Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/53

1608. the gentry and the neglect of ministers. Pouch and some of his associates were condemned and executed as traitors on the 28th of June; and some of the others were hanged as felons because they had not dispersed on the reading of the riot act.

The king could now return to his beloved chase. On the 4th of July he prorogued parliament till November, but having got a considerable sum of money from it, and little other satisfaction, he did not call it together again till the February of 1610. Could he have found sufficient funds any other way, it is quite certain that he would never have called it any more. In his suit of Lincoln green, with a little feather in his hat, and a horn by his side instead of a sword, he followed his hounds through the forest, happy as Nimrod himself, so long as the means lasted. But James's court was altogether on an extravagant scale. Like a youthful heir, whose guardians have kept him close, and who makes up for a long abstinence by tenfold profuseness on coming to his estate, James, escaped from the poverty of his Scottish establishment, where he had mainly lived on his pension from Elizabeth, now gave a loose to extravagance, as if nothing could exhaust the affluence of England. He had a most expensive menage, and he gave away money to his favourites as though he had the wishing-cap of Fortunatus.

We have already seen how liberally his queen was provided for. His own household was on a scale of proportionate expenditure. Even those of Henry and Elizabeth, two children, consisted of one hundred and forty personages. In 1610, but three years after this period, that of prince Henry was increased to four hundred and twenty-six individuals, of whom two hundred and ninety-seven were in receipt of salaries, besides a number of workmen employed under Inigo Jones, the architect.

But the presents to his favourites would have given the idea that his resources were interminable. At the marriage of Sir Philip Herbert with Lady Susan Vere, he gave him an estate valued at £500 a year. At the marriage of Ramsay, viscount Haddington, with lady Elizabeth Ratcliffe, he paid his debts, amounting to £10,000, having already endowed him with an estate of £1,000 per annum; and he presented to the bride a gold cup containing the patent of a grant of lands worth £600 a year. His presents at different times to lord Dunbar amounted to £15,262; to the earl of Mar, £15,500; and to viscount Haddington, £31,000.

This viscount Haddington was the Sir John Ramsay who stabbed the earl of Gowrie, at the time of the singular Gowrie conspiracy; and James went on promoting him till he became earl of Holderness, with many grants of lands, gifts, and pensions. The second in James's regard, in the early part of his reign, was another Scotchman, James Hay, whom he successively created lord Hay, viscount Doncaster, and earl of Carlisle. Clarendon says that this man, in the course of a very licentious career, spent above four hundred thousand pounds, and left neither house nor child to be remembered by. James, in England, also chose several English favourites. The first of those was Sir Philip Herbert, brother of the earl of Pembroke, and a son of the sister of Sir Philip Sidney. He was created earl of Montgomery, and was especially agreeable to James because he despised all learning—for James was jealous of all such—and took pleasure only, like his royal master, in dogs and horses. Montgomery was in the ascendant till the king's eye fell on one Robert Carr, destined to a strange history; and the English and Scottish favourites, by their mutual hatred of each other, their quarrels and duels, gave James sufficient trouble. Haddington and Montgomery had an affray in which Montgomery showed the white feather, and James sent Haddington for a short time to the Tower. Douglas, the master of the horse, was killed in one of these squabbles; and some years later lord Sanquhar had an eye thrust out by a fencing master, for which his lordship killed him, and was executed for the deed. Such was the disgraceful condition of the court of the Scottish Solomon.

During the years 1608 and 1609, negotiations were pending betwixt the United Provinces of the Netherlands and Spain. James, who had a claim on these provinces for above eight hundred thousand pounds, on account of advances and services by Elizabeth, for which he held the towns of Flushing, Brill, and Rammekens, would have been glad to obtain possession of the money. So well was this known, that there were rumours that, as he could not obtain the sum due, he was intending to sell the towns to Philip III. of Spain. The archduke Albert was still in Flanders, not having abandoned the hope of recovering the revolted states; and catholics from England were in the habit of volunteering to assist them in undoing what queen Elizabeth had done there. But much as James was pressed for money, he was scarcely daring enough to aid Spain in its views. The spirit of protestantism was too strong in England tamely to witness such an anti-protestant policy; and, in fact, James himself was rather afraid of an attack from Spain, than hoping for a coalition with it. The earl of Tyrone had fallen under suspicion of fresh rebellion, and had fled to the Spaniards in the Netherlands for security Cecil apprehended that Philip might be disposed to attempt his restoration, and sent to Sir Charles Cornwallis, at Madrid, to use bold language on the occasion. This appears to have had effect, for Tyrone retired to Italy. But a new danger presented itself in the rumour of negotiations for peace betwixt Holland and Spain. Cecil dreaded a pacification betwixt these powers, as it would allow Philip more opportunity to turn his attention to Ireland, if so disposed.

The English government was surprised and mortified to learn that such negotiations were actually proceeding, and that the king of France had been invited to join in them. At length James, who had so deep a stake in the Netherlands, received a formal notice to the same effect, soliciting his co-operation. These negotiations were conducted at the Hague, but it was not till March, 1609, that they were brought to a conclusion. The result was a truce for twelve years, which was, in fact, equivalent to a peace, acknowledging the independence of the Dutch states, after a brave conflict for liberty of forty years. The debt of James, amounting to eight hundred and eighteen thousand pounds, was acknowledged, and engagements entered into for its payment by annual instalments of sixty thousand pounds. But the first payment was not to be made till the end of two years, and James was still to retain the cautionary towns till the whole was discharged.