1623 PARTING OF PHILIP AND CHARLES.

order, although I conceive it not to be doubted that the match will, in the end, proceed, yet your Majesty will find yourself frustrated of those effects of amity and friendship which by this alliance you expected. For the truth is, that this King and his ministers are grown to have so high a dislike against my lord Duke of Buckingham, and, on the one side to judge him to have so much power with your Majesty and the Prince, and, on the other side, to be so ill affected to them and their affairs, that if your Majesty shall not be pleased in your wisdom either to find some means of reconciliation, or else to let them see and be assured that it shall no way be in my lord Duke of Buckingham's power to make the Infanta's life less happy unto her, or any way to cross and embroil the affairs betwixt your Majesties and your kingdoms, I am afraid your Majesty will see the effects which you have just cause to expect from this alliance to follow but slowly, and all the great businesses now in treaty prosper but ill. For I must, for the discharge of my conscience and duty, without descending to particulars, let your Majesty truly know that suspicions and distastes betwixt them all here and my Lord of Buckingham cannot be at a greater height." 1

It is probable that no other man amongst the ministers of the Crown would have been bold enough to write such a letter.

leaves the Escurial.

Two whole days were spent by Charles at the Escurial, and, according to one account, he did not omit to plead once more for the Palatinate, and received in return an assurance from Philip that he would leave no means untried to obtain its cession from the Emperor, in order that he might bestow it upon the Prince as a marriage gift.2 When, on September 2, Sept. 2. Charles the moment of parting came, nothing could exceed the effusiveness of cordiality between the two young men. Philip pressed Charles to allow him to attend him to the coast, and Charles, in refusing the offer, pointed to the effect which the journey might have upon the Queen, who was daily expecting her delivery. At last the moment for separation came. The King and the Prince enjoyed one last hunt together, and after a repast which had been prepared for them 'Bristol to the King, Aug. 29, Hardwicke S. P. i. 476. • Hacket, 163.

under the shade of a wood, they took an apparently affectionate farewell of one another, by the side of a pillar which had been raised to commemorate the event.'

Buckingham

Buckingham had not been present at this last interview. Fierce words had passed that morning between him and Olivares. He was going away, he said, under the greatest obliquarrels with gations to his Majesty. As to Olivares, he had come Olivares. with the hope of making him a friend; but he had found it impossible to carry out his intention, as he had discovered the bad offices he had done him both with the King of Spain and with his own master. He hoped, however, that in spite of this he would hasten on the conclusion of the marriage with all his power. To this petulant outbreak Olivares replied with offended dignity. The marriage, he said, was for the good of the Catholic religion. As for the friendship which he had lost, he looked upon it as of no importance. It was enough for him that he had always acted as a gentleman and as a man of honour.

The loud tone in which these words were spoken attracted the attention of the bystanders, and the King called Olivares away, to put an end to the unseemly altercation. Soon afterwards Buckingham rode away on horseback, in spite of all remonstrances against the imprudence of exposing himself to the heat, leaving the Prince to follow in the coach which had been provided for him.3

The Prince's journey resembled a Royal progress. The President of the Council of the Indies, with three members of The Prince's the Council of State, accompanied him to do him journey. honour, and a large retinue of officials had been sent to see that he wanted nothing. After their return they were loud in praise of his courtesy and liberality. Only once did he betray the sentiments which were lurking beneath the smooth surface of his speech. Cardinal Zapata had asked him whether he wished the carriage to be open. I should not

1 Narrative in Nichols's Progresses, iii. 907.

ΙΟ

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

• Francisco de Jesus.

20'

4 Bristol to Calvert, Oct. 24, Hardwicke State Papers, i, 473.

1623

CHARLES'S LETTERS TO PHILIP.

117

dare," he replied, "to give my assent without sending first to Madrid to consult the Junta of Theologians."

In truth Charles's feelings towards the Infanta were rapidly undergoing a change. At the best, his love for her had been largely compounded of vanity; and it was a sore blow to him, after giving way to every exorbitant demand till he had all but crawled in the dust at Philip's feet, to be sent back to England without the bride whom he had sacrificed every honourable consideration to win. If he had expressed himself openly in indignant remonstrance, no one would have thought the worse of him. Even if he had simply restrained his impatience, and had confined himself to unmeaning compliments till he was safely out of Spain, wise men might have shaken their heads at a prudence which did not promise well for the future of so young a man; but nothing more would have been said. As it was, he did that which forces us to regard Buckingham, petulant and arrogant as he was, almost as a model of virtue by his side.

His doubt about the Infanta.

It seems that the reference to the possibility of the Infanta's taking refuge in a nunnery from dislike of the marriage, which was contained in the papers produced by Olivares a few days before, had sunk deeply into his mind, and that he now fancied it possible that she would be allowed thus to dispose of herself even after the marriage. With this thought he was undoubtedly justified in asking for an explanation; but to speak out where he felt doubt was not in his nature. It is true that he said something on the subject to Bristol before he left the Escurial, but he took no further action Sept. 3. in the matter at the time. On the 3rd, the day after His letters to he had parted from Philip, he reached Segovia, where Segovia. he found a friendly letter from the King. He at once sat down to answer it. "I have," he wrote, after expressing his regret for the necessity which compelled him to leave Spain, "a firm and constant resolution to accomplish all that my father and I have treated of and agreed with your Majesty ; and, moreover, to do everything else that may be necessary as far as possible to draw tightly the bonds of brotherhood and

Philip from

6

Corner to the Doge, Oct. Venice MSS. Desp. Spagna,

sincere amity with your Majesty. Even if all the world conjoined were to oppose itself, and seek to trouble our friendship, it would have no effect upon my father or myself; but we would rather declare those who attempted it to be our enemies.” 1

Within a few hours 2 after this letter was written, Edward Clarke, a confidential servant of Buckingham's, started for Madrid with another of widely different import.

His letter to

Bristol asking whether the Infanta

Bristol," wrote Charles, "you may remember that, a little before I came from St. Lorenzo,3 I spake to will go inte a nunnery. you concerning a fear I had that the Infanta might be forced to go into a monastery after she is betrothed; which you know she may do with a dispensation. Though at that time I was loth to press it, because I thought it fit, at the time of my parting, to eschew distastes or disputes as much as I could; yet, since, considering that, if I should be betrothed before that doubt be removed, and that upon illgrounded suspicions, or any other cause whatsoever, they should take this way to break the marriage, the King my father, and all the world might justly condemn me for a rash-headed fool, not to foresee and prevent this in time; wherefore I thought it necessary by this letter to command you not to deliver my proxy to the King of Spain, until I may have sufficient security, both from him and the Infanta, that, after I am betrothed, a monastery may not rob me of my wife; and after ye have gotten this security send with all possible speed to me, that, if I find it sufficient, as I hope I shall, I may send you order, by the delivery of my proxy, to despatch the marriage." 4

The worst is yet to come. Clarke was ordered to inform the ambassador that he had been sent back to Madrid on Clarke Buckingham's private business, whilst he kept the ordered not important document in his pocket till the arrival of the Pope's approbation. He was then to hand it to Bristol, when, as the date had been intentionally omitted, he

to deliver it at once.

The Prince to Philip IV., Sept. 3, S. P. Spain.

2 It was written from Segovia. Francisco de Jesus, 87.

The Escurial.

The Prince to Bristol, Sept. 3 (?), S. P. Spain. The original is amongst the Sherborne MSS.

THE MARRIAGE TO BE POSTPONED.

119

1623 would be able to represent it as having only just come to hand. The meaning of this manœuvre is unfortunately but too easy to understand. Bristol would be compelled to postpone the betrothal for more than three weeks, whilst he was communicating with Charles in England, although the Prince had solemnly consented to the arrangement by which the ceremony was to be performed ten days after the arrival of the news from Rome. It would seem, therefore, that the scheme was one carefully prepared by Charles in order to take revenge for the slights which he had received, by the outrageous device of rendering the redemption of his own promise impossible; if, indeed, the explanation is not rather to be sought in his burning desire to throw off his engagements, without consideration for the nature of the method by which he proposed to gain his object.' Unconscious of the disgrace which he was bringing upon himself in the eyes of all honourable men, Charles pursued his way to Santander, taking care every day to indite a continues his few words of greeting to the Sovereign who little journey. dreamed of the insult which had been so elaborately prepared for him. As he drew near the coast his anxiety increased to know whether the fleet, which had been long detained by contrary winds in the English Channel, had yet arrived to bear him away from the now detested soil of Spain. Early in the morning of the 12th, when he was about six leagues from Santander, he was met by Sir John Finett, and Sir Thomas Somerset, who had been riding all night to greet him with the welcome tidings. The news, he afterwards assured Finett, made him look upon him 'as one that had the face of an angel.' As the Prince entered Santander, the bells were rung, and the cannon of the fort were fired, in honour of his coming; but Charles, whose heart was in the fleet which bore the English flag, did not respond to these signs of welcome. Late as it was in the after

The Prince

Sept. 12. His embarkation.

1 Francisco de Jesus says that the letter was to be kept back till one or two days before the marriage; but, from Clarke's own letter to Buckingham (Cabala, 199), there can be little doubt that his orders were as I have given them.

2 Finetti Philoxenis, 120.