300

J

CHAPTER XXX.

DONCASTER'S MISSION TO GERMANY, AND THE BOHEMIAN

Doncaster's

ELECTION.

IN offering his mediation in Germany, James believed that he had found a basis on which he might effect a reconciliation between Ferdinand and his revolted subjects. The instructions. ideal which he had set before himself in The Peacemaker was now to be realised. "Let the King," he said in effect, "keep the oath which he took at his coronation. Let the Jesuits cease to meddle with political affairs. Let all prisoners on both sides be released, and let the Protestants enjoy the rights and liberties to which they are entitled."

April.

The

advice was excellent, but the man could have but little knowledge of human nature who fancied that a deep and envenomed quarrel could be appeased by such vague generalities.

Tendency
of James's
policy.

On the whole, however, though James was on excellent terms with the Spanish agents, and honestly professed to be anxious for a good understanding with Philip, his actions could not but be affected by the strong anti-Spanish feeling around him. It was not, therefore, without reason that Sanchez and Lafuente eagerly expected the return of Gondomar, as the best means of fixing James in his resolutions. They had much to tell which had given them little pleasure. At the time when Doncaster was preparing to start, orders were given to stop the equipment of the fleet, on

Instructions to Doncaster, April 14, 1619, Letters and Documen's,

T619

DONCASTER SETS OUT.

301

the ground that it was impossible at this conjuncture to join forces with Spain against the pirates. So hopeless did the project now appear to James, that he actually returned to the merchants the money that he had levied from them for the purpose.1 What was more significant still, the Council was listening to a proposal from Arundel and Lennox to send out Roger North, one of Raleigh's captains, to the Amazon. It is true that he was not to sail to the westward of the Oyapok.2 But even with this restriction his voyage would be extremely galling to the Spaniards. Nor can they have been otherwise than annoyed at the advancement, at Buckingham's request, of their declared enemy, the Earl of Southampton, to a seat in the Privy Council.3

May. Doncaster sets out.

At last, after many delays, Doncaster set out, on May 12. At Brussels he made a fruitless effort to procure from the Archduke more than a languid assent to his diplomatic efforts. On his arrival at Heidelberg he found that the Elector was absent at Heilbronn, presiding over an assembly of the Union. As England was represented at the meeting by Wotton, Doncaster did not think it necessary to follow him.

June.

Wotton was then upon his way home from Venice. He had been commissioned to assure the Princes of the Union, as Wotton at he passed, of the friendly dispositions of the Venetian Heilbronn. Republic, and to urge them to join his master in a scheme for the erection of colleges for the reception of converts from Popery.4

For such solemn trifling the Princes of the Union had no time to spare. They were agitated by the news which reached them from various quarters. Silesia and Moravia had thrown

Calvert to the Council,

1 The Council to Sir T. Smith, March 18. April 8. Resolution of the Council, April 28, 1619.

Council Register.

2 Resolution of the Council, March 14. The Council to Coventry, March 18, 1619. Ibid.

3 Ibid. April 30.

Salvetti's News-Letter, May 13, 1619.

23

4 Instructions to Wotton, March 1. Answer to Wotton, June 12. Letters and Documents, 46, 112. The idea had been Bacon's. Letters and Life, iv. 254.

in their lot with the Bohemian Directors, and whilst Mansfeld

Steadfastness of Ferdinand.

was keeping Bucquoi in check, Thurn, at the head of a second army, was thundering at the gates of Vienna. It was only by the iron will of Ferdinand that the estates of Upper and Lower Austria were still kept from openly giving in their adhesion to the cause of the revolutionists at Prague. On the other hand, ten thousand Spanish troops had been levied in the Netherlands for Ferdinand, and were cautiously picking their way across Germany from one Catholic territory to another.1

It was time for Frederick and his advisers to come to a resolution; but the curse which dogs the steps of impotent intrigue was upon them. They had alienated the Elector of Saxony by their reluctance to co-operate with him in maintaining peace. They had hoped impossibilities from the Duke of

Frederick and his advisers.

Savoy, who, when he found that they could no longer serve his purposes, had all but laughed openly in the face of their emissary. Even the members of the Union itself had not been admitted to their confidence. Without defi. nite aim themselves, they could not guide others. It was in vain that Maurice, the Landgrave of Hesse, the one really able man of their party, urged them to summon a general meeting of all Protestant States to deliberate upon the difficulties of the time. The Union, he truly said, was too weak to meet the danger. The permanent settlement of Germany must rest upon a wider basis. Frederick, it is true, gave his consent to Maurice's proposal, but only on the condition that the assembly should not meet till the Imperial election was over-that is to say, till it was too late to be of the slightest use. With equal reluctance either to act or to abstain from action, he persuaded the Union to place its troops on a war footing, though he refused to give any indication of the purpose for which he intended the armament to be used.2

In the midst of these deliberations Frederick was summoned to Heidelberg, to meet his father-in-law's ambassador. By the Elector and his whole Court Doncaster was treated with

1 Müller, Forschungen, iii. 162.

2 Rommel, Gesh. von Hessen. Theil. iv. Abtheilung iii. 349.

1619

Frederick's

DONCASTER AT HEILDELBERG.

303

every courtesy. In a moment he was carried away by the stream. It would have been difficult, no doubt, for reception of any but the most seasoned diplomatist to preserve Doncaster. his equanimity as he listened to the Prince descanting on the perils to which he was exposed by the Spaniards and the Jesuits, or to look, without yielding to the impressions of the moment, upon the winning face of the youthful Electress, who, by the magic of her presence, swayed all hearts around her. Doncaster, at least, was not the man to note that in all that was said to him there was not a single practical suggestion-not a single sign of any definite plan. Instead of raising a warning voice against the mischief which. was gathering, he told the Elector, with perfect truth, that he had come as a sheet of white paper to receive impressions from his Highness.' His Highness, unhappily, had nothing worth reading to write upon it. Without the statesman's resources to avert the danger which was at his doors, he saw no prospect but war before him. How that war was to be conducted, and on what principles it was to be waged, were questions to which he had never given serious consideration. One for English thing alone was plain to him, that he was threatened with attack, and that it was, therefore, the duty of his father-in-law to send him the aid to which he was bound by his treaty with the Union.1

His demand

aid.

The demand was earnestly seconded by Doncaster. The ambassador, indeed, had as little clear conception of the object of the war as the Elector. The troops of the Union, he informed James, were to be sent 'into the Upper Palatinate, under colour of defence thereof, but indeed to be employed as occasion shall offer.'

July.
It is refused

by James.

Against this attempt to drag him into a war in which he would never know for what he was fighting, James at once protested.

of an unprovoked attack that he was

It was only in case bound to assist the

The Princes of the Union to the King, June Doncaster to the

17

27

King, June 18. Doncaster to Buckingham, June 18.

Doncaster to Naun

tun, Jure 19, 1619. Letters and Documents, 115, 118, 120, 129.

Union. To this unwelcome refusal, however, he added a vague assurance, that if the Bohemians were ready to yield to reasonable conditions, he would not desert them.1

With the view of Ferdinand's character which Doncaster had acquired at Heidelberg, it was not likely that he would be very hopeful of his chance of obtaining a favourable June. Successes of hearing from him. He had lost all confidence in Ferdinand. the success of his mission. He saw well enough that, with the ill-feeling which divided the Protestant Electors, Ferdinand's election was certain, and instead of exerting himself to remove the causes of the evil, he hurried on towards Vienna to ask for a cessation of arms, in the hope, as he expressed it, of working upon his jealousy of missing to be Emperor before he knew how safe his cards were.' 2

It was not merely the policy of the Court of Dresden which raised apprehensions in Doncaster's mind. Bad news from the seat of war had reached him before he started from Heidelberg. Mansfeld had been defeated in Bohemia by Bucquoi. Thurn's great enterprise against Vienna had signally failed. His blustering incapacity was equal to an assault upon the unarmed Regents at Prague, but he lost his head as soon as he was called upon to force his way into a defended town. The personal bravery which he undoubtedly possessed would serve him but little here. He counted too much on his allies within the city, and too little on himself. At the moment when Ferdinand's cause appeared most hopeless, when the Protestant nobles were pressing him with threats of vengeance if he refused to sign the act of their confederation with the Bohemians, a regiment of horse dashed in through an unguarded gate to his assistance. The malcontents dispersed in hopeless confusion, and a day or two afterwards Thurn was in full retreat.

3

Cajoled and flattered on his way through Munich, by the politic Maximilian, Doncaster hurried on to meet Ferdinand,

The King to the Princes of the Union, July 4 The King to the Elector Palatine, July 4, 1619. Letters and Documents, 50, 152. 2 Doncaster to Naunton, June 19.

Ibid. 129.

On receiving the King's letter, Maximilian assured Doncaster that if God had blessed him with any children, he would have left it to them