman pretends, for I must under
stand it as an act of state, and not of religion.
I cannot appear by the side of the upstart am
bassador of the new States, a power of yester
day ! without incurring the odium not only of
joining with a heretic, but with a man whom
the Spaniard would not sit with in his Majes
ty's presence— a man whom he calls ' the repre
sentative of his Master's vassals and rebels.' "
The affair ended miserably for the Venetian.
He who would have died rather than have

POLITICxlL ETIQUETTE. 283
been seen in public violating a point of eti
quette, now tried, by the connivance and aid
of the assistant Master of the ceremonies, to
sHnk into some corner where, unseen, he might
be present at the Coronation ; but his late un
relenting persecution of the Master of the
Ceremonies himself, had extinguished aU sym
pathy in the breast of the assistant, Sir John
Finett, who observed, with equal judgment
and maHce, that if he attended on the Vene
tian, his official character would betray his Ex-
ceUency to be a public Minister; and as no
man more learnedly than himself could decide
in all punctilios, as indeed his Excellency had
of late most memorably proved, he must ex
cuse the assistant Master of the Ceremonies
from doing that which might again bring the
Master . of the Ceremonies himself into dis
grace. Such was the history of this forlorn vic
tim of etiquette, who had to memoriaHze his
Ducal RepubHc, that he was neither present at
the funeral of the one King, nor the Coronation
of the other, — because from malice or design
their French aUies had hindered him from ta
king his station pare alle teste coronate.

284 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.

CHAPTER X.
THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
The first Parliament abandoned the King.
Charles was left without other means to dis
patch the army and fleet, in a late season, than
by voluntary loans on privy seals. These were
circular letters, in which were stated the name
of the person to whom they were addressed,
and the sum required from him, the amount
varying according to his condition. They took
their title from bearing the private seal of the
King. When those who either delayed or
excused themselves from complying with the
request, discoA^ered that they were reported to
the Exchequer, they were taught that when a
king requests a voluntary loan, his request
implies a forced one.
It was undoubtedly the King's intention to
pay off the privy-seals by some future grant ;
yet many considered that the next Parliament
would not sanction the people giving what

THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ. 285
they themselves had denied. If the form of
levying these contributions at an immediate
urgency was unpopular, yet it bore no character
of tyranny. The loan exacted was as small as
the style was humble. The privy-seals speci
fied that — " This loan, without inconvenience
to any, is only intended for the service of the
public, such private helps for public services,
which cannot be refused, had been often re
sorted to ; but this being the first time that we
have required any thing in this kind, we re
quire but that sum which few men would deny
a friend" The claims on great personages did
not exceed twenty pounds. The King was
willing to suffer any mortification rather than
endure the obdurate insults of the Parliament
—even that of the mockery of an alms-basket ;
for by letters of the time which I have seen,
the charity of shillings was accepted ! With
such trivial contributions, demanded with a
warm appeal to their feelings, was the King
to send out a fleet, with an army of ten thou
sand men.
The political design of this expedition was
to alarm the coasts of Spain ; and thus drawing
to various points the forces of the enemy, " to
compel them to spend their money and men in
other places." " Our allies," says Buckingham,

286 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
who opened his cabinet secret to the Commons,
" can only scratch with the King of Spain, ta
king a town to-day, and losing it to-morrow ;
now they will be strengthened by the disper
sion of the Spanish power by land. By this
kind of war you send no coin out of the land ;
you issue nothing but beef, mutton, and pow
der, and the kingdom is not impoverished,
but may make good returns," — that is to say,
let us wage a predatory war — hostilities so un
defined in their nature, that our enemies for
merly considered us as a people of pirates. In
deed the Minister lets us a little more into
his secret hopes ; let us listen to him. If it be
asked "Where is the enemy? the King bids
you name the enemy yourselves. As you issue
nothing that is loss, so you will bring home
something that is gain, and henceforward
maintain the war by its perquisites. When
the enemy is declared, you may have letters of
Mart, none shall be denied ; yourselves may
go and have the honey qf the business." It is
said that an occasional Spanish war was always
popular in this country ; no doubt, for " the
honey of the business" — when Spain had her
galleons. Like many simUar attempts from the days

THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ. 287
of Charles the First, to those of the great Lord
Chatham, and to our own, this predatory attack
concluded in a nullity.
It is the consequence too of this principle of
action, that such predatory expeditions instigate
the enemy in return to menace our own shores.
Ireland was now alarmed by invasion from a
Dunkirk fleet, designing to land an army, in
case they failed in a descent on some parts of
the English coast. While they were hastening
to attack Cadiz, London was in dismay ; " the
trained bands were to be in readiness with com
plete armour, to march upon all alarms to what
place soever."
The history of this expedition offers no im
perfect picture of what such enterprises have
but too often proved.
A veteran admiral, beloved by the seamen,
put aside to make room for a chief commander
unskiUed in naval operations, raised an inex
tinguishable jealousy between the united ser
vices of land and sea. Each bitterly laid the
fault of the failure on the other, but while they
were retorting and recriminating, possibly nei
ther party deserved the disgrace which they
incurred by an iU-planned expedition.
It was rashly determined to attack Spain,

288 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
without having fixed even on a point. A plan
of attack, drawn up by the old Admiral, Sir
Robert Mansel, was not attended to, and he was
removed from his command for Sir Edward
Cecil, created on this occasion Earl of Wim
bledon, and made Commander-in-chief. He
was a military man who had grown grey in
the wars of the Netherlands, but was totally
unacquainted with naval operations.
All our historians condemn this unlucky
veteran, and agree with Dr. Lingard, that the
public voice pronounced that he was unequal
to so important a command ; but of what mat
ter is the subject of this public voice often com
posed, and who are the utterers of this voice ?
Perhaps this Earl of Wimbledon has re-
ceiA^ed more than his share of the disgrace.
Historians have usually neither space nor in
clination for some necessary details. I shall
give a series of absurdities, that are sometimes
instructive as well as amusing — and they may
teach a commander-in-chief not to command
those who have not yet learnt to obey. We
may conceive the relaxed discipline of the
army during a peace of twenty years. We had
some able military men who had seen ser
vice under the New States of HoUand. That
young republic was a nursery for military ad-

THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ. £89
venturers ; but our soldiers and our seamen had
long been unaccustomed to warlike enterprise.
They were now hurried together to go on an
unknown service, with little affection for the
King or his Minister, Avho had never mixed
in their ranks. The talk of the town ran on
this mysterious design, while the Government
seemed so destitute of adequate means, that
the Arery household of the King was reduced
to contribute its small savings. " The beggar-
liness" of the march to Plymouth, which is
the term Lord Wimbledon uses, was a popular
subject of raUlery. They were laying wagers
that the fleet would not go, and they punned
on the names of some captains, among whom
were Bag, Cook, and Love ; for which, said
they, the fleet would not speed the better ; for
they were Bag without money ; Cook Avithout
meat ; and Love Avithout charity. It was also
probably the party of the discarded Admiral,
who were complaining of " young and single
Council," alluding to the Duke — and Lord
Cromwell, in a confidential letter, reported to
him " the discourse of the world." If Buck
ingham went not out with the fleet, his per
sonal bravery would be suspected ; if it pros
pered, it would be thought no act of his ; if
unsuccessful, the blame would be laid whoUy
u

290 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
on him. How the thoughtless Minister felt on
this occasion we know not, but he was too far
engaged to deliberate, and every day pressed
for the departure of the fleet.
The Commander-in-Chief, from the first
moment, despaired of success, and reluctantly
complied with the desire of his royal Master,
or rather his injudicious patron, the Duke.
" This expedition I was content to take upon
me, though against my judgment, as I did
secretly deliver both to his Majesty and your
Grace before I departed from the coast."
A character of hopeless indecision is fatal
to military success ; but the veteran, who was
now to be the victim, felt his obedience to
his Sovereign's command stronger than his
own particular judgment. " I would rather
have been torn in pieces than to have gone
with so many ignorant and malicious people."
The truth is, the opposition party was already
formed, before they set sail, and the deepest
anxiety and incessant occupation clouded over
the faculties, or exhausted the frame of the
despairing Commander-in-Chief. "When my
adversaries slept I waked, when they made
good cheer I fasted, and when they rested I
toiled." At length eighty ships, with ten regiments

THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ. 291
of a thousand men each, sailed from Plymouth.
A storm disperses them. When they collect, a
council of Avar is held to fix on a point of at
tack, for their instructions left them at liberty
to choose. The Duke and his council left aU
things to chance ; this was not a greater evil
than the blunders they had unwarily commit
ted; had they taken on themselves to pre
scribe the course the fleet was to have pur
sued, they might not have blundered less.
The Earl of Essex, Vice-admiral, warned by
the glory his father had won at Cadiz, deemed
it right for him to attack the Spanish fleet;
but difficulties were started, and they debated
so long, that the coast had time to be alarmed.
The Earl of Essex, we are told by some,
wished to attack the Spanish fleet ; but Lord
Wimbledon is surprised " that the Earl is not
called into question for letting pass the King
of Spain's ships that offered him fight." Pro
bably some heroes are disposed for fighting at
one hour, and not at another.
It is agreed that the ships in the port of
Cadiz might have been taken, but, except the
Dutch ships, which had leagued with us on
this occasion, twenty Enghsh ones never stir
red. Wimbledon asserts, that he has proved
several persons guilty, whom he could neArer
U 2

292 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
get examined by the council. Wimbledon
went personally from ship to ship to enforce
his commands. A body of seamen were land
ed with difficulty, but being resisted, they re
treated. Sir John Burroughs, one of our ablest
officers, who was afterwards fated to perish
in another expedition, at the head of his re
giment, attacked and carried the fort of Pun-
tal. The troops now landed ; and the only
enemy they had to encounter were the wine-
cellars of Cadiz. Every man was his own
vintner, as a contemporary expresses it;, and
had the fugitive Spaniards returned on such
invaders, they had found an easy conquest.
The Commander-in-Chief had published his
orders expressly to warn them of the Spanish
wines, but his undisciplined troops had not yet
been habituated to the severity of orders from
head-quarters, and the general gladly re-shipped
his bacchanalian troops — no ships Avere burnt
in the harbour— and they left the coast of Spain
in no worse condition by their inroad, than
what the morning shoAved the Spaniards in a
vast number of empt3r casks.
Their intemperance was punished by sick
ness, which spread in the ships— and by the
ingenious contrivance of taking two sick men
out of the sick ships to supply their places by

THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ. 293
two sound men, they propagated the contagion
through the whole fleet. They lay in wait
twenty days for the Plate-fleet, which either
passed at night-time, or the day after; they
could no longer keep their station, returning to
Plymouth with the loss of a thousand men,
not occasioned by the enemy. The Earl of
Wimbledon Avas for a considerable time denied
the King's presence. An inquiry was opened to
criminate the military veteran, — journal was op
posed to journal — opinions of landsmen were
given on seamen, and of sailors on the tactics
of the military. " He that commandeth is but
one man, and the rest are many thousands" —
patheticaUy exclaims this hapless commander-
in-chief — and he has declared that " many who
should have assisted me, were more careful in
betraying me than in forwarding' his Majesty's
service." This inquiry, like so many others of the
kind, got more intricate and confused the far
ther they proceeded ; accusers were themselves
accused — witnesses were themselves criminals.
In the cross interests of parties, one shielded
the guilty, and the other aspersed the inno
cent. , All parties were blamed, but none could
be punished.
So unhappily for the feelings of the youthful

294 THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
monarch, terminated his first great enterprize.
Glory had been changed into dishonour !
Scarcely had a few months elapsed since he
was seated on the throne ere he was doomed
to taste that bitterness of government which
sickens the secret heart of majesty. Aheady
thorns were in the ermine of his crown — and
although he had not himself committed a
single censurable act, yet he had found a Par
Uament hostile to the purposes for which they
had clamoured — an army disorganised — a navy
discontented — the affections of the people de
clining. His partial hope was still leaning on
Buckingham, whUe he was looking for his
urgent wants to be supplied by those who
were intent to refuse their aid ! There were
greater evils in futurity !

THE SECOND PARLIAMENT. 295

CHAPTER XI.
MEETING OF THE SECOND PARLIAMENT. —
THE CONTENTION BETWEEN THE DUKE
OF BUCKINGHAM AND THE EARL OF BRIS
TOL.
From the commencement to the disastrous
termination of the Ul-concerted and ill-con
ducted expedition to Cadiz, which from the
destitution of Parliamentary supplies had been
hastened by the most disorderly ways, Buck
ingham had been absent from England, actively
negotiating in person at the Hague with the
northern powers, a treaty respecting the res
toration of the Palatinate, the incessant ob
ject of popular clamour, and for neglecting
which the pacific counsels of the late Monarch
had been reproached with pusillanimity.
Now the scene had changed. A spirited
and enterprising young Prince, under the in
fluence of the Minister whom he loved too
well, and the Minister under the influence of

296 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
popular feeling, which he too vainly courted,
had adopted rather the politics of the English
public, than the policy of the English Cabinet.
Buckingham, on his return from Spain, had
been saluted as " the saviour of his country,"
and there was nothing this warm and vola
tile man aspired to more ardently than popu
larity. Buckingham was in earnest, for it was in
a stormy season, and in considerable peril,
losing a vessel in the passage, that he had
reached the Hague to hasten the treaties by
his own personal zeal. After a month's ab
sence, he returned home to witness the most
sudden mutability of his fortune ! AU his
anxieties, his official labours, and according to
his statement, large sacrifices of his private
fortune had been devoted to this disastrous
expedition, and now he had to encounter a
more unexpected storm than that which had
dispersed the fleets, and which, more terrible
but as sudden, was to overwhelm the Minister.
It is probable that a party against the Royal
favourite had been silently forming, and now
found a voice in his ill-fortune; but it seems
that the overt personal attacks came unex
pectedly. Whatever the world thought, Buck
ingham in his own mind felt the change that

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 297
was prepared for him undeserved, and this feel
ing is finely touched on by Sir Henry Wot-
ton. " It could not but trouble him the more
by happening when he came freshly returned
out of. a meritorious employment in his inward
conceit and hope."* Buckingham found that
he was even reproached for not having him
self taken the command of the army and navy,
and the Lord High Admiral and Commander-
in-Chief was accused of sparing his person
from an ignoble motive. Sir John Eliot taunt
ed him in the House when he said, " the Lord-
General has the whole command both by sea
and land, and can this great General think
it sufficient to put in his deputy, and stay at
home?" The intrepidity and daring of Buck
ingham yielded to no man's, as was after
wards proved. Charles knew that in this res
pect the character of his friend was unjustly
aspersed, and the King did not wish to see
his Minister's courage put to the test, when
the venture was not absolutely required ; but
it was probably the bitter taunt of Buck
ingham's unsparing enemy, soon echoed by
the public, which induced the Duke to take
the command in person in his future fatal
expeditions.
* Conceit here means idea.

298 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
Buckingham had a foresight of the approach
ing Parliament. He took certain precaution
ary measures, and was particularly desirous of
keeping out of the House his future great op
ponent, Sir John Eliot, among others. Bishop
Williams, Avho was always stirring at a crisis,
though now in disgrace at Court, pretended
that, in communicating with Buckingham's ene
mies, he was warding off the threatened at
tacks of a barking opposition. It was, how
ever, a dubious argument which he urged to
protect the Minister, repeatedly reminding the
party, that when " a beast got into the midst
of a field of wheat, if the neighbours ran in and
hunted it about with their dogs, they would
run down more corn than five beasts could
devour." Williams well knew, that the simile
was no argument for " the dogs" themselves.
With the Duke's friends he used another
counsel. He urged them to advise the Duke
to retire to some great embassy, " as distant
as that of Vienna, if he durst trust the King
of Spain's nearest ally." To them Williams's
advice seemed but an ambiguous friendship, as
if this politic genius looked to clear the stage,
and himself again to play a part to which he
had been long used.
Charles summoned his second Parliament, as

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 299
he said, " in the midst of necessities," and to
learn from them " how he was to frame his
course and councils." To induce their com-
pHance for immediate supplies, he laid before
the Commons the most urgent reasons. " The
unseasonable slowness may produce as ill effect
as a denial," said the message. Mr. Brodie,
who, as an historian, could not avoid giving
these forcible reasons for an instant compli
ance with the King's demand, denies their just
ness, and as the Commons would not comply,
our Scotch Advocate furnishes three pages of
special pleading, where the most obscure mo
tives are assigned as arguments stronger than
" a sense of danger" in the country.*
Mr. Brodie has, doubtless, discovered many
a motive with which some of the members
would gladly have been furnished, to oppose
to the grant required by the Crown ; but what
would history be were it only a voluminous
brief, where nothing is to appear but what is
in favour of the chent ?
The Commons, as duteously as ever, profess
that " no King was ever dearer to his people,.
and that they really intend to assist his Ma
jesty in such a way as may make him safe
' Brodie, II. 92.

300 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
at home and feared abroad." They acknow
ledge — and this point has not been sufficiently
observed — that " they will support that cause
wherein your Majesty and your allies are now
justly engaged." They sanction the principles
and the design of the war entered into, while
they pertinaciously are withholding the neces
sary supplies ! It has been alleged, in favour of
the Commons, that they had been hurried into
war by the false representations of Buckingham,
sanctioned by Charles. I confess this allega
tion has always appeared to me most doubtful.
However, the Avar in which Charles Avas now
involved, from their own words, was of the
most popular character. It Avas a war for the
restitution of the Palatinate, carried on by a
close alliance with the northern Protestant
powers. It was an English war. We see by
their " remonstrance" that the Commons did
not deny this.
Before the supplies, the King wras first, how
ever, to accept the information and advice of
Parliament in discovering the causes of " the
great evils, and redress their grievances." The
King accepted this " as a satisfactory answer,"
and thanked them for it. In regard to griev
ances, Charles said, " for your clause of present
ing of grievances, I take that for a parenthesis

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 301
and not a condition; apply yourselves to re
dress grievances, but not to inquire after griev
ances." The fact was, that the Commons were
preparing an impeachment of his Minister; and
the King's style first betrays angried feelings.
" You specially aim at the Duke of Bucking
ham ; I wonder what hath so altered your
affections towards him." Charles felt that the
Commons designed to control the Government
itself; and in his view, he could only ascribe
their antipathy to Buckingham to the caprici-
ousness of popular favour.
The Commons had now begun to practise
the refined art of voting supplies, without giv
ing them. They Avere to be received virtually
on some " condition ;" thus avoiding the term
to which the King objected, but not the
practice. The affair, however, was not long doubtful.
Dr. Turner, a physician, a class of men which
it is unusual to find in Parliament, was chosen
for the onset against the Duke. There were
also rumours of a close intelligence, which had
for some time been kept up with certain per
sons in the Upper House.
Dr. Turner adopted an extraordinary mode
for impeaching the Minister ; or, as the King
described it, " The House had emboldened one

302 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
to do a strange act in a strange way," He
drew up six queries. They were soon com
monly called " Buckingham's Queries." Their
object was, to inquire if the Duke were not the
cause of the six monstrous grievances therein
specified? concluding, that "all these were
famed to be so."
This led to a singular debate, where " com
mon fame and rumour" were separated by a
curious distinction. " The general voice, the
vox populi is common fame ; and if common
fame might not be admitted as an accuser,
great men would be the only safe men ; for no
private person dare venture to inquire into their
actions." The House resolved, that " common
fame is a good ground of proceeding "for this
House, whether by inquiring or presenting the
complaints to the King and Lords." This was
a bold and novel principle. Thus a Minister
was liable to be impeached merely on rumours,
Avhich Parliamentary philology had discrimi
nated by its own dictionary of synonyms. It
must be confessed, that this resolution, if act
ed on, would not diminish the business of a
Prime Minister. It is, however, rather curious
to observe, by the " remonstrances" of the
Commons, that they did not think that " ru
mours" against themselves should be thus ele-<

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 303
vated into evidence. They close their remon
strance by " beseeching that his Majesty would
not give ear to the officious reports of private per
sons for their own ends." Were the Commons
certain that the reports which they themselves
so eagerly adopted, might not also have origi
nated in private persons for their own ends ?
Some of "the bold speakers," as the heads
of the opposition are designated in the private
letters of the times, had now risen into notice.
They poured themselves forth in a vehement,
not to say, seditious style, with more daring
invectives than had ever before thundered in
the House of Commons. The party against
the Duke had now found a voice. One had
declared that the cause of all the grievances, as
was said of Louis the Eleventh of France, is,
that " all the King's council rides on one horse."
Charles now sent for both Houses to meet
him at Whitehall. Thanking the Lords for
their care of the kingdom, he was sorry he
owed no thanks " to their fellow-house of the
Commons." " 1 must tell you, that I am come
here to show you your errors, and as I may caU
it, unparliamentary proceedings in this Parlia
ment ; but I do not despair, that this Parlia
ment shall end comfortably, though, at the
beginning it hath had some rubs." The King

304 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
left to the Lord-Keeper to say the rest. His
lordship assured them, that " when the irregu
lar humours of some particular persons were
settled, the King would hear and answer all
just grievances ; but the King would have
them also to know that he Avas equally jealous
to the contempt of his royal rights, which his
Majesty would not suffer to be Adolated by
any pretended course of Parliamentary liberty.
The King considered the Parliament as his
council ; but there was a difference between
councilling and controlling, and between liber
ty and the abuse of liberty. He particularised
their conduct in sanctioning the strange unpar
liamentary way of Dr. Turner, who, without
any ground of " knowledge in himself, advised
the House to inquire concerning the Duke of
Buckingham, —it was an example -which the
King could not suffer, though it were against
his meanest servant. His Majesty wondered
at ' the foolish insolency* of that man who
could think that his Majesty should be drawn
out to offer such a sacrifice so unworthy of a
King or a good Master." The Lord-Keeper
closed by observing, that his Majesty, "holds
* This expression indicated a personal feeling of the King's,
which I shall notice hereafter.

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 305
as insufferable," that they had signed a warrant
for the signet-office to produce their records,
books and private notes— made for his Majes
ty's service.
The King resuming his speech, remarkably
reproached the Commons. " Now that you
have all things according to your wishes, and
that / am so far engaged, that you think there
is no retreat, now you begin to set the dice and
make your own game. It is not a Parliamen
tary way, nor is it a way to deal with a King.
Mr. Clement Coke told you, ' It was better to
be eaten up by a foreign enemy, than to be
destroyed at home.' Indeed I think it more
honour for a King to be invaded and almost
destroyed by a foreign enemy, than to be des
pised by his own subjects."*
* That the reader may have a specimen of that sort of
comment with which the preconceived notions of party-
writers have always so cruelly treated the memory of this
hapless Prince, I shall give the remarks of Mr. Brodie
upon this passage ; and if the reader admire either the dis
cernment or the feelings of that gentleman, he will thank me
for informing him that he may find a hundred similar in
stances in the greater portion of Mr. Brodie's pages. This
writer says, " By stating, that he thought it more honour
for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a foreign
enemy, than to be despised by his own subjects ; he dis
tinctly declared, that in his opinion, he reigned for himself
X

306 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
There was a lofty tone in this reprimand,
ill-adapted to soothe the inimical and jealous
spirits which had to listen ; it was indeed the
indignant voice of sovereignty in its wounded
feelings — and since Mr. Clement Coke had ele
vated the tone of debate into something like
heroism, it was not irrelevant in Charles, in
the exaltation of his emotions, to have respond
ed by a sentiment equally heroic*
alone, not for the benefit of his people, whose utmost miseries,
for they must suffer the evils to which he alluded, were in
his idea trivial, in comparison of his being crossed in his
arbitrary measures." — ii. 104.
Now, as I am conscious that the mind of Charles was in
capable of admitting any such extravagance, as that " he
reigned for himself alone, and not for the benefit of the
people," I can only lament over those party prejudices
which actuate a writer to compose volumes in this spirit,
and deduce discoveries which equally violate human nature
and human history.
* The Commons deny that these were the express words
of Mr. Coke— that he spoke nothing seditious, " howsoever
he let fall some few words whereat the House being dis
pleased, it was expressed by a general and instant cheek."
Charles was then more right in the spirit, than in the letter;
but to have produced " a general and instant check," from
the House, — that is from the majority, who were not yet
seasoned by the party — it is not impossible that Mr. Coke
may have delivered something worse than what had been
conveyed to the King. We learn from another quarter, that
Sir Edward Coke reprimanded his son very severely for his

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 307
But there was a sting in the close of this
address, Avhich reminded them that " Parlia
ments are altogether in my power for their
caUing, sitting, and dissolution; therefore, as
I find the fruits of them good or evil, they
were to continue, or not to be." He finally con
jured them " to look to the distressed affairs of
the kingdom, so they would do themselves ho
nour, and he hoped that all Christendom shaU
feel the good of it."
The Commons retreated after their lecture,
closed their doors, and debated in an open
committee, on certain parts of these speeches.
Whether they dwelt on those ominous words —
or not to be, the germ of the civil wars, does
not appear by their " Remonstrance." All
that we know is, that Charles commanded the
Duke to explain some misunderstandings to
which his language on this occasion had given
rise; this Buckingham did in a most concili
atory speech, and by the King's command in
formed them that his Majesty intends to trust
to a committee of both Houses to take a view
of his whole estate, " the defects of which are
words, and would not receive him for a considerable time
after. Carte, iv. 156. The Commons' denial of the King's
accusation altogether was unworthy of themselves. — Thus it
happened also on a subsequent occasion.
X 2

308 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
not fit for the eyes of a multitude, nor any
weakness that may bring shame upon us abroad."
The personal distresses of the monarch were
humiliating, whatever might be his style.
Buckingham took this opportunity of ad
dressing them on his own behalf. He gave
them an ample account of his arduous nego
tiations ; of his suspected" religion, which, had
he had any ill inclinations, might have allow
ed him to have been tempted by the offers
made him in Spain. He assured them that
nothing was adopted by single counsels, and
for the proof appealed " to a journal which
my Lord Conway keeps,"* and that if the
late expedition had proved unsuccessful, it had
not been without its use.
There is an apparent openness in the speech,
which gives a favourable idea of the man. It
might have been a premeditated address, and
perhaps was written for him, which was not un
usual ; but the sentiments were his, and could
only have originated in his instructions. He
speaks of himself not without modesty. " I
should be glad, before I end, to say something
* If this " Journal" have escaped the ravages of the
steward, the cats, and the rats, who committed such depre
dations on the Conway papers, it may yet be recover
able.

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 309
of myself; but I shall request your favour
able construction, for I fear that I shall offend."
— " If in any of these employments my errors
may be showed me, I shaU take him for my
best friend that will manifest them in parti
cular. I have bent aU my thoughts on no
thing but my master's honour, the service of
the state, and safety of them both. I never
had any end of my own, and that may be per
ceived and proved by the expense of mine
own estate. I am ashamed to speak it, and
it would become another man's tongue better
than mine own." But " his own estate" had
entirely been derived from the prodigal fa
vours heaped on him by his Royal Master.
This is obvious ; but what is not obvious, and
which I am anxious shortly to show, is, that
Buckingham was zealously active for public
ends, and that the favourite was in earnest
to merit the honours of a patriot. At his
death, his family discovered that he had sup
plied unlimited sums to the King to aid him
in carrying on the war, amidst the royal
distresses, and had kept no vouchers or any
accounts whatever.
" I am accused by common fame to be the
cause of the loss of the narrow seas. I have
always had twelve ships on the coasts, and

310 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
aUowance but for four— the rest my own care
supplied. " When you know the truth, and when all
shaU appear, I hope I shall stand right in your
opinions. It is no time to pick quarrels one
with another — foUow not examples. Gondo
mar and Inojosa would have had my head
when you thought me worthy of a salute.
Now, though I confess there may be some
errors I will not justify, yet they are not gross
defects as the world would make them appear.
They are no errors of wilfulness, nor of cor
ruption, nor oppressing of the people, nor
injustice." " Now, gentlemen, you that were eminent
Parliament-men when this council was first
given, make good your own engagement for
the honour of your King and your own safety;
and you that are young men in these active
times, gain honour and reputation, Avhich is
almost sunk in the glory of your predeces
sors." There was a spirit in this address designed
to infuse confidence among those who could
feel none in the mercurial Minister. Neither
the King's explanation, nor the Minister's con
ciliatory tone, delayed the articles which the
Commons were preparing against him, while

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 311
at the same moment Buckingham witnessed a
rising adversary in one whom of all men he
most dreaded, — the Earl of Bristol. He had
hitherto succeeded in removing this nobleman
to a distance from the Court.
The quarrel of two jealous and powerful
Ministers, both entangled in the most intricate
and the darkest of negotiations, as the Spanish
match stiU remained to all the parties con
cerned, was now to close in a fierce encoun
ter a I'outrance, armed by mutual impeach
ments. The Earl of Bristol, on his return from
Spain, had been unquestionably estranging the
late Sovereign's affections from the favourite.
James had called the Earl " an honest man
whom he would answer for." The death of
James occurred at a critical hour. Bucking
ham, on his side, had early indisposed the ten
der mind of the young Prince against Bristol,
and he had directed all the royal influence to
keep Bristol in restraint. Two years had now
elapsed since the Earl of Bristol had suffered
the exile of retirement, and that repose, if
exUe can be repose to a discarded Minister,
Avas only conditional, that he should " sit still
without being questioned for any errors past"
in the Spanish Negotiation.

312 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
The present moment seemed favourable to
any design against the favourite. Bristol broke
the silence of two years by claiming his seat in
the House. The Earl now decided to appeal
to Parliament in vindication of his honour, and
to throw off the poHtical imprisonment, so long
endured under the disguise of domestic pri
vacy. A struggle ensued between the King
and the Earl. Charles issued his writ to sum
mon him to Parliament, in compliance with
the desire of the Lords, who asserted their pri
vileges, but at the same time insisted that
he should forbear his personal attendance, in
compliance with the condition of his former
restriction. Bristol's resolute decision, to take
his place in the House of Lords, was remark
able. It was therefore on this occasion that
Buckingham showed the Lords the copy of a
letter to the Earl of Bristol, in which the King
himself, in unqualified terms, criminated the
Earl for his conduct in Spain, and by which
the Lords were to infer that Bristol Avas put
in restraint for state affairs.
Bristol then petitions to be heard in accu
sation of Buckingham. Instantly the Earl is
himself charged with high-treason. The arti
fice of preventing a blow by inflicting one,
Avas defeated by that perfect indifference in

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 313
the House of Lords, which seems to have di
vided them by an equal interest for both the
rival ministers. They therefore agreed to hear
each cause in succession. By this means the
accusations of one great delinquent would not
prevent the accused from making the accuser
an equal delinquent ; the criminations and re
criminations of two great Ministers would fur
nish all that fuller information and entertain
ment which both their lordships and the public
were quite prepared to expect.
Buckingham, who had hitherto succeeded in
keeping Bristol in restraint, and absent from
Parliament, well knew that the dignified cha
racter of the Earl would shake his lighter and
vacillating conduct in public opinion. He fear
ed the tale which yet remained untold; not
the perplexed narrative of the Spanish match,
which it would be more easy to contradict than
to comprehend, nor the charge, that for the
purpose of gratifying his own passion he had
raised the Spanish war, conscious that Charles
would sanction the whole, and that the Par
liament would not care to look too scrupu
lously into the origin of a war of their own
choice. In truth, whatever secret motive Buck
ingham might have indulged in a war with
Spain, he well knew that he was acquiring

314 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
popularity by humouring the present temper of
the nation. It was another tale than all this
which the Duke feared— the history of him
self ! The indecorous carelessness of the fa
vourite had held in scorn all prescribed modes
of conduct in life, and in diplomacy ; there was
too a tenderness sore to touch in the religion
of Buckingham ; for, though James had fur
nished him with the result of Protestant argu
ments, he confessed that the Duke could not
retain the arguments themselves, and though
Laud, by hard conferences, steadied him from
backslidings, it was credited that a certain
bigoted Romanist, under whose influence he
often acted, had more secret influence than the
polemical sovereign, or the casuistical Arch
bishop — the old lady, his mother, who could
not conscientiously suffer her son to stray from
the only infallible church.
Bristol charged Buckingham with being
" popishly affected, absenting himself from all
exercises of religion in the Earl's house, fre
quented by all Protestants, and conforming so
closely to the rites of the Spanish religion, as
to kneel and adore their sacrament, endeavour
ing to procure the Prince's conversion by all
possible means, and receiving a bull in parch
ment from the Pope, to thank him, and to en
courage him in the perversion of. the Prince."

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 315
To all these allegations, Buckingham might
have replied that he was only practising a de
ception on the Spaniard, which might assist in
hastening the torpid negotiation. But he could
not have pleaded as successfully for " the scan
dal given by his personal behaviour, things
neither fit for the Earl of Bristol to speak,
nor indeed for the House to hear, however he
leaves them to your Lordships' wisdom how far
you wUl be pleased to have them examined."
Bristol, and indeed all Madrid, had been as
watchful as they were cruel observers of Buck
ingham's indecencies and eccentricities ; and this
great statesman had condescended to furnish
himself with a Chronique Scandaleuse, a diary
of Hcentious follies, supplied by the domestic
spies of a most inconsiderate master. One of
these communications exists.
Whoever will examine the elaborate articles
of the Attorney-General against the Earl of
Bristol, formidably classed into " offences before
his Majesty's going into Spain, at the time
of the Prince's being in Spain, and after the
Prince's return," and the repHes of Bristol to
each article, minutely curious, will have before
him one of the most extraordinary documents
of the perversity of the human understand
ing, and the mysterious complexity of human
events. According to Bristol, the Court of

316 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
Madrid were at first not sincere in their propo
sitions, but at the end they became so ; but
when we find such perpetual misunderstand
ings requiring explanation, where so much was
said which was never meant, so much done
which remained to be undone, when the most
equivocal language and the most suspicious
actions were to be commented on at a distant
day, we are not surprised that each party looked
on these strange transactions according to his
own particular view, and accounted for them
on very opposite principles. But Avhat is start
ling is the direct contradiction of facts asserted
by one party, and denied by the other. Where
the accusations are positive, and each accuses
the other of doing the very thing he is him
self taxed with, Ave start at the hardihood of
perjury, or we may suspect that both parties
are alike criminal.
The Earl is accused of offering to concur
with the Prince in his presumed conversion to
the Roman faith. At the Prince's first coming
to the Earl, he asked the Prince for what he
came thither? The Prince at first, not con
ceiving the Earl's meaning, answered, "You
know as well as I." - The Earl replied, " Sir,
servants can never serve their masters indus
triously, although they may do it faithfully,

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 317
unless they know their meanings fully. Give
me leave, therefore, to tell you what they say
in the town is the cause of your coming — that
you mean to change your rehgion, and to de
clare it here, and yet cunningly to disguise it."
The Earl added, " Sir, I do not speak this to
persuade you to do it, or that I Avill promise
you to foUow your example though you do it ;
but, as your faithful servant, if you Avill trust
me with so great a secret, I Avill endeavour to
carry it the discreetest way I can."* At this
the Prince expressed his indignation, and, as
appears by the Earl's answer, asked " Avhat the
Earl saw in his Majesty, that he should think
him so unworthy as to change his religion for
a wife, or any earthly respect whatever ?" And
the Attorney-General goes on to show the
treason of the Minister, in the dangerous con
sequences of his conduct to the true religion
and to the State.
The Earl in reply does not deny the charge,
which, says he, refutes itself; for he exult-
ingly points out that he, at that very moment,
had declared himself a Protestant. The truth
is, that on the portentous arrival of the Prince
with his companion, there was a general ru
mour among the Spaniards, that Charles came
* Rushworth, i. 252.

318 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
to make his conversion. This seemed to be a
State secret, which the jealousy of Bristol at
tempted to fathom, and, in secrecy, he tam
pered with the Prince to start a discovery,
with aU the guarded caution of a sage politi
cian, by which conduct he had not compro
mised himself, Avhile at the same time, whether
the Prince were Catholic or Protestant, he had
equaUy offered to exert, on his side, the same
unalterable zeal.
The Earl of Bristol was an able single man
in the Cabinet, but the tumult and passion of
the Senate disturbed the gravity and reflection
which he had perhaps contracted from his long
residence at the Court of Madrid. Hence his
famous son, Lord Digby, we are told, looked
on his father with more affection than respect,
and as this son, in his versatility of opinions,
came round to Astrology and Catholicism, it
has been suspected that the Earl of Bristol
was himself inclined to the religion of Spain.
Some persons contract more local habits than
they are aware of. But it was the poHtical
creed of Bristol which Avas most relaxed, or
rather enlarged, and which occasioned at times
some ambiguous conduct and language which a
rigid Protestant might suspect. He once advis
ed a bold measure, Avhen he recommended that

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 319
the young Palatine, Charles's nephew, should
be educated in the Roman Catholic Court of the
Emperor, in order that a royal marriage might
conciliate two opposite interests ; and when Sir
Walter Aston, in a passion, declared that " He
durst not for his head consent to any such pro
posal," Bristol replied, that he saw no great
inconvenience in it; the Prince might retain
his rehgion ; and without some such great ac
tion, it was desperate to hope for the peace of
Christendom. This great statesman had an odd
notion respecting the state of Protestantism
in his day. He declared that " conscience,
and love to truth only, not any temporal re
spects, made men constant to the Protestant reli
gion — for that they suffered too much, which
was to their honour," and he was fond of re
peating James's observation, that " he was the
true martyr that suffered more for his reH-
ligion than all the princes of Christendom be
sides," which he could instance in various ways.
As mere political men, in balancing opposite
interests when a great design is in hand, have
not always discriminated the fine shades of con
viction, these calamities of Protestantism sound
ed suspiciously from the lips of the states
man, and it might seem dubious had Charles

320 THE SECOND PARLIAMENT.
been a converted Romanist, whether the Mi
nister who offered to remain equally zealous,
might not have slided over like his son.
The Earl is positively accused by Charles
not only of concurring with Charles's presumed
conversion, but of inforcing it by pointing out
to him its conveniences, it being impossible to
effectuate any great purpose by other means.
In what degree Spanish politics might mingle
with English Protestantism in the breast of this
able statesman, it might have been difficult even
for himself to have discerned. The wisdom of
a statesman was wrestling with the faith of
a martyr. But assuredly it might have been
expected that a zealous Protestant would not
have advanced so far in such arguments, and
that his indignation at this treason of royalty
in an English sovereign, might have overcome
the cold policy of the statesman, which, to say
the least, had too evidently characterised these
secret conferences.*
•* Mr. Hallam acknowledges that " the Earl of Bristol
might be more partial to Spain than we may think right, or
even he might have some bias towards the religion of Rome.
The last, however, is by no means proved, for the King's
word is no proof in my eyes." Mr. Brodie is blamed by Mr.
Hallam for his severe attack on Bristol : the acknowledg
ment of the veracity of Charles would assist Mr. Brodie's ar
guments, nevertheless he could not let slip this opportunity

BUCKINGHAM AND BRISTOL. 321
of throwing great doubts over the royal honour. " It is im
possible to determine what degree of credit is due to
the statement." Yet probably overcome for a moment by
the very conviction which I myself feel, Mr. Brodie adds,
" though ii is amazing to think, that a person in his elevated
sphere should have had the frontless assurance to accuse one
of his subjects to his face of such an offence, without founda
tion." Amazing indeed, because it seems to me impossible!
I shall never believe that Charles was capable of the guilt of
inventing an entire conference, particular in its detail, and
express in its language ; particularly as we find from other
sources that Bristol entertained in other instances the same
equivocal notions and conduct. This Earl offers a curious
evidence of the variable conflict of politics and religion in the
same breast. In my own mind I entertain no doubt of the
Protestantism, perhaps weak, of Bristol : he gave the Parlia
ment the most ample testimonials from his earliest days and
through his whole conduct in Spain ; and Fuller has distin
guished him, probably from his own testimony, as " a stout
champion of the Church of England." But, be it remem
bered that the Digbys were a family of Romanists, and that
their historian Dodd, has inscribed the name of this Earl
of Bristol in his catalogue, with a remark, that " though he
was always a Protestant, yet he discovered himself both in
the treaty of the Spanish Match, and on several occasions, to
be no enemy to the Catholic interest." — Dodd's Church His
tory of England, ii. 357.

322 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM

CHAPTER XII.
IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM BY THE
COMMONS.
After the maturing silence of two years,
Bristol could bring forward against Bucking
ham nothing but vUifying personalities, more
adapted to supply the month's talk of news-
writers and gossippers, than to furnish an
Attorney General with articles of high trea
son. A ParUamentary anecdote on this occasion
has come down to us. When the Earl of
Bristol had ended his charge against Bucking
ham, Lord Spencer rising, inquired " Is this
all you have to say against the Duke ?" " Yes,
my Lord, and I am sorry it is so much."
" Then," rejoined Lord Spencer, " if this be all,
ridiculus mus /" and sat down. Lord Cromwell
hastened to Mr. Robert Spencer, the younger

BY THE COMMONS. 323
son of his Lordship, and who was zealously
acting with the party in the Commons against
the Duke, " Dick, what is done in your house
to-day against the Duke ?" " My Lord, he
is charged with no less than high treason." —
" High treason ! tush Dick ! if this be all, ridi
culus mus!"* This humorous application of
Lord Cromwell's seems like a comment on the
opposite pohtics of the father and the son ; but
it is not quite evident which side the humorist
himself would have adopted. We see, perhaps,
much clearer than either party did at the time.
A theme of loftier interest, an accusation far
more solemn, where orators were to be the wit
nesses, and public opinion the tribunal, were
now to open for the sovereign and the minis
ter, in the impeachment of the Favourite by
the Commons.
But the Commons did not come forward, as is
admirably remarked by Hume, to accuse Buck
ingham for his conduct in the Spanish treaty.
They approved the Spanish war too weU to
quarrel with its origin. Its object was English,
for it was to wrest the Palatinate from ambitious
Austria and to reduce Catholic prepon derancy.
The unanimous voice of the nation had sanc^
tioned it, and the Lords and Commons on that
* Hamon L'Estrange, p. 29.
Y 2

324 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
occasion, responded " as if the two Houses had
been tAvins ; what the one had thought and
said and done, the other had thought and said
and done." They chose the war, but they re
fused the supplies. To palliate this sudden
change in the measures of the Commons, party-
writers have imagined, that the Commons had
now discovered that Buckingham had deceived
them, and that they had been seduced by his
statement.' Not a single member raised any
objection of this nature. If Buckingham had
hastened a war, he knew that by such conduct
he should acquire the popularity which it, in
fact, brought him ; and so far from the Com
mons having been seduced by Buckingham, it
would be more just to say that Buckingham
had been seduced by the Commons.
In one respect, however, the charges against
the Favourite resembled that of Bristol : they
turned chiefly on personalities.
The impeachment of Buckingham was open
ed before the Lords by Sir Dudley Digges,
who afterwards was one of those who went
over to the court party. Professing to deliver
himself, " in plain country language, setting by
all rhetorical affectations," he informed the Peers
that the Commons had discovered that all the

BY THE COMMONS. 325
evils which they suffered were drawn like one
line to one circumference from one centre,
which met in one great man, whom I am here
to name — the Duke of Buckingham.
In mentioning the name, Sir Dudley looked
up and made a sudden stand. The courtly
patriot was disconcerted;* the undaunted Duke
was facing his accuser. Sir Dudley held in
his hand a voluminous roll, and in the preamble
of the charge, he had to read the lengthened
and the multiplied titles of the pluraHty of
offices, and all the honours held by, as th&
words run, this " young and inexperienced
Duke." The lofty titles resounding through the
House, raised our orator's spirit with apaulo
majora canamus — and " the plain country lan
guage" roUs on into a foHo metaphor. Earth
and air are ransacked to describe the manufac
tures, the husbandry, and the commerce of the
industrious Commons. The sun in the firma
ment is the glorious king, the fixed stars their
lordships, the elements of fire are the clergy,
and the j udges are the air they breathe. Amidst
* The circumstance of Sir Dudley's sudden stop is noticed
by Hamon I'Estrange, whence Rushworth appears to have
drawn his curtailed information.

326 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
this elemental imagery, the discovery of a
blazing meteor troubles the Commons, "who
though they be the footstool, and the lowest,
yet may Avell be said to be the settled centre
of the State." But as for this " prodigious
comet" they cannot look upon it, and for
want of a " perspective, commend the nearer
examination to their lordships."
. Such a prologist as Sir Dudley, seemed
scarcely to threaten in the circumlocutions of
his ornate style. He left the less graceful
parts to men who were less awed by courtly
dispositions, and who did not cherish a con
cealed hope of one day climbing into that ra
diant firmament which he had so painfully de
lineated. On the first day, the Duke sat outfacing
his accusers, and outbraving their accusations ;
but he absented himself on the foUowing day,
when the epUogue to this mighty drama was
elaborately delivered by Sir John EHot, with
a force of declamation and a hardiness of per
sonal allusion, which have not been surpassed
by the invectives of the modern Junius.
EHot, after expatiating on the Favourite's
ambition in procuring and getting into his
hands the greatest offices of strength and power
in the kingdom, drew a picture of " the inward

BY THE COMMONS. 327
character of the Duke's mind, fuU of collu
sion and deceit. He was a chimerical beast,
called by the ancients Stellionatus, so blurred,
so spotted, so full of foul lines, that they knew
not what to make of it. In setting up him
self, he hath set upon the kingdom's revenues,
the fountain of supply, and the nerves of the
land. — He intercepts, consumes, and exhausts
the revenues of the crown, and by emptying
the veins the blood should run in, he hath cast
the kingdom into a high consumption."
EHot descends to criminate the Duke's mag
nificent tastes, he who had something of a con
genial nature ; for Eliot was a man of fine
literature. " Infinite sums of money, and mass
of land exceeding the value of money ; contri
butions in ParUament have been heaped upon
him; and how have they been employed?
Upon costly furniture, sumptuous feasting, and
magnificent buildings, the visible evidence qf
the express exhausting qfthe State!"
One dark insinuation ambiguously expressed
crimes more dreadful, relating to the King.
'' Not satisfied Avith injuries and injustice,
and dishonouring of religion, his attempts go
higher, to the prejudice of his Sovereign. The
effects I fear to speak, and fear to think. I
end this passage, as Cicero did in a like case,

328 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
Ne gravioribus utar verbis quam rei natura
fert, aut levioribus quam causa? necessitas pos
tulate The implacable Eliot eloquently closes :—
" Your lordships have an idea of the man,
what he is in himself, what in his affections !
You have seen his poAver, and some, I fear,
have felt it. You have known his practice,
and have heard the effects. Being such, what
is he in reference to King and State; how
compatible or incompatible with either ? In
reference to the King, he must be styled the
canker in his treasure ; in reference to the
State, the moth of all goodness. I can hardly
find him a parallel ; but none were so like
him as Sejanus, who is described by Tacitus,
Audax, sui obtegens, in alios criminator, juxta
adulator et superbus. Sejanus's pride was so
excessive, as Tacitus saith, that he neglected
all councils, mixed his business and service
with the Prince, seeming to confound their
actions, and was often styled Lmperatoris la-
borum socius. Doth not this man the like ?
Ask England, Scotland, and Ireland, and they
will tell you ! How lately and how often
hath this man commixed his actions in dis
courses with actions of the King's ! My Lords !
I have done — you see the Man !"

BY THE COMMONS. 329
The paraUel of the Duke Avith Sejanus,
electrified the House. It touched Charles on
a convulsive nerve. The young King was here
not great, but indignant. Charles complained
of Eliot's comparing the Duke with Sejanus,
" implicitly he must intend me for Tiberius,"
said the King* Once in the audacity of in
vective, and the flash of oratorical faction,
overcome by his own imagination, a speaker
compared a Monarch to Nero ! — The King, re
jecting the private calumny, only replied by
his public sUence.
The last charge against Buckingham was at
least as mercUess as it was offensive. With
out possessing any other evidence than the
appearance of the corpse, which, in a body of
such gross humour as James's, .seems not diffi
cult to account for — the charge sanctioned the
rumour of the poisoning of the late King, " by
the plaister and the posset administered by the
means of Buckingham." That rumour, at the
time of Avhich we write, was so rife, that even
that poHtical and dignified courtier, Bristol, in
a moment of irritation, ventured on a painful
allusion, when he had occasion to notice the
late King's promise to hear him himself — " I
* I find this piece of secret history inclosed in a letter of
the times, with a solemn injunction that it should be burnt.

330 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
pray God," he added, " that that promise did
him no hurt, for he died shortly after." On a
subsequent appearance at the bar of the House
of Lords, Bristol craved pardon for his late
earnest speech, confessing it to have been in
passion. Whether Dr. Eglisham's famous libel
originated in this rumour, or whether it were
the contrivance of a party, is not now, perhaps,
to be ascertained ; but the cruelty of such dread
ful accusations is, that they survive their vic
tim, whether criminal or innocent.*
• " The Forerunner of Revenge" is a tract well known to
collectors. It bears every feature of a dreadful political libel;
the aggravating minuteness of its narrative betrays the ex
travagant imagination of the writer. The account of the
presumed poisoning of the Marquis of Hamilton by Bucking
ham is ridiculous ; and the description of the appearance of
the corpse is perfectly grotesque. Mr. Brodie has entered
largely and fairly into this investigation. Referring to San
derson's testimony, that Eglisham wrote as many lies as lines,
who was told by Gerbier, that Eglisham, when abroad, of
fered to publish a recantation for four hundred guilders,
Mr. Brodie does not incline to give credit to the tale. I find
it, however, confirmed in the manuscript memoir of Sir Bal
thazar Gerbier himself. " The falseness of his libels," says
Gerbier, " he hath since acknowledged, though too late"
During my residency at Bruxelles, this Eglisham desired Sir
William Chaloner, who then was atLiege, to bear a letter
to .me, which is still extant. He proposed, if the King would
pardon and receive him into favour again, with some compe-

BY THE COMMONS. 331
The foulest taint of suspicion must remain
attached to the character of Buckingham. I
repeat, what I have formerly observed, that
it requires more time and cost to repair an edi
fice than to damage it ; and more zeal to defend
the calumniated than care to raise the calumny.
An attack, if it deserve notice, is necessarily
Uvely, but a defence can only boast of an honest
intention; and nothing short of a miraculous
demonstration will so completely eradicate a
false, or an aggravated charge, as to leave no
traces of it behind in the minds of those who
have long received the erroneous impression.
* The conduct of Charles on this occasion, irri
tated as he evidently was, proved to be the
beginning of his troubles, and the first of the
more open attempts to crush the popular party.
The King came down to the House of Lords
to vindicate the Duke from the charges of the
Commons. " I can bear witness," said Charles,
" to clear him in every one of them ;" — but
" he thought fit to take order to punish some
insolent speeches. I have been too remiss in
punishing such speeches as concern myself,
tent subsistence, he would recant all that he had said or
written, confessing that he had been urged thereunto by some
combustious spirits, that, for their malicious designs, had set
him on work." Sloane MSS. 4181.

332 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
but Buckingham would not suffer me to take
notice of them, lest he might be thought to
have set me on. My Lords, I hope you will
be as tender of my honour as I have been
sensible of yours." The King evidently alluded
to the last charge against Buckingham, which
involved his own honour.
Digges and Eliot, the prologue and the epi
logue orators, were called out of the House by
two messengers, who, showing their warrant,
took them to the Tower.
On this memorable day, a phUosophical po
litician, had such a character existed at that
time, might have presciently marked the seed-
plots of events, which, not many years after
wards, were apparent to aU men. The passions
of Kings are often expatiated on, but in the
present anti-monarchical period the passions of
ParUament are not imaginable.
The Commons, with a fierce spirit of re
action for the King's threat of " punishing
some insolent speeches," sent up to the Lords
for the commitment of the Duke* The same
eager spirit which afterwards pursued Straf-
* Even Mr. Hallam confesses, that as the Commons heard
no evidence in support of their charges, it was rather unrea
sonable in them to request that he might be committed to
the Tower.

BY THE COMMONS. 333
ford to the scaffold had now appeared, though
it was yet unrecognized.
The Duke's speech to the Lords in answer
to this arbitrary conduct of the Commons, must
have been unpremeditated. It betrays neither
the fears of a state criminal, nor the arrogance
of a royal favourite. We may form some
notion of the man himself, by the disclosure
of his own genuine emotions.
" My Lords,
¦" If I should hold my peace, it would argue
guilt ; if I should speak, it would argue bold
ness. Your Lordships see what complaints are
made against me by the House of Commons.
How weU I stood in their opinions not long
since, your Lordships know ; what I have done
since to lose their good opinions, I protest I
know not. I cannot so distrust my own in-
nocency, as to decline any course or court of
justice ; they have done me a favour to deliver
me out of their hands into your Lordships.
" I wiU not speak any thing to cast dirt at
those who have taken pains to make me so
foul, but I hope to prove my innocency before
such just judges. I desire my trial may be
hastened, that I may no longer suffer than I
must needs; but since my accusers have not

334 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
been content only to make my process, but to
prescribe to your Lordships the manner of your
judgment, and to judge me before I am heard,
I shall not give way to any of their unjust
demands." When the fate of the two patriots was
known, the Commons instantaneously broke
up, and in the afternoon assembled in West
minster HaU, to interchange their private sen
timents on the fate of the two imprisoned
members in suUen indignation* The flame
which had broken forth and had shown itself,
now seemed to sink within its own volcano,
feeding itself on its own bed, to rage the more
at a fresh eruption.
The foUowing day, the Commons met in
their own House. When the Speaker reminded
them of the usual business, with one unani
mous shout they cried out, " Sit down ! sit
down !" they would touch on no business till
" they were righted in their Uberties." An
open committee of the whole House was form
ed, and no member suffered to leave it, yet no
one spoke. They were either at a loss how to
open this awful conference, or they expressed
their indignation by a sullen silence.
* The Diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, 646.— Harleian
MSS.

BY THE COMMONS. ' 335
At moments like these, an accidental foUy,
which another time might pass away, may ren
der permanent the mischief it Avould prevent.
The \7ice-chamberlain, Sir Dudley Carleton,
who had long been one of our foreign ambas
sadors, and who having witnessed the despotic
governments on the Continent, imagined that
there was no deficiency of liberty at home, ven
tured to break the harrowing silence.
" I find," said the Vice-chamberlain, " by a
great silence in this House, that it is a fit time
to be heard, if you wUl grant me the patience."
He opened with an idle tale of having in his
voyage to MarseiUes been cast on a variety of
sands, and when the passengers were in despair,
an old mariner looking on the compass, told
them that to clear themselves from the sands,
they ought to know how they came there, for
by taking a new point it would bring them
out. The book of orders was the compass here,
and he beseeched them to look, whether the
gentlemen (in the aggravation of their charges,
particularly the last, of the cause of the King's
death) did not go farther than the orders did
warrant them, and how easy it would yet be
to bring us from these rocks.
Alluding to one of the King's messages,
where it was hinted, that " if there was no cor-

336 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
respondency between him and the Parliament,
he should be forced to use new counsels ;" he
added, " I pray you consider what these new
counsels are and may be ; I fear to declare those
I conceive." However, Sir Dudley plainly
indicated them. " When Monarchs began to
know their own strength, and saAV the turbu
lent spirit of their Parliaments, they had over
thrown them in all Europe, except here only
with us." The Vice-Chamberlain had not yet
learnt to distinguish our own representative
Parliament, from the Parlementaires of Law
yers in France, — an ambiguous term, which
like that of the French Noblesse, when con
founded during the French Revolution with
our class of nobiUty in a confusion of terms,
gave rise to erroneous ideas and principles in
this country. Our old ambassador drew an
amusing picture of the effects of arbitrary
governments on the Continent. " If you knew
the subjects in foreign countries as well as my
self, to see them look, not like our nation, with
store of flesh on their backs, but Hke so many
ghosts, and not men, being nothing but skin
and bones, with some thin cover to their naked
ness, and wearing only wooden shoes on their
feet, so that they cannot eat meat, or wear
good clothes, but they must pay the King for

BY THE COMMONS. 337
it ; this is a misery beyond expression and
that which we are yet free from." A long
residence abroad had deprived Sir Dudley
Carleton of any sympathy with the elevated
tone of freedom, and the proud jealousy of
their privileges, which though yet depending
only on precedents, unascertained, undefined,
and stiU often contested, Avas breaking forth
among the Commons of England. At the
close, Carleton remarked on the tartness and
personal attacks of Eliot, and here he was
more reasonable.
The speech was designed to be conciliatory
—but the physician had unskilfully applied
an emollient, which produced inflammation.
"These imprudent suggestions rather gave
warning, than struck terror," observes Hume.
It was evident, that "new counsels" meant,
what subsequently was practised, a monarchical
government without a Parliament! As for
the ghosts with wooden shoes, to which the
House was congratulated that they were not
yet reduced, the House could only infer, that
it was necessary to prevent the possibiHty of
any such clouted apparitions.
Some offensive words, in aUusion to the
death of the late King, the Duke persisted
in asserting, had dropped from Digges, and

338 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
to prove which assertion, he appealed to notes
taken at the time. After an equivocal ter
mination in the House of Peers, these were
explained away, Digges declaring that they
had not been used by him. It seems probable,
that he was suffered to eat his words. The
implacable EHot was made of " sterner stuff."
He explained a good deal, without retracting
much. But peace did not return with the two im
prisoned patriots. It wras fated, that the celes
tial spirit of our national freedom should not
descend among us in the form of the mystical
dove. The Commons did not decUne in the
serpent's wisdom with which they had begun.
They covertly aimed at once, to subjugate the
Sovereign, and to expel the Minister. A re
monstrance was prepared against the levying
of tonnage and poundage, which constituted
half of the Crown revenues, and a petition
" equivalent to a command" for removing
Buckingham from his Majesty's person and
councils." The Remonstrance is Avrought up with a
high spirit of invective against " the unbridled
ambition of the Duke," whom they class
" among those vipers and pests to their King
and Commomvealth, as so expressly styled by

BY THE COMMONS. 339
your most Royal Father." They request that
" the King would be pleased to remove this
person from access to his sacred presence, and
that he would not balance this one man, with
all these things, and with the affairs of the
Christian world."
He who would enter into the views and
feelings of Charles at this moment, should
consult another immortal page of the philo
sophical historian.*
In the eyes of Charles, Buckingham was not
criminal, but the Commons were. They had
engaged him in a war, and deserted their sove
reign when they saw that for him a retreat was
impossible. And to what amounted the charges
against the Duke ? The heaviest, that of the
loan of the ships to France, to serve against
the French Protestants, Charles knew to be a
mere popular error, as we shaU shortly show.
Could they allege the ineptitude of the Mi
nister ? Great evUs under his administration
had not yet occurred, and the people sent forth
no cries of oppression. Could the young King
sacrifice his friend to the clamours of a party,
and, as it seemed to him, for the mean motive
of pecuniary purposes ? Long after, Charles,
even at a more critical period, vowed that " He
* Hume, vi. 221.
z 2

340 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM
and Buckingham should perish together !" It
was at this time that Sir Robert Cotton, re
turning from an interview with the King
and the Favourite, observed, that the King
wiU never yield to the Duke's faU, being a
young man, resolute, magnanimous, and ten
derly and firmly affectionate where he takes." *
Charles, besides these priArate motives, had
public ones. He felt that the sovereign autho
rity would in fact be reduced, were it to be
come " contemptible, and carried to the lowest
extremity?" With the Commons, Buckingham was cri
minal enough, for they were not within the
spell of his fascination. He was the splendid
creature of the royal favour of two sovereigns.
His youthful presumption, his towering am
bition, and his undisguised enmities, had sick
ened the hearts of the envious, and stung the
spirit of the vindictive. His enemies too were
orators. Charles, under the influence of angried feel
ings, hastily dissolved the second Parliament ;
and when the Lords petitioned for its conti
nuance, the King warmly exclaimed, " Not a
moment longer!"
* From a manuscript letter.

BY THE COMMONS. 841
From the opening of this Parliament, the
style of Charles the First had changed. It
was now stately, and the courteous solicitation
he once used,— the language of his heart —
was no longer theirs.

342 SECRET HISTORY OF

CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLE OF THE IMPEACH
MENT OF BUCKINGHAM: SECRET HISTORY
OF THE LOAN OF ENGLISH SHIPS TO SERVE
AGAINST THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS.
Of this impeachment by the Commons of
a Minister invested with such a pluraUty of
offices and honours — an individual so potent by
situation, and so inconsiderate by disposition,
as the Duke of Buckingham, it must be can
didly acknowledged, as assuredly it might satis-
factorUy be shown, that Hume has not exceeded
the truth in asserting that " the articles were
either frivolous, or false, or both. After can
vassing the matter near three months, they
found themselves utterly incapable of fixing
any legal crime upon the duke."
It is something more than curious to detect
the misconceptions of our historians, on the
heaviest charge of this impeachment, the loan
of EngUsh ships to the French Government for

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 343
the purpose of opposing the French Protestants,
— a strange transaction, which, however, ceases
to be ambiguous when we unfold its secret
history. I regret that Mr. HaUam has too hastily
assumed a sweeping conclusion on the articles
of this impeachment. "He teUs us many of
them were probably well-founded." Probably
is a term of nuUity in historical evidence ; it
includes neither the labour of research, nor the
force of argument ; it is the cypher of preju
dice, which placed by an unit of fact, swells out
into a mighty sum what in itself is of very
smaU amount. A more accurate knowledge of
the prevalent customs of the age, a very Httle
candour, and a closer investigation of the ar
ticles themselves, would have deterred the con
stitutional historian from this unjust severity
to " the minion." Rapacity and avarice were
not the vices of Buckingham. Even Mr.
Brodie lays no stress on the impeachment,
though he affects a solitary triumph by assert
ing, that by Hume's own account of the loan
of ships to France, which were employed by
that State against the French Protestants,
Buckingham was guilty on this charge, which
Mr. Brodie considers as " a principal article of
the impeachment."

344 SECRET HISTORY OF
Buckingham, in reply to this heavy charge,
in his able defence, drawn up by Sir Nicholas.
Hyde, declares that "He did that which be
longed to an Admiral of England and a true
Englishman." A forcible expression, and in
my mind at all times adapted to his genuine
character. Buckingham certainly was always
English in his feelings. But having made this
declaration the duke faltered, and acknow
ledged that to clear himself, it was necessary to
disclose a State Secret. On his solicitation to
his Majesty, he afterwards obtained leave to
do this, but the whole affair was interrupted
by the dissolution of Parliament. On this Mr.
Brodie observes, " The duke had the effrontery
to state, that he had been over-reached by the
French Court, who pretended a design against
Genoa, and that when he discovered the impo
sition, he frustrated it, and by his measures in
favour of Rochelle, the strong place of the
French Protestants, he had hitherto saved it
from destruction." All this Mr. Brodie con
siders as " the subterfuge, of a state criminal:"
We are deeply interested to ascertain the
truth of this mysterious transaction. It will
iUustrate that important principle Avhich I
have already developed in a preceding chap
ter, and which throws a new light over those

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 345
ambiguous events in our history, when the Go
vernment, from a secret policy buried in the
Cabinet, and concealed from the public eye,
appeared to act in opposition to the interests of
the country, when, in short, State-reasons pre-
vaU over popular feeHngs.
The state secret, alleged by Buckingham,
not having yet been disclosed, our historians
have been throAvn into the most conflicting:
reasonings, and the most fallacious statements.
The loan of a single man of war, and seven
merchant vessels to France, which France
afterAvards employed against the reformed of
Rochelle, certainly without the consent, or
the intention of our Government, was always
looked on suspiciously by the English nation.
Even in his unpubhshed Memoir, Gerbier, the
confidential agent of Buckingham, and to his
last day the faithful servant of three English
Sovereigns, acknowledges, that " when these
ships were employed contrary to the intention,
it gave more colour to such as love to find
fault than could have been Avished."
The history of this loan of ships we shaU
trace from the beginning. When James the
First, on the rupture with Spain, formed a
strict alliance with France, the French Cabinet
decided, however contrary to the private feel-

346 SECRET HISTORY OF
ings of the French Monarch, to head a league
of the Protestant powers. The Enghsh Go
vernment was cherishing the aid and amity of
France for the recovery of the eternal Pala
tinate, as Ukewise were the HoUanders, with
the view of weakening the power of their an
cient enemy and Sovereign. Spain, on her
side, was not less active, and to avenge herself
on her great rival, whose aid had essentiaUy
contributed to the emancipation of the New
States of Holland, she had stirred up the
malcontents of France into open insurrection.
The Duke of Rohan, and his brother Soubise,
were the great chiefs of the Huguenots, and
were raising an independent Government in
France itself.* On the remonstrances of the
French Government, the Protestant alhes of
France could only consider the French Princes
in the class of rebels, and in intimate connexion
with Spanish interests.
The French Cabinet had promised to con-
* This circumstance is alluded to in the " Testament Po
litique du Cardinal de Richelieu." — The Catholic style is re
markable. L'Espagnol fit un Traite avec le Due de Rohan,
pour former un corps de rebelles a Dieu et a V. M., tout
ensemble moiennant un million qu'il lui devoit donner tous
les ans, et dont par ce moien il rendoit les Indes tributaires
a l'Enfer."

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 347
elude a treaty on favourable terms with their
Protestants ; but ere this could be effectuated,
the French Government pleaded the absolute
necessity of suppressing the insurrection in
their own realms before they signed the terms
aheady agreed on with the Reformed, that for
their own credit it should appear that these
conditions had been granted by good avUI and
favour, and not by compulsion. The French
marine was then at so low an ebb, that Soubise
seemed master of the seas. It was at this
moment, and under these circumstances, that
France urged the performance of a defensive
treaty with England and HoUand. The Dutch
statesmen, conscious of the State-necessity of
supporting France against the power and in
trigues of Spain, furnished their great ally with
twenty ships, according to an existing treaty,
in return for money and other aid lent the in
fant RepubHc by France ; and James, learning
from his ambassadors at Paris, that the treaty
between the French Cabinet and the Reformed
was nearly concluded, agreed to the loan of a
single man of war and seven vessels on the
proviso, that they were never to be employed
against the RocheUers, for whom the English
Monarch had already obtained favourable con
ditions ; it was stipulated that these English

348 SECRET HISTORY OF
vessels were to act against Genoa, or any other
aUy of Spain.
This affair now assumed to the pubhc eye
the most perplexed appearance. This state po
licy produced in Holland the very same conse
quences as in England. The Duke of Rohan,
and his brother Soubise, having openly adopted
the cause of the Huguenots, remonstrated on
the iniquity of Protestants warring against Pro
testants for a Catholic power ! It was pro
ved against the States, that whUethey had in
deed promised the Protestant deputies of the
RocheUers all they required, they, at the same
time, had dispatched secret orders to their
Admiral to join the French.
Such are the high mysteries of " King-craft,"
as James the First described the intrigues of
Cabinets. Each State, to obtain its own pur
pose, is apparently acting against its own inte
rests. The people, who know nothing of such
political involutions, revolted in HoUand at the
present one. The clergy declaimed from their
pulpits, the populace was incited to puU down
the house of the Admiral and his friends, and
the public spirit was so uncontrollable, that the
Dutch Government deemed it proper to give
Avay to it. They were suspected by the French
Cabinet of having connived at these tumults,

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 349
though it appears that they did not dare to ex
ercise any authority, dreading a general insur
rection throughout the United Provinces.
The promised treaty with the French Pro
testants was still delayed, and Rohan and Sou
bise were still in revolt. When Charles learnt
that the treaty was uncertain, Gerbier tells us,
that the King began to act with great caution
and suspicion. To prevent any injury to the
Huguenots of Rochelle, in whose interests our
Cabinet was engaged, and which afterwards led
to the French war, the King commanded Ger
bier to write in cypher to Captain Pennington
that though he had cast anchor in the roads of
Dieppe, and the Marquis d'Effiat expected to
have the eight ships given up to French offi
cers, on the receipt of Gerbier's letter he was to
weigh anchor and return to the Downs. Pen
nington gladly obeyed, which threw the Mar
quis into a violent rage, he declaring that for
this open act of disobedience of orders nothing
less than the Hfe of Pennington should satisfy
him, and he instantly dispatched a messenger
to Charles. For the truth of this statement,
Gerbier appeals to Mr. Secretary Nicholas, then
secretary to the Admiralty*
* In the charge made by the Commons, the curious reader
will find a most abundant detail of all the transactions relative

350 SECRET HISTORY OF
Pennington returned home, and proceeded
to Oxford, where the Parhament sat. Buck
ingham is accused by the Commons that know
ing from Pennington the state of affairs, he
subtily concealed it from Parliament, observing
" boldly and untruly," say the Commons, that
" it was not always fit for Kings, to give ac
count of their counsels, and that five or six
months had already passed, and the ships were
not employed against RocheUe, — and prayed
their lordships to judge the things by the
to the loan of these ships. — Rushworth i. 322 to 333. — And
when he shall have read the present chapter, he will learn
how a heap of cross-purposes may furnish out a most for
midable body of evidence against a state delinquent. A
round-robin by the sailors was laid under the Prayer-Book of
Pennington. It is evident that the English sailors were in as
great a consternation as the Hollanders at fighting against
their brother Protestants, and the Commons, as Hume says,
" showed the same attachment with the sailors for the Pro
testant religion, nor was their zeal much better guided by
reason and sound policy." Hume has taken the most pro
found views on this curious state of affairs. Such noble pas
sages discover that poHtical sagacity which confers immor
tality on his pages. — vi. 209. — Smollet seems at a loss to
solve the riddle. " Even these Huguenots were supported
by the King of Spain, and their revolt prevented Louis from
assisting the English monarch in his designs against the House
of Austria." — A valid reason for the King of England assist
ing his brother and ally of France to put down the insurrection
of the French princes.

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 351
event, to which he would refer the whole mat
ter." " By which cunning speeches," so the
Commons animadvert, " he made the Lords
and Commons believe that the ships were
never meant to be employed against the
RocheUers.* In the meantime, Charles having received
satisfactory accounts from his agents at Paris,
concerning the Treaty with the French pro
testants, Pennington was again commanded to
return to Dieppe, and give up the ships to the
French officers. Mr. Larkin, who was an able
and confidential agent of the Enghsh Govern
ment, hadinforcedthe return to Dieppe, assuring
our Cabinet, that the peace was settled between
the French Government and its Reformed ; but
a sudden change in the French councils occur
ring, that Charles might be instructed with
this important information, Larkin set off him
self post from Paris ; embarking in stormy
* It is useful to notice what sort of evidence a party will
get up against a state culprit. A Monsieur de la Touche, pro
bably a French Protestant, meeting at Salisbury Mr. Sher-
well, a member, going to Parliament, and informing our
member that the Duke had assured him these ships were not
to act against his countrymen, notwithstanding they had
since, concluded that le Due est un mechant Iwmme. The
charge in the Impeachment winds up with -this positive
evidence of this good Monsieur de la Touche, of the delin
quency of this impeached minister !

352 SECRET HISTORY OF
weather he was cast away, and arrived too
late to be timely. Another agent, one Clarke,
avIio had also been employed in this negotiation
lost himself in the opinion of Buckingham, and
was so sensible of his inept conduct that he
died of grief.
Such is the secret history of this ambiguous
transaction ; and when Buckingham was accu
sed of having betrayed the English cause, it
was not wonderful that he should have fal
tered, and declared, that his vindication could
only be effected by the revealment of a state
secret; but he boldly assured them, that he had
acted like " an Englishman."
We are noAv enabled to confirm the allega
tion of Buckingham. We can prove that the
original destination of the ships was Genoa,
with the design of alarming the Spanish coast.
We can also explain certain obscure passages
which Dr. Lingard has brought forward to
criminate this Minister. " The offence said
to have been committed by the Duke, was,
that he, as High-Admiral, had lent English
ships for the purpose of opposing the Pro
testants. That Buckingham's allegation was
false, is evident from the whole tenor of the
transaction, from the unwillingness of the
Duke to give an explanation, from a passage in

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 353
his letter, dated Paris, May 30, 1625 : " The
peace with them of the religion depends upon
the success of that fleet they (the French) had
from your Majesty, and the Low Countries."*
And from another passage in the instructions
given to him on the 17th of October : " We
conceive that the work which was required to
be done by them, (the ships,) being the sup
pression qf Soubise, is accomplished."
The reader will now for the first time un
derstand these obscure passages, which perfectly
accord with Gerbier's statement. " The peace
with them of the religion, i. e. the French Pro
testants, depended on the success of the ships
borrowed from the two countries." This suc
cess refers to the suppression of Soubise's mari
time force, as it is precisely so stated in the
instructions. The King, concluding that work
had been done, now insisted on the final ter
mination of the treaty of peace so long depend
ing between the French Government and their
Protestants. The story of this loan of ships to France, is
a very striking example of the effects of popu
lar exaggeration. May, the poet and Parlia
mentary historian, no intemperate writer, in
* Clarendon Papers, ii. Appendix, xxv.
2 A

354 SECRET HISTORY OF
opening the chief causes of the civil war of
England, after noticing " the unhappy and
dishonourable expeditions" to Cadiz and the
Isle of Rhe', as a more prominent cause, gives
" that of all other most destructive to the
Protestant religion, when King Charles not
long before had lent a strong navy to the King
of France.* It is curious to discover, on turn
ing to the French historian's account of this
transaction, that the aid of the English on this
occasion was deemed so inconsiderable, that he
almost passes it over in silence. I give Pere
Griffet's own words, as they confirm the truth
of Buckingham's statement. " Comme on vou-
loit attaquer les Genois par mer et par terre on
envoya demander des vaisseaux au Roi d'Angle-
terre et aux Hollandois. On ne tira du Roi
d'Angleterre que des promesses vagues qui de-
meurerent sans effet ; mais les Hollandois s'en-
gagerent a donner vingt vaisseaux bien armes.' 'f
We must consider the subject of this chap
ter, not only historicaUy curious, as throw
ing a new light over the administration of
* May's " Breviary of the History of the Parliament," p.
7. This little volume must not be considered as a mere
abridgment of his larger work ; — it is an original one on
the same subject.
t Histoire de France, xiii. 442.

THE PRINCIPAL IMPEACHMENT. 355
Buckingham, but as developing poHtical in
struction of far higher interest. It proves that
there are state secrets which cannot either in
honour or policy be trusted to the pubhc ear ;
and that when the Cabinet appears to be acting
contrary to the desires of the country, the Go
vernment, Avith more wisdom than public news-
writers and clamorous party-men will be wfll-
ing to alloAv them, may be advancing the com
plicate objects of national interests. We see,
in the present case, how the Dutch Government
was right, as statesmen, in adopting their un
popular measures ; and we also see how fatally,
by submitting to the dictate of popular preju
dices, they impeded the great design of re
ducing the mighty strength of Spain, the suc
cess of Avhich design could only be insured by
maintaining the interests of the only power
which could balance Spanish predominance.
In combating, then, with the Protestant insur
gents of France, England and Holland were
hastening that peace for the Protestant cause
which had been so long delayed. There are
paradoxes in history which conceal truths.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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