Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/343

Villiers he empowered Gerbier to offer peace to Spain at Brussels on the condition of her agreeing to a suspension of arms with the Dutch republic and the king of Denmark. In March, upon the rejection of this overture, he sent out Pennington to sweep the seas of French merchantmen. In May he made up his mind to head an expedition to relieve Rochelle, at that time besieged by the king's troops. The remains of the force which had returned from Cadiz were made up to eight thousand by new levies, and a great fleet was at the same time made ready for sea, to re-establish the reputation of the English navy as well as to free from danger the Huguenots of south-western France. According to instructions issued on 19 June, no doubt drawn up by himself, he was, if the Rochellese were ready to accept English aid, to hand over the soldiers to Soubise to be used in their defence, and to go on to Bordeaux to recover English merchant ships seized as a reprisal for the French prizes taken in the Channel, and then to break up the trade of Spain with Flanders and the West Indies. The scheme was certainly not wanting in largeness of conception. On 27 June Buckingham sailed from Stokes Bay with about a hundred ships and six thousand soldiers. On 10 July he was before the Isle of Rhé, and on 12 July he landed his troops and opened the siege of St. Martin's, the principal fortress in the island. The first check came from the Rochellese themselves, who refused to receive the offered succour till they had consulted their co-religionists. In August the siege of St. Martin's was turned into a blockade. Sickness decreased the numbers of the English, and Buckingham had to send home for reinforcements. Charles, however, had no money in hand, and when at last reinforcements were ready to sail under the Earl of Holland, the expedition was detained by contrary winds at Plymouth till it was too late. In the meanwhile Buckingham found his difficulties increasing and his army diminishing. Though on 27 Sept. Toiras, the commandant of the fort, whose provisions had come to an end, offered to surrender, a French flotilla, laden with supplies, broke the blockade that very night, and the siege had to be commenced afresh. On 20 Oct. a French force landed in the island. On the 27th Buckingham made in vain one desperate attempt to storm the fortress. Even then Buckingham postponed his retreat to the 29th, by which time the numbers of the French force on the island had been augmented to six thousand. It was only with heavy loss that the embarkation was effected. On 20 Oct. the English army consisted of 6,884 soldiers. On 8 Nov. no more than 2,989 were landed at Portsmouth and Plymouth.

So far from being disheartened by the disaster, Buckingham was as exuberant as ever. He now proposed an attack on Calais, and talked of continuing the war for many years. Though the returned soldiers and sailors were starving, he refused to accept overtures for peace made by the king of France, and—so certain was he that no serious charge could be brought against him—even advocated the calling of a new parliament to vote supplies for the war. As Charles hesitated, Buckingham tried another tack, and advocated the establishment of a standing army of eleven thousand men, to be supported by an excise arbitrarily imposed. In January 1628 Dalbier, Buckingham's military adviser, was sent to Germany to levy a thousand horse for service in England. Efforts to raise an excise, and even ship-money, having ignominiously failed, there was nothing left but to summon parliament, if Rochelle, now strictly blockaded, was to be succoured. Denbigh, Buckingham's brother-in-law, had indeed been placed in command of a relieving force, but, without money, he was unable to leave Plymouth.

The third parliament of Charles I met on 17 March 1628. Its leaders had previously decided that, as the main work of the session must be to place constitutional restrictions on the king himself, there should be no repetition of the impeachment of Buckingham. In the conflict which followed, Buckingham championed the king's claim to commit without showing cause; but the House of Lords was by this time too incensed to follow his leadership. When, on 2 June, Charles gave an unsatisfactory answer to the petition of right, the commons held Buckingham responsible for the mischief. On the 7th Eliot attacked his policy without mentioning his name. On the 8th Coke named him. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘the Duke of Bucks is the cause of all our miseries, and till the king be informed thereof we shall never go out with honour, or sit with honour here. That man is the grievance of grievances.’ Selden proposed that his impeachment should be renewed. The commons proceeded to draw up a remonstrance, in which Buckingham's demerits were set forth, and on the 7th Charles gave his assent to the petition of right in due form.

After the king's acceptance of the petition of right the commons voted five subsidies, which enabled Buckingham to complete his preparations for a new expedition intended to relieve Rochelle. Yet, though they dropped the proposal to impeach the favourite, they