DEATH OF JAMES I. IV. 1625. March 27. 163 the hour, or to the persuasion of others who were less CHAP. enlightened or less disinterested than himself. His own ideas were usually shrewd ; and it is something to say of him that, if his ideas had been realised, both England and Europe would have been in far better condition than they were. The Pacification of Ireland and the Colonisation of Ulster were, together with the effort which he made to effect a more perfect union with Scotland, the acts which did him most credit. And if in late years his attempts at pacification in Germany had covered him with ridicule, and his attempts at forming a great continental alliance as the basis of war seemed likely to end in failure, it was not because his views were either unwise or unjust, but because either the obstacles in his way were too great, or he was himself deficient in the vigour and resolution which alone would have enabled him to overcome them. Keenness of insight into the fluctuating conditions of success, and firmness of will to contend against difficulties in his path, were not amongst the qualities of James. The irony of flattery which in his lifetime had His funeral named him the British Solomon, was continued after his death. Williams, to whom the best points of the late King appeared so admirable in contrast with the rash, headstrong violence of his successor, proclaimed in his funeral sermon the comparison between James and the wisest of the Hebrew kings; and, either by the wish of Charles or by James's own desire, the body of the first of the Scottish line in England was not to lie apart as Elizabeth lay in her own glory. The vault in which reposed the remains of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York was opened. The occupants of the tomb were thrust aside, and room was made for the coffin in which was the body of him who was proud of being their descendant. To unite England and Scotland in CHAP. IV. 1625. March. peace justly seemed to James to be as great an achievement as to unite the rights of York and Lancaster, and to close the long epoch of civil war. But the comparison which was thus invited could not but bear hardly upon the memory of the late sovereign. Henry, by his mingled vigour and prudence, laid the foundation of the strong monarchy of the Tudors; James sowed the seeds of revolution and disaster.1 1 There is an account of the opening of the tomb in Dean Stanley's Memorials of Westminster Abbey. Curiously enough, James was defied even in the tomb. Close by the coffin of the author of the 'Counterblast to Tobacco' was found a pipe, probably dropped by a workman. CHAPTER V. MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC PROJECTS OF THE NEW REIGN. CHAP. V. 1625. March 21. General satisfaction with the new reign. THE news that Charles had succeeded to his father was received with general satisfaction. "The joy of the people," as a contemporary expressed it, "devoured their mourning." 1 Of the character of the new King, silent and reserved as he was, little was known, and still less had reached the public ear of his questionable proceedings in the negotiation of the marriage treaty. It was enough that, ever since his return from Madrid, he had been the consistent advocate of war with Spain. When Ville-aux-Clercs went back to France with Ville-auxthe marriage treaty, Richelieu asked him what he Cleres thought of Charles. "He is either an extraordinary Charles. man," was the shrewd reply, "or his talents are very mean. If his reticence is affected in order not to give jealousy to his father, it is a sign of consummate prudence. If it is natural and unassumed, the contrary inference may be drawn."2 opinion of cence. The extreme reserve of the young King was doubt- His retiless closely connected with that want of imaginative power which lay at the root of all his faults. With all his confidence in his own thoughts, he failed to give to his ideas an expression which was satisfactory to others 1 Tilman to D'Ewes, April 8; Ellis, ser. 2, iii. 243. 2 Mémoires de Brienne, i. 399. CHAP. V. 1625. March 21. His defects as a ruler. or even to himself. His father's rapid utterance had swept his slow conceptions away as with a torrent before he could find out what he really meant to say, and he did not like to be contradicted. The man who is too vain to bear contradiction and not sufficiently brilliant or wise to overpower it, must of necessity take refuge in silence. Unfortunately the defect which hindered him from being a good talker hindered him also from being a good ruler. The firm convictions of his mind were unassailable by arguments which he was unable to understand, and unaltered by the impression of passing events which slipped by him unnoticed. The wisest of men, the most decisive of facts, were no more to him than the whistling of the storm is to the man who is seated by a warm fireside. They passed him by; and, if he heeded them at all, it was only to wonder that they did not conform to his own beneficent intentions. "I cannot," he said on one occasion, "defend a bad, nor yield in a good cause." Conscious of the purity of his own motives he never ceased to divide mankind into two simple classes-into those who agreed with him, and those who did not; into sheep to be cherished, and goats to be rejected. Such narrowness of view was no guarantee for fixity of purpose. Whenever the moment came at last for the realities of life to break through the artificial atmosphere in which he had been living, when forms unknown and unimagined before crowded on his bewildered vision, it was too late to gain a knowledge the acquisition of which had been deferred too long, or to exercise that strength of will which is only to be found where there is an intelligent perception of the danger to be faced. The same explanation will probably in a great 1 Laud's Diary, Feb. 1, 1623. ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 167 СНАР. V. 1625. March 27. was un measure account for the special fault which has more than any other cost Charles the respect of posterity. The truthful man must be able to image forth in his own mind the effect which his words have upon others. He How far he must be able to represent to himself the impression truthful. his engagements leave upon those with whom they were made; and he must either keep them in the sense in which they are understood by others, or he must openly and candidly show cause why it is wrong or impossible so to keep them. The way in which Charles gave and broke his promises was the very reverse of this. He looked too much into his own mind, too little into the minds of those with whom he was bargaining. When he entered into an engagement he either formed no clear conception of the circumstances under which he would be called to fulfil it, or he remembered too clearly this or that consideration which would render his promise illusory, or would at least, if it had been spoken out, have prevented those with whom he was dealing from accepting his word. When the time came for him to fulfil an engagement he could think of nothing but the limitations with which he had surrounded it, or with which he fancied that he had surrounded it, when his word had been given. Sometimes he went still further, apparently thinking that it was lawful to use deception as a weapon against those who had no right to know the truth. reign. Of the defects in Charles's character, the nation was Beginning as yet profoundly ignorant. All that was known of of the new him was to his advantage. James died a little before noon. After some hours spent in private, the young King-he was but in his twenty-fifth year-came up from Theobalds to St. James's. The next morning The Privy orders that all his father's officers of state gave should retain their places. With the exception of the he Council. |