Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/339

Villiers to fetch home his bride, in a fleet of which Buckingham was to be in command. Buckingham was sanguine enough to suppose that, after so unwonted a display of personal confidence, the king of Spain would force or persuade the emperor to abandon all claims against Frederick in Germany, and he had no difficulty in impressing his own audacity on the irresolute mind of Charles. In February 1623, when the prospect of the compliance of Spain with James's political demands had grown darker, Buckingham and Charles wrung from the old king his consent to an adventurous journey which they were to take incognito to Madrid. On 17 Feb. they set out, arriving in Paris on the 21st, and in Madrid on 7 March.

The difficulties of the situation were not long in revealing themselves. The Spaniards could not imagine that the step would have been taken unless Charles had intended to allow of his conversion, and Buckingham had to protest that such a course was not to be thought of. Steenie, as James called him from some fancied resemblance to a picture of St. Stephen, wrote to the king in praise of the infanta's beauty; but he soon found that the infanta's hand was not to be secured without extravagant concessions. Disillusioned as he soon was, he gave offence by studied rudeness, and also, if the Spanish accusations are to be trusted, by the open dissoluteness of his life in the midst of a court which was at least decorous in public. On 18 May James created him a duke—the first known in England since Norfolk's execution—but the accession of dignity gave him no assistance in his rash enterprise. Before long he had entered on a personal quarrel with Olivares, and on 30 Aug., in company with the prince, he left Madrid, convinced that the Spaniards had been deluding the English government ever since the commencement of the negotiations.

Upon his arrival in England Buckingham set to work to draw James into a war with Spain, urging him to make the restitution of the palatinate an indispensable condition of the prince's marriage. On 1 Nov. he made a declaration—probably a highly coloured one—on his proceedings in Spain before the committee of council appointed to deal with Spanish affairs, and, finding James not sufficiently warlike, urged him to summon parliament. When, on 14 Jan. 1624, the committee, by a majority of nine to three, voted against war, he took it as a personal insult, striding up and down the room ‘as a hen that hath lost her brood, and clucks up and down when she hath none to follow her’ (, Life of Williams, i. 169). Buckingham, however, appealed from the committee to a new parliament which met on 16 Feb. In that parliament Buckingham figured as the popular leader in a popular war. On 24 Feb., with all but royal state, he told, after his own fashion, to the two houses the tale of the visit to Spain, ending with a request that they should give advice whether the negotiations with Spain for the marriage and the palatinate were any longer to be kept on foot.

The two Spanish ambassadors then in England, Inojosa and Coloma, complained to James of the rude language which Buckingham used of their master. Votes in both houses on 27 Feb. cleared him from blame. ‘In the way that Buckingham holds,’ said Phelips, ‘I pray that he shall keep his head on his shoulders to see thousands of Spaniards' heads either from their shoulders or in the seas.’ ‘And shall he lose his head?’ cried Coke. ‘Never any man deserved better of his king and country.’ On 28 Feb. the lords condemned the negotiations with Spain, and on the following day the commons followed suit. After much resistance James, appealed to by parliament and bullied by Buckingham, at last, on 23 March, declared the negotiations with Spain to be dissolved. James had now found a master in his favourite. Buckingham would not allow him to receive the Spanish ambassadors except in his own presence, that he might insist afterwards on their requests being disallowed. The combination of Buckingham with the two houses and the heir-apparent was irresistible. Buckingham was not content with getting his way. He must signalise in the eye of the world the hopelessness of resistance. With this object he, supported by Charles, fixed on the lord treasurer, the Earl of Middlesex, who had all along been opposed to a war with Spain. They stirred up the commons to impeach him on charges of peculation, and, though James told them that they were preparing a rod for themselves, rejoiced when the lords sentenced him to dismissal from office and to a heavy fine. With no less obstinacy did Buckingham insist on the harsh treatment of Bristol, who had but obeyed orders as ambassador at Madrid, and who persisted in resisting the policy of a war with Spain.

It was easy for a man in Buckingham's position to gain a fleeting popularity. Enduring leadership requires other qualities than those possessed by the brilliant favourite of fortune. His first difficulty arose from the wish of the commons to limit the area of the war. James wanted to have a land war, mainly aimed at the recovery of the