a parliamentary confirmation of these private articles, would ask Parliament to repeal the penal laws, and at all events, would never give the royal assent to any fresh ones directed against the Catholics.1 James's word was not always to be trusted; for it was but seldom that, when the time came for the performance of his promises, some new gust of feeling had not swept Explanation given by the over his mind; but to deliberate hypocrisy he never King. stooped. It was abhorrent to his nature to enter into an engagement which he had no intention of performing. He therefore took good care to explain to the Spanish ambas sadors, in the hearing of Cottington and the two secretaries, in what sense he understood the oath which he was about to take When he promised to obtain the consent of Parliament, he said he merely meant that he would do his best. As to the relaxation of the penalties imposed on the Catholics, he did not mean to bind himself never, in any case, to reimpose them. If a great state necessity occurred, he should hold himself free from any engagement now made. With this explanation he took the oath, and with this the ambassadors were forced to be content. Conse the treaty. James had, indeed, paid a heavy price for his son's freedom. Since the days of King John, no act so imprudent had been committed by any English sovereign. He had quences of taught his Catholic subjects that it was better for them to depend upon the favour of a foreign state than upon their own king. He had made it a matter of bargain with a foreign Government that he would rule at variance with the wishes of his people lawfully expressed in Parliament. He had expressly stipulated that he would never put in force the existing laws, although in the eyes of his subjects it was most important for the safety of the nation that they should be executed with rigour. If he ad of his own motion adopted the policy which was sketched out in the private articles, he might have had a hard struggle before he could carry it into execution; but he would probably at least have gained the respect of his contemporaries, anu he would certainly have Clarendon State Papers, i. App. 25. 2 Conway to Buckingham, July 23, Hardwicke S. P. i. 429. 1623 POPULAR ANNOYANCE. 71 earned the admiration of posterity. By making the progress of religious liberty dependent upon a treaty with Spain, he struck a deadlier blow against the rising spirit of tolerance than if he had been in league with all the fanatics in the world. From henceforth the religious Protestant and the patriotic statesman would he banded together in a common determination that a Church which sought to win its way by foreign aid, and which publicly professed its contempt for the laws of England and for the independent action of Parliament, should not be allowed to enjoy even that ordinary fair play for which, under other circumstances, it might have asked. The Spanish marriage treaty was the signal that the milder spirit of the new age had received a check, and that all hope of smoothing down religious differences, and of quenching the fires of religious bigotry, must be indefinitely postponed. All through the past week the popular mind had been more than usually excited. The acts, the words, the very countePopular nances of the members of the Privy Council, had excitement. been eagerly scanned by multitudes who were anxious to draw from them an augury of the fate of the country. Never were the newsmongers more busy. Strange tales of what had happened in the Council and at Court passed from mouth to mouth, some of them perhaps true, but the greater part of them evidently invented for the occasion. It was thus that James was said to have exclaimed triumphantly, after signing the articles, that all the devils in hell could not now prevent the marriage; and that one of the courtiers, who heard what he said, whispered to another that there were none left there, for they had all gone to Spain to assist in making the match. At last some one, bolder than the rest, forged a letter to the King, in the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Your Majesty," Abbot was supposed to say, "hath propounded a toleration of religion. I beseech you to take into your consideration what your act is, and what the consequence Forged letter may be. By your act you labour to set up that attributed to most damnable and heretical doctrine of the Church Abbot. of Rome, the whore of Babylon. How hateful will it be to God, and grievous to your subjects, the true professors of the gospel, that your Majesty who hath often defended and learnedly written against those wicked heresies, should now show yourself a patron of those doctrines which your pen hath told the world, and your conscience tells yourself, are superstitious, idolatrous, and detestable. Also what you have done in sending the Prince, without consent of your council, and the privity and approbation of your people. For although, sir, you have a large interest in the Prince, as the son of your flesh, yet have your people a greater, as a son of the kingdom, upon whom, next after your Majesty, are their eyes fixed, and their welfare depends. And so slenderly is his going apprehended that, believe it, sir, however his return may be safe, yet the drawers of him into that action so dangerous to himself, so desperate to the kingdom, will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished. 'Besides, this toleration you endeavour to set up by your proclamation, it cannot be done without a Parliament, unless your Majesty will let your subjects see that you now take unto yourself a liberty to throw down the laws of the land at your pleasure. What dreadful consequences these things may draw after, I beseech your Majesty to consider, and above all, lest by this, the toleration and discountenance of the true profession of the gospel, wherewith God hath blessed us, and under which the kingdom hath flourished these many years, your Majesty doth draw upon the kingdom in general, and yourself in particular, God's heavy wrath and indignation. "Thus, in discharge of my duty to your Majesty, and the place of my calling, I have taken the humble boldness to deliver my conscience. And now, sir, do with me what you please." 1 The letter was at once disavowed by Abbot to the King,2 Disavowed and attempts were made to discover the author. by Abbot. When these proved unavailing, some dissatisfaction was expressed at Court with the Archbishop, who appears to have 'Printed with the name of the Archbishop of York, Cabula, 108. II' 2 Valaresso to the Doge, Aug., Venice Transcripts. This shows that the letter must have been written in July. Mrs. Green places it conjecturally under the date of Aug. 8. 1623 THE PALATINATE AGAIN. 73 been backward in making public his disavowal. It is possible, indeed, that he was unwilling to make a statement which could hardly fail to be accompanied with something like a renunciation of the opinions which the letter contained; and there can be little doubt that, however much he had lately withdrawn himself from opposition to James, he continued to nourish those sentiments which had been put forward in his name. However this may have been, it is certain that, whether the forger had accurately adopted the ideas of the Archbishop or not, he had felicitously expressed the thoughts of the great majority of the people of England. James complains of the Meanwhile James was doing his best to make light of what he had done. In the letter which, on July 21, the day after he had taken the oaths, he wrote to his son and his favourite, he had a word to say in praise of the unexpected compliance of Pembroke and Abbot, but will be put. nothing about that of which everyone else was talking: His thoughts were running upon the expense to which he was likely to be put by the delay in the Infanta's voyage. "Since expense to which he it can be no better," he wrote, "I must be contented; but this course is both a dishonour to me, and double charges if I must send two fleets. But if they will not send her till March, let them, in God's name, send her by their own fleet; and forget not to make them keep their former conditions anent the portion, otherwise both my Baby and I are bankrupts for ever." Other matters of infinitely greater importance were passed over in far fewer words. "This bearer," he informed treat for the Palatinate, and his son, 66 The wretched affair of the Palatinate was at this moment more hopelessly entangled than ever. Almost the first thing March. which James had been called upon to do, after his Resumption son had left him, was to open negotiations with of negotiations with Coloma and Boischot for the sequestration of Frankenthal, which were to be followed by an agreement for a suspension of arms, to prepare the way for a congress 'The King to the Prince and Buckingham, July 21, Hardwicke S. P. i. 428. the Infanta Isabella. to discuss the final terms of peace in the Empire. Commissioners were appointed to treat, and the first conference was held on March 3.1 Their discussions had not proceeded far when the news of the transference of the Electorate reached England, and the Commissioners at once wrote to the King. "We cannot," they said, "with our duties, but humbly deliver our opinions unto your Majesty, that, as things now stand, we hold it most dishonourable for you, and unworthy your greatness, to hearken to any further treaty of the suspension of arms." 2 Being asked to reconsider their advice, they repeated it more emphatically than before. Frankenthal, they said, had better be delivered to the Infanta on any terms that could be had, in order to keep it out of the hands of the Duke of Bavaria. But a suspension of arms would only serve to ruin the Protestants of Germany. Nor were the men who unanimously tendered this advice by any means partisans of either side. Together with the names of Pembroke and Hamilton, of Chichester, and of Viscount Grandison, who as Sir Oliver St. John, had succeeded Chichester in Ireland, appeared those of Arundel, of Middlesex, of Calvert, and of Weston.3 Sequestra tion of Frankenthal. As might be expected, however, the protest of the Commissioners went for nothing. The treaty of sequestration was signed on March 19. Frankenthal was to be placed in the hands of the Infanta Isabella for eighteen months. If at the end of that time no reconciliation had been effected between Frederick and the Emperor, an English garrison was to be re-admitted. In the meanwhile the religious worship of the inhabitants was to be secured from attack.1 The treaty was carried into immediate execution. On April 14, the Spanish commander, Verdugo, entered the town, and Sir John Borough, with his garrison, prepared to march out with. the honours of war. The treaty for a suspension of arms was the next to follow. many. The Commissioners for the Treaty to the King, March 3, S. P. Ger The Commissioners to the King, March 6, S. P. Germany. 3 The Commissioners to the King, March 9, ibid. Treaty of Sequestration, March 19, ibid. |