A Popular History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Queen Victoria; Vol. III

by François Guizot

The favorites of James I. succeeded each other in the royal household without intermission, often arousing the jealousy of the queen. These favorites were loaded with riches and honors while they were all-powerful, abandoned and forgotten when they were replaced by others, unless they possessed some dangerous secret. Robert Carr or Ker, of an old Border family, had recently taken possession of this envied position, when Cecil died, in 1612. Still young, but having already become Viscount Rochester, a member of the Privy Council, and Knight of the Garter, he was created Lord Chamberlain, and fulfilled the functions of Secretary of State, thanks to the assistance of one of his friends, Sir Thomas Overbury, who was destined to pay dearly for the honor. Sinister rumors soon began to circulate concerning Rochester himself.

Prince Henry, the eldest son of James, was the idol of the people. Handsome, well formed, brave, bold, and skillful in all bodily exercises, he had, it was said, chosen the Black Prince for his model, and was studying the science of war with more pleasure than letters and theology. The pedantry of his father was odious to him, and he did not scruple to blame his actions. A great admirer of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was still imprisoned in the Tower, he often said that no other king than his father would keep such a bird in a cage. "He has become a man too soon to live long," it was said among the people. Yet the greatest hopes were founded on him. His life was regular, and his opinions appeared to incline to the side of the Puritans, the real party of the people, who looked upon him as the liberator promised by the Scriptures. King James was afraid of his son. "Will he bury me alive?" he said, when he heard of the multitude which surrounded the young prince. He endeavored, meanwhile, to marry his son, first to the Infanta of Spain, then to the Princess Christine of France; but the negotiations proceeded slowly, and the English people flattered themselves with hopes of a Protestant alliance, like that which had recently been concluded for the young Princess Elizabeth, betrothed to the Count Palatine Frederick V. This prince had arrived in England, on the 16th of October, 1612, for the celebration of the marriage, when Prince Henry, who had been for some time ill, suffered a sudden relapse. He was weak, and appeared to be in a state of stupor. An energetic will still triumphed, however, over the disease. He raised himself several times, appeared in public and dined with the king. But the strength of the young man was declining rapidly. His physicians were not agreed as to the nature of the illness. On the 5th of November, the king was informed of the desperate condition of his son. The prince was in London; but the king, dreading the sorrow which awaited him, immediately set out for Theobalds, of which Cecil had formerly given up the ownership to him, and awaited the event from afar. The prince died on the 6th of November, 1612, amidst general grief, mingled with indignation. Rochester was everywhere accused of having poisoned the prince, although the accusation had no appearance of foundation. Henry had grown too rapidly, and had not strength to bear the attacks of a putrid fever. The king did not manifest for his son the same regret as his people. He immediately resumed for Prince Charles the negotiations of marriage begun for Prince Henry, and celebrated, on the 13th of February, 1613, the nuptials of his daughter with a pomp and splendor which were to be the only satisfaction of the young princess, who was prematurely destined to suffer from the difficulties and trials of the regal state.

The king was more than ever embarrassed for money. He endeavored to contract loans; he re-established and increased all the monopolies; he sold to all comers the honors of knighthood, a new intermediate order between the nobility and the common people, which was soon after to take the title of "baronetage;" but the avidity of the courtiers, the prodigality of the king, in ministering both to his own pleasures and to those of his favorites, as well as old debts which oppressed him, exhausted all resources. It was necessary to have recourse to Parliament. Sir Francis Bacon, formerly a dependent of the Earl of Essex, afterwards his accuser, one of the greatest minds and the most despicable characters in a period accustomed to such contrast, made a promise to James to undertake the task of making Parliament obey. Rochester, who had become Earl of Somerset, joined him. They were called with regard to this the undertakers. The Commons assembled in ill-humor. They had received intelligence of the audacious project formed to constrain them. They consulted the Lords upon the right of the king to establish various taxes. The Upper House refused the conference, but the subsidies were not voted. The king caused Parliament to be warned that he would dissolve it if it did not fulfill its task, the only one for which it was convoked. Parliament replied that it would not vote as long as the grievances were not redressed. It was dissolved, not to be called for six whole years. Parliament had not voted a single act, but it had powerfully contributed to establish that independence of the House which was soon to strike the death-blow to absolute power in England.

The star of a new favorite who was destined to have a hand in the work of shaking the foundations of the throne had already become visible above the horizon. George Villiers, known in history under the name of Buckingham, had begun to take the place of the Earl of Somerset in the heart of the king. The latter had recently married the Countess of Essex, who had been separated by divorce from her husband, the son of the unfortunate favorite of Queen Elizabeth. Somerset and his wife were accused by the public voice of having imprisoned, then poisoned an old friend of theirs, Sir Thomas Overbury. The growing favor of Villiers gave to the enemies of the declining favorite courage to denounce him to the king. The great judge Coke, rival of Bacon, adopted the low calumny circulated against Somerset, and accused him also of having poisoned Prince Henry. Several accomplices were arrested and the assassination of Overbury was proved; but the connivance of Somerset remained doubtful. Justice proceeded against him slowly and as though regretfully; the tone of the earl was often haughty; the king intervened in his favor: the favorite had been initiated into many important secrets. Bacon conducted the affair with consummate prudence and ability. The countess was separately condemned to death. Somerset being declared guilty in his turn, was pardoned, as was his countess: and the earl received royal gifts even after retirement to his country seat, which was soon afterwards granted to him as a prison. Either through fear or from a lingering affection, James I. did not abandon his former favorite, notwithstanding his growing passion for a new face. George Villiers was henceforth to reign undividedly over the father as well as the son. Prince Charles had assumed the title of Prince of Wales; his friendship for Villiers equalled that of the king.

Fourteen years had passed since James had quitted Scotland, and he had never visited his hereditary kingdom; he had no money for that purpose; but the States of Holland, free from the war with Spain since the recognition of their independence in 1609, had recently paid their debts to England, and the journey to Scotland was resolved upon. The king besides had a great task to achieve there; he was laboring to establish religious uniformity among his subjects. Twelve years previously he had undertaken to found the episcopacy in Scotland. Persecution, imprisonment, exile had by degrees disposed of the chiefs of the resistance. Welch and Decry, condemned to death, then to banishment, had retired abroad. Old Andrew Melvil, called to London for a conference, and forcibly detained, as his nephew had already been, had left the latter in his prison in Scotland, where he died. At this period Melvil was living at Sedan, ever indomitable in his aversion to the episcopacy and his support of the rights of a free-born Scot. James had in Scotland an agent as able as he was unscrupulous. Sir George Hume, whom he had made Earl of Dunbar, succeeded at length, partly by intimidation, partly by corruption, in imposing silence upon the Scottish clergy. Two courts of high commission still more tyrannical than those of London, were sitting at St. Andrew's and Glasgow when the king arrived in Scotland, in 1617. Parliament presented for the royal sanction the bill which definitively constituted the episcopal Church; but a remonstrance from the clergy arrested the arm of the king as he extended the sceptre to give the authority of law to the project; the bill was withdrawn, the episcopacy was held to be established by the royal prerogative, and the refractory were cited before the high commission. Calderwood went to swell the band of Scottish exiles upon the Continent, and the people, deprived of the religious form which pleased them and to which they were accustomed, allowed their resentment to slumber until the day when the Covenant was to protest against the work of the father as developed by the son.

King James had been much vexed in Scotland by the strict observance of the "Sabbath." When he set out to return to England, he composed a work to which he gave the authority of law, under the title of The Book of Sports. Under the pretext of regulating the pleasures permitted on Sunday, this new ordinance forbade the respectful observances which marked among the Puritans the rest of the seventh day. The Book of Sports was ill received by the majority of the population. They refused to be merry by compulsion, and the new arm, more dangerous to royalty than to the Puritans, lay in the arsenal of despotism, until Archbishop Laud subsequently drew it forth for his own injury as well as that of his master.

At the moment of leaving Scotland, the king had raised Bacon to the dignity of Keeper of the Seals and had entrusted extensive powers to him. This royal favor had turned the brain of the illustrious lawyer, who had affected the dignity of king during the absence of the legitimate monarch. Upon his return, however, Bacon resumed his accustomed humility in presence of the great men of the land. After waiting for two days at the door of Villiers, who had become Duke of Buckingham, he at length obtained admission, and threw himself prostrate before the favorite, kissing his feet. He did not rise until he had obtained his pardon. "I was obliged to kneel myself before the king to make him revoke your disgrace," said the haughty favorite to the repentant magistrate. The disgrace had reference especially to the part which Bacon had played in a project of marriage for the brother of Villiers with the grand-daughter of Coke. The union was accomplished, but Coke only gained by the sacrifice of his grand-daughter a place in the Council, while Bacon, reconciled with Buckingham, became Chancellor and Lord Verulam, thus adding fresh riches to the treasures which he dissipated as quickly as he acquired them.

Bacon was not the only person who sold justice and favor. Buckingham, his family, and his friends, were publicly trafficking in offices, posts, and titles, which were even imposed sometimes upon those who did not ask for them. The favorite was created a Marquis and appointed High Admiral, to the detriment of the aged Howard, formerly commander of the fleet that had vanquished the Armada. Trials, skillfully conducted by Bacon and Coke, added fines and confiscations to the produce of the malversations. All articles of primary necessity were the subject of monopolies. The people regretted Somerset, and still more the wise administration and economy of Queen Elizabeth.

Amidst the system of plunder which he tolerated, the king was still poor. He had for a moment hoped for a fresh source of wealth; Sir Walter Raleigh, still confined in the Tower, had succeeded in bringing to the knowledge of the king the details of a gold-mine, which he had formerly discovered in Guiana. Raleigh was quite ready to direct an expedition, promising to pay all expenses himself and asking from the king nothing but his liberty. A fifth of all the profits was to belong to the Crown. James hesitated for a long time. He dreaded the valor of Raleigh, which might involve him in a war with Spain; but the skillful adventurer contrived to purchase the good-will of the favorite. Raleigh issued forth from the Tower, free, but not pardoned. Protesting his pacific intentions with regard to the Spaniards, he set sail on the 28th of March, 1617, as King James was preparing to start for Scotland.