he had never seen the Prince so merry. As soon as Charles stepped on the southern bank of the Bidassoa, he danced about for joy. Yet even in that part of Bristol's letter which he was able to read, there was enough to have made Charles doubt the wisdom of his enterprise. "The temporal articles," he now 66 told his father, are not concluded, nor will not be till the dispensation comes, which may be God knows when; and when that time shall come, they beg twenty days to conceal it, upon pretext of making preparations." Charles was, however, sanguine enough to imagine that these difficulties would vanish in a moment before the sunlight of his presence.1 About eight o'clock in the evening of March 7, the two young men, having outridden their companions, knocked for admittance at Bristol's door at Madrid. No one and reaches knew better than the ambassador what mischief was March 7. Madrid. likely to result from the giddy exploit; but he had long learned to command his countenance, and he took good care to receive his unexpected guests with all the deference due to their rank.2 March 7. Gondomar hears the news. He informs 66 For that night at least, as he fondly hoped, the secret would be kept; but Gondomar was not to be deceived. In a few minutes he had learned that his long-cherished wishes had been gratified, and he at once proceeded to the Royal Palace, where he found Olivares at supper. "What brings you here so late?" said the favourite, astonished at his beaming face; one would think that you had got the King of England in Madrid." "If I have not got the King," replied Gondomar, "at least I have got the Prince." Olivares, stupified at what he heard, remained silent for some time. At last he congratulated Gondomar on the news he brought. It could not be, he thought, but that the Prince's arrival would in some way redound to the advantage of the 'The Prince and Buckingham to the King, March 2, Hardwicke S. P. i. 403. Salvetti's News-Letter, March 7. 2 'A True Relation,' &c., Nichols' Progresses, iii. 818. This account was compiled by Bristol himself. 1623 Olivares informs the King. DIFFICULTIES OF OLIVARES. II Catholic Church. Olivares then went to find the King, and the strange news was discussed between them in the royal bedchamber. On one point they were soon agreed. If Charles had not made up his mind to change his religion, he would not have come to Spain. Philip, turning to a crucifix which stood at the head of his bed, addressed Him whom the image represented. "Lord," he said, "I swear to Thee, by the crucified union of God and man, which I adore in Thee at whose feet I place my lips, that the coming of the Prince of Wales shall not prevail with me, in anything touching Thy Catholic religion, to go a step beyond that which thy vicar the Roman Pontiff may resolve, even if it may involve the loss of all the kingdoms which, by Thy favour and mercy, I possess. As to what is temporal and is mine," he added, looking at Olivares, "see that all his wishes are gratified, in consideration of the obligation under which he has placed us by coming here."1 With these words he dismissed Olivares for the night. During the first months of the year, the position of the Spanish minister had been one of extreme difficulty. If, indeed, a choice became inevitable, he would undoubtedly elect to stand by the side of the Emperor in war, rather than leave the cause of his Church without support. But the prospect was most unwelcome, and he had strained every nerve to bring Ferdinand and James to consent to terms, which, in his ignorance of the temper of Protestant nations, he fancied would prove acceptable to both parties. Already his dream had begun to melt away before the hard realities of life. It was known at Madrid that the Emperor was not to position of be bribed to relinquish his fixed intention by the promise of the Infanta's hand for his son. For some weeks Olivares had been tormented with renewed demands that the Spanish Government should take a side. Khevenhüller, the Imperial Ambassador, and De Massimi, the Papal Nuncio, had been urging him, in no measured terms, to secure his master's approbation for the transference of the Electorate, whilst Bristol had been no less persistent in pressing him to 1 Roça, Add. MSS. 25,689, fol. 65. Appendix to Francisco de Jesus, Difficult Olivares. V take active steps in thwarting a measure which he truly represented as ruinous to the prospects of peace. Under the circumstances, the perplexities of the Spanish Government had been overwhelming. If the Emperor would not yield, it might be possible, it was thought, to induce him to create an eighth Electorate, and this proposal had been allowed to reach Bristol's ears, coupled with the suggestion that Frederick's son should be educated at Vienna; though it is needless to say that no hint was given him of the scheme for bringing up the boy in the Roman Catholic religion. Sanguine as his temperament was, Olivares can hardly have concealed from himself during these weeks that there was at least a possibility that his efforts to patch the rent might not be so successful as he had wished. Nor were the prospects of the marriage more favourable than those of his German diplomacy. The Infanta, as he well knew, had set her face against it as sternly as ever; yet he could not draw back from the treaty if he would. The penalty of his own dissimulation, and of the dissimulation of those who had gone before him, was being exacted to the uttermost. With a smiling face, he had to await the coming of the evil day which, unless the Pope chose to come to his help, would expose his falsehood to the world. At one time he had been obliged to make arrangements for the Infanta's voyage and for the selection of the noblemen who were to take charge of her and her attendants; at another time he had been compelled to look on whilst the King wrote an autograph letter to the Pope pressing him to accord the dispensation, although the Pope must have been perfectly aware that the granting of the dispensation was the last thing for which Philip really wished.2 Olivares ex- From this horrible dilemma he was now, as he fancied, relieved for ever. The Prince, he supposed, was come with the intention of professing himself a convert to the Catholic Church. Every difficulty, therefore, was now at an end. The marriage would be concluded to the satisfaction of all parties; the Emperor would concede the point of the eighth Electorate, and the Prince of Wales Prince to 1 Bristol to Calvert, Feb. 23, S. P. Spain. Khevenhüller, x. 71-79. 2 Bristol to the King, Feb. 22, S. P. Spain. 1 1623 PHILIP IV. AND THE PRINCE. 13 would use all his influence in favour of the education of his nephew in the religion which would be his own; the Palatinate and the British Isles would, within a few years, be added to the spiritual dominions of the Roman see. Spain, so long maligned as aspiring to universal monarchy, would not ask for a foot of territory which was not legitimately her own. If she was from henceforth to look down upon the other kingdoms of the world, it would be from the height of the moral supremacy which self-abnegation alone could give. Olivares would be the Philip II. of peace.1 Such was the latest form of the long-enduring Spanish hallucination. The next morning Gondomar, summoned to March 8. The Prince of Wales announces his arrival. Bristol's house, was, for the first time, as the English Ambassador imagined, entrusted with the great secret. He was to tell Olivares that Buckingham had arrived, but he was to say nothing about the Prince. Accordingly in the afternoon, the two favourites met in the palace gardens. Every form which the most precise rules of Spanish courtesy demanded was observed between them; and, as soon as it was dark, Buckingham was admitted to the royal apartments to kiss his Majesty's hands. The next day, although Buckingham presented to the secret of the Prince's arrival had been communithe King. cated to Philip, a mysterious silence was ordered to be preserved upon the subject. Philip, accompanied by the Queen and the Infanta as well as by his two brothers, the Infants Charles and Ferdinand, drove backwards and forwards through the streets, whilst the Prince of Wales, whose arrival was supposed to be still unknown, was placed The scheme of Olivares may be not unaptly compared to the ideas which dictated the maps of Europe which were published in Paris during the Second Empire. In them France always appeared without additional territory, though everything else is changed. 2 The extract from the despatch in which Coloma, the Spanish Ambassador in England, announced the Prince's journey, will show how deep-seated this idea was. The Prince, he says, has gone 'á tomar las leyes que V. Mag. le diere, no solo en la materia del casamento, sino en las demas que miran á la confusion de nuestros enemigos, que sentirán este golpe como mortal para ellos.' Palace Library. Feb. Coloma to Philip IV., March I' 19 Madrid in another coach, from which he might catch a sight of the royal family as they passed. Once the King took off his hat to him, but there was no other sign of recognition. The streets were thronged, but no outward demonstrations were allowed, though everyone knew who the stranger in the coach was. Amongst that vast crowd there was not one whose heart did not swell with triumph at the thought that the Prince of heretic England had come to bow his knee at the altars of the national faith. When the procession was ended, Olivares joined the Prince and assured him that his master was dying to speak to him, and intended to visit him in the evening. Charles would not hear of this, and offered to pay his compliments to the King at once. The proposal was, however, declined, on the ground that the Prince's retinue was not sufficiently numerous to enable him to appear with the dignity befitting his rank; and it was finally arranged that the meeting should take place in the open air. As soon as they met, Philip invited Charles to come into his coach. Bristol was taken with them as an interpreter, and they remained together in friendly conversation for half an hour.1 March 9. Meeting of Philip and Charles. Olivares' with Buck In the midst of these ceremonies Olivares had an eye to business. "Let us despatch this matter out of hand," he said to Buckingham, "and strike it up without the Pope." conversation Very well," replied the Englishman; "but how is ingham. it to be done?" "The means," replied Olivares, 66 are very easy. It is but the conversion of the Prince, which we cannot conceive but his Highness intended upon his resolution for this journey." Against this idea, it would seem, Buckingham protested, doubtless in less vehement language. than he took credit to himself for after his return to England. "Then," said Olivares, we must send to Rome." The next morning Olivares appeared with a letter which he had written to the Pope's nephew, Cardinal Ludovisi. The King of England, he told him, had put such an obligation A True Relation,' &c., Nichols' Progresses, iii. 818. Spanish Ac count. Guizot, Projet de Mariage Royal, 107. Francisco de Jesus, 54. |