terror of the catholics in England, and both the parliament of England and the council of Scotland called on James to secure himself by fresh persecution of the catholics. The Scottish council saw in the French assassins the frogs foretold in the Revelations, to be sent out by the devil against the head of the church, and prayed the king to protect his precious life by fresh guards whilst he indulged himself in hunting. Whilst James was earnestly engaged in suppressing any rival claims to the crown by persecuting to death the lady Arabella, he was equally busy in endeavouring to secure a succession in his own family. Though he persecuted the catholics as a most dangerous, sinful, and abominable body, he had no objection whatever to marry his children to catholic princes, because those catholic princes were by far the most considerable in Europe. He made overtures, therefore, for the marriage of his son Henry, and his daughter Elizabeth, both to France and Spain. Queen Anne was most bent on the Spanish matches for both son and daughter, and was therefore vehemently suspected of popery, though her motives were the same as those of her husband-the rank and prestige of the alliance. prince in a manner which greatly piqued his father, who could not help exclaiming "Will he bury me alive!" The reformers conceived great hopes of him, and there was a prophecy regarding him in every one's mouth :-- Henry the Eighth pulled down abbeys and cells, But Henry the Ninth shall pull down bishops and bells. Had James succeeded in obtaining the Spanish Infanta for Henry, he would have effectually neutralised this popularity. But though Henry did not stubbornly oppose his father's plans, he is said to have declared amongst his own friends that he had made up his mind never to marry a popish princess, and the puritans had the firmest faith that he never would. It was regarded as a good sign that the young prince had a great aversion to his father's favourites, and especially to Carr, who was rapidly rising, and was just now created viscount Rochester. His mother, who partook in this aversion, strengthened him in it with all her influence. But Providence had not destined him the crown of England: he was now attacked with symptoms of premature decay. It was supposed that he had grown too fast for his strength, having reached the stature of six feet at seventeen, and his chiPrince Henry was the darling of his mother and of the valrous exercises had been too violent and imprudent for vation: in person, temper, and aspirations the very opposite such rapid growth. He was accustomed to take his exerof his father. All persons, and especially all princes, who die cises in the greatest heat of summer, to expose himself to all young, are remembered with a peculiar affection, and their sorts of weather, and to bathe for a long time together virtues are exaggerated, and live in memory as the roots of after supper. Whilst James was planning marriages for brilliant hopes cut off by fate. Time has not allowed the him, the prince was fast hastening out of the world. The adverse influences of life, and especially of royal power, to Spanish match still lingering, after years of negotiation, corrupt them, and to darken the fair picture. Had Henry James listened to a proposal of Mary de Medici, the widow VIII. died young, he would have left a regretted name as of Henry IV., and now queen-regent of France, for a weda model of chivalric spirit and generous enthusiasm; yet we ding betwixt prince Henry and the princess Christine, the have no right to predicate that Henry, prince of Wales, the second daughter of France; and soon after the duke of eldest son of James, would have developed into a similar Florence sent an ambassador extraordinary to London, monster. Our business is to describe him as he was offering his daughter with some millions of florins for her a handsome, brave, and right-minded youth of eighteen. dower, and asking the princess Elizabeth for his son and heir. He possessed none of the timidity nor the bookishness of But James, not succeeding in arranging a marriage for his his father. He was fond of all sorts of martial exercises-daughter with a catholic prince, the spirit of the nation pitching the bar, handling the pike, riding, and shooting showing itself so averse to a popish alliance, had consented with the bow. Though extremely fond of horses, he was to her marriage with Frederick, count palatine of the not, like his father, addicted to the chase, revolting from its Rhine. Her suitors were numerous: amongst the most discruelty. He seemed to have set before him as models Henry tinguished were the prince of Piedmont and the young king V. and the Black Prince; models which might have led him of Spain. Both James and the queen were bent on placing to inflict serious evils on his country had he lived, by the Elizabeth on the throne of Spain, but the pope's nuncio in spirit of conquest. Young as he was, he displayed all the Spain, not less than the protestants in England, strenuously tastes of such a hero. He fired off cannon with his own opposed it; the former deprecating the introduction of a hands, and had new pieces cast on improved models. He protestant princess into the Spanish court. In the spring conversed with unceasing pleasure with engineers and men of 1612 the health of prince Henry began to fail. In the who had seen distinguished service, and he imported the October of that year the count palatine arrived in England finest horses from the Continent that could be procured. to complete his marriage with Elizabeth, who was still only In his private character he was serious, modest, and devout. sixteen. Henry roused himself to receive his proposed He attended the best preachers, and listened with a quiet brother-in-law; he rode to town from Richmond, and most sobriety, in striking contrast to his father, who was imprudently, in his infirm state of health, engaged in the always excited when listening to a preacher, and wanting to sports and pastimes of the occasion. On the 24th of preach himself. Henry abhorred profanity and swearing, October he played a great match at tennis with the count and had a box in each of his houses at Richmond, Nonsuch, Henry of Nassau in his shirt. He had been suffering from and St. James's, to receive the fines for swearing from his typhus already, and this brought it to a crisis. He was seized household, which were rigorously levied, and the money in the night with a violent pain in his head, and an oppressive given to the poor. languor; yet the next day, being Sunday, he would rise and As these traits became known, the people flocked after the attend two services, one in his own chapel at St. James's, and another at the king's in Whitehall. The text of the preacher at St. James's was remarkable :-" Man, that is born of a woman, is of short continuance and full of trouble." In the afternoon, after dinner, he was compelled to yield to the complaint, and hastened home and to bed. By the 29th he was so ill that there was a great dismay amongst the people, and this was immensely aggravated by a lunar rainbow, which appeared to span that part of the palace of St. James's where the sick prince lay. The most fatal auguries were drawn from this phenomenon. The fever now assumed a putrid form, and was declared by the medical men highly infectious; and his parents and sister were debarred from entering his room. He grew daily worse, was highly delirious, calling for his clothes and his arms, and saying he must be gone. On the 5th of November, the anniversary of the gunpowder plot, James was informed that all hope was extinct; and unable to bear his feelings so near the scene of sorrow, he hastened away to Theobalds; but the queen would only retire to Somerset House, whence she sent continual messengers to inquire after her son's symptoms. The prince had entertained a romantic admiration of Sir Walter Raleigh, declaring that no prince but his father would keep such a bird in a cage, and he had joined with his mother in entreating for his liberty. To Sir Walter the life or death of the prince was life or death to himself. The agonised mother was now seized with a desperate desire to obtain from Raleigh a nostrum which he possessed, and which she had herself formerly taken in a fit of ague. Sir Walter sent it, with the assurance that it would cure any mortal malady except poison. The prince had been informed that day, in a lucid interval, of his danger, by the archbishop of Canterbury, and had given the primate his confession of faith. He then called repeatedly, "David! David!" for David Murray, his confilential servant, but when asked what he wished for, only said, "I would say something, but I cannot utter it." Murray at length understood that he wished some letters in his cabinet to be burnt, and complied with his wish. After taking Raleigh's nostrum he seemed to revive for a time, but again became worse, and expired at eight o'clock on Friday night, the 6th of November. never Perhaps a more extraordinary 5th of November was passed than that one preceding Henry's death. The people were assembled in dense crowds around the palace, eagerly listening for news of the prince's condition, whilst all around them were the noises, the firing and the bonfires, of the celebration of the gunpowder plot. They were still remaining there the following day, and when the cry of the prince's servants was heard in the palace on beholding him dead, the people howled, groaned, stamped, and wept in agony. The catholics, on their part, regarded the death of the first-born of the royal house as a manifest judgment for the persecution of their church. The violence of the queen's grief exceeded that of the people. For some hours after the taking of Raleigh's nostrum, she heard accounts of his rapid improvement, and then came the news that he was as rapidly sinking, was dead. She fell into the most violent paroxysms of grief; and recollecting Raleigh's assurance that his specific would cure 47 all ailments but poisoning, she declared that the prince was the victim of foul play. Henry had shown the most uncompromising aversion to Carr, the favourite, and she called to mind the evil visage of his agent, Sir Thomas Overbury, and believed that he had been employed to poison him. This led to a post mortem examination, which clearly demonstrated that no poison had been used, but that the prince died from natural causes. The words of the queen, however, flew far and wide, and in that age of superstition, and of violent antipathies, originated the most atrocious rumours, in which the reputation of James himself was not spared. We may close this chapter with the relation of a circum-, stance in which the king was as much deserving of censure' as he was innocent of all participation in the death of his son. A Dutch clergyman named Vorstius had written a treatise on the nature and attributes of the Deity. In fact, religious controversy was running high in the Low Countries. Arminius, the pastor of the cathedral at Amsterdam, and afterwards professor at Leyden, had broached the doctrine of free-will in opposition to the predestinarianism of Calvin. The whole country became divided into two hostile sections on these points, which no human intellect has ever been able to settle to the satisfaction of all parties. The Arminians acquired the name of Remonstrants, from the remonstrance of Arminius against Calvinism. Barneveldt, the patriot, stood at the head of the remonstrants, prince Maurice of Nassau at the head of the anti-remonstrants, or Gomarists. On the death of Arminius, Vorstius was elected to his chair at Leyden, and put forth a treatise in defence of his predecessor's opinions. This treatise was put into James's hands whilst he was in the country hunting, and in the space of a single hour he had picked out of it a long list of what he termed damnable heresies. Forthwith he conceived that it rested with him to settle the fierce controversy which had whirled in its vortex all the intellects of Holland. wrote to Winwood, his ambassador there, to accuse Vorstius before the states of heresy and infidelity, charging him with denying the omniscience of the godhead and the divinity of Christ. He The Dutch were by no means pleased with this foreign interference in their affairs, and in a respectful manner made answer to that effect. But James wrote them back with his own hand that he could not be thus put by; that he was willing, "if the professor could excuse his blasphemies, he should escape the stake, though no heretic ever deserved it better." He bade them remember that the king of England was the defender of the faith, and that if they would not separate from the heretic, he would separate from them; and he warned them that in that case "he would call in other foreign powers to remand to hell such abominable doctrines." The states still obstinately ignoring James's interference, he published a declaration against Vorstius in French, and the Gomarists combining with the king's friends, at length succeeded in getting Vorstius expelled from his professorship, and banished from Leyden. James had thus succeeded in ruining a worthy and distinguished man for his religious opinions, and caused him to be driven into banishment. unfortunate advocate of Arminianism was expelled from | in Smithfield, and has the grim distinction of being the Holland. After wandering about in poverty and obscurity, last English monarch who signed the writ de heretico hiding from the face of his enemies, who would well have liked to kill him, the duke of Holstein, in 1622, offered him an asylum in his states, with seven hundred families of his comburendo. His first victim was Bartholomew Legate, an Arian, or unitarian, who, after being examined by James himself and CHAPTER II. Ben Jonson, Poet Laureate at the Court of James I. Marriage of the Princess Elizabeth-The King's Favourite, Carr-Imprisonment of Overbury-Marriage of Carr-Rise of George Villiers-Murder of Overbury-Conviction of the Earl and Countess of Somerset-Fall of Coke-Transactions with Holland-Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland -The King's Visit to Scotland-The Five Articles-Affairs in Ireland -Religious Discontent there-Flight of Tyrone and Tyrconnel-Revolt -Power of Buckingham - Voyage of Sir Walter Raleigh to New Guiana-His Failure, and Execution-The Palsgrave made King of Bohemia - Exposure of Officers of the Crown-Impeachment and Disgrace of Bacon -The Palsgrave and Elizabeth driven from Bohemia-Impeachment of Floyd for rejoicing in it-Williams Lord Keeper-The Primate shoots a Gamekeeper-Struggles with Parliament-Punishment of Members-Proposed Spanish Match-Romantic Journey of Prince Charles and Buckingham to Spain-Match broke oft -Threatened War with Spain-Parliamentary Prosecution of the Earl of Middlesex-Plot against Buckingham-Aid sent to the Palatine of O'Dogherty-New Plantations-Persecutions for Religion in England Match with a French Princess-Death and Character of James. THE princess Elizabeth was the only surviving daughter of four; she was now about sixteen, and the death of her brother delayed for a short time her marriage with the grave." After her son's death she showed more cordiality to the palsgrave. The court was ordered to go into mourning for twelve weeks; but at Christmas James commanded the mourning, to be in satin, and on the 27th the young couple were affianced, the bride still in her mourning. The king was present, though he was brought in a chair, for he was too gouty to walk. The queen kept her chamber. On the 14th of February, St. Valentine's day, the marriage took place in Whitehall chapel. Both king and queen were present, the king in a splendid black suit, the queen in white satin. It was the first royal marriage celebrated according to the form of the book of common prayer, and the whole court was in a blaze of splendour. The king, queen, and prince appeared literally covered with the crown jewels; no one under a baron was permitted to it. Elizabeth wore a robe of silver tissue, with a coronet of gold on her head, and her hair flowing in rich luxuriance down her back as low as her knees. Her brother and the earl of Northampton acted as her bridesmen, each conducting, her by a hand; whilst twenty bridesmaids of her own age, dressed in white and embroidery, followed, bearing her train. The princess appeared smiling as she ascended the platform in the royal chapel, but from some cause, most probably an hysterical excitement, she began to titter, and being unable to restrain herself, soon burst into a loud laugh. The company were startled, and many regarded it as an ill omen, which the events of a few years appeared to confirm. When the bride departed with her husband, the queen sunk into a state of indisposition which threatened serious consequences, and was ordered by her physicians to seek the waters of Bath. From the death of Cecil we may date the reign of favourites, which continued so long as the king lived. That cautious and able minister was too fond of power himself to allow it to pass into the hands of much weaker men. James, whilst Cecil lived, had indeed no lack of favourites, on whom he lavished affluence and honours; but his cunning minister had the address to prevent him giving them places of real power and responsibility. James therefore, so long as Cecil remained, was content to make his favourites his companions, and left Cecil to conduct public affairs; but no sooner was Salisbury in his grave, than James became the slave of his favourites, who in reality ruled both him and the kingdom. The first of these was Robert Carr, or Ker, a young border Scot of the Kers of Fernihurst. He had been some years in France, and being a handsome youth, "straightlimbed, well-formed, strong-shouldered, and smooth-faced," he had been led to believe that if he cultivated his personal appearance, and a gaiety and courtliness of address, he was sure of making his fortune at the court of James. Accordingly he managed to appear as page to lord Dingwall at a grand tilting match at Westminster, in 1606. According to chivalric usage, it became his duty to present his lord's shield to his majesty; but in manoeuvring his horse on the occasion it fell, and broke his leg. That fall was his James was immediately struck with the beauty of the youth who lay disabled at his feet, and had him straightway carried into a house near Charing Cross, and sent his own surgeon to him. As soon as he could get away from the tilt-yard, he hastened to him himself. He renewed his visits daily, waiting upon him himself, and displaying to the whole court the greatness of his sudden regard for him. "Lord!" says Weldon, "how the great men flocked then to see him, and to offer to his shrine in such abundance, that the king was forced to lay a restraint, lest it might retard his recovery." rise. The lad's fortune was made; and though James, in conversing with him, found that he was very ignorant-the whole of his education having been directed to his outside that did not abate his regard, but he condescended to be at once his nurse and schoolmaster. "The prince," says Harrington, "leaneth on his arm, pinches his cheek, smooths his ruffled garments. The young man doth study much art and device; he hath changed his tailors and tiremen many times, and all to please the prince. The king teaches him Latin every morning, and I think some one should teach him English too, for he is a Scotch lad, and hath much need of better language." James found that Carr had been his page in Scotland, and that his father had suffered much in the cause of his mother, Mary Stuart; these were additional causes of favour. On Christmas-day, 1607, he knighted him and made him a gentlemen of the bed-chamber, so as to have him constantly about his person. Such was his favour that every one pressed around him to obtain their suits with the king. He received rich presents; the ladies courted his attention; the greatest lords did him the most obsequious and disgusting homage. Carr, however, had an eye to pleasing the public, and therefore, Scotchman as he was, he turned the cold shoulder to his countrymen, and associated with and favoured the English; probably, too, finding this the most profitable. Those about him were almost wholly English; and his affairs were in the hands of one Sir Thomas Overbury, a man of an evil look, and with a countenance said to be shaped like that of a horse. The dark ability of this man supplied the lack of talent in his patron, and became a mine of wealth to Overbury himself. Even Cecil and the earl of Suffolk strove to avail themselves of his services; and when Cecil quitted the scene, Carr, through Overbury's management, carried all before him. In March, 1611, he was created viscount Rochester, in April, 1612, he became a member of the privy council, and was invested with the order of the garter. The earl of Suffolk succeeding to Cecil's post of lord treasurer, Carr stepped into Suffolk's office of lord chamberlain, at the same time discharging the duties of the post of secretary by the aid of Sir Thomas Overbury. The favourite's favourite, however, was no favourite of the king, who was jealous of having so much of the time and confidence of Carr occupied by Overbury, and this feeling was probably much heightened by the queen, who had an inOn one occasion the queen stinctive aversion to the man. succeeded in obtaining his expulsion from court, for alleged discourtesy to her, but he soon returned; and though the king appointed Sir Ralph Winwood and Sir Thomas Lake to occupy jointly the office of secretary of state, yet Carr, by the king's favour and Overbury's ability, remained lord paramount in the court; Overbury himself being the avenue to every favour. On the 21st of April, 1613, he boasted to Sir Henry Wotton of his good fortune, and his flattering prospects, yet that very day saw him committed close prisoner to the Tower. Adept as he was in all court intrigues, he had yet committed an irremediable blunder, and awoke a spirit of vengeance which nothing but his blood could quench. This spirit lived in the bosom of a beautiful girl of not yet twenty years of age. Lady Frances Howard, the daughter of the earl of Suffolk, had been married at the age of thirteen to the Earl of Essex, the son of Elizabeth's unfortunate favourite, who was only a year older. It was a match promoted by the king out of regard, as he said, for the memory of the young earl's father. The ceremony being performed, the bride returned to the care of her mother, and the boy bridegroom proceeded, under care of a tutor, on his travels. At the end of four years he returned, and claimed his wife, whom he found the beauty and pride of the court. But whilst he was enraptured with her loveliness, he was mortified to find that she treated him with every mark of aversion. It was only by the stern command of her father that she consented to live |