not more moral, far more decorous. In a few days after the accession, it was reported of the new sovereign that he was zealous for God's truth, a diligent frequenter of the church, and an attentive listener to prayers and sermons; that he intended to pay all his father's, mother's, and brother's debts, and that by disparking most of his remote parks and chases; to reform the court of unnecessary charges, and to drive from it all recusant Papists. On the 30th of March, three days after his father's death, Charles ratified, as king, the treaty with France; and on the 1st of May the marriage ceremony was performed at Paris-the Duke of Cherreu, a member of the House of Guise, acting as Charles's proxy. Buckingham was appointed to bring the bride to England, and he proceeded with an immense retinue to Paris, where he dazzled all eyes with his splendour. This man's gallantry was not checked by the national shyness of Englishmen; for he had scarcely set foot in the French court, when he declared love to the young Queen Anne of Austria. The Cardinal Richelieu made all the haste he decently could to get him back to England, and, after eight days, Buckingham left Paris, with Henrietta Maria. They travelled very slowly, or stopped very frequently; for though they began their journey on the 23rd of May, they did not reach Dover till the 27th of June in the evening. That night the young queen slept in Dover Castle. On the morrow morning Charles, who had slept at Canterbury, rode to Dover to receive his wife. They met in the castle: the bride knelt down at his feet, and would have kissed his hand, but the king took her up in his arms and kissed her with many kisses.*

Our old friend Mr. Meade gives the following account of the meeting, and of the person of the lively daughter of the debonnair Henry IV.: "The king took her up in his arms, kissed her, and, talking with her, cast down his eyes toward her feet (she seeming higher than report was, reaching to his shoulders), which she soon

66

The royal couple proceeded together to Canterbury, on the following day to Rochester, the day after to Gravesend, and, on the 16th, there being a very great shower, the king and queen, in the royal barge, passed through London bridge to Whitehall. Notwithstanding the rain and the plague, the Londoners crowded the river and its banks to get a sight of the bride, whose appearance and cheerful manners gave them much satisfaction. Stories were soon circulated of her wit, and freedom from bigotry. It was said (and the thing was considered very important) that she had eaten pheasant and venison on a fast-day, notwithstanding the remonstrance of her confessor, and that, upon being asked if she could abide a Huguenot, she replied, Why not?-was not my father one?" In short, before she had been four and twenty hours at Whitehall, it was joyfully announced that she had already given some good signs of hope that she might ere long become a very good Protestant. But in a few days these bright hopes seemed to fade; and people began to count the great number of priests she had brought over in her train, and to murmur at the idolatry of the mass being again set up in the palaces of their king. She had twenty-nine priests, fourteen of them Theatines, and fifteen seculars, besides a bishop, a young man under thirty years of age. On Sundays and saints' days mass was celebrated in the queen's closet at Whitehall, Charles giving strict orders that no English man or woman should come near the place during the celebration. priests were very importunate to have a large chapel finished at St. James's, but the king was very perceiving discovered, and showed him her shoes, saying to this effect: Sir, I stand upon mine own feet. I have no helps by art. Thus high I am, and am neither higher nor lower.' She is nimble and quick, black-eyed, brown-haired, and, in a word, a brave lady," An order founded at Rome in 1524, by John Peter Caraffa, aiterwards Pope Paul IV., then Archbishop of Chieti, or Theate, in the province of Abruzzi, in the kingdom of Naples.

The

slow in gratifying them in this particular. Charles also began to take umbrage at the friars so constantly being in the queen's private chamber, and he told these Frenchmen, who appear to have been over zealous and injudicious, that he had granted them more than sufficient liberty in public. If the French princess had been the most excellent and amiable of women, these circumstances would have rendered her odious in the eyes of the nation; but Henrietta Maria, though lively and pleasant, when pleased, was not the most amiable of women: she was self-willed, obstinate, haughty, and overbearing, and began to show her temper, even in public, before she had been a fortnight in England. Meanwhile the plague grew worse and worse. In

Meade, in one of his epistles, gives the following passage from a letter written by his court frequenting friend, Mr. Mordant :

"The queen, howsoever very little of stature, is yet of a pleasing countenance (if she be pleased), but full of spirit and vigour; and seems of more than ordinary resolution. With one frown, divers of us being at Whitehall to see her (being at dinner, and the room somewhat over heated with the fire and company), she drove us all out of the chamber. I suppose none but a queen could have cast such a scowl."

the eyes of the Puritans the inference was obvious: the land was scourged for relapsing into idolatry. Charles had issued writs for a parliament to meet on the 17th of May; but in consequence of two prorogations, it did not assemble till the 10th of June, the very day after his arrival at Whitehall with his queen. Though not yet crowned, he wore the crown on his head. Before proceeding to business, he ordered that one of the bishops should say prayers, and that the doors should be shut. This was done so suddenly, that the Popish lords were obliged to be present at the service. "Some whereof kneeled down, some stood upright, and one did nothing but cross himself." The young king (he was in his twenty-fifth year) was no orator, and he had the defect of stammering; but the words of his first address were plain and sensible. Instead of trying the patience of the Houses with long, rambling, pedantic speeches, he went at once to the point. He wanted money, and he told them so. In fact, the debts which his father had left amounted to 700,000l.; he had

already contracted considerable debts of his own; and the money voted for the war was long since swallowed up. He did not hint at a peace;* he said, on the contrary, that the war must be pushed with vigour, and he reminded them that they themselves had voted a recourse to arms, and, therefore, the war being their own work, the dishonour would lie upon them, if it were not followed up with spirit from a want of the necessary supplies. But though still inclined to hostilities with Spain and the Catholics, the Commons knew by this time that the war had been most miserably conducted; that the money formerly voted had been absolutely thrown away without doing the least good to the Palatine or the Protestant cause. They now hated and suspected Buckingham, whose popularity bloomed and died almost as fast as a flower; and they required from the new king, who had already declared against concession, some pledges of an extensive reform. In this temper they limited their votes to two subsidies (about 140,0007.), and the duties of tonnage and poundage, not for life, as had been practised for two centuries, but for one year. They were also distressed by the anomalous position of the king,-the head of the Protestant league, the chief of a war of religion, or, what they at least meant should be such, and yet suffering mass to be celebrated in his own house, and his court to swarm with Papists and priests. Every day they had learned more and more of the compliances made in matters of religion at Madrid, at Paris, and at Rome itself, and they verily believed that their faith was in danger. They presented a "pious petition" to his majesty, conjuring him, as he valued the established and true religion of the land, to put into immediate execution all the penal statutes against Catholics and missionaries. Charles had promised, had signed, and sealed, and solemnly sworn, in his matrimonial treaty with France, to do no such thing; but he durst not avow this engagement, and he returned a gracious answer to the petition of the Commons. In another matter, however, he was less timid and complying. One of his chaplains, Dr. Montague, the editor of his father's works, was a decided champion of those Arminian tenets for and by which Laud afterwards set the kingdom in a blaze. He taught and wrote that there was a monstrous difference between the doctrines of Calvin and the Puritans and those entertained by the Anglican church, and that in many points the established church agreed more closely with that of Rome than with that of Geneva. If all the ministers of the establishment had believed according to some acts of parliament and the late king's determined will, Montague would have been correct in this latter statement; but this was far from being the casea large portion of the clergy were strongly Calvinistic, and the great majority of the laity who

Although troops had been sent to Holland and the Rhine, no war had been declared against any one either at Charles's accession or at the dissolution of the late parliament. If Charles had not been more eager for war than his people he might easily have nego. tiated.

cared anything at all about religion were passionate Calvinists. Two Puritan ministers drew up an information against what they considered the doctor's heresy, to be laid before, parliament. Montague thereupon published a tract which was called An Appeal to Cæsar,' and dedicated to King Charles. Many who read the tract pronounced the author to be a Papist in disguise, and one that, under the encouragement of the court, was attempting gradually to reintroduce the old religion. The Commons drew up articles against the doctor, declaring him to have "maintained. and confirmed some doctrine contrary to the articles agreed by the archbishops and bishops, and the whole clergy, in the year 1562; and by his so doing, to have broke the laws and statutes of this realm." They took him into custody, and commanded him to appear at the bar of their House to answer for his writings. The king represented that it was for him, and not for them, to take cognizance of the conduct of his chaplains; but the Commons replied that they were competent to visit such offences in a chaplain or in any other servant of the court; and they would not let the doctor go till he had given bail in 2000l. for his re-appearance. Charles had expressed indignation at the vote of supplies, and the Lords threw out the tonnage and poundage part of the bill, because the grant of these duties was not for life. Lord Conway, the chief secretary, was pressing the Commons for more money, when the plague became so alarming that many members absented themselves, and the king adjourned the parliament to the 1st of August, appointing it to meet, not at Westminster, but at Oxford.†

Previously to the calling a parliament, Charles, of his own authority, had issued warrants for levying troops for the Palatinate; and, having no money, had exacted that the charges of "coat and conduct" should be borne by the people, who were, in return, to receive a promise of repayment from his exchequer. This gave rise to great discontents, but the king continued the practice during the recess; and other circumstances meanwhile occurred still further to bring his government into disrepute. Soubise and the Huguenots still kept possession of Rochelle and the island of Rhé, and their fleet was so powerful at sea that the French Catholics could not meet it. In virtue of the recent alliance, Cardinal Richelieu applied to the English for assistance against the French Protestants. Charles and Buckingham complied; but, to deceive the people, it was given out that the armament was intended, not against Rochelle, but against the city of Genoa, which was in alliance with the House of Austria, and which, so went the story, was to be assaulted by a united force of French and English. Ever since Buckingham had been Lord Admiral, the navy had been wofully neglected, in consequence of which the seas

* Montague was rewarded for his sufferings by an increase of the royal favour; and the man that the Commons had denounced soon received a bishopric!

Rushworth,-Parl. Hist.

|

royalty. Buckingham, at the desire of the king, who had removed to Woodstock, presented an account of the navy, and a denial of having acted through personal feelings in the quarrel with Spain. His tone was mild and gentle-almost pathetic in speaking of his loss of the Commons' favour-but when he alluded to the Earl of Bristol, he could not conceal his deadly hatred. "I am minded," said he, "to leave that business asleep, but, if it should awake, it will prove a lion to devour him who co-operated with Olivares." When they had sat nine days, the Commons were told from the king that his business required a speedy dispatch; that the plague might touch them, and that he desired a present answer about his supplies; that if they would not give such answer without loss of time, he would take more care of their health than they themselves seemed disposed to take, and shift for himself as he could. They were debating upon the subject of a supply, but were not inclined to be very liberal without some tender of redress, when this threat of dissolution reached their ears. A most animated debate ensued, and they appointed a committee to prepare their answer. This proved to be a spirited but respectful declaration, putting forward abuses, but not refusing fresh supplies. They told his majesty that they were abundantly comforted by his majesty's late gracious answer touching their religion, and his message for the care of their health, and they solemnly vowed and protested before God and the world, with one heart and voice, that they would ever continue most loyal and obedient servants. But, they added, "We will, in a convenient time, and in a parliamentary way, freely and dutifully do our utmost endeavours to discover and reform the abuses and grievances of this realm and state, and in like sort to afford all necessary supply to his most excellent majesty upon his present occasions and designs: most humbly beseeching our said dear and dread sovereign, in his princely wisdom and goodness, to rest assured of the true and hearty affections of his poor Commons; and to esteem the same to be (as we conceive it is indeed) the greatest worldly reputation and security that a just king can have; and to account all such as slanderers of the people's affections, and enemies to the commonwealth, that shall dare say the contrary." This declaration was passed as the sense of the House, but they had not had time to present it when they were suddenly summoned to the Lords to hear the king's commission for dissolving the parliament. Thus inauspiciously ended, on the 12th of August, the first parliament under Charles.

During this Oxford session of twelve days he of course obtained not a farthing; but he fancied that he could take money from the pockets of his subjects in right of his prerogative without consent of parliament; and the hair-brained Buckingham, who had been the instigator of the hasty dissolution, cheered him with prospects of great wealth to be obtained by the plunder of

VOL. III.

Spain. Writs under the privy seal were issued to the nobility, gentry, and clergy, calling upon them to lend money to his majesty; and wherever any reluctance was encountered, threats of vengeance were employed; the duties of tonnage and poundage were levied though the bill had not passed; the salaries of the servants of government were left in arrears; the amusements and even the daily table* at court were trenched upon in order to save money for the fitting out of an expedition, which, according to the calculation of the favourite, would pay cent. per cent. By these means an army of ten thousand men was collected on the western coast, ships of war were fitted out, and merchant vessels engaged as transports, and armed. Not a word was said about the destination of these forces; -Buckingham's blow was to fall by surprise.† The States of Holland contributed a squadron of sixteen sail; the English fleet counted eighty sail; the greatest joint naval power that had ever spread sail upon salt water - which made the world abroad to stand astonished how so huge a fleet could be so suddenly made ready. The command of both fleet and army was given to Sir Edward Cecil, now created Lord Wimbledon, a general who had served with very bad success in the Palatinate and the Low Countries. This appointment of a mere landsman surprised and vexed the seamen, who looked upon Wimbledon with contempt. It belonged properly to Sir Robert Mansel, Vice-Admiral of England, and an experienced sailor, in case the high admiral himself went not; but Buckingham for selfish motives made the odd choice, and then persisted in it. The fleet set sail in the month of October, shaping its course for the coast of Spain. In the Bay of Biscay the ships were damaged and in part scattered by a storm. One vessel (the Long Robin) foundered with one hundred and seventy men on board. This was but the beginning of misfortune. The confusion of orders was such, that the officers and soldiers scarcely knew whom to command, or whom to obey. When he got in sight of the Spanish shores, Wimbledon called a council of war, the usual and dangerous resource of incompetent commanders. His instructions, like those given to the great Drake in former times, were, to intercept the Plate ships from America, to scour the Spanish coast, and destroy the shipping in the ports. But where should he begin? In the council of war some recommended one point, some another: in the end, it was determined to make for Cadiz Bay. But while they were consulting, the Spaniards got notice of their approach, and prepared to receive them. Moreover, Wimbledon allowed seven

• Charles found himself obliged to borrow 30002., to procure provi sions for his table, from the corporations of Salisbury and Southamp

ton.

Howell, however, says that the secret was badly kept, as all state secrets were in those days. He attributes, in part, the failure to the "blazing abroad of this expedition ere the fleet went out of the Downs; for Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus had it in print, that it was for the Straits-mouth: now, it is a rule, that great designs of state should be mysteries till they come to the very act of performance, and then they should turn to exploits."-Letters.

Howell.