CHAP. 1625. May. The Eng lish vessels for Rochelle. With these hopes and fears Buckingham had ceased to wish to give English aid to France against Rochelle. He would rather, as far as we can judge from his acts, see Lewis pardon the Huguenots in order that he might make war, than help Lewis to subdue the Huguenots with the same object. A few days before James died, the contracts had been signed which made over to the King of France the Vanguard,' a ship of the Royal Navy, together with seven merchant vessels hired for the purpose from their owners. They were to be placed under the command of Pennington, the companion of Raleigh in his last voyage to Guiana, and were to be at the service of Lewis for a time varying at his discretion from six to eighteen months. It was expressly stated that the vessels might be used against whomsoever except the King of Great Britain.'1 On the 8th of May the ships were ordered to cross the Channel, but on the 18th, a few days after Buckingham had left England, Sir John Coke, who was the leading spirit amongst the Commissioners of the Navy, and was deep in Buckingham's confidence, against the wrote to Pennington directing him in no way to meddle with the civil wars of France, or to take part in any attack upon Protestants there or elsewhere. The true intention of his employment was to serve against They are not to serve Hugue nots. May 22 (ii. 459), and his statement is confirmed, so far as relates to the proposed league, by Rusdorf (Rusdorf to Frederick, J; Mémoires, i. 578); and as far as relates to the attack upon Flanders, we know, from Morton's instructions referred to at p. 186, that such a project was in contemplation. The proposal about the Huguenots is noticed in Langerac's despatch of May 30, an extract from which has been communicated to me by Dr. Goll. 20 1 Contracts, March 25; S. P. France. When Glanville afterwards stated that the vessels had been pressed, he probably meant, not that they had been pressed for the King of France, but that they had been first pressed for the service of the King of England, and then transferred to France. COOLNESS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. These 179 CHAP. V. 'the foreign enemies of France and England.' orders, in flagrant contradiction with the letter and spirit of the contract, were said to be for its better 1625. understanding.'1 This change of front in the matter of the ships was accompanied by a change of front in the matter of the Recusancy laws. On the 11th of May the English Catholics were full of hope. The order sent to Williams on the Ist2 was, as they believed, to be carried out. Three thousand letters to the Judges, the Bishops, and other official personages, commanding them to desist from any further execution of the penal laws, were ready to be sent out. Before the 23rd the Catholics were told that they must wait a little longer. It would be unwise to fly so openly in the face of the coming Parliament. When the session was at an end their demands might be attended to." It was hardly wise of Buckingham to offer sO openly to the French Government the alternative between a complete alliance with England and an open rupture. For Richelieu, anxious to lead his sovereign in the path in which Buckingham desired him to tread, the advent of the impetuous young man must have been a sore trial. He knew that Lewis, balancing as he was between two opinions, loathing the domination of Spain and the independence of his own Protestants almost equally, would be thrown off his balance by the slightest semblance of a threat on either side. And how was it to be expected that the headstrong English 1 Warrant from Buckingham, May 8; Coke to Pennington, May 18; S. P. Dom., ii. 37, 74. I must ask those who think that Coke's letter was written to throw dust in the eyes of Pennington, to suspend their judgment till I have told the whole story. 2 P. 175. The English Catholics to Ville-aux-Clercs, May 11, 23: Harl. MSS., 4597, 140, b, 170, b. May. Change in the treat ment of the Catholics. Danger of ham's visit Bucking to France. CHAP. V. 1625. May 14. at Paris. man, whose whole political position was endangered, should abstain from threats ?1 On the 14th of May, Buckingham arrived in Paris. He arrives To the world in general he appeared to have set his whole soul on displaying his handsome person and his jewelled attire at the Court festivities.2 But those who knew that he was accompanied by the new secretary, Sir Albertus Morton, might suspect that he had more serious work in hand.3 Peace to be offered to nots. Of his negotiations at Paris we merely learn that, the Hugue- with Richelieu's warm support, the King sent a nobleman to Rochelle to invite the Huguenots to send deputies to Paris to treat for peace. After some delay caused by the state of the King's health, the Court set out for Compiegne, where Lewis was to take leave of his sister. Buckingham employed the two days which were spent there in urging the French Government to July 1 Richelieu's position is clearly defined in Langerac's despatch of June 23 He was always urging the King to war without and peace within. The same ambassador, writing on June 17, says that Buckingham told the Queen Mother that the Huguenots must seek peace on their knees, with rapiers in their hands. As far as I can gather Buckingham's intentions, he seems to have come over in much the same spirit, though probably he thought less of the rapier at the beginning, and more at the end, of his mission. 2 The list of his clothes and attendants, printed in Ellis, ser. 1, iii. 189, of which so much use has been made by Buckingham's biographers, is not a list of what he really had with him, but of what he intended to take if he had gone as proxy at the marriage. Instead of the long train there set down, only Montgomery, Morton, and Goring accompanied him (Salvetti's Newsletter, May 13). He left England in such haste that he had to send back a gentleman "pour lui apporter ses nouveaux riches habits, afin qu'il se puisse montrer en ses vanités' (Rusdorf, i. 579). Under these circumstances Eliot, of course, did not accompany him. The story told by Wotton how he dropped a diamond in Paris which he subsequently recovered, is, I suspect, the origin of the incredible tale that he purposely left his diamonds so loosely fastened on as to fall off, and that he then refused to take them back from those who picked them up. 3 Salvetti's Newsletter, May 13. Langerac's Despatch, May 23 20 BUCKINGHAM'S RECEPTION IN FRANCE. V. 181 1625. May. ham de mands a strict alli ance. join England in a declared war against Spain. But CHAP either the Duke's manner was distasteful to Lewis, or he shrunk from taking so decided a part. He would neither bind himself to reject any pacific overtures Buckingwhich might come from Spain, nor would he engage to take open part in a war for the recovery of the Palatinate. Even the proffered bribe of the annexation of Artois to France was not enough to move him. He would give 100,000l. towards the expenses of the King of Denmark, and he would continue his share of Mansfeld's pay for seven months longer, and would reinforce the Count's shattered army with two thousand additional French horse.1 More than this he would not do.2 ham's By a statesman accustomed to take hard facts as Buckingthey were, the result of Buckingham's mission would failure. not have been regarded as so very pitiful. It was something that the French Court should show a disposition to treat with the Huguenots and to oppose Spain in its own time and its own way. But Buckingham had staked his reputation on far more than this. Nothing but the most brilliant success would save his conduct with respect to the Catholics and Mansfeld's expedition from the gravest animadversion in the coming Parliament. He went to France with June 27 1 The destination of the French horse is not mentioned in the despatch of Chevreuse and Ville-aux-Clercs which refers to the offer ; Harl. MSS., 4597, fol. 193). But Lorkin tells Conway, in a letter of June 22 (S. P. France), that Richelieu had informed him that he had offered further a new succour of 2,000 horse for Count Mansfeld.' In his letter of Aug. 18, Lorkin further says that Richelieu, in conversation, told him that at Compiegne they had offered a million towards the King of Denmark's entertainment, 2,000 horse towards the setting up of Mansfeld's army again, and to continue their wonted pay for seven months longer, but could never, in all this time, get answer from England.' S. P. France. 6 2 Richelieu, Mémoires, ii. 461. inflated hopes of unbounded success; he returned bitterly disappointed. It is hardly too much to say that his visit to Paris in 1625 cut the ground from under his feet as completely as his visit to Madrid in 1623 had cut the ground from under the feet of James. He had yielded much, and had nothing to show for it in return. Is it wholly impossible that Buckingham's vexation at his political failure may have vented itself in the extravagance of which he was guilty a few days later? Though Lewis went no further than Compiegne, his mother and his wife accompanied the young Queen of England some stages further. At Amiens Buckingham spoke bitterly to Mary of Medici. The Huguenots, he said, might come to Paris to ask for peace upon their knees, but they must bring their swords in their hands.1 Queen Anne he addressed in terms of such passionate devotion as they were walking together in the shades. of evening, that she was forced to call her attendants to her help. That the handsome Englishman had made an impression upon the poor young wife who had been treated with complete neglect by her husband, there can be no doubt whatever. And Buckingham was not the man to restrain himself from taking advantage of her weakness. After he had taken leave, he met a courier at Abbeville with directions to impart certain information to the French Government. Hurrying back to Amiens, he informed Mary de Medici of the State secret confided to him, and then asked for an audience of the young Queen. Being introduced, as was the fashion of those days, into the chamber in which Anne was in bed with her attendant ladies around her, he threw himself on his knees, and kissing the coverlet 1 Langerac's Despatch, as quoted at p. 180. |