280

Dec. 1. Ville-auxClercs to ask that Mansfe.d might

CHAPTER L.

THE LAST DAYS OF JAMES I.

To obtain from James the ratification of the marriage treaty was only part of Ville-aux-Clercs' mission. He had also to obtain permission for Mansfeld to attempt to succour Breda, and to contrive if possible to embroil James in open war with Spain.1 James, indeed, almost impass through mediately after the ratification of the treaty, took one step in the direction in which the Frenchman wished to guide him. On December 14 he issued an explanation of his former prohibition to Mansfeld.

Flanders.

Dec. 14. James con.

sents.

That

commander was to ask leave from the Infanta to enter Flanders; but in the event of a refusal he was to force his way through the Spanish territory.2

Further demands of France.

As yet the name of Breda had not been mentioned either by Ville-aux- Clercs or James, though the relief of the town was plainly intended by the French. James's difficulties were only beginning. He had been given to understand that Mansfeld would land on French territory, and would march at once to the Spanish frontier in order to demand a passage of the Infanta. Now, however, Richelieu took alarm, or pretended to take alarm, at James's former declaration that Mansfeld should not enter the Spanish Netherlands. Before James explained away his meaning on the 14th, orders had already been issued in the name of Louis to Ville

1 Ville-aux-Clercs and Effiat to Louis XIII., Dec., Harl. MSS. 4596, fol. 144.

14

2 Explanation by the King, Dec. (?), ibid. fol. 187.

24

1624

THE FRENCH PLAN.

281

aux-Clercs and Effiat to inform James that Mansfeld could not be permitted to land in France unless the English Government distinctly authorised his passage through the Spanish Netherlands. The alternative offered was that Mansfeld should go by way of Holland. He would certainly not be permitted to march a hundred miles on French territory.1

Dec. 18. Misunder. standing be

ingham and

As usual, the French ambassadors applied to Buckingham for support. The exact nature of the conversation between them cannot now be discovered. The Frenchmen were under the impression when they left him, that Mansfeld, if tween Buck the passage through Flanders seemed undesirable, the French. might take any other route he pleased, on the sole condition that the French cavalry, which was to take part in the expedition, should accompany the English infantry. They therefore wrote at once to Mansfeld, strongly urging him to convey his men through Holland,2 instead of through France and Flanders.

Such, however, was not the understanding of Buckingham. Perhaps, as Ville-aux-Clercs thought afterwards, he was so confident of his influence over Mansfeld that he assented to the proposal that the commander might take any route he pleased, without duly considering all that might be implied in those words.3 Perhaps, when he came to speak to the King, and found how reluctant James was to give his consent to the course proposed, he may have thought it expedient to disavow the promise which he had heedlessly given, and it is certain that he afterwards assured Ville-aux-Clercs that he had never mentioned the possibility of Mansfeld's passing through Holland to the King. In fact, something very different from a mere military question was at issue. James wished to obtain the

Louis XIII. to Ville-aux-Clercs and Effiat, Harl. MSS. 4596, fol. 200 b.

They told Mansfeld that the English would give him entire liberty 'de prendre tel parti que vous estimerez le plus avantageux sans demander de nous autre condition que la cavallerie Français prendra même route, et sera embarquée pour passer avec leur infanterie.'-Ville-aux-Clercs and Effiat to Mansfeld, Dec. Harl. MSS. 4596, fol. 212 b.

18 28'

Mémoires de Brienne, i. 394.

open complicity of France in the coming war.

Louis wished

to involve James in hostilities with Spain whilst himself remaining at peace. If English troops landed at Calais, and then, accompanied by French cavalry, crossed the frontier into Flanders or Artois, it would be very difficult for Louis to wash his hands of the whole matter; whereas if a small body of cavalry joined Mansfeld's army in Holland, whatever Mansfeld chose to do might be set down to his own wrongheadedness, or to the orders of his English superiors.

The rendezvous at Dover.

In the meanwhile, the unlucky men whose destination was the object of such contention, were gathering to their rendezvous at Dover. The aid of English troops was not to be despised. The Prince of Orange, who knew them well, used to say that when Englishmen had got over their first sufferings, they were the bravest men in his motley army. The ten thousand who had gone out in the summer had been received by the Dutch with open arms; but they had advantages which Mansfeld's troops would never have. They were volunteers, not pressed men. They had been incorporated into the Dutch army, and had gradually learned their work in the strictest school of discipline then existing in the world. They would be well clothed and well fed. There may have been an exaggeration in the popular saying that an Englishman could not fight without his three B's-his bed, his beef, and his beer-but it was exaggeration which contained a certain amount of truth.!

condition of the men.

All that went to the making of an army was wanting to Mansfeld's compulsory levies. His men, pressed against their Wretched will, had little heart for the service. The county officials, whose duty it had been to select them, had too often laid their hands upon those who were most. easily within reach, rather than upon those who were fittest for the work. "Our soldiers," wrote one who saw a number of them pass on their way, "are marching on all sides to Dover. God send them good shipping and success; but such a rabble of raw and poor rascals have not lightly been seen, and go so

Relazioni Venete, Inghilterra, 75, 233.

1624

MANSFELD'S ENGLISH TROOPS.

283

unwillingly that they must rather be driven than led." "It is lamentable," wrote another in the same strain, "to see the heavy countenances of our pressed men, and to hear the sad farewells they take of their friends, showing nothing but deadly unwillingness to the service; and they move pity almost in all men in regard of the incommodity of the season, the uncertainty of the employment, and the ill terms upon which they are like to serve, whereof I know not how discreetly I should do to tell you all that I hear spoken; but it may suffice that I say the whole business is generally disliked, and few or none promise either honour to our nation by this journey, or anything but wretchedness to the poor soldiers."

They are irregularly paid.

Whether a real army could ever have been constituted out of such unpromising materials may admit of doubt. As it was, the men had not fair play. Mansfeld, accustomed as he was to live at free quarters, was not in the habit of paying much attention to his commissariat. Money difficulties, too, were not long in presenting themselves to him. He had received 15,000l. for the expenses of levying and arming the men, and 40,000l. for their payment during the months of October and November. He now, though the men were only just gathering at Dover, asked for another 20,000/ for the current month of December. But the resources of the Parliamentary Treasurers were exhausted, and it was only after some delay that the Prince was able to borrow the money on his own personal security. What chance was there that the further sum, which would soon become due for January, would ever be forthcoming?

Dec. 25.

2

Whilst Mansfeld was disputing with the Government over the accounts, the men were left to shift for themselves. When they reached Dover they found that but few vessels Insubordina- had been collected to carry them over, and that the sc!diers. state of the tides was such that even those few were unable to enter the harbour. Neither food nor money awaited

tion of the

1 Chamberlain to Carleton; D. Carleton to Carleton, Dec. 18, S. P. Dom. clxxvi. 65, 66.

Burlamachi's accounts, 1625, S. P. Germany. Carleton, Jan. 8, S. P. Dom. clxxxi. 29.

Chamberlain to

them. As a natural consequence they roamed about the country, stealing cattle and breaking into houses. Their ranks were thinned by frequent desertions, whilst those who remained at Dover threatened to hang the mayor and burn the town.1

1625. Jan. 1. Martial law.

To send down a commission for putting martial law in force was the first thought of the Council. To those who were ou the spot it seemed a very insufficient remedy. "If there be not order to pay the soldiers," wrote Hippesley, the Lieutenant of Dover Castle, "all the martial law in the world will not serve the turn."... When the commission was read, one of the mutineers shouted out, ‘If you hang one you must hang us all.' The man was seized and condemned to death; but the officers, who knew how much the men were to be pitied, were not anxious to carry out the sentence, and contrived to find an excuse for setting the prisoner free.2

Jan. 3. Ships for

transport put under embargo.

3

In order to obtain vessels in greater numbers, an embargo was laid on several Hamburg ships which were lying in the Downs; but the removal of the physical difficulty in the way of the passage only served to bring the political difficulty into greater prominence. James and Buckingham, whatever may have been the real nature of their communications with the ambassadors, still flattered themselves that whether the troops passed through the Spanish Netherlands or not, they would at least be allowed to make a French port the starting-point of their enterprise, so as to establish the complicity of Louis in the undertaking.

This was, however, precisely the thing which the French had determined should not be. Ville-aux-Clercs and Effiat had gained over Mansfeld, and Espesses, the French ambassador at the Hague, was busily employed in urging the StatesGeneral to consent to the landing of Mansfeld somewhere near

' Hippesley to the Privy Council, Dec. 25; the Mayor of Dover and Hippesley to the Privy Council, Dec. 26; Wilsford to Nicholas, Dec. 27 ; S. P. Dom. clxxvii. 17, 18, 33.

2 Hippesley to Nicholas, Jan. 2; Hippesley to Buckingham, Jan. 3; S. P. Dom. clxxxi. 10, 11.

Embargo by the Council, Jan. 3, S. P. Germany.