Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/216

 of defeating this league, engaged to adopt any Princess of another house, and portion her equal to Portugal. Ministers were inclined to the last offer, but the king would not allow his own choice and fancy to be thwarted; and the acquisition of two such fortresses promised great accession of naval strength to England, which rendered the union more palateable to the nation. Thus was concluded, probably, as unhappy a marriage as ever was registered.

Charles II. half-length, by Lely; one of the finest portraits that this artist ever painted.

Thomas Earl of Strafford, and his Dog.

Archbishop Laud, whole length, by Vandyck. This learned prelate was son of a clothier at Reading, and educated at St. John's College, Oxford, of which society he afterwards became president; from whence he was removed to the bishopric of St. David's, thence translated to Bath and Wells, and on the decease of Abbot, seated on the metropolitan throne of Canterbury. Being a bigotted admirer of religious forms and ceremonies, he was selected by Buckingham as the mast fit instrument to further the designs of Charles I. in the disputes between that king and his subjects; one of the early proofs of the superiority acquired by the Parliament was the commitment of this favourite