Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/104

90 equally zealous for the marriage; and James was the more eager for it as he saw no hope of aid in his German project from France. There the feeble monarch, Louis XIII., was wholly in the hands of a despicable favourite, De Lnynes, who was insolently opposed to the English interests, though the French people, from their hereditary hatred of the house of Austria, would have gladly marched against the invaders of the Palatinate.



The affairs of Frederick, the prince palatine, were desperate. The Palatinate, in fact, was already lost. Count Mansfeldt, the ablest general who had fought for the elector's interests, and the prince Christian of Brunswick, had evacuated the Palatinate—Heidelberg and Mannheim were in the hands of the enemy—and these generals had entered the service of the Dutch. The emperor, in reward for the successful services of Maximilian of Bavaria, had conferred on him the electorate of the Palatinate, with the greater part of the territory.

James himself, to get rid of the maintenance of the garrison, had given up Frankenthal to the Spaniards, on condition that if, within eighteen months, a satisfactory peace were not made, it should be returned. Everything, therefore, was lost, and James fondly hoped that this Spanish match might yet recover everything.

Circumstances appeared to favour his hopes. The young king of Spain and his minister, Olivarez, responded cordially to James's proposal; Gondomar hastened on to Madrid to promote the object, and was soon followed by the earl of Bristol, equally earnest for the accomplishment of the marriage. It was, however, necessary to procure a dispensation for this union from the pope, and this the king of Spain undertook to procure through his ambassador at Rome. James was not to appear at all in the affair, but with the unconquerable propensity to be meddling personally in all negotiations, he could not help despatching George Gage, a catholic, with letters to the pontiff, as well as to the