PREFACE.

6

THE présent volumes are intended to form, together with the History of England from the accession of James I. to the disgrace of Chief Justice Coke,' and 'Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage,' a connected history which now extends from the death of Elizabeth in 1603 to the assassination of Buckingham in 1628. I believe that much is gained for the understanding of the events of which I am now treating by telling the story of the last year of James's reign in close connection with the first years of his son. To make the division at the accession of Charles is to separate effect from cause, and to account for the reaping of the whirlwind without taking into consideration the sowing of the wind. The five years, too, which followed the return of Charles from Madrid stand apart from those before and after them as a war period; for if peace with France and Spain was not at once concluded when Rochelle was taken, hostilities practically came to an end when Lindsey's fleet returned from the French coast without accomplishing anything. These years of war bear specially the impress of Buckingham's activity. Writers not unfrequently speak of Buckingham's ascen

dency as commencing at a much earlier period. But this is altogether a mistake, if, at least, these writers mean anything like the ascendency which he possessed after his return from Madrid. Influence he had long had with James in everything, and in matters of personal favour he had more than ordinary influence; but up to the end of 1623 James decided his own political From that date to his death Buckingham was

course.

the ruler of England.

When I first undertook to investigate the history of this momentous period, I felt a certain hesitation. Libraries positively bristled with the names of great writers who had given their thoughts to the world on the subject of these years. But I was not long in discovering that there was still room for further investigation. We have had historians in plenty, but they have been Whig historians or Tory historians. The one class has thought it unnecessary to take trouble to understand how matters looked in the eyes of the King and his friends; the other class has thought it unnecessary to take trouble to understand how matters looked in the of the leaders of the House of Commons. I am not so vain as to suppose that I have always succeeded in doing justice to both parties, but I have, at least, done my best not to misrepresent either.

eyes

Another material objection to the works of recent authorities is the brevity with which they pass over the foreign relations of the kingdom. It was not so once. Carte, for instance, takes pains to tell as much as he can on this subject; but the very fact that attention has been more exclusively drawn to Parliamentary history,

and that great discoveries have been made in this branch of the subject, has led to the neglecting of investigation into those diplomatic and military relations with other countries which need to be taken into consideration if we are to understand whether the Commons were right or wrong in refusing a subsidy or in impeaching a minister. Fortunately, new sources of information are now opening up to those who turn their attention in this direction. The French despatches of the period have long been in more than one copy in the Museum library, though they have never been submitted to a thorough and searching investigation. The Dutch despatches of Caron and Joachimi are also in copy in the same repository. The greater part of the Venetian despatches have been, through the kindness of Mr. Rawdon Brown, sent over either in copy or in translation to the Public Record Office. A visit to Brussels has enabled me to elucidate some obscure points of Spanish policy, though it is not to be expected that in war time much interesting matter would be left on record. Having failed to meet with any important despatches relating to the last year of James during my visit to Simancas, I have not thought it necessary to make any fresh attempt, as there seems no likelihood that any good result would be secured, as there was no Spanish ambassador in England during the first four years of Charles's reign. In addition to the despatches of the ambassadors of other nations, the foreign series of State papers in the Record Office has been most useful. I trust that I have thus succeeded in disentangling the course of negotiations with France, a knowledge of which is as important to a proper

understanding of English history in these years as a knowledge of the course of affairs in Germany is to a proper understanding of English history in the earlier period.

The negotiations with France fall under two distinct heads those preceding Charles's marriage, and those which come after his accession. The first period has been treated of by M. Guizot in his Projet de Mariage Royal,' and by Mr. Bruce in an unprinted fragment of history which will one day, I trust, be made public. But, though both these narratives contain much that is valuable and interesting, neither of them is founded on any comprehensive view of the entire evidence. M. Guizot had before him some of the despatches of the French ministers, which he interpreted with the help of such fragmentary materials as were already in print on the English side, not being aware apparently, or at all events not making use, of some of the most interesting parts of the correspondence even of the French ambassadors. Mr. Bruce, on the other hand, based his narrative entirely upon the English despatches which he found amongst the State papers, supplemented by remarks drawn from his extensive knowledge of the period, without any reference to the correspondence of Tillières and Effiat which was to be found in the Museum library. It seems obvious that a story founded upon all the letters written on both sides will have more chance of giving a correct account of these transactions than that which is avowedly based upon the unchecked assertions of a single party to the negotiations.

The later negotiations have remained almost wholly

unknown. The romantic idea that the war of 1627 was brought about simply and solely by the persistence of Buckingham in forcing his presence upon the French Queen has seemed so satisfactory that many writers have not only neglected to enquire whether anything more than this is to be discovered, but they have even allowed to drop out of sight facts such as those of the contraband trade of Calais, which were perfectly well known to Carte. Mr. Forster was the first to turn enquiry somewhat in this direction by his investigation into the cases of Pennington's fleet and of the 'St. Peter' of Havre de Grace; and though a further examination of the sources of information has led me to the discovery of unexpected disclosures in the former affair, and to ascribe less importance to the latter than Mr. Forster has done, it must not be forgotten that Mr. Forster led the way in the enquiry into the subject. Nor is it only the history of England which is affected by the narrative. As far as I am aware, French writers know nothing of the abortive peace agreed upon between the French Government and the Huguenot deputies on July 15, 1625; and they are content to tell the story of the peace patched up with Spain in 1626, without a suspicion that the conduct of the English Court had a great deal to do with inducing Richelieu to give his consent to it.

If the harvest to be gathered from a diligent use of materials proved sufficient inducement to me to embark upon the present undertaking, I was certainly not prepared for the wealth of new material relating to those very Parliamentary contests, the documents relating to