But while the king was exulting in the expected fruits of his pacific . isdom, they were blasted by the interfer ence of a worthless favourite. This was Villiers, duke of Buckingham. who had succeeded to Somerset in the capricious affections of James, and had risen from the rank of his cup-bearer to a dukedom and the first digni ties of the state. Equally worthless with Somerset, he hail captivated the sovereign by the same external beau ty and superficial accomplishments; but he had govern ed both the king and the court more intolerably. From the mediocrity of his talents, he was unfit to give weight to foreign transactions ; and by his insolence, he had be odious to many at home. Vet wishing to regain his influence by foreign distinction, and envying the earl of Bristol the reputation he had acquired by managing the Spanish negotiation, he persuaded prince Charles to the romantic resolution of going in person to Spain, that he might throw himself at the feet of the Spanish prin cess, and claim her as his bride in the true spirit of knight errantry. The prince and Buckingham, (or baby Charles and Stanny, as the king used ridiculously to call his son and his favourite,) were received at Madrid with all possible courtesy, and the match, after many delays, seemed on the point of being consummated, when it was broken off on the side of the prince. This is ascribed to the influence of Buckingham, who is said to have quarrelled with the Spanish nobility, and to have hated the Infanta ; but we must also take into account, that Charles had seen at Paris, on his way to Spain, Henri etta, the (laughter of Henry IV., and for her lie con ceived a passion, to which he continued faithful all his life. The match with the homely Infanta was broken off, and a war between the two countries appeared ine vitable.
To meet the consequences of the broken treaty, a parliament was called. Buckingham, in the peers, pub licly laid the blame of the rupture on the insincerity of Spain with regard to the match, and appealing to the prince of Wales, at the end of every solemn assertion, received a sign or wad of assent. It might have required but little penetration to discover, that this was a collu sion in falsehood between the prince and the favourite ; but the idea of a Spanish war was so popular, and the joy so great at the breach of a Catholic alliance, that Buckingham lor a time grew popular, and was hailed, even by sir Edward Coke, as the saviour of the nation.
James lamented to his parliament, that, after having borne so long the name of the Pacific Monarch, he should be plunged into war in his old age. He demand ed supplies to meet the event, but offered that the war funds should be managed by a committee appointed by parliament. The commons took him at his word, with respect to the management of money,but voted a smaller sum than he had demanded. Availing themselves too, of the more submissive character which he began to discover in his old age, they corroborated their power of impeachment, and obtained a declaratory act against monopolies.
Troubled at the prospect of war, the king now longed for the arrival of the earl of Bristol, an enlightened statesman, who had managed his interests at the court of Spain with great fidelity and intelligence. But Buck ingham was conscious of the falsehoods he had told re specting the Spanish treaty, and sensible that Bristol could expose them. From the absurd weakness of his
master, he obtained an order for Bristol's commitment to the Tower ; and though he was soon released, he was ordered to retire to his country seat, and to be sent from parliament. Prince Charles and Buckingham had the meanness and tyranny to offer him the king's i favour, if he would acknowledge his conduct to have been wrong, an offer at which he spurned with proper spirit ; but though the king expressed his opinion of his treatment being unjust, he had now no will of his own, and could never obtain an interview with Bristol.
The United Provinces were at this time governed by prince Maurice, who, on the breaking of the truce with Spain in 1621, took the field against the celebrated Spi nola ; but the force of the latter was so much stronger, that Maurice was obliged to act on the defensive. A reinforcement of six thousand men, who were now ex pected from England, under the young lords Oxford, Southampton, Essex, and Willoughby, promised an important accession to his strength. It was determined also to reconquer the Palatinate, a state in the heart or hostile Germany, and cut off from all communication with England. Count Mansfeldt was taken into pay, and twelve thousand Englishmen were levied by press throughout the kingdom, whose bravery, it was hoped, would penetrate the whole continent, and restore Ferdi nand to his throne.
France did not behold with indifference the extended encroachments of the house of Austria, nor, without satis faction, the combination of England and her ally to oppose them. But the first project of Louis and Richelieu was to humble the Hugonots. The proposal of a marriage, how ever, between prince Charles arid the princess Henri etta, was favourably received on the part of France.. The same terms as to Catholic toleration were agreed to by the English court, which had been promised in the negotiation for the Infanta, and the new treaty was signed at Paris on the 16th of November 1624. The marriage portion promised by Henrietta was crowns ; and it was stipulated, that the prince should settle a jointure of 60,000 crowns a year. Fatally for the house of Stuart, the French princess was to have the education of the children till thirteen years of age.
During the whole negotiation, promises had been made, (though in general terms,) that the English troops should have a passage through France, and even be joined by succours for the Palatinate ; yet when Mans feldt's troops sailed to Calais, no orders had arrived for their admission. They sailed to Zealand, but the States had some scruples to admit them, on account of the scar city of provisions. A distemper in the mean time broke out in the fleet, which carried off one half of the forces, and as the rest were too few to think of reaching the palatinate, the expedition was given up. James, how ever, did not live long to witness a state of affairs so foreign to his pacific dispositions. About the middle of March he was seized with a tertian ague, and thought such a disorder was not thought dangerous in the spring, he died on the 27th of March, in the 59th year of his age, after a reign over England of 22 years. His reign over Scotland was almost of equal duration with his life.