Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/121

] other. Hay, earl of Carlisle, one of James's favourites, a handsome, empty fop, who prided himself on adorning his person with lace and jewels to the amount of forty thousand pounds, was sent as a formal ambassador for the marriage negotiation, the real conductor of it still being Kensington. A miniature portrait of Henrietta was sent to Charles, who appeared to be enraptured with it.

So far all went well. But notwithstanding the anxious desire for the marriage on the part of the French court, it was not likely that so crafty a diplomatist as Richelieu would make an easy bargain for the English. The portion of the princess was settled at eight hundred thousand crowns. She was pledged to renounce all claims for herself and her descendants on the crown of France. Then came the subject of religion. James and Charles had lately bound themselves by the most solemn oaths that no catholic wife of the prince should have more indulgence in that respect than of her own private worship; and that no toleration should be extended to the English catholics whatever, on account of such a marriage. But this was not likely to pass. The pope Urban, in the first place, was extremely inimical to the match. He augured little good from a prince who had shown such duplicity in the Spanish courtship; and he predicted that the union, if effected, would be disastrous; being fully informed by the seminary priests who were in England, secretly prosecuting the support of Catholicism, of the determined temper of the people on that score, and assured by them that if the king dared to relax the penal laws, he would not be king long; and if he did not, the pope argued, what prospect of happiness could there be for a catholic queen? He was, therefore, extremely averse to grant a dispensation.

Under these circumstances the negotiation appeared for some time at a stand. On the part of the English people, the opposition was scarcely perceptible. They perceived that they were pretty certain to have a catholic queen; the Stuart family did not incline to stoop to the alliance of any further petty protestant princes; the experiment of the Palatinate was not encouraging. The people of England, therefore, were far more disposed to receive a daughter of great Henry IV., who had been a protestant at heart even when he had yielded the profession of his faith to political necessity, than a granddaughter of Philip II., who had rendered his memory so odious in England and all over the world by bloody persecutions of the protestants. On the part of the French, however, the proceedings every day seemed involved in growing difficulties.

Richelieu, who, up to the time of the breaking off the Spanish match, was most compliant, now insisted on the concession to the catholics of all the advantages stipulated for by Spain. He asserted that it would be an affront to his sovereign to offer less. James, spite of his recent oath, signed a paper, promising indulgence to the catholics, which Kensington and Carlisle assured Richelieu was quite sufficient; but it had no effect on the astute French minister.

"We did sing a song to the deaf," wrote the ambassadors, "for he would not endure to hear of it." In vain did they remind him that the French court had promised that if they gave toleration to the catholics, it would send soldiers to the Palatinate, and unite their interests with those of England entirely. Richelieu did not deny this, but contended that the security was not sufficient; they must have an actual treaty. Meantime lord Nithsdale, a catholic, was sent post haste to Rome, to make great promises of favour to the English catholics in order to procure the dispensation.

At length the French court agreed to accept the secret agreement of James, which was to the effect that the English catholics should enjoy a greater freedom of religion than had been guaranteed by the Spanish contract. This was signed by James, Charles, and the secretary of state, on the 8th of November, and Louis placed his signature on the 12th to the treaty of marriage. By this treaty it was provided, not expressly, as many historians have asserted, that the children of the marriage should be brought up Roman catholics till their thirteenth year, but that they should remain under her care till that age; a stipulation amounting very much to the same thing; for though Charles chose to construe the article in his own way, the mother used her opportunity thus guaranteed to fix the catholic faith firmly in the hearts of her sons, as was too well and too disastrously shown in the end.

If the English court thought the difficulties all now surmounted, they were greatly mistaken; for the French ministers now expressed themselves as not satisfied with James's secret engagement. It was, they contended, too vague, and they called upon him to specify precisely the indulgences which he intended towards the catholics. Both James and Charles, it must be confessed, had established a character for easily slipping through their most solemn engagements; and the princes who could so soon forfeit their oaths to parliament to continue the penalties on their catholic subjects, might as readily forfeit these now made to relieve themselves from them. No precautions could in reality bind such men, but the French ministers were resolved to obtain all the guarantees possible.

At this proposition Carlisle expressed his astonishment, and wrote to James in a tone of unequivocal indignation. He advised the king to make no farther concessions; feeling sure that if he were firm, the French would give way rather than hazard the failure of the match. But to preach firmness to James was to expect solidity from a mist. He was far more afraid of endangering the match than of perjuring himself to accomplish it. He was alarmed at the obstinacy of the pope; at the declaration of Philip of Spain, that he held the marriage contract with Charles as still valid, from a private agreement betwixt the prince and himself; and at the strenuous efforts making by Philip to bring the court of France to this persuasion. To complete his dismay, the Huguenots of France, just at this moment, made a rising under the conduct of Soubise, who had formerly been on terms of close intimacy with some members of the English government. They demanded a better observance of the edicts in favour of the protestants, seized the isle of Rhé, near Rochelle, placed it in a state of defence, sent out a fleet to range the coast, and vowed not to lay down their arms till their demands were granted. James consented to add these express stipulations to his secret bond: That all catholics imprisoned on account of their religion, since the rising of parliament, should be liberated; that all fines levied on recusants since that period should be repaid; and that