Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/77

 Charles a promise to come to Madrid incognito, if the ambassador on his return to Spain thought fit to advise th« step. The arrangements for the journey were probably settled by Endymion Sorter when he arrived at Madrid in November on a special mission, and it was hastened by the rapid conquest by the imperialists of Frederick's remaining fortresses in the Palatinate, and the evident reluctance of the king of Spain to interfere in his behalf. In February 1623 the plan was disclosed to James, and the old king was half cajoled, half bullied into giving his permission.

On 17 Feb. Buckingham and the prince started. Arriving in Paris on the 2lst, they there saw Henrietta Maria, Charleses future wife, though at the time the young man had no eyes for the sprightly child, but gazed at the queen of France, from whose features he hoped to get some idea of the appearance of her sister, the infanta. On 7 March Charles reached Madrid. His arrival caused much consternation among the Spanish statesmen, as Philip had some time previously directed his chief minister, Olivares, to find some polite way of breaking off the marriage on account of his sister's reluctance to become the wife of a heretic. At first they entertained hopes that all difficulties might be removed by Charles's conversion, but when they discovered that this was not to be obtained they fell back upon the necessity of obtaining a dispensation from the pope, and instructed the Duke of Pastrana, wno was ostensibly sent to urge the pope to give his consent, to do his best to persuade him to refuse to permit the marriage.

While Pastrana was on ms way to Rome, Charles, though he was not allowed to speak to the infanta except once in public, had ^ worked himself up into a feeling of admiration, which was perhaps chiefly based on reluctance to be baffled in his quest.

At last an answer arrived from Rome. It had for some time been understood that some kind of religious liberty was to be granted to the English catholics as a condition of the marriage. That liberty, the Spaniards had always urged, must be complete ; but both they and the pope were afraid lest promises made by James and Charles should be broken as soon as the bride arrived in England. The pope now threw the onus of preventing the latter catastrophe upon the king of Spain. He sent the dispensation to his nuncio at Madrid, but it was not to be delivered over till Philip had sworn that unless the promises made by the king and prince were faithfully observed he would go to war with England to compel their maintenance.

Charles, knowing what the law of England was, offered that the penal laws against the catholics should be suspended, and that he and his father would do their best to have them repealed, and about the same time he replied civilly to a letter from the pope in terms which, when they came to be known, shocked English opinion. Upon this at once a junto of theologians was summoned to consider whether the king of Spain could honestly take the oath required by the pope. Charles was irritated by the delay, and still more by the knowled^ that it had been suggested that the marriage might take place, but that the infanta should be kept in Spain till the concessions offered by the English government had been actually carried out. On 20 July James swore to the marriage articles, which included an engagement that the infanta was to have a public church to which all Englishmen might have access. He also formally promised that no special legislation against the catholics should be put in force, and that he would try to obtain the consent of parliament to an alteration in the law. Charles not only confirmed his father's promise, but engaged that the existing law should be altered within three years, that the infanta's children should be left in their mother's hands till they were twelve years old, and that whenever the infanta wished it he would listen to divines employed by her 'in matters of the Roman catholic religion.' The first of these promises was one which he never could perform ; the last was one in which he roused hopes which he was not in the least likely to satisfy. Charles's expectation that his mere word would be sufficient to enable him to carry the infanta with him after the marriage was, however, disappointed, and in accordance with the decision of the junto of theologians he was told that, though the wedding might take place in Spain, the infanta could only be allowed to follow her husband to England after the lapse of a sufficient interval to put his promises to the test. As the death of the pope created a further delay, by necessitating a renewal of the dispensation by his successor, Charles, leaving a proxy with the ambassador, the Earl of Bristol, to enable him to conclude the marriage, returned to England, landing at Portsmouth on 5 Oct. As he passed through London he was received with every manifestation of popular joy, of which but little would have been heard if he had brought the infanta with him.

To his personal annoyance Charles added a feeling of vexation at the discovery which he had made at Madrid, that Philip had no intention of reinstating Frederick and Eliza-