Further de. mands re

jected..

Two points only amongst the ambassadors' demands 1 had been passed over. To a request that the forfeited rents and fines which had been given away by patent should be restored, James could only reply by giving permission to the aggrieved persons to try the question at law. The other claim was of a more serious nature. Not content with the immunity which they had secured for those who refused to take the oath of allegiance, the ambassadors pressed hard that schools and colleges might be rendered accessible to the Roman Catholics. On this point James stood firm. It would not look well, he held, 'that he should not only at one instant give unexpected grace and immunity to his subjects the Roman Catholics, but seem to endeavour to plant a seminary of other religion than he made profession of.'

To this answer Coloma raised no objection; but Inojosa, who no doubt had been to some extent initiated into the plans of Olivares, was evidently dissatisfied. At last, he The ambassadors promised to write to Madrid that James had done give hopes of the Infanta's all that was to be expected, and, on leaving Salisbury, both the ambassadors joined in expressions of hope that the immediate marriage and departure of the Infanta would be the result of these negotiations.2

coming.

66

On August 10, two days after the signature of the agreement, Buckingham's letter arrived, with renewed hopes of the immediate delivery of the Infanta. James was of course delighted with the news.3 In return, he sent the command to leave Spain immediately, for which Charles had asked in order to excuse his rudeness to the Infanta. My dearest son," he wrote, "I sent you a commandment long son to return. ago, not to lose time where ye are, but either to bring quickly home your mistress, which is my earnest desire ; but if no better may be, rather than to linger any longer there, to come without her, which, for many important reasons, I am now forced to renew; and therefore I charge you, on my

Aug. 10. The King orders his

1 Demands of the ambassadors, Aug., Harl. MSS. 1583, fol. 285. Conway to Buckingham, Aug. 5, Aug. 10, Hardwicke S. P. i. 436. Harl. MSS. 1580, fol. 326.

The King to Buckingham, Aug. 10, Ellis's Ser. i., iii. 158.

16:3

CHARLES OFFERS TO STAY IN SPAIN. 101

blessing, to come quickly either with her or without her. I know your love to her person hath enforced you to delay the putting in execution of my former commandments.

I confess it is my chiefest worldly joy that ye love her; but the necessity of my affairs enforceth me to tell you that you must prefer the obedience to a father to the love ye carry to a mistress." 1

Charles shall

be married in Spain

Before this letter reached Madrid, there had been a fresh struggle between Charles and the Spanish Court. The conferences with Olivares and the messages to the Spanish proposal that Infanta had failed in producing the expected result. Philip utterly refused to give up his sister a day sooner than he had promised; but in one respect he now changed his tactics. If Charles would consent to remain in Spain till Christmas, he might then be married in person, and would be allowed to live with the Infanta as his wife, though she would not be permitted to leave Madrid till the appointed time in the spring.

That there were the gravest objections to such a plan was evident to anyone less deeply in love than Charles; and no doubt there were not a few around him who reminded him that, if he accepted the offer, he would not only be placing himself in Philip's hands as a hostage for another half-year, but that if, before the spring came, there were a prospect of the Infanta becoming a mother, fresh excuses for delay would arise, which would, in all probability, end in placing in Spanish hands another heir to the English throne-another hostage for James's subserviency to Spain in the affair of the Palatinate. Yet, in spite of these reasonable objecaccepted by Charles. tions, Charles told Philip that he was ready to accept the conditions, and even sought an audience of the Queen in order to assure her, in the Infanta's presence, that he had made up his mind to remain.2

Scarcely was this resolution taken when Cottington arrived, bringing with him the signatures of the King and Council to the marriage articles. Once more Charles tried, by a renewed

The King to the Prince, Aug. 10, Hardwicke S. P. i. 447. 2 Francisco de Jesus, 32.

his mind;

threat of immediate departure, to induce the Spaniards to He changes give way, and to allow him to carry home his bride at once. The request was referred to the Theologians, and the Theologians, as usual, proved obdurate, and refused their consent.'

but cannot

Behaviour of

attendants.

Charles could not make up his mind what to do. Although he was unable to resist the impression that he was being made a tool of by Olivares, he could not resolve to tear prevail upon himself away from the Infanta. It was observed that himself to go. when the refusal of the Theologians was brought to him, he did not repeat his threat of leaving Madrid; yet he had hard work to hold his own. Buckingham had again lost his temper, and had for some days been talking of setting out alone to meet Rutland's fleet at Santander,2 All the Prince's little Court were of one mind in denouncing the hypocrisy of the Spaniards, and the hard words which were freely used were returned with interest by those who were assailed. One day a Spanish gentleman going into the Prince's room the Prince's found on the table a richly bound copy of a transla tion of the English Catechism into his own language, and carried it off in triumph to Philip; whilst at the same time charges, true or false, of an attempt to make proselytes to their faith were brought against Charles's attendants. The accusation might certainly have been retorted upon the Spaniards. One day Cottington was suddenly taken ill, and conversion of believing himself to be dying, sent for Lafuente, and Cottington. was by him reconciled to the Church of Rome. A few days afterwards, as soon as he began to get better, he declared himself a Protestant again. The next case was that of Henry Washington, a dying youth, who summoned an English Jesuit, named Ballard, to his bedside. His English companions were terribly excited. Gathering in a knot about the door, they barred the entrance, as they said, by the Prince's orders; and one of them, Sir Edmund Verney, struck the priest on the face with his fist. The people without, seeing what had

Temporary

1 Corner to the Doge, Sept. Venice MSS. Desp. Spagna.

20'

2 Aston (?) to Trumbull, Aug. 13, S. P. Spain.

A priest

happened, naturally took the part of the priest, and, but for the timely arrival of the alcalde, backed by the struck by Sir interposition of Gondomar, the tumult which enE. Verney. sued would hardly have been quieted without

bloodshed.

It was no doubt with a feeling of triumph mingled with sorrow, that Verney and his friends attended the funeral of Washington in the burial-ground in the garden behind Bristol's house, which was the only resting-place allowed to the lad whom they had prevented from acknowledging with the lips. the belief which he entertained in his heart. At Philip's Court the tidings were received with indignation. How can it be expected, it was asked, that these men should behave better to the Catholics in England than they do in Spain? To meet Dispute the opposition which had been raised, Charles about ordered Verney to leave Madrid; but this was not punishing Verney. enough to satisfy the Nuncio ; and, at his complaint, the King sent Gondomar to demand that the offender should be rigorously punished. The Prince was deeply annoyed, and demanded in return that the alcalde should be punished for laying hands upon his servant. At last Philip cut the matter short by sending a message to Charles, to tell him that, if he wished to spend the winter at Madrid, he must dismiss all his Protestant attendants.1

Aug. 20. Charles writes that

he will leave Spain.

Madrid.

Such a collision between the two Courts made Charles's stay at Madrid more difficult than ever. At last, therefore, he gave way to the solicitations of those around him, and announced to his father his resolution to leave "The cause," he explained, "why we have been so long in writing to you since Cottington's coming, is that we would try all means possible, before we would send you word, to see if we could move them to send the Infanta before winter. They, for form's sake, called the divines, and they stick to their old resolution, but we find, by circumstances, that conscience is not the true but seeming cause of the Infanta's stay. To conclude, we have wrought Venice MSS.

1 Francisco de Jesus, 83. Corner to the Doge, Sept. Spagna. Howell's Letters, Book i., Ser. 3, Letter 20.

what we can, but since we cannot have her with us that we desired, our next comfort is that we hope shortly to kiss your Majesty's hands."1

How far were the Spaniards in fault?

Such was the meagre account which Charles thought fit to give to his father of that fortnight of weakness and vacillation, of promises unfulfilled, and of words only uttered to be recalled. What he meant by the circumstances which, in his opinion, were the cause of the Infanta's stay, it is impossible to tell; but those who have attentively perused the true narrative of his proceedings will hardly join in the cry, which has been repeated from century to century, that the Spaniards were deeply to blame in refusing to send the Infanta at once to England, excepting so far as they deserve blame for not taking a wider and more generous view than they did of the crisis through which the world was in that day passing. There can be little doubt that they would have preferred not to send the Infanta at all, if it could have been done without exasperating Charles and his father into declaring war, and that they looked upon her detention, not merely as affording them time to ascertain how James would treat his Catholic subjects, but as enabling them to come to some definite understanding as to the resistance which he was likely to offer to their scheme for the forced conversion of the Palatinate to their creed. From this point of view it is hard to blame Olivares for the course which he took; for he had learned by a strange experience to know Charles as his countrymen were, to their sorrow, to know him in coming years. He had discovered that he was at the same time both weak and obstinate. How was Philip to entrust his sister to such a man? Who was to guarantee that the moment the wedded pair landed in England the whole of the edifice of religious liberty, which was one day to become the edifice of religious supremacy for the Catholics, would not be overthrown, with a shout of triumph?

Olivares was a liar of a very different stamp from Charles. He, at least, was perfectly aware whether his words were intended to be true or not, whilst Charles was, probably, perfectly

1. 448.

The Prince and Buckingham to the King, Aug. 20, Hardwicke S. P.