Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/60

46 terror of the catholics in England, and both the parliament of England and the council of Scotland called on James to secure himself by fresh persecution of the catholics. The Scottish council saw in the French assassins the frogs foretold in the Revelations, to be sent out by the devil against the head of the church, and prayed the king to protect his precious life by fresh guards whilst he indulged himself in hunting.

Whilst James was earnestly engaged in suppressing any rival claims to the crown by persecuting to death the lady Arabella, he was equally busy in endeavouring to secure a succession in his own family. Though he persecuted the catholics as a most dangerous, sinful, and abominable body, he had no objection whatever to marry his children to catholic princes, because those catholic princes were by far the most considerable in Europe. He made overtures, therefore, for the marriage of his son Henry, and his daughter Elizabeth, both to France and Spain. Queen Anne was most bent on the Spanish matches for both son and daughter, and was therefore vehemently suspected of popery, though her motives were the same as those of her husband—the rank and prestige of the alliance.

Prince Henry was the darling of his mother and of the nation: in person, temper, and aspirations the very opposite of his father. All persons, and especially all princes, who die young, are remembered with a peculiar affection, and their virtues are exaggerated, and live in memory as the roots of brilliant hopes cut off by fate. Time has not allowed the adverse influences of life, and especially of royal power, to corrupt them, and to darken the fair picture. Had Henry VIII. died young, he would have left a regretted name as a model of chivalric spirit and generous enthusiasm; yet we have no right to predicate that Henry, prince of Wales, the eldest son of James, would have developed into a similar monster. Our business is to describe him as he was—a handsome, brave, and right-minded youth of eighteen. He possessed none of the timidity nor the bookishness of his father. He was fond of all sorts of martial exercises—pitching the bar, handling the pike, riding, and shooting with the bow. Though extremely fond of horses, he was not, like his father, addicted to the chase, revolting from its cruelty. He seemed to have set before him as models Henry V. and the Black Prince; models which might have led him to inflict serious evils on his country had he lived, by the spirit of conquest. Young as he was, he displayed all the tastes of such a hero. He fired off cannon with his own hands, and had new pieces cast on improved models. He conversed with unceasing pleasure with engineers and men who had seen distinguished service, and he imported the finest horses from the Continent that could be procured. In his private character he was serious, modest, and devout. He attended the best preachers, and listened with a quiet sobriety, in striking contrast to his father, who was always excited when listening to a preacher, and wanting to preach himself. Henry abhorred profanity and swearing, and had a box in each of his houses at Richmond, Nonsuch, and St. James's, to receive the fines for swearing from his household, which were rigorously levied, and the money given to the poor.

As these traits became known, the people flocked after the prince in a manner which greatly piqued his father, who could not help exclaiming—"Will he bury me alive!" The reformers conceived great hopes of him, and there was a prophecy regarding him in every one's mouth:—

Had James succeeded in obtaining the Spanish Infanta for Henry, he would have effectually neutralised his popularity. But though Henry did not stubbornly oppose his father's plans, he is said to have declared amongst his own friends that he had made up his mind never to marry a popish princess, and the puritans had the firmest faith that he never would.

It was regarded as a good sign that the young prince had a great aversion to his father's favourites, and especially to Carr, who was rapidly rising, and was just now created viscount Rochester. His mother, who partook in this aversion, strengthened him in it with all her influence. But Providence had not destined him the crown of England: he was now attacked with symptoms of premature decay. It was supposed that he had grown too fast for his strength, having reached the stature of six feet at seventeen, and his chivalrous exercises had been too violent and unprudent for such rapid growth. He was accustomed to take his exercises in the greatest heat of summer, to expose himself to all sorts of weather, and to bathe for a long time together after supper. Whilst James was planning marriages for him, the prince was fast hastening out of the world. The Spanish match still lingering, after years of negotiation, James listened to a proposal of Blary de Medici, the widow of Henry IV., and now queen-regent of France, for a wedding betwixt prince Henry and the princess Christine, the second daughter of France; and soon after the duke of Florence sent an ambassador extraordinary to London, offering his daughter with some millions of florins for her dower, and asking the princess Elizabeth for his son and heir.

But James, not succeeding in arranging a marriage for his daughter with a catholic prince, the spirit of the nation showing itself so averse to a popish alliance, had consented to her marriage with Frederick, count palatine of the Rhine. Her suitors were numerous: amongst the most distinguished were the prince of Piedmont and the young king of Spain. Both James and the queen were bent on placing Elizabeth on the throne of Spain, but the pope's nuncio in Spain, not less than the protestants in England, strenuously opposed it; the former deprecating the introduction of a protestant princess into the Spanish court. In the spring of 1612 the health of prince Henry began to fail. In the October of that year the count palatine arrived in England to complete his marriage with Elizabeth, who was still only sixteen. Henry roused himself to receive his proposed brother-in-law; he rode to town from Richmond, and most imprudently, in his infirm state of health, engaged in the sports and pastimes of the occasion. On the 24th of October he played a great match at tennis with the count Henry of Nassau in his shirt. He had been suffering from typhus already, and this brought it to a crisis. He was seized in the night with a violent pain in his head, and an oppressive languor; yet the next day, being Sunday, he would rise and attend two services, one in his own chapel at St. James's, and