1619 SPANISH PREPARATIONS. 325 he would find no remedy in the Bohemian law-books. Ten thousand troops had been rapidly collected under Spinola from the garrisons of the Spanish Netherlands, and it was said that they were ordered to rendezvous at Maestricht. Rumour affirmed that either immediately, or in the following summer, the Palatinate would be attacked. The Dutch were the first to take alarm. They at once gave orders to an equal number of their own troops to occupy a position as a corps of observation on the right bank of the Rhine, and they directed their ambassador, Caron, to press James to take up arms in defence of his son-in-law and his religion.2 For the moment, however, the storm blew over. The Spanish troops, it soon appeared, were for the time directed against the citizens of Brussels, who had hesitated to comply with a demand for increased taxation. The danger was postponed, but it was not averted. On the grave questions of public law and of public convenience, James's irre- which had been evoked by the mere rumour of a solution. Spanish invasion of the Palatinate, James was as hesitating as ever. He asked Caron to thank the StatesGeneral for the promptness of their measures. As for himself, he could do nothing. He had no troops to dispose of. The winter was at hand, and would give him plenty of time for consultation. He had published to the world, in his books, his opinion about rebellion; and it would be most disreputable if he were to act in opposition to it now. Still, he could not desert his children. Dohna, on his return, might be able to find grounds for an honourable resolution in the arguments which he had been ordered to bring back from Prague.3 In like manner, Doncaster was ordered to visit the Hague on his return from his mission, and to inform the States that, till his master's honour was cleared from the imputation of complicity with his son-in-law, it would be impossible for him to decide ' Carleton to Naunton, Sept. 12, Carleton Letters, 388. 2 The States-General to the King, Sept. 11. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 19. 21, * Caron to the States-General, Sept. 23, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 446. Oct. 3 upon his future course.1 The same tone pervaded the instructions which were given in January to Sir Walter Aston, the new English Ambassador at Madrid.2 tion in Great was the dissatisfaction in England at the course which James was taking. Partly from love of excitement and adven1620. ture, partly from genuine sympathy with German Dissatisfac Protestantism, the whole Court, with scarcely an England. exception, was eager for war. In the beginning of the new year the old enemies of Spain saw themselves reinforced by the giddy Buckingham, and by the Prince of Wales himself, who, silent and reserved as he usually was, did not hesitate to declare himself openly on his sister's side.3 In the cry for war they had the hearty support of the great body of the clergy, who, in matters which lay upon the ill-defined border-ground between politics and religion, had all the influence of modern newspapers. It was especially a subject of complaint that they were not allowed to pray for Frederick under the title of King of Bohemia. "James," the Prince of 1619. Orange was reported to have said, "is a strange September. father; he will neither fight for his children nor pray for them." And the words were eagerly repeated in England, with scarcely concealed bitterness.+ It would indeed have been disastrous to England if James had given the reins to the generous feelings of his subjects. James and It would have been madness to waste the energies his subjects. of the country in an attempt to prop up the tottering throne which, in all Protestant Germany, could scarcely number a single hearty supporter beyond the limits of the Court of Heidelberg. But it was not enough to be right in his resistance to the popular feeling, unless he could lead that feeling into worthier channels. A statesman, who could have 39. 'Instructions to Doncaster, Sept. 23, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 2 Instructions to Sir W. Aston, Jan. 5, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 119. Lando to the Doge, Jan. 20 ibid. Ser. ii. 146. 30, + Hall to Carleton, Sept. 22, 1619, S. P. Dom. cix. 71. Nethersole to Carleton, Jan. 8, 1620. Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 132. 1619 JAMES'S DESPONDENCY. 327 discerned the limit which separates the possible from the impossible, and who could have spoken wisely and firmly in the name of England to the enraged disputants, would soon have regained the confidence which he had lost by opposition to Quixotic enterprises. But when men looked at James and saw that he was pottering over Bohemian antiquities, and that, in the midst of the absorbing occupation of clearing his own reputation, he was altogether forgetful of the desolation with which Europe was threatened, it was impossible for them to give him credit even for the good intentions which he undoubtedly possessed. tion on the Lord's 1620. A curious piece of evidence has reached us, by which light is thrown upon James's state of mind at the most important The Medita crisis in his life. A year before, he had written and printed1 a little book entitled, Meditations upon the Prayer. Lord's Prayer. It was a strange farrago of pious observations and of shrewd onslaughts upon his enemies the Puritans, mingled with reminiscences of the hunting-field. The whole work is conspicuously that of a man whose buoyant spirits have never known trouble. After the lapse of another year he is writing another meditation upon the verses of St. Matthew's Gospel in which is narrated the mock The Medita coronation of the Saviour with the crown of thorns. This, he tells his son in the dedication, is the 'patthorns. tern of a king's inauguration.' The whole book is pervaded by a deep melancholy. The hunting stories are gone. The jokes about the Puritans are almost entirely absent. The crown of thorns, James writes, is the pattern of the crown which kings are called on to wear. Their heads are surrounded with anxious and intricate cares. They must therefore, he adds, with a return of his old self-confidence, 'exercise their wisdom in handling so wisely these knotty difficulties with so great a moderation that too great extremity in one kind may not prove hurtful in another; but, by a musical skill, temper and turn all these discords into a sweet harmony.' tion on the crown of 1 Early in 1619. Compare the preface with a letter from the Countess of Buckingham to her son in Goodman's Court of James, ii. 183. 328 CHAPTER XXXI. THE INVASION OF THE PALATINATE. JAMES would soon have a yet more difficult question to solve than he had had before. A diversion upon the Palatinate, by a 1619. Maximilian's de Spanish force, occupied a large place in the Duke of Bavaria's plan for the ensuing campaign. Such a diversion would, no doubt, weaken Frederick's chances of defending Bohemia. But to Maximilian it was chiefly valuable as facilitating the projected aggrandisement of his own dominions. signs upon the Palatinate. The plan was eagerly adopted by Ferdinand,' and found. a warm supporter in the Archduke Albert, who replied to a hesitating suggestion of Philip's 2 by a recommendation to send thirty-five thousand men across the Rhine in the following spring. 3 Discussion The reception of the Archduke's letter at Madrid was by no means what Maximilian would have desired. The Spanish ministers had not ceased to dread the cost and danger of a general European war. In the Council of State opinions were freely expressed upon the Archduke's motives. Of course, it was said, the war was popular at Brussels. The stream of gold which would flow through the hands of the officials there would be welcome at Madrid on the proposed invasion. 1619 SPANISH POLICY. 329 enough. But the King of Spain must look at the question from a different point of view.1 These sentiments derived great weight from the support of the King's Confessor, Aliaga, who since Lerma's fall, had become the most influential personage in Spain. November. Opposition The same good sense which had led him to oppose of Aliaga. the attempt to overthrow English Protestantism by the aid of a Spanish Infanta, led him to look with dissatisfaction upon a scheme which would hopelessly entangle Spain in the disputes of Germany. Khevenhüller, the Imperial Ambassador, had tried argument in vain. He at last resorted to menace. "If the Palatinate is not invaded," he said, "the Emperor will make common cause with his enemies, and will attack the outlying territories of Spain." "Such language," said Aliaga, "may cost you your life." "For the sake of the truth and the House of Austria," was Khevenhüller's magniloquent answer, "I would gladly die. I should then be better off than you, for I should be in eternal glory, whilst the deepest place in hell, deeper than that appointed for Luther and Calvin, is prepared for you." "2 With the poor bigot who occupied the throne of Charles V., words like these had more effect than with the patriotic priest whose first thought was of his country. Frightened Philip gives way. at the idea of passing at his death into the company of Luther and Calvin, Philip at once gave directions that a favourable consideration should be given to Maximilian's overtures, and before the end of January, he wrote to the Archduke in approval of the dismemberment of the Palatinate, and of the transference of the Electorate, either to the Duke of Bavaria, or to the Duke of Neuburg, who laid claim to it as the next of kin after Frederick's immediate relations.3 1620. January. Nov. 29, 1619, Simancas MSS. 712. Dec. 9, 1 Consulta of the Council of State, 2 Khevenhüller, ix. 702. The date is not given, but judging from the change of tone in Philip's letters, it is probable that the conversation took place about the end of December. Feb. 3, 3 Philip III. to the Archduke Albert, Jan. 24, 1620, Letters and Documents, Ser. ii. 156. |