1640 OFFICIAL CHANGES. 85 he had always shrunk from the extravagant applications of his own theory which were urged upon him by men of observation inferior to his own. Only a few months had passed since he had opposed in Council the wild projects suggested for the support of the army; and, if a not improbable report is to be trusted, he conjured the King on his death-bed to endure patiently any opposition which might arise in the coming Parliament, and to suffer it to sit without any unkind dissolution.'1 Charles showed how little he appreciated his advice Jan. 23. Finch, Lord by appointing Finch as his successor, who, as Speaker, Keeper. had been held down in the chair in 1629, and who, as judge, had passionately advocated the King's claim to shipmoney in its most extreme form. Coke with dismissal. Another vacancy had to be filled up about the same time. Sir John Coke's tenure of the Secretaryship had long been regarded as uncertain. He was growing too old for threatened his work. Other causes besides his age affected his position. Many counted him a Puritan, or, in other words, an opponent of the existing ecclesiastical system. He was suspected of drawing a pension from the Dutch Government, and since the attack in the Downs all friends of the Dutch Government were in ill odour at Whitehall.2 In NovemLeicester cessor. ber Strafford had been favourable to his removal, proposed as and had supported the claims of Leicester, the ambassador at Paris, to the vacancy which would be created. Leicester was married to Northumberland's sister, and, like Northumberland, he belonged to that section of the nobility which was distinctly Protestant without being Puritan, and which was disposed to support the King against rebellion, without favouring an arbitrary exertion of the prerogative. Strafford was weil aware of the importance of conciliating this class of men, and he had special reasons for favouring Leicester, whose cause was pleaded by his wife's sister, Lady Carlisle. Lady Carlisle had now been for many years a widow. She had long been the reigning beauty at Court, and she loved to mingle political intrigue with social Advocacy of Lady 1 Hacket, ii. 137. 17 2 Salvetti's News-Letter, Jan. 27 Lady intercourse. For politics as a serious occupation she had no aptitude; but, in middle age, she felt a woman's pride in attaching to herself the strong heads by which the world was ruled, as in youth she had attached to herself the witty courtier or the agile dancer. It was worth a statesman's while to cultivate her acquaintance. She could make him a power in society as well as in council, could worm out a secret which it behoved him to know, and could convey to others his suggestions with assured fidelity. The calumny which treated Strafford, as it afterwards treated Pym, as her accepted lover may be safely disregarded. Neither Strafford nor Pym was the man to descend to loose and degrading debauchery. But there can be no doubt that purely personai motives attached her both to Strafford and Pym. For Strafford's theory of monarchical government she cared as little as she cared for Pym's theory of parliamentary government. It may be, too, that some mingled feeling may have arisen in Strafford's breast. It was something to have an ally at Court ready at all times to plead his cause with gay enthusiasm, to warn him of hidden dangers, and to offer him the thread of that labyrinth which, under the name of 'the Queen's side,' was such a mystery to him. It was something, too, no doubt, that this advocate was not a grey-haired statesman, but a woman, in spite of growing years, of winning grace and sparkling vivacity of eye and tongue. The Queen supports Leicester. The Queen, too, was enlisted on Leicester's side, probably through Henry Percy, Northumberland's brother, who was also a brother of Lady Carlisle and Lady Leicester, and who stood high in her favour. Yet, in spite of his wife's pleading, Charles would not hear of her candidate. Whatever the cause may have been, NorthLeicester rejected. umberland singled out Laud as the author of the mischief. "To think well of the reformed religion," he wrote, "is enough to make the Archbishop one's enemy." A new combination was now proposed. At Hamilton's Northumberland to Leicester, Nov. 21, Dec. 13, Sydney Papers, 618, 623. 1640 Vane proposed. A NEW SECRETARY. $7 suggestion the Queen put forward Vane. Strafford knew him as an inefficient, self-seeking courtier. He had also given Vane personal offence, which was not likely to be forgotten. Though the estate of Raby was in Vane's possession, Strafford had chosen the barony of Raby to give a subsidiary title to his earldom. Rather than see Vane in office, Strafford urged that Coke should be retained. He was borne down by the influence of Hamilton and the Queen, and on February 3 Vane became Secretary of State.2 Vane's son had been brought, in the preceding spring, to some outward show of conformity, and, as Joint Treasurer of the Navy, was engaged, amongst other occupations, in reckoning up the payments of ship-money as they came slowly in. Feb. 3. Becomes Secretary. Release of Valentine The appointments which had just been made were not likely to smooth away the real obstacles to a good understanding January. between Charles and his people. He could hardly, however, venture to face a Parliament without libeand Strode. rating Valentine and Strode, the two of the com panions of Eliot's imprisonment who still remained in custody. They had been the confessors, as Eliot had been the martyr, of the Parliamentary faith. After a seclusion from the world of almost eleven years they stepped forth into freedom.3 1639. anxious about the Catholics. Whilst Charles was calculating the chances of a Parliamentary grant for his Scottish war, the Queen was, naturally enough, alarmed at the probability that Parliament The Queen would ask for a renewal of the persecution of the Catholics. Con, who had pleaded their cause with her so successfully, had left England in the preceding autumn, and had died soon after his arrival in Rome. His successor was an Italian prelate, the Count Rossetti. Rossetti's first impression of England had been one of amazement at the liberty enjoyed by September. the Catholics, and more especially at the language of Windebank, who, though ostensibly a Protestant, spoke to him like a zealous Catholic,' and offered to give him every Cave to Roe, Feb. 7, S. P. Dom. ccccxliv. 54. August. Rossetti at Court 2 Clarendon's account is borne out by Rossetti's despatches. the Parlia ment. Plans for 1640. information of which he might stand in need.' As soon as he heard of the approaching meeting of Parliament, he appealed Asks protec. to the Queen for protection against the very probable tion against demand of the Commons for his own dismissal. The Queen carried his representations to her husband, and returned with comforting assurances. Charles had told December. her, that if the point were raised he would reply that her right to hold correspondence with Rome was securing the Catholics. secured by her marriage treaty. "This," she explained to Rossetti, "is not true, but the King will take this pretext to reduce to silence anyone who meddles with the matter."2 Before long this precious scheme broke down. The necessary secrecy was not observed, and the project reached the ears of Coke. Coke, who was out of humour at February. his own dismissal, went about assuring all who would listen to him that the treaty did not contain a word about a correspondence with Rome. Another scheme which presented itself to the Queen's mind was still more unwise. Many of the The Catho- Catholic peers were prevented from taking their seats lic peers to in the House of Lords by their refusal to take the sit and vote. Oath of Allegiance. It was now suggested that the lords had no right to impose this qualification, and it was hoped that, if it was abandoned, the Catholics would be better represented in Parliament than had hitherto been the case. Yet the Queen could not but feel that, even if she had her wish in this matter, the prospects of the Catholics were very unfavourable. She applied to Strafford for help. Strafford answered civilly, but his civil answers did not inspire confidence. He was always an enigma to the Queen and her friends. Rossetti was not quite sure whether he was a Protestant or a Puritan, but was inclined, on the whole, to regard him as a Puritan. If he meant, as he probably did, that Strafford : be allowed to March. The Queen applies to Strafford. 6 16' Rossetti to Barberini, Sept. R. O. Transcripts. 2 "Il che se bene non è vero, vuole nondimeno valersene il Rè per pretesto per ribattere chiunque sarà per trattarli di questo fatto." Rossetti to Parberini, Dec. 27 ibid. Jan. 6 • Rossetti to Barberini, Jan. 24, Feb. 28 Feb. 3, March 9' 1640 PROPOSED ALLIANCES. 89 had no wish to favour the Catholics, he was doubtless in the right. 1639. December. Charles's relations with France, and with the So slight were Charles's hopes of a successful issue of the Parliament which he had summoned, that he was already looking abroad for the support which was likely to fail him at home. Since the sea-fight in the Downs and the detention of the Elector Palatine, he was more alienated from France than before, and more convinced that Richelieu was at the bottom of his Scottish troubles. His relations with the States-General were equally unsatisfactory. Aerssens, indeed, had arrived on a mission of explanation; but his explanations consisted simply in an assertion that Tromp had been doing good service to Charles by destroying the fleet of the common enemy; and that, at all events, he had only followed the precedent set by Charles himself in 1627, when he seized a French ship in the neutral harbour of the Texel.' Charles showed his displeasure in his reception of a proposal made to him at this time for a marriage between his eldest daughter Mary and the only son of the Prince of Orange. He told Heenvliet, the confidential Netherlands. Proposed marriage of an English princess with a son of the Prince of Orange. 1640. agent of the Prince, that if he asked for his second January. daughter, Elizabeth, he might take the request into consideration. As the child was only four years old, the change was not likely to give satisfaction at the Hague.2 Charles had, in fact, another alliance in view. That veteran intriguer, the Duchess of Chevreuse, had suggested that Charles's February. Proposed Spanish marriage. eldest son and daughter should be united to the daughter and the son of the King of Spain. It was known that a new Spanish ambassador, the Marquis of Velada, would soon be in England to join Cardenas in urging Charles to avenge the insult which had been offered him by the Dutch. Sir Arthur Hopton, the English agent at 10 1 Aerssens and Joachimi to the States-General, Dec., Add. MSS. 17,677, fol. 146. See Vol. VI. page 187. * Heenvliet to the Prince of Orange, sterer, Archives, Sér. 2, iii. 159, 169. Dec. 27 Jan. 3. Groen van Prin 13' |