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diff --git a/28546.txt b/28546.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87d2389 --- /dev/null +++ b/28546.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21902 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of England Principally in the +Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6), by Leopold von Ranke + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) + + +Author: Leopold von Ranke + + + +Release Date: April 9, 2009 [eBook #28546] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF ENGLAND PRINCIPALLY +IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VOLUME I (OF 6)*** + + +E-text prepared by Paul Dring, Frank van Drogen, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +A HISTORY OF ENGLAND PRINCIPALLY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +by + +LEOPOLD VON RANKE + +VOLUME I + + + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Once more I come before the public with a work on the history of a +nation which is not mine by birth. + +It is the ambition of all nations which enjoy a literary culture to +possess a harmonious and vivid narrative of their own past history. And +it is of inestimable value to any people to obtain such a narrative, +which shall comprehend all epochs, be true to fact and, while resting on +thorough research, yet be attractive to the reader; for only by this aid +can the nation attain to a perfect self-consciousness, and feeling the +pulsation of its life throughout the story, become fully acquainted with +its own origin and growth and character. But we may doubt whether up to +this time works of such an import and compass have ever been produced, +and even whether they can be produced. For who could apply critical +research, such as the progress of study now renders necessary, to the +mass of materials already collected, without being lost in its immensity? +Who again could possess the vivid susceptibility requisite for doing +justice to the several epochs, for appreciating the actions, the modes of +thought, and the moral standard of each of them, and for understanding +their relations to universal history? We must be content in this +department, as well as in others, if we can but approximate to the ideal +we set up. The best-written histories will be accounted the best. + +When then an author undertakes to make the past life of a foreign +nation the object of a comprehensive literary work, he will not think +of writing its history as a nation in detail: for a foreigner this +would be impossible: but, in accordance with the point of view he +would naturally take, he will direct his eyes to those epochs which +have had the most effectual influence on the development of mankind: +only so far as is necessary for the comprehension of these, will he +introduce anything that precedes or comes after them. + +There is an especial charm in following, century after century, the +history of the English nation, in considering the antagonism of the +elements out of which it is composed, and its share in the fortunes +and enterprises of that great community of western nations to which it +belongs; but it will be readily granted that no other period can be +compared in general importance with the epoch of those religious and +political wars which fill the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +In the sixteenth century the part which England took in the work of +emancipating the world from the rule of the western hierarchy +decisively influenced not only its own constitution, but also the +success of the religious revolution throughout Europe. In England the +monarchy perfectly understood its position in relation to this great +change; while favouring the movement in its own interest, it +nevertheless contrived to maintain the old historical state of things +to a great extent; nowhere have more of the institutions of the Middle +Ages been retained than in England; nowhere did the spiritual power +link itself more closely with the temporal. Here less depends on the +conflict of doctrines, for which Germany is the classic ground: the +main interest lies in the political transformation, accomplished +amidst manifold variations of opinions, tendencies, and events, and +attended at last by a war for the very existence of the nation. For it +was against England that the sacerdotal reaction directed its main +attack. To withstand it, the country was forced to ally itself with +the kindred elements on the Continent: the successful resistance of +England was in turn of the greatest service to them. The maintenance +of Protestantism in Western Europe, on the Continent as well as in +Britain, was effected by the united powers of both. To bring out +clearly this alternate action, it would not be advisable to lay weight +on every temporary foreign relation, on every step of the home +administration, and to search out men's personal motives in them; a +shorter sketch may be best suited to show the chief characters, as +well as the main purport of the events in their full light. + +But then, through the connexion of England with Scotland, and the +accession of a new dynasty, a state of things ensued under which the +continued maintenance of the position taken up in home and foreign +politics was rendered doubtful. The question arose whether the policy +of England would not differ from that of Great Britain and be +compelled to give way to it. The attempt to decide this question, and +the reciprocal influence of the newly allied countries, brought on +conflicts at home which, though they in the main arose out of foreign +relations, yet for a long while threw those relations into the +background. + +If we were required to express in the most general terms the +distinction between English and French policy in the last two +centuries, we might say that it consisted in this, that the glory of +their arms abroad lay nearest to the heart of the French nation, and +the legal settlement of their home affairs to that of the English. How +often have the French, in appearance at least, allowed themselves to +be consoled for the defects of the home administration by a great +victory or an advantageous peace! And the English, from regard to +constitutional questions of apparently inferior importance, have not +seldom turned their eyes away from grievous perils which hung over +Europe. + +The two great constitutional powers in England, the Crown and the +Parliament, dating back as they did to early times, had often +previously contended with each other, but had harmoniously combined in +the religious struggle, and had both gained strength thereby; but +towards the middle of the seventeenth century we see them first come +into collision over ecclesiastical regulations, and then engage in a +war for life and death respecting the constitution of the realm. +Elements originally separate unite in attacking the monarchy; +meanwhile the old system breaks up, and energetic efforts are made to +found a new one on its ruins. But none of them succeed; the +deeply-felt need of a life regulated by law and able to trust its own +future is not satisfied; after long storms men seek safety in a return +to the old and approved historic forms so characteristic of the +German, and especially of the English, race. But in this there is +clearly no solution of the original controversies, no reconciliation +of the conflicting elements: within narrower limits new discords break +out, which once more threaten a complete overthrow: until, thanks to +the indifference shown by England to continental events, the most +formidable dangers arise to threaten the equilibrium of Europe, and +even menace England itself. These European emergencies coinciding with +the troubles at home bring about a new change of the old forms in the +Revolution of 1688, the main result of which is, that the centre of +gravity of public authority in England shifts decisively to the +parliamentary side. It was during this same time that France had won +military and political superiority over all its neighbours on the +mainland, and in connexion with it had concentrated an almost absolute +power at home in the hands of the monarchy. England thus reorganised +now set itself to contest the political superiority of France in a +long and bloody war, which consequently became a struggle between two +rival forms of polity; and while the first of these bore sway over the +rest of Europe, the other attained to complete realisation in its +island-home, and called forth at a later time manifold imitations on +the Continent also, when the Continent was torn by civil strife. +Between these differing tendencies, these opposite poles, the life of +Europe has ever since vibrated from side to side. + +When we contemplate the framework of the earth, those heights which +testify to the inherent energy of the original and active elements +attract our special notice; we admire the massive mountains which +overhang and dominate the lowlands covered with the settlements of +man. So also in the domain of history we are attracted by epochs at +which the elemental forces, whose joint action or tempered antagonism +has produced states and kingdoms, rise in sudden war against each +other, and amidst the surging sea of troubles upheave into the light +new formations, which give to subsequent ages their special character. +Such a historic region, dominating the world, is formed by that epoch +of English history, to which the studies have been devoted, whose +results I venture to publish in the present work: its importance is as +great where it directly touches on the universal interests of +humanity, as where, on its own special ground, it develops itself +apart in obedience to its inner impulses. To comprehend this period we +must approach it as closely as possible: it is everywhere instinct +with collective as well as individual life. We discern how great +antagonistic principles sprang almost unavoidably out of earlier +times, how they came into conflict, wherein the strength of each side +lay, what caused the alternations of success, and how the final +decisions were brought about: but at the same time we perceive how +much, for themselves, for the great interests they represented, and +for the enemies they subdued, depended on the character, the energy, +the conduct of individuals. Were the men equal to the emergency, or +were not circumstances stronger than they? From the conflict of the +universal with the special it is that the great catastrophes of +history arise, yet it sometimes happens that the efforts which seem to +perish with their authors exercise a more lasting influence on the +progress of events than does the power of the conqueror. In the +agonising struggles of men's minds appear ideas and designs which pass +beyond what is feasible in that land and at that time, perhaps even +beyond what is desirable: these find a place and a future in the +colonies, the settlement of which is closely connected with the +struggle at home. We are far from intending to involve ourselves in +juridical and constitutional controversies, or from regulating the +distribution of praise and blame by the opinions which have gained the +day at a later time, or prevail at the moment; still less shall we be +guided by our own sympathies: our only concern is to become acquainted +with the great motive powers and their results. And yet how can we +help recognising manifold coincidences with that conflict of opinions +and tendencies in which we are involved at the present day? But it is +no part of our plan to follow these out. Momentary resemblances often +mislead the politician who seeks a sure foothold in the past, as well +as the historian who seeks it in the present. The Muse of history has +the widest intellectual horizon and the full courage of her +convictions; but in forming them she is thoroughly conscientious, and +we might say jealously bent on her duty. To introduce the interests of +the present time into the work of the historian usually ends in +restricting its free accomplishment. + +This epoch has been already often treated of, if not as a whole, yet +in detached parts, and that by the best English historical writers. A +native author has this great advantage over foreigners, that he thinks +in the language in which the persons of the drama spoke, and lets them +be seen through no strange medium, but simply in their natural form. +But when, too, this language is employed in rare perfection, as in a +work of our own time,--I refer not merely to rounded periods and +euphony of cadence, but to the spirit of the narrative so much in +harmony with our present culture, and the tone of our minds, and to +the style which by every happy word excites our vivid sympathy;--when +we have before us a description of the events in the native language +with all its attractive traits and broad colouring, a description too +based on an old familiar acquaintance with the country and its +condition: it would be folly to pretend to rival such a work in its +own peculiar sphere. But the results of original study may lead us to +form a different conception of the events. And it is surely good that, +in epochs of such great importance for the history of all nations, we +should possess foreign and independent representations to compare with +those of home growth; in the latter are expressed sympathies and +antipathies as inherited by tradition and affected by the antagonism +of literary differences of opinion. Moreover there will be a +difference between these foreign representations. Frenchmen, as in one +famous instance, will hold more to the constitutional point of view, +and look for instruction or example in political science. The German +will labour (after investigation into original documents) to +comprehend each event as a political and religious whole, and at the +same time to view it in its universal historical relations. + +I can in this case, as in others, add something new to what is already +known, and this to a larger extent as the work goes on.[1] + +In no nation has so much documentary matter been collected for its +later history as in England. The leading families which have taken +part in public business, and the different parties which wish to +assert their views in the historical representation of the past as +well as in the affairs of the present, have done much for this object; +latterly the government also has set its hand to the work. Yet the +existing publications are far from sufficient. How incredibly +deficient our knowledge still is of even the most important +parliamentary transactions! In the rich collections of the Record +Office and of the British Museum I have sought and found much that was +unknown, and which I needed for obtaining an insight into events. The +labour spent on it is richly compensated by the gain such labour +brings; over the originals so injured, and so hard to decipher, linger +the spirits of that long-past age. Especial attention is due to the +almost complete series of pamphlets of the time, which the Museum +possesses. As we read them, there are years in which we are present, +as it were, at the public discussion that went on, at least in the +capital, from month to month, from week to week, on the weightiest +questions of government and public life. + +If any one has ever attempted to reconstruct for himself a portion of +the past from materials of this kind,--from original documents, and +party writings which, prompted by hate or personal friendship, are +intended for defence or attack, and yet are withal exceedingly +incomplete,--he will have felt the need of other contemporary notices, +going into detail but free from such party views. A rich harvest of +such independent reports has been supplied to me for this, as well as +for my other works, by the archives of the ancient Republic of Venice. +The 'Relations,' which the ambassadors of that Republic were wont to +draw up on their return home, invaluable though they are in reference +to persons and the state of affairs in general, are not, however, +sufficient to supply a detailed and consecutive account of events. But +the Venetian archives possess also a long series of continuous +Reports, which place us, as it were, in the very midst of the courts, +the capitals, and the daily course of public business. For the +sixteenth century they are only preserved in a very fragmentary state +as regards England; for the seventeenth they lie before us, with gaps +no doubt here and there, yet in much greater completeness. Even in the +first volume they have been useful to me for Mary Tudor's reign and +the end of Elizabeth's; in the later ones, not only for James I's +times, but also far more for Charles I's government and his quarrel +with the Parliament. Owing to the geographical distance of Venice from +England, and her neutral position in the world, her ambassadors were +able to devote an attention to English affairs which is free from all +interested motives, and sometimes to observe their general course in +close communication with the leading men. We could not compose a +history from the reports they give, but combined with the documentary +matter these reports form a very welcome supplement to our knowledge. + +Ambassadors who have to manage matters of all kinds, great and small, +at the courts to which they are accredited, fill their letters with +accounts of affairs which often contain little instruction for +posterity, and they judge of a man according to the support which he +gives to their interests. This is the case with the French as well as +with other ambassadors in England. Nevertheless their correspondence +becomes gradually of the greatest value for my work. Their importance +grows with the importance of affairs. The two courts entered into the +most intimate relations: French politicians ceaselessly endeavoured to +gain influence over England, and sometimes with success. The +ambassadors' letters at such times refer to the weightiest matters of +state, and become invaluable; they rise to the rank of the most +important and instructive historical monuments. They have been +hitherto, in great part, unused. + +In the Roman and Spanish reports also I found much which deserves to +be made known to the readers of history. The papers of Holland and the +Netherlands prove still more productive, as I show in detail at the +end of the narrative. + +A historical work may aim either at putting forward a new view of what +is already known, or at communicating additional information as to the +facts. I have endeavoured to combine both these aims. + +NOTES: + +[1] _Note to the third edition._--In the course of my researches for +this work the representation of the seventeenth century has occupied a +larger space than I at first thought I should have been able to give +it; it forms the chief portion of the book in its present form. I have +therefore allowed myself the unwonted liberty of altering the title so +as to make this clear. Still the representation of the sixteenth +century, which is not now mentioned in the title, has not been +abridged on this account. The history of the Stuart dynasty and of +William III make up the central part of the edifice; what is given to +the earlier, as well as the later times may, if I may be allowed the +comparison, correspond to its two wings. + + + + +TRANSLATORS' PREFACE. + + +'The History of England, principally during the Seventeenth Century,' +which is here laid before the reader in an English form, is one of the +most important portions of that cycle of works on which Leopold von +Ranke has long been engaged. His History of the Popes, his History of +the Reformation in Germany, his French History, his work on the +Ottomans and the Spanish Monarchy, his Life of Wallenstein, his volume +on the Origin of the Thirty Years' War, and other smaller treatises, +all aim at delineating the international relations of the states of +Europe. His History of England may well be regarded as the concluding +portion of this series; for the relations of England, first with +France, and then with Holland, eventually determined the course of +European politics. + +The book however is more than a history of this period, for Professor +Ranke, according to his custom, has prefixed to it a luminous and +interesting sketch of the earlier part of our history, presented, as +all summaries ought to be, in the form of studies of the most +important epochs. And at the end of the work are Appendices, which +supply not only happy examples of historical criticism in the +discussions on the chief contemporary writers of the period, but also +a mass of original documents, most of which have never before been +published. Above all, the critiques on Clarendon and Burnet, and the +correspondence of William III with Heinsius, will well repay careful +study; and the Appendices throw light on some of the more important +details connected with the history of the time, besides shewing the +student how a great master has found and used his materials. + +The present translation was undertaken with the author's sanction, and +was intended in the first instance for the use of students in Oxford. +Its publication has been facilitated by a division of labour, the +eight volumes of the original having been entrusted each to a separate +hand. The translators are Messrs. C. W. Boase, Exeter College; W. W. +Jackson, Exeter College; H. B. George, New College; H. F. Pelham, +Exeter College; M. Creighton, Merton College; A. Watson, Brasenose +College; G. W. Kitchin, Christchurch; A. Plummer, Trinity College. The +task of oversight, of reducing inequalities of style, and of +supervising the Appendices and Index, has been performed by the +editors, C. W. Boase and G. W. Kitchin. Notwithstanding the +disadvantages incident to a translation, it is hoped that the work in +its present shape will be welcomed by a large number of English +readers, and will help to increase the deserved renown of the author +in the country to the history of which he has devoted such profound +and fruitful study. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + BOOK I. + + THE CHIEF CRISES IN THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLAND. + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 3 + + CHAP. I. The Britons, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons 5 + + The Anglo-Saxons and Christianity 10 + + II. Transfer of the Anglo-Saxon crown to the Normans + and Plantagenets 22 + + The Conquest 28 + + III. The crown in conflict with Church and Nobles 39 + + Henry II and Becket 41 + + John Lackland and Magna Charta 47 + + IV. Foundation of the Parliamentary Constitution 58 + + V. Deposition of Richard II. The House of Lancaster 74 + + + BOOK II. + + ATTEMPTS TO CONSOLIDATE THE KINGDOM INDEPENDENTLY IN ITS TEMPORAL + AND SPIRITUAL RELATIONS. + + INTRODUCTION 91 + + CHAP. I. Re-establishment of the supreme power 93 + + II. Changes in the condition of Europe 104 + + Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey in their earlier + years 109 + + III. Origin of the Divorce Question 120 + + IV. The Separation of the English Church 134 + + V. The opposing tendencies within the Schismatic State 151 + + VI. Religious Reform in the English Church 171 + + VII. Transfer of the Government to a Catholic Queen 186 + + VIII. The Catholic-Spanish Government 199 + + + BOOK III. + + QUEEN ELIZABETH. CLOSE CONNEXION OF ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH AFFAIRS. + + INTRODUCTION 221 + + CHAP. I. Elizabeth's accession. Triumph of the + Reformation 222 + + II. Outlines of the Reformation in Scotland 238 + + III. Mary Stuart in Scotland. Relation of the two Queens + to each other 254 + + IV. Interdependence of the European dissensions in + Politics and Religion 280 + + V. The fate of Mary Stuart 300 + + VI. The Invincible Armada 316 + + VII. The later years of Queen Elizabeth 330 + + + BOOK IV. + + FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN. FIRST DISTURBANCES + UNDER THE STUARTS. + + INTRODUCTION 359 + + CHAP. I. James VI of Scotland: his accession to the + throne of England 361 + + Origin of fresh dissensions in the Church 361 + + Alliance with England 364 + + Renewal of the Episcopal Constitution in Scotland 368 + + Preparations for the Succession to the English + Throne 375 + + Accession to the Throne 381 + + II. First measures of the new reign 386 + + III. The Gunpowder Plot and its consequences 403 + + IV. Foreign policy of the next ten years 418 + + V. Parliaments of 1610 and 1614 436 + + VI. Survey of the literature of the epoch 450 + + + BOOK V. + + DISPUTES WITH PARLIAMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF + JAMES I AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. + + INTRODUCTION 467 + + CHAP. I. James I and his administration of domestic + government 469 + + II. Complications arising out of the affairs of the + Palatinate 484 + + III. Parliament of the year 1621 497 + + IV. Negotiations for the marriage of the Prince of + Wales with a Spanish Infanta 509 + + V. The Parliament of 1624. Alliance with France 522 + + VI. Beginning of the reign of Charles I, and his First + and Second Parliament 537 + + VII. The course of foreign policy from 1625 to 1627 554 + + VIII. Parliament of 1628. Petition of Right 566 + + IX. Assassination of Buckingham. Session of 1629 580 + + + + +FIRST BOOK. + +THE CHIEF CRISES IN THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLAND. + + +As we turn over the pages of universal history, and follow the +shifting course of events, we perceive almost at the first glance one +comprehensive process of change going on, which, more than any other, +governs the external fortunes of the world. Through long periods of +time the historic life of the human race was active in Western Asia +and in the lands bordering on the Mediterranean which look towards the +East: there it laid the foundations of its higher culture. We may +rightly regard as the greatest event that meets us in the whole course +of authentic history, the fact that the seats of the predominant power +and culture have been transplanted to the Western lands and the shores +of the Atlantic Ocean. Not merely the abodes of the ancient civilised +nations, but even the capitals which were the medium of communication +between East and West, have fallen into barbarism; even the great +metropolis, from which first political, and then spiritual, dominion +extended itself in both directions over widespread territories, has +not maintained its rank. It was due to this tendency of things, +combined with a certain geographical cause, that neither could the +medieval Empire attain its full development, nor the Papacy continue +to subsist with unimpaired authority. From age to age the political +and intellectual life of the world transferred itself ever more and +more to the nations dwelling further West, especially since a new +hemisphere was opened up to their impulses of activity and extension. +So it was that the chief interests of the Pyrenean peninsula drew +towards its ocean coasts; that there grew up on either side of the +Channel which separates the Continent from Britain, the two great +capitals in which modern activity is chiefly concentrated; that +Northern Germany, together with the races which touch on the North Sea +and the Baltic, developed a life and a system of their own; it is in +these regions latterly that the universal spirit of the human race +chiefly works out its task, and displays its activity in moulding +states, creating ideas, and subjugating nature. + +Yet this transmission, this transplanting, is not the work of a blind +destiny. While civilisation in the East succumbed and died out before +the advance of races incapable of culture, it was welcomed in the West +by races possessing the requisite capacity, which by their inborn +force gave it new forms and indestructible bases for its outward +existence. Nor have the nations and kingdoms arisen each from its +mother earth, as it were in obedience to some inward impulse of +inevitable necessity, but amid constant assimilation and rejection, +ever repeated wars to secure their future, and a ceaseless struggle +with opposing elements that threatened their ruin. + +The object of universal history is to place before our eyes the +leading changes, and the conflicts of nations, together with their +causes and results. Our purpose is to depict the history of one of the +chief of the Western nations, the English, and that too in an age +which decisively modified both its inner constitution and its outward +position in the world, but it cannot be understood unless we first +pourtray, with a few quick touches, the historical events under the +influence of which it became civilised and great. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BRITONS, ROMANS, AND ANGLO-SAXONS. + + +The history of Western Europe in general opens with the struggle +between Kelts, Romans, and Germans, which determined out of what +elements modern nations should be formed. + +Just as it is supposed that Albion in early times was connected with +the Continent, and only separated from it by the raging sea-flood +which buried the intermediate lands in the abyss, so in ethnographic +relations it would seem as if the aboriginal Keltic tribes of the +island had been only separated by some accident from those which +occupied Gaul and the Netherlands. The Channel is no national +boundary. We find Belgians in Britain, Britons in Eastern Gaul, and +very many names of peoples common to both coasts; there were tribes +which, though separated by the sea, yet acknowledged the same prince. +Without being able to prove how far natives of the island took part in +the expeditions of conquest, which pouring forth from Gaul inundated +the countries on the Danube and Italy, Greece and Western Asia, we yet +can trace the affinity of names and tribes as far as these expeditions +extend. This island was the home of the religion that gave a certain +unity to the populations, which, though closely akin, nevertheless +contended with each other in ceaseless discord. It was that Druidic +discipline which combined a priestly constitution with civil +privileges, and with a very peculiar doctrine of a political and even +moral purport. We might be tempted to suppose that the atrocity of +human sacrifice was first introduced among them by the Punic race. For +they were from primeval times connected with the Carthaginians and +Phoenicians, who were the first to traverse the outer sea, and sought +in the island a metal which was very valuable for the wants of the +ancient world. Distant clans might retain in the mountains their +original wildness, but the southern coasts ranked in the earliest +times as rich and civilised. They stood within the circle of the +relations that had been created by the expeditions of the Keltic +tribes, by the mixture of peoples thence arising, by the war and +commerce of the earliest age. + +In the great war between Rome and Carthage, which decided the destiny +of the ancient world, the Keltic tribes took part as allies of the +Punic race. If Carthage had conquered, they would have maintained in +most, if not all, the lands they had occupied, and especially in their +own homes, their old manners and customs, and their religion in its +existing form. It was not merely the supremacy of the one city or the +other, but the future of Western Europe that was at stake when +Hannibal attacked the Romans in Italy. Rome, which had already grown +strong in warring against the Gauls, won the victory over the +Carthaginians. Thenceforth one after another of the Keltic nations +succumbed to the superiority of the Roman arms, which at last invaded +Transalpine Gaul, and struck its military power to the ground. + +From this point the reaction against the Keltic enterprises +necessarily extended itself also to Britain. + +The great general who conquered Gaul did not feel sure of being able +to accomplish his task unless he also obtained influence over the +British tribes, from which those of the Continent constantly received +help and encouragement, unless he established among them the authority +of the Roman name. + +It was an important moment in the world's history, well worthy of +remembrance, when Caesar first trod the soil of Albion. Already +repulsed from the steep chalk cliffs of the island, he found the flat +shore on which he hoped to disembark occupied by the enemy, some in +their war-chariots, others on horseback and on foot; his ships could +not reach the shore; the soldiers hesitated, encumbered with their +armour as they were, to throw themselves into a sea with which they +were not familiar, in presence of an enemy acquainted with the +ground, active, brave, and superior in numbers; the general's order +had no effect on them; when however an eagle-bearer, calling on the +gods of Rome, threw himself into the flood, the men would have thought +themselves traitors had they allowed the war-standard, to which an +almost divine worship was paid, to fall into the hands of the enemy; +fired by the danger that threatened their honour, and by the religion +of arms, from one ship after another they followed him to the fight; +in the hand-to-hand combat in the water which ensued they gained the +superiority, supported most skilfully by their general wherever it was +necessary; the moment they reached the land, the victory was won.[2] + +We cannot reckon it a slight matter, that Caesar, though not at the +first, yet at the second and better prepared expedition, succeeded in +carrying away with him hostages from the chief tribes. For this very +form was the one customary in that century and among those tribes, by +which he bound them and their princes to himself. + +It was the first step towards the Roman supremacy. But Gaul and West +Germany had first to be subdued, and the Empire securely concentrated +in one hand, before--a century later--the conquest of the island could +be really attempted. + +Even then the Britons still fought without helmet or shield, as did +the Gauls of old before Rome. In Britain, just as on the Lombard +plains, the war-chariot was their best arm; their defective mode of +defence necessarily yielded to the organised tactics of the legion. +How easily did the Romans, pushing forward under cover of their +mantelets, clear away the rude entrenchments by which the Britons used +formerly to secure themselves against attack. The Druids on Mona +trusted in their gods, whose will they thought to ascertain from the +quivering fibres of human sacrifices; and for a moment the sight of +the crowd of fanatics collected around them checked the attack, but +only for a moment: as soon as they came to blows they were instantly +scattered, and their holy places perished with them. For this is the +greatest result of the Roman wars, that they destroyed the rites which +contradicted the idea of Humanity. Yet once more an injured +princess--Boadicea--united all the sympathies which the old +constitution and religion could awaken. Dio has depicted her, +doubtless according to the reports which reached Rome. A tall form, +with the national decoration of the golden necklace and the chequered +mantle, over which her rich yellow hair flowed down below her waist. +She called on her peoples to defend themselves at any risk, since what +could befall those to whom each root gave nourishment, each tree +supplied shelter: and on her gods, not to let the land pass into the +possession of that insatiable, unjust foe of foreign race. So truly +does she represent the innate characteristics of the British race, +when oppressed and engaged in a desperate defence. She is earnest, +rugged, and terrible; the men who gathered round her were reckoned by +hundreds of thousands. But the Britons had not yet learnt the art of +war. A single onslaught of the Romans sufficed to scatter their +disorderly masses with a fearful butchery. It was the last day of the +old British independence. Boadicea would not, any more than Cleopatra, +adorn a Roman triumph; she fell by her own hand. + +Within a few dozen years the Roman eagles were masters of Britain as +far as the Highlands: the Keltic clan-life and the religion of the +Druids withdrew into the Caledonian mountains, and the large islands +off that coast; in the conquered territory the religion of the arms +that had won the victory, and the might of the Great Empire, were +supreme. The work which was begun by superiority in war was completed +by pre-eminence in civilisation. It seemed an advantage and an +improvement to the sons of the British princes, to adopt the Roman +language, and knowledge, and mode of life; they delighted in the +luxury of colonnades, baths, feasts, and city life. Men like Agricola +used these modes of Romanising Britain by preference. Just as the +Britons exchanged their rude shipbuilding and their leathern sails for +the discoveries of a more advanced art of navigation, so they learnt +to carry on their agriculture in Roman fashion; in later times +Britain was considered as the granary of the legions in Germany. Most +of the cities in the land betray by their very names their Roman +origin; London, though it existed earlier, owes its importance to this +connexion. It was the emporium destined as it were by nature for the +peaceful commerce that now arose between the Western provinces of the +Empire. Once in the third century an attempt was made to make the +island independent, but it failed the moment the marts on the opposite +coast fell into the hands of the Emperor who was universally +recognised. Britain seemed an integral part of the Roman Empire. It +was from York that Constantine marched forth to unite its Eastern and +Western halves once more under one government. + +But soon after him an epoch began in which the third great +nationality, at first thought to be part of the Keltic race, then +driven back or taken into service by the Romans, but always +maintaining its peculiar original independence--the German, rose to +supremacy in the West. In the fifth century it had become everywhere +master in the militarily-organised Roman frontier districts: +encouraged by the embarrassments of the authorities it advanced into +the peaceful provinces. + +It is of importance to remark what the fate of Britain was in these +struggles. + +From the Romanised territory an Augustus, called Constantine, set up +by the revolted legions, invaded Gaul, not merely to check the inroads +of the barbarians, but at the same time to possess himself of the +Empire. He at one time held a great position, when the legions of Gaul +and Aquitaine also took his side, and Spain saluted him Emperor. But +the authority of Honorius the generally recognised Emperor could not +be so easily set aside: discontented followers of the new Augustus +again went over to the old one: before them and the barbarians +combined Constantine fell, and soon after paid for his attempt with +his life. + +The result, then, was that Honorius restored his authority to a +certain extent everywhere on the Continent, but not in Britain. To the +towns which had taken up arms while Constantine was there he gave the +right of self-defence--he could do nothing for them. The Roman Empire +was not exactly overthrown in Britain--it ceased to be.[3] + +At this time, when the connexion between Rome and Roman Britain was +broken off, the Germans possessed themselves of the latter country. + + +_The Anglo-Saxons and Christianity._ + +Germans had been long ago settled in this as in so many other +provinces of the Western and Eastern Empires. Antoninus had brought +over German tribes from the Danube, Probus others from the Rhineland. +In the legions we find German cohorts, and very many others joined +them as free allies. In the civil wars between the Emperors we hear of +one side relying on the Franks, the other on the Alemanni in their +service; Constantine the Great is called to be Caesar by help of the +chiefs of the Alemanni. But besides this, German seafarers, who +appeared under the name of Saxons, after they had learnt shipbuilding +and navigation from the Romans, settled on the opposite coasts of +Britain and Gaul, and gave their name to both. Not then for the first +time, nor at the invitation of the Britons, as the Saga declares,[4] +did the descendants of Wodan make their first trial of the sea in +light vessels. Alternating between piracy and alliance--now with a +usurper and now with the lawful Emperor, between independence and +subjection, German seafarers had long ago filled all seas and coasts +with the terror of their name. In the North too they are mentioned +together with Scots and Attacotti. When now the Roman rule over the +island and the surrounding seas came to an end, to whom could it pass? +To the peaceful Provincials, if they could indeed gird on the sword, +or to the old companions in arms of the Romans? There is no doubt +that the same general impulse which urged on the German peoples, in +the great revolution of affairs, into the Roman provinces, led the +enterprising inhabitants of the German and Northern coasts, Frisians, +Angles, and Jutes, as well as Saxons, into Britain. A fearful war +broke out, in which it may be true to say the ruined towns became the +sepulchres of their inhabitants, but no man found the quiet time +necessary for depicting its details. After it had filled a century and +a half with its horrors, and men again lifted up their eyes, they +found the island divided between two great nationalities, which had +separated themselves as opposing forces. The natives had as good as +abandoned the civilisation they had learnt from Rome, and leant on +their kinsfolk in North Gaul, and the Scots in Ireland and the +Highlands; they occupied the west of the island. The Germans were +settled in the east, in the greatest part of the south, and in the +north, in most of the old Roman settlements,--but they were far from +forming a united body. Not seven or eight merely, but a large number +of little tribal kingdoms, occupied or fought for the ground. + +If we wish to point out in general the distinction between the +Anglo-Saxon and other German settlements, it lies in this, that they +rested neither on the Emperor's authorisation whether direct or +indirect, nor on any agreement with the natives of the land. In Gaul +Chlodwig assumed and carried on the authority of the Roman Empire;--in +Britain it went wholly to the ground. Hence it was that here the +German ideas could develop in their full purity, more so than in +Germany itself, over which the Frankish monarchy, which had also +adopted Roman tendencies, had gained influence. + +Just as the natives who would not submit were driven out of the German +settlements, so within their boundaries the germs of Christianity, +which had already spread in the island, were as good as annihilated. +Among the victorious Germans the Northern heathenism existed in full +strength. In many names of places, at the water-springs, the +watersheds, in the designations of the days of the week, the names of +the gods of Germany and the North appear; the kings trace their +descent directly from them as their immediate ancestors; the Sagas and +poems about them symbolise those battles with the elements, the +storm, the sea, and the powers of nature, which are peculiarly +characteristic of the Northern mythology. With this, however, arose +the question, so important for the history of the world, whether the +great territory already won for the ideas of the universal culture and +religion of mankind should be again lost. + +Towards the end of the 6th century the epoch began in which, as the +German invaders of Gaul had already done, so now those of Spain and +Italy, whether Arians or heathens, came over to the Catholic faith of +the Provincials. This took place under the mediation of the chief +Pontiff, who had raised the city, from which the Empire took its name, +to be the metropolis of the Faith. Lombards and Visigoths became as +good Catholics as the Franks already were. The relationship of the +royal families, which held all Germans in close connexion, and the +zeal of Rome, which could not possibly suffer the loss of a province +that it had once possessed, now combined to call forth a similar +movement among the Anglo-Saxons, yet one which worked itself out in a +very different way. Since among the natives a peculiar form of +church-life, not unconnected with the Druidic discipline, had arisen, +with which Rome would hold no communion, and which rejected all +demands of submission, the spiritual enmity of the missionary was +united to the national enmity of the conqueror. When a king still +heathen, while attacking the Britons, directed his weapons against the +monks of Bangor, who (collected on a height) were offering up prayers +against him, and massacred them to the number of twelve hundred, the +followers of the Roman Mission saw in this a punishment decreed by God +for apostasy, and the fulfilment of the prophecies of their +apostle.[5] On the other hand British Christian kings also made common +cause with the heathen Angles, and wasted with fire and sword the +provinces that had been converted by Rome. Had not in the vicissitudes +of internal war the native church organisation of the North won +influence over the Anglo-Saxons, heathenism would never have been +conquered; it would have always found support among the Britons. + +When this however had once taken place, the whole Anglo-Saxon name +attached itself to the Roman ritual. Among the motives for this change +those which corresponded to the naive materialistic superstition of +the time may have been the most influential, yet there were other +motives also which touched the very essence of the matter. Men wished +to belong to the great Church Communion which then in still unbroken +freedom comprehended the most distant nations.[6] They preferred the +bishops whom the kings appointed (with the authorisation of the Roman +See), to those over whom the abbot of the great monastery on the +island of Iona exercised a kind of supremacy. Here there was no +question of any agreement between the German king and the bishops of +the land, as under the Merovingians in Gaul; they even avoided +restoring the bishops' sees which had flourished in the old Roman +times in Britain. The primitive and independent element manifests +itself in the decision of the princes and their great men. In +Northumberland, Christianity was introduced by a formal resolution of +the King and his Witan: a heathen high priest girt himself with the +sword, and even with his own hand threw down his idols. The +Anglo-Saxon tribes in fact passed over from the popular religion and +mythology of the North and of Germany, which would have kept them in +barbarism, to the communion of the universal religion, to which +belonged the civilisation of the world. Never did a race show itself +more susceptible of such an influence: it presents the most remarkable +example of how the old German ideas, which had now taken living root +in this soil, and the Roman ecclesiastical culture, which was +vigorously embraced, met and became intertwined. The first German who +made the universal learning, derived from antiquity, his own, was an +Anglo-Saxon, the Venerable Beda; the first German dialect in which men +wrote history and drew up laws, was likewise the Anglo-Saxon. Despite +all their reverence for the threshold of the Apostles they admitted +foreign priests no longer than was indispensable for the foundation of +the new church: in the gradual progress of the conversion they were no +longer needed, we soon find Anglo-Saxon names everywhere in the +church: the archbishops and leading bishops are as closely related to +the royal families, as the heathen high priests had been before. + +It was exactly through the co-operation of both principles, originally +so foreign to one another, that the Anglo-Saxon nature took firm and +lasting form. + +The Kelts had formerly lived under a clan system which, extending over +vast districts, yet displayed in each spot characteristic weaknesses +which the hostility of every neighbour rendered fatal. Then the Romans +had introduced a military administrative constitution, which displaced +this tribal system, while it also subjected Britain to the universal +Empire, of which it formed only an unimportant province. A +characteristic form of life was first built up in Britain by the +Anglo-Saxons on the ruins of the Roman rule. The union into which they +entered with the civilised world was the freely chosen one of the +religion of the human race; they had no other connexion to control +them. Their whole energies being concentrated on the island, they gave +it for the first time, though continually at war with each other, an +independent position. + +Their constitution combines the ideas of the army and the tribe: it is +the constitution of armies of colonists bringing with them domestic +institutions which had been theirs from time immemorial. A society of +freemen of the same stock, who divided the soil among themselves in +such a manner that the number of the hides corresponded to that of the +families (for among no people was there a stronger conception of +separate ownership), they composed the armed array of the country, and +by their union maintained that peace at home which again secured each +man's life and property. At their head stands a royal family, of the +highest nobility, which traces its origin to the gods, and has by far +the largest possessions; from it, by birth and by election combined, +proceeds the King; who then, sceptre in hand, presides in the court +of justice, and in the field has the banner carried before him; he is +the Lord, to whom men owe fidelity; the Guardian, to whom the public +roads and navigable rivers belong, who disposes of the undivided land. +Yet he does not stand originally so high above other men that his +murder cannot be expiated by a wergeld, of which one share falls to +his family--not a larger one than for any other of its members,--and +the other to the collective community, since the prince belongs to the +former by birth, to the latter by his office. Between the simple +freeman and the prince appear the eorls, ealdormen, and thanes, in +some instances raised above the mass by noble birth or by larger +possessions, natural chiefs of districts and hundreds, in others +promoted by service in the King's court and in the field, sometimes +specially bound to him by personal allegiance: they are the Witan who +have elected him out of his family (in a few instances they depose +him); they concur in giving laws, they take part in making peace. Now +the bishops take place by their side. They appear with the ealdormen +in the judicial meetings of the counties: if the Gerefa neglects his +duty, it is for them to step in; yet they have also their own +spiritual jurisdiction. It is a spiritual and temporal organisation of +small extent, yet of a certain self-sufficing completeness. Many of +the present shires correspond to the old kingdoms, and bear their +names to this day. The bishops' sees often coincide with the seats of +royalty; for the kings wished each to have a bishop to himself in his +little territory, since they had to endow the bishopric. How many +regulations still in force date from these times! + +The Anglo-Saxons always had an immediate and near relation to the +kingdom of the Franks. + +It was with the daughter of a Frankish prince that the first impulse +towards conversion came into a Saxon royal house. By the Anglo-Saxons +again the conversion of inner Germany was carried out, in opposition +to the same Scoto-Irish element which they withstood in Britain. Carl +the Great thought it expedient to inform the Mercian King Offa of the +progress of Christianity among the Saxons in Germany: he looked on him +as his natural ally. Both kingdoms had moreover a common interest as +against the free British populations on their western marches, who +were allied with each other across the sea: decisive campaigns of Carl +the Great and King Egbert of Wessex coincide in point of time, and may +have supported each other. + +Similarly, we may suppose that Egbert, who lived a number of years as +an exile at Carl's court, and could not have remained uninfluenced by +his mode of government and improved military tactics, was then also +incited and enabled, after his return, to subdue the little kingdoms +and unite them with Wessex: by the side of the 'Francia' of the +continent he created in the island a united 'Anglia.' But still there +subsisted a yet greater difference. Sprung from the stock of Cerdic, +Egbert belonged to the popular royalty which we find throughout at the +head of the invading Germans; he is, so far, more like the +Merovingians whom Carl's predecessors overthrew, than like Carl +himself; and he was almost entirely destitute of that strong +groundwork of military institutions on which the Carolingians +supported themselves. His rise depended much more on the fact that the +old families in Mercia, Northumbria, and Kent had disappeared, and the +succession in general had become doubtful; after Egbert had conquered +the claimants to the throne in a great and bloody battle, he was +recognised by the Witans of the several kingdoms as their common +prince, and his family as that which in fact it now was,--the leading +one of all. After the example of Pipin's family, whose alliance with +the Papacy was the most important historical event of the epoch and +founded Western Christendom, the descendants of Cerdic also got +themselves anointed by the popes--for the religious movement still had +the predominance over every other. The amalgamation of the tribes and +kingdoms found its expression in the Church, through the prestige and +rank of the Archbishop of Canterbury, almost earlier than it did in +the State; the unity of the Church broke down the antipathies of the +tribes, and prepared the way for that of the kingdoms. In the midst of +this work of construction, so incomplete as yet, but so full of hope, +of these birthpangs of a new life, the very existence of the country +was threatened by the rise of a new Great Power. For so may we well +designate the influence which the Scandinavian North exercised by land +over Eastern Europe, and at the same time over all the Western coasts +by sea. + +Only a part of the German peoples had been influenced by the idea of +the Empire or the Church; the inborn heathenism of the rest, irritated +by the losses it had sustained and the dangers that continually +threatened it, roused itself for the most formidable onslaught that +the civilised world has ever had to withstand from the heroic and +barbarous children of Nature. + +The mischief they wrought in Britain, from the middle of the ninth +century onwards, is indescribable. + +The Scoto-Irish schools, then in their most flourishing state (they +trained John Scotus Erigena, of all the scholars of that time the man +who had the widest intellectual range), fell before the Danish, not +the Anglo-Saxon assaults; an element of intellectual activity which +might have been of the greatest importance was thus lost to the +Western world. But the Northmen persecuted the Romano-English forms as +bitterly as they did the Irish. In the places where those Anglo-Saxon +scholars had been trained, who then enlightened the West, the Northmen +planted the banner which announced utter destruction; with twofold +rapacity they threw themselves on the more remote abbeys which seemed +to derive protection from their inaccessibility, and to guarantee it +by their dignity; in searching for the treasures which they believed +had been placed in them for security, they destroyed the monuments and +means of instruction which were really there; in Medeshamstede, where +there was a rich library, the flames raged for fourteen days. The +half-formed union of the various districts into one kingdom seems to +have crippled rather than strengthened the power of local resistance: +the Danes became masters of Kent and of East-Anglia, of +Northumberland, and even of Mercia; at last Wessex too, after already +suffering many losses, was invaded; from both sides at the same +moment, from the inland and from the coast, the deluge of +robber-hordes poured over its whole extent. + +Things had come to such a point that the Anglo-Saxon community seemed +inevitably devoted to the same ruin which had overtaken first the +Britons and then the Romans, they seemed doomed to make way for +another reconstruction. Britain would have become an outpost of the +restored heathenism, which could then have been with difficulty +repulsed from the Eastern and Western Frankish empires, afflicted as +they were by similar attacks, and governed by the discordant and weak +princes who then ruled them. At this moment of peril King Alfred +appeared. It was not merely for his own interests, nor merely for +those of England, but for those of the world, that he fought. He is +rightly called 'the Great;' a title fairly due only to those who have +maintained great universal interests, and not merely those of their +own country. + +The distress of the moment, and the deliverance from it, have been +kept in imperishable remembrance by popular sagas and church legends. +It is well worth the trouble to trace out in the authenticated +traditions, brief as they are, the causes that decided the event. We +may state them as follows:--Since the attacks of the Vikings were +especially ruinous, from their occupation of the strong places whence +they could command and plunder the open country, one step in the work +of liberation was taken when Alfred, for the first time, wrested from +them a stronghold which they had seized, deep in the west. Then he, +too, occupied strong positions, and knew how to defend them. With the +bravest and most devoted of his nobles, and of the population that had +not yet submitted, he established a hill-fortress on a height rising +like an island out of the standing waters and marshlands in the still +only slightly cultivated land of Somersetshire; this not only served +him as an asylum, but also as a central point from which he too ranged +through the land far and wide, like the enemy, except that his object +was to guard it, and make it ring once more with the already forgotten +name of the King. Around his banners gathered, with reviving courage, +the population of the neighbouring districts also: the Saxons could +again appear in the open field; from their advancing shield-wall the +disorderly onsets of the Vikings recoiled, the victory was theirs. +Hereupon, moreover, as if the decision between the two religions +depended on the result of the war, the leader of the heathens came +over to Christianity, and took an Anglo-Saxon name. The Danes attached +themselves to the principles and the powers which they had come forth +to destroy. + +King Alfred is a marvellous phenomenon: suffering from a disease which +sometimes broke out with violence, and which he never ceased to feel +for a single day of his life, he not merely withstood the extreme of +peril at that moment so big with ruin, but also founded a system of +resistance throughout the kingdom, in which his arms so worked +together by sea and land that each new band of Vikings betook +themselves again to their ships, and those that had already penetrated +into the country, gave way step by step. We remark with interest how, +under Alfred and his children, his son who succeeded him, and his +manlike daughter, the protecting fortresses advance from place to +place, and provide free space for the Anglo-Saxon community. The +culture already existing, the whole future of which had been saved by +Alfred, attained in him its fullest development. How many years had +passed since the hour when an illuminated initial letter gave him his +first taste for a book, before he could master even the elementary +branches of knowledge! then he devoted his whole efforts to instil new +life into the studies that had almost perished, and to give them a +national character. He not merely translated a number of the later +authors of antiquity, whose works had contributed most to the +transmission of scientific culture; in the episodes which he +interweaves in them he shows a desire for knowledge that reaches far +beyond them; but especially we find in them a reflective and +thoughtful mind, solid sense at peace with itself, a fresh way of +viewing the world, a lively power of observation. This King introduced +the German mind with its learning and reflection into the literature +of the world; he stands at the head of the prose-writers and +historians in a German tongue--the people's King of the most primeval +kind, who is also the teacher of his people. We know his laws, in +which extracts from the books of Moses are combined with restored +legal usages of German origin; in him the traditions of antiquity are +interpenetrated by the original tendencies of the German mind. We +completely weaken the impression made on us by this great figure, so +important in his first limited and arduous efforts, by comparing him +with the brilliant names of antiquity. Each man is what he is in his +own place. + +Though the Anglo-Saxon monarchy wanted that element of authority which +the kings of other German tribes drew from the Roman government by +transmission or succession, yet it had strengthened itself, like the +others, by union with the Church. Alfred, too, was at Rome in his +boyhood: it stood him in good stead that he had been anointed, and, as +men said, adopted by a Roman pope. In the reconquest of the land, +Church ideas had played an important part. It was impossible to drive +out the invading foes, they could only be held in check; never would +they have submitted to the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth had they not at +the same time been converted to Christianity. Nothing, moreover, +contributed more to this than the effort, which was then the order of +the day in the Christian world, to base the organisation of the Church +on monasticism: from Italy this tendency spread to Germany, from South +France to North, from thence to England, where it produced its +greatest effect. Now the power of conversion is inherent only in +sharply-defined doctrines; and it was precisely this tendency that +penetrated the Northern natures: the sons of the Vikings became the +champions of monachism; to the fury with which the fathers had +destroyed the monasteries succeeded in the sons a zeal to restore +them. And in what good stead this stood the Anglo-Saxon kings! The +kingly power obtained, through the splendour which the union with +religion bestowed on its victorious arms, a reverential recognition by +the old native population as well as by the invaders. + +Alfred's grandson had regained Northumbria by a somewhat doubtful +title, and had then maintained his right in a great battle, renowned +in song; his great-grandson, Edgar, in one of his charters thanks the +grace of God which had permitted him to extend his rule further than +his predecessors, over the islands and seas as far as Norway, and over +a great part of Ireland. We are not to look on it as a mere piece of +vanity, when he seeks after new titles for his power, when he calls +himself Basileus and Imperator; the former is the title of the +Eastern, the latter of the Western emperors; he will not yield the +precedence to either the one or the other, though the latter are so +closely related to him by blood. We cannot express the feeling of a +supreme power, independent of men, derived from the grace of God, the +King of kings, more strongly than it was expressed by Edgar under +Dunstan's influence; the ruling motives of life in Church and State +make it conceivable that a monkish hierarch, such as Dunstan, shared, +as it were, the King's power, and shaped the course of the authority +of the state. + +It was still the ancestral Anglo-Saxon crown which glittered on +Edgar's head, but, if we may so say, its splendour had at the same +time received a monkish and hierarchic colouring. + +NOTES: + +[2] The words of some MSS. in Caesar's Commentaries, iv. 25, +'deserite, milites, si vultis, aquilam, atque hostibus prodite,' might +well be taken for the genuine words, originally noted down in his +Ephemerides (journal). + +[3] Brettanian mentoi hoi Romaioi anasosasthai ouketi eschon, all' +ousa hupo tyrannois ap' autou emene. Procop. de bello Vand. I. No. 2. +p. 318 ed. Bonn. Compare Zosimus, vi. 4. on, we may assume, the better +authority of Olympiodorus. + +[4] The simplest form of the Saga occurs in Gildas, with very few +historical ingredients. Nennius enlarges it with Anglo-Saxon +traditions. Beda has combined both with some notices from the real +history. Since the departure of the Romans was rightly fixed about +409, and Gildas said the Britons had rest for forty years, Beda +settled that the Saxons arrived in 449. + +[5] Beda, Hist. Eccl. ii. 2. Some have wished to consider the remark, +that Augustine had been then long dead, as a later interpretation, 'ad +tollendam labem caedis Bangorensis;' this, however, is against the +spirit of that age. + +[6] 'Omnem orbem, quocunque ecclesia Christi diffusa est per diversas +nationes et linguas uno temporis ordine.' Beda, Hist. Eccl. iii. 14. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TRANSFER OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CROWN TO THE NORMANS AND PLANTAGENETS. + + +In the families of German national kings we not unfrequently find +among the women a hideous mixture of ambition, revenge, and +bloodthirstiness, which brings kings and kingdoms to ruin. In England +it appears, despite of Christianity and monastic discipline, in its +most atrocious form after the death of Edgar. His eldest son, for some +years his successor, was treacherously murdered by his stepmother (who +wished to advance her own son to the throne), at a visit which he paid +her as he returned from hunting. It was that Edward whose innocence +and leaning towards the Church have gained him the name of Martyr. The +son of the murderess did ascend the throne, but the guilt of blood +seemed to cleave to the crown; he met with the obedience of his +father's times no more. The Anglo-Saxon magnates seized the occasion +which this crime, or the subsequent vacillation of the government +between violence and weakness, offered them, to aim at an independent +position, and to indulge in a personal policy, each man for himself. + +At this very moment the Danes renewed their invasions. + +Little did Edgar and those around him understand their position, when +they attributed the peace they enjoyed to their own military power, in +the splendid and extensive display of which they took delight. In +reality it was the state of the world at large that brought this peace +about. First of all, it was due to the settlement of the Normans in +North Gaul, under the condition that they should be of one religion +and one realm, and should fulfil the natural duty of keeping off +fresh incursions: the current of Northern invasion thus lost its aim +and direction. But it was of still more decisive effect at the first +that the energetic family which arose in North Germany, and even +assumed the imperial authority, not content with warding off the +Danes, sought them out in their own country instead, and carried the +war against heathenism into the North. The Saxons beyond the sea were +indebted for the peace which they enjoyed chiefly to the great and +splendid deeds of arms of their kindred on the mainland. How much all +depended on this became very clear when Otto II, in the full glow of +great enterprises, met with an unlooked for and early death. Within +the empire two able women and their advisers succeeded in maintaining +peace; but in Denmark, as in other neighbouring countries, the hostile +elements got the upper hand. The Danish king's son, Sven Otto, +abandoned the religion which he regarded as a yoke laid on him by the +German conquerors; he could not destroy the order of things +established in Denmark, but he revived the old sea-king's life, and +threw himself with the old superiority of the Viking arms on the +English coasts. + +Ethelred on this attack fell into the greatest distress, mainly +because he was not sure of his great nobles. How often did the +commanders of the fleet desert it at the moment of action, and the +leaders of the inland levies go over to the enemy! Ethelred sought for +safety by an alliance with the Duchy of Normandy, then daily rising to +greater power. Thus supported, he proceeded to unjustifiable outrages +against his domestic as well as his foreign foes. The great nobles +whom he suspected were mercilessly killed or exiled, and their +children blinded. The Danes who remained in the land he caused to be +murdered all on one day. + +The consequences of this deed necessarily recoiled upon himself. When +Sven some years after again landed with redoubled enmity, which was to +a certain extent justified, he experienced no effectual resistance +whatever; Ethelred had to fly before him and quit the island. But now +that Sven too, who had been already saluted by many as King, died in +the first enjoyment of his victory, a question arose which extended +far beyond the personal relations and embarrassments of the moment. + +The influence always exercised by the Witans of the Anglo-Saxon +kingdoms in determining the succession to the throne remained much the +same when they were all fused into a single kingdom; even among the +descendants of Alfred, the great men designated the sovereign. In the +disturbed state of things in which they now found themselves, the +lawful King having fled, and the other, who had put himself into +actual possession of the supreme authority, being dead, they framed +the largest conception of their right. They formally made conditions +with Ethelred for his return, and he consented to their demands +through his son.[7] Since he, however, did not fulfil his promise--for +how could he have altered his nature?--they held themselves released +from their engagement to maintain this family on the throne. Sven's +son, Canute, had taken his father's place among the Danes; he had been +long ago baptised, he was of a character which commanded confidence, +and possessed at the time overwhelming power. After Ethelred's death +the lay and spiritual chiefs of England decided to abandon the house +of Cerdic for ever, and to recognise Canute as their King. How many +jarls and thanes of Danish origin do we find around the kings under +all the last governments. Edgar was especially blamed for the very +reason that he took them under his protection. But they had been +subjected only by war; no hereditary sentiment of natural loyalty +attached them to the West Saxon royal house. The ecclesiastical +aristocracy was besides determined by religious considerations; to +them these disasters and crimes seemed sufficient proof of the truth +of those prophecies of coming woe which Dunstan was believed to have +uttered. They repaired to Canute at Southampton, and concluded a peace +with him, the conditions of which were that they would abandon the +descendants of Ethelred for ever, and recognise Canute as their King; +he, on the other hand, promised to fulfil the duties of a King truly, +in both spiritual and temporal relations.[8] Yet once more, Ethelred's +eldest son, Edmund Ironsides, who was himself half a Dane by birth, +roused himself to a vigorous resistance: London and a part of the +nobility took his side; he gained through force of arms a settlement +by which, though indeed he lost the best part of the land and the +capital itself, he maintained the crown; he died however, soon after, +and then the whole country recognised Canute as King. The last scion +of the royal house in the land was banished, and all the claims of the +family to the crown again declared void. The Anglo-Saxon magnates +undertook to make a money payment to the Danish host; in return they +received the pledge from the King's hand, and the oath by his soul +taken by his chiefs.[9] It was a treaty between the Anglo-Saxon and +the Danish chiefs, by which the former received the King of the latter +as also their own. + +This extremely important event links the centuries together, and +determines the future fortunes of England. The kingly house, whose +right and pre-eminence was connected with the earliest settlements, +which had completed the union of the realm and delivered it from the +worst distress, was at a moment of moral deterioration and disaster +excluded by the spiritual and temporal chiefs, of Anglo-Saxon and +Danish origin. They had first tried to limit it, to bind it by its own +promise; when this led to nothing, they annihilated its right by a +formal resolution of the realm, and procured peace by raising to the +throne another sovereign who had no right by birth. Canute did not owe +the crown to conquest, though his greater power contributed to the +result, but to election, which now appeared as the superior right: +hitherto the Witan had always exercised it within the limits of the +royal family; this time they disregarded that family altogether. + +Canute decreed or allowed some bloody acts of violence, in order to +strengthen the power that had fallen to his lot; but afterwards he +administered it with a noble spirit answering to his position. He +became the leading sovereign of the North: men reckoned five or six +kingdoms as subject to him. England was the chief of them all, even +for him; it was in possession of the culture and religion which he +wished should prevail in the rest: the missionaries of the North went +forth from Canterbury. England itself, however, gained a higher +position in the world by its union with a power which ruled as far as +Norway and North America, and carried on commerce with the East by the +Baltic. In Gothland the great emporium of the West, Arabic as well as +Anglo-Danish coins are found; the former were carried from the North +as far as England. Canute favoured the Anglo-Saxon mode of life; he +liked to be designated the 'successor of Edgar;' he confirmed his +legislation; and it was his intention, at least, to rule according to +the laws: as he even submitted himself to the military regulations of +the Huskarls, so he commanded right and law to be administered in +civil matters without respect to his own person. + +But a union of such different kingdoms could only be a transitory +phenomenon. Canute himself thought of leaving England again +independent under one of his sons. + +With this object he had married Ethelred's widow Emma. For, according +to Anglo-Saxon ideas, the Queen was not merely the King's wife, but +also sovereign of the land, in her own right. It was settled that the +children of this marriage should succeed him in England. Probably +Canute did not wish the inheritance of the crown in his house to +depend merely on the goodwill of the Witan. + +After Canute's death we can observe a wavering between the principles +of election and birthright. The magnates again elected, but limited +their choice to the King's house. After the extinction of the +Danish-Norman family, they came back to the English-Norman one; they +called the son of Ethelred and Emma, Edward the Confessor, to the +throne of his fathers, though, it is true, without leaving him much +power. This lay rather in the hands of the Earls Godwin of Kent and +Leofric of Mercia; especially in the former, whose wife was related +to Canute, did the Anglo-Saxon spirit of independence energetically +manifest itself. He was once banished, but returned and recovered all +his offices. When however, Edward too died without issue, the dynastic +question once more came before the English magnates. It might have +seemed most consistent to recall the Aetheling Edgar a member of the +house of Cerdic from exile, and to carry on the previous form of +government under his name. But the thoughts of the English chiefs no +longer turned in that direction. Not very long before a king from the +ranks of the native nobility had ascended the throne of the +Carolingians in the West Frank empire; in the East Frank, or German +empire, men had seen first the mightiest duke, then one of the most +distinguished counts, attain the imperial dignity. Why should it not +be possible for something similar to happen in England also? The very +day on which Edward the Confessor died, Godwin's son, Harold, was +elected by the magnates of the kingdom, and crowned without delay[10] +(Jan. 5, 1066). The event now happened which was only implied in what +occurred at Canute's accession: the house of Cerdic was abandoned, and +the further step taken of raising another native family to its throne. + +It was not this time a pressing necessity that brought it about; but +we cannot deny that, if carried through, it opened out an immeasurable +prospect. + +For such would have been the case, if the attempt to found a Germanic +Anglo-Saxon kingdom under Harold, and maintain it free from any +preponderating foreign influence had been successful. By recalling +Edgar the influence of Normandy, against which the antipathies of the +nation had been awakened under the last government, would have been +renewed. But just as little were those claims to be recognised which +the Northern kings put forward for the re-establishment of their +supremacy. Even as regards the Papacy, the government began to adopt +an independent line of conduct. + +The question now was, whether the Anglo-Saxon nation would be +unanimous and strong enough to maintain such a haughty position on all +sides. + +The first attack came from the North; it was all the more dangerous, +from the fact that an ambitious brother of the new King supported it: +only by an extreme effort were these enemies repelled. But, at the +same moment, an attack was threatened from another enemy of infinitely +greater importance--Duke William of Normandy. It was not only this +sovereign, and his land, but a new phase of development in the history +of the world, with which England now entered into conflict. + + +_The Conquest._ + +Out of the antagonism of nationalities, of the Empire and the Church, +of the overlord and the great chiefs, in the midst of invasions of +foreign peoples and armies, the local resistance to them and their +occupations of territory, a new world had, as it were, been forming +itself in Southern Europe, and especially in Gaul. Still more +decidedly than in England had the invading Vikings in France attached +themselves to the national element, even in the second generation they +had given up their language; they discovered at the same time a form +which reconciled the membership in the kingdom, and the recognition of +the common faith, with provincial freedom. In France no native power +successfully opposed and checked the advancing Normans, such as that +which the Danes had encountered in England. On the contrary they +exercised the greatest influence over the foundation of a new dynasty. +A system developed itself over the whole realm, in which, both in the +provincial authorities and in the lower degrees of rank, the +possession of land and share in public office, feudalism and freedom, +interpenetrated each other, and made a common-weal which yet +harmonised with all the inclinations that lend charm and colouring to +individual life. The old migratory impulse and spirit of warlike +enterprise set before itself religious aims also, which lent it a +higher sanction; war for the Church, and conquest (which meant for +each man a personal occupation of land) were combined in one. Starting +from Normandy, where great warlike families were formed that found no +occupation at home (for these young populations are wont to multiply +quickest), North French love of war and habits of war transplanted +themselves to Spain and to Italy. How must it have elevated their +spirit of enterprise when in the latter country the Papacy, which had +just thrown off the supremacy of the emperor, and entered on a new +stage in the development of its power, made common cause with their +arms, and a practised Norman warrior, Robert Guiscard, appeared as +Duke of Apulia and Calabria 'by grace of God and of S. Peter and, +under his protection, of Sicily also in time to come'![11] The Pope +gave him lands in fief, which had hitherto belonged to the Greek +Empire, and which the Germans had been unable to conquer; he promised, +in return, to defend the prerogatives of S. Peter. Between the +hierarchy which was striving to perfect its supremacy, and the warlike +chivalry of the 11th century, an alliance was formed like that once +concluded with the leaders of the Frankish host. The ideas were +already stirring from which proceeded the Crusades, the foundation of +the Spanish kingdoms, and the creation of the Latin Empire at +Constantinople. In the princely fiefs of the French Crown, and above +all in Normandy, they seized on men's minds. Chivalrous life and +hierarchic institutions, dialectic and poetry, continual war at home +and ceaseless aspirations abroad, were here fused into a living whole. + +In the Germanic countries also this close alliance of hierarchy and +chivalry now sought to win influence, but here it met with a strenuous +resistance. In England, Edward the Confessor had tried to prepare the +way for it: Godwin and his house opposed it. And when the former named +the Norman Robert Archbishop of Canterbury, and the latter drove him +out, the English quarrels became connected with those of Rome; +Stigand, the archbishop put in by Godwin, received his pallium from +Pope Benedict X, who had been elected in the old tumultuous manner +once more by the neighbouring Roman barons, but had to succumb to +Hildebrand's zeal for a regular election by the cardinals, on which +the emancipation of the Papacy depended. It seemed, then, intolerable +at Rome that there should be a primate of the English Church, +connected by his Church position with a phase of the supreme +priesthood now condemned and abolished: it is very intelligible that +this priesthood in its present form took up a hostile position towards +the England of that time. In this, moreover, it found an ally ready to +act in Duke William of Normandy, who wished to be regarded as the born +champion of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty, and as the natural successor to +its rights. Once already his father had collected a fleet to restore +the exiled Aethelings, and was only kept back from an invasion by +unfavourable weather. There had often since been rumours, that Edward +had destined Duke William to be his successor; men asserted that +Harold had previously recognised this right, and that in return +William's daughter, and a part of the land as an independent +possession, had been promised him.[12] In his own position William had +cleared the ground for himself with a strong hand. He had beaten his +feudal lord in the open field, and thus not only recovered a frontier +fortress lost during his minority, but also strengthened the +independence of the duchy. At the same time William had vanquished his +rebellious vassals in arms, banished them, deprived them of their +possessions, and got rid, with the Pope's consent, of an archbishop +who was allied with them. Death freed him from another mighty +opponent, the Duke of Brittany, who threatened him with a great +maritime expedition. It throws a certain light on his policy, to see +how he made himself master of the county of Maine in 1062. On the +ground that Count Heribert, whom he had supported in his quarrel with +Anjou, had become his vassal and made him his heir,[13] he overran +Maine, and put his adherents in possession of the fortresses which +commanded the land. However we may decide as to the details told us +about his relations to Edward and Harold, it seems undeniable that +William had received provisional promises from both--for Harold loved +to side with Edward. He was not the man to put up with their being +broken. The system, however, which through Harold's accession gained +the upper hand in England, was in itself hostile to the Norman one: +and that a king of England like the present might some day become +dangerous to the duke, amidst all the other hostilities which +threatened him, is clear. To these motives was now added the +approbation of the Roman See. The Pope's chief Council deliberated on +the enterprise, above all did the archdeacon of the Church, +Hildebrand, declare himself in its favour. He was reproached--then or +at a later time--with being the author of bloodshed; he declared that +his conscience acquitted him, since he knew well, that the higher +William mounted, the more useful he would be to the Church.[14] +Alexander II now sent the duke the banner of the Church. As a few +years before Robert Guiscard had become duke, so now a Norman duke was +to become king, in the service of the Church. The Normans were still +divided in their views as to the enterprise, but when this news +arrived, all opposition ceased, for in the service of S. Peter and the +Church men believed themselves secure of success; then lay and +spiritual vassals emulously armed ships and men; in the harbour of S. +Valery, which belonged to one of those who had been last gained over, +the Count of Ponthieu, the fleet and the troops gathered together.[15] +The Count of Flanders, the duke's father-in-law, secretly favoured the +enterprise; another of his nearest relations, Count Odo of Champagne, +brought up his troops in person; Count Eustace of Boulogne armed, to +avenge on Godwin's house an affront he had once suffered at Dover; a +number of leading Breton counts and lords attached themselves to +William in opposition to their duke, who cherished wholly different +projects. To the lords and knights of North France were joined many of +lower rank, whose names show that they came from Gascony, Burgundy, +the duchy of France, or the neighbouring districts belonging to the +German Empire. Of their own free will they ranged themselves round +William, to vindicate the right which he claimed to the English crown, +but each man naturally entertained brilliant hopes also for himself. +William is depicted as a man of vast bodily strength, which none could +surpass or weary out, with a strong hardy frame, a cool head, an +expression in his features which exactly intimated the violence with +which he followed up his enemies, destroyed their states, and burnt +their houses. Yet all was not passionate desire in him. He honoured +his mother, he was true to his wife. Never did he undertake a quarrel +without giving fair notice, and certainly never without having well +prepared for it beforehand. He knew how to keep up a warlike spirit in +his vassals: there were seen with him only splendid men and able +leaders; he kept strict discipline. So also he had seized the moment +for his enterprise, at which the political relations of Europe were +favourable to him. The two great realms, which might otherwise have +well interposed, the East Frank (or the Roman-German) as well as the +West Frank, were under kings not yet of age: the guardianship of the +latter lay with the Count of Flanders, who thought he did enough in +not standing openly by his son-in-law, of the former with great +bishops devoted heart and soul to the hierarchic system.[16] Harold, +on the other hand, had no friend or ally, in North or East, in South +or in West. To encounter the combined efforts of a great European +coalition he had only himself and his Anglo-Saxons to rely on. Harold +is depicted as coming forth perfect from the hands of nature, without +blemish from head to foot, personally brave before the enemy, gentle +among his own people, and endowed with natural eloquence. His enemy's +passion for, and knowledge of, war were not in him; the taste of the +Anglo-Saxons was directed more to peaceful enjoyments than to +ceaseless wars. At this moment too they were weakened by great losses +in the last bloody war; many of the most trustworthy and bravest had +fallen, others wavered in their fidelity; Harold had not been able to +put even the coasts in a state of defence; William landed without +resistance, to demand his crown from him. When reminded of his promise +Harold was believed to have answered in the very spirit of Anglo-Saxon +independence, that he had no right to make any such promise without +the consent of the Anglo-Saxon chiefs and people. And not to meet the +invading foe instantly at the sword's point would have seemed to him +disgraceful cowardice. And so William and Harold, the North French +knights and the national war-array of the Anglo-Saxons, encountered at +Hastings. Harold fell at the very beginning of the fight. The Normans, +according to their wont, knew how to separate their enemies by a +pretended flight, and then by a sudden return to surround and destroy +them in isolated bodies. It was the iron-clad, yet rapidly moving +cavalry, which decided the battle.[17] + +William expected, now that his rival had fallen, to be recognised by +the Anglo-Saxons as their King. Instead of this the chiefs and the +capital raised Edgar the Aetheling, grandson of Edmund Ironsides, to +the throne: as though William would retire before a scion of the old +West-Saxon house, of which he professed to be the champion. He held +firmly to the transfer made to him by the last king without regard to +any third person, ratified as it was by the Roman See, and marched on +the capital. + +Edgar was a boy, and the magnates were at variance as to who should +have the authority to exercise guardianship over him. When William +appeared before the city, and threatened the walls with his +siege-machines, it too lost courage. The embassy which it sent him was +amazed at the grandeur and splendour of his appearance, was convinced +as to the right which King Edward had transferred to him,[18] and +penetrated by the danger which a resistance, in itself hopeless, would +bring on the city. Aldermen and people abandoned Edgar, and recognised +William as King. There is an old story, that the county of Kent, on +capitulating, made good conditions for itself. To the nobles also, who +submitted by degrees, similar terms may have been accorded, but their +position was almost entirely altered. We need notice only this one +point. Their chief right, which they exercised to a perhaps +unauthorised extent, was that of electing the King; they had now +elected twice, but the first election was annulled by defeat in the +open field, the second by increasing superiority in arms; they had to +recognise the Conqueror, who claimed by inheritance, as their King, +whether they would or no. There is something almost symbolic of the +resulting state of things in the story of William's coronation, which +was now celebrated by the tomb of Edward the Confessor at Westminster. +For the first time the voices of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans were +united to greet him as King, but the discordant outcry of the two +languages seemed a sign of conflict to the troops gathered outside, +and made the warlike fury, so hardly kept under control, boil up again +in them; they set the houses of London on fire. Whilst all hurried +from the church, the ceremony it is said was completed by shuddering +priests in the light of the flames: the new King himself, who at other +times did not know what fear was, trembled.[19] + +By this coronation-acclaim, two constituent elements of the world, +which had been fundamentally at conflict with each other, became +indissolubly united. + +That against which the Anglo-Saxons had set themselves to guard with +all their strength during the last period, the inroad of the +Norman-French element into their Church and their State, was now +accomplished in fullest measure. William's maxim was, that all who had +taken arms against him and his right had forfeited their property; +those who escaped, and the heirs of those who had fallen, were +deprived alike. In a short time we find William's leading comrades in +the war, as earls of Hereford, Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Cornwall; his +valiant brothers were endowed with hundreds of fiefs; and when the +insurrection which quickly broke out led to new outlawries and new +confiscations, all the counties were filled with French knights. From +Caen came over the blocks of freestone to build castles and towers, by +which they hoped to bridle the towns and the country. It is an +exaggeration to assume a complete transfer of property from the one +people to the other; among the tenants in chief about half the names +are still Anglo-Saxon. At first, those who from any even accidental +cause had not actually met William in arms were left in possession of +their lands, though without hereditary right: later, after they had +conducted themselves quietly for some time, this too was given back to +them. In the next century it excited surprise that so many great +properties should have remained in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons.[20] +It would have been altogether against William's plan, to treat the +Anglo-Saxons as having no rights. He wished to appear as the rightful +successor of the Anglo-Saxon kings: by their laws he would abide, only +adding the legal usages of the Normans to those of the Danes, +Mercians, and West Saxons; and it was not merely through his will, but +also by its higher form, and connexion with the ideas of the century, +that the Norman law gained the upper hand. But however much we may +deduct from the usual exaggerations, this fact remains, that the +change of ownership which took place, like the change in the +constitution and the general state of things, was of enormous extent: +the military and judicial power passed entirely into the hands of the +victors in the war. And in the Church alterations no less +thoroughgoing ensued. Under the authority of Papal legates, the great +office-holders of the English Church, who had been opposed to the +newly arisen hierarchic system, were mercilessly deprived of their +places. The King was afterwards personally on tolerably good terms +with Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but was not inclined on +his account to oppose the Church. The archbishopric, and with it the +primacy of England, passed to the man in whom the union of the Church +authority and orthodoxy of that which we may call the especially +hierarchic century was most vividly represented, the man who had been +the chief agent in establishing the dogma of Transubstantiation, the +great teacher of Bec, Lanfranc. In most of the bishoprics and abbeys +we find Normans of kindred tendency. It was precisely in the +enterprise against England that the hierarchy concluded its compact +with the hereditary feudal state, which was all the more lasting in +that they were both still in process of formation. + +In this way was England attached by the strongest ties to the +Continent, and to the new system of life and ecclesiastico-political +constitution which had then gained the upper hand in Latin Europe. +Under the next three successors of the Conqueror, none of whom enjoyed +a completely legal recognition, it sometimes appeared as though +England would again tear herself away from Normandy: such variances +were not without influence on home affairs: in the general relations +of the country they wrought no change at all. On the contrary, these +were developed on a still larger scale, owing to the complicated +family connexions which so peculiarly characterise that epoch. From +the county of Anjou which, like the dominion of the Capets, had been +formed in the struggle against the invasion of the Normans, a +sovereign arose who had the right to rule the Norman conquests, the +son of the Conqueror's granddaughter, Henry Plantagenet. He had +become, though not without appeal to the sword, which his father +wielded powerfully on his behalf, master of Normandy, and had then +married Eleanor of Poitou, who brought him a great part of South +France: he then succeeded more by fair means than by force in +establishing his right to the throne of England. Henry was the first +to establish in France the power of the great vassals, by which the +crown was long in danger of being overthrown. The Kings of Castille +and Navarre submitted to his arbitration. And under a sovereign whose +grandfather had been King of Jerusalem, and one of the mightiest +rulers of that Western kingdom established in the East, the +tendencies, which had led so far, could not fail to extend themselves +to the utmost in all their spheres of action? The hierarchic and +chivalrous spirit of Continental Europe, which under the Normans had +seized on England, was much strengthened by the accession of the +Plantagenets. It thus came to pass that after the disastrous loss of +Jerusalem, the knights of Anjou and of Guienne, from Brittany (for +Henry had added this province also to his family possessions) and from +Normandy, gathered together in London, and took the Cross in company +with the English. England formed a part of the Plantagenet Empire--if +we may apply this word to so anomalous a state--and contributed to its +extension, even though no interest of its own was involved. But +towards such a result the relations which this alliance established +between England and Southern Europe had long tended. Not seldom was +the military power of the provinces over the sea employed for +enterprises that aimed at the direct advantage of England itself. +Whether and when the German element without this influence would have +become master of the British group of islands none could say. The +English dominion over Ireland in particular is derived from Henry II, +and his alliance at that time with the Papacy; he crossed thither +under the Pope's authorisation: at the Pope's word the native kings +did homage to him as their lord.[21] And the foreign-born Plantagenets +struck living root in England itself. As Henry II's mother was the +daughter of a princess descended from the West-Saxon house, he was +hailed by the natives as their lawfully-descended King; in accordance +with Edward the Confessor's prophecy, that from the severed bough +should spring up a new tree: they traced his descent without scruple +back to Wodan. This King, moreover, has impressed his mark deeply on +English life; to this day justice is administered in England under +forms established by him. + +The will of destiny cannot be gainsaid. Just as Germany without its +connexion with Italy, so England without its connexion with France, +would never have been what it is. More than all, the great +commonwealth of the western nations, whose life pervades and +determines the history of each separate state, would never have come +into existence. But on this ground first, amidst continual warfare, +was gradually accomplished the formation of the nationalities. + +NOTES: + +[7] Se in omnibus eorum voluntati consensurum, consiliis acquieturum. + +[8] Florentius Wigorniensis: 'Post cujus (Aethelredi) mortem episcopi +abbates duces et quique nobiliores Angliae, in unum congregati pari +consensu in dominum et regem Canutum sibi elegere--ille juravit, quod +et secundum deum et secundum seculum fidelis eis esse vellet dominus.' +The oath which Ethelred had taken was, however, only 'secundum deum.' + +[9] Florentius, 593: 'Accepto pignore de manu sua nuda cum juramentis +a principibus Danorum, fratres et filios Eadmundi omnino despexerunt +eosque esse reges negaverunt.' + +[10] In Ingulphus (Savile Script. 511) it is said expressly: per +Archiepiscopum Eboracae, Aedredum (Aldredum). But it is surprising +that the Bayeux Tapestry expressly names Stigand (Lancelot: +Description de Tapisserie de Bayeux, in Thierry, I). Yet Harold could +not possibly have meant, by passing over the Archbishop of Canterbury, +to declare him to be incompetent, since he had been appointed by his +party. + +[11] Juramentum fidelitatis Roberti Guiscardi: 1059 in Baronius, +Annales Eccles. ix. 350. + +[12] The simplest statement occurs in the Carmen de bello Hastingensi, +p. 352, according to which Edward promised the succession, and sent +ring and sword to the duke by Harold; but as early as in William of +Jumieges we have the tale of Harold's captivity in Ponthieu, and the +promise made him, and the chief outlines of what in Guilielmus +Pictaviensis, and Ordericus Vitalis, lies before us with further +embellishments, and to which the Bayeux Tapestry (itself, too, a kind +of historical memorial of the time) adds some further traits. + +[13] Guilielmus Pictaviensis, Gesta Wilhelmi ducis, in Duchesne 189, +already relates this in reference to the English affair. + +[14] Gregorii Registrum, vii. 23; Mansi, xx. 306. + +[15] William of Jumieges, Hist. vii. 34. 'Ingentem exercitum ex +Normannis et Flandrensibus ac Francis ac Britonibus aggregavit.' + +[16] Guilielmus Pictaviensis 197 assures us that help was promised +from Germany in the name of Henry IV. + +[17] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, III. Sec. 245. 'Magis +temeritate et furore praecipitati quam scientia militari Wilhelmo +congressi.' + +[18] 'Contulit Eguardus quod rex donum sibi regni Monstrat et adfirmat +vosque probasse refert.' So Guido (Carmen de bello Hastingensi, 737) +makes Ansgard on his return speak to the citizens. + +[19] Ordericus Vitalis 503. In Guido the ceremony is described with +the greatest calmness, as though it passed undisturbed; but the +conclusion of his work seems wanting. + +[20] Dialogus de Scaccario, i. 10. 'Miror singularis excellentiae +principem, in subactam et sibi suspectam Anglorum gentem hac usum +misericordia, ut non solum colonos indempnes servaret, verum ipsis +regni majoribus feudos suos et amplas possessiones relinqueret.' In +Madox, History of the Exchequer, ii. 391. In Domesday Book the memory +of Edward the Confessor is always treated with the greatest respect. +Ellis, Introduction to Domesday Book, i. 303. + +[21] 'Ut illius terrae populus te sicut dominum veneretur.' Breve of +Hadrian IV. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CROWN IN CONFLICT WITH CHURCH AND NOBLES. + + +Highly as we may estimate the due appreciation and expression of those +objective ideas, which are bound up with the culture of the human +race, still the spiritual life of man is built up not so much on a +devout and docile receptivity of these ideas as on their free and +subjective recognition, which modifies while it accepts, and +necessarily passes through a phase of conflict and opposition. + +In England the authority both of Church and State now came forward +with far more strength than before. The royal power was a continuation +of the sovereignty inherited from Anglo-Saxon times, but, leaning on +its continental resources, and supported by those who had taken part +in the Conquest, it developed itself much more durably. The clergy of +the land were far more closely and systematically bound to the Papacy; +thus it had become more learned and more active. The one sword helped +the other; just at this very time, the King and the Archbishop of +Canterbury were depicted as the two strong steers that drew the plough +of England. + +But yet, below all this there existed a powerful element of +opposition. After the new order of things had existed more than eighty +years, among a portion of the Anglo-Saxon population the design was +started of putting a violent end to it, of destroying at one blow all +those foreigners who seemed its representatives, just as the Danes had +all been murdered on one day. + +It was an evil thought, and all the more atrocious because manifold +ties had been already gradually formed between the two populations. +How could they ever become fused into one nation if the one was always +plotting the destruction of the other? + +It was not merely by alliances of blood and family, but even still +more by great common political and ecclesiastical interests that the +English nationality, which contains both elements, was founded. And, +in truth, the leading impulse towards it was that the conquerors, no +less than the conquered, felt themselves oppressed by the yoke which +the two supreme authorities laid on them, and hence both combined to +oppose them. But centuries elapsed before this could be effected. The +first occasion for it was given when the two authorities quarrelled +with each other, and alternately called on the population to give its +voluntary aid. + +For, as the authorities which represent the objective ideas are of +different origin, they have never in our Western Europe remained more +than a short time in complete harmony with each other. Each retains +its natural claim to be supreme, and not to endure the supremacy of +the other. The one has always more before its eyes the unity of the +whole, the other the needs and rights of the several kingdoms and +states. Amidst their antagonism European life has moulded itself and +made progress. + +Close as their union was at the time of the Conquest of England, yet +even then their quarrel broke out. Though the Conqueror pledged +himself again to pay a tribute which the Anglo-Saxon kings had +formerly charged themselves with, and which had been long unpaid, yet +this was not sufficient for the Roman See: Gregory VII demanded to be +recognised as feudal lord of England. But this was not what William +understood, when he had allowed the papal banner to wave over the +fleet that brought him to England. It was not from the Pope's +authorisation that he derived his claim to the English crown, as if +this had been merely transferred to him by the Papal See, but from the +Anglo-Saxon kings, as whose heir and legal successor he wished to be +regarded. He answered the Pope that he could enter into no other +relation to him than that in which his predecessors in England had +stood to previous popes. + +For the first time the popes had to give up altogether the attempt to +make kings their feudal dependents; they attempted, however, an +almost deeper encroachment into the very heart of the royal power, +when they then formed the plan of severing the spiritual body +corporate, which already possessed the most extensive temporal +privileges, from their feudal obligation to the sovereigns. The +English kings opposed them in this also with resolution and success. +Under the influence of the father of scholasticism, Anselm of +Canterbury, Primate of England, a satisfactory agreement was arranged +long before the Concordat was obtained in Germany. In general there +was little to fear, as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury had a good +understanding with the Crown; and this was the case in the first half +of the 12th century, if not on all points, yet, at least on all +leading questions. Far-reaching differences did not appear until the +higher ecclesiastics embraced the party of the Papacy, which happened +in England through Thomas Becket. + + +_Henry II and Becket._ + +It was precisely from him that this would have been least expected. He +had been the King's Chancellor, or if we may avail ourselves of a +somewhat remote equivalent expression, his most trusted cabinet +minister, and had as such, in both home and foreign affairs, rendered +the most valuable services. The introduction of scutage is attributed +to him, and he certainly had a large share in the acquisition of +Brittany. It was through the direct influence of the King that he was +elected archbishop.[22] But from that hour he seemed to have become +another man. As he had hitherto rivalled the courtiers in splendour, +pleasure, and pomp, so would he now by strictness of life equal the +sanctity of the saints; as hitherto to the King, so did he now attach +himself to the interests of the Church. It might, so we may suppose, +be some satisfaction to his self-esteem, that he could now confront +his stern and mighty sovereign as Archbishop 'also by the grace of +God,' for so he designates himself in his letter to the King; or he +might feel himself bound to recover the possessions of his Church, +which had been wrested from it by the Crown or the high nobility. But, +as spiritually-minded men are moved more by universal ideas than by +special interests, so for Becket the determining impulse without doubt +lay above all in the sympathy which he devoted to the hierarchic +movement in general. + +Those were the times in which the attempt of the Emperor Frederic I to +call a council, and in it to decide on a contested papal election, had +created general excitement among the peoples and churches of Southern +Europe, which would only consent to be led by a pope independent of +the empire. Driven from Italy, Alexander III, the Pope rejected by the +Emperor, found a cordial reception in France; and here he now +collected on his side a papal council in opposition to the imperial +one, in which the cardinals, whose election the Emperor was trying to +annul, and the bishops of Spain and South Italy, and those of the +collective Gaulish dioceses (more than a hundred in number), and the +English bishops also, gathered around him, and laid the Pope elected +by the Emperor under the anathema. It was inevitable that the idea of +the Church, as independent of the temporal power, should here find its +strongest expression. Some canons were passed which prohibited the +usurpation of ecclesiastical property by the laity, and made it a +crime in the bishops to allow it.[23] + +Thomas Becket was welcomed in this council with a seductive kindness; +but besides this, what is harder than to set oneself against the +common feeling of one's own order, when moderation already appears to +be apostasy? He returned to England filled with the ideas of +hierarchic independence; in preparing to carry it through, he +necessarily brought on the conflict which had hitherto been avoided. + +The Plantagenet King, whose whole heart was in the work of securing +the obedience of the manifold provinces that had fallen to his lot; +who hastened ceaselessly from one to the other (when people thought +him far away in South France, he had already recrossed the sea to +England), ever occupied in extending his inherited power by +institutions of a legal and administrative nature, was not inclined to +give way to the Church in this attempt. He would neither make the +election of the higher clergy free, nor allow their excommunication to +be valid without State control; he not only maintained the right of +the lay courts to try ecclesiastics for heinous offences, which else +often remained unpunished; but, even in the sphere of spiritual +jurisdiction, he claimed to hear appeals in the last instance without +regard to the Pope. In all this the lay and spiritual nobility agreed +with him; in a Council at Clarendon they framed 'constitutions,' in +which they declared these rules to be the law of the realm, as it had +always been observed, and ought to be observed henceforth.[24] + +Becket did not possess the inflexible obstinacy which distinguishes +most of the champions of the hierarchy. As the accordant voice of +Europe moved him to take up the hierarchic principles, so now the +accordant voice of his country's rulers made an impression on him: he +listened to the ecclesiastics who entreated him not to draw the King's +displeasure on them, and to the laymen, who prayed him not to bring on +them the necessity of executing it on the ecclesiastics: he virtually +accepted the Constitutions of Clarendon. But then again he could not +prevail on himself to observe them. Only when his vacillation +endangered him personally, so that he could expect nothing else to +follow but a condemnation by a new assembly of the royal court, did he +come to a decision. Then he took the hierarchic side resolutely; in +contradiction to the Constitutions, he appealed to the Pope. It is a +remarkable day in English history, that 14th October 1164, on which +Thomas Becket, after reading mass, appeared before the court without +his archiepiscopal dress, but cross in hand. He forbade the earl, who +wished to announce the judgment to him, to speak, since no layman had +power to sit in judgment on his spiritual father;[25] he again put +himself under the protection of God and the Roman Church, and then +passed from the court, no man venturing to lay hands on him, still +armed with his cross, to a church close by, from whence he escaped to +the Continent. By this he brought into England the war of the two +powers, which had already burst into flame in Italy and Germany. The +archbishop and primate rejected the supreme judicial authority of the +Curia Regis; only in the chief pontiff at Rome did he recognise his +rightful judge: by undertaking to bring into full view the complete +independence of the spiritual principle on this ground also, he broke +down that unity of authority, which had, been hitherto maintained in +the English realm, and entered into open war with his King. + +Henry II was, like most of the sovereigns of that age, above all +things a warrior; you could see by his stride that he spent his days +on horseback; and he was an indefatigable hunter. But yet he found +time besides for study; he took pleasure in solving, in the company of +scholars, the difficulties of the theologico-philosophical problems +which then largely occupied men's minds; there is no doubt that he +also fully understood these politico-ecclesiastical questions. He was +by no means a good husband, rather the contrary, but, in other things, +he could control himself; he was moderate in eating and drinking. +Success did not make him overweening, but all the more prudent:[26] +ill-success found him resolute; yet it was remarked that he was more +severe in success, milder in adversity. If contradicted, he showed all +the excitability of the Southern French nature; he passed from +promises to threats, from flatteries to outbursts of wrath, until he +met with compliance. His administration at home witnesses to a noble +conception of his mission and to a practical understanding; from his +lion-like visage shone forth a pair of quiet eyes, but how suddenly +did they flame up with wild fire, if the passion was roused that +slumbered in the depths of his soul! It was the passion of unlimited +power; an ambition for which, as he once said, the world appeared to +be too small. He never forgave an opponent; he never reconciled +himself with an enemy or took him again into favour. + +He would of himself have been much inclined to abandon Alexander III, +and attach himself to the Pope set up by the Emperor: his ambassadors +took part in a German diet at which the most extreme steps were +approved of. But Henry was not sufficiently master of his clergy nor, +above all, of his people for this; the solemn curse of Thomas Becket +wrought on men from far away. Was there really any foundation for what +men then said, that the King thought it better that his foe should be +in the country rather than out of it? An apparent reconciliation was +brought about, which, however, left the main questions undecided, each +side only consenting generally to a peace with the other. Becket did +not allow himself to be hindered by it, on his return to England, from +excommunicating leading ecclesiastics who had supported the King's +party. But at this Henry's deep-seated wrath awoke. Beset by the +exiles with cries for protection, he let the complaint escape him in +the presence of his knights, that among so many to whom he had shown +favour there was not one who had courage enough to avenge the insults +offered to him.[27] As opposed to the Church sympathies which through +the clergy wrought on all people, the temporal state was mainly kept +together by the reciprocal relations of the feudal lord and sovereign +to his vassals and knights, and of them to him: to spiritual reverence +was opposed personal devotion. But these feelings, too, as they have +their justification, so they have their moral limitations; they are as +capable of exaggeration and excess as all others. Enflamed by the +King's words which seemed to touch the honour of knighthood, four of +his knights hastened to Canterbury, and sought out the man, who dared +to bid the King defiance in his own kingdom; as Becket refused to +recall the excommunication, they murdered him horribly in the +cathedral. When required to obey the King, Becket was wont to reserve +the rights of the Church and the priesthood; for this reservation he +died. + +Henry II by calling forth, intentionally or not, this brutal act of +violence in the ecclesiastical strife, drew on himself the catastrophe +of his life. + +By Becket's murder the ideas of Church independence gained what was +yet wanting to them, a martyr: his death was more advantageous to them +than his life could ever have been. The belief that the victim wrought +miracles, which were ascribed to him in increasing measure, at first +slight, then more and more surprising ones, viz. cures of incurable +diseases,--who does not know the resistless nature of this illusion, +bound up as it is with the nearest needs of man in every form?--made +him the idol of England. Henry II had to live to see the man who had +refused him the old accustomed obedience, reverenced among his people +with almost divine honours as one of the greatest saints that had ever +lived. The great Hohenstaufen in the unsuccessful struggle with the +Papacy was at last brought to declare that all he had hitherto done +rested on an error; and in like manner, but one far more humiliating +and painful, Henry II had to do penance, and receive the discipline of +the scourge, at the tomb of the man who had been murdered by his loyal +subjects. On a hasty glance it seems as though his Constitutions were +established, but a more accurate inquiry shows that the articles which +displeased the Pope were left out. The hierarchic ideas gained the day +in England also. + +It was precisely the Church quarrel that fed the discords which broke +out in the King's own house. His eldest son found a pretence for his +revolt, and essentially promoted it, by alleging that the murderers of +the glorious martyr were unpunished; he on his side promised the +clergy to make good all existing injuries, since what belonged to the +Church should not serve man's ostentation. The example of the elder +wrought on the younger sons too, who, to withstand their father, +recognised the supremacy of the King of France. Henry's last years +were filled with depression, and even with despair; when dying he was +believed to have bequeathed his curse to his children. In the +cloisters his death was ascribed to the intercession and merits of S. +Thomas. + +For with the acceptance of the hierarchic ideas the prestige of their +martyr grew day by day. In the crusade of 1189 men saw him appear in +dreams, and declare that he was appointed to protect the fleet, to +calm the storms. + +It was under these auspices that the chivalry of the Plantagenet realm +took part in the Third Crusade: King Richard (in whom the ideas of +Church and Chivalry attained their highest splendour) at their head +gave back to the already lost kingdom of Jerusalem, in despite of a +very powerful foe, a certain amount of stability: as he served the +hierarchic views with all his power, there was no question under him +as to any dispute between Church and State. But this power itself +could not be increased owing to his absence. Whilst he fought for the +Church far away, elements of resistance were stirring in his realm +which had been there long ago, and soon after his death came to the +most violent outbreak. + + +_John Lackland and Magna Charta._ + +Despite all the community of interests between the sovereigns of the +Conquest and their vassals, grounds of hostility between them had +never been altogether wanting. The Conqueror's sons had to make +concessions to the great lords, because their succession was not +secure; they needed a voluntary recognition, the price of which +consisted in a relaxation of the harsh laws with which the monarchy +had at first fettered every department of life. But when the great +nobles had managed, or decided, contests for the throne, Were they +likely to feel bound unconditionally to obey the man whom they had +raised? Besides Henry II in his ecclesiastical quarrel needed the +consent of his vassals; his court-Assemblies were no longer confined +to proclamations of ordinances from the one side only; consultations +were held, leading to decisions that concerned them all. + +But what is now surprising is the fact, that even the associates in +the Conquest, and much more their descendants, claimed the rights +which the Anglo-Saxon magnates had once possessed. They, too, appealed +incessantly to the _Laga_, the laws of Edward the Confessor, by which +was meant the collection of old legal customs, the observation of +which had been promised from the first. Following the precedent of +their kings, the families that had risen through the Conquest regarded +themselves as the heirs of the fallen Anglo-Saxon chiefs, into whose +place they had stepped. The rights of the old Witan and of the vassals +of the new feudal state became fused together. + +We must now lay greater weight than is commonly done on the incidents +that occurred during King Richard's absence. He had entrusted the +administration of the realm to a man of low origin, William, bishop of +Ely, who carried it on with great energy, and not without the pomp and +splendour, which grace authority, but arouse jealousy. Hence lay and +spiritual chiefs combined against him: with Earl John, the brother of +the absent King, at their head, they banished the hated bishop by the +strong hand, and of their own authority set another in his place. The +city of London, which had been already allowed the election of its own +magistrates by Henry II, had then formed a so-called _Communia_ after +the pattern of the Flemish and North French towns; bishops, earls, and +barons, swore to support the city in it.[28] + +These first attempts at an opposition by the estates obtained fresh +weight when on Richard's death a contest again arose about the +succession. Earl John claimed it for himself, but Arthur, an elder +brother's son, seemed to have a better right, and had been moreover +recognised at once in the South French provinces. The English nobles +fortified their castles, and for some time assumed an almost +threatening position; they only acknowledged John on the assurance +that each and all should have their rights.[29] John's possession of +the crown was therefore derived not merely from right of inheritance, +but also from their election. + +A strong territorial confederacy had thus gradually grown up, +confronting the royal power with a claim to independent rights; events +now happened that roused it into full life. + +King John incurred the suspicion of having murdered Arthur, who had +fallen into his hands, to rid himself of his claims; he was accused of +it by the peers of France, and pronounced guilty; on which the +Plantagenet provinces which were fiefs of the French crown went over +to the King of France at the first attack. The English nobility would +at least not fight for a sovereign on whom such a heinous suspicion +lay: on another pretence it abandoned him. + +But then broke out a new quarrel with the Church. The most powerful +pontiff that ever sat in the Roman See, Innocent III, thought good to +decide a disputed election at Canterbury by passing over both +candidates, including the King's, and caused the election of, or +rather himself named, one of his friends from the great school at +Paris, Stephen Langton. As King John did not acknowledge him, Innocent +laid England under an Interdict. + +Alike careless and cruel, naturally hasty and untrustworthy, of +doubtful birthright, and now rejected by the Church, John must have +rather expected resistance than support from the great men of the +realm. He tried to assure himself of those he suspected by taking +hostages from their families; he confiscated the property of the +ecclesiastics who complied with the Pope's orders, and took it under +his own management; he employed every means which the still unlimited +extent of the supreme authority allowed, to obtain money and men; +powerfully and successfully he used the sword. But in the long run he +could not maintain himself by these means. When a revolt broke out in +Wales at the open instigation of the Pope, and the King's vassals were +summoned to put it down, even among them a general discontent was +perceptible; John had reason to dread that if he came near the enemy +with such an army he might be delivered into their hands or killed: he +did not venture to carry out the campaign. And meanwhile he saw +himself threatened from abroad also. King Philip Augustus of France +armed, to attack his old opponent at home (whom he had already driven +from in those provinces over which he himself was feudal sovereign), +and to carry out the Pope's excommunication against him. He boasted, +probably with good grounds, of having the English barons' letters and +seals, promising that they would join him. He would have restored all +the fugitives and exiles; the Church element would have raised itself +all the more strongly, in proportion to its previous depression; a +general revolt would have accompanied his attack, the English +government according to all appearance would have been lost. + +King John knew this well: to avoid immediate ruin he seized on a means +of escape which was completely unexpected, but quite decisive--he gave +over his kingdom in vassalage to the Pope. + +What William I had so expressly rejected was now accepted in a moment +of extreme pressure, from which such a step was the only means of +escape. The moment the Pope was recognised as feudal lord of England, +not only must his hostility cease, but he would be bound to take the +realm under his protection. He now forbade the King of France, whom he +had before urged on to its conquest, to carry out the invasion, which +was already prepared. + +It appears as if the barons had originally agreed with the King's +proceeding, although they did not entirely approve its form. They +maintained that they had risen up for the Church's rights,[30] and saw +in the Pope a natural ally. They thought to gain their own purpose all +the more surely now that Stephen Langton received the see of +Canterbury, a man who, while he represented the Papal authority, at the +same time zealously made their interests his own. At the very moment +when the archbishop absolved the King from the excommunication, he made +him swear that he would restore the good laws, especially those of King +Edward, and would do all according to the legal decisions of his +courts. It may be regarded as the first time that a Norman-Plantagenet +king's administration was acted on by an obligatory engagement, when +King John, on the point of taking the field against some barons whom he +regarded as rebels, was hindered by the archbishop who reminded him +that he would thus be breaking his last oath, which bound him to take +judicial proceedings. The tradition that a forgotten charter of Henry I +was produced by the archbishop (who was certainly, as his writings +show, a scholar of research), and recognised as a legal document which +gave them a firm footing, may admit of some doubt; there is no doubt +that it was Stephen Langton who gathered around him the great nobles +and bound them by a mutual engagement, to defend, even at the risk of +life, the old liberties and rights which they derived from Anglo-Saxon +times. + +It was, in fact, of considerable importance that the primate, on whose +co-operation with the King the Norman state originally rested, united +himself in this matter as closely as possible with the nobles; among +all alike, without regard to their origin, whether from France or from +England, had arisen the wish to limit the crown, as it had been +limited in the Anglo-Saxon period. + +Here, however, they had to discover that the Pope was minded to +protect the King, his vassal, not only against attacks from abroad, +but also against movements at home. The engagements which the barons +had formed, when he released them from their oath of fidelity to the +King, he now declared to be invalid and void. The legate in England +reported unfavourably on their proceedings, and it was seen that he +was intimately allied with the King. The war was still raging on the +continent, and the King had been again defeated, at Bouvines, July 27, +1214; he had returned disheartened, but not without bodies of +mercenaries, both horse and foot, which excited anxiety in the allied +nobles. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that, after the +death of a chancellor connected with them by family, and on good terms +with them, he raised a foreigner, Peter des Roches, to that dignity, +and it was believed that this foreigner would lend a hand to any +attempt at restoring the previous state of things. Acts of violence of +the old sort, and the King's lusts, which brought dishonour into their +families, added to their indignation. In short, the barons, far from +breaking up their alliance, confirmed it with new oaths. While they +pressed the King to accept the demands which they laid before him, +they sent one of the chief of their number, Eustace de Vescy, to Rome, +to win the Pope to their cause, by reminding him of the gratitude due +to them for their services in the cause of the Church. As lord of +England, for they did not hesitate to designate him as such, he might +admonish King John, and, if necessary, force him to restore unimpaired +the old rights guaranteed them by the charters of earlier Kings.[31] + +But not so did Innocent understand his right of supreme lordship in +England; he did not side with those who had helped to win the victory +for him over the King, but with the King himself, to whose sudden +decision he owed its fruits--the acknowledgment of his feudal +superiority. He blamed the archbishop for concealing the movements of +the barons from him, and for having, perhaps, even encouraged them, +though knowing their pernicious nature: with what view was he stirring +questions of which no mention had been made either under the King's +father or brother? He censured the barons for refusing the scutage, +which had been paid from old times, and for their threat of proceeding +sword in hand. He repeated his command to them to break up their +confederacy, under threat of excommunication. + +As one step lower the primate and nobles, so in the highest sphere +Innocent and John were in alliance. The Papacy, then in possession of +supremacy over the world, made common cause with royalty. Would not +the nobles, some from reverence for the supreme Pontiff's authority, +others from a sense of religious obligation, yield to this alliance? +Such was not their intention.[32] + +The King proffered the barons an arbitration, the umpire to be the +Pope, or else an absolute reference of the whole matter to him, who +then by his apostolic power could settle what was right and lawful. +They could not possibly accept either the one or the other, after the +known declarations of the Pope. As they persevered in their hostile +attitude, the King called on the archbishop to carry out the +instructions of a Papal brief, and pronounce the barons +excommunicated. Stephen Langton answered that he knew better what was +the true intention of the holy father. The Pope's name this time +remained quite powerless. Rather it was preached in London that the +highest spiritual power should not encroach on temporal affairs; +Peter, in the significant phrase of the time, could not be Constantine +as well.[33] Only among the lower citizens was there a party +favourable to the King, but they were put down at a blow by the great +barons and the rich citizens. The capital threw its whole weight on +the side of the barons. They rose in arms and formally renounced their +allegiance to the King; they proclaimed war against him under the name +of 'the army of God.' Thus confronted by the whole kingdom, in which +there appeared to be only one opinion, the King had no means of +resistance remaining, no choice left. + +He came down--15th June, 1215--from Windsor to the meadow at +Runnymede, where the barons lay encamped, and signed the articles laid +before him, happy enough in getting some of them softened. The Great +Charter came into being, truly the 'Magna Charta,' which throws not +merely all earlier, but also the later charters into the shade. + +It is a document which, more than any other, links together the +different epochs of English history. With a renewal of the earliest +maxims of German personal freedom it combines a settlement of the +rights of the feudal Estates: on this twofold basis has the proud +edifice of the English constitution been erected. Before all things +the lay nobles sought to secure themselves against the misuse of the +King's authority in his feudal capacity, and as bound up with the +supreme jurisdiction; but the rights of the Church and of the towns +were also guaranteed. It was especially by forced collections of +extraordinary aids that King John had harassed his Estates: since they +could no longer put up with this, and yet the crown could not dispense +with extraordinary resources, a solution was found by requiring that +such aids should not be levied except with the consent of the Great +Council, which consisted of the lords spiritual and temporal. They +tried to set limits to the arbitrary imprisonments that had been +hitherto the order of the day, by definite reference to the law of the +land and the verdict of sworn men. But these are just the weightiest +points on which personal freedom and security of property rest; and +how to combine them with a strong government forms the leading problem +for all national constitutions. + +Two other points in this document deserve notice. In other countries +also at this epoch emperors and kings made very comprehensive +concessions to the several Estates: the distinctive point in the case +of England is, that they were not made to each Estate separately, but +to all at the same time. While elsewhere each Estate was caring for +itself, here a common interest of all grew up, which bound them +together for ever. Further, the Charter was introduced in conscious +opposition to the supreme spiritual power also; the principles which +lay at the very root of popular freedom breathed an anti-Romish +spirit. + +Yet it was far from possible to regard them as being fully +established. There were also conditions contained in the Charter, by +which the legal and indispensable powers of the King's government were +impaired: the barons even formed a controlling power as against the +King. It could not be expected that King John, or any of his +successors, would let this pass quietly. And besides, was not the Pope +able to do away with the obligation of which he disapproved? We still +possess the first draft of the Charter, which presents considerable +variations from the document in its final form, among others the +following. According to the draft the King was to give an assurance +that he would never obtain from the Pope a revocation of the +arrangements agreed on; the archbishop, the bishops, and the Papal +plenipotentiary, Master Pandulph, were to guarantee this assurance. We +see to what quarter the anxieties of the nobles pointed, how they +wished above all to obtain security against the influences of the +Papal See. Yet this they were not able to obtain. There was no mention +in the document either of the bishops or of Master Pandulph; the King +promised in general, not to obtain such a revocation from any one; +they avoided naming the Pope.[34] + +In reality it made no difference, whatever might be promised or done +in this respect. Innocent III was not the man to accept quietly what +had taken place against his declared will, or to yield to accomplished +facts. On the authority of the words 'I have set thee over the nations +and over the kingdoms,' which seemed to him a sufficient basis for his +Paramount Right, he gave sentence rejecting the whole contents of the +Charter; he suspended Stephen Langton, excommunicated the barons and +the citizens of London, as the true authors of this perverse act, and +forbade the King under pain of excommunication to observe the Charter +which he had put forth. + +And even without this King John had already armed, to annul by force +of arms all that he had promised. A war broke out which took a turn +especially dangerous to the kingdom, because the barons called the +heir of France to the English throne and did him homage. So little +were the feelings of nationality yet developed, that the barons fought +out the war against their King, supported by the presence and military +Power of a foreign prince. For the interests of the English crown it +was perhaps an advantage that King John died in the midst of the +troubles, and his rights passed to his son Henry, a child to whom his +father's iniquity could not be imputed.[35] In his name a royalist +party was formed by the joint action of Pembroke, the Marshal of the +kingdom and the Papal Legate, which at last won such advantages in the +field, that the French prince was induced to surrender his claim, +which he himself hardly held to be a good one--the English were +designated as traitors by his retinue,--and give back to the barons +the homage they had pledged him. But he did so only on the condition +that not merely their possessions, but also the lawful customs and +liberties of the realm should be secured to them.[36] At a meeting +between Henry III and the French prince at Merton in Surrey, it was +agreed to give Magna Charta a form, in which it was deemed compatible +with the monarchy. In this shape the article on personal freedom +occurs; on the other hand everything is left out that could imply a +power of control to be exercised against the King; the need of a grant +before levying scutage is also no longer mentioned. The barons +abandoned for the time their chief claims. + +It is, properly speaking, this charter which was renewed in the ninth +year of Henry III as Magna Charta, and was afterwards repeatedly +confirmed. As we see, it did not include the right of approving taxes +by a vote. + +Whether men's union in a State in general depends on an original +contract, is a question for political theorists, and to them we leave +its solution. On the other hand, however, it might well be maintained +that the English constitution, as it gradually shaped itself, assumed +the character of a contract. So much is already involved in the first +promises which William the Conqueror made at his entry into London and +in his agreement with the partisans of Harold. The same is true of the +assurances given by his sons, especially the second one: they were the +price of a very definite equivalent. More than any that had gone +before however does Magna Charta bear this character. The barons put +forward their demands: King John negociates about them, and at last +sees himself forced to accept them. It is true that he soon takes +arms to free himself from the obligation he has undertaken. It comes +to a struggle, in which, however, neither side decidedly gains the +upper hand, and they agree to a compromise. It is true the barons did +not expressly stipulate for the new charter when they submitted to +John's son (for with John himself they could certainly have never been +reconciled), but yet it is undeniable that without it their submission +would never have taken place, nor would peace have been concluded. + +As, however, is generally the case, the agreement had in it the germs +of a further quarrel. The one side did not forget what it had lost, +the other what it had aimed at and failed to attain. Magna Charta does +not contain a final settlement, by which the sovereign's claims to +obedience were reconciled with the security of the vassals; it is less +a contract that has attained to full validity, than the outline of a +contract, to fill up which would yet require the struggles of +centuries. + +NOTES: + +[22] He says himself later, 'terror publicae potestatis me intrusit,' +in Gervasius, 497. + +[23] Canones Concilii Turonensis, Article III, 'ut laici ecclesiastica +non usurpent;' and Article I of those previously omitted in Mansi, +XXI. 1178 seq. + +[24] Concilium Clarendoniae, 8 Cal. Febr. MCLXIV, Article VIII, de +appellationibus. 'Si archiepiscopus defuerit in justitia exhibenda, ad +dominum regem perveniendum est postremo; ita quod non debeat ultra +procedi absque assensu domini regis.' Wilkins, i. 435. + +[25] Rogeri de Hoveden Annales ed. Savile, 283. 6. 'Prohibeo vobis ex +parte omnipotentis dei et sub anathemate, ne faciatis hodie de me +judicium, quia appellavi ad praesentiam domini papae.' None, however, +of the accounts we have can be looked on as quite accurate. + +[26] 'Ambigua fata formidans.' Knyghton de eventibus Angliae, 2391. + +[27] Gervasius 1414 'se ignobiles et ignavos homines nutrivisse, +quorum nec unus tot sibi illatas injurias voluerit vindicare.' + +[28] 'Episcopi comites et barones regni--juraverunt quod ipsi eam +communiam et dignitatem civitatis Londinensis custodirent.' + +[29] Hoveden, p. 450, 'quod redderet unicuique illorum ius suum, si +ipsi illi fidem servaverint et pacem.' + +[30] 'Quod ipsi audacter pro libertate ecclesiae ad mandatum suum se +opposuerint,--honores quos ei (Papae) et romanae ecclesiae +exhibuistis, id per eos coactus fecistis.'--Mauclerc, literae ad +legem, in Rymer, Foedera, i. + +[31] Mauclerc, literae de negotio Baronum, in Rymer, Foedera, i. 185: +'Magnates Angliae--instanter domino Papae supplicant, quod cum ipse +sit dominus Angliae vos--compellat, antiquas libertates suas--eis +illaesas conservare.' + +[32] Literae Johannis regis, quibus quae sit baronum contumacia +narrat. Apud Odiham, 29 die Maii. + +[33] In Matthew Paris: 'Quod non pertinet ad papam ordinatio rerum +laicarum.' + +[34] Articuli magnae cartae libertatum, Sec. 49. Magna carta regis +Johannis. In Blackstone, the Great Charter, 9, 23. + +[35] Matthew Paris. 'Nobiles universi et castellani ei multo facilius +adhaeserunt, quia propria patris iniquitas filio non debuit imputari.' + +[36] Forma pacis inter Henricum et Ludovicum, in Rymer, i. 221. +'Coadiutores sui habeant terras suas--et rectas consuetudines et +libertates regni Angliae.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FOUNDATION OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTION. + + +There is a very accurate correspondence in this epoch also between the +general history of the Western world and events in England: these last +form but a part of the great victory of the hierarchy and its advance +in power, which marks the first half of the 13th century. By combining +with the vassals the Popes had overcome the monarchy, and had then in +turn overcome the vassals by combining with the monarchy and its +endangered rights. It must not be regarded as a mere title, an empty +word, if the Pope was acknowledged to be feudal Lord of England: his +legates, Gualo, Pandulph, Otho, and with them some native prelates, +devoted to him (above all that Peter des Roches, who, by his conduct +when Bishop of Winchester, through the mistrust awakened, incurred +almost the chief responsibility of the earlier troubles), spoke the +decisive word in the affairs of the kingdom and crushed their +opponents. It was reported that Innocent IV was heard to say, 'Is not +the King of England my vassal, my servant? At my nod he will imprison +and punish.'[37] Under this influence the best benefices in the +kingdom were given away without regard to the freedom of election or +the rights of patrons, and in fact mostly to foreigners. The Pope's +exchequer drew its richest revenues from England; there was no end to +the exactions of its subordinate agents, Master Martin, Master Marin, +Peter Rubeo, and all the rest of them. Even the King surrounded +himself with foreigners. To his own relations and to the relations of +his Provencal wife fell the most profitable places, and the advantages +arising from his paramount feudal rights; they too exercised much +influence on public affairs, and that in the interests of the Papal +power, with which they were allied. Riotous movements occasionally +took place against this system, but they were suppressed: men suffered +in silence as long as it was only the exercise of rights once +acknowledged. But now it happened that the Popes in their war with the +last of the Hohenstaufen, whom they had resolved to destroy, proposed +to employ the resources of England and in a very different manner than +before. They awoke Henry III's dynastic ambition by promoting the +elevation of his brother to be King of the Romans, and destining his +younger son Edmund for the crown of Naples and Sicily. King Henry +pledged himself in return to the heaviest money-payments. It began to +appear as if England were no longer a free kingdom, using its +resources for its own objects: the land and all its riches was at the +service of the Pope at Rome; the King was little more than a tool of +the hierarchy. + +It was at this crisis that the Parliaments of England, if they did not +actually begin, yet first attained to a definite form and efficiency. + +The opposition of the country to the ecclesiastico-temporal government +became most conspicuous in the year 1257, when Henry, happy beyond +measure in his son's being raised to royal rank by the Apostolic See, +presented his son to the Great Council of the nation, already wearing +the national costume of Naples, and named the sum, to the payment of +which he had pledged himself in return. The Estates at once refused +their consent to his accepting the crown, which they considered could +not be maintained owing to the untrustworthiness of the Italians, and +of the Romish See itself, and the distance of the country; the +money-pledge excited loud displeasure. Since they were required to +redeem it, they reasonably enough gave it to be understood that they +ought to have been consulted first. It was precisely the alliance of +the Pope and the King that they had long felt most bitterly; they said +truly, England would by such a joint action be as it were ground to +dust between two millstones. As, however, despite all remonstrances, +the demands were persevered with,--for the King had taken on himself +the debts incurred by Pope Alexander IV in the Neapolitan war, and the +Pope had already referred to England the bankers entrusted with the +payments,--a storm of opposition broke out, which led to what was +equivalent to an overthrow of the government. The King had to consent +to the appointment of a committee for reforming the realm, to be named +in equal proportions by himself and by the barons; from this, however, +was selected a council of fifteen members, in which the King's +opponents had a decisive majority. They put forth Statutes, at Oxford, +which virtually stripped the King of his power; he had to swear to +them with a lighted taper in his hand. The Pope without hesitation at +once condemned these ordinances; King Louis IX of France also, who was +called in as arbiter, decided against them: and some moderate men drew +back from them: but among the rest the zeal with which they held to +them was thus only inflamed to greater violence. They had the King in +their power, and felt themselves strong enough to impose their will on +him as law. + +Without doubt they had the opinion of the country on their side. For +the first time since the Conquest the insular spirit of England, which +was now shared even by the conquerors themselves, manifested itself in +a natural opposition to all foreign influence. The King's +half-brothers with their numerous dependents were driven out without +mercy, their castles occupied, their places given to the foremost +Englishmen. The Papal legate Guido, one of the most distinguished +members of the Curia, who himself became Pope at a later time, was +forbidden to enter England. Most foreigners, it mattered not of what +station or nationality, were forced to quit the realm: it went hard +with those who could not speak English. The leader of the barons, +Simon de Montfort, was solemnly declared Protector of the kingdom and +people; he had in particular the lower clergy, the natural leaders of +the masses, on his side. When he was put under the ban of the Church +his followers retorted by assuming the badge of the cross, since his +cause appeared to them just and holy.[38] + +At this very juncture it was that the attempt was made to form a +Parliamentary Assembly corresponding to the meaning of that word. + +The Statutes or Provisions of Oxford contain the first attempt to +effect this, by enacting that thrice every year the newly formed royal +Council should meet together with twelve men elected by the Commonalty +of England, and consult on the affairs of the kingdom.[39] There is no +doubt that these twelve belonged to the nobles and were to represent +them: the decisive point lies in the fact that it was not a number of +nobles summoned by the King, but a committee of the Estates chosen by +themselves that was placed by the side of the Council. The Council and +the twelve persons elected formed for some years an association that +united the executive and legislative powers. + +But this continued only as long as the King acquiesced in it. When he +had the courage to resist, it is true that in the first encounter +which ensued, he was himself taken prisoner: but his partisans were +not crushed by this; and soon after his wife, who had collected about +her a considerable body of mercenaries, in concert with the Pope and +the King of France, thought herself strong enough to invade England. +Simon felt that he needed a greater, in other words, a broader, basis +of support. And the design he then conceived has secured him an +imperishable memory. He summoned first of all representatives of the +knights of the shires, and directly afterwards representatives of the +towns and the Cinque Ports, to form a Parliament in conjunction with +the nobles of the realm. This was not an altogether new thing in the +European world; we know that in the Cortes of Aragon, as early as the +12th century, by the side of the high nobility and the ecclesiastics +there appeared also the Hidalgos and the deputies of the Commons; and +Simon de Montfort might well be aware of this, since his father had +been in so many ways connected with Aragon. In England itself under +King John men had come very near it without however carrying it +through: not till afterwards did the innovation appear a real +necessity. In opposition to the one-sided power exercised by the +foreigners, nothing was so much insisted on in daily talk and in the +popular ballads as the propriety of calling the natives of the land to +counsel, since to them its laws were best known. This justifiable wish +met with adequate satisfaction now that the Commons were summoned; the +public feeling against the foreigners, on which Simon de Montfort +necessarily relied, thus found expression. The assembly which he +called together doubtless sympathised with his party views. As he +invited only those nobles to it who remained true to him (they were +not more than twenty-three in number), so he appears to have summoned +those only of the towns which adhered to him unconditionally. But the +arrangement involved more than was contemplated from his point of +view. + +Amid the storms he had called forth Simon de Montfort perished: the +King was freed, the royal authority re-established. A new Papal legate +entered London in the full splendour of his office, Cardinal Ottoboni; +Guido having meanwhile himself obtained the tiara, and using every +means to subdue the unbending spirits, from which danger even to the +Church was dreaded.[40] Yet the old state of things was not restored: +neither the rule of foreigners, nor the absolute dependence on the +Papal policy. The later government of Henry III has a different +character from the earlier: the legate himself confirmed Magna Charta +in the shape finally accepted. It is not merely at the great national +festivals that we find representatives of the towns present, whom the +King has summoned; it is beyond a doubt that one of the most important +statutes of the time was passed with their consent.[41] Yet +regulations for the summons of representatives from the towns were as +little fixed by law as those for voting the taxes. It would by no +means harmonise with the constitution of Romano-German states, that +organic institutions should come into full force in mere antagonism to +the highest authority. They must coincide with the interests of that +authority, as was the case in England under Henry's warlike son Edward +I. + +Without doubt Edward, who once more revived in the East the reputation +of the Plantagenet Kings for personal valour, would have preferred to +fight there for the interests of Christendom, he even speaks of it in +his will; or else he would have wished to recover from the French +crown the lands which his father had inherited, and which had passed +into French possession; but neither the one nor the other was +possible; another object was assigned to his energy and his ambition, +one more befitting an English king: he undertook to unite the whole +island under his sceptre. + +In Wales, the conquest of which had been so often attempted and so +often failed, there lived at this time Prince Llewellyn, whose +personal beauty, cunning, and high spirit fitted him to be a brilliant +representative of the old British nationality. The bards, reviving the +old prophecies, promised him the ancient crown of Brutus; but when he +ventured out of the mountains, he was overpowered and fell in a +hand-to-hand conflict. The English crown was not to fall to his lot, +but Edward transferred the title of Prince of Wales to his own son. +The great cross of the Welsh, the crown of Arthur, fell into his +hands: he no longer tolerated the bards: their age passed away with +the Crusades. + +From Wales Edward turned his arms against Scotland. There Columban had +in former days anointed as king a Scottish prince, who was also of +Keltic descent; how the German element nevertheless got the upper hand +not merely in the greatest part of the country, but also in the ruling +family, is the great problem of early Scottish history: a thoroughly +Germanic monarchy had arisen, but one which after it had once given a +home to the Anglo-Saxons who fled before the Normans, thought its +honour concerned in repelling all English influences. A disputed +succession gave Edward I an opportunity of reviving the claims of his +predecessors to the overlordship of Scotland: he gave the Scotch a +king, whom the Scotch rejected simply because he was the English +King's nominee. The war, which sometimes seemed ended--there were +times at which Edward could regard himself as the Lord of all +Albion,--ever blazed out again; above all, the support the Scotch +received from the King of France brought about complications which +filled all Western Europe with trouble and war; but it was in the home +politics of England that their effect was destined to be greatest. + +Compelled to make incessant efforts, which exhausted the resources of +the crown, Edward appealed to the voluntary assistance of his +subjects. He laid down to them the principle, that their common perils +should be met with their united strength, that what concerns all must +also be borne by all. In the war against Wales he had gathered +together the representatives of the counties and the towns, to hear +his demands and to act accordingly; chiefly to vote him subsidies. +After the victory he had called an assembly of nobles, knights, and +towns, to take counsel with them about the treatment of the captives +and the country. Similarly he drew together the representatives of the +towns in order to decide the affairs of Scotland. With especial +emphasis did he call for their united help against Philip the Fair of +France, who thought to destroy the English tongue from off the earth: +knights and towns were pledged to help in carrying out the resolutions +thus adopted by common consent. + +In spite of all this appealing to free participation in public +matters, Edward I did not refrain from the arbitrary imposition of +taxes, and those the most oppressive: the eighth, even the fifth part +of men's income. For the campaign in Flanders he summoned the +under-tenants as well as the tenants in chief. We find instances of +arbitrary seizure of whatever was necessary for the war. + +King Edward excused this by his maxim that the interests of the land +must be defended with the resources of the land,[42] but we can +conceive how, on the boundary line between two different systems, +acts of violence, which combined the arbitrariness of the one with the +principles of the other, caused a general agitation. In the year 1297 +the spiritual lords under their archbishop, as well as the temporal +ones (who denied the obligation to serve beyond the sea) under the +Constable and Marshal, set themselves energetically to oppose the +King. The people, which had the most to suffer from the arbitrary +exactions, took their side with cordial approval. They set forth all +the grievances of the country, and insisted on their immediate and +final redress. + +To avoid the pressure, the King had already quitted England, to carry +on his campaign in Flanders: the demand was laid before the +Councillors whom he had left behind as assessors to his son, who was +named Regent. They however were in great perplexity, partly from the +trouble of this agitation itself, but mainly from the revolt in +Scotland which had broken out in a formidable manner. William Walays, +like one of those Heyduck chiefs who rise in Turkey against the +established order of things, the right of which they do not recognise, +had come down from the hill country, at the head of the fugitives and +exiles, a robber-patriot, of gigantic bodily strength and innate +talent for war. His successes soon increased his band to the size of +an army; he beat the English in a pitched battle, and then swept over +the borders into the English territory. If the royal commissioners +would oppose a strong resistance to this inroad, they must needs +ratify a provisional concession of the demands brought forward. The +King, who had meanwhile reached Flanders, which the French had entered +from two sides, could not possibly yield to the Scottish +movement--whether he wished to carry on the war or make a truce: +nothing therefore remained to him but to confirm the concessions made +by his councillors. + +It is not absolutely certain how far these had gone; one word of +discussion may be allowed on the matter. + +The historians of the time have maintained that the right of voting +the taxes was granted to the Estates, and in fact conjointly to the +nobles whether spiritual or temporal, and the representatives of the +counties and towns: the copy of a statute is extant, in which this is +very expressly stated.[43] But since the statute does not exist in an +authentic shape, and is not to be found in the Rolls of the Realm, we +cannot safely base any conclusion on it. As to the date too at which +it may have been passed, our statements waver between the +twenty-eighth and the thirty-fourth year of Edward. On the other hand +we find in the collection of charters an undoubted charter of +confirmation given at Ghent and dated 5 November 1297, in which not +merely are the Great Charter of Henry III and the Forest Charter +confirmed, but also some new arrangements of much importance +guaranteed, and confirmed by ecclesiastico-judicial regulations.[44] +According to it the grants of taxes and contributions which had been +hitherto made to the King for his wars were not to be regarded as +binding for the future. He reserves only the old customary taxes: to +the higher clergy, the nobility, and the commons of the land the +assurance is given, that under no circumstances, however pressing, +should any tax or contribution or requisition--not even the export +duty on wool--be levied except by their common consent and for the +interests of all.[45] In the Latin text all sounds more open and less +reserved: but even the words of the authentic document include a very +essential limitation of the prerogative of the crown, which hitherto +had alone exercised the right of estimating what the state needed and +of fixing the payments by this standard. The King was averse at heart +to the limitation even in this form. When he came back from Flanders +after concluding a truce with France, and army and people were met +together at York, to carry out a great campaign against Scotland, he +was pressed to confirm on English soil the concessions which he had +granted on foreign ground.[46] He held it advisable that the campaign +should be first carried through; four of his confidential friends +swore in his stead (since an oath in person was thought unbecoming to +the King), that, the campaign ended, the confirmation should not be +wanting. The enterprise was most successful, it led to a great victory +over the Scots, and it was the leaders of the English aristocracy who +did the best service there; nevertheless, when they met together next +Lent (1299) in London, the King strove to avoid an absolute promise: +he wished to expressly reserve the undefined 'rights of the crown.' +But this delay aroused a general storm: and as he was quite convinced +that he could not, under this condition, reckon on further support in +the war which still continued, he at last submitted to what was +unavoidable, and allowed his clause to drop.[47] + +I do not know whether I am mistaken in ascribing to these concessions +a different character from that of the earlier ones. It was not a +sovereign defeated and reduced to the deepest humiliation who made +them, nor did the barons obtain articles which aimed at securing their +own direct supremacy: the concessions were the result of the war, +which could not be carried on with the existing means. When Edward I +laid stress on the necessity of greater common efforts, the +counter-demand which was made on him, and to which he yielded, merely +implied that a common resolution should be previously come to. His +concessions included a return for service already done, and a +condition for future service. It did not abase the royal authority; it +brought into clear view the unity of interests between the crown and +the nation. + +Another great crisis united them for the second time. As Edward led +the forces of England year by year across the Tweed, to compel the +Scots to acknowledge his overlordship by the edge of the sword, the +Pope who assumed himself to be the Suzerain of the kingdoms of the +world, Boniface VIII, met him with the assertion that Scotland +belonged to the Church of Rome, the King therefore was violating the +rights of that Church by his invasions. To confront the Pope, King +Edward thought it best, as did Philip the Fair of France about the +same time, to call in his Estates to his aid, since without them no +answer to the claim was possible. The Estates then in a long letter +not merely maintain the right of the English crown, but also reject +the Pope's claim to decide respecting it as arbiter, as incompatible +with the royal dignity: even if the King wished it, yet they would +never lend a hand to anything so unseemly and so unheard of.[48] The +King, without regard to the Pope, continued his campaigns against +Scotland with unabated energy. + +It marks the character of Edward I that he nevertheless did not break +with the Papacy on this account; so too he still raised taxes that had +not been voted, and held Parliaments in the old form: when +representatives of the counties and towns were summoned it is not +always clear whether they were elected or named.[49] Edward I could +not free himself from the habits of arbitrary rule and the old ideas +connected with them. But with all this it is still undeniable that +under him the monarchy took a far more national position than before; +it no longer stood in a hostile attitude as against the community of +the land, but belonged to it. + +And his successors soon saw themselves forced to complete still +further the foundations of a new state of things, which had been thus +laid. + +Under Edward II the old ambition of the barons to take a preponderant +part in the government reappeared once more with the greatest +violence. The occasion was afforded by the weakness of this sovereign, +who allowed his favourite, the Gascon Gaveston, a disastrous influence +on affairs. Discontented with this, the King's nearest cousin, Thomas +of Lancaster, placed himself at the head of the great nobles, as +indeed he was believed to have sworn to his father in law (whose rich +possessions passed to him, and who feared a return of the foreign +influences), that he would adhere to the interest of the barons, which +was also that of the country. In the fourth year of his government +Edward was obliged to accept all the regulations made by a Committee +of the Nobles called the 'Ordainers.' + +Without advice of the nobles he was forbidden either to begin a war, +or to fill up high offices of State, or even to leave the country: the +officers of the crown were to be responsible to them. Gaveston had to +pay for his short possession of influence by death without mercy. + +It was long before the King found men who had the courage to defend +the lawful authority of the crown. At last the two Hugh Despencers +undertook it: under their leadership the barons were defeated, and +Thomas of Lancaster in his turn paid for his enterprises with his +life. For in England, if anywhere, the assumption of power led +inevitably to the scaffold. + +It is hardly needful to say that the regulations of the Ordainers were +now revoked. But must not some means be also thought of, to prevent +similar acts of violence for the future? It was deemed necessary to +declare even the form, under cover of which they had been ratified, +invalid for all time. And so an enactment was now made, in which the +first definite idea of the Parliamentary Monarchy becomes visible. It +was declared that never for the future should any ordinance affecting +the King's power and proceeding from his subjects be valid, but only +that should be law which was discussed, agreed on, and enacted in +Parliament by the King with the consent of the prelates, the earls and +barons, and the commonalty of the realm.[50] For it was above all +things necessary to withdraw the legislative authority for ever from +the turbulent grandees. The monarchy opposed to them its alliance with +the commonalty of the realm, as it was expressed by the +representatives of the knights and the commons. Among the founders of +the English constitution these Hugh Despencers, through whom the +legislative power was first transferred to the united body of King +Lords and Commons, take a very important position. + +This thought was however rather one left for the future to carry out, +than one which swayed or contented the English world at the time. +Edward II fell before a new attack of the revolted barons, with whom +even his wife was allied: he had to think it a piece of good fortune +that, on the ground of his own abdication, his son was acknowledged as +his successor. The latter however could only obtain real possession of +the royal power by overthrowing the faction to which his father had +succumbed. While he restored the memory of the two Despencers, who had +been condemned and executed by the barons, he also decided to carry on +a Parliamentary government; it is the first that existed in England. + +For the general course of the development it is significant that the +rights of Parliament in relation to the voting of taxes, and now also +to legislation as a whole, were acknowledged before an appropriate +form was found for its consultations. In the first years of Edward III +its four constituent parts, prelates, barons, knights, and town +deputies, held their debates in four different assemblies; but +gradually the two first were fused into an Upper, the two last into a +Second House, without any definite law being laid down to that effect: +the nature of things led to the custom, the custom in course of time +became law. + +That which had been already preparing under the first Edward came +under the third for the first time into complete operation, viz. the +participation of the Estates in the management of foreign affairs and +of war. + +In the year 1333 the Parliament advised the King to break the peace +with Scotland, which the barons had concluded of their own authority +according to their own views, not to put up with any more outrages, +and not merely to take back the lost border-fortress of Berwick, but +to force the Scots to acknowledge the supremacy of England. + +In the year 1337 and afterwards the Parliament more than once approved +the King's plan of asserting the claim he had through his mother on +the French throne by force of arms and through alliances with foreign +princes,[51] and promised to support him in it with their lives and +properties; it was all the more ready for this, as France had been +repeatedly threatening England with a new Conquest. In the year 1344 +the Peers, each in his own name, called on the King to cross the sea +and not let himself be hindered by any one, not even by the Pope, from +appealing to the judgment of God by battle. The clergy imposed on +themselves a three-years' tenth, the counties a fifteenth, the towns +two tenths; the great nobles followed him in person with their squires +and horsemen, without even alluding to their old remonstrances. So +that splendid army made its appearance in France, in which the weapons +of the yeomen vied with those of the knights, and which, thanks +chiefly to the former, won the victory of Cressy. Whilst the King made +conquests over the French, his heroic Queen repelled the Scotch. In +these wars the now united nation, which put forth all its strength, +came for the first time to the feeling of its power, to a position of +its own in the world and to the consciousness of it. The King of +Scotland at that time, and the King of France some years later, became +prisoners in England. + +A period followed in which England seemed to have obtained the +supremacy in Western Europe. The Scots purchased their King's freedom +by a truce which bound them to long and heavy payments, for which +hostages were given as a security. A peace was made with the French by +which Guienne, Gascony, Poitou, and such important towns as Rochelle +and Calais were surrendered to the English. The Prince of Wales, who +took up his residence at Bordeaux, mixed in the Spanish quarrels with +the view of uniting Biscay to his territories in South France. As the +result of these circumstances and of the well-calculated encouragement +of Edward III, we find that English commerce prospered immensely and, +in emulous alliance with that of Flanders, began to form another great +centre for the general commerce of the world. It was still chiefly in +the hands of foreigners, but the English made great profits by it. +Their riches gained them almost as much prestige in the world as their +bravery.[52] The more money-resources the towns possessed, and the +more they could and did support the King, the greater became their +influence on the affairs of the realm. No language could be more +humble than that of these 'poor and simple Commons,' when they address +themselves to 'their glorious and thrice gracious King and lord.'[53] +But for all that their representations are exceedingly comprehensive +and pressing; their grants are not to take effect, unless their +grievances are redressed; they never leave out of sight the interests +of their staple; they assail the exactions of the officials or the +clergy with great zeal. The regard paid to them gives the whole +government a popular character. + +On an attempt of the King to exercise the legislative power in his +great council, they remonstrated; they had no objection to the +ordinances themselves, but insisted that valid statutes could only +proceed from the lawfully assembled Parliament. + +Now too the relations to the Papal See came again into consideration. +Seated at Avignon under the influence of the French crown, the Popes +were natural opponents of Edward III's claims and enterprises; they +sometimes thought of directing the censures of the Church against him. +On the other hand, the complaints in England against the encroachments +and pecuniary demands of the Curia were louder than ever, without +however coming to a rupture on these points. But at last Urban V +renewed the old claim to the vassalage of England; he demanded the +feudal tribute first paid by King John, and threatened King and +kingdom, in case they were not willing to pay it, with judicial +proceedings.[54] We know the earlier kings had seen in the connexion +with Rome a last resource against the demands of the Estates: on the +King's side it required some resolution to renounce it. But the very +nature of the Parliamentary government, as Edward III had settled it, +involved a disregard of these considerations for the future. It was +before the Parliament itself that he laid the Papal demands for their +consent and counsel. The Estates consulted separately: first the +spiritual and lay lords framed their resolution, then the town +deputies assented to it. The answer they gave the Pope was that King +John's submission was destitute of all validity, since it was against +his coronation-oath, and was made without the consent of the Estates; +should the Pope try to enforce satisfaction of his demand by legal +process or in any other manner, they would all--dukes earls barons and +commons--oppose him with their united force.[55] The clergy only +assented to the declaration of invalidity; to threaten the holy father +with their resistance, they considered unbecoming. But the declaration +of the lay Estates was in itself sufficient for the purpose: the claim +was never afterwards raised again. + +The Estates had often been obliged to contend against the King and the +Roman See at the same time; now the King was allied with them against +the Papacy. Now that the Parliamentary constitution was established in +its first stage, it is clear how much the union of the Crown and the +Estates in opposition to external influence had contributed to it. It +was destined however shortly to undergo yet other tests. + +NOTES: + +[37] Matthew Paris, Historia Major ann. 1253, p. 750. + +[38] In Henr. Knyghton, 2445. According to Matthew Paris they swore, +not to let themselves be held back by anything--'quin regnum, in quo +sunt nati homines geniales et eorum progenitores, ab ingenerosis et +alienigenis emundarent.' + +[39] 'Les XXIV ont ordene, ke treis parlemens seient par an,--a ces +treis parlemens vendrunt les cunseillers le rei eslus,--ke le commun +eslise 12 prodes hommes ke vendrunt as parlemens--pur treter de +besoigne le rei et del reaume.' On the explanation of this passage, +the 'Report on the dignity of a peer' 102 contains matter wellweighed +on all sides. + +[40] Letter of Clement IV to Louis IX, in Rainaldus, 1265, p. 167. +'Quid putas--per talia machinamenta quaeri? Nisi ut de regno illo +regium nomen aboleatur omnino: nisi ut Christianus populus a devotione +matris ecclesiae et observantia fidei orthodoxae avertatur.' + +[41] 'Convocatis discretioribus regni tam ex majoribus quam +minoribus.' Statute of Marleberge, 1267. + +[42] 'Nostrae voluntatis fuit ut de bonis terrae ipsa terra +conservaretur.' In Knyghton, ii, 2501. + +[43] Statutum de tallagio non concedendo, or Nova additio cartarum; in +Hemingburgh, articuli inserti in magna charta. + +[44] 'Carta confirmationis regis Edwardi I,' in the collection of +charters prefixed to the collection of the Statutes in the 'Statutes +of the Realm,' p. 37. + +[45] 'Avuns graunte--as Arceevesques etc. e as Countes--e a toute la +communaute de la terre que mes pur nule busoigne tieu manere des aydes +mises ne prises de nre Roiaume ne prendrums fors ke par commun assent +de tout le Roiaume e a commun profist de meismes le Roiaume, sauve les +auncienes aydes e prises due e acoustumees.' The Articulus insertus in +Magna Charta, according to the other statements, runs, 'nullum +Tallagium vel auxilium imponatur seu levetur sine voluntate atque +assensu communi Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum et aliorum liberorum +hominum in regno nostro.' + +[46] Hemingburgh: eo quod confirmaverat eas in terra aliena. + +[47] Matthew of Westminster, 433. 'Procrastinatis quampluribus diebus +demum videns rex quod non desisterent ab inceptis nec adquiescerent +sibi in necessitatibus suis, respondit se esse paratum concedere et +ratificare petita.' + +[48] At Lincoln, 21 Feb. 1301. In Rymer, Rainaldus, Spondanus. + +[49] Report 183; Hallam, Additional Notes 332. + +[50] Revocatio novarum ordinationum, 1323, 29 May, Statutes of the +Realm I. 189, 'les choses, qui serount a establir--soient tretees +accordees et establies en parlaments par notre Sr. le Roi et par +lassent des Prelats Countes et Barouns et la communalte du roialme.' + +[51] Speech of W. Shareshall 1351, Parliamentary History (1762) i. +295. + +[52] We know the letter of the Duke of Guelders, in which he praised +equally 'lanae commoda,--divitias in comparatione ad alios reges +centuplas,' and the 'probitas militaris, arcuum asperitas,' in Twysden +ii. 2739. + +[53] Report 324. + +[54] 'Est en volunte de faire proces devers le roy et son roialme pur +le dit service et cens recoverir.' + +[55] 'Qu'ils resisteront et contre esteront ove toute leur puissance.' +Edw Coke first published the document, Institutes iv. 13. In Urban V's +letter to Edward in Rainaldus 1365, 13, the demand is not so clearly +expressed, but mention is made in it of the Nuncio's overtures; it is +to these that the resolution of the Parliament referred. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II. THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. + + +England did not long maintain herself in the dominant position she then +occupied; the plan of extending her rule into Spain proved ruinous to +the Prince of Wales. Not merely was his protege overpowered by the +French 'Free Companies,' which had gathered round his opponent: a +Castilian war-fleet succeeded in destroying the English one in sight of +the harbour of Rochelle. On this, their natural inclination towards the +King of France awoke in the nobles and towns of South France; without +great battles, merely by the revolt of vassals tired of his rule, +Edward III again lost all the territories conquered with such great +glory, except a few coast towns. Then a gloom settled down around the +aged conqueror. He saw his eldest son, who, though obliged to quit +France, in England enjoyed the fullest confidence and had every +prospect of a great future, sicken away and die. And he too +experienced, what befalls so many others, that misfortune abroad raised +him up opponents at home. In the increasing weakness of old age, which +gave rise to many well-grounded grievances, he could not maintain the +independence of the royal power, with the re-establishment of which he +had begun his reign. He was forced to receive into his Council men whom +he did not like. He was still able to effect thus much, that the +succession to the kingdom came to the son of the Prince of Wales, +Richard II. But would he, a boy of eleven, be able to take the helm of +the proud ship? Men saw factions arise that grouped themselves round +the King's uncles, who were not fully disposed to defend his authority. + +The great question for English history now was, whether the +Parliamentary constitution, whilst it limited the King's prerogative, +would also give him security. For the Commons had been at last +admitted into the King's Council chiefly in order that they might +withstand the violence of the factions. The situation however was not +without its complications, for with the political movement one of yet +wider aim was connected. + +When the kingdom was at the very height of its power there arose in a +college at Oxford the man who began that contest against the Papal +supremacy which has never since ceased. John Wiclif attached himself +first of all to the political movements of his time. One of his +earliest writings was directed against the feudal supremacy of the +Popes over England. He supported the Parliament's complaints of Romish +Provisions and exactions of money, with great learning and at great +length. Had his activity confined itself to these subjects, he would +be hardly more remembered than perhaps Marsilius of Padua. What gave +him quite a special significance was the fact that he brought into +clear view the contradiction between the ruling form of the Church and +the original documents of the Faith. From the claim of the Popes to be +Christ's representatives, he drew the conclusion that they ought also +to observe the Gospel which comes from the God-Man, follow His +example, and give up their worldly power.[56] The leading Church +dogma, that most closely connected with the hierarchic system, the +dogma of Transubstantiation, he attacked as being one which equally +contradicted Scripture and Reason. He urges his proofs with the +acuteness of a skilful Schoolman, but throughout he shows a deep inner +religious feeling. We may distinguish in him two separate tendencies. +His appeal to Scripture, his attempt to make it accessible to the +people, his treatment of dogmatic and religious questions which he +will allow to be decided only by Revelation,--all this makes him an +evangelic man, one of the chief forerunners of the German Reformation. +But, as he himself felt, his strength lay rather in destruction than +in construction. In asserting the doctrine that the title to office +depends for its validity on personal worth, that even the rule of +temporal lords rests on the favour in which they stand with God, and +in raising subjects to be the judges over their oppressive masters, he +entered on a path like that which the Taborites and the leaders of the +peasants in Germany afterwards took.[57] + +And these were precisely the doctrines for which his scholars, who +traversed the land to make them known, found a well prepared soil in +the people of England. How could the rise of popular elements fail to +call forth a kindred effort also among the lower classes? The belief +arose that Nature intended all men to be equal. The country people +spoke of their primitive rights, traces of which were found in the +memorials of the Conqueror's times, and which had then been taken from +them. When now, instead of seeing these respected, they were subjected +to new impositions, and this with harshness and insolence, they rose +in open revolt. So overpowering was the attack which they directed +against the capital and the King's palace, that Richard II found +himself forced to grant them a charter which secured them personal +freedom. Had they contented themselves with this, they might have done +best for themselves and perhaps for the crown, but when they demanded +yet further and more extreme concessions, they roused against +themselves the whole power of the organised State, for which they were +as yet no match. The Mayor of London himself struck down with his +dagger the leader of the bands, Wat Tyler, because he seemed to +threaten the King; the Bishop of Norwich was not hindered by his +spiritual character from levelling his lance against the +insurgents;[58] after which he accompanied the leaders, who were taken +and condemned to death, to the scaffold, with words of comfort; in +other places the lay nobles did their best. When therefore in the next +Parliament the King brought forward the proposal to declare the serfs +free by a united resolution,--for the previous charter that had been +wrung from him was considered invalid,--both Lords and Commons +rejected it, as tending to disinherit them and prove pernicious to the +kingdom. + +It is not to be supposed that a movement like this, which the lower +class of citizens in the towns had joined, just as in the German +peasant war, and which was mainly directed against the landed gentry, +could be stifled by one defeat: it continued to ferment +uninterruptedly in men's hearts. + +Still less did the condemnation passed by Convocation on the +deviations from the teaching of the Church effect their suppression. +On the basis of Wiclif's doctrines grew up the sect of the Lollards, +which condemned the worship of images, pilgrimages, and other external +church ceremonies, designated the union of judicial authority with +spiritual office as unnatural--'hermaphroditism'--rejected +excommunication with abhorrence, and made secret and systematic war +against the whole Church establishment. + +But further besides these feuds there was one within the State system +itself which now became most conspicuous. + +In the midst of the general ferment how necessary had a strong and +resolute hand become! But Richard's government had shown itself +somewhat weak; by many it was suspected of having meant to turn the +disturbances to its own advantage. The commons, who mainly represented +the lower gentry and the upper citizens, abandoned him, and attached +themselves to the nobles, just as these revived their old jealousy +against the crown. For the almost inevitable result of success in +suppressing a popular agitation is to heighten the self-confidence of +an aristocracy. Impatient at being excluded from all share in the +government, and strengthened in his ambition by the military disasters +of the last years, the youngest of Richard's uncles, Thomas of +Gloucester, put himself at the head of the grandees, whose plans the +commons, instead of opposing, now on the contrary adopted as their +own. The great questions arose, which have so often since then +convulsed the European world, as to the relation of a Parliamentary +assembly to the Monarchy, and their respective rights. + +The first demand of the English Parliament was that the ministers of +State should be named by it, or at least should be responsible to it. +Much as this demand itself implies, yet even more extensive views were +behind. The Peers told the King plainly that if he would not rule +according to the common law and with their advice, it was competent +for them to depose him, with consent of the people, and to raise +another of the royal house to the throne;[59] they threatened him +openly with the fate of Edward II. + +Richard could do nothing but submit. Eleven lords were appointed to +restore order in the country; Richard had to swear to carry out all +they should ordain (November 1386). There remained but one way by +which to oppose this open violence: the King collected the chief +judges at Nottingham, and laid the question before them, whether the +Commission now forced upon him did not contravene the royal power and +his prerogative. The judges were far from so interpreting the +Constitution of England as to allow that the King is unconditionally +bound by the commands of Parliament. They affirmed under their hand +and seal that the appointment of that Commission against the King's +will contravened his legal prerogative; those by whom he had been +forced to accept it, and who had revived the recollection of the +statute against Edward II, they declared to be guilty of high treason. +But Parliament itself saw in this sentence not a judgment but an +intolerable outrage. At its next sitting it summoned the judges before +its tribunal, and in its turn declared them to be themselves guilty of +high treason. Chief Justice Tresilian died a shameful death at Tyburn. +The King lived to find yet harsher laws laid upon him: his uncle +Gloucester was more powerful than he was himself. + +He was not however disposed to bear this yoke for ever. He first freed +himself from the war with France, which tied his hands; by his +marriage with Charles VI's young daughter he sought to win that king +over as an ally on his own side; at home too he gained himself +friends; when all was prepared, he struck a sudden blow (July 1397), +which no one would have expected from him. He removed his leading +opponents (above all his uncle Gloucester, and Arundel Archbishop of +Canterbury), banished them or threw them into prison: then he +succeeded in getting together a Parliament in which his partisans had +the upper hand. It moreover completely adopted the ideas of the judges +as to the Constitution; it revoked the statutes which had been forced +on the King,[60] and gave effect to the sentence of Nottingham. By +making the King a very considerable grant for his lifetime, it freed +him from the necessity of summoning it anew; he rose at once to a high +pitch of self-confidence: he was believed to have said that the laws +of England consisted in his word of mouth. + +In England, just as in France at the same epoch, political opinions +and parties ebbed and flowed in ceaseless antagonism. Richard's +success was only momentary. He too, like so many of his ancestors, had +incurred a grievous suspicion; the crime laid to his charge was that +his uncle, who died in prison, had been murdered there by his command. +Besides his absolute rule was not free from arbitrary acts of many +kinds; among the great nobles each trembled for his own safety; the +clergy, never on good terms with Richard, were impatient at being +deprived of their Primate, who was to them 'the tower in the +protecting bulwark of the Church.' In the capital too men were against +a rule which seemed to put an end to popular influence; it needed only +the return of an exile, the young Henry of Lancaster (whom the King +would not allow to take possession of his inheritance by deputy, and +who in conformity with the feeling of the time broke his ban to do +himself right); all men then deserted the King; the nobles could now +think of carrying out the threat which they had once hurled against +him. + +Richard was compelled to call a Parliament, and at the moment it met +to pronounce his own abdication. The Parliament was not contented with +accepting this; it wished to put an end to all doubt for the future, +and to establish its own right for ever. + +A long list of articles was drawn up, from which it was concluded that +the King had broken his coronation oath and forfeited his crown; the +assembled Estates, when severally and conjointly consulted, held them +sufficient to justify them in proceeding to the King's deposition. +They named Proctors, two for the clergy, two for the high +nobility--one for the earls and dukes, the other for the barons and +bannerets, two for the knights and commons--one for the Northern, the +other for the Southern counties. They sat as a court of justice before +the vacant throne, with the Chief Justice in their midst: then the +first spiritual commissioner, the Bishop of S. Asaph, rose, and in the +place and name and under the authority of the Estates of the realm +announced the sentence of deposition against the late King, and +forbade all men to receive any further commands from him. Some +opposition was raised; it is said that the Bishop of Carlisle very +expressly denied the right of subjects to sit in judgment on their +hereditary sovereign;[61] but how could this have had any effect +against the Parliament's claim which had been formulated so long? + +As the crown was now regarded as vacant, Henry of Lancaster arose,--in +the name of God, as he said, whilst he made the sign of the cross on +his forehead and breast,--to claim it for himself, in virtue of his +birth and the right which accrued to him through God and the help of +his friends. It was not properly speaking an election that now took +place: the spiritual and lay lords, as well as the other members of +the Parliament, were asked what their opinion of his claim was: the +answer of all was that the Duke should be their King. When, conducted +by the two archbishops, he ascended the vacant throne, he was greeted +with the joyous acclaim of those assembled. The Archbishop of +Canterbury made a speech full of unction, the drift of which was, that +henceforth it would not be a child, such as the late sovereign had +been, self-willed and void of understanding, but a Man that would rule +over them, in the full maturity of his understanding, and resolved to +do not so much his own will as the will of God.[62] + +Thus did the spiritual and lay nobility, in and with the Parliament, +make good their claim to dispose of the crown. They went to work +against Richard II with less reserve than against Edward II. In the +latter case the Queen had taken part in the movement; they had set the +son in his father's stead. But this time they did not wait for the +actual consummation of the King's marriage; they raised a prince to +the throne who had openly opposed him in the field, and was not even +the next in succession. For there were still the descendants of an +elder brother left, who according to English usage had a prior right. +The Parliament held itself competent to settle on its own authority +even the succession to the crown. It enacted that it should belong to +the King's eldest son, and after him to his male issue, and on their +failure to his brothers and their issue. The proposal formally to +exclude succession in the female line did not pass; but for a long +while to come the actual practice had that effect. + +Besides the motives involved in the extension of the Power of the +Estates in and for itself there was yet another reason for such a +proceeding. And this arose out of the growth, and increasing urgency, +of the religious divisions. The Lollards preached, and taught in +schools, according to their views: in the year 1396 in a petition to +Parliament they traced all the moral evils and defects of the world to +the fact that the clergy were endowed with worldly goods, and showed +the advantage which would arise from the application of these to the +service of the state and the prosecution of war.[63] They seem to have +flattered themselves that by this they would win over the lay lords, +but they were completely mistaken. For these remarked on the contrary +that their own property had no better legal foundation than that of +the clergy,[64] and only attached themselves to the rights of the +Church all the more zealously. + +That which would have been impossible under Richard II's vacillating +government, the first Lancaster now undertook: in full agreement with +the Estates he a few days after his accession announced to Convocation +that he purposed to destroy heretics and heresies to the best of his +power.[65] In the next Parliament a statute was drawn up in which +relapsed heretics were condemned to the flames. And still more +remarkable than this mode of punishment, which was that of the +Church-law, is the regulation of the procedure in this statute. In +former times the sentence had been pronounced by the archbishop and +the collective clergy of the province, and the King's consent had to +be asked before it was executed. The decision was now committed to the +bishop and his commissary, and the sheriff was instructed to inflict +the punishment without further appeal, and to commit the guilty to the +fire on the high grounds in the country, that terror might strike all +the bystanders. It is clear how much the power of the bishops was thus +extended. Soon after, on the proposal of the lay lords, at whose head +the Prince of Wales is named, a further statute passed, in which to +spread the rumour that King Richard was yet alive, and to teach that +the prelates ought to be deprived of their worldly goods, are treated +as offences of equal magnitude and threatened with a similar +punishment; the object being alike in both,--to raise a tumult. And in +fact, when Henry V himself had ascended the throne, an outbreak did +occur, in which these causes co-operated. The Lollards were +strengthened in their resistance to the government of the house of +Lancaster by the rumour that their rightful King was yet alive. Henry +V was obliged to crush them in open battle, and then force them to +remain quiet by a new statute, which enacted the confiscation of their +goods as well.[66] His alliance and friendship with the Emperor +Sigismund was based on the fact, that he regarded the Hussites as only +the successors of the Lollards. + +This orthodox tendency was now moreover combined with a strict +Parliamentary government. Under the Lancasters there is no complaint +as to illegal taxes; they allowed the moneys voted by the Parliament +to be paid over to treasurers named by itself and accountable to it; +that which earlier Kings had always rejected as an affront, the claim +of Parliament to exercise a sort of supervision over the King's +household, the Lancasters admitted; the royal officers were bound by +oath to observe the statutes and the common law; the prerogative, +hitherto exercised by the Kings, of softening the severity of the +statutes by proclamations contravening their purpose was expressly +abolished. + +The Lancasters owed their rise to their alliance with the clergy and +the Parliament: a fact which determined the character and manner of +their government. The most manifold results might be expected, even +beyond the borders of England, from their having by this very alliance +won for themselves a great European position. + +Nowhere was greater interest taken in Richard's fate than at the +French court. Louis Duke of Orleans, whose voice was generally +decisive there, once challenged the first Lancaster to a duel, and +when he refused it pressed him hard with war. That Owen Glendower +could once more maintain himself as Prince in Wales was entirely due +to his French auxiliaries. That we find Henry IV more secure of his +throne in his later years than in his earlier is a phenomenon the +explanation of which we seek in vain in English affairs alone: it +results from the fact that his powerful foe, Louis of Orleans, was +murdered in the year 1407 at the instigation of John Duke of Burgundy, +and that then the quarrel of the two parties, which divided France, +burst out with increased violence, and remained long undecided. From +the French there was no longer anything to fear: they emulously sought +the alliance of the highest power in England; there even arose +circumstances under which the Lancasters could think of renewing the +claims of Edward III, from whom they too were descended. + +At the time that Henry V ascended the English throne, the Orleanists +had again gained the preponderance in France: they unfurled the +Oriflamme against the Duke of Burgundy, who was now in fact hard +pressed. Henry negociated with them both. But while the Orleanists +made difficulties about granting him the independent possession of the +old English provinces, Burgundy declared himself ready to acknowledge +him as King.[67] The common interests moreover of home politics allied +him with this house. + +Henry could reckon on the sympathies of a part of the population of +France, when he led the power of England across the sea. A successful +battle in which he destroyed the flower of the French nobility gave +him an undoubted superiority. The vengeance which the Orleanists +wreaked even under these circumstances on the Duke of Burgundy, who +was now murdered in his turn, brought the Burgundian party over +completely to his side, together with the greater part of the nation. +Things went so far that Charles VI of France decided to marry his +daughter to the victorious Lancaster and to acknowledge him, as his +heir after his death, as his representative during his life. + +It was a very extraordinary position which Henry V now occupied. The +two great kingdoms, each of which by itself has earlier or later +claimed to sway the world, were (without being fused into one) to +remain united for ever under him and his successors. Philip the Good +of Burgundy was bound to him by ties of blood and by hostility to a +common foe: as heir of France Henry sat in the Parliament by which +the murderers of the last duke, who were also the chief opponents of +the new state of things, were prosecuted. Another promising connexion +was opened to him by the marriage of the youngest of his brothers with +Jaqueline of Holland and Hainault, who possessed still more extensive +hereditary claims. Henry recommended the eldest to Queen Johanna of +Naples to be adopted as her son and heir. The King of Castile and the +heir of Portugal were descended from his father's sisters. The +pedigrees of Southern and Western Europe alike met in the house of +Lancaster, the head of which thus seemed to be the common head of all. + +In England Henry did not neglect to guard the rights of the National +Church; but at the same time no one exerted himself more energetically +to close the schism: the solemn condemnation of Wiclif's doctrines by +the General Council of Constance served to vouch for his attitude in +religious matters: the English Church obtained in it a place among the +great National Churches. + +Henry V found himself in the advantageous position of a potentate +raised to power by a usurpation for which he was not however +personally responsible. He could spare and reinstate Richard II's +memory, as much as in him lay, though he owed the crown to his +overthrow. That he furthered and advanced also in France the municipal +and parliamentary interests, which were his mainstay in England, +procured him the obedience which was there paid him, and a European +influence. In his moral character Henry ranks above most of the +Plantagenets. He had no favourites and let no unjust acts be imputed +to him. He was stern towards the great and careful for the common +people; at his first word men could tell what they had to expect from +him. The French were frightened at the keenness of his expression, but +they reverenced his high spirit, his bravery and truthfulness. 'He +transacts all his affairs himself; he considers them well before he +undertakes them; he never does anything fruitlessly. He is free from +excesses, and truthful: he never makes himself too familiar. On his +face are visible dignity and supreme power.'[68] He possessed in full +measure the bold impulses of his ancestors, their attention to the +general affairs of Western Christendom. In the war with the Lollards +he was once wounded; that he recovered from his wound was designated +as the work of divine Providence, which had destined him to be the +conqueror of the Holy Land. He informed himself about its state as it +was then constituted under the Mameluke rule: a Chronicle of Jerusalem +and a History of Godfrey of Bouillon were two of the books he loved +most to read. And without doubt such an undertaking would have been +the true means, if any such means were possible, of uniting more +closely, by common undertakings successes and interests, the realms +already bound together under one sceptre. The Ottomans had not yet +extended themselves in the East with their full force: something might +yet have been effected there; for the King of France and England, who +was yet young in years, a great future seemed to be at hand. + +Sometimes it seems as though fortune were specially making a mock of +man's frailty. In this fulness of power and of expectations, Henry V +was attacked by a disease which men did not yet know how to cure and +to which he succumbed. His heir was a boy, nine months old. + +Of the two surviving brothers of the deceased King, the younger ruled +England under the already established predominance of the Estates of +the Realm, while the elder governed France with an increased +participation on the part of the Estates: their efforts could only be +directed towards preserving these kingdoms for their nephew Henry VI. +We might almost wonder that this succeeded so well for a time: in the +long run it was impossible. The feeling of French nationality, which +had already met the victor himself with secret warnings, found its most +wonderful expression in the Maid who revived in the French their old +attachment to their native King and his divine right; the English, when +she fell into their hands, with ungenerous hate inflicted on her the +punishment of the Lollards: but the Valois King had already gained a +firm footing. It was Charles VII who understood how to appease the +enmity of Burgundy, and in unison with the great men of his kingdom to +give his power a peculiar organisation corresponding to its character, +so that he was able to oppose to the English troops better armed than +their own, and make the restoration of a firm peace even desirable for +them. But this reacted on England in two ways. The government, which +was inclined for peace, fell into as bitter a quarrel as any that had +hitherto taken place with the national bodies politic, which either did +not recognise this necessity, or attributed the disasters incurred to +bad management. The man most trusted by the King fell a victim to the +public hate. But, besides this, there arose--awakened by these events +and in a certain analogy with what happened in France--the recollection +of the rights which had been set aside by the accession of the house of +Lancaster. Their representative, Richard Duke of York, had hitherto +kept quiet; for he was fully convinced that a right cannot perish +merely because it lies dormant. Cautiously and step by step, while +letting others run the first risk, he at last came forward openly with +his claim to the crown. Great was the astonishment of Henry VI, who as +far as his memory reached had been regarded as King, to find his right +to the highest dignity doubted and denied. But such was now the case. +The nation was split into two parties, one of which held fast to the +monarchy established by the Parliament, while the other wished to recur +to the principle of legitimate succession then violated. Not that +political conviction was the leading motive for their quarrel. First of +all we find that the opponents of the government--though themselves of +Parliamentary views--rallied round the banners of the hitherto +forgotten right of birth. Every man fought, less for the prince whose +device he bore, the red or the white rose, than for his own share in +the enjoyment of political power. On both sides there arose chiefs of +almost independent power, who clad their partisans in their own +colours, at whose call those partisans were ready any moment to take +arms: they appointed the sheriffs in the counties and were lords of the +land. But when blood had once been shed, no reconciliation of the +parties was possible. Ha, cried the victor to the man who begged for +mercy, thy father slew mine, thou must die by my hand. In vain did men +turn to the judges: for the statutes contradicted each other, and they +could no longer decide where the right lay. From the Parliaments no +solution of these questions could be expected; each served the +victorious party, whose summons it obeyed, and condemned its opponent. +As the resources on each side were tolerably equal, even the battles +were not decisive: the result depended less upon real superiority than +on accidental desertions or accessions, and most largely on foreign +help. After the English had failed, during the antagonism of Valois and +Burgundy, in establishing their supremacy on the Continent, the +quarrel--quieted for a moment--which broke out again between Louis XI +and Charles the Bold in the most violent manner, reacted on them with +all the more vehemence. King Louis would not endure that a good +understanding should exist between Edward IV and Duke Charles, to whom +Edward had married his sister: he drew the man who had hitherto done +the most for the Yorkist interests, the Earl of Warwick, over to his +own side; and scarcely had the latter appeared in England when Edward +IV was forced to fly and Henry VI was reinstated. Louis had prepared +church-thanksgivings to God for having given the English a king of the +blood of France and a friend to that country. But meanwhile Edward was +helped by Charles the Bold, to whom he had fled, though not openly in +arms, yet with ships which he hired for him, with considerable sums of +money, and even with troops which he allowed to join him.[69] To these, +his Flemish and Easterling troops, it was chiefly attributed that +Edward gained the upper hand in the field and recovered his throne. But +what a state of things was this! The glorious crown of the +Plantagenets, who a little while before strove for the supremacy of the +world, was now--stained with blood and powerless as it was--tossed to +and fro between the rival parties. + +NOTES: + +[56] 'I take it as a holesome counsell, that the Pope leeve his +worldly lordship to worldly lords as Christ gafe him and move all his +clerks to do so.' Wickleffs Bileve, in Collier i. Rec. 47. + +[57] 'Quod nullus est dominus civilis, nullus est episcopus, nullus +est praelatus, dum est in mortali peccato--quod domini temporales +possunt auferre bona temporalia ab ecclesia habitualiter delinquente +vel quod populares possunt ad eorum arbitrium dominos delinquentes +corrigere.' + +[58] Walsingham: 'Antistes belliger velut aper frendens dentibus.' + +[59] 'Si rex ex maligno consilio--se alienaverit a populo suo nec +voluent per jura regni et statuta et laudabiles ordinationes cum +salubri consilio dominorum et procorum regni gubernare et +regulari--extunc licitum est eis cum communi assensu et consensu +populi regem ipsum de regali solio abrogare et propinquiorem aliquem +de stirpe regia loco ejus sublimare.' In Knyghton ii. 2683. + +[60] 'Comme chose fait traitoirousement et encontre sa regalie, sa +coronne et sa dignitee--le roy de lassent de touts les srs et +coes ad ordeine et establi que null tiel commission ne autre +sembleable jammes ne soit purchacez pursue ne faite en temps advenir.' +Statutes of the Realm II. 98. + +[61] Hayward, Life of King Henry IV, gives a detailed copy of this +speech, which however can possess no more claim to authenticity than +the words that Shakespeare puts into the Bishop's mouth. + +[62] Le record et proces de la renonciation du roi Richard avec la +deposition. Twysden, ii. 2743. + +[63] Conclusiones Lollardorum porrectae pleno parliamento. Wilkins +iii. 222. From the document in 229 we see that these doctrines had +penetrated into Oxford. + +[64] The temporal possessions with which the prelates are as rightly +endowed as it has been or might be best advised by the laws and +customs of our kingdom; and of which they are as surely possessed as +the lords temporal are of their inheritances. + +[65] Convocatio 6 die Oct. 1389 ... modus procedendi contra +haereticos. Wilkins iii. 238, 254. + +[66] He imputes to them, 'l'entent de adnuller la foie chretienne auxi +a destruer le roi mesme et tous maners estates dicell royaume et auxi +toute politie et les leies de la terre.' + +[67] Treaty of 23rd May 1414. Certainly Duke John in September 1414 +concluded the treaty of Arras which is based on the assumption of his +having no understanding with England; but he never ratified it. + +[68] 'De diligence portoit le gonphanon de ses besoignes.' +Chastellain, Chronique du duc Philippe, ch. 98. + +[69] Chastellain, Chronique des derniers ducs de Bourgogne, ch 191. +'Le duc cognossoit bien, que ceste mutacion en Angleterre etoit +pratiquee pour le desfaire et non pour autre fin.' + + + + +BOOK II. + +ATTEMPTS TO CONSOLIDATE THE KINGDOM INDEPENDENTLY IN ITS TEMPORAL AND +SPIRITUAL RELATIONS. + + +We may regard it as the chief result of the Norman-Plantagenet rule, +that England became completely a member of the Romano-German family of +nations which formed the Western world. In however many ways the +invading nobility had mingled with the native houses, it yet held fast +to its ancient language; even now it is part of the ambition of the +great families to trace their pedigree from the Conquerors. Attempts +had been made, sometimes of a more political, sometimes of a more +doctrinal nature, to break loose from the hierarchy, which prevailed +throughout these nations; but they had only increased its strength; +the native clergy saw that its safety lay in the strictest adherence +to the maxims of the Universal Church. Similarly the character of the +Estates in England was akin to that of those in North France and +especially in the Netherlands; on this rests the sympathy which the +enterprises of Edward III and Henry V met with; for it was indeed the +feeling of these centuries, that the members of any one of the three +Estates felt themselves quite as closely bound to the members of the +same Estate in other lands as to their own countrymen of the other +Estates. There was but one Church, one Science, one Art in Europe: one +and the same mental horizon enclosed the different peoples: a romance +and a poetry varying in form yet of closely kindred nature was the +common possession of all. The common life of Europe flowed also in the +veins of England: an indestructible foundation for culture and +progressive civilisation was laid. But we saw to what point matters +had come notwithstanding, as regards the durability of its internal +system and its power. The Plantagenets had extended the rule of +England over Scotland and Ireland: in the latter it still subsisted, +but only within the narrow limits of the Border Pale; in the former it +was altogether overthrown. The best result that had been effected in +home politics, the attempt to unite the Powers of the country in +Parliament had, after a short and brilliant success, led to the +deepest disorder by disregarding the rights of birth. The degraded +crown above all had thus become the prize of battle for Pretenders +allied with France or Burgundy. But it could not possibly remain thus. +The time was come to give the English realm an independent position +and internal order corresponding at once to its insular situation and +to the degree of culture it had attained. + +The first who attempted this with some success was Edward IV, of the +house of York, who in the war of the Roses had remained master of the +field. + +But everywhere there began once more an era of autocratic princes. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SUPREME POWER. + + +Edward IV was a most brilliant figure, the handsomest man of his time, +at least among the sovereigns, so that the impression he thus made was +actually a power in politics; we find him incessantly entangled in +love affairs: he was fond of music and enjoyment of all kinds, the +pleasures of the table, the uproar of riotous company: his debauched +habits are thought to have shortened his life, and many a disaster +sprung from his carelessness; but he had also Sardanapalus' nature in +him: with quickly awakening activity he always rose again out of his +disasters; in his battles he appeared the last, but he fought perhaps +the best; and he won them all. In the history of European Monarchy he +is not unworthy to be ranked by the side of Ferdinand the Catholic, +Charles the Bold, Louis XI, and some others who regained prestige for +their dignity by the energy of their personal character. + +In itself we must rate it as important that he made good the +birthright of the house of York, independent as it was of the maxims +of Parliament, or rather contradictory to them, and maintained the +throne. He deemed himself the direct successor of Richard II; the +three kings who had since worn the crown by virtue of Parliamentary +enactments were regarded by him as usurpers. We have Fortescue's +contemporary treatise in praise of the laws of England, which (written +for a prince who never came to the throne) contains the idea of +Parliamentary right which the house of Lancaster upheld: but Edward IV +did not so apprehend it. He allowed the lawfulness of his accession to +be recognised by Parliament, because this was of use to him: but +otherwise he paid little regard to its established rights. We find +under him for five years no meeting of Parliament; then a Parliament +that had met was prorogued some four or five times without completing +any business, till it at last agreed to raise the customs duties, +included under the names of Tonnage and Poundage; a revenue which +being voted to the Kings for life (and this came gradually to be +regarded as a mere formality) gave their government a strong financial +basis. Other Parliaments repaid their summons with considerable +grants, with large and full subsidies: yet Edward IV was not content +even with these. Under him began the practice, by which the wealthy +were drawn into contributions for his service in proportion to their +property, of which the King knew how to obtain accurate information; +these contributions were called Benevolences because they were paid +under the form of personal freewill offerings, though none dared to +refuse them:[70] we may compare the imposts which in the Italian +republics the dominant parties were wont to inflict on their +opponents. Though holding Church views in other points, and at any +rate a persecutor of the Lollards, he did not however allow the clergy +to enter on their temporalities without heavy payments: he created +monopolies in the case of some especially profitable articles of +trade. In short, he neglected no means to render the administration of +the supreme power independent of the money-grants of Parliament. He +made room for the royal prerogative as understood by the old kings, as +well as for the right of birth. + +But yet he had not established a secure position, since the party of +the enemy was still very powerful, and after his early death a quarrel +broke out in his own house which could not fail to destroy it. + +To the characteristic traits of the Plantagenets, their world-wide +views, their chivalry abroad, their versatility at home, the ceaseless +war they waged with each other and with others for power, their +inextinguishable love of rule, belongs also the way in which those who +held power rid themselves of foes within their own family. As formerly +King John had murdered in prison Arthur the lawful heir to the throne, +so Richard II imprisoned and murdered his uncle Thomas of Gloucester, +who was dangerous to himself. Richard II, like Edward II, died by the +hand of a relative who had wrested the crown from him; of the details +of his death we have not even a legend left. Another Gloucester, who +had for many years guarded the crown for the infant Henry VI, was, at +the very moment when he might become dangerous to the new government, +found dead in his bed. So Henry VI perished in the Tower the day +before Edward IV made his entry into London. Edward IV preferred to +have his brother Clarence, though already under sentence of death, +privately killed. But the most atrocious murder of all was that of the +two infant sons of Edward IV himself; they were both murdered at once, +as was fully believed, at the behest of their uncle Richard III, who +had put himself in possession of the throne. I know not whether the +actual character of Richard answered to that type of inborn wickedness +which commits crime because it wills it as crime, such as following +the hints of the Chronicle[71] a great poet has drawn for us in +imperishable traits, and linked with his name: or whether it was not +rather the love of power, that animated the whole family, which in +Richard III grew step by step into a passion that made him forget all +laws human and divine: enough, he did such deeds that the world's +abhorrence weighs justly on him. + +But it was owing to the internal discord of the ruling family that +throughout the course of its history a path was made for political and +national development, and so it was now: these crimes opened a way out +of the disorders of the time. For as Richard, while continuing to +persecute the house of Lancaster, struck still harder blows against +the chief members of that of York, he gave occasion to the principal +persons of both parties, who were equally threatened, and had the +same interest in opposing the usurper, to draw nearer to each other. + +The widowed Queen Elizabeth, who was lingering out her life in a +sanctuary, was brought into secret connexion through the mediation of +distinguished friends with the mother of the man who now came forward +as head of the Lancasters, Henry Earl of Richmond, and it was +determined that Henry and Elizabeth's daughter, in whom the claims of +both lines were united, should marry each other, a prospect which +might well prepare the way for the immediate combination of the two +parties. Henry of Richmond at their head was then to confront the +usurper and chase him from the throne. The fugitives scattered about +in the sanctuaries and churches called him to be their captain.[72] + +The question arises--it has been often answered in the +negative--whether Henry was rightfully a Lancaster, and whether he had +any well-grounded claims on the English crown. He loved to derive his +family from the hero of the Welsh, the fabulous Arthur. His +grandfather, Owen Tudor, a Welshman, was brought into connexion with +the royal house by his marriage with Henry V's widow, Catharine of +France: for unions of royal ladies with distinguished gentlemen were +then not rare. And Owen Tudor of course obtained by this a higher +position, but there could be no question of any claim to the crown. +This was derived simply from the fact that the son of this marriage, +Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond, married a lady of the house of +Somerset, descended by her father from John of Gaunt, the ancestor of +the Lancasters, by his third marriage with Catharine Swynford. It has +been said that this marriage, in itself of an irregular nature, was +only recognised as legitimate by Richard II on the condition that the +issue from it should have no claim to the succession--and so it is in +fact stated in the often printed Patent. But the original of the +document still exists, and that in two forms, one of which is in the +Rolls of Parliament, the other on the Patent Rolls. In the first the +limitation is wanting, in the second it exists, but as an +interpolation by a later hand. It may be taken as admitted that +Richard II in legitimising the marriage did not make this condition, +and that it was first inserted by Henry IV (who took offence at the +legitimisation of his half-brothers) at the ratification. But the +legitimisation once effected could not possibly be limited in a +one-sided manner by a later sovereign. I think no objection can be +made to the legality of Henry VII's claim, which then passed over to +his successors.[73] The limitation belonged to those proceedings of +one-sided caprice by which Henry IV tried to secure for his direct +descendants the perpetual possession of the crown. It was not from +him, but from his father, the founder of the family, that the Earls of +Richmond derived their claim. + +Now that the banner of a true Lancaster appeared again in the field, +and the discontented Yorkists, ill-treated by Richard, joined him, it +might certainly be hoped that the usurper would be overthrown, and +that a strong power would emerge from the union of both lines. Yet the +issue was even then very doubtful. + +As in the earlier civil wars, so now too the help of a foreign power +was necessary. With French help the Earl of Richmond led about 2000 +men, of which not more than perhaps 800 were English, to Wales;[74] in +his further advance he was joined by proportionately considerable +reinforcements; yet he did not number more than 5000 men under his +banners, badly clothed and still worse armed, when Richard with his +chivalry came upon him in overwhelming numbers. Henry would have been +lost, had he not found partisans in Richard's ranks. Even before the +engagement the desertion from Richard began: then in the middle of the +battle the chief division of his army passed over to Henry. Richard +found the death he sought: for he was resolved to be King or die: on +the battlefield itself Henry was proclaimed King. + +There is no doubt that he owed to his union with the house of York, +whose right was then generally regarded as the best, not only his +victory, but the joyous recognition also which he experienced +afterwards: yet his whole nature revolted against basing his state on +this union: he cherished the ambition of ruling only through his own +right. + +At the first meeting of Parliament, which he did not call till he was +fully in possession and crowned King, he was met by a very genuinely +English point of law. It arose from the fact that many members of the +Lower House had been attainted by the late government. How could they +make laws who were themselves beyond the pale of law? Who could +cleanse them from the stain that clove to them? This objection could +be raised against Henry himself. In this perplexity recourse was had +to the judges: and they decided that the possession of the crown +supplied all defects, and that the King was already King even without +the assent of Parliament.[75] In the general disorder things had gone +so far, that it was necessary to find some power outside the +continuity of legal forms, from which they might start afresh. The +actual possession of the throne formed this time the living centre +round which the legal state could again form itself. By exercising the +authority inherent in the possession of the crown, the King could +effect the revocation of the sentences that weighed on his partisans +and on a large portion of the Parliament. After the legal character of +that Assembly had been established, it proceeded to recognise Henry's +rights to the crown in the words used for the first of the Lancastrian +house. + +In the papal bull which ratified Henry's succession, three grounds are +assigned for it: the right of war, the undoubted nearest right to the +succession, and the recognition by Parliament. On the first the King +himself laid great stress: he once designates the issue of the battle +as the decision of God between him and his foes. He thus avoided any +mention of the marriage with Edward IV's daughter, which he did not +complete till he was acknowledged on all sides. The papal bull +declared that the crown of England was to be hereditary in Henry's +descendants, even if they did not spring from the Yorkist marriage. + +We can easily understand this: Henry would not tolerate by his side in +the person of his wife a joint ruler of equal, and even better, right +than his own; but we can understand also that this proceeding drew on +him new enmities. At the very outset the widowed Queen gave it to be +understood that her daughter was rather lowered than raised by the +marriage. The whole party of York moreover felt itself contemned and +insulted. To the ferment of displeasure and ambition into which it +fell must be attributed the fact that a pair of adventurers, who acted +the part of genuine descendants of the house of York, Lambert Simnel +and Perkin Warbeck, supported from abroad, found the greatest sympathy +and recognition in England. The first Henry VII had to meet in open +battle, the second he got into his hands only by a great European +combination. + +But he did not wish to have always to encounter open disturbance. He +was entirely of the opinion which his chancellor gave, that enmities +of such a sort could not be extinguished by the sword of war, but only +by well-planned and stringent laws which would destroy the seed of +rebellion, and by institutions strong enough to administer those laws. +Above all he found it intolerable that the great men kept numerous +dependents attached to them under engagements which were publicly +paraded by distinctive badges. The lower courts of justice and the +juries did not do the service expected from them in dealing with the +transgressions of the law that came before them. Uncertainty as to the +supreme authority, and the power which the great party-leaders +exercised, filled the weaker, who had to sit in judgment on them, with +dread of their sure revenge. To put an end to this disorder Henry VII +established the Starchamber. With consent of the Parliament, from +which all hostile party-movements were excluded, he gave his Privy +Council, which was strengthened by the chief judges, a strong +organisation with this end in view. It was to punish all those +personal engagements, the exercise of unlawful influence in the choice +of sheriffs, all riotous assemblies, lastly to have power to deal with +the early symptoms of a tumult before it came to an outbreak, and that +under forms which were not usual in the English administration of +justice. This powerful instrument in the hands of government might be +much abused, but then seemed necessary to keep in check unreconciled +enemies and the spirit of faction that was ever surging up again. We +see the prevailing state of things from the fact, that the King's +councillors themselves, to be secured against acts of violence, passed +a special law, which characterised attacks on them as attacks on the +King himself. But then, like men who stood in the closest connexion +with the King and his State, they used their authority with +unapproachable severity. The internal tranquillity of England has been +thought to be mainly due to the erection of this court of justice.[76] + +Since Henry laid so much stress on his being a Lancaster, it might +have been expected that he would revive the rights of the Parliament. +But in this respect he followed the example of the house of York. He +too imposed Benevolences, like Edward IV, and that to a yet greater +extent; he made an ordinance that what was voluntarily promised should +be exacted with as much strictness as if it were an ordinary tax. +Another source of financial gain, which has brought on him still worse +reproaches, was his commission against infractions of the law. It was +inevitable that in the fluctuation of authority and of the statutes +themselves innumerable illegalities should have taken place. And they +were still always going on. The King took it especially ill that men +omitted to pay the dues which belonged to the crown in right of its +feudal superiority. All these negligences and failures were now +visited and punished with the severity of the old Norman system, and +at the same time with the officiousness of party-men of the day, who +saw their own advantage in it. This proceeding pressed very many +heavily on private persons and communities, and ruined families, but +it filled the King's coffers. One of his maxims was that his laws +should not be broken under any circumstances, another that a sovereign +who would enjoy consideration must always have money: in this instance +both worked together. + +If we look at the lists of his receipts we find that they consist, as +in other kingdoms, of the crown's revenue proper, which was +considerably increased by the escheated possessions of great families +which had become extinct, the customs duties settled on him for life, +the tenth from the clergy, and the feudal dues. It was estimated that +they produced nearly the same revenue as that of the French kings at +this time, but it was remarked that the King of England only spent +about two-thirds of his income. He did not need a Parliamentary grant, +especially as he kept out of dangerous foreign entanglements. In his +last thirteen years he never once called a Parliament. + +This precisely corresponded to the idea of his government. After all +had become doubtful owing to the alternate fluctuations of parties he +had established his personal claim by the fortune of arms, and made it +the central point of his government. Was he to allow it to be again +endangered by the ceaseless ebb and flow of popular opinion? He +founded a supreme court independent of popular agitation, a finance +system independent of the grants of a popular assembly. + +But he thus found himself under the disadvantage of having to apply +compulsion unceasingly: his government bore throughout the bitter and +hateful character of a party-government. With untiring jealousy he +watched the secret opponents who still looked out for some movement +from abroad, as a signal for fresh revolt: he kept diaries of their +doings and conduct: it was said he availed himself of the confessional +for this purpose: men whose names were from time to time solemnly +cursed at S. Paul's on account of past treasons, so that they counted +for open enemies, became useful to him as spies. If the decision lay +between services received and suspicious conduct, the latter easily +weighed down the balance, to the ruin of the victim. William Stanley, +who had played the most important part in the battle which decided the +fate of the crown, and was regarded as almost the first man in the +realm after the King, had at the appearance of Perkin Warbeck (who +gave himself out as Edward's younger son, Richard of York) let slip +the words, 'he would take his side, if he were the person he gave +himself out to be.' He had to atone for these words by his death, +since he had intimated a doubt as to the King's lawful right, which +might mislead others into sedition. Gradually the movements ceased: +the high nobility showed a loyal submission to the King: yet it did +not attach itself to him, it let him and his government alone. The +King's principle was, to execute the laws most strictly, yet he was +not cruel by nature; if men implored his mercy, he was ready to grant +it. The contracted position of a sovereign, who maintains his +authority with the utmost strictness, does not however exclude a +paternal care for the country. Henry clipped his people's wings, to +accustom them to obedience, and then was glad when they grew again. We +find even that he made out a sketch of how the land should be +cultivated so that every man might be able to live. The people did not +love him, but it did not exactly hate him either: this was quite +enough for Henry VII. + +A slight man, somewhat tall, with thin light-coloured hair, whose +countenance bore the traces of the storms he had passed through; in +his appearance he gave the impression of being a high ecclesiastic +rather than a chivalrous King. He was in this almost the exact +opposite of Edward IV. He too certainly arranged public festivities +and spared no expense to make them splendid, since his dignity +demanded it, but his soul took no pleasure in them, he left them as +soon as ever he could; he lived only in business. In his council sat +men of mark, sagacious bishops, experienced generals, magistrates +learned in the law: he held it to be his duty and his interest to hear +their advice. And they were not without influence: one or two were +noted as able to restrain his self-seeking will. But the main affairs +he kept in his own hands. All that he undertook he conducted with +great foresight and as a rule he carried it through. Foreigners +regarded him as cunning and deceitful; to his own people his +successful prudence seemed to have something supernatural about it. If +he had personal passions, he knew how to keep them under; he seemed +always calm and sober, sparing of words and yet affable. + +He directed almost his chief energies to this object, to keep off all +foreign influences from his well-ordered kingdom. + +NOTES: + +[70] Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio II. 'Concessae sunt decimae +ac quintodecimae multiplices in coetibus clericorum et laicorum, +habentibus in faciendis concessionibus hujusmodi interesse. Praeterea +haereditarii ac possessionati omnes de rebus immobilibus suarum +possessionum partem libere concedebant. Cumque nec omnia praedicta +sufficere visa sunt, inducta est nova et inaudita impositio oneris, ut +per benevolentiam quilibet daret id quod vellet, imo verius quod +nollet.' + +[71] At least Sir Thomas More has not invented the nature and manner +of the murder; it is derived from a confession of the persons +concerned in it in Henry VII's time. 'Dightonus traditionis hujus +principale erat instrumentum' (Bacon 212). Tyrel too seems to have +known of it. + +[72] 'Videntes, quod si novum conquestionis suae capitaneum invenire +non possent brevi de omnibus actum foret.' Hist. Croyl. 568. + +[73] I take this from Nicolas, Observations on the state of historical +literature, 1830, p. 178. Hume's objection, that the mother's right +came before the son's, is done away with by the fact that men had in +general never yet seen reigning Queens. + +[74] How the world regarded it then we ascertain from the words of the +Chroniques de Jean Molinet, ed. Buchon, iii. 151. 'Le Comte de +Richmond fut couronne et institue Henri VII, par le confort et +puissant subside du roi de France.' + +[75] 'A quo tempore Rex coronam assumpserat, fontem sanguinis fuisse +expurgatum--ut regi opera parlamentaria non fuisset opus.' So Bacon, +Henricus VII. 29. + +[76] Edw. Coke: 4 Inst. cap. ix. 'It is the most honourable court, our +Parliament excepted, that is in the Christian world.--In the judges of +the same are the grandees of the realm: and they judge upon confession +or deposition or witness.--This court doth keep all England in quiet.' + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHANGES IN THE CONDITION OF EUROPE. + + +For the history of the world the decisive event of the epoch was the +rapid rise of the French monarchy, which after it had freed itself +from the English invasions, became master of all the hitherto separate +territories of the great vassals, and lastly even of Brittany, and +rapidly began to make its preponderance felt on all sides. + +Considered in itself no one would have been more called on to oppose +this than the King of England, who even still bore the title of King +of France. In fact Henry did once revive his claim on the French +crown, on Normandy and Guyenne, and took part in a coalition, which +was to have forced Charles VIII to give up Brittany; he crossed to +Calais and threatened Boulogne. But he was not in earnest with these +comprehensive views in his military enterprise, any more than Edward +IV had once been in a similar one. Henry VII was contented when a +considerable money payment year by year was secured to him, as it had +been to Edward. The English called it a tribute, the French a pension. +It was acceptable to the King, and advantageous for his home affairs, +just at that moment--1492--to have a sum of money at his free +disposal. + +And no one could have advised him to attach himself unconditionally to +the house of Burgundy. Duke Charles' widow was still alive, who found +it unendurable that the house of York, from which she sprang, should +be dethroned from its 'triumphant majesty, which shone over the seven +nations of the world'--for so she expressed herself. With her the +fugitive partisans of the house of York found refuge and protection: +by herself and her son-in-law Maximilian of Austria the pretenders +were fitted out who contested the crown with Henry VII. Henry could +not really wish Brittany to pass to his sworn foe, so that he might be +threatened from this quarter also at every moment. For how could he +delude himself with the hope that a transitory alliance would prevail +over a dynastic antipathy? + +At this crisis Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain offered him an alliance +and connexion by marriage. + +That which induced this sovereign to do so was above all Charles +VIII's invasion of Italy, and his conquest of Naples, to which the +crown of Aragon had just claims. His plan was to oppose to the mighty +consolidated power of France a family alliance with the +Austro-Burgundian House, with Portugal, above all with England: he +hoped that this would react on Italy, always wont to adhere to the +most powerful party. Ferdinand offered the King of England a marriage +between his youngest daughter Catharine and the Prince of Wales. In +the English Privy Council many objections were made to this; they did +not wish to draw the enmity of France on themselves and would have +rather seen the prince united to a princess of the house of Bourbon, +as was then proposed. It was on Henry VII's own responsibility that +the offer was accepted. In September 1496 an agreement was come to +about the conditions: on 15th August 1497 the ceremony of betrothal +took place in the palace at Woodstock.[77] + +The motive which impelled Henry to his decision is sufficiently clear; +it was his relation to Scotland, on which the Spaniards already +exercised influence. + +There the second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, had found a warm reception +from the young and chivalrous James IV: he there married a lady of one +of the chief houses: accompanied in person by this sovereign he made +an attempt to invade England, which only failed owing to the +unfavourable time of the year. The Spanish ambassador Pedro de Ayala +then out of regard to Henry secured Perkin's withdrawal from Scotland. +But in 1497 the danger revived in a yet greater degree. Warbeck landed +in Cornwall where all the inhabitants rallied round him, and a revolt +already once suppressed broke out again; at this moment James IV, +urged on by the nobles of the land, crossed the border with a splendid +army: the co-operation of the two movements might have placed the King +in a serious difficulty. Again it was the Spanish ambassador who made +James IV determine not to let himself be urged on further; but rather +to give him the commission, to adjust his differences with England. +Henry VII was set free to suppress the revolt in Cornwall; Perkin +Warbeck was taken in his flight. + +As the object of the Spaniards was to sever Scotland from her old +alliance with France, and that too by means of a family alliance, it +was an essential point in their mediation that Henry VII, as he +betrothed his son Arthur to a Spanish Infanta, should similarly +betroth his daughter Margaret to James IV. The understanding with +Spain and that with Scotland went hand in hand. + +And on another side too the alliance with Spain was very useful to the +King of England. Ferdinand had married his elder daughter Juana to +Maximilian's son the Archduke Philip: Philip could not possibly uphold +the Yorkist interests so zealously as his father or his grandmother. +It was an event of importance that at Whitsuntide 1500 a meeting took +place between the English and the Austro-Burgundian Court in the +neighbourhood of Calais. Henry applied himself to win over those whom +he knew to be his enemies: but at the same time he wished it to be +remarked that the Archduke showed him the honour which belongs to a +lawful King. If there were still Yorkist partisans in England, who +placed their hopes in the house of Burgundy, they would find that they +had nothing more to hope from that quarter. + +So the Spanish alliance served the prudent and circumspect politician, +to secure him from any hostile action on the side of Scotland and the +Netherlands. When Catharine in 1501 came to England for her marriage, +she was received with additional joy because it was felt that her near +connexion with the Burgundian house promised good relations with the +Netherlands.[78] + +But never was a more eventful marriage concluded. + +We do not know whether the Prince of Wales had really consummated it +when he died before he was yet sixteen. But the two fathers were so +well satisfied with an alliance which increased the security of the +one and gained the other great consideration in the world, that they +could not bring themselves to give up the family connexion, by which +it was so much strengthened. The thought occurred to Ferdinand--a very +unusual one in the rest of the European world, though not indeed in +Spain--of marrying the Infanta to Henry, brother of the deceased +prince, who was now recognised as Prince of Wales. With his condolence +for the loss he united a proposal for the new marriage. In England +from the beginning men did not hide from themselves that as regarded +the future succession, which ought not to be contested from any side, +the matter had its delicate points. The solution which Henry found +shows clearly enough the natural tactics of the old politician. He +obtained from the Roman Court a dispensation for the new marriage, +which expressly included the case of the first marriage having been +consummated. But it almost appears as though he did not fully trust +this authorisation. High as the prestige of the supreme Pontiff still +stood in the world, there were yet cases in which canonists and +theologians doubted as to his dispensing power; men could not possibly +have forgotten that, when Richard III wished to marry his niece +Elizabeth, a number of doctors disapproved of such a marriage, even if +the Pope should sanction it. At any rate Henry VII instigated, or at +least did not oppose, his son's solemnly entering a protest, after the +marriage ceremony between him and Catharine was performed, against its +validity (on the ground of his being too young), the evening before he +entered his fifteenth year, in the presence of the Bishop of +Winchester, his father's chief Secretary of State. Hence all remained +undecided. Catharine lived on in England: her dowry did not need to be +given up; the general influence of the political union was saved; it +could however be dissolved at any moment, and there was therefore no +quarrel on this account with France, whence from time to time +proposals proceeded for a marriage in the opposite interest. The +prince kept himself quite free, to make use of the dispensation or +not. + +For the King himself too, whose wife died in 1503, many negociations +were entered into on both sides. The French offered him a lady of the +house of Angouleme; he preferred Maximilian's daughter, Margaret of +Austria, not indeed for her personal qualities, however praiseworthy +they might be; he stipulated after his usual fashion for the surrender +of the fugitive Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who was regarded +as the chief representative of the house of York, and (as once +previously in France) had at that time found a refuge in the +Netherlands. Philip, who after the death of his mother-in-law wished +to take possession of his wife's kingdoms in Spain, was on his voyage +from Flanders driven by a storm on the English coasts: he was Henry's +guest at Windsor, Richmond, and London. Here then the King's marriage +with Philip's sister was concerted, and with it the surrender of +Suffolk. Philip strove long against this: when he yielded, he at least +got a promise that Henry VII would spare the life of the earl, whom he +accused of treason. He kept his word: the prisoner was not executed +till after his death. + +Margaret had no inclination to wed herself with the harsh and +self-seeking King, who was growing old: he himself, when Philip +shortly after his arrival in Castile was snatched away by an early +death, formed the idea of marrying his widow Juana, though she was no +longer in her right mind. He opened a negociation about it, which he +pursued with zeal and apparent earnestness. The Spaniards ascribe to +him the project of marrying himself to Ferdinand's elder daughter, and +his son to the younger, and making the latter marriage, which he was +purposely always putting off, the price of his own. One should hardly +ascribe such a folly to the prudent and wise sovereign at his years +and with his failing strength. That he made the proposals admits of +no doubt: but we must suppose that he wished purposely to oppose to +the pressure of the Spaniards for the marriage of his son with the +Infanta a demand which they could never grant. For how could they let +the King of England share in Juana's immense claims of inheritance? +Henry wished neither to break off nor to complete his son's marriage; +for the one course would have made Spain hostile, while the second +might have produced a quarrel with France. Between these two powers he +maintained an independent position, without however mixing in earnest +with their affairs, and only with the view of warding off their enmity +and linking their interests with his own. His political relations +were, as he said, to draw a brazen wall round England, within which he +had gradually become complete lord and master. The crown he had won on +the battlefield, and maintained as his own in the extremest dangers, +he bequeathed to his son as an undoubted possession. The son succeeded +the father without opposition, without a rival--a thing that had not +happened for centuries. He had only to ascend the throne, in order to +take the reins of government into his hand. + + +_Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey in their earlier years._ + +But that the political situation should continue as it was could not +be expected. What has not seldom in the history of great kingdoms and +states formed a decisive turning point now came to pass: to the father +who had founded and maintained his power with foresight and by painful +and continuous labour, succeeded a son full of life and energy, who +wished to enjoy its possession, and feeling firm ground under his feet +determined to live in a way more after his own mind. Henry VIII too +felt the need of being popular, like most princes on their accession: +he sacrificed the two chiefs of the fiscal commission, Empson and +Dudley, to the universal hate. In general his father's point of view +seemed to him too narrow-hearted, his proceedings too cautious. + +The first great question which was laid before him concerned his +marriage: he decided for it without further delay. No doubt that in +this political reasons came chiefly into account. France had been ever +growing mightier, it had just then struck down the republic of Venice +by a great victory; men thought it would one day or another come into +collision with England, and held it prudent to unite themselves +beforehand with those who could then be useful as allies. At that time +this applied to the Spaniards above all others.[79] Yet, unless +everything deceives us, political considerations only coincided with +the prince's inclinations. The Infanta was in the full bloom of her +age; the prince, was even younger than herself and against his will +had been kept apart from any association with her, might well be +impressed by her: besides she had known how to conduct herself with +tact and dignity in her difficult position; with a blameless earnest +mien she combined gentleness and loveable qualities. The marriage was +carried out without delay; in the ceremonies of her husband's +coronation Catharine could actually take part as Queen. How fully did +these festivities again breathe the ancient character of chivalrous +splendour. Men saw the King's champion, with his own herald in front, +in full armour, ride into the hall on his war-steed which carried the +armorial bearings of England and France; he challenged to single +combat any one who would dare to say that Henry VIII was not the true +heir of this realm; then he asked the King for a draught of wine, who +had it given him in a golden cup: the cup was then his own. + +Henry VIII had a double reason for confidence on his throne,--the +blood of the house of York also flowed in his veins. In European +affairs he was no longer content with keeping off foreign influences, +he wished to take part in them like his ancestors with the whole power +of England. After the dangers which had been overcome had passed out +of the memory of those living, the old delight in war awoke again. + +When France now began to encounter resistance in her career of +victory, first through Pope Julius II, then through King Ferdinand, +Henry did not hesitate to make common cause with them. It marks his +disposition in these first years, that he took arms especially because +men ought not to allow the supreme Priest of Christendom to be +oppressed.[80] When King Louis and the Emperor Maximilian tried to +oppose a Council to the Pope, Henry VIII dissuaded the latter from it +with a zeal full of unction. He drew him over in fact to his side: +they undertook a combined campaign against France in which they won a +battle in the open field, and conquered a great city, Tournay. Aided +by the English army Ferdinand the Catholic then possessed himself of +Navarre, which was given up to him by the Pope as being taken when it +was in league with an enemy of the Church. Louis's other ally, the +Scottish King James IV, succumbed to the military strength of North +England at Flodden, and Henry might have raised a claim to Scotland, +like that of Ferdinand to Navarre: but he preferred, as his sister +Margaret became regent there, to strengthen the indirect influence of +England over Scotland. On the whole the advantages of his warlike +enterprises were for England small, but not unimportant for the +general relations of Europe. The predominance of France was broken: a +freer position restored to the Papacy. Henry VIII felt himself +fortunate in the full weight of the influence which England had won +over European affairs. + +It was no contradiction of the fundamental ideas of English policy, +when Henry VIII again formed a connexion with Louis XII, who was now +no longer formidable. He even gave him his younger sister to wife, and +concluded a treaty with him, by which he secured himself a money +payment, as his predecessors had so often done before. Yet he did not +for this break at all with Ferdinand the Catholic, though he had +reason to complain of him: rather he concluded a new alliance with +him, only in a less close and binding manner. He would not have +endured that the successor of Louis XII (who died immediately after +his marriage), the youthful and warlike Francis I, after he had +possessed himself of Milan, should have also advanced to Naples. For a +moment, in consequence of these apprehensions, their relations became +less close: but when the alarm proved to be unfounded, the alliance +was renewed, and even Tournay restored for a compensation in money. +Many personal motives may have contributed to this, but on the whole +there was sense and system in such a policy. The reconquest of Milan +did not make the King of France so strong that he would become +dangerous, particularly as on the other side the monarchy which had +been prepared by the Spanish-Netherlands' connexions now came into +existence, and the grandson of Ferdinand and Maximilian united the +Spanish kingdoms with Naples and the lordship over the Netherlands. + +To this position between the two powers it would have lent new weight +and great splendour if the German princes could have been induced to +transfer to the King of England the peaceful dignity of a Roman-German +Emperor. He bestirred himself about this for a moment, but did not +feel it much when it was refused him. + +But now since the empire too was added to the possessions in Spain, +Italy, and the Netherlands, and hence redoubled jealousy awakened in +King Francis I, which held out an immediate prospect of war, the old +question came up again before King Henry, which side England was to +take between them, and that in a more pressing form than ever. A +special complication arose from the fact that yet another person with +separate points of view now took part in the politics of the age. + +In another point Henry VIII departed from his father's tactics and +habits; he no longer sat so regularly with his Privy Council and +deliberated with them. He had been persuaded that he would best secure +himself against prejudicial results from the discords that reigned +among them, by taking affairs more into his own hand. A young +ecclesiastic, his Almoner Thomas Wolsey, had then gained the greatest +influence over him; he had been introduced alike into business and +into intimacy with the King by Fox, Bishop of Winchester, who wished +to oppose a more youthful ability to his rivals in the Privy Council. +In both relations Wolsey was completely successful. It stood him in +good stead that another favourite, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, +who had married Henry's sister (Louis XII's widow), and was the King's +comrade in knightly exercises and the external show of court-life, for +a long time remained in intimate friendship with him. Wolsey was +conversant with the scholastic philosophy, with Saint Thomas Aquinas; +but that did not hinder him from cooperating also in the revival of +classical studies, which were just coming into notice at Oxford: he +had a feeling for the efforts of Art which was then attaining a higher +estimation, and an inborn talent for architecture, to which we owe +some wonderful works.[81] The King too loved building; the present of +a skilfully cut jewel could delight him; and he sought honour in +defending the scholastic dogmas against Luther's views; in all this +Wolsey seconded and supported him, he combined state-business with +conversation. He freed the King from the consultations of the Privy +Council, in which the intrinsic importance of the matter always weighs +more than one's own will; Henry VIII first felt himself to be really +King when business was managed by a favourite thoroughly dependent on +him, trusted by him, and in fact very capable. Wolsey showed the most +many-sided activity and an indefatigable power of work. He presided in +court though he was not strong in law; he mastered the department of +finance; the King named him Archbishop of York, the Pope +Cardinal-Legate, so that the whole control of ecclesiastical matters +fell into his hands; foreign affairs were peculiarly his own +department. We have a considerable number of his political writings +and instructions remaining, which give us an idea of the +characteristics of his mind. Very circumstantially and almost +wearisomely do they advance--not exactly in a straight line--weighing +manifold possibilities, multiplied reasons: they are scholastic in +form, in contents sometimes fantastic even to excess, intricate yet +acute, flattering to the person to whom they are addressed, but withal +filled with a surprising self-consciousness of power and talent. +Wolsey is celebrated by Erasmus for his affability, and to a great +scholar he may have been accessible, but to others he was not so. When +he went to walk in the park of Hampton Court, no one would have dared +to come within a long distance of him. When questions were asked him +he reserved to himself the option of answering or not. He had a way of +giving his opinion so that every man yielded to him; especially as the +possession of the King's favour, which he enjoyed, made it impossible +to oppose him. If the government was spoken of, he was wont to say, +'the King and I,' or 'we,' or at last 'I.' Just because he was of +humble origin, he wished to shine by splendid appearance, costly and +rare furniture, unwonted expenditure. Early one morning his +appointment as Cardinal arrived, that same morning at mass he +displayed the insignia of his new dignity. He required outward tokens +of reverence, and insisted on being served on bended knee. He had many +other passions, of which the chief was ecclesiastical ambition +pervaded by personal vanity. + +It gave him high satisfaction that both the great powers emulously +courted the favour and friendship of his King, of which he seemed to +have the disposal. + +In June 1520 took place within the English possessions on French soil +the meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I, which is well designated +as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. It was properly a great tournament, +proclaimed in both nations, to which the chief lords yet once more +gathered in all their splendour. With the festivities were mingled +negociations in which the Cardinal of York played the chief part. + +Immediately before this in England, and just afterwards on the +continent, Henry VIII met Charles V also, with less show but greater +intimacy; the negociations here took the opposite direction. + +In 1521, when war had already broken out between the two great powers, +the cardinal in his King's name undertook the part of mediator. There +in Calais he sat to a certain degree in judgment on the European +powers. The plenipotentiaries of both sovereigns laid their cases +before him: with apparent zeal and much bustle he tried at least to +conclude a truce: he complained once of the Emperor, that he +disregarded his good advice though weighty and to the point: on which +the latter did come a step nearer him. It was a magnificent position +if he understood and maintained it. The more powerful both princes +became, the more dangerous to the world their enmity should be, the +more need there was of a mediating authority between them. But the +purity of intention which is required to carry out such a task is +seldom given to men, and did not exist in Wolsey. His ambition +suggested plans to him which reached far beyond a peace arbitration. + +When he promoted that first interview with Francis I against the will +of the great men and of the Queen of England, the Emperor's +ambassadors, who were thrown into consternation by it, remarked that +the French King must have promised him the Papacy, which however, they +add, is rather in the Imperial than in the royal gift. It does not +appear that the Emperor went quite so far at once, he only warned the +cardinal against the untrustworthy promises of the French, and sought +to bring him to the conviction--while making him the most advantageous +offers--that he could expect everything from him.[82] Clear details he +reserved till they met in person; and then he in fact drew him over +completely to his side. Under Wolsey's influence King Henry, +immediately on the outbreak of the war, gave out his intention of +making common cause with the Emperor. For he had not, he said, so +little understanding as not to see that the opportunity was thus +offered him of carrying out his predecessors' claims and his own, and +he wished to use it. Only he preferred not to commence war at once, +since he was not yet armed, and since a broader alliance should be +first formed. The cardinal hoped to be able to draw the Pope, the +Swiss, and the Duke of Savoy, as well as the Kings of Portugal, +Denmark, and Hungary, into it. What an impression then it must have +made on him, when Pope Leo X, without being pressed, at once allied +himself with the Emperor! Wolsey's attempt at mediation--no room for +doubt about it is left by the documents that lie before us--was only +meant as a means of gaining time. At Calais Wolsey had already given +the imperial ambassadors, in the presence of the Papal Nuncio, the +most definite assurances as to the resolution of his King to take part +in the war against France. Before he returned to England to call the +Parliament together, which was to vote the necessary ways and means, +he visited the Emperor at Bruges. At the last negociations, being at +times doubtful about his trustworthiness, Charles V held it doubly +necessary to bind him by every tie to himself. He then spoke to him of +the Papacy, and gave him his word that he would advance him to that +dignity.[83] + +The opportunity for this came almost too soon. When Leo X died, just +at this moment, Wolsey's hopes rose in stormy impatience. When the +Emperor renewed his assurance to him, he demanded of him in plain +terms to advance his then victorious troops to Rome, and put down by +main force any resistance to the choice proposed. Before anything +could be done, before the ambassador whom Henry VIII despatched at +once to Italy reached it, the cardinals had already elected, and +elected moreover the Emperor's former tutor, Hadrian. But was not this +a proof of his irresistible authority? Hadrian's advanced age made it +clear that there would be an early vacancy: and to this Wolsey now +directed his hopes. He gave assurance that he would administer the +Papacy for the sole advantage of the King and the Emperor: he thought +then to overpower the French, and after completing this work he +already saw himself in spirit directing his weapons to the East, to +put an end to the Turkish rule. At his second visit to England the +Emperor renewed his promise at Windsor castle; he spoke of it in his +conferences with the King.[84] Altogether the closest alliance was +concluded. The Emperor promised to marry Henry's daughter Mary, +assuming that the Pope would grant him the necessary dispensation. +Their claims to French territories they would carry out by a combined +war. Should a difficulty occur between them, Cardinal Wolsey was fixed +on as umpire. + +So did the alliance between the houses of Burgundy and Tudor come to +pass, the basis of which was to be the annihilation of the power of +the Valois, and into which the English minister threw his world-wide +ambition. From England also a declaration of war now reached Francis +I. Whilst the war in Italy and on the Spanish frontiers made the most +successful progress, the English, in 1522 under Howard Earl of Surrey, +in 1523 under Brandon Earl of Suffolk, both times in combination with +Imperial troops, invaded France on the side of the Netherlands, +invasions which, to say the least, very much hampered the French. +Movements also manifested themselves within France itself, which awoke +hopes in the King that he might make himself master of the French +crown as easily as his father had once done of the English. Leo X had +already been persuaded to absolve the subjects of Francis I from their +oaths to him. It was in connexion with this that the second man in +France, the Constable of Bourbon, slighted in his station, and +endangered in his possessions, resolved to help himself by revolting +from Francis I. He wished then to recognise no other King in France +but Henry VIII: at a solemn moment, after receiving the sacrament, he +communicated to the English ambassador, who was with him, his +resolution to set the French crown on King Henry's head: he reckoned +on a numerous party declaring for him. And in the autumn of 1523 it +looked as if this project would be accomplished. Suffolk and Egmont +pressed on to Montdidier without meeting with any resistance: it was +thought that the Netherland and English forces would soon occupy the +capital, and give a new form to the realm. Pope Hadrian was just dead +at Rome; would not the united efforts of the Emperor and the King of +England succeed, by their influence on the conclave, especially now +that they were victorious, in really raising Wolsey to the tiara? + +This however did not happen. In Rome not Wolsey but Julius Medici was +elected Pope; the combined Netherland and English troops retreated +from Montdidier; Bourbon saw himself discovered and had to fly, no one +declared for him. This last is doubtless to be ascribed to the +vigilance and good conduct of King Francis, but in the retreat of the +troops and in the election of the Pope other causes were at work. In +the conclave Charles V certainly did not act with as much energy for +Wolsey as the latter expected: Wolsey never forgave him. But he too +has been accused of having basely abused the confidence of the two +sovereigns: he had kept up friendly connexions all along with Francis +I and his mother, and they likewise had given him pensions and +presents: he had purposely supported the Earl of Suffolk so ill that +he was forced to retreat.[85] Of all the complaints raised against +him, not so much before the world as among those who were behind the +scenes, this was exactly the most hateful and perhaps the most +effectual. + +In 1524 the English took no active part in the war. Not till February +1525, when the German and Spanish troops had won the great victory of +Pavia and King Francis had fallen captive into the Emperor's hands, +did their ambitious projects and thoughts of war reawaken. + +Henry VIII reminded the Emperor of his previous promises, and invited +him to make a joint attack on France itself from both sides: they +would join hands in Paris; Henry VIII should then be crowned King of +France, but resign to the Emperor not merely Burgundy but also +Provence and Languedoc, and cede to the Duke of Bourbon his old +possessions and Dauphine. The motive he alleges is very extraordinary: +the Emperor would marry his daughter and heiress, and would at some +future time inherit England and France also and then be monarch of the +world.[86] Henry declares himself ready to press on with the utmost +zeal, provided he can do it with some security, and himself undertake +the conduct of the war in the Netherlands and the support of Bourbon. +The letter is from Wolsey, full of copious and pressing conclusions; +but should not the far-reaching nature of its contents have been a +proof even to him that it could never be taken in earnest? + +Charles V could not possibly enter into the plan. He had lent it a +hearing as long as it lay far away, but when it came actually close to +view, it was very startling for him. The union of the crowns of France +and England on the head of Henry VIII would in itself have deranged +all European relations, above all it would have raised that +untrustworthy man, who was still all powerful in his Council, to a +most inconvenient height of power. The Spanish kingdoms too were +pressing for the settlement of their succession. He was in the full +maturity of manly youth: he could not wait for Mary of England who had +barely completed her tenth year: he resolved to break off this +connexion, and give his hand to a Portuguese princess, who was nearly +of his own age. + +It could not be otherwise but that to the closest union, which was +broken at the moment when it might well have been able to attain its +object, the bitterest discord should succeed. + +NOTES: + +[77] Zurita Anales de Aragon v. 100. The Spanish ambassador who then +negociated the marriage was Doctor Ruyz Gonzales de Puerta. But the +idea was much older: in 1492 at the first alliance mention was made of +it (v. II); in the recently published Journal of an English Embassy to +Spain, there appears in March 1489, 'donne Katherine al notre princess +de Angleterre.' Memorial of Henry VII, 180. + +[78] Zurita v. 221. 'La princesa fue recibida con tanta alegria +communemente de todos, que affirmavan aver de ser esta causa, no solo +de muy grande paz y presperidad de sodo a' quel reyno, pero de la +union del y de los estados de Flandes.' + +[79] Zurita vi. 193. 'Por que el rey Luys cada dia se yva haziendo mas +poderoso y no teniendo el rey de Inglaterra confederation y adherencia +con los que avian de ser enemigos forcosos del rey de Francia, quedava +aquel reyno en grande peligro.' + +[80] He accepts the doctrine: 'Christi vicarium nullum in terris +judicem habere nosque ei debere vel dyscholo auscultare.' Lettres de +Louys XII, iii. 307. + +[81] As it is said in Cavendish, Cardinalis Eboracensis:-- + + 'My byldynges somptious, the roffes with gold and byse + Craftely entaylled as conning could devise, + With images embossed most lively.' + +[82] In an opinion given at Corunna it is said that he must be +persuaded, 'qu'il prende pour agreable et accepte ce que l'empereur +lui a offert, luy traynant d'une souppe en miel parmy la bouche, que +n'est le (que du) bien, que l'empereur luy veut (20 April 1520).' +Monumenta Habsburgica ii. 1. 177, 183. + +[83] In a letter to his ambassador, the Bishop of Badajoz, the Emperor +mentions 'les propos, que luy (au cardinal) avons tenu a Bruges +touchants la papalite.' Monumenta Habsburgica ii. 1. 501. + +[84] Wolsey mentions in his letter to the King 'the conference and +communications, which he (the Emperor) had with your grace in that +behalf.' In Burnet iii. Records p. 11. + +[85] Du Bellay au Grandmaistre 17 October 1529, in Le Grand, Histoire +du divorce iii. 374: 'Que il avait toujours en tems de paix et de +guerre intelligence secrette a Madame, de la quelle la dicte guerre +durant, il avoit eu des grants presens, qui furent cause, que Suffolc +estant a Montdidier il ne le secourut d'argent comme il devoit dont +advint que il ne print Paris.' + +[86] The Instructions to Tunstall and Wingfield (30 March 1525), +hitherto known only from the extract in Fiddes, are now printed in the +State Papers vi. 333. Compare my German History, Bk. IV. ch. 2, but +the statement there made needs revision in accordance with the +newly-found documents. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ORIGIN OF THE DIVORCE QUESTION. + + +Perhaps it is not a matter of such very great weight whether the +Emperor did his best for Wolsey in the conclave, or Wolsey his best +for the Emperor in the campaign of 1523. That the result did not +correspond to the expectations on either side was quite enough to +bring about an estrangement. What could the Emperor do with an English +minister who was not in a condition to support warlike enterprises +properly? what could the English do with an ally who appropriated to +himself exclusively the advantages of the victory they had won? Henry +VIII, while trying to win the French crown, had only weakened it, and +thereby given the house of Burgundy a preponderance in European +affairs, by which all other powers, and himself as well, felt +themselves threatened. + +After the battle of Pavia a feeling prevailed throughout the world +that the rule of Spain and Burgundy would be intolerable, if France +were no longer independent. The ministers of the Pope in Rome first +came to a consciousness of this: as the best means of restoring the +balance, they looked to the dissolution of the alliance between Henry +VIII and Charles V. The Pope's Datary, Giberti, made approaches to the +English Court, though still with timid caution, in order in the first +place only to propose a reconciliation between England and France.[87] + +To his joy he remarked that Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey were more +inclined to this plan than he had expected. If not before yet +certainly since his alienation from the Emperor, the cardinal had +entered into secret negociations with the mother of the King of +France: the last proposals to the Emperor had been only an attempt to +turn the success of his arms to the advantage of England also: when he +rejected them, the cardinal entered into the French connexion with +increased zeal. Before the end of the summer of 1523 peace between +England and France was effected with the sympathising co-operation of +Rome. + +In it the Regent Louise accepted the conditions laid down by the +cardinal: she did not neglect to secure him by a considerable pension. +From the beginning she had on her side also tried to excite his +world-wide ambition; for Francis I and Henry VIII, if once they became +friends, would do noble deeds to their own-undying renown and to the +glory of God, and the direction of their enterprises would fall to the +cardinal.[88] + +Even after Henry VIII abandoned him, the Emperor still kept the upper +hand. He extorted the Peace of Madrid; the League of the Italian +princes with France, by which its execution was to have been hindered, +and to which England lent her moral support without actually joining +it, led Charles V to new victories, to the conquest of Rome, and hence +to a position in the world which now did really threaten the freedom +of all other nations. The necessary result was that France and England +drew still more closely together. Cardinal Wolsey appeared in France; +a close alliance was concluded and (not without considerable English +help) an army sent into the field, which in fact gained the upper hand +in Italy and restored to the Pope, who had escaped to Orvieto, some +feeling of independence. Soon the largest projects were formed on this +side also, in which the two Kings expected to have the Pope entirely +with them. The French declared their wish to conquer Naples and never +restore it to the Emperor, not even under the most favourable +conditions. Wolsey thought that the Pope might pronounce the +deposition of the Emperor in Naples and even in the Empire, for which +certain German electors could be won over; he boasted that he would +bring about such a revolution as had not been seen for a century. + +It was at this crisis in the general situation, and when an attempt +was being made to direct politics towards the annihilation of the +Emperor, that the thought occurred of dissolving Henry VIII's marriage +with the Emperor's aunt, the Infanta Catharine. + +It is very possible, as a contemporary tradition informs us, that +Wolsey was instigated to this by personal feelings. His arrogant and +wanton proceedings, offensive by their excesses, and withal showing +all the priestly love of power, were hateful to the inmost soul of the +pure and earnest Queen. She is said to have once reproached him with +them, and to have even repelled his unbecoming behaviour with a +threatening word, and he on his part to have sworn to overthrow +her.[89] But this personal motive first became permanently important +when joined with a more general one. The Queen was by no means so +entirely shut out from the events of the day as has been asserted; in +moments of difficulty we find her summoning the members of the Privy +Council before her to discuss the pending questions with them. When +Wolsey began a life and death struggle with the Emperor, the influence +of the Queen, whose most lively sympathies were with her nephew, stood +not a little in his way; it was his chief interest to remove her. + +It was indeed the feeling of the time, that family unions and +political alliances must go hand in hand. At the very first proposal +for a reconciliation between England and France, Giberti had advised +the marriage of the English princess Mary, who had been rejected by +the Emperor, with a French prince, and there had been much negociation +about it. But owing to the extreme youth of the princess it was soon +felt that this would not lead to the desired end. If a definitive +rupture was to take place between England and the Burgundo-Spanish +power, Henry VIII's marriage with Catharine must be dissolved and room +thus made for a French princess. This marriage however was itself the +result of that former state of politics which had led to the first war +with France. Wolsey formed the plan of marrying his King, in +Catharine's stead, with the sister or even with the daughter of +Francis I who was now growing up:[90] then only would the alliance +between the two powers become indissoluble. When he was in France in +1527, he said to the Regent, the King's mother, that within a year she +would live to see two things, the most complete separation of his +sovereign from Spain, and his indissoluble union with France.[91] + +But to these motives of foreign policy was now added an extremely +important reason of home policy: this lay in the precarious state of +the Succession. + +When the King several years before was congratulated on the birth of +his daughter, with an intimation that the birth of a son might have +been still more acceptable, he replied quickly, they were both still +young, he and his wife, why should they not still have a son? But +gradually this hope had ceased, and as hitherto no Queen had ever +reigned in her own right in England, the opinion gained ground that at +the King's death the throne would fall vacant. It had a little before +created a party among the people for the Duke of Buckingham, when he +maintained that he was the nearest heir to the crown, and would not +let it be taken from him. He had been executed for this: Mary's right +to the succession met with no further opposition; but even so it was +still always a doubtful future that lay before the country. People +wished to marry Mary at one time to the Emperor, at another to the +King or a prince of France: so that her claim to the inheritance of +the crown should pass to the house of Burgundy or to that of Valois. +But how dangerous this was for the independence of the country! Henry +would surely not have lost himself in Wolsey's intrigues, had he had a +son and heir, to represent the independent interests of England. + +In other times relations of this kind would have probably been +reckoned as in themselves sufficient reason for a divorce: but not so +in that age. The very essence of marriage lies in this, that it raises +the union, on which the family and the order of the world rests, above +the momentary variations of the will and the inclination; by the +sanction of the Church it becomes one of that series of religious +institutions which set limits on every side to individual caprice. No +one yet dared so far to deny the religious character of marriage, as +to have avowed mere political views in wishing for a separation, +either before the world, or even to himself. But now there was no want +of spiritual reasons which might be brought forward for it. The King's +own confessor revived the doubts in him which had once been raised +before his marriage with his brother's widow. And when the King was +then reminded that such a marriage had been expressly forbidden in the +books of Moses, and threatened with the punishment of childlessness, +how could it fail to make an impression on him, when this threat +seemed to be strictly fulfilled in his case? Two boys had been born to +him from this marriage, but both had died soon after their birth. Even +within the Catholic Church it had been always a moot point whether the +Pope could dispense with a law of Scripture. The divine punishment +inflicted on the King, as he thought, seemed to prove that the Pope's +dispensation (encroaching as it did on the region of the divine +power), on the strength of which the marriage had been concluded, had +not the validity ascribed to it. Scruples of this sort cannot be said +to be a mere pretence; they have something of the half belief, half +superstition, so peculiarly characteristic of the spirit of the age +and of that of the King. And none could yet foresee what results they +implicitly involved. + +It still appeared possible that the Pope would revoke the dispensation +given by one of his predecessors, especially as some grounds of +invalidity could be found in the bull itself. Wolsey's idea was that +the Pope, in the pressing necessity he was under of ranging England +and France against the preponderance of the Emperor, could be brought +to consent to recall the dispensation, and this would make the +marriage null and void from the beginning. Always full of arrogant +assumption of an influence to which nothing could be impossible, +Wolsey assured the King that he would carry the matter through.[92] + +When tidings of this proposal first reached Rome, those immediately +around the Pope took special notice of the political advantages that +might accrue from it. For hitherto there was a doubt whether Henry +VIII was really so decidedly in favour of France as was said: a +project like this, which would make him and the Emperor enemies for +ever, left no room for doubt about it. When the Pope saw himself +secure of this support in reserve, his word, in a matter which +concerned the highest personal and civil interests, acquired new +weight even with the Emperor.[93] + +It is undeniable that the Pope at first expressed himself favourably. +It appeared to make an especial impression on him, that the want of a +male heir might cause a civil war in England, and that this must be +disadvantageous to the Church as well.[94] He only asked not to be +pressed as long as he was in danger of experiencing the worst +extremities from the overwhelming power of the Emperor. In the spring +of 1528, when the French army advanced victoriously into the +Neapolitan territory and drove back the Emperor's forces to the +capital, Wolsey's request for full powers to inquire into the affair +in England was taken into earnest consideration by the Pope. It was at +Orvieto, in the Pope's working room, which was also his +sleeping-chamber: a couple of cardinals, the Dean of the Roman Rota, +and the English plenipotentiaries sat round the Pope, to talk over the +case thoroughly. One of the cardinals declared himself against the +Commission demanded by Wolsey, since such a grant contravened the +usage of the last centuries in the Roman tribunals; the Pope answered, +that in a matter concerning a King who had done such service to the +Holy See, they might well deviate from the usual forms; he actually +delegated this Commission to Cardinal Campeggi, whom the English +esteemed as their friend, and to Wolsey. + +By this nothing was yet effected: it even appears as though Clement +VII had given tranquillising promises to the Emperor; the Bishop of +Bayonne declared that the Pope's intention was thus to keep both sides +dependent on him--but it was at all events one step on the road once +taken, which aroused hope in England that it would lead to the desired +end. + +But let us picture to ourselves the enormous difficulty of the case. +It lay above all in the inner significance of the question itself. In +his first interview with Henry VIII Campeggi remarks that the King was +completely convinced of the invalidity of the Papal dispensation, +which could not extend to Scripture precepts. No argument could move +him from this; he answered like a good theologian and jurist. Campeggi +says, an angel from heaven would not make him change his opinion. He +could not but see that Wolsey cherished the same view. + +But was it possible for the Roman court to yield in this and to revoke +a dispensation, which involved the very substance of its spiritual +omnipotence? It would have thus only strengthened, and in reality +confessed, the antagonism against its authority which was based on +Holy Scripture. Campeggi could not yield a hair's breadth. + +The only solution lay--and Campeggi was authorised to attempt it--in +inducing Queen Catharine to renounce her place and dignity. Soon after +his arrival he represented to her at length how much depended on it +for her and the world, and promised her that in return not only all +else should be secured to her that she could desire, but above all +that the succession of her daughter also should be guaranteed. The +wish, in which both Pope and King agreed, that she should enter a +convent, Campeggi at first did not mention to her; he thought she +would herself seek for some expedient. But she avoided this. Campeggi +had spoken to her in the name of the Pope: she only said she thought +to abide till death in obedience to the precepts of God and of the +Church: she would ask for counsellors from the King, would consult +with them, and then communicate to the Holy Father what her conscience +bade her. Her consent still remained possible. This gained, the legate +would have no need to mention further the validity or invalidity of +the dispensation. He was still hoping for it, when Wolsey came to him +one morning early (26 Oct. 1528) and told him the Queen had asked the +King for leave to make her confession to him (Campeggi), and had +obtained it. A couple of hours later the Queen appeared before him. +She told him of her earlier marriage, which was never really +consummated; that she had remained as unchanged by it as she had been +from her mother's womb; and this destroyed all grounds for the +divorce. Campeggi was however far from drawing such a conclusion; he +advised her in plain terms to make a vow and enter a convent, +repeating the motives stated before, to which he now added the example +of a Queen of France. But his words died away without effect. Queen +Catharine declared positively that she would never act thus; she was +called by God to her marriage, and resolved to live and die in it. A +judgment might be pronounced in this matter; if the marriage was +declared to be invalid, she would submit, she would then be as free as +the King; but without this she would hold fast to her marriage union. +She protested, in the strongest terms conceivable, that they might +kill her, they might tear her limb from limb, yet she would not change +her mind; had she two lives, she would lay them both down in such a +cause. It would be better, she said, for the Pope to try to divert the +King from his design; he would then be able to trust all the more in +the inclination of her kinsman the Emperor to help in bringing about a +peace. + +In the presence of the counsellors given her at her wish, both legates +repeated two days later in a formal audience their admonition to the +Queen not to insist on a definite decision; but already Campeggi had +little hope left; he was astonished that the lady, usually so prudent, +should in the midst of peril so obstinately reject judicious +advice.[95] + +The question between King and Queen was, we might say, also of a +dogmatic nature. Had the Pope the right to dispense with the laws of +Scripture or had he not? The Queen accepted it as it had been accepted +in recent times, especially as the presupposed conditions of a +marriage had not been fulfilled in her case. The King rejected it +under all circumstances, in agreement with scholars and the rising +public opinion. + +But into this question various other general and personal reasons now +intruded themselves. If the question were answered in the negative +Wolsey held firmly to the view of forming an indissoluble union +between France and England, of securing the succession by the King's +marriage with a French princess, of restoring universal peace; to this +he added the project, as he once actually said in confidential +discourse, of reforming the English laws, doubtless in an +ecclesiastical and monarchic sense; if he had once accomplished all +this, he would retire, to serve God during the rest of his life. + +But he had already (and a sense of it seems almost to be expressed in +these last words so unlike his usual mode of thought) ceased to be in +agreement with his King. Henry VIII wished for the divorce, the +establishment of his succession by male offspring, friendship with +France, and Peace: but he did not care for the French marriage. He was +some years younger than his wife, who inclined to the Spanish forms of +strict devotion, and regarded as wasted the hours which she spent at +her dressing table. Henry VIII was addicted to knightly exercises of +arms, he loved pleasant company, music, and art; we cannot call him a +gross voluptuary, but he was not faithful to his wife: he already had +a natural son; he was ever entangled in new connexions of this kind. +Many letters of his survive, in which a tincture of fancy and even of +tenderness is coupled with a thorough sensuousness; just in the +fashion of the romances of chivalry which were then being first +printed and were much read. At that time Anne Boleyn, a lady who had +lately returned from France, and appeared from time to time at Court, +saw him at her feet; she was not exactly of ravishing beauty, but full +of spirit and grace and with a certain reserve. While she resisted the +King, she held him all the faster.[96] + +The reasons of home and foreign policy mentioned above, and even the +religious scruples, have their weight; but we cannot shut our eyes to +the fact that this new passion, nourished on the expectation of the +divorce which was not unconditionally refused by the spiritual power, +gave the strongest personal impulse to carry the affair through. + +The position of parties in the State also influenced it. Wolsey who +had diminished the consequence of the great lords, and kept them down, +and offended them by his pride, was heartily hated by them. Adorned +though he was with the most brilliant honours of the Church, yet for +the great men of the realm he was nothing but an upstart: they had +never quite given up the hope of living to see his fall. But if he +brought the French marriage to pass, as he designed, he would have won +lasting support and have become stronger than ever. Besides the great +men took the Burgundian side, not that they wished to make the Emperor +lord of the world, but on the other hand they did not want a war with +him: merchants and farmers saw that a war with the Netherlands, where +they sold their wool, would be an injury to all. When Wolsey flattered +the Pope with the hope of an attack on the Netherlands, he was, the +Bishop of Bayonne assures us, the only man in the country who thought +of it. He felt keenly the universal antipathy which he had awakened, +and spoke of the efforts and devices he would have need of, to +maintain himself. + +It was therefore just what the nobles wanted, that Wolsey fell out +with the King in a matter of such engrossing nature, and that they +found another means of access to him. + +The Boleyns were not of noble origin, but had been for some time +connected with the leading families. Geoffrey the founder of the house +had raised himself by success in business and good conduct to the +dignity of Lord Mayor of London. His son William married the daughter +of the only Irish peer who had a seat and vote in the English +Parliament, Sir Thomas Ormond de Rochefort, Earl of Wiltshire. His +titles passed through his daughter to his grandsons, of whom one, +Thomas Boleyn, was created Viscount Rochefort, and married the +daughter of the Duke of Norfolk; his daughter was Anne Boleyn: she +took high rank and an especially distinguished position in English +society because her uncle, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, was Henry VIII's +chief lay minister (he held the place of High Treasurer) and was at +the same time the leading man of the nobility. He had the reputation +of being versed in business, cultivated, and shrewd; he was Wolsey's +natural opponent. That the King showed an inclination to his niece, +against the cardinal's views, was for him and his friends a great +point gained.[97] It was soon seen that Anne's influence had obtained +the recall of an opponent of Wolsey, who had insulted him and was +banished from the Court.[98] It was of the greatest importance for +home affairs, that the King was inclined to make Anne Boleyn his wife. +The English kings in general did not think marriages in their own rank +essential. Henry's own grandfather, Edward IV, had married a lady of +by no means distinguished origin. It was seen beforehand that, if this +happened, Wolsey could not maintain himself, and authority would again +fall into the hands of the chief families. Even the cardinal's old +friend, the Earl of Suffolk, now joined this combination: the whole +of the nobility sided with it. + +But besides this the chief foreign affairs took a turn which made it +impossible to carry out Wolsey's political ideas. In the summer of +1528 the attacks of the allies on Naples were repulsed, and their +armies annihilated. In the spring of 1529 the Emperor got the upper +hand in Lombardy also. How utterly then did the oft-proposed plan, of +depriving him of the supreme dignity, sink into nothingness: he was +stronger than ever in Italy. The Pope was fortunate in not having +joined the allies more closely; the relations of the States of the +Church with Tuscany made a union with the Emperor necessary; he had a +horror of a new quarrel with him. And as the Emperor now took up the +interests of his mother's sister in the most earnest manner, and +protested against proceeding by a Commission granted for England, the +Pope could not possibly let the affair go on unchecked. When the +English ambassadors pressed him, he exclaimed to them (for apart from +this he would gladly have shown more favour to the King) that he felt +himself as it were between anvil and hammer. Divers proposals were +made, one more extraordinary than the other, if only the King would +give up his demand;[99] but this was no longer possible. The two +cardinals, Campeggi and Wolsey, had to begin judicial proceedings: +King and Queen appeared before the Court, Articles were put forward, +witnesses heard: the Correspondence shows that the King and Anne +Boleyn expected with much confidence a speedy and favourable +decision.[100] Wolsey too did not yet abandon this hope. It was +thought at the time that he did not do all he might have done for it, +that in fact he no longer favoured it, seeing as he did that it would +turn out to the advantage of his rivals.[101] But it was in truth his +fate, that the consequences of the design which originated with him +recoiled on his own head. If it succeeded, it must be disadvantageous +to him: if it failed, he was lost. The exhortations he addressed to +the French Court, to exert yet once more its whole influence with the +Papal Court for this matter, sound like a cry of distress in extreme +peril. He had only undertaken it to unite France and England; the +thing was reasonable and practicable, the Pope would not wish by +refusing it to offend both crowns at once; he would value it more +highly than if he himself were raised to the Papacy. But he had now to +find that King Francis, as well as Pope Clement, was seeking a +separate peace with the Emperor. Wolsey had given Henry the strongest +assurances on this point, that such a thing would never happen, France +would never separate herself from him. But yet this now happened, and +how could any influence from that quarter on the Roman Court be still +expected in favour of England, in a matter which was so highly +offensive to the Emperor! The legates received from Rome distinct +instructions to proceed slowly, and in no case to pronounce a +decision.[102] While King Henry and those around him were eagerly +expecting it, the cardinals (using the holidays of the Roman Rota as a +pretence) announced the suspension of their proceedings. + +It appeared in an instant into what a violent ebullition of wrath, +which unsettled every thing, the King fell in consequence; it seemed +as if all his past way of governing had been a mistake. In +contradiction to many of the older traditions of English history he +had hitherto ruled chiefly through ecclesiastics to the disgust of the +lay lords: now he betook himself to the latter, to complain of the +proceedings of the two cardinals. These were still in the hall where +they had sat, when Suffolk and some other lords appeared, and bade +them bring the matter to an end without delay, even if it were by a +peremptory decree, that might be issued on the next day, on which the +holidays would not have begun. But the prorogation was in fact only +the form under which the cardinals fulfilled their orders from Rome; +they could not possibly recall it. Suffolk broke out into the +exclamation that cardinals and legates had never brought good to +England. The two spiritual lords looked at each other with amazement. +Had they any feeling that his words contained a declaration of war on +the part of the lay element in the State against ecclesiastical and +foreign influences in general? Wolsey, at any rate, could not shut his +eyes to the significance of such a war. He often said that what Henry +VIII took in hand he could not be brought to give up by any +representations; he had sometimes tried it, he had fallen at his feet, +but it had been always in vain. + +Henry contained himself yet a while, as hopes had been given him that +the proceedings might be resumed. But when a Breve came, by which +Clement VII recalled his Commission and evoked the question of the +divorce to Rome, he saw clearly that the influence of the Emperor in +the Pope's Council had quite gained the upper hand over his own on +this point. He was resolved not to submit to it. Had he not, before +the mayor and aldermen of London, declared with a certain solemnity +his resolution to carry through the divorce for the good of the land? +his passion and his ambition had joined hands for this purpose before +the eyes of the country. To prevent the need of recoiling, he formed a +plan of incalculable importance, the plan of separating his nation and +his kingdom from the spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman See. + +NOTES: + +[87] 'Giberto al Vescovo di Bajusa. 3 Luglio. Ci sono avisi +d'Ingliterra de' 14 del passalo che mostrano gli animi di la e +massimamente Eboracense non dico inclinati ma accesi di desiderio di +concordia con Francia'.... Lettere di principi I. 168. + +[88] 'Le dit Cardinal sera conducteur, moderateur et gouverneur de +toutes les entreprises.' The Regent's Instructions in Brinon, +Captivite de Francois I. 57. + +[89] Riccardus Scellejus de prima causa divortii (Bibliotheca +Magliabecch. at Florence). 'Catharina ita stomachata est, ut de +Vulseji potentia minuenda cogitationem susciperet, quod ille cum +sensisset, qui ab astrologo suo accepisset, sibi a muliere exitium +imminere, de regina de gradu dejicienda consilium inivit.' + +[90] Lodovico Falier, Relatione di 1531 'avendo trattato, di dargli a +sorella del Cristianissimo adesso maritata al re di Navarra, gli +promese di far tanto con S. Sta che disfacesse le nozze.' + +[91] Du Bellay au Grandmaistre 21 October 1528; after Wolsey's own +narrative in Le Grand, Histoire du divorce de Henri VIII, iii. 186. + +[92] He says so himself. Bellay's letter in Le Grand iii. 318. + +[93] In Sanga to Gambara, 9 February 1528. L. d. p. ii. 85. 'La cosa +che V. S. sa, che non potra seguire senza gran rottura, fa S. S. +facile a creder che posse essere cio che dice (Lotrec). + +[94] 'Considering the nature of men, being prone into novelties--the +realm of England would not only enter into their accustomed divisions, +but also would owe or do small devotion unto the church: wherefore his +Holiness was right well content and ready to adhibit all remedy that +in him was possible as in this time would serve.' Knight to the +Cardinal, 1 Jan. 1528, in Burnet i. Collect. p. 22. + +[95] Incorrupta. Campeggi's letters to Sanga, 17, 26, 28 Oct. 1528. +Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana, 18 Oct. p. 25 seq. He gives his motive +for communicating what the Queen said to him in confession as being +her own wish. The archives too have long kept their secret. + +[96] According to Ricc. Scellejus, she prays the King, 'ne pergat suam +oppugnare castitatem, quae dos erat maxima, quam posset futuro offerre +marito, quaque violanda reginam etiam dominam proderet,--quoniam se +illi fidelitatis sacramento obligasset.' + +[97] It seemed helpful to their working against the cardinal. +Particularities of the life of Queen Anne, in Singer's Cavendish ii. +187. + +[98] Du Bellay in Le Grand iii. 296. 'Le duc de Norfolk et sa ande +commencent deja a parler gros (28 Jan. 1520).' + +[99] In a letter of Sanga to Campeggi (Lettere di diversi autori +eccellenti p. 60), we read the following words: 'In quanto alla +dispensa di maritar il figliolo con la figliola del re, se con haver +in questa maniera stabilita la successione S. M. si rimanesse del +primo pensiero della dissolutions S. Bne inclineria assai Piu.' This +looks as if a marriage between Henry VIII's natural son and Mary was +spoken of.--So I wrote previously. The thing is quite true. Campeggi +writes 28 Oct. to Sanga. 'Han pensato si maritar la (la figliola) con +dispensa di S. Sta al figlio natural del re, a che haveva pensato +anch'io per stabilimento della successione.' (Monumenta Vaticana p. +30.) + +[100] Sanga to Campeggi 2 Sept. 1528 in the Lettere di diversi autori +eccellenti, Venetia 1556, p. 40. 'V. Sra. vedra l'esito che ha havuto +l'impresa del regno.--Bisogna che S. Bne vedendo l'imperatore +vittorioso non si precipiti a dare all'imperatore causa di nuova +rottura.... Sia almanco avvertita di non lasciarsi costringere a +pronuntiare senza nuova et expressa commissione di qua.' + +[101] Falier says so very positively. + +[102] Sanga 29 May. 'S. Bne ricorda che il procedere sia lento et in +modo alcuno non si venghi al giudicio.' Of the same date is Bellay's +letter in which those exhortations of Wolsey to the French Court are +contained. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SEPARATION OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. + + +Already at Orvieto Stephen Gardiner had told the Pope that, if the +King did not obtain justice from him, he would do himself justice in +his own kingdom. Later it was plainly declared to the Pope that, if +they saw the Emperor had the ascendancy in his Council, the nobility +of England with the King at their head would feel themselves compelled +to cast off obedience to Rome. It seems as though the Roman Court +however had no real fear of this. For the King, so they said, would do +himself most damage by such a step.[103] The Papal Nuncio declared +himself positively convinced, that it was necessary to deal with the +English sharply and forcibly, if one would gain their respect. + +But these tendencies were more deeply rooted among the English than +was remembered at Rome. They went back as far as the Articles of +Clarendon, the projects of King John, the antipapal agitation under +Edward III; the present question which involved an exceptionable and +personal motive, exposed to public disapprobation, nevertheless +touched on the deepest interests of the country. The wish to make the +succession safe was perfectly justifiable. According to Clement VII's +own declarations, the English were convinced that he was only hindered +by regard for the Emperor from coming to a decision which was +essential to them. His vacillation is very intelligible, very natural: +but it did not correspond to the idea of the dignity with which he was +clothed. There was to be an independent supreme Pontiff for this very +reason, that right might be done in the quarrels of princes, without +respect of persons, according to the state of the case. It clashed +with the idea of the Papacy that alterations of political relations +exercised such a decisive influence as they did in this matter. There +was indeed something degrading for the English in their being made to +feel the reaction of the Emperor's Italian victory, and his +preponderance, in their weightiest affairs. + +Henry VIII had now made up his mind to throw off that ecclesiastical +subjection, which was politically so disadvantageous; the +circumstances were very favourable. It was the time at which some +German principalities, and the kingdoms of the North, had given +themselves a constitution which rested on the exclusion of the +hierarchic influences of Rome: the King could reckon on many allies in +his enterprise. Moreover he had no dangerous hostilities to fear, as +long as the jealousy lasted between the Emperor and King Francis. +Between them Henry VIII needed only to revert to his natural policy of +neutrality. + +And the accomplishment of the affair was already prepared in the +country itself, through no one more than through Cardinal Wolsey. + +The dignity of legate, which was granted him by Pope Leo, and then +prolonged for five, for ten years, and at last for life, gave him a +comprehensive spiritual authority. He obtained by it the right of +visiting and reforming all ecclesiastical persons and institutions, +even those which possessed a legal exemption of their own. Some orders +of monks, which contended against it, were reduced to obedience by new +bulls. But from the visitation of the monasteries Wolsey proceeded to +their suppression: he united old convents (such as that one which has +brought down to recent times the name of an Anglo-Saxon king's +daughter, Frideswitha, from the eighth century) with the splendid +colleges which he endowed so richly, for the advancement of learning +and the renown of his name, at Oxford and at Ipswich. His courts +included all branches of the ecclesiastical and mixed jurisdiction, +and the King had no scruple in arming him with all the powers of the +crown which were necessary for the government of the Church. What +aspirations then arose are shewn by the compact which Wolsey made with +King Francis I to counteract the influence which the Emperor might +exert over the captive Pope. When it was settled in this, that +whatever the cardinal and the English prelates should enact with the +King's consent should have the force of law, does not this imply at +least a temporary schism? + +When Clement became free, he named Wolsey his Vicar-General for the +English Church: his position was again to be what it had been from the +beginning, the expression of the unity between the Pope and the Crown. +But now how if this were dissolved? The victorious Emperor exercised a +still greater influence over the Pope when free than he had ever done +over him when captive. Under these circumstances Wolsey submitted to +the supreme spiritual power, the King resolved to withstand it: it was +exactly on this point that open discord broke out between them. For a +time the cardinal seemed still to maintain his courage; but when on +St. Luke's day--the phrase ran that the evangelist had disevangelised +him--the great seal was taken from him, he lost all self-reliance. +Wolsey was not a Ximenes or a Richelieu. He had no other support than +the King's favour; without this he fell back into his nothingness. He +was heard to wail like a child: the King comforted him by a token of +favour, probably however less out of personal sympathy than because he +could not be yet quite dispensed with.[104] The High Treasurer, +Norfolk, who generally acted as first minister, received the seals, +and held them till some time afterwards Thomas More was named +Chancellor. While these administered affairs in London, Suffolk, as +President of the Privy Council, was to accompany the King in person. +The chief direction of the administration passed over to the two +leading lay lords. + +Henry VIII's resolution to call the Parliament together was of almost +greater importance for the progress of events than the alteration in +the ministry. + +During the fourteen years of his administration Wolsey had summoned +Parliament only once, and that was when, in order to carry on the war +in alliance with the Emperor against France, he needed an +extraordinary grant of money. But his opening discourses were received +with silence and dislike. Never, says a contemporary who was present, +was the need of money more pressingly represented to a Parliament and +never was there greater opposition; after a fortnight's consultation +the proposal only passed at a moment when the members of the King's +household and court formed the majority of those present.[105] The +Parliament and the country always murmured at Wolsey's oppressive and +lavish finance management;[106] a later attempt to raise taxes that +had not been voted doubled the outcry against him. His fall and the +convocation of a Parliament seemed a return to parliamentary +principles in general, which in themselves exactly agreed with the +view taken by the King in the present questions. + +In the first years of Henry VIII the Parliament had wished to do away +with some of the most startling exemptions of the clergy from the +temporal jurisdiction, for instance in reference to the crimes of +felony and murder; the ecclesiastics had on the other hand extended +their jurisdiction yet further, even to cases that had reference +solely to questions of property. Hence the antagonism between the two +jurisdictions had revived at that time with bitter keenness. It is +noticeable that the temporal claims were upheld by a learned Minorite, +Henry Standish, who declared it to be quite lawful to limit the +ecclesiastical privileges for the sake of the public good; especially +in the case of a crime that did not properly come before any spiritual +court. Both sides then applied to the King: the ecclesiastics reminded +him that he ought to uphold the rights of Holy Church, the laymen that +he should maintain the powers of jurisdiction belonging to the crown. +The King's declaration was favourable to the laymen; he recommended +the clergy to acquiesce in some exceptions from their decretals. But +the contest was rather suspended than decided. Wolsey's government +followed, in which the spiritual courts extended their powers still +further, and in reality exercised an offensive control over all the +relations of private life. Even the ecclesiastics did not love his +authority: they acquiesced in it because it was ecclesiastical: the +laity endured it with the utmost impatience. + +It was inevitable that at the first fresh assembly of a Parliament +these contests about jurisdiction should be mentioned. The Lower House +began its action with a detailed charge against the spiritual courts, +not merely against their abuses and the oppression that arose from +them, but against their very existence and their legislation; the +clergy made laws without the King's foreknowledge, without the +participation of any laymen, and yet the laity were bound by them. The +King was called on to reconcile his subjects of the spiritual and +temporal estate with each other by good laws, since he was their sole +head, the sovereign, lord and protector of both parties. + +It was a slight phrase,[107] 'the sole head of his subjects spiritual +and temporal,' but one of the weightiest import. The very existence of +the clergy as an order had hitherto depended precisely on their claim +to a legislative power independent of the temporal supremacy as being +their original right: on its universal maintenance rested the Papacy +and its influence on the several countries. Were the clergy now to +leave it to the King, who however only represented the temporal power, +to adjust the differences between their legislation and that of the +state? Were they, like the laity, virtually to recognise him as their +Head? + +It is clear that they would thus sever themselves from the great union +under one spiritual Head, from the constitution of the Latin Church. +Whoever it was that introduced the word 'Head,' no doubt had this in +view. The King and the laity took it up, they wished only to induce +the clergy themselves to come to a resolution in this sense. + +The chief motive which was to serve this purpose is connected with the +lordship which the Popes possessed in England in the thirteenth +century, or rather with the reaction against it which went on +throughout the fourteenth. This is most distinctly expressed in the +statutes of 1393, which threatened with the severest penalties all +participation in any attempt, to the injury of the King's supremacy, +to obtain a church-benefice from Rome; and this too even where the +King had given his consent to it. Clergy and laity were thus allied +against the encroachments of the Roman Curia. Wolsey was now accused +of having transgressed this statute:[108] he had in virtue of his +legatine power given away benefices, and established a jurisdiction by +which that of the King was encroached on; he was found guilty of this +in regular form. He anticipated the full effect of this sentence by +submitting without any defence and surrendering all his property to +the King. It was then that York House in Westminster, with its gardens +and the land adjoining, the Whitehall of later times, passed into the +possession of the crown.[109] He still kept his archbishopric; we find +him soon after at Caywood, the palace belonging to it, and in fact +even busied once more with his buildings. At times the King again +thought of his old counsellor, and to many it quite seemed as though +he might yet recover power. In those days the general belief was, that +Anne Boleyn had exerted her whole influence against it. But most of +the other persons of distinction in court and state were also opposed +to Wolsey. Did he then really, as was imputed to him, try to gain a +party among the clergy, and move the Pope to pronounce excommunication +against the King?[110] A pretext at any rate was found for arresting +him as a traitor: but as he was being brought to the Tower, he died +on the way. He wished, so far as we know, to starve himself to death; +it was at that time supposed that in his wish to die he was aided by +help from others. + +Neither for his mental nor for his moral qualities can Wolsey be +reckoned among men of the first rank; yet his position and the ability +which he showed in it, his ambition and his political plans, what he +did and what he suffered, his success and his fall, have won him an +imperishable name in English history. His attempt to link the royal +power with the Papacy by the closest ties rent them asunder for ever. +No sooner was he dead than the clergy became subject to the Crown--a +subjection which could forebode nothing less than this final rupture. + +The whole clergy was so far involved in Wolsey's guilt that it had +supported his Legatine Powers, and so had shared in the violation of +the statutes. It shows the English spirit of keeping to the strict +letter of the law, that the King, though he had for years given his +consent and help in all this, now came forward to avenge the violation +of the law. To avert his displeasure the Convocation of Canterbury was +forced to vote him a very considerable sum of money, yet even this did +not satisfy him. Rather it seemed to him the fitting and decisive +moment for forcing the clergy, conformably with the Address of the +Commons, to accept the Anglican point of view. He demanded from +Convocation the express acknowledgment that they recognised him as +_the Protector and the Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of +England_; he commanded the judges not to issue the Act of Pardon +unless this acknowledgment were at once incorporated with the bill for +the money payment. It is not hard to see what made him choose this +exact moment for so acting; it was the serious turn which the affair +of his Divorce had taken at Rome. He had once more made application to +the Curia to let it be decided in England; the Cardinals discussed the +point in their Consistory, Dec. 22, 1530, but resolved that the +question must come of right before the Assessors of the Rota, who +should afterwards report on it to the Sacred College.[111] What their +sentence would be was the less doubtful, since the Curia was now +linked closer than ever with the Emperor, who had just closed the Diet +of Augsburg in the way they wished, and was now about to carry out its +decrees. The traces of a new alliance with Rome, which was imputed to +Wolsey as an act of treason, must have contributed to the same result. +The King wished to break off this connexion by a Declaration, which +would serve him as a standing-ground later on, and show the Court of +Rome that he had nothing to fear from it. On Feb. 7, 1531, the King's +demand was laid before both Houses of Convocation. Who could avoid +seeing its decisive significance for the age? The clergy, which had +without much trouble agreed to the money-vote, nevertheless strove +long against a Declaration which altered their whole position. But a +hard necessity lay on them. In default of the Pardon, which, as the +judges repeatedly assured them, depended on this Declaration, they +would have found themselves out of the protection of the King and the +Law. They sent two bishops, to get the King's demand softened by a +personal appeal; Henry VIII refused to hear them. They proposed that +some members of both Houses should confer with the Privy Council and +the judges; the answer was that the King wished for no discussion, he +wanted a clear answer. Thus much however they ascertained, that the +King would be content with a mode of statement in which he was +unconditionally recognised as the protector and sovereign of the +Church and clergy of England, but as its supreme head only so far as +religion allows. This was comprehended in the formula _in so far as is +permitted by the law of Christ_, an expression which men might assent +to on opposite grounds. Some might accept it from seeing in it only +the limitation which is set to all power by the laws of God; others +from thinking that it excluded generally the influence of the secular +power on what were properly spiritual matters. When the clause was +laid before them, at the morning sitting of Feb. 11, it was received +with an ambiguous silence; but on closer consideration, it was so +evidently their only possible resource, that in the afternoon, first +the Upper House of Convocation, and then the Lower, gave their +consent. Then the King accepted the money-bill, and granted them in +return the Act of Pardon.[112] + +The clergy had yet other causes for seeking the King's protection. The +writings of the Reformers, which attacked good works and vows, the +Mass and the Priesthood, and all the principles on which the +ecclesiastical system rested, found their way across the Channel, and +filled men's minds in England also with similar convictions. The only +safeguard against them lay in the King's power; his protection was no +empty word, the clergy was lost if it drew on itself Henry's aversion, +which was now directed against the Papal See. + +The heavy weight of the King's hand and the impulse of +self-preservation were however not the only reasons why they yielded. +It is undeniable that the conception of the Universal Church, +according to which the National Church did but form part of a larger +whole, was nearly as much lost among the clergy as among the laity. In +the Parliament of 1532 Convocation had presented a petition in which +they desired to be released from the payments which had been hitherto +made to the supreme spiritual authority, especially the annates and +first-fruits. The National Church was the existing, immediate +authority--why should they allow taxes to be laid on them for a +distant Power, a Power moreover of which they had no need? As the +bishops complained that this injured their families and their +benefices, Parliament calculated the sums which Rome had drawn out of +the country on this ground since Henry VII's time, and which it would +soon draw at the impending vacancies; what losses the country had +already suffered in this way, and would yet suffer.[113] + +The tendency of men's minds in this direction showed itself also in +the understanding come to on the chief question of all. + +Parliament renewed its complaints of the abuses in the ecclesiastical +legislation, and learned men brought out clearly the want of any +divine authority to justify it; at last the bishops virtually +renounced their right of special legislation, and pledged themselves +for the future not to issue any kind of Ordinance or Constitution +without the King's knowledge and consent. A revision of the existing +canons by a mixed commission, under the presidentship of their common +head, the King, was to restore the unity of legislation. + +The clause was then necessarily omitted by which the recognition of +the Crown's supremacy over the clergy had been hitherto limited. The +defenders of the secular power put forth the largest claims. They +said, the King has also the charge of his subjects' souls, the +Parliament is divinely empowered to make ordinances concerning them +also.[114] + +So a consolidation of public authority grew up in England, unlike +anything which had yet been seen in the West. One of the great +statutes that followed begins with the preamble that England is a +realm to which the Almighty has given all fulness of power, under one +supreme head, the King, to whom the body politic has to pay natural +obedience, next after God; that this body consists of clergy and +laity; to the first belongs the decision in questions of the divine +law and things spiritual, while temporal affairs devolve on the laity; +that one jurisdiction aids the other for the due administration of +justice, no foreign intervention is needed. This is the Act by which, +for these very reasons, legal appeals to Rome were abolished. It was +now possible to carry out what in previous centuries had been +attempted in vain. All encroachments on the prerogative of the +'Imperial Crown' were to be abolished, the supreme jurisdiction of the +Roman Curia was to be valid no longer; appeals to Rome were not only +forbidden but subjected to penalties. + +The several powers of the realm united to throw off the foreign +authority which had hitherto influenced them, and which limited the +national independence, as being itself a higher power. + +As the oaths taken by the bishops were altered to suit these statutes, +the King set himself to modify his coronation oath also in the same +sense. He would not swear any longer to uphold the rights of the +Church in general, but only those guaranteed to the Church of England, +and not derogatory to his own dignity and jurisdiction; he did not +pledge himself to maintain the peace of the Church absolutely, but +only the concord between the clergy and his lay subjects according to +his conscience; not, unconditionally, to maintain the laws and customs +of the land, but only those that did not conflict with his crown and +imperial duties. He promised favour only for the cases in which favour +ought to find a place.[115] + +How predominant is the strong feeling of aggrandisement, of personal +right, and of kingly independence! + +Henry VIII too regarded himself as a successor of Constantine the +Great, who had given laws to the Church. True, said he, kings are sons +of the Church, but not the less are they supreme over Christian men. +Of the doctrines which came from Germany none found greater acceptance +with him than this--that every man must be obedient to the higher +powers. We possess Tyndale's book in which these principles are set +forth; by Anne Boleyn's means it came into Henry's hands. That Pope +Clement summoned him formally before his judgment-seat, he declared to +be an offence to the Kingly Majesty. Was a Prince, he exclaims, to +submit himself to a creature whom God had made subject to him; to +humble himself before a man who, in opposition to God and Right, +wished to oppress him? It would be a reversal of the ordinance of +God.[116] + +Whilst we follow the questions which here come into discussion--on the +relations of Church and State, the rights of nations and +kings--questions of infinite importance for this as for all other +states, we almost lose sight of the affair of the Divorce, which had +been the original cause of quarrel, and which had meanwhile moved on +in the direction given it once for all. Pope Clement restrained +himself as much as possible, he still more than once made advances to +the King and offered him conciliatory terms; but the King had already +gone too far in his separation from Rome to be able to accept them. At +the beginning of 1533 he celebrated his marriage with Anne Boleyn +privately. He had once, when he was still waiting for the Pope's +decision, tried to influence it by favourable opinions of learned +theologians.[117] With this view he had applied to the most +distinguished universities in Italy and Germany, in France and in +England itself; and managed to obtain a large number of decisions, by +which the Pope's right of dispensation was denied; and this in spite +of the constant efforts in various ways of the Imperial agents; even +the two mother-universities, Bologna and Paris, had declared in his +favour. He protested that he had been thereby enabled in his +conscience to free himself from the yoke of an unlawful union, +bordering on incest, and to proceed to another marriage. But all the +more urgent was it that the legality of this marriage should be +recognised according to the forms at that time lawfully valid. He no +longer wished for a recognition from the Pope; he laid the question +before the two Convocations of the English Church-provinces. For the +general course of Church history we must admit it to be an event of +the highest significance, that they dared to pronounce the +dispensation of Pope Julius II invalid according to God's law. The +authority hitherto regarded as the expression of God's will on earth +was found guilty, by the representatives of the Church of one +particular country, of transgressing that will. It now followed that +the King's marriage, concluded on the strength of that dispensation, +was declared by the Archbishop's court at Canterbury null and void, +and invalid from the beginning. Catharine was henceforth to be +treated no longer as Queen but only as still Princess-dowager. + +She was unable to realise the things that were happening around her. +That she was expected to renounce her rank as Queen awoke in her quite +as much astonishment as anger. 'For she had not come to England,' she +said, 'on mercantile business at a venture, but according to the will +of the two venerated kings now dead: she had married King Henry +according to the decision of the Holy Father at Rome: she was the +anointed and crowned Queen of England; were she to give up her title, +she would have been a concubine these twenty-four years, and her +daughter a bastard; she would be false to her conscience, to her own +soul, her confessor would not be able to absolve her.' She became more +and more absorbed in strict Catholic religious observances. She rose +soon after midnight, to be present at the mass; under her dress she +wore the habit of the third order of S. Francis; she confessed twice +and fasted twice a week; her reading consisted of the legends of the +saints. So she lived on for two years more, undisturbed by the +ecclesiastico-political statutes which passed in the English +Parliament. Till the very end she regarded herself as the true Queen +of England. + +Immediately after the sentence on Catharine followed Anne's +coronation, which was performed with all the ancient ceremonial, all +the more carefully attended to because she was not born a princess. On +the Thursday before Whitsuntide she was escorted from Greenwich by the +Mayor and the Trades of London, in splendidly adorned barges, with +musical instruments playing, till she was greeted by the cannon of the +Tower. The Saturday after she went in procession through the City to +Westminster. The King had created eighteen knights of the Order of the +Bath. These in their new decorations, and a great part of the +nobility, which felt itself honoured in Anne's elevation, accompanied +her:[118] she sat on a splendid seat, supported by and slung between +horses: the canopy over her was borne by the barons of the Cinque +Ports; her hair was uncovered, she was charming as always, and (it +appears) not without a sense of high good fortune. On Sunday she was +escorted to Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury and six +bishops, the Abbot of Westminster and twelve other abbots in full +canonicals: she was in purple, her ladies in scarlet, for so old +custom required; the Duke of Suffolk bore the crown before her, which +was placed on her head by the hands of the archbishop. Nobles and +commons greeted her with emulous devotion, the ecclesiastics joined +in; they expected from her an heir to England.--Not a son, but a +daughter, Elizabeth, did she then bear beneath her heart. + +Anne's coronation was at the same time the complete expression of the +revolt of the nation collectively from the Roman See: it is noteworthy +that Pope Clement VII, in his all-calculating and temporising policy, +even then reserved to himself the last word. As he had once yielded to +the Emperor, to conclude his peace with him, so now again--for he did +not wish to be entirely dependent on him--he had entered into close +relations with King Francis, who on his side saw in the continuance of +his union with England one of the conditions of his position in +Europe. The political weight of England reacted indirectly on the +Pope: he indeed annulled Archbishop Cranmer's decision, but he could +not yet bring himself to take a further step, often as he had promised +the Emperor and pledged himself in his agreements to do so.[119] +Charles V supplied his ambassador at Rome with yet another means to +advance (as he expressed himself) the decision of the proceedings with +the Pope and with the Holy See--for he made a distinction between +them. The Pope inquired of him what, after this had ensued, would then +be done to carry it out. The Emperor answered, his Holiness should do +what justice pledged him to do, what he could not omit if he would +fulfil his duty to God and the world, and maintain his own importance; +this must come first, the Church must use all its own means before it +called in the temporal arm: but if the matter came to that point, he +would not fail to do his part; to declare himself explicitly +beforehand might excite religious scruples.[120] And however much the +policy of the Pope might waver, there could be no doubt about the +decision of the Rota. On the 23 March 1534 one of the auditors, +Simonetta, bishop of Pesaro, made a statement on the subject in the +consistory of the cardinals: there were only three among them who +demanded a further delay: all the rest joined without any more +consideration in the decision that Henry's marriage with Catharine was +perfectly lawful, and their children legitimate and possessed of full +rights. The Imperialists held this to be a great victory, they made +the city ring with their cries of 'the Empire and Spain':[121] yet +even then the French did not give up the hope of bringing the Pope to +another mind. But meanwhile in England the last steps were already +taken. + +King Henry reckons it as honourable to himself that he had not yielded +to the offer of the Roman Court, made to him indirectly, to decide in +his favour, but had set himself against its usurped jurisdiction, +without being influenced by the proposal,[122] not for himself alone +but in the interest of all kings. Yet once more had he laid the +question before learned ecclesiastics, whether the Pope of Rome had +any authority in England by divine right; as the University of Oxford +declares, their theologians had searched for this through the books of +Holy Scripture and its most approved interpreters; they had compared +the places, conferred with each other on them and come at last to the +conclusion, to answer the King's question unreservedly in the +negative. The Cambridge scholars and both Convocations declared +themselves in the same sense. On this the Parliament had no scruple in +abrogating piece by piece the hierarchic-Romish order of things; it +was nothing but a revocable right which they had hitherto borne with. +The Annates were transferred to the crown; never more was an English +bishop to receive his pallium from Rome. It was made penal to apply +for dispensing faculties; with their abolition the fees usually paid +for them also ceased. The oldest token of the devotion of the +Anglo-Saxon race to the Roman See, the Peter's penny, was definitely +abolished. Care was taken that for the appeal in the last resort, +hitherto made to the Roman courts, there should be a similar court at +home. On the other hand the King granted a greater freedom in the +election of bishops, at least in its outward forms. The existing laws +against heretics were confirmed, though those independent proceedings +of the bishops which had been usual in the times of the Lancasters +received some limitation. For the episcopal constitution and the old +doctrine were to be retained: the wish was to establish an +Anglo-Catholic Church under the supremacy of the crown. The King added +to his titles the designation of 'Supreme Head on earth of the Church +of England immediately under God.' The Parliament awarded him the +right of Visitation over the Church in reference to abuses and even to +errors, as well as the right of reforming them. For the exercise +moreover of the Papal authority, which so far passed over to him, he +had an example before him which he had only to follow. Wolsey for a +series of years, as Legate of the Pope and then as his Vicar General, +had administered the English Church by means of English courts: the +unity of the English common-weal had been represented in his twofold +power as legate and first minister; practically it was no violent +change when the King himself now appointed a Vicar General who, +empowered by him, exercised this authority without any reference to +the Pope. It was an assistant of Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, who was at +the same time Keeper of the Great Seal, who regulated the management +of these affairs in a way not altogether new to him. From this point +of view Wolsey represents exactly the man of the transition, who +occupied the intermediate position in nationalising the English +Church. + +Though Henry VIII did not always follow in his father's footsteps, he +was yet his genuine successor in the work he began. What the first +Tudor achieved in the temporal domain, viz. the exclusion of foreign +influence, that the second extended to spiritual affairs. The great +question now was, whether the conflicting elements, in themselves +independent but ceaselessly agitated by their connexion with the rest +of Europe, would continue loyal to the idea of the common-weal; then +even their opposition might become a new impulse and help to perfect +the power of the State and the Constitution. + +NOTES: + +[103] 'Quasi che quello, che minacciano, non fosse prima a danno +loro.' So it is said in a letter of Sanga, April 1529, Lettere di +diversi autori p. 69. + +[104] 'Pour ce qu'il n'est encoires temps qu'il meure que premierement +l'on n'ayt entendu et veriffie plusieurs choses.' Chapuis to Charles +V, 25 Oct. 1529, in Bradford, Correspondence of the Emperor Charles V, +p. 291. + +[105] A letter printed in Fiddes (Life of Wolsey, Records II. p. 115, +no 58), adds to the laconic parliamentary notices the desirable +explanation: 'the knights being of the King's council, the King's +servants and gentlemen ... were long time spoken with and made to see +(a misprint for "say") yea, it may fortune, contrary to their heart.' + +[106] Giustiniani: Four Years, I. 162. 'They see that their treasure +is spent in vain, and consequently loud murmurs and discontent prevail +through the kingdom.' + +[107] 'The only head sovereign lord and protector of both the said +parties, your subjects spiritual and temporal.' Petition of the +Commons 1529, in Froude, History of England i. 200. + +[108] Indictment in Fiddes, Life of Wolsey p. 504. + +[109] 'Pro domino rege, de recuperatione.' Ibid. Collections no. 103. + +[110] Falier: 'comincio a machinar contra la corona con S. Sta.' + +[111] Pallavicino, Concilio di Trento III, XIV, V, from a Roman diary. + +[112] Original accounts in Burnet iii. 52, 53. + +[113] Proceedings in Burnet, History of the Reformation i. 117. Strype +had already remarked its difference from the original demands. + +[114] Matters to be proposed in Convocation (in Strype, Ecclesiastical +Memorials i. 215.) 'That the King's Majesty hath as well the care of +the souls of his subjects as their bodies, and may by the law of God +by his Parliament make laws touching and concerning as well the one as +the other.' + +[115] Facsimile in Ellis's Original Letters, Ser. ii. vol i. But this +alteration cannot have taken place at the beginning of his government. +This would presuppose all the results won by so much effort. The +handwriting too is not that of a boy, but of a grown man. + +[116] Instruction for Rochefort, State Papers vii. 427. + +[117] Jean Joachim au roi (de France) 15 Feb. 1510, afinche questa +opinion (della Faculta di Parigi) insieme con altre opinion delle +universita di Angliterra et d'altrove per Mr. Winschier [father of +Anne Boleyn] al papa si possino monstrar o presentar. + +[118] 'The moste part of the nobles of the realm.' Cranmer's letter to +Hawkyns. Archaeologia xviii. 79. + +[119] In the treaty of Bologna (1 Feb. 1533) is an article, 'pro +administranda justitia super divortio Anglicano et--amputando omnem +superfluam dilationem' + +[120] Instruccion para el Conde de Cifuentes y Rodrigo Avalos. Papiers +d'etat de Granvelle ii. 45 + +[121] In a later report to the Emperor it is said, that the rights of +the Queen and Princess were recognised, 'a l'instante poursuite de S. +Me. Imperiale.' Ibid. ii. 210. + +[122] In Halliwell, Letters of the Kings of England i. 337. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE OPPOSING TENDENCIES WITHIN THE SCHISMATIC STATE. + + +Among the results of these transactions in England that which most +directly concerned the higher interests of the nation was the +abolition, by a formal decision of Parliament, on religious grounds, +of the hereditary title of the King's daughter by his Spanish Queen, +and the recognition of the succession of Queen Anne's issue to the +throne, even in the case of her having only the one daughter who had +been meanwhile born. This does not depend so much on the actual +measures taken as on the fact, that now, according to Wolsey's plan, +the government had broken with the political system which had +prevailed hitherto, and indeed in a sense that went far beyond his +views. Not merely was a French alliance avoided; the separation from +the Church of Rome was to become the basis of the whole dynastic +settlement of England. + +At home men felt most the harshness and violence of basing a political +rule on Church ideas. The statute contains threats of the sharpest +punishments against all who should do or write or even say anything +against it: a commission was appointed, in which we find the Dukes of +Norfolk and Suffolk, which could require every one to take an oath of +conformity to it. It was to be carried out with the full weight of +English adherence to the law. + +It was to this very statute that Bishop Fisher of Rochester and Sir +Thomas More fell victims. They did not refuse to acknowledge the order +of succession itself thus enacted, for this was within the competence +of Parliament, but they would not confirm with their oath the reason +laid down in the statute, that Henry's marriage with Catharine was +against Scripture and invalid from the beginning. More ranks among the +original minds of this great century: he is the first who learnt how +to write English prose; but in the great currents of the literary +movement he shrank back from the foremost place: after he had aided +them by writings in the style of Erasmus, he set himself as Lord +Chancellor of England to oppose their onward sweep with much rigour: +he would not have the Church community itself touched. Of the last +statute he said, it killed either the body if one opposed it, or the +soul if one obeyed: he preferred to save his soul. He met his death +with so lively a realisation of the future life, in which the troubles +of this life would cease, that he looked on his departure out of it +with all the irony which was in general characteristic of him. The +fact that the Pope at this moment had named Bishop Fisher cardinal of +the Roman Church seems to have still more hastened his execution. They +both died as martyrs to the ideas by which England had been hitherto +linked to the Church community of the West and to the authority of the +Papacy. + +If we turn our eyes abroad, the succession statute above all must have +made a most disagreeable impression on the Emperor Charles V. He saw +in it a political loss, an injury to his house, and indeed to all +sovereign families, and a danger to the Church. With a view to +opposing it, he formed the plan of drawing the King of France into an +enterprise against England. He proposed to him the marriage of his +third son, the Duke of Angouleme, with the Princess Mary, who was +recognised as the only lawful heiress of England by the Apostolic See, +and whose claims would then accrue to this prince.[123] And they would +not be difficult, so he said, to establish, as a great part of the +English abhorred the King's proceedings, his second marriage, and his +divergence from the Church. At the same time the Emperor proposed the +closest dynastic union of the two houses by a double marriage of his +two children with a son and a daughter of Francis I. What in the whole +world would he not have attained, if he had won over France to +himself! His combination embraced as usual West and East, Church and +State, Italian German and Northern affairs. + +Perhaps the success of such a scheme was not probable; but +independently of this, Henry VIII had good cause to prepare himself to +meet the superior power of the Emperor, with whom he had so decidedly +broken. As we have already hinted, he could have no want of allies in +this struggle. It was under these circumstances that he entered into +relations with the powerful demagogues who were then from their +central position at Lubeck labouring to transform the North, and to +sever it from all Netherlandish-Burgundian influence. But it was of +still more importance to him to form an alliance with the Protestant +princes and estates of Germany proper, who had gradually become a +power in opposition to Pope and Emperor. In the autumn of 1535 we find +English ambassadors in Germany, who attended the meeting of the League +at Schmalkald, and the most serious negociations were entered on. Both +sides were agreed not to recognise the Council which was then +announced by the Pope, for the very reason that the Pope announced it, +who had no right to do so. The German princes demanded an engagement +that if one of the two parties was attacked, the other should lend no +support to its enemy; for the King this was not enough; he wished, in +case he was attacked, to be able to reckon on support from Germany in +cavalry, infantry, and ships, in return for which he was ready to give +a very considerable contribution to the chest of the League. It was +even proposed that he should undertake the protection of the +League.[124] + +All this however was based on a presupposition, which could not but +lead the English to further ecclesiastical changes. It was not a +schism affecting the constitution and administration of justice, but a +complete system of dissentient Church doctrines, with which Henry VIII +came in contact. The German Protestants made it a condition of their +alliance with England, that there should be full agreement between +them as to doctrine. + +We may ask whether this was altogether possible. + +If we compare the Church movements and events that had taken place +during the last years in Germany and in England, their great +difference is visible at a glance. In Germany the movement was +theological and popular, corresponding to the wants and needs of the +territorial state; in England it was juridico-canonical, not connected +with appeals to the people or with free preaching, but based on the +unity of the nation. Though the German Diet had for a moment inclined +to the Reform and had once even given it a legal sanction, it +afterwards by a majority set itself against it: to carry it through +became now the part of the minority, the Protesting party. In England +on the contrary all proceeded from the plan of the sovereign and the +resolutions of Parliament, in which the bishops themselves with few +exceptions took part. Perhaps a more deep-seated ground of difference +may be that the German bishops were more independent than the English, +and that an Emperor was then ruling who, being at the same time King +of Spain and Naples, troubled himself little about the unity of +Germany in particular; while in England a newly-formed strong +political power existed which made the national interests its own and +upheld them on all sides. + +Despite all this the English Schism had nevertheless a deep inner +analogy with the German Reformation. + +From the beginning the dispute as to jurisdiction was based on the +historical point of view, on which Luther too laid much stress. +Standish, who has been already mentioned, derived the right to limit +the ecclesiastical prerogatives, from this among other grounds, that +there were Christian churches in which they were altogether rejected, +for instance the rule as to the celibacy of the clergy was not +accepted by the Greeks. He inferred too, that, as no one disputed the +claim of the Greek Church to be Christian, the conception of the +universal Church must be different from that which Romanism asserts. +Both countries also found the groundwork of the true church-community +in Scripture. In the chief instance before them, that of the divorce, +the German theologians were not of the same mind as the English; but +both sides agreed in this, that there was a revealed will of God, +which the ecclesiastical power might not contravene: the conviction +took root that the Papacy did not represent the highest communion of +men with divine things, but that this rested on the divine record +alone. The use of Scripture had at last influenced various questions +in England also. For abolishing the Annates it was argued that such an +impost contradicts a maxim of the Apostle Paul; for doing away the +Papal jurisdiction, that no place of Scripture justifies it. This is +what was meant when the assertion that the Papacy is of divine right +was denied. This becomes quite clear when Henry VIII instead of the +previous prohibitions against distributing the Bible in the vernacular +gave his licence for it. As he once declared with great animation, the +advancement of God's word and of his own authority were one and the +same thing.[125] The engraved title-page of the translation which +appeared with his _privilegium_ puts into his mouth the expression +'Thy word is a light to my feet.' The order soon followed to place a +copy of the Book of books in every church: there every man might look +into the disputed places, and convince himself, by this highest of +codes, as to the rightfulness of the procedure that had been chosen. + +But then it was impossible to stop at mere divergences of +jurisdiction. The German interpretation of Scripture gained ground in +every direction: a theological school grew up, though only here and +there, which adhered to it more or less openly. + +It must needs have had the greatest effect, that the followers of this +view obtained a great number of bishoprics. The archbishopric of +Canterbury had already fallen to the lot of a man who had completed +his theological training in Germany: this very man, Thomas Cranmer, +had carried through the divorce; his was one of those natures which +must have the support of the supreme power to help them to follow out +their own views; as they then appear enterprising and courageous, so +do they become pliant and yielding when this favour fails them; they +do not shine through moral greatness, but they are well suited to +preserve, under difficult circumstances, what they have once embraced, +for better times. Hugh Latimer was cast in a sterner mould; he +actually dared, in the midst of the persecutions, to admonish the +King, whose chaplain he was, of the welfare of his soul and his duty +as King. However little this act effected for the moment, yet he may +have thus contributed to enlighten the King (who now and then showed +him personal goodwill) as to his title of 'Defender of the Faith.' +Latimer was a fervent and effective preacher: he was made bishop of +Worcester. Nicolas Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury, Hilsey of Rochester, +Bisham of S. Asaph's and then S. David's, Goodrich of Ely, were all +disposed to Protestantism. Edward Fox who had been named Bishop of +Hereford, had at Schmalkald openly declared the Pope to be Antichrist, +and assured the Protestants in the strongest manner of his sovereign's +inclination to attach himself to their Confession. It was the grand +union of these biblical scholars among the bishops, which in the +Convocation of 1536 undertook to carry through the work of drawing +their church nearer that of Germany. Latimer opened the war by a +fervent sermon against image-worship, indulgences, purgatory, and +other doctrines or rites which were at variance with the Bible. +Cranmer proved that Holy Scripture contains all that is necessary for +man to know for the salvation of his soul, and that tradition is not +needed. The Bishop of Hereford communicated it, as an experience of +his journey, that the laity everywhere would now be instructed only +out of the Revelation. Thomas Cromwell, who took part in the sittings +as the King's representative, lent them much support, and once brought +with him a Scottish scholar who had just returned from Wittenberg, to +combat the received doctrine of the Sacrament.[126] On the other side +also stood men of weight and consideration, Lee archbishop of York who +had expressly opposed himself, together with his clergy, to the +adoption of the King's new title, Stokesley of London who broke a +lance for the seven sacraments, Gardiner of Winchester and Longland of +Lincoln who after contributing materially to the King's divorce +nevertheless rejected any alteration in doctrine, Tonstall of Durham, +Nix of Norwich. + +It seems as though the King, who was still busied in the Parliament +itself with the confirmation of his church regulations, thought he +detected in this party too much predilection for the Papacy. He found +another motive in the necessity of having allies for the coming +Council; he decisively took the side of Reform. Ten articles were laid +before the Convocation in his name, the first five of which are taken +from the Augsburg Confession or from the commentaries on it; as to +these the Bishop of Hereford agreed with the theologians of +Wittenberg. In them the faithful were referred exclusively to the +contents of the Bible, and the three oldest creeds; only three +sacraments were still recognised, Baptism, Penance, and the Lord's +Supper. The real presence was maintained in them, in the words of +those commentaries, and entirely in Luther's original sense.[127] But +still this tendency was not yet so strong as to be able to make itself +exclusively felt. In the following articles, the veneration, even the +invocation, of saints, and no small part of the existing ceremonies, +were allowed--though in terms which with all their moderation cannot +disguise the rejection of them in principle. Despite these limitations +the document contains a clear adoption of the principles of religious +reform as they were carried out in Germany. It was subscribed by 18 +bishops, 40 abbots and priors, 50 members of the lower house of +Convocation: the King, as the Head of the Church, promulgated it for +general observance. His vicegerent in Church affairs commanded all the +clergy entrusted with a cure of souls to explain the articles, and +also at certain times to lay before the people the rightfulness of the +abrogation of Papal authority. He required them to give warnings +against image-worship, belief in modern miracles, and pilgrimages. +Children were henceforth to learn the Lord's Prayer, the articles of +the Creed, and the Ten Commandments in English.[128] It was the +beginning of the Church service in the vernacular, which was rightly +regarded as the chief means of withdrawing the national Church from +Romish influence. + +But Cromwell was also engaged in another enterprise, not less hostile +and injurious to the Papacy. + +As many of the great men in State and Church thought, so thought also +the pious members of the monasteries and cloistered convents; they +opposed the Supremacy, not as they said from inclination to +disobedience, but because Holy Mother Church ordered otherwise than +King and Parliament ordained.[129] The apology merely served to +condemn them. In the rules they followed, in the Orders to which they +belonged, the intercommunion of Latin Christianity had its most living +expression; but it was exactly this which King and Parliament wished +to sever. Wolsey had already, as we know, and with the help of +Cromwell himself, taken in hand to suppress many of them: but in the +new order of things there was absolutely no more place for the +monastic system; it was necessarily sacrificed to the unity of the +country, and at the same time to the greed of the great men. + +But it cannot be imagined that innovations which struck so deep could +be carried through without opposition. After all the efforts of the +old kings to establish Christianity in agreement with Rome, after the +victories of the Papacy when the kings quarrelled with it, and the +violent suppression of all dissent, it was inevitable that the belief +of the hierarchic ages, which is besides so peculiarly adapted to this +end, had in England as elsewhere sunk deep into men's minds, and in +great measure still swayed them. Was what had been always held for +heresy no longer to merit this name because it was avowed by the +ruling powers? In the northern counties neither the clergy nor the +people would hear of the King's supremacy; they continued to pray for +the Pope; Cromwell's injunctions were disregarded. It may be that +horrible abuses and vices were prevalent in the cloisters, but all did +not labour under such reproaches; many were objects of reverence in +their own districts, and centres of hospitality and charity. It would +have been wonderful if their violent destruction had not excited +popular discontent. And this temper was shared by those who enjoyed +the chief consideration in the provinces. Among the nobles there were +still men like Lord Darcy of Templehurst, who had borne arms against +the Moors in the service of Isabella and Ferdinand: how offensive to +them must innovations be which ran counter to all their reminiscences! +The lords in these provinces were believed to have pledged their word +to each other to suppress the heresies, as they called the Protestant +opinions, together with their authors and abettors. The country +people, who apprehended yet further encroachments, were easily stirred +up to commotion; collections of money were made from house to house, +and the strongest men of each parish provided with the necessary +weapons: in the autumn of 1536 open revolt broke out. A lawyer, Robert +Aske, placed himself at its head; he set before the people all the +damage that the suppression of the monasteries did to the country +around, by diverting their revenues and abstracting their treasures. +In a short time he had gained over the whole of the North. The city of +York joined him; Darcy admitted him into the strong castle of Pomfret: +in that broad county only one single castle still held out in its +obedience to the government: then the neighbouring districts also were +carried away by the movement: Aske saw an army of thirty thousand men +around him. He took the road to London to, as he said, drive base-born +men out of the King's council, and restore the Christian church in +England: he called his march a 'Pilgrimage of Grace.' But when he came +into contact with royal troops at Doncaster he paused; for it was not +a war, which would cost the country too dear, but only a great armed +remonstrance in favour of the old system that he contemplated. He +contented himself with presenting his demands--suppression of +heresies, restitution of the supreme charge of souls to the Pope, +restoration of the monasteries, and in particular the punishment of +Cromwell with his abettors, and the calling of a Parliament.[130] + +When we consider that Ireland was in revolt, Cornwall in a state of +ferment, men's Catholic sympathies stirred up by foreign princes, it +is easy to understand how some voices in the King's Privy Council were +raised in favour of concession. Henry VIII, a true Tudor, was not the +man to give in on such a point. He upbraided the rebels in haughty +words with their ignorance and presumption, and repeated that all he +did and ordered was in conformity with God's law and for the interests +of the country; but it was mainly by promising to call a Parliament at +York that he really laid the gathering storm. But at the first breach +of the law that occurred he revoked this promise;[131] if he had +relaxed the maintenance of his prerogative for a moment, he exercised +it immediately after all the more relentlessly. He at last got all the +leaders of the revolt into his hands, and appeared to the world to be +conqueror. But we cannot for this reason hold that the movement did +not react upon him. His plan was not, and in fact could not be, to +incur the hostility of his people or endanger the crown for the sake +of dogmatic opinions. True, he held to his order that the Bible should +be promulgated in the English tongue, for his revolt from the +hierarchy, and demand of obedience from all estates, rested on God's +written word: nor did he allow himself to swerve from the legally +enacted suppression of the monasteries; but he abandoned further +innovations, and an altered tendency displayed itself in all his +proclamations. Even during the troubles he called on the bishops to +observe the usual church ceremonies: he put forth an edict against the +marriage of priests (although he had been inclined to allow it) from +regard to popular opinion. The importation of books printed abroad, +and any publication of a work in England itself without a previous +censorship, were again prohibited. Processions, genuflexions, and +other pious usages, in church and domestic life, were once more +recommended. The sharpest edicts went forth against any dissent from +the strict doctrine of the Sacrament and against any extreme +variations in doctrine. The King actually appeared in person to take +part in confuting the misbelievers. He would prove to the world that +he was no heretic. + +It had also already become evident that no invasion by the Emperor was +at present impending. Soon after his overtures to the King of France, +Charles V perceived that he could not win him over to his side. In the +Spanish Council of State they took it into consideration that Henry +VIII, if anything was undertaken against him, would at all times have +the King of France on his side, and in his passionate temperament +might be easily instigated to take steps which they would rather +avoid.[132] After Catharine's death they made mutual advances, which +it is true did not bring about a good understanding, but yet excluded +actual hostilities. It would only disturb our view if we were here to +follow one by one the manifold fluctuations in the course of these +political relations and negociations. One motive in favour of peace +under all circumstances was supplied by the ever-growing commerce +between England and the Netherlands, on which the prosperity of both +countries depended, and the destruction of which would have been +injurious to the sovereigns themselves. When, some time after, the +prospect of an alliance with France against England was presented to +him by the interposition of the new Pope, Paul III, Charles declined +it. He remarked that the German Protestants, to whom his attention +must be mainly directed, would be strengthened by it.[133] At the most +an interruption of this system could only be expected in case civil +disturbances in England invited the Emperor to make a sudden attack. +Once it even appeared as if a Yorkist movement might be combined with +the religious agitation. A descendant of Edward IV, the Marquis of +Exeter, formed the plan of marrying the Princess Mary, and undertaking +the restoration of the old church system. He found much sympathy in +the country for this plan; the co-operation of the Emperor with him +might have been very dangerous. + +Henry lost no time in fortifying the harbours and coasts against such +an attack. + +But the chief means of preventing all dangers of this kind lay in +cutting from under them the ground on which they rested. Henry VIII +was not minded to yield a jot of the full power he had inherited: on +the contrary his supremacy in church matters was confirmed in 1539 by +a new act of Parliament: another finally ordained the suppression of +the greater abbeys also, whose revenues served to endow some new +bishoprics, but mainly passed into the possession of the Crown and the +Lords: the unity of the Church and the exclusive independence of the +country were still more firmly established. But the more Henry was +resolved to abide by his constitutional innovations, the more +necessary it seemed to him, in reference to doctrine, to avoid any +deviation that could be designated as heretical. And though he some +years before made advances to the Protestants because he needed their +support against the Emperor and the Pope, things were now on the +contrary in such a state that he could feel himself all the safer, the +less connexion he had with the Germans. Under quite different auspices +of home and foreign politics was the religious debate, that had led in +1536 to the Ten Articles, resumed three years later. The bishops who +held to the old belief were as steady as ever and, so far as we know, +bound together still more closely by a special agreement. They knew +how to get rid of the old suspicion of their having thought of +restoring the Papal supremacy and jurisdiction, by showing complete +devotion to the King. On the other hand the Protestants had suffered a +very sensible loss in Bishop Fox of Hereford, who had always possessed +much influence over the King, but had died lately. An understanding +between the two parties on questions which were dividing the whole +world was not to be thought of; they confronted each other as +irreconcilable antagonists. The debates were transferred on Norfolk's +proposal to Parliament and Convocation; at last it was thought best +that each of the two parties should bring in the outline of a bill +expressing its own views. This was done: but first both bills were +delivered to the King, on whose word, according to the prevailing +point of view, the decision mainly depended. We may as it were imagine +him with the two religious schemes in his hand. On the one side lay +progressive innovation, increasing ferment in the land, and alliance +with the Protestants: on the other, change confined to the advantages +already gained by the crown, the contentment of the great majority of +the people, who adhered to the old belief, peace and friendship with +the Emperor. The King himself too had a liking for the doctrines he +had acknowledged from his youth. The balance inclined in favour of the +bishops of the old belief: Henry gave their bill the preference. It +was the bloody bill of the Six Articles, mainly, so far as we know, +the work of Bishop Gardiner of Winchester. + +The doctrine of transubstantiation and all the usages connected with +it, private masses and auricular confession, and the binding force of +vows, were sanctioned anew; the marriage of priests and the giving the +cup to the laity were prohibited; all under the severest penalties. +The whole of the high nobility to a man agreed to it: the Lower House +raised the resolutions of the clergy into law. + +How completely did the German ambassadors, who had come over with the +expectation of seeing the victory in England of the theologians who +were friendly to them, find themselves deceived! They still however +cherished the hope that these resolutions would never be carried out. +Their ground for hope lay in the King's marriage with a German +Protestant princess, which was just then being arranged. + +Some years before Anne Boleyn had fallen a victim to a dreadful fate. +How had the King extolled her shortly before his marriage as a mirror +of purity, modesty and maidenliness! hardly two years afterwards he +accused her of adultery under circumstances which, if they were true, +would make her one of the most depraved creatures under the sun. If +we go through the statements that led to her condemnation, it is +difficult to think them complete fictions: they have been upheld quite +recently. If on the other hand we read the letter, so full of high +feeling and inward truthfulness, in which Anne protests her innocence +to the King, we cannot believe in the possibility of the +transgressions for which she had to die. I can add nothing further to +what has been long known, except that the King, soon after her +coronation, in November 1533, already showed a certain discontent with +her.[134] Was it after all not right in the eyes of the jealous +autocrat that his former wife's lady in waiting now as Queen wore the +crown as well as himself? Anne Boleyn too might not be without blame +in her demeanour which was not troubled by any strict rule. Or did it +seem to the King a token of the divine displeasure against this +marriage also, that Anne Boleyn in her second confinement brought a +stillborn son into the world? It has been always said that the lively +interest she took in the progress of the outspoken Protestantism, +whose champions were almost all her personal friends, contributed most +to her fall. For the house from which she sprung she certainly in this +respect went too far. In the midst of religious and political parties, +pursued by suspicion and slander, and in herself too tormented by +jealousy, endangered rather than guarded by the possession of the +highest dignity, she fell into a state of excitement bordering on +madness. + +On the day after her execution the King married one of her maids of +honour, the very same who had awakened her jealousy, Jane Seymour. She +indeed brought him the son for whom his soul longed, but she died in +her confinement. + +In the rivalry of parties Cromwell after some time formed the plan of +strengthening his own side by the King's marriage with a German +princess; he chose for this purpose Anne of Cleves, a lady nearly +related to the Elector of Saxony, and whose brother as possessor of +Guelders was a powerful opponent of the Emperor. This was at the time +when the Emperor on his way to the Netherlands paid a visit to King +Francis, and an alliance of these sovereigns was again feared. But by +the time his new wife arrived all anxiety had already gone by, and +with it the motive for a Protestant alliance for the King had ceased. +Anne had not quite such disadvantages of nature as has been asserted: +she was accounted amiable:[135] but she could not enchain a man like +Henry; he had no scruple in dissolving the marriage already concluded; +Anne made no opposition: the King preferred to her a Catholic lady of +the house of Howard. But the consequent alteration was not limited to +the change of a wife. The hopes the Protestants had cherished now +completely dwindled away: it was the hardest blow they could receive. +Cromwell, the person who had been the main instrument in carrying out +the schism by law, and who had then placed himself at the head of the +reformers, was devoted to destruction by the now dominant party. He +was even more violently overthrown than Wolsey had been. In the middle +of business one day at a meeting of the Privy Council he was informed +that he was a prisoner; two of his colleagues there tore the orders +which he wore from his person, since he was no longer worthy of +them;[136] that which had been the ruin of so many under his rule, a +careless word, was now his own. + +Now began the persecution of those who infringed the Six Articles, on +very slight grounds of fact, and with an absence of legal form in +proving the cases, that held a drawn sword over innocent and guilty +alike. Bishops like Latimer and Shaxton had to go to the Tower. But +how many others atoned for their faith with their life! Robert Barnes, +one of the founders of the higher studies at Cambridge, well known and +universally beloved in Germany, who avowed the doctrines imbibed there +without reserve, lost his life at the stake. For what the peasants +had once demanded now again came to pass;--the heretics perished by +fire according to the old statutes. + +After some time a check was given to extreme acts of violence. Legal +forms were supplied for the bloody laws, which softened their +severity. To Archbishop Cranmer, who was likewise attacked, the King +himself stretched out a protecting hand. When he once more made common +cause with the Emperor against France, and undertook a war on the +Continent, he previously ordered the introduction of an English +Litany, which was to be sung in processions. The fact that the Bible +was read in the vernacular, and popular devotional exercises retained +in use, saved the Protestant ideas and efforts, despite all +persecution, from extinction. + +It gives a disagreeably grotesque colouring to the government of Henry +VIII to see how his matrimonial affairs are mixed up with those of +politics and religion. Queen Catharine Howard, whose marriage with him +marked also the preponderance of the Catholic principle, was without +any doubt guilty of offences like those which were imputed to her +predecessor Anne: at her fall her relations, the leaders of the +anti-Protestant party, lost their position and influence at court. The +King then married Catharine Parr, who had good conduct and womanly +prudence enough to keep him in good temper and contentment. But she +openly cherished Protestant sympathies; and she was once seriously +attacked on their account. Henry however let her influence prevail, as +it did not clash with his own policy. + +Now that once the sanctity of marriage had been violated, the place of +King's wife became as it were revocable; the antagonistic factions +sought to overthrow the Queen who was inconvenient to them; that which +has been at various times demanded of other members of the household, +that they should be in complete agreement with the ruling system, was +then required with respect to their wives, and indeed to the wife of +the sovereign himself; the importance of marriage was now shown only +by the violence with which it was dissolved. + +This self-willed energetic sovereign however by no means so completely +followed merely his own judgment as has been assumed. We saw how after +Wolsey's fall he at first inclined to the protestant doctrines, and +then again persecuted them with extreme energy. He sacrificed, as +formerly Empson and Dudley, so Wolsey and now Cromwell to the public +opinion roused against them. He recognised with quick penetration +successive political necessities and followed their guidance. The most +characteristic thing is that he always seemed to belong body and soul +to these tendencies, however much they differed from each other: he +let them be established by laws contradictory to each other, and +insisted with relentless severity on the execution of those laws. + +Under him, if ever, England appears as a commonwealth with a common +will, from which no deviation is allowed, but which moves forward +inclining now to the one side now to the other. It was no part of +Henry VIII's Tudor principles and inclinations to call the Parliament +together; but for his Church-enterprise it was indispensable. He gave +its tendencies their way and respected the opinion which it +represented: but at the same time he knew how to keep it at all times +under the sway of his influence. Never has any other sovereign seen +such devoted Parliaments gathered round him; they gave his +proclamations the force of law, and allowed him to settle the +succession according to his own views; they then gave effect to what +he determined. + +In this way it was possible for Henry VIII to carry through a +political plan that has no parallel. He allowed the spiritual +tendencies of the century to gain influence, and then contrived to +confine them within the narrowest limits. He would be neither +Protestant nor Catholic, and yet again both; an unimaginable thing, if +it had only concerned these opinions: but he retained his hold on the +nation because his plan of separating the country from the Papal +hierarchic system, without taking a step further than was absolutely +necessary, suited the people's views. + +In the earlier years it appeared as though he would alienate Ireland +by his religious innovations, since there Catholicism and national +feeling were at one. And there really were moments when the insurgent +chiefs in alliance with Pope and Emperor boasted that with French and +Scotch help they would attack the English on all sides and drive them +into the sea. But there too it proved of infinite service to him that +he defended dogma while he abandoned the old constitution. In Ireland +the monasteries and great abbeys were likewise suppressed; the +O'Briens, Desmonds, O'Donnels, and other families were as much +gratified as the English lords and gentlemen with the property almost +gratuitously offered them. Under these circumstances they recognised +Henry VIII as King of Ireland, almost as if they had a feeling of the +change of position as regards public law into which they thus came: +they received their baronies from him as fiefs and appeared in +Parliament. + +Towards the end of his life Henry once more drew the sword against +France in alliance with the Emperor. What urged him to this however +was not the Emperor's interest in itself, but the support which the +party hostile to him in Scotland received from the French. Moreover he +did not trouble himself to bring about a decisive result between the +two great powers: he was content with the conquest of Boulogne. He had +reverted to his father's policy and resolved not to let himself be +drawn over by any of his neighbours to their own interests, but to use +their rivalry for his own profit and security.[137] + +And he was able to do yet more than his father to increase England's +power of defence against the one or the other. We hear of fifty places +on the coast which he fortified, not without the help of foreign +master-workmen: the two great harbours of Dover and Calais he put into +good condition and filled them with serviceable ships. For a long time +past he had been building the first vessels of a large size (such as +the Harry and Mary Rose) which then did service in the wars.[138] It +may be that the property of the monasteries was partly squandered and +ought to have been better husbanded: a great part of their revenues +however was applied to this purpose, and conferred much benefit on the +country so far as its own peculiar interests were concerned. + +The characteristic of his government consists in the mixture of +spiritual and temporal interests, the union of violence with fostering +care. The family enmities, which Henry VII had to contend with, are +combined with the religious under Henry VIII, for instance in the +Suffolk family: as William Stanley under the father, so Fisher and +More under the son, perished because they threw doubt on the grounds +for the established right, and still more because they challenged that +right itself. It raised a cry of horror when it was seen how under +Henry VIII Papists and Protestants were bound together and drawn to +the place of execution together, since they had both broken the laws. +Who would not have been sensible of this? Who would not have felt +himself distressed and threatened? Yet at the opening of the Session +of 1542, after the Chancellor had stated in detail the King's services +(who had taken his place on the throne), Lords and Commons rose and +bowed to the sovereign in token of their acknowledgment and gratitude. +In the Session of 1545 he himself once more took up the word. In +fatherly language he exhorted both the religious parties to peace; a +feeling pervaded the assembly that this address was the last they +would listen to from him; many were seen to burst into tears. + +For his was the strong power that kept in check the fermenting +elements and set them a law that might not be broken. On their +antagonism, by favouring or restraining them, he established his +strong system of public order. In Henry VIII we remark no free +self-abandonment and no inward enthusiasm, no real sympathy with any +living man: men are to him only instruments which he uses and then +breaks to pieces; but he has an incomparable practical intelligence, a +vigorous energy devoted to the general interest; he combines +versatility of view with a will of unvarying firmness. We follow the +course of his government with a mingled sense of aversion and +admiration. + +NOTES: + +[123] Papiers d'etat du Cl. de Granvelle ii. 147, 210. + +[124] Documents in the Corpus Reformatorum ii. 1032, iii. 42. + +[125] Henry VIII to the judges--in Halliwell i. 342 (25 June 1535). + +[126] Burnet, History of the Reformation i. 213. Soames, History of +the Reformation ii. 157. + +[127] Seckendorf, Historia Lutheranismi iii. 13, xxxix. p. 112: my +German History iv. 46. + +[128] Injunctions given by the authority of the King. Burnet's +Collection p. 160. + +[129] Prior of Charterhouse (Houghton), Speech, in Strype i. 313. + +[130] Froude, History of England iii. 104. + +[131] 'The people were unsatisfyed that the parliament was not held at +York; but our King alledged that since they had not restaured all the +religious houses [as they had promised] he was not bound strictly to +hold promise with them.' Herbert, Henry VIII, p. 428. + +[132] Los impedimentos en que esta S. M. por la malignidad del dicho +rey de Francia que haze gran fundamento en la adherencia del dicho rey +de Inglaterra, y la obstinacion ceguedad y pertinacia en que esta. +(Report in the State Archives at Paris.) + +[133] As it is said in the Emperor's letter of refusal to his +ambassador at Rome. 'Los desviados de Germania se juntarian mas +estrechamente con el rey de Inglaterra.' (Document in the Archives at +Paris.) + +[134] In a letter of the Emperor, 2 November, is mentioned 'le +descontentement, que le roi d'Ingleterre prenoit de Anna de Bolans.' +Papiers d'etat ii. 224. + +[135] Marillac au roi, 8 Juillet 1540. 'Le peuple l'aymoit et estimoit +bien fort, comme la plus douce gracieuse humaine Reyne, qu'ils eurent +onque.' + +[136] A description of the scene, which deserves to be known, is +contained in the letter of the French ambassador, Marillac, to the +Constable Montmorency, 23 June 1540. + +[137] Froude iv. 104. + +[138] Marillac assures us that there were not more than eight vessels +in England over 500 tons, that then the King built in 1540 fourteen +larger ones, among them 'le grand Henri,' over 1800 tons; he had +however 'peu de maistres que entendent a l'ouvrage. Les naufs +(navires) du roi sont fournies d'artillerie et de munition beaucoup +mieux que de bons pilots et de mariniers dont la plus part sont +estrangers.' (Letter of 1 Oct. 1540.) + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +RELIGIOUS REFORM IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. + + +The question arises, whether it was possible permanently to hold to +Henry's stand-point, to his rejection of Papal influence and to his +maintenance of the Catholic doctrines as they then were. I venture to +say, it was impossible: the idea involves an historical contradiction. +For the doctrine too had been moulded into shape under the influence +of the supreme head of the hierarchy while ascending to his height of +power: they were both the product of the same times, events, +tendencies: they could not be severed from each other. Perhaps they +might have been both modified together, doctrine and constitution, if +a form had been found under which to do it, but to reject the latter +and maintain the former in its completed shape--this was +impracticable. + +When it was seen that Henry could not live much longer, two parties +became visible in the country as well as at court, one of which, +however much it disguised it, was without doubt aiming at the +restoration of the Pope's supremacy, while the other was aiming at a +fuller development of the Protestant principle. Henry had settled the +succession so that first his son Edward, then his elder daughter (by +his Spanish wife), then the younger (by Anne Boleyn), were to succeed. +As the first, the sovereign who should succeed next, was a boy of +nine, it was of infinite importance to settle who during the time of +his minority should stand at the helm. The nearest claim was possessed +by the boy's uncle on the mother's side, Edward Seymour, Earl of +Hertford, who had begun to play a leading part in Henry's court and +army, was in close alliance with Queen Catharine Parr, and like her +cherished Protestant sympathies. But the Norfolks with their Catholic +sympathies who had previously so long exercised a leading influence on +the government, would not give way to him. Norfolk's son, the Earl of +Surrey, adopted the immoral plan of ensnaring the King, who though +dying was yet supposed to be still susceptible to woman's charms, by +means of his sister, in order to draw him back to the side of his +family and the strict Catholics: a plot which failed at once when his +sister refused to play such a part. The ambitious announcements into +which he allowed himself to be hurried away could only bring about the +opposite result: he himself was executed, his father thrown into +prison, and the man who could have done most in the Catholic +direction, Bishop Gardiner, was struck out of the list of those who, +after the King's death, were to form the Privy Council.[139] +Immediately afterwards, January 1547, Henry died. He had composed the +Privy Council of men of both tendencies in the hope, as it appears, +that in this way his system would be most surely upheld. But men were +too much accustomed to see the highest power represented in one +leading personage, for it to continue long in the hands of a Board of +Councillors. From the first sittings of the Privy Council Edward VI's +uncle, the Earl of Hertford, came forth as Duke of Somerset and +Protector of the realm. In him the reforming tendency won the upper +hand. + +It appeared at once with full force at the Coronation, which was not +celebrated at all after the form traced out by Henry VIII, since even +this would have tied them far too much to the existing system; +Cranmer, in the discourse which he there addressed to the young King, +departed in the most decided manner from all the ideas hitherto +attached to a coronation. Whither had the times of the first Lancaster +departed, in which a special hierarchic sacredness was given to the +Anointing through its connexion with Thomas Becket? Becket's shrine +had been destroyed. The present Archbishop of Canterbury went back to +the earliest times of human history: he brought forward the example of +Josias, who likewise came to the government in tender years and +extirpated the worship of idols: so might Edward VI also completely +destroy image-worship, plant God's true service, and free the land +from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome; it was not the oil that made +him God's anointed, but the power given him from on high, in virtue of +which he was God's representative in his realm. His duty to the Church +was changed into his duty to religion: instead of upholding the +existing state of things, it at once pledges and empowers him to +reform the Church.[140] + +The great question now was, how an alteration could be prepared in a +legal manner, and how far it would be possible to maintain in this the +constitution of the realm in its relation to the states of Europe. On +the ground of the supremacy and of a precedent of Henry VIII, they +began with a resolution to despatch commissions throughout the realm, +to revive the suppressed Protestant sympathies; the precedent was +found in the ordinances that had once proceeded from Thomas Cromwell, +just as if they had not in the least been annulled by what had +happened since, but simply set aside by party feeling and neglect. +They were to enquire whether, as therein ordered, the bishops had +preached against the Pope's usurpation, the parish priests had taught +men to regard not outward observances but fulfilment of duty as the +real 'good works,' and had laboured to diminish feast-days and +pilgrimages. Above all, images to which superstitious reverence was +paid were at last to be actually removed: the young were to be really +taught the chief points of the faith in English, a chapter of the +Bible should be read every Sunday, and Erasmus' Paraphrase employed to +explain it. In place of the sermon was to come one of the Homilies +which had been published under the authority of the Archbishop and +King. For this last ordinance also authority was found in an +injunction of Henry VIII. Archbishop Cranmer, whose work they are, +establishes in them the two principles, on which he had already +proceeded in 1536, one that Holy Scripture contains all that it is +necessary for men to know, the other that forgiveness of sins depends +only on the merits of the Redeemer and on faith in Him. On this +depends absolutely the possibility of rooting out of men's minds the +belief in the binding force of Tradition, and the hierarchic views as +to the merit of good works. The Archbishop's views were promoted by +eloquent and zealous preachers such as Matthew Parker, John Knox, Hugh +Latimer; more than all by the last, who had been released from the +Tower, weak in body but with unimpaired vigour of spirit. The fact of +his having maintained these doctrines in the time of persecution, his +earnest way and manner, and his venerable old age doubled the effect +of his discourses. + +No direct alteration could be thought of so long as the Six Articles +still existed with their severe threats of punishment. In the +Parliament elected under the influence of the new government it needed +little persuasion to procure their repeal. The Protector assured the +members that he had been urgently entreated to effect this, since +every man felt himself endangered.[141] + +One of those popular beliefs gained ground, which are often more +effective in great assemblies than elaborate proofs: the conviction +that doctrine and authority were too closely akin for the separation +from Rome to be maintained without deviation in doctrine; the breach +must be made wider if it was to continue, and the hierarchic doctrines +give way. + +So it came about that by a unanimous resolution of Convocation, which +Parliament confirmed, the alteration was approved, which almost more +than any other characterises those Church formularies that deviate +from the Romish, the administration of the communion in both kinds. + +Now it was exactly from this that the transformation of the whole +divine worship in England proceeded. The very next Easter (1548) a new +form for the communion office was published in English. This was +followed, according to a wish expressed by the young King, by a +Liturgy for home and church use, in which the revised Litany of Henry +VIII was also included. In this 'Common Prayerbook' they everywhere +kept to what was before in use, but everywhere also made changes. The +Reforming tendencies obtained the upper hand in reference to its +doctrinal contents; thus even one of the rubrics previously in favour +by which auricular confession was declared to be indispensable was now +omitted; it was left to every man's judgment to avail himself of it or +not. At times they again sought out what had been disused in later +ages: they recurred to Anglo-Saxon usages. The Common Prayer-book is a +genuine monument of the religious feeling of this age, of its learning +and subtlety, its forbearance and decision. In the Parliament of 1549 +it was received with admiration: men even said it was drawn up under +the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The order went forth for its +adoption in all churches of the land, no other liturgy was to be used; +it has nourished and edified the national piety of the English +people.[142] + +And just as it was now asserted that in all this they were only +carrying out the views of the deceased King, as he had set them forth +many years before and had at the last again proclaimed them, so now +Somerset undertook to carry through another of his intentions as well, +which was closely connected with his religious plans. + +In 1542 Henry VIII had agreed with some of the most powerful nobles of +Scotland that in that country too the Church should be reformed, all +relations with France broken off, and the young Queen brought to +England in order if possible to marry his son Edward at some future +day. The scheme broke down owing to all kinds of opposition, but the +idea of uniting England and Scotland in one great Protestant kingdom +had thus made its appearance in the world and could never again be set +aside. The ambition to realise it filled the soul of Somerset. When, +before the end of the summer of 1547, he took up arms, he hoped to +bring about an acknowledgment of England's old supremacy over +Scotland, to prepare the way for the future union of both countries by +the marriage, and to annihilate the party there which opposed the +progress of Protestantism. A vision floated before him of fusing both +nations into one by a union of dynasty and of creed. It was mainly +from the religious point of view that his ward regarded the matter. +'They fight for the Pope,' wrote Edward to the Protector when he was +already in the field, 'we strike for the cause of God, without doubt +we shall win.[143]' + +Somerset had already penetrated far into the land when he offered the +Scots to retreat and make peace on the one condition that Mary should +marry Edward VI. But the ruling party did not so much as allow his +offer to be known. A battle took place at Pinkie, in which Somerset +won a brilliant victory. Not a little did this victory contribute to +establish his consequence in the world: even in Scotland some +districts on the borders took the oath of fidelity to King Edward. But +in general the antipathies of the Scotch to the English were all the +more roused by it; they would hear nothing of a wooing, carried on +with arms in the hand: the young Queen was after some time (August +1548) carried off to France, to be there married to the Dauphin. The +Catholic interests once more maintained their ascendancy in Scotland +over those of the English and the Protestants. + +And how could Somerset's plans and enterprises fail to meet with +resistance in England itself? All the elements were still in existence +that had once set themselves in opposition to King Henry with such +energy. When an attempt was made in earnest to carry out the +innovations at home, in the summer of 1549, the revolt burst into +flame once more. + +In Cornwall a tumult arose at the removal of an image, and the King's +commissary was stabbed by a priest. The troubles extended to +Devonshire, where men forced the priests to celebrate the mass after +the old ritual, and then took the field with crosses and tapers, and +carrying the Host before them. When their numbers became so large as +to embolden them to put forth a manifesto, they demanded before +all--incredible as it may seem--the restoration of the Six Articles +and the Latin Mass, the customary reverence to the Sacrament and to +images. They did not go so far as to demand the restoration of the +authority of the Roman See, like the rebels under Henry VIII; but they +pressed for a fresh recognition of the General Councils, and of the +old church laws as a whole. At least half of the confiscated church +property was to be given back, two abbeys at least were to remain in +each county. But this movement owed its peculiar character to yet +another motive. The enclosures of the arable land for purposes of +pasture, of which the peasantry had been long complaining, did not +merely continue; the nobility, which took part in the secularisation +of the church-lands in an increasing degree, extended its grasp also +to the newly-gained estates. So it came to pass that a rising of the +peasants against the nobles was now united with tendencies towards +church restoration, as in previous times with ideas of quite a +different kind. East and West were in revolt at one and the same time +and for different reasons. On a hill near Norwich, the chief leader, a +tanner by trade, called Ket, took his seat under a great oak which he +called the Oak of Reformation; he had the mass read daily after the +old use: but he also planned a remodeling of the realm to suit the +views of the people. The wildest expectations were aroused. A prophecy +found belief according to which monarchy and nobility were to be +destroyed simultaneously, and a new government set up under four +Governors elected by the common people. And woe to him who wished to +reason with the peasants against their design. They were already +bending their bows against a preacher who attempted to do so, he was +only saved with difficulty. But they were still less capable this +time of withstanding the organised power of the State than they had +been under Henry VIII. In Devonshire they were beaten by Lord Russel, +the ancestor of the Dukes of Bedford; in Norfolk, where they had risen +in the greatest force, by John Dudley Earl of Warwick. Under his +banners we find German troops as well, who were untouched by the +national sympathies, and in the rebels combated only the enemies of +Protestantism. The government obtained a complete victory. + +The insurrectionary movement was suppressed, but it once more produced +a violent reaction in home affairs, by which this time the head of the +government was himself struck down.[144] Among English statesmen there +is none who had a more vivid idea of the monarchical power than the +Protector Somerset. He started from the view that religious and +political authority were united in the hand of the anointed King in +virtue of his divine right. The prayer which he daily addressed to God +is still extant; it is full of the feeling that to himself, as the +representative and guardian of the King, not only his guidance but +also the direction of all affairs is entrusted. Such was also the view +of the young sovereign himself. In one of his letters he thanks the +Protector for taking this employment on him, and for trying to bring +his State to its lawful obedience, the country to acknowledge the true +religion, and the Scots to submission. Somerset did not think himself +bound by the opinion of the Privy Council, since with him, and with no +other, lay the responsibility for the administration of the State. He +held it to be within his competence to remove at pleasure those of its +members who showed themselves adverse to him. He too had that jealousy +of power, which always directs itself against those who stand nearest +to it. There is no doubt that his brother, Thomas Lord Seymour, +impelled by a restless ambition, hoped to overthrow the existing +government and put himself in possession of the highest place, and +committed manifold illegal acts; he--the Lord Admiral of the +realm--even entered into alliance with the pirates in the +Channel.[145] But despite this it was thought at the time very severe +when the Protector gave his word that the vengeance of the law should +be executed on his brother. His reason was that Lord Seymour would not +submit to sue in person for mercy to him the injured party and +possessor of power. Such were these men, these brothers. The one died +rather than pray for mercy: the other made the bestowal of it depend +on this prayer, this confession of his supreme authority.[146] The +Protector took all affairs, home and foreign, exclusively into his own +hand. Without asking any one, he filled up the ministerial and civil +posts: to the foreign ambassadors he gave audience alone. He erected +in his house a Court of Requests,[147] which encroached not a little +on the business of Chancery. The palace in the Strand, which still +bears his name, was to be a memorial of his power; not merely houses +and gardens, but also churches which occupied the ground, or from +which he wished to collect his building materials, were destroyed with +reckless arbitrary power. Great historical associations are +indissolubly linked with this house. For it was Somerset after all, +who through personal zeal opened a free path for the Protestant +tendency which had originated under Henry VIII but had been repressed, +and gave the English government a Protestant character. He connected +with this not merely the Union of Scotland and England, but a yet +further idea of great importance for England itself. He wished to free +the change of religion from the antipathy of the peasantry which was +at that time so prominent. In the above-mentioned dissensions he took +open part for the demands of the commons: he condemned the progress of +the enclosures and gave his opinion that the people could not be +blamed so heavily for their rebellion, as their choice lay only +between death by hunger and insurrection. It seemed as though he +wished in the next Parliament by means of his influence to carry +through a legal measure in favour of the commons. + +But by this he necessarily awakened the ill will of the aristocracy. +He was charged with having instigated the troubles themselves by +proclamations which he issued in opposition to the Privy Council; and +with not merely having done nothing to suppress them but with having +on the contrary supported the ringleaders and taken them under his +protection.[148] No doubt this was the reason why the campaign against +the rebels in Norfolk was not entrusted to him, as he wished, but +(after some vacillation) to his rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. +The victory gained by him, with the active sympathy of the nobility, +which was defending its own interests, was a defeat for Somerset. Even +those who did not believe that he had any personal share in the +movement, nevertheless reproached him with having allowed conditions +to be prescribed to himself and his government by the people; the +common man would be King. Financial difficulties arising from an +alteration in the coinage, and ill success in the war against France, +contributed to give his opponents the ascendancy in the Privy Council. +Somerset once entertained the idea of setting the masses in movement +on his own behalf: one day he collected numerous bands of people at +Hampton Court, under cover of summoning them to defend the King, by +whose side his enemies wished to set up a regency. But this pretext +had little foundation, it was only himself whom his rivals would no +longer see at the head of affairs: after a short fluctuation in the +relations between the main personages he was forced to submit. He +saved his life for that time: after an interval he was released from +prison and again entered the Privy Council: then he once more made an +attempt to recover the supreme power by help of the people, but thus +drew his fate on himself. The masses who regarded him as their +champion showed him loud and heartfelt sympathy at his execution. + +On Somerset's first fall it was said that the Emperor Charles V had a +share in bringing it about, and this is very conceivable; for what +result could be more displeasing to this sovereign than that +Protestantism, which he was putting down in Germany, should have +gained at the same moment a strong position in England: it is certain +that the change of administration was greeted with joy by the court at +Brussels.[149] + +But it brought the Emperor no advantage. At the moment the new +government assumed a hostile attitude towards France: but soon +afterwards the Earl of Warwick, who now took the lead of affairs as +Duke of Northumberland, found himself driven to the necessity of +making a peace with that power, by which Boulogne was given up and +Scotland abandoned to French influence. One article of the treaty +contains indirectly a renunciation of the proposed marriage between +the King of England and the Queen of Scotland. And this treaty was +greatly to the Emperor's disadvantage, since it now set the French +free to renew the hostility against him which had been broken off some +years before by an agreement all in his favour. They allied themselves +for this purpose with the German princes who found the Emperor's yoke +intolerable. These princes had even applied to the English government: +and Edward would personally have been much inclined to lend an ear to +their proposals. If the fear of being involved in war with the Emperor +on this account withheld him from open sympathy, yet it is certain +that his general political attitude essentially contributed to enable +them to take up arms and break the Emperor's ascendancy. + +Among the determining causes of a movement which is part of the +history of the world must be specially reckoned the personal +disposition of this prince, young as he was even at the close of his +reign. Somerset had kept him rather close: the Duke of Northumberland +gave him greater freedom, allowed him to manage his own money, and was +pleased when he made presents and showed himself as King; he was +careful to see that immediate obedience was paid him.[150] Whilst +Edward had been hitherto almost exclusively busied with his studies, +he now turned to knightly exercises for which he also showed aptitude: +he sat well on horseback, drew his bow and broke his lance as well as +any other young man of his age. But with all this his learning was not +neglected.[151] Edward VI not merely possessed for his years +extraordinary and manifold attainments; the written remains which are +extant from his hand display a rare mental growth. What he has written +for instance on his connexion with the two Seymours, his uncles, +indicates a clear and almost a judicial conception of existing +relations, which is very uncommon. On his tutor's advice, to prevent +his passing thoughts from getting confused, he regularly noted them +down, and composed a diary which has the same characteristics and may +be regarded as a valuable historical monument. But studies and +religion coincide in him: he is Protestant to the core; his chief +ambition is by means of his rank and power to place himself at the +head of the Protestant world. The duke could not have ventured to +oppose the progress of the Reformation. + +In the days of distress, after the defeat in the Schmalkaldic war, +England was regarded as the refuge of the gospel: men welcomed the +scholars who fled thither, whose co-operation in the conflict with +Catholicism, still so powerful, was very desirable. In Cranmer's +palace at Lambeth were assembled Italians, French, Poles, Swiss, South +Germans and North Germans; the Secretary of State, William Cecil, who +had been trained in the service of the Protector, but had kept his +place after his fall, obtained them the King's support. Martin Bucer +and Paulus Fagius received promotion at Cambridge, Peter Martyr at +Oxford: he there maintained the Calvinistic views on the communion in +a great disputation. There were Walloon and French churches in the old +centres of Catholic worship, Canterbury and Glastonbury; John a Lasco +preached in the church of the Augustines in London. With no less +vigour than these foreigners did natives, sometimes returned exiles, +maintain the views then prevailing on the Continent. Under these +influences it was impossible, in conformity with the view taken up in +1536, to abide by the dogmas, which had been put forth by the school +of Wittenberg, now completely overthrown. The difference comes out +very remarkably when we compare the Common Prayer-book of 1549 with +the revised edition of 1552. Originally men had held fast to the real +presence in England also: Cranmer in his catechism expressly declared +for it: in the formula of the first book, which was compiled out of +Ambrose and Gregory, this view was retained:[152] but men in England +had since convinced themselves that this doctrine had not prevailed so +exclusively in Christian antiquity as had been hitherto thought: +following the example of Ridley, the most learned of the Protestant +bishops, the majority had given up the real presence: in the new +Common Prayer-book a controversial passage was even inserted against +it. First on their own impulse, and then with the help of the Privy +Council, the zealous Protestant-minded bishops removed the high altars +from the churches and had wooden tables for the communion put in their +place: since with the word Altar was associated the idea of Sacrifice. + +It was now inevitable that the question from which all had started in +England, as to the relation between State and Church, should be +decided completely in favour of the secular principle. It is very true +that Cranmer held fast to the objective view of the visible church. If +the ceremonies were altered with which the Romish church imparts the +spiritual consecration, yet in this respect only the mystical usages +introduced in recent centuries were abandoned, and the ritual restored +to the form used in more primitive times, especially in the African +church. But it was surely a violent change, when those who wished to +receive consecration were now previously asked, whether their inward +call agreed both with the will of the Redeemer and the law of the +land; they were required to assent to the principle that Scripture +contains all which it is necessary for man to know, and to pledge +themselves to guard against any doctrine not in conformity with +Scripture. It is generally believed, and the fact is of lasting +importance, that the Convocation of the clergy, a commission of the +spiritualty, the Primate-Archbishop and a number of bishops, took part +in the change; but yet the decisive decrees went forth from the +Parliament, to which the spiritual power had been irrevocably attached +since Henry VIII, and sometimes from the Privy Council alone. To +establish a normal form of doctrine, men set to work to compose a +Confession, which was completed at that time in forty-two Articles. +There had been a wish that Melanchthon should have come over in person +to aid in composing it; at any rate his labours had much influence in +deciding the shape it took. The Articles belong to the class of +Confessions, as they were then framed in Saxony by Melanchthon, in +Swabia by Brenz, to be laid before the coming Council. And it is just +in this that their value lies, that by them England attached herself +most closely to the Protestant community on the Continent. They are +the work of Cranmer, who was entrusted with their composition by the +King and Privy Council, and communicated his labours first to the +King's tutor, Cheke, and the Secretary of State, Cecil: in conjunction +with them he next laid them before the King; with the assistance of +some chaplains their final form was given them; then the Privy Council +ordered them to be subscribed. The influence of the government on the +nominations to the office of bishop was now still more open: the +bishops were to hold office as long as they conducted themselves +well,--in other words, as long as the ruling powers were content with +them: the church jurisdiction was no longer administered in the name +of the bishopric, but, like the temporal jurisdiction, in the King's +name and under the King's seal; when they proceeded to revise the +church laws, the primary maxim was, not to admit anything that +contravened the temporal laws.[153] The use of the power of the keys +was also derived by Cranmer from the permission of the sovereign. +Against this ever-increasing dependence some bishops of the old views +made a struggle; to avoid coming into direct conflict with the +supremacy, which they had acknowledged, they put forth the assertion +that it could not be exercised by a King under age; they connived at +the mass being read in side-chapels of their cathedrals, or refused to +allow the change of the altars into communion-tables, or kept alive +the controversy as to the doctrine of faith. The government on their +side persisted in enforcing uniformity. They brought all opponents +before a commission consisting of secular as well as ecclesiastical +dignities, which had no scruple in pronouncing the deprivation of the +bishops: a fate which befell Gardiner of Winchester, Bonner of London, +Day of Chichester, Heath of Worcester. In vain did they plead that the +court before which they were brought was not a canonical one; the +government appealed to the general rights of the temporal power as it +had once been exercised by the Roman Emperors. In the conflict of +church opinions the Protestant-minded prelates now had the upper hand. +Many who did not conform bought toleration from the government by +sacrifices of money and goods. Elsewhere the newly-appointed bishops +assented to concessions which did not always profit even the crown, +but sometimes, as at Lichfield, private persons.[154] Already the +further question was discussed whether there is in fact any essential +distinction between bishops and presbyters: a church of foreigners was +set up in London, to present a pattern of the pure apostolic +constitution as an example to the country. The government which had +acquired such a thorough mastery over the clergy developed an open +disinclination to the old forms of constitution in the church. Who +could have said, so long as things remained in the path thus once +entered upon, whither this would lead? + +NOTES: + +[139] Froude iv. 515 (extracts from the documents). + +[140] Collier ii. 220 (Records lii). + +[141] Proclamation of 8 July 1549 in Tytler, England under Edward VI +and Mary I, p. 180. + +[142] The point of view under which it was drawn up appears in a +declaration inserted in the edition of 1549: 'the most weighty cause +of the abolishment of certain ceremonies was, that they were abused +partly by the superstitious blindness of the unlearned, and partly by +unsatiable avarice.--Where the old (ceremonies) may be well used there +they [their opponents] cannot reprove the old only for their age. They +ought rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity, if they +will declare themselves to be more studious of unity and concord, than +of innovations and newfangleness which--is always to be eschewed.' + +[143] 12 Sept. 1547 in Halliwell ii. 31. Cranmer appointed a prayer in +church for the marriage of Edward and Mary, 'to confound all those, +which labour to the lett and interruption of so godly a quiet and +amity.' In Somerset's prayer printed, since the first edition of this +book, in Froude v. 47, it is said: 'Look upon the small portion of the +earth, which professeth thy holy name; especially have an eye to thy +small isle of Britain;--that the Scotismen and we might thereafter +live in one love and amity, knit into one nation by the marriage of +the King's Majesty and the young Scotish Queen.' + +[144] Godwin, Rerum Anglicarum Annales 315. + +[145] Proofs in Froude v. 136. + +[146] So Queen Elizabeth tells us. Ellis, Letters ii. ii. 257. + +[147] Cecil however was not the first Master of Requests: Thomas More +already appears under this title; Nares, Life of Burghley i. 179. + +[148] 'You have suffered the rebels to lie in camp and armour against +the King his nobles and gentlemen; you did comfort divers of the said +rebels.' Articles against the Lord Protector, in Strype, Memorials of +Cranmer ii. 342. + +[149] Marillac 26 Oct. 1549. 'Ceux-ci (at the Emperor's court) font +une merveilleuse demonstration de joye de ce que le protecteur est +abattu.' In Turnbull, Calendar of State Papers 1861 p. 47 an +Instruction of the Council is mentioned, 'to acquaint the Emperor with +the proceeding taken against the Duke of Somerset.' We should like to +be better informed about this Instruction, in which too the Emperor +was asked for aid. + +[150] Soranzo, Relatione d'Inghilterra 1554. 'Per posseder la sua +grazia ben amplamente, non solo faceva qualche spettacolo, per dargli +piacere, ma gli diede liberta di danari.' Florentine Collection viii. +37. + +[151] As he advises a friend: 'Apply yourself to riding shooting or +tennis--not forgetting sometimes when you have leisure, your learning, +chiefly reading the Scripture.' Halliwell ii. 49. + +[152] Wheatly in Soames, History of the Reformation iii. 604. + +[153] In the commission of 32 members (bishops, divines, civilians, +lawyers) we find the names of Will. Cecil, Will Peters, Thomas Smith. + +[154] Compare Heylin, History of the Reformation 50, 101. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO A CATHOLIC QUEEN. + + +We can easily see how the power of the crown, founded by the first +Tudor, and developed by the second through the emancipation from the +Papacy, was further strengthened under the third. From Edward VI we +have essays, in which he speaks about the spiritual and temporal +government with the consciousness of a sovereign, whose actions depend +only on himself. In the Homilies, which obtained legal sanction, there +is found an express condemnation of resistance to the King, 'for Godes +sake, from whom Kings are, and for orders sake.' + +Whilst men were now expecting that Edward VI would arrive at manhood, +and take the government completely into his own hands, and conduct it +in the sense he had hitherto foreshadowed--not merely carrying out the +Reformation thoroughly at home, but assuming the leadership of the +Protestant world, symptoms appeared in him of the malady to which his +half-brother Richmond had succumbed at an early age. But how then if +the same fate befell him? According to Henry VIII's arrangement Mary +was then to ascend the throne who, through her descent from Queen +Catharine and from an inborn disposition which had become all the more +confirmed by her opposition to her father and brother, represented the +Catholic and Spanish interest. Nothing else could be expected but that +she would employ the whole power of the State in support of her own +views, would, so far as it could possibly be done, bring back the +church to its earlier form, would depress the men who had hitherto +played a great part by the side of the King and subject them to the +opposite faction. But were they quietly to acquiesce in their fate? + +The ambition of the Duke of Northumberland associated itself with the +great interests of religion, to prevent the threatening ruin. He +persuaded the young King that it lay in his power to alter his +father's settlement of the succession, as in itself not conformable to +law, neither Mary nor the younger sister Elizabeth being entitled to +the throne, as the two marriages from which they sprang had been +declared illegal, and a bastard could not be made capable of wearing +the English crown by any act of Parliament. Henry VIII had in his +settlement of the succession passed over the descendants of his elder +sister, married in Scotland, as foreigners, but acknowledged those of +the younger, Mary of Suffolk, as the next heirs after his own +children. Mary's elder daughter Frances had married Henry Grey of +Dorset, who had already obtained the title of Suffolk, and had three +daughters, the eldest of whom was Jane Grey. It was to her, whom the +Duke of Northumberland married to one of his sons, that he now +directed the King's attention, and induced him to prefer her to his +sisters. Yet it was not so much to herself in person as to her male +issue that Edward's attention was originally directed. Never yet had a +Queen ruled in England in her own right, and even now there was a wish +to avoid it. Edward arranged that, if he himself died without male +heirs, the male heirs of Lady Frances, and if she too left none, then +those of Lady Jane, should succeed. He hoped still to live till such +an heir should be eighteen years old, in which case he could enter on +the government immediately after himself. If his death occurred +earlier, Jane was to conduct the administration during the interval, +not as Queen but as Regent, and conjointly with a Council of +government still to be named by him.[155] This Council of executors +was to avoid all war, all other change, and especially not to alter +the established religion in any point: rather it was to devote itself +to completing the ecclesiastical legislation in conformity with that +religion, and to the abolition of the Papal claims.[156] We see that +Edward's view was, like that of many other sovereigns, to secure the +continuance of his political and religious system of government for +long years after his own death. The members of the Privy Council, +before whom these arrangements were laid in the King's handwriting, +promised on their oath and their honour to carry them out in every +article, and to defend them with all their power.[157] + +And if the affair had been undertaken in this manner, who could say +that it might not have succeeded? Northumberland did not neglect to +form a strong family interest in favour of the new combination that he +designed. He married his own daughter to Lord Hastings, who was +descended from the house of York, and one of Jane's sisters with the +son of the powerful Earl of Pembroke. He could reckon on the support +of the King of France, to whom the succession of a niece of the +Emperor was odious, and on the consent of the Privy Council, which was +in great part dependent on him; how could the Protestant feeling have +failed to gain him a large party in the country, especially since +something might be said for the plan itself. + +But Edward VI's malady developed quicker than was expected. At the +last moment he was further induced to award the succession not to the +male heirs of Lady Jane, but to herself and her male heirs.[158] He +died with the prayer that God would guard England from the Papacy. + +Lady Jane Grey had hitherto devoted her days to study. For father and +mother were severe and found much in her to blame: on the other hand +quiet hours of inward satisfaction were given her by the instructions +of a teacher, always alike kindly disposed, who initiated her into +learning and an acquaintance with literature: bending over her Plato, +she did not miss the amusement of the chase which others were +enjoying in the Park. After her marriage too, which did not make her +exactly happy, she still lived thus with her thoughts withdrawn from +the world, when she was one day summoned to Sion-House where she found +a great and brilliant assembly. She still knew nothing of the King's +death. What were her feelings, when she was told that Edward VI was +dead; that to secure the kingdom from the Popish faith and the +government of his two sisters who were not legitimate, he had declared +her, Lady Jane, his heiress, and when the great dignitaries of the +realm bent their knees and reverenced her as their Queen! At times +they had already talked to her of her claim to the throne, but she had +never thought much of it. When it now thus became a reality, her whole +soul was overcome by it: she fell to the ground and burst into a flood +of tears. Whether she had a full right to the throne, she could not +judge: what she felt was her incapacity to rule. But whilst she +uttered this, a different feeling passed through her, as she has told +us herself: she prayed in the depths of her soul that, if the highest +office belonged to her legally, God might give her the grace to +administer it to his honour. The next day she betook herself by water +to the Tower, and received the homage offered her. The heralds +proclaimed her accession in the capital. + +But here this proclamation was received in silence and even with +murmurs. The succession had been settled by Henry VIII on the basis of +an act of Parliament: nothing else was expected but that this would be +adhered to, and Mary succeed her brother: that Edward without any +legal authorisation of a similar kind had now put a distant relative +in his sister's place, seemed an open robbery of the lawful heir. It +made no impression, that at the proclamation men were reminded of the +Popery of the Princess Mary and her intention to restore the Papal +power. Religious discord had not yet become so strong in England as to +make men forget the fundamental principles of right on its account. +The man who brought the princess the first news of Edward's death +(which was still kept secret) remarks expressly in telling it, that he +did not love her religion but abhorred the attempt to set aside lawful +heirs. Mary prudently betook herself to Norfolk, where she had the +most determined friends, to a castle on the sea; so as to be able, if +her opponent should maintain the upper hand, to escape to the Emperor. +But every one declared for her, the Catholics who saw in her the born +champion of their religion and were strongest in those very districts, +and the Protestants to whom the princess made some, though not +binding, promises; she was proclaimed Queen in Norwich. If the Duke of +Northumberland wished to carry out his projects, it was necessary for +him to suppress this movement by force. He at once took the field for +this purpose, with a fine body of artillery and two thousand infantry, +and occupied a position in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. + +It seemed as though the crown would once more be fought for in open +field just as it had been a century before, and that in fact, just as +then, the neighbouring powers would interfere. On Northumberland's +side French help was expected; on the other hand application was +already made to the Emperor to send armed troops over the sea to his +cousin.[159] It was not however this time to reach such a point: while +the combination attempted in favour of Jane Grey met with strong +popular resistance, it was shattered to pieces by internal discord. If +the new Queen had such a good right as they told her, she would share +it with none, not even with her husband; she would not appear as a +creature of the Dudleys and a tool of their ambition: she would only +name him a duke and would not allow him to be crowned with her as +King. We recognise in this her high idea of the kingly power and its +divine right; but we can also easily conceive that the discord which +broke out on this point in the family could not but act on the members +of the Privy Council, of whom only a section were in complete +understanding with Northumberland, while the rest had merely yielded +to the ascendancy of his power. While the duke was expecting armed +reinforcements from London, a complete revolution took place there: +under the management of the Privy Council Mary was proclaimed Queen, +and a summons sent to Northumberland to submit to her. The fleet which +was destined to prevent Mary's flight had already declared for her; +the troops which were called out in the counties to fight against her +crossed over to her side; in Northumberland's camp the same opinion +gained the upper hand: the duke felt himself incapable of withstanding +it: he allowed himself to be carried along by it like the rest. Men +saw the extraordinary spectacle of the man who had marched out to +destroy Mary now ordering her accession to be proclaimed in his +encampment, he accompanied the herald and himself cried out Mary's +name.[160] These English nobles have boundless ambition, they grasp +with bold hand at the highest prizes: but they have no inner power of +resistance, as against the course of events and public opinion they +have no will of their own. However the duke might behave, he could not +save either his freedom or his life. Soon afterwards Mary entered +London amid the joyous shouts of the people. She was still united as +closely as possible with her sister Elizabeth: they appeared together +hand in hand. Jane Grey remained as a prisoner in the Tower, which she +had entered as Queen. Never did the natural right of succession, as it +was established by the testator of the inheritance and the Parliament, +obtain a greater triumph. + +After the succession was decided, the great questions of government +came into the foreground, above all the question what position Mary +should take up with regard to religious matters. + +Among the Protestants the opinion prevailed that it could not yet be +known whether she would not let religion remain in the state in which +she found it. Towns where the Protestant feeling was strongest +joyfully attached themselves to her in this expectation. + +Her cousin, the Emperor Charles, who justly regarded her accession as +a victory, and who from the first moment exercised the greatest +influence on her resolutions, advised her before all things to +moderate her Catholic zeal. She should reflect that many of the lords +by whom she was now supported, a part of the Privy Council, and the +people of London, were Protestants, and guard against estranging them. +She should at once call a Parliament to show that she meant to rule in +the accustomed manner, and take care that the Northern counties, as +well as Cornwall, where men still held the most firmly to Catholicism, +were represented in it. + +This good advice was not without influence on the Queen. In a tumult +which arose two days after her arrival in the city, she had the Lord +Mayor summoned in order to tell him that she would force no man's +conscience, she hoped that the people would through good instruction +come back to the religion which she herself professed with full +conviction. When she repeated this soon after in a proclamation, she +added that these things must shortly be ordered by common consent. But +of what kind this order would be, there could be already no doubt +after these words: she desired a change, but intended to bring it +about in a legal manner. + +In all the steps taken by her government her Catholic sympathies +predominated. She felt no scruple in using the spiritual rights, which +the constitution gave her, in favour of Catholicism. As 'Head of the +Church next under God,' Mary forbade all preaching and interpretation +of Scripture without special permission. But she entrusted the power +of giving this permission to the same Bishop Gardiner who had offered +the most persevering resistance to the Protestant tendencies of the +previous government. The antagonism between the bishops entered again +on an entirely new phase: the Catholics rose, the Protestants were +depressed to the uttermost. Tonstal, Heath, and Day were, like +Gardiner, restored to their sees on the ground of the protests lodged +against the proceedings taken with reference to them at their +deprivation, protests which were regarded as valid. Ridley had to give +up the see of London again to Bonner: the Bishops of Gloucester and +Exeter experienced the royal displeasure; not merely Latimer but also +Cranmer were imprisoned in the Tower. Everywhere the images were +replaced, in many churches the celebration of the mass was revived. +Those preachers who declared themselves against it had to follow their +bishops to prison. The Calvinistic model-congregation was dissolved. +The foreign scholars quitted the country; and their most zealous +followers also fled to the continent before the coming storm of +persecution. + +At the beginning of October the Queen's coronation took place with the +old customary ceremonies, for which the Emperor's leading minister, +Granvella, Bishop of Arras, sent over a vase of consecrated oil, on +the mystical meaning of which great stress was again laid. The Queen +had some scruples about the coronation, as she wished previously to +get rid of her title, 'Head of the Church': but the Emperor saw danger +in delay; he thought the declaration she had in the deepest secrecy +made to the Roman See, that she meant to re-establish its authority, +removed any religious scruple. He fully approved of the coronation +preceding the Parliament, and recommended the Queen, in virtue of her +constitutional right, without any delay to name bishops and prelates, +who might be useful to her at its impending meeting. + +But the supreme power once constituted, as formerly in the civil wars, +so also in the times of the Reformation movement, had always exercised +a decisive influence on the composition of the Parliamentary +assemblies; would not this then be the case when it had declared +itself again Catholic? No doubt the government, at the head of which +Gardiner appeared as Lord Chancellor, used all the means at its +disposal to guide the elections according to its views. It appears to +have been with the same motive that the Queen in a proclamation, which +generally breathed nothing but benevolence, remitted payment of the +subsidies last voted under her brother. Yet we can hardly attribute +the result wholly to this. Parliamentary elections are wont to receive +their impulse from the mistakes of the last administration and the +evils that have come to light: and much had undeniably been done under +Edward VI which could not but call forth discontent. The ferment at +home was increased by financial disorder: church property had suffered +enormous losses. But above all the supreme power had taken a sudden +start in breaking through its ancient bounds. And, last of all, the +Protestant tendencies had allied themselves with an undertaking which +ran directly counter to the customary law and to previous +Parliamentary enactments. And so it might come to pass that the same +feelings swayed the elections which had mainly brought about Mary's +accession. + +But, after all, the result of these elections was not such as to make +a complete return to the Papal authority probable. The Emperor +Charles, who mainly guided the Queen's steps, warned her from +attempting it. She had prayed him to communicate to her the Pope's +declarations issued in favour of her hereditary right: he sent them to +her, but with the advice to make no use of them, since they might +involve her in difficulties without end. It seemed to him sufficient +if the Parliament simply repealed the enactments which had formerly +been passed respecting the invalidity of her mother's marriage with +her father. In the bill which was drawn up on this point in the Upper +House it was merely stated that the marriage, in itself valid and +approved by the wisest persons of the realm, had been made displeasing +to the King through evil influences and annulled by a sentence of +Archbishop Cranmer, on whom the greatest blame fell. To many men this +seemed already going too far, since together with the dispensation the +old church authority was again recognised: but as there was not a word +about the Pope in it, this was less apparent: the bill was passed +unanimously. The act might be regarded as a political one. On the +other hand religion was very directly affected by the proposal to +repeal the alterations in the church service which had been introduced +under Edward VI, and to abolish the Common Prayer-book. On this ensued +the hottest conflict. Once the proposal had to be laid aside: when it +was resumed, the debate on it lasted six days: a third of the members +were steadily against it. But in the majority the opinion again +prevailed that Henry VIII's church constitution--retention of the +Catholic doctrines and emancipation from the Papacy--was the most +suitable for England: a resolution was carried to the effect that only +such books as were in use under Henry VIII should be henceforth used +in the church. The new forms of divine service, which contained a +clearly marked body of doctrine, were abolished and the old ones +restored. + +The position which the Parliament took up in relation to another +scarcely less important question coincided with this sense of national +independence. + +It was a very widespread wish in England that the Queen should give +her hand to young Courtenay, son of that Marquis of Exeter who had +himself once thought of marrying Mary against her father's wishes. He +was a young man of suitable age, handsome figure, and mental activity; +Mary had not merely freed him from the prison in which her brother had +kept him, but also endowed him with the Earldom of Devon, one of his +father's possessions; in this act many saw a token of personal +inclination. Bishop Gardiner was decidedly in his favour, and we can +conceive how a great ecclesiastic, who had the power of the state in +his hands, wished to altogether exclude every foreign influence; he of +course knew that Courtenay would also conform in church matters. + +Gardiner spoke once with the Queen about it and was very pressing: she +was absolutely against it. The old chronicle is entirely in error when +it repeats the then widespread rumour of Mary's inclination for +Courtenay. Mary told the Imperial ambassador that she was altogether +ignorant of what love was; she had never seen Courtenay but once in +her life, at the moment when she released him. She intended to marry, +since she was assured that the welfare of the realm required it, but +not an Englishman, not one who was a subject. As in other things, so +in this, she requested the Emperor to give her his advice. + +Charles V would not have been absolutely against the plan of his +cousin giving her hand to an English lord, whom England might obey +more easily than a stranger: but, when she showed such an aversion to +it, he did not hesitate for a moment as to what advice to give her. +One of his brother's sons was taken into consideration, but rejected +by him on the ground that there was already much ill-will against +Spain stirring in the Netherlands, and a union of the German line with +England might some day make it difficult for his own son to maintain +those provinces: he therefore proposed him to the Queen. Don Philip, +not yet thirty but already a widower for the second time, was just +then negociating for a marriage with a Portuguese princess. These +negociations were broken off and counter ones opened with England. +Mary showed a joyful inclination to it at the first word: it was to +this that her secret thoughts had turned. + +It looked as if the dynastic union of the Burgundian-Spanish house +with the English, which was also a political alliance and had been +violently broken off at the same time with that alliance, would now be +restored more closely than before, and this time for ever. Men took up +the idea that Philip's eldest son was to continue the Spanish line, as +Ferdinand and his sons the German, but that from the new marriage, if +it should be blest with offspring, an English line of the house of +Burgundy was to proceed: a prospect of the extension of the power of +England and of her influence on the continent, which it was expected +would set aside all opposition. + +In England however every voice was against it, among nobles and +commons, people and Parliament, high and low. The imperial court fully +believed that it was Gardiner who brought the matter forward in +Parliament. The House resolved to send a deputation to the Queen with +the request that she would marry an Englishman. Mary, who had as high +an idea of her prerogative as any of her predecessors or successors, +felt herself almost insulted; she interrupted the speech as soon as +she understood its purport, and declared that Parliament was taking +too much on itself in wishing to give her advice in this matter: only +with God, from whom she derived her crown, would she take counsel +thereon.[161] When the Parliament, not satisfied with this, prepared a +fresh application to her, it was dissolved. + +But if this happened among men who adhered to her views in other +points, what would those say who saw themselves, contrary to their +expectation, oppressed and endangered by the Queen's measures in +religious matters? + +The agitation was so general that men caught at the hope of putting an +end to all that was begun by a sudden rising. We find a statement +which must not be lightly rejected, that the English nobility, which +had taken great part in the Reformation movement and put itself in +possession of much church property, came to an understanding at +Christmas 1553, and decided on a general rising on the next Palm +Sunday, 18th March:[162] thus doing as the French, German, +Netherlandish and Scotch nobility had done, who took the initiative in +this matter. In Cornwall Peter Carew was to have the lead, in the +Midland Counties the Duke of Suffolk, in Kent Thomas Wyatt. As the +Queen's Privy Council was even now not unanimous, they hoped to bring +about an overthrow of the government before it was yet firmly +established: and either to compel the Queen to dismiss her evil +counsellors and give up the Spanish marriage, or if she remained +obstinate to put her sister Elizabeth in her place, who would then +marry Courtenay. The French, who saw in the Queen's marriage with the +prince of Spain a danger for themselves, urged on the movement, and +had a secret understanding with the rebels; their plan was to support +it by an incursion from Scotland where they were then the masters, and +an attack on Calais.[163] But as often happens with such comprehensive +plans, the government detected them; the attempt to carry them out had +to be made before the preparations were complete; in most of the +places where an effort was made it was suppressed without much +trouble. Carew fled to France; Suffolk, who in vain tried to draw +Coventry over to his side, was captured. On the other hand Sir Thomas +Wyatt's rising in Kent was formidable. He collected a couple of +thousand men, defeated the royal troops, some of whom joined him, and +as he had the sympathies of a great part of the inhabitants of London +with him, he attempted forthwith an attack on the capital. But the new +order of things had too firm a legal foundation to be so easily +overthrown. The Queen betook herself to the Guildhall and addressed +the assembled people, decided as she was and confident in the goodness +of her cause; the general feeling was in favour of supporting her. All +armed for defence. For a couple of days, during which Wyatt lay before +the city, every one was under arms, mayor, aldermen and people; the +lawyers went to the courts with armour under their robes: priests were +seen celebrating mass with mail under their church vestments. The +Queen had some trustworthy troops, whose leader, the Earl of Pembroke, +told her he would never show his face to her again if he did not free +her from these rebels. When Wyatt at last appeared in Hyde Park with +exhausted and badly fed men, he was met and beaten by an overwhelming +body of Pembroke's troops; with a part of his followers he was driven +into the city, and there made prisoner without much bloodshed. + +It has always been reckoned to the Queen's credit that amid the alarm +of these days she never quitted the unfortified palace. She had now an +opportunity to rid herself completely of Northumberland's faction. +Jane Grey, whose name at least had been mentioned, her father Suffolk, +her uncle Thomas Grey, were executed; Wyatt also and a great number of +the prisoners paid for their rebellion with their lives.[164] + +NOTES: + +[155] King Edward: My devise for the succession: in 'Chronicle of +Queen Anna, with illustrative documents and notes' by Nicholls, 89. + +[156] King Edward's Minutes for his last will. In 'Chronicle of Queen +Anna, with illustrative documents and notes' by Nicholls, 101. + +[157] Engagement of the council, the signatures all autograph. Ibid. +90. + +[158] This was done by a correction. The original text was 'to the +Lady Jane's heires masle;' instead of 'Jane's,' the King now wrote 'to +the Lady Jane and her h. m. (Nares' Burghley i. 452. Nicholls, 87.) + +[159] Lettre ecrite a l'empereur par ses ambassadeurs en Angleterre 19 +Juill. Luy (au roi de France) sera facile, d'envoyer 2 ou 3 m. +Francais et quelques gens de chevaux. Plusieurs de ce royaume sont +d'opinion, si V. M. assistoit ma dite dame (Mary) de gens et de +secours contre le dit duc, la dite dame ne diminueroit en rien +l'affection du peuple. + +[160] Proclama avec le dict herault Mm. Marie a haute voix. Lettre des +ambassadeurs a l'empereur. Papiers d'etat de Granvelle iv. 58. + +[161] To the reports of the French and Spanish ambassadors (compare +Ambassades de Mss. de Noailles en Angleterre ii. 269, Turner ii. 204, +Froude vi. 124) may be added that of the Venetian: 'ch'ella si +consiglierebbe con dio e non con altri.' I combine this with Noailles' +account; for these ambassadors were immediately informed by their +friends of the deputation and have noted down that part of the Queen's +speech which made most impression on the bystanders. + +[162] Soranzo Relatione 79, a testimony worth consideration, as +Soranzo stood in a certain connexion with the rebels. + +[163] So Simon Renard reports 24th Feb. 1553-4 to the Emperor after +Wyatt's confession. 'Le roy feroit emprinse de coustel d'Escosse et de +coustel de Guyenne (it should without doubt be Guisnes) et Calais': in +Tytler ii. 207. Wyatt's statements in the 'State Trials' refer to a +confession which is not given there, and from which the ambassador may +have taken his account. + +[164] Renard a l'empereur, 8 Feb. The communications in Tytler, which +come from Brussels, and the Papiers d'etat de Granvelle, which come +from Besancon, supplement each other, yet even when taken both +together they are still not quite complete. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE CATHOLIC-SPANISH GOVERNMENT. + + +The effort to overthrow Mary's throne had strengthened it: for the +second time she had rallied around it the preponderant majority of the +nation. And this was all the more surprising, since no one could doubt +any longer in what direction the Queen's exclusive religious views +would lead her. In her victory she saw a divine providence, by which +it was made doubly her duty to persevere, without looking back, in the +path she had once taken. In full understanding with her Gardiner +proceeded without further scruple, in the Parliament which met in +April 1554, to attempt to carry through the two points on which all +else depended, the abrogation of the Queen's spiritual title, which +implied restoration of the Pope's authority, and the revival of the +old laws against heretics. These views and proposals however met with +unexpected opposition, both in the nation, and no less in the Privy +Council and Parliament, especially in the Upper House. The lay lords +did not wish to make the bishops so powerful again as they had once +been, and rejected the restoration of the Pope's authority unless they +previously had security for their possession of the confiscated church +property. The first proposition could not, so far as can be seen, even +be properly brought forward:[165] the second, the revival of the +heresy laws, was accepted by the Commons over whom Gardiner exercised +great influence, but the Peers threw it out. It was especially Lords +Paget and Arundel who opposed Gardiner's proposals in the Privy +Council and the Lords and caused their rejection. + +Only in one thing were the two parties united, in recognising the +marriage contract concluded with Spain: it was passed unanimously by +Parliament. + +In July 1554 Don Philip reached England with a numerous fleet, divided +into three squadrons, with a brilliant suite on board. At Southampton +the leader of one of the two parties, the Earl of Arundel, received +him; Bishop Gardiner, the leader of the other, gave the blessing of +the church to the marriage in Winchester cathedral. The day before the +Emperor had resigned the crown of Naples to his son, to make him equal +with the Queen in rank. How grand it sounded, when the king-at-arms +proclaimed the united titles: Philip and Mary, King and Queen of +England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland! A title with an almost +Plantagenet sound, but which now however only denoted the closest +union between the Spanish monarchy and the Catholics of England. +Philip was solicitous to gain over the different parties and classes +of England: for he had been told that England was a popular monarchy. +He belied his Spanish gravity and showed himself, despite the +stiffness that was his natural characteristic, affable to every man: +he tried to make the impression, and successfully, that he desired the +prosperity of England. One of the chief resources of the time, that of +securing the most considerable persons by means of pensions, he made +use of to a great extent. Both parties were provided for by annual +payments and presents, Pembroke and Arundel as well as Derby and +Rochester. We are assured that this liberality exercised a very +advantageous influence on the disposition of the country.[166] +Gardiner looked on it as a slight, that he was passed over in the +list, for these pensions were considered at that time an honour, but +this did not prevent him from praising the marriage in his sermons as +ordained by heaven for the restoration of religion. + +All now depended on whether the King's influence would be sufficient +to carry at the next meeting of Parliament in November, the proposals +which had been rejected in the last session. + +But for this, according to the view not merely of the English lords, +but of the imperial ambassador and of the Emperor himself, a previous +condition was indispensable. The English nobles must be relieved from +all apprehension lest the confiscated ecclesiastical property should +ever again be wrested from them. Cardinal Pole had been already for +some time residing in the Netherlands: but he was told that his +arrival in England would be not merely fruitless but detrimental +unless he brought with him a sufficient dispensation with regard to +this. In Rome the concession was opposed on the ground that it would +be setting a bad precedent. But when it was pointed out that the +English confiscations did not touch any church lands, but only +monastic property, and still more that without this concession the +restoration of obedience to the church could not be attained, Pope +Julius III yielded to the request. Two less comprehensive forms were +rejected by the Emperor: at last one was granted which would satisfy +the English. The form of the absolution which the Pope was to bestow +after their submission was previously arranged: it was agreed to avoid +everything that could remind men of the old pretensions and awaken the +national antipathies. + +Meanwhile the elections to Parliament were completed. The proclamation +issued gives the ruling points of view without reserve. An invitation +to elect Catholic members of merit was coupled with the assurance that +there was no intention of disturbing any kind of property. The means +lately used for preventing any hostile influence were not yet +sufficient: the advice was given from Brussels to go back to the older +and stricter forms. + +The leading men of the Upper House were won over: there could be no +doubt about the tone of the Lower. At their first sitting a resolution +to release Cardinal Pole from the attainder that weighed on him, and +invite him to return to England, passed without opposition. Now the +Emperor had no longer any scruple in letting him go. He said as to +this very matter, that what is undertaken at the wrong time hinders +the result which might else have been expected; everything has its +time: the time for this appeared to him now come. From Philip we have +a letter to his sister Juana in which he extols himself with much +satisfaction for the share he had taken in recalling the cardinal and +restoring the Papal authority. 'I and the most illustrious Queen,' he +says in it, 'commanded the Parliament of the three Estates of the +realm to recall him; we especially used our efforts with the chief +among them to induce them to consent to the cardinal's return: at our +order prelates and knights escorted him to our Court, where he has +delivered to us the Breve of his Holiness.'--'We then through the +Chancellor of the realm informed the Estates of what seemed to us +becoming, above all how much it concerned themselves to come to a +conclusion that would give peace to their conscience.'[167] + +The Parliament declared itself ready to return to the obedience of the +Roman See, and repeal all the statutes against it, provided that the +cardinal pronounced a general dispensation, that every man might keep +without scruple the ecclesiastical property which had fallen to his +share.[168] On this understanding Cardinal Pole was allowed to +exercise his legatine power, and the King and Queen were entreated to +intercede that the absolution might be bestowed. + +With heartfelt joy Cardinal Pole pronounced it without delay, first at +a meeting of the Parliament in the palace, then with greater solemnity +at S. Paul's at a high mass attended by the Court with a brilliant +suite; among those present were the knights who wore the Burgundian +order of the Golden Fleece, and those who wore the English Order of +the Garter. The King stood by the Chancellor when from the outer +corridor of the church he announced the event and its motives to the +great crowds there assembled. It made an impression on the imperial +ambassadors that no outward sign of discontent was heard. + +The agreement that now followed bears more of a juridical than of a +religious character. The jurisdiction was given back to the Pope which +he possessed before the twentieth year of Henry VIII (1529): the +statutes by which it was abolished were severally enumerated and +repealed: on the other hand the Pope's legate in his name consented +that the owners of church property should not be disturbed in their +possession, either now or at any future time, either by church +councils or by Papal decrees. Such property was henceforth to be quite +as exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the crown as any other; +whoever dared to call in question the validity of the title in any +spiritual court whatever, within or without the realm, was to be +punished as an enemy of the Queen. The cardinal legate strove long to +prevent the two enactments, as to the restoration of obedience and the +title to the ecclesiastical property, from being combined together in +one Act, since it might look as if the Pope's concession was the price +of this obedience to him; he once said, he would rather let all remain +as it was and go back to Rome than yield on this point. But the +English nobility adhered immoveably to its demand; it wished to +prevent all danger of the restoration of obedience becoming in any way +detrimental to its acquisitions, an object which was clearly best +secured by combining both enactments in a single statute, so that they +must stand or fall together; even the King's representations effected +no alteration in this; the cardinal had to comply. + +On the other hand the King's influence, if we believe himself, had all +possible success in the other affair, which was at any rate not less +weighty. 'With the intervention of the Parliament,' he continues in +the above-mentioned letter, 'we have made a law, I and the most +illustrious Queen, for the punishment of heretics and all enemies of +holy church; we have revived the old ordinances of the realm, which +will serve this purpose very well.' It was more especially the +statute against the Lollards, by which Henry V had entered into the +closest alliance with the hierarchy, that was to be re-enacted by +Parliament. Gardiner had not been able to carry it through in the +previous session, though it was known that the Queen wished it. Under +the King's influence, who was accustomed to the execution of heretics +in Spain, the Lords after some deliberation let their objections drop +and accepted the bill. + +If we put together these four great Acts, the abolition of the Common +Prayer-book, the Spanish marriage, the restoration of obedience to +Rome, and the revival of the heresy laws, we could hardly doubt the +intention of the members of the government, and of the Parliament, to +return completely to the ancient political and religious state of +things. With some members such an intention may have been the +predominant one: to assume it in all, or even in the majority, would +be an error.[169] + +The agreement then legalised as to ecclesiastical property, and the +abolition of the monastic system, already formed such an anomaly in +the Roman Catholic church, that the ecclesiastical condition of +England would have always retained a very abnormal character. And the +obedience expressed was by no means complete. For it should have +included above all a recognition of that right of dispensation, about +which the original quarrel had broken out, and the revocation of the +order of succession which was based on its rejection. In fact +Gardiner's intention was to bring matters to this; being besides a +great enemy and even persecutor of Elizabeth, he wished to see her +illegitimacy pronounced in due form;[170] the resolutions passed +seemed necessarily to lead to it. Men however did not proceed this +time so logically in England. They did not wish to base the future +state of the realm on Papal decrees, but on the ordinances once +enacted by King and Parliament. They could not deceive themselves as +to the fact that Elizabeth, though she conformed outwardly, yet +remained true at heart to the Protestant faith; but not on that +account would the Parliament deny her right to the English throne. It +also by no means entertained exactly Spanish sentiments. The Emperor +expressed the wish that his son might be crowned: his ambassador's +advice however was against proposing it in Parliament; since, with the +high ideas entertained in England of the rights implied in the +coronation, this would never be allowed. In the event of the Queen's +dying before Philip, and leaving children, the guardianship was +reserved to him: but even for this object conditions had been +originally proposed which would have been much more advantageous to +him: these the Upper House threw out. So little was even then the +policy of the Queen and King at the same time the policy of the nation +and Parliament. In the Privy Council the old discords continued. The +government obtained a greater unity by the fact that Gardiner, who now +followed the Queen's lead in every respect, carried most of the +members with him by the authority which her favour gave him. As Paget +and Arundel, since they could effect nothing, refused to appear any +more, there always remained a secret support for the discontent that +was stirring. In the beginning of 1555 traces of a conspiracy in +favour of Courtenay were again detected: if the inquiry into it led to +no discovery, it was because--so it was thought--the commission +entrusted with it did not wish to make any. + +At this moment the revived heresy-laws began to be put into execution. +Prosecutions were instituted for statements that under another order +of things would have been considered as fully authorised. Still more +than to single offences was attention directed to any variations in +doctrine. In these proceedings we can remark the points which were +then chiefly in question. + +The first of the accused, one of the earliest and most influential of +the martyrs, John Rogers, was reminded of the article which speaks of +the faith in one holy catholic church; he replied that by it was meant +the universal church of all lands and times, not the Romish, which on +the contrary had deviated in many points from the main foundation of +all churches, Holy Scripture. Rowland Taylor, who gloried in a +marriage blest with children, which Gardiner would not acknowledge to +be a marriage at all, maintained that Christian antiquity had allowed +the marriage of priests. Gardiner accused him of ignorance. 'But,' +said Taylor, 'I have read the Holy Scripture, the Latin and the Greek +fathers;' a canon of the Nicene council, which was cited on the point, +he interpreted far more correctly than the bishop. John Hooper was +called in question because he held divorce to be permissible on the +ground given in Scripture, and because he found that the view of the +real presence had no foundation in Scripture.[171] Their offence was +the conception of church-communion as resting on the foundation of +Scripture and extending therefore far beyond Romanism: the most +telling defence could not save them here, for only the carrying out of +old laws was concerned, and these unconditionally condemned such +opinions. As the condemned were being taken back by night to their +prison, many householders came out of their doors with lights in their +hands, to greet them with their prayers and thank them for their +steadfastness: a deep and sorrowful sympathy, but one which scarcely +dared to utter itself, and thus renounced the attempt to effect +anything. Rogers suffered death in London, Hooper at his episcopal see +of Gloucester, Taylor (who on the way showed as much good wit as Sir +Thomas More had formerly done) in his parish, Saunders at Coventry, +Ferrar in the market-place at Caermarthen. Their punishment, in every +place where they had taught, was intended to confirm the doctrines +they had rejected. There have been more bloody persecutions elsewhere: +this was distinguished by the fact that many of the more eminent men +of the nation became its victims. Among them, besides those we have +named, were Ridley, who was looked on as the most learned scholar in +England, the eloquent Latimer, Bradford a man of deep piety, Philpot +who united learning and religion. How could Archbishop Cranmer, who +had contributed almost more than any one to carry through the +Reformation, who had pronounced the divorce of the Queen's mother, +possibly find mercy? He persuaded himself of it once; and, yielding as +he was, allowed himself to be tempted into a recantation, in despite +of which he was condemned to death. But then there awoke in him also +the whole consciousness of the truth of his belief. The hand with +which he had signed the recantation he held firm, and let it burn in +unutterable agony, as an expiation which he imposed on himself, before +the flame of the faggots closed over him. The executions extended +themselves over the whole country and even over the neighbouring +islands; the diaries show that they continued till 1558. Many could +have fled, but wished to testify to the firmness of their belief by +dying for it, and thus to strengthen in their faith the people from +whom they were taken away. Most of them showed a sublime contempt of +death, which inflamed others to imitate them. How many would have been +prepared to throw themselves with their friends into the flames! And +no one could say that here there was any question of tendencies to +revolt. The Protestants had on the whole kept themselves far from it: +they did not contest the Queen's right to the throne; they died as her +obedient subjects. + +But now what an impression must these executions produce, combined +with what preceded and followed them. + +Gardiner appears in all this imperious, proud, and with that confident +tone which the possessors of power assume, implying that they regard +themselves as being also mentally superior; Bonner Bishop of London +fanatical, without any power of discernment, and almost bloodthirsty. +His attention was once drawn to the ill effects of his rough acts of +violence; he replied that he must do God's work without fear of men. +Under the last government they had both had much to endure: they had +been deprived by their enemies and thrown into prison: now they +employed the temporal arm in their own favour; they felt no scruple in +sentencing their old opponents to death in accordance with the +severity of the laws which they had again brought into active +operation. Such was the issue of the contest between the bishops +under the changing systems of government. + +As Queen Mary is designated 'The Bloody,' we are astonished when we +read the authentic descriptions, still extant, of her personal +appearance. She was a little, slim, delicate, sickly woman, with hair +already turning grey. She played on the lute, and had even given +instruction in music; she had a skilful hand; on personal acquaintance +she made the impression of goodness and mildness. But yet there was +something in her eyes that could even rouse fear; her voice, which +could be heard at a great distance, told of something unwomanly in +her. She was a good speaker in public; never did she show a trace of +timidity in danger. The troubles she had experienced from her youth, +her constant antagonism to the authority under which she lived, had +especially hardened in her the self-will which is recognisable in all +the Tudors. A peculiarity found elsewhere also in gifted women, that +they are weary of all which surrounds them at home, and give to what +is foreign a sympathy above its worth, had become to her a second +nature. She rejected with aversion the idea of marrying Courtenay, for +this reason among others that he was an Englishman. She, the Queen of +England, had no sympathy for the life, the interests, the struggles of +her people: she hated them from her childhood. All her sympathies were +for the nation from which her mother came, for its views and manners: +her husband was her ideal of a man: we are assured that she even +overlooked his infidelities to her because he did not enter into +permanent relations with any other woman. Besides this he was the only +man who could support her in the great project for which she thought +herself marked out by God, the restoration of Catholicism.[172] This +is the meaning of her pledging herself in her bedchamber before a +crucifix, when she had not yet seen him, to give her hand to him and +to no other. For with him and his fortunes were linked the hopes of a +restoration of Catholicism. Mary was absolutely determined to do all +she could to strengthen it in England. Gardiner assures us, and we may +believe him in this, that it was not he who prompted the revival of +the old laws against the Lollards; the chief impulse to it came on the +contrary from the Queen. And as those laws ordered the punishment of +heretics by fire, and Parliament had consented, and the orthodox +bishops offered their aid, it would have seemed to her a blameable +weakness, if out of feelings of compassion she had stood in the way of +the execution of those laws, to the suspension of which the bishops +ascribed the spread of heretical opinions. Many of the horrors which +accompanied their execution may have remained concealed from her; +still it cannot be doubted, that the persecutions would never have +begun without her. No excuse can free her memory from the dark shade +which rests on it. For that which is done in a sovereign's name, with +his will and consent, determines his character in history. + +The conduct of the Queen and her government, without whose help +ecclesiastical authority would have been null and void, had a result +that extended far beyond her time: men began to inquire into the +claims of the temporal power. John Knox, who had now to fly from +England before a Queen, as he had previously from Scotland before a +Queen-regent, and whose word was of weight, poured forth his feelings +in a piercing call, which he himself named 'a blast of the trumpet,' +against the right of women to the government of a country, which ought +to be exercised only by men. And while Knox went no further than the +immediate case, others examined into the powers of all State +authority: above all, to prevent its taking part in religious +persecution, they brought forward the principles according to which +sovereignty issues originally from the people. Mary's government had +awakened in Protestantism, and that not merely in England, the +hostility of political theory. + +But besides no man could hide from himself, that discontent, even +without theory, had grown in England in an alarming manner. The French +and Imperial ambassadors both gave their courts information of it, +the former with a kind of satisfaction, the latter with apprehension +and pain. He laments the bad effect which the religious persecution +produces, makes pressing objections to it and demands that the bloody +zeal of the bishops shall be moderated; but the matter was regularly +proceeding in a kind of legal way; we do not find that he effected +anything. + +The Queen had hitherto flattered herself and her partisans with the +hope that she would give the country an heir to the throne. When this +expectation proved fallacious in the summer of 1555 it produced an +impression which, as the imperial ambassador says, no pen could +describe. The appearance had been caused by an unhealthy condition of +body, which was now looked on rather as a prognostic of her fast +approaching death. It is already clear, remarks the ambassador, that +least confidence can be placed in those who have been hitherto most +trusted: many a man still wears a mask: others even show their +ill-will quite openly. For so badly is the succession at present +arranged that my lady Elizabeth will without doubt ascend the throne +on Mary's death and will restore heresy. + +While things were in this state, Philip II was led to resolve on going +to the Netherlands by the vicissitudes of the French war and his +father's state of health; he wished either to bring about peace, or to +push the war with energy. + +He had hitherto exercised a moderating influence on the government. +Not to let all fall back into the previous party-strife, he thought it +best to give the eight leading members of the Privy Council a +pre-eminent place in the management of business. He could not avoid +admitting men of both parties even among these; but he had already +found a man whom he could set over the others and trust with the +supreme rule of affairs in complete confidence. This was Cardinal +Pole, who after Cranmer's death received the Archbishopric of +Canterbury, long ago bestowed on him at Rome, and was released from +the duty of again returning to the Roman court. He was descended from +the house of the Yorkist Suffolks, persecuted by the earlier Tudors +with great severity; but how completely did this family difference +recede before the world-wide interests of religion! He served with the +most entire devotion a queen of the house of Lancaster-Tudor who on +her side reposed in him unlimited reliance: she wished to have him +about her for hours every day. Reginald Pole was a man of European and +general ecclesiastical culture; he shared in a tendency existing +within Catholicism itself, which approached very nearly to +Protestantism on one dogmatic question: we also hear that he would +gladly have moderated the persecution;[173] but when it is said, that +the obstinacy of the Protestants hindered him in this, all that can be +implied is, that they held fast to a confession which was now +absolutely condemned by the hierarchic laws, while he was bound and +resolved to carry these laws into effect. His chief care was above all +not to be involved in English party-divisions: he therefore usually +worked with a couple of Italian assistants who shared his sentiments +and his plans. The union of the ecclesiastical and temporal authority +is seen once more in Pole, as it had been in Wolsey: he combined the +powers of a legate with the position of a first minister. His +distinguished birth, his high ecclesiastical rank, the confidence of +the King and Queen, enhanced by completely blameless personal +conduct,[174] procured him an authority in the country which seemed +almost that of the sovereign. + +A singular government this, composed of an absent king, who however +had to be consulted in all weighty matters, a cardinal, and a dying +queen who lived exclusively in church ideas. Difficulties could not be +wanting: they arose first in church matters themselves. + +We know how much the recognition of the alienation of the church +property, to which Julius III was brought to consent by the Emperor, +contributed to the restoration of church obedience; among the English +nobility it formed the main ground of its submission. But in May 1555 +Pope Paul IV ascended the Papal throne, in whom dislike of the +Austro-Spanish house was almost a passion, and who wished to base his +ecclesiastical reputation on the recovery of the alienated church +property. His third Bull orders its restoration, including the +possessions of monastic foundations, and the revenues hitherto +received from them. The English ambassadors who had been sent to Rome +under wholly different conditions, to announce the restoration of +obedience, found this Pope there on their arrival. When they mentioned +the confirmation of the alienation of the monastic property, he +answered them in plain terms: for himself he would be ready to +consent, but it lay beyond his power; the property of the church was +sacred and inviolable, all that belonged to it must be restored to the +uttermost farthing. And so ecclesiastically minded was Queen Mary that +she in her heart agreed with the Pope. The monasteries in particular +she held to be an indispensable part of the church-system, and wished +for their restoration. Already the fugitive monks were seen returning: +a number of Benedictines who had remained in the country resumed the +dress of their Order; the Queen made no secret of her wish to restore +the monastery of Westminster in particular. Another side of church +life was affected by the fact that, owing to the suppression of the +great abbeys, a number of benefices, which were dependent on them, had +lost their incomes and had fallen into decay. That Henry VIII should +have appropriated to the crown the tenths and first-fruits, which +belonged to the church, seemed to Queen Mary unjustifiable; she felt +herself straitened in her conscience by retaining these revenues, and +was prepared to give them back, whatever might be the loss to the +crown. But she could not by herself repeal what had been done under +authority of Parliament: in November 1555 she attempted to gain over +that assembly to her view. A number of influential members were +summoned to the palace, where first Cardinal Pole explained to them +that the receipt of the first-fruits was connected with the State's +claim of supremacy over the church, but that, after obedience was +restored, it had no longer any real justification. He put forward some +further reasons, and then the Queen herself took up the word. She +laid the greatest stress on her personal wish. She asked the +Parliament, after having shown obedience to her in so many ways, to +prove to her that the peace of her soul lay near their hearts, and to +take this burden from her. But the conception of the crown and its +property had in England already ceased to be so merely personal. The +most universally intelligible motive in the whole church-movement was +the feeling, that the resources of the nation ought to be devoted to +national purposes, and every one felt that the diminution of the royal +revenues would have to be made up by Parliamentary grants. In addition +to this, it appeared to be only the first step to such an universal +restitution, as Pope Paul IV clearly contemplated and directed. Was +there not much more to be said for the recovery of the church revenues +from private hands than for their withdrawal from the crown which used +them for public purposes?--A member of the Lower House wished to +answer the Queen at once after her address: but, as he was not the +Speaker, he was not allowed to do so. + +When the proposal came under discussion in the Lower House, it met +with lively opposition. A commission was then appointed, to which the +Upper House sent two earls, two barons, and two bishops, and to which +some lawyers were added; by these the proposed articles were revised +and then laid before them again. The decisive sitting was on the 3rd +December 1555. The doors were closed: no stranger was allowed to enter +nor any member to leave the House. After they had sat in hot debate +from early morning till three in the afternoon--just one of those +debates, of which we have to regret that no detailed account has +survived--the proposal was, it is true, accepted, but against such a +large minority as was hitherto unheard of in the English Parliament, +120 votes to 183. Queen and cardinal regarded it as a great victory, +for they had carried their view: but the tone of the country was still +against them. However strong the stress which the cardinal laid on the +statement that the concession of the crown was not to react in any way +on private men's ownership of church property, the apprehension was +nevertheless universal,[175] that with the Queen's zeal for the +monasteries, and a consistent carrying out of the Pope's principles, +things would yet come to this. But the interests which would be thus +injured were very widespread. It was calculated that there were 40,000 +families which in one way or another owned part of the church +property: they would neither relinquish it nor allow their title to be +called in question. Powerful lords were heard to exclaim that they +would keep the abbey-lands as long as they had a sword by their side. +The popular disposition was reflected in the widespread rumour, which +gained credence, that Edward VI was still alive and would soon come +back. + +From time to time seditious movements showed the insecurity of the +situation. At the beginning of 1556 traces were detected of a plan for +plundering the treasury in order to levy troops with the money.[176] +The Western counties were discontented because Courtenay was removed +from among them: he died subsequently in Italy. Sir Henry Dudley, the +Duke of Northumberland's cousin, rallied around him some zealous and +enterprising malcontents, who planned a complete revolution: he found +secret support in France, whither he fled.[177] In April 1557 a +grandson of the Duke of Buckingham, Thomas Stafford, also coming from +France, landed and made himself master of Scarborough castle. He had +only a handful of followers, but he ventured to proclaim himself +Protector of the realm, which he promised to secure against the +tyranny of foreigners, and 'the satanic designs of an unlawful Queen.' +He was crushed without difficulty. But in the general ferment which +this aroused, it was observed how universal was the wish for a +change.[178] + +Meanwhile foreign affairs took a turn which threatened to involve +England in a dangerous complication. The peace between the great +powers had not been concluded: the truce they had made was broken off +at the instigation of the Pope; hostilities began again, and Philip II +returned to England for a couple of months to induce her to join in +the war against France. The diplomatic correspondence shows that the +imperial court from the beginning valued their near relation to +England chiefly as the basis of an alliance against France. We can +easily understand how this early object was now attained. Besides many +other previous wrongs, Stafford's enterprise, which was ascribed to +the intrigues of France, was a motive for declaring war against that +Power. And a French war still retained its old charm for the English: +their share in it surpassed all expectation. The English land forces +co-operated with decisive effect in the great victory of S. Quintin, +and similarly the appearance of the English fleet on the French coasts +ensured Philip's predominance on the ocean. But it is very doubtful +whether this was the part the English power should have played at this +moment. By his father's abdication and retirement into the cloister +Philip had become lord and master of the Spanish monarchy. Could it be +the mission of the English to help in consolidating it in his hands? +On the foundation then laid, and mainly through the peace which France +saw herself compelled to make, its greatness was built up. For the +Spanish monarchy the union with England, which rested on the able use +to which the existing troubles and the personal position of the Queen +were turned--and which, strictly speaking, was still a result of the +policy of Ferdinand the Catholic--was of indescribable advantage: to +the English it brought a loss which was severely felt. They had +neglected to put Calais in a proper state of defence; at the first +attack it fell into the hands of the French. The greatest value was +still laid in England on a possession across the sea, which seemed +indispensable for the command of the Channel; its extension was the +main object of Henry VIII's last war: that now it was on the contrary +utterly lost was felt to be a national disaster; the population of the +town, which consisted of English, was expelled together with the +garrison. + +And as Pope Paul IV was now allied with the King of France, the result +was that he found himself at war with Philip II (whom he tried to +chase from Naples), and hence with England as well. His hatred to the +house of Austria, his aversion to the concessions made in England with +reference to church property, and to the religious position which +Cardinal Pole had hitherto taken up in the questions at issue within +the Catholic Church, determined the Pope to interfere in the home +affairs of England with a strong hand. For these Cardinal Pole was the +one indispensable man, on whose shoulders the burden of affairs +rested. But it was this very man whom Paul IV now deprived of his +legatine power, on which much of his consequence rested, and +transferred it to a Franciscan monk. + +But what now was the consequent situation of affairs in England! The +Queen, who recognised no higher authority than that of the Papal See, +was obliged to have Paul IV's messages intercepted, lest they should +become known. While the ashes of the reputed heretics were still +smoking on their Calvaries, the man who represented the Catholic form +of religion, and was working effectively for its progress, was accused +of falling away from the orthodox faith, and summoned to Rome to +answer for it. + +Meanwhile England did not feel herself strong enough, even with the +help that Philip offered, to attempt the reconquest of Calais. The +finances were completely disordered by the war; and the Parliament +showed little zeal in restoring the balance: just before this the +Queen had found herself obliged even to diminish the amount of a +subsidy already as good as voted. However unwilling she might be to +take the step after her previous experiences, she had to decide once +more in the autumn of 1558 on calling a Parliament. Circumstances wore +an appearance all the more dangerous, as the Scotch were allied with +the victorious French: the Queen represented to the Commons the need +of extraordinary means of defence. A number of the leading lords +appeared in the Lower House to give additional weight to the demand of +the Crown by their presence. The Commons, though not quite willingly, +were proceeding to deliberate on the subsidies demanded, when an event +happened which relieved them from the necessity of coming to any +resolution. + +A tertian or quartan fever was then prevalent in the Netherlands and +in England, which was very fatal, especially to elderly persons of +enfeebled health.[179] The Queen, who had been for some time visited +by her usual attacks of illness, could not resist this disease, when +suffering besides, as she was, from deep affliction at the +disappointment of all her hopes, and from heart-rending anticipations +of the future: once more she heard mass in her chamber--she died +before it was ended, on the 17 November 1558. Cardinal Pole also was +suffering: completely crushed by this news he expired the following +night. It was calculated that thirteen bishops died a little before or +after the Queen. As if by some predetermined fate the combination of +English affairs which had been attempted during her government came at +once to an end. + +NOTES: + +[165] The Queen imputed the chief blame to Paget 'Quand l'on a parle +de la peyne des heretiques, il a sollicite les Seigneurs pour non y +consentir ny donner lieu a peyne de mort' Renard a l'empereur, in +Tytler ii. 386. + +[166] Les seigneurs quils ont pension du roy font tels et si bons +offices es contrees et provinces du roy ou ils ont charge que l'on ne +oye dire si non que le peuple est content de l'alliance; ce que +divertit les mauvais.' Renard a l'empereur, 13 Oct. Papiers d'etat iv. +348. + +[167] Carta del rey Don Felipe a la princesa de Portugal Donna Juana +su hermana, in Ribadeneyra, Historia del Scisma 381. + +[168] Renard informs King Ferdinand that this resolution would be +adopted the 29 Nov (Papiers d'etat iv. 344), 'Confiant que la dispense +soit generale, pour sans scrupule confirmer la possession des biens +ecclesiastiques es mains de ceux qui les tiennent.' + +[169] 'La chambre haulte y faict difficulte pour ce, que l'autorite et +jurisdiction des evesques est autorizee et que la peine semble trop +griefve.' Renard a l'empereur, Papiers d'etat iv. 347. + +[170] Renard, ibid. 341. 'Le chancellier insistoit, que l'on declaira +Mme. Elizabeth bastarde en ce parlement' They feared 'l'evidente et +congnue contrariete qui seroit en tout le royaume.' + +[171] Condemnatio Johannis Hooper, in Burnet Coll. iii. 246. Compare +Foxe, Martyrs vol. iii; Soames iv. + +[172] According to a despatch of Micheli (25 Nov. 1555) she says to +the Parliament: 'che non ad altro fine dalla Maesta di dio era +predestinata e riservata alla successione del regno, se non per +servirsi di lei principalmente nella riduttione alla fede cattolica.' + +[173] Erat tanta in plerisque animorum obstinatio ac pertinacia, ut +benignitati et clementiae nullum plane locum relinquerent.' Vita Poli, +in Quirini i. 42. + +[174] Micheli, Relatione, 'Incontaminatissimo da ogni sorte di +passione et interessi humani, non prevalendo in lui ni l'autorita de +principi ni rispetto di sangue ni d'amicizia.' + +[175] 'Assicurando e levando il sospetto, che per quello che +privatamente ciascuno possedeva, non sarebbe mai molestato ni +travagliato.' Micheli, despatch 25 Nov., from whose reports I draw my +notices of these proceedings in general. + +[176] Micheli, despatch 1556, 7 April, notes 'la maggior parte dei +gentilhuomini del contado di Dansur (Devonshire) come conscii et +partecipi della congiura.' 5 Magg. 'Tutta la parte occidentale e in +sospetto.' + +[177] The Constable to Noailles, Amb. v. 310. 'Le roy a advise +d'entretenir doulcement Dudelay et secrettement toute fois, pour s'en +servir s'il en est de besoing luy donnant moyen d'entretenir aussi par +de la des intelligences, qu'il faut retenir.' + +[178] Suriano, despatch 29 April 1557. 'Si e scoperto l'animo di +molti, che non si sono potuti contener di mostrarsi desiderosi di +veder alteration del stato presente.' + +[179] Godwin 470 'Innumeri perierunt, sed aetate fere provectiores et +inter eos sacerdotum ingens numerus.' + + + + +BOOK III. + +QUEEN ELIZABETH. CLOSE CONNEXION OF ENGLISH AND SCOTCH AFFAIRS. + + +To appreciate the motives which led Henry VIII to attach such +importance to a male heir, and to exclude his daughter by the Spanish +marriage from the succession, we need only cast our eyes on what +happened under her, when in spite of all she had become Queen. The +idea with which the Tudors had ascended the throne, and administered +the realm, that of founding a political power strong in itself and +alike independent of home factions and foreign influence, was +sacrificed by Mary to her preference for the nation from which her +mother came and from which she chose her husband. The military power +of England served to support the Spanish monarchy at a dangerous and +doubtful moment in the course of its formation. And while Mary's +father and brother had made it the object of their policy to deprive +the hierarchy of all influence over England, she on the contrary +reinstated it: she put the power and all the resources of the State at +its disposal. Though historically deeply rooted, the Catholic tendency +showed itself, through the reactionary rule which it brought about and +through its alliance with the policy of Spain, pernicious to the +country. We have seen what losses England suffered by it, not merely +in its foreign possessions, but--what was really irreparable--in men +of talent and learning, of feeling and greatness of soul; and into +what a state of weakness abroad and dissolution at home it thereby +fell. A new order of things must arise, if the national element, the +creation of which had been the labour of centuries, was not to be +crushed, and the mighty efforts of later ages were not to succumb to +religious and political reaction. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ELIZABETH'S ACCESSION. TRIUMPH OF THE REFORMATION. + + +During Mary's government, which had been endurable only because men +foresaw its speedy end, all eyes were directed to her younger sister +Elizabeth. She was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who bore her under her +heart when she was crowned as Queen. After many changes, Henry VIII, +in agreement with Parliament, had recognised her right of inheritance; +the people had risen against the enterprise of the Duke of +Northumberland for her as well as for Mary. And it had also been +maintained against Mary herself. Once, in Wyatt's conspiracy, letters +were found, which pointed at Elizabeth's having a share in it: she was +designated in them as the future Queen. The predominant +Spanish-Catholic party had her examined and would have much wished to +find her guilty, in order to rid themselves of her for ever. But +Elizabeth was not so imprudent as to lend her hand to a movement, +which if unsuccessful--a result not hard to foresee--must destroy her +own good title. And moreover she, with her innate pride, could not +possibly have carried out the wishes of the French by marrying +Courtenay, whom her sister had rejected. The letter, which she wrote +to Mary at this crisis, is full of unfeignedly loyal submission to her +Queen, before whom she only wishes to bend her knee, to pray her not +to let herself be prejudiced by false charges against her sister; and +yet at the same time it is highminded and great in the consciousness +of innocence. Mary, who was now no longer her friend, did not +vouchsafe her a hearing, but sent her to the Tower and subjected her +to a criminal examination. But however zealously they sought for +proofs against her, yet they found none: and they dared not touch her +life unless she were first publicly found guilty. She was clearly the +heiress to the throne appointed under the authorisation of Parliament: +the people would not give up the prospects of the future which were +linked with her. When she appeared in London at this moment of peril, +surrounded by numerous attendants, in an open litter, with an +expression in which hopeful buoyant youth mingled with the feeling of +innocence and distress, pale and proud, she swayed the masses that +crowded round her with no doubtful sympathy.[180] When she passed +through the streets after her liberation, she was received with an +enthusiasm which made the Queen jealous on her throne. + +Yet Elizabeth was not merely the head of the popular opposition to her +sister's policy: from the first moment onwards she was in collision +with another female foe, whose pretensions would determine the +relations of her life. If Henry VIII formerly in settling the +succession passed over in silence the rights of his married sister in +Scotland, which had now come to her granddaughter Mary Stuart, the +memory of them was now all the more vividly revived by the Catholic +party in the country. For with the religious reverence which men +devoted to the Papacy it was not at all possible to reconcile the +recognition of Elizabeth, whose very existence was as it were at +variance with it. Nor was a political motive for preferring Mary +Stuart wanting. That for which Henry VIII and Somerset had striven so +zealously, the union of England and Scotland, would be thus attained +at once. They were not afraid that Scotland might thus become +predominant; Henry VII at the conclusion of the marriage, having his +attention drawn to this possible risk, replied with the maxim, that +the larger and more powerful part always draws the smaller after it. +The indispensable condition for the development of the English power +lay in the union of the whole island: this would have ensued in a +Catholic, not in a Protestant, sense. Was not this union of political +advantage and religious concord likely to influence the Privy Council +of England, which under Mary was again zealously Catholic, and also to +influence Queen Mary Tudor herself? + +Great political questions however do not usually present themselves to +men in such perfect clearness, but are seen under the modifying +circumstances of the moment. It was at that time all important that +Mary Stuart had married the Dauphin: she would have united England not +merely with Scotland, but at the same time with France, thus bringing +it for ever under the influence of that country. How revolting must +such a prospect have been to all English feeling! England would have +become a transmarine province of France, it would in time have been +absorbed like Brittany. Above all, French policy would have completely +gained the upper hand in Europe. This apprehension induced the Spanish +statesmen--Elizabeth's eager enemies as long as they expected their +King to have issue of Mary Tudor--when this hope failed, to give the +princess sympathy and attention. Philip II, when her troubles revived +(for both Gardiner and Pole were her enemies), informed her through +secret messengers, that he was her good friend and would not abandon +her. Now that Mary was failing before all men's eyes, and every one +was looking forward to her death, it was his evident interest to +further Elizabeth's accession. In this sense spoke his ambassador +Feria, whom he sent at this moment to England, before the assembled +Privy Council;[181] even Mary was urged to declare herself to the same +effect. From an advice written for Elizabeth during the first moments +of her reign we see that all still looked very dangerous: she was +urged in it to possess herself of the Tower and there to receive the +allegiance of the high officers of State, to allow no departure from +the English ports, and so on. Men expected turbulent movements at +home, and were not without apprehension of an attempt at invasion +from France. The decision however followed without any commotion and +on the spot. Though most of its members were Catholic, the Privy +Council did not hesitate. A few hours after Mary's decease the Commons +were summoned to the Upper House, to receive a communication there: it +was, that Mary was dead, and that God had given them another Queen, My +lady Elizabeth. The Parliament dissolved; the new Queen was proclaimed +in Westminster and in London. Some days afterwards she made her entry +into the capital amidst the indescribable rejoicings of the people, +who greeted her accession as their deliverance and their salvation. + +But if this, as we see, involved in its very essence a hostile +attitude towards France and Scotland, on the other hand the question +was at once laid before the Queen, and in the most personal way +imaginable, how far she would unite herself with Spain, the great +Power which was now on her side. Philip resolved, inasmuch as +propriety in some measure allowed it, to ask for her hand--not indeed +from personal inclination, of which there is no trace, but from policy +and perhaps from religion: he hoped by this means to keep England firm +to the Spanish alliance and to Catholicism.[182] And on the English +side also much might be said for it. An ally was needed against +France, even to obtain a tolerable peace: there was some danger that +Philip, if rejected by the Queen, might perhaps marry a French +princess; to be secure against the French claims the Queen seemed to +need the support of Spain. Her first answer was not in the negative. +She declared she must consult with Parliament as to the King's +proposal: but he might be assured that, if she ever married, she would +not give any one else the preference over him. + +Well considered, these words announce at once her resolution not to +marry. Between Mary Tudor who thought to bring the crown to the heir +of Spain, and Mary Stuart similarly pledged to the heir of France, +nothing was left for her--since she would not wish the husband of her +choice to be of inferior rank--but to remain unmarried. From +listening to Philip's wooing she was kept back by her sister's +example, whose marriage had destroyed her popularity. And for +Elizabeth there would have been yet another danger in this alliance. +Was not her legitimacy dependent on the invalidity of her father's +marriage with his brother's widow? It would be a very similar case if +she were to marry her sister's husband. Besides she would have needed +the Pope's dispensation for such a union--as Philip had already +explained to her--while her birth and crown were the results of a +Papal dispensation being declared a nullity. She would thus have +fallen into a self-contradiction, to which she must have succumbed in +course of time. When told that Philip II had done her some service, +she acknowledged it: but when she meditated on it further, she found +that neither this sovereign nor any other influence whatever would +have protected her from her enemies, had not the people shown her an +unlimited devotion.[183] This devotion, on which her whole existence +depended, she would not forfeit. After a little delay she let Philip +know that she felt some scruples as to the Papal dispensation. She +gave weight to the point which had been under discussion, but added +that she was altogether disinclined to marry. We may doubt whether +this was her immoveably formed resolution, considering how often +afterwards she negociated about her marriage. It might seem to her +allowable, as an instrument of policy, to excite hopes which she did +not mean to fulfil: or her views may in fact have again wavered: but +these oscillations in her statements can mean nothing when set over +against a great necessity: her actual conduct shows that she had a +vivid insight into it and held firm to it with tenacious resolution. +She was Henry's daughter, but she knew how to keep herself as +independent as he had thought that only a son could possibly do. There +is a deep truth in her phrase, that she is wedded to her people: +regard to their interests kept her back from any other union. + +But if she resolved to give up the relation of close union in which +England had hitherto stood with Spain, it was indispensable to make +peace with France. It was impossible to attain this if she insisted on +the restoration of Calais; she resolved to give it up, at first for a +term of years. Of almost the same date as her answer of refusal to +Philip's ambassador is her instruction empowering her ambassador to +let Calais go, as soon as he saw that the Spaniards would conclude +their peace with France without stipulating for its restoration. She +was able to venture this, for however deeply the nation felt the loss +of the place, the blame for it could not be imputed to her. Without +repeating what was then asserted, that her distinct aim was to turn +the hatred of the nation against the late government and its alliance +with Spain, we may still allow that this must have been the actual +result, as it really proved to be. It was indeed said that Philip II, +who not merely concluded peace with France but actually married a +daughter of Henry II, would make common cause with him against +England: but Elizabeth no more allowed herself to be misled by this +possibility, which also had much against it, than Henry VIII had been +under similar circumstances. Like him and like the founder of her +family, she took up an independent position between the two powers, +equally ready according to circumstances for war or peace with one or +the other. + +Meanwhile she had already proceeded to measures which could never have +been reconciled with the Spanish alliance, and to ecclesiastical +changes which first gave her position its true character. + +Her earliest intimation of again deviating from the Church was given +by restoring, like a devoted daughter, her father's monument, which +Mary had levelled with the ground. A second soon followed, which at +once touched on the chief doctrine in dispute. Before attending a +solemn high mass she required the officiating bishop to omit the +elevation of the host. As he refused, she left the church at the +moment the ceremony was being consummated. To check the religious +strife which began to fill the pulpits she forbade preaching, like her +predecessors; but she allowed the Sunday Lessons, the Litany, and the +Creed to be read in English. Elizabeth had hitherto conformed to the +restored Catholic ritual: it could not be quite said that she +belonged to either of the existing confessions. She always declared +that she had read no controversial writings. But she had occupied +herself with the documents of the early Church, with the Greek and +Latin Fathers, and was thoroughly convinced that the Romanism of the +later centuries had gone far astray from this pattern. She had made up +her mind, not as to every point of doctrine, but as to its general +direction: she believed too that she was upheld and guarded by God, to +carry out this change. 'How wonderful are God's ordinances,' she +exclaimed, when she heard that the crown had fallen to her. + +What course however was now to be taken was a question which, owing to +the antagonism of the factions and the close connexion of all +ecclesiastical and political matters, required the most mature +consideration. + +The Queen was advised simply to revert to Edward VI's regulations, and +to declare all things null and void that had been enacted under Mary, +mainly on the ground that they had been enacted in violation of legal +forms. A speech was laid before her, in which the validity of the last +elections was disputed, since qualified members had been excluded from +the sittings of both houses, although they were good Englishmen: the +later proclamations of summons were held to be null, because in them +the formula 'Supreme Head of the English Church' had been arbitrarily +omitted, without a previous resolution of Parliament, though on this +title so much depended for the commonwealth and people: but no one +could give up a right which concerned a third person or the public +interest; through these errors, which Mary had committed in her +blindness, all that had then been determined lost its force and +authority.[184] But the Queen and her counsellors did not wish to go +so far. They remarked that to declare a Parliament invalid for some +errors of form was a step of such consequence as to make the whole +government of the nation insecure. But even without this it was not +the Queen's purpose merely to revert to the forms which had been +adopted under her brother. She did not share all the opinions and +doctrines which had then obtained the upper hand: she held far more to +ceremonies and outward forms than Edward VI or his counsellors: she +wished to avoid a rude antagonism which would have called forth the +resistance of the Catholics. + +In the Parliament that met immediately after the coronation (which was +still celebrated by a Catholic bishop), they began with the question +which had most occupied the late assembly, namely, should the Church +revenues that had been attached to the crown be restored to it. The +Queen's proposal, that they should be left to the crown, was quite the +view of the assembly and obtained their full consent. + +The Parliamentary form of government however had also the greatest +influence on religious affairs. Having risen originally in opposition +to Rome, the Parliament, after the vicissitudes of the civil wars, +first recovered its full importance when it took the side of the crown +in its struggle with the Papacy. It did not so much concern itself +with Dogma for its own sake: it had thought it possible to unite the +retention of Catholicism with national independence. Under Mary every +man had become conscious that this would be impossible. It was just +then that the Parliament passed from its previous compliant mood into +opposition, which was not yet successful because it was only that of +the minority, but which prepared the way for the coming change of +tone. It attached itself joyfully to the new Queen, whose birth +necessarily made her adopt a policy which took away all apprehensions +of a union with the Romish See injurious to the country. + +The complete antagonism between the Papal and the Parliamentary +powers, of which one had swayed past centuries and the other was to +sway the future, is shown by the conduct of the Pope, when Elizabeth +announced her accession to him. In his answer he reproached her with +it as presumption, reverted to the decision of his predecessors by +which she was declared illegitimate, required that the whole matter +should be referred to him, and even mentioned England's feudal +relation to the Papacy:[185] but Parliament, which had rejected this +claim centuries before, acknowledged Elizabeth as legitimately sprung +from the royal blood, and as Queen by the law of God and of the land; +they pledged themselves to defend her title and right with their lives +and property. + +Owing to this the tendencies towards separation from Rome were already +sure to gain the superiority: the Catholic members of the Privy +Council, to whom Elizabeth owed her first recognition, could not +contend effectively against them. But besides this, Elizabeth had +joined with them a number of men of her own choice and her own views, +who like herself had not openly opposed the existing system, but +disapproved it; they were mainly her personal friends, who now took +the direction of affairs into their hands; the change which they +prepared looked moderate but was decided. + +Elizabeth rejected the title of 'Supreme Head of the Church,' because +it not merely aroused the aversion of the Catholics, but also gave +offence to many zealous Protestants; it made however no essential +difference when she replaced it by the formula 'in all causes as well +ecclesiastical as civil, supreme.' Parliament declared that the right +of visiting and reforming the Church was attached to the crown and +could be exercised by it through ecclesiastical commissioners. The +clergy, high and low, were to swear to the ecclesiastical supremacy, +and abjure all foreign authority and jurisdiction. The punishment for +refusing the oath was defined: it was not to be punished with death as +under Henry VIII, but with the loss of office and property. All Mary's +acts in favour of an independent legislation and jurisdiction of the +spiritualty were repealed. The crown appropriated to itself, with +consent of Parliament, complete supremacy over the clergy of the land. + +The Parliament allowed indeed that it did not belong to it to +determine concerning matters really ecclesiastical; but it held itself +authorised, much like the Great-Councils of Switzerland, to order a +conference of both parties, before which the most pressing questions +of the moment, on the power of national Churches, and the nature of +the Mass, should be laid. + +The Catholic bishops disliked the whole proceeding, as may be +imagined, since these points had been so long settled; and they +disliked no less the interference of the temporal power, and lastly +the presidency of a royal minister, Nicolas Bacon. They had no mind to +commit themselves to an interchange of writings: their declarations by +word of mouth were more peremptory than convincing. In general they +were not well represented since the deaths of Pole and Gardiner. On +the other hand the Protestants, of whom many had become masters of the +controverted questions during the exile from which they had now +returned, put forward explicit statements which were completely to the +point. They laid stress chiefly on the distinction between the +universal, truly Catholic, Church and the Romish: they sought to reach +firm ground in Christian antiquity prior to the hierarchic centuries. +While they claimed a more comprehensive communion than that of +Romanism, as that in which true Catholicity exists, they sought at the +same time to establish a narrower, national, body which should have +the right of independent decision as to ritual. Nearly all depended on +the question, how far a country, which forms a separate community and +thus has a separate Church, has the right to alter established +ceremonies and usages; they deduced such an authority from this fact +among others, that the Church in the first centuries was ruled by +provincial councils. The project of calling a national council was +proposed in Germany but never carried out: in England men considered +the idea of a national decree, mainly in reference to ritual, as +superior to all others. But we know how much the conception of ritual +covered. The question whether Edward VI's Prayer-book should be +restored or not, was at the same time decisive as to what doctrinal +view should be henceforth followed.[186] + +The Catholic bishops set themselves in vain against the progress of +these discussions. They withdrew from the conference: but the +Parliament did not let itself be misled by this: it adopted the +popular opinion, that they did not know what to answer. At the +division in the Upper House they held obstinately fast to their +opinion: they were left however, though only by a few votes, in the +minority.[187] The Act of Uniformity passed, by which the Prayer-book, +in the form which should be given it by a new revision, was to be +universally received from the following Midsummer. The bishops raised +an opposition yet once more, at a sitting of the Privy Council, on the +ground that the change was against the promises made by Mary to the +See of Rome in the name of the crown. Elizabeth answered, her sister +had in this exceeded her powers: she herself was free to revert to the +example of her earlier predecessors by whom the Papal power was looked +on as an usurpation. 'My crown,' she exclaimed, 'is subject only to +the King of Kings, and to no one else:' she made use of the words, +'But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' The Protestant +bishops had perished at the stake, but the victory was theirs even in +their graves. + +The committee of revision consisted of men, who had then saved +themselves by flight or by the obscurity of a secluded life. As under +Edward men came back to the original tendencies prevalent under Henry +VIII, so they now reverted to the settlement under Edward; yet they +allowed themselves some alterations, chiefly with the view of making +the book acceptable to the Catholics as well. Prayers in which the +hostility of decided Protestantism came forward with especial +sharpness, for instance that 'against the tyranny of the Bishop of +Rome,' were left out. The chief alteration was in the formula of the +Lord's Supper. Elizabeth and her divines were not inclined to let this +stand as it was read in the second edition of Edward's time, since the +mystical act there appeared almost as a mere commemorative +repast.[188] They reverted to a form composed from the monuments of +Latin antiquity, from Ambrose and Gregory, in which the real presence +was maintained; this which already existed in the first edition they +united with the view of the second. As formerly in the Augsburg +confession in Germany, so in England at the last recension of the +Common Prayer-book an attempt was made to keep as near as possible to +the traditional system. For the Queen this had also a political value: +when Philip II sent her a warning, she explained that she was only +kept back from joining in the mass by a few points: she too believed +in God's presence in the Sacrament.[189] + +She was of a similar mind in reference to other matters also. If at +first, under pressure from zealous Protestants who saw in images an +occasion for superstition, she ordered their removal, we perceive that +in a short time she regretted it, especially as it made a bad +impression in Wales and the Northern counties; in her chapel men again +saw the cross and the lighted tapers, as before. The marriages entered +into by priests had given much offence, and not unjustly, as they were +often inferior unions, little honourable to them, and lowering the +dignity of their order. Elizabeth would have gladly forbidden them +altogether: she contented herself with setting limits to them by +ordering that a previous permission should be requisite, but she +always disliked them. She felt a natural pleasure in the splendour and +order of the existing church service. For the future also the +spiritualty were to be bound to appear--in the customary dress--in a +manner worthy of God's service, with bent knees and with ceremonious +devotion. When they proceeded to revise the confession drawn up by +Cranmer, which two years afterwards was raised to a law in the shape +of the 'Thirty-nine Articles,' they struck out the places that leant +to Zwingli's special view; on the other hand they added some new +propositions, which stated the right of the higher powers, and the +authority of each kingdom to determine religious usages for +itself.[190] + +For in this consisted the essence of the alteration, that the Civil +Authority, as it was then composed, decided the church-questions that +arose, and raised its decision into law. + +The Statute was, that no person should hold a public office, whether +spiritual or temporal, who did not conform to this law. Thirteen +bishops, four-and-twenty deans, eighty rectors of parishes, and most +of the heads of colleges resigned. It has been said that this number, +about two hundred, is not very considerable, since the English clergy +held 9000 benefices and offices; but it comprehended all those who +held the government of the church and represented the prevalent +opinion in it. The difficulty arose how to replace the bishops in +conformity with the principles of the English church constitution as +then retained: perhaps the difficulty was intentional. There were +however two conforming bishops who had received the laying on of hands +according to the Roman ritual, and two others according to the +Reformed: these consecrated the new Archbishop of Canterbury. It was +objected to this act that none of them was in actual possession of a +bishop's see: the Queen declared every defect, whether as to the +statutes of the realm or church-usages, since time and circumstances +demanded it, to be nullified or supplied. It was enough that, +generally speaking, the mystery of the episcopal succession went on +without interruption. What was less essential she supplied by the +prerogative of the crown, as her grandfather had done once before. The +archbishop consecrated was Dr. Parker, formerly chaplain to Anne +Boleyn: a thoroughly worthy man, the father of learned studies on +English antiquities, especially on the Anglo-Saxon times. By him the +laying on of hands and consecration was bestowed on the other bishops +who were now elected: they were called on to uphold at the same time +the idea of episcopacy in its primitive import, and the doctrines of +the Reformation. + +In regard to the election of bishops also Elizabeth went back one step +from her brother's system; she gave up the right of appointment, and +restored her father's regulations, by which it is true a strong +influence was still reserved for the Civil Power. Under her supreme +authority she wished to see the spiritual principle recognised as +such, and to give it a representation corresponding to its high +destiny. + +Thus it must needs be. The principle which comes forward for the first +time, however strong it may appear, has yet to secure its future: it +must struggle with the other elements of the world around it. It will +be pressed back, perhaps beaten down: but in the vicissitude of the +strife it will develop its inborn strength and establish itself for +ever. + +An Anglican church,--nationally independent, without giving up its +connexion with the reformed churches of the continent, and reformed, +without however letting fall the ancient forms of episcopacy,--in +accordance with the ideal, as it was originally understood, was at +length, after a hard schooling of trials, struggles, and disasters, +really set on foot. + +But now it is clear how closely such a thoroughgoing alteration +affected the political position. Reckoning on the antipathies, which +could not but hence arise against Elizabeth in the catholic world, and +above all on the consent of the Roman See, the French did not hesitate +to openly recognise the claims of the Dauphiness Mary Stuart to the +English throne. She was hailed as Queen, when she appeared in public: +the Dauphin's heralds bore the united arms of England, Ireland, and +Scotland.[191] And this claim became still more important after the +unexpected death of Henry II, when the Dauphin ascended the French +throne as Francis II. The Guises, uncles of Mary the new Queen, who +saw their own greatness in her success and were the very closest +adherents of the church, got into their hands all the powers of +government. The danger of their hostility lay above all in this, that +the French already exercised a predominant influence over Scotch +affairs, and hoped in a short time to become complete masters of that +country in the Queen's right. She moreover had already by a formal +document transferred to the French royal house an eventual right of +inheritance to her crown. But if matters came to this, the old war of +England and France would be transferred from the fields of Boulogne +and Calais to the Scotch border. An invasion of the English territory +from that side was the more dangerous, as the French would have +brought thither, according to their custom, German and Swiss troops as +well. England had neither fortresses, nor disciplined troops, nor even +generals of name, who could face such an invasion. It was truly said, +there was not a wall in England strong enough to stand a cannon +shot.[192] How then if a defeat was sustained in the open field? The +sympathies of the Catholics would have been aroused for France, and +general ruin would have ensued. + +It was a fortunate thing for Elizabeth that the King of Spain, after +she had taken up a line of conduct so completely counter to his wishes +and ideas, did not make common cause with the French as they requested +him. But she could not promise herself any help from him. Granvella +told the English as emphatically as possible, that they must provide +for themselves. Another Spanish statesman expressed his doubt to them +whether they were able to do so: he really thought England would one +day become an apple of discord between Spain and France, as Milan then +was. It was almost a scoff, to compare the Island that had the power +of the sea with an Italian duchy. But from this very moment she was to +take a new upward flight. England was again to take her place as a +third Power between the two great Powers; the opportunity presented +itself to her to begin open war with one of them, without breaking +with the other or even being exactly allied with it. + +At first it was France that threatened and challenged her. + +And to oppose the French, at the point where they might be dangerous, +a ready means presented itself; England had but to form an alliance +with those who opposed the French interests in Scotland. As these +likewise were in opposition to their Queen, it was objected that one +sovereign ought not to combine with the subjects of another. +Elizabeth's leading statesman, William Cecil, who stood ever by her +side with his counsel in the difficulties of her earlier years, and +had guided her steps hitherto, made answer that 'the duty of +self-preservation required it in this case, since Scotland would else +be serviceable to France for war against England.' + +Cecil took into his view alike the past and the future. It was France +alone, he said, that had prevented the English crown from realising +its suzerainty over Scotland: whereas the true interest of Scotland +herself lay in her being united with England as one kingdom. This +point of view was all the more important, since the religious interest +coincided with the political. The Scots, with whom they wished to +unite themselves, were Protestants of the most decided kind. + +NOTES: + +[180] 'Ayant visage pale fier haultain et superbe pour desguyser le +regret qu'elle a.' Renard to the Emperor 24 Feb. 1554, in Tytler ii. +311. He adds, 'si pendant l'occasion s'adonne, elle (la reine) ne la +punyt et Cortenay, elle ne sera jamais assuree.' + +[181] 'Manifesto el contentamiento grande que tendria el rey de saber +que se declaba la sucesion en favor de ella (Isabel), cosa que S. M. +habia descado sempre.' In Gonzalez, Apuntamientos para la historia del +rey Don Felipe II. Memorias de la real academia de historia, Madrid, +vii. 253. + +[182] One of the documents which Mackintosh (History of England iii. +25) missed, the commission for the proposal to Elizabeth, which gives +its contents, was soon after printed in Gonzalez, Documentos I. 405. + +[183] Feria: 'Dando a entender, que el pueblo la ha puesto en el +estado que esta, y de esto no reconoce nada ni a V. M., ni a la +nobleza del reino.' + +[184] An oration of John Hales to the Queen delivered by a certain +nobleman, in Foxe, Martyrs iii. 978. 'It most manifestly appeareth, +that all their doings from the beginning to the end were and be of +none effect force or autority.' + +[185] P Sarpi, Concilio di Trento, lib. v. p. 420, confirmed by +Pallavicino lib. xiv. + +[186] Horne's Papers for the reformed, in Collier ii. 416. + +[187] Ribadeneyra: 'No fueron sino tres votos mas, los que +determinaron en las cortes, que se mudasse la religion catolica, que +los que pretendian que se conservasse.' Ribadeneyra says the Queen +gained Arundel's vote by allowing him to hope for her hand, and then +laughed at him; but Feria's despatches show that she mocked at his +pretensions even before her entry on the government. + +[188] Soames iv. 675. Liturgiae Britannicae 417. + +[189] From Feria's despatches, Apuntamientos 270. + +[190] In Heylin there is a comparison of the original forty-two with +the later thirty-nine Articles; but he did not venture at last to do +what he proposed at first, give his opinion as to the reason and +nature of the variations. + +[191] Leslaeus de rebus gestis Scotorum: Henricus Mariam Reginam +Angliae Scotiae et Hiberniae declarandam curavit,--Angliae et Scotiae +insignia in ipsius vasis aliisque utensilibus simul pingi fingique ac +adeo tapetibus pulvinis intexi jussit. (In Jebb i. 206.) + +[192] From one of Cecil's first notes, 'if they offered battle with +Almains, there was great doubt, how England would be able to sustain +it.' In Nares ii. 27. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +OUTLINES OF THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND. + + +In its earliest period church reform was everywhere introduced or +promoted by the temporal governments; in Germany by the government of +the Empire, and by the Princes and towns which did not allow the +authorisation, once given them through the Empire, to be again +withdrawn; in the North by the new dynasties which took the place of +the Union-Princes; in Switzerland itself by the Great-Councils which +possessed the substance of the republican authority. After manifold +struggles and vicissitudes this tendency had at last yet once more +established itself in its full force under Queen Elizabeth in England. + +But another tendency was also very powerful in the world. In South +Europe, France, the Netherlands, and a part of the German territory, +the state attached itself to the principles of the old Church. At this +very time in Italy and Spain this led to the complete destruction of +what was there analogous to the Reformation; it has had more influence +on the later circumstances of these countries than it had then. But +where the religious change had already obtained a more durable +footing, as in France and the Netherlands, politico-religious +variances of the most thoroughgoing nature arose almost of necessity: +the Protestantism of Western Europe was pervaded by anti-monarchical +ideas. We noticed how much everything was preparing for this under +Queen Mary in England also: that it did not so happen was owing to the +arrangements made by Elizabeth. But this tendency appeared in full +force in Scotland, and in fact more strongly there than anywhere else. + +In Scotland the efforts made by all the monarchic powers of this +period in common were not so successful as in the rest of Europe. The +kings of the house of Stuart, who had themselves proceeded from the +ranks of the nobility, never succeeded in reducing the powerful lords +to real obedience. The clannish national feeling, closely bordering on +the old Keltic principle, procured the nobles at all times numerous +and devoted followers: they fought out their feuds among themselves, +and then combined anew in free confederacies. They held fast to the +view that their sovereigns were not lords of the land (for they +regarded their possessions as independent properties), not kings of +Scotland but kings of the Scots, above all, kings of the great +vassals, who had to pay them an obedience defined by laws. It gave the +kings not a little superiority that they had obtained a decisive +influence over the appointment to the high dignities in the Church, +but this proved advantageous neither to the Church nor at last to +themselves. Sometimes two vassals actually fought with each other for +a rich benefice. The French abuses came into vogue here also: +ecclesiastical benefices fell to the dependents of the court, to the +younger sons of leading houses, often to their bastards: they were +given or sold _in commendam_, and then served only for pleasure and +gain: the Scotch Church fell into an exceedingly scandalous and +corrupt state. + +It was not so much disputed questions of doctrine as in Germany, nor +again the attempt to keep out Papal influence as in England, but +mainly aversion to the moral corruption of the spiritualty which gave +the first impulse to the efforts at reformation in Scotland. We find +Lollard societies among the Scots much later than in England: their +tendencies spread through wide circles owing to the anticlerical +spirit of the century, and received fresh support from the doctrinal +writings that came over from Germany. But the Scotch clergy was +resolved to defend itself with all its might. Sometimes it had to sit +in judgment on invectives against its disorderly and luxurious life, +sometimes on refusals to pay established dues: or Lutheran doctrines +had been preached: it persecuted all with equal severity as tending to +injure the stability of holy Church, and awarded the most extreme +penalties. To put suspected heretics to death by fire was the order of +the day; happy the man who escaped the unrelenting persecution by +flight, which was only possible amid great peril. + +These two causes, an undeniably corrupt condition and relentless +punishment of those who blamed it as it well deserved, gave the Reform +movement in Scotland, which was repressed but not stifled, a peculiar +character of exasperation and thirst for vengeance. + +Nor was it without a political bearing in Scotland as elsewhere. In +particular Henry VIII proposed to his nephew, King James V, to remodel +the Church after his example: and a part of the nobility, which was +already favourably disposed towards England, would have gladly seen +this done. But James preferred the French pattern to the English: he +was kept firm in his Catholic and French sympathies by his wife, Mary +of Guise, and by the energetic Archbishop Beaton. Hence he became +involved in the war with England in which he fell, and after this it +occasionally seemed, especially at the time of the invasions by the +Duke of Somerset, as if the English, and in connexion with them the +Protestant, sympathies would gain the ascendancy. But national +feelings were still stronger than the religious. Exactly because +England defended and recommended the religious change it failed to +make way in Scotland. Under the regency of the Queen dowager, with +some passing fluctuations, the clerical interests on the whole kept +the upper hand. In spite of a general sympathy the prospects of Reform +were slender. It could not reckon on any quarrel between the +government and the higher clergy: foreign affairs rather exercised a +hostile influence. It is remarkable how under these unfavourable +circumstances the foundation of the Scotch Church was laid. + +Most of the Scots who had fled from the country were content to +provide for their subsistence in a foreign land and improve their own +culture. But there was one among them who did not reconcile himself +for one moment to this fate. John Knox was the first who formed a +Protestant congregation in the besieged fortress of S. Andrew's; when +the French took the place in 1547 he was made prisoner and condemned +to serve in the galleys. But while his feet were in fetters, he +uttered his conviction in the fiery preface to a work on +Justification, that this doctrine would yet again be preached in his +fatherland.[193] After he was released, he took a zealous share in the +labours of the English Reformers under Edward VI, but was not +altogether content with the result; after the King's death he had to +fly to the continent. He went to Geneva, where he became a student +once more and tried to fill up the gaps in his studies, but above all +he imbibed, or confirmed his knowledge of, the views which prevailed +in that Church. 'Like the first Reformers of French Switzerland, Knox +also lived in the opinion that the Romish service was an idolatry +which should be destroyed from off the earth. And he was fully +convinced of the doctrine of the independence of the spiritual +principle side by side with the State, and believed that the new +spiritualty also was authorised to exclude men from the Church, views +for which Calvin was at that very time contending. Thus he was equally +armed for the struggle against the Papacy and against the temporal +power allied with it, when a transient relaxation of ecclesiastical +control in Scotland made it possible for him to return thither. In the +war between France and Spain the Regent took the side of France: she +lighted bonfires to announce the capture of Calais; out of antipathy +to Mary Tudor and her Spanish government she allowed the English +fugitives to be received in Scotland. Knox himself ventured to return +towards the end of 1555: without delay he set his hand to form a +church-union, according to his ideas of religious independence, which +was not to be again destroyed by any State power. + +Among the devout Protestants who gathered together in secret the +leading question was, whether it was consistent with conscience to go +to mass, as most then did. Knox was not merely against any one doing +wrong that good might come of it, but he went on further to restore +the interrupted Protestant service of God. Sometimes in one and +sometimes in another of the places of refuge which he found he +administered the Communion to little congregations according to the +Reformed rite; this was done with greater solemnity at Easter 1556 in +the house of Lord Erskine of Dun, one of those Scottish noblemen who +had ever promoted literary studies and the religious movement as far +as lay in his power. A number of people of consequence from the Mearns +(Mearnshire) were present. But they were not content with partaking +the Communion; following the mind of their preacher they pledged +themselves to avoid every other religious community, and to uphold +with all their power the preaching of the Gospel.[194] In this union +we may see the origin of the Scotch Church properly so called. Knox +had no doubt that it was perfectly lawful. From the power which the +lords possessed in Scotland he concluded that this duty was incumbent +on them. For they were not lords for themselves, but in order to +protect their subjects and dependents against every violence. From a +distance he called on his friends--for he had once more to leave +Scotland, since the government recurred to its earlier severity--not +again to prefer their own ease to the glory of God, but for very +conscience' sake to venture their lives for their oppressed brethren. +At Erskine's house met together also Lord Lorn, afterwards Earl of +Argyle, and the Prior of S. Andrews, subsequently Earl of Murray; in +December 1557 Erskine, Lorn, Murray, Glencairn (also a friend of +Knox), and Morton, united in a solemn engagement, to support God's +word and defend his congregation against every evil and tyrannical +power even unto death.[195] When in spite of this another execution +took place which excited universal aversion, they proceeded to an +express declaration, that they would not suffer any man to be punished +for transgressing a clerical law based on human ordinances. + +What the influence of England had not been able to effect, was now +produced by antipathy to France. The opinion prevailed that the King +of France wished to add Scotland to his territories, and that the +Regent gave him aid thereto. When she gathered the feudal array on the +borders in 1557 (for the Scots had refused to contribute towards +enlisting mercenaries) to invade England according to an understanding +with the French, the barons held a consultation on the Tweed, in +consequence of which they refused their co-operation for this purpose. +The matrimonial crown was indeed even afterwards granted to the +Dauphin, when he married Mary Stuart;[196] but thereupon +misunderstandings arose with all the more bitterness. Meetings were +everywhere held in a spirit hostile to the government. + +It was this quarrel of the Regent with the great men of the country +that gave an opportunity to the lords who were combined for the +support of religion to advance with increasing resolution. Among their +proposals there is none weightier than that which they laid before her +in March 1559, just when the Regent had gathered around her a numerous +ecclesiastical assembly. They demanded that the bishops should be +elected for the future by the nobility and gentry of each diocese, the +parish clergy by the parishioners, and only those were to be elected +who were of esteemed life and possessed the requisite capacity: divine +service was to be henceforth held in the language of the country. The +assembled clergy rejected both demands. They remarked that to set +aside the influence of the crown on the elections involved a +diminution of its authority which could not be defended, especially +during the minority of the sovereign. Only in the customary forms +would they allow of any amendments. + +But this assembly was not content with rejecting the proposals: they +confirmed the usages and services stigmatised by their opponents as +superstitious, and forbade the celebration of the sacraments in any +other form than that sanctioned by the Church. The royal court at +Stirling called a number of preachers to its bar for unauthorised +assumption of priestly functions. + +The preachers were ready to come: the lords in whose houses they +sojourned were security for them. And already they had the popular +sympathy as well as aristocratic protection. It was an old custom of +the country that, in especially important judicial proceedings, the +accused appeared accompanied by his friends. Now therefore the friends +of the Reformation assembled in great numbers at Perth from the +Mearns, Dundee, and Angus, that, by jointly avowing the doctrines on +account of which their spiritual leaders were called to account, their +condemnation might be rendered impossible. + +As to the Regent we are assured that she was not in general firmer in +her leaning towards the hierarchy than other Princes of the time, and +had once even entertained the thought that the supreme ecclesiastical +power belonged to her;[197] but, perhaps alarmed by the vehemence of +the preachers, she had done nothing to obtain such a power. It now +appeared to her that it would be a good plan to check the flow of the +masses to the place of trial by some friendly words which she +addressed to Erskine of Dun.[198] The Protestants saw in them the +assurance of an interposition in the direction of lenity, and stayed +away; but without regard to this and without delay the Justiciary at +Stirling, Henry Levingstoune, proceeded to business on the day +appointed, 20 May 1559. As the preachers did not appear, those who had +become security for them were condemned to a money-fine, while they +themselves were denounced as rebels,[199] as having withdrawn +themselves from the royal jurisdiction; an edict followed which +pronounced them exiled, and in the severest terms forbade any to give +them protection or favour. + +The news fell like a spark of fire among the inflammable masses of +Protestants assembled at Perth. The sentence promulgated was an open +act of hostility against the lords, who felt themselves bound by their +word which they had given to the preachers and by their vow to each +other. They considered that the Regent's promise had given them a +right against her; Lord Erskine, whom the others had warned, declared +that he had been deceived by her. While the Regent had prevented a +collision between the two parties at Stirling, she had occasioned in +one of them, at Perth, the outbreak of a popular storm against the +hierarchy of the land, their representatives, and the monuments of +their religion. John Knox, who had come, as he said, to be where men +were striving against Satan, called on them in a fiery sermon to +destroy the images which were the instruments of idolatry. The attempt +of a priest, after the sermon, to proceed to high mass and open the +tabernacle of the altar, was all that was needed to cause a tumult +even in the church itself, in which the images of the saints were +destroyed; and the outbreak spreading through the city directed itself +against the monasteries and laid them too in ruins. How entirely +different is Knox from Luther! The German reformer made all outward +change depend on the gradual influence of doctrine, and did not wish +to set himself in rebellious opposition to the public order under +which he lived. The Scot called on men to destroy whatever contravened +his religious ideas. The Lords of the Congregation, who became ever +more numerous, declared themselves resolved to do all that God +commands in Scripture, and destroy all that tended to dishonour his +name. With these objects, and with their co-operation and connivance, +the stormy movement once raised surged everywhere further over the +country. The monasteries were also destroyed in Stirling, Glasgow, and +S. Andrews; the abbeys of Melrose, Dunfermline, and Cambuskenneth +fell: and the proud abbey of Scone, an incomparable monument of the +hierarchic feeling of earlier ages, was, together with the bishop's +palace, levelled to the ground. It may be that the popular fury went +far beyond the original intentions of the leaders, but without doubt +it was also part of their purpose, to make an end above all of the +monasteries and abbeys, from which nothing but resistance could be +expected.[200] It has been regarded even in our days as a measure of +prudence, dictated by the circumstances, that they destroyed these +monuments, which by their imposing size and the splendour of the +service performed in them would have always produced an impression +adverse to the Reformation. On the other hand the cathedrals and +parish churches were to be preserved, and after being cleansed from +images were to be devoted to Protestant worship. Everywhere the +church-unions, which were at once formed and organised on Protestant +principles, gained the upper hand. The Mass ceased: the Prayer-book of +King Edward VI took its place. + +So the reformed Scotch Church put itself in possession, in a moment, +of the greatest part of the country. It was from the beginning a +self-governed establishment: it found support in the union of some +lords, whose power likewise rested on independent rights: but it first +gained free play when the French policy of the Regent alienated the +nobility and the nation from her. On the one side now stood the +princess and the clergy, on the other the lords and the preachers. As +their proposals were rejected and preparations made to defend the +hierarchic system with the power of the State, the opposition also +similarly arose, claiming to have an original right: revolt broke out; +the church system of the Romish hierarchy was overthrown and a +Protestant one put in its place. In the history of Protestantism at +large the year 1559 is among the most important. During the very days +in which the revised Common Prayer-book was restored in England (so +definitely putting an end to the Catholic religion of the realm), the +monuments of Roman Catholicism in Scotland were broken in pieces, and +the unrevised Common Prayer-book introduced into the churches. But +yet how great was the difference! In the one country all was done +under the guidance of a Queen to whom the nation adhered, in +consequence of Parliamentary enactments, the ancient forms being +preserved as far as possible: here the whole transaction was completed +in opposition to the Regent, under the guidance of an aristocracy +engaged in conflict with her, amidst very great tumult, while all that +was ancient was set aside. + +At the beginning of July the Scotch lords had become masters of the +capital as well, and had reformed it according to their own views, +with the most lively sympathy of the citizens. They were resolved to +uphold the change of religion now effected, cost what it would, and +hoped to do so in a peaceful manner. When Perth again opened her gates +to the Regent after the first tumult, under the condition that she +should punish no one, she promised at the same time to put off the +adjustment of all questions in dispute to the next Parliament. There +they intended to carry at once the recognition of the Reformation in +its whole breadth, and the removal of the French. We perceive that it +was their plan in that case to obey the Regent as before, and to unite +the abbey-lands to the possessions of the crown. 'But if your Grace +does not agree to this,' so runs the letter of a confederate, 'they +are resolved to reject all union with you.' + +It was soon shown that the last was the only alternative. The regent +collected so many French and Scotch troops that the lords did not +venture to stop her return to Edinburgh. They came to an agreement +instead, in which she promised to prosecute no member of the +Congregation, and especially no preacher, and not to allow the clergy +on the ground of their jurisdiction to undertake any annoying +proceedings: in return for which the lords on their side pledged +themselves not to disturb any of the clergy or destroy any more of the +church buildings. It was a truce in which each party, sword in hand, +reserved to itself the power of defending its partisans against the +other. The two parties encountered in Edinburgh. The inhabitants had +called Knox to be their preacher, and when he thought it unsafe to +stay in the city after the Congregation withdrew, another champion of +the Reformation, Willok, filled his place with hardly less zeal and +success. But on the other side the bishop of Amiens appeared with some +doctors of the Sorbonne at the Regent's court. Here and there the +Protestant service was again discarded; the Paris theologians defended +the old dogma among the Scotch scholars, and made even now some +impression; the mass and the preaching contended with each other. As +to the Regent's views there can be no doubt. She drew the attention of +the French court to the frequent intercourse between the nobles of +Protestant views in France and Scotland, and to the encouragement the +Scots had from the French; but she gave the assurance that she would +soon finish with the Scots if she received support. Some French +companies had just landed at Leith, they had brought with them +munitions of war and money: the Regent demanded four companies more, +to make up twenty, and perhaps 100 hommes d'armes; if only four French +ships were stationed at Leith to keep off foreign assistance, she +pledged herself to put down the movement everywhere.[201] + +Then the Scots also decided that they must employ their utmost means +of resistance. They had framed politico-religious theories, in virtue +of which they believed in their right to do so. The substance of the +whole is that they acknowledged indeed an obligation on the conscience +which required obedience to the sovereign, but at the same time they +held that the obligation came to an end as soon as the sovereign +contravened the known will of God: an idolatrous sovereign, so said +the preachers, could be deposed and punished:--should the supreme Head +put off the reform which was required by God's law, the right and the +duty of executing it falls on the subordinate authorities. + +But the lords claimed also an authority based on the laws of the land. +When the French troops began to fortify Leith, they held themselves +justified in raising remonstrances against it: they demanded that the +Regent should desist from the design. As she replied with a +proclamation which sounded very offensive to themselves, they had no +scruple in taking up arms. Each noble collected his men round him and +appeared at their head in the field. Relying on the fine army which +was thus brought together, they repeated their demand, with the +remark, that in receiving foreign troops into the harbour-town there +was involved a manifest attempt to enslave the land by force: if the +Regent would not lend an ear to their remonstrances, they being the +hereditary councillors of the crown, they would remember their oath +which bound them to provide for the general welfare. The Regent +expressed her astonishment to the lords through a herald that there +should be any other authority in the realm than that of her daughter, +the Queen. She already felt herself strong enough to order them and +their troops to disperse, on pain of the punishment appointed for high +treason. On this the great men met in the old council-house at +Edinburgh, to consider the question whether it was obligatory to pay +obedience to a princess, who was but regent, and who disregarded the +opinion of the hereditary councillors of the crown. The consultation, +at which some preachers supported the views of the lords with similar +arguments, ended in the declaration that the Regent no longer +possessed an authority which she was using to the damage of the realm. +In the name of the King and Queen they announced to her that the +commission she had received from them was at an end. 'And as your +Grace,' so they continued, 'will not acknowledge us as your +councillors, we also will no longer acknowledge you as our +regent.'[202] + +To this pass matters had now come. The combined interests, on the one +side of the crown and the clergy, on the other of the lords and the +Protestants, came into open and avowed conflict. The Act of Suspension +is but the proclamation of war in a form which would enable them to +avoid directly breaking with their duties towards their born prince. + +The lords' first enterprise was directed against the French troops +which held Leith in their possession, and which were now first of all +to be driven out of the country: but the hastily-constructed +fortifications there proved stronger than was expected. And not merely +were their assaults on Leith repelled, but the Lords soon saw +themselves driven from their strongest positions, for instance from +Stirling; their possessions were wasted far and wide; the war, which +was transferred to Fife, took an unfortunate turn for them; to all +appearance they were lost if they did not obtain help from abroad. + +But to whom could they apply for it if not to their neighbour, just +now rising in power, Elizabeth Queen of England? + +They might have hesitated, as they had indeed repelled the influence +of Henry VIII and of Somerset, even when it was united with reforming +tendencies. But how entirely different were matters now from what they +had been then! With their own hands they had already given themselves +a Protestant church-system, which was national in a high degree, and +somewhat opposite to the English one. So long as it existed, the +influence England would gain by giving them help could never become +the supremacy, at which it is certain attempts had previously been +made. + +We know too the objections which were made in England against a union +with the Scots. To these were added the Queen's decided antipathies to +the new form of church government and to its leaders: she could not +bear the mention of Knox's name. But all these considerations +disappeared before the pressing danger and the political necessity. In +opposition to France, Protestant England and Protestant Scotland, +however different the religious and even the political tendencies +prevailing in each of them, held out their hands to each other. + +Elizabeth had already at an earlier time privately given the Scots +some support: the moment at which she gave them decisive assistance is +worth noticing. + +The Regent's French and Scotch troops were planning an attack on S. +Andrews, and had made themselves masters of Dysarts; the lords, again +retreating, marched along the coast, and the French were in pursuit +when a fleet hove in sight in the distance. The French welcomed it +with salvos of cannon, for they had no doubt that it was their own +fleet, bringing them help from France, long expected, and now in fact +known to be ready. But it soon appeared that they were English +vessels, in advance of the larger fleet which had put to sea under +Vice-admiral Winter. Nothing remained for the French, when thus +undeceived, but to give up their project and withdraw. But the whole +state of things was thus altered. Soon after this the Scots, to whose +assistance English troops had also come by land, were able to advance +against Leith and resume the suspended siege. + +Everything that is to come to pass in the world has its right time and +hour. Incredible as it may seem, the champion of the strictest +Catholicism, the King of Spain, was at this moment not merely for help +being given to the Scots, but pressing for it; his ministers +complained not that the Queen interfered, but that she did not do so +more quickly. For in the union of Scotland and France, which was +already complete in a military sense, they saw a danger for +themselves. The enthusiastic Knox, who only lived and moved in +religious ideas, was, more than he foresaw, a link in the chain of +European affairs. Without the impulse which he gave to the minds of +men, that resistance to the Regent, by which a complete union with +France was hindered, would have been impossible. + +A treaty was made in Berwick between Queen Elizabeth and the Scotch +lords, by which they bound themselves to drive the French out of +Scotland with their united strength. The lords promised to remain +obedient to their Queen, but Elizabeth assented to the additional +words, that this was not to be in such cases as might lead to the +overthrow of the old Scottish rights and liberties. This was a very +comprehensive clause, which placed the further attempts of the Scotch +lords against the monarchical power under English protection. + +While the siege of Leith was being carried on by land and sea, +commissioners from France appeared on the part of Queen Mary Stuart +and her husband, as they had now assumed the place of the Regent (who +had died in the midst of these troubles), to attempt to bring about an +agreement. The chief among them was Monluc, bishop of Valence, a +well-meaning and moderate man even in religious matters, who, +convinced of the impossibility of carrying on the war any further with +success, gave way step by step before the inflexible purpose of the +English plenipotentiary, William Cecil. He put his hand to the treaty +of Edinburgh, in which the withdrawal of the French troops from +Scotland and the destruction of the fortifications of Leith were +stipulated for. This satisfied the chief demand of the lords, and at +the same time agreed with the wish of the neighbouring Power. The King +and Queen of France and Scotland were no longer to bear the title and +arms of England and Ireland. For Scotland a provisional government was +arranged on the basis of election by the Estates; it was settled that +for the future also the Queen and King should decide on war and peace +only by their advice. It is easy to see how much a limitation of the +Scotch crown was connected with the interests of the Power that was +injured by its union with the crown of France. + +Religion was not expressly mentioned; Queen Elizabeth had purposely +avoided it. But when the Scotch Parliament, to which the adjustment of +the matters in dispute was once more referred in the treaty of +Edinburgh, now met, nothing else could be expected than what in fact +happened. The Protestant Confession was accepted almost without +opposition, the bishops' jurisdiction declared to be abolished +according to the view of the confederate lords, the celebration of the +Mass not only forbidden, but, after the example of Geneva, prohibited +under the severest penalties. + +How mightily had the self-governing church-society, founded three +years and a half before in the castle at Dun, secured its foothold! By +its union with the claims of the aristocracy it had broken up the +existing government not merely of the Church but also of the State. It +was of unspeakable importance for the subsequent fortunes of England +that this vigorous living element had been taken under the protection +of the Queen of that country and supported by her. + +But at the same time, if we may so say, it complicated her personal +relations inextricably. + +NOTES: + +[193] Extract in M'Crie, Life of John Knox 36. + +[194] Knox, History of the Reformation,--a work which some later +insertions have not deprived of its credit for trustworthiness, which +it otherwise deserves,--p. 92. 'That they refussit all society with +idolatri and band them selfes to the uttermost of their powery to +manetein the trew preiching of the evangille, as God should offer unto +thame preichers and opportunity.' + +[195] 'That we sall--apply our haill power substance and our verie +lyves, to mantein set forward and establish the most blissit word of +God, and his congregatioun sall labour--to have faithful ministeris, +puirlie and trewlie to minister Christis evangell and sacramentis to +his pepyll.' + +[196] According to Leslaeus 205, in this the promise was specially +emphatic, that everything should be done, 'Ne regina nostra Angliae +sceptro excluderetur.' This was during Mary Tudor's lifetime. + +[197] So King James said at the Conference of Hampton Court, State +Trials ii. 85; negociations must have taken place of which we know +nothing. + +[198] Knox: 'That she wald tak sume better order:' and so in +Calderwood. Buchanan xvi. 590: 'Se interea nihil adversus quemquam +illius sectae molituram.' Spottiswood i. 271: That the diet should +desert and nothing be done to the prejudice of the ministres.' + +[199] Praefati Paulus Methven, Joannes Cristesoun, Willielmus Harlaw +et Joannes Willok denunciati sunt rebelles S. D. N. regis et reginae. +From the Justiciary records in M'Crie, Note GG. 360. + +[200] Kirkaldy of Grange, one of the leaders of the Protestants, to +Sir Henry Percy, Edinburgh, 1 July, in Tytler vi. 107. 'The manner of +their proceeding in reformation is this. They pull down all manner of +friaries and some abbeys, which willingly receive not the reformation: +as to parish churches they cleanse them of images and other monuments +of idolatry and command that no masses be said in them.' Even now +M'Crie says: 'I look upon the destruction of those monuments as a +piece of good policy.' Life of Knox 130. + +[201] I find this only in Lesley 215, who is in general the best +informed as to the relations of the Regent with the French court. + +[202] 'As your grace will not acknowledge us, our soverane lords and +ladyis liegis for your subjectis and counssail, na mair will we +acknowledge you for our regent.' Declaration of 23 Oct. 1559. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MARY STUART IN SCOTLAND. RELATION OF THE TWO QUEENS TO EACH OTHER. + + +People were now fully satisfied that they had obtained something +great, and had laid a firm foundation for secure relations throughout +all future time: but it became clear at once that this was not the +case. Francis II and his wife seemed to have forgotten that they had +promised on their royal word, in the instructions to their +ambassadors, to accept whatever they should arrange: they refused to +ratify the treaty of Edinburgh. For it was really concluded by the +Queen of England with men in rebellion against them, by whom it was +chiefly subscribed. They regarded it as an insult that the Scots +deputed an embassy of great lords to England, whilst the request to +confirm all that was arranged in Scotland was laid before them, their +Queen and their King, by a gentleman of less distinguished birth. They +felt themselves highly injured by a Parliament being called even +before they had ratified the treaty, without any authorisation on +their side. How were they to accept its resolutions? Francis II on the +contrary said, he would prove to the Scots that they had no power to +meet together in their own name, just as if they were a republic.[203] +And as little was he inclined to give up the title and arms of England +according to the treaty: he said he had hitherto borne them with good +right, and saw no reason to give satisfaction to others, before he had +received any himself. + +Those were the days in which the French government, guided by the +Queen's uncles, including the Cardinal of Lorraine, had considerably +repressed the Protestant movements which were stirring in France, had +brought the insurgent princes into its power, and was occupied in +establishing a strict system of obedience in ecclesiastical and +political matters; with kindred aims it sought in Scotland also to +revert to its earlier policy; all concessions made to the contrary it +ignored. I see here, says the English ambassador Throckmorton, more +intention of vengeance than inclination to peace. + +At this juncture occurred the unexpected event which gave French +affairs another shape. King Francis II died at the beginning of +December 1559 without issue; and the Guises could not maintain the +authority they had hitherto possessed. The kingdom which, by the +extent and unity of its power, was wont to exercise a dominant +influence over all others, fell into religious and political troubles +which engrossed and broke up its force. + +Elizabeth took some part also in these movements within France itself: +it was her natural policy to support the opponents of the Guises, who +likewise stood so near her in their religious confession. With their +consent she once occupied Havre, but allowed it without much +hesitation to fall again into the hands of the French government which +was then guided by Catharine Medici, who for some time even made +common cause with the leaders of the Huguenots. We cannot here follow +out these relations any further, for to understand them fully would +require us to go into the details of the changeful dissensions in +France: for English history these are only so far important as they +made it impossible for the French to act upon England. + +On the other hand the entire sequel of English history turns on the +relation to Scotland: Scotch affairs already form a constituent part +of the English, and demand our whole attention. + +At first sight it would not have seemed so impossible to bring about +peace and even friendship between the Queen of Scotland and the Queen +of England: for the former was of course no longer bound to the +interests of the French crown. But this expectation also proved +deceitful. A primary condition would have been the acceptance of the +treaty of Edinburgh; Elizabeth demanded this expressly and as if it +were obligatory on Mary, who would as little consent to it after, as +before, the death of her husband. She ceased to bear the arms of +England: all else she deferred till her arrival in Scotland. +Immediately on this, at the first step, the mutual antipathy broke +out.[204] In consequence of the refusal to ratify the treaty, +Elizabeth declined Mary's request to be allowed to return home through +England. Mary regarded this as an insult: it is worth while to hear +her words. 'I was once,' so she said, 'brought to France in spite of +all the opposition of her brother: I will return to Scotland without +her leave. She has combined with my rebellious subjects: but there are +also malcontents in England who would listen to a proposal from my +side with delight: I am a Queen as well as she, and not altogether +friendless, and perhaps I have as great a soul too.' + +Few words, but they contain motives of jealousy rising out of the +depths of her inmost heart and announce a stormy future. But at first +Mary could not give effect to them. + +Some Catholic lords did indeed request her to come to them in the +northern counties, whence they would escort her to her capital with an +armed force. But who could advise her to begin her government with a +civil war? She would then have herself driven the Protestant lords +over to the side of her foe. But she had connexions with them as well. +Their leader, her half-brother James, Prior of S. Andrews, whom she +now created Earl of Murray, a man of spirit, energy, and comprehensive +views, appeared before her in France; his experience and caution and +even the inner tie of blood-relationship always gave him a great +influence over her resolutions. He showed her how it was possible to +rule Scotland even under existing circumstances, so as to have a +tolerable understanding with Elizabeth, but reserving all else for the +future. These counsels she followed. Not with Elizabeth's help, but +yet without hindrance from her, she arrived at Holyrood in August +1561. Murray succeeded in obtaining, though not without great +opposition, and almost by personally keeping off opponents, that she +should be allowed to have mass celebrated before her. He took affairs +into his own hands; the Protestants had the ascendancy in the country +and in the royal council. + +Not that Queen Mary by this fully acquiesced in what had happened, or +recognised the state of affairs in Scotland. She even now confirmed +neither the treaty of Edinburgh, nor the resolutions of Parliament +based on it: but in the first place took possession of her throne, +reserving her dynastic rights. + +A sight without a parallel, these two Queens in Albion, haughty and +wondrous creatures of nature and circumstances! + +They were both of high mental culture. From Mary we have French poems, +of a truth of feeling and a simplicity of language, which were then +rare in literature. Her letters are fresh and eloquent effusions of +momentary moods and wishes: they impress us even if we know that they +are not exactly true. She has pleasure in lively discussion, in which +she willingly takes a playful, sometimes a familiar, tone; but always +shows herself equal to the subject. From Elizabeth also we have some +lines in verse, not exactly of a poetic strain, not very harmonious in +expression, but full of high thoughts and resolves. Her letters are +skilful but, owing to their allusions and antitheses, far from +perspicuous products of reflection, although succinct and rich in +matter. She was acquainted with the learned languages, had studied the +ancient classics and translated one or two, had read much of the +church-fathers: in her expressions there sometimes appears an insight +into the inner connexion between history and ideas, which fills us +with astonishment. In conversation she tried above all things to +produce a sense of her gifts and accomplishments. She shone through a +combination of grandeur and condescension which appeared like grace +and sweetness, and sometimes awakened a personal homage, for which in +the depths of her soul she cherished a longing. She did but toy with +such feelings, to Mary they were a reality. Mary possessed that +natural power of womanly charm which awakens strong, even if not +lasting, passion. Her personal life fluctuates between the wish to +find a husband who could advance her interests and those passionate +ebullitions by which she is also herself overpowered. This however +does not hinder her from devoting all her attention to the business of +government. Both Queens work with like zeal in their Privy Council: +and they only deliberate with men of intimate trust; the resolutions +which are adopted are always their own. Elizabeth yields more to the +wisdom of tried councillors, though even these are not sure of her +favour for a moment, and have a hard place of it with her. Mary +fluctuates between full devotion and passionate hate: she is almost +always swayed by an unlimited confidence in the man who meets her +wishes. Elizabeth lets things come to her: Mary is ever restless and +enterprising.[205] Elizabeth appeared once in the field, to animate +the courage of her troops in a great peril. Mary took a personal share +in the local Scottish feuds: she was seen riding at the head of a +small feudal army against the enemy, with pistols at her saddle-bow. + +But we here discontinue this representation of the antitheses of +character between them, which first acquired historical import through +the differences of position in which the two sovereigns found +themselves. + +Elizabeth was mistress of her State, as well in its religious as its +political constitution. She had revived the obedience once paid to her +father; and remodelled the Church in the decidedly Protestant spirit +which corresponded to her personal position; at first every man +submitted to the new order of things, though many looked on its growth +only with aversion. Mary on the contrary had to accommodate herself to +a form of Church, and even of State, government, which was founded in +opposition to the right of her predecessors, and above all to her own +views. If she ever thought of making her own religion predominant, or +of oppressing that which was newly established, open resistance was +announced to her in threatening terms by its leader John Knox. +However much this reaction against her religious belief straitened her +on the one side, yet on another side it opened out to her a wider +prospect. She already had numerous personally devoted partisans in +Great Britain, both in Scotland where she could yet once more call +them together, and in England where she was secretly regarded by not a +few as the lawful Queen; but, besides this, she had many in Catholic +Europe, which had become reunited during these years (the times when +the Council of Trent was drawing to a close) around the Papal +authority, and was preparing to bring back those who had fallen away. +This great confederacy gave Mary a position which made her capable of +confronting a neighbour in herself so much more powerful. + +Elizabeth once touched on the old claims of England to supremacy over +Scotland: the ambition of all the Scotch kings, to prove to the +English that they were independent of them, still lived in Mary: when +queen was set over against queen, it took a more sharply-expressed +shape; any whisper of subjection seemed to her an outrage. + +For the moment Mary had, as before mentioned, given up the title of +'Queen of England': but all her thoughts were directed towards the +point of getting her presumptive hereditary right to that kingdom +recognised, and of preparing for its realisation at a later time. + +But now there were two ways by which she might gain her end. She might +either get her claim to the English throne recognised by an agreement +with its present possessor, which did not appear so unattainable, as +Elizabeth was unmarried, and such a settlement would have been legally +valid in England; or she might enter into a dynastic alliance with a +neighbouring great power, so as to be enabled to carry her claims into +effect one day through its military strength.[206] + +With this last view negociations were during several years carried on +for a marriage with Don Carlos the son of the Spanish King. For in +the same proportion that the union of Scotch and French interests +dissolved, did the opposite alliance between Spain and England become +looser. The most varied reasons made Philip II wish to enter into +direct and close relations with Scotland. Immediately after the death +of Francis II, a negociation was set on foot with a view to this +alliance, on Mary's giving an audience to the Spanish ambassador, to +the vexation of Queen Catharine of France, who wished to see this +richest of princes, and the one who seemed destined to the greatest +power, reserved for her own youngest daughter. After Mary returned to +Scotland similar rumours were renewed, and from time to time we meet +with a negociation for this object. When her minister Lethington was +in London in the spring of 1563, he agreed with the Spanish ambassador +that this marriage was the only desirable one: it was longed for by +all Scotch and English Catholics. Soon afterwards the ambassador sent +a young member of the embassy to Scotland, in the deepest secrecy, by +a long circuit through Ireland; not without difficulty he obtained an +interview with Mary Stuart, in which he assured himself of her +inclination for the marriage. In the autumn of 1563 Catharine Medici +showed herself well informed about this negociation and much +disquieted by it.[207] It appeared to depend only on Philip's decision +whether the marriage was concluded or not.[208] After some time the +Scotch Privy Council sent the bishop of Ross to Spain, to bring the +matter about. The Queen herself corresponded on it with Cardinal +Granvella and the Duchess of Arschot. + +Don Carlos was too weak, too morbidly excited, to be married when +young. King Philip, who did not wish to feed his ambition, at last +gave the plan up, and recommended, instead of his son, his nephew the +Archduke Charles of Austria. + +But the one was as disagreeable to the English court as the other. +Elizabeth had announced eternal enmity to Queen Mary if she married a +prince of the house of Austria. Besides, the Spanish influence in +England troubled her: she now saw herself already under the necessity +of demanding and enforcing the recall of the Spanish ambassador, +because he drew the Catholic party round him and incited them to +oppose the laws of England. What might have come of it, if a prince of +this house should now obtain rule over a part of the island itself? + +But while Mary through these secret negociations tried to obtain the +support of a great Catholic house for her claims, she neglected +nothing that could contribute at the same time to make a good and +friendly understanding with Queen Elizabeth possible, and to bring it +about. In the company of her half-brother Murray, who held the reins +of government with a firm hand, supported by his religious and +political friends, she undertook a campaign into the Northern counties +(which inclined to Catholicism), to make them submit to the universal +law of the land. Only one priest was allowed at court, from whom she +heard mass; some of those who read the mass elsewhere were +occasionally punished for it; clergymen who complained of the hardship +they experienced were referred to Murray. This proceeding too was only +temporary, it was intended to incline the Queen of England to her +wishes. All quarrel was carefully avoided: on solemn festivals she +drank to the English ambassador, to the health of his mistress. +Besides, there were negociations for a meeting of the two Queens in +person at York, where Mary hoped to be solemnly recognised as +presumptive heiress of England.[209] However much it otherwise lies +beyond the mental horizon of this epoch of firm and mutually opposed +convictions, Mary was then thought capable of willingly adopting the +forms of the English Church; to this even the Cardinal of Lorraine had +assented. She herself unceasingly declared that she wished to honour +Elizabeth as a mother, as an elder sister. But the Queen of England, +after all sorts of promises, preparations, and delays, declined the +interview. She would hear absolutely nothing of any recognition of +the claim of inheritance. With naive plainness she inferred that such +a declaration would not lead 'to concord with her sister, the Queen of +Scotland,' since naturally a sovereign does not love his heir;--how +indeed could that be possible, since every one is wont to make the +heir the object of his aim and hopes;--she might increase Mary's +importance by the recognition, but at the same time she would +undermine her own;--whether Mary had a right to the English throne, +she did not know and did not even wish to know: for she was (and as +she said this, she pointed to the ring on her finger in proof) married +to the people of England; if the Queen of Scotland had a right to the +English throne, that should be left to her unimpaired. + +And none could deny that such a declaration as Mary required had its +hazardous side for Elizabeth. Henry VIII's settlement of the +succession, on which Elizabeth's own accession rested, excluded the +Scotch line: in virtue of it the descendants of the younger sister, +who were natives of England, possessed a greater right. And how if the +Queen of Scots, when recognised as heir to England, afterwards gave +her hand to a Catholic prince hostile to Elizabeth? The dangers +indicated above would then be doubled, the followers of the ancient +Church would have attached themselves to the royal couple, and formed +a compact party in opposition to Elizabeth's arrangements, which would +never have attained stability. + +To meet this very objection, it was suggested that Mary might marry a +Protestant, in fact Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, who was looked +upon as the favourite of the Queen of England herself. Elizabeth could +have been quite secure of him: she herself recommended him. Mary was +at the first moment unpleasantly affected by the idea that she was +expected to take as a husband one who was a born subject of England; +but she was by no means decidedly against it, always supposing that in +that case Elizabeth would recognise her right of inheritance in a +valid form for herself and her issue by this marriage. Above all men +Murray was in favour of this. He said, although his power must be +diminished by the Queen's union with Leicester, yet he wished for it, +in so far as it was bound up with the confirmation of the heirship; +for that was the hope by which he had kept Mary firm to the existing +system, and separated her from her old friends all these years past. +Such was without doubt the case: it is this point of view that renders +Mary's policy and conduct during the last years intelligible. If he, +so Murray continued, could not make his promise good, Mary would think +he had deceived her: should she afterwards marry a Catholic prince, +what would be their position?[210] Once more was the request brought +before Queen Elizabeth. But even under these circumstances she could +not be induced to grant it. She said, if Mary trusted her and married +Leicester, she should never repent it: but these words, which +contained no definite engagement, had rather an opposite effect on +Mary. In the hope of the recognition of her heirship she had hitherto +endured the absolute constraint of her position: she would even have +agreed to the choice of a husband by which she feared to be disparaged +and controlled: for how could she have concealed from herself, that by +it she would have fallen into a permanent dependence on the policy of +England? With all her compliances and advances she had nevertheless +gained nothing. Her vexation relieved itself by a violent outburst of +tears: but during this inward storm she decided at the same time to +drop her union with Elizabeth, and thus leave herself free for an +opposite policy. + +She had refused the Archduke because his possessions were too small to +secure her ends, too distant for him to be able to help her. Then +another suitor presented himself for her hand, who would not indeed +bring her any increase of power, but would strengthen her claims, +which seemed to her very desirable. This was the young Henry Lord +Darnley, through his mother likewise a descendant of Henry VII's +daughter who had married in Scotland, and through his father Matthew +Earl of Lennox related to that family of the Stuarts which was +descended from Alexander, a younger son of James Stuart the ancestor +of the Scotch kings. In his descent there lay a double recommendation +for him. It was remarked also that he had in his favour in Scotland +itself the numerous and important Stuarts (Lord Athol too belonged to +them); but mainly that a scion of this marriage would not find in +England any rival of similar claims, which might be easily the case if +young Darnley should marry into a family of the English nobility and +bring it his rights.[211] Darnley was a youth remarkable for his fine +figure, tall and well built; he made a great impression on the Queen +at his very first appearance. In July 1565 the marriage was celebrated +and Henry Darnley proclaimed King: the heralds named his name first, +when they delivered the royal proclamations. + +He had hitherto, at least publicly, held to the Protestant faith: even +now he occasionally attended the preaching: but after a little +wavering he avowed himself a Catholic and drew over a number of lords +with him by his example. The Catholic interest thus obtained a +complete ascendancy at court. + +And now Mary did not delay a moment longer in making decisive advances +to the Catholic powers. She had in fact no need to fear that the King +of Spain would be offended at her refusing his nephew, if she attached +herself to him in other matters. When she announced her marriage to +him, she not merely requested him to interest himself for her and her +husband's claims in England; she designated him as the man whom God +had raised up above all others to defend the holy Catholic religion, +and asked for his help to enable her to withstand the apostates in her +kingdom: as long as she lived, she would join him against all and +every enemy.[212] This quite fell in with the ideas which Philip +himself cherished. From the park of Segovia in October 1565 he +commissioned Cardinal Pacheco to reassure the Pope with the +declaration that he meant to support the Queen of Scots not less than +the Pope himself. In this they must, he remarked, keep three points in +view: first the subjugation of her rebellious subjects, which he +thought not difficult, as Elizabeth would not support them; then the +restoration of the Catholic Church in Scotland, than which nothing +would give him greater satisfaction; lastly, the most difficult of +all, the obtaining the recognition of her right to the English throne: +in all this he would support the Queen with his counsel and with +money: he could not however come forward himself, it could only be +done in the Pope's name.[213] + +The ordinary accounts of the conferences at Bayonne have proved +erroneous, as the proposals which were certainly made there by the +Spaniards were not accepted. But Philip II's resolutions seem not less +comprehensive in this case; these were his hostility to Queen +Elizabeth, still concealed from the world but fully clear to his own +consciousness, and his resolve to do everything in his power to place +Mary, if not now, yet at a future time on the English throne. The +great movement he was designing was to begin from Scotland. Like the +Guises at a later time, so now Mary and her partisans in England and +Scotland, if he supported her, were to be instruments in his hand. + +Mary had the good fortune to break up the seditious combination of +some lords who opposed her marriage. Strengthened by this she prepared +for quite a different state of things. She received money from Spain: +Pope Pius V had promised to support her as long as he had a single +chalice to dispose of. She expected disciplined Italian troops from +him: artillery and other munitions of war were brought together for +her in the Netherlands. Leaning on Rome and Spain the spirited Queen +hoped to become capable of any great enterprise.[214] + +It was clearly to be expected that she would unite a political +tendency with the religious one. In the letter quoted above Philip +reminds her how dangerous to monarchy were the doctrines of the +pretended Gospellers:[215] opinions like those which Knox, regardless +of all else, put before her personally, as to the limitations of royal +power justified by religion, she as a matter of course would not +endure. It is more surprising to find that she also called in question +the rights which the nobility claimed as against the royal government, +assigning a sort of theoretic ground for her view. The nobles base +them, so she said, on the services of their ancestors; but if the +children have renounced their virtue, neglect honour, care only for +their families, despise the King and his laws and commit treason, must +the sovereign even then still let his power be limited by theirs? How +vast were the plans which this Queen entertained--to restore +Catholicism in Scotland, to resume the war against the nobility in +which her ancestors had failed, to overthrow the Protestant opinions, +and therewith to become one day Queen of England! + +Among those around her was an Italian, David Riccio of Poncalieri in +Piedmont, who had previously been secretary to the Archbishop of +Turin, and then in the same capacity accompanied his brother-in-law, +the Conte di Moretta, who went to Scotland as ambassador of the Duke +of Savoy. He knew how to express himself well in Italian and French, +and was besides skilful in music.[216] As he exactly supplied a voice +which was wanting in the Queen's chapel, she asked the ambassador to +let him enter her service. Riccio was not a blooming handsome man; +though still young, he gave the impression of advanced years: he had +something morose and repellent about him; but he showed himself +endlessly useful and zealous, and won greater influence from day to +day. He not merely conducted the foreign correspondence, on which all +now depended and for which he was indispensable,--it became his office +to lay everything before the Queen that needed her signature, and +through this he attained the incalculable actual power of a +confidential cabinet-secretary; he saw the Queen, who took pleasure +in his company, as often as he wished, and ate at her table. James +Melvil, whom she had commissioned to warn her, if he saw her +committing faults, did not neglect doing it in this case; he +represented to her the ill effects which favouring a foreigner drew +after it: but she thought she could not let her royal prerogative be +so narrowly limited.[217] Riccio had promoted the marriage with +Darnley: the latter seemed to depend on him;[218] it was even said +that the secretary used at pleasure a signet bearing the King's +initials. It was no wonder indeed if this influence created him +enemies, especially as he took presents which streamed in on him +abundantly: yet the real hostility came from quite another quarter. + +The English Council of State did not fail to notice the danger which +lay in a policy of estrangement on the part of Scotland. It was +proposed to put an end to its progress once for all by an invasion of +Scotland: or at least the wish was expressed to arm for defence, e.g. +to fortify Berwick, and above all to renew the understanding with the +Scotch lords; Murray, whom Mary had in vain tried to gain over by +reminding him of the interest of their family and the views of their +father, would most gladly have delivered Darnley at once into the +hands of the English. By thus openly choosing his side he had been +forced, together with his chief friends, Chatellerault, Glencairn, +Rothes, and some others, to leave Scotland: the Queen, refused with +violent words the demand of the English court that she should receive +them again; she called a Parliament instead for the beginning of +March, in which their banishment was to be confirmed and an attempt +made to restore Catholicism. This was not so difficult, as the +resolutions of 1560 had never yet been ratified. There appeared at +court the Catholic lords, Huntley, Athol, and Bothwell who was ever +ready for fighting (he had returned from banishment); they came to an +understanding with Riccio. But now it happened that the personal +union (on which all rested) between the King, the Queen, and the +powerful secretary changed to discord. Darnley, who wished not merely +to be called King but to be King, demanded that the matrimonial crown +should be conferred on him by the Parliament; this would have given +him independent rights. The Queen on her side wished to keep the +supreme power undiminished in her hands: and Riccio may well have +confirmed her in this, as his own importance depended thereon: Darnley +ascribed the opposition he met with from his wife not so much to her +own decision as to the low-born foreigner against whom he now +conceived a violent hatred. His father, Lennox, who cared little for +the restoration of Catholicism in itself, entirely agreed with him as +to this. They held it allowable to put out of the way the intruder who +dared to hinder their house from mounting to the highest honours, and +who by the confidential intimacy in which he stood with the Queen gave +rise to all kinds of offensive rumours. With this object they--for the +instigation came from them--joined in a union with the Protestant +nobles. These regarded Riccio as their most thoroughgoing opponent: +they too wished him to be got rid of; but his death alone could not +content them. A Parliament was to meet at once, from which they +expected nothing but a complete condemnation of their former friends, +and absolutely ruinous resolutions against themselves. They made the +overthrow of this system a condition of their taking a share in +getting rid of Riccio. The King consented that Murray should be again +placed at the head of the government, in return for which the +matrimonial crown was promised him. + +On the 7th March the Queen went to the old council-house of Edinburgh +to make the necessary arrangements for the Parliament. The insignia of +the realm, sword crown and sceptre, were borne before her by the +Catholic lords, Huntley, Athol, and Crawford, the heads of those +houses which had once already, in France, offered her their alliance. +The King had refused to take part in the ceremony. She named the Lords +of Articles, who from of old exercised a decisive influence in the +Scotch Parliaments, and restored the bishops to their place among +them. As the Queen declares, her object was to promote the restoration +of the old religion and to have the rebels sentenced by the assembled +Estates. In Holyrood, besides Huntley and Athol, Bothwell, Fleming, +Levingstoun, and James Balfour had also found favour, all men who had +taken an active part for the restoration of Catholicism or for the +re-establishment of the power of the crown: how much it must have +surprised men to find that the Queen granted Huntley and Bothwell, who +had been declared traitors, admittance into the Privy Council. If the +Parliament adopted resolutions in accordance with these preliminaries, +it was to be expected that the work of political and religious +reaction would begin at once, with the active participation not only +of the Pope from whom some money had already come, but also of other +Catholic powers with whom Riccio kept the Queen in communication. + +A serious danger assuredly for the lords and for Protestantism; there +was not a moment to lose if they wished to avert it; but the attempt +to do so assumed, through the wild habits of the time and the country, +that character of violence which has made it the romance of centuries. +The event had such far-reaching results that we too must devote a +discussion to it. + +In the low, narrow, and gloomy rooms of Holyrood House there is a +little chamber to which the Queen retired when she would be alone: it +was connected by an inner staircase with the King's lodgings. Here +Mary was sitting at supper on Saturday the 9th March 1566, with her +natural sister the Countess of Argyle, her natural brother the Laird +of Creich, who commanded the guard at the palace, and some other +members of her household, among whom was also Riccio; when the King, +who had been expected somewhat earlier, appeared and seated himself +familiarly by his wife. But at the same moment other unexpected guests +also entered. These were Lord Ruthven, who had undertaken to execute +the vengeance of King and country on Riccio, and his companions; under +his fur-fringed mantle were seen weapons and armour: the Queen asked +in affright what brought him there at that unwonted hour. He did not +leave her long in doubt. 'I see a man here,' said Ruthven, 'who takes +a place that does not become him; by a servant like this we in +Scotland will not let ourselves be ruled,'[219] and so prepared to lay +hands on him. + +Riccio took refuge near her; the Queen declared that she would punish +an attack on him as high treason, but swords were bared before her +eyes, Riccio was wounded by a thrust over her shoulder, and dragged +away: on the floor and on the steps he received more than fifty +wounds: the King's own dagger was said to have been seen in the body +of the murdered man. This may be doubted, as his jealousy was by no +means so real; yet he said soon after that he was responsible for the +honour of his wife. In the turmoil he had only just stretched out his +hand, to guard her person from any accident. For the nobles, who +though acting with the utmost violence yet did not wish to risk their +whole future, it was enough that he was there: his presence would +authorise their act and give it impunity. When the murder was done +Ruthven returned to the Queen and declared to her that the influence +she had given Riccio had been unendurable to them, as had been also +his counsels for the restoration of the old religion, his enmities +against the great men of the land, his connexions with foreign +princes; he announced to her plainly the return of the banished lords, +with whom the others would unite in an opposite policy. For they had +not merely aimed at Riccio: at the same time the Lords Morton and +Lindsay, who had collected a number of trustworthy men, had advanced +with them and beset the approaches to the palace-yard. Their plan was +to get into their hands all their enemies who had gathered round the +Queen. But while their attention was fastened on Riccio's murder, most +of the threatened persons succeeded in escaping. All the rest who did +not belong to the household, and were taken in the palace, were +removed without distinction: the Queen was treated like a +prisoner.[220] She still possessed a certain popularity, as being +hereditary sovereign: a movement arose in the city in her favour, but +this was counterbalanced by the antipathies of the Protestants, and a +declaration of the King sufficed to still it. The next day a +proclamation appeared in his name which directed the members of the +Parliament, who had already arrived, to depart again. + +It was at any rate secured that a restoration of Catholicism or a +legal prosecution of the banished lords was not to be thought of; the +original plan however was not completely carried out. As it appears, +the temper of the country had not been so far prepared beforehand as +to make it possible to deprive the Queen of her power. And the +spirited princess did not let herself be so easily subdued. Above all +she succeeded in gaining over her husband again, to whom the +predominance of the lords was itself derogatory; he helped her to +escape and accompanied her in her flight. When they were once safe in +a strong place, her partisans gathered round her; she placed herself +at the head of a force, small though it was, and occupied the capital; +the chief accomplices in the attack of Holyrood, Morton and Ruthven, +fled from the country. She did not however revert to her old plans: +she resumed her earlier connexions instead, her half-brother Murray +again obtained influence, the old members of the Privy Council stood +by his side, after some time Morton was able to return. Foreigners +found that Scotland was as quiet as before. + +But this apparent quiet concealed a discord destined to produce still +greater complications. The Queen had only learnt afterwards the share +which Darnley had taken in Riccio's murder: it was her husband who had +instigated this insult to her royal honour: how could she ever again +repose confidence in him? And he no longer found support in the lords +whom he had deserted at the moment of the crisis. He was very far now +from obtaining the matrimonial crown or even any real influence: he +saw himself excluded from affairs more than ever, and despised. When +his son was baptised at Stirling, the father could not appear, though +he was in the palace: he was afraid of being insulted in public. His +condition filled him with shame: he often thought of leaving the +kingdom, and made preparations for doing so. But he was not able to +state and prove his grievances: he had to acknowledge before the +assembled Privy Council that he had no complaints worth mentioning. + +The Queen on her side had sometimes let drop her wish to be rid of +such a husband. She could not however think seriously of having her +marriage with him dissolved, as this could only be done by declaring +it null and void, and by that step her son, of whom she had just been +delivered, and who was to inherit all her rights, would have been at +the same time declared illegitimate. She was told that means would be +found to carry the matter through without prejudice to her son. She +warned her friends not to undertake anything which, though meant to +help her, might prepare yet more trouble. + +How men stood to each other is clear from the fact that on the one +side Darnley and his father linked themselves with the Catholic +party--they were said to have adopted a plan of seizing the +government, in the Queen's despite, in the name of her new-born +son[221]--while on the other side the rest of the barons pledged +themselves not to recognise him but only the Queen. A league was +already concluded between some of them, originating with Sir James +Balfour (who had been marked out for death by the halter in Holyrood), +to rid the world by force of a tyrant and enemy of the nobility, +against whom men must secure their lives. + +Thus all was in preparation for a fresh catastrophe; a new personal +relation of the Queen brought it to pass. + +Among the nobles of Scotland James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, was +especially distinguished for a fine figure, for youthful strength, +intrepid manly courage, proved in a thousand adventures, and decided +character. Though professedly a Protestant, he had attached himself to +the Regent without wavering, and assured the Queen of his assistance +while she was still in France. Can we wonder if Mary, under the +pressure of the party combinations around, needing before all things +a friend personally devoted to her, sought for support in this tried +and energetic man? As she in general prized nothing more highly than +bold and valiant deeds, she had often told him how much she admired +him; but yet more than this,--we cannot doubt that she let herself be +drawn into a passionate connexion with him. Who does not know the +sonnets and the love-intoxicated letters she is believed to have +addressed to him? I would not say that every word of the latter is +genuine; through the several translations--from the French original +(which is lost) into the Scotch idiom, from this into Latin, and then +back into French as we now have them--they may have suffered much +alteration: we have no right to lay stress on every expression, and +interpret it by the light of later events: but in the main they are +without doubt genuine: they contain circumstances which no one else +could then know and which have since been proved to be true; no human +being could have invented them.[222] It does not seem as if Mary's +fondness for Bothwell was returned by him in the same degree: in her +letters and poems she is constantly combating a rival, to whom his +heart seems to give the preference. This was Bothwell's own wife whom +he had only shortly before married: she stayed with him for a time in +the neighbourhood of the court, but he took care that the Queen knew +nothing of her being there. As he was before all things ambitious and +desirous of power, he only cared for the Queen's love and the +possession of her person so far as it would enable him to share her +authority and to obtain the supreme power in Scotland. But for this +another thing was necessary; the King must be removed out of the way. +As Darnley had once joined Riccio's political enemies in the Holyrood +assassination, so Bothwell now united himself with Darnley's enemies +with a view to his murder, for which they were already quite prepared. +Morton was asked to join the enterprise this time also: but he +demanded a declaration from the Queen that she was not against it: +and this Bothwell could not obtain. + +But, it may be said, was not the Queen in collusion with him? Did she +not purposely bring back her husband, who had fallen sick at Glasgow, +to Edinburgh, and did she not lodge him in a lonely house there not +far from the palace under the pretence that the purer air would +contribute to his recovery, but in fact to deliver him over all the +more surely to destruction? Such has been always the general belief: +even her partisans, the zealous Catholics, at that time inclined to +believe that the Queen at least connived in the plot.[223] But there +was yet another view taken at the time, according to which the better +relations that had begun between husband and wife were not due to +hypocrisy but were genuine, and a complete reconciliation and reunion +was to have been expected: the returning inclination towards her +husband was contending in the Queen with her passion for Bothwell; and +he was driven on, by the apprehension that his prey and the prize of +his ambition would escape him, to hasten the execution of his +scheme.[224] And psychologically the event might be best explained in +this way. But the statement has not sufficiently good evidence for it +to be maintained historically. A poet might, I think, so apprehend it: +for it is one of the advantages of poetic representation, that it can +take up even a slightly supported tradition, and following it can +infer the depths of the heart, those abysmal depths in which the +storms of passion rage, and those actions are begotten which laugh +laws and morality to scorn, and yet are deeply rooted in the souls of +men. The informations on which our historical representation must be +based do not reach so far: on a scrupulous examination they do not +allow us to attain a definite conviction as to the degree of +complicity. Only there can be no doubt as to the fact that this time +too ambition and the lust of power played a great part. If Bothwell +once said he would prevent Darnley from setting his foot on the necks +of the Scotch, he thereby only expressed the feeling of the other +nobles. Yet he executed his murderous plot without their joining in it +and by means of his own servants.[225] In the house before mentioned +he caused a quantity of gunpowder to be laid under the chamber in +which Darnley slept, in order to blow him into the air: alarmed at the +noise made by opening the door, the young sovereign sprang from his +bed; while trying to save himself, he was strangled together with the +page who was with him: the powder was then fired and the house laid in +ruins.[226] + +So the dreadful deed was done: the news of it filled men at first with +that curiosity which always attaches to dark events that touch the +highest circles; they then busied themselves with the question as to +who would ascend the Scottish throne and give the Queen his +hand,--among the other suitors Leicester now thought the time come for +him, and for renewing good relations between England and +Scotland:--but meanwhile to every man's astonishment and horror a +rumour spread that the Queen would unite herself with the man to whom +the murder of her husband was ascribed. Men fell on their knees before +her, to represent the dishonour she would thus draw on herself, and +even the danger into which she would bring her child. Letters from +England were shown her in which the ruin of all her prospects as to +the English throne was intimated, if she took this step: for it would +strengthen the suspicion, which had arisen on the spot, that she had +been an accomplice in her husband's murder. But she was already no +longer her own mistress. Bothwell now did altogether what he would. He +obtained from the lords, who feared him, a declaration that he was +guiltless of any share in the King's murder, and even their consent to +his marriage with the Queen. He said publicly he would marry the +Queen, whoever might be against it, whether she would or not. And if +Mary wished ever again to govern the country, and make the lords feel +her vengeance, Bothwell might appear to her the only man who could +assist her in this. Half of her free will, half by force, she fell +into his power and thus into the necessity of giving him her hand. An +archiepiscopal matrimonial court found in a near relationship between +Bothwell and his wife a pretext for dissolving his previous +marriage.[227] Bothwell was created Duke of Orkney: he began to +exercise the royal power for his own objects; his friends, even the +accomplices in the murder, were promoted.[228] + +But how could it be expected that the Lords would tolerate in the much +more dangerous hands of Bothwell a power they would not have endured +in Darnley's? Against him they had the full support of the people; +filled with moral aversion to the Queen for the guilt she had +incurred, or which was attributed to her, they expressed their loyalty +only in hostility to her; a general uneasiness showed itself as to the +safety of her son who was likewise threatened by his father's +murderers. + +Under a banner on which were depicted the murdered King and his child +the latter praying for help, a great army marched against the castle +where the newly-married pair dwelt. Bothwell merely regarded the +hostile lords as his rivals, who envied him the great position to +which he had raised himself, and thought to rout them all with the +feudal array which gathered round him at the Queen's summons. But at +the decisive moment the feeling of the country infected his own people +as well; instead of being able to fight he had to fly. He was forced +to live as a pirate in the Northern Seas; for he could no longer +remain in the country. The Queen fell into the power of the Lords, who +placed her in the strong castle which the Douglas had built in the +middle of Loch Leven, and detained her as a prisoner. + +In France it was not wholly forgotten that she had once been the Queen +of that realm; a fiery champion of the Catholics boasted that, if they +would give him a couple of thousand arquebusiers, he would free her +from custody in despite of the Scots; but Catharine Medici, who +besides was no friend of hers, rejected this absolutely, as they had +already so many irons in the fire.[229] On the other hand Elizabeth +concerned herself for the interests of her endangered neighbour with a +certain emphasis. But the Scots were already discontented with the +conduct of England, and complained loudly that since the treaty of +Leith nothing good had come to them from thence;[230] they were +resolved to pay their neighbour no more attention, but to manage their +own affairs for themselves. + +Their path was clearly marked out for them. They had murdered Riccio, +conspired against Darnley, driven Bothwell away, and all for the +special reason that they had tried to create a strong supreme power +over them: they could not possibly allow the Queen, irritated and +insulted as she was, to again obtain the exercise of her power. Mary +therefore was forced to resign the Scotch crown in favour of her son, +and to name her brother Murray regent during his minority. Immediately +on this the ceremony of anointing and crowning the child was performed +in an almost grotesque manner.[231] Two superintendents and a bishop +set the crown on his head, which the Lords there present touched in +token of their consent; two of them, Morton and Hume, then swore in +the name of the new King, James VI, that he would uphold the religion +now prevailing in Scotland, and combat all its enemies. + +When after this Murray, who had exiled himself to France, and had +taken no share in the last catastrophe (which he foresaw), returned, +he was in a position once more to conduct the government according to +his old policy, only with greater independence. A Parliament was +called which now for the first time confirmed the statutes made in +1560 in favour of the Kirk, and also came to such an arrangement about +the confiscated church-property as made it possible for it to exist. + +So ruinous for Mary were the results of her attempt to break through +the combination which formed the condition of her government in +Scotland, and to effect a restoration of the old ecclesiastical and +political forms. Before the power which she wished to overthrow her +own had gone down. + +But she was not yet minded to submit to it. And mainly through a +personal relation which she had entered into with the young George +Douglas, who conceived hopes of her hand, she succeeded in escaping +out of her prison and over the lake, bold and venturous as she always +was. In the country there were many who thought themselves to stand so +high above the bastard Earl of Murray, that they held it a disgrace to +obey him: all these gathered round her; and as she then, the very day +after her escape, revoked her abdication, they bound themselves +together to replace her on the throne. In the league, at the head of +which stood the Hamiltons, we find eight bishops and twelve +abbots,--for the re-establishment of the Catholic Church was part of +the plan: a considerable army was brought into the field with this +object. Murray and his party were however the stronger of the two, +they represented the organised power of the State, and their soldiers +were the best disciplined. The Queen, who, at Langsyde, from a +neighbouring eminence, looked on at the battle between the two armies, +had to witness her own men being scattered without having done the +enemy any damage,--Murray is said to have lost only one man. He +himself put a stop to the slaughter of the fugitives. Still even now +her affairs did not seem to those around her utterly lost, for all her +friends had not yet appeared in the field, and there were still strong +places to which she could retreat. But she aimed not merely at +defence, but at overpowering her enemies. As what she had just seen +left her no hope of this in Scotland, she adopted the idea of +demanding help from the Queen of England. For the latter had in the +strongest terms made known to the Scotch barons her displeasure at the +treatment of their Queen, which was not in harmony with the laws of +God or man, and had threatened to punish them for the wound thus +inflicted on the royal dignity. She had once sent Mary herself a jewel +as a pledge of her friendship. Mary was warned by those around her not +to put full trust in these assurances. But she was quite accustomed to +take her resolutions under passionate emotion, and could not then be +dissuaded from her views. Through forests and woods, over stock and +stone, without a single woman attendant, without any other food than +the Scotch oatcake, day and night she kept on her way to the coast, +from which she betook herself in a small boat to Carlisle. Her soul +was thirsting to subdue the rebels: her firm trust was to draw Queen +Elizabeth into the war against them: she came, not to seek a refuge, +but to gain troops and assistance. + +NOTES: + +[203] Throckmorton to Chamberlain, 21 Nov. 1560, in Wright, Elizabeth +i. 52. + +[204] Throckmorton, in Tytler, History of Scotland vi. 194. In a +memoir of Cecil, 'a note of indignities and wrongs done by the Queen +of Scots to the Queen's Majesty,' in Murdin 582, the greatest stress +is justly laid on this refusal. + +[205] Castelnau, Memoires iii. 13. 'Cette jeune princesse avoit un +esprit grand et inquiete, comme celui du feu Cardinal de Lorraine son +oncle, auxquels ont succede la pluspart des choses contraires a leurs +deliberations.' + +[206] As it is once expressed in one of her letters: 'pour +l'advanchement de mes affaires tant en ce pays (Scotland) qu'en celuy +la, ou je pretends quelque droit (England).' In Labanoff, Lettres et +Memoires de Marie Stuart i. 247. + +[207] 'Que la conveniencia publica, en especial la de la religion +aconsejaba que la reina su ama, se casase con el principe Don Carlos.' +From the ambassador's reports in Gonzalez 299. + +[208] 'Qu'il ne tiendra, qu'au dit Espagne qu'il (ce mariage) se ne +fasse.' Additions a Castelnau. + +[209] Compare Conaeus, Vita Mariae, in Jebb i. 24. + +[210] Conversation with Randolph, in Tytler vi. 316. Murray says to +him: 'the Queen would dislike and suspect him, because he had deceived +her with promises which he could not realise: he was the counsellor +and devizer of that line of policy, which for the last five years had +been pursued towards England; he it was that had induced her to defer +to Elizabeth.' + +[211] Spottiswood, History of the Church of Scotland ii. 25. 'If it +should fall him to marry with one of the great families of England, it +was to be feared that some impediment might be made to her in the +right of succession.' + +[212] Lislebourc (Edinburgh), 24 July 1565, in Labanoff vii. 430. + +[213] Compare Apuntamientos 312. The letter itself in Mignet ii. App. +E. + +[214] Sacchinus, Historia societatis Jesu, pp. iii, xiii, no. 166. + +[215] Fragment d'un Memoire de Marie Stuart sur la noblesse. Labanoff +vii. 297. + +[216] Memoire adresse a Cosme I, from the Archivio Mediceo at +Florence, in Labanoff vii. 65. + +[217] James Melvil, Memoirs 59. + +[218] From a despatch of Randolph's in Mackintosh, History of England +iii. 73. 'David is he that worketh all, chief secretary of the Queen +of Scotland, only governor to her good man.' Can the date be right? + +[219] 'Volemo quel galante la e non volemo esser governati per un +servitor.' Letter to Cosimo I, in Tuscany, in Labanoff vii. 92. + +[220] Queen Mary to the Archbishop of Glasgow, 2 April 1566, in Keith +and Labanoff. Of all the reports on this event the most important and +trustworthy. + +[221] 'That the king ... suld take the prince our son and crown him +and being crownit as his father suld tak upon him the government.' +Mary to the Archbishop of Glasgow, in Labanoff i. 396. + +[222] Compare Robertson, Dissertation on King Henry's murder, Works +i., History of Scotland 243. From a letter of Thuanus to Camden (1606) +it is clear how much trouble it already cost him to arrive at a +decided opinion. + +[223] 'Monsenor de Moreta ... anadio (to his narrative of the event) +algunas particularidades, que en juicio del embajador probaban o +inducian mucha sospecha que la reina avia sabido y aun permetido el +suceso.' Apuntamientos 320. The affair has been very wrongly drawn +into the sphere of religious controversy. + +[224] Account in the collection for the history of the times of the +Emperor Maximilian II, which Simon Schardius embodied in the tomus +rerum Germanicarum iv, not authentic, yet based on what was then held +in Scotland to be true. It runs: 'Rex cum illa se accedente ita +suaviter sermones commutat, ut reconciliatae annulum daret, hoc pacto, +ut illa se in lectum conjugalem intra duos dies admitteret. Erant in +aula, qui hanc offensionem placari minime vellent, unde, priusquam rex +voti compos fieret, eum e medio tollere constituerunt.' + +[225] Trial of James Earl Bothwell. State trials. + +[226] Report of the Nuncio, which agrees fairly with the statements in +Schardius. + +[227] Mary's confessor told the Spanish ambassador in answer to his +questions: 'Que el caso se habia consultado con los obispos catolicos +y que unanimemente havian dicho que lo podia hacer (casarse) por que +la muger de Bodwell era pariente sua en quarto grado.' + +[228] Memorandum of Cecil. 'She committed all autority to him and his +compagnons, who exercised such cruelty as none of the nobility that +were counsel of the realm durst abide about the Queen.' + +[229] Norris to Elizabeth 23 July 1567, in Wright i. 260. + +[230] Throckmorton to Cecil: 'upon other accidents [since Leith] they +have observed such things in H. My's doings, as have tended to the +danger of such as she had dealt withall.' Wright 251. + +[231] Calderwood ii. 384: 'Modo cha ha usato la regina di Scotia per +liberarsi,' from the Florentine archives, in Labanoff vii. 135. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +INTERDEPENDENCE OF THE EUROPEAN DISSENSIONS IN POLITICS AND RELIGION. + + +If we inquire into the reason why Philip II gave up his previous +relations with England and sided with the Queen of Scots, we shall +find it mainly in the fact that the victory of Protestant ideas in +England exercised a counter-action which was insupportable for the +government he had established in the Netherlands. But that he gave +Mary no help in her troubles, though information was once collected as +to how it might be done, may also be traceable to the disturbances +that had broken out in the Netherlands, the suppression of which +occupied all his attention and resources. + +In 1568 the Duke of Alva was master of the Netherlands: he was already +able to send a considerable force to help the French government, which +had once more broken an agreement forced upon it by the Huguenots; the +stress of the religious war was transferred to France, and there too +the Catholic military force by degrees gained the upper hand. + +It was under these circumstances that Mary Stuart appeared in England +with a demand for help. If in the Netherlands the attempts of the +nobles and the Protestant tendencies had been alike defeated, they had +on the other hand, by a similar union, achieved a decisive victory in +Scotland. Was Elizabeth to join Mary in combating them? + +Elizabeth disliked the proceedings of the Scotch nobles towards their +lawful Queen; the adherents of the Scotch church-system were already +troublesome to her in England: but, however much she found to blame in +them, in the great contest of the world they were her allies. Mary on +the other hand held to that great system of life and thought with +which the English Queen and her ministers had broken. Whatever +Elizabeth might have previously promised, she did not mean to be bound +by it under circumstances so completely altered.[232] Had she chosen +to restore Mary, she would have opened the island to all the +influences which she desired to exclude. Nor did she wish to let her +retire to France, for while Mary had resided there previously, England +had not had a single quiet day: without doubt the Catholic zeal +prevailing there would have been at once excited in support of her +claims to the English throne. An attempt was again made to reconcile +the Scotch nobles with their Queen: but as this led to an enquiry +respecting her share in the guilt of the King's murder--those letters +of Mary to Bothwell now first came to the knowledge of the public--the +dissension became rather greater and quite irreconcilable. + +One now begins to feel sympathy with the Queen of Scots, especially as +her share in the crime imputed to her is not quite clear. Of her own +free will she had come to England to seek for assistance on which she +thought she could reckon: but high considerations of policy not merely +prevented its being given but also made it seem prudent to detain her +in England.[233] Elizabeth and her ministers brought themselves to +prefer the interests of the crown to what was in itself right and fit. +Mary did not however on this account vanish from the stage of the +world: rather she obtained an exceedingly important position by her +presence in England, where one party acknowledged her immediate claim +to the throne, the other at least her claim to the succession; and +hence arose not merely inconveniences but very serious dangers for the +English government. Even in 1569, at a moment when the Catholic +military power had the superiority in France and the Netherlands, +Mary's uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, proposed to the King of Spain +an offensive alliance against Queen Elizabeth.[234] In the civil wars +of France they had just won the victory in two great battles. Who +could say what the result would have been if in the still very +unprepared condition of England an invasion had been undertaken by the +combined Catholic powers? + +But the life and the destiny of Europe depend on the fact that the +great general antagonisms are perpetually crossed by the special ones +of the several states. Philip did not wish for an alliance with the +French; it seemed to him untrustworthy, too extensive and, even if it +led to victory, dangerous. He declared with the greatest distinctness, +that he thought of nothing but of putting down his rebels (including +at the time the Moriscoes), and the complete pacification of the +Netherlands; he would not hear of a declaration of war against +England. The difficulty of this sovereign's position on all sides and +his natural temperament were the determining element in the history of +the second half of the sixteenth century. His great object, the +re-establishment and extension of the Catholic religion, he never +leaves out of sight for a moment; but yet he pursues it only in +combination with his own special interests. He is accustomed to weigh +all the chances, to proceed slowly, to pause when the situation +becomes critical, to avoid dangerous enterprises. Open war is not to +his taste, he loves secret influences. + +In November 1569 a rebellion broke out in England, not without the +connivance of the Spanish ambassador, but mainly under the impression +made by the Catholic victories in France, as to which Mary Stuart also +had let it be known that they rejoiced her inmost soul. It was mainly +the Northern counties that rose, as had before been the case in 1536 +and 1549. Where the revolt gained the upper hand, the Common +Prayer-book and sometimes the English translation of the Bible as well +were burnt, and the mass re-established. Many nobles, above all in the +North itself, still held Catholic opinions. At the head of the present +insurrection stood the Percies of Northumberland, the Nevilles of +Westmoreland, the Cliffords of Cumberland; Richard Norton, who rose +for the Nevilles, venerable for his grey hair, and surrounded by a +troop of sons in their prime, carried the Cross as a banner in front +of his men. The nobility did not exactly want to overthrow the Queen, +but it wished to force her to alter her government, to dismiss her +present ministers, and above all to recognise Mary Stuart's claim to +the succession--which would have given her an exceedingly numerous +body of supporters in England and thus have seriously hampered the +Queen. But now the government possessed a still more decided +ascendancy than even in 1549. It had come upon the traces of the +enterprise in time to quell it at its first outbreak, and had at once +removed the Queen of Scots out of reach of the movement. The commander +in the North, Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, one of the Queen's +heroes, who bore himself bravely and blamelessly in other spheres of +action as well as in this, and has left behind him one of the purest +of names, encountered the rebels with a considerable force, composed +entirely of his own men; these the rebels were the less able to +withstand, as they knew that still more troops were on the march. As +the ballad of a northern minstrel says, the gold-horned bull of the +Nevilles, the silver crescent of the Percies, vanished from the field: +the chiefs themselves fled over the Scotch border, their troops +dispersed, their declared partisans underwent the severest +punishments. Many who knew themselves guilty passed over to the +Queen's party in order to escape. + +But at the very time of this victory the war against the Queen at home +and abroad first received its most vivid impulse through the supreme +head of the Catholic faith. Pope Pius V, who saw in Elizabeth the +protectress of all the enemies of Catholicism, had issued the long +prepared and hitherto withheld excommunication against her. In the +name of Him who had raised him to the supreme throne of Right, he +declared Elizabeth to have forfeited the realm of which she claimed to +be Queen: he not merely released her subjects from the oath they had +taken to her: 'we likewise forbid,' he added, 'her barons and peoples +henceforth to obey this woman's commands and laws, under pain of +excommunication.'[235] It was a proclamation of war in the style of +Innocent III: rebellion was therein almost treated as a proof of +faith. + +The way in which the Queen opened her Parliament in 1571 forms as it +were a conscious contrast to the Papal bull, and its declaration that +she was deposed. She appeared in the robes of state, the golden +coronal on her head. At her right sat the dignitaries of the English +Church, at her left the lay lords, on the woolsack in the centre the +members of the Privy Council, by the sides stood the knights and +burgesses of the lower house. The keeper of the great seal reminded +the Houses of the late years of peace, in which--a thing without +example in England--no blood had been shed; but now peace seemed +likely to perish through the machinations of Rome. All were of one +accord that they must confront this attempt with the full force of the +law. It was declared high treason to designate the Queen as heretical +or schismatic, to deny her right to the throne, or to ascribe such a +right to any one else. To proselytise to Catholicism, or to bring into +England sacred objects consecrated by the Pope, or absolutions from +him, was forbidden and treated as an offence against the State. What a +decidedly antipapal character did the Church, which retained most of +the hierarchic usages, nevertheless assume! The oath of supremacy +became indispensable even for places at court and in the country +districts, in which it had not hitherto been required. Men deemed the +Queen's ecclesiastical power the palladium of the realm. + +In this form the war of religion appeared in England. The Protestant +exiles from the Netherlands and France sought and found a refuge here +in large bodies; it has been calculated that they then composed +one-twentieth of the inhabitants of London, and they were settled in +many other places. But the fiery passions, which on the Continent led +to the re-establishment of Catholicism, reacted on the old English +families of the Catholic faith as well, and produced, under the +influence of Spanish or Italian agitators, ever new attempts at +overthrowing the government. + +It was just then, there cannot be any doubt of it, that Thomas duke of +Norfolk, who might be regarded as almost the chief noble of the realm, +became concerned in such an attempt. Somewhat earlier the idea had +been entertained that his marriage with Mary Stuart might contribute +to restore general quiet in both kingdoms: but Queen Elizabeth had +abandoned this plan, and he had pledged himself to her under his hand +and seal not to enter into any negociation about it without her +previous knowledge. Nevertheless he had allowed himself to be drawn by +an Italian money-changer, Roberto Ridolfi, who had lived long in +England, not merely into a new agreement with this object in view but +into treasonable designs. Norfolk possessed an immense following among +the nobility of both religious parties: and, as he would not declare +himself a Catholic at once, he thought to have the Protestant lords +also on his side, if he married Mary Stuart, whom many of them +regarded as the lawful heiress of the realm. He applied for the Pope's +approval of his proceedings, and promised to come forward without +reserve if a Spanish force landed in England: he affirmed that his +views were not directed to his own advancement, but only to the +purpose of uniting the island under one sovereign, and re-establishing +the old laws and the Catholic religion. These thoughts hardly +originated with the duke, they were suggested to him by Ridolfi, who +himself drew up the instructions with which Norfolk and Mary +despatched him to the Pope and the King of Spain.[236] Ridolfi had +been sent to Mary with full powers from the Pope, and also well +provided with money. When he now appeared again in Rome with his +instructions, which really contained simply the acceptance of his +proposals, he was, as may be imagined, received with joy: the Pope, +who expected the salvation of the world from these enterprises, +recommended them to King Philip. In Spain also they met with a good +reception. We are astonished at the naivete with which the Council of +State proceeded to deliberate on the proposal of a sudden stroke by +which an Italian partisan undertook to seize the Queen and her +councillors at one of her country-houses. The King at last left the +decision to the Duke of Alva. Alva would have been in favour of the +plan itself, but he took into consideration that an unsuccessful +attempt would provoke a general attack from all sides on the +Netherlands, which were only just subdued and still full of ferment. +He thought the King should not declare himself until the conspirators +had succeeded in getting the Queen into their hands, alive or dead. If +Norfolk made his rising contingent on the landing of a Spanish force +in England, Alva on the other hand required that he should already +have got the Queen into his power before his own master made his +participation in the scheme known.[237] + +But while letters and messages were being exchanged in this way (for +Ridolfi held it necessary to be in communication with his friends in +England and Scotland), Elizabeth's watchful ministers had already +discovered all. Even before Ridolfi reached Spain, Elizabeth gave the +French ambassador an intimation of the commission with which the Queen +of Scots had entrusted him.[238] The latter had not yet received any +kind of answer from Spain when the Earl of Shrewsbury, in whose +custody she then was at Sheffield, reproached her with the schemes in +which she was implicated, and announced to her a closer restriction of +her liberty as a punishment for them: further Elizabeth would not at +that time as yet proceed against her. In Spain and Italy they were +still expecting the Duke of Norfolk to take up arms, when he was +already a prisoner. Elizabeth struggled long against giving him over +to the arm of the law, but her friends held an execution absolutely +necessary for her personal security. On the scaffold in the Tower +Norfolk said he was the first to die on that spot under Queen +Elizabeth and trusted he would be the last. All people said Amen. + +The scheme of this revolt proceeded more from Italy and Rome than from +Spain: King Philip had taken no active part in it, the Duke of Alva +had rather set himself against it: but we need only glance at their +correspondence to perceive how completely nevertheless they were +implicated in the matter. To carry on the war against Elizabeth not in +his own name but in the name, and for the restoration of the rights, +of the Queen of Scotland, would have exactly suited the policy of +Philip II: he thought such an opportunity would never present itself +again; they must avail themselves of it and finish the affair as +quickly as possible, that France might not take part in it. If Alva +counts up the difficulties which manifestly stood in the way of the +scheme, yet he promises to execute the King's wishes with all the +means in his power, with person and property: 'God will still send the +King other favourable opportunities as a reward for his religious +zeal.'[239] + +Queen Elizabeth expelled the Spanish ambassador, Gueran de Espes, who +had undeniably taken part in Ridolfi's schemes as well as in the last +rising, from England; as soon as he reached Brussels, the English and +Scotch fugitives gathered round him, and communicated to him many new +schemes of invasion, to which his ear was more open than that of the +Duke of Alva. An attack was to be tried, now on Scotland, now on +Ireland, now on England itself. + +We cannot suppose that in England they knew every word that was +uttered about these plans, or that everything they did believe there +was well grounded. But from year to year men's minds were more and +more filled with the idea that Philip II was the great enemy of their +religion and of their country. In the sphere of classical literature +the translation of Demosthenes in 1570 is noteworthy in this respect. +What Demosthenes says against Philip of Macedon, in regard to the +Athenians, the translator finds applicable to Philip II; he calls the +English to open war in the words of the ancient orator, 'for as it was +then, so is it now, and ever will be.' + +But for this Elizabeth on her side did not feel inclined or prepared. +Many acts of hostility took place at sea in a piratical war, in +politics they stood sharply opposed to each other: but they were not +inclined on either side for an open contest, front to front. + +Above all the English held it necessary now to come to a good +understanding with the other of the two great neighbouring powers. It +stood them in good stead that a tendency to moderate measures gained +sway in France; the English ambassadors took a very vivid interest in +the project of a marriage between Henry of Navarre and Margaret of +Valois. While the victory of Lepanto filled the hearts of the +partisans of Spain with fresh hopes, the jealousy it awakened in the +French contributed largely to their withdrawal from Spain and the +Pope, and their readiness for an alliance with England. The two powers +promised each other mutual support against any attack, on whatever +ground it might at any time be undertaken. A later explanation of the +treaty expressly confirmed its including the case of religion.[240] + +Thus secured on this side the Queen proceeded to carry out an idea +which had immense consequences. It is not a mere suspicion, partially +derived from the result, to suppose that she thought King Philip's +combining with her rebels gave her a right to combine with the King's +revolted subjects: she herself said so once to the French ambassador: +while talking with him, she one day dropped her voice, and said that +as Philip kept her state disturbed, she did not hold herself any +longer bound to treat him with the regard she had hitherto shewn him +in the quarrels of the Netherlands. + +It is not quite true that she supported with her own power the Gueux +('Beggars'), who had fled to the sea from Alva's persecutions, in the +decisive attacks they now made on Brielle and Vliessingen (Brill and +Flushing): but this was hardly needed, it was quite enough that her +feeling was known, she merely let things take their way, she did not +prevent the attack of the rebels against Philip II (powerful at sea as +they were) being supported by the fugitive Walloons residing in +England, and by Englishmen also. It was estimated that there were then +in Vliessingen 400 Walloons and 400 English: 1500 English lay before +the town, to keep off the attacks of the Spaniards. French troops gave +aid in corresponding numbers. They were all recalled at a later time; +but meanwhile the insurrection had gained a consistency which made it +impossible for the Spaniards to subdue the Netherlands. + +As formerly Elizabeth had joined the Scotch lords against the Regent +and the Queen of Scotland, so now she helped the insurgents of the +Netherlands against the King of Spain. In the first case she had +Philip II himself on her side, in the second case France. + +By this policy she found the means of securing herself at home, from +the Spanish attacks. It was more than ever necessary for Philip to +concentrate on the war in the Netherlands all the forces of which he +could dispose. The Queen did not yet take direct part in it, and +Philip had to avoid everything that could induce her to do so. It was +not her object to bring about the independence of the Provinces: but +she insisted on the departure of the Spanish troops, the observance of +the provincial constitutions, and above all assured liberty for the +Protestant faith. In 1575 she offered the King her mediation, not +however without including one special English matter, namely the +mitigation of the severe religious laws in reference to English +merchants in the Spanish countries: the King took the opinion of the +Grand Inquisitor on it. As if he could ever have been in its favour +himself! The Pacification of Ghent in 1576 was quite in accordance +with the Queen's views, since it established the supremacy of the +Estates, and freedom of religion for the chief Northern provinces. To +maintain this, she had no hesitation in concluding an alliance with +the States, and in consequence despatching a body of English troops to +the Netherlands. She informed the King himself of this, and requested +him to recall the Stadtholder Don John, his half-brother (who was +trying to break the peace), and to receive the Estates into his +favour: she did not by this think to come to a breach with him. + +The idea of entrusting Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto, +with the restoration of Catholicism in West Europe had been at that +time adopted in Rome. His was a fiery nature pervaded by Catholic +principles, and seized with the most vivid ambition to be something in +the world and to effect something. The Irish wished him to be their +king; he was to free Mary Stuart from prison, vindicate her rights +alike in Scotland and in England, and at her side ascend the throne of +the British kingdoms now united in Catholicism. Mary gladly acceded to +this, as she had already long wished for a marriage with the Spanish +house. It was probably to give this combination a firmer basis that +she proposed, in case her son did not prove to be a Catholic, to +transfer her claims on the throne of England to the King of Spain, or +to any of his relatives whom he should name in conjunction with the +Pope.[241] But whom could she mean by these last words but Don John +himself, who then stood in close connexion with the Guises, whom she +also recommended most pressingly to the King. But she had at the same +time directed her aim towards Scotland. There her enemies Murray and +Lennox had perished by assassination; under the following regents, Mar +and Morton, Mary had still nevertheless so many partisans, that they +never could have ventured, as they were requested to do from England, +to allow Mary to come to Scotland and be put on her trial: their own +power would have been endangered by it. Mary too believed herself to +have prepared everything there so well for an enterprise by Don John +that, as she says, an overthrow of the Scotch government would +infallibly have ensued if Philip II had only put his hand to the work. +And how closely were his interests bound up with it! Without a +conquest of the island-kingdom, as his brother represented to him, the +Netherlands could never be subdued. But even now he shunned an open +rupture. Besides this his brother's restlessness and thirst for +action, and his political intrigues which were already reacting on +Spain, were disagreeable to him; he could not make up his mind to take +a decisive step. + +He had again and again been vainly entreated to interest himself in +the population of Ireland, in which national and religious antagonism +contended against the supremacy of England. One of the confidential +agents secretly sent thither assured him that he was implored by +nine-tenths of the inhabitants to take them under his protection and +save their souls, that is restore them the mass, which they could no +longer celebrate publicly: they appealed to their primeval +relationship with the Iberian people, to ancient prophecies which +looked forward to this, and to the great political interests at stake. +Philip was not disinclined to attempt the enterprise; but he required +the co-operation of France, without doubt to break the opposition of +this power in the affairs of the Netherlands; a condition which could +not be made acceptable to the French by any interposition of Rome. + +And so, if Pope Gregory XIII wished to undertake anything against +Ireland, he had to do it himself. Men witnessed the singular spectacle +of an expedition against Ireland being fitted out on the coasts of the +States of the Church. A papal general from Bologna came to the +assistance of the powerful Irish chief, Fitzmaurice. They commanded +the Irish districts far and wide, and made inroads into the English: +for a long time they were very troublesome, although not really +dangerous. + +King Philip was then busied in an undertaking which interested him +still more closely than even that of the Netherlands: he made good his +hereditary claim to Portugal, without being obstructed in it either by +the opposition of a native claimant or by the counter-working of the +European powers. + +In the face of this success, by which the Spanish monarchy became +master of the whole Pyrenean peninsula and its many colonies in East +and West, it was all the more necessary for the other two powers to +hold together. Many causes of quarrel indeed arose between them. How +could the shocking event of the night of St. Bartholomew fail to +awaken all the antipathies of the English, and indeed of Protestantism +in general! Elizabeth did not let herself be prevented by her treaty +from supporting the French Protestants in the manner she liked, that +is without its being possible to prove it against her. Under Charles +IX she contributed to prevent them from succumbing, under Henry III +she helped them in recovering a certain political position: for this +very object the Palsgrave Casimir led into France German troops paid +with English money. Catharine Medici often reproached her with +observing a policy like that of Louis XI. But the common interest of +the two kingdoms was always more powerful than these differences; +frequent and long negociations were carried on for even a closer +union. The marriage of Queen Elizabeth with Catharine's youngest son +was once held to be as good as certain: he actually appeared +personally in England. We refrain from following the course of these +negociations. The interest they awaken constantly ends in +disappointment, for they are always moving towards their object +without attaining it. But perhaps it will repay our trouble to +consider the reasons which came into consideration for and against the +proposed connexion. + +The main reason for it was that England must hinder an alliance +between Spain and France, especially one in favour of the Queen of +Scots. And certainly nothing had stood the English policy in Scotland +in such stead as the good understanding with France. But much more +seemed attainable if France and England were united for ever. They +would then be able to compel the King of Spain to conclude a peace +with the Netherlands which would secure them their liberties; and, if +he did not observe it, they would have grounds for a common occupation +of a part of the Provinces. If there should be any issue of the +marriage, this would put an end to all attacks on Elizabeth's life, +and greatly strengthen the attachment of her subjects. + +But against it was the fact that this marriage would bring the Queen +into disagreeable personal relations; and the country would be as +unwilling to see a French king as it had once a Spanish one. And how +would it be, if a son sprung from the marriage, to inherit both the +French and the English throne? was England to be ruled by a viceroy? +What an opposition the world would raise to the union of these mighty +kingdoms, into what complications might it not lead! Scotland would +again attach itself to the French: the Netherlands and the German +princes would be alienated. + +The members of the Privy Council, after they had weighed all these +considerations, at last pronounced themselves on the whole against it. +They recommended the continuance of the present system,--the support +of the Protestants, especially in France, a good understanding with +the King of Scotland, and the maintenance of religion and justice in +England: thus they would be a match for every threat of the King of +Spain.[242] + +But that sovereign had one ally against whom these precautions could +not suffice, the Order of Jesuits and the seminaries of English +priests under its guidance. + +Young exiles from England, who were studying in the Universities of +the Netherlands, to prevent the Catholic priesthood from perishing +among the English at home, had been already in Alva's time brought +together in a college at Douay, which was then removed to Rheims as +the revolt spread in the Netherlands. Pope Gregory XIII was not +content with supporting this institution by a monthly subsidy; he was +ambitious of imitating Gregory the Great and exercising a direct +influence on England: he founded in Rome itself a seminary for the +reconversion of that country. He made over for this purpose the old +English hospital which was also connected with the memory of Thomas +Becket. The first students however fell out with each other, and there +was seen in Rome the old antagonism of the 'Welsh' and the 'Saxons'; +in the end the latter gained the upper hand, it was mainly their doing +that the institution was given over to the Jesuits. Not long after its +activity began. Each student on his reception was bound to devote his +powers to spreading the Catholic doctrines in England; by April 1580 a +company of thirteen priests was ready, after receiving the Pope's +blessing, to set out with this object. The chief among them were +Robert Parsons, who passed into England disguised as a soldier, and +Edmund Campion as a merchant. The first went to Gloucester and +Hereford, the other to Oxford and Northampton: they and the friends +who followed them found everywhere a rich harvest.[243] It was +arranged so that they arrived in the evening at the appointed houses +of their friends: there they heard confessions and gave advice to the +faithful. Early in the morning they preached, and then broke up again; +it was customary to provide them an armed escort to guard them from +any mischance. + +Withal the forms of the church-service in England had been so arranged +that it might remain practicable for the Catholics also to take part +in it. How many had done so hitherto, perhaps with a rosary or a +Catholic book of prayers in their hands! The chief effort of the +seminarist priests, on their return to the country, was to put an end +to this: they dissuaded intercourse with the Protestants even on +indifferent matters. The Queen's statesmen were astonished to find how +much the number of recusants increased all at once; from secret +presses proceeded writings of an aggressive, and exceedingly +malignant, character; in many places Elizabeth was again designated as +illegitimate, a usurper, no longer as Queen. On this the repressive +system, which had been already set in motion in consequence of Pope +Pius V's bull, was made more stringent; this is what has brought on +the Queen's government the charge of cruelty. The Catholics too began +to compose their martyrologies. One of the first priests whose +execution they describe, Cuthbert Mayne, was condemned by the jury for +bringing the Bull with him into other people's houses together with +some _Agnus Dei_.[244] Young people were condemned for trying to make +their way to the foreign seminaries. On the wish of the missionaries +Pope Gregory XIII explained the bull so far, that the excommunication +pronounced in it against all who should obey the Queen's commands was +meant to be in suspense till it was possible to execute it against the +Queen herself on whom it continued to weigh.[245] This limitation +however rather increased the danger. The Catholics could remain quiet +till rebellion was possible, then it became a duty. The law-courts now +sought above all to make the accused priests declare themselves as to +the validity of the bull and its obligation. Men held themselves +justified in extreme severity against those who 'slip into the country +at the instigation of the great enemy, the Pope, and poison the hearts +of the subjects with pernicious doctrines.'[246] On this ground +Campion met his death; Parsons escaped. Assuredly there were not so +many executed as the Catholic world wished to reckon, but yet probably +more than the statesmen of England admitted. They persisted that it +was not a persecution for religion: and in fact the controverted +questions lay mainly in the region of the conflict between Papacy and +Monarchy: those executed were not so much martyrs of Catholicism as of +the idea of the Papal supremacy over monarchs. But how closely +connected are these ideas with each other! The priests for their part +believed that they were dying for God and the Church. But the effect +which the English government had in view was, with all its severity, +not produced. We are assured on Catholic authority that in 1585 there +were yet several hundred priests actively engaged. From their reports +it is clear that they were still always counting on a complete +victory. They vigorously pressed for the attempt at an invasion, which +they represented as almost sure of success; 'for two-thirds of the +English are still Catholic; the Queen has neither strong places nor +disciplined troops: with 16,000 men she might be overthrown.' This +time also the house of the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino Mendoza, +formed the meeting-point for these tendencies; he kept up a constant +communication with the emigrants who had been declared rebels, and +with the discontented at home, with Mary Stuart and her friends in +Scotland, with the zealous Catholics throughout the world, especially +with the Guises, with whom Philip II himself now had an understanding. +The increasing power of his sovereign gained him also an +ever-increasing consideration. + +It was in these days that the Western and Southern Netherlands were +again subdued by King Philip. After the death of his brother, his +nephew Alexander Farnese of Parma had formed an army of unmixed +Catholic composition, which had naturally from its inner unity gained +the upper hand over the government of the States, which had called now +a German and now a French prince to its head, and was composed of +different religions and nationalities. First the seaports, then the +towns of Flanders, and at last the wealthy Antwerp also, which by its +mental activity and commercial resources had materially nourished the +revolt, fell into the hands of the Spaniards. The Prince of Orange was +assassinated by a fanatic. Alexander of Parma, who ascribed his +victories to the Virgin Mary, pushed on his conquests gradually till +they reached the Northern and Eastern Provinces. + +The reaction of these events, even while they were still in progress, +was first felt in Scotland. There the young King James VI after many +vicissitudes had, while still under age, taken the reins of government +into his own hands: and a son of his great uncle, Esme Stuart (who +exchanged the title Aubigny which he brought from France for the more +famous name of Lennox, and was a great friend of the Guises and the +Jesuits) obtained the chief credit with him. Lennox promoted +Catholicism, which was not so difficult, as part of the nobility still +adhered to it, at least in secret; he too lived and moved in +comprehensive plans for the re-establishment of the Church. Through +the Guises he hoped to be placed in a position to invade England with +a Catholic army of 15,000 men; if the English Catholics then did their +duty, everything they wanted could be attained: for himself he was +resolved to liberate Mary or die in the attempt. Mary was also to +reascend the Scotch throne: her son was to be co-regent with her, +provided that he himself returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church. +Mary Stuart with her indestructible energy was involved in these +designs also. She commended them warmly to the Pope and the King of +Spain: for it was precisely in Scotland that the universal +re-establishment could best be begun.[247] She wished only to know on +what resources in men and money her friends there might reckon. We +must remember the situation and the peril of these schemes and +preparations, if we would understand to some degree the violent +measures on which the Protestant lords in Scotland resolved. As in a +similar case of an earlier time in Germany, they closed the castle, in +which King James was received, against his attendants: Lennox had to +leave Scotland. But the young King was shrewd enough, and sufficiently +well advised, to rid himself of the lords almost in the same way that +they had taken him. He succeeded, chiefly through the help of the +French ambassador, a friend of the Guises. Hereupon too he seemed much +inclined to favour the undertaking with which Henry Guise occupied +himself in 1583, a scheme for a revolution in the affairs of both +countries. Guise hoped, with the support of the King of Spain, the +Pope, and the Duke of Bavaria, to be able to effect something +decisive. James VI let his uncle know his full agreement with the +proposed schemes. But, in fact, it did not seem to matter much +whether he agreed or not. It was reported to Queen Mary, that the +Catholic party in Scotland reckoned on having the most powerful king +of Christendom on their side, with or against James' will; that Philip +II was building so many vessels that in a short time he would become +completely master of the Western ocean, and be able to invade whatever +countries he pleased. + +It is evident how dangerous for England these Scotch movements were in +themselves: Queen Elizabeth thought herself most vulnerable on the +side of Scotland: moreover she already saw herself directly +threatened. A plan fell into her hands, in which the number of ships +and men necessary for an invasion of England, the harbours where they +were to land, the places they were to seize, even the men on whose +help they could reckon, were enumerated.[248] She convinced herself +that the plan came from Mendoza, who held out the prospect of his +King's assistance for the purpose, as the attack was to be made +simultaneously from the Netherlands and from Spain. This time too +Elizabeth dismissed the hostile ambassador; but how could she flatter +herself with having thus exorcised the threatening elements? Now that +the foe, with whom she had been for fifteen years at war--though not +an open war yet one of which both sides were conscious--had become +very much stronger, she was forced to take up a decisive position +against him, to save herself from being overpowered. + +In 1584 her chief minister, William Cecil, now Lord Burleigh, High +Treasurer of the kingdom, drew her attention to this necessity. He +represented to her that she had nothing to fear from any one in the +world except from Spain--but from Spain everything. King Philip had +gained more victories from his cabinet, than his father in all his +campaigns: he ruled a nation which was thoroughly of one mind in +religion, ambitious, brave, and resolute; he had a most devoted party +among the discontented in England. The question for the Queen was, +whether she hoped to tame the lion or whether she wished to bind him. +She could not build on treaties, for the enemy would not keep them. +And, if he was allowed to subdue the Netherlands completely, no one in +the world could avoid seeing to what object his power would be +directed. He advises the Queen not to let things go so far--for those +countries were the counterscarp of England's fortress--but to proceed +to open war, to withstand the Spaniards in the Netherlands and attack +them in the Indies. 'Better now,' he exclaims, 'while the enemy has +only one hand free, than later when he can strike with both.'[249] + +In August 1585 Antwerp fell into the hands of the Spaniards; in the +capitulation the case is already taken into consideration, that +Holland and Zealand also might submit. The Northern Netherlands were +threatened from yet another side, as Zutphen and Nimuegen had just +been taken by the Spaniards. In this extreme distress of her natural +ally she delayed no longer. The sovereignty they offered her she +refused anew, but she engaged to give considerable assistance, in +return for which, as a security for her advances, the fortresses +Vliessingen and Briel were given up into her possession. To prove how +much she was in earnest in this, she entrusted the conduct of the war +in the Netherlands to Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who was still +accounted her favourite and was one of the chief confidants of her +policy. In December 1585 Leicester reached Vliessingen; on the 1st of +January 1586, Francis Drake appeared before St. Domingo and occupied +it. The war had broken out by land and by sea. + +NOTES: + +[232] Randolph states that the promise was given before Darnley's +death. Strype, Annals iii. i. 234. + +[233] That this was thought of from the first is not to be supposed; +the Queen had once previously declared herself against it. 'We fynde +her removing either into this our realm or into France not without +great discommodities to us.' Letter to Throckmorton, in Wright i. 253. + +[234] Gonzalez, Apuntamientos 338. From the 'short memoryall' of 1569 +in Hayne's State Papers 585 (though much in it is incorrect), we see +that men believed in the union of both crowns against England, with +'the ernest desyre to have the Quene of Scotts possess this crown of +England.' + +[235] 'Sentenza declaratoria contra Elizabetta, che si pretende reina +d'Inghilterra.' In Catena, Vita di Pio V, 309. The agreement of the +bull (e.g. as to the 'huomini heretici et ignobili,' who had +penetrated into the royal privy council) with the manifesto of the +last rebellion, is worth observing. + +[236] The instructions which Mary and Norfolk gave their Italian agent +for the Roman See are preserved in the Vatican archives and printed in +Labanoff iii. 221. From Leslie's expression (Negociations, in Anderson +iii. 152) that the duke negociated with Ridolfi through a Mr. Backer, +'because he had the Italian tongue,' and that then all the plans were +communicated to _him_ ('the whole devises'), we might conclude that +Norfolk was in general very much in foreign hands. + +[237] Lo que se platico en consejo 7 Julio 1571. Some other weighty +documents are in Appendix V to Mignet's Histoire de Marie Stuart, vol. +ii. + +[238] Already on the 16th April the French ambassador, while speaking +with Elizabeth on the conclusion of the treaty agreed on, remarks, +'qu'elle a quelque nouvelle offence contre la dite reyne d'Ecosse,' +which could have been nothing else but the first news of the seizure +of one of Ridolfi's servants at Dover on the 10th April, who then +under torture had confessed all. + +[239] 'Vendran otras ocasiones en tiempo di V. M. per pagarle dios el +celo, con que tam caldamente abraza este su negocio.' Contestation del +duque di Alba, in Gonzalez 450. + +[240] De la Mothe Fenelon au roi de France 22 Dec. 1571. +Correspondence diplomatique de Bertrand de Salignac de la Mothe +Fenelon iv. 317. + +[241] Sketch of a will, in Labanoff iv. 354. 'Je cedde mes droits, que +je pretends et puis pretendre a la couronne d'Angleterre et autres +seignuries et royaulmes en dependant au roy catholique ou autres des +siens qu'il lui plaira, avesque l'advis et consentement de S. S.' + +[242] Conference at Westminster touching the Queen's marriage with the +Duke of Anjou 1579. Egerton Papers 78. Sussex, who had previously +given a somewhat different opinion, was one of those who signed. + +[243] Sacchinus, Historia societatis Jesu iii. 1; vii. 1; viii. 96. + +[244] 'Perche contro alle leggi d'Inghilterra egli havesse portato +seco una bollo papale, alcuni grani benedetti et agnus dei.' Martyrio +di Cutberto Maino, in Pollini, Istoria eccl. delle rivolutioni +d'Inghilterra p. 499. It is a pity that the eminent Hallam had not the +first reports at hand. + +[245] Facultates concessae Rob. Personio et Edm. Campiano 14 April +1580. 'Catholicos tum demum obliget, quando publica ejusdem bullae +executio fieri poterit.' + +[246] Execution of Justice in England. Somers Tracts i. + +[247] Lettre a Don Bernardino de Mendoza 6-8 April 1582. 'La grande +aparence, qu'il ha de pourvenir (parvenir) maintenant au dict +restablissement de la religion en ceste isle, comencant pour la Scotia +(par l'Ecosse).' In Mignet App. 522. + +[248] According to the Venetian accounts (Dispaccio di Spagna, Marzo +1584) the King had sent an experienced soldier as a spy to England to +investigate the possibility of a landing, 'havendo pensato di +concertarsi bene con il re di Scotia, perche ancora egli a un tempo +medesimo si movesse da quella parte.' + +[249] The Lord Treasurers advise in matters of Religion and State. +Somers Tracts i. 164. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FATE OF MARY STUART. + + +How completely the circumstances of these times are misunderstood, +when they are measured by the rules of an age of peace! Rather they +were filled with hostilities in which politics and religion were +mingled; foreign war was at the same time a domestic one. The +religious confessions were at the same time political programmes. + +The Queen took up arms not to make conquests, but to secure her very +existence against a daily growing power that openly threatened her, +before it had become completely an overmatch for her: she provoked an +open war: but she had not done enough when she now, as is necessary in +such cases, took into consideration the training of soldiers, securing +the harbours, fortifying strong places, improving the navy: the most +pressing anxiety arose from the general Catholic agitation in the +country. + +Elizabeth's statesmen were well aware that the sharp prosecution of +the seminarist priests was not enough to put an end to it. With +reference to the laity, the Lord Treasurer, however strict in other +respects, recommends to his sovereign quite a different mode of +proceeding. We should never proceed to capital punishment of such men: +we should rather mitigate the oath imposed on them: in particular we +should never force the nobles to a final decision between their +religious inclinations and their political duties, never drive them to +despair. But at the same time he gives a warning against awakening any +hope in them that their demands could ever be satisfied, for this +would only make them more obstinate. And on no consideration should +arms be put into their hands. 'We do not wish to kill them, we cannot +coerce them, but we dare not trust them.' Nothing would be more +dangerous than to assume a confidence which was not really felt. + +Even before this the Privy Council had recommended the Queen to employ +Protestants only in the government of her State, and to exclude all +Catholics from a share in it.[250] The before-mentioned 'Advice' of +Lord Burleigh is remarkable for extending the Protestant interest and +adding a popular one to it. He thinks it intolerable that the +copyholders and tenants of the Catholic lords, even when they fulfil +their obligations in all other respects, experience bad treatment from +them on account of religion: it is impossible to let many thousand +true subjects be dependent on such as have hostile intentions. The +plan Henry VIII had once entertained, of diminishing the authority of +the Lords, is now brought by the High Treasurer at this crisis once +more into vivid recollection. The Queen is to bind the Commons to +herself, to win over their hearts. And Burleigh advises allowing the +followers of dissenting Protestant Churches, especially the Puritans, +to worship as they please: in preaching and catechising they are more +zealous than the Episcopalians, very far more successful in converting +the people, and indispensable for weakening the popish party. We see +how the necessity of the war acts on home affairs. The chief minister +favoured the elements which were forcing their way out through the +existing forms of the state. + +In this general strain on men's minds their eyes once more turned to +the Queen of Scots in her captivity. What would there have been at all +to fear at other times from a princess under strong custody and cut +off from all the world? But in the excitement of that age she could +even so be still an object of apprehension. Her personal friends had +from the first not seen a great mischance in her enforced residence in +England. For by blameless conduct she refuted the evil report which +had followed her thither from Scotland; and her right as heiress of +the crown came to the knowledge of the whole nation.[251] In the days +at which we have arrived we know with certainty that her presence in +the country formed a great lever for Catholic agitation. A report +found in the papal archives has been published, by which it is clear +how much support men promised themselves from her for every resolute +undertaking.[252] This document says that since she has numberless +partisans, and although in prison has uninterrupted communication with +them, she will always find means, when the time comes, of giving them +notice of the approaching opportunity: she is resolved to encounter +every hardship, nay even death itself, for the great cause.[253] + +Occupied with measures of defence on all sides, the English government +had already long been considering how to meet this danger. This was +the very reason why Elizabeth's marriage was so often spoken of with +popular approbation: if she had children, Mary's claims would lose +their importance. Gradually however every man had to confess to +himself that this was not to be expected, and on other grounds hardly +to be wished. Then men thought how to solve the difficulty in another +way. + +The chief danger was this: if an attempt on Elizabeth's life +succeeded, the supreme authority would devolve on Mary, who was on the +spot, who cherished entirely opposite views, and would have at once +realised them:--the thought occurred as early as 1579 of declaring by +formal act of parliament that all persons by whom the reigning Queen +should be in any way endangered or injured should forfeit any claim +they might have to the crown;[254] terms which though general were in +reality directed only against the Queen of Scots; at that time the +proposal was not carried into effect. + +The negociations are not yet completely cleared up which were carried +on with Mary in 1582-3 for her restoration in Scotland. The English +once more repeated their old demand, that Mary should even now ratify +the treaty of Edinburgh, and annul all that had been done in violation +of it by her first husband or by herself. She was further not merely +to renounce every design against the security and peace of England, +but to pledge herself to oppose it: and in general, as long as +Elizabeth was alive, to put forward no claim to the English throne: +whether she had such a right after Elizabeth's death the parliament of +England was to decide.[255] Here too the old view came into the +foreground: Parliament was to be made the judge of hereditary right. +The negociation failed owing to the Scotch intrigues of these years, +in which the intention rather was to assert the claim of inheritance +with the strong hand. + +And from day to day new attempts on Elizabeth's life came to light. In +1584 Francis Throckmorton, who took part in these very schemes, was +executed: in 1585 Parry also, who confessed having been in connexion +with Mary's plenipotentiary in France, and who had come over to +assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Writings were spread abroad in which +those about her were called on to imitate, against this female +Holofernes, the example set in the book of Judith. + +Protestant England in the danger of its sovereign saw its own. In all +churches prayers were offered for her safety. The most remarkable +proof of this temper is contained in an association of individuals for +defending the Queen, which was at that time subscribed to far and wide +through the country. It begins with a statement that, to promote +certain claims on the crown, the Queen's life was threatened in a +highly treasonable manner, and enters into a union in God's name, in +which each man pledges himself to the others, to combat with word and +deed, and even to pursue with arms, all who should make any attempt on +the Queen's person; and not to rest till these wretches were +completely destroyed. If the attempt was so far successful as to raise +a claim to the crown, they pledged themselves never to recognise such +a claim: whoever broke this oath and separated himself from the +association should be treated by the other members as a perjurer.[256] + +The main object of this association was to cut off all prospect of the +succession from any attempt in favour of the Queen of Scots: a great +part of the nation pledged itself to reject a claim made good in this +manner as exceptionable in every respect. The Parliament of 1585, many +of whose members belonged to the association, not merely confirmed it +formally: it now also expressly enacted, that persons in whose favour +a rebellion should be attempted, and an attack on the Queen +undertaken, should lose their right to the crown: if they themselves +took part in any such plots, they were to forfeit their life. The +Queen was empowered to appoint a commission of at least twenty-four +members to judge of this offence. + +These resolutions and unions were of a compass extending far beyond +the present occasion, however weighty. How important the +ecclesiastical contest had become in all questions concerning the +supreme temporal power! That the deposition of Queen Elizabeth, +pronounced by the Pope, had no effect was due to the Protestant +tendencies of the country, and to the fact that her hereditary claim +had been hitherto unassailed. But now it was a similar hereditary +claim, made by Queen Mary, not, it is true, formally recognised, but +also not rejected, on which the partisans of this princess based their +chief hope. Mary herself, who always combined the most vivid dynastic +feelings with her religious inclinations, in her letters and +statements does not lay such stress on anything as on the +unconditional validity of her claim to inherit the throne. When for +instance her son rejected the joint government which she proposed to +him, she remarked with striking acuteness that this involved an +infringement of the maxims of hereditary right; since he rejected her +authorisation to share in the government, and recognised as legitimate +the refusal of obedience she had experienced from her rebellious +subjects. Once she read in a pamphlet that people denied Queen +Elizabeth the power to name a successor who was not of the Protestant +faith: she wrote to her that the supreme power was of divine right, +and raised high above all these considerations, and warned her against +opinions of that kind which were avowed by some near her, and which +might lead to the elective principle and become dangerous to herself. +This could not fail to have an exactly opposite effect on Elizabeth. +She was again threatened through the strict dynastic right that she +also enjoyed: she needed some other additional support. Despite all +inclination to the contrary, she decided to look for it in the +Parliament. She likewise aimed at making Mary submit the validity of +her claim to its previous decision. She could not but be thankful that +her subjects pledged themselves not to recognise any right to the +succession which was to be asserted by an attack on her life; she +ratified the act by which Parliament gave these feelings a legal form. +It is obvious how powerfully the rights of Parliament were thus +advanced as against the absolute claim of the hereditary monarchy. In +the course of the development of events this was to be the case in a +still higher degree. + +Mary rejected with horror the suspicion that she could take part in an +attempt on Elizabeth's life: she wished to enrol herself in the +Association for her security.[257] And who could have failed to +believe at least that the threats against her own right and life, in +case of a second attempt at assassination, would deter her partisans +as well as herself from any thought of it! For they well understood +the energy with which the Parliament knew how to vindicate its laws. + +But it is vain to try to bridle men's passions by showing them their +results. If the attempt on the Queen's life succeeded, this +Parliament of course would be annihilated as well as the Queen +herself, and another order of things begin. + +In the seminary at Rheims the priests persuaded an English emigrant, +called Savage, who had served in the army of the Prince of Parma, that +he could not better secure himself eternal happiness than by ridding +the world of the enemy of religion who was excommunicated by the holy +father. Another English emigrant, Thomas Babington, a young man of +education and ambition, in whom throbbed the pulse of chivalrous +devotion to Mary, was informed of this design by a priest of the +seminary, and was fired with a kind of emulation which has something +highly fantastic about it. Thinking that so great an enterprise ought +not to be confided to one man, he sought and found new confederates +for it; when the murder was effected, and the Spanish troops landed, +he was to be the man who with a hundred sturdy comrades would free his +Catholic Queen from prison and lead her to her throne. Mendoza at that +time (and indeed by Mary's recommendation, as she tells us) was +Spanish ambassador in France: he was in communication with Babington +and strengthened him in his purpose. Of all the distinguished men of +the age Mendoza is perhaps the one who took up most heartily the idea +of uniting the French and Spanish interests, and advocated it most +fervently. King Philip II was also informed of the design. He now, as +he had done fifteen years before, declared his intention, if it +succeeded, of making the invasion simultaneously from Spain and +Flanders. The Queen's murder, the rising of the Catholics, and at the +same moment a twofold invasion with trained troops would have +certainly been enough to produce a complete revolution. The League was +still victorious in France: Henry III would have been forced to join +it: the tendencies of the strictest Catholicism would have gained a +complete triumph. + +If we enquire whether Mary Stuart knew of these schemes, and had a +full understanding with the conspirators, there can be no doubt at all +of it. She was in correspondence with Babington, whom she designates +as her greatest friend. The letter is still extant in which she +strengthens him in his purpose of calling forth a rising of the +Catholics in the different counties, and that an armed one, with +reasons for it true and false, and tells him how he may liberate +herself. She reckons on a fine army of horse and foot being able to +assemble, and making itself master of some harbours in which to +receive the help expected not merely from Flanders and Spain, but also +from France. In the letter we even come upon one passage which betrays +a knowledge of the plot against Elizabeth's life; there is not a word +against it, rather an approbation of it, though an indirect one.[258] + +And we have yet another proof of her temper and views at this time +lying before us. As the zeal of the Catholics for her claim to the +succession might be weakened by the fact that her son in Scotland, on +whom it naturally devolved, after all the hopes cherished on his +behalf, still remained Protestant, she reverted to an idea that had +once before passed through her mind: she pledged herself to bring +matters in Scotland to such a point that her son should be seized and +delivered into the hands of the King of Spain: he was then to be +instructed in the Catholic faith and embrace it; if James had not done +so at the time of her death, her claim on England was to pass to +Philip II. Day and night, so she said, she bewailed her son's being so +stiffnecked in his false faith: she saw that his succession in England +would be the ruin of the country. + +So it stands written in her letters: it is undeniable: but was that +really her last and well-considered word? Was it her real wish that +Elizabeth should be killed, her son disinherited notwithstanding her +dynastic feelings, and that Philip II should become King of England? +Were the Catholic-Spanish tendencies of Elizabeth's predecessor, Queen +Mary Tudor, so completely reproduced in her? + +I think we can hardly maintain this with full historic certainty. Mary +Stuart was not altogether animated by hot religious zeal: if she had +been, how could she formerly have left the Protestant lords in +possession of power so long as she did, and even have once thought of +marrying Leicester with his Protestant views? Her son affirmed that he +possessed letters from her, in which she approved of his religious +views and confirmed him in them. It was not religious conviction and +the abhorrence of any other faith, as in Mary Tudor, but her dynastic +right and her self-confidence as sovereign that were the active and +predominant motives in all the actions of Mary Stuart. And if there +are contradictions in her utterances, we cannot hold her capable, like +Catharine Medici, of taking up and secretly furthering two opposite +plans at the same time; her different tendencies appear consecutively, +not simultaneously, in exact accordance with her impulses. For Mary +Stuart was never quiet an instant: even in her prison she shared in +the movement of the world; her brain never ceased working; she was +brooding over her circumstances, her distress and her hope, how to +escape the one and realise the other: sometimes indeed there came a +moment of resignation, but only soon to pass away again. She throws +all her thoughts into her letters which, even if they are aiming at +some object close at hand, are at the same time ebullitions of the +moment, passionate effusions, productions of the imagination rather +than of the understanding. Who could think such a letter possible as +that in which she once sought to inform Elizabeth of the evil reports +about her which the Countess of Shrewsbury made, and recounted a mass +of scandalous anecdotes she had heard from her. The communication was +meant to ruin the countess: Mary did not remark that it must also draw +down the Queen's hatred on herself. No one would have dared even to +lay the letter before the Queen. Mary's was a passionate nature, +endowed with literary gifts: she let her pen run on without saying +anything she did not really think at the instant, but without +remembering in the least what lay beyond her momentary mood. Who will +hold women of this character strictly to what stands in their letters? +These are often as inconsiderate and contradictory as their words. + +While Mary was writing the above-mentioned letters, she was completely +taken up with the proposals made to her. She guarded herself from +inserting anything that could hinder their being carried into effect: +by the eventual transfer of her son's claims to the foreign King, all +opposition on the part of zealous Catholics would be done away. Her +hopes and wishes hurried her away with them, so that she lost sight of +the danger in which she thus placed herself. And was she not a Queen, +raised above the law? Who would take it on himself to attack her? + +Mary Stuart was then under the charge of a strict Puritan, Sir Amyas +Paulet, of whom she complained that he treated her as a criminal +prisoner and not as a queen. The government now allowed a certain +relaxation in the external circumstances of her custody, but not in +the strictness of the superintendence. There hardly exists another +instance of such a striking contrast between projects and facts. Mary +composes these letters full of far-ranging and dangerous schemes in +the deepest secrecy, as she thinks, and has them carefully re-written +in cipher: she has no doubt that they reach her friends safely by a +secret way: but arrangements are made so that every word she writes is +laid before the man whose business it is to trace out conspiracies, +Walsingham, the Secretary of State. He knows her ciphers, he even sees +the letters that come for her before she does: while she reads them +with haste and in hope of better fortune at hand, he is only waiting +for her answer to use it against her as a decisive proof of her guilt. + +Walsingham now found himself in possession of all the threads of the +conspiracy; as soon as that letter to Babington was in his hands, he +delayed no longer to arrest the guilty persons: they confessed, were +condemned and executed. By further odious means--the prisoner being +removed from her apartments on some pretence and the rooms then +searched--possession was obtained of other papers which witnessed +against her. Then the question could be laid before the Privy Council +whether she should now be brought to trial and sentenced in due form. + +Who had given the English Parliament any right to make laws which +should be binding on a foreign queen, and in virtue of which, if she +transgressed them, she could be punished with death? In fact these +doubts were raised at the time.[259] Against them it was alleged that +Mary, who had been forced to abdicate by her subjects and deprived of +her dignity, could not be regarded any longer as a queen: while a +deposed sovereign is bound by the laws of the land in which he +resides. If she was still a queen, yet she was subject to the feudal +supremacy of England, and because of her claim to its crown also +subject to its sovereignty--two arguments that contradict each other, +one of a feudal, the other of a popular character and closely +connected with the idea of popular sovereignty. Whether the one or the +other convinced any person, we do not hear; it was moreover not a +matter for argument any longer. + +For how could anything else be expected but that the judicial +proceedings prepared several years before would now be put in force? A +law had been passed calculated for this case, if it should occur. The +case had occurred, and was proved by legal evidence. It was necessary +for the satisfaction of the country and Parliament--and Walsingham +laid particular stress on this--that the matter should be examined +with full publicity. + +The commission provided for in the Act of Parliament was named: it +consisted of the chief statesmen and lawyers of the country. In +Fotheringhay, whither the prisoner had now been brought, the splendid +ancestral seat of the princes of the house of York, at which many of +them were buried, they met together in the Hall on the 14th October. +Mary let herself be induced to plead by the consideration that she +would be held guilty, if she did not make any defence: it being +understood that it was with the reserve that she did not by this give +up any of the rights of a free sovereign. Most of the charges against +her she gradually admitted to be true, but she denied having consented +to a personal attempt on Elizabeth's life. The court decided that this +made no essential difference. For the rebellion which Mary confessed +to having favoured could not be conceived of apart from danger to the +Queen of England's life as well as her government.[260] The court +pronounced that Mary was guilty of the acts for which the punishment +of death had been enacted in the Parliamentary statute. + +We cannot regard this as a regular criminal procedure, for judicial +forms were but little observed; it was the decision of a commission +that the case had occurred in which the statute passed by Parliament +found its application. Parliament itself, then just summoned, had the +proceedings of the Commission laid before it and approved their +sentence. + +But this did not bring the affair to an end. Queen Elizabeth deferred +the execution of the judgment. For in relation to such a matter she +occupied quite a different position from that of Parliament. + +From more than one quarter she was reminded that, by carrying out the +sentence, she would violate the divine right of kings; since this +implied that subjects could not judge, or lay their hands on, +sovereigns. How unnatural if a queen like herself should set her hand +to degrade the diadem.[261] + +In the Privy Council some were of opinion that, as Mary could not be +regarded as the author of the last plot, but only as privy to it, +closer imprisonment would be a sufficient punishment for her. +Elizabeth caught at this idea. The Parliament, she thought, might now +formally annul Mary's claim to the English throne, declare it to be +high treason to maintain it any longer, and high treason also to +attempt to liberate her from prison: this would deter her partisans +from an attempt then become hopeless, and also satisfy foreign +nations. But it was urged in reply, that now to repudiate Mary +Stuart's claim for the first time would be equivalent to recognising +its original validity; and an English law would make no impression +either on Mary or on her partisans. The remembrance of what had +happened in Scotland revived again; of Darnley's murder, which men +imputed to her without hesitation: she was compared to Johanna I of +Naples who had taken part in her husband's murder: it was said, Mary +has doubled her old guilt by attempts against the sacred person of the +Queen; after she had been forgiven, she has relapsed into the same +crime, she deserves death on many grounds.[262] + +Spenser, in the great poem which has made him immortal, has depicted +the conflict of accusations and excuses which this cause called forth. +One of his allegorical figures, Zeal, accuses the fair and splendid +lady, then on her trial, of the design of hurling the Queen from her +throne, and of inciting noble knights to join in this purpose. The +Kingdom's Care, Authority, Religion, Justice, take part with him. On +the other side Pity, Regard for her high descent and her family, even +_Grief_ herself, raise their voices, and produce a contrary +impression. But Zeal once more renews his accusation: he brings +forward Adultery and Murder, Impiety and Sedition, against her. The +Queen sitting upon the throne in judgment recognises the guilt of the +accused, but shrinks from pronouncing the word: men see tears in her +eyes; she covers her face with her purple robe. + +Spenser appears here, as he usually does, an enthusiastic admirer of +his Queen. But neither should we see hypocrisy in Elizabeth's +scruples, which sprang much more from motives which touched her very +nearly. She kept away from all company: she was heard to break her +solitary meditation by uttering old proverbs that applied to the +present case. More than once she spoke with the deputation of +Parliament which pressed for a decision. What she mainly represented +to them was, how hard it was for her, after she had pardoned so many +rebellions, and passed over so much treason in silence, to let a +princess be punished, who was her nearest blood-relation: men would +accuse her, the Virgin Queen, of cruelty: she prayed them to supply +her with another means, another expedient: nothing under the sun would +be more welcome to her. The Parliament firmly insisted that there was +no other expedient; it argued in detailed representations that the +deliverance of the country depended on the execution of the sentence. +The Queen's own security, the preservation of religion and of the +state, made it absolutely necessary. Mary's life was the hope of all +the discontented, whose plots were directed only to the object of +enabling her to ascend the throne of England, to destroy the followers +of the true religion, and expel the nobility of the land--that is the +Protestant nobility. And must not satisfaction be given to the +Association which was pledged to pursue a new attempt against the +Queen's life even to death? 'Not to punish the enemy would be cruel to +your faithful subjects: to spare her means ruin to us.' + +Meanwhile they came upon the traces of a new attempt. In presence of +the elder French ambassador, Aubespine, a partisan of the Guises, +mention was made of the necessity of killing Elizabeth in order to +save Mary at the last moment. One of his officers spoke with a person +who was known in the palace, and who undertook to pile up a mass of +gunpowder under Elizabeth's chamber sufficient to blow it into the +air; he was led to hope for rewards from Guise and his brother +Mayenne, whose interests would have been greatly promoted by such a +deed.[263] But this time too Elizabeth was made acquainted with the +design before it came to maturity. She ascribed her new danger to the +silence, if not to the instigation, of the ambassador, the friend of +the Guises: in its discovery she saw the hand of God. 'I nourish,' she +exclaims, 'the viper that poisons me;--to save her they would have +taken my life: am I to offer myself as a prey to every villain?'[264] +At a moment when she was especially struck with the danger which +threatened her from the very existence of her rival, after a +conversation with the Lord Admiral, she had the long-prepared order +for the execution brought to her, and signed it with quick and +resolute strokes of the pen. + +The observation of Parliament, that her safety and the peace of the +country required her enemy's death, at last gained the upper hand with +her as well. But this did not imply that her conflicting feelings were +completely silenced. She was haunted in her dreams by the idea of the +execution. She had once more recourse to the thought that some +serviceable hand might spare her the last authorisation, by secretly +executing the sentence of the judges--an act which seemed to be +justified even by the words of the Association; the demand was made in +due form to the Keeper of the prisoner, Sir Amyas Paulet; he rejected +it--and how could anything else have been expected from the +conscientious Puritan--with an expression of his astonishment and +indignation. Elizabeth had commissioned Secretary Davison, when she +signed the order, to have it sealed with the Great Seal. Her idea +seems to have been that, when all the forms had been duly complied +with, she might the more easily get a secret execution, or that at +some critical moment it might be at once performed; but she still +meant to keep the matter in her own hand: for the custom was, before +the last step, to once more ask her approval. But Davison, who marked +her hesitation, did not think it advisable at this moment. Through +Hatton he acquainted Lord Burleigh with the matter, and Burleigh put +the question to the other members of the Privy Council: they took it +on themselves to despatch the order, signed and sealed as it now was, +without further delay to Fotheringhay.[265] + +On the 8th of February 1587 it was executed on Mary in the very hall +where the sittings of the court had been held. As compared with +Elizabeth's painful disquiet, who shrank from doing what she held to +be necessary, and when she at last did it wished it again undone and +thought she could still recall it, the composure and quiet of soul, +with which Mary submitted to the fate now finally decided, impresses +us very deeply The misfortune of her life was her claim to the English +crown. This led her into a political labyrinth, and into those +entanglements which were connected with her disastrous marriage, and +then, through its combination with the religious idea, into all the +guilt which is imputed to her more or less justly. It cost Mary her +country and her life. Even on the scaffold she reminded men of her +high rank which was not subject to the laws: she thought the sentence +of heretics on her, a free queen, would be of service to the kingdom +of God. She died in the royal and religious ideas in which she had +lived. + +It is undeniable that Elizabeth was taken by surprise at this news: +she was heard sobbing as though a heavy misfortune had befallen +herself. It may be that her grief was lightened by a secret +satisfaction: who would absolutely deny it? But Davison had to atone +for taking the power into his own hands by a long imprisonment: the +indispensable Burleigh hardly obtained pardon. In the city on the +other hand bells were rung and bonfires kindled. For the universal +popular conviction agreed with the judgment of the court, that Mary +had tried to deliver the kingdom into the hands of Spaniards. + +NOTES: + +[250] Consultation at Greenwich 1579, In Murdin 340. 'Pluck down +presently the strengthe and government of all your papists and deliver +all the strengthe and government of your realm into the hands of wise +assured and trusty protestants.' + +[251] Bishop Leslie's negociations, in Anderson iii. 235. + +[252] 'De praesenti rerum statu in Anglia brevis annotatio,' in +Theiner, Annales ecclesiastici iii. 480 (at the year 1583). As mention +is made in this writing of the restoration of order in the States of +the Church, 'per felicissima novi pontificis auspicia,' we must +certainly attribute it to the first years of Sixtus V. + +[253] 'Tam ad hos (haereticos) quam ad catholicos omnes ad nostras +partes trahendos supra modum valebit, licet in carcere, reginae +Scotiae opera. Nam illa novit omnes secretos fautores suos et hactenus +habuit viam praemonendi illos atque semper ut speramus habitura est, +ut cum venerit tempus expeditionis, praesto sint. Sperat etiam--per +amicos--et per corruptionem custodum personam suam ex custodia +liberare.' In Theiner, Annales ecclesiastici iii. 482. + +[254] The means to assure Her Majesty of peace. Egerton Papers 79. + +[255] 'Jus successionis judicio ordinum Angliae subjecturam.' Camden, +i. 360. Compare Strype, Annals iii. i. 131. + +[256] Association for the assecuration of the Queen, subscribed by the +members of Lincoln's Inn (Egerton Papers 208). We may assume that this +was the general idea. + +[257] In a pamphlet of the time it is stated that she had subscribed +and sworn to the Association. + +[258] Tytler (History of Scotland viii. App) maintains that the +passage was inserted by Mary's enemies, and brings forward some +reasons for this view which are worth considering. But Mignet (ii. +348) has already remarked how many other improbable suppositions this +necessitates. And what would have been the use of it, as the letter +even without this addition would have sufficed to condemn her. + +[259] 'Objections against bringing Maria Queen of Scots to trial, with +answers thereunto.' In Strype, Annals iii. 2. 397. + +[260] Evidence against the Queen of Scots. Hardwicke Papers i. 245. +'Invasion and destruction of Her Majesty are so linked together, that +they cannot be single. For if the invader should prevail, no doubt +they would not suffer Her Majesty to continue neither government nor +her life: and in case of rebellion the same reason holdeth.' + +[261] The French ambassador began, according to Camden 480, with the +maxim 'regum interesse ne princeps libera atque absoluta morte +afficiatur.' What Camden quotes from a letter of James makes a certain +impression; the words are still more characteristic in the original: +'quho beingh supreme et immediate lieutenants of godd in heaven, +cannot thairefoire be judget by thaire aequallis in earth, quat +monstruous thing is it that souveraigne princes thaimeselfis shoulde +be the exemple giveris of thaire own sacred diademes prophaining.' 27 +Jan. 1586-7. In Nicolas, Life of Davison 70. + +[262] Reasons gathered by certain appointed in Parliament. In Strype +iii. 1, 534. + +[263] According to the protocol of an interview with the ambassador +(in Murdin, 579) there can be no doubt of the reality of the plot. The +ambassador does not deny that he had been spoken to about it, he only +excuses himself for not having had the Queen informed of it, but +asserts that he had rejected it with abhorrence. + +[264] To James I, Letters of Elizabeth and James 42. + +[265] Arraignment of Mr. Davison in the Star Chamber, State Trials +1230. In Nicolas, Life of William Davison, are printed the statements +and memoranda of Davison as to his share in this matter. They are not +without reserve; but, in what they contain, they bear the stamp of +truth. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. + + +At this moment the war with the Spaniards--the resistance which the +English auxiliaries offered to them in the Netherlands, as well as the +attack now being made on their coasts--occupied men's minds all the +more, as the success of both the one and the other was very doubtful, +and a most dangerous counter-stroke was to be expected. The lion they +wished to bind had only become exasperated. The naval war in +particular provoked the extreme of peril. + +Hostilities had been going on a long while, arising at first from the +privateering which filled the whole of the Western Ocean. The English +traders held it to be their right to avenge every injustice done them +on their neighbours' coasts--for man has, they said, a natural desire +of procuring himself satisfaction--and so turned themselves into +freebooters. Through the counter operations of the Spaniards this +private naval war became more and more extensive, and then also +gradually developed more glorious impulses, as we see in Francis +Drake, who at first only took part in the mere privateering of injured +traders, and afterwards rose to the idea of a maritime rivalry between +the nations. It was an important moment in the history of the world +when Drake on the isthmus of Panama first caught sight of the Pacific, +and prayed God for His grace that he might sail over this sea some day +in an English ship--a grace since granted not merely to himself but +also in the richest measure to his nation. Many companies were formed +to resume the voyages of discovery already once begun and then again +discontinued. And as the Spaniards based their exclusive right to the +possession of the other hemisphere on the Pope's decision, Protestant +ideas, which mocked at this supremacy of the Romish See over the +world, now contributed also to impel men to occupy lands in these +regions. This was always effected in the main by voluntary efforts of +wealthy mercantile houses, or enterprising members of the court and +state, to whom the Queen gave patents of authorisation. In this way +Walter Ralegh, in his political and religious opposition to the +Spaniards, founded an English colony on the transatlantic continent, +in Wingandacoa: the Queen was so much pleased at it that she gave the +district a name which was to preserve the remembrance of the quality +she was perhaps proudest of: she called it Virginia.[266] + +But at last she formally undertook the naval war; it was at the same +time a motive for the league with the Hollanders, who could do +excellent service in it: by attacking the West Indies she hoped to +destroy the basis of the Spanish greatness. + +Francis Drake was commissioned to open the war. When, in October 1585, +he reached the Islas de Bayona on the Gallician coast, he informed the +governor, Don Pedro Bermudez, that he came in his Queen's name to put +an end to the grievances which the English had had to suffer from the +Spaniards. Don Pedro answered, he knew nothing of any such grievances: +but, if Drake wished to begin war, he was ready to meet him. + +Francis Drake then directed his course at once to the West Indies. He +surprised St. Domingo and Carthagena, occupied both one and the other +for a short time, and levied heavy contributions on them. Then he +brought back to England the colonists from Virginia, who were not yet +able to hold their own against the natives. The next year he inflicted +still more damage on the Spaniards. He made his way into the harbour +of Cadiz, which was full of vessels that had either come from both the +Indies or were proceeding thither: he sank or burnt them all. His +privateers covered the sea. + +Often already had the Spaniards planned an invasion of England. The +most pressing motive of all lay in these maritime enterprises. The +Spaniards remarked that the stability and power of their monarchy did +not rest so much on the strong places they possessed in all parts of +the world as on the moveable instruments of dominion by which the +connexion with them was kept up; the interruption of the +communication, caused by Francis Drake and his privateers, between +just the most important points on the Spanish and the Netherlandish +coasts, seemed to them unendurable: they desired to rid themselves of +it at any price. And to this was now added the general cry of +vengeance for the execution of the Queen of Scots, which was heard +from the pulpit in the presence of the King himself. But this was not +the only result of that event. The life of Queen Mary and her claim to +the succession had always stood in the way of Spanish ambition: now +Philip II could think of taking possession of the English throne +himself. He concluded a treaty with Pope Sixtus V, under which he was +to hold the crown of England as a fief of the Holy See, which would +thus, and by the re-establishment of the Church's authority, have also +attained to the revival of its old feudal supremacy over England.[267] + +Once more the Spanish monarchy and the Papacy were closely united in +their spiritual and political claims. Sixtus V excommunicated the +Queen afresh, declared her deposed, and not merely released her +subjects from their oath of allegiance, but called on every man to aid +the King of Spain and his general the Duke of Parma against her. + +Negociations for peace however were still being carried on in 1587 +between Spanish and English plenipotentiaries. It was mainly the +merchants of London and Antwerp that urged it; and as the Spaniards at +that time had manifestly the best of the struggle, were masters of the +lower Rhine and the Meuse, had invaded Friesland, had besieged and at +last taken Sluys in despite of all resistance, we can understand how +the English plenipotentiaries were moved to unexpected concessions. +They would have consented to the restoration of the Spanish supremacy +over the northern Netherlands, if Philip would have granted the +inhabitants freedom of conscience. Alexander of Parma brought forward +a proposal, to make, it is true, their return to Catholicism +obligatory, but with the assurance that no Inquisition should be set +over them, nor any one punished for his deviation from the faith. Even +if the negociation was not meant to be completely in earnest, it is +worth remarking on what rock it was wrecked. Philip II would neither +grant such an assurance, which in its essence involved freedom of +conscience, nor grant this itself completely in a better form. His +strength lay precisely in his maintaining the Catholic system with +unrelenting energy: by this he secured the attachment of the priests +and the zealous laity. And how could he, at a moment when he was so +closely united with the Pope, and could reckon on the millions heaped +up in the castle of St. Angelo for his enterprise, so completely +deviate from the strictness of exclusive belief. He thought he was +within his right when he refused any religious concession, seeing that +every other sovereign issued laws prescribing the religion of his own +territories.[268] + +If the war was to be continued, Alexander of Parma would have wished +that all his efforts should be first directed against Vliessingen, +where there was an English garrison; from the harbour there England +itself could be attacked far more easily and safely. But it was +replied in Spain that this enterprise was likewise very extensive and +costly, while it would bring about no decisive result. And yet +Alexander himself too held an invasion of England to be absolutely +necessary; his reports largely contributed to strengthen the King in +this idea; Philip decided to proceed without further delay to the +enterprise that was needful at the moment and opened world-wide +prospects for the future. + +He took into consideration that the monarchy at this moment had +nothing to fear from the Ottomans who were fully occupied with a +Persian war, and above all that France was prevented from interfering +by the civil strife that had broken out. This has been designated as +the chief aim of Philip's alliance with the Guises, and it certainly +may have formed one reason for it. Left alone, with only herself to +rely on (so the Spaniards further judged), the Queen of England would +no longer be an object of fear: she had no more than forty ships; once +in an engagement off the Azores, in the Portuguese war, the English +had been seen to give way for the first time: if it came to a +sea-fight, the vastly superior Spanish Armada would without doubt +prove victorious. But for a war on land also she was not prepared, she +had no more than six thousand real soldiers in the country, with whom +she could neither meet nor resist the veteran troops of Spain in the +open field. They had only to march straight on London; seldom was a +great city, which had remained long free from attack, able to hold out +against a sudden assault: the Queen would either be forced to make a +peace honourable to Spain, or would by a long resistance give the King +an opportunity of forming out of the Spanish nobility, which would +otherwise degenerate in indolence at home, a young troop of brave +warriors. He would have the Catholics for him and with their help gain +the upper hand, he would make himself master of the strong places, +above all of the harbours; all the nations of the world could not take +them from him again; he would become lord of the ocean, and thus lord +and master of the continent.[269] + +Philip II would have preferred to begin the work as early as the +autumn of 1587. He hoped at that time that Scotland, where the +Catholic lords and the people showed a lively sympathy with Queen +Mary's fate, would be thrown open to him by her son, who was supposed +to wish to avenge her death. But to others this seemed not so certain; +in especial the experienced Admiral Santa Cruz called the King's +attention to the perils the fleet might incur in those seas: they +would have to contend with contrary winds, and the disadvantage of +short days and thick mists. Santa Cruz did not wish to endanger his +fame, the only thing he had earned during a long life, by an ill-timed +or very venturous undertaking. He held an invasion of England to be +more difficult than most other enterprises, and demanded such +preparations as would make the victory certain. While they were being +made he died, after having lost his sovereign's favour. His successor, +the duke of Medina Sidonia, whom the King chose because he had +distinguished himself at the last defence of Cadiz, did not make such +very extensive demands; but the fleet, which was fitted out under him +and by him, was nevertheless, though not in number of ships (about +130), yet in tonnage, size, and number of men on board (about 22,000) +the most important that had ever been sent to sea by any European +power. All the provinces of the Pyrenean peninsula had emulously +contributed to it: the fleet was divided into a corresponding number +of squadrons; the first was the Portuguese, then followed the +squadrons of Castille, Andalusia, Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and then the +Italian--for ships and men had come also in good number from Italy. +The troops were divided like the squadrons; there was a 'Mass in time +of war' for each province. + +With not less zeal did men arm in the Netherlands; the drum beat +everywhere in the Flemish and Walloon provinces, all roads were +covered with military trains. In the Netherlands too there were a +great number of Italians, Corsicans and inhabitants of the States of +the Church and Neapolitans, in splendid accoutrements; there were the +brothers of the grand duke of Tuscany and of the duke of Savoy: King +Philip had even allowed the son of a Moorish prince to take part in +the Catholic expedition. Infantry and cavalry also had come from +Catholic Germany. + +It was a joint enterprise of the Spanish monarchy and a great part of +the Catholic world, headed by the Pope and the King, to overthrow the +Queen who was regarded as the Head, and the State which was regarded +as the main support, of Protestantism and the anti-Spanish policy. + +We do not find any detailed and at the same time authentic information +as to the plan of the invasion; a Spanish soldier and diplomatist +however, much employed in the military and political affairs of the +time, and favoured with the confidence of the highest persons, J. +Baptista de Tassis, gives us an outline, which we may accept as quite +trustworthy. We know that in Antwerp, Nieuport, and Dunkirk, with the +advice of Hanseatic and Genoese master-builders, transports had been +got ready for the whole force: from Nieuport (to which place also were +brought the vessels built at Antwerp) 14,000 men were to be conveyed +across to England, and from Dunkirk 12,000. But where were they to +effect a junction with each other and with the Spaniards? Tassis +assures us that they had selected for this purpose the roadstead of +Margate on the coast of Kent, a safe and convenient harbour;[270] +there immediately after the Spanish armada had arrived, or as nearly +as possible at the same time with it, the fleet of transports from the +Netherlands also was to make the shore, and Alexander of Parma was +then to assume the command in chief of the whole force and march +straight on London. + +All that Philip II had ever thought or planned was thus concentrated +as it were into one focus. The moment was come when he could subdue +England, become master of the European world, and re-establish the +Catholic faith in the form in which he professed it. When the fleet +(on the 22nd July 1588) sailed out of Corunna, and the long-meditated, +long-prepared, enterprise was now set in action, the King and the +nation displayed deep religious emotion: in all the churches of the +land prayers were offered up for forty days; in Madrid solemn +processions were arranged to our Lady of Atocha, the patroness of +Spain: Philip II spent two hours each day in prayer. He was in the +state of silent excitement which an immense design and the expectation +of a great turn in a man's fortune call forth. Scarcely any one dared +to address a word to him. + +It was in these very days that people in England first really became +conscious of the danger that threatened them. A division of the fleet +under Henry Seymour was watching, with Dutch assistance, the two +harbours held by the prince of Parma: the other and larger division, +just returned from Spain and on the point of being broken up, made +ready at Plymouth, under the admiral, Howard of Effingham, to receive +the enemy. Meanwhile the land forces assembled, on Leicester's +advice,[271] in the neighbourhood of London. The old feudal +organisation of the national force was once more called into full +activity to face this danger. Men saw the gentry take the field at the +head of their tenants and copyholders, and rejoiced at their holding +together so well. It was without doubt an advantage, that the +threatened attack could no longer be connected with a right of +succession recognised in the country; it appeared in its true +character, as a great invasion by a foreign power for the subjugation +of England. Even the Catholic lords came forward, among them Viscount +Montague (who had once, alone in the Upper House, opposed the +Supremacy, and had also since not reconciled himself to the religious +position of the Queen), with his sons and grandsons, and even his +heir-presumptive who, though still a child, bestrode a war-horse; Lord +Montague said, he would defend his Queen with his life, whoever might +attack her, king or pope. No doubt that these armings left much to be +desired, but they were animated by national and religious enthusiasm. +Some days later the Queen visited the camp at Tilbury: with slight +escort she rode from battalion to battalion. A tyrant, she said, might +be afraid of his subjects: she had always sought her chief strength in +their good will: with them she would live and die. She was everywhere +received with shouts of joy: psalms were sung, and prayers offered up +in which the Queen joined. + +For, whatever may be men's belief, in great wars and dangers they +naturally turn their eyes to the Eternal Power which guides our +destiny, and on which all equally feel themselves dependent. The two +nations and their two chiefs alike called on God to decide in their +religious and political conflict. The fortune of mankind hung in the +balance. + +On the 31st July, a Sunday, the Armada, covering a wide extent of sea, +came in sight of the English coast off the heights of Plymouth. On +board the fleet itself it was thought most expedient to attempt a +landing on the spot, since there were no preparations made there for +defence and the English squadron was not fully manned. But this was +not in the plan, and would, especially if it failed, have incurred a +heavy responsibility. Medina Sidonia was only empowered and prepared +to accept battle by sea if the English should offer it. His galleys, +improved after the Venetian pattern, and especially his galleons +(immense sailing ships which carried cannon on their different decks +on all sides), were without doubt superior to the vessels of the +English. When the latter, some sixty sail strong, came out of the +harbour, he hung out the great standard from the fore-mast of his ship +as a signal for all to prepare for battle. But the English admiral did +not intend to let matters come to a regular naval fight. He was +perfectly aware of the superiority of the Spanish equipment and had +even forbidden boarding the enemies' vessels. His plan was to gain the +weather-gauge of the Armada, and inflict damage on them in their +course, and throw them into disorder. The English followed the track +of the Armada in four squadrons, and left no advantage unimproved that +might offer. They were thoroughly acquainted with this sea, and +steered their handy vessels with perfect certainty and mastery: the +Spaniards remarked with dissatisfaction that they could at pleasure +advance, attack, and again break off the engagement. Medina Sidonia +was anxious above all things to keep his Armada together: after a +council of war he let a great ship which lagged behind fall into the +hands of the enemy, as her loss would be less damaging than the +breaking up of the line which would result from the attempt to save +her: he sent round his sargentes mayores to the captains to tell them +not to quit the line on pain of death.[272] + +On the whole the Spaniards were not discontented with their voyage, +when after a week of continuous skirmishing they, without having +sustained any very considerable losses, had traversed the English +channel, and on Saturday the 6th August passed Boulogne and arrived +off Calais: it was the first point at which they had wished to touch. +But now to cross to the neighbouring coast of England, as seems to +have been the original plan, became exceedingly difficult, because the +English fleet guarded it, and the Spanish galleons were less able in +the straits than elsewhere to compete with those swift vessels, It was +also being strengthened every moment; the young nobility emulously +hastened on board. But neither could the admiral proceed to Dunkirk, +as the harbour was then far too narrow to receive his large ships, and +his pilots were afraid of being carried to the northward by the +currents. He anchored in the roadstead east of Calais in the direction +of Dunkirk. + +He had already previously informed the Duke of Parma that he was on +the way, and had then, immediately before his arrival at Calais, +despatched a pilot to Dunkirk, to request that he would join him with +a number of small vessels, that they might better encounter the +English, and bring with him cannon balls of a certain calibre, of +which he began to fall short.[273] It is clear that he still wished to +undertake from thence, if supported according to his views, the great +attempt at a disembarkation which he was commissioned to effect. But +Alexander of Parma, whom the first message had found some days before +at Bruges, had not yet arrived at Dunkirk when the second came: the +preparations for embarking were only then just begun for the first +time; and they could scarcely venture actually to embark, as English +and Dutch ships of war were still ever cruising before the harbour. + +Alexander Farnese's failure to effect a junction with Medina Sidonia +has been always traced to personal motives; it was even said in +England, at a later time, that Queen Elizabeth had offered him the +hand of Lady Arabella Stuart, which might open the way to the English +throne for himself. It is true that his enterprises in the Netherlands +appeared to lie closest to his heart; even Tassis, who was about his +person, remarks that he carried on his preparations more out of +obedience than with any zeal of his own. But the chief cause why the +two operations were not better combined lay in their very nature. The +geographical relation of the Spanish monarchy to England would have +required two separate invasions, the one from the Pyrenean peninsula, +the other from the Netherlands. The wish to combine the forces of such +distant countries in a single invasion made the enterprise, especially +when the means of communication of the period were so inadequate, +overpoweringly helpless. Wind and weather had been little considered +in the scheme. In both those countries immense materials of war had +been collected with extreme effort; they had been brought within a few +miles of sea of each other, but combine they could not. Now for the +first time came to light the full superiority which the English gained +from their corsair-like and bold method of war, and their alliance +with the Dutch. It was seen that a sudden attack would suffice to +break the whole combination in pieces: Queen Elizabeth was said to +have herself devised the plan and its arrangement. + +The Armada was still lying at anchor in line of battle, waiting for +news from Alexander Farnese, when in the night between Sunday and +Monday (7th to 8th August) the English sent some fire-ships, about +eight in number, against it. They were his worst vessels which Lord +Howard gave up for this purpose, but their mere appearance produced a +decisive result. Medina Sidonia could not refuse his ships permission +to slip their anchors, that each might avoid the threatening danger: +only he commanded them to afterwards resume their previous order. But +things wore a completely different appearance the following morning. +The tide had carried the vessels towards the land, a direction they +did not want to take; now for the first time the attacks of the +English proved destructive to them: part of the ships had become +disabled: it was completely impossible to obey the admiral's orders +that they should return to their old position. Instead of this, +unfavourable winds drove the Armada against its will along the coast; +in a short time the English too gave up the pursuit of the enemy, who +without being quite beaten was yet in flight, and abandoned him to his +fate. The wind drove the Spaniards on the shoals of Zealand: once they +were in such shallow water that they were afraid of running aground: +some of their galleons in fact fell into the hands of the Dutch. +Fortunately for them the wind veered round first to the W.S.W., then +to the S.S.W., but they could not even then regain the Channel, nor +would they have wished it; only by the longest circuit, round the +Orkney Islands, could they return to Spain. + +A storm fraught with ruin had lowered over England: it was scattered +before it discharged its thunder. So completely true is the expression +on a Dutch commemorative medal, 'the breath of God has scattered them' +(_flavit et dissipati sunt_). + +Philip II saw the Armada, which he had hoped would give the dominion +of the world into his hand, return home again in fragments without +having, we do not say accomplished but even, attempted anything worth +the trouble. He did not therefore renounce his design. He spoke of his +wish to fit out lighter vessels, and entrust the whole conduct of the +expedition to the Prince of Parma. The Cortes of Castille requested +him not to put up with the disgrace incurred, but to chastise this +woman: they offered him their whole property and all the children of +the land for this purpose. But the very possibility of great +enterprises belongs only to one moment: in the next it is already gone +by. + +First the Spanish forces were drawn into the complications existing in +France. The great Catholic agitation, which had been long fermenting +there, at last gained the upper hand, and was quite ready to prepare +the way for Philip II's supremacy. But Queen Elizabeth thought that +the day on which France fell into his hands would be the eve of her +own ruin. She too therefore devoted her best resources to France, to +uphold Philip II's opponent. When Henry IV, driven back to the verge +of the coast of Normandy, was all but lost, he was by her help put in +a position to maintain his cause. At the sieges of the great towns, in +which he was still often threatened with failure, the English troops +in several instances did excellent service. The Queen did not swerve +from her policy even when Henry IV saw himself compelled, and found it +compatible with his conscience, to go over to Catholicism. For he was +clearly thus all the better enabled to re-establish a France that +should be politically independent, in opposition to Spain and at war +with it; and it was exactly on this opposition that the political +freedom and independence of England herself rested. Yet as his change +of religion had been disagreeable to the Queen, so was also the peace +which he proceeded to make; she exerted her influence against its +conclusion. But as by it the Spaniards gave up the places they +occupied on the French coasts, which in their possession had menaced +England as well, she could not in reality be fundamentally opposed to +it. + +These great conflicts on land were seconded by repeated attacks of the +English and Dutch naval power, by which it sometimes seemed as if the +Spanish monarchy would be shaken to its foundations. Elizabeth made an +attempt to restore Don Antonio to the throne from which Philip II had +driven him. But the minds of the Portuguese themselves were very far +from being as yet sufficiently prepared for a revolt: the enterprise +failed, in an attack on the suburbs of Lisbon. The war interested the +English most deeply. Parliament agreed to larger and larger grants: +from two-fifteenths and a single subsidy (about L30,000), which was +its usual vote, it rose in 1593 to three subsidies and six-fifteenths; +the towns gladly armed ships at their own expense, and sailors enough +were found to man them: the national energy turned towards the sea. +And they obtained some successes. In the harbour of Corunna they +destroyed the collected stores, which were probably to have served +for renewing the expedition. Once they took the harbour of Cadiz and +occupied the city itself: more than once they alarmed and endangered +the West Indies. But with all this nothing decisive was effected; the +Spanish monarchy maintained an undoubted ascendancy in Europe, and the +exclusive possession of the other hemisphere: it was the Great Power +of the age. But over against it England also now took up a strong and +formidable position. + +Events in France exercised a strong counter-action on the Netherlands; +under their influence the reconquest of the United Provinces became +impossible for Spain. Elizabeth also contributed largely to the +victories by which Prince Maurice of Orange secured a strong frontier. +But these could not prevent a powerful Catholic government arising on +the other side in the Belgian provinces: and though they were at first +kept apart from Spain, yet it did not escape the Queen that this would +not last for ever: she seems to have had a foreboding that these +countries would become the battleground of a later age. However this +might be, the antagonism of principle between the Catholic Netherlands +(which were still ruled by the Austro-Spanish House) and the +Protestant Netherlands (in which the Republic maintained itself), and +the continued war between them, ensured the security of England, for +the sake of which the Queen had broken with Spain. Burleigh's objects +were in the main attained. + +NOTES: + +[266] Oldys, Life of Sir W. Raleigh 38. + +[267] Spondanus, Continuatio Baronii ii. 847. The word 'dicitur,' +which Spondan uses, is omitted in Timpesti, Vita di Sisto V, ii. 51. + +[268] A letter of Philip's to the King of Denmark, in the Venetian +Dispacci of this year, which in general would be of great value for a +detailed account of the event. + +[269] The reports are in Herrera, Historia del mundo iii. 60 seq. In +1860 Mr. Motley (History of the United Netherlands ii. ch. xviii.) +communicated extracts from the letters exchanged at that time between +Alex. Farnese and Philip II, which reveal the wishes of each +successive moment. + +[270] J. B. de Tassis Commentarii: 'eo consilio, ut cum adventasset +classis et constitisset in Morgat, qui est prope Dormiram [I read +Douvram, as the copy from which the printed text is taken is very +defective] districtus maris quietus portumque efficit satis securum, +trajiceret Parmensis cum navigiis.' Papendrecht, Analecta Belgica II. +ii. 491. In Motley i. ch. viii we now see that Al. Farnese in his very +first plan pointed out the coast between Dover and Margate as the most +proper place for the landing. A junction of the whole transport fleet +with the Armada before Calais has something too adventurous in it to +have been contemplated from the beginning. + +[271] The Earl of Leicester to the Queen. Hardwicke State Papers i. +580. The dates given above are New Style. + +[272] Diario de los sucesos de armada Ilamada la invencible, in Salva, +Collection de documentos ineditos xvi. 449: essentially the same +report as that used by Barrow, Life of Sir Francis Drake. + +[273] Diario 458: 'mandase salir 40 filipotes luego para juntarse con +esta armada para poder con ellos trabarse con los enemigos, que a +causa de ser nuestros baseles muy pesados en comparacion de la +ligereza de los enemigos no era posible en ninguna maniera venir a las +manos con ellos.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE LATER YEARS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. + + +Every great historic existence has a definite purport; the life of +Queen Elizabeth lies in the transactions already recorded, and their +results in the change of policy which she brought about. + +The issue of the war between the hierarchy, which had once swayed +every act and thought of the West, and those who had fallen off from +it was not yet decided as long as England with its power vacillated +between the two systems. Then this Queen came forward, attaching +herself to the new view as by a predetermined destiny; she carried it +out in a form answering to the historical institutions of her kingdom, +and with an energy by which she at the same time upheld that kingdom's +power. It was against her therefore that the hierarchy, when it could +renew the contest, mainly directed its most energetic efforts: an +author of the period makes those leagued with the Pope against the +Queen say to each other, 'come let us kill her, and the inheritance +shall be ours.' The chief among these was the mighty King who had +himself once ruled England. She maintained a war with this league, in +which it was at each moment a question of existence for her. She was +assailed with all the weapons of war and of treason; but she adopted +corresponding means of defence against every assault: she not only +maintained herself, but created in the neighbouring countries a +powerful representation of the principle which she had taken up, +without pressing the adoption of a form for it exactly like her own. +Without her help the church-reformation in Scotland, and at that time +in France, would have been probably suppressed, and in the Netherlands +it would have never taken actual shape. The Queen is the champion of +West-European Protestantism and of all the political growth that was +attached to the new faith. She herself expresses her astonishment at +her success in this: 'more at the fact,' she says once, 'that I am +still alive, than that my enemies would not have me to live.' That +Philip effected so little against her, she believes to be due above +all to God's justice; for the King attacked her in an unkingly manner +while negociations were still going on: she sees in this a proof that +an ill beginning leads to a disgraceful end, despite all power and +endeavour. 'What was to ruin me, has turned to my glory.'[274] + +It is surely the greatest happiness that can be granted to any human +being, while defending his own interest, to be maintaining the +interests of all. Then his personal existence expands into a central +part of the world's history. + +That personal and universal interest was likewise a thoroughly English +one. Commerce grew amidst arms: the maintenance of internal peace +filled the country with wellbeing and riches; palaces were seen rising +where before only huts had stood: as the philosophic Bacon remarks, +England now won her natural position in the world. + +Elizabeth was one of those sovereigns who have beforehand formed an +idea for themselves as to the duties of government. Four qualities, +she says once, seemed to her necessary for it: justice and +self-control, highmindedness and judgment; she might pride herself on +the two first: never in a case of equal rights had she favoured one +person more than another: never had she believed a first report, but +waited for fuller knowledge: the two others she would not claim for +herself, for they were men's virtues. But the world ascribed a high +degree of these very virtues to her. Men descried her subtle judgment +in the choice of her servants, and the directing them to the services +for which they were best fitted. Her high heart was seen in her +despising small advantages, and in her unshaken tranquillity in +danger. While the storm was coming on from Spain, no cloud was seen on +her brow: by her conduct she animated nobles and people, and +inspirited her councillors. Men praised her for two things, for +zealous participation in deliberation and for care in seeing that +what was decided on was carried into effect.[275] + +But we may not look for an ideal female ruler in Queen Elizabeth. No +one can deny the severities which were practised under her government +even with her knowledge. The systematic hypocrisy imputed to her may +seem an invention of her enemies or of historians not thoroughly +informed; she herself declares truthfulness a quality indispensable +for a prince; but in her administration, as well as in that of most +other rulers, reasonings appear which rather conceal the truth than +express it; in each of her words, and in every step she took, we +perceive a calculation of what is for her advantage; she displays +striking foresight and even a natural subtlety. Elizabeth was very +accessible to flattery, and as easily attracted by an agreeable +exterior as repelled by slight accidental defects; she could break out +at a word that reminded her of the transitory nature of human affairs +or of her own frailty: vanity accompanied her from youth to those +advancing years, which she did not wish to remark or to think were +remarked. She liked to ascribe successes to herself, disasters to her +ministers: they had to take on themselves the hatred felt against +disagreeable or doubtful regulations, and if they did not do this +quite in unison with her mood, they had to fear her blame and +displeasure. She was not free from the fickleness of her family: but +on the other hand she displayed also the amiable attention of a female +ruler: as when once during a speech she was making in a learned +language to the learned men of Oxford, on seeing the Lord Treasurer +standing there with his lame foot, she suddenly broke off, ordered a +chair to be brought him, and then continued; indeed it was said she at +the same time wished to let it be remarked that no accident could +discompose her. As Harrington, who knew her from personal +acquaintance, expresses himself: her mind might be sometimes compared +to a summer morning sky, beneficent and refreshing: then she won the +hearts of all by her sweet and modest speech. But she was repellent in +the same degree in her excited state, when she paced to and fro in her +chamber, anger in every look, rejection in every word: men hastened +out of her way. Among other correspondence we learn to know her from +that with King James of Scotland,--one side of her political +relations, to which we shall return:--how does every sentence express +a mental and moral superiority as well as a political one! not a +superfluous word is there: all is pith and substance. From care for +him and intelligent advice she passes to harsh blame and most earnest +warning: she is kind and sharp, friendly and rough, but almost ever +more repellent and unsparing than mild. Never had any sovereign a +higher idea of his dignity, of the independence belonging to him by +the laws of God and man, of the duty of obedience binding on all +subjects. She prides herself on no external consideration influencing +her resolutions, threats or fear least of all; when once she longs for +peace, she insists on its not being from apprehension of the enemy, +but only from abhorrence of bloodshed. The action of life does not +develop merely the intellectual powers: between success and failure, +in conflict and effort and victory, the character moulds itself and +acquires its ruling tone. Her immense good fortune fills her with +unceasing self-confidence, which is at the same time sustained by +trust in the unfailing protection of Providence.[276] That she, +excommunicated by the Pope, maintains herself against the attacks of +half the world, gives her whole action and nature a redoubled impress +of personal energy. She does not like to mention her father or her +mother: of a successor she will not hear a word. The feeling of +absolute possession is predominant in her appearance. It is noticeable +how on festivals she moves in procession through her palace: in front +are nobles and knights in the costume of their order, with bared +heads; next the bearers of the insignia of royalty, the sceptre, the +sword, and the great seal: then the Queen herself in a dress covered +with pearls and precious stones; behind her ladies, brilliant in +their beauty and rich attire: to one or two, who are presented to her, +she reaches out her hand to kiss as she goes by in token of favour, +till she arrives at her chapel, where the assembled crowd hails her +with a 'God save the Queen,' she returning them thanks with gracious +words. Elizabeth received the whole reverence, once more unbounded, +which men paid to the supreme power. The meats of which she was to eat +were set on the table with bended knee, even when she was not present. +It was on their knees that men were presented to her.[277] + +Between a sovereign like this and her Parliament points of contention +could not be wanting. The Commons claimed the privilege of absolute +freedom of speech, and repeatedly attacked the abuses which still +remained in the episcopal Church, and the injurious monopolies which +profited certain favoured persons. The Queen had members of the Lower +House imprisoned for speeches disagreeable to her: she warned them not +to interfere in the affairs of the Church, and even not in those of +the State, and declared it to be her prerogative to summon and +dissolve Parliament at her pleasure, to accept or reject its measures. +But with all this she still did not on the other hand conceal that, in +reference to the most important affairs of State, she had to pay +regard to the tone of the two Houses: however much she might be loved, +yet men's minds are easily moved and not thoroughly trustworthy. In +its forms Parliament studied to express the devotion which the Queen +claimed as Queen and Lady, while she tried to make amends for acts by +which the assembly had been previously offended: for statements of +grievances, as in the instance of the monopolies, she even thanked +them, as for a salutary reminder. A French ambassador remarks in 1596 +that the Parliament in ages gone by had great authority, but now it +did all the Queen wished. Another who arrived in 1597 is not merely +astonished at its imposing exterior, but also at the extent of its +rights. Here, says he, the great affairs are treated of, war and +peace, laws, the needs of the community and the mode of satisfying +them.[278] The one statement is perhaps as true as the other. The +solution of the contradiction depends on this, that Queen and +Parliament were united as to the general relations of the country and +the world. The Queen, as is self-evident, could not have ruled without +the Parliament: from the beginning of her government she supported +herself by it in the weightiest affairs; but a simple consideration +teaches us how much on the other hand Parliament owed precisely to +that introduction into these great questions, which the Queen thought +advisable. They avoided, and were still able to avoid, any enquiry +into their respective rights and the boundaries of those rights. And +besides Elizabeth guarded herself from troubling her Parliament too +much by demands for money. She has been often blamed for her economy +which sometimes became inconvenient in public affairs: as in most +cases, nature and policy here also coincided. That she was sparing of +money, and once was actually in a condition to decline a grant offered +her, gave the administration an independence of any momentary moods of +Parliament, which suited her whole nature, and without this might have +been easily lost. + +William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, her treasurer, as economical as herself, +was likewise her first minister. He had assisted her with striking +counsel even before her accession, and since lived and moved in her +administration of the state. He was one of those ministers who find +their calling in a boundless industry,--he needed little sleep, long +banquets were not to his taste:[279] never was he seen inactive even +for half an hour; he kept notes of everything great and small; +business accompanied him even to his chamber, and to his retirement at +S. Theobald's. His anxious thoughts were visible in his face, as he +rode on his mule along the roads of the park; he only lost sight of +them for a moment when he was sitting at table among his growing +children: then his heavy eyebrows cleared up, light merriment even +came from his lips. Every other charm of life lay far from him: for +poetry and poets he had no taste, as Spenser was once made to feel: +in literature he patronised only what was directly useful; he +recommended no one except for his being serviceable. Magnanimous he +was not; he was content with being able to say to himself, that he +drew no advantage from any one's ill fortune. He was designated even +then as the man who set the English state in motion: this he always +denied, and sought his praise in the fact that he carried out the +views of the Queen, as she adopted them after hearing the plans +proposed or even after respectful remonstrances. He had to bear many a +slander: most of the reproaches made against him he brought himself to +endure quietly: but if, he said, it could be proved against him that +he neglected the Queen's interest, the war against Spain, and the +support of the Netherlands, then he was willing to become liable to +eternal blame. He was especially effective also through a moral +quality--he never lost heart. It was remarked that he worked with the +greatest alacrity when others were most doubtful. For he too had an +absolute confidence in the cause which he defended. When the enemies' +fortune stood highest, he was heard to say with great tranquillity, +'they can do no more than God will allow.'[280] + +By the side of this pilot of the state, Robert Dudley, who was +promoted to be Earl of Leicester, drew all eyes on himself as the +leading man at court. Burleigh was looked on as Somerset's creation, +Dudley was the youngest son of the Earl of Northumberland: for it was +of advantage to Elizabeth, especially at first, to unite around her +important representatives of the two parties which had composed her +brother's government. One motive for her attachment to Leicester is +said to have been the fact that he was born on the same day, and at +the very same hour with herself: who at that time would not have +believed in the ruling influence of the stars? But, besides this, the +Earl dazzled by a fine person, attractive manners, and an almost +irresistible charm of disposition. The confidential intimacy which +Elizabeth allowed him caused scandalous rumours, probably without +ground; for if they had been true, Leicester, who had his father's +ambition, would have played a very different part. Elizabeth heard of +them; she once actually brought a foreign ambassador into her +apartments, to convince him how utterly impossible it would be for her +to see any one whatever without witnesses; she censured a foreign +writer for letting himself be deceived by a groundless rumour, but she +would not on this account dismiss the favourite from court. She liked +to have him about her, and to receive his homage which had a tinge of +chivalry in it: his devotion satisfied a need of her heart. He could +not however take any power to himself which would infringe on her own +supreme authority; once, when such a case occurred, she reminded him +that he was not in exclusive possession of her favour: she could +bestow it on whom she would, and again recall it; at court, she +exclaimed, there should be no Master, but only a Mistress.[281] +Neither did Leicester display great mental gifts: in the campaigns of +the Netherlands he did not at all answer even the moderate +expectations that had been formed of him. If the Queen nevertheless +put him at the head of her troops when the Spanish danger threatened, +this was because he possessed her absolute personal confidence. + +With Leicester the Sidneys were most closely allied. Henry Sidney, his +sister's husband, introduced civilisation and monarchic institutions +into Wales, and was selected to extend them in Ireland. In his son +Philip the English ideal of noble culture seemed to have realised +itself; he combined a very remarkable literary power peculiar to +himself, and talents suited for the society of men of the world (which +well fitted him for the duties of an ambassador), with disinterested +kindness to others, and a chivalrous courage in war, which gained him +universal admiration both at home and in presence of the enemy. + +Leicester's good word is also said to have opened an entrance to court +for young Walter Ralegh and to have promoted his first successes. +Ralegh combined in his own person the aspirations of the age in a most +vivid manner. He was ambitious, fond of show, with high aims, deeply +engaged in the factions of the court; but at the same time he had a +spirit of noble enterprise, was ingenious and thoughtful. In +everything new that was produced in the region of discoveries and +inventions, of literature and art, he played the part of a fellow +worker: he lived in the circle of universal knowledge, its problems +and its progress. In his appearance he had something that announced a +man of superior mind and nature. + +Around Cecil were grouped the statesmen who had been promoted by him, +and worked in sympathy with him: for instance Bacon the Keeper of the +Seals, whom the Queen regarded as the oracle of the laws, and who also +amused her by many a witty word; Mildmay, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, who though adhering to the principles now adopted yet +gladly favoured the claims of Parliament, and even the tendencies of +the Puritans; Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State, who had once +suffered exile for his Protestantism and now supported it after his +return with all the resources of the administration; it is said of him +that he heard in London what was whispered in the ear at Rome; he met +the crafty Jesuits with a network of secret counter-action which +extended over the world; there has never been a man who more +vigilantly and unrelentingly hunted down religious and political +conspiracies; to pay his agents, in choosing whom he was not too +particular, he expended his own property. Cecil and Bacon had married +two daughters of that Antony Cooke, who had once taken part in Edward +VI's education: the other sisters, wedded to Hobby and Killigrew, men +who were engaged in the most important embassies, extended the +connexion of these statesmen. Walsingham was allied by marriage with +Mildmay, and with Randolph the active ambassador in Scotland. + +Once the Queen brought a man among them, who owed his rise only to her +being pleased with his person and conversation, which likewise brought +her much ill repute:[282] she promoted her vice-chamberlain +Christopher Hatton to be Lord Chancellor of England. The lawyers made +loud and bitter complaints of this disregard of their claims and their +order. Hatton had however been long on good terms with the leading +statesmen: in all the late questions of difficulty as to Mary Stuart's +trial he had held firm to them. His nephew and heir soon after married +a granddaughter of Burleigh. + +The Queen's own relations on the mother's side had always some +influence with her. Francis Knolles who had married into this family, +and was appointed by the Queen treasurer of her household, won himself +a good name with his contemporaries and with posterity by his +religious zeal and openness of heart. A still more important figure in +this circle is Thomas Sackville, who is also named with honour among +the founders of English literature; the part of the 'Mirror for +Magistrates' which was due to him witnesses to an original conception +of the dark sides of man's existence, and to a creative imagination. +But the poet likewise did excellent service to his sovereign: he makes +his appearance when an important treaty is to be concluded, or the +people are to be called on to defend the country, or even when any +agitation is feared in the troubles at home. He was selected to inform +the Queen of Scots that the sentence of death had been pronounced on +her. He is the Lord Buckhurst from whom the dukes of Dorset are +descended. + +The distinguished family to which Anne Boleyn belonged, and which had +such an important influence on her rise, that of the Howards, proved +in its elder branch as little loyal to the daughter as it had once +been to the mother. On the other hand Elizabeth had experienced the +attachment of the younger line, that of Effingham, and had since +repaid it with manifold favours. From this branch came the Admiral, +who commanded the sea-force in the decisive attacks on the Spanish +Armada. We know that he was not himself a great seaman; but he +understood enough of the matter to enable him to avail himself of +those who understood more than he did. The Queen looked on him as the +man marked out by Providence for the defence of herself and of the +country. + +General Norris, who gained reputation for the English arms on the +continent by the side of Henry IV, was also related to her though more +distantly: besides this, she wished to repay him for the good +treatment she had formerly received in her distress from his +grandfather. + +How predominantly the personal element once more manifests itself in +this administration! As the Queen's own interest is also that of all, +those who belong to her family or have won her favour and done her +essential service, are the chiefs of the State and the leaders in war. +The royal patronage extended this influence over the Church and the +universities. But we find it no less in all other branches. Sir Thomas +Gresham, the Queen's agent in money-matters, was the founder of the +Exchange of London, to which she at his request gave the name of the +Royal Exchange. + +In literature also we see the traces of her taste and her influence. +Owing to the tone of good society the classics were studied by every +one. The higher education was directed to them, as indeed the Queen +herself found in them refreshment and food for the mind: many +classical authors were translated, and the forms of the old poets +revived or imitated. The Italians and Spaniards, who had led the way +in similar attempts, further awoke the emulation of the English. In +Edmund Spenser, in whom the spirit of the age shows itself most +vividly, we constantly meet with imitations of the Latin or Italian +poets, which here and there aspire to be paraphrastic translations, +and may be inferior to his originals, even to the modern ones, in +delicacy of drawing, since he purposely selected their most successful +passages: yet how thoroughly different a spirit do his works breathe +in their total effect! What in the Italians is a play of fancy is in +him a deep moral earnestness. The English nation has an inestimable +possession in these works of a moral and religious grandeur, and a +simple view of nature, which happily expressed in single stanzas stamp +themselves on every man's memory. Spenser has assigned to allegory, as +a style, a larger sphere than perhaps belongs to it, and one allegory +is always interweaving itself with another; the heroes whom he takes +from the old romances become to him representatives of the different +virtues, but he possesses such an original power of vivid +representation that even in this form he gains the reader's interest. +But, if we ask what is the main thing which he celebrates, we find +that it is precisely the course of the great war in which his nation +is engaged against the Papacy and the Spaniards. The Faery Queen is +his sovereign, whose figure under the manifold symbols of the +qualities which she possessed, or which were ascribed to her, is +always coming forward afresh in his verse. With wonderful power +Elizabeth united around her all the aspiring minds and energies of the +nation. + +Not a few of the productions of the time have so strong an infusion of +reverence for the Queen that we cannot help smiling: but it is true +nevertheless that at her court the language formed itself, and all +great aspirations found their central point. Elizabeth's statesmen, +who had to deal with a Parliament that could not be led by mere +authority, studied the rules of eloquence in the models of antiquity, +and made their doctrines their own. On their table Quintilian lay by +the side of the Statutes. + +The Queen, who loved the theatre and declared it a national +institution by a proclamation, made it possible for Shakespeare to +develop himself; his roots lie deep in this epoch, he represents its +manners and mode of life: but he spreads far out beyond it. We shall +return to him in a more suitable place than this, in which we are +treating of the Queen's influence. + +It would contradict the nature of human affairs were we to expect that +the general point of view, which swayed the State as a whole, could +have induced every one who took part in its administration to move on +to their common aim in one way. Of the great nobles of the court many +rather supported the Puritans, as indeed the father of the Puritan +Cartwright owed his position at Warwick to Leicester's protection; +others inclined to favour the Catholics. The severity which the +bishops thought themselves bound to exercise met with opposition among +the leading statesmen: and to these again the soldiers were opposed. +It was a society full of life, and highly gifted, but for that very +reason in continual ferment and internal conflict. + +We have still to grasp clearly the event in which these antagonisms +and the Queen's temperament yet once more led to a great catastrophe. + + * * * * * + +The aged Burleigh, who had provoked the war with Spain, wished also to +end it. From his past experience he concluded that he could not +inflict any decisive blow on the Spanish monarchy, which still +displayed a vast power of resistance; in 1597 it could again offer a +high price for peace. The Spaniards, who had taken Calais from the +French by a sudden attack, offered the Queen the restoration of this +old English possession in exchange for the strong places in the +Netherlands, entrusted to her in pledge.[283] For the Netherlands no +other provision would have been thus made than was proposed in 1587: +but England would have again won as strong a position on the Continent +as it had before, and would have established its rule over the +neighbouring seas: an open commerce would have been re-established, +and Ireland freed from the hostile influence of the Spaniards: the +Queen would have enjoyed peace in her advancing years. Burleigh saw as +it were the conclusion of his life in this: he said that, if God +granted him a good agreement with Spain, his soul would depart with +joy. + +But for this policy he could not possibly get the approval of the +young, whose ambitious hopes were connected with the continuance of +the war. They measured the power of the country by their own thirst +for action. If the Queen, so they said, would only not do everything +by halves and not follow her secretaries so much, she could, +especially now she had the Dutch as allies, tear the Spanish monarchy +in pieces. How could they fail, with some effort, in occupying the +Isthmus of Panama? And then they would at one blow deprive the +monarchy of all its resources. And above all, the man who then played +the most brilliant part at court, Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, was +of this opinion. He was Leicester's stepson, introduced by him at +court, and after his death his successor as it were in the Queen's +favour. An attractive manly appearance, blooming youth, chivalrous +manners, won him all hearts from the very first. With the Queen he +entered into that rare relation, in which favour on the one side and +homage on the other took the hues of mutual inclination, and even +passion. + +What Essex's idea of it was he once revealed at a dramatic festivity +which he arranged for the Queen in honour of her accession. There he +made a hermit, an officer of state, and a soldier come forward and +address their exhortations to an esquire who was intended to represent +himself. By the first the knight was desired to give up all feelings +of love, by the second to devote his powers to State affairs, by the +third to apply himself to war. The answer is: the knight cannot give +up his passion for his lady, since she animates all his thoughts with +divine fire, teaches him true policy, and at the same time qualifies +him to lead an army. Essex had taken part in some campaigns of Henry +IV, and afterwards commanded the squadron which was in possession of +the harbour of Cadiz for a moment, but without being able to hold it: +he also failed in another enterprise which was planned to seize the +plate-fleet; but this did not prevent him from evermore designing +fresh and comprehensive plans. His view in this matter he also once +represented dramatically.[284] He brought forward a native American +prince who utters the wish to be freed from the Castilians and their +oppressive rule: an oracle refers him to the Queen whose kingdom lies +between the old and the new world, and who is naturally inclined to +come to the aid of all the oppressed. + +The negociations for peace were wrecked mainly through their inherent +difficulties: the Spaniards however had no hesitation in ascribing the +ill result to the influence of the Queen's favourite, who had been won +over by the King of France.[285] But the war could not after this be +waged on the grand scale contemplated, because Henry IV himself now +concluded peace, which freed the hands of the Spaniards to act against +England, and even awoke once more their ideas of an invasion. + +Under the double influence of English oppression and the instigation +of both Spain and Rome a revolt broke out in Ireland, in which the +English suffered a defeat on the Blackwater, which is designated as +the greatest mishap they had ever suffered in that island. Ulster, +Connaught, and Leinster were in arms: their chief, Tyrone, who had +learnt war in the English service, came forward as The O'Neil, and was +already recognised by the Pope as sovereign of Ulster; the Irish +reckoned on Spanish assistance, either in Ireland itself, or through +an attack on England. Priests and Jesuits fed the Irish with hopes +that this time they would free themselves, and destroy the very memory +of the English rule. + +The Queen decided, in order to keep her hold on the island, to send +over an unusually strong armament of horse and foot: and Essex, who +had always been the loudest in blaming the errors of previous +commanders, could not avoid at last himself undertaking its direction, +though he did not do it with complete alacrity. + +Though Burleigh was dead, his son Robert Cecil nevertheless maintained +himself in possession of the secretaryship of state and was at the +head of his father's old friends, joined as they were by others who +were not indeed his friends but were enemies of Essex. It was +unwillingly that Essex quitted the court and thus left the field open +to them: especially as his personal relation to the Queen was no +longer what it had been of old. Aspiring by nature, supported by the +good opinion of the people (on which his grand appearance and his bold +spirit of enterprise had made much impression), and by the devotion +of brave officers who were ready to follow him in any undertaking by +land or sea, he presumed to desire to be something for himself. He +wished to be no longer absolutely dependent on the nod of his +mistress. The story goes that she once, in a violent passion at his +disrespectful conduct, gave him a box on the ear, and that he laid his +hand on his sword. Even in his letters expressions indicating +resistance break through his declarations of submission. His friends +indeed advised him to return to absolute obedience: then the Queen +would raise the man whom she honoured above all others. He rejected +this advice because he held that the Queen was a woman, from whom one +gets nothing but by superior authority. It almost appears as though he +thought he might obtain such an authority by the Irish war. + +But he found this expedition far harder than he had expected. +Previously he had always said that the great rebel, Tyrone, must be +tracked to Ulster, where were the roots of his power, and conquered +there: then the rest of the country would return to obedience of +itself. How great was the astonishment when he now nevertheless began +with a march into Munster and Leinster, in which he wasted his +resources without obtaining any great success! He maintained that the +Privy Council of Ireland had urged him on to this: its members denied +it. At last the campaign to the North was undertaken: but in this +region the Irish were found to have the complete superiority: the +Queen's newly-levied troops on the other hand were neither adapted, +nor quite willing, to venture on a decisive action: the officers +signed a protest against it: and Essex saw himself obliged to enter +into negociations with Tyrone. + +The conditions which that chief demanded in return for his submission +are exceedingly comprehensive: complete freedom of the Catholic church +under the Pope, and a transfer of the dignities of state to the +natives, so that only a viceroy, who should always belong to the high +nobility, was to come from England: the chief Irish families were to +be restored to their old possessions, and freed from the most +oppressive laws, for instance that of wardship; and the Irish were to +be allowed free trade with England.[286] These stipulations would +have promised a free development to the Irish nation, and made the +yoke of England exceedingly light. Essex accepted them, because the +Spaniards were just now threatening an attack on England, and Tyrone +could only be separated from them on these conditions; even then +Tyrone begged that for the present they might be kept a profound +secret, that he might not quarrel with the Spaniards too soon. + +But how could such comprehensive concessions be expected from the +proud Queen? How could her counsellors, who always preferred direct +negociation with Spain, have accepted them? + +The idea occurred to the Earl of Essex to return to England with a +part of his troops, and at their head enforce the acceptance of his +treaty, after which he would throw himself with all his might into the +Spanish war. And without doubt this would have been the only way to +carry out his plan, and become altogether master of the government. + +But it was represented to him that this looked exactly like an attempt +at rebellion. Essex was induced to give it up, and make everything yet +once more depend on the influence which he was confident he could +exercise on the Queen by appearing in person. Even this however was a +great risk: he not merely had no leave to do so, but it had been +expressly forbidden him just previously: he thought it however the +only way of obtaining his end. Without even having announced his +departure to the Queen, he suddenly appeared with slight attendance at +Nonsuch, her country house.[287] He dismounted before the door, and +did not even take time to change his dress: as he was, with the dust +of the journey on his face and clothes, he hastened to the Queen: that +he did not find her in the reception-room did not check him; he rushed +on into her chamber, where he entered without being announced, and +kissed her hand: her hair was still flying about her face. At the +first moment she received him graciously--in a couple of hours he +might see her again: when he returned to her at table, she began to +reproach him. From minute to minute the Queen predominated in her over +the friend: by evening his arrest was announced to him. + +Already by his conduct in Ireland Essex had supplied food for the +slander of his enemies: how much more must this have been the case +through his self-willed return! As he was fond of tracing his descent +from royal blood, he was accused of even aspiring to the throne, after +the example of Bolingbroke: for this purpose he had leagued himself +with Tyrone and the Irish grandees, whose loyalty he praised +notwithstanding their revolt. We can say with certainty that the views +of the Earl of Essex never went so far. In the question as to the +Queen's successor, which occupied every one, he had taken his side for +the rights of the King of Scotland: he imputed to his enemies the +design of favouring on the other hand the claim of the Infant of Spain +(which was at that time put forward in all seriousness in a book much +read) with the view of purchasing peace by his recognition. He +assigned, as the motive for his conduct, his inability to endure the +atheists, papists, and Spanish partisans in the Queen's council: as a +Christian he could not possibly look on while religion perished, and +as an Englishman he would not stand aloof while his fatherland was +being ruined.[288] He had never wished to be anything else than a +subject--but 'only of his Queen, not the underling of an unworthy and +low vassal.' So far as men saw, he stood in connexion with both the +parties opposed to the prevailing system. He was prayed for in the +churches of the Puritans: Cartwright was one of his friends; the +Scotch doctrine, that the Supreme Power, if it showed itself negligent +in matters of religion, could be compelled by those immediately under +it to take them in hand, is said to have been preached with reference +to him. As Earl Marshal of England, Essex indeed thought he possessed +an independent right of interference. But the mitigation of the +ecclesiastical laws would also have benefited the Catholics; and it +was among them that he had perhaps the most decided allies. If we +might combine his views into a whole, they were directed towards +raising the natives of America against Spain, at the same time that by +toleration both in England and Ireland he united all patriots in the +war against that power, in which he discerned that the chief interest +of the nation lay. + +Essex remained a long while in the custody of the Keeper of the Seal, +who was favourably disposed towards him; then he was sentenced by the +Star Chamber not to exercise any longer his high offices as member of +the Privy Council, as Earl Marshal, and Master of the Ordnance, and to +live as a prisoner in his own house during the Queen's pleasure. He +seemed to reconcile himself to this fate, and behaved modestly for a +considerable time: he was still flattering himself with the hope of +regaining his sovereign's favour, when a monopoly was withdrawn from +him which formed the chief part of his income. This new victory of his +enemies was intolerable to him: he would not let himself be brought so +low by them as to be forced to live like a poor knight, without +influence and independence. The thought occurred to him that, if he +could but see the Queen once more, he might effect a change in his own +destiny and in that of England. The popularity he enjoyed in the +capital, the continued attachment of his old companions in arms, the +friendship of some considerable nobles, allowed him to entertain the +hope that he could attain this in despite of those around her, could +make himself master of the palace, and force her to summon a +Parliament--in which the change of government and the succession of +the King of Scotland should be alike confirmed. Essex was no longer +the blooming man of times past, he was seen moving along with his neck +bowed down, but he still had his mind fixed on wide-ranging and +ambitious thoughts: from his youth up elevated by good fortune and +favour, he held everything possible which he set his hand to do. On +the 8th February 1601 an armed band assembled at his house under +certain lords; the Keeper of the Seal and his attendant, whom the +Queen despatched in order to inform herself of the cause of the +agitation, were detained. Essex dared to march through the capital +with his armed men, in order to raise it on his behalf. He reckoned on +the desertion of the city militia to him, and the connivance of the +city magistrates; but instead of finding support he only excited +astonishment. No one stirred in his favour. He was scarcely able--for +royal troops were soon in arms against him--to make his way back to +his house: there was nothing left for him but to surrender at +discretion. + +At his trial the principle, which had already had so much weight in +the proceedings against Mary Stuart, was expressly stated, that every +attempt at rebellion must be looked on as directed against the life of +the reigning sovereign.[289] A crisis had occurred which obliged +Elizabeth to execute the man for whom among all men living she +cherished the deepest and warmest feeling, just as formerly she had +been forced to condemn one of the grandees connected with her by +blood, and then her sister Queen of equal rights with herself--all of +them for traitorous attempts against her government and person. She +said she would gladly have saved Essex, but she was forced to let the +laws of England take their course. + +Essex is to be compared with his contemporary Biron in so far as they +both rebelled against sovereigns with whom they had stood in the +closest relations. In both it was mainly injured self-esteem which +goaded them on. As Biron had a portion of the lower French nobility +for him, so Essex had the soldiers by profession and the officers of +the army to a great extent on his side: they both appealed once more +to religious antipathies. But above all they thought of again making +room for the old independence of the warlike nobles: they both +succumbed to the authority of the firmly-rooted power of the state. + +At that time there were fresh negociations going on for a peace +between Spain and England; but they could as little now as before +agree on the great subjects in dispute, the question of the +Netherlands, and the interests of commerce, which at the same time +involved points of religion. And the Spaniards broke off negotiations +all the more readily, as exaggerated rumours of Essex's conspiracy +resounded everywhere, making a revolt in England appear possible. They +then instantly thought of a landing in an English harbour, and this +the Catholics promised to support with considerable bodies of horse +and foot. In Ireland, where the refusal of the concessions held out to +them by Essex revived the national enmities, the Spaniards really +effected a landing: under Don Juan d'Aguilar they occupied Kinsale: +and hoped not merely to become masters of Ireland but to cross from +thence to their friends' assistance in England. + +Hence Queen Elizabeth, who perceived the connexion of these +hostilities, now reverted to the necessity of carrying on the war +again on a larger scale. Her view was chiefly directed to a new +enterprise against Portugal: its separation from Castile she held to +be the greatest European success that was possible: but she hoped to +bring about a change in Italy as well: there Venice was to attack the +nearest Spanish territories. When she called the Venetians to +aid--among other things she wished also to obtain a loan from the +government--she put them in mind how much her resistance to the +Spanish monarchy had benefited the European commonwealth: hence it was +that Spain had been prevented from carrying out her tyrannical views +throughout the world, in the Netherlands and in Germany, in France and +Italy; the Republic, which loved freedom, would recognise this. +Elizabeth thought to resume the war, if possible, at the head of all +that part of Europe which was opposed to Spain, and in league with +Henry IV, with whom she negociated on this subject. In the beginning +of 1603 a squadron was fitted out under Sir Richard Lawson to attack +the coasts of the Pyrenean peninsula. Men discussed the comparative +forces which the two kingdoms could bring into the field. + +But the Queen's days were already drawing to a close. + +In February 1603 the Venetian secretary Scaramelli had an audience of +her, and gives a report of it from which we see that she still +completely preserved her wonted demeanour. He found the whole court, +the leading ecclesiastics and the temporal dignitaries, assembled +around her: they had been entertained with music. When he entered, the +Queen rose in her usual rich attire, with a diadem of precious stones, +almost encircled with pearls: rubies hung from her neck; and in her +mien no one could detect any decay of her powers. 'It is time at +last,' she said to the secretary, who wished to throw himself on his +knees before her, while she raised him with both hands, 'it is time at +last for the Republic to send its representative to a Queen by whom it +has been always honoured.' The letter of the Republic was handed to +her, and she gave it to the Secretary of State; after he had opened it +and given it back to her again, she sat down to read it: it contained +a complaint that Venetian ships had been seized by the English +privateers, who then made all seas unsafe. The English nation, she +then said, is not so small but that evil and thievish men may be found +in it: while she promised enquiry and justice, she nevertheless +reverted to her main point that she had received nothing from the +republic during the forty-four years of her government but grievances +and demands,--even the loan had been refused;--Venice had hitherto, +contrary to her custom, not sent any embassy to her; not, she thought, +because she was a woman, but through fear of other powers. Scaramelli +answered that no temporal or even spiritual sovereign had any +influence on the Republic in such matters; he ascribed the neglect to +circumstances which no one could control. The Queen broke off: I do +not know, she added, whether I have expressed myself in good Italian: +I learned the language as a child, and think I have not forgotten it. +After that serious address she again seemed gracious, and gave the +secretary her hand to kiss, when she dismissed him. The next day +commissioners were appointed to enquire into his grievances.[290] + +At that time the affairs of Ireland were once more occupying the +Queen. The Spaniards had been compelled by Lord Mountjoy to leave the +island; he had beaten them together with the Irish in a decisive +action: but, despite his victory, many further conflicts took place, +and the rebellion was not suppressed; Tyrone still maintained himself +in the hills and woods of Ulster; and, as a return of the Spaniards +was feared, Mountjoy too was at last disposed to come to an agreement +with him. The Queen was in her inmost soul against this, for only +fresh rebellions would be occasioned by it; she required an absolute +surrender at discretion: if she once allowed the rebels to have their +lives secured to them, she soon after retracted the concession. She +even spoke of wishing to go to Ireland, in person; the impression +produced by her presence would put an end to all revolt. + +But at this moment a sudden alteration was remarked in her: she no +longer appeared at the festivities before Lent, which went off in an +insignificant style. At first her seclusion was explained by the death +of one of her ladies whom she loved, the Countess of Nottingham: but +soon it could not be concealed that the Queen herself was seized with +a dangerous illness: sleep and appetite began to fail her: she showed +a deep melancholy. 'No,' she replied to one of the kinsmen of her +mother's house, Robert Cary, who at that moment had come back to court +and addressed friendly words to her about her health, 'No Robin, well +I am not, my heart has been for some time oppressed and heavy;' she +broke off with painful groans and sighing, hitherto unwonted in her, +now no longer suppressed. It was manifest that mental distress +accompanied the bodily decay.[291] + +Who has not heard of the ring which Elizabeth is said to have once +given to the Earl of Essex with the promise that, if it were presented +to her, she would show him mercy, whatever might have occurred: he +had, so the tale runs, in his last distresses wished to send it her +through the Countess of Nottingham: but she was prevented from giving +it by her husband who was an enemy of Essex, and so he had to die +without mercy: the Queen, to whom the Countess revealed this on her +death bed, fell into despair over it. The ring is still shown, and +indeed several rings are shown as the true one: as also the tradition +itself is extant in two somewhat varying forms; attempts have been +made to get rid of the improbabilities of the first by fresh fictions +in the second.[292] They are both so late, and rest so completely on +hearsay, that they can no longer stand before historical criticism. + +Nevertheless we cannot deny, as the reports in fact testify in several +places, that the remembrance of Essex weighed on the Queen's soul. It +must certainly have reminded her of him, that she was now brought back +exactly to the course he had insisted on, namely a friendly agreement +with the invincible Irish chief. She had allowed less imperious, more +compliant, declarations to reach Ireland. But was the man a traitor, +who had recommended a policy to which they had been forced to have +recourse after such repeated efforts? Had he deserved his fate at her +hands?[293] It was remarked that the anniversary of the day on which +Essex two years before had suffered on the scaffold, Ash Wednesday, +thrilled through her with heart-rending pain; the world seemed to her +desolate, since he was no longer there; she imputed his guilt to the +ambition, against which she had warned him, and which had misled him +into steps, from the consequences of which she could not protect him. +But had she not herself uttered the decisive word? She burst into +self-accusing tears. Her distress may have been increased by finding +that her statesmen no longer showed her the old devotion, the earlier +absolute obedience. When they, as we know, had framed a formal theory +for themselves, that they might act against an express command of the +Queen, on the assumption of her general intention being directed to +the public good, could the sharp-sighted, suspicious, sovereign fail +to perceive it? Could she fail to remark the agitation as to her +successor, which occupied all men's minds, while the reins were +slipping from her hands? The people, on whose devotion she had from +the first moment laid so much stress, and partly based her government, +seemed after Essex' death to have become cold towards her. + +In every great life there comes a moment when the soul feels that it +no longer lives in the present world, and draws back from it. + +Once more Elizabeth had the English Liturgy read in her room: there +she sat afterwards day and night on the cushions with which it was +covered, in deep silence, her finger on her mouth: she rejected physic +with disdain.[294] Most said and believed she did not care to recover +or to live any longer, that she wished to die. When she was at last +got to bed, and had a moment left of consciousness and interest in the +world, she had the members of her Privy Council summoned: she then +either said to them directly that she held the King of Scotland to be +her lawful and deserving successor, or she designated him in a way +that left no doubt.[295] + +Amidst the prayers of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was kneeling +by her bed, she breathed her last. + +It is not merely the business of History to point out how far great +personages have attained the ideals which float before the mind of +man, or how far they have remained below them. It is almost more +important for it to ascertain how far the universal interests, in the +midst of which eminent characters appear, have been advanced by them, +whether their inborn force was a match for the opposing elements, +whether it allowed itself to be conquered by them or not. There never +was a sovereign who maintained a conflict of world-wide importance +amidst greater dangers and with greater success than Queen Elizabeth. +Her grandfather had begun a political emancipation from the ruling +influences of the continent, her father an ecclesiastical one: +Elizabeth took up their task and accomplished it victoriously against +Rome and against Spain, while her people had an ever-increasing part +in public affairs, and thus entered into a new stage of development. +Her memory is inseparably connected with the independence and power of +England. + +NOTES: + +[274] Elizabeth to James VI, August 1588, in Rymer and Bruce 53. + +[275] Molino: 'Fu prudentissima nel governare diligente nel +consultare, perche voleva assistere a tutti li negotii, +perspicasissima nel provedere le cose ed accuratissima perche le +deliberationi fatte fossero eseguite.' + +[276] One of her expressions was: 'He that placed her in that seat +would preserve her in it.' Contemporary notice in Ellis, Letters ii. +iii. 194. + +[277] Hentzner, Itinerarium 137. + +[278] De Maisse, in Prevost-Paradol, Memoire sur Elizabeth et Henri +IV. Seances et travaux de l'academie des sciences morales, tom. 34. + +[279] Ockland, in Strype iii. 2, 237: 'Somni perparcus, parce vinique +cibique in mensa sumens, semper gravis atque modestus.' + +[280] Letter to a friend, in Strype iii. 2, 379. Certain true general +notes upon the actions of Lord Burleigh, in Strype iii. 2, 505. A +letter from Leicester is in existence, in which he tries to prove that +William Cecil had obligations to his father and not merely to the +Protector. + +[281] Naunton, Fragmenta regalia. + +[282] Sir H. Nicolas, Life and Times of Christopher Hatton, +communicates (p. 30) fragments of the Queen's letters, which lead him +to remark that the supposition of an immoral relation (which he +elsewhere adopts) is refuted by them. The Queen inquires for instance, +What is friendship? 'The union of two minds bound to each other by +virtue. He is no more a friend who desires more than the other can +reasonably grant.' + +[283] Herrera, Historia del mundo iii. 754. + +[284] Device made by the Earl of Essex: Devereux, Lives and Letters of +the Devereux, Earls of Essex, ii. App. F. + +[285] Herrera complains at first of the 'ministros infideles' of the +Queen: among them he names Essex. + +[286] In Winwood, Memorials i. + +[287] Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, Michaelmass Day 1599 (the +day after the Earl's arrival). Sidney Papers ii. 127. + +[288] 'I could not but see and feel what misery was near unto my +country by the great power of such as are known indeed to be atheists +papists and pensioners of the mortal enemies of this kingdom.' +Confession to Ashton, in Devereux ii. 165. + +[289] 'As foreseeing that the rebel will never suffer the King to live +or reign, who might permit or take revenge of the treason and +rebellion.' In Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors ii. 199. + +[290] Dispaccio di Carlo Scaramelli 19 Feb. 1603 (Venetian Archives). + +[291] Memoirs of Robert Cary 116. + +[292] The first appears in Aubery's Memoires pour servir a l'histoire +de Hollande 1687, 214; with another apocryphal tale about finding the +bones of Edward IV's children as early as Elizabeth's time. Aubery +asserts that he heard the history of the ring from his father's mouth, +who had heard it from Prince Maurice of Orange, to whom it had been +communicated by the English ambassador Carleton. According to him the +Queen then took to her bed, dressed as she was, sprang from it a +hundred times during the night, and starved herself to death. Who does +not, in reading this, feel himself in a sphere of wild romance? Lady +Spelman has tried to clear away the improbability involved in it, that +Essex should have applied to the wife of one of his enemies, by making +Essex give the ring to a boy passing by, who was to give it, not to +the Countess of Nottingham, but to her sister, and then mistook the +two ladies. + +[293] Scaramelli, 27 March: 'per occasione del perdono finalmente +fatto al conte di Tirone cadde in una consideratione, che il conte di +Esses gia tanto suo intimo di cuore fosse morto innocente.' + +[294] Letter of the French ambassador from London, 3rd April 1603. +'C'est la verite que delors, qu'elle se sentit atteinte du mal, elle +dit de vouloir mourir.' Villeroy, Memoires d'estat iii. 212. Cary: +'The Queen grew worse and worse, because she would be so.' Compare +Sloane MS. in Ellis iii. 194. + +[295] Scaramelli writes to his Signoria 7th April (New Style) what was +said during those days: 'La regina nel fine della infirmita et della +vita dopo haver dormito alcune poche hore ritornata di sana mente +conoscendosi moribonda il primo di Aprile corr. fece chiamare i +signori del regio consiglio--e commandava loro,--che la corona +pervenisse al Piu meritevole ch'ella ha trovato sempre nel suo secreto +esser il Re di Scotia cosi per il dritto della successione, che per +esserne Piu degno che non e stata lei, poiche egli e nato re et ella +privata--egli le portera un regno et ella non porta altro che se +stessa donna.' Without quite accepting this, we must not pass it over. +Winwood too writes to Tremouille: 'le jour avant son trespas elle +declara pour son successeur le roy d'Escosse.' Memoires i. 461. + + + + +BOOK IV. + +FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN. FIRST DISTURBANCES UNDER +THE STUARTS. + + +Under no dynasty in the world have great national changes been so +dependent on the personal aims of princes as in England under the +Tudors. Just as all Henry VIII's subsequent proceedings were +determined by the affair of the divorce, so also the policy of his +three children was due to the relations into which they were thrown by +their birth. + +No one however could derive the course of English history at this +epoch from this cause alone. How could Henry VIII have even thought of +detaching his kingdom from the Roman See, but for the ancient and +deep-seated national opposition to its encroachments? But the nation +had also for ages had manifold and deep sympathies with Rome; and Mary +Tudor allied herself with these. Together with subjective personal +agencies, national influences of universal prevalence were at work. +The different leanings of the sovereigns appear as exponents of +opposite tendencies already existing in the nation. The struggle +between these was decided when, as in the reign of Elizabeth, the most +vigorous nature combined with the most powerful interests and the most +influential motives to gain the mastery, although others of a +different character were still by no means suppressed. + +Now however the energetic race of the Tudors had disappeared from the +throne. By the right of natural inheritance another family ascended +it, which had its roots and associations in Scotland, the crown of +which country it united with that of England. If a long time elapsed +before the English commonwealth was as closely attached to the new +dynasty as it had been to the old, under which it had developed; so +it is also clear that the point of view from which this dynasty +started could not be exactly the same as that which had hitherto +prevailed. This could not be expected under a prince who had already +reigned for a quarter of a century and had long ago taken up, in his +native country, a firm position with regard to the great conflicts of +the age. This position we must first of all endeavour to represent. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND: HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE OF ENGLAND. + + +_Origin of fresh dissension in the Church._ + +Our eyes again turn to the man to whom the last great religious and +political change in Scotland is mainly due--John Knox. + +We find him, propped on his staff and supported on the other side by a +helping arm, stepping homewards from the church where he had once more +performed a religious service: the multitude of the faithful lined the +road, and greeted him with reverence. He could no longer walk alone, +or raise his voice as before; it was only in a more confined space +that he used still to gather a little congregation round him, to whom +on appointed days and at fixed hours he proclaimed the teaching of the +Gospel with unabated fire. He lived to hear of the wildest outbursts +of the struggle on the continent, and to pronounce his curse on the +King of France, who had taken part in the massacre of St. Bartholomew; +but, in one respect, he was more fortunate than Luther, who in his +last days was threatened with mischief from hostile elements about him +which he could not control; for around John Knox all was peace. He +thanked God for having granted him grace, that by his means the Gospel +was preached throughout Scotland in its simplicity and truth: he now +desired nothing more than to depart out of this miserable life; and +thus, without pain, in November 1572, after bearing the burden and +heat of the day, he fell asleep. + +With him and his contemporaries the second generation of the reformers +came to an end. They had fought out the battle against the papacy, and +had established the foundations of a divergent system: now however a +third generation arose, which had to encounter violent storms within +the pale of the new confession itself. + +In Scotland the Regents Mar and Morton now thought it necessary, even +for the sake of the constitution, in which the higher clergy formed an +important element, to restore episcopacy, which had been laid low in +the tumult of the times; and to fill the vacant offices with +Protestant clergy, appointed however in the old way, by the election +of the chapters on the recommendation of the Government: it was +desired at the same time to invest them with the power of ordination +and a certain jurisdiction. Knox was at least not hostile to this +measure. The resolution to convene an assembly of the Church at Leith +was formed while he was still alive, and was ratified by Parliament in +January 1573. + +But in the Church, which had formed itself in perfect independence by +means of free association, this project, which besides was spoiled by +many blunders in the execution, necessarily provoked strong +opposition. Andrew Melville may be regarded as Knox's successor in the +exercise of the authority of leader; a man of wide learning, who had +in his composition still more of the professor than of the preacher, +and united convictions not less firm than those of Knox with an equal +gift of eloquence. He however on principle excluded episcopacy in any +form from the constitution, as, in his opinion, the Scriptures +recognised only individual bishops: he especially disapproved of the +connexion between the bishops and the crown. The spiritual and the +temporal powers he considered to be distinct kinds of authority, of +which the one was as much of divine right as the other. But he did not +regard the clergy or ministry of preaching as alone charged with +spiritual authority: he thought that the lay elders formed the basis +of this authority: that, once elected, they were permanent, had +themselves a spiritual rank, watched over the purity of doctrine, took +the lead in the call of the preachers, and, together with these, +formed assemblies by whose conclusions every member of the +congregation was bound. A General Assembly erected on this basis had +the legislative authority in the Church, with the right of visitation +and of spiritual correction. It was incumbent on the King to protect +them; but he was amenable to their sentence. Such is the discipline +laid down in the Second Book, which was approved in the year 1578, in +a General Assembly, of which Melville was Moderator.[296] + +With these opposite principles before his eyes, the young King grew +up. He showed himself to be imbued with the reformed doctrine, but he +was decidedly averse to this form of church government, which created +a power in the nation intended to counterbalance and withstand that of +the monarch. The political views of his teachers, highly popular as +they were, awoke in him, as was natural, the inborn feelings of a +king. He longed with all his soul for the restoration of episcopacy, +which, according to his view, was of almost chief importance for both +Crown and Church. + +This was indeed a different strife from the battle between Catholicism +and Protestantism, which filled the rest of the world: but they had +points of contact with one another, inasmuch as the reform of doctrine +had almost everywhere put an end to episcopal government. And the +larger conflict was constantly exercising fresh influence on the state +of the question in Scotland. + +When the Catholic party was on the point of becoming master of the +young King, the Protestant lords, as has been mentioned above, gained +possession of his person by the Raid of Ruthven. They were the +champions of Presbyterianism in the Church; but as they had been +overthrown, and overthrown moreover in consequence of the support +which the King received from an ambassador friendly to the Guises, +that form of government could not survive their fall. In the +Parliament of 1584, which obeyed the wishes of the ruling powers, +enactments distinctly opposed to it were passed. By these the +constitution of the Three Estates united in Parliament was ratified. +They forbade any one to attack the Estates either collectively or +singly, and therefore to attack the bishops. No meeting in which +resolutions should be taken about temporal or even about spiritual +affairs was to be held without the King's approval: no jurisdiction +was to be exercised which was not acknowledged by the King and the +Estates. The judicial power of the King over all subjects and in all +causes, and therefore even in spiritual causes, was therein expressly +confirmed. + +At that time however Jesuits and Seminarists effected an entrance into +Scotland as well as into other countries, and produced a great effect: +Father Gordon especially, who belonged to one of the most +distinguished families in the country, that of the Earls of Huntly, +was exceedingly active; and for two months the King allowed his +presence at court. Who could guarantee that the young prince would not +be entirely carried away by this current when his chief counsellor, +with whom the final decision mainly rested, belonged to the party of +the Guises?[297] A great reward was offered to him: he was to be +married to an archduchess; and at some future day, after the victory +had been won, he was to be raised to the throne of England and +Scotland. When we take into consideration that Melville, who set +himself to oppose this influence, had spent ten years at Geneva and +among the Huguenots, we see plainly how the struggles which distracted +the continent threatened to invade Scotland as well. + + +_Alliance with England._ + +In this danger Queen Elizabeth, who for her own sake did not venture +to allow matters to go so far, resolved to interfere more actively in +the affairs of Scotland than she had hitherto done. It is not +perfectly clear what share her government had in the return of the +exiled Protestant lords, whose attack had compelled King James to +allow the conviction for high treason of his former minister and +favourite, who fled to France in consequence. But their return was +certainly welcome to her; and she advised the King not to alienate +the great men of his kingdom, that is to say the returned lords, from +his own side. In the instructions to her ambassador it is expressly +said that he should aim at withholding the King from any alliance with +the League in France, which was then growing powerful. She had just +determined to make open war upon the King of Spain, who guided all the +proceedings of the League; what could be more important for her than +to retain the King of one division of the island on her own side? For +that object she need not require him to support the Presbyterians; his +point of view was the same which she contended for in the Netherlands +and in France, and very closely akin to her own. + +She had besides a great reward to offer him. Distasteful as it was to +her to speak of her successor, she then determined to give the King +the assurance that nothing should be done which was prejudicial to his +claim, and she agreed to a secret acknowledgment of it.[298] Her +ambassador gave expression to these views in Scotland, and she herself +spoke in similar terms to the Scottish ambassador in England. + +The acceptance of these overtures by King James was the decisive event +of his life. He was not so blind as not to see that any promise on the +part of England, although not binding in regular form, afforded a kind +of certainty entirely different from all the assurances of the League, +however comprehensive. The Queen moreover pledged herself to a subsidy +that was very acceptable to the poverty of the Scots, while her +protection served the King himself as a stay against his nobles, whom +he dared not alienate, but on whom he could not allow himself to be +dependent. + +Thus in July 1586 an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded at +Berwick between the King and Queen in order to protect the religion +adopted in their dominions, which, in the language of the Prayer-book, +they termed the 'Catholic,' and to repel, not only every invasion, but +every attempt on the person of their majesties or their subjects, +without regard to any ties of blood or relationship. The King promised +the Queen to come to her assistance with all his forces in the event +of any attack on the Northern counties, and not to allow his subjects +to support any hostile movements which might take place in Ireland. +Every word shows how absolutely and entirely in the events that were +at hand he identifies the interests of England with his own.[299] + +It was of more especial advantage to the Queen that James entirely +renounced the cause of his mother. He had exerted himself in her +behalf, but his intercession never went beyond the limits of friendly +representation. Mary's secret resignation of her claims in favour of +Philip II had certainly not been unknown to him; he complained on one +occasion that she threatened him on his throne and was as little +attached to him as to the Queen of England. He loudly condemned her +conspiracies against Elizabeth and gave utterance to the unfeeling +remark that she might drain the cup which she had mixed for herself. +At the trial of his mother he was content with obtaining an assurance +from the English Parliament, which was of great importance to him, +that his rights should not be impaired by her condemnation. The claims +to the English throne which brought Mary to destruction rather served +to strengthen her son, as it threw him altogether on the side of the +English system.[300] + +On the approach of the Spanish armada James at once placed his power +and his person at the disposal of the Queen. He assured her that he +would behave not as a foreign prince, but as if he were her son and a +citizen of her realm. With unusual decision he put himself at the head +of the Protestant nobles, and pursued the Catholic lords who gave ear +to those Spanish overtures which he had resisted. + +He now sought for a wife in a Protestant family. With the concurrence, +if not at the instigation, of the English ministers, he solicited the +hand of a daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark, whom Elizabeth +had praised for adhering to the general interests of the Protestant +world. In this enterprise James was influenced by the consideration +that if any other state opposed his claims on England, Denmark with +its naval power could afford him substantial assistance. A touch of +romance is imparted to his youth by the circumstance that he set out +in person to fetch home his bride, who was detained in Norway by +contrary winds, and who had been promised to him by her mother after +her father's death. Their marriage was celebrated at Opslo (Nov. 23, +1589), but their homeward voyage was now attended with difficulty; +James therefore took his wife over the snow-clad mountains and the +Sound, back to her mother to Kronborg and Copenhagen, and spent a +couple of months there. He had many conversations with the divines of +the country, during which the idea of an union of both Protestant +confessions was mooted. He also paid a visit to Tycho Brahe on the +island of Hveen, which gave him indescribable pleasure: he believed +that in his company he fathomed the marvels of the universe, and +lauded the astronomer in spirited Latin verse as the friend of Urania, +and as the master of the starry world.[301] And a general influence +was exercised in Europe both by his alliance with the house of +Oldenburg, and the connexion which he formed through it with many of +the most distinguished families in Germany. His consort was niece of +the Elector of Saxony, sister-in-law of the Elector of Brandenburg, +and granddaughter of the German Nestor, Ulric of Mecklenburg. Her +sister had just married Henry Julius Duke of Brunswick; at whose +marriage, which was celebrated at Cronberg, a company of North German +princes met together, which seemed like one single family. But the +days of this assemblage were not occupied with banquets and +festivities alone. To the impression which was then made on James may +be traced the despatch of an embassy to the Temporal Electors of the +Empire, which he deputed soon after his return to invite them to +mediate between England and Spain. If the King of Spain were +disinclined for peace, he thought that a powerful alliance should be +formed against him for the maintenance of religion. + +For such an alliance as this, England and Scotland seemed to offer a +centre. In an assemblage of the clergy, the King had once +congratulated himself on living at a time when the light of the Gospel +was shining; and in the same spirit his Chancellor gave Lord Burleigh +to understand, that this British microcosm, severed from the rest of +the world, but united internally by language, religion, and the +friendship of its princes, could best oppose the bloodthirstiness of +an anti-Christian League.[302] + + +_Renewal of the Episcopal Constitution in Scotland._ + +In Scotland, as well as elsewhere, the waves of the all-prevailing +struggle kept raging. + +Embassies went backwards and forwards between Spain and the powerful +lords, Huntly, Errol and Angus, who kept alive Catholicism in the +Highlands; and a plan was formed to assemble a force of Scots and +Spaniards in Scotland, which should first overthrow the forces of that +country, and thence advance into England.[303] King James at least +believed that he had gathered a definite statement to this effect from +an examination of those who had been arrested. Philip the Second's +design of getting the crown of France into his own family would have +been powerfully seconded by this undertaking, by which it was designed +to treat Great Britain in the same way. In the beginning of 1593 we +find James at Aberdeen engaged on a campaign against the Highlands: +the lesser nobles and the Protestants were on his side: the great +earls were driven back into the most remote districts as far as +Caithness, and the larger part of their domains fell into the hands of +the King. But they were not yet entirely conquered, and the next +Parliament showed that they had the greater part of the nobility on +their side. No one wished to be too severe on them;[304] even the +legal advisers of the crown recommended the King not to commence a +suit against them, in which they might probably be acquitted. It is +impossible to describe the displeasure which affected Elizabeth on +this turn of affairs, which she ascribed to the pusillanimous and +negligent government of James. Did he not know, she asked, that the +religion of the rebels was only a cloak for treason? Would he trust +men who had so often betrayed him? He could never expect them to keep +their plighted faith in the future, if their great offences in the +past were not even acknowledged: a lax government set all turbulent +spirits in motion, and led to shipwreck. With this advice, and similar +suggestions from the clergy, came the news of fresh commotion. Francis +Stuart, who had been made Earl of Bothwell by James, but who after +this had given great trouble by frequently changing sides, had now +joined the Catholic lords; and a plan had been concerted between them +to deal with James as they had formerly dealt with his mother, to make +him prisoner, and to put the prince just born to him in his place. At +last in September 1594 we find the King again in the field. The young +Argyle, whom he sent before him as his lieutenant, was met by the +earls in open fight, but they did not venture to encounter the King +himself. He took Strathbogie, the splendid seat of the Earls of +Huntly; Slaines, the principal castle of the Earls of Errol; some +strongholds in Angus; Newton, a castle of the Gordons; and had most of +them razed. Even in these districts he proceeded at last to erect a +regular government in the name of the King. His superiority was so +decided that the earls left Scotland in the spring of 1595; Father +Gordon also followed them reluctantly, after he had once more said +mass at Elgin. But even this was not such a defeat of the Catholic +party as might have been followed by their annihilation. The earls +felt the hardships of exile with double force from the loss of the +consideration which they had enjoyed at home; and when they offered +their submission to the King, and satisfaction to the Scottish Church, +James and his Privy Council were quite ready to accede to their offer: +for they thought that disunion with his most powerful lieges lessened +the reputation of the crown, and might be very dangerous at some +future time if the throne of England became vacant; as these important +personages might then, like Coriolanus, side with the enemy. + +The only question now was, how the Presbyterian Church would regard +this. James had come to a general understanding with the Church, when +they made common cause against the League. In the year 1592 an +agreement was arrived at, by which the King gave a general recognition +to Presbyterianism, although he still left some grave questions +undecided; for instance, that of the rights of the Crown, and the +General Assemblies. But in proportion as he now gave intimation of a +retrograde tendency in favour of the Catholic lords, he roused the +prejudices of the Protestants against himself. They told him that the +lords had been condemned to death according to the laws of God, and by +the sentence of Parliament, the Great Assize of the kingdom: that the +King had no right to show mercy in opposition to these. He had allowed +their return into the country; the Church demanded the renewal of +their exile: not till then would it be possible to deliberate upon the +satisfaction offered by them. All the pulpits suddenly resounded with +invectives against the King. The proud feeling of independent +existence was roused in all its force in the breasts of the churchmen. +Andrew Melville explicitly declared, that there were two kingdoms in +Scotland, of which the Church formed one: in that kingdom the +sovereign was in his turn a subject; those who had to govern this +spiritual realm possessed a sufficient authorisation from God for the +discharge of their functions. The Privy Council might be of opinion +that the King must be served alike by Jews and heathens, Protestants +and Catholics, and become powerful by their aid; but in wishing to +retain both parties he would lose both. The King forced himself to ask +support for his projects from Robert Bruce, at that time the most +prominent of the preachers, who answered him, that he might make his +choice, but that he could not have both the Earl of Huntly and Robert +Bruce for his friends at the same time.[305] + +By dealing gently with the Catholic lords the King had intended not +only to win them over to his side, but also in prospect of the English +succession, which was constantly before his eyes, to give the English +Catholics a proof of the moderation of his intentions. Even in +Scotland he wished not to appear the sovereign of the Presbyterian +party alone. It was absolutely repugnant to him to adopt the ideas of +the Church entirely as his own. But the leaders of the Church were +bent on shutting him within a narrow circle in accordance with their +own ideas, from which there should be no escape. In his clemency to +Catholic rebels they saw a leaning to that Catholicism which fought +against God and threatened themselves with destruction. The efforts +which had been necessary to overpower these adversaries, and the +obligations under which they had laid the King himself during the +struggle, inspired them with resolution to bind him to their system by +every means in their power. + +But as the King also adhered to his own views, a conflict now broke +out between them which holds a very important place in the history of +the State as well as of the Church of Scotland. + +The King ordered the Commissioners of the Church, who made demands so +distasteful to him, to leave the capital. The preachers then turned to +the people. From the pulpit Robert Bruce set before an already excited +congregation the danger into which the ecclesiastical commonwealth had +fallen owing to the return of the Catholic lords and the indulgence +vouchsafed to them; and invited those present to pledge themselves by +holding up their hands to the defence of their religion on its present +footing. They not only gave him their assent, but went so far as to +make a tumultuous rush for the council-house in which the King was +sitting with some members of the Privy Council and the Lords of +Session. With difficulty was the tumult so far quieted as to allow +James to retire to Holyrood.[306] Here a demand was laid before him to +remove his councillors, to allow the commissioners to resume their +functions, and to banish the lords again from the country. It was +intended that religious profession should supply a rule for the +guidance of the State. + +But in political conflicts nothing is more dangerous than to overstep +the law by any act of violence. It was the violence attempted by the +leaders of the Presbyterians against the King, their attack on the +rights of his crown, that procured him the means of resistance. He +betook himself with his court to Linlithgow and there collected the +nobles, who for the most part stood by him, the borderers, whose +leaders the Humes and Kerrs took up arms for him, and bodies of +Highlanders, a force to which the magistrates succumbed, not wishing +their city to be destroyed; so that even the ministers thought it +advisable to leave. On New-Year's Day 1597 James made his entry with a +warlike retinue into Edinburgh, where a convention of the Estates met +and passed decisive resolutions in his favour. Both the provost and +baillies of the town were obliged to take a new oath of fealty by +which they bound themselves to suffer no insults to the King and his +councillors from the pulpit: and it was resolved that the citizens +should henceforth submit the magistrates of their choice to the King +for his approval. The right of deposing the ministers was assigned to +the King, who was acknowledged sole judge of all offences, even of +those committed in sermons and public worship.[307] + +The King had now the Temporal Estates on his side; for however popular +the footing on which the Presbyterian Church might be constituted, no +one wished to give it uncontrolled sway. King James was able to form +plans for transforming its constitution in such a manner as to make +it consistent with the authority of the crown. + +A series of questions which he dedicated to the consideration of the +public was well calculated to further his end. He asked whether the +external regimen of the Church might not be controlled both by King +and clergy, and the legislative power be vested in them in common. +Might not the King, as a religious and pious magistrate, have the +power of summoning General Assemblies? Might he not annul unjust +sentences of excommunication? Might he not interfere if the clergy +neglected their duties, or if the bounds of the two jurisdictions +became doubtful. + +At the next assembly of the Church at Perth (Feb. 1597) the current +set in the opposite direction. 'Mine eyes,' so says one of the most +zealous adherents of the Church, 'witnessed a new sight, preachers +going into the King's palace sometimes by night, sometimes in the +morning,--mine ears heard new sounds.' The greatest pains had been +taken to secure the presence of a number of ministers from the +northern provinces, who were still more anxious about the spread of +their doctrines than about controversies touching the constitution of +the Church; and who rather reproached the clergy of the southern +counties with having taken on themselves the government of the Church. +But even among the latter the King, who spared neither threats nor +flatteries, won adherents. Moreover an opinion gained ground that +concessions must be made to him, as far as conscience allowed, in +order not to alienate him entirely from the Church or drive him to +take the opposite side. The answers to his questions contained +admissions. The right of taking the initiative in everything relating +to the external government of the Church was conceded to him, together +with a share in the nomination of ministers in the principal towns; +properly speaking the patronage of the Church in these towns was made +over to him. The Church itself made a most important concession in +renouncing its right of using the pulpit to attack the crown. +Henceforward no one was to venture to impugn the measures of the King, +until an officer of the Church had made a remonstrance to him on the +subject. And the same ideas prevailed also in the subsequent +assemblies at Dundee and Perth. The former of these conceded to the +King a share in all the business which the Church took in hand; it +allowed him to stay the proceedings of the Presbyteries when they ran +counter to the royal jurisdiction or to recognised rights. In Dundee +the excommunicated lords were admitted to a reconciliation and +acknowledged as true vassals of the King, after making a declaration +by which they acknowledged the Scottish to be the true Church; +although the stricter party would not even then forgive them. But the +point of chief importance was that the King succeeded in getting a +Commission formed to co-operate with him in maintaining peace and +obedience in the kingdom. Invested with full powers by the Church but +dependent on the King, this Commission procured him a preponderating +influence in all ecclesiastical affairs. For the most part it +consisted of men of moderate views. + +There is a contemporary narrative of the decay of the Church in +Scotland which begins from this date. For here, it was thought, ended +the period during which the word revealed from Sinai and Zion to the +apostles and prophets was the only rule of doctrine and Church +discipline without any mixture of Babylon or the City of the Seven +Hills, or of policy of man's devising; when the Church was 'Beautiful +as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an +army with banners.' + +James, who regarded all this as due merely to the opposition of +enemies, went on his way without bestowing further consideration on +the depth, strength, and inward significance of this spirit which was +destined once more to agitate the world. He again took up in serious +earnest the design of erecting a Protestant episcopacy which had been +entertained by Mar and Morton. Not only was this necessary for the +constitution but for the sake of the clergy also: as George Gladstaine +explained before a large assembly at Dundee, it was desirable that +they should take part in the exercise of the legislative power. A +small majority, but still a majority, in this assembly decided in +favour of the proposal. The King assured them that he wished neither +for a Papistical nor for an English prelacy; he wished only that the +best clergy should take cognizance of the affairs of the Church in the +council of the nation. In order to unite both interests he desired +that the General Assembly should propose to the King six candidates +for each vacancy and should have the right of giving instructions to +the King's nominee for his Parliamentary action, and of demanding an +account from him of his execution of the same. The King esteemed it a +great triumph when in the Parliament of 1600 he was able actually to +introduce two bishops whom he had nominated with the concurrence of a +Commission of the Synods. + +It appears a general result worth noticing that he had again brought +both parties in the country into subjection to the crown, the one +however by open battle, the other by compliance which had somewhat the +air of inclination towards it. + + +_Preparations for the Succession to the English Throne._ + +That the former of these parties was properly speaking Protestant, and +the latter in its sentiment Catholic, created a certain feeling of +surprise. Queen Elizabeth, who had been attacked and insulted by the +Presbyterians sometimes even from the pulpit, could not find fault +with the crown for liberating itself from the ascendancy of the new +Church as it had done from that of the old: on the contrary she had +expressly approved of this policy; but she warned the King not to +allow himself to be so blinded by personal preference as again to put +confidence in any traitor, and not to separate himself from the flock +which must fight for him if he wished to stand. In the case of +Scotland, as well as in the case of her own dominions, she always kept +before her eyes the contrast between the Catholic and the Protestant +principle, in comparison with which all other differences appeared to +her subordinate. + +In his own views less rigid and consistent, King James had on the +contrary even made advances to the Papacy. He at one time found it +advisable to enter into relations with Pope Clement VIII, whose +behaviour about the absolution of Henry IV showed that he did not at +least belong to the party of Spain and the zealots. A letter to the +Pope was forwarded from the Scottish cabinet addressing him as Holy +Father, with the signature of the King as his obedient son. A Scot, by +profession a Catholic, afterwards made the statement that, at the time +when Pope Clement was encamped before Ferrara, he had been sent to him +in order to seek his friendship, and to promise him religious liberty +for the Catholics if King James should ascend the English throne.[308] + +According to the account of King James himself Pope Clement invited +him to return to the Catholic faith; to whom he made answer, that the +prevailing controversies might be again submitted to a general +council; and that to the decision of such a council he would submit +himself unconditionally. Clement replied that he need not speak of a +council, for at Rome no one would hear of it; that the King had better +remain as he was. These transactions are still enveloped in doubt and +obscurity: the announcements of pretended agents cannot be depended +on. There were often men who did not fully share in the secret and who +in consequence far outran their commission.[309] But it cannot be +denied that there were attempts at an approximation. Among the English +refugees after Mary's death two parties had arisen, one of which +supported the Spanish claims, while the other was quite ready to +acknowledge King James supposing that some concessions were made. +Every day men who were inclined to Catholicism were seen rising into +favour at the Scottish court. It was remarked that the Secretary of +State, the Lord Justice, and the tutors of the royal children, were +Catholics. Queen Anne of Scotland does not deny that many attempts +were made to bring her back to the old religion: though she assures us +that she did not hearken to them, it is notwithstanding undeniable +that she felt a strong impulse in that direction. She received relics +which were sent her from Rome, probably from superstition rather than +from reverence for the saints, but at all events she received them. +Her intimate friend, the Countess of Huntly, who often shared the same +bed with the Queen, fostered these views in her. King James remained +unaffected by them. He attended sermons three times a week; he was +riveted to Protestantism by convictions which rest on learning: but +how did it come to pass that he allowed these deviations from +Protestantism about him? Was it from weakness and connivance, or was +it from policy? + +With the English Catholics also he established a connexion. Offers and +conditions with a view to his succession were put before him; and +English Catholics presented themselves at his court in order to +proceed with the business or to maintain the connexion. + +All this threw Queen Elizabeth into a state of great excitement. It +was insufferable to her that any one should even speak of her death, +or, as she said, celebrate her funeral beforehand. But now when James +without her knowledge formed relations with her subjects, she regarded +his conduct as an affront. Through her ambassador in Scotland she had +an English agent named Ashfield arrested, and gained possession of his +papers. Great irritation on both sides ensued, of which the +above-mentioned correspondence between the King and Queen gives +evidence. In angry letters the latter complained of the disparaging +expressions which James had let fall in his Parliament. In respectful +language but with unusual emphasis the King complained that the +accusations of an adventurer charging him with a plot against the life +of the Queen were not repressed in England with proper severity. A +period followed during which James expected nothing but further acts +of hostility from Elizabeth's ministers. He pretended to know that the +claims to the throne advanced by his cousin the Lady Arabella, +daughter of Charles Darnley, the younger brother of his father Henry, +who had the advantage of not being a foreigner, supplied them with a +motive for their proceedings. He even thought it possible that a book +published by Parsons under the name of Doleman, which maintained the +claims of Isabella daughter of King Philip, was inspired by the +English ministers themselves in order to throw his rights into the +background. He ascribed to them the intention of coming to an +agreement with the Spaniards to his disadvantage, only in order to +maintain their own power. + +So far the dislikes of King James and the Earl of Essex coincided. +Although a formal understanding between them cannot be proved, they +were nevertheless allies up to the point of regarding the Queen's +ministers as their enemies. + +Very significant were the instructions which James gave to an embassy +which he despatched to England after the downfall of the Earl. His +ambassadors were directed to ascertain whether the popular discontent +went so far as to contemplate the overthrow of the Queen and her +ministers, in which case they were to take care that the people +'invoked no other saint,' i.e. sought protection and support from no +one else but him. Above all he wished to be assured with regard to the +capital that it would acknowledge his right: he wished to form ties +with the leading men in the civic and learned corporations; the +greater and lesser nobles who inclined to him were to have early +information what to do in certain contingencies, and to keep +themselves under arms. As he had always thought it possible that he +might require naval assistance from Denmark, so now he instigated a +sort of free confederation of the magnates and barons of Scotland: +they were to prepare their military retainers in order to enforce his +rights. Not that he had formed any design against the Queen, but he +believed that after her death he must give battle to her ministers in +order to gain the crown, and he appeared determined not to decline the +contest. + +In reality however this mode of action was foreign to his nature. How +often he had said that a man must let fruit ripen before plucking it: +and a foreign prince, to whose sayings he attached great value, had +advised him to proceed by the safest path. This was the Grand Duke +Ferdinand of Tuscany, who then played a certain part in Europe, as he +had set on foot the alliance between Henry IV and the Pope in +opposition to Spain: Mary de' Medici, Queen of France, was his niece. +With the house of Stuart also he stood on the footing of a relation: +his consort, like the mother of King James, was a scion of the house +of Lorraine, and a marriage at some future day between the King's +eldest son and the daughter of the Grand Duke was already talked of. +This relationship, and Ferdinand's reputation for great political +far-sightedness and prudence, caused his advice to exercise great +influence on James's decisions, as James himself tells us. So long as +victory wavered between Essex and his opponents, or, as he conceived, +between the existing government and the people, James did not declare +himself: when the issue was decided he gave his policy a different +direction and made advances to the ruling ministers, whom up to this +time he had regarded as his enemies. + +They were quite ready and willing to meet him. Robert Cecil asserted +later that he had by this means best provided for the safety and +repose of the Queen, for that by an alliance between the government +and the heir to the crown the jealousy of the Queen was best appeased: +yet still he observed the closest secrecy with regard to it. It is +known that he dismissed a secretary because he feared that he might +see through the scheme and then betray it. He thought that he was +justified in keeping the Queen in ignorance of a connexion that could +only be distasteful to her at her advanced age, which had deepened the +suspicion natural to her disposition, although at the same time this +connexion was indispensable for her repose. These ministers were +tolerably independent in their general conduct of affairs. They had +embarked on other negotiations also without the knowledge of the +Queen; they thought such conduct quite permissible, if it conduced to +the advantage of England. And was not Robert Cecil moreover bound to +seize an opportunity of calming the prejudices of the King of Scotland +against himself and his house, which dated from his father's +participation in the fate of Queen Mary? This was the only way of +enabling him to prolong his authority beyond the death of his +mistress, with which it would otherwise have expired. + +The letters are extant which were exchanged in these secret +transactions between Henry Howard, whom the Secretary of State +employed as his instrument, and a minister of King James. They are not +so instructive as might have been expected; for the Asiatic style of +Howard, which serves him as a mask, throws a veil even over much which +we should like to know. But they now and then open a view into the +movements of parties, especially in reference to the opposition of +Cecil and his friends to Raleigh and Cobham, which towards the close +of the Queen's reign filled the court with suppressed uneasiness. + +The intercourse which had been opened certainly had the effect of once +more putting England and Scotland on a friendly footing. One of his +most trusty councillors, Ludovic Earl of Lennox, son of that Esme +Stuart who at one time had stood so high in the King's esteem, was +sent by James on a mission to the Queen, in order to convince her of +his continued attachment;[310] and this ambassador in fact found +favour with her. James declared himself ready to send his Highlanders +to the assistance of the Queen in Ireland, and to enter as a third +party into the alliance with France against Spain, if it were brought +about. He did not hesitate to give her information of the advances +which had been made by the other side, even by the Roman court. Among +these he mentioned a mission of James Lindsay for the purpose of +bringing him to promise toleration to the Catholics. It may be doubted +whether it is altogether true, as he affirms, that he declined the +proposal: but the Roman records attest that Lindsay in fact could get +nothing from him but words.[311] + +It is enough to remark that on the whole the views of James were again +brought into harmony with those of the Queen: but that does not mean +that he had also broken off all relations with the other side. It +would have been extremely dangerous for him if Pope Clement had +pronounced against him the excommunication which was suspended over +Elizabeth, and he was very grateful to the Pope for not going so far. +And if he would not agree to treat the Catholics with genuine +toleration, yet without doubt he let them hope that he would not +persecute those who remained quiet.[312] It was probably not +disagreeable to him if they looked for more. He was of opinion that he +ought to have two strings to his bow. + +He had now formed connexions with all the leading men in England of +whatever belief. There was no family in which he had not won over one +member to the support of his cause.[313] + + +_Accession to the Throne._ + +Thus on different sides everything had been carefully prepared +beforehand when the Queen died. Although it may be doubtful whether +she had in so many words declared that James should be her successor, +yet it is historically certain that she had for a long time consented +to this arrangement. The people had not yet so entirely conquered all +hesitation on the subject. + +At the moment of the Queen's decease the capital fell into a state of +general commotion. Perhaps 40,000 decided Catholics might be counted +in London, who had considered the government of the Queen an +unauthorised usurpation. Were they now to submit themselves to a King +who like her was a schismatic? Or were there grounds for entertaining +the hope held out to them that the new prince would grant them freedom +in the exercise of their religion. People pretended to find Jesuits in +their ranks who were accused of stimulating the excitement of their +feelings: and the government thought it necessary to arrest or keep an +eye upon a number of men who were regarded as leaders of the Catholic +party. + +The trained bands of the town were called out to meet the danger, and +they consisted entirely of Protestants. But they also were agitated by +uncertainty about the intentions of their new sovereign. What the +Catholics wished and demanded, the free exercise of their religion, +the Protestants just as strongly held to be inadmissible and +dangerous. + +Meanwhile the Privy Council had met at Richmond, where they were +joined by the lords who were in town. Some points of great importance +were mooted--whether the Privy Council had still any authority, even +after the death of the sovereign from whom their commission +proceeded--whether this authority was not entirely transferred to the +lords as the hereditary councillors of the crown. The question was +probably raised whether conditions should not be prescribed beforehand +to the King of Scotland with regard to his government. But the +prevailing ferment did not allow time for the discussion of these +questions. On the same day (March 24) the heralds proclaimed James +king under the combined titles of King of England, Scotland, France, +and Ireland. + +It could not be perceived that the pomp of this proclamation produced +any extraordinary impression. No mourning for the death of the Queen +was exhibited; still less joy at the accession of James: all other +interests were absorbed by the anticipation of coming events. The tone +of feeling first became decided some days afterwards, when a +declaration from the new King was published, wherein he promised the +maintenance of religion on its present footing, and the exclusion of +every other form of it.[314] On this the Protestants were quieted; the +Catholics shewed themselves discouraged and exasperated. Yet the heads +of the party who were held in custody were released on bail, and +assured by the King's agents, that if even they were not permitted to +worship in public, they should not have to fear either compulsion or +persecution. + +No movement was made against the acknowledgment of King James, +although this was contrary to the old arrangements recognised by +Parliament. But no one was forthcoming who could have enforced rights +based upon these. The aged Hertford came forward to sign the +proclamation of the lords both for himself, and in the name of his son +who represented the Suffolks. The Lady Arabella made a declaration +that she desired no other position than that which the present King +might allow her. The Privy Council besought King James,--according to +its own expression 'falling at his feet with deep humility,'--to come +and breathe new life into the kingdom of England that had been +bereaved of its head. + +We must not stay to discuss incidental questions, e.g. how the first +news reached James, and how he received it. He remained quiet until he +had obtained sure intelligence, and then without delay prepared to +take possession of the throne, to which his mother's ambition and his +own had for so many years been directed. Once more he addressed the +people of Edinburgh assembled in the great church after the sermon. He +would not admit the statement which had occurred in the discourse, +that Scotland would mourn for his departure; for he was going, as he +said, only from one part of the island to the other: from Edinburgh it +was hardly further to London than to Inverness. He intended to return +often; to remove pernicious abuses in both countries; to provide for +peace and prosperity; to unite the two countries to one another. One +of them had wealth, the other had a superabundance of men: the one +country could help the other. He added in conclusion that he had +expected to need their weapons: that he now required only their +hearts. + +What filled his soul with pride and the consciousness of a high +calling, was the thought that he would now carry into effect what the +Romans, and in later times the Anglo-Saxon and Plantagenet kings, and +last of all the Tudors, had sought to achieve by force of arms or by +policy, but ever in vain--the union of the whole island under one +rule, like that which native legendary lore ascribed to the mythical +Arthur. When he came to Berwick, around which town the two nations had +engaged in so many bloody frays, he gave utterance, so it is said, to +his intention of being King not of the one or of the other country but +of both united, and of assuming the name of King of Great +Britain.[315] + +At York he met his predecessor's Secretary of State, Robert Cecil. As +no one knew the relations into which he had already entered with +Cecil, every one was astonished at the kind reception which he +accorded to him. That did not prevent him however from being just to +the other side as well. He greeted the youthful Essex as the son of +the most renowned cavalier whom the realm of England had possessed; he +appointed him to be the companion of the Prince of Wales, and made him +carry the bared sword before him at his entrance into some of the +towns. Southampton and Neville were received into favour; the Earl of +Westmoreland was placed in the Privy Council. He gave it to be +understood that he would again raise to their former station the great +men of the kingdom, who up to this time, as he said, had not been +treated according to their merits. + +In order to begin the work of union at once in the highest place, he +added some Scottish members to the Privy Council, and placed Scots +side by side with the Secretary of State and Treasurer of England. The +Keeper of the Privy Seal was raised to the Lord Chancellorship, but +obliged to resign the post of Master of the Rolls, which fell to the +share of a Scot, who however contented himself with drawing the income +without discharging the duties of the office. The main feature of the +condition of affairs which now grew up was the understanding between +Cecil and those Scots who were most influential with the King. These +were the leaders of the two parties, one of which hitherto had rather +inclined to Spain and the other to France, Lennox and Mar, and +especially the most active, perhaps the cleverest man of all, George +Hume. These were consulted on affairs of importance. The Scots had +the advantage, to which custom almost gave them a right, of seeing the +King as often as they wished: but Cecil and his English friends, in +consequence of their knowledge and practice in business, had the chief +management of affairs in their hands. + +The times were gloomy owing to the prevalence of an infectious +disease; still extraordinary numbers of the English nobility thronged +to London, in order to see the King, who took up his residence at +Greenwich. It is computed that there were 10,000 people at court. +James felt infinitely happy amidst the homage which clergy and laity +vied with one another in rendering him. + +NOTES: + +[296] M'Crie, Life of Andrew Melville, ch. iii. + +[297] In a memoir in the Barberini Library, 'De praesenti Scotiae +statu in iis quae ad religionem spectant brevissima narratio,' it is +said, 'supra hominum opinionem auctus est Catholicorum numerus.' + +[298] Abstract of Randolph's instructions, from his own pen (Strype, +Annals iii. i. 442): 'Nothing shall be done prejudicial to the King's +title, but the same to pass by private assurance from Her Majesty to +the King.' + +[299] Tractatus foederis et arctioris amicitiae. Rymer vi. 4. Randolph +says, 'Three were the causes (of the alliance), viz. the noblemen, the +money, and the assurance.' Strype iii. i. 568. + +[300] Courcelles, in Tytler vii. 333. + +[301] Slangen, Geschichte Christians iv. i. 117. Chytraeus, Saxonia +864, 870. Cp. Melvil, Memoires, 175. + +[302] Thirlstane to Burleigh, Aug. 13, 1590. In Tytler ix. 49. + +[303] Lord Burleigh's speech in the House of Lords, Strype, Annals iv. +192. According to the 'Narratio de rebus Scoticis,' the Scottish +magnates were the first movers. + +[304] James to Elizabeth. 'The sayde rebellis hadd so travelled by +indirect means with everie nobleman, as quhen I feld thaier +myndis--thay plainlie--refusid to yeild to any forfaiture.' 19 Sept. +1593. In Bruce, Letters of Queen Elizabeth and King James VI of +Scotland, 87. + +[305] Calderwood, v. 440. 'As to the wisdom of your counsell, which I +call devilish and pernicious, it is this: that yee must be served with +all sorts of men to come to your purpose and grandour Jew and Gentile, +Papist and Protestant. And becaus the ministers and protestants in +Scotland are over strong and controll the king they must be weakenned +and brought low.' + +[306] The tumult in Edinburgh, in Calderwood v. 511. + +[307] In James Melville's Diary (p. 383) an act is mentioned with the +date of January 1597, 'discharging the ministers stipends that wald +not subscryve a Band acknawlaging the king to be only judge in matters +of treassone or uther civill and criminall causses committed be +preatching, prayer or what way so ever--Thair was keipit a frequent +convention of esteates wharin war maid manie strange and seveire +actes.' + +[308] So Crichton informs the Venetian secretary, Scaramelli, July 10, +1603. + +[309] With regard to the offers brought by Ogilvy to Spain this has +been undeniably proved on the evidence of another Jesuit. Winwood i. + +[310] He expressed to her an 'humble desire that I would banish from +mynde any evill opinion or doupt of your sincerity to me.' (Dec. 2, +1601, in Bruce.) + +[311] 'Breve relazione di quanto si e trattato tra S. Sta ed il re +d'Inghilterra.' MS. Rom. From no other quarter moreover is any direct +proof adduced of a promise of toleration properly so called. + +[312] The abbot of Kinloss told the Venetian secretary, 'che il re si +trova obligatissimo col pontefice, chiamandolo veramente Clemente, +perche per istanze che sono state piu volte fatte a S. Bene da +principi, non ha voluto mai dishonorarlo con divenire ad +escommunicatione di sua persona, e che percio S. M. desirera di +corresponderle, aggiungendo che i catolici mentre staranno quieti et +honestamente occulti non saranno cercati ne perseguitati.' +(Scaramelli, 8 Maggio, 1603.) + +[313] Scaramelli, from the lips of one of the King's agents, March 27. + +[314] Scaramelli (April 12) alludes to a declaration from the King, +'Per la conservatione della religione in che vive essa citta e regno. +Questo aviso,' he proceeds, 'ha reso sicuri gli heretici.' In +Halliwell, Letters of the Kings of England ii. 97, there is a letter +from the King to the same effect addressed to his agent Hambleton, the +contents of which were probably divulged at the moment. + +[315] Scaramelli, April 17, 'Dicendosi che lasciando i nomi di uno e +l'altro regno habbia qualche intentione di chiamarsi re della Gran +Bretagna per abbracciar con un solo nome ad imitatione di quel antico +e famoso re Arturo tutto quello che gira il spatio di 1700 miglia +unito.' + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FIRST MEASURES OF THE NEW REIGN. + + +How often in former times, when England was in the midst of great and +glorious undertakings, had the Scots, who feared lest they themselves +should be subjected to the power of their neighbours, taken the side +of the enemy and obstructed the victory! Even the last wars might have +taken quite a different course had Scotland made common cause with +Spain. It was this connexion between the two kingdoms which made union +with Scotland a political necessity for England. Ralegh describes this +union under the present circumstances as no less fortunate for England +than the blending of the Red and White Rose had been, as the most +advantageous of all the means of growth which were open to her. + +The kingdom of Scotland, like that of England, had extended the +supremacy of the Teutonic over the Keltic races, for these two +elements formed the main constituents of both kingdoms. The German in +conflict with the Keltic race had developed its character and energy. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1603.] + +The Orkney Islands, to which Scotland asserted its claim even against +the kindred race of the Norwegians, and the Hebrides, which were +reputed the home of warriors of extraordinary bravery, were now united +in one kingdom with the Channel Islands, which still remained in the +possession of England from the days of the old connexion between the +Normans of Normandy and that country. The Gael of Scotland, the +Gwythel of Erin--and the Irish still appear in most records as +savages--the Cymry of Wales and their Cornish kinsmen, who still spoke +their old language, now appeared as subjects of the same sceptre. The +accession of James to the throne exercised an immediate influence on +Ireland. Tyrone, the O'Neil, threw aside the agreement which the +Queen's ministers had concluded with him against their will, thinking +that he no longer required it, since the right heir had ascended the +throne. The people seemed willing to espouse the cause of the new King +as that of the native head of their race, and a genealogy was +concocted in which his descent was traced to the old Milesian kings. +The whole circuit of the British Isles was united under the name of +Stuart. As a hundred years before the last great province of France +had been gradually united to the French crown, and even within human +memory Portugal, like the other provinces of the Spanish peninsula, +had been added to the crown of Spain, so now a united Britain was +formed side by side with these two great powers. James himself noticed +the resemblance, and a proud feeling of self-confidence filled his +breast, when he reflected that the change had been made without the +help of arms, as if by the force of the internal necessity of things. +Just as formerly the claim to universal supremacy together with the +spread of the Church had greatly increased the importance of the +Papacy, so now the claim to hereditary right possessed by James seemed +to him of immeasurable value, for by it he had won so great and +coveted a prize: it appeared to him the expression of the will of God. + +Surprise might be felt that France, which for several centuries had +exercised a ruling influence on Scotland, and which in this union of +the two crowns might have seen a disadvantage if not a danger for +herself, allowed it to take place without obstruction. This conduct +may be explained principally by the violent opposition which existed +between Henry IV and Spain even after the peace of Vervins, and by the +hostile influence incessantly exercised by that power upon the +internal relations of his kingdom, in the pacification of which he was +still engaged. It would have been dangerous for Henry himself to +revive the hatred between England and Scotland, which could only have +redounded to the advantage of his foes. + +James I however did not intend, and could not be expected to occupy +exactly the same position as his predecessor. If he had adopted her +views, yet this was a compliance exacted from him by a regard to the +succession: he had felt that it was wrung from him. It is +intelligible, and he did not attempt to disguise the fact, that he +felt the death of Elizabeth to be in some sense his emancipation. He +avoided appearing at her obsequies; every word showed that he did not +love to recall her memory. In London people thought to please him by +getting rid of the likenesses of the glorious Queen, and replacing +them by those of his mother. The first matter which was submitted to +him whilst still in Scotland, and which engaged him on the journey and +immediately after his arrival, was the question whether he should +proceed with the war which Elizabeth had planned; whether in fact he +should continue her general policy. Henry IV sent without delay one of +his most distinguished statesmen, who was moreover a Protestant, +Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, as Ambassador Extraordinary; and +Sully did not neglect to explain to the King the plan of an alliance +between the States of Europe under the lead of France, that should be +able to cope with the Austro-Spanish power, a plan which Sully had +entertained all his life. James gave the ambassador, as he wished, a +private audience in a retired chamber of his palace at Greenwich, +asked many questions, and listened with attention, for he loved +far-reaching schemes; but he was far from intending to embark on them. +As he had reached the throne without arms, so he wished to maintain +himself there by peaceful means.[316] It was natural that the Queen, +who had been excommunicated by the Pope, and had carried on a war for +life and death with the Spanish crown, should have intended to renew +the struggle with all her might: such designs suited her personal +position; but his own was different. Deeply penetrated by the idea of +legitimacy, he even hesitated whether he should support the +Netherlanders, who after all, in his judgment, were only rebels. To +the remark that it would be a loss for England herself if the taking +of Ostend, then besieged by the Spaniards, were not prevented, he +replied by asking unconcernedly whether this place had not belonged +in former times to the Spanish crown, and whether the English trade +had not flourished there for all that. In these first moments of his +reign however the difficulties of his government were already brought +into view, together with the opposition between different tendencies +latent in it. If he was unwilling to continue the policy of his +predecessor, yet he could not absolutely renounce it: there were +pledges which he could not break, interests which he could not +neglect. In order to meet his objections the argument employed by +Elizabeth was adduced, that she supported the Provinces only because +the agreements, in virtue of which they had submitted themselves to +the house of Burgundy, had been first broken by the other side.[317] +The King's tone of mind was such that this argument may well have had +an effect upon him. At last he consented to bestow further assistance, +although only indirectly. He conceded that one half of the sum which +Henry IV paid to the States General should be subtracted from the +demands which England had against France, and should be employed by +the Netherlanders in recruiting in the English dominions. By this +expedient he intended to satisfy the terms of the old alliance between +England and the Provinces, and yet not be prevented from coming to an +agreement with Spain. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1604.] + +The ambassador of the Archduke and the Infanta, the Duke of Aremberg, +was already in the country, but he was afflicted with gout and +somewhat averse to transact business in writing; and nothing more than +general assurances of friendship were exchanged. In October 1603 one +of the Spanish envoys, Don Juan de Tassis, Count of Mediana, made his +appearance. Astonishment was created when, on his entrance into the +hall where the assembled Court awaited him, he advanced into the +middle of the room before he uncovered his head. He spoke Spanish; the +King answered in English: an interpreter was required between them, +although they were both masters of French. But however imperfect +their communications were, they yet came to an understanding. The King +and the ambassador agreed in holding that all grounds for hostility +between Spain and England had disappeared with the death of Queen +Elizabeth. + +After a fresh and long delay--for the Spaniards would have preferred +to transfer the conference to some town on the continent--negotiations +were first seriously undertaken in May 1604, and then after all in +England. The affairs of the Netherlands formed the principal subject +of discussion. + +The King of Spain demanded that the King of England should abstain +from assisting his rebellious subjects. The English explained the +reason why the United Netherlanders were not considered rebels. The +Spaniards demanded that the fortresses at least, which the Provinces +had formerly surrendered to the Queen as a security for the repayment +of the loan made by her, should be restored to their lawful owner the +King, who would not fail to repay the money advanced. King James +answered that he was tied by the pledges of the Queen, and that he +must maintain his word and honour.[318] The Spaniards on this started +the proposal that the English on their part should break off their +traffic with the United Provinces. The English replied that this would +be most injurious to themselves. In these transactions James was +mainly guided by the consideration that, if he decidedly threw off the +Provinces, he would be giving them over into the hands of France, to +the most serious injury of England, and without advantage to Spain. On +this account principally he thought that he was obliged to maintain +his previous relations with them. The English found a very +characteristic reason for peace with Spain in the wish to restore +their old commercial connexion with that country. The Spaniards were +ready to make this concession, but only within the ancient limits, +from which the trade with both the Indies was excluded. They argued +that their government did not allow this even to all its own subjects; +how then could foreigners be admitted to a share in it? Cecil on this +remarked that England by its insular position was adapted for trading +with the whole world, and could not possibly allow these regions to be +closed against her; that she already had relations with countries on +which no Spaniard had ever set foot, and that a wide field for further +discoveries was still open. At no price would he allow his countrymen +to be again excluded from America or the East Indies, to which +countries they had just begun to extend their voyages.[319] + +The peace which was at length brought about is remarkable for its +indefiniteness. The English promised that they would not support the +rebellious subjects and enemies of the King of Spain; and it was +arranged that an unrestricted trade should again be opened with all +countries, with which it had been carried on before the war. At the +first glance this looked as if any further alliance with Holland, as +well as the navigation to the Indies, was rendered impossible. The +Venetian envoy once spoke with King James on the subject, who answered +that it would soon be shown that this opinion was erroneous. In fact, +as soon as the first ships returned from the East Indies, preparations +were at once made for a second expedition. The States General were not +interfered with in the enlistment which they had been allowed to +begin; for it was maintained that they could not be included under the +term rebellious subjects. The only difference made was that similar +leave to enlist in the English dominions was granted to the Spaniards +also, who for that purpose resorted especially to Ireland. In this way +the peace exactly expressed the relations into which England was +thrown by the change of government. James, who for his own part would +have wished simply to renew the friendly relations which had formerly +existed, found himself compelled to stipulate for exceptions owing to +the form which the interests of England had now assumed. The Spaniards +allowed them, because even on these terms the termination of the war +was of the greatest advantage to them, and they did not surrender the +hope of changing the peace into a full alliance later on, although +their proposals to that effect were in the first instance declined. + +And notwithstanding any ambiguity which might arise as to the scope of +the treaty with regard to individual questions, the conclusion of +peace was in itself of great importance: it implied a change of policy +which created the greatest stir. It affected the United Provinces and +filled them with anxiety, for in their judgment not only was the +action of Spain against them no longer fettered, but the Spanish +ambassador in England was sure in time by means of gold and intrigues +to acquire an influence which must be fatal to them. + +The King thought that he had achieved a great success. His intention +was to be as fully acknowledged by the Catholic powers as by the +Protestant; to occupy a neutral position between those who were +favourable, and those who were opposed, to Spain, and to live in peace +with all, without however losing sight of the interests of England. +Men could not be blind to the correspondence between this policy and +the general tendency of these times. From the epoch of the Absolution +of Henry IV and the overthrow of the League, the separation between +religious and political interests had begun. Men on either side no +longer regarded the ascendancy of Spain as a support or as a danger to +religion. The Spanish government itself under the guidance of the Duke +of Lerma acquired a peaceful character. Thus King James was made happy +by seeing embassies from the Catholic states arrive in England. Not +until he stood between the two parties did he feel himself to be in +truth a king, and to surpass his predecessor. + +This sovereign assumed a similar attitude towards the Catholics of +England as well. He could not vouchsafe to them a real toleration; but +a few months after his arrival in England he actually carried out what +he had already promised, an alleviation of those burdens which weighed +most heavily on them. The most grievous was the fine collected every +month from those who refused to take part in the Protestant service. +James declared to an assemblage of leading Catholics, that he would +not enforce this fine so long as they behaved quietly, and did not +show contempt towards himself and the State. The Catholics reminded +him that their absence from the service of the Church might be +interpreted as contempt. He assured them that he would not regard it +in this light. The fines, which in late years had amounted to more +than L10,000, decreased in the year 1603 to L300, and in 1604 to L200. +The King, like his predecessor, would not tolerate Jesuits and +Seminarists, but he was content with their banishment; it would have +been contrary to his temper to have had them executed. He sought to +avoid all the consequences that must have been provoked by the +hostility of this element which was still so powerful in the world at +large and among his own subjects. + +But even within the domain of Protestantism he was now encountered by +a similar problem. + +The investigation of the influence which the Scots and English have +exercised on one another in the last few centuries would be a task of +essential importance for the history of intellectual life; for in the +development of the prevailing spirit of the nation the Scots as well +as the English have had a large share. Even under Elizabeth these +relations had begun to exist. The growth of English Puritanism +especially, which had already given the Queen much trouble, must be +regarded as but the dissemination of the forms and ideas that had +arisen in the Church of Scotland. But how much stronger must the +action of this cause have become now that a Scottish king had ascended +the English throne! The union between two populations which so nearly +resembled one another in their original composition, and in the +direction taken by their religious development, could not be a merely +territorial union: it must lead to the closest relation between the +spirit of the two peoples. + +It was natural from the state of the case, that on the accession of a +Scottish king in England the English clergy who leaned to the Scottish +system should embrace the hope of being emancipated to some extent +from that strict subordination to their bishops which they endured +with reluctance. On the first arrival of James, whilst he was still on +his way to London, they laid before him an address signed by eight +hundred of the clergy, in which they besought him, in accordance with +God's word, to lighten the rigour of this jurisdiction and of their +condition in general, and in the first place to allow them to set +before him the feasibility of the alteration. They had nourished the +hope that the King might be prevailed on to reduce the English +episcopate to the level of the Scottish, in the shape in which he had +just restored it.[320] + +But the tendencies which the King brought with him out of Scotland ran +in an altogether different direction. He had often been personally +affronted by the Presbyterians: he hated their system; for in his +opinion equality in the Church necessarily led to equality in the +State. His intention was rather by degrees to develop further on the +English model those beginnings of episcopacy which he had introduced +into Scotland. In December 1603 he convened, as the Puritans wished, +an assembly of the Church at Hampton Court, to which he also invited +the leading men among the opponents of uniformity. But he opened the +conference at once with a thanksgiving to Almighty God 'for bringing +him into the promised land where religion was purely professed, where +he sat among grave, learned, and reverend men, not, as before, +elsewhere, a king without state, without honour, without order, where +beardless boys would brave him to his face.' He declared that the +government of the English Church had been approved by manifold +blessings from God himself; and he said that he had not called this +assembly in order to make innovations in the same, but in order to +strengthen it by the removal of some abuses. In the conference which +he opened he held the office of moderator himself. Certainly the +suggestions of the Puritans were not altogether without result. When +they expressed the wish to see the Sunday more strictly observed, to +have a trustworthy and faithful translation of the Bible provided, and +to have the Apocrypha excluded from the canonical scriptures, they met +with a favourable reception; but the King would neither allow the +confessions of faith to be tampered with, nor the ceremonies which had +been brought under discussion to undergo the least diminution. He +thought that they were older than the Papacy, that the decision of +deeper questions of doctrine ought to be left to the discussion of the +Universities, and that the articles of the faith would only be +encumbered by them. And every limitation of episcopal authority he +entirely refused to discuss. The bishops themselves were amazed at the +zeal with which the King espoused the cause of ecclesiastical +jurisdiction, and allowed their justification of it even on a point of +great importance for the constitution, the imposition of the oath _ex +officio_.[321] They even exclaimed that God had bestowed on them a +king, the like of whom had not been seen from the beginning of the +world. It had been the intention and custom of other princes to limit +the jurisdiction of the clergy, and to diminish their possessions. How +much had they suffered from this even under Elizabeth! On the contrary +it was one of the first endeavours of James I to put an end for ever +to these attacks. For as in Scotland the abolition of bishoprics had +been attended with a diminution of the authority of the crown, he had +reason to be deeply convinced of the identity of episcopal and +monarchical interests. In the heat of the conference at Hampton Court +he laid down as his principle, 'No bishop no king.' + +But in all this did King James fall in with the spirit of the English +constitution? Did he not rather at this point intrude into it the +sharpness of his Scottish prejudices? The old statesmen of England had +acknowledged the services of the English Puritans in saving the +Protestant confession in the struggle with Catholicism. The Puritans +only wished not to be oppressed. He confounded them altogether with +their Scottish co-religionists with whom he had had to contend for +the sovereignty of the realm. + +In less than two months from the Hampton Court Conference the Book of +Common Prayer was re-issued with some few alterations, with regard to +which the King expressly stated that they were the only alterations +which were to be expected; for that the safety of states consisted in +clinging fast to what had been ordained after good consideration. This +was soon followed by a new collection of ecclesiastical laws, in the +shape which they had taken under the deliberations of Convocation. In +them the royal supremacy was insisted on in the strongest terms, and +that over the whole kingdom, Scotland included. The same competence +with regard to the Church was therein assigned to the King which had +belonged to the pious kings of Judah and to the earliest Christian +emperors: their authority was declared to be second only to that of +Heaven. Henceforward no one was to be ordained without promising to +observe the Book of Common Prayer and to acknowledge the +supremacy.[322] And this statute had a retrospective application, even +to those who were already in possession of an ecclesiastical benefice. +The King and Archbishop Bancroft ordered that a short respite should +be given to those who were inclined to acquiesce; but that those who +made a decided resistance should without further ceremony be deprived +of their benefices. + +On this the whole body of Puritans necessarily became agitated. A +number of clergymen sought out the King at Royston in December 1604. +While they announced to him their decision rather to resign their +benefices than to submit to these ordinances, they called his +attention to the danger to which the souls of the faithful would be +subjected by this severity. In February a petition in favour of those +ministers who refused to subscribe was presented to the King by some +of the gentry of Northamptonshire. He expressed himself about this +with great vehemence at a sitting of the Privy Council. He said that +he had from his cradle suffered at the hands of these Puritans a +persecution which would follow him to his grave. But in England the +tribunals were quite ready to come to his assistance. In the Star +Chamber it was declared a proceeding of seditious tendency to assail +the King with joint petitions in a matter of religion. + +Towards the end of February 1605 the bishops cited the clergy of +Puritan views to appear at St. Paul's in London in order to take the +oath. There were some members of this party who held it lawful to +conform to the Anglican Church because it at least acknowledged the +true doctrine. These had time for reflection given them; the rest who +persevered in an opposition of principle were deprived of their +offices without delay. + +These proceedings for the first time recalled most vividly to men's +minds the memory of the late Queen. People said that, though she +disliked the Puritans, she had never consented to persecute them on +religious grounds, for that she well knew how much she owed to them in +every other respect. They saw a proof of the King's incapacity in his +departure from her example and pattern. They thought him to blame for +remitting in favour of Catholic recusants the execution of the penal +laws enrolled among the statutes of the realm. And the foreign policy +of the King awakened no less disapproval. It was felt as an injury, +that he had put an end by the peace to the hostilities against Spain, +which had now become even popular. Even the severe edicts issued +against the piracy, which had found support in different quarters, +produced in many places an unfavourable impression. The King was +obliged to compensate the admiral for the losses which he affirmed +that he had suffered in consequence.[323] And how much greater were +the apprehensions for the future which were connected with this +policy! It was remarked that he sacrificed the interests of religion +and of the country to those of the Catholics and the Catholic powers. + +But there was now an organ of political opposition in the country in +which all these hostile feelings found their expression. The +resentment of injured interests, the resistance of the Puritans, and +the excitement of the capital, impressed themselves on the Parliament. + +All previous governments had exercised a systematic influence upon the +election of members of the Lower House, and had encroached on their +freedom. When the first elections under King James were about to be +held he declared himself against the exercise of any such influence. +He ordered that the elections should be conducted with freedom and +impartiality, without regard to the bidding of any one and without the +interference of strangers; and that the electors should be allowed to +return the most deserving candidates in each county. He thought that, +as he avoided unpopular measures, men would voluntarily meet his +wishes. It appeared to him sufficient, if, in issuing the writs, he +coupled with them the admonition to avoid all party spirit, and +especially to abstain from electing such as from blind superstition on +the one hand, or from fickleness or restlessness on the other, wished +to disturb the uniformity of religion.[324] But in politics personal +gratitude is only a feeble motive. The elections followed the current +of opinion which had been set in motion by the Hampton Court +Conference. In the very first Parliament of King James many Puritans +obtained entrance into the House: the new line which this Parliament +struck out influenced the whole subsequent period. + +The speech with which King James opened the session on the 19th of +March 1604, immediately before the conclusion of the first year of his +reign, has been often and often reproduced. It is full of the ideas +with which his mind was principally occupied, of the union of both +kingdoms in one great whole, and of the establishment of religious +uniformity. He thought that in neither of the two kingdoms ought the +memory of their special privileges to be kept alive, for they were +pure monarchies from the first: no privilege could separate them from +their head. He explicitly called the Puritans an ochlocratic sect. + +It is extraordinary that, while he sought to win men's affections, it +was his fortune to use expressions which were sure to provoke the +strongest religious and political antipathies. + +Parliament acknowledged his succession to be rightful and lawful, and +granted to him, as to his predecessors, tonnage and poundage, i.e. the +right of levying customs, for his life: it arranged according to his +wishes for the withdrawal of many sentences which had been pronounced +against his interest; but in other matters it offered him from the +very first persistent opposition. Contrary to what might have been +expected, the first point concerned the validity of the elections. + +In Buckinghamshire the King's officers had annulled an election on the +ground of illegality, and had held a second. The Lower House found +that this was improper, on the ground that the right of deciding in +matters concerning the election of representatives belonged from +ancient times to the House of Commons alone. They declined to confer +on this subject with the Privy Council, or with the Upper House. +Ill-will and jealousy were excited against those of higher rank who +had wished to bring one of their own party into the House of Commons, +and the tempers of the members seemed to be becoming no little +inflamed. At last, by the personal mediation of the King,[325] the +Lower House was induced to allow both of the elected candidates to be +unseated, and a third to be elected in their place. Even this it +agreed to reluctantly; but it was at least its own resolution, and not +the result of official influence: and the Speaker issued his writ for +a new election. One of the foremost principles of parliamentary life, +that the scrutiny of elections belonged to the Parliament alone, was +in this manner indubitably established afresh. + +Even his ideas on the union of the two kingdoms, which were nearest to +his heart, were shared by few members of the Lower House; and he was +obliged to raise the question by a new and urgent address. A +commission of both Houses was indeed nominated to deliberate together +with the Scots on the execution of the plan. The commission however +was so numerous, and so large a number was required to be actually +present for the transaction of business, that it was evident +beforehand that no result would be achieved; especially as it was +confidently to be expected that the Scots would appoint just as +numerous a commission on their side.[326] And the King was already +aware that the opposition against him was not confined to the Lower +House, but in this matter at least was most widely diffused. The +proclamation was already drawn up by which he intended to declare +himself King of Great Britain. The judges were consulted by the Upper +House, but their sentence favoured the view that this alteration could +not take place without disadvantage to the State. + +The grant of a subsidy was most urgently needed by the King, whose +purse had been emptied by the expenses of taking possession and by his +prodigality; but the tone of feeling was so unfavourable that he +forbore to apply for it, as he would not expose himself to a refusal +which was certain beforehand. + +A petition in favour of some indulgence for the Puritans was drawn up +in complete opposition to the King's views, although it seems not to +have been carried through or sent in. A rigorous bill against the +Jesuits and recusants on the other hand actually passed through the +House. Lord Montague, who spoke against it, was brought before the +House of Lords to answer for some expressions which he used on that +occasion, and which savoured of Catholic principles. + +It is quite clear that the very first Parliament of King James set +itself systematically in opposition to him. He desired union, +clemency to the Catholics, and punishment of the Puritans; and he +required subsidies: on all these subjects an opposite view prevailed +in Parliament. And the divergence was not confined to single points. +The maintenance of that extended prerogative which had been once +established, had been endured under a sovereign who was a native of +the country, had deserved well of her subjects, and was thoroughly +English in her sentiments. But similar pretensions appeared +insufferable in a king of foreign birth, who pursued ideas that were +British rather than English, or rather who had combined for himself a +number of tendencies arising out of the position in which, grand as it +was, he stood alone among English sovereigns. We perceive that by this +time the notion had been definitely formed of reviving the rights of +Parliament which had fallen into abeyance in the late reigns.[327] +Even under the Tudors Parliament had exercised a very considerable +influence, but had more or less submitted to the ruling powers. Under +the new government it thought of winning back the authority which it +had wrung from more than one Plantagenet, and had possessed under the +house of Lancaster. Already members were heard to assert that the +legislative power lay in their hands; and that, if the King refused to +approve the laws for which they demanded his sanction, they would +refuse him the subsidies which he needed. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1605.] + +And this resolution was strengthened by the ill-feeling which the +treatment of the Puritan ministers excited. The Parliament had been +adjourned from August 1604 until February 1605: but the King feared +that these clergymen, who had been assailed just at that time, might +apply to the Lower House in which so many Puritans had seats.[328] He +therefore prorogued it afresh in the hope of getting rid of certain +persons who were especially hostile, or of bringing them over to his +own side. + +Instead of this, new grievances were constantly accumulating. In the +absence of regular subsidies the King helped himself to money by a +voluntary loan, which gave great offence, and in this matter also led +people to contrast the late Queen's conduct with that of James. She +had, so people said, conducted the war in Spain, afforded help to the +Netherlands, and maintained garrisons on the Scottish border, three +measures which had cost her millions; of all this there was no mention +under the present King. On the contrary he had additional revenues +from Scotland; for what reason did he require extraordinary +subsidies?[329] Men complained of his movements to and fro in the +country, and of the harshness with which the right of the court to +transport and cheap entertainment on these occasions was enforced; of +his hunting, by which the tillage was injured; most of all, of his +intended advancement of the Customs Duties, for this would damage +trade and certainly would benefit only the great men who were +interested in the farming of the Customs. The King had once thought of +dissolving Parliament, but afterwards renounced the idea. As it was, +when Parliament was summoned for November 1605, a stormy session lay +before it, owing to the attack made by the Parliamentary and Puritan +party upon the behaviour of the King in ecclesiastical and political +questions, as well as upon the financial disorder which was gaining +ground. + +An event intervened which gave an entirely different direction to the +course of affairs. + +NOTES: + +[316] Economies royales v. 23. + +[317] Molino, Giugno 9, 1604: 'Se ben e vero, ch'erano suddite del re +di Spagna, e anco verissimo, che quei popoli si erano soggettati alla +casa di Borgogna--con quelle conditioni e capitoli, che si sa: i quali +se fossero stati osservati dalli ministri di Spagna, senza dubio quei +popoli non se sariano ribellati. Da queste parole restarono li +Spagnoli offesi.' + +[318] Cecil to Winwood, June 13. 'That he is tied by former contracts +of his predecessors, which he must observe. + +[319] From the reports of the French ambassador, in Siri, Memorie +recondite i. 278. + +[320] Letter from the South (Winchester) to Berwick, in Calderwood vi. +235. 'I would the scotish presbytereis would be petitioners that our +bishops might be like theirs in autoritie though they keep their +livings. The King is resolved to have a preaching ministry.' + +[321] The High Commission was compared with the Inquisition: 'men are +urged to subscribe more than law requireth and by the oath _ex +officio_ forced to accuse themselves.' The archbishop answered that +this was a mistake: 'if the article touch the party for life, liberty, +or scandall, he may refuse to answer.' State Trials ii. 86. The +account in Wilkins iv. 374 is more unsatisfactory than the character +of the book would lead us to expect. + +[322] Art. 36: 'Neminem nisi praevia trium articulorum subscriptione +ordinandum'. + +[323] Duodo relates (Dec. 6, 1603) that the King said to him: 'Che +dubita, che li suoi capitani di mare siano alquanti interessati che +anzi, e mostro di dirlo in gran confidenza era stato necessitato +assegnar non so che provisione del suo proprio denaro all'Amiraglio; +perche si doleva di non poterse sostentare per esserli mancato alcun +utile di questa natura.' + +[324] 'The choice to be made freely and indifferentlye without respect +of any commaunde sute prayer or other meanes to the contrary.' From a +memorandum of the Lord Chancellor Egerton, Egerton Papers 385. Molino, +May 12, 1604: 'Stimo il re che il concedere la liberta alle provincie +di poter far elettione degli huomini per mandar al parlamento conforme +agli antichi privilegi del regno et il non haver voluto osservare li +molti tratti delli precessori suoi che non avrebbero permesso che la +elettione cadesse in altre persone che in suoi confidenti e +dipendenti, dovesse disponer gli animi di ogn'uno a sodisfarlo e +compiacerlo.' + +[325] Molino: 'Havendo voluto troncar l'occasione di qualche maggior +scandalo; perche di gia li sangui si andavano riscaldando molto.' + +[326] Molino (Dispaccio 19 Maggio) states this reason. + +[327] Molino: 'Parlando molto liberamente della liberta e della +autorita del parlamento in vista pero sempre degli antichi privilegi, +quali erano andati in desuetudine e se saranno reassonti--senza dubio +sera un detrimento dell'autorita e potesta regia.' (12 Maggio.) + +[328] Molino: 'Dubitando che quando li capi di questa setta facessero +qualche moto al parlamento, dove ne sono tanti di questa professione, +potesse nascer qualche inconveniente.'(20 Oct. 1604.) + +[329] Molino: 'Queste cose vanno spargendo quelli che han poco volunta +di sodisfar alli desideri di S. M. che per se ne sta molto dubiosa.' +(3 Nov. 1605.) + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GUNPOWDER PLOT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +James I was welcomed, if one may say so, by a conspiracy on his +entrance into England. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1603.] + +Two men of rank, Markham and Brook, who had before held communications +with him, and had cherished bright expectations, but found themselves +passed over in the composition of the new government, now imagined +that they might rise to the highest offices if they could succeed in +detaching the King from those who surrounded him, and in getting him +into their own hands, perhaps within the walls of the Tower or even in +Dover Castle. They conspired for this object with some Catholic +priests, who could not forgive the King for having deceived their +expectations of a declaration of toleration at the commencement of his +reign. They intended to call out so great a number of Catholics ready +for action, that there could be no doubt of the successful issue of a +coup-de-main. A priest was then to receive the Great Seal and above +all things to issue an edict of toleration. We are reminded of the +combination under Essex, when even some Puritans offered their +assistance in an undertaking directed against the government. One of +their leaders, Lord Grey de Wilton, a young man of high spirit and +hope, was now induced to join the plot. But on this occasion the +Catholics were the predominant element. The priests thought that the +pretence of the necessity of supporting the King against the effect of +a Puritan rising would best contribute to set the zealous Catholics in +motion; and it is undeniable that other persons of high rank were also +connected with these intrigues. The principal opponents of Cecil and +his friends, whose hostile influence on Elizabeth had at an earlier +period been feared by the minister, were Lord Cobham, the brother of +Brook, and Sir Walter Ralegh. Cobham, who like most others had looked +for the overthrow of Cecil on the accession of the King, fell into an +ungovernable fit of disappointed ambition when Cecil was more strongly +confirmed in his position; and his anger was directed against the King +himself, from whom he now had nothing to expect, and who had brought +with him a family which made the hope of any further alteration appear +impossible. He had let fall the expression in public that the fox and +his cubs must be destroyed at one blow. Negotiations, aiming at the +renewal of the Lady Arabella's claims, had been opened with the +ambassador of the Archduke, who then perhaps felt anxiety lest King +James, under the influence of Cecil, should adhere to the policy of +his predecessor. In order to effect a revolution, Cobham launched into +extravagant schemes which embraced all Europe. + +The affair might have been dangerous, if a man of the activity, +weight, and intelligence of Walter Ralegh had taken part in it. Ralegh +does not deny that Cobham had spoken to him on the subject, but he +affirms that he had not heeded the idle words, and had even forgotten +them again:[330] and in fact nothing has been brought to light which +proves his complicity, or even his remote participation, in this plot. +Still without doubt he was among the opponents of the government. If +it is true, as people say, that he made an attempt by means of a +letter to the King to procure the fall of Cecil, it is easily +conceivable that the latter and his friends availed themselves of +every opportunity to involve him in the accusation. Ralegh defended +himself with so much courage and vigour, that the listeners who had +come wishing to see him condemned went away with a tenfold stronger +desire that he might be acquitted. He himself did not deny that he +might be condemned by the cruel laws of England: he reminded the King +however of a passage in the old statutes, in which for that very +reason mercy and pity were recommended to him. The accused were all +condemned. Brook and the priests paid the penalty of death: Markham, +Cobham, and Grey were reprieved when they were already standing on the +scaffold--reprieved moreover by an autograph mandate of James, which +was entirely due to an unexpected resolution of the King, who wished +to shine by showing mercy as well as by severity. The first of these +lived henceforward in exile: the second continued to live in England, +but weighed down by his disgrace: Grey and Walter Ralegh were +imprisoned in the Tower. We shall meet with Ralegh once more: he never +lost sight of the world, nor the world of him. + +This conspiracy which, although wrongly as we have seen, bears the +name of Ralegh, was an attempt to put an end in some way or other to +the government, in the shape in which it had been erected by the union +of English statesmen with the Scottish King. Its movers wished to +effect this object by getting rid either of the statesmen, or even of +the King himself. But on the contrary they only succeeded in +establishing the government so much the more firmly; and it then under +the joint influence of both its components entered on the course which +we have described. But if it was so seriously endangered at its +commencement, its progress also could not be free from hostile +attacks. The Puritans threw themselves into the ranks of the +Parliamentary Opposition. The Catholics were brought into a most +singular position. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1604.] + +In public they found themselves far better off under James than they +had been under Elizabeth. Far greater scope was allowed to the local +influence of Catholic magnates in protecting their co-religionists. +The penal laws, which as regards pecuniary payments were virtually +abolished, were moreover no longer vigorously enforced in any other +respect. Not only were the chapels of the Catholic ambassadors in the +capital numerously attended, but in some provinces, especially in +Wales, Catholic sermons were known to be delivered in the open air, +and attended by thousands of hearers.[331] At times the opinion +revived that the King was inclined to go over to Catholicism. He +repudiated the supposition with some show of indignation. But, as we +stated, the Queen incontestably sympathised with the Papacy. She even +refrained from attending the Anglican service, and formed relations +with the Nuncio in Paris, from whom she received communications and +presents. Though Pope Clement on a former occasion had issued breves +which made the obedience of Catholics to a new government dependent on +the profession of Catholicism by the sovereign, yet these were +virtually recalled by a later issue. When the English ambassador in +Paris complained to the Nuncio there of the above-mentioned +participation of Catholic priests in a conspiracy against the King, +the Nuncio laid before him a letter of the Pope's nephew, Cardinal +Aldobrandini, in which he declared it to be the Pope's pleasure that +the Catholics in England should be obedient to their king, and should +pray for him.[332] Thus it exactly fell in with the King's views to be +a Protestant, as was absolutely necessary for his authority in England +and Scotland, and yet at the same time not to have the Catholics +against him, and to be able to reckon the Pope of Rome among his +friends. + +It is evident that this state of affairs, as it was inconsistent with +the laws of England, could not be permanently maintained. Even men of +moderate views in other respects disapproved the middle course taken +by the King: for they thought it necessary to concede nothing to the +adherents of the Papacy, if they were to be saved from the necessity +of conceding everything. The Catholics desired a public declaration of +toleration. But this could only have emanated from Parliament: the +King had not the courage, and his ministers had not the wish, to make +a serious proposal to that effect. On the contrary, when the +Protestant spirit of the capital displayed itself so unmistakably in +consequence of the severities with which the Puritans were threatened, +the King and his Privy Council, while affirming that they were merely +executing the laws, announced their intention of introducing a like +severity in the treatment of the Catholics. James I appeared to feel +himself insulted if any one threw a doubt on his wish to allow the +laws to operate in both directions. And as the Parliament which was so +zealously Protestant was expected to reassemble in the autumn of 1605, +the laws against the Catholics began to be applied without +forbearance. A renewed persecution was first set on foot against the +priests, who it is true were not punished with death, at least in the +vicinity of the Court, but were thrown into prison, where they not +infrequently succumbed to the rough treatment which they had +undergone. But even the laity daily suffered more and more from the +violence of the spies who forced their way into their houses. They +complained loudly and bitterly of the insecurity of their position, +which had already gone so far that often no tenants could be found for +their farms; and they considered that the least evil, for to-day they +lost their possessions, to-morrow they would lose their freedom, and +the day after their life.[333] There had now for a long time been two +parties among them, one of which submitted to what was inevitable, +while the other offered a violent resistance. With the fresh increase +of oppression, the latter party obtained the upper hand. They mocked +at the hope, in which men indulged themselves, of a change of religion +on the part of the King, who on the contrary was in their view an +irreclaimable Protestant, and assumed an air of clemency to the +Catholics, only to draw the rein tighter hereafter. A brief from the +Pope exhorted them to acquiesce: but even the Pope could not persuade +them to allow themselves to be sacrificed without further ceremony. +Some of the most resolute once more applied to the Spanish court at +this time as they had done before. But in that quarter not only had +peace been concluded, but the hope of effecting a close alliance with +England had been conceived. A deaf ear was turned to all their +applications. + +While they were thus hard pressed and desperate, the thought of +helping themselves had, if not originated, at least ripened, in the +breast of one or two of the boldest of them. They conceived a plan +which in savage recklessness surpassed anything which was devised in +this epoch so full of conspiracies. + +Among the families which sheltered the mission-priests on their +arrival in England, and who were moved by them to throw off their +reserve in the profession of Catholicism, the Treshams and Catesbys +were especially prominent in Northamptonshire. They belonged to the +wealthiest and most important families in that county; and the penal +laws had borne upon them with especial severity. The Winters of +Huddington, who also were very zealous Catholics, were related to +them. It is easy to understand, how the young men who were growing up +in this family, such as Thomas Winter and Robert Catesby, +acknowledging no duty to the Protestant government, retorted the +oppression which they experienced from it with bold resistance and +schemes of violence. In these they were joined by two brothers of the +same way of thinking, John and Christopher Wright, stout and +soldier-like men, belonging to a family which came originally from +York. They all participated in the attempt of the Earl of Essex, for +above all things they were eager for the overthrow of the existing +government: and Robert Catesby was set at liberty only on payment of a +heavy fine, which he could hardly raise by the sale of one of the most +productive of the family estates. They were among those who, when +Queen Elizabeth lay on her death-bed, proclaimed most loudly their +desire for a thorough change, and were arrested in consequence.[334] +They had expected toleration at least from the new government: as this +was not granted them they set to work at once on new schemes of +insurrection. Christopher Wright was one of those who had invited +Philip III to support the Catholics. When the Constable of Castile +came to Flanders to negotiate the peace, Thomas Winter visited him in +order to lay their wish before him. Though they met with a refusal +from him as well as from his master they found nevertheless a support +which was independent of the approval of individuals. In the archducal +Netherlands a combination of a peculiar kind, favourable to their +views, had been formed, in consequence of the permission to recruit in +the British dominions, which by the terms of the peace had been +granted to Spain as well as to the Netherlands. An English regiment, +about fifteen hundred strong, had been raised, in which the chaplains +were all Jesuit fathers; and no officers were admitted but those who +were entirely devoted to them. An English Jesuit named Baldwin, and a +soldier of the same opinions, Owen by name, were the leading spirits +among them. There was here, so to speak, a school of soldiers side by +side with a school of priests, in which every act of the English +government provoked slander, malediction, and schemes of opposition. +Pope Clement was blamed for not threatening James with excommunication +as Elizabeth had formerly been threatened; and the necessity for +violent means of redress was canvassed without disguise. These views +were repeated in congenial circles in Paris and reacted also upon +their friends in England. Robert Catesby had been most active in the +enlistment of the regiment. Christopher Wright on his journey to Spain +was attended by one of the most resolute officers of this regiment, +Guy Fawkes. The latter returned with Winter to England, and was +pointed out by Owen as a man admirably qualified to conduct the +horrible undertaking which was being prepared for execution. It must +remain a question in whose head the thought of proceeding to it at +this moment originated: we only know that Catesby first communicated +it to another, and then with the aid of this comrade to the rest of +the band. To this another member had been added, who was connected, if +only in a remote degree, with one of the most distinguished families +among the English nobility. I refer to Thomas Percy, a kinsman of the +Earl of Northumberland, who through his influence had once received a +place in the court establishment of King James of Scotland, and had +then been the medium for forming a connexion between this prince and +the Catholics. He was enraged because the assurances which he then +thought that he might make to the Catholics in the name of the King, +had not been fulfilled by the latter. In the spring of 1604, just at +the time when the peace between England and Spain was concluded, by +which no stipulations were made for the Catholics, they met one day in +a lonely house near S. Clement's Inn, and bound themselves by a sacred +and solemn oath to inviolable secrecy. It had been their intention +once more to submit to the assembled Parliament an urgent petition in +the name of the Catholics: but the resolutions of the House had +sufficed to convince them that nothing could be gained by this step. +Quite the contrary: it was apparent that the next session would impose +far heavier conditions on them. An attack on the person of the King, +or of his ministers, in the shape in which it had so often been +resolved upon, could not do much even if it were successful: for the +Parliament was always in reserve with its Protestant majority to +establish anti-Catholic statutes, and the judges to execute them. +Catesby now disclosed a plan which comprehended all their opponents at +once. The King himself and his eldest son, the officers of state and +of the court, the lords spiritual and temporal, the members of the +House of Commons, one and all at the moment when they were collected +to reopen Parliament, were to be blown into the air with gunpowder in +the hall where they assembled--there where they issued the detested +laws were they to be annihilated; vengeance was to be taken on them at +the same time that room was to be made for another order of things in +Church and State. + +This project was not altogether new. Already under Elizabeth there had +been a talk of doing again to her what Bothwell had done or attempted +to do to Henry Darnley: but men had perceived even at that time that +this would not conduce to their purpose, and had hit upon a plan of +blowing the Queen and her Parliament into the air together. Henry +Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits, had been consulted on the +subject; and he had declared the enterprise lawful, and had only +advised them to spare as many of the innocent as possible in its +execution.[335] The scheme which had been started under Elizabeth was +resumed under King James, when men saw that his accession to the +throne did not produce the hoped-for change. On this occasion also +scruples were felt on the ground that many a Catholic would perish at +the same time. To a question on the subject submitted to him without +closer description of the case Garnet answered in the spirit of a +mufti delivering his fettah, that if an end were indubitably a good +one, and could be accomplished in no other way, it was lawful to +destroy even some of the innocent with the guilty.[336] Catesby had no +compassion even for the innocent: he regarded the lords generally as +only poltroons and atheists, whose place would be better filled by +vigorous men. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1605.] + +Without delay, before the end of December 1604, the conspirators +proceeded to make their preparations. Percy, who was still numbered +among the retainers of the court, hired a house which adjoined the +Houses of Parliament. They were attempting to carry a mine through the +foundation walls of that building--a design that says more for their +zeal than for their intelligence, and one which could hardly have been +effected--when a vault immediately under the House of Lords happened +to fall vacant, and, as they were able to hire it, offered them a far +better opportunity for the execution of their scheme. They filled it +with a number of powder-barrels which are said to have contained the +enormous quantity of 9,000 pounds of powder, and they confidently +expected to bring about the great catastrophe with all its horrors on +November 5, 1605, the day which after many changes had been appointed +for the opening of Parliament. Their intention was, as soon as the +King and the Prince of Wales had perished, to gain possession of the +younger prince or of the princess, and to place one or other on the +throne, with a regency under a protector during their minority.[337] +All preparations had been made for bringing an effective force into +the field; and its principal leaders were to assemble at Dunchurch in +Warwickshire under pretence of hunting. The English regiment in +Flanders was to be brought over and was to serve as the nucleus of a +new force. There is no doubt that Owen was thoroughly conversant with +their plans. Many other trustworthy people were admitted into the +secret, and supported the project with their money. One of these was +sent to Rome in order to convince the Pope of the necessity of the +undertaking and to move him to resolutions in support of it. On All +Saints' Day Father Garnet interrupted his prayer with a hymn of praise +for the deliverance of the inheritance of the faithful from the +generation of the ungodly. + +But warnings had already come to the government, especially from +Paris, where the priests of the Jesuit party ventured to express +themselves still more plainly than in London. The warning was conveyed +with the express intimation that 'somewhat is at present in hand among +these desperate hypocrites.'[338] What an impression must now have +been produced when one of the Catholic lords, who at an earlier period +had followed this party, but had for some time withdrawn from it, Lord +Mounteagle, communicated to the first minister a letter in which he +was admonished in mysterious language to hold aloof from the opening +of Parliament. It may be that the King, as he himself relates, in +deciphering the sense of a word hit upon the supposition that a fate +similar to that of his father was being prepared for him; or it may be +that the ministers had, as they affirm, come upon the traces of the +matter; but however this may have been, on the evening before the +opening of Parliament the vaults were examined, when not only were the +powder-barrels found among wood and faggots, but also one of the +conspirators, Guy Fawkes, who was busy with the last preparations for +the execution of the plot. With a smiling countenance he confessed his +purpose, which he seemed to regard as the fulfilment of a religious +duty. The pedantic monarch thought himself in the presence of a +fanatical Mutius Scaevola. + +The rest of the conspirators who were in London, alarmed by the +discovery, hastened to the appointed rendezvous at Dunchurch; but the +news which they brought with them caused general discouragement. With +a band of about one hundred men, they set off to make their escape to +Wales, the home of most of the Catholics, hoping to receive the +promised reinforcements and the support of the population on their +way. They once actually attempted to assure themselves of the latter; +but on declaring that they were for God and the country, they received +the answer that they ought also to be for the King. No one joined +them, and many of their comrades had already dispersed when they were +overtaken at Holbeach by the armed bands of Worcestershire under the +Sheriff. Percy and Catesby, as they stood back to back, were shot dead +by two balls from the same musket; the two Wrights were killed, and +Thomas Winter taken prisoner.[339] + +The authority of government triumphed over this most frantic attempt +to break through it, as it had triumphed in every similar case since +the time of Henry VII. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1606.] + +It was perhaps the most remarkable feature in this last, that it was +directed especially against the Parliament. During the Wars of the +Roses, it had only been necessary to drive the then reigning prince +out of the field, or to chase him away, in order to create a new +parliamentary rule. The attempts against Queen Elizabeth rested on the +hope of producing a similar result by her death: but it was apparent +in her last years that her death would be useless, and the +comparatively free elections after that event returned a Parliament of +the same character as the preceding. Even under the new reign the +Protestant party secured their ascendancy in the elections; and the +only possibility of an alteration for the future was to be found in +the annihilation of the Parliament, not so much of the institution--at +least this was not mooted--but of the men who composed it and gave it +its character. The violent attempt on the Parliament is a proof of its +power. The Gunpowder Plot was directed against the King, not in his +personal capacity as monarch, but as head of the legislative +authority. It was felt that this power itself with all its component +parts must be destroyed without scruple or mercy, if an order of +things in the State corresponding to the views of the hierarchical +party was ever again to obtain a footing. + +The necessary and inevitable result of the conspiracy was that +Parliament, which did not enter on the session until January 1606, +still further increased the existing severity of its laws. The great +body of Catholics had not in any way participated in the plot; but +yet, as it had originated among them, and was intended for the redress +of their common grievances, they were all affected by the reaction +which it produced. The Catholic recusants were to be subjected to the +former penalties: they were sentenced to exclusion from the palace and +from the capital; they were forbidden to hold any appointment in the +public service either in the administration of justice, or as +government officials, or even as physicians; they were obliged to open +their houses at any moment for examination; the solemnisation of their +marriages and the baptism of their children were henceforth to be +legal only if performed by Protestant clergymen. It is evident that +the Papal See would have preferred to restrain the agitation of the +Catholics at this juncture; but as the latter appealed to the +principle which had been impressed on them by their missionaries, that +men had no duties to a king who was a heretic, the Parliament thought +it necessary to impose on them an oath which concerned the authority +of their Church as well as that of the State. Not only were they to be +compelled to acknowledge the King as their legitimate prince, to +defend him against every conspiracy and every attack, even when made +under the pretext of religion, and to promise to reveal any such to +him; they must also renounce the doctrine that the authority of the +Church gave the Pope the right of deposing a king, and absolving his +subjects from their oath of allegiance; and they must condemn as +impious and heretical the doctrine that princes excommunicated by the +Pope could be dethroned or put to death by their subjects.[340] +Attention was directed to the English regiment in the service of the +Archduke; and it was thought dangerous that so many malcontents should +be assembled there, and should practise the use of arms, in order +perhaps to turn them some day against their country. It was enacted +that the Oath of Supremacy should be imposed on every one who took +service abroad before his departure, with a pledge that he would not +be reconciled to the Papacy: even securities for the observance of the +oath were to be exacted. + +In the spring of the year 1605 the whole state of England still showed +a tendency to clemency and conciliation. In the early part of 1606 the +opposite tendency had completely obtained the upper hand. + +But this state of affairs necessarily reacted on Catholic countries +and governments. In Spain, where it was easiest to rouse the +susceptibilities of Catholicism, the severe measures of the Parliament +of themselves created a feeling of bitterness: but besides this, Irish +refugees resorted thither who gave an agitating account of the way in +which these measures were carried out in Ireland:[341] so that the +nation felt itself affronted in the persons of its co-religionists. +Both governments, that of Spain and that of the Netherlands, refused +to hand over to the English government men like Baldwin and Owen, who +were taxed with participating in the plot, or to banish others whom +the English government considered dangerous. The pious were reminded +of the will of Queen Mary, in which she had transferred her +hereditary right over England, France, Ireland and Scotland, to the +House of Spain in case her son should not be converted to the Church. + +And how deeply must the Court of Rome have felt itself injured by the +imposition of the Oath of Supremacy. A Pope of the Borghese family had +just been elected, Paul V, who was as deeply convinced of the truth of +the Papal principles, and as firmly resolved to enforce them, as any +of his predecessors; and who was surrounded by learned men and +statesmen who looked upon the maintenance of these principles as the +salvation of the world. Their religious pride was galled to the quick +by the imposition of such an oath as that exacted in England, by which +principles at that time zealously taught in Catholic schools were +described not only as objectionable but as heretical. They thought it +possible that the temporal power might prevail on the English +Catholics to accept this oath, as in fact the archpriest Blackwell who +had been appointed by Clement VIII took it, and advised others to do +the same. But by this act the supremacy of the King would be +practically acknowledged, and the connexion of the English Catholics +with the Papacy dissolved. Moved by these considerations, Paul V, in a +brief of September 1, 1606, declared that the oath contained much that +was contrary to the faith, and could not be taken by any one without +damage to his salvation. He expressed his anticipation that the +English Catholics, whose constancy had been tested like gold in the +fire of the persecutions, would show their firmness on this occasion +also, and that they would rather undergo all tortures, even death +itself, than insult the Divine Majesty. At first the archpriest and +the moderate Catholics, who did not consider that the political claims +referred to in the oath were the true principles of the Papacy, +declared that the brief was spurious; but after some time it was +confirmed in all due form, and an address appeared from the pen of the +most eminent apologist of the See of Rome, Cardinal Bellarmin, in +which he reminded the archpriest that the general apostolical +authority of the Pope could not be impugned even in a single iota of +the subtleties of dogma: how much less then in this instance, where +the question was simply whether men should look for the head of the +Church in the successor of Henry VIII, or in the successor of S. +Peter. + +These statements however greatly irritated the King, both as a man of +learning and as a temporal potentate. He took pen in hand himself in +order to defend the oath, in the wording of which he had a large +share. He expressed his astonishment that so distinguished a scholar +as Bellarmin should confound the Oath of Supremacy with the Oath of +Allegiance, in which no word occurred affecting any article of faith, +and which was only intended to distinguish the champions of an attempt +like the Gunpowder Plot from his quiet subjects of the Catholic +religion. He said that nothing more disastrous to these could have +happened than that the Pope should condemn the oath, and thereby the +original relation of obedience which bound them to their sovereign; +for he was requiring them to repudiate this obedience and to abjure +again the oath which had already been taken by many, after the example +of the archpriest. James I took much trouble to justify the form of +oath by the decrees of the old councils.[342] + +Criminal attempts, even when they fail, have at times the most +extensive political consequences. James I had started with the idea of +linking his subjects of every persuasion to himself in the bonds of a +free and uniform obedience, and of creating harmonious relations +between the rival powers of the world and his own realm of Great +Britain. Then intervened this murderous attempt; and the measures to +which he had recourse in order to secure his person and his country +against the repetition of criminal attacks like this last, rekindled +the national and religious animosities which he desired to lull, and +fanned them into a bright flame. + +NOTES: + +[330] Letter to the King. Works viii, 647; cf. i. 671. + +[331] Discursus status religionis, 1605: 'Ipsi magnates non verentur +se profiteri catholicos et plerique alii ex nobilitate, praecipue in +principatu Walliae et in provinciis septentrionalibus,--ubi numerus +eorum non ita pridem crevit in immensum. + +[332] 'S. Sta vole e comanda, che li Catolici siano obedienti al re +d'Inghilterra, come a loro signore e re naturale. Vra Sria attenda +con ogni diligenza e vigilanza a questi negotii d'Inghilterra +procurando che conforme alla volonta di N. Sra obedischino al suo re +e non s'intrighino in congiure tumulti ed altre cose, per le quali +possino dispiacere a quella Ma.' + +[333] The Venetian Ambassador in his reports mentions 'doglienze e +querelle accompagnate di lacrime di sangue.' The Roman reports are to +the same effect. De vero Statu Angliae. La vera relatione dello stato. +Agosto 1605. The persecution of the Catholics had begun on July 26. + +[334] Camden in writing to Cotton names Bainham, Catesby, Tresham, and +the two Wrights. He calls them 'gentlemen hunger-starved for +innovation.' Camdeni Epistolae 347. + +[335] Garnet says, in his conference with Hall, which was overheard, +that he was accused of giving 'some advice in Queen Elizabeth's time +of the blowing up of the parliament house with gunpowder; I told them +it was lawful' Jardine, Gunpowder Plot 202. + +[336] From his examination: Jardine 206. + +[337] Lingard ix. 52. From Greenway's memoranda. + +[338] From a letter of Parry to Sir T. Edmondes, Paris, October 10, +1605; in Birch's Negotiations 234. + +[339] Molino just at the time reports this, as the King also relates +it in his 'Conjuratio sulphurea.' Cf. Barclay, Series patefacti +parricidii 569. + +[340] 'Juro quod ex corde abhorreo detestor et abjuro tanquam impiam +et haereticam hanc damnabilem doctrinam et propositionem quod +principes per papam excommunicati vel deprivati possint per suos +subditos vel alios quoscunque deponi aut occidi'. The form originally +drawn up had asserted that the Pope generally had no right to +excommunicate kings. But King James, in his fondness for weighing +every side of the question, did not wish to go so far as this. + +[341] June 1606. Winwood, Memorials ii. 224. Cornwallis to Salisbury: +'Such an apprehension of despair here they have of late received to +make any conjunction or further amitie with us, by reason of the +extreame lawes and bitter persecution, as they terme it, against those +of their religion both in England and especially in Ireland.' June 20, +229. 'They repair to the Jesuits, priests, fryars, and fugitives; the +first three joyne with the last children of lost hope, who having +given a farewell to all laws of nature--dispose themselves to become +the executioneris of the--inventions of the others.' + +[342] Apologia pro juramento fidelitatis, opposita duobus brevibus ... +et literis Bellarmini ad Blackwellum Archipresbyterum. Opera Jacobi +Regis, p. 237. Lond. 1619. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FOREIGN POLICY OF THE NEXT TEN YEARS. + + +What had already taken place before James ascended the throne, +occurred again under these circumstances. Although belonging to one of +the two religious parties which divided the world between them, he had +sought to form relations with the other, when circumstances which were +beyond all calculation caused and almost compelled him to return to +his original position. + +The Republic of Venice enjoyed his full sympathies in the quarrel in +which at this time it became involved with the Papacy. The laws which +it had made for limiting the influence of the clergy appeared to him +in the highest degree just and wise. He thought that Europe would be +happy if other princes as well would open their eyes, for they would +not then experience so many usurpations on the part of the See of +Rome; and he showed himself ready to form an alliance with the +Republic. The Venetians always affirmed that the lively interest of +the King of England in their cause had already, by provoking the +jealousy of the French, strengthened their resolution to arrange these +disputes in conjunction with Spain.[343] When the Republic, although +compelled to make some concessions, yet came out of this contest +without losing its independence, it continued to believe that for this +result also it was indebted to King James. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1609.] + +In the same way, there can be no serious doubt that the refusal of the +alliance, which the Spaniards had more than once proposed to the King +of England, impelled the former to turn their thoughts to a peaceful +adjustment of their differences with the Netherlands. They had made +similar overtures to France also, but these had been shipwrecked by +the firmness and mistrust of Henry IV. They were convinced however +that, without winning over at least one of these two powers, they +would never even by their strongest efforts again become masters of +the Netherlands. In spite of some advantages which they had obtained +on the mainland, they were so hard pressed by the superiority of the +Dutch fleet, that they at last came forward with more acceptable +proposals than they had before made. The English government advised +the States-General to show compliance on all other points if their +independence were acknowledged: not to stand out even if this were +recognised only for a while through a truce, for in that case they +would obtain better conditions on the other points: and that in regard +to these England would protect them.[344] By their conduct to both +sides, by standing aloof from the one and by bestowing good advice on +the other, the English thus promoted the conclusion of the twelve +years truce, and thereby procured for the United Provinces an +independent position which they did not allow to be wrested from them +again. The Spaniards attributed the result not so much to the +Provinces themselves as to the two Powers allied with them: they +thought that the articles of the treaty had been drawn up by the +former, but devised and dictated by the latter. It was their serious +intention that this agreement should be only temporary; they reckoned +upon the speedy death of the King of France, and upon future troubles +in England, for an opportunity of resuming the war.[345] But whatever +the future might bring to pass, England, as well as France, derived an +incalculable advantage at the time from the erection of an independent +state under their protection, which could not but ally itself with +them against the still dominant power of Spain. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1610.] + +On the whole the general understanding which King James maintained +with Henry IV secured a support for his State, and imparted to himself +a political courage which was otherwise foreign to his nature. The two +sovereigns also made common cause in the Cleves-Juliers question. Two +Protestant princes with the consent of the Estates had taken +possession of it on the strength of their hereditary title. When an +Archduke laid hands on the principal fortress in the country, a +general feeling of jealousy was roused: and even in England it was +thought that the point at issue here was not the possession of a small +principality, but the confirmation of the House of Austria and the +Papacy in their already tottering dominion over these provinces of the +Lower Rhine, which might exercise such an important influence on the +State of Europe.[346] When Henry IV joined the German Union and the +Dutch for the protection of the two princes and for the conquest of +Juliers, James also decided to bestow his aid. He took into his own +pay 4000 of the troops who were still in the service of the Republic, +sent them a general, and despatched them to the contested dominions to +take part in the struggle. + +It does not appear that any one in England was aware of the great +designs which Henry IV connected with this enterprise. When, on the +eve of its execution, he was struck down in the centre of his capital +by the dagger of a fanatic, friends and foes alike were thrilled with +the feeling that the event affected them all, and would have an +immeasurable influence on the world. In England also it was felt as a +domestic calamity. Robert Cecil, now Earl of Salisbury, said in +Parliament that Henry IV had been as it were their advanced guard +against conspiracies of which he had always given the first +information: that the first warning of the Gunpowder Plot must have +come from him; that he had as it were stood in the breach, and that +now he had been the first victim. The crimes of Ravaillac and of +Catesby had sprung from the same source. + +The enterprise against Juliers was not hindered by this event. The +forces of the Union under the Prince of Anhalt, and the Dutch and +English troops under Maurice of Orange and Edward Cecil, with the +addition of a number of volunteers from such leading families in +England as those of Winchester, Somerset, Rich, Herbert, had already +made considerable progress in the siege when, at last, at the orders +of the widowed Queen, the French also arrived, but in the worst plight +and suffering severely from illness, so that they could not carry out +the intention, with which they came, of sequestrating the place in the +interests of France. When the fortress had been taken it was delivered +to the two princes, who now possessed the whole country. This was an +event of general historical importance, for by this means Brandenburg +first planted its foot on the Rhine, and came into greater prominence +in Europe on this side also. It took place, like the foundation of the +Republic of the Netherlands, with the concurrence of England and +France, and in opposition to Austria and Spain, but at the same time +by the help of the Republic itself and of those members of the Estates +of the German empire who professed the same creed. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1611.] + +The times had gone by when the Spaniards had taken arms as if for the +conquest of the world; but their pretensions remained the same. It was +still their intention, in virtue of the privileges assigned them by +the Pope, to exclude all others from the colonisation of America and +from commerce with the East Indies. They laid claim to Northern Africa +because it had been tributary to the crown of Aragon, to Athens and +Neopatras because they had belonged to the Catalans, to Jerusalem +because it had belonged to the King of Naples, and even to +Constantinople because it had passed by will to Ferdinand II of Aragon +from the last of the Palaeologi. On the strength of the claims made by +the old dukes of Milan they deemed themselves to have a right to the +towns of the Venetian mainland, and to Liguria. Philip III was in +their eyes the true heir of the Maximilian branch of the German house +of Austria: according to their view the succession in Bohemia and +Hungary fell to him. The progress of the Catholic revival afforded +them an opportunity of exercising a profound influence on the German +empire, while the same cause extended their influence over Poland; +they obtained through their commercial relations even the friendship +of Protestant princes and towns in the North. Their intention was now +to associate the two antagonistic powers of the West with their policy +by means of alliances with the reigning families. The first +considerable step in this direction was made after the death of Henry +IV, when they succeeded in concerting with his widow a double +marriage, between the young King of France and an Infanta of Spain, +and between the future King of Spain and a French princess. It was +thought certain beforehand that they would get the conduct of French +policy into their hands during the minority of Louis XIII. But they +were already seeking to draw the house of Stuart also into this +alliance in spite of the difference of religion. In August 1611 the +Spanish ambassador, whose overtures had hitherto been fruitless, came +forward to announce that an alliance between the Prince of Wales and a +Spanish infanta would meet with no obstacle on the part of Spain, if +it should be desired on the part of England. It was thought that the +Queen, who found a satisfaction of her ambition in this brilliant +alliance, and the old Spanish and Catholic party, who were still very +numerous in the highest ranks and among the people, might employ their +whole influence in its favour. + +But there was still at the head of affairs a man who was resolved to +oppose this design, Robert Cecil, to whom it is generally owing that +the tendencies of Elizabeth's policy lasted on so long into the time +of the Stuarts as they did. I do not know whether the two Cecils can +be reckoned among the great men of England: they would almost seem to +have lacked that independent attitude and that soaring and brilliant +genius which would be requisite for such an eminence; but without +doubt few have had so much influence on its history. Robert Cecil +inherited the employments, the experiences, and the personal +connexions of his father William. He knew how to rid himself of all +rivals that rose to the surface[347] by counteracting their +proceedings in secret or openly, justifiably or not: enmity and +friendship he reciprocated with equal warmth. He made no change in the +method of transacting business which was conducted by the whole Privy +Council; but his natural superiority and the importance that he +gradually acquired always brought the decision into accordance with +his views. The King himself gave intimations that he did not look upon +his predominance as altogether proper. In one of his letters he jests +over the supremacy calmly exercised by his minister at the centre of +affairs, while he, the King, so soon as his minister summoned him, +must hasten in, and yet at last could do nothing but accept the +resolutions which he put into his hands. A small deformed man, to whom +James, as was his wont, gave a jesting nickname on this account, he +yet impressed men by the intelligence which flashed from his +countenance and from every word he spoke; and even his outward bearing +had a certain dignity. His independence was increased by his enormous +wealth, acquired mainly by investments in the Dutch funds, which at +that time returned an extraordinarily high interest. Surrounded by +many who accepted presents, he showed himself inaccessible to such +seductions and incorruptible. At this time he was the oracle of +England.[348] + +Among the English youth the wish was constantly reviving that the war +with Spain, in which success was expected without any doubt, might be +renewed with all vigour. Robert Cecil was as little in favour of this +as his father formerly had been. Peaceful relations with Spain were +rendered especially necessary by the condition of Ireland, where +Tyrone, not less dissatisfied with James than he had been with +Elizabeth, had again thrown off his allegiance, and had at last gone +abroad to procure foreign aid for his discontented countrymen. But if +Cecil could not break with Spain, yet he would not allow that power +to strengthen itself or to obtain influence over England herself. In +regard to the proposal of marriage that was made he had said that the +gallant Prince of Wales could find blooming roses everywhere and did +not need to search for an olive. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1612.] + +The notion continued to prevail that James I, even if he did not take +arms, ought to put himself at the head of the anti-Spanish party in +Europe, now that Henry IV was no more. + +The King and his ministers thought that for maintaining in the first +place the state of affairs established in Cleves and Juliers, an +alliance of the countries which had co-operated in producing it was +the only appropriate means. In March 1612 we find the English +ambassador at the Hague, Sir Ralph Winwood, at Wesel, where a +defensive alliance that had long been mooted between James I and the +princes of the Union, including those of the Palatinate, Brandenburg, +Hesse, Wurtemberg, Baden, and Anhalt, was actually concluded. Both +contracting parties promised one another mutual support against all +who should attack them on account of the Union or of the aid they had +given in settling and maintaining the tenure of Cleves and Juliers. +The King was accordingly pledged to bring 4000 men into the field, and +the Princes 2000 as their contingent, or to pay a sum of money fixed +by rule at the choice of the country which should be attacked.[349] +The agreement was concluded for six years, the period for which it was +also agreed that the Union should still continue. The idea was +started, I do not know whether by King James or rather by the leading +English statesmen, of making this alliance the basis of a general +European coalition against the encroachments of the Spaniards.[350] +The German princes invited the Queen-Regent of France to join it, and +to bring the Republic of the United Provinces into it. Mary de' +Medici refused, on the ground that this was unnecessary, as the +Republic was sufficiently secured by the defensive alliance previously +concluded; but her ministers at that time still lent their assistance +for the object immediately in view. The Spaniards had conceived the +intention of raising the Archduke Albert to the imperial throne after +the death of the Emperor Rudolph. A portion of the Electors, among +others the Elector of Saxony, which had been prejudiced by the +settlement of Juliers, was in his favour. He possessed the sympathies +of all zealous Catholics; but England and France saw in the union of +the imperial power with the possession of the Spanish Netherlands a +danger for themselves and for the republic founded under their +auspices. They plainly declared to the Spaniards that they would not +permit it, but would set themselves against it with their allies, that +is to say, of course, with the Republic and the Union.[351] + +Little seems to have been heard in Germany of the protest of the +powers in regard to the imperial succession: but it was effectual. The +imperial throne was ascended not by Albert but by Matthias, who had +far more sympathy with the efforts of the Protestants and approved of +the Union. Indeed the Spaniards too, under the guidance of the pacific +Lerma, were not inclined to drive matters to extremities. + +In the youthful republic of the Netherlands an estrangement, involving +also a difference of opinion on religious questions, arose at that +time between the Stadtholder and the magistrates of the aristocracy. +The party of the Stadtholder clung to the strict Calvinistic +doctrines; the aristocratic party were in favour of milder and more +conciliatory views, which besides allotted to the temporal power no +small influence over the clergy, as Arminius had maintained in his +lectures at Leyden. After his death a German professor, Conrad +Vorstius, had been invited to Holland, who added to the opinions of +his predecessor others which deviated still more widely from +Calvinism, and inclined to Socinianism. The world has always felt +astonished that King James took a side in this controversy, wrote a +book against Vorstius, and did not rest till he had been ejected from +his office. In fact learned rivalry was not the only motive which +induced him to take pen in hand: we perceive that the adherents of +Arminius, the supporters of Vorstius, were obnoxious to him on +political grounds also. The leaders of the burgher aristocracy showed +a marked coldness to the interests of England after the conclusion of +the truce, and a leaning to those of France. The King moreover was of +opinion that positive orthodoxy was necessary for maintaining the +conflict with Catholicism, and for upholding a state founded on +religion: and he sent an invitation to the Prince of Orange to unite +with him in this cause. The strict Calvinism of the prince was at the +same time an act of homage to England. + +While religious and political affairs were in this state of +perplexity, which extended to the French Reformed Church as well, a +marriage was settled between the Princess Elizabeth of England and the +Elector Palatine, Frederick V. + +This young prince, who at that time was still a ward, had the prospect +of succeeding at an unusually early age to a position in which he +could exert an influence on the German empire. By the mother's side he +was grandson of the founder of Dutch independence, William of Orange; +his uncles were the Stadtholder Maurice and the Duke of Bouillon, who +might be considered the head of the Reformed Communion in France, and +who had married another daughter of William. Frederick had spent some +years with the Duke at Sedan. The Duke of Bouillon, like Maurice, took +an active part in various ways in the European politics of that age: +these two men stood at the head of that party on the continent which +most zealously opposed the Papacy and the house of Austria. Bouillon +had first directed the attention of James to the young Frederick, and +had painted to him his good qualities and his great prospects, and, +although not without reserve, had pronounced a match between him and +the Princess Elizabeth desirable,[352] as it would form a dynastic +tie between the Protestantism of England and that of the continent. +The brother of the Duke of Wurtemberg, Louis Frederick, who then +resided in England on behalf of the Union, still more decidedly +advocated the match. He told the King that he would have in the young +count not so much a son-in-law, as a servant who depended on his nod; +and that he would pledge all the German princes to his interest by +this means.[353] After the conclusion of the alliance at Wesel the +Count of Hanau, who was likewise married to a daughter of William, +visited London with two privy councillors of the Palatinate, in order +to bring the matter to an issue: they were to meet there with the Duke +of Bouillon, to whose advice they had been expressly referred. Another +suit for the hand of the Princess was then before the English court. +The Duke of Savoy had made proposals for a double marriage between his +two children and the English prince and princess. There appeared to be +almost a match between Catholic and Protestant princes to decide which +party should bear off 'this pearl,' the Princess of England. Without +doubt religious considerations mainly carried the day in favour of the +German suitor. The Princess displayed great zeal in behalf of +Protestantism; and James said that he would not allow his daughter to +be restricted in the exercise of her religion, not even if she were to +be Queen of the world.[354] On the 16th of May the members of the +Privy Council signed the contract in which the marriage was agreed +upon between 'My Lady Elizabeth,' only daughter of the King, and the +Grand-Master of the Household and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, +Frederick Count Palatine, and the necessary provisions were made as to +dower and settlements. This may be regarded as the last work of Robert +Cecil: he died a few days after. The pulpits had attacked the marriage +of the princess with a Catholic, and had exhorted the people to pray +for her marriage with a Protestant. The common feeling of Protestants +was gratified when this result came to pass. + +The question of the future marriage of Henry Frederick Prince of Wales +was treated in a kindred spirit though not exactly in the same way. + +All eyes were already directed to this young prince and his future +prospects. He was serious and reserved; a man of few words, sound +judgment, and lofty ideas; and he gave signs of an ambitious desire to +rival his most famous predecessors on the throne.[355] He understood +the calling of sovereign in a different sense from his father. On one +occasion when his father set his younger brother before him as a model +of industry in the pursuit of science, he replied that he would make a +very good archbishop of Canterbury. For one who was to wear the crown +skill in arms and knowledge of seamanship seemed to him indispensable; +he made it his most zealous study to acquire both the one and the +other. His intention undoubtedly was to make every provision for the +great war against the Spanish monarchy which was anticipated. He +wished to escort his sister to Germany in order to form a personal +acquaintance with the princes of the Union, whom he regarded as his +natural allies. These views could not have been thwarted if the +proposal of the Duke of Savoy, which had been rejected in behalf of +the Princess, had been accepted in behalf of the Prince.[356] For +every day the Duke separated himself more and more from the policy of +Spain: he had even wished at one time to be admitted into the Union. +He offered a large portion with the hand of his daughter, and was +ready to agree to those restrictions in the exercise of her religion +which it might be thought necessary to prescribe. Meanwhile, however, +another project came up. The grandees of France wished to bring a +prince of such high endowments and decided views into the closest +relations with the house of Bourbon, in order to oppose the action of +Spain on the French court by another influence. They made proposals +for a marriage between the Prince of Wales and the second daughter of +Henry IV, the Lady Christine of France. They found the most cordial +reception for this scheme among the English who favoured +Protestantism, and understood the course of the world. It was thought +that the new League, for this was the designation given to the +increasing preponderance of Spanish and Catholic views in France, +would by this means be thrown into confusion in its own camp; the +French government would be brought back to its old attitude of +hostility towards Spain, and would only thus be completely sure of the +States General, which could never separate themselves both from +England and France at the same time. The Prince embraced the notion +that the Princess must immediately be brought to England to be +instructed in the Protestant faith, and perhaps to be converted to it. +As she was still very young his notion was so far reasonable, although +in other respects her age was a considerable obstacle. While he +referred the decision to his father, he yet made a remark which shows +his own leanings, that this marriage would certainly be most +acceptable to all his brother Protestants.[357] What a prospect would +have dawned on these if a young and energetic king of England, +confederate with Germany and Holland, and looked up to in France for a +double reason, both on account of the old and still unforgotten +claims,[358] and on account of his marriage, had taken the Huguenots +under his protection or actually appealed to them in his own behalf! + +The 5th of November 1612 was fixed as the day on which the question +was to be decided by a commission expressly appointed for this +purpose. King James, who is represented as favourable to the connexion +with France, went from Theobald's to the meeting: the Prince had drawn +out for himself the arguments by which he thought to refute the +objections of opponents. On the very same day he was taken ill, and +was obliged to ask for an adjournment; but from day to day and hour to +hour his illness became more dangerous. He exhibited a composed and, +when addressed on religious questions, a devout frame of mind, but he +did not wish to die. When some one said to him that God only could +heal him, he replied that perhaps the physicians also might do +something. On the 17th of November, two hours after midnight, he +died--'the flower of his house,' as men said, 'the palladium of the +country, the terror of his foes.' They even went so far as to put him +at this early age on a level with Henry IV, who had been proved by a +life full of struggles and vicissitudes. The comparison rested on the +circumstance that the young and highly-gifted prince was forced to +succumb to an unexpected misfortune while preparing for great +undertakings which, like those of Henry IV, were to be directed +against Spain. + +It is very probable that this prince, if he had lived to ascend the +English throne, would have attempted to give to affairs a turn +suitable to the vigorous designs which engrossed his thoughts. +According to all appearance he would not have trodden in the footsteps +of his father. He appeared quite capable of reviving the old plans of +conquest entertained by the house of Lancaster: he would have united +outspoken Protestant tendencies with the monarchical views of Edward +VI, or rather of Elizabeth. With the men who then held the chief power +in England he had no points of agreement, and they already feared +him.[359] They were even accused of having caused his premature death. + +Yet the course which had been struck out with the co-operation of the +young prince was not abandoned at his death. + +The Elector Palatine had already arrived in London. His demeanour and +behaviour quieted the doubts of one party and put to shame the +predictions of the other: he appeared manly, firm, bent on high aims, +and dignified: he knew how to win over even the Queen who at first was +unfavourable to him. Letters exchanged at that time are full of the +joy with which the marriage was welcomed by the Protestants. But it +was just as decidedly unwelcome to the other party. An expression +which was then reported in Brussels shewed how lively the hatred was, +and how widely and how far into the future political combinations +extended. It was said that this marriage was designed to wrest the +Imperial throne from the house of Austria; but it was added, with +haughty reliance on the strength of Catholic Europe, that this design +should never succeed.[360] + +Another collision seemed at times to be immediately impending. In the +year 1613 the English government sent to ask the districts most +exposed to a Spanish invasion, how many troops they could severally +oppose to it, and had appointed the fire signals which were to +announce the coming danger. It is indeed not wonderful that under such +circumstances it continued the policy which was calculated to promote +a general European opposition to the Spaniards. + +When the French grandees though fit to contest the Spanish marriages +which Mary de' Medici made up, they had King James on their side, who +regarded it as the natural right of princes of the blood to undertake +the charge of public affairs during a minority. At the meeting of the +Estates in 1614, it was their intention to get the government into +their hands, and then to bring it back again to the line of policy of +Henry IV. The English ambassador, Edmonds, showed that he concurred +with them. + +Soon afterwards the differences between the Duke of Savoy and the +Spanish governor in Milan terminated in an open rupture. The French +grandees, though they had not carried their point in the +States-General, yet showed themselves independent and strong enough to +follow their own wishes in interfering in this matter. While the +Queen-Regent supported the Spaniards, they came to the assistance of +the Duke. In this struggle King James also came forward on his side in +concert with the Republic of Venice, which was still able to throw a +considerable weight into the scale on an Italian question. + +The cause of Savoy appeared the common cause of opposition to Spain. +James deemed himself happy in being able to do something further for +that object by removing the misunderstanding which existed between +Protestant Switzerland and the Duke. On his own side he carefully +upheld the old connexion between England and the Cantons. He gave out +that in this manner the territories of his allies would extend to the +very borders of Italy, for Protestant Switzerland formed the +connecting link between his friends in that country and the German +Union which, in turn, bordered on the Netherlands. + +With the same view, in order that his allies might not have their +hands tied elsewhere, he laboured to remove the dissensions between +Saxony and Brandenburg, and between the States-General and Denmark. At +the repeated request of certain German princes, he made it his +business to put an end, by his intervention, to the war that had +broken out between Sweden and Denmark. By the mediation of his +ambassadors the agreement of Knarod was arrived at, which regulated +the relations between the Northern kingdoms for a considerable time. +James saw his name at the head of an agreement which settled the +rights of sovereignty in the extreme North 'from Tittisfiord to +Weranger,' and had the satisfaction of finding that the ratification +of this agreement by his own hand was deemed necessary.[361] A general +union of the Protestant kingdoms and states was contemplated in this +arrangement. + +In connexion with this, the commercial relations that had been long +ago concluded with Russia assumed a political character. During the +quarrels about the succession to the throne, when Moscow was in danger +of falling under the dominion of Poland, which in this matter was +supported by Catholic Europe, the Russians sought the help of Germany, +of the Netherlands, and especially of England. We learn that the house +of Romanoff offered to put itself in a position of inferiority to King +James, who appeared as the supreme head of the Protestant world, if he +would free Russia from the invasion of the Poles. + +Already in the time of Elizabeth the opposition to the Spanish +monarchy had caused the English government to make advances to the +Turks. + +Just at the period when the fiercest struggle was preparing, at the +time when Philip II was making preparations for annexing Portugal, the +Queen determined to shut her eyes to the scruples which hitherto had +generally deterred Christian princes from entering into an alliance +with unbelievers. It is worth noticing that from the beginning East +Indian interests were the means of drawing these powers nearer to one +another. Elizabeth directed the attention of the Turks to the serious +obstacles that would be thrown in their way, if the Portuguese +colonies in that quarter were conquered by the far more powerful +Spaniards.[362] The commercial relations between the two kingdoms +themselves presented another obvious consideration. England seized the +first opportunity for throwing off the protection of the French flag, +which had hitherto sheltered her, and in a short time was much rather +able to protect the Dutch who were still closely allied with her. The +Turks greatly desired to form a connexion with a naval power +independent of the religious impulses which threatened to bring the +neighbouring powers of the West into the field against them. They knew +that the English would never co-operate against them with Spaniards +and French. Political and commercial interests were thus intertwined +with one another. A Levant company was founded, at the proposal of +which the ambassadors were nominated, both of whom enjoyed a +considerable influence under James I. + +As in these transactions attention was principally directed to the +commerce in the products of the East Indies carried on through the +medium of Turkish harbours, was it not to be expected that an attempt +should be made to open direct communication with that country? The +Dutch had already anticipated the English in that quarter; but +Elizabeth was for a long time withheld by anxiety lest the +negotiations for peace with Spain, which were just about to be opened, +should be interrupted by such an enterprise. Yet under her government +the company was formed for trading with the East Indies, to which, +among other exceptional privileges, the right of acquiring territory +was granted. It was only bound to hold aloof from those provinces +which were in the possession of Christian sovereigns. We have seen how +carefully in the peace which James I concluded with Spain everything +was avoided which could have interrupted this commerce. James +confirmed this company by a charter which was not limited to any +particular time. And in the very first contracts which this company +concluded with the great Mogul, Jehangir, they had the right bestowed +on them of fortifying the principal factories which were made over to +them. The native powers regarded the English as their allies against +the Spaniards and Portuguese. + +In the year 1612 Shirley, a former friend of Essex, who had been +induced by the Earl himself to go to the East, and who had there +formed a close alliance with Shah Abbas, returned to England, where he +appeared wearing a turban and accompanied by a Persian wife. He +entrusted the child of this marriage to the guardianship of the Queen, +when he again set off for Persia, in order to open up the commerce of +England in the Persian Gulf. + +But it was a still more important matter that the attempts which had +been made under the Queen to set foot permanently on the other +hemisphere could now be brought to a successful issue under King +James. It may perhaps be affirmed that, so long as the countries were +at open war, these attempts could not have been made, unless Spain had +first been completely conquered. England could not resume her old +designs until a peace had been concluded, which, if it did not +expressly allow new settlements, yet did not expressly forbid them, +but rather perhaps tacitly reserved the right of forming them. Under +the impulse which the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot gave, I will not +say to war, but certainly to continued opposition to Spain, the King +bestowed on the companies formed for that purpose the charters on +which the colonisation of North America was founded. The settlement of +Virginia was again undertaken, and, although in constant danger of +destruction from the opposition of warlike natives and the dissensions +of its founders, yet at last by the union of strict law and personal +energy it was quickened into life, and kindled the jealousy of the +Spaniards. They feared especially that it would throw obstacles in the +way of the homeward and outward voyages of their fleets.[363] Their +hands, however, were tied by the peace: and we learn that when they +made overtures for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with a Spanish +Infanta, they proposed at the same time that this colony should be +given up. But the Prince of Wales from the interest which he took in +all maritime enterprises was just the man to exert himself most warmly +in its behalf. Under his auspices a new expedition was equipped, which +did not sail till after his death, and then materially contributed to +secure the colony. Not without good reason have the colonists +commemorated his name. + +How immensely important at least for England have her relations with +the Spanish monarchy been shown to be! She had been formerly its ally, +its attacks she had then withstood, and now resisted it at every turn. +Only in rivalry with this power, and in opposition to it, was the +great Island of the West brought into relations, for which it was +suited by its geographical position, with every part of the known +world. + +NOTES: + +[343] Contarini, Relatione 1610: 'Pareva che nelli moti passati col +papa havesse la republica aggradito Piu l'offerte dei Inglesi che gli +offizii et interpositioni di Franza e da quelle pia che da questi +riconosciuto l'accommodamento: il che per tutta la Franza si e potuto +comprendere.' + +[344] The Lords of the Privy Council to Sir Richard Spencer and Sir +Ralph Winwood. Aug. 1, 1608. In Winwood ii. 429. + +[345] This is affirmed by Bentivoglio, who as Nuncio at Brussels was +closely acquainted with these transactions. Historia della guerra di +Fiandra iii. 490. + +[346] Winwood to Salisbury, October 7, 1609. Memorials iii. 78. + +[347] Molino: 'E huomo astuto sagace e persecutore acerrimo de' suoi +nemici ... ne a avuto multi et tutti egli a fatto precipitare.' + +[348] Ibid.: 'L'autorita del quale e cosi assoluta, che con verita si +puo dire essere egli il re e governatore di quella monarchia' + +[349] Alligantia inter regem et electores Germaniae, in Rymer vii. ii. +178. + +[350] Francesco Contarini visited him in September 1610 in the +country, and joined him in the chase, on which occasion James touched +on various topics in conversation: 'De' pensieri di Spagnoli con poca +loro laude ... non mostro far alcun conto del Duca di Sassonia suo +cognato ni della investitura data li dall'imperatore nel ducato di +Cleves.' + +[351] Beaulieu to Trumbull, Paris, June 29, 1612: 'Both from this +state (France) and the state of England it hath been plainly enough +intimated unto them (the Spaniards) that if they would go about to +make the Archduke Albert Emperor or king of the Romans, both these +states with their allies would set the rest to hinder it.' + +[352] Green, Princesses of England v. 180; De la Boderie ii. 248. + +[353] This is the report of A. Foscarini, Jan. 20, 1612. + +[354] Winwood to Trumbull, Memorials iii. 357. + +[355] Correro 1609, May 20: 'Non solo riesce esquisitamente in tutti +gli esercitii del corpo, ma si dimostra nelle attioni sue molto +giudicioso e prudente.'--Ant. Foscarini 1612: 'Amplissimi erano i suoi +concetti; di natura grave severa ritenuta di pochissime parole.' + +[356] W. Ralegh: On a marriage between Prince Henry and a daughter of +Savoy. Works viii. 237. + +[357] Given in French by Levassor, Histoire de Louis XIII, i. 2, 347. +So far as I know, the original has not yet been brought to light, +although its genuineness cannot be doubted, as Levassor was acquainted +with Robert Carr's letter to the Prince, which was first printed by +Ellis ii. iii. 229. + +[358] Foscarini, to whom we are indebted for information on many of +these points: 'teneva mal animo contra Spagna e pretension in +Francia.' + +[359] It was affirmed that Henry Howard (Earl of Northampton) had been +heard to say that 'the prince if ever he came to reign would prove a +tyrant.' Bacon: Somerset's Business and Charge. Works vi. 100. + +[360] Trumbull to Winwood, March 2, 1613. 'These men are enraged, +fearing that we do aim at the wresting of the empire out of the +Austrians hand which they say shall never be effected so long as the +conjoyned forces of all the Catholiques in Christendom shall be able +to maintain them in that right.' Winwood, Mem. iii. 439. + +[361] Dispaccio di Antonio Foscarini, 5 Luglio 1612: 'Si aplica il re +assai il pensiero a metter in pace li due re di Suecia e Danimarca et +hieri fu qui di ritorno uno de' gentilhuomini inviati per tal +fine:--poi si camineva immediatamente a stringere unione con tutti li +principi di religione riformata.' + +[362] A letter of Germigny in Charriere, Negociations de la France +dans le Levant iii. 885 n, mentions the representations of the first +agent. 'Cet Anglais avait remontre l'importance de l'agrandissement du +roy d'Espagne mesmes ou il s'impatroniroit de Portugal et des terres +despendantes du dit royaume voisines a ce Seigneur au Levant.' + +[363] A. Foscarini 1612, 9 Ag.: 'Preme grandemente a Spagnoli veder +sempre Piu stabilirsi la colonia in Virginia non perche stimino quel +paese nel quale non e abondanza ne minera d'oro--ma perche +fermandovisi Inglesi con li vascelli loro, correndo quel mare +impedirebbono la flotte.' 1613 Marzo 8: 'Le navi destinate per +Virginia al numero di tre sono passate a quella volta e se ne +allestiranno anco altre degli interessati in quella popolatione.' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +PARLIAMENTS OF 1610 AND 1614. + + +For the full occupation of this position in the world, and for +maintaining and extending it, nothing was more necessary than internal +harmony in Great Britain, not only between the two kingdoms, but also +in each of them at home. While Robert Cecil procured full recognition +for considerations of foreign policy, he conceived the further design +of bringing about such an unity above all things in England itself, +as, if successful, would have procured for the power of the King an +authority paramount to all the other elements of the constitution. + +The greatest standing evil from which the existing government +suffered, was the inequality between income and expenditure; and if +the lavish profusion of the King was partly responsible for this, yet +there were also many other reasons for it. The late Queen had left +behind no inconsiderable weight of debt, occasioned by the cost of the +Irish war: to this were added the expenses of her obsequies, of the +coronation, and of the first arrangements under the new reign. Visits +of foreign princes, the reception and the despatch of great embassies, +had caused still further extraordinary outlay; and the separate +court-establishments of the King, the Queen, and the Prince, made a +constant deficit inevitable. Perpetual embarrassment was the result. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1610.] + +James I expresses himself with a sort of naive ingenuousness in a +letter to the Lords of Council of the year 1607. In this letter he +exhorts them not to present to him any 'sute wherof none of yourselves +can guess what the vallew may prove,' but rather to help him to cut +off superfluous expenses, as far as was consistent with the honour of +the kingdom, and to assist him to new lawful sources of revenue, +without throwing an unjust burden upon the people. 'The only disease +and consumption which I can ever apprehend as likeliest to endanger +me, is this eating canker of want, which being removed I could think +myself as happy in all other respects as any other king or monarch +that ever was since the birth of Christ: in this disease I am the +patient, and yee have promised to be the physicians, and to use the +best care uppon me that your witte, faithfulnes and diligence can +reach unto.'[364] + +As Lord Treasurer, Robert Cecil had the task of taking in hand the +conduct of this affair also. He had refused to make disbursements +which he thought improper, but to which the King had notwithstanding +allowed himself to be led away: he would not hear of increasing the +revenue by such means as the sale of offices, a custom which seemed to +be at that time transplanting itself from France into England. He +sought to add to the revenue in the first place by further taxation of +the largely increasing commerce of the country. And as tonnage and +poundage had been once for all granted to the King, he thought it +appropriate and permissible to raise the custom-house duties as an +administrative measure. Soon after the new government had come into +power it had undertaken the rearrangement of the tariff to suit the +circumstances of the time. Cecil, who was confirmed in his purpose by +a decision of the judges to the effect that his conduct was perfectly +legal, conferred with the principal members of the commercial class on +the amount and nature of the increase of duty.[365] The plan which +they embraced in accordance with the views prevalent at the time +contemplated that the burden should principally fall upon foreigners. + +The advantages which were obtained by this means were not +inconsiderable. The Custom-House receipts were gradually increased +under King James by one-half; but yet this was a slow process and +could not meet the wants that likewise kept growing. The Lord +Treasurer decided to submit a comprehensive scheme to Parliament, in +order to effect a radical cure of the evil. The importance of the +matter will be our excuse for examining it in detail. + +He explained to them that a considerable increase of income (which he +put down at L82,000) was required to cover the regular expenditure, +but that a still greater sum was needed for casual expenses, for which +in the state, as in every household, certainly a quarter of the sum +reached by the regular expenditure was required. He therefore proposed +that L600,000 should be at once granted him for paying off the debt, +and that in future years the royal income should be raised by +L200,000. + +This request was so comprehensive and so far beyond all precedent, +that it could never have been made without a corresponding offer of +concessions on a large scale. The Earl of Salisbury in his proposal +formally invited the Parliament to adduce the grievances which it had, +and promised in the King's name to redress all such so far as lay in +his power. It is affirmed that his clear-sighted and vigorous speech +made a favourable impression. Parliament in turn acceded to the +proposal, and alleged its most important grievances. They affected +both ecclesiastical and financial interests: among the latter class +that which concerned the Court of Wards is the most important +historically. + +Of the institutions by which the Normans and Plantagenets held their +feudal state together, none perhaps was more effectual than the right +of guardianship over minors, whose property the kings managed for +their own advantage. They stepped as it were into the rights of +fathers; even the marriage of wards depended on their pleasure. From +the time of Henry VIII a court for the exercise of this jurisdiction +and for feudal tenures generally had existed, which instituted +enquiries into the neglect of prescriptive custom, and punished it. +One of the most important offices was that of President of the Court, +which was very lucrative, and conferred personal influence in various +ways. It had been long filled by Robert Cecil himself. + +The Lower House now proposed in the first place that this right and +the machinery created to enforce it, which gave birth to various acts +of despotism, should be abolished. How often had the property of wards +been ruined by those to whom the rights of the state were transferred. +The debts which were chargeable against them were never paid.[366] The +Lower House desired that not only the royal prerogatives, but also +that the kindred rights of the great men of the kingdom over their +vassals should cease, and especially that property held on feudal +tenures should be made allodial. + +It is evident what great interests were involved in this scheme, which +was thoroughly monarchical, and at the same time was opposed to +feudalism. Its execution would have put an end to the feudal tie which +now had no more vitality, and appeared nothing more than a burden; but +at the same time the crown would have been provided with a regular and +sufficient income, and, what is more, would have been tolerably +independent of the grants of Parliament, so soon as an orderly +domestic system was introduced. We can understand that in bringing +this matter to an issue a minister of monarchical views might see an +appropriate conclusion to a life or rather two lives, his father's and +his own, dedicated to the service of the sovereign. And it appeared +that he might well hope to succeed, as a considerable alleviation was +offered at the same time to the King's subjects as well. + +The King reminded them that the feudal prerogative formed one of the +fairest jewels of his crown, that it was an heirloom from his +forefathers which he could not surrender; honour, conscience, and +interest, equally forbade it. The Lower House replied that it would +not dispute about honour and conscience, but as to interest, that +might be arranged. They were ready by formal contract to indemnify the +crown for the loss which it would suffer.[367] + +The crown demanded L100,000 as a compensation for the loss it would +suffer; and besides this, the L200,000 before mentioned which it +required for restoring the balance between income and expenditure. We +need not here reproduce the repulsive spectacle presented by the +abatement of demands on the one side, and the increase of offers on +the other. At last the Lord Treasurer adhered to the demand for +L200,000 everything included. He declared that if this was refused the +King would never again make a similar offer. On this at last the +Parliament declared itself ready to grant the sum; but, even then, set +up further conditions about which they could not come to an immediate +agreement, so that their mutual claims were not yet definitively +adjusted. + +On the contrary these negotiations had by degrees assumed a tone of +some irritation. Parliament found that the Earl of Salisbury had acted +unconstitutionally in proposing to raise the scale of duties without +its consent, and would not be content with his reference to the +decision of the judges mentioned above, and to the conferences with +the merchants. He endeavoured at a private interview with some of the +leading members to bring round the opinion to his side: but the House +was angry with those who had been present at it, and their good +intentions were called in question.[368] + +The speeches also, with which the King twice interrupted the +proceedings, produced an undesirable effect. He was inclined to meet +the general wishes, without surrendering however any part of his +prerogatives. But at the same time he expressed himself about these in +the exaggerated manner peculiar to him, which was exactly calculated +to arouse contradiction.[369] Whilst he was comparing the royal power +to the divine, he found that the House on one pretext or another +refused even to open a letter which he had addressed to them about the +speech of some member which had displeased him: on the contrary he was +obliged to receive back into favour the very member who had affronted +him. Parliament regarded liberty of speech as the Palladium of its +efficiency; foreigners were astonished at the recklessness with which +members expressed themselves about the government. + +As a rule the investigation of relative rights has an unfavourable +result for those who are in actual possession of authority. The +prerogative which the King exalted so highly presented itself to the +Parliament in an obnoxious aspect. In the debates on the contract the +question was raised, how Sampson's hands could be bound, that is to +say, how the King's prerogative could be so far restricted as to +prevent him from breaking or overstepping the agreement. + +During a dispute with the House of Lords the sentiment was uttered, +that the members of the Lower House as representing the Commons ranked +higher than the Lords, each of whom represented only himself.[370] It +is easy to see how far this principle might lead. + +Even his darling project of combining England and Scotland into a +single kingdom could not be carried out by the King in the successive +sessions of Parliament. One of the leading spirits of the age, Francis +Bacon, was on his side in this matter as in others. When it was +objected that it was no advantage to the English to take the +poverty-stricken Scots into partnership, as for example in commercial +affairs, he returned answer, that merchants might reckon in this way, +but no one who rose to great views: united with Scotland, England +would become one of the greatest monarchies that the world had ever +seen; but who did not perceive that a complete fusion of both elements +was needed for this? Security against the recurrence of the old +divisions could not be obtained until this was effected. Owing to the +influence of Bacon, who at that time had become Solicitor-General, the +question of the naturalisation of all those born in Scotland after +James had ascended the English throne, was decided with but slight +opposition, in a sense favourable to the union of the two kingdoms, by +the Lord Chancellor and the Judges. The decision however was not +accepted by Parliament. And when the question was now raised how far +the assent of Parliament was necessary in a case like this, the +adverse declaration of the Lord Chancellor was exactly calculated to +provoke a contest of principle in this matter also.[371] With the +advice of the Lord Chancellor and the Council James had declared +himself King of Great Britain, and had expressed the wish that the +names of England and Scotland might be henceforth obliterated; but his +Proclamation was not considered sufficient without the assent of +Parliament; and in this case the judges took the side of the +Parliament. The dynastic ideas with which James had commenced his +reign could not but serve to resuscitate the claim of Parliament to +the possession of the legislative power. At other times the precedents +adduced by the Lord Chancellor in the debate on the 'post-nati' might +have controlled their decision: at the present time they no longer +made any impression. The opposition of political ideas came to the +surface in this matter as in others. The King held the strongly +monarchical view that the populations of both countries were united +with one another by the mere fact of their being both subject to him. +To this the Parliament opposed the doctrine that the two crowns were +distinct sovereignties, and that the legislation of the two countries +could not be united. They wished to fetter the King to the old legal +position which they were far more anxious to contract than to expand. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1613.] + +The consequences must have been incalculable, if the Earl of Salisbury +and the Lord Chancellor had succeeded in carrying out their +intentions. A common government of the two countries would have held +in all important questions a position independent of the two +Parliaments, and the person of the sovereign would have been the +ruling centre of this government. If besides an adequate income had +been definitely assigned to the crown independent of the regularly +recurring assent of Parliament, what would have become of the rights +of that body? Not only would Elizabeth's mode of government have been +continued, but the monarchical element which could appeal to various +precedents in its own favour would probably have obtained a complete +ascendancy. + +But for that very reason these efforts were met by a most decided +opposition. It is plain that these rival pretensions, and the motive +from which they sprang, paved the way for controversies of the most +extensive kind. + +The scheme of the contract was as little successful as that of the +union of the two kingdoms. The parties were contented with merely +removing the occasion for an immediate rupture; and after some short +prorogations Parliament was finally dissolved. + +The King, who felt himself aggrieved by its whole attitude as well as +by many single expressions, was reluctant to call another. In order to +meet his extraordinary necessities recourse was had to various old +devices and to some new ones; for instance, the creation of a great +number of baronets in 1612, on payment of considerable sums: but +notwithstanding all this, in the year 1613 matters had gone so far, +that neither the ambassadors to foreign courts, nor even the troops +which were maintained could be paid. In the garrison of Brill a mutiny +had arisen on this account; the strongholds on the coast and the +fortifications on the adjacent islands went to ruin. For this as well +as for other reasons the death of the Earl of Salisbury was a +misfortune. The man on whom James I next bestowed his principal +confidence, Robert Carr, then Lord Rochester, later Earl of Somerset, +was already condemned by the popular voice because he was a Scot, who +moreover had no other merit than a pleasing person, which procured him +the favour of the King. The authority enjoyed by the Howards had +already provoked dissatisfaction. The Prince of Wales had been their +decided adversary, and this enmity was kept up by all his friends. +Robert Carr, however, thought it advisable to win over to his side +this powerful family to which he had at first found himself in +opposition. Whether from personal ambition or from a temper that +really mocked at all law and morality he married Frances Howard, whose +union with the Earl of Essex had to be dissolved for this +object.[372] The old enemies of the Howards, the adherents of the +house of Essex, many of whom had inherited this enmity, now became the +opponents of the favourite and his government. When at last urgent +financial necessities allowed no other alternative, and absolutely +compelled the issue of a summons for a new parliament, the contending +parties seized the opportunity of confronting one another. The +creatures of the government neglected no means of controlling the +elections by their influence; but they were everywhere encountered by +the other party, who were favoured by the increasing dissatisfaction +of the people. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1614.] + +At the opening of Parliament in April 1614, and on two occasions +afterwards, the King addressed the Lower House. Among all the +scholastic distinctions, complaints of the past, and assurances for +the future, in which after his usual fashion he indulges, we can still +perceive the fundamental idea, that if even the subsidies which he +required and asked were granted him, he would notwithstanding agree to +no conditions on his side, and take upon himself no distinct pledges. +He was resolved no longer to play the game of making concessions in +order to ask for something in return, as he had done some years +before; he found that far beneath his dignity. Still less could he +consent that all the grievances that might have arisen should be +heaped up and presented to him, for that would be injurious to the +honour of the government. Each one, he said, might lay before him the +grievances which he experienced in his own town or in his own county; +he would then attend to their redress one by one. In the same way he +would deal with each House separately. If he is reproached with +endeavouring to extend his prerogatives he denies the charge; but he +affirms that he cannot allow them to be abridged, but that, in +exercising them, he would behave as well as the best prince England +ever had.[373] He has no conception of a relation based on mutual +rights; he acknowledges only a relation of confidence and affection. +In return for liberal concessions he promises liberal favour. + +This was a view of things resting upon a patriarchal conception of +kingly power, in favour of which analogies might no doubt have been +found in the early state of the kingdoms of the West, but which was +now becoming more and more obsolete. What had still been possible +under Elizabeth, when the sovereign and her Parliament formed one +party, was no longer so now; especially as a man who had attracted +universal hatred stood at the head of affairs. Besides this a dispute +was already going on which we cannot pass over in silence. + +It arose upon the same matter which had caused such grave +embarrassment to the Earl of Salisbury, the unlimited exercise of the +right of levying tonnage and poundage entirely at the discretion of +the government. It was affirmed that the Custom-House receipts had +increased more than twentyfold since the commencement of James's +reign, and that a great part of the increased returns was enjoyed by +favoured private individuals. The Lower House demanded first of all an +examination into the right of the government, and declared that +without it they would not proceed to vote any grant.[374] + +In the Lower House itself on one occasion a lively debate arose on the +subject. The opinion was advanced on the part of the friends of the +government that, in this respect as in others, a difference existed +between hereditary and elective monarchies, that in the first class, +which included England, the prerogative was far more extensive than in +the latter. Henry Wotton, and Winwood, who had been long employed on +foreign embassies, explained what a great advantage in regard to their +collective revenues other states derived from indirect taxes and +customs. But by this statement they awakened redoubled opposition. +They were told that the raising of these imposts in France had not +been approved by the Estates and was in fact illegal; that the King +of Spain had been forced to atone for the attempt to introduce them +into the Netherlands by the loss of the greater part of the provinces. +Thomas Wentworth especially broke out into violent invectives against +the neighbouring sovereigns, which even called forth remonstrances +from the embassies. He warned the King of England that in his case +also similar measures would lead to his complete ruin.[375] It was not +only urged that England ought not to take example by any foreign +country, but the very distinction drawn between elective and +hereditary monarchies suggested a question whether England after all +was so entirely a hereditary monarchy as was asserted. It was asked if +it might not rather be said that James I, who was one of a number of +claimants who had all equally good rights, owed his accession to a +voluntary preference on the part of the nation, which might be +regarded as a sort of election. These were ideas of unlimited range, +and flatly contradicted those which James had formed on the rights of +birth and inheritance. He felt himself outraged by their expression in +the Lower House. + +In order to give the force of a general resolution to their assertion, +that in England the prerogative did not include the fixing of the +amount of taxes and customs without the consent of Parliament, the +Commons had made proposals for a conference with the Upper House. But +hereupon the higher clergy declared themselves hostile, not only to +their opinion, but even to the bare project of a conference. Neil, +Bishop of Lincoln, affirmed that the oath taken to the King in itself +forbade them to participate in such a conference; that the matter +affected not so much a branch of the royal prerogative as its very +root; that the Lords moreover would have to listen to seditious +speeches, the aim and intention of which could only be to bring about +a division between the King and his subjects. The Lord Chancellor had +asked the judges for their opinion; but they had declined to give any. +The result was that the Upper House did not accede to the proposal of +a conference. + +The Commons were greatly irritated at the resistance which was offered +to their first step. They too in conferences which related to other +matters disdained to enter into the subjects brought before them. They +complained loudly of the insulting expressions of the bishop which had +been repeated to them. An exculpatory statement of the Upper House did +not content them; they demanded full satisfaction as in an affair of +honour, and until this had been furnished them they declared +themselves determined to make no progress with any other matter. + +The King however on his side now lost patience at this. He considered +that an attack was made on the highest power when the general progress +of business was hindered for the sake of a single question, and he +appointed a day on which this affair of the subsidy must be disposed +of. He said that, if it were not settled, he would dissolve +Parliament. + +One would not expect such a declaration to change the temper of the +Lower House. Speeches were heard still more violent than those +previously made. The Scots, to whose influence every untoward +occurrence was imputed, were threatened with a repetition of the +Sicilian Vespers. There were other members however who counselled +moderation; for it almost appeared as if the dissolution of this +Parliament might be the dissolution of all parliaments. Commissioners +were once more sent to the King in order to give another turn to the +negotiations. The King declared that he knew full well how far his +rights extended, and that he could not allow his prerogatives to be +called in question.[376] + +These passionate ebullitions of feeling against the Scots, although +they referred to matters of a more alarming, but happily of an +entirely different nature, made the King anxious lest the destruction +of his favourites, or even his own ruin, might be required to content +his adversaries. On the 7th of June he dissolved Parliament. He +thought himself entitled to bring up for punishment the loudest and +most reckless speakers, as well as some other noted men from whom +these speakers had received their impulse, for instance Cornwallis, +the former ambassador in Spain. He considered that they had intended +to upset the government: not only had they failed, but they themselves +must atone for the attempt.[377] + +The estrangement was not too great to allow the hope of a +reconciliation. It had been represented to the King that he ought not +to be ready to regard financial concessions as a compliance unbecoming +to the crown, for that in these matters he was at no disadvantage as +compared with any person or any foreign power; that on the contrary +the decision always proceeded from himself; that he was the head who +cared for the welfare of the members. It was said that he need by no +means fear that men would make use of his wants to lay fetters on him; +that bonds laid by subjects on their sovereigns were merely cobwebs +which he might tear asunder at any moment. Even Walter Ralegh had +stated this.[378] But the King had no inclination, after the +Parliament had repelled his overtures with rude opposition, to expose +himself by summoning a new one to new attacks on his prerogatives as +he understood them. By the voluntary or forced contributions of +different corporations, especially of the clergy and of the great men +of the kingdom, he was placed in a condition to carry on his +government in the ordinary way. Every measure which would have +necessitated a great outlay was avoided. + +It is plain however into what a disagreeable position he was thus +brought. His whole method of government was based upon the superiority +of England. He had at that time brought the system of the Church in +Scotland nearer to the English model. The bishops in that country had +even received their consecration from the English. But he had not +effected this without violent acts of usurpation. He had been obliged +to remove his most active opponents out of the country; but even in +their absence they kept up the excitement of men's feelings by their +writings. The Presbyterians saw in everything which he succeeded in +doing, the work of cunning on the one side and treachery on the other, +and gave vent to the deepest displeasure at his deviation from their +solemn Covenant with God. + +Relying on the right of England, but for the first time inviting +immigrants from Scotland, James undertook the systematic establishment +of colonies in Ireland. The additional strength however which by this +means accrued to the Protestant and Teutonic element entirely +annihilated all leanings which had been shown in his favour at his +accession to the crown, and aroused against him the strongest national +and religious antipathies of the native population in that country. + +He then met with this opposition in Parliament which hampered all his +movements. It was foreign to his natural disposition to think of +effecting a radical removal of the misunderstanding that had arisen. +On the contrary he kept adding fresh fuel to it on account of the +deficiencies of his government, which began to impair his former +importance. The immediate consequence was that in foreign affairs he +was no longer able to maintain the position which he had taken up as +vigorously as might have been wished. His allies pressed him +incessantly to bestow help on them: but if even he had wished it, this +was no longer in his power. It was not that Parliament in withholding +his supplies had disapproved of the object which they were intended to +serve. On the contrary the Parliament lamented that this object was +not pursued with sufficient earnestness; but it wished above all to +extend its right of sanction over the whole domain of the public +revenues. But the King was not inclined to treat with Parliament for +the supplies of money required; he feared to incur the necessity of +repaying its grants by concessions which would abridge the ancient +rights of his crown. The centre of gravity of public affairs must lie +somewhere or other. The question was already raised in England whether +for the future it was to be in the power of the King and his +ministers, or in the authority of Parliament. + +NOTES: + +[364] Letter to the Lords, anno 1607: in Strype, Annals iv. 560. + +[365] Antonio Correro, 25 Giugno 1608: 'Con l'autorita ch'egli tiene +con li mercanti di questa piazza li ha indutti a sottoporsi ad una +nova gravezza posta sopra le merci che vengono e vanno da questo +regno.' + +[366] Molino: 'La gabella dei pupilli porge materia grande a sudditi +di dolorsene e d'esclamare sino al celo studiando ogn'uno di liberasi +da simili bene.--Se uno aveva due campi di questa ragione e cento +d'altra natura, i due hanno questa forza, di sottomettere i cento alla +medesima gravezza.' + +[367] Beaulieu to Trumbull. Winwood, Memorials iii. 123. + +[368] Carleton to Edmonds: Court and Times of James I, i. 12, 123. + +[369] Chamberlain to Winwood. Mem. iii. 175. 'Yf the practise should +follow the positions, we should not leave to our successor that +freedome we received from our forefathers.' + +[370] Tommaso Contarini, 23 Giugno 1610: 'Che le loro persone, come +representanti le communita, siano di maggior qualita che li signori +titolati quali representano le loro sole persone, il che diede +grandissimo fastidio al re.' + +[371] Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors ii. 225. + +[372] Lorking, writing to Puckering (The Court and Times of James the +First i. 254), remarks as early as July 1613 on the first mention of +the marriage, that its design was 'to reconcile him (Lord Rochester) +and the house of Howard together, who are now far enough asunder.' + +[373] The King's second speech. Parliamentary History v. 285. + +[374] A. Foscarini 1614, 20 Giugno. 'Il re ha sempre avuto seco (on +his side) la camera superiore e parte dell'inferiore: il rimanente ha +mostrato di voler contribuir ogni quantita di sussidio ma a conditione +che si vedesse prima qual fosse l'autorita del re, sull'impor +gravezze.' + +[375] Chamberlain to Carleton, May 28. Court and Times of James I, i. +312. + +[376] According to a report furnished by A. Foscarini: 'Elessero 40 +d'essi a quali diede Lunedi audienza S. M.--dissero che la +supplicavano per tanto lasciar per ultima da risolvere la materia di +danari.' Unfortunately we have only very scanty information about this +Parliament. + +[377] Extract from a letter of Winwood to Carleton, June 16. Green, +Calendar of State Papers, James I, vol. ii. 237. + +[378] The Prerogative of Parliaments. Works viii. 154. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE OF THE EPOCH. + + +The times in which great political struggles are actually going on are +not the most favourable for production in the fields of literature and +art. These flourish best in the preceding or following ages, during +which the impulse attending those movements begins or continues to be +felt. Just such an epoch was the period of thirty or forty years +between the defeat of the Armada and the outbreak of the Parliamentary +troubles, a period comprising the later years of Queen Elizabeth and +the earlier years of King James I. This was the epoch in which the +English nation attained to a position of influence on the world at +large, and in which at the same time those far-reaching differences +about the most important questions of the inner life of the nation +arose. The antagonism of ideas which stirred men's minds generally +could not but reproduce itself in literature. But we also see other +grand products of the age far transcending the limits of the present +struggle. Our survey of the history will gain in completeness if we +cast even but a transient glance, first at the former and then at the +latter class of these products. + +In Scotland the studies connected with classical antiquity were +prosecuted with as much zeal as anywhere else in Europe; not however +in order to imitate its forms in the native idiom, which no one at +that time even in Germany thought of doing, but in order to use it in +learned theological controversies, and to maintain connexion with +brother Protestants of other tongues. S. Andrew's was at one time a +centre for Protestant learning: Poles and Danes, Germans and French +visited this university in order to study under Melville. Even Latin +verse was written with a certain elegance. A fit monument of these +studies and their direction is to be found in Buchanan's History of +Scotland, a work without value for the earlier period, and full of +party spirit in describing his own, as Buchanan is one of the most +violent accusers of Mary Stuart, but pervaded by that warmth and +decision which carry the reader along with it: at that time it was +read all over the world. Buchanan and Melville were among the +champions of popular ideas on the constitution of states and the +relations between sovereign and people. It cannot be affirmed that +classical studies were without influence upon their views, but the +doctrine to which they adhered grew out of a different root. It rests +historically upon the doctrine of the superiority of the Church, and +the councils representing the Church, over the Papacy, as it was put +forth in the fifteenth century at Paris. A Scottish student there, +John Major, made this doctrine his own, and after his return to his +native country, when he himself had obtained a professorship, he +applied it to temporal relations. The positions of the advocates of +the councils affirmed that the Pope, it was true, received his +authority from God, but that he might be again deprived of it in cases +of urgent necessity by the Church, which virtually included the sum of +all authority in itself. In the same way John Major taught that an +original power transmitted from father to son pertained to kings, but +that the fundamental authority resided in the people; so that a king +mischievous to the commonwealth, who showed himself incorrigible, +might be deposed again. His scholars, who took so large a part in the +first disturbances in Scotland, and their scholars in turn, firmly +maintained this doctrine. They differed from their contemporaries the +Jesuits, who considered the monarchy to be an institution set up by +the national will, in ascribing to it a divine right, but they urged +that a king existed for the sake of the people, and that as he was +bound by the laws agreed on by common consent, resistance to him was +not only allowed, but under certain circumstances might even be a +duty. We must also remark the opposite view, which was developed in +contradiction to this, but yet rested on the same foundation. It was +admitted that the king, if the people were considered as a whole, +existed for their sake, and not the people for his; but the king, it +was said, was at the same time the head of the people; he possessed +superiority over all individuals: there was no one who could say in +any case that the contract between king and people had been broken: no +such general contract existed at all; there could be no question at +all of resistance, much less of deposition, for how could the members +rebel against the head? King James maintained that the legislative +power belonged to the king by divine and human right, that he +exercised it with the participation of his subjects, and always +remained superior to the laws. His position rests on these views, in +the development of which he himself had certainly a great share; he, +like his opponents, had his political and ecclesiastical adherents. In +the Scottish literature of the time both tendencies are embodied in +important historical works; the latter principally in Spottiswood's +Church History, which represents the royalist views and is not without +merit in point of form, so that even at the present day it can be read +with pleasure; the former in contemporary notices of passing events +which were composed in the language and even in the dialect of the +country, and which in many places are the foundation even of +Buchanan's history. They are the most direct expression of national +and religious views, as they found vent in the assemblies of preachers +and elders; in them we feel the life-breath of Presbyterianism. +Calderwood and the younger Melville, who collected everything which +came to hand, espoused the popular ideas; for information on facts and +their causes they are invaluable, although in respect of form they do +not rival Spottiswood, who, like them, employs the language of the +country. + +It might perhaps be said that it was in Scotland that the two systems +arose which since that time, although in various shapes, have divided +Britain and Europe. In the historians just mentioned we might see the +types of two schools, whose opposite conceptions of universal and +especially of English history, set forth by writers of brilliant +ability, have exercised the greatest influence upon prevailing ideas. + + +In England these ideas certainly gained admission, but they did not +make way at that time. When Richard Hooker expresses the popular ideas +as to the primitive free development of society, this is done +principally in order to point out the extensive authority of the +legislative power even over the clergy, and to defend the +ecclesiastical supremacy of the English crown, which had been +established by the enactments of that very power. The question was +mooted how far the sovereign was above the laws. Many wished to derive +these prerogatives from the laws; others rejected them. Among those +who maintained them unconditionally Walter Ralegh appears, in whose +works we find a peculiar deduction of them in the statement that the +sovereign, according to Justinian's phrase, was the living law: he +derives the royal authority from the Divine Will, which the will of +man could only acknowledge. He says in one place that the sovereign +stands in the same relation to the law, as a living man to a dead +body. + +What a remarkable work would it have been, had Walter Ralegh himself +recorded the history of his time. But the opposition between parties +was not so outspoken in England as in Scotland; it had not to justify +itself by general principles, to which men could give their adhesion; +it contained too much personal ill-feeling and hatred for any one who +was involved in the strife to have been able to find satisfaction in +expressing himself on this head. The history of the world which Walter +Ralegh had leisure to write in his prison, is an endeavour to put +together the materials of Universal History as they lay before him +from ancient times, and so make them more intelligible. He touches on +the events of his age only in allusions, which excited attention at +the time, but remain obscure to posterity. + +In direct opposition to the Scots, especially to Buchanan, Camden, who +wrote in Latin like the former, composed his Annals of the Reign of +Queen Elizabeth. His contemporary, De Thou, borrowed much from +Buchanan. Camden reproaches him with this, partly because in Scotland +men preached atrocious principles with regard to the authority of the +people and their right of keeping their kings in order. The elder +Cecil had invited him to write the history of the Queen, and had +communicated to him numerous documents for this purpose, which were +either in his own possession or belonged to the national archives. +Camden set cautiously to work, and went slowly on. He has himself +depicted the trouble it cost him to decipher the historical contents +of these scattered and dusty papers. He has certainly not surmounted +all the difficulties which stand in the way of composing a +contemporary history. Here and there we find even in his pages a +regard paid to the living, especially to King James himself, which we +would rather see away. But such passages are rare. Camden's Annals +take a high rank among histories of contemporary transactions. They +are of such authenticity in regard to facts, and show so intimate an +acquaintance with causes gathered from trustworthy information, that +we can follow the author, even where we do not possess the documents +to which he refers. His judgments are moderate and at the same time in +all important questions they are decided. + +When we read Camden's letters we become acquainted with a circle of +scholars engaged in the severest studies. In his Britannia, which +gives a more complete and instructive picture of the country than any +other work, they all took a lively interest. Their works are clumsy +and old-fashioned, but they breathe a spirit of thoroughness and +breadth which does honour to the age. With what zeal were +ecclesiastical antiquities studied in Cambridge, after Whitaker had +pointed the way! Men sought to weed out what was spurious, and in what +was genuine to set aside the part due to the accidental forms of the +time, and to penetrate to the bottom of the sentiments, the belief, +and activity of the writers. The constitution of the Church naturally +led them to devote special study to the old provincial councils. For +the history of the country they referred to the monuments of +Anglo-Saxon times, and began even in treating of other subjects to +bring the original sources to light. Everywhere men advanced beyond +the old limits which had been drawn by the tradition of chroniclers +and the lack of historical investigation hitherto shown. + +Francis Bacon was attracted by the task of depicting at length a +modern epoch, the history of the Tudors, with the various changes +which it presented and the great results it had introduced, in which +he saw the unity of a connected series of events. Yet he has only +treated the history of the first of that line. He furnishes one of the +first examples of exact investigation of details combined with +reflective treatment of history, and has exercised a controlling +influence on the manner and style of writing English history, +especially by the introduction of considerations of law, which play a +great part in his work. The political points of view which are present +to the author are almost more those of the beginning of the +seventeenth than those of the beginning of the sixteenth century. But +these epochs are closely connected with each other. For what Henry VII +established is just what James I, who loved to connect himself +immediately with the former monarch, wished to continue. Bacon was a +staunch defender of the prerogative. + +The dispute which arose between Bacon as a lawyer and Edward Coke +deserves notice. + +Coke also has a place in literature. His reports are, even at the +present day, known without his name simply as 'The Reports,' and his +'Institutes' is one of the most learned works which this age produced. +It is rather a collection provided with notes, but is instructive and +suggestive from the variety of and the contrast of its contents. Coke +traced the English laws to the remotest antiquity; he considered them +as the common production of the wisest men of earlier ages, and at the +same time as the great inheritance of the English people, and its best +protection against every kind of tyranny, spiritual or temporal. Even +the old Norman French, in which they were to a great extent composed, +he would not part with, for a peculiar meaning attached itself, in his +view, to every word. + +On the other hand Bacon as Attorney-General formed the plan of +comprising the common law in a code, by which a limit should be set to +the caprice of the judges, and the private citizen be better assured +of his rights. He thought of revising the Statute-Book, and wished to +erase everything useless, to remove difficulties, and to bring what +was contradictory into harmony. + +Bacon's purpose coincided with the idea of a general system of +legislation entertained by the King: he would have preferred the Roman +law to the statute law of England. Coke was a man devoted to the +letter of the law, and was inclined to offer that resistance to the +sovereign which was implied in a strict adherence to the law as it +was. In the conflict that arose the judges, influenced by his example, +appealed to the laws as they were laid down, according to the verbal +meaning of which they thought themselves bound to decide. Bacon +maintained that the Judges' oath was meant to include obedience to the +King also, to whom application must be made in every matter affecting +his prerogative. This is probably what Queen Elizabeth also thought, +and it was the decided opinion of King James. He made the man who +cherished similar views his Lord Chancellor, and dismissed Coke from +his service. Bacon when in office was responsible for a catastrophe +which, as we shall see, not only ruined himself, but reacted upon the +monarchy. The English, contemporaries and posterity alike, have taken +the side of Coke. Yet Bacon's industry in business is not therefore +altogether to be despised. He urged the King, who was disposed to +judge hastily, to take time and to weigh the reasons of both parties. +He gave the judges who went on circuit through the country the most +pertinent advice. The directions which he drew up for the Court of +Chancery have laid the foundations of the practice of that court, and +are still an authority for it. His scheme of collecting and reforming +the English laws still, even at the present day, appears to statesmen +learned in the law to be an unavoidable necessity; and the opinion is +spreading that steps must be taken in this matter in the direction +already pointed out by Bacon. + +Bacon was one of the last men who identified the welfare of England +with the development of the monarchical element in the constitution, +or at all events with the preponderance of the authority of the +sovereign within constitutional limits. The union of the three +kingdoms under the ruling authority of the King appeared to him to +contain the foundation of the future greatness of Britain. With the +assertion of the authority of the sovereign he connected the hope of a +reform of the laws of England, of the establishment of a comprehensive +system of colonisation in Ireland, and of the assimilation of the +ecclesiastical and judicial constitution of Scotland to English +customs. He loved the monarchy because he expected great things from +it. + +But it cannot be denied that he brought his ideas into a connexion +with his interests, which was fatal to the acceptance of the former. +His is just a case in which we feel relieved when we turn from the +disputes of the day to the free domain of scientific activity, in +which his true life was spent. He has indeed said himself that he was +better fitted to hold a book in his hands than to shine upon the stage +of the world. In his studies he had only science itself and the whole +of the world before his eyes. + +The scholastic system founded on Aristotle, the inheritance of +centuries of ecclesiastical supremacy, had been assailed some time +before he took up the subject; and the inductive method which he +opposed to that system was not anything quite new. But the idea of +Bacon had the most comprehensive tendency: it tended to free the +thoughts and enquiries of men of science from the assumptions of a +speculative theology which regulated their spiritual horizon. The most +renowned adversaries of scholasticism he had to encounter in turn, +because they covered things with a new web of words and theories which +he could not accept. He thought to free men from the deceptive notions +by which their minds are prepossessed, from the fascination of words +which throw a veil over things, and of tradition consecrated by great +names, and to open to them the sphere of the certain knowledge of +experience. Nature is in his eyes God's book, which man must study +directly for His glory and for the relief of man's estate; he thought +that men must start from sense and experience, in order that by +intercourse with things they might discover the cause of phenomena. +He would have preferred for his own part to have been the architect of +an universal science, an outline of which he had already composed; but +he possessed the self-restraint to hold back from this in the first +instance, to work at details, and to make experiments, or, as he once +says, to contribute the bricks and stones which might serve for the +great work in the future. He only wanted more complete devotion and +more adequate knowledge for his task. His method is imperfect, his +results are untrustworthy in points of detail; but his object is +grand. He designates the insight for which he labours by the +Heraclitean name of dry light, that is, a light which is obscured by +no partiality and no subordinate aim. He would place the man who +possesses it as it were upon the mountain top, at the foot of which +errors chase one another like clouds. And in his eyes the satisfaction +of the mind is not the only interest at stake, but such discoveries as +rouse the activity of men and promote their welfare. Nature is at the +same time the great storehouse of God: the dominion over nature which +men originally possessed must be restored to them. + +In these speculations the philosopher became aware that there was a +risk lest men should imagine that by this means they could also +discover the nature of God. Bacon lays down a complete separation of +these two provinces; for he thinks that men can only attain to second +causes, not to the first cause, which is God; and that the human mind +can only cope with natural things; that divine things on the contrary +confuse it. He will not even investigate the nature of the human soul, +for it does not owe its origin to the productive powers of nature, but +to the breath of God. + +It had been from the beginning the tendency of those schools of +philosophy erected on the basis of ancient systems, in which Latin and +Teutonic elements were blended, to transfuse faith with scientific +knowledge; but Bacon renounces this attempt from the beginning. He +puts forward with almost repulsive abruptness the paradoxes which the +Christian must believe: he declares it an Icarian flight to wish to +penetrate these secrets: but so much stronger is the impulse he seeks +to give the human mind in the direction of enquiry into natural +objects.[379] + +Among these he ranks the state of human society, to which all his life +long he devoted a careful and searching observation. His Essays are +not at all sceptical, like the French essays, from which he may have +borrowed this appellation: they are thoroughly dogmatic. They consist +of remarks on the relations of life as they then presented themselves, +especially upon the points of contact between private and public life, +and of counsels drawn from the perception of the conflicting qualities +of things. They are extremely instructive for the internal relations +of English society. They show wide observation and calm wisdom, and, +like his philosophical works, are a treasure for the English nation, +whose views of life have been built upon them. + +What better legacy can one generation leave to another than the sum of +its experiences which have an importance extending beyond the fleeting +moment, when they are couched in a form which makes them useful for +all time? Herein consists the earthly immortality of the soul. + +But another possession of still richer contents and of incomparable +value was secured to the English nation by the development of the +drama, which falls just within this epoch. + +In former times there had been theatrical representations in the +palaces of the kings and of great men, in the universities, and among +judicial and civic societies. They formed part of the enjoyments of +the Carnival or contributed to the brilliancy of other festivities; +but they did not come into full existence until Elizabeth allowed them +to the people by a general permission. In earlier times the scholars +of the higher schools or the members of learned fraternities, the +artisans in the towns, and the members of the household of great men +and princes, had themselves conducted the representation. Actors by +profession now arose, who received pay and performed the whole year +round.[380] A number of small theatres grew up which, as they charged +but low entrance-fees, attracted the crowd, and while they influenced +it, were influenced by it in turn. The government could not object to +the theatre, as the principal opposition which it had to fear, that of +the Puritans, shut itself out from exercising any influence over the +drama, owing to the aversion of their party to it. The theatres vied +with one another: each sought to bring out something new, and then to +keep it to itself. The authors, among whom men of distinguished talent +were found, were not unfrequently players as well. All materials from +fable and from history, from the whole range of literature, which had +been widely extended by native productions and by appropriation from +foreign sources, were seized, and by constant elaboration adapted for +an appreciative public. + +While the town theatres and their productions were thus struggling to +rise in mutual rivalry, the genius of William Shakspeare developed +itself: at that time he was lost among the crowd of rivals, but his +fame has increased from age to age among posterity. + +It especially concerns us to notice that he brought on the stage a +number of events taken from English history itself. In the praise +which has been lavishly bestowed on him, of having rendered them with +historical truth, we cannot entirely agree. For who could affirm that +his King John and Henry VIII, his Gloucester and Winchester, or even +his Maid of Orleans, resemble the originals whose names they bear? The +author forms his own conception of the great questions at issue. While +he follows the chronicle as closely as possible, and adopts its +characteristic traits, he yet assigns to each of the personages a part +corresponding to the peculiar view he adopts: he gives life to the +action by introducing motives which the historian cannot find or +accept: characters which stand close together in tradition, as they +probably did in fact, are set apart in his pages, each of them in a +separately developed homogeneous existence of its own: natural human +motives, which elsewhere appear only in private life, break the +continuity of the political action, and thus obtain a twofold dramatic +influence. But if deviations from fact are found in individual points, +yet the choice of events to be brought upon the stage shows a deep +sense of what is historically great. These are almost always +situations and entanglements of the most important character: the +interference of the spiritual power in an intestine political quarrel +in King John: the sudden fall of a firmly seated monarchy as soon as +ever it departs from the strict path of right in Richard III: the +opposition which a usurping prince, Henry IV, meets with at the hands +of the great vassals who have placed him on the throne, and which +brings him by incessant anxiety and mental labour to a premature +grave: the happy issue of a successful foreign enterprise, the course +of which we follow from the determination to prepare for it, to the +risk of battle and to final victory; and then again in Henry V and +Henry VI, the unhappy position into which a prince not formed by +nature to be a ruler falls between violent contending parties, until +he envies the homely swain who tends his flocks and lets the years run +by in peace: lastly the path of horrible crime which a king's son not +destined for the throne has to tread in order to ascend it: all these +are great elements in the history of states, and are not only +important for England, but are symbolic for all people and their +sovereigns. The poet touches on parliamentary or religions questions +extremely seldom; and it may be observed that in King John the great +movements which led to Magna Charta are as good as left out of sight; +on the contrary he lives and moves among the personal contrasts +offered by the feudal system, and its mutual rights and duties. +Bolingbroke's feeling that though his cousin is King of England yet he +is Duke of Lancaster reveals the conception of these rights in the +middle ages. The speech which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of the +Bishop of Carlisle is applicable to all times. The crown that secures +the highest independence appears to the poet the most desirable of all +possessions, but the honoured gold consumes him who wears it by the +restless care which it brings with it. + +Shakspeare depicts the popular storms which are wont to accompany a +free constitution in the plots of some of his Roman dramas: of these +Plutarch instead of Holinshed furnishes the basis. He is right in +taking them from a foreign country: for events nearer to his audience +would have roused an interest of a different kind, and yet would not +have had so universal a meaning. What could be more dramatic, for +example, and at the same time more widely applicable than the contrast +between the two speeches, by the first of which Caesar's murder is +justified, while by the second the memory of his services is revived? +The conception of freedom which the first brings to life is set in +opposition to the thought of the virtues and services of the possessor +of absolute power, and thrust by them into the background; but these +same feelings are the deepest and most active in all ages and among +all nations. + +But the attested traditions of ancient and modern times do not satisfy +the poet in his wish to lay bare the depths of human existence. He +takes us into the cloudy regions of British and Northern antiquity +only known to fable, in which other contrasts between persons and in +public affairs make their appearance. A king comes on the stage who in +the plenitude of enjoyment and power is brought by overhasty +confidence in his nearest kin to the extremest wretchedness into which +men can fall. We see the heir to a throne who, dispossessed of his +rights by his own mother and his father's murderer, is directed by +mysterious influences to take revenge. We have before us a great +nobleman, who by atrocious murders has gained possession of the +throne, and is slain in fighting for it: the poet brings us into +immediate proximity with the crime, its execution, and its recoil: it +seems like an inspiration of hell and of its deceitful prophecies: we +wander on the confines of the visible world and of that other world +which lies on the other side, but extends over into this, where it +forms the border-land between conscious sense and unconscious madness: +the abysses of the human breast are opened to view, in which men are +chained down and brought to destruction by powers of nature that dwell +there unknown to them: all questions about existence and +non-existence; about heaven, hell, and earth; about freedom and +necessity, are raised in these struggles for the crown. Even the +tenderest feelings that rivet human souls to one another he loves to +display upon a background of political life. Then we follow him from +the cloudy North into sunny Italy. Shakspeare is one of the +intellectual powers of nature; he takes away the veil by which the +inward springs of action are hidden from the vulgar eye. The extension +of the range of human vision over the mysterious being of things which +his works offer constitutes them a great historical fact. + +We do not here enter upon a discussion of Shakspeare's art and +characteristics, of their merits and defects: they were no doubt of a +piece with the needs, habits, and mode of thought of his audience; for +in what case could there be a stronger reciprocal action between an +author and his public, than in that of a young stage depending upon +voluntary support? The very absence of conventional rule made it +easier to put on the stage a drama by which all that is grandest and +mightiest is brought before the eyes as if actually present in that +medley of great and small things which is characteristic of human +life. Genius is an independent gift of God: whether it is allowed to +expand or not depends on the receptivity and taste of its +contemporaries. + +It is certainly no unimportant circumstance that Shakspeare brought +out King Lear soon after the accession of James I, who, like his +predecessor, loved the theatre; and that Francis Bacon dedicated to +the King his work on the Advancement of Learning in the same year +1605. + +Of these two great minds the first bodied forth in imperishable forms +the tradition, the poetry, and the view of the world that belonged to +the past: the second banished from the domain of science the analogies +which they offered, and made a new path for the activity displayed by +succeeding centuries in the conquest of nature, and for a new view of +the world. + +Many others laboured side by side with them. The investigation of +nature had already entered on the path indicated by Bacon, and was +welcomed with lively interest, especially among the upper classes. +Together with Shakspeare the less distinguished poets of the time +have always been remembered. In many other departments works of solid +value were written which laid a foundation for subsequent studies. +Their characteristic feature is the union of the knowledge of +particulars, which are grasped in their individuality, with a +scientific effort directed towards the universal. + +These were the days of calm between the storms; halcyon days, as they +have well been named, in which genius had sufficient freedom in +determining its own direction to devote itself with all its strength +to great creations. + +As the German spirit at the epoch of the Reformation, so the English +spirit at the beginning of the seventeenth century, took its place +among the rival nationalities which stood apart from one another on +the domain of Western Christendom, and on whose exertions the advance +of the human race depends. + +NOTES: + +[379] In a letter to Casaubon he says 'vitam et res humanas et medias +earum turbas per contemplationes sanas et veras instructiores esse +volo.' (Works vi. 51). + +[380] Sam. Cox in Nicolas' Memoirs of Hatton, App. XXX. + + + + +BOOK V. + +DISPUTES WITH PARLIAMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF JAMES +I AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. + + +It has been my wish hitherto in my narrative to suppress myself as it +were, and only to let the events speak and the mighty forces be seen +which, arising out of and strengthened by each other's action in the +course of centuries, now stood up against one another, and became +involved in a stormy contest, which discharged itself in bloody and +terrible outbursts, and at the same time was fraught with the decision +of questions most important for the European world. + +The British islands, which in ancient times had been the extreme +border-land, or even beyond the extreme border-land of civilisation, +had now become one of its most important centres, and, owing to the +union just effected, had taken a grand position among the powers of +the world. But it is nevertheless clear at first sight that the +constituent elements of the population were far from being completely +fused. In many places in the two great islands the old Celtic stock +still existed with its original character unaltered. The Germanic +race, which certainly had an indubitable preponderance and was +sovereign over the other, was split into two different kingdoms, +which, despite the union of the two crowns, still remained distinct. +The hostility of the two races was increased by a difference of +religion, which was closely connected with this hostility though it +was not merged in it. As a general rule the men of Celtic extraction +remained true to the Roman Catholic faith, while the Germanic race was +penetrated by Protestant convictions. Yet there were Protestants among +the former, and we know how numerous and how powerful the Catholics +were among the latter. Besides this, moreover, opposite tendencies +with regard to ecclesiastical forms struck root in the two kingdoms. +It was now the principal aim of the family by whose hereditary claim +the two kingdoms and the islands had been united, not only to avert +the strife of hostile elements, but also to reconcile them with one +another, and to unite them in a single commonwealth under its +authority, which all acknowledged and which it was desired to extend +by such an union. This was a scheme which opened a great prospect, but +at the same time involved no inconsiderable danger. Each of the two +kingdoms watched jealously over its separate independence. They would +not allow the dynasty to bring about a common government, which would +thus have set itself up above them, and would have established a new +kind of sovereignty over them. While the crown sought to enforce +prerogatives which were contested, it had to encounter in both +kingdoms the claims advanced by the holders of power in the nation, +whom in turn it endeavoured to repress. The quarrel was complicated by +a conception of the relations of the crown to foreign powers answering +to its new position, and running counter to the national view. At the +same time very perceptible analogies to this state of things were +offered by the religious wars, which began to convulse the continent +more violently than ever, and aroused corresponding feelings in the +British isles. The dynasty which tried to appease the prevailing +opposition of principles might find that, on the contrary, it rather +fomented the strife, and was itself drawn into it. This in fact took +place. Springs of action of the most opposite nature and antagonisms +growing out of nationality, religion, and politics, which could not be +understood apart from one another, co-operated in giving rise to +events which do not form a single continuous course of action, but +rather present a varied and changing result, due to elements which +were grand and full of life, but still waited for their final +settlement. It is clear how much this depended on the character and +discernment of the king. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JAMES I AND HIS ADMINISTRATION OF DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT. + + +At one period of his youth James I had been accustomed to vary his +application to his lessons with bodily exercises. At that age he had +divided his days between learned studies and the chase of the smaller +game in Stirling Park, accompanied in both pursuits by friends and +comrades of the same age; and he retained during all his life the +habits he had then formed.[381] He spent only a couple of months in +the year in London, or at Greenwich: he preferred Theobald's, and +still more distant country seats like Royston and Newmarket, where he +could give himself up to hunting. Even before sunrise he was in +motion, surrounded by a small number of companions practised in the +chase and selected for that object, amongst whom he was himself one of +the most skilful. He thought that he might vie with Henry IV even in +field sports; but he was not hindered by his fondness for these +amusements from continuing his studies with unwearied application. He +was impelled to these not, strictly speaking, by thirst for general +knowledge, although he was not deficient in this, but principally by +interest in the theological controversies which engaged the attention +of the world. He more than once went through the voluminous works of +Bellarmin; and, in order to verify the citations, he had the old +editions of the Fathers and of the Decrees of the Councils sent him +from Cambridge. In this task a learned bishop stood at his side to +assist him. He endeavoured with many a work of his own to thrust +himself forward in the conflict of opinions. He had the vanity of +wishing to be regarded as the most learned man in the two kingdoms, +but he could only succeed in passing for a storehouse of all sorts of +knowledge; for a man who overestimates himself is commonly punished by +disregard even of his real merits. These may not meet with recognition +until later times. The writings of James I wore the pedantic dress of +the age; but in the midst of scholastic argumentation we yet stumble +upon apt thoughts and allusions. The images which he frequently +employs have not that delicacy of literary feeling which avoids what +is ungraceful, but they are original and sometimes striking in their +simplicity. Naturally thorough and acute, he labours not without +success to prove to his adversaries the untenableness of the grounds +on which they proceed, or the logical fallacy of their conclusions. +Here and there we catch the elevated tone of a consciousness that +rests upon firm conviction. Even in conversation he sought to turn +away from particulars as soon as they came under discussion, and to +pass to general considerations, a province in which he felt most at +home. In his incidental utterances which have been taken down, he +displays sound sense and knowledge of mankind. It is especially worth +noticing how he considers virtue and religion to be immediately +connected with knowledge--the confusions in the world appear to him +for the most part to arise from mediocrity of knowledge[382]--and how +highly moreover he estimates a sense for truth. He finds the most +material difference between virtue and vice in the greater inward +truthfulness of the former. King James delivers many other +well-weighed principles of calm wisdom: it is only extraordinary how +little his own practice corresponded with them.[383] When in one of +his earlier writings we mark the seriousness with which he speaks of +the duty incumbent on a king of testing men of talent, of measuring +their capacity, and of appointing his servants not according to +inclination but according to merit, we should expect to find him in +this respect a careful and conscientious ruler. Instead of this we +find that he always has favourites, whose merits no one can discover; +to whom he stands in the extraordinarily compound relation of father, +teacher, and friend, and to whom he allows a share in the power which +he possesses. He could never free himself from a ruinous prodigality +towards those about him, in spite of resolutions of amendment. How +soon were the costly objects flung away which Elizabeth had collected +and left behind at her death![384] How many possessions or sources of +revenue accruing to the crown did he allow to pass into private hands! +Any regulation of his household expenditure was as little to be +expected from him in England as in Scotland. Like the princes of the +thirteenth century he considered that the royal power assigned him +privileges and advantages in which he had a full right to allow his +favourites and servants to share. Not seldom the most scandalous +abuses were connected with these: for instance, when the court was to +be provided with the common necessaries of life during its journeys, +it was required that they should be delivered to it at low prices: the +servants exacted more supplies than were wanted, and then sold the +surplus for their own profit. In grotesque contrast with the +disgraceful cupidity of his attendants is the exaggerated conception +which James had formed for himself of the ideal importance of the +royal authority, which at that time some persons attempted with +metaphysical acuteness to lay down almost in the same terms as the +attributes of the Deity. He had similar notions about his dignity and +the unconditional obligation of his subjects. Even in his +Parliamentary speeches he did not refrain from expressing them. He +made no secret of them in his life in the country, where he met with +unbounded veneration from every one. It was remarked as a point of +contrast between him and Elizabeth, that while she had always spoken +of the love of her subjects, James on the contrary was always talking +of the obedience which they owed him on the ground of divine and human +right. And people recognised many other points of contrast between +them besides this.[385] When the Queen had formed a resolution, she +had never shrunk from the trouble of directing her attention to its +execution even in the minutest details. King James did not possess +this ardour; for he could not descend from the world of studies and +general views in which he lived, to take a searching interest in the +business of the government or of justice. He had indeed been known to +say that it was annoying to him to hear the arguments on both sides +quietly discussed in a question of right submitted to him; for that in +that case he was unable to come to any conclusion. The Queen loved +gallant men and characters distinguished for boldness: the King was +without any sense of military merit, and felt uncomfortable in the +presence of men of enterprising spirit. He thought that he could only +trust those whom he had chained to himself by favours, presents, and +benefits. The Queen served as a pattern of everything which was proper +and becoming. James, who restricted himself to the intercourse of a +few intimate friends, formed attachments which he thought were to +serve as the rule of life. He himself was slovenly; in England, as +formerly in Scotland, he neglected his appearance, and indulged in +eccentricities which appeared repulsive to others, and were taken +amiss from him. Even at that time there was a common feeling in +England in favour of what is becoming in good society; and although +the feeling was for a long time less deeply engraved on men's minds, +and less sensitive to every outrage than it became at a later period, +men did not pardon the King for coming into collision with it. + +Hence this sovereign appeared in complete contradiction with himself. +Careless, petty, and at the same time most unusually proud; a lover of +pomp and ceremony, yet fond of solitude and retirement; fiery and at +the same time lax; a man of genius and yet pedantic; eager to acquire +and reckless in giving away; confidential and imperious; even in +little matters of daily life not master of himself, he often did what +he would afterwards rather have left undone. With all his knowledge +and acuteness, the high flight of his thoughts was often allied to a +moral weakness which among all circles did serious injury to that +reverence which had hitherto been reserved for those who held the +highest authority, and which was partly bestowed even on him. It could +not seem likely that such a man should be able to exercise great +influence on the fortunes of Britain. + +He did however exercise such an influence. He gave the tone to the +policy of the Stuart dynasty, and introduced the complication in which +the destiny of his descendants was involved. + +In the first years of his reign in England, so long as Robert Cecil +was alive, King James exercised no deep influence. The Privy Council +possessed to the full the authority which belonged to it by old +custom. James used simply to confirm the resolutions which were +adopted in the bosom of the Council under the influence of the +Treasurer: he appears in the reports of ambassadors as a phantom-king, +and the minister as the real ruler of the country.[386] After the +death of Cecil all this was changed. The King knew the party-divisions +which prevailed in the Council: he let its members have their own way, +and even connived at the relations they formed with foreign powers for +their own interest; but he knew how to hold the balance between them, +and in the midst of their divisions to carry out his own views. In +those country seats, where no one seemed to take thought for anything +except the pleasures of the chase and learned pursuits, the business +of the state also was carried on in course of time with +ever-increasing ardour.[387] The secretaries about the King were +incessantly busy, while the secretaries' chambers in London were +idle. Great affairs were generally transacted between the King and the +favourite in the ascendant at the time, in conferences to which only a +few others were admitted, and sometimes not even these. The King +himself decided; and the resolutions which were taken were +communicated to the Privy Council, which gradually became accustomed +to do nothing more than invest them with the customary forms. If it be +asked what the object of the King's efforts was, the answer must be +that it was to set the exercise of the supreme power free from the +controlling influence of the men of high rank to whom the King had +deferred on his first accession. This was generally the aim of the +great rulers of that century. This had been the principal end of the +policy of Philip II of Spain during his long political life: however +the Kings and Queens of France may have differed on other points, they +were all, both Henry III and Henry IV, Mary de' Medici while she was +regent, and Lewis XIII so soon as he succeeded to the exercise of +power, at one in this endeavour. James, who was a new sovereign in one +of his kingdoms, and almost always absent from the other, had more +difficulties in his way than other monarchs. Wherever it was possible +he proceeded with energy and rigour. People were astonished when they +reckoned up the number of considerable men who served him in high +offices, and were then deprived of them. He laboured incessantly to +make way for the impartial exercise of justice in the King's name +throughout Scotland, in spite of the privileges of the great Scottish +nobles as its administrators. In his ecclesiastical arrangements in +that country, he was fond of insisting on his personal wishes: in +cases of emergency indeed he made known that all the treasures of +India were not of so much value in his eyes as the observance of his +ordinances; and he threatened the opponents of the royal will with the +King's anger, to which he then gave unbridled indulgence.[388] As he +looked upon the Church of England as the best bulwark against the +influence of the Jesuits which he feared on the one side, and that of +the Puritans which he hated on the other, it was naturally his +foremost endeavour to fortify his power, and to unite the two kingdoms +with one another by the promotion and spread of the forms of that +Church. The essential motive of his system of colonisation in Ireland +was the wish to establish the Church, by the aid of which he designed +to subjugate or to suppress hostile elements. In England he imparted +to it a character still more clerical and removed from Presbyterianism +than that which had previously distinguished it: he wished it to be as +much withdrawn as possible from the action of civil legislation. But +in proportion as he supported himself on the Church he fell out with +the Parliament, in which aristocratic tendencies and sympathies with +popular rights and with Puritanism were blended with a feeling of +independence that was hateful to him. He once said that five hundred +kings were assembled there, and he thought that he was fulfilling a +duty in resisting them. The most momentous questions affecting +constitutional rights in regard to the freedom of elections, freedom +of speech, the limits of legislative power, and above all the right of +granting taxes, were brought forward under King James. And on every +other side he saw himself involved in a struggle with hostile +privileges and proud independent powers, from whose ascendancy both in +Church and State he was careful to keep himself free, while at the +same time he did not proceed to extremities or come to an absolute +rupture. He was naturally disposed, and was moreover led by +circumstances, to make it a leading rule of conduct, to adhere +immovably to principles which he had once espoused, and never to lose +sight of them; but, having done this, to appear vacillating and +irresolute in matters of detail. His position abroad involved the same +apparent contradiction. Placed in the midst of great rival powers, and +never completely certain of the obedience of his subjects, he sought +to ensure the future for himself by crafty and hesitating conduct. All +the world complained that they could not depend on him; each party +thought that he was blinded by the other. Those however who knew him +more intimately assure us that we must not suppose that he did not +apprehend the snares which were laid for him; that if only he were +willing to use his eyes, he was as clear-sighted as Argus; that there +was no prince in the world who had more insight into affairs or more +cleverness in transacting them. They say that if he appeared to lack +decision, this arose from his fine perception of the difficulties +arising from the nature of things and their necessary consequences; +that he was just as slow and circumspect in the execution as he was +lively and expeditious in the discussion of measures; that he knew how +to moderate his choleric temperament by an intentional reserve,[389] +and that even his absence from the capital and his residence in the +country were made to second this systematic hesitation; that, if a +disputed point awaited decision, instead of attending a meeting with +the Privy Councillors who were with him, he would take advantage of a +fine day to fly his falcons, for he thought that something might +happen in the meanwhile, or some news be brought in, and that the +delay of an hour had often ere now been found profitable. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1613.] + +It was then through no mere weakness on King James's part that he +conceded power to a favourite. In a letter to Robert Carr he describes +what he thought he had found in him, viz. a man who did not allow +himself to be diverted a hair's-breadth from his service,[390] who +never betrayed a secret, and who had nothing before his eyes but the +advantage and good name of his sovereign. The greater share that he +secured for such a man in the management of affairs the greater the +power which he believed that he himself exercised in them. The +favourite who depended entirely on the will of the king and knew his +secrets, he supposed would be both feared and powerful as a first +minister, and would pave the way by his influence upon the state for +the carrying out of the views of the sovereign. He thought that he +could combine the government of the state and the advance of +monarchical ideas, with the comfort of a domestic friendship with an +inferior. + +James himself brought about the alliance, which we noticed, between +Robert Carr, whom he raised to the earldom of Somerset, and the house +of Howard. By the union of the hereditary importance of an old family +that had almost always held the highest and most influential offices, +with the favour of the King which carried with it the fullest +authority, a power was in fact consolidated which for a while governed +England. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, the Lord Treasurer Thomas +Howard, Earl of Suffolk, and Robert Carr were considered the triumvirs +of England.[391] In the midst of this combination appears Lady Frances +Howard, the daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, whose divorce from Essex +and marriage with Somerset had sealed the political alliance between +the two families. She was young and beautiful, with an expression of +modesty and gentleness, but at the same time stately and brilliant, a +fit creature to move in a society that revelled in the enjoyment of +life, in the culture of the century, and in the possession of high +rank. But what an abyss of dark impulses and unbridled passion +sometimes lies hid under such a shining exterior! The Lady Frances had +once sought to draw Prince Henry into her net. Many said that she had +employed magic for this purpose; indeed they assumed that the early +death of the Prince had been brought on partly by this means.[392] Her +marriage with the king's favourite was, if this be true, only a +secondary satisfaction of her ambition, but yet a satisfaction which +she could not forego. Somerset had an intimate friend, whose advice +and services at a former period had been very useful to him, but who +opposed this marriage and fell out with him on account of it--his name +was Overbury.[393] Lady Frances swore to effect his death. We are +revolted at the licence which personal hate enjoyed of misusing the +power of the state, when we read that Overbury was first brought to +the Tower, and then had creatures who could be relied on set about him +there, with whose help the victim was removed out of the way by means +of poison. Lady Frances was not the only female poisoner among the +higher classes of society. This mode of assassination had spread in +England as it had done in Italy and at times in France. In these +transactions the most abandoned profligacy allied itself with the +brilliancy and the advantages of a high position, but they foreboded a +speedy ruin. The authority of Somerset awakened discontent and secret +counterplots. He was naturally turbulent, obstinate, and insolent, and +had the presumption to behave in his usual manner even to the King +whom he set right with an air of intellectual superiority which +revived in the King's breast bitter recollection of the years of his +childhood. James put up with this conduct for a while; he then, +against the will of the favourite, set his hand to raise to a level +with him another young man, for whom he entertained a personal liking: +at last the misunderstanding came to an open rupture. And at the same +time an accident brought to light the circumstances of Overbury's +death.[394] All Somerset's old enemies raised their heads again, and +proceedings were instituted against him and his wife which terminated +in their condemnation.[395] The King pardoned them, to the extent of +allowing them to lead a life secluded from the world; they resided +afterwards in the same house, but, as far as is known, in complete +separation without even seeing one another. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1615.] + +Shortly before this event Henry Howard had died. Thomas Howard, whose +wife was accused of exercising a pernicious and corrupt influence upon +affairs, lost his office of High Treasurer. The place of Carr was +occupied by the young man above referred to, whom Carr's adversaries +had combined to push forward, George Villiers, a native of +Leicestershire, where his family had lived upon their own ancestral +property from the time of the Conquest. After the early death of his +father, his mother, a Beaumont by birth, a lady still young and full +of ambition and knowledge of the world, had educated him not only in +the training of English schools but in French ways and manners, and +had then brought him to court. He differed from Carr in being +naturally good-tempered, and of a courteous obliging disposition, +which won the heart of every one.[396] Although no one doubted that he +would be spoilt by a higher position, yet people thought that he could +never become malicious like Somerset. Lord Pembroke and Archbishop +Abbot both gave him a helping hand in his rise: the latter moved the +Queen also, although she was not without scruples, to aid in it. +Villiers was a man after the King's own heart, well-formed, capable of +intellectual cultivation, devoted: in consequence of the favour and +confidence of the King the youth, who after a time was created Duke of +Buckingham, acquired a ruling position in the English state. The old +Admiral Effingham, Earl of Nottingham, resigned his office in order to +make room for him: some other high officials were appointed under his +influence and according to his views; in a short time the white wands +of the royal household and the under-secretaryships and subordinate +offices had been transferred to the hands of his adherents and +friends. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1617.] + +But foreign as well as domestic relations were affected by this +change. Somerset had stood in the most confidential relations with the +Spanish ambassador: he was accused of having betrayed to him the +secrets of the state from his office.[397] His wife, if not himself, +was thought to have drawn money from Spain. Probably the intelligence +of this behaviour, which came to the King's ears, contributed most to +the downfall of Somerset. This event did not in itself involve a +change of policy. In the advice which was given to the young favourite +from a well-informed source, it is presupposed that the good +understanding with Spain would continue: but it was now possible for +the adversaries of this power to bestir themselves again. Some of the +most conspicuous men of the other party, such as Winwood, the +Secretary of State, would even have been glad if open war with Spain +had immediately broken out. + +The mutual opposition between these powerful tendencies, and the men +who made them their own, brought the career of Walter Ralegh to a +close. + +Somerset was Ralegh's personal enemy, and had gained possession of his +best estate. After his fall Ralegh was liberated from the Tower. He +still lay under the weight of a sentence which had been pronounced +against him on the occasion of the plot which bears his name. He might +have purchased its removal; but he was assured by the most influential +voices that he had nothing more to fear from it; and he thought that +he could apply the money more profitably to the execution of the great +design which he had long ago formed, and which he had never for an +instant lost sight of during his captivity. A story was then afloat +that after the destruction of the kingdom of Peru the descendants of +the Incas had founded another kingdom between the Amazon and the +Orinoco, the Dorado of the Spaniards. It was Ralegh's ambition to open +to his countrymen this region which would be easily accessible from +the coasts, of which he had formerly taken possession in the name of +England. The old reputation of Ralegh's name procured him sufficient +support for his expedition, not only from the merchants, but also from +wealthy private individuals; and the King gave him a patent which +empowered him to sail to the ports of America still in possession of +the heathen, in order to open commercial intercourse with them, and to +spread the Christian, especially the Reformed, faith among them.[398] +In July 1617 Ralegh set sail from Plymouth harbour for this object, +with seven ships of war and a number of small transports carrying +about 700 men. + +It was presupposed that in such an enterprise all hostilities against +the Spaniards would be avoided. When the Spanish ambassador complained +of this expedition undertaken by a man who had already on one occasion +been very troublesome to the Spanish colonies, the Privy Council +answered that Ralegh was pledged by his instructions to do no damage +to the Spaniards; and that 'if he violated them his head was there to +pay for it.'[399] The King himself repeated this answer to him. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1618.] + +Ralegh in fact guarded against any collision with the Spaniards on his +voyage. He was said not to have taken a single Spanish vessel, and he +directed his course without stopping to Guiana, the goal which he had +set before himself. But the Spaniards had become powerful there, +although not until after his former visit. From Caraccas they had +conquered the natives, who were engaged in internal wars, and had +firmly established themselves at a short distance from the coast. +What was likely to happen if they opposed the forces which Ralegh +landed to search for the gold mines which he had formerly seen there? +Ralegh remembered full well what a danger he ran if he engaged in a +struggle and fought with them: he knew that he was thereby forfeiting +his life. But on the other side, was he to return without fulfilling +his purpose, and to burden himself with the reproach of not having +told the truth? Worst of all, was he to fail in effecting the object +which he had entertained all his life long, and not to achieve the +discovery on which he staked the future glory of his name? It was +perhaps the greatest moment in a life that almost always lifts itself +above the ordinary level, when the thirst for discovery gained the +victory over considerations of legality and the danger involved in +discarding them. And well might he have hoped that not only pardon but +praise would have been accorded him, if he had actually obtained +possession of the gold mines, by whatever means. He commanded his men +when they advanced inland to behave to the Spaniards as the Spaniards +behaved to them. A collision was thus unavoidable. It took place at S. +Thomas, which was destroyed, but the Spaniards nevertheless had +completely the superiority: Ralegh's only son was killed; and the +captain who had the charge of the expedition was so disheartened that +he committed suicide. These disasters involved the utter failure of +the expedition. His crews, who were naturally insubordinate, +quarrelled among themselves, and on the voyage home the fleet +dispersed. Ralegh came back to England without an ounce of gold, and +without having effected any result whatever: he appeared in the light +of an adventurer who had wantonly desired to break the peace with +Spain. And when the ambassador of this power asked for full and signal +satisfaction, in order to restore the good understanding which +Ralegh's enterprise had at once interrupted, was it to be expected +that the King should take under his protection the man who had not +complied with the conditions prescribed to him, and whom for other +reasons he did not love? And moreover the pulse of free generosity +which befits a sovereign did not beat in the breast of King James. He +consented that the old sentence of condemnation, for fifteen years +suspended over Ralegh's head, should now be enforced against him. It +had been pronounced against him for entering into a secret alliance +with Spain; an attack on Spain led to its execution. Ralegh and the +King exhibit a contrast between ambition that scorns danger on the one +side, and caution that supports itself by the forms of law on the +other, such as even in England has hardly ever been so sharply drawn. +The King could not possibly get any good by his conduct. The position +of England in the world depended upon the resistance that she offered +to the preponderance of Spain in both the Indies and in Europe. The +King detached himself from one of the chief interests of the nation +when he allowed a felon's death to be inflicted on the man of lofty +genius, who had undertaken, by an ill-advised attempt it is true, to +give effect in America to this feeling of world-wide opposition. James +thought that his welfare lay in maintaining the peace with Spain. But +we know that at an earlier date he had entered on a course adverse to +Spain, and that even now he had not entirely renounced it. What +confusion must eventually follow from this divided policy! + +NOTES: + +[381] Ant. Foscarini, Relatione 1618: 'Il re ritiene questa sorte di +vita nella quale fu habituato, e spende tutto il tempo che puo nella +caccia e ne studj.' + +[382] 'Crums fallen from King James' Table, or his Table Talk.' MS. in +the British Museum. + +[383] Wilson, James I, 289: 'He had pure notions in conception, but +could bring few of them into action, though they tended to his own +preservation.' Wilson, Weldon, and the notices in Balfour, are +certainly all of them deeply tinged with party feeling. The elder +Disraeli is quite right in rejecting them: but his own conception is +very unsatisfactory. Gardiner (1863) avoids unauthenticated +statements; but the views of James' character which have grown up and +established themselves owing to the commonplace repetition of such +statements, control his representation of it. + +[384] Foscarini: 'A due sorti di persone dona particolarmente, a +grandi et a quelli che gli assistono che sono quasi tutti Scocesi, e +non vaca cosa alcuna della quale possino cavar utile, che non la +demandino e nello stesso momento obtengono.' + +[385] Harrington: Nugae Antiquae i. + +[386] Niccolo Molino, Relatione 1607: 'A abandonato e messo dietro le +spalle tutti gli affari li quali lascia al suo consiglio ed a suoi +ministri, onde si puo dire con verita ch'egli sia principe di nome e +Piu tosto d'apparenza che d'effetto.' + +[387] A. Foscarini 1618: 'In campagna gli viene di giorno in giorno +dal consiglio che risiede per ordinario in Londra dato conto di quanto +passa et inviatigli spacci e corrieri: tratta e risolve molte cose con +il consiglio solo de suoi favoriti.--Risolve per ordinario in momenti +et havendo seco segretarii per gli affari d'Inghilterra, per quelli di +Scotia e Ibernia comanda ciascuno di essi, quanto occorre e vuol che +si faccia in tutti i suoi regni.' + +[388] Calderwood, vii. 311, 434, &c. + +[389] Girolamo Lando, Relatione 1622: '(S. M. e) inclinata +all'ambiguita et alla dimora non gia per naturale complessione +impastata di foco, colerico et molto ardente, ma perche vuol darsi a +credere di cavare della protrattione del tempo cio, che +desidera--conli scemi dell'ira tenendo pure quelli della +mansuetudine.' + +[390] 'Unmoveable in one hair that might concern me against the whole +world.' James to Somerset, in Halliwell ii. 127; certainly one of the +most important documents in this collection. + +[391] Narrative of Abbot in Rushworth i. 460. + +[392] A. Foscarini, 1615 Nov. 13. 'Si mantiene viva la voce e sospetto +del principe defonto.' Nov. 20, 'Avanthieri parti il re, che per +questo accidente e per le gravi dissensioni ed odii che regna in corte +si mostra molto addolorato.' + +[393] The personal motive of the estrangement might have lain in +Overbury's speech to Somerset, mentioned by Payton during the trial: +'"I will leave you free to yourself to stand on your own legs." My +lord of Somerset answered his legs were strong enough to bear +himself.' (State Trials ii. 978.) He wished to show that he could +dispense with Overbury. + +[394] According to Wilson, Ralph Winwood was informed by a confession +made at Vliessingen. From a letter of Winwood extracted by Gardiner +(History of England ii. 216) we only learn that Winwood received the +first intimation: he reckons it as a proof of the justice of the King +of England that he allowed the investigation to be made. + +[395] Somerset intimated that he possessed secrets the disclosure of +which would compromise the King: and there is nothing, however +conjectural or infamous, which has not seemed to some among posterity +to be probable on this ground. James I says, 'God knows it is only a +trick of his idle brain, hoping thereby to shift his trial. I cannot +hear a private message from him without laying an aspersion upon +myself of being an accessory to his crime.' (Halliwell ii. 138.) + +[396] Girolamo Lando, Relatione 1622, praises him for 'apparenza di +modestia, benignita e cortesia,--bellezza, gratia, leggiadria del +corpo, a tutti gli esercitii mirabilmente disposto.' + +[397] 'Che le lettere Piu importanti del re sono passate in mano di +Spagna.' Ant. Foscarini, Nov. 13, 1615. There is a letter of James I +of October 20 which likewise supposes acts of treachery of this kind. +What is true in this supposition we now learn from Digby's letter, in +Gardiner, App. iii. 2. + +[398] 'To the south parts of America or elsewhere within America +possessed and inhabited by heathen and savage people.' So run the +words of the commission: it is therein said expressly 'Sir Walter +Ralegh being under the peril of the law.' + +[399] Dispaccio Veneto Feb. 10, 1617: 'Che le cose erano concertate +che S. M. cattolica non avrebbe occasione di riceverne disgusto--che +era fermamente del re, che il Rale andasse al suo viaggio, nel quale +se avesse contravenuto alle suoi instruttioni--haveva la testa con che +pagherebbe la disubbidienza.' + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +COMPLICATIONS ARISING OUT OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE PALATINATE. + + +During these years there had been persons at the helm of state in most +countries, who either from natural disposition or from a calculation +of present circumstances had cherished peaceful views. In spite of all +the activity of Spanish policy, Philip III and his minister Lerma +clung to the principle that the rest needed to restore the strength of +the exhausted monarchy must be granted to it. The Emperor Matthias +owed the crown he wore to his alliance with the Protestants: his first +minister Klesel, although a cardinal, was a lukewarm Catholic, and a +man of conciliatory views in general. The Regent of France, Mary de' +Medici, had surrendered the warlike designs of her husband when she +entered on the exercise of sovereign power. Christian IV of Denmark +held similar views. He declined the proposals of the Poles, which were +aimed at a renewal of the war against Sweden: he preferred, with the +approval of his council of state, to proceed with the building of +towns and harbours in which he was engaged. + +Hence it was possible on the whole to carry out a policy such as that +maintained by James I. It corresponded to the tone prevalent among the +other powers. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1617.] + +From time to time it seemed probable that the opposing forces which +were contending with one another in the depths of European life, would +burst forth and shatter the peaceful state of affairs. For the +advancing revival of Catholicism roused the hostile feelings of +Protestants, while the union of the German and the independent feeling +of the Italian princes resisted the extension of the alliances of +Spain. In the year 1615, on the Netherland frontier, and in the year +1616 on the boundaries between Austria and Venice, warlike movements +began which threatened to prove the commencement of a general +struggle: but these were disputes of an essentially local nature, and +peaceful dispositions still maintained the upper hand. + +But in the year 1617 and 1618 a question arose which no longer allowed +this state of things to continue. It concerned the imperial dignity of +Germany, but it exercised so powerful a secondary influence upon +affairs most thoroughly English that even in a history of England a +short discussion must be devoted to it. + +The increasing weakness of the Emperor Matthias rendered his speedy +end probable; and all preparations were already being made in the +house of Austria to secure the succession of the Archduke Ferdinand of +Styria to the imperial throne, as well as to his own hereditary +kingdoms and provinces. No arrangement could in itself have been more +suitable in the nature of things. Ferdinand was the most vigorous +scion of his house; and both the German Archdukes laid their own +well-founded claims at his feet. A resignation on the part of Philip +III of the claims which he inherited from his mother was thought +indispensable: but even this created no difficulty. It was merely +stipulated that Ferdinand should indemnify him for resigning them; and +this he was willing to do. It only remained that the crown of the +German Empire should also be assured to him. The Archdukes were eager +for an immediate negotiation on the subject, and were already certain +of the support of the spiritual electors. + +It is clear however that the succession was not merely a change of +persons. The place of the peaceable and moderate Matthias would be +filled by one of the most devoted pupils of the Jesuits in the person +of Ferdinand, who had made himself terrible to the Protestants by an +unsparing restoration of Catholicism in his own country. Moreover the +alliance between the German and Spanish line, which had been loosened +in the last few years, was to be consolidated into a union resting on +common interests: so that it seemed likely that Austria would enjoy a +supremacy like that which had been established in the time of Charles +V. The letters which passed between the members of that house, and +which had accidentally been divulged, excited surprise by the note of +general hostility which they struck, while the share of the Palatinate +and of Brandenburg in the election was treated in them as a formality +which could be dispensed with in case of necessity.[400] + +It is quite intelligible that the Protestants should be agitated by +this discovery, and should entertain the idea of opposing the election +of Ferdinand. Not that one of them thought of acquiring the throne for +himself; they did not resist the election of a Catholic emperor as +such, but they wished to guard against the resumption of the +combination between the Austro-Spanish power and the prerogatives of +the imperial crown. At first their eyes fell upon Duke Maximilian of +Bavaria, whom they would by this means have for ever detached from +that power. The Elector Frederick controlled the jealousy which, as +Elector Palatine, he felt for a branch of the same house, and went to +Munich in order to prevail on his cousin to consent to this +arrangement; for, according to the plea advanced on grounds of +imperial right, the imperial crown could not be allowed to become +hereditary in the house of Austria. He hoped that the Archbishop +Ferdinand of Cologne, the brother of the Duke of Bavaria, would +support him, and that his influence would win over the other spiritual +electors also. The Union and the League would then have combined to +oppose the house of Austria. + +But meanwhile open resistance to the claims of this family had already +broken out in its own provinces. While the Emperor Matthias was still +alive, the Archduke Ferdinand, through the combination, as prescribed +by Bohemian usage, of an election with the recognition of his +hereditary claims, had been acknowledged future King of Bohemia, and +had been already crowned, on condition that he would not mix in public +affairs before the death of his predecessor. But immediately after the +coronation people thought that they could discover his hand in every +act of the government. Cardinal Klesel, the man in whom the greatest +confidence was reposed, especially by the Protestant portion of the +Estates, had been overthrown owing to the influence of the Spanish +ambassador. In opposition to the influence thus exercised, 'against +the practices and snares of the Jesuits,' as the phrase ran, the +zealous Protestants who, when Ferdinand was accepted as King, had been +thrust into the background or had retired, now obtained the upper hand +in the country, and proceeded to open insurrection while the Emperor +Matthias was still alive. This Prince was the first who was overturned +by the collision of the two parties, whose enmity was again reviving, +and between whom he had thought of mediating. He was bitterly +disappointed by his failure. After his death the Bohemians thought +themselves justified in refusing any longer to acknowledge Ferdinand +as their King, and in seeking on the contrary for a worthier successor +to the throne, on the ground that in Ferdinand's election the +traditional forms had not been accurately observed, and that he was +undermining all religious and political freedom. Their eyes had even +fallen on Catholic princes; but as the motive which prompted their +resistance was certainly the religious one, their attention was still +more drawn to the most eminent Protestant prince in their vicinity, +Frederick Elector Palatine, who as head of the Union was himself the +principal opponent of the election of Ferdinand as Emperor. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1618.] + +On the very first steps taken in this matter, the King of England was +affected by these movements. We learn that, on the occasion of the +overtures made by Frederick, Maximilian of Bavaria had been moved to +write to James I, and to express to him his satisfaction at the family +connexion which had sprung up between them. The interest of the +Palatinate and of England seemed one and the same, especially as the +King was still considered a member and protector of the Union. The +presumption that the son-in-law of the King of England would find +support from his power, contributed greatly to the importance which +the Elector at this moment enjoyed. + +But at the same time it was evident in what an embarrassing position +James I was now placed, and that not only on account of the danger +threatening the continuance of peace, which he thought no price too +high to secure: his hands were tied not merely by this general +consideration, but by another special reason as well. He was at that +moment seriously engaged in a treaty for the marriage of his son with +a Spanish infanta, which was to carry out the long-talked-of alliance +between his family and the Austro-Spanish line. + +The first overtures in regard to the present Prince of Wales had been +made by the Duke of Lerma to the English envoy, Digby, to whom he +opened a proposal for the marriage of Prince Charles with Mary, +daughter of Philip III. The Spanish ambassador, Gondomar, had then +taken the management of the affair in hand. We should do him wrong by +supposing that he wished to deceive the King. Gondomar rather belonged +to the party who looked for the welfare of the Spanish monarchy in the +maintenance of peace, especially with England. The scheme of the +marriage was part of the system of powerful alliances by which it was +sought to prop the greatness of Spain. Even the uncertain rumour of +this scheme, which was instantly propagated, sufficed to agitate the +Protestant party in Europe and in England itself. The King declared +that he moved only with leaden foot towards the proposal which had +been made to him; and that, if it were seen that the alliance was +dangerous to religion or to existing agreements, it should never take +effect. But even the Secretary of State, Ralph Winwood, who repeated +this declaration, disapproved of the scheme, as did also the whole +school of Robert Cecil. They had wished to marry the Prince to the +daughter of a German line, perhaps to a Brandenburg princess; and the +States General offered their money and their services in order to win +the consent of any such princess, and to convey her to England. Many +would have preferred even a domestic alliance after the old fashion. +Opposition was also offered on the part of the Church of England. +Archbishop Abbot only delayed to urge it until the conditions of the +marriage should come under discussion. But the King likewise had the +approval of influential voices on his side. It was considered possible +to conclude the marriage, and yet to preserve the other alliances of +the country. People thought that England would in that case be only +the more courted by both parties, and that the peace of the world +would rest on the shoulders of the King. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1619.] + +But what a contradiction was involved in the ascendancy which these +ideas obtained? The hereditary right to the crown of Bohemia, which +the estates of that country would no longer acknowledge, belonged to +the house of Spain. It was intended that the Elector Palatine should +step into its place by election; and this prince was son-in-law to the +King. After James had married his daughter to the head of the +Protestants in Germany, he conceived the thought of marrying his son +to the member of a family which had made the patronage and protection +of Catholicism its special calling. It seemed as if he was purposely +introducing into his own family the disunion which rent Europe in +twain. + +The negotiations in Germany after a time resulted in the victory of +the house of Austria, which in spite of all opposition carried the day +in the election of the Emperor. The Elector Palatine acknowledged +Ferdinand II without hesitation. But almost at the same moment he +received the news that he had himself been elected king by the Estates +of Bohemia. It cannot be proved that he was privy to this beforehand: +even the rumour that his wife urged him to accept the crown because +she was a king's daughter meets with no confirmation. They were not so +blind as not to perceive the enormous danger in which the acceptance +of this offer would involve them. In reply to a question of the +Elector, his wife answered that she regarded the election as a divine +dispensation, that if he determined to accept it, which she left +entirely to his consideration, she for her part was resolved to +undergo everything that might follow from it. We must not regard as +hypocrisy the prominence which the prince and the princess alike gave +to religious considerations. Such was the fashion of the times +generally, and especially of the party to which they belonged. + +The Elector Frederick however did not yet declare his decision. The +question of the acceptance of the crown of Bohemia was debated from +every point of view by the very councillors who had just been present +at the election of the Emperor. Their decision was in favour of the +prince inviting first of all the advice of his friends in the empire, +of the States-General, but especially of the King of England, and +making sure of their support.[401] The Bohemian envoys, who most +urgently requested an immediate answer, were put off with the reply +that the Elector must first of all be certain of the consent of the +father of his consort. Count Christopher Dohna was sent to England to +persuade King James to give it. He was commissioned to deliver to him +a letter from the Princess-Electress in which she most urgently +entreated her father to support her husband and to prove his paternal +love to them both. + +King James came now face to face with the greatest question of his +life, which summed up and brought to light, so to speak, all the cross +purposes and conflicting political aims among which he had long moved. +A word from him was now of the greater consequence, as the +States-General declared that they would act as he did. But what was +his decision to be? He was not unmoved by the thought that the +prospect of possessing a crown was opened to his son-in-law and +grandchildren. On the other hand he was greatly impressed by a +representation which the King of Spain forwarded to him, that his +right to the crown of Bohemia was indisputable--as in fact the Spanish +line had a contingent claim to the succession--and that he would +contend for it with all his strength: on which King James said that he +also as a great sovereign had an interest in seeing that no one was +deprived of his own. The theories of James I about the hereditary +rights of princes, the electoral rights of the Estates, and the +influence of religious profession in these matters, presented +themselves to his mind together with his wishes on the question of the +aggrandisement of his dynasty. He remarked that it could not be +allowed that subjects should presume to fall away from their sovereign +on a question of religion; he even feared that this doctrine might +react to his own prejudice on England. In these considerations the +balance evidently was in favour of a refusal. James would have +deserved well of the world if he had given utterance to that refusal, +and had decisively dissuaded his son-in-law from accepting the crown. +And from his oft-repeated assertions at a later period, to the effect +that the Elector had proceeded on his own responsibility, we might +think that he had expressed himself in definite terms in favour of a +different course. + +In reality however this is not the case. He condemned the revolt of +the Bohemians against Matthias: in regard to Ferdinand it was his +opinion that they should prove from the old capitulations their right +to declare his election and coronation invalid, and to proceed to a +new election, in which case he would himself support them.[402] He +expressed himself in such a manner, that even members of the Privy +Council received the impression that he would approve of and even +support the acceptance of the crown when once it had taken place. +Christopher Dohna relates that in the negotiations at that time he one +day declared that his master, the Elector, was ready to refuse the +crown if the King required him to do so; and that James replied, 'I do +not say that.'[403] + +Monarchs are set in authority in order that they may pronounce +definitive decisions according to the best of their own judgment. It +is sometimes their duty to take a decided line. James, who hitherto +had always stood between different parties, could not nerve himself at +this eventful moment for a firm and straightforward resolve. In the +monstrous dilemma in which the various questions at issue were +becoming involved he could not come to any decision. The kindest thing +that can be said of him is that at this moment his nature was not +equal to the requirements of the situation. + +Count Dohna, following the example of James's councillors, concluded +from his expressions that he was not only not opposed to the +acceptance of the crown, but that he would allow himself to be +enlisted in its favour, and would support it. And there is no doubt +that this view exercised a decisive influence upon the final +resolution of the Elector Frederick. He certainly was already strongly +inclined to accept the crown in opposition to his more clear-sighted +and sagacious mother, but in agreement with his ardent wife: but he +had not yet uttered the final words when Dohna's report came in.[404] +When he learned from this that the King was not decidedly +unfavourable, the Elector thought that he recognised a dispensation of +God which he would not decline to carry out. In the presence of his +councillors at the castle of Heidelberg he declared to the Bohemian +ambassadors that he accepted the crown; and soon afterwards he set out +for Bohemia. In October 1619 (Oct. 25/Nov. 4) he was crowned at +Prague. + +What unforeseen consequences however for himself and his friends, for +Germany and for England, were destined to spring out of this +undertaking! + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1620.] + +In London, where the popular party had already from the first fixed +their eyes on the Princess, this step was welcomed with the most +joyous approval. It was represented to the King that the most +brilliant prospect was thus opened to his family; that on the next +vacancy his son-in-law, who already himself held two votes in the +electoral body, could not fail to be chosen Emperor; and that England +would by this means acquire the greatest influence on the continent. +It was expected that these feelings for his family, and the successful +issue of events, would work together to detach him again from Spain. + +James on one occasion, on receiving the news of the confinement of his +daughter, drank a bowl of wine 'to the health of the King and Queen of +Bohemia.' He went so far as this, and people thought it worth while to +record the event; but he could not be brought to acknowledge Frederick +openly. He was not satisfied with the proof of their right advanced by +the Bohemians: in conversation he advocated the right of Austria. + +Spain and the League, as was inevitable, joined forces with Austria. +In the first instance the Palatinate itself was the object of their +joint attack. How could men have helped thinking that King James would +resolutely take the inheritance of his grandsons under his protection? +The Union invited him to do so, reminding him of the obligation +imposed on him by his connexion with them mentioned above: they said +it was no favour, but justice which they demanded of him. But James +replied that he had pledged himself only to repel open and +unjustifiable attacks, but that in the present case the Palatinate was +the attacking party, and that Austria stood on the defensive. The +Union presently saw itself compelled to conclude a treaty with the +League, which left that power free to act against Bohemia. The +Palatinate however was not secured thereby against the Spaniards.[405] +To effect this, it would have been deemed advisable to make an attack +from Holland on the Spanish Netherlands; for if a single fortified +place had been occupied there, the Palatinate would have had nothing +more to fear from Spain. But to this measure also James refused his +consent: he thought that this would be equivalent to beginning war, +which he did not wish. + +The general sympathy of the nation was strong enough at last to cause +a large English regiment of 2500 men, under Horace Vere, to be sent on +the continent, in order that the Palatinate, on which the Spaniards +now advanced, might not become utterly a prey to them. The Earls of +Essex and Oxford, who had contributed most to raise the regiment, +themselves took part in the campaign. They were joined by many other +young men of leading families, who wished to learn the art of war. But +they had received from the King positive commands to commit no act of +hostility. The troops of the Union, who showed themselves quite ready +to fight the Spaniards, were withheld by the threat that in that case +the King would recall these troops instead of sending two more +regiments to join them, the hope of which he held out to them in the +event of their obedience. It was enough for the King that the English +troops occupied the most important places. Vere held Mannheim, Herbert +Heidelberg, Burrows Frankenthal; while the greater part of the country +fell into the hands of the Spaniards. + +Europe had reason to be alarmed at the advantage which accrued to the +Spanish monarchy from this affair. The Tyrol and Alsace were already +promised them to form links between Lombardy and the Netherlands: the +possession of the Lower Palatinate completed their chain of +communication. + +The action of Spain and England presented a marked contrast. Spain, +while it forsook Lerma's policy, held together all its friends--Germany, +Austria, the League, the Pope, the Archducal Netherlands--and combined +their forces for joint action on a large scale; while King James, in +clinging to the policy of peace, let his allies fall asunder and +crippled their activity. + +But if James so acted in the case of the Palatinate which he wished to +save, what might be fully expected in the case of Bohemia, with regard +to which he openly declared, after some hesitation, that he could take +no further part in its affairs? The new King found no hearty obedience +among the Bohemians, partly because they found themselves deceived in +their expectation of being assisted with troops by the Union, and with +money by England. But worse than all, the ill-disciplined soldiery +being without pay, broke out in mutiny: they were almost more ready to +help themselves to their arrears by an attack upon the capital than to +defend their sovereign or their country. On the other hand the +soldiers of Austria and of the League, well paid and well disciplined, +were spurred on by zealous priests. On their first attack they +scattered the troops of Frederick to the four winds (November 1620). +It would not have been impossible for Frederick to wage a defensive +war in Bohemia; but regard to the danger into which the Queen would +have been thrown in consequence prevented the attempt. That one day +cost them both crown and country. + +It is impossible to describe the impression which the news of this +defeat produced in London. The King was held blameable because not a +single soldier commissioned by him had been found beside his daughter +to draw the sword in her defence. This was attributed either to +culpable negligence of his own affairs, or to the influence of the +Spanish ambassador. Not Gondomar himself, who was too shrewd to act +thus, but certainly his friends and Catholics generally, let their joy +at this event be known. The citizens responded with manifestations +that were directed against the King himself. A placard was put up in +which he was told that he would be made to feel the anger of the +people, if in this affair he any longer followed a policy opposed to +its views. + +James I could no longer put off the question what steps he was to +take. The tidings reached him at Newmarket, where he was spending the +cold and gloomy days in hunting. He broke off this amusement and +hastened to Westminster, in order to attend council with his +ministers. + +Towards the end of December a meeting was held, in which the secretary +Naunton depicted the whole position of the foreign policy of England, +and drew from it the conclusion that the King must above all arm, as +in that case he could carry on war, or at least negotiate with +firmness and some prospect of success. King James himself brought the +affair of Bohemia under discussion. He complained, and seemed to feel +it as an injury to his paternal authority, that the Elector Frederick +even now continued to make the acknowledgment of his right to the +crown of Bohemia a condition of his accepting the mediation offered by +the King. Viscount Doncaster, who had just returned from a mission to +Germany, fell on his knees before him, in order to remark to him that +Frederick deserved no blame for clinging to a right which he supposed +to be valid: that his refusal was not addressed to James as a father, +but as King of England.[406] James I distinctly stated afresh that he +could not and would not espouse the cause of his son-in-law in +Bohemia. But by this time not only was Frederick's new crown as good +as lost, but his whole existence was endangered; the greater part of +his hereditary territory was in the enemy's hands. James declared with +unusual decision that he would not allow the Palatinate, which would +one day descend to his grandchildren, to be wrested from them; that he +was resolved to send to the Continent in the next year an army +sufficient to reconquer it. It might be asked if this measure also +would not inevitably lead to a breach with Spain. King James did not +think so. He thought that he could carry on a merely local quarrel, +and yet at the same time avoid a war on the part of the one power +against the other. He did not intend to attack the King of Spain's own +dominion, so long as that sovereign did not meddle with his. + +But however that might be, whether he was to begin war, though only on +a limited scale, or whether he wished to prosecute negotiations with +success, in any case it was necessary for him to arm. But for this +purpose he required other means besides those of which he could +dispose at his own discretion. + +NOTES: + +[400] Memorial of the Archduke Maximilian of Feb. 1, 1616, in Lunig, +Europaeische Staatsconsilia i. 918. It is clear from this that the +anxiety of the members of the Union with regard to the Venetian war +was not so groundless as it might otherwise appear. The Archduke lays +before the Emperor the question whether 'in the event of the +continuance of the Venetian disturbances he would use the opportunity +to bring a numerous force into the field, and maintain it until the +laudable work had been everywhere set in train, and had been +prosecuted with the wished-for result.' + +[401] Reasons for hesitating advanced by the Privy Councillors of the +Prince Elector, in Moser, who calls them prophetic, Patriotisches +Archiv. vii. 118. The Palatinate 'will not well be able to decide +anything certain and final: she has therefore made everything depend +on England and the States-General, and has asked them, as well other +her friends and potentates in the empire, for trusty counsel and +declaration of what they will do in every case by her.' + +[402] 'Non approbare che in vita del imperatore li populi si +sollevassero, ma che bene consigliava dopo morte dassero in luce le +loro ragioni del jus eligendi sopra nullita dell'elettione di +Ferdinando, con elegerne un altro, nel qual caso offeriva anche +l'ajuto et il soccorso suo.' + +[403] 'S. M., se non assenti all accettare della corona, non disse ne +anche mai all ora di dissentire: che anzi alla venuta di lui in questa +corte offerendole al nome dell'istesso suo signore, che quando ella +havesse voluto, l'averebbe anche lasciata, egli rispondesse: io non +dico questo.' Girolamo Lando, Feb. 5, 1621. + +[404] Dohna mentioned that 'the leading English councillors held that, +if the Prince Elector would but soon accept the crown, the King on his +part would soon declare himself and give his approval, which +accordingly threw almost the greatest weight into the scale.' Secret +Report in Moser vii. 51. + +[405] From the documents relating to these proceedings, it is proved +that Spinola had received instructions in June 1620 to gain possession +of the Palatinate; that assurances however were given to King James +even in August that nothing was really known of the object of his +expedition. Senkenberg iii. 545 n. + +[406] Dispaccio Veneto, 8 Gennaio 1621. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +PARLIAMENT OF THE YEAR 1621. + + +We already know the antipathy of James to the Parliament, which had +become a power to which, as soon as it was manifested in a newly +assembled House, the power of the King was obliged to bend. James had +already often felt the ascendancy of Parliament. The schemes of union +with Scotland, which filled his soul with ambition, had been shattered +by the resistance of that body. The exclusively Protestant disposition +which prevailed there had made it impossible for him to give a legal +sanction to the favour which he entertained for the Catholics, and +which his views of policy naturally disposed him to show. He had been +obliged to desist from the attempt to secure financial independence by +surrendering the feudal privileges of the crown. The Parliament raised +claims which the King regarded as attacks on the prerogative of the +crown: even his advances to it had been met by a stubborn resistance. +In the ordinary course of things he would never again have summoned +Parliament together. + +This complication in foreign affairs then arose. All parties, +including even the King himself, were convinced that England must step +forth armed among the contending powers of the world: and that, not in +the fashion of the last expedition, so little in keeping with the +situation, when private support and tacit sympathy found the means, +but on a large scale, as the position of the kingdom among the great +powers demanded. But without Parliamentary grants this was impossible. +The summoning of a new Parliament was therefore an incontestable +necessity. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1621.] + +But on the other hand there was not wanting reasons for hesitation, +for it could not be disguised that concessions would be inevitable. +King James saw that as plainly as any one, and declared himself +beforehand ready to make them. In contradiction to his former +assertions he gave out that he would this time allow grievances to be +freely alleged, and would give his best assistance in removing them. +He said that he wished to meet Parliament half way, and that it should +find him an honourable man. From the investigation of abuses the less +was feared because the late opposition was ascribed to a factious +resistance to Somerset's administration. But that favourite had since +fallen: and of the leaders of that opposition several had gone over to +the government, and some had died.[407] The declared purpose of arming +for the reconquest of the Palatinate was in accordance with the +feelings of the nation and of the Protestants: no doubt was felt that +it would win universal sympathy. + +This was in fact the case. The most favourable impression was produced +when the King in his speech from the throne (January 30, 1621), which +was principally taken up with this subject, declared his resolution to +defend the hereditary claim of his grandchildren to the territories of +the Palatine Electorate, and the free profession of Protestantism; to +compel peace if it were necessary sword in hand; for which objects he +claimed the assistance of the country. Parliament did not hesitate for +an instant to express its concurrence with him in these designs. Two +subsidies were granted on the spot, and the resolution was carried +into effect during the continuance of the debates, a step which was +altogether unprecedented. The King thanked the Parliament for this +extraordinary readiness, which would, he said, increase his importance +both at home and abroad. + +But this did not prevent Parliament on the other hand from bringing +forward its claims with all possible energy. The power of granting +money was the sinew of all its powers. The necessity of asking +assistance from Parliament in urgent embarrassments, which the Tudors +had avoided as far as possible, now appeared as pressing as ever. Was +it not to be expected that demands should call forth counter-demands? +And the opposition in the previous Parliament rested on a far wider +basis than that of hostility to Somerset: at the present election also +the candidates of the government were rejected in most of the counties +and towns.[408] + +The commission appointed for the investigation of abuses did not deal +only with those which were acknowledged to be such. The principal +question rather concerned the competence of the crown to confer such +privileges as those out of which the abuses originated. Under the lead +of Edward Coke, the great lawyer, Parliament adopted a principle which +secured for it a firm standing ground. + +Coke, who moreover did not think it necessary to ask the King's +consent for liberty of speech, because this was, he thought, an +independent right of Parliament, vindicated the position that no royal +proclamation had validity if it contradicted an act of Parliament or +an existing law. He took his stand on the times of the later +Plantagenet and of the Lancastrian kings: and he considered that the +form which the relation between the government and Parliament then +assumed was the only legal form. But the government of James I had +granted extraordinarily obnoxious privileges--for instance, the right +of setting up taverns with a restriction on the entertainment of +guests by private individuals, or by the old inns; and again the right +of arresting acknowledged vagrants. But the most obnoxious grants were +those of patents for the monopoly of some trade, which were annoying +to the whole mercantile class, and brought profit only to a few +favoured individuals. Coke argued that the patents were either in +themselves illegal, or injurious in their enforcement, or both +together. While he proved to Parliament its forgotten or disregarded +rights, Coke won the full confidence of both Houses alike: the Upper +and the Lower House made common cause. Thus the system of government +as it had been developed under the Tudors and continued under the +Stuarts was encountered face to face by another system, which rested +upon other precedents and principles. + +And people were not content with merely declaring the patents invalid; +they called those to account who had got possession of them, and even +the high officials who had contributed to issue them. A general +commotion ensued: every day fresh information came in and fresh +complaints were drawn up.[409] + +The Lord Chancellor Bacon had been already brought into danger by this +affair. He had assisted in introducing monopolies of different +manufactures under the pretence that work would be found for the poor +by means of them. It was well known that in matters of this sort he +had for the most part followed the suggestions of the Prime Minister. +While Bacon was defending the ideal mission of the monarchy, he had +the weakness to identify himself too closely with the accidental form +which authority just at that particular moment took. In return he +found on the other hand that the attacks really aimed at the +government recoiled in the first instance upon him. In reality they +were directed principally against Buckingham. In order to save him +from destruction, suggestions had been made to the King that he might +prefer to dissolve Parliament, as it seemed plain that he had far more +reason to expect harm from the attacks than advantage from the grants +made by that body. Buckingham saved himself only by coming forward +against the monopolies himself, in accordance with the advice of his +ecclesiastical confidant, Dean Williams. Claims had been made against +two of his brothers also on account of the monopolies. Far from taking +them under his protection, he said on the contrary that his father had +still a third son who was determined to root out abuses; and that not +until the present proceedings had been taken had he recognised the +advantages of parliamentary government. Upon this, the leading men +with whom Williams had formed a connexion, desisted from attacking the +First Minister. It even came about that a person of high rank, +accused at the bar of the House of Lords, who had let fall an +expression, comparing Buckingham to old favourites of hateful memory, +was obliged to retract it with considerable ceremony. But a victim was +required: one was found in the Lord Chancellor Bacon. + +Although condemned by law and morality, an evil practice still +prevailed of receiving presents of money in official transactions. The +sums were known and have been registered, by means of which Gondomar +retained the services of a number of statesmen in the interest of +Spain. How many similar abuses in the control of the Treasury had been +brought to light only a short time before! Even the great philosopher, +who in his writings is so zealous against bribes, contracted during +his administration the stain of receiving them. That he might stand on +an equality with the great lords, he incurred inordinate expenses, +which these bribes assisted him to meet. Edward Coke was wholly in the +right when he exclaimed that a corrupt judge was 'the grievance of +grievances.'[410] Two-and-twenty cases were proved in which the +supreme judge, the Lord Chancellor of England, had taken presents from +the parties concerned. Lord Bacon made no attempt to justify his +conduct; he only affirmed--and this appears in fact to have been the +case--that in his decisions he never was influenced by the presents +that had been made him. When he was called to account for them, he +acquiesced himself in the justice of the proceeding, for he allowed +that a reform was necessary, and only deemed himself unfortunate in +being the person with whom it began. The Lords pronounced sentence +upon him that he should never again fill an official position, nor be +capable of sitting in Parliament, and that he should be banished from +the precincts of the court. + +Apart from its importance as affecting individuals, this event is +very important in the history of the constitution, which now returned +to its former paths. That the Lower House again as in old times was +able to procure the fall of one of the highest officials, is an +evidence of its growing power. That the First Minister and favourite +allowed his intimate friend to fall is a proof of the weakness of the +highest authority, which moreover ought itself to have attacked abuses +of this kind. Bacon justly remarked that reform would soon reach +higher regions. + +But while Parliament, which the government had no inclination to +withstand openly, thus obtained the ascendancy in domestic matters, it +was also already turning its eyes in the direction of foreign affairs. +These were times in which a warm religious sympathy was awakened by +the advance which the counter-reformation was making in the hereditary +dominions of Austria, as well as in France, and by the persecutions +which befell the Protestants in both countries. The Spaniards were +again engaging in war for the subjugation of the Netherlands. In +Parliament, on the other hand, it was thought necessary to combine +with the Republic, and to equip a fleet to assist the Huguenots, and +even to attack Spain, in order thus to make a diversion in favour of +the Palatinate. At the very time of the opening of Parliament the ban +of the empire was pronounced against Frederick Elector Palatine amid +the sound of trumpets and drums in the Palace at Vienna. This was +regarded in the whole Protestant world as an injustice, for it was +thought that Ferdinand II had been injured by Frederick only as King +of Bohemia, and not as Emperor: and on the same grounds the English +Parliament was of opinion that the execution of the ban ought to be +hindered by force of arms; and it showed itself dissatisfied that the +King sought to meet the evil only by demonstrations and embassies. + +We can easily understand that the attitude of Parliament aroused the +anxiety of the King. He caused the debates on the war to be put a stop +to, remarking that they infringed his prerogative, for which great +affairs of this kind were exclusively reserved. And yet, so +extraordinary was the complication of affairs that the declarations +made in Parliament were not altogether displeasing to him. In June he +adjourned Parliament, without formally proroguing it. What was the +reason of this? Because Parliament had brought in a new bill +containing the severest enactments against Jesuits and Catholic +recusants. The King refused to accept it, as by this means the +persecution of Protestants in Catholic countries would receive a new +impulse. But he was also unwilling to express his refusal in a final +shape, because he knew that the wish to hinder the adoption of harsh +measures against the Catholics would exercise an influence upon the +Spaniards in their negotiations with him.[411] If he had proceeded to +a prorogation, he would have been obliged to reject the laws; and he +preferred to keep the prospect of them still open, which he was able +to do by resorting to the form of an adjournment. He made it a merit +in the eyes of the Spaniards that, far from increasing the severity of +the penal laws, he did not even enforce them in their existing form, +when moreover, if enforced, they would bring him in a large sum. But +he was glad to see that people feared that he might do at some future +time what at present he had refrained from doing. When he promised the +Parliament on his royal word, that he would call it together again +without fail in the autumn, he was also influenced by the +consideration that he intended the Spaniards to look forward with fear +to the resolution which might then be taken. He was greatly pleased +that Parliament before dispersing drew up an energetic remonstrance +against the persecutions of the Protestants all over the world, and +especially against the oppression of his children. Not that he wished +to give effect to it: on the contrary he adhered to the policy of +assisting his son-in-law only by means of diplomacy: but he desired +that the Spaniards should fear a war with England, and he thought that +anxiety on this point would induce them and their friends to show +themselves conciliatory and respectful. + +Sir John Digby, who was commissioned with the negotiations at the +Spanish court, was referred by that power to Brussels and Vienna; and +in fact he received favourable answers, not only from the Infanta +Isabella in the former, but even from the Emperor himself in the +latter city. The Emperor held out to him the hope that the matter +would be reconsidered at a future assembly of the Estates of the +Empire, which he intended to convene at Ratisbon. But meanwhile +warlike operations and the execution of the ban held their course +undisturbed. In Bohemia the counter-reformation was carried through +with extreme severity. Four-and-twenty Protestant nobles and leaders +were executed, and their heads with hoary beards were seen exposed on +the Bridge at Prague. Silesia hastened to make its peace with the +Emperor: the Princes of the Union laid down their arms, but they did +not yet make their peace by this means. Tilly took possession of the +Upper Palatinate, and then turned with his victorious army to the +Lower Palatinate in order to complete the subjugation of this +province, notwithstanding all the protection of England. On the Lower +Rhine the forces of the Spaniards and of the States General confronted +each other in arms. Under these circumstances the Princes, who were +invited, refused to appear at an Assembly of the Empire,[412] for none +of them thought that he could leave his home without incurring evident +danger. The Infanta Isabella too in Brussels declined to conclude the +truce which Sir John Digby proposed. + +While affairs were in this position, Parliament resumed its +interrupted sittings in November 1621. Dean Williams, who after +Bacon's fall had received the Great Seal, opened the session with a +request for the immediate grant of new subsidies, which he said would +be required even before Christmas. He promised that in the coming +February, when they resumed their sittings, the other affairs should +be brought under discussion.[413] + +On this occasion as on a previous one, the King wished for nothing +more than a renewed and stronger demonstration. Even now he lived and +moved in a policy of compromise between opposite views. While his +son-in-law was being robbed of his country in the interest of Spain, +he adhered to the wish of marrying his son to a Spanish Infanta: he +thought that he would bring about the restoration of the Palatinate +most easily by the influence which this new alliance would confer. But +he thought that his friendly advances should also be accompanied by +threats, and he wished to be placed by the grants of Parliament in a +position to arm more effectually than before. It would have been in +accordance with his views, if Parliament had repeated its former +declarations, according to which it was ready to put forth all its +power in his behalf, in order to place him in a position to compel by +force of arms what might be refused to his peaceful negotiations. + +It is worth noticing in all this that James not only met the wishes of +Parliament because he required support, but that he also encouraged +the disposition which it showed in favour of Protestantism, in order +to avail himself of it: he thought that he would always be able to +control it. But how often has a policy been shipwrecked, which has +thought to avail itself of great interests and great passions for some +end immediately in view! + +How could it be expected that while religious parties on the continent +were meeting in a struggle for life and death, the English Parliament +would approve of the wavering policy of James I, which aimed at +compromise and had hitherto been without results?[414] Quite the +contrary: starting with the view that England was the centre of +Protestantism and must avert the dangers which assailed it, Parliament +declared itself ready, it is true, to pay the King new subsidies, but +not until the following year, and on the presumption that he should +have accepted and ratified the bills for the welfare of the people +which had passed the House.[415] They thought that the common danger +to religion arising from the alliance between the Pope and the King of +Spain had been brought upon England also by the indulgence hitherto +shown to the recusants. Parliament invited the King to draw the sword +without further circumlocution for the rescue of the foreign +Protestants; in the first instance to break with the power whose army +had carried on the war in the Palatinate, but above all to marry the +Prince his successor to a lady of the Protestant faith. + +The King wished to avoid war because he was anxious lest he should be +constantly compelled by Parliament, owing to his repeated want of +subsidies, to make fresh concessions, which would affect and diminish +the substance of his authority. The Parliament wished for war because +it expected that such a proceeding would furnish it with great +opportunities for establishing its power. + +As soon as the rival powers encountered each other on this ground, all +agreement between them was at an end. Parliament interfered still more +vigorously than before with the affairs which the King reserved for +himself: it wished to induce him to adopt those very measures which he +was resolved to avoid. He was expected to break with that power with +which it was his principal ambition to become most closely connected. +He was expected to take the sword in order to defend the common cause +of Protestantism. He was expected to put an end to the indulgence +which he had hitherto shown to his Catholic subjects; to do what ran +counter to all the expectations which he had raised at Rome and +Madrid; and what perhaps, considering the strength of the Catholic +element in England, was not without danger to the maintenance of quiet +at home. Meanwhile the payment of the subsidies, which he required at +once in order to maintain his political position, was indefinitely +deferred. Although it was not actually stated, yet it was quite clear +that Parliament made the validity of its grants dependent on his +compliance with its advice. And on what important matters was that +advice offered! The King complained that his prerogative was openly +infringed by it; that Parliament wished to decide on his alliances +with other sovereigns, and to dictate to him how to conduct the war; +that it brought under debate questions of religion and state, and the +marriage of his son: what portion of the sovereign power, he asked, +was left to him? On the competence which Parliament claimed as its +hereditary right, he remarked that it had to thank the favour of his +ancestors and himself for this: that he would protect Parliament, but +only in proportion to the regard which it showed for the prerogative +of his crown. + +If we had to specify the moment in which the quarrel between the +Parliament and the Crown once more found its full expression, we +should choose this.[416] The Parliament, which had dissolution in +immediate prospect, employed its last moments in making a protest, in +which it again affirmed that its liberties and privileges were a +birthright and heirloom of the subjects of the English crown, that it +certainly was within its power to bring under debate public matters +affecting the King, the State, the Church, and the defence of the +country; and that full liberty of speech without any subsequent +molestation on that account must be secured to every member in the +exercise of these rights. + +The King would not forego the satisfaction of punishing by arrest a +number of members who were peculiarly hateful to him; he declared the +protestation null and void, and struck it out of the clerks' book with +his own hand. In a detailed exposition of his view of these +transactions, in which he gives the assurance that he will still +henceforth continue to summon Parliament, he emphatically repudiates +this protestation, which he affirms to be drawn up in such terms that +the inalienable rights of the crown are called in question by it, +rights in the possession of which the crown had found itself in the +times of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory. He affirms that as King +he cannot tolerate any such pretensions. + +Parliament demanded the policy of Queen Elizabeth; King James demanded +her rights. The privileges accorded to the crown and the opposition to +Spain had formerly gone together: the surrender of the latter under +King James served to supply Parliament on its part with a motive for +making an attack upon the former. + +The cause of Parliament was of great importance, even when it stood +alone: deeper impulses and fresh life and vigour were first imparted +to it by its combination with foreign policy and with religion. + +NOTES: + +[407] From a letter of Bacon to Buckingham. + +[408] Lando, Relatione: 'Se bene procuro S. M. di ristringere e +captivare fino l'autorita, che hanno li communi d'eleggere li +deputati, benche in qualche citta e provincia gli e riuscito, +nell'universale non ha potuto, rifiutati i privati del favorito e dei +consiglieri li lei.' Lando describes the Parliament as 'republica +altretanto mal pratica, quanto molto pretendente.' + +[409] Chamberlain to Carleton, March 24: 'They find it more than +Hercules' labour purgare hoc stabulum Augiae of monopolies, patents +and the like.' (St. P. O.) + +[410] Chamberlain to Carleton: 'All men approve E. Coke, who upon +discovery of those matters exclaimed that a corrupt judge is the +grievance of grievances.' Chamberlain relates that an officer of the +Court of Chancery, when accused on account of various irregularities, +exclaimed 'that he would not sink alone, but draw others after him.' + +[411] Buckingham on one occasion very aptly characterises his policy +and its danger: 'So long as you waver between the Spaniards and your +subjects, to make your advantage of both, you are sure to do with +neither.' Hardwicke Papers i. 466. + +[412] 'The princes denied their appearance.' (Digby, Recital of his +Speech, Parl. Hist. v. 483.) So that the notice by Struv, rejected by +Senkenberg (Fortsetzung Haeberlins xxv. Sec. 80) is nevertheless +correct. + +[413] A gap in Williams' speech at this part, occurring in the +Journals and in both Parliamentary Histories, is to a certain extent +filled up by a letter of Chamberlain to Carleton of Nov. 24; +'intimating that they should forbear needless and impertinent +discourses, long and extravagant orations which the king would not +indure.' + +[414] Lando, Relatione: 'Non potendosi accordare con spiriti +discordanti dei proprii impressi di non lasciarsi levare un punto +dell'autorita.' + +[415] John Locke to Carleton, Nov. 29: 'They have put up a petition, +that this may be a session and laws enacted, that the laws made +against recusants may be executed, so that the promise of the subsidy +seemeth yet to be conditional.' + +[416] Chamberlain to Carleton on December 22. The Parliament, on +receiving a message enjoining the speedy continuance of their +business, answered the King two hours after it had been brought before +them: 'but with all for fear of surprise gave order to the speaker and +the whole house to meet at four o'clock: where they conceived sat down +and entered this proposition enclosed which is nothing pleasing above +and for preventing where of there came a commission next morning to +adjourn the Parliament.' Cf. the Commons' protestation: Parl. Hist. v. +513. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES WITH A SPANISH +INFANTA. + + +It is a general consequence of the dynastic constitution of the states +of Europe that marriages between the reigning families are at the same +time political transactions, and as a rule not only affect public +interests, but also stir up the rivalry of parties: this effect +however has hardly ever come more prominently into notice than when it +was proposed to marry the heir to the throne of England with an +Infanta of Spain. + +We have remarked that the scheme originated in Spain, had already been +once rejected, and then had been mooted a second time by the leading +minister of Philip III, the Duke of Lerma. It formed part of Lerma's +characteristic idea of fortifying the greatness of the Spanish +monarchy by a dynastic alliance with the two royal families which were +able to threaten it with the greatest danger, those of France and +England. This design brought him into contact with a current of policy +and personal feeling in England which was favourable to him: but at +the same time the great difficulty which the difference of religion +presented, came at once into prominence. Not that it would have been +difficult for King James to make the concessions requisite for +obtaining the Papal dispensation; on the contrary he was personally +inclined to do so: but he feared unpleasant embarrassments with his +allies and with his subjects. Count Gondomar, the ambassador, assured +the King that he should never be pressed to do anything which violated +his conscience or his honour, or by which he might run a risk of +losing the love of his people.[417] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1622.] + +On this, negotiations which had already been opened for the marriage +of the Prince with a French princess were broken off. Besides, the +intermarriage with the house of Spain appeared to be far more +deserving of preference, as being likely to pacify the feelings of +English Catholics, who were accustomed to side principally with Spain, +and even to promote the calm of the world, as Spain was a more +prominent representative of the Catholic principle than France. It was +thought advisable to leave the conditions of the dispensation to be +arranged in the sense indicated by negotiation between the Papal see +and the Spanish crown. + +But a new and serious hindrance now arose in consequence of the +embarrassments caused by the affairs of the Palatinate, in which the +interests of the two dynasties came into immediate collision with one +another. It is clear that King James could not marry his son to an +Infanta of Spain while a Spanish army was taking possession of his +son-in-law's territory. He therefore made the restoration of the +Palatinate a condition of the marriage. All his tortuous efforts were +directed to combine the latter object with the former, and at the same +time to avoid a disadvantageous reaction upon his domestic policy. + +While he invoked the Protestant sympathies of Parliament in order to +give weight to his demands, he nevertheless checked them again as soon +as he was in danger of being forced to make war, or even to resume the +measures against the Catholics, which might displease the Spanish +court. Whilst he made the Spaniards aware that if he were refused the +consideration he required, he would throw himself entirely into the +hands of his Parliament and proceed to extremities, he at the same +time employed every means of effecting a peaceful accommodation, by +which he would then at once be saved the necessity of making +concessions to Parliament. The most active negotiations were opened +in Brussels with the Infanta Isabella, upon whom the issue seemed most +to depend. James I had sent thither Richard Weston, the man whom +Gondomar himself declared to be the most appropriate instrument for +this affair; and an agreement was concluded with the personal +co-operation of the Infanta, which held out expectations of the +restoration of the Elector. On the side of the Palatinate and England +everything was done to promote the conclusion of this agreement, and +to ensure its execution. The expelled Elector was induced to recall +Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick from the Upper Rhine, where they +were then moving vigorously forward, lest the treaty should be +obstructed by their operations.[418] He himself removed to Sedan, in +order not to arouse the suspicions of the House of Austria by his +residence in the Netherlands. In the summer of 1622 he had no other +troops in the Palatinate but the English garrisons; and King James +engaged that, if the treaty were concluded, he would take arms himself +against the allies of his son-in-law. But while expectation was +directed to the conclusion of the contract by which the Elector should +be re-established in his country, the League advanced against those +strongholds which the English held in his name. Neither Heidelberg nor +Mannheim could hold out. The English troops were obliged to bend to +necessity and to march out, although with the honours of war. Only in +Frankenthal did they still maintain themselves for a while. When +Weston at Brussels complained of this conduct he was actually told +that the League must have everything in their hands first, in order to +restore everything hereafter. He was astounded at this subterfuge, and +asked for his recall. + +In England the friends of Spain fell into a sort of despair at the +course of events. For what could follow from it but open war between +the King of England and the Emperor? But on whose side would Spain +then be found? Would that power pledge itself to fight to the end +against every one, even against the Emperor, in behalf of the treaty +when concluded? To prevent England from coming into closer alliance +with France, the government of Spain had planned the marriage and +opened direct negotiations: would it now, when its cause appeared to +be advancing, withdraw in violation of its word of honour? Even the +Privy Council represented to the King that he was bringing dishonour +and danger on his country. The Duke of Buckingham, who also had +himself been in close agreement with Gondomar, and was considered to +be the man who held the threads of politics in his hand, regarded the +increasing discontent as dangerous to his own position.[419] + +While affairs were in this situation and these impressions afloat, a +plan for bringing this uncertainty to an end was embraced by the King, +the Prince, and the Duke, in those private discussions in which the +general course of affairs was decided. It was determined that the +Prince, accompanied by Buckingham, should visit Spain himself, in +order to bring about the marriage and arrange the conditions. None of +the Privy Councillors, not even Williams, who on other occasions was +in their intimate confidence, knew anything about this plan. It +pleased the King's sense of the romantic, that as he himself had +formerly brought home his newly married wife from the icy North, so +now his son should in person win the hand of his bride in the distant +South. But however much in earnest the King was in the matter, we +learn that he still contemplated the possibility of failure. He once +said to the Duke of Soubise, that if the marriage came to pass, he +would take up the cause of the Huguenots in alliance with Spain: but +that if he did not succeed in his design they might still reckon upon +him, for that his son would contract a marriage with a French +princess, which would procure him great influence at the French +court.[420] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1623.] + +On March 7, 1623, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham +arrived in Madrid, with an escort including Cottington and Endymion +Porter, both of whom afterwards enjoyed great influence. Their arrival +was not altogether welcome to the ambassador in residence there, +Digby, now Lord Bristol, who would rather have retained this important +business in his own hands: but the Spanish court and the nation itself +found a certain satisfaction for their pride in the personal suit +urged by the heir-apparent of one of the most powerful kingdoms for +the hand of the younger Infanta. + +At first the Prince of Wales could only see the Infanta as she drove +past along a sort of Corso in the Prado. He was then presented to her, +but the words which she was to use to him were written down for her +beforehand; for she was to receive him merely as a foreign prince +without any reference whatsoever to his suit. Some surprise was +created when the principal lady of the court one day condescended to +say to the Prince that the Infanta in conversation gave signs of an +inclination for him. In the country no doubt was felt that the +marriage would come to pass, and the prospect was welcomed with joy. +Often did a 'Viva' resound under the windows of the Prince. Lope de +Vega dedicated some happily expressed stanzas to him; and splendid +shows were given in his honour.[421] All that was now wanting was an +agreement as to the conditions. + +This depended however in large part on the resolutions which might be +arrived at in England. Conditions affecting religion were laid before +King James, which he might certainly have hesitated to approve. It was +not only that the Infanta was to be indulged in the free exercise of +her religion--for how else could the consent of the Spanish clergy or +a dispensation from the Pope have been hoped for?--nor even that the +children born from this marriage were to be educated under her eyes +for the first ten years of their life, for this seemed the natural +privilege of a mother: but the presumption that the children might +become Catholics involved wide consequences. It was stipulated that +the laws against Catholics should not apply to such children, nor +prejudice their succession. Still more displeasing however were some +other articles of general import, which were carefully kept back from +the knowledge of the public. They amounted to this:--that the laws +against the Catholics should no longer be carried into execution, and +that the Councillors of the sovereign should be pledged by an oath to +abstain from enforcing them.[422] The King met with some opposition to +these articles in the Privy Council. But he said that the question was +not whether they were advisable, but whether they were not necessary +at a time when part of the domain under dispute, and the Prince +himself, were in the hands of the Spaniards. And moreover they did not +amount to a complete concession to the wishes of the Catholics, for +they spoke only of tolerating their worship in private, not in public: +the articles were in harmony with the old ideas of the King. James +solemnly swore to the first articles, on July 20, in the presence of +the Spanish ambassador; and immediately after him the members of the +Council took the same oath. The King alone then pledged himself to +carry out the second set of articles. + +An extensive alteration had already taken place in the treatment of +the Catholics. Priests and recusants had been discharged from prison +and enjoyed full liberty. An injunction was issued to the preachers +and to the Universities to abstain from all invectives against the +Papacy. Men had to see individual preachers who transgressed these +orders thrown into prisons which had been just emptied. The families +which openly expressed their hitherto secret adherence to Catholicism +were already counted by hundreds. Then came these transactions. What +was learnt of the articles was enough to spread universal dismay +among the Protestants, but they expected yet worse things. They +thought they saw a pronounced Catholic tendency becoming ascendant in +the conduct of affairs. An universal danger seemed to be hanging over +the religion which they professed. Every one hastened to church to +pray against it; the churches had never been more crowded. The second +ecclesiastic in the country, the Archbishop of York, put the King in +mind that by his project of toleration he was encouraging doctrines +which he had himself proved in his writings to be superstitious and +idolatrous. At this time moreover religious profession and political +freedom were most closely connected: all these penal laws which the +King was removing had been passed in Parliament, and were the work of +the legislative power as a whole. The Archbishop reminded the King in +conclusion that when he annulled the statutes of parliament by royal +proclamation, he created an impression that he thought himself at +liberty to trample on the laws of the land.[423] + +The wishes of the King did not lean so decidedly in that direction as +people assumed. Buckingham and the Prince, who recommended him to take +the oath, remarked to him, among other observations, that his promise +that Parliament should repeal the penal laws against the Catholics +within three years would be fulfilled, if he merely exerted himself to +the extent of his strength for that object, even if it should prove +impossible to attain it.[424] In general everything was merely +preliminary, and depended on further agreement. The Prince entreated +his father to transmit to him the ratification of the articles, that +he might decline them or not according to circumstances. He even +wished that, in order to put an end to the dilatoriness of the +Spaniards, his father should make an express declaration that any +longer delay would compel him again to enforce the penal laws against +the Catholics.[425] All these announcements, which filled the +Catholics with joy and hope, but the Protestants with dejection, +mistrust, and anxiety, were however only political agencies, and were +intended to serve a definite end. The object was in the first instance +to put an end by this means to all delay in sending the Infanta to +England. + +Although some religious scruples were still awake in the minds of the +Spaniards yet they presented no further obstacle. The conditions for +granting a dispensation which had been prescribed by the Pope to the +Spanish Court, had been accepted; the Spanish ambassadors had been +satisfied: the only question now was whether the Infanta should be +conveyed to England at once with the Prince on his return, or in the +following spring. As formerly the Tudors so now the Stuarts appeared +to be taking their position as a dynasty in Europe in connexion with +the Spanish monarchy. + +Only one difficulty remained, that connected with the Palatinate; but +at the present moment it was more serious than ever. + +In his negotiations King James started with the supposition, that the +Spanish court could control the Imperial, and bring it over to its own +point of view. The inclusion of the German line in this dynastic +combination was contemplated. A proposal was made that the eldest son +of the expelled Frederick should contract a marriage with a daughter +of the Emperor, which would make the task of reconciliation and +restitution far easier. + +The Emperor however had to take other interests into consideration; +not only those of the Duke of Bavaria, to whom he was so deeply +pledged, but those of the whole Catholic party, which thought of +seizing this occasion to establish for ever its ascendancy in the +Empire. The Emperor, who was also instigated by Rome to this step, +solemnly transferred the electoral dignity previously held by the +Elector Palatine to Maximilian of Bavaria in February 1623, with the +intention of satisfying him, and at the same time of obtaining a +majority of Catholic votes in the electoral body. It has indeed been +assumed, both then and at a later time, that Spain, only bent on +deceiving England, had agreed to all these proceedings. But in fact +the Spanish ambassador had opposed them most strenuously at Ratisbon +in the name of his king, as well as in that of the Infanta +Isabella.[426] He prophesied with accurate foresight new and +inextricable embarrassments as the consequence. The Papal Nuncio +complained that the resistance of the ambassador weakened the +Catholics and emboldened the Protestants. But his remonstrance had no +effect on the Emperor. After his previous experiences Ferdinand II had +no more fear of his adversaries, least of all of King James, who would +certainly not in his old age make his first appearance as a warrior +and try the doubtful fortune of war. He thought besides that he always +consulted his security best when he had nothing before his eyes but +the advantage of the Catholic Church. + +The negotiation about these matters took place just at the time when +the Prince of Wales was in Spain. There no one despaired of finding an +arrangement with which the Prince could still be satisfied. It was +thought that, when the Palsgrave Frederick had been reconciled with +the Emperor, and admitted into his family, the electoral dignity might +be enjoyed in turn by Bavaria and the Palatinate, or that a new +electorship might be founded for Bavaria. The Imperial ambassador, +Count Khevenhiller, however rejected these proposals, for no other +reason than that King James was not the proper person to make +arrangements for his grandson. He did not accept the supposition that +the youth, whose education it was proposed to complete in Vienna, +would join the Catholic faith, for he said that his mother would never +allow that. He set aside the expectation that the Imperial court might +send to Spain a full authorisation to negotiate for the marriage. He +moreover affirmed that, if the Imperial court wished to secure its +influence in Germany, it could not allow the opinion to gain ground +that it depended on Spain and was guided by her. + +And in Spain also, after the fall of Lerma, which was brought on by +this affair, the old aspirations after the supremacy of the world had +again obtained the upper hand. + +It is true that at the moment a feeling prevailed in favour of +maintaining peace on the very advantageous footing which had then been +obtained. Cardinal Zapata, Don Pedro of Toledo, and above all Count +Gondomar, who had at that time been made a member of the Council, +declared before that body that Spain ought to have no higher political +aim than to secure her union with England. These were men of +experience in European affairs, who recollected the evils which had +sprung from the policy of Philip II. But there were others who were +again seized with the old ambition, so interwoven with Catholicism, +and who would not separate themselves from the interests of the +Emperor at any price--men like the Marquis de Aytona, Don Augustin +Mexia. And Count Olivarez, under the influence of the Imperial +ambassador, now espoused the same opinion, a man who, as favourite of +the King and chief minister, filled the same position in Spain that +Buckingham did in England. At the decisive meeting of the Council, he +stated that the King of Spain would not venture to separate from the +Emperor, even if he had been mortally affronted by him: if he could +stand in friendly relations with the Emperor and the King of England +at the same time, well and good; but if not, he must break with the +King of England without any regard to the marriage: this step was +demanded of him for the preservation of Christendom, of the Catholic +religion, and of his family. He added that a marriage between the +young Count Palatine and a daughter of the Emperor was only to be +thought of, if the former became a Catholic: that the complete +restoration of the father was by no means advisable; and that he ought +to be dealt with as the Duke of Saxony had been dealt with by Charles +V.[427] Olivarez carried the Council with him in favour of this +policy. The strictly Catholic point of view, which had been asserted +by the German line of the house of Austria, was again adopted as the +rule of policy in Spain. + +This was a resolution that decided the destinies of Spain. That power +again renounced the policy of compromise which it had observed for a +quarter of a century. The young King Philip IV and his ambitious +favourite revived the designs of Philip II, or, as the former once +expressed it, of Charles V: to the restoration of Catholic ascendancy +in Germany they sacrificed the friendship of King James, which was of +inestimable advantage to the monarchy, inasmuch as it kept the coasts +of Spain free from all danger of attack from the English forces.[428] +Olivarez was too violent, too young, and too ill-informed to have any +clear conception of the influence of these relations. + +But as in great transactions every step has consequences, it is clear +that the Spanish predilections of King James, and the policy founded +on them, were thus brought to an end. For maintaining these it was +necessary not only that they should be advantageous to the Catholics +in England, but that they should be equally serviceable to the +Protestant interests in Germany, which in the present instance were +his own: otherwise he would never have found rest again in his own +country, or his own family, or perhaps even in his own breast. He had +asked for the reinstatement of his son-in-law in the electorship as +well as in the possession of his hereditary dominions, or at least for +the hearty assistance of Spain in effecting this object.[429] And the +Prince of Wales shared these views. He once said to Count Olivarez +that, without the restoration of the Elector Palatine, the marriage +was impossible, and the friendship of England could not be expected. +The Spaniards did not think fit to impart to him the resolution which +had been taken in the Council of State; but still this implied a new +direction given to the course of affairs which could be followed +although it was not talked of. The Spaniards contented themselves with +dwelling on the necessity of sending the youthful Count Palatine to +Vienna for education: as to his father, who was under the ban, they +held out indeed a prospect of the restoration of his dominions but not +of his electoral dignity. The Prince declared that it was not to be +imagined that his brother-in-law would be content with that and would +agree to it.[430] And how was even as much as this to be obtained from +the court of Vienna? It was now certain that in the affair of the +Palatinate Spain would not interfere with decision. But besides this, +the resolutions which had been taken in the Spanish Council of State +must lead to much wider consequences. + +The miscarriage of the negotiations has been ascribed to the +misunderstanding between Olivarez and Buckingham; and it is no wonder +that such a misunderstanding arose, for the latter was conceited and +irritable, the former imperious and assuming. But these causes are +only of a secondary character; the root of the failure lies in the +political, or in the combination of the religious with the political +relations of the two countries. While in England Protestantism was +moving in a direction opposed to the intentions of King James, and +could hardly be held down, it was met by the Catholic interest in +Spain and Germany, which was fully conscious of its position. Now +these were the powerful elements which divided the whole world: the +strife between them could not be adjusted by political considerations. + +It is hardly necessary to state further how Buckingham, who regarded +the somewhat unmeaning delays of the Spaniards as affronts, and who +would have had reason to fear for his authority in England in the +event of his prolonged absence, now urged the return of the Prince. +Charles concurred with him: King James, who moreover was impatient, as +he said, to see the two men whom he most loved about him again, +commanded it; and the Spanish court could not object. + +Yet no estrangement arose in consequence, nor was the proposal for the +marriage withdrawn. The Infanta was treated as Princess of Wales; and +Philip IV in a letter once styled the Prince of Wales his +brother-in-law. The Papal dispensation, for which they had long been +kept waiting, at last arrived; and the marriage ceremony might have +been performed any day. The other negotiations also still kept +advancing. King James then once more demanded an express declaration +with regard to the affair of the Palatinate. He wished to know what +Spain thought of doing if the Emperor refused to accede to the +agreement that was to be made between the two powers. The answer of +the Spaniards was evasive: how could it have been otherwise? But the +English would not advance further without better security. The Prince +sent to request the ambassador not to use the full powers, which he +already had in his hands, until he received fresh orders.[431] King +James declared that the marriage could not be solemnised till the +Spanish court consented to take upon itself obligations with regard to +the Palatinate. + +NOTES: + +[417] Letter to Gondomar, as it appears, from Buckingham himself, +Cabala 236. 'You promised that the King should be pressed to nothing +that should not be agreeable to his conscience, to his honour, and the +love of his people.' + +[418] So writes Richard Weston to Buckingham: 'The prince elector hath +conformed himself to what was demanded, that the count Mansfelt and +Duke of Brunswik, the pretended obstacles of the treatie, are now with +all their forces removed.' Sept. 3, 1622. Cabala 201. How difficult +this was for him we see from a letter of Nethersole to Carlisle, Oct. +18, 1622. 'The slowness of resolution of this side may move H. Mai. +[the King of Bohemia] to precipitate his before the time, which will +be then to lose the fruits of two long years patience.' + +[419] Valaresso: 'Temendo di se stesso e di riuscir l'oggetto di tutta +la colpa e forse della pena.' + +[420] Valaresso: Disp. 19 Luglio 1623. + +[421] A true relation of the arrival and entertainment given to the +Prince Charles: in Somers' Tracts ii. 625. + +[422] Arcana quatuor capitula ad religionem pertinentia: in Dumont v. +ii. 442. Their contents also appear in the Spanish reports. + +[423] 'That you now take unto yourself liberty to throw down the laws +of the land at your pleasure.' Cabala 13. + +[424] The Duke and the Prince to the King, 6 June. Hardwicke Papers i. +419. + +[425] Instructions received from His Highness June 7, 1623: in +Clarendon State Papers I. xviii. App. + +[426] Protestation of the Conde Onate, in Khevenhiller, Ann. Ferd. +viii. 66. + +[427] From Khevenhiller's letter, Ann. Ferd. x. 95. + +[428] In a Letter of Pope Urban to Olivarez, this passage occurs: +'Diceris in Britannico matrimonio differendo religionis dignitatem +privatis omnibus rationibus praetulisse.' + +[429] 'We have expected the total restitution of the palatinate, and +of the electorship.' James to Bristol, in Halliwell ii. 228. + +[430] Prince Charles and the Duke to James, Aug. 30, 1623. Hardwicke +Papers i. 449. + +[431] Prince Charles to the Earl of Bristol. Halliwell 229. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PARLIAMENT OF 1624. ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. + + +After the Prince had taken leave of his Spanish escort, and had gone +on board an English fleet at Santander, whither it had put in to fetch +him away, contrary winds, or, in the words of a contemporary +narrative, 'the brothers Boreas and Eurus,' for a while delayed his +departure. We are assured that people in England never regarded the +weathercocks and the direction of the smoke and of the clouds with +more painful anxiety than at that time. Even among the dependents of +the royal house many almost gave up the Prince as lost; for who, they +said, could trust the word of the Spaniards? The Protestant part of +the population thought that he would at least be compelled to abjure +his religion. At last the wind subsided. On October 5, after an +absence of almost eight months, the Prince arrived in Portsmouth, and +the day after in London. The universal joy with which he was received +was indescribable: all business was at a standstill; the shops were +shut; nothing was seen but waggons driving backwards and forwards, +laden with the wood intended for the bonfires which blazed at evening +in all the open squares, at all corners of the streets, even in the +inner courts, but were most brilliant and costly at the +Guildhall.[432] The joyful acclamations of the multitude mingled with +the sound of the bells; people congratulated each other that the heir +to the throne had returned as he had gone, and that without the +Infanta; for this marriage had never been popular; but above all, that +he returned rather confirmed than shaken in his religion. They +praised God for his deliverance out of the land of Egypt. Even +Buckingham, who was not loved at other times, enjoyed a moment of +universal popularity. + +Nevertheless the effect which would have been most welcome to the +majority, that of banishing all thoughts of an alliance with Catholic +powers, and of causing a wife to be sought for the Prince among +Protestants, was certainly not produced, for the King had long been +revolving another plan. The combination with Spain, although it had +best corresponded to his wishes and ideas, had nevertheless been only +an experiment: when it miscarried, he was predisposed to return to the +thought of an alliance with France. The Prince, on his way through +France, had already seized the opportunity of seeing the Princess, his +possible bride, while she was dancing, without being remarked by her; +and the impression which she made upon him had been by no means +unfavourable. + +Instantly on his return from Spain Buckingham opened communications +with Mary de' Medici, Queen of France, and that through means of a +Franciscan monk, who could not be suspected, and who presented himself +to her while she was at dinner. Buckingham made secret overtures to +her, intimating that he wished to resume the old negotiations for an +alliance between the royal families of England and France, for that he +was a Frenchman at heart.[433] As the Queen expressed herself +favourably inclined, Henry Rich, who then bore the title of Lord +Kensington, and afterwards that of Lord Holland, was sent before the +end of the year 1623 on a secret mission to France in order to set the +affair in motion. Rich was one of the most intimate friends of +Buckingham, and to a certain extent resembled him in character. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1624.] + +In this affair Buckingham had two circumstances in his favour. It was +the main ambition of the Queen-mother to see her daughter on the +throne of the neighbouring kingdom. The preference accorded by the +English court to an Infanta of Spain over a daughter of France had +had a painful effect upon her: she was the more gratified when that +court now resumed the negotiations which had been broken off. +Nevertheless she did not embark on so delicate an affair, the failure +of which was still possible, without the necessary reserve. The French +court could not but ask for religious concessions in favour of the +Princess, as Spain had for the Infanta: but on the very first approach +to the subject it hinted that it would not urge the King to such +strict pledges as had been demanded on the side of the Spaniards.[434] +The second influence in Buckingham's favour was the political. The +advance of the alliance, and of the power of the Spaniards, especially +their establishment in the Palatinate, aroused the jealousy of the +French. The opinion, which Cardinal Richelieu so often emphatically +expressed, that France, everywhere enclosed by the power of the +Spaniards, might some day be prostrated by it, was generally held. The +interests of his country seemed to be deeply interested when England, +from whose close connexion with Spain the greatest danger was to be +apprehended, separated herself from that power, and showed a +disposition to adopt a policy in harmony with that of France. Henry +Rich assures us that so universal an agreement had never been known +among Frenchmen as was shown at that time in the wish to ally +themselves with England. Already agents of Mansfeld and Brunswick were +seen at Court: an intended mission to Maximilian of Bavaria was given +up on the representation of the English ambassador. Envoys from the +expelled King of Bohemia also soon arrived, in order to gain the +co-operation of the French in his restoration. The negotiations with +England actually began: they were directed to an alliance and a +marriage at the same time: in each case it was made a preliminary +condition that England should openly and completely break with Spain. + +But this condition could not be fulfilled in England quite easily and +without opposition. + +And how indeed could it have been expected that the members of the +Privy Council, who had followed the King in the direction given to his +policy in favour of Spain, if not without any reserve, yet with an +ardour which might be turned to their reproach, would now, as it were, +turn round, and follow the example of the favourite in entering on +another path? A commission chosen from their body was appointed in +order to take into consideration the complaints made by Buckingham +about the behaviour of the Spanish court. But the report which +Buckingham made was by no means so convincing as to win their +concurrence. He rather depended on impressions, which had no doubt in +his own eyes a certain truth, than on facts which might have served as +evidence for others as well. The commission declared itself almost +unanimously against him.[435] Its sentence was, that Philip IV had +seriously intended to marry his sister to the Prince; and that in the +affair of the Palatinate he had behaved, if not as a friend, yet at +any rate not as an enemy. The first part is undoubtedly correct; with +regard to the second however, neither the members of the Privy Council +had any suspicion, nor had Buckingham himself any real information, +that the Spaniards had made the interests of Austria in the Palatinate +so decidedly their own. The Council was moreover in an ill humour with +the favourite on account of the arbitrary authority which he arrogated +to himself. When Lord Bristol came to England in the beginning of the +year 1624, and then laid all the blame on Buckingham himself, a party +was formed against the latter, which sought to overthrow him, and was +even thought to have already secured a new favourite, with whom to +replace Buckingham, just as he had formerly stepped into the place of +Somerset. It was remarked that the friends and adherents of Somerset, +who had always been on the side of Spain, came together and bestirred +themselves. It was clear, and was generally said, that if relations +with Spain were not broken off, the minister must fall. As people +expressed it, 'either the marriage must break or Buckingham.' + +In this danger Buckingham resolved on a step of the greatest +significance, in order to be able at once to attack the Spaniards, and +to meet his rivals at home. He turned to those who had for many years +demanded war with Spain on principle, the popular and zealous +Protestant party. The King assented to his request for the summoning +of a new Parliament, of which he had in fact for other reasons already +given notice. As was to be expected from the connexion of affairs, the +result of the elections corresponded with the views of the last +Parliament. Men like Coke, who had been called to account for their +attitude at that time, were re-elected two or three times over. The +ruling minister now regarded them even as his allies. + +What an indescribable advantage however for the supporters of the +claims of Parliament was this change! As the ill-success of the German +policy of the King in the year 1621 had turned to their advantage, so +now they profited by the failure of his negotiations with Spain. The +political leanings of James I in favour of Spain, which they had +originally opposed, had led to embarrassments in which the First +Minister himself invoked their aid. + +But not only did party rivalries display themselves at this important +moment, but a general opposition also arose on constitutional grounds. +The Earl of Carlisle represented to the King that he had been visited +by members of Parliament, no mere popular leaders or speakers, but +quiet men and good patriots, who feared God and honoured the King: +that he had learned from them that the agitation observed in the +country had principally arisen because the last grants of Parliament +had not been met by any favours on the part of the King, but on the +contrary the expression of opinions displeasing to him on the part of +certain members had been subsequently punished by their arrest. +Carlisle reminded the King that nothing could be more hateful to his +enemies, or more strengthening and encouraging to his friends, than +the removal of these disagreements; that no king had ever had better +subjects if he would but trust them; that if he would but show them +that he relied on their counsel and support, he would win their hearts +and command their fortunes; and that the people would then work with +him for the welfare and honour of the State.[436] + +These views prevailed when Parliament was opened on the 19th of +February, 1624. Hitherto it had been one of the principal grievances +of the King that Parliament wished to have a voice in affairs that +concerned his state and his family. The new Parliament was opened with +a detailed account from Buckingham of his negotiations with Spain, +which affected both these interests, and with a request that +Parliament would report on the great questions awaiting +settlement.[437] + +The answer of both Houses was, that it was contrary to the honour of +the King, to the welfare of his people, to the interest of his +children, and even to the terms of his former alliances, to continue +the negotiations with Spain any longer: they prayed him to break off +negotiations on both subjects, with regard to the Palatinate, as well +as with regard to the marriage. It was hailed as a public blessing +that the conditions accepted for the sake of the latter would not now +be fulfilled. + +At this moment Buckingham's wishes were on the side of this policy; +for otherwise he could not have advanced a step in his dealings with +France. But the King had not so fully made up his mind. He had +approved the overtures made to France: but when he was now asked to +break with Spain, the power which he most feared, and whose friendship +it was the first principle of his policy to cultivate, there was +something in him which recoiled from the step. Buckingham acknowledged +for the first time that he was not of the same mind with the King. He +said that he wished to tread only in one path, whereas the King +thought that he could walk in two different paths at once; but that +the King must choose between the Spaniards and his own subjects. He +asked him whether, supposing that sufficient subsidies of a definite +amount were at once granted him, and the support of his subjects with +their lives and fortunes were promised him for the future, so far as +it might be necessary--whether in that case he would resolve to break +off the matrimonial alliance with Spain. He asked for a +straightforward and definite answer, that he might be able to give +information on the subject beforehand to some members of Parliament. +It is evident that this was no longer the attitude of a favourite, who +has only to express the opinions and wishes of his prince. Buckingham +came forward as a statesman, who opposes his own insight to the aims +of his sovereign. He says that if he should concur with the King, he +should be a flatterer; that if he should fail to express his own +opinion, he should be a traitor. In this matter he could rely on the +support of the Prince, who, without estranging himself from his +father, still appeared to be less dependent on his will than +before.[438] The result was that James I again gave way. He named the +sum which he should require for the defence of his kingdom, for the +support of his neighbours, and for the discharge of his own debts. +Parliament, although it did not grant the whole amount demanded, yet +granted a very considerable sum: it agreed to pay three full subsidies +and three fifteenths within a year, if the negotiations were broken +off. At the beginning of April Buckingham was able to announce to +Parliament that the King, in consequence of the advice given to him, +had finally broken off negotiations with Spain on both matters. + +Other and further concessions of the greatest extent were coupled with +this announcement. The King promised that, if a war should break out, +he would not entertain any proposals for peace without the advice of +Parliament. It was of still more importance, for the moment at least, +that he declared himself willing to allow Parliament itself to dispose +of the sums it had granted. He said that he wished to have nothing to +do with them: that Parliament itself might nominate a treasurer. These +likewise were admissions which Buckingham had demanded from the +King:[439] but it maybe supposed that he had a previous understanding +on the subject with the leaders of the Parliament. He also +represented to the King that the removal of the old grievances was an +absolute necessity. The monopolies to which James had so long clung, +and which he had so obstinately defended, he now in turn gave up; +while the penal laws against the Catholics, to which he was averse, +were revived. + +This was an intestine struggle between the different powers in the +state, as well as a question of policy. Parliament and the favourite +made common cause against the Privy Council, which was on the side of +Spain. + +Among his opponents in the Privy Council, Buckingham hated none so +much as the Lord Treasurer Cranfield, then Earl of Middlesex, for +Cranfield, although raised from a humble station by Buckingham +himself, had the courage to resist him on the Spanish question.[440] +By his strict and successful management of business, Cranfield had won +the favour of the King, who believed that he had found in him a second +Sully. It seems that Cranfield himself had intended to effect the ruin +of Buckingham: but Buckingham was too strong for him. Certain +accusations, which were partly well founded, were made available in +bringing him to trial by Parliamentary means, and in removing him from +his office like Bacon; for he had incurred the enmity of many by his +strictness and incorruptibility. The King professed to regard this +case as even worse than the former, because Bacon had acknowledged his +guilt, while Cranfield denied all guilt. The doctrine of the +responsibility of ministers was by this means advanced still further, +for it was now becoming more dangerous to fall out with Parliament +than with the King. + +The authority of Parliament in general made important strides. It now +threw paramount weight into those deliberations which concerned the +general affairs of the kingdom, war and peace, and the royal family. +What became of the principle on which the King had hitherto taken his +stand, that the decision of these matters must be left exclusively to +his discretion? Parliament again assumed the attitude which three +years before had led to its dissolution. + +It was not possible that James I could look on all this without +displeasure and uneasiness. Sometimes the thought occurred to him that +Buckingham had not been the right man to conduct the negotiations with +Spain. The words escaped him that, if he had sent the Lord Keeper +Williams with his son instead of Buckingham, his honour would then +have been saved, and his heart would now beat more lightly. He did not +approve of the decided turn which was being given to foreign politics. +He was once heard to say that he was a poor old man, who in former +times had known something about politics, but who now knew nothing +more about them. + +It seems indeed that he had fancied that he could still continue to +hold the balance between parties: so at least those who knew James +understood him. He had no intention of allowing Buckingham's fall, as +the enemies of that nobleman wished, but he perhaps thought of finding +a counterpoise for him: he did not wish to let him become lord and +master of affairs. On the other hand Buckingham, by his connexion with +the leading men of the Lower House, had already won an independent +position, in which he was no longer at the mercy of the King. He may +perhaps be set down as the first English minister who, supported by +Parliament and by public opinion, induced or compelled the King to +adopt a policy on which of his own accord he would not have resolved. +In conjunction with his new friends Buckingham succeeded in breaking +up the Spanish party, with which he now for the first time came into +conflict: his adherents congratulated him on his success.[441] In +court and state a kind of reaction against the previous importance of +this party set in. The offices which were vacated by the fall of +Cranfield were conferred on men of the other party, the kind of men +who had formerly been displaced under the influence of Gondomar. +Seamen were acquitted who had shown the same disregard for orders as +Walter Ralegh had once done, and preparations were made to indemnify +Ralegh's posterity for the loss of property which they had suffered. +The Spanish ambassadors at court availed themselves of a moment of ill +humour on the part of the King, to whom indeed they had again obtained +access, to call his attention to the loss of authority which +threatened him on account of Buckingham's combination with the leading +men in the Parliament. But in what they said they mingled so much +falsehood with the truth that they could be easily refuted; and +Buckingham successfully resisted this attack also. + +People still perceived in the King his old indecision. He consented, +it is true, that Mansfeld, whom he had formerly helped the Spaniards +to expel from his strong position on the Upper Rhine, should now be +supported by English as well as French money in a new campaign to +recover the Palatinate. But nevertheless he wished at the same time to +enjoin him as a condition to abstain from attacking any country which +rightfully belonged to the Archduchess Isabella, or to the crown of +Spain.[442] So far was he still from undertaking open war against +Spain, as his subjects hoped and expected. + +And though he acceded to the negotiations with France, yet in this +transaction the very circumstance which displeased the majority of his +subjects--namely that he was hereby making an alliance with a Catholic +power--was acceptable to him. For even then he would not have +consented at any price to have interfered in the general religious +quarrel merely on religious grounds. He felt no hesitation in +promising the French, as he had the Spaniards, not only freedom of +religion in behalf of the future queen, but even relief for his +Catholic subjects in regard to the penal laws imposed by Parliament. +Yet he could have wished that they had contented themselves with his +simple promise. One of his envoys, Lord Nithisdale, was himself of +this opinion. On the other side it was remarked that perhaps the +Catholics, of whom he also was one, might be contented with a promise +from their sovereign, on whom their whole welfare depended, but that +the French government could not, as it must have a dispensation from +the Pope, which could not be obtained without a written assurance. +James I at first declared himself ready to give such a declaration in +a letter to the king of France, and La Vieuville, who was minister at +the time, expressed himself content with that. But after his fall and +Richelieu's accession to power this arrangement was rejected. It was +in vain that the King's ambassadors held out a prospect that the +letter should be signed by the Prince and by the chief Secretary of +State; the French insisted that the King should ratify not only the +treaty, but also a special engagement which they themselves wished to +frame and to lay before Urban VIII. The English plenipotentiaries at +the French court, Holland and Carlisle, were still refusing to agree +to this, when King James had already given way to the French +ambassador in England. + +The agreement, in the form in which it was at last concluded, was in +some points more advantageous for England than that with Spain had +been. While the latter stipulated that the laws which had been passed, +or might hereafter be passed, in England against the Catholics were +not to be applied to the royal children, but that these on the +contrary were still to be secured in their right to the succession, an +agreement which, as was mentioned, opened a prospect of an alteration +in the religion of the reigning family; this supposition was avoided +in the contract with France. But it was agreed on the other hand that +the future queen was to conduct the education of her children, not +merely till their tenth year, as had been stipulated with Spain, but +till their thirteenth. She herself and her household were also to +enjoy a higher degree of ecclesiastical independence; the +superintendence of a bishop was even allowed them. It was the ambition +of the Pope to demand not much less from the French than his +predecessor had demanded from the Spaniards as the price of bestowing +a dispensation for the marriage of a Catholic princess with a +Protestant prince; and it was the ambition of the French court to +offer him, or at least to appear to offer him, no less. In the +special assurance above mentioned James gave a promise that his +Catholic subjects should look forward to the enjoyment of still +greater freedom than that which would have been conferred on them by +the agreement with Spain. They were not to be molested for the sake of +religion, either in their persons or in their possessions, supposing +that in other respects they conducted themselves as good and loyal +subjects.[443] + +The English ambassadors took exception to single expressions: the King +himself passed lightly over them. He was mainly induced to do so by +the absence from the agreement with France of the most offensive and +burdensome clauses which had been contained in the secret articles of +the treaty with Spain. On December 12, 1624, the treaty was signed at +Cambridge by the King, and the special assurance both by the King and +by the Prince. + +James I wished to see his son married. At the Christmas immediately +following he greeted him according to English fashion with the +tenderest expressions: he said that he existed only for his sake; that +he had rather live with him in banishment than lead a desolate life +without him. He thought that the treaty of marriage which had just +been concluded would establish his happiness for ever. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1625.] + +An alliance between France and England for the recovery of the +Palatinate was now moreover in contemplation. From the first moment +the French had acknowledged that this would be to their own interest, +and had promised to assist in that object to the extent of their +power. Nevertheless they hesitated to conclude an express agreement +for this object; for what would the Pope say if they allied +themselves with Protestants against Catholics? At last they submitted +a declaration in writing, but this appeared to the English ambassadors +so unsatisfactory, that they preferred to return it to them. The +French said that this time they would perform more than they promised. +Although exceptions of many kinds might be made to their performances, +yet they were really seriously bent on doing as much as possible for +the recovery of the Palatinate. Just at that time Richelieu had +stepped into power, and he expressly directed the policy of France to +the destruction of the position which the Spaniards had occupied on +the Middle Rhine. In spite of the obstructive efforts of a party which +had both ecclesiastical and political objects in view, he concluded +the arrangements for the marriage of the Princess to the Prince of +Wales without any delay, even without waiting for the last word of the +Pope. + +By this means the connexion which the King had formed in earlier years +seemed once more to be revived. The Duke of Savoy and the Republic of +Venice supported Mansfeld's preparations with subsidies of money. The +States General took the most lively interest in the warlike movements +in Germany, on which the Elector of Brandenburg also set his hopes. +The King of Denmark offered his help in the matter with a readiness +which created astonishment. While the English ambassadors were busy in +adjusting the disputes that were constantly springing up afresh +between him and Sweden, he gathered the estates of Lower Saxony around +him, in order to check the swift advance of the Catholic League.[444] +Of the members of the old alliance the princes of Upper Germany alone +were absent. It was hoped that the Union would be revived by the +efforts of Lower Germany, and above all that its head, the Elector +Palatine, would be restored to his country. + +Induced by the failure of peaceful negotiations for the restoration +of his son-in-law, James allowed greater progress to be made in the +direction of war than he had ever done before. He took an eager +interest in the preliminaries and preparations for war, even for a +naval war. But would he ever have proceeded to action? While preparing +to attack the Emperor and the League did he intend to do anything more +than make a demonstration against Spain? In truth it may be doubted. +He never allowed his English troops to attempt anything for the relief +of Breda, which at that time was still blockaded by the +Spaniards.[445] + +And in his alliance with France he certainly still held fast to his +original principles. + +The marriage of his son to a Catholic princess, and the indulgence +towards the Catholics to which he thereby pledged himself, express the +most characteristic tendencies of his policy. Notwithstanding all the +concessions which he made to Parliament, he still refused to grant +many of the demands which were addressed to him. The special agreement +which he made with France corresponded to the conception which he had +formed of his prerogative. By means of it he imported into relations +controlled by the law of nations his claim to give by virtue of his +royal power a dispensation even from laws that had been passed by +Parliament. + +After, as well as before, this event his idea was to control and to +combine into harmony the conflicting elements within his kingdom by +his personal will; outside his kingdom, to guide or to regulate events +by clever policy. This is the important feature in the position and in +the pacific attitude of this sovereign. But the blame which attaches +to him is also connected with it. He made each and everything, however +important it might be in itself, merely secondary to his political +calculation. His high-flying thoughts have something laboured and flat +about them; they are almost too closely connected with a conscious, +and at the same time personal, end; they want that free sweep which is +necessary for enlisting the interest of contemporaries and of +posterity. And could the policy of James ever have prevailed? Was it +not in its own nature already a failure? A great crisis was hanging +over England when King James died (March 1625). He had once more +received the Lord's Supper after the Anglican use, with edifying +expressions of contrition: a numerous assembly had been present, for +he wished every one to know that he died holding the same views which +he had professed, and had contended for in his writings during his +lifetime. + +NOTES: + +[432] 'True mirth and gladness was in every face, and healths ran +bravely round in every place.' John Taylor, Prince Charles his Welcome +from Spaine: in Somers ii. 552. + +[433] Memoires de Richelieu. Ranke, Franzoesische Geschichte v. 133 +(Werke xii. 162). + +[434] Kensington to Buckingham: 'Neither will they strain us to any +unreasonablenesse in conditions for our Catholics.' Cabala 275. + +[435] Hacket, Life of Williams 169. 'Scarce any in all the Consulto +did vote to my Lords satisfaction.' + +[436] The Earl of Carlisle to His Majesty, Feb. 14, 1624. He signs +himself 'Your Majesty's most humble, most obedient obliged creature +subject and servant.' + +[437] Valaresso already observes this, March 8, 1624: 'Nell'ultimo +parlamento si chiamava felonia di parlare di quello, che hora si +transmette alla libera consultatione del presente.' + +[438] A. Valaresso, Dec. 15, 1623: 'Col re usa qualche minor rispetto; +agli altri da maggior sodisfattione del solito. Parla con Piu liberta +della Spagna.' + +[439] Of all Buckingham's letters to the King, without doubt the most +remarkable. Hardwicke i. 466: 'Risolve constantly to run one way.' + +[440] Valaresso, April 26. 'La persona merita male perche certo fu +d'affetto Spagnola.' He accuses him of a 'Somma scarsezza di pagare.' +Chamberlain says of him at his appearance on the scene October 1621: +'whom the King, in his piercing judgment, finds best able to do him +service.' + +[441] Robert Philips to Buckingham, August 9, 1624. 'You have to your +perpetual glory already dissolved and broken the Spanish party.' + +[442] 'Not to attempt any act of hostility upon any of the lawful +dominions or possessions of the king of spain or the Archiduchess.' He +then at any rate supposed certain cases in which this might take +place. Hardwicke Papers i. 548. + +[443] Escrit particulier: 'qu'il permettra a tous ses subjects +Catholiques Romains de jouir de plus de liberte et franchise en ce qui +regarde leur religion qu'ils n'eussent fait en vertu d'articles +quelconques accordes par le traite de mariage fait avec l'Espagne, ne +voulant que ses subjects Catholiques puissent estre inquietes en leurs +personnes et biens pour faire profession de la dite religion et vivre +en Catholiques pourvu toutesfois qu'ils en usent modestement, et +rendent l'obeissance que de bons et vrays subjects doivent a leur roy, +qu'il par sa bonte ne les restreindra pas a aucun sentiment contraire +a leur religion.' Hardwicke Papers i. 546. The English ambassadors +complain that the word 'liberte' had been inserted by the French +without first informing them. + +[444] Conway to Carlisle, Feb. 24, 1624-25: 'In contemplation of H. +Majesty the king of Denmark hath come to the propositions--upon which +H. M. upon good grounds hath made dispatche to the king of Denmark +agreeing to the kings of Denmarks propositions.' Hardwicke Papers i. +560. + +[445] Valaresso: 'Non e possibile di rimoverlo di contravenire alle +tante promesse verso Spagnoli et alle sue prime dichiarationi.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I, AND HIS FIRST AND SECOND +PARLIAMENT. + + +The prince who now ascended the throne was in the bloom of life: he +had just completed his twenty-fifth year. He had been weak and +delicate in childhood: among the defects from which he suffered was +that of stammering, which he did not get over throughout life; but he +had grown up stronger in other ways than had been expected. He looked +well on horseback: men saw him govern with safety horses that were +hard to manage: he was expert in knightly exercises: he was a good +shot with the cross-bow, as well as with the gun, and even learned how +to load a cannon. He was hardly less unweariedly devoted to the chase +than his father. He could not vie with him in intelligence and +knowledge, nor with his deceased brother Henry in vivacious energy and +in popularity of disposition; but he had learnt much from his father, +at whose feet he loved to sit; and his brother's tastes for the arts +and for the experimental sciences, especially the former, had passed +to him. In moral qualities he was superior to both. He was one of +those young men of whom it is said that they have no fault. His strict +propriety of demeanour bordered on maiden bashfulness: a serious and +temperate soul spoke from his calm eyes. He had a natural gift for +apprehending even the most complicated questions, and he was a good +writer. From his youth he shewed himself economical; not profuse, but +at the same time not niggardly; in all matters precise. All the world +had been wearied by the frequent proofs which his father had given of +his untrustworthiness, and by the unfathomable mystery in which he +enveloped his ever-wavering intentions: they expected from the son +more openness, uprightness, and consistency. They asked if he would +not also be more decidedly Protestant. He showed, at least at first, +that he had a more sensitive feeling with regard to his princely +honour.[446] He had expected that his personal suit for the hand of +the Infanta would remove all difficulties on the part of the +Spaniards, even those of a political character, which obstructed the +marriage. They had paid him every attention suitable to his rank, but +in the business which was under discussion they had not given way a +hair's breadth: it rather appeared as if they wished to avail +themselves of his presence to impose harder conditions upon him. He +was deeply affronted at this. When he found himself again among his +countrymen on board an English ship, he expressed his astonishment +that he had not been detained after he had been so ill-treated.[447] +Quiet and taciturn by nature, he knew while in Spain how to disguise +his real feelings by appearing to feel differently: but we have seen +how on his return his whole attitude with regard to affairs in +general, both foreign and domestic, in matters which concerned his +father and the Parliament alike, assumed an altered character which +corresponded to the general feeling of the nation far more closely +than the policy previously pursued. + +In the last days of James doubts had still been felt whether he would +ever allow a marriage to take place between his son and a French +princess, and large sums had been wagered on the issue. Charles I at +once put an end to all hesitation. He did not allow himself to be +induced to defer his marriage even by the death of his father, or by a +pestilential sickness which then prevailed, or by the lack of the +desirable preparations in the royal palaces. He wished to show the +world that he adhered to his policy of opposition to Spain. He even +allowed the privateering, which his father had formerly suppressed +with so much zeal, to begin again. The royal navy, for the +improvement of which Buckingham actively exerted himself, was put in a +complete state of efficiency, and the money granted by Parliament was +principally employed for this purpose. + +But to enable him to undertake war in earnest he required fresh +grants. It was almost the first thought of the King after his +accession to the throne to call a Parliament for this purpose, and +that the same Parliament which had last sat in the reign of his +father.[448] He bent, although unwillingly, to the necessity, imposed +by the constitution, of ordering new elections to be proceeded with, +for he would rather have avoided all delay: but he entertained no +doubt that the Parliament, as it was composed after the elections, +would give him its full support. After what had taken place he +considered this almost a matter of course. + +On June 18/28, 1625, Charles I opened his first Parliament at +Westminster. He reminded the members that his father had been induced +by the advice of the Parliament, whose wishes he had himself +represented to the King, to break off all further negotiations with +Spain. He said that this was done in their interest: that on their +instigation he had embarked on the affair as a young man joyfully and +with good courage: that this had been his first undertaking: what a +reproach would it be both for himself and for them if they now refused +him the support which he necessarily required for bringing to a +successful issue the quarrel which had already begun! + +And certainly if war with Spain had been the only question, he might +have reckoned upon abundant grants: but the matter was not quite so +simple. Parliament thought above all of its own designs, which it had +not been possible to effect in the lifetime of James I, but which +Charles had advocated in the last session. If the new King inferred +the obligation of Parliament to furnish the money required for a +foreign war from the share it had had in the counsels which had led +to that war, Parliament also considered that he was no less bound on +his part to fulfil the wishes that had been expressed in regard to +internal policy. In the very first debate which preceded the election +of the Speaker, this point of view was very distinctly put forward. +The King was told that in the last session he had sought to remove all +differences between Parliament and his father, and to induce the +latter to grant the petitions of Parliament: that if he had not +succeeded then, that result had been due only to his want of power; +but now he had power as well as inclination: what he before had only +been able to will, he now was enabled to effect, and everything +depended solely on him.[449] It had been especially the execution of +the Acts of Parliament directed against the Catholics which the +Parliament demanded, and which the Prince in his ardour against Spain +had then thought advisable. His father had refused to grant this: it +was now expected that he should grant it himself. They expected this +from him as much as he expected from them a subsidy sufficient for +carrying on the war. It may be asked, however, whether it was possible +for him to give ear to their wishes. The complication in his fortunes +arose from his inability to comply. + +If Charles I, when Prince of Wales, had wished to identify his cause +entirely with the aims of Parliament, he would have been obliged to +marry the daughter of a Protestant prince. But this was prevented by +the political danger which would then have arisen in the event of a +breach with Spain. Neither James nor Charles I believed that they +could withstand this great monarchy without an alliance with France. +Political and dynastic interests had led to the marriage which had +just been concluded. But by this a relation with the Catholic world +had again been contracted which rendered impossible a purely +Protestant system of government such as Queen Elizabeth desired to +establish. A dispensation from Rome had been required which expressed +even without any disguise the hope that the French princess would +convert the King and his realm to the old faith.[450] The marriage +could not have been concluded without entering into obligations which +were in open contradiction to the Acts of Parliament. Those +obligations were not yet fully known, but what was learnt of them +caused great agitation. Charles was reminded of a promise, which he +was said to have given at an earlier time, to agree to no conditions +on his marriage which might be prejudicial to the Church existing in +England. Men asked how that promise had been fulfilled; and why any +secret was made of the compact which had been concluded. Would not the +Queen's chapel, they asked, now serve to unite the Catholics of +England; or would they be forbidden to hear mass there? In a forcible +petition Parliament asked for the execution of the laws issued against +Papists and recusants.[451] + +Charles I was not in a position to be able to regard it. It was not +that he had any thought of curtailing the rights of the English Church +or of entering on any other course in great questions of general +policy than that which had been laid down in conjunction with +Parliament. His marriage also was a preparation for the conflict with +Spain; but if it was not so decidedly opposed to the common feeling of +the country as a Spanish marriage, yet it was far from being in +accordance with it. The pledges which had been given on that occasion +prevented the King from adopting exclusively Protestant points of +view, and from identifying himself completely with his people. + +But there was another reason for the King's adherence to his +agreement. He was as little inclined as his father had been to allow +the Parliament to exercise any influence on ecclesiastical affairs. +Much unpleasant surprise was created at that time by the writings of +Dr. Montague, in which he treated the Roman Church with forbearance, +and Puritanism with scorn and hatred. Parliament wished to institute +proceedings against the author. The King did not take him under his +protection; but on the request of some dignitaries of the English +Church he transferred the matter to his own tribunal. He regarded it +moreover as an undoubted element of his prerogative to dispense with +the statutes passed by Parliament, so that the concessions which were +expressed in the marriage compact appeared to him quite justifiable. + +We see how closely this affected the most important question of +English constitutional law. The universal competence of Parliament is +here opposed to the authority of the King, strengthened by his +ecclesiastical functions. And we understand how Parliament, in spite +of the urgent need created by itself, hesitated to fulfil the +expectations of the King. + +It could not absolutely refuse to make any grant: it offered him two +subsidies, 'fruits of its love' as they were termed. But the King had +expected a far stronger proof of devotion. What importance could be +attached to such an insignificant sum in prospect of so tremendous an +undertaking as a war against Spain? The grant itself implied a sort of +refusal. + +But the Lower House also attempted to introduce a most extensive +innovation in regard to finance. The customs formed one of the main +sources of the revenue of the crown, without which it could not be +supported. They had been increased by the last government on the +ground of its right to tonnage and poundage, although, as we saw, not +without opposition.[452] The constitutional question was whether the +customs were properly to be regarded as a tax, and accordingly +dependent on the grant of Parliament, or whether they were absolutely +appropriated to the crown by right derived from long prescription: for +since the time of Edward IV, tonnage and poundage had been granted to +every king for the whole period of his reign. The controversies +arising on the subject under James had brought to light the daily +increasing importance conferred by the growth of commerce on this +source of revenue, which certainly assured to the crown, if not for +extraordinary undertakings, yet for the conduct of the ordinary +business of the state, a certain independence of the grants of +Parliament. The Lower House was now disinclined, both on principle and +under the painful excitement of the moment, to renew the grant on +these terms: it therefore conferred the right to tonnage and poundage +on the King only for a year. But the import of this restriction was +plain enough. The popular leaders were not satisfied with granting the +King very inadequate support for the war, but they sought to make him +dependent even in time of peace on the goodwill of the Lower House. +The resolution was rejected by the Upper House, and it appeared to the +King himself as an affront. For why should he be refused what had been +secured to his predecessors during a century and a half? The granting +of supplies for life he regarded as a mere form, which after such long +prescription was not even necessary. He thought himself entitled, even +without such a grant, to have the duties levied in his own name as +before. + +These were differences of the most thoroughgoing character, which had +descended to Charles I with the crown itself from the earlier kings +and from his father. The change of government, and certain previous +occurrences caused these differences to come into greater prominence +than ever; but they received their peculiar character from something +in his personal relations which had also been transmitted from the +father to the son. + +Or rather, we may say, James I would certainly have been inclined to +get rid of Buckingham as he had formerly got rid of Somerset: under +Charles I this favourite occupied a still stronger position than he +had held before. + +Between the two men personally there was a great contrast. In the +favourite there was nothing of the precision, calmness, and moral +behaviour of the King. Buckingham was dissolute, talkative, and vain. +His appearance had made his fortune, and he endeavoured to add to it +by a splendour of attire, which later times would have allowed only +in women. Jewels were displayed in his ears, and precious stones +served as buttons for his doublet. It was affirmed that on his journey +to France, which preceded the marriage of the King, he had taken with +him about thirty different suits, each more costly than the last. It +was for him as much an affair of ambition as of sensual pleasure to +make an impression upon women, and to achieve what are called +conquests in the highest circles. He revelled in the enjoyment of +successes in society. Moments of lassitude followed, when those who +had to speak with him on business found him extended upon his couch, +without giving them a sign of interest or attention, especially when +their proposals were not altogether to his mind. Immediately +afterwards however he would pass from this state to one of the most +highly-strained activity, for which he by no means wanted ability: he +then knew neither rest nor weariness. He was spurred on most of all by +the necessity of making head alternately against such powerful and +active rivals as the two ministers who at that time conducted the +affairs of France and Spain. He was bound to Charles I by a common +interest in one or two of those employments which fill up daily life, +for instance by fondness for art and art collections, but principally +by the companionship into which they had been thrown, first in the +cabinet of James I, who weighed his conclusions by their assistance, +and afterwards in their journey to Spain. The Spaniards, who were +accustomed to treat persons of the highest rank with respect and +reverence, were greatly scandalised to see how entirely Buckingham +indulged his own humours in the presence of the Prince. He allowed +himself to use playful nicknames, such as might have been often +applied in the hunting-seats of James or in letters to him, but which +at other times appeared very much out of place. He remained sitting +when the Prince was standing: in his presence he had indeed the +audacity to consult his ease by stretching his legs on another chair. +The Prince appeared to find this quite proper: Buckingham was for him +not so much a servant as an equal and intimate friend. It would have +been impossible to say which of the two was the chief cause of the +alienation which arose between them and the Spaniards. Rumour made the +favourite responsible for this estrangement: better informed people +traced it to the Prince himself. The intimacy formed during their +previous association had been made still closer by the policy which +they pursued since their return from Spain. Many persons hoped +notwithstanding that, in spite of appearances to the contrary, an +alteration would take place with the change of government. But on the +first entry of Charles I into London, Buckingham was seen sitting by +him in his carriage in the usual intimate proximity. His share in the +marriage of the King increased their friendship: they both equally +agreed even in the subsequent change of policy. Buckingham had allied +himself most closely with the leaders of the Puritan opposition in +Parliament: by their support principally he had broken up the party +favourable to Spain. But in return for these services he had now not +the least intention of doing justice to their claims. If it had +depended on him, still greater concessions would afterwards have been +granted in favour of the Catholics than in fact were made; for +Catholic sympathies were very strongly represented in his family: he +himself had far less feeling in favour of Anglican orthodoxy than the +King. And when the rights of the prerogative were called in question, +he again espoused them most zealously, seeing that his own power +rested on their validity. He looked at the Parliamentary constitution +from the point of view of a holder of power, who wishes to avail +himself of it for the end before him without deeming himself bound by +it, so soon as it becomes inconvenient to him. He cared only for +success in his immediate object: all means of obtaining it seemed +fair. + +The continuance of the session in London was at that time rendered +impossible by the pestilential sickness already referred to, which +every day increased in severity. Buckingham, who although pliant and +adroit yet had no regard whatever for others, wished to keep +Parliament sitting until it had made satisfactory grants. While the +members, and even the Privy Council, wished for a prorogation, he +urged with success that the sitting should only be transferred to +Oxford. Thither the two Houses very unwillingly went, for there also +symptoms of the plague were already showing themselves; and each +member would have preferred to be at home with his family. And when +Buckingham came before them at Oxford with his proposal for a further +grant, the ill-humour of the assembly openly broke out. He was +reproached with the illegality of his conduct in asking for a grant of +subsidies more than once in a session; the members said that if this +was the object of their meeting they might well have been at +home.[453] But they were not content with rejecting the proposal: they +said that if they must remain together, they would, according to +former precedent, bring under debate the prevailing abuses and their +removal. + +Buckingham had been warned that by now changing his demeanour he would +run the risk of forfeiting those sympathies of Parliament, which he +had won by his Protestant attitude. In the very first session at +Oxford an event took place which set religious passions in agitation. + +Before the departure of the Parliament from London Lord Keeper +Williams had promised in the King's name that the laws against +Catholic priests should be observed. Immediately after the Speaker had +taken his seat at Oxford, a complaint was made that an order for the +pardon of six priests had been since issued. Williams had had no share +in it; he had refused to seal it. It had been necessary to complete it +in the presence of the King, who was induced at the urgent request of +Buckingham to give his assent in pursuance of the conditions of the +agreement executed with France. This conduct however, the failure to +execute laws that had been ratified, especially after a renewed +promise to the contrary, appeared to the Parliament an attack upon its +rights and upon the constitution of the country. The ill-feeling was +directed against Buckingham, whose exceptional position was now the +general object of public and private hatred. + +This was a time in which the power of a first minister in France, who +came forward as the representative of the monarchy, was winning its +way amid the strife of factions, and above all in opposition to the +claims of aristocratic independence. What Concini and Luynes had +begun, Richelieu with a strong arm carried systematically into effect. +Something similar seemed to be at hand in England also. It had been +the fashion of James I to give effect to his will in the state by +means of a minister, to whom he confided the most important affairs, +and whom he wished to be dependent solely on the King himself; and +Charles I, in this as in other matters, followed his father's example. +Buckingham became more powerful under him than ever. At the meetings +of the Privy Council the King hardly allowed any one else to speak: +without taking the votes of the members he accepted Buckingham's +opinion as conclusive. And yet it was apparent at the same time that +this opinion did not deserve preference from any worth of its own. The +public administration, so far as it was influenced by him, and his +special department, the Admiralty, furnished much occasion for just +censure; and the general policy on which he embarked appeared +questionable and dangerous. He was coarsely compared to a mule which +took its rider into a wrong road. Oxford suggested to men's minds the +recollection of the opposition which the great nobles had once offered +to Henry III. People said that they might perhaps have been to blame +in form, but not in substance. It was wished that Charles I might also +govern the state by the help of his wise and dignified councillors, +and not with the aid of a single young man. Parliament, the great men +of the country, and those who filled the highest offices, were almost +unanimous against Buckingham. The Lord Keeper Williams told the King +openly at a meeting of the Privy Council at Oxford, that nothing would +quiet the apprehensions of his Parliament but an assurance 'that in +actions of importance and in the disposition of what sums of money the +people should bestow upon him, he would take the advice of a settled +and constant council.'[454] The misconduct of the favourite in not +applying the money granted to the objects for which it was voted, was +exactly the ground of the complaint urged against him. Not only the +real importance of the points in dispute, but also the intention of +driving Buckingham from his position, led Parliament to reject all his +proposals. + +The King's adherence to his resolution of supporting his minister +greatly affected the state of affairs in England, which even at that +time presupposed and required an agreement between the Crown and the +Parliament. + +Buckingham attributed the rejection of his proposals in Parliament to +personal enmity; and this he thought he could certainly overcome. +Williams, who in the time of James I had been entirely in the +confidence of the King, was after a time dismissed, not without +harshness, and was replaced by Thomas Coventry. The post of Lord +Keeper was again filled by a lawyer who troubled himself less about +political affairs. Parliament was not prorogued, as the rest of the +members of the Privy Council wished: the King agreed with Buckingham +that it must be dissolved. The Duke hoped that new elections, held +under his influence, would give better results. He did not doubt that +another Parliament might be hurried away to make extensive grants +under the pressure of the great interest opposed to Spain. But in +order to effect this object it appeared to him necessary to exclude +from the Lower House its most active members, who were his personal +antagonists. He adopted the odious means of advancing them to offices +which could not be held compatible with a seat in Parliament. In this +way Edward Coke, who revived and found arguments for the +constitutional claims of Parliament, was nominated sheriff of +Buckinghamshire, and Thomas Wentworth High Sheriff of Yorkshire. +Francis Seymour, Robert Phillips, and some others, had a similar +fate.[455] When the lists were submitted as usual the King +unexpectedly announced these nominations. Some peers, whose views +inspired no confidence, were not summoned to attend the sittings of +the Upper House. + +Perhaps too much weight has been attributed to the circumstance--but +yet it proves the discontent which was widely spreading--that at the +coronation of the King, which took place during these days, the +traditional question addressed from four sides of the tribune to the +surrounding multitude, asking whether they approved, was not answered +from one side at least with the joyful readiness usually +displayed.[456] + +On February 6, 1626, the new Parliament was opened at Westminster. It +made no great objection to the exclusion of some of the former +members, as the means by which this had been effected could not be +regarded as exactly illegal. Among the members assembled an ambition +was rather felt to prove that their opinions and resolutions were not +dependent on the influence of some few men. For all Buckingham's +efforts to prevent it, on this occasion also those opinions were in +the ascendant which he wished to oppose. In the place of the members +excluded others arose, and at times they were the very men from whom +he feared nothing. A great impression was made when a personal friend +of Buckingham, his vice-admiral in Devonshire, John Eliot, came +forward as his decided political opponent. He first brought under +discussion the mismanagement of the money granted, which was laid to +the charge of the First Minister. With this was connected a +transaction of great importance which affected the general relation +between the Parliament and the Crown. + +In the year 1624 a council of war, consisting of seven members, had +been nominated to manage the money then granted. They were now +summoned to account for it. Although this measure appeared an +innovation, yet the government could do nothing against it--it had +even consented to it: but Parliament at the same time submitted to the +members the invidious question, whether their advice for the +attainment of the ends in view had always been followed. King James +had said on a former occasion, that if Parliament granted him +subsidies, he had to account to it for their disposal as little as to +a merchant from whom he received money; for he loved to lay as much +emphasis upon his prerogative as possible. How entirely opposed to the +prerogative were the claims which Parliament now advanced! It is clear +that if the members of the council should make the communications they +were asked for, all freedom of action on the part of the minister and +of the King himself would be called in question. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1626.] + +The members of the new council for war were thrown into great +embarrassment. They answered that they must first consult the lawyers +on the subject, and the King conveyed to them his approval of this +declaration. He informed them that he had had the Act of Parliament +laid before him: that they were bound to submit to questions only +about the application of the money, but about nothing else: he even +threatened them with his displeasure if they should go beyond this. +The president of the council for war, George Carew, called his +attention to the probability that the grant of the subsidies which he +demanded from Parliament might be hindered by such an answer: it would +be better, he said, that the Council should be sent to the Tower,--for +it would come to this,--than that the good relations between the King +and the Parliament should be impaired, and the payment of the +subsidies hindered. Charles I said that it was not merely a question +of money, and that gold might be bought too dear. He thanked them for +the regard which they had shown to him; but he added that Parliament +was aiming not at them but at himself.[457] + +The controversy about tonnage and poundage coincided with this +quarrel. The grant, as has been mentioned, had been obtained only for +a short period. Parliament was incensed, that after this had expired, +the King had the customs levied just as before. 'How,' it was said, +'did the King wish to raise taxes that had never been voted? Was not +this altogether contrary to the form of government of the country? +Whoever had counselled the King to this step, he was without doubt the +sworn enemy of King and country.' + +Parliament declared to the King that if he insisted on those subsidies +which were absolutely necessary, it would support him as fully as ever +a prince had been supported by a Parliament, but in Parliamentary +fashion, or, as they expressed it, 'via parlamentaria.'[458] The +claims of Parliament included both the right of granting money in its +widest extent, and the supervision of its application when granted. +The King considered that a grant was not necessary in respect of every +source of revenue--for instance, not in respect to tonnage and +poundage, and was determined to keep the management entirely in his +own hands, and to submit to no kind of control over it. + +Many other questions, in which wide interests were involved, were +brought forward for discussion in Parliament, especially in regard to +ecclesiastical matters: the proceedings of the High Commission were +attacked again. But the question of the widest range of all was the +decided attempt to alter the government and to overthrow the great +minister, which gave perhaps the greatest employment to the +assembly.[459] It was directed against the favourite personally, for +he had now incurred universal hatred, but at bottom there also lay the +definite intention of confirming the doctrine of ministerial +responsibility by a new and signal example. + +How quickly was Buckingham overtaken by Nemesis; that is to say, in +this, as in so many other instances, how soon was he visited by the +consequences which in the nature of things attended his actions! +First, owing to his influence the establishment of that council for +war had been granted which now gave occasion to the demand for +Parliamentary control: and next, he had allowed the fall of Bacon, and +had most deliberately overthrown Cranfield by the help of Parliament. +These were just the transactions which endangered his own existence by +the consequences of the principles involved in both cases alike. + +The King was certainly moved by personal inclination to take the part +of his minister; but he was also moved by anxiety about the +application of these principles. He complained that without actually +established facts forthcoming, on the strength of general rumour, +people wished to attack the man on whom he bestowed his confidence: +but Parliament, he said, was altogether overstepping its competence. +It was wishing to inspect the books of the royal officers, to pass +judgment upon the letters of his secretary of state, nay, even upon +his own: it permitted and sheltered seditious speeches within its +bosom. There never had been a king, he affirmed, who was more inclined +to remove real abuses, and to observe a truly Parliamentary course; +but also there had never been one who was more jealous of his royal +honour. The more violently Buckingham was attacked, the more it +appeared to the King a point of honour to take him under his +protection against charges which he considered futile. + +The Lower House did not take up all the points in dispute which the +King proposed for discussion. It excused some things which had +occurred to the prejudice of the royal dignity, but in the principal +matter it was immovable. It asserted, and adhered to its assertion, +that it was the constant undoubted right of Parliament, exercised as +well under the most glorious of former reigns as under the last, to +hold all persons accountable, however high their rank, who should +abuse the power transferred to them by their sovereign and oppress the +commonwealth. They maintained that without this liberty no one would +ever venture to say a word against influential men, and that the +common-weal would be forced to languish under their violence. + +The impeachment was drawn up in regular form by eight members, among +whom we find the names of Selden, Glanvil, Pym, and Eliot. On the 8th +of May it was carried by 225 votes to 116 to send up to the Lords a +proposal for the arrest of Buckingham. + +In the Upper House, the members of which were by no means more +favourable to the Duke, and feared the nomination of a large number of +peers, Lord Bristol independently brought an accusation against +Buckingham relating to the failure of the Spanish marriage. The +conduct of which he is accused may rather have shown ambition and +foolish assumption than any real criminality; and Buckingham's defence +is not without force. The Lower House, to whom it was communicated, +nevertheless expressed their opinion that a formal prosecution must +take place. It seemed that Buckingham must surely but sink under the +combined weight of various complaints. + +But the King would not allow matters to go so far. Without paying any +regard to the wish of the Lords to the contrary, he proceeded to +dissolve this Parliament also (June 15, 1626). In the declaration +which he issued on the subject, he said that he recognised Joab's hand +in these estrangements: but in spite of them he would fulfil his duty +as king of this great nation, and would himself redress their +grievances and defend them with the sword against foreign enemies. + +The opposition between Parliament and the Crown did not develop by +slow degrees. In its main principles at least it appears immediately +after the accession of Charles I as a historical necessity. + +NOTES: + +[446] Lando, Relatione 1622: 'Tiene presenza veramente regia fronte, +sopraciglio grave, negli occhi e nelli movimenti del corpo gratia +notabile, indicante prudente temperanza--di pensieri maniere costumi +commendabilissimi attrahenti la benevolenza et l'amore universale.' + +[447] Thus Kensington states to the Queen-mother in France: 'He was +used ill, not in his entertainment, but in their frivolous delayes, +and in the unreasonable conditions which they propounded and pressed +upon the advantage they had of his princely person.' Cabala 289. + +[448] Consultation at St. James's on the day after he ascended the +throne (March 28). 'That which was much insisted upon was a +parliament, H. Majesty being so forward to have it sit that he did +both propound and dispute it to have no writs go forth to call a new +one.' Hacket, Life of Williams ii. 4. + +[449] Speech of Sir Thomas Edwards, St. P. O. (not mentioned in the +Parliamentary Histories). It is there said 'He did not only become a +continual advocate to his deceased father for the favourable graunting +of our petitions, but also did interpose his mediation for the +pacefying and removing of all misunderstandings. God having now added +the posse to the velle, the kingly power to the willing mind, enabled +him to execute what before he could but will.' + +[450] Letter from the Pope to the Princess, Dec. 28, 1624: 'Cogitans +ad quorum triumphorum gloriam vadis, fruere interim expectatione tui.' + +[451] 'Some spare not to say that all goes backward since this +connivance in religion came in, both in all wealth valour honour and +reputation.' Letter of Chamberlain, June 25, 1625. + +[452] 'Tonnage, a duty upon all wines imported; poundage, a duty +imposed ad valorem on all other merchandises whatsoever.' Blackstone, +Commentaries i. 315. + +[453] 'Whosoever gave the counsel (of the meeting in Oxford) had the +intention to set the king and his people at variance.' Nethersole to +Carleton, Aug. 9, 1625: a circumstantial and very instructive document +(St. P. O.). + +[454] Hacket ii. 20. + +[455] Arthur Ingram to Wentworth, Nov. 1625 (Strafford Papers, i. 29), +names besides Guy Palmer, Edward Alford, and a seventh, who had not +had a seat in the last Parliament, Sir W. Fleetwood. + +[456] Ewis in Ellis, i. 3, 217. The Dutch ambassador present in +England, Joachimi, to whose letter I referred, does not seem to have +mentioned it. + +[457] A memorial of what passed in speech from H. M. to the Earl of +Totness, March 8, 1625-26; St. P. O. The King says 'Let them doe what +they list: you shall not go to the Tower. It is not you that they aim +at, but it is me, upon whom they make inquisition. And for subsidies +that will not hinder it; gold may be bought too dear.' + +[458] Correro: 'Questo termino di via parlamentaria vuol dire libere +concessioni secondo la loro dispositione e di haver cognitione in +qualche maniera delli impieghi.' + +[459] 'Ils disent' (so it is said in Ruszdorf, Negotiations i. 596) +'que tout alloit mal, que les deniers qu'ils ont contribue ont ete mal +employes: il falloit toujours et avant toutes choses redresser et +regler le gouvernement de l'etat.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE COURSE OF FOREIGN POLICY FROM 1625 TO 1627. + + +In reviewing so important a conflict as that which had broken out at +home, it almost requires an effort of will to bestow deep interest +upon foreign affairs in turn. But not only is this necessary from the +connexion between the two, but we should not be able to understand the +history of England if we left out of consideration its relation to +those great events of European importance which absorbed even the +largest share of public attention. + +Charles I had undertaken to do what his father avoided to the end of +his life,--to offer open opposition to the Spanish monarchy and its +aims. Like Queen Elizabeth he took this step in alliance with France, +Holland, and the Protestants of Germany and the North, but yet not in +full agreement with his own people. This was due mainly to the +circumstance that France had become far more Catholic under Mary de' +Medici and Louis XIII than it had been under Henry IV. The offensive +alliance between France and England now developed a character which +rather irritated than quieted the religious feelings which prevailed +in England. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1625.] + +On the first shocks sustained by the close alliance which had existed +between the Catholic powers, the Huguenots in France rose in order to +recover their former rights which had been curtailed. But the French +government was not at all inclined to give fresh life to these +powerful and dangerous movements: on the contrary it invoked the +assistance of England and Holland to put them down. For the great +strength of the Huguenots lay in their naval resources, and without +the help of the maritime powers the French government would never +have been able to overcome them. And so imperative seemed the +necessity of internal peace in France,[460] if she was to be induced +to take an active share in the war against Spain, that the English and +Dutch were actually persuaded to put their crews and vessels at the +disposal of the French government, which then used them with decisive +results. The naval power of the Huguenots, which had formed so large +an element of the fighting strength of the Protestants, was broken by +the assistance of England and Holland. Queen Elizabeth, in the midst +of her war with Philip II, would certainly never have been brought to +this step, and even now it roused the bitterest dislike. It was found +that the execution of the orders issued met with resistance even on +board the ships themselves. A light is thrown upon the ill-feeling at +home, when a member of the Privy Council, Lord Pembroke, tells a +captain who resisted this mutinous spirit, that the news of the +insubordination of his crew was the best which he had heard for a long +time, and that it was welcome even to the King: that he must deal +leniently with his men, and only see that he remained master of the +ship.[461] But what an impression must doubtless have been produced on +the population of England, which still stood in the closest relation +to the French Reformed! Sermons were delivered from the pulpits +against these proceedings of the government. + +But if the active alliance of France against Spain and Austria was +secured by this immense sacrifice, what could have appeared more +natural than to employ the whole strength of that country for the +restoration of the Count Palatine, which the French saw to be +advantageous to themselves, and for the support of German +Protestantism? In pursuance of the stipulations which had been made +the King of Denmark was already in the field: his troops had already +fought hand to hand at Nienburg in the circle of Lower Saxony with +the forces of the League which were pressing forward into that +country. He was strong in cavalry but weak in infantry: the German +envoys who were present in England insisted that gallant English +troops should be sent to his assistance, and that the fleet which was +ready for service should be ordered to the Weser; for that the support +which the fleet would give to the King would encourage him to advance +with good heart. And then, as they added with extravagant hopefulness, +the King of Sweden, who had already offered his aid, would come +forward actively, if only he had some security; the Elector of +Brandenburg, who had just married his sister to the King of Sweden, +would declare himself; the Prince of Transylvania, who was connected +with the same family, would force his way into Bohemia: every one +would withstand the League and compel it to restore the lands occupied +by it to their former sovereigns, and to the religion hitherto +professed in them. + +But Buckingham had as little sympathy with the German as with the +French Protestants: his passionate ambition was to make the Spaniards +directly feel the weight of his hatred. For this purpose he had just +concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the United +Provinces; even the great maritime interests of England were +themselves a reason for opposing Spain. At all events, in the autumn +of 1625 he despatched the fleet, not to the Weser, which appeared to +him almost unworthy of this great expedition, but against the coasts +of the Spanish peninsula. Orders were given to it to enter the mouth +of the Guadalquivir, and to alarm Seville, or else to take the town of +Cadiz, for which object it had on board a considerable number of land +troops; or, finally, to lie in wait for the Spanish fleet laden with +silver, and to bring home the cargo as a lawful prize. Buckingham +proceeded on the supposition that the foundation of the Spanish power +and its influence would be undermined by the interruption of the +Spanish trade with America, and that in the next year the Spaniards +would be able to effect nothing. He did not perceive that this would +have no decisive influence on that undertaking on which in the first +instance everything depended, that of the King of Denmark, as +meanwhile in Rome, Vienna, and Munich, native forces, independent of +Spain, had been collected. But while he preferred the more distant to +the more immediate end, it was his fate to achieve neither the one nor +the other. In December 1625 the fleet returned without having effected +anything at sea or on the Spanish coasts. On the contrary it had +suffered the heaviest losses itself. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1626.] + +The discredit into which Buckingham fell with those whom he had +desired to win over, and whose wishes were fixed on the struggle with +Spain, is exhibited in a very extraordinary enterprise which sprung up +at this time, and which had for its object the formation of what we +may almost call a joint-stock war company. A wish was felt to form a +company for making war on Spain, upon the basis, it is true, of a +royal charter, but under the authority of Parliament, with the +intention of sharing the booty and the conquests, as well as the costs +among the members.[462] + +By the late enterprise moreover the means had been wasted which might +have been used for supporting the German allies of England. Left +without sufficient subsidies in his quarrel with Parliament, the King +was unable to pay the arrears due both to the seamen who were +returning from Spain, and to his troops in Holland. He could not +repair his fleet; he could hardly defend his coasts: how could he be +in a position to make any persevering effort for the conduct of the +war in Germany? The King of Sweden asked for only L15,000 in order to +set his forces in motion; but at that time this sum could not be +raised. The King of Denmark was the more thrown on England, as the +French also made their services depend on what the English would do: +but Conway, the Secretary of State, declared himself unable to pay the +stipulated sum. Could men feel astonished that the Danish war was not +carried on with the energy which the cause seemed to demand? +Christian IV had not troops enough, and could not pay even those which +he had. The cavalry, which constituted his main strength, had on one +occasion refused to fight, because they had not received their pay. He +himself threw the chief blame on the English for the defeat which he +now sustained at Lutter; and which was the more decisive, as meanwhile +Mansfeld also, who wished to turn his steps to the hereditary +dominions of Austria in order to combine with the Prince of +Transylvania, had been not only defeated, but almost annihilated. The +armies which were to have defended the Protestant cause disappeared +from off the field. The forces of the Emperor and of the League now +occupied North Germany also on both sides of the Elbe. + +To Germany the alliance with England had at that time brought no good. +It may be doubted whether the Elector Palatine would have accepted the +crown of Bohemia but for the support which he thought to find in +England. This affair had a great part in bringing on the outbreak of +the great religious conflict. But James I sought to retrieve the +misfortune into which the Elector had fallen, not so much by employing +his own power, as by developing his relations with the Spaniards; and +thus he had himself given them the opportunity of establishing +themselves in the Palatinate, and had caused the Catholic reaction to +triumph in Upper Germany. Without the instigation of England, and the +great combination of the powers in East and West hostile to the house +of Austria, the King of Denmark would not have determined to begin +war, nor would the circle of Lower Saxony have aided him. On this +occasion as on others in England the interests of its own power +outweighed consideration for the allies. The policy of the English had +formerly been ruled by their friendly relations with Spain: it was now +ruled by their hostile intentions towards that country. All available +forces were employed for their purpose, and the movement in Germany +was left to its fate. + +Meanwhile another consequence of the breach with Spain came to light, +which King James had always feared. In order not to be forced to fight +both great powers at once, Spain found it advisable to show a +compliance hitherto unprecedented in the affairs of Italy, in which +France had interested herself. After this the irritation against the +ascendancy of the Spaniards evidently abated in France. + +For in alliances of great powers it is self-evident that their +political points of view, if for a moment they coincide, must +nevertheless in a short time be again opposed to one another. How +should one power really seek the permanent advantage of another? + +At that time also, as on so many occasions, other relations arising +out of the position of the leading statesmen as members of parties, +produced an effect on politics. Cardinal Richelieu met with opposition +from a zealously Catholic party, which gathered round the queen +mother, and considered the influence of Spain to a certain degree +necessary. This party seized the first favourable opportunity of +setting on foot a preliminary treaty of peace, to which Richelieu, +however long he hesitated, and however much he disliked it, could not +help acceding. + +Quite in keeping with this understanding between the Catholic powers +was the partial recoil of Protestantism in England from the advances +which it had made to the Catholic party. The French who surrounded the +Queen were so numerous, that a strong feeling of opposition on +religious and national grounds was awakened in them by their contact +with the English character. They saw in the English nothing but +heretics and apostates; the Catholics who had formerly been executed +at Tyburn as rebels they honoured as martyrs. The Queen herself, upon +whom her priests laid all kinds of penance corresponding to her +dignity, was once induced to take part in a procession to this place +of execution. It is conceivable how deeply wounded and irritated the +English must have felt at these odious demonstrations. To the King it +seemed insufferable that the household of his consort should take up a +position of open hostility to the ecclesiastical laws of the land. +Personally also he felt injured and affronted. We hear complaints from +him that he was robbed of his sleep at night by these demonstrations. +He quickly and properly resolved to rid himself once for all of these +refractory people, whatever might be the consequence. The Queen's +court was then refusing to admit into it the English ladies whom he +had appointed to attend on her. The King seized the opportunity: he +invited his wife to dine with him, for they still had separate +households; and after dinner he made her understand by degrees that he +could no longer put up with this exhibition of feeling on the part of +her retinue, but must send them all home again, priests and laymen, +men and women alike.[463] This resolution was carried out in spite of +all the resistance offered by those whom it affected. Only some few +ladies and two priests of moderate views were left with the Queen; all +the rest were shipped off to France. There they filled the court and +the country with their complaints. Those about the Queen-mother +assumed an air as if the most sacred agreements had been infringed, +and any measure of retaliation was thought justifiable. + +Marshal Bassompierre indeed set out once more for England in order to +bring about a reconciliation. Though ill received at first, he +nevertheless won his way by his splendid appearance and by clever talk +and moderation. In a preliminary agreement leave was given to the +Queen to receive back a number of priests and some French ladies;[464] +and Buckingham prepared to go to France to remove the obstacles still +remaining. But meanwhile the feeling of estrangement at the French +court had become still stronger. The agreement was not approved: and +the court would not hear of a visit from Buckingham, as it was thought +that he would be sure to use the opportunity afforded by his presence +to stir up the Huguenots. Richelieu thought that the dispute with +England had been provoked by his enemies in order to break up the +friendly relations which he had established. But nevertheless he too +did not wish to see Buckingham in France, for he feared that the +English minister might side outright with his opponents. + +Personal considerations of many kinds co-operated in producing this +result, but it was not due mainly to their influence. The religious +sympathies and hatreds at work had incalculable effects. While the +opposition between the two religions again awoke in all its strength, +and a struggle for life and death was being fought out between them in +Germany, an alliance could not well be maintained between two courts +which professed opposite religious views. The current of the general +tendencies of affairs has a power by which the best considered +political combinations are swept into the background. + +The paramount importance of religious movements not only prevented a +combination between France and England, but also brought both Catholic +powers into closer agreement with one another, as soon as their +immediate differences had been in some measure adjusted. Father +Berulle had promoted the marriage of a French princess with the King +of England in the hope of converting him; but now that he became +conscious of his mistake, he lent his pen to a project for a common +attack to be made by the Catholic powers upon England. The domestic +dissensions in that country, which again aroused Catholic sympathies +among a part of the population, appeared to favour such a project. An +agreement on the subject was in treaty for some time. It was at last +concluded and ratified in France in the form in which it was sent back +from Spain.[465] + +Although it is not clear that people in England had authentic +information of these negotiations, yet the advances made by the two +courts to one another, which were visible to every one, could not but +cause some anxiety in the third. The English were always anxiously +considering what Philip IV might have in view for the next year; at +times even in Charles' reign they feared another attack from the +Belgian coast. What would happen if France lent her aid in such an +enterprise? It was known at all events that the priests exhorted her +to do so. That France and Spain should make a joint attack on England +appeared to be most for the interest of the Catholic world.[466] + +Another ground for anxiety in England was from that resolution to +revive the French naval power, which Richelieu had already taken in +consequence of his late experiences. He bought ships of war, or had +them built, and took foreign sailors into his service. Charles I +perceived this with the greatest displeasure. He regarded it as a +threat against England, for he thought that the French could have no +other intention than that of robbing England of the supremacy that she +had exercised from time immemorial over the sea which bears her name. +He declared that he was resolved to prevent matters from going so far. + +A great effect was produced by a very definite misunderstanding which +now arose between England and France, and affected naval interests as +well as the question of religion. + +Of all the French Huguenots, who had been compelled by their last +defeat to seek peace with the King, the citizens of Rochelle felt the +blow most deeply. They had at that time been hemmed in on all sides, +and were especially harassed by a fort erected in their neighbourhood. +They had been assured that at the proper time they would be relieved +of this annoyance. They had not an express and unequivocal promise; +but the English ambassador, who had been invited to mediate, had +guaranteed to them, after conference with the French ministry, such an +interpretation of the expressions used as would secure the wished-for +result.[467] But just the contrary took place: they were constantly +being more closely shut in, and more seriously threatened with the +loss of that measure of independence which they had hitherto enjoyed. +They turned to Charles I. They would rather have acknowledged him as +their sovereign than have submitted to such a loss, and he felt the +full weight of his obligation to them. But, if he desired to grant +them assistance, it could only be rendered by open war. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1627.] + +When the English resolved to undertake an expedition against the +Island of Rhe, the prevention of the fall of Rochelle was not the +only object in view. It was rather considered that nothing could be +more desirable and advantageous than the command of this island in the +event of a struggle with the two powers. For Biscay could be reached +in a voyage of one night from thence, and the communication between +the Netherlands and the harbours on the north-east coast of Spain +could at any time be interrupted by the possessors of the island, +which might be used at the same time for keeping up constant +communication with the Huguenots, and for giving the French power +employment at home.[468] The Huguenots had already taken up arms +again, and Rochelle displayed the English banner on its walls. Charles +I intended to use Rhe as a station for his fleet, but to cede the +general sovereignty over it to Rochelle. A successful result here +might serve to infuse new life into the Protestant cause. + +In order to achieve so great an end the King thought it admissible to +levy a forced loan, and thus to collect those sums which Parliament +had promised him by word of mouth, but had not yet formally granted. +We shall have hereafter to consider the resistance which he +encountered in this attempt, and the various arbitrary acts to which +he resorted for its suppression; for they formed one of the turning +points of his history. At first he actually succeeded so far, that a +fleet of more than a hundred sail was able to put to sea for the +attack of Rhe and the support of Rochelle. It was considered in +raising this loan that a war with France had greater claims upon +popular support than any other. In the present doubtful state of +affairs a decided advantage gained in such a war might even now have +exercised great influence upon the internal state of the kingdom. + +At this juncture Buckingham assumed a position of extraordinary +importance. After the repeated failures of the Protestants, his +undertaking aroused all their hopes. Directed against both the +Catholic powers, it must, if successful, have directly benefited the +French Protestants, and indirectly the German Protestants also by the +effect which it would inevitably have produced. But it was besides one +enterprise more undertaken by the sole power of the monarch: it was +carried out independently of any Parliamentary grants properly so +called. It represented the principle of a moderate monarchical +Protestantism, combined with toleration for the native Catholics, +among whom Buckingham endeavoured to find support. His was a position +of which the occupant must either be a great man or perish. +Buckingham, who had no equal in restless activity, and was by nature +not devoid of adroitness and ability, nevertheless had not that +persevering and comprehensive energy which is required for the +performance of great actions. He had not gone through the school of +those experiences in which minds ripen: and for the want of this +training his native gifts were not sufficient to compensate. He was so +far fortunate as to gain possession of the Island of Rhe; but Fort +Martin, which had been erected there a short time before, and on which +the possession of the island depended, defied his attacks, and he was +not skilful enough to intercept the support which was thrown into the +fort in the hour of its greatest danger. The defence of the French +certainly showed greater perseverance than the attack of the English. +Buckingham did not know how to awaken among his men that fiery +devotion which shrinks from no obstacle, and which would have been +necessary here. And the measures which were arranged at home were not +so effective as to bring him at the right moment the reinforcement he +needed. In November 1627 he returned to England without having +effected his object. He left behind him the French Protestants, and +Rochelle especially, in the greatest distress. + +Charles I had no intention of proving false to the promises which he +had given them, any more than he wished to allow the King of Denmark +to sink under his difficulties. But what means did he possess of +bestowing help either on the former or on the latter? + +After the battle of Lutter he had told the Danish ambassador, that he +would come to the assistance of his uncle, even if he should have to +pawn his crown. How heavily his position weighed on him at that time! +While he had undertaken the responsibility of contending for the +greatest interests of the world, he was obliged to confess, and did so +with tears in his eyes, that at present he hardly had at his disposal +the means of defraying the necessary expenses of his daily life. + +The King of Denmark advised him to call Parliament together again, and +make the needful concessions, in order to obtain such subsidies as +would enable him to give vigorous support to his allies. Charles I in +the first instance took umbrage at this, because it was good advice +from an uncle and an elder, as if some blame were thereby cast on him: +by degrees he became convinced of the necessity of this measure. + +It was quite evident from the events of the last few years that the +King would not be able to maintain the position he had assumed, +without active support from Parliament. + +NOTES: + +[460] Z. Pesaro, April 25, 1625: 'Che la conservatione della pace in +Francia sara il fondamento del beneficio comune, che li rumori civili +in quella natione sariano il solo remedio che Spagnoli procurano alli +loro mali.' + +[461] 'That the King and all the rest were exceedingly glad of that +relation which he made of the discontent and mutiny of his compagnie.' + +[462] M. A. Correro: 'Trattano di formar una compagnia per la quale +possino con l'autorita del parlamente e privilegi reggi attaccare con +una flotte il re di Spagna per dividere l'interesse della spesa e +l'utile delli bottini e delli acquisti nelli compagni che ne averanno +parte (27 Mayo 1626).' + +[463] Letter to Joseph Mead: Court and Times of Charles I, i. 134. + +[464] According to Ruszdorf, who was well acquainted with +Bassompierre, the latter represented 'hoc facto regem obligatum nihil +esse intermissurum, quod ad conservationem fortunae illius queat +conducere.' + +[465] Siri, Memorie recondite vi. 261. + +[466] Letter to Joseph Mead, March 16, 1626: 'It still holds that both +France and Spain make exceeding great preparations both for sea and +land.--The priests of the Dunkirkers are said to preach that God had +delivered us into their hands.' (Court and Times of Charles I, i. +205). + +[467] I refer for the fuller explanation of these transactions to my +History of the Popes and my French History. My meaning is very fully +recognised in an essay in the Revue Germanique, Nov. 1859. + +[468] Beaulieu to Pickering. 'It lieth in the way to intercept the +salt that cometh from Biscaje and serveth almost all France, and what +so ever cometh out of the river of Bourdeaux: besides it commandeth +the haven of Rochelle.' (Court and Times of Charles I, i. 257). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PARLIAMENT OF 1628. PETITION OF RIGHT. + + +In the heat of controversy about the supplies to be granted and the +liberties to be confirmed by the King in return, it was once harshly +said in the Lower House during this Parliament that it was better to +be brought low by foreign enemies than to be obliged to suffer +oppression at home. The King answered by saying no less abruptly that +it was more honourable for the King to be straitened by the enemies of +his country, than to be set at nought by his own subjects. + +So much more importance was attached by both sides to domestic than to +foreign struggles. But after the last failure both parties had come to +feel how much the honour of the country and religion itself suffered +from their dissensions. Among the politicians of the time there was a +school of learned men, who had studied the old constitution of the +country, and wished for nothing more than its restoration. They were +seriously bent on establishing an equilibrium between the royal +prerogative and the rights of Parliament. Among them were found Edward +Coke, John Selden, and John Glanvil; but Robert Cotton may be regarded +as the most distinguished of them all, a man who had studied most +deeply, and who combined with his studies an insight into the present +that was unclouded by passion. To Cotton we owe a report presented by +him to the Privy Council, in which he explains that the government +should proceed on the old royal road of collecting taxes by grant of +Parliament, and indeed should adopt no other method; while at the same +time he expresses the conviction that Parliament would be satisfied, +if its most pressing anxieties were dissipated. He says that he +himself would not advise the King to sacrifice the First Minister, for +that such a step had always had ruinous consequences: he thought +moreover that the old passionate hostility against the Duke need not +be feared, if he came forward himself as the man who had advised the +King to reassemble Parliament.[469] We learn that the King did not +determine to summon it, until the most prominent men had given him an +assurance that Buckingham should not be attacked. Moderation in the +attitude of Parliament, and security for the First Minister formed as +it were the condition under which the Parliament of 1628 was +summoned.[470] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1628.] + +On March 22, five days after the beginning of the session, the +deliberations of the Lower House were opened by the remark from the +Speaker, that they must indeed grant subsidies to the King; but that +at the same time they must maintain the undoubted rights of the +country. Francis Seymour, who had now again been returned to +Parliament, at once expressed himself to the same effect. While he +acknowledged that every one must make sacrifices for king and country, +he shewed at the same time that it was a sacred duty to cling to their +ancestral laws. He proceeded to say that these laws had been +transgressed, their liberties infringed, their own selves personally +ill-treated, and their property, with which they might have supported +the King, exhausted. He proposed therefore to secure the rights, laws, +and liberties transmitted from their ancestors by means of a petition +to the King.[471] + +Whatever be the tone of opposition which this language betrays, it +fell far short of that adopted in the former Parliament. Men had come +to an opinion that certainly no money should be granted unless +securities could be obtained for their ancient liberties; but at the +same time that the King should not be induced to grasp directly at +absolute power, for that this would lead at once to a rebellion of +uncertain issue.[472] Men were resolved to avoid questions which could +rouse old passions. This time it was not insisted that the penal laws +against the Catholics should be made more severe: Parliament waived +its claim to alter the constitution of the Admiralty, and to appoint +treasurers to manage the money granted to the King: it showed +deference for the King, and said nothing of the Duke. But a commission +was appointed to take into consideration the rights which subjects +ought to have over their persons and property. Already on April 3 +resolutions were proposed to the House, by which it was intended that +some of the most obnoxious grievances which had lately arisen should +be made for ever impossible, such as the collection of taxes that had +not been granted, and restraints imposed on personal liberty in +consequence of refusal to pay.[473] + +Charles I also now took up this question. Through Coke his Secretary +of State, who was also a member of the House, he issued an invitation +to them not to allow themselves to be deterred by any anxiety about +liberty or property from making those grants, on which, as he said, +the welfare of Christendom depended; 'upon assurance,' Coke proceeds +to add, 'that we shall enjoy our rights and liberties, with as much +freedom and security in his time as in any age heretofore under the +best of our kings; and whether you shall think fit to secure ourselves +herein, by way of bill or otherwise, so as it be provided for with due +respect to his honour and the publick good whereof he doubteth not +that you will be careful, he promiseth and assureth you that he will +give way to it.' + +This is indeed a very important message. The King approves of an +inquiry into the violations of old English right and prescription, +which had taken place in his reign. He consents that a bill to secure +their observance should be drawn up, and gives hopes beforehand of its +ratification. Charles I, like James, had constantly been anxious to +prevent grants from being made dependent on conditions; but something +very like this occurs when he backs his invitation to a speedy grant +of subsidies by a promise to approve of the petition submitted to him +for certain objects. + +On this five subsidies were without delay unanimously granted to the +King, with the concurrence even of members like Pym, who +systematically opposed him. It was now only necessary that both sides +should agree on the enactments for doing away with the abuses which +had been pointed out. + +The principal grievance arose from the conduct of the King, who in his +embarrassments had imposed a forced loan at the rate fixed on the +occasion of the last subsidies, and had sent commissioners into the +counties in order to exact payment, just as if he had been armed with +the authority of Parliament for this object. Many had submitted: but +not a few others high and low had refused to pay, not from want of +means but on principle. The King had thought this behaviour a proof of +personal disaffection, and had had no hesitation in arresting those +who refused: he had even taken steps to assert his right to do so as a +matter of principle. Much notice was attracted at that time by a +sermon preached by one Sibthorp, in which plenary legislative +authority was ascribed to the King, and unconditional obedience was +demanded for all his orders if they did not contradict the divine +commands. Archbishop Abbot had steadfastly refused to allow the +printing of this sermon, which he regarded as an attack upon the +constitution: eighteen times in succession an intimate friend of the +King went to him to urge him to give leave.[474] As the Archbishop +refused to comply, he received orders to leave London, and was struck +out of the High Commission: the sermon had been printed with the +permission of another bishop. So earnestly bent was the King at that +time on pressing his claim to override the necessity of a +parliamentary grant in moments of emergency. + +He had now however retreated from this position. Abbot had obtained +permission to resume his seat in the Upper House, and so had Lord +Bristol. When, in consequence of the above-mentioned declaration in +Parliament, a project was now decided on for securing the legal +position of the subject, especially the rights of property and +personal freedom, which had been infringed by the previous +proceedings, the King expressed his agreement loudly, explicitly, and +repeatedly; in general terms he gave up his claim ever to proceed +again to a forced loan. No one was ever to be arrested again because +he would not lend money; and in all other cases where arrest was +necessary the customary forms were to be observed. + +At this point however another question arose touching the very essence +of the supreme power. The Lower House was not yet content that an +abuse like that which had occurred should be merely removed: it wished +to destroy it at the root. It was not satisfied with the promise of +the King that he would never in any case punish by arrest, unless he +was convinced in his conscience of its necessity. They wished to put +an end to this discretionary power itself, of which his ministers +could avail themselves at pleasure. Parliament demanded that +henceforth no one should be arrested without assignment of the reason +and observance of the forms of law. + +This question led to a discussion of points of constitutional doctrine +before the House of Lords, between the representatives of the Lower +House and Sir Robert Heath, the Attorney General, in an argument which +deserves our whole attention. + +The Lower House appealed to that article of Magna Charta, by which the +arrest of free persons was forbidden except on the judgment of their +peers, or according to the law of the land: and by the law of the land +it understood the judicial process and its forms. Sir Robert Heath +would not admit this interpretation. He thought that the expression in +no way forbade the King to restrict the liberty of individuals in +extraordinary cases for reasons of state; and that this restriction +could not be avoided, when it was desired to trace out some conspiracy +or treason. If the cause were to be assigned he thought that it must +be the real cause, which could be proved before a tribunal; but how +often cases arose of such a kind that arrest would have to be ordered +under some other pretext, until the ring-leader could be laid hold of! +It was very true, he said, that such a power might be seriously +abused, but it was the same with all the rights of the prerogative: +even the right of making war and peace, and the right of pardon might +be abused, and yet no man wished to take these from the crown: it +always was, and must always be presumed, that the King would not +betray the confidence of God, who had placed him in his office. + +Not without good reason did Edward Coke call this the greatest +question which had ever been argued in Westminster. It was proved to +him that he himself as judge had followed the interpretation which he +now condemned. He answered that he was not pope, and made no +pretensions to infallibility. He now firmly maintained that the King +had no such prerogative at all. + +We can see how opinion wavered from a speech of Sir Benjamin Rudyard, +who maintains on the one hand that it is impossible to find laws +beforehand for every case, but that a circle must be drawn within +which the royal authority shall prevail; while on the other hand he +lays emphasis also on the danger arising from the plea of mere reasons +of state, which he said would only too easily come into conflict with +the laws and with religion itself. The best arrangement according to +him would be, if Parliament were held so often that the irregular +power which could not be broken at once, might by degrees 'moulder +away.' A copy of this speech with observations by Laud is extant in +the archives. Laud calls attention to the contradiction which lies in +first acknowledging the necessity of liberty of movement on the part +of the government, and then notwithstanding considering it to be the +destination of Parliament by degrees to absorb its power, as it was at +present exercised.[475] + +And certainly it may have been the idea of the moderate members of +the House of Commons, gradually to break up such a power as that +exercised by the minister and favourite, by coming to a better +understanding with the King, and at the same time by strictly limiting +his arbitrary authority. + +The impression however gained ground that even the indispensable +functions of the supreme authority would be restricted by the +enactments proposed. The right of arresting persons dangerous and +troublesome to the government was just then exercised in France to the +widest extent; Cardinal Richelieu could never have maintained himself +but for his quick and energetic use of it. In all other states, as +well republican as monarchical, it was a weapon with which the +government thought that it could not dispense. Was it to be dropped in +England alone? And that too at a moment when the opposition of +factions was constantly becoming more active? In fact the impression +spread that Parliament, not content with full promises from the King, +while it checked abuses, was impairing his authority. + +In the Upper House, where there was a strong party in favour of the +King's prerogative, these and similar considerations influenced votes. +Men were agreed that abuses like those which had occurred must be for +ever put a stop to. Even the proposals introduced for securing +individual freedom were not properly speaking rejected: but it was +desired to limit them by a clause to the effect that the sovereign +power with which the King was entrusted should remain in his hands +undiminished for the protection of his people. The Lower House however +would not accept any such addition: for the provisions of the Petition +would thus be rendered useless. They foresaw that what those +provisions forbade would pass as lawful in virtue of the plenitude of +the sovereign power: yet the expression 'sovereign power' was unknown +in the English Parliament: that body was familiar only with the +prerogative of the King, which at the same time was embodied in the +laws. The Upper House on this declared that it did not think of +departing from the Oath by which each one of them was pledged to +maintain the prerogative of the King. Even in the Lower House the +members were reminded of this, and no one raised his voice against +it; for who would have been willing to confess that he was +withstanding the lawful prerogative of the King? The only question was +as to its extent. + +This question now presented itself to the King himself. Was he to +accept the proposal of the Commons, and to content himself with a +general reservation of his prerogative? It is very instructive, and +forms one of the most important steps in his career, that he thought +it advisable to inform himself first of all what rights in this matter +he really possessed. + +On the 26th of May, just when the heat of the quarrel was most +intense, he summoned the two Chief Justices, Hyde and Richardson, to +Whitehall, and submitted to them the question whether or not he had +the right of ordering the arrest of his subjects without specifying +the reason at the same time. On this the Judges were assembled by +their two chiefs in the profoundest secrecy, to pronounce on the +question. They decided that it certainly was the rule to specify the +reasons; but that there might be cases in which the secrecy required +made it necessary for some time to withhold them. A further question +was then followed by a decision of the same import, that the judges in +such a case were not bound to give up the prisoner even if a writ of +habeas corpus were presented. Charles then proceeded to a third +question, to which no doubt he attached the most importance. If he +accepted the petition of the Commons, did he surrender for ever the +right of ordering imprisonment without assigning a cause? The judges +assembled again, and on the 31st of May, after deliberating together, +they gave in their answer, signed with their names. Every law, they +said, had its own interpretation; and so must this petition: and the +answer must always depend upon the circumstances of the case in +question, which could not be determined until the case arose; but the +King certainly did not give up his right beforehand by granting the +petition.[476] + +At a later time and in another epoch these questions were finally +settled in a different way. The Judges of this time decided them in +favour of the power of the time. If we might apply a parallel, though +certainly one borrowed from a very different form of government, we +might say that the fettah of men learned in the law, the sentence of +the mufti, was in favour of the King. In this, as in other respects, a +difference is found to exist between the constitutions of the East and +those of the West: such a sentence in the West does not finally decide +a case; but even here, nevertheless, it always carries great weight. +Charles I felt that according to the existing state of the law, he did +not exceed his rights by maintaining the prerogative which he had +hitherto exercised. The last decision raised him even above the +apprehension of losing it by acceding to a petition which was opposed +to it. + +He could not however resolve on this step without further +consideration. + +To accede to the petition, and at the same time to reserve in his own +favour the declaration made by the Judges, was an act of duplicity, +which he wished to escape by giving an assurance couched in general +terms. + +On the 2nd of June he came down to the House in full assembly, and had +his answer read. Its tenor was, that the laws should be observed and +the statutes put in force, and his subjects freed from oppression; +that he the King was as anxious for their true rights and liberties as +for his own prerogative. + +But it is easily intelligible that these words satisfied no one. They +appeared to one party as dark as the sentence of an oracle; to the +other they appeared useless; for the King, they said, was already +pledged to all this by his Coronation Oath: such long sittings and so +much labour would not have been required to effect such a result as +this. The answer however was not ascribed to the King, whose +deliberations remained shrouded in the closest secrecy, and who on the +contrary was thought to agree with the substance of the petition, but +to the favourite, who was supposed to find such an agreement dangerous +for himself.[477] It was remarked that two days before making this +declaration the King had been at one of the country seats of the +Duke, and had held confidential conversations with him. It was thought +that there, under the influence of the Duke, the declaration had been +drawn up, which contained nothing but words that might easily be +explained in another sense, and which did not even make any mention of +the petition at all. It was fancied that Buckingham even wished to +hinder the King from coming to a genuine understanding with his +Parliament, which might be disadvantageous to his interests.[478] His +opponents thought that he was at the root of all previous misfortunes; +and what might they not still expect from him? He was credited with +wishing to alter the constitution of England, to excite a war with +Scotland, and to betray Ireland to the Spaniards. In spite of all that +the King might have originally expected, they determined to make a +direct attack upon such a minister. Popular susceptibility knows no +limits in its anxieties or hopes, in its likings or hatreds. Even +thoughtful and serious men allowed themselves to entertain the opinion +that the prosperity of England at home and abroad was as good as lost: +the former was lost if people were content with the answer given, the +latter if they refused to make the grants demanded, or even if they +made them but left the administration in those untrustworthy hands in +which it was at the present time. On one occasion these feelings gave +rise to an unparalleled scene in Parliament. Those bearded and sedate +men wept and cursed. They feared for their country, and each one +feared for himself, if they did not get rid of the man who possessed +power, while on the other hand it seemed to them impossible to do so. +Some could not speak for tears: violent exclamations against the Duke +prevented the continuance of the debate. But not only were complaints +heard: the expression was also heard, that men had still hands and +swords, and could get rid of the enemy of King and country by his +death. They proceeded at last to deliberate on a protestation which +was resolved on after that debate, and they had gone so far as to name +the Duke, and to declare him a traitor, when the Speaker who had +quitted the House came in again, and brought a message from the King, +by which the sitting was adjourned to the following day. + +No course seemed to be left for Charles I but to dissolve this +Parliament immediately as he had dissolved its predecessor. But what +would then have become of the grant of money, which was every day more +urgently needed? Like the Petition, it would have fallen to the +ground. + +Before the end of the same day, June 5, a meeting of the Privy Council +was held, in which it was resolved to calm the agitation by accepting +the Petition of Right. We do not learn if on that occasion the +scruples of the King were discussed or not; but as his questions to +the judges already betrayed his inclination to such a course, so now +he actually resolved to plunge into the contradiction which he had +wished to avoid, and accept the Petition while at the same time, in +accordance with the sentence of the Judges, he would reserve for +himself the future exercise of the right therein denied. + +On June 7 the King appeared in the Upper House, where the Commons also +were assembled. The Lords were in their robes, and the King sat upon +his throne while the Petition of Right was read. It was directed +against some temporary grievances, such as forced billeting and the +application of martial law in time of peace, but principally against +the exaction of forced loans, or taxes which had not been granted, and +against the imprisonments which had been so much talked of. The King, +as had been desired, uttered the formula of assent used by his Norman +ancestors. His words were greeted with clapping of hands and +acclamations. The King added that he had meant just as much by his +first declaration; indeed he knew well that it was not the intention +of Parliament, nor even in its power, to limit his prerogative: for +that this would be strengthened by the liberties of the people, and +consisted in defending those liberties.[479] + +The excitement of the House was taken up by the city. The bells were +rung, and bonfires were kindled; and a rumour obtained credence that +the Duke of Buckingham himself had fallen, and was expecting his +reward on the scaffold. Of what an illusion were men the victims! The +King clung to Buckingham as firmly as ever: in granting the Petition +he did not mean to surrender a jot of his lawful prerogative. We have +seen what he thought of his right to make arrests. In resigning his +claim to levy taxes that had not been granted by Parliament he did not +mean to be restricted in his claim to tonnage and poundage, for he +thought that, unless these were collected, the administration of the +State could not be carried on at all, and in the late controversies +his right to them had not come under discussion. Some of the higher +officials, the Recorder and the Solicitor General, confirmed the King +in this view: and to many of his opponents in Parliament it was +pointed out that they had previously entertained the same opinion. + +The Lower House on its part allowed the bill, by which the grant was +made, to pass the last stage; but it could not be moved by advice or +warning to desist from the great Remonstrance, in the composition of +which the House had been interrupted. In this, mention was made of the +Arminian opinions which were now making way in England, and which +appeared to Parliament to involve a tendency in the direction of +Romanism: but it complained principally of the connivance, which in +spite of all ordinances was still constantly extended to the +recusants, so that Catholicism, especially in Ireland, had the fullest +scope. And the State, it was said, was in just the same plight as +religion. The government was introducing foreign soldiers, especially +German troopers, and was meditating the imposition of new taxes in +order to pay them. In the midst of peace a general was commanding in +the country. Trustworthy men were being dismissed from their offices; +Parliament and its rights were contemned: was it intended to 'change +the frame both of religion and government?'[480] But the source of all +evil was the Duke of Buckingham. The remonstrants begged the King to +consider whether it was advisable for himself and for his kingdom to +allow him to continue in his high offices, and to keep him among his +confidential advisers.[481] + +As we gather, the Lower House attached weight to the circumstance that +it did not raise a complaint, nor even strictly speaking a protest, +against the continuance of Buckingham's authority, but simply +preferred a request that the position of affairs should be taken into +consideration. But the King was greatly offended even at this. He +replied that he had hitherto always believed that the members of the +Lower House understood nothing about the affairs of State, and that he +was now greatly strengthened in his opinion by the purport of this +representation.[482] Buckingham prayed the King to cause unsparing +investigation into the charges raised against him to be made, for that +such a proceeding would bring his innocence to light. The King offered +him his hand to kiss, and addressed to him some friendly expressions. +But the Lower House was incensed afresh at the bad success of its +representation, and proceeded to adopt an express remonstrance on the +subject of tonnage and poundage. In order to save himself from again +receiving such an address, the King declared Parliament to be +prorogued on June 20. + +Although it was assumed just at that time that a genuine understanding +between the Crown and the Parliament had been brought about in this +session, yet this assumption is certainly a mistake. At the beginning +of the session suspicious controversies were intentionally avoided. A +basis was obtained upon which union between the two parties seamed +possible: the great Petition of Right was drawn up, on the whole in +concert with the government. When it was discussed however, a demand +was set up affecting rights which the King would not forego. He +surrendered them in his eagerness to obtain the proceeds of the grants +made to him, but not without secretly reserving his rights in his own +favour. Then other old differences also came to light again in their +full strength. An open disagreement broke out: in haste and with +tempers irritated the two parties separated. + +NOTES: + +[469] The Danger wherein the Kingdom now standeth and the Remedy, +written by Sir Robert Cotton. Jan. 1627-8. + +[470] Aluise Contarini, Feb. 10, 1628: 'La deliberatione di convocare +il parlamente e nata--dalle promesse, che hanno fatte molti grandi, +che non si parlera del duca.' + +[471] 'Those rights, laws, and liberties, which our wise ancestors +have left us.' So run the words in the draught of the speech contained +in a memorandum in the St. P. O. under the title, 'Speeches of some in +the Lower House, March 22, 1628.' In Rushworth and in both +Parliamentary Histories two reports are given which differ from one +another. + +[472] 'Assoluto dominio destruttivo dei parlamenti con azzardo di +sollevatione.' + +[473] 'To draw the heads of our grievances into a petition, which we +will humbly, soberly, and speedily address unto His Majesty whereby we +may be secured.' + +[474] Abbot's Narration, in Rushworth i. 459. + +[475] 'The end is, to make the other power, which he calls irregular +moulder away.' (St. P. O.) In Bruce's Calendar, 1628-9, p. 92, more +particular reference is made to this document. + +[476] Memorandum of Nicholas Hyde, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, +in Ellis's Letters, ii. iii. 250. + +[477] Nethersole writes to the Queen of Bohemia as early as in April: +'the duke can neither subdue this parliament, neither by fear nor +favour,--is almost out of his senses to find that it gained credit +with His Majesty.' (St. P. O.) + +[478] Al. Contarini, 17 Giugno: 'Attribuendone la cagione al duca per +i suoi interessi di voler il re padrone disgionto dai popoli unito +solo con lui, et per le pratiche di Spagnoli guidati in generale da +cattolici et in particolare da Gesuiti che praticano quella cosa.' + +[479] Parliamentary History viii. 202. + +[480] Parliamentary History viii. 227. + +[481] Ruszdorf ii. 547. + +[482] Al. Contarini: 'Che sempre suppose ne havessero poca cognitione, +ma che adesso credeva, che non havessero niente affatto.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ASSASSINATION OF BUCKINGHAM. SESSION OF 1629. + + +For some years nothing had surprised foreigners who came to England so +much as the wide severance between the government and the nation. Upon +the one side they saw the King, the favourite, and his adherents; upon +the other every one else. The King had lost much of the popularity +which he had enjoyed when he ascended the throne; but a genuine hatred +was directed against the arbitrary government of the Duke. Although it +had been repressed out of regard to the King, it had again broken +loose: the less practical result it produced, the more it filled all +hearts. + +Burdened with this hatred, and with the ground shaking under him, +Buckingham was nevertheless revolving the largest enterprises in his +brain. He repelled with scorn the charge of still keeping up an +intercourse with Spain; that was contrary to his obligations to the +Protestants. He himself, so he said, had concluded the alliances +between England and Denmark and the States-General; and he wished also +to abide by them. Without doubt overtures had been made on the part of +Spain, and had been responded to on the part of England; but their +relations had in fact been such as had led to no result. On the +contrary, negotiations with France, which certainly offered some +prospect of success, had been opened through the mediation of the +Venetian ambassadors resident at the two courts. The English were +ready to waive all other points at issue if the other side would +resolve to show some indulgence, especially if they would conclude +some tolerable arrangement with Rochelle. The forces of both powers +would then undertake the war against the Spanish monarchy, and +against the advance of the Emperor in Germany. The French army would +turn its steps to Italy; the English fleet would go to the aid of the +Danes: it was expected that these attacks would exert an enormous +influence in all directions.[483] Buckingham was still engrossed with +designs against Spain, in spite of secret but only pretended overtures +to that power. He intended to attack the Spanish monarchy at the +source of its greatness, in the West Indies; and by a combination of +forces on the Continent to wrest the Palatinate from it, and thereby +to destroy the position which it had won on the Middle Rhine. A +strange ambition, although in keeping with the age and with his +personal character, appears to have been connected with this design. +It had entered into his head to marry his daughter to the Electoral +Prince Palatine, and perhaps to give his daughter the appearance of a +higher rank by getting himself declared independent prince of some +West Indian conquest--Jamaica had attracted his ambition[484]:--a hope +not altogether chimerical; for he was still all-powerful with Charles. +Foreigners were astonished that he undertook the most extensive +negotiations before he had given his sovereign notice of them. Not +unlike James I he cherished the hope that the threatening attitude +which he took up, even if he did not strike a blow, would dispose the +French to make concessions and would restore the former understanding +between them. If this were not the case, he was determined to +undertake the relief of Rochelle with all his energies. + +The condition of the English navy was such that he might reasonably +promise himself success. We have credible information according to +which Buckingham had made it half as large again as it had been in the +time of Elizabeth. He had increased it from 14,000 tons burden to +22,000: he had put the dockyards and magazines at Chatham, Deptford, +Woolwich, and Portsmouth into good repair; and a number of large +vessels had been built under his orders. Already in May an English +squadron had made an attempt to relieve Rochelle: but the commanders +on that occasion would not undertake the responsibility of exposing +the ships entrusted to them, to the great danger which threatened them +if they made the attempt: they were apprehensive of being called to +account. Buckingham was not fettered by considerations of this kind. +He had had engines of extraordinary dimensions constructed, which it +was expected would rend with irresistible power the mole in front of +the harbour, by which Rochelle was cut off.[485] And who shall say +that success would have been impossible? + +Buckingham felt the hatred which men entertained towards him, but +thought that he should still turn it into admiration. He wished to +atone for the faults of his youth, and, as he said, to enter on new +paths traced on the lines of the ancient maxims and ancient policy of +England, in order to bring back better days.[486] He had to a certain +extent made himself the centre of Protestant interests. Every one +expected that he would proceed without delay to the relief of +Rochelle, for which all preparations had been made. The destinies of +the world seemed to hang upon his resolutions. And he had just +received better tidings from that town: no one had ever seen him +fuller of strength and energy. At this culminating point of his life +he was smitten by a sudden and horrible death. As he stepped out of +the dressing-room in his lodging at Portsmouth, and was crossing the +hall, in order to mount his carriage and drive to the King, he was +murdered by a stroke from a dagger. + +The murderer might easily have escaped, for the house was full of men, +among them many Frenchmen, on whom the first suspicion fell. While all +were crying out for the villain who had murdered the Duke, the +murderer said, 'No villain did it, but an honourable man. I am the +man.' Men saw before them a lean man with red hair, and dark +melancholy features. His name was Felton: he had served in the last +maritime expeditions, and had formerly been passed over when there was +a vacancy for promotion. He could not endure to be placed below men +who had never borne arms, merely because they were in the Duke's +favour. The strongest impression had been produced on him by the +Remonstrance,[487] which censured similar transactions, and at the +same time represented the Duke as the enemy of religion and his +country. Felton was one of these men, who from the way in which they +combine religious and political opinions are capable of anything. In +this respect he may be compared with the assassins of William of +Orange, Henry III, and Henry IV; except that he came forward in behalf +of the opposite side, and in his case there is no mention of any +participation of a minister of religion. A paper was found on him in +which he pronounced that man cowardly and base who was not ready to +sacrifice his life for the cause of his God, his king, and his +country. In his lodging there was another, on which he had put down +some principles, which he seemed to have drawn from one or two books, +and which make his intentions somewhat clearer. It is there said that +a man has no relations which place him under greater obligations than +those which he has with his country; that the welfare of the people is +the highest law, and that 'God himself has enacted this law, that +whatsoever is for the profit or benefit of the commonwealth should be +accounted to be lawful.'[488] He was believed, and rightly, when he +affirmed that he had no accomplices: the slight put upon him, he said, +had inspired him with the thought, the Remonstrance had strengthened +him in it: 'On my soul,' he repeated, 'nothing but the Remonstrance. +He thought that he might remove the man out of the way who obstructed +the public welfare. And he looked with some feeling of sarcasm at +those who testified their horror of him when he was led by: 'In your +hearts,' he cried out, 'you rejoice in my deed.' There were some in +fact who really displayed such a feeling: the crews, who had once +already wished to mutiny, disguised their sentiments least; over their +beer and pipes they gave the assassin a cheer. Others lamented most +that an Englishman should have been capable of assassination. Felton +himself was afterwards convinced that his principles were false. He +was told that a man had other still nearer and deeper obligations to +God, and to his own soul, than to his country; that no one should do +the smallest evil for the sake of the greatest good,[489] much less +then a monstrous crime like his in behalf of a cause which to his +blinded eyes appeared good. He at last thanked his instructors for +their lesson, and only asked in mercy to be allowed before his +execution to do penance in sackcloth with ashes on his head, and a +cord round his neck, in presence of all the world. + +In public King Charles never lost his calmness of demeanour for a +moment. He appeared to accept the event as a dispensation of Heaven; +but afterwards he shut himself up for two whole days, and gave way to +his sorrow. + +The expedition against Rochelle now put to sea under the command of +the Earl of Lindsay. But the captains did not properly obey their +chief: orders which had been planned and issued remained unexecuted: +the fire-ships, which were intended to break through the defences of +the enemy, were ill-managed. The intention was then formed of waiting +for a higher tide, in order to attempt another attack; but meanwhile +the very last resources of the town were exhausted, and it found +itself obliged to capitulate. England's position in the world was +immeasurably lowered when Rochelle was conquered by Richelieu. What +further schemes of maritime supremacy had Buckingham latterly +connected with the maintenance of this town! The ideas of Buckingham +vanished as completely as if they had never been: the ideas of +Richelieu became the foundation of a new order in the world. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1629.] + +Krempe also fell, which had hitherto been deemed impregnable, the spot +which, with Gluckstadt, was still the principal stay of Danish +independence, and to which Buckingham's attention had been constantly +directed. It is thought that about 8000 men would have sufficed to +relieve it, but as they were not forthcoming, the fortress fell into +the hands of the enemy in November 1628. + +And Charles I, instead of placing himself in a position to repair +these losses of his allies, embarked on a new domestic quarrel with +the Parliament. + +As the customs had not been fixed by the advice of Parliament, and +tonnage and poundage had not been regularly granted at all, some +London merchants had refused to satisfy the Custom House. On this the +Lords of the Treasury laid their property under seizure. Of course the +persons affected declared this proceeding also illegal, and filled the +country with their complaints. On this occasion it was not, as almost +always hitherto, the want of an immediate subsidy, but the necessity +of removing this constitutional difficulty, which caused Parliament to +be assembled in January 1629. People might flatter themselves that +after the death of Buckingham, who had been the object of the +principal hostility of that body, an agreement would be more easily +effected. + +The plan drawn up by the Privy Council was in the first instance of a +conciliatory nature. The right of granting money in general was to be +acknowledged, even in the case of tonnage and poundage: the levying of +this tax up to the present time, however, was to be justified, on the +ground that other kings had collected it before it had been granted. +If Parliament, after this general acknowledgement of its right, should +still persist in refusing the present King what former kings had +enjoyed, he would be exculpated: not the government, but Parliament +would in that case have to bear the blame of the breach which would +arise in consequence.[490] + +This was the tenor of the King's speech at the opening of the +discussion on January 23, 1629. He asked for tonnage and poundage, +less on the strength of his hereditary right to it, than on the plea +of custom and necessity. He would always consider it as a gift of his +people; but after their scruples had been removed by this declaration, +he expected that an end would be put to all difficulties by a grant +such as had been made to his ancestors. It was offensive to him that +any one contested his title to a tax, without which his state could +not be kept up. In the assembled Privy Council he declared that a +temporary grant was derogatory to his honour. He said that he would no +longer live from hand to mouth: he had as little disposition to suffer +from want, or to allow the privileges of his crown to be wrested from +him, as he had had thought of infringing the liberties of his +people.[491] Secretary Coke, a member of the House, brought in the +requisite bill without delay, and proposed the first reading. + +The assembly, however, consisted of the very men who had thought that +through the Petition of Right they had set up a fundamental law for +ever, but had since then become conscious how little they had effected +by that means. + +An unpleasant impression had already been made on them by the printing +of the Petition of Right without the expression of simple approval, +but with the restrictive declarations which the King had at first +made.[492] But besides this it was seen how little the King intended +to be bound to the literal meaning of his words, for arrests without +definite assignment of the reason had again taken place. The Star +Chamber, which was already regarded as a court of doubtful legality, +had imposed harsh and arbitrary penalties which awakened loud murmurs. +The political opinions of one or two clergymen had caused general +agitation. A preacher named Roger Manwaring gave utterance to extreme +Royalist views. He defended forced loans, and contested the +unconditional right of Parliament to grant taxes. From some passages +of Scripture he deduced the absolute power of the sovereign, so that +properly speaking no contract at all could, in his opinion, be made +between king and people.[493] Parliament had called him to account for +this, and had punished him by fine and suspension; but the King +remitted the sentence. Another clergyman of kindred views, Montague, +whom we have already mentioned, had been advanced by the King to the +bishopric of Chichester, though, as deserves to be noticed, not +without encountering opposition. For at the elections the old forms +were still observed. Before the commissary of the Archbishop confirmed +the election, which had taken place at the King's commands, he invited +those present, if they knew anything in the life and conduct of the +bishop-elect which could hinder his confirmation, to declare it. What +had never been done on any other occasion was done then. An objection +against Montague was presented in writing on the ground that doctrines +occurred in his books which were irreconcilable with the existing +institutions of England. The matter was brought before a court of +justice, which, however, dismissed the objection as proceeding from a +man who did not belong to the diocese of Chichester. The royal +confirmation had then followed.[494] But must it not have been +irritating to Parliament that the very men were promoted about whom it +had complained? Its complaints seemed rather to serve as a +recommendation. + +Besides this a Jesuit institution had been discovered in the immediate +neighbourhood of London, and had then not been prosecuted with all the +severity which Parliament thought requisite. People complained that +the number of Papists was increasing every day; that in the counties, +where before there had been none, they were now reckoned by thousands. +Mainly at the instigation of Sir John Eliot, the Lower House issued a +declaration, that it desired to hold the Articles of the English +Church in the sense in which they were understood by the writers, +whose authority was recognised in that Church, and not in the sense of +the Jesuits and Arminians, which was repudiated. + +The question of tonnage and poundage came before the House while it +was labouring under the irritation kindled by this discussion. What +the government desired, the establishment of this tax on a legal +footing, was also the wish of Parliament; but Parliament wished the +matter to be settled in a way different from that intended by the +King. Parliament desired to make the right of granting taxes a genuine +reality, and henceforward to fix the duties in detail. The first +reading of the bill brought forward by the government was rejected, on +the formal ground that tonnage and poundage were subsidies, for +granting which a resolution must be taken before a bill on the subject +could be brought in.[495] Parliament espoused the cause of the London +merchants, who had certainly suffered in support of its claims, and +demanded that the proceedings of the Treasury should be reversed. For +they maintained that the collection of tonnage and poundage was as +much a breach of the fundamental principles of the realm, as the +raising of any other tax that had not been granted would be. Or could +any one, they asked, grant what he did not possess? If tonnage and +poundage already belonged to the King, he did not need to have it +granted him. The arrangement proposed by the government was rejected +altogether: and everything else which was inconsistent with the +literal meaning of the petition was also declared illegal. + +The King was incensed at the political, as well as at the religious +attitude of the Lower House. A treatise in his own handwriting is +extant, in which he expresses himself on the latter subject. 'You take +to yourselfs,' he says, 'the interpretation of articles of religion, +the deciding of which in doctrinal points only appartaines to the +clergy and convocation.'[496] He added that His Majesty--for he loved +to speak of himself in the third person--had a short time before +announced his intention of maintaining the integrity of the religion +of the English Church, and its unity, and that after much reflection, +in agreement with the Privy Council and with the bishops: that as the +Commons had the same object in view, he was surprised that they were +not content with this announcement, and that they did not at all +events state wherein the King's declaration did not content them: for +that the King was the supreme governor of the English Church after +God. + +At this very time an order was issued to the Treasury, and to the +collectors of customs at the ports that tonnage and poundage should be +henceforth levied, just as it had been in the latter years of James I; +and that every one who refused payment should be punished. + +In this way the King embarked afresh on a course of the most +unequivocal hostility towards his Parliament. But that body did not +intend to give way. It would not be deterred from drawing up a fresh +remonstrance, in which it made use of the strongest expressions to +give point to its claims. In this it was said, that whoever furthered +Popery or Arminianism, whoever collected or helped to collect tonnage +and poundage before it was granted, or who even paid it, the same was +an enemy of the English realm and of English liberty. This was a +strange combination of ecclesiastical and financial grievances and +pretensions. But the course of the transactions had established an +intimate relation between them. In regard to both the Commons again +took up as hostile an attitude towards the ministers of that day, as +they had formerly taken up towards the Duke of Buckingham. The Lord +Treasurer Weston was the special object of their hatred on both +accounts. For it was said that he was a rebellious Papist--nay even a +Jesuit:--did not his nearest kinsmen belong to that order?--and that +he was now giving the King pernicious advice, hostile to the rights of +the country and the dignity of Parliament. Proceeding on the principle +that the collection of tonnage and poundage was a breach of the +constitution, preparations were made for calling to account the +officers engaged in this process. Nor would men have been content to +stop at the subordinates; they would have reached even the highest. + +In this session the moderation which had been for some time exhibited +in the former dropped out of sight: the contempt shown to the Petition +of Right had called forth a spirit of bitter, violent, and unbounded +opposition. When the King, in order to prevent the formal passing of +the Remonstrance, proceeded in the first instance to have the session +adjourned, a scene of tumult and violence was witnessed, to which the +annals of former Parliaments offered no parallel. + +The Speaker of the House, Sir John Finch, one of those men who had +passed over from the side of the Commons to that of the King, +announced to the assembled members after the opening of the sitting on +the 2nd of March, that the King adjourned the House till the 10th. But +this was the very hour when Sir John Eliot, who had drawn up the new +Remonstrance had with his friends intended to carry it through +Parliament. The House declared it illegal for the Speaker to make +himself the mouthpiece of the royal will: and when he tried to +withdraw, he was held on his chair by a couple of strong and resolute +members. The Usher of the Black Rod, whose business it was to declare +the House adjourned, had already appeared in the ante-room; but the +doors of the hall were shut. In this tumult the Remonstrance had to be +read and voted on. The Speaker refused to have anything to do with it, +although it was declared 'to be his duty to put it to the vote. Sir +John Eliot and Denzil Holles must have delivered the sense of the +Remonstrance orally, rather than read it properly through: but even in +this fashion the majority of the House made known their assent, and in +this way the immediate object was attained, as well as the +circumstances allowed. On a threat that the doors should be broken +through, they were now opened, and the members left the chamber.[497] + +An extraordinary act of disobedience, considering that it was intended +to be the means of securing the legal forms of Parliament! It was the +last step in this stage of the proceedings. It involved an open breach +between the two authorities. + +In later times the responsibility for this act has been thrown on the +King. Contemporaries of moderate views, and who favoured the +Parliament, were of opinion however that the responsibility rather lay +with those fiery and crafty men who had possessed themselves of the +control of Parliament. For they thought that the King had seriously +striven to compose the quarrel: that people might well have accepted +his first declaration, and that the greater part of the members had +been inclined to do so; but that the seeming zeal of some few for the +liberties of the country had, unfortunately for England, prevented +them from yielding.[498] It is difficult to suppose that the strength +and depth of the opposition would any longer have permitted an +adjustment. It was now fully apparent at all events that the King and +the Lower House could no longer work together. + +In the Privy Council the opinion was once more expressed, that +Parliament should be treated with indulgence. This was the wish of the +Lord Keeper Coventry: but the Treasurer recommended the strict +enforcement of the prerogative, and the King sided with this view. Not +only was the dissolution of Parliament pronounced, but just as Henry +VIII and Elizabeth had done, Charles I proceeded to punish the members +who had offended against his dignity in their speeches. He first of +all decided not to call Parliament together again. He declared that he +had now abundantly proved that he loved to rule by the help of +Parliament; that he had been compelled against his wish by the last +proceedings to desist from the attempt, and that he would not renew it +until his people had learnt to know him better. He said that he should +consider it presumption if any time were prescribed to him for +reassembling Parliament; that Parliament ought to be summoned, held, +and dissolved, solely at the discretion of the King. + +The great advantage of Parliament in this conflict consisted in its +ability to appeal to legal precedents of past centuries in its favour. +What had once rendered the continuance of the ascendancy of +Parliament impossible, the danger into which it had plunged the common +interests of the kingdom, was now forgotten. The laws of those times +had not been repealed, but had only been modified and curtailed in its +own favour by the sovereign power, which had grown strong since that +time. Every position, new or unusual at the moment, which Parliament +maintained was, if not laid down in former ordinances, yet at all +events so logically inferred from them, that it appeared customary and +in accordance with primitive law. If on the contrary Charles I +maintained the prerogative which his father had exercised, and which +Queen Elizabeth and the House of Tudor in general had possessed, he +was placed in the awkward position of appearing to act without the +countenance of the laws. He now resolved to govern, at least for a +time, without the aid of Parliament. Many of his ancestors had done +exactly the same; but since their time attachment to parliamentary +government had become part of the national feeling. It now appeared +not only to represent fully the liberties, but also especially the +most popular religious tendencies of the country. + +Whether under these circumstances the King would have succeeded in +giving effect to his ideas, even if more peaceful times had ensued, +was from the beginning extremely doubtful.[499] + +NOTES: + +[483] Al. Contarini, Aug. 14, 1628. 'Carleton mi soggionse che +certamente la flotta si volgerebbe in ajuto del re di Danimarca, +quando Piu non fosse necessaria in Francia.' + +[484] The first intimation of this design occurs in an anonymous +letter to the King, which probably belongs to the year 1623: Cabala +223. In the correspondence of the ambassadors the project is assumed +as certain. + +[485] Ruszdorf: 'Magnos apparatus instituit, quibus sperat structuram +et molem rumpere' + +[486] From the letter of Dudley Viscount Dorchester, in Bruce's +Calendar. + +[487] 'The remonstrance in the last Parliament and that the duke was +the cause of the public grievances, it came into his mind that it +would be a good service to God and the Commonwealth to take him away.' +Relation of the Duke of Buckingham's death. (St. P. O.) + +[488] From the report of Duppa (St. P. O.), which admirably +supplements that which is given in the State Trials iii. 370. + +[489] 'That the common good could no way be a pretense to a particular +mischief.' + +[490] Rushworth i. 654: 'To avow a breach upon just cause given, not +sought by the King.' + +[491] Fragmentary memoranda of a sitting of the Privy Council at the +beginning of February 1628-29. (St P. O.) + +[492] Statement of the printer. Parliamentary History viii. 247. + +[493] His declaration before the Lords. Parliamentary History viii. +208. + +[494] We learn this from a letter of Nethersole to the queen of +Bohemia, Jan. 28. (St. P. O.) + +[495] Nethersole to the Queen of Bohemia: 'That what at the first +propounding seemed a very reasonable motion--was at last upon this +reason that the bill is in truth and is intituled a bill of subsidy.' + +[496] Holograph declaration of Charles I. (St. P. O.) + +[497] Information in Star Chamber. Rushworth i. 675. + +[498] Autobiography of Sir Symond d'Ewes i. 405: 'Being only misled by +some Machiavellian politics who seemed zealous for the liberty of the +common wealth.' + +[499] Observation of Contarini, March 16, 1629. 'Quello che importa e +il parlamento si e conservato nell'intero possesso dei suoi privilegi, +senza cader un tantino: il re per queste due volte ha ceduto sempre +qualche cosa.' + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcribers note: + +The section header 'The Conquest' in Book I Chapter II +is missing from the original table of contents. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF ENGLAND PRINCIPALLY IN +THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VOLUME I (OF 6)*** + + +******* This file should be named 28546.txt or 28546.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/5/4/28546 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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