Feb. 7. Hopton's instructions. Madrid, was instructed to hint that if Velada brought proposals for a new Spanish marriage, they would be favourably received.1 It was not, indeed, likely that the overture would be really made. As usual, Charles took care to make the Spaniards understand how little his alliance was worth. Hopton was to say that his master found himself in a great strait' in consequence of the occurrence in the Downs. It would be as dangerous to show 'a sense equal to the affront' as to show 'none at all.' If he demanded reparation from the States, there would be no course open to him, in the probable event of a refusal, short of a declaration of war; and, as matters stood, a declaration of war was simply impossible. What he wanted, in short, was that Philip should help him out of his present difficulty, on the understanding that he would help Philip in turn when he was in more prosperous cir cumstances. Feb. 18. Olivares. The reply made by Olivares was not encouraging. He would hear nothing of an alliance unless Charles would actually declare war against the Dutch. In that case the old Answer of secret treaty, negotiated by Cottington for the partition of the Netherlands, should be revived, and Charles might choose any part of the Dutch territory which suited him best. If this offer was accepted, the King of Spain would do that which had been asked in vain in the preceding summer. He would lend Charles eight or ten thousand veterans in exchange for the same number of recruits. On the subject of the marriage Olivares was extremely reserved. In reporting this conversation Hopton warned Charles that he had little to expect from the Spaniards. They had now March 12. but few ships and less money. Their habit was to promise mountains and perform molehills.2 These overtures to Spain were perhaps to some extent owing to Charles's prior conviction that the Scottish troubles 1 Aerssens to the Prince of Orange, Archives, Sér. 2, iii. 165. 2 Windebank to Hopton, Feb. 7; Hopton to Windebank, Feb. 18, March 12, Clarendon MSS. 1,351, 1,353, 1,362. 1639 May. Relations Scotland and FRANCE AND SCOTLAND. 91 were the result of Richelieu's intrigues. As a matter of fact, 1639. Richelieu had taken no part in them. It is true, indeed, that in May 1639 a certain William Colvill between had been instructed by the Covenanting leaders France. to visit the Hague and Paris, in order to ask for the mediation of the States-General and the King of France, whilst another agent was to go with a similar object to the Queen of Sweden and the King of Denmark. Scruples, however, against the propriety of asking for foreign intervention prevailed; and, though the letters which these agents were to have carried were written, they were not despatched.1 In proposing to make application to France, the Scots did but revive the old policy of their ancestors. The memory of the ancient league had not died away. Scottish archers still guarded the person of the King of France, and Scottish visitors to Paris in need of protection were in the habit of going straight to Richelieu's Scottish chaplain Chambers, seldom troubling themselves to pay even a visit of ceremony to the English Ambassador. Even in our days it has sometimes happened that a Scotsman can procure unwonted attention in Paris by the mere mention of his nationality. Bellievre advocates intervention. The policy of giving active assistance to the Covenanters had a warm advocate in Bellievre. He had long ago entered into communication with their leaders, and had sent emissaries to Scotland to watch the course of affairs. When Dunfermline and Loudoun arrived in London at the end of the year, they sent to the Ambassador to ask for French support in case of need. In return, they were ready to engage to make no further treaty with Charles in which their alliance with France was not recognised, as well as to stipulate for the admission of Scots to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, where they December. Offers of and 2 'Baillie, i. 190. Draft to the King of France, Hailes's Memorials, 60. The letter ultimately written is printed in Rushworth, iii. 1,119. In Mazure's Hist. de la Révolution, ii. 405, where it is also printed, it is followed by an instruction which is of a later date, and has no connection with the abortive mission of 1639. ? This proposal was based on a suggestion made by Bellievre in the autumn. would be in a position to give warning of anything which might be contemplated to the prejudice of that alliance. Bellievre would gladly have fallen in with this proposal. Richelieu would not hear of it. Richelieu refuses to accept them. had been warning the All through the summer he Ambassador that it would be unwise to enter into any engagements with the Scots. The sagacious Cardinal held that Charles would ruin himself without any effort on the part of France. He now positively ordered Bellievre not to meddle in the affairs of Scotland. It was probably in consequence of this rebuff that Bellievre was recalled, at his own request. Early in January he returned to Paris.1 1640. January. Bellievre's recall. February. Scottish Commis sioners in London. 2 In the beginning of February Traquair arrived in London, bringing with him the Scottish Commissioners who had been deputed to lay the case of their countrymen before the King. By neither side could it be seriously expected that any good would result from their mission; and Charles was more especially distrustful because Traquair had come into possession of the letter which the Covenanters had intended to send to France by Colvill in the preceding spring. When Charles saw it he was confirmed in all his suspicions. Now, he thought, he would be able to prove to all men that religion had been but the pretext under which the Scots had cloaked deliberate treason. The letter to into Charles's hands. of Edin reinforced. Feb. 18. Nor were the Scots more hopeful of a satisfactory The garrison issue. They did not, indeed, break out into open burgh Castle resistance, and they even allowed a hundred English soldiers to enter the Castle of Edinburgh, as a reinforcement of Ruthven's scanty garrison.3 Yet they to France. knew that they must be prepared for the worst, and, on the day after the soldiers entered, Colvill was despatched to Feb 19. Colvill despatched Dec. 20, 30, 'Chavigny to Bellievre. Louis XIII. to Bellievre, April Dec. 30, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,915, fol. 302, 393, 398. Bellievre to De la Jan. 9' June 27 Arch, des Aff. Étr. xlvii. 510. Barde, July 7' Balfour, iii. 76. Ettrick (i.e. Ruthven of Ettrick) to the King, Feb. 18, S. P. Dom. ccccxlix. 58. 1640 A LETTER TO LOUIS. 93. France with a second letter asking for the mediation of Louis in the name of the ancient league.1 To this letter Montrose's signature was appended. If he was tending towards Charles, he had not yet gone over to him Montrose's altogether. It was necessary to keep up appearances, position. and in December he had been compelled by popular clamour to refuse an invitation to Court which had reached him from Charles himself. Yet it would probably be unjust to ascribe his conduct simply to a wish to keep up appearances. It may very well be that Charles's reluctance to throw the bishops frankly overboard had its effect upon Montrose as well as upon others. How much Charles's hesitation on this point contributed to give strength to his political opponents is evident to all dispassionate inquirers. Sir Thomas Hope was one of the most fanatical of the Covenanters. "My lord," he said one day to Rothes, who had assured him that the King meant to restore the bishops, "let no reports move you, but do your duty. Put his Majesty to it, and if it be refused then you are blameless. But if on these reports ye press civil points, his Majesty will make all Protestant princes see that you have not religion for your end, but the bearing down of monarchy." 3 If Charles expected to derive any strength from the monarchical sentiment which was still living in Scotland, he must agree quickly with the Presbyterians. Hope's conversation with Rothes. The Scottish ers heard. Unluckily for Charles, it was to England rather than to Scotland that he was looking for help. In his discussions with the Scottish Commissioners he showed no alacrity Commission- to win the hearts of Scotsmen by any plain declaration on the subject of Episcopacy. After some preliminary fencing, he took up the position that the supreme magistrate must have authority to call assemblies and to dissolve them, and to have a negative voice in them as is accustomed in all supreme powers of Christendom.' He March. 'The Covenanters to Louis XIII., Feb. 19, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,915, fol. 410. The instructions printed by Mazure, ii. 406, refer to this mission. 2 Montrose to the King, Dec. 26, Napier, Memoirs of Montrose, i. 228. Hope's Diary, Jan. 14, 115. 3 • Rushworth, iii. 1035. felt truly that the proposed acts contained nothing less than a political revolution; but he had nothing positive to offer. Even when the Commissioners observed that, after all, the Bills had not yet passed the Articles, and were consequently still open to revision, he made no attempt to seize the opportunity by announcing his readiness to assent to the Bill for repealing the Acts by which Episcopacy had been legalised. No wonder the Commissioners were left under the impression that his reservation of the negative voice implied a purpose to restore Episcopacy on the first favourable opportunity.' February. These discussions, meaningless in themselves, were carried on in the midst of warlike preparations. On February 24 arrangements were made for pressing 30,000 foot Preparations from the several counties south of the Humber, the northern shires being excused as having borne the burden heavily in the last campaign. At Edinburgh an appeal to arms was no less imminent. On the 25th some iil-built works which had been erected as a defence for war. Occurrences in Edin burgh. to the castle, fell down, and the population of the town refused to allow Ruthven to carry in the materials needed to repair the damage. A few days later the Earl of Southesk, Sir Lewis Gordon, and other noted Royalists were seized and imprisoned.3 The struggle for sovereignty in Scotland was evidently about to recommence. March. sets out for Ireland. One gleam of hope shone upon Charles's path. On March 16 Strafford crossed the Irish Sea, suffering, as he was, from his March 16. old disease, the gout. "Howbeit," he gaily wrote Strafford as he was preparing to embark, one way or other, I hope to make shift to be there and back again hither in good time, for I will make strange shift and put myself to all the pain I shall be able to endure before I be anywhere awanting to my master or his affairs in this conjuncture; and therefore, sound or lame, you shall have me with you before the beginning 1 Rushworth, iii. 994, 1018. 2 Nicholas's Minutes, Feb. 24, S. P. Dom. ccccxlv. 6. Ettrick to the King, March 2, 11, 25, ibid. ccccxlvii. 6, 89, ccccxlviii. 81. Spalding, i. 260. |