1625 THE KING'S MARRIAGE CELEBRATED. 325 May. The discussion then turned on the further arrangements to be made for the expedition. For some reason or other, peraps to avoid subjecting England to reprisals from Buckingham Spain,' Charles was unwilling actually to declare war, and it was arranged that Buckingham should take the command in person, but that he should receive his commission from Frederick the titular King of Bohemia.2 to conimand the expedition. I Where was the thunderbolt to fall? The intention had originally been to direct the fleet towards the coast of Spain, to occupy some fortified town there, and to watch for the treasureships returning from Mexico; but an idea dropped in conversa-. tion by some one in authority at the Hague was now taken up by Buckingham with characteristic warmth. The fleet and army might, he thought, be more usefully employed in an campaign in attack upon the ports of Flanders in combination with the Dutch forces. If those nests of privateers were taken and destroyed, both England and the Netherlands would be the better for the operation.3 Plan of a Flanders. Necessity of consulting Before such a scheme could be finally adopted it was necessary to obtain the approbation, if not the co-operation, of the French Government. Up to this time Charles had scrupulously carried out his engageFrance. ments with Louis. By mutual consent the term within which the marriage was to be celebrated had been prolonged for a month as soon as James's illness was known to be serious, and before the month came to an end, the Pope. May 1. Celebration discovering that no attention would be paid to his of the King's marriage by remonstrances, ordered his Nuncio at Paris to deliver up the dispensation without waiting for further con cessions from the English. The marriage was accordingly cele brated by proxy on May 1, in front of the great west door of proxy. 1 That there was any wish to avoid attacking Spain is a theory impossible to maintain in the face of the evidence of the French ambassadors and others, who were watching Charles from day to day. 2 Buckingham to Carleton, May 4, S. P. Holland. Compare Richelieu, Mémoires, ii, 461-4, with Morton's instructions, June 14, S. P. Holland. Notre Dame, after the precedent set at the marriage of Margaret of Valois with the Huguenot Henry of Navarre.1 Favours to the Catho lics. On the same day Charles gave directions to the Lord Keeper to carry out the engagement which he had taken as Prince to remove the burdens weighing upon the Catholics in England. "We will and require you," he wrote, "to give order to all such our officers to whom it may appertain, that all manner of prosecution against the said Roman Catholics, as well on their persons as goods, for the exercise of the said religion, be stayed and forborne, provided always that they behave themselves modestly therein, and yield us that obedience which good and true subjects owe unto their King." fetch home "2 Charles was represented at the marriage ceremony by the Duke of Chevreuse, a distant kinsman of his own,3 who had Buckingham attached himself warmly to the English alliance. As appointed to soon as the death of James had opened a prospect the Queen. of greater political activity in England, Buckingham abandoned the idea of visiting Paris as proxy for his sovereign, and, setting himself down to the work before him, looked forward, at the most, to sailing across the Straits in command of the fleet which was to fetch home the young Queen.' Doubts about the French alliance. It is not likely that either Charles or Buckingham, in their sanguine optimism, foresaw the storm which they were raising in England by their concessions to the Catholics; but they were beginning to doubt whether they would have anything except the person of the bride to show in return for what they had done. The league offensive and defensive between England and France, once promised as the crowning ornament of the marriage, had vanished amidst a cloud of compliments; and now, before the end of April, had 1 Siri, Memorie Recondite, v. 835, 847. 2 The King to Williams, May 1, S. P. Dom. ii. 1. Through his great-grandmother, Mary of Guise. Salvetti's News-Letters, April 1, 29, May 6. That his final resolution to go to Paris was a sudden one, is plainly stated in a letter from Conway to Carleton, May 21, S. P. Holland. This explains why Eliot was not and could not be asked to attend. See p. 320, note I. 1625 April 21. Carlisle's warnings. THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 327 come a letter from Carlisle, arguing that, for Charles's own sake, the less he said about such a league the better. No one could tell on which side the weight of the French monarchy would ultimately be thrown. On the one hand French troops were co-operating with the Duke of Savoy against Genoa. On the other hand, no peace had yet been made with Soubise and the Huguenots of Rochelle. The Pope had despatched his nephew, Cardinal Barberini, to Paris, to mediate an agreement between France and Spain. Under these circumstances Carlisle doubted the wisdom of urging a stricter alliance upon the French. "I am infinitely apprehensive," he wrote, "of adventuring my gracious young master's virgin reputation to a refusal." The French, he argued, would break a treaty as easily as they would break their word. If they continued adverse to Spain they would of their own accord seek aid from England. If they made peace with Spain they would expect England to aid them against the Huguenots, a thing to which it would be impossible for the King of England to consent.1 Buckingham This was excellent advice, such as Carlisle, mere courtier and spendthrift as he is generally represented, was usually accustomed to give. Yet how was it possible for cannot aban- Buckingham to follow it? The policy of waiting till don hope. France made up her mind what part she would play, he had long ago impetuously dashed aside. For the sake of the closest union with France he had sacrificed his own consistency; and with it, though as yet he knew it not, his popularity with the English nation. He deter Buckingham could not bear that doubt should be thrown upon the hopes on which he had buoyed himself up so long. One chance yet seemed to remain to him. Formines to go getting how little his personal presence in Spain had availed him, he would try whether his personal presence in France would not clear all difficulties away. He could offer the co-operation of that great English fleet which was in a forward state of preparation, the aid of which, as he to France. ' Carlisle to Buckingham, April 21, S. P. France. He imagined, the French Government was hardly likely to despise. If he proposed to attack the Spanish Netherlands by sea and land from the north, in conjunction with the Dutch, whilst Louis, taking up in earnest his father's last enterprise, directed his armies upon them from the south; if he promised that the Spanish province of Artois should be surrendered to France as her share of the spoils, what French heart could turn away from so much glory, combined with so much solid advantage to the monarchy? For the sake of such an alliance as this, Louis could hardly object to grant acceptable conditions to the Huguenots.1 Influenced by these hopes and fears Buckingham had ceased to wish to give English aid to France against Rochelle. would rather, as far as we can judge from his acts, urge Louis to pardon the Huguenots, in order that he might make war, than help him to subdue the Huguenots with the same object. A few days before James died, contracts had been signed which temporarily made over to the King of France the Vanguard,' a ship of the Royal Navy, together with seven merchant vessels hired for the purpose from their owners. They were to be placed under the command of Pennington, the companion of Raleigh in his last voyage to Guiana, and were to be at the service of Louis for a time varying at his discretion from six to eighteen months. It was expressly stated that the vessels might be used against whomsoever except the King of Great Britain.' On May 8 the ships were ordered to cross the Channel, but on the 18th, a few days after Bucking The English vessels for Rochelle. 72 June 2' 1 There are no despatches from Buckingham giving an account of his mission. But its main objects are to be found in Richelieu's Mémoires (ii. 459), and his statement is confirmed, so far as relates to the proposed league, by Rusdorf (Rusdorf to Frederick, May 23, Mémoires, i. 578); and so far as relates to the attack upon Flanders, we know, from Morton's instructions referred to at p. 325, that such a project was in contemplation. The proposal about the Huguenots is noticed in Langerac's despatch of May an extract from which has been communicated to me by Dr. Goll. 2 Contracts, March 25, S. P. France. When Glanville afterwards stated that the vessels had been pressed, he probably meant, not that they had been pressed for the King of France, but that they had been first pressed for the service of the King of England, and then transferred to France. 20 30 1625 to serve against the A CHANGE OF FRONT. 329 ham had left England, Sir John Coke, who was the leading They are not spirit amongst the Commissioners of the Navy, and who was deep in Buckingham's confidence, wrote to Huguenots. Pennington directing him in no way to meddle with the civil war of France, or to take part in any attack upon Protestants there or elsewhere. The true intention of his employment was to serve against 'the foreign enemies of France and England.' These orders, in flagrant contradiction with the letter and spirit of the contract, were said to be for its 'better understanding.'1 This change of front in the matter of the ships was accompanied by another in the matter of the recusancy laws. Change in the treatment of the Catholics. On 3 May 11, the English Catholics were full of hope. The order sent to Williams on the 1st 2 was, as they believed, to be obeyed. Three thousand letters to the judges, the bishops, and other official personages, commanding them to desist from any further execution of the penal laws, were ready to be sent out. Before the 23rd the Catholics were told that they must wait a little longer, as it would be unwise to fly openly in the face of the coming Parliament. When the session was at an end their demands might be attended to.3 It was hardly wise of Buckingham to offer to the French Government in so public a manner the alternative between a Danger of complete alliance with England and an open rupture. BuckingTo Richelieu, who was anxious to lead his sovereign ham's visit to France. in the path in which Buckingham desired him to tread, the advent of the impetuous young man must have been a sore trial. He knew that Louis, hesitating as he was between two opinions, almost equally loathing the domination of Spain and the independence of his own Protestant subjects, would be thrown off his balance by the slightest semblance of a threat on 1 Warrant from Buckingham, May 8; Coke to Pennington, May 18; S. P. Dom. ii. 37, 74. I must ask those who think that Coke's letter was written to throw dust in the eyes of Pennington, to suspend their judgment till I have told the whole story. 2 See p. 326. The English Catholics to Ville-aux-Clercs, May 11, 23, Harl. MSS. 4597, 140 b, 175 b. |