CHA P. L. Negociations with regard to the marriage and the Palati- Treaty with France. -Mansfeldt's expedition.- L. the Palati O wreft the Palatinate from the hands of the em- CHA P. peror and the duke of Bavaria, must always have been regarded as a very difficult task for the power of England, conducted by fuch an unwarlike prince as James. 1622. It was plainly impoffible, while the breach subsisted between him and the commons. The king's negotiations, Negotiatherefore, had they been managed with ever fo great tions with dexterity, must now carry lefs weight with them; and regard to it was easy to elude all his applications. When lord the marriDigby, his ambaffador to the emperor, had defired a age and ceffation of hoftilities, he was referred to the duke of nate. Bavaria, who commanded the Auftrian armies. The the duke of Bavaria told him, that it was entirely fuperfluous to form any treaty for that purpose. Hoftilities `are already ceased, faid he; and I doubt not but I shall be able to prevent their revival, by keeping firm possession of the Palatinate, till a final agreement fball be concluded between the contending parties A. Notwithstanding this infult, James endeavoured to refume with the emperor a treaty of accommodation; and he opened the negotiations at Bruffels, under the mediation of archduke Albert, and, after his death, which happened about this time, under that of the Infanta: When the conferences were entered upon, it was found, that the powers of these princes to determine in the controverfy were not fufficient nor fatisfactory. Schwartzenbourg, the imperial minifter, was expected at London: and it was hoped, he would bring more ample authority: His commission referred entirely to the negociation at Bruffels. It was not difficult for the king to perceive, that his applications were purposely eluded by the emperor; but as he had no choice of any other expedient, and it seemed the intereft A Franklyn, p. 57. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 38. L. 1622. CHA P. intereft of his fon-in-law to keep alive his pretenfions, he was still content to follow Ferdinand through all his fhifts and evafions. Nor was he entirely difcouraged, even when the imperial diet at Ratisbon, by the influence, or rather authority of the emperor, though contrary to the proteftation of Saxony and all the proteftant princes and cities, had transferred the electoral dignity from the Palatine to the duke of Bavaria. The MEANWHILE the efforts made by Frederic, for the recovery of his dominions, were vigorous. Three armies were levied in Germany by his authority, under three commanders, duke Chriftian of Brunswic, the prince of Baden-Dourlach, and count Mansfeldt. two former generals were defeated by count Tilly and the Imperialists: The third, though much inferior in force to his enemies, ftill maintained the war; but with no equal fupplies of money either from the Palatine or the king of England. It was chiefly by pillage and free quarters in the Palatinate, that he fubfifted his army. As the Auftrians were regularly paid, they were kept in more exact difcipline; and James juftly became apprehenfive, left so unequal a conteft, befides ravaging the Palatine's hereditary dominions, would end in the total alienation of the people's affections from their antient fovereign, by whom they were plundered, and in an attachment to their new mafters, by whom they were protected. He perfuaded therefore his fon-in-law to difunder colour of duty and fubmiffion to the emperor: And accordingly, Mansfeldt was difmiffed from the Palatine's service, and that famous general withdrew his army into the Low Countries, and there received a commiffion from the ftates of the United Provinces arm, To fhew how little account was made of James's negotiations abroad, there is a pleafantry mentioned by all hiftorians, which, for that reafon, fhall have place here. In a farce acted at Bruffels, a courier was introduced carrying the doleful news, that the Palatinate would foon be wrefted from the house of Auftria; fo powerful were the fuccours, which, from all quarters, were hastening to the relief of the defpoiled elector: The king of Denmark had agreed to contribute to his affistance a hundred thousand pickled herrings, the Dutch a hundred thou B Parl. Hift. vol. v. p. 484. fand L. fand butter-boxes, and the king of England a hundred C H A P. thousand ambassadors. On other occafions, he was painted with a scabbard, but without a fword; or with a fword, which nobody could draw, though feveral were pulling at it C. IT was not from his negotiations with the emperor or the duke of Bavaria, that James expected any fuccefs in his project of reftoring the Palatine: His eyes were entirely turned towards Spain; and if he could effectuate his fon's marriage with the Infanta, he doubted not, but that, after fo intimate a conjunction, this other point could easily be obtained. The negotiations of that court being naturally dilatory, it was not eafy for a prince of fo little penetration in business, to distinguish, whether the difficulties, which occured, were real or affected; and he was fuprized, after negotiating five years on fo fimple a demand, that he was not more advanced than at the beginning. The difpenfation of Rome was requifite for the marriage of the Infanta with a protestant prince; and the king of Spain, having undertaken to procure that difpenfation, had thereby acquired the means of retarding at pleafure, or forwarding the marriage, and at the fame time of concealing entirely his artifices from the court of England. In order to remove all obftacles, James difpatched Digby, foon afterwards created earl of Bristol, as his ambassador to Philip IV. who had lately fucceeded his father in the crown of Spain. He fecretly employed Gage as his agent at Rome; and finding that the difference of religion was the principal, if not fole difficulty, which retarded the marriage, he resolved to foften that objection as much as poffible. He iffued public orders for discharging all popish recufants who were imprisoned; and it was daily apprehended, that he would forbid, for the future, the execution of the penal laws enacted against them. For this step, fo oppofite to the rigid fpirit of his fubjects, he took care to apologize; and he even endeavoured to afcribe it to his great zeal for the reformed religion. He had been making applications, he faid, to all foreign princes for fome indulgence to the distressed protestants; and he was still answered by objections derived from the C Kennet, p. 749. severity 1622. L.. CHA P. feverity of the English laws against catholics D. It might indeed occur to him, that, if the extremity of religious zeal was ever to abate among the christian sects, one of them must begin: and nothing would be more honourable for England, than to have led the way in fentiments fo wife and moderate. 1622. NOT only the religious puritans murmured at this tolerating measure of the king: The lovers of civil liberty were alarmed at fo important an exertion of his prerogative. But, among other dangerous articles of authority, the kings of England were at that time possessed of the difpenfing power; at least, were in the conftant practice of exercifing it. Befides, though the royal prerogative in civil matters was then extenfive, the princes, during fome late reigns, had been accustomed to affume still higher in ecclefiaftical, and the king failed not to represent the toleration of catholics as a measure entirely of that nature. By James's conceffion in favour of the catholics, he obtained his end. The fame religious motives, which had hitherto rendered the court of Madrid infincere in all the steps taken with regard to the marriage, were now the chief cause of promoting it. By its means, it was there hoped, the English catholics would for the future enjoy ease and indulgence; and the Infanta would be the happy inftrument of procuring to the church fome tranquillity, after the many fevere perfecutions, which it had hitherto undergone. The earl of Bristol, a minifter of vigilance and penetration, and who had formerly oppofed all alliance with catholics E, was now fully convinced of the fincerity of Spain; and he was ready to congratulate the king on the entire completion of his views and projects F. A daughter of Spain, whom he represents as extremely accomplished, would foon, he faid, arrive in England, and bring with her an immenfe fortune of two millions, a fum four times greater than Spain had ever before given with any princefs. But what was of more importance D Franklyn, p. 69. Rufhworth, vol. i. p. 63. E Rufh. vol. i. p. 292. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 69. * It appears by Buckingham's narrative, that these two millions were of pieces of eight, and made 600,000 pounds fterling: A very great fum, and almost equal to all the fums which the parliament, during the whole courfe of this reign, had hitherto bestowed on the king. G L. 1622. importance to the king's honour and happiness, Briftol C H A P. considered this match as an infallible prognoftic of the Palatine's restoration; nor would Philip, he thought, ever have bestowed his fifter and fo large a fortune, under the profpect of entering next day into a war with England. So exact was his intelligence, that the most secret counfels of the Spaniards, he boasts, had never escaped him & ; and he found that they had all along confidered the marriage of the Infanta and the restitution of the Palatinate as measures closely connected, or altogether infeparable H. However little calculated James's character to extort so vast a conceffion; however improper the measures which he had pursued for obtaining that end; the ambaffador could not withstand the plain evidence of facts, by which Philip now demonftrated his fincerity. Perhaps too, like a wife man, he confidered, that reasons of state, which are fuppofed folely to influence the councils of monarchs, are not always the motives which there predominate; that the milder views of gratitude, honour, friendship, generofity, are frequently able, among princes as well as pri⚫vate perfons, to counterbalance these selfish confiderations; that the juftice and moderation of James had been fo confpicuous in all these transactions, his reliance on Spain, his confidence in her friendship, that he had at laft obtained the cordial alliance of that nation, fo celebrated for honour and fidelity. Or, if politics must still be supposed the ruling motive of all public measures, the maritime power of England was fo confiderable, and the Spanish dominions fo divided, as might well induce the council of Philip, to think, that a fincere friendship with the masters of the fea could not be purchased by too great conceffions And as James, during fo many years, had been allured and feduced by hopes and proteftations, his people enraged by delays and disappointments; it would probably occur, that there was no medium left between the most inveterate hatred and the most intimate G Rush. vol. i. p. 272. H We find by private letters between Philip IV. and the Conde Olivarez, fhewn by the latter to Buckingham, that the marriage and the reftitution of the Palatinate were always confidered by the court of Spain as infeparable. See Franklvn, p. 71, 72. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 71, 280, 299, 300. Parl. Hitt. vol. vi. p. 66. I Franklyn, p. 72. |