Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/466

418 York Houso, the home of his childhood. Buckingham desired to purchase it, and he stood in the way of the king s favour to the great philosopher till he had consented to sell him the house. In the winter of 1621, and the succeeding year, Buckingham was entirely in Gondomar s hands; and it was only with some difficulty that in May 1622 Laud argued him out of a resolution to declare himself a Roman Catholic. In December 1621 he actively supported the dissolution of Parliament, and there can be little doubt that when the Spanish ambassador left England the following May, he had come to an understanding with Buckingham that the Prince of Wales should visit Madrid the next year, on which occasion the Spanish Court hoped to effect his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church before giving him the hand of the Infanta Maria. By this time Buckingham had gained over Charles an influence which he never lost; and when he carried him in February 1623 to Madrid it was with the hope of effecting a great political object. The Palatinate had gradually fallen into the possession of Spain and of the Catholic League, and the two young men fondly expected that the grave statesmen of the Spanish monarchy would break with their co-religionists in Germany in order to present the Palatinate as a marriage gift to Charles. It was not long before it became plain to Buckingham that the Palatinate was not to be gained at Madrid. From that time he urged the prince to return. Charles was not to be persuaded so soon to relinquish the hope of carrying his bride home with him to England. But at last his eyes were opened, and when the two young men sailed together from Santander in September, it was with the final resolu tion to break entirely with Spain. James had gratified his favourite in his absence by raising him to the highest title known in the English peerage. But the splendour which gathered round the new duke was owing to another source than James s favour. He had put himself at the head of the popular movement against Spain, and when James, acknowledging sorely against his will that the Palatinate could only be recovered by force, summoned the Parliament which met in February 1624, Buckingham, with the help of the heir apparent, took up an independent political position. James was half driven, half persuaded to declare all negotiations with Spain at an end. For the moment Buckingham was the most popular man in England. It was easier to overthrow one policy than to construct another. The Commons would have been content with sending some assistance to the Dutch, and with entering upon a privateering war with Spain. James, whose object was to regain the Palatinate, believed this could only be accomplished by a Continental alliance, in which France took part. As soon as Parliament was prorogued, negotia tions were opened for a marriage between Charles and the sister of Lewis XIII., Henrietta Maria. But a difficulty arose. James and Charles had engaged to the Commons that there should be no concessions to the English Catholics, and Lewis would not hear of the marriage unless very large concessions were made. Buckingham, impatient to begin the war as soon as possible, persuaded Charles, and the two together persuaded James to throw over the promises to the Commons, and to accept the French terms. It was no longer possible to summon Parliament to vote supplies for the war till the marriage had been completed, when remonstrances to its conditions would be useless. Buckingham, for Buckingham was now virtually the ruler of England, had thus to commence war without money. He prepared to throw 12,000 Englishmen, under a German adventurer, Count Mansfeld, through France into the Pala tinate. The French insisted that he should march through Holland. It mattered little which way he took. Without provisions, and without money to buy them, the wretched troops sickened and died in the winter frosts. Buckingham s first military enterprise ended in disastrous failure. Buckingham had many other schemes in his teeming brain. He had offered to send aid to Christian IV., king of Denmark, who was proposing to make war in Germany, and had also a plan for sending an English fleet to attack Genoa the ally of Spain, and a plan for sending an English fleet to attack Spain itself. Before these schemes could be carried into operation James died on March 27, 1625. The new king and Buckingham were at one in their aims and objects. Both were anxious to distinguish themselves by the chastisement of Spain, and the recovery of the Palatinate. Both were young and inexperienced. But Charles, obstinate when his mind was made up, was sluggish in action and without fertility in ideas, and he had long submitted his mind to the versatile and brilliant favourite, who was never at a loss what to do next, and who unrolled before his eyes visions of endless possibilities in the future. Buckingham was sent over to Paris to urge upon the French Court the importance of con verting its alliance into active co-operation. There was a difficulty in the way. The Huguenots of Rochelle were in rebellion, and James had promised the aid of English ships to suppress that rebellion. Bucking ham, who seems at first to have consented to the scheme, was anxious to mediate peace between the king of France and his subjects, which would set him free from foreign enterprises, and save Charles from compromising himself with his Parliament by the appearance of English ships in an attack upon Protestants. When he returned his main de mands were refused, but hopes were given him that peace would be made with the Huguenots. On his way through France he had the insolence to make love to the Queen of France. Unless the testimony of his warmest admirers is false, he had convinced himself by a sad experience that women found it difficult to resist his seductive tongue and his handsome face. Soon after his return Parliament was opened. It would have been hard for Charles to pass through the session with credit. Under Buckingham s guidance he had entered into engagements involving an enormous expenditure, and these engagements involved a war on the Continent, which had never been popular in the House of Commons. The Com mons, too, suspected the marriage treaty contained engage ments of which they disapproved. They asked for the full execution of the laws against the Catholics, and voted but little money in return. Charles adjourned then to Oxford, that he might plead with them more persuasively. Before they met there, the English ships had found their way into the hands of the French, to be used against Rochelle. The Commons met, in an ill-humour. They had no confidence in Buckingham, and they asked that persons whom they could trust should be admitted to the king s council before they would vote a penny. Charles stood by his minister, and on August 12 he dissolved his first Parliament. Buckingham and his master set themselves to work to conquer public opinion. On the one hand, they threw over their engagements to France on behalf of the English Catholics. On the other hand they sent out a large fleet to attack Cadiz, and to seize the Spanish treasure-ships. Buckingham went to the Hague to raise an immediate supply by pawning the crown jewels, to place England at the head of a great Protestant alliance, and to enter into fresh obligations to furnish money to the king of Denmark. It all ended in failure. The fleet returned from Cadiz, having effected nothing. The crown jewels produced but a small sum, and the money for the king of Denmark could only be raised by an appeal to Parliament. In the mean while the king of France was deeply offended by the treat- 