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Villiers a free hand. In questions of foreign policy he still worked as the mere instrument of the king. Up to the end of 1619, whenever his action can be traced, he appears as James's mouthpiece in advocating an understanding with Spain for the settlement of the Bohemian troubles. In February 1620, after the election of Frederick to the Bohemian crown, Buckingham is found urging his master to defend the palatinate, and was only restrained by James from offering a contribution of 10,000l. to that cause. There was, however, no political constancy in him, and two months later, irritated by injuries suffered by English sailors from the Dutch in the East Indies, he allowed his indignation to extend to all protestants, and was once more hand and glove with Gondomar. It is not unlikely that this change of feeling was strengthened by his courtship of Lady Katherine Manners, a Roman catholic, daughter of the Roman catholic Earl of Rutland. James, however, forbade his favourite to marry a recusant, and it was only after the lady's nominal conversion that the king's consent was obtained. On 16 May 1620 the couple were married by Williams, the worldly-wise clergyman who had secured Buckingham's good-will by the skill with which he had plied his bride with arguments in favour of the church of England [see, 1582–1650].

The question of defending the palatinate was still pressing, but James had resolved not to take part in it further than by giving permission to Frederick's ambassador, Dohna, to levy volunteers to be sent to the scene of action. Buckingham had at once a candidate for their command to propose in Sir Edward Cecil, but Dohna refused to accept him, and in June named Sir Horace Vere, a far better general, in his stead. Buckingham treated the rejection of his nominee as a personal affront. At the same time that he was ostensibly taking part in a scheme for the defence of the palatinate, he was discussing with Gondomar not only an alliance with Spain against the Dutch, but an actual partition of the territory of the republic. In one way or another Buckingham had cooled down so far as the palatinate was concerned. ‘The palatine,’ he said to Gondomar, ‘is mounted upon a high horse, but he must be pulled off in order to make him listen to his father-in-law's advice.’

When parliament met on 30 Jan. 1621, Frederick having been defeated and driven out of Bohemia, there was a prospect of the defence of the palatinate being openly undertaken by James. As soon as it appeared that James was more ready to negotiate than to fight, the House of Commons, embittered by its disappointment, raised a cry against the monopolies which had been lavishly granted of late years, for the most part with the idea of protecting English industry. In these grants Buckingham was to some extent involved. His half-brother, Sir Edward Villiers, had invested 4,000l. in the manufacture of gold and silver thread under a patent of monopoly, and on 16 April 1617 Buckingham wrote to Yelverton, the attorney-general, asking him to support the patent. In 1618 the monopoly was taken into the king's hands, and a pension of 500l. a year was granted to Sir Edward Villiers out of the profits, and another pension of 800l. a year to Buckingham's younger brother, Christopher. When the commons decreed the patent to be illegal and oppressive, they naturally complained that one of its results had been to put money, or hopes of money, at the disposal of two of Buckingham's brothers. It seems that others of Buckingham's dependents made something out of other monopolies, and indeed, as affairs then stood at court, it is unlikely that any one would secure a lucrative concession without his goodwill; but though it is probable that, after the fashion of the day, he received presents from these men, no formal payment of money to himself is traceable. Nevertheless, when the storm broke by the flight of Sir Giles Mompesson [q. v.], Buckingham took alarm, and sought to clear himself by throwing the blame on the referees—the members of the council who had recommended the monopolies as legal or useful. Williams counselled him to swim with the tide and to place himself at the head of the angry commons. Buckingham carried Williams to the king, and the result was that James himself on 12 March announced his readiness to redress grievances. On the 13th Buckingham spoke much more strongly before the commons in a conference with the other house. Naming his two brothers as having been implicated in the monopolies, he said that if his father had begotten two sons to be grievances to the commonwealth, he had begotten a third son who would help in punishing them. Buckingham played his part well; but there was something ignoble in this disclaimer of those who had profited by a system of which he had himself been the chief support.

Scarcely had Buckingham cleared himself from the monopolies before he seemed likely to be involved in the attack on Bacon. Bacon had expected much from him when Buckingham first entered on his career, and had, even after he had shown himself little