obstacles BOOK I LIFE OF Chap. III. HENRY, testimony, their intercourse is memorable. It must have been by virtue of some congeniality of nature that a youth in HENRY's position so quickly leapt across many -to an appreciation, alike of the circumstances and of the WALES. character of RALEGH, which still commends itself to those who have looked into them most searchingly. The estimate has been many times confirmed by the investigations of history, long afterwards, but it was strongly opposed to the broad current of contemporary opinion. A heart larger than the average may have its divinations, as well as the intellect that is more acute and better furnished than the average. THE INVES INTO THE NAVAL April. But the generous heart is often allied with a hasty temper. The impression made on the Prince by RALEGH'S writings on naval matters had, amongst other results, that of increasing both his interest in the management of the royal dockyards, and his familiar intercourse with Phineas PETT. PETT was master shipwright at Chatham, and, as we have seen, the designer of the prince's first vessel Disdain. When Sir Robert COTTON had induced the 1608. King to issue that Commission of Inquiry into the Navy, of the results of which some account has been given in the PP. 62, 65. preceding Chapter, PETT was one of the persons whose official doings were brought into question. HENRY took a warm interest in the inquiry and testified openly his anxiety on PETT's behalf. A specific charge about an alleged disproportion between timber paid for and the vessels built therewith was investigated at Woolwich. Both the King and the Prince were present. HENRY stood by PETT's side. When the evidence was seen to disprove the charge, the Prince cried with a loud voice disregarding alike the royal presence and the forms of law -Where be now those perjured fellows that dare thus Ms. Life of Phineas Pett, in 6279 (B.M.) p. 45. BOOK I, LIFE OF HENRY'S HIS PUR CHASE OF LIBRARY. abuse His Majesty with false informations? Do they not worthily deserve hanging?' The warmth of HENRY's friendship seems to have suffered little diminution by the absence of its objects. When his friends went to far-off countries he encouraged them to be active correspondents by setting them a good example. He welcomed all sorts of real and worthy information. About the government and affairs of foreign countries his curiosity was insatiable. When important letters came to him he not only read them with care but made abstracts of their contents. When the labour-loving Lord Treasurer SALISBURY noticed, with regret, in his son CRANBORNE certain indications of a turn towards indolence, it was by an appeal to Prince HENRY's example that he strove to correct the failing. HENRY evinced eagerness to learn by all methods. Books, letters, conversation, personal insight into notable things and new inventions,—were alike acceptable to him. In April, 1609, the death of John, Lord Lumley, without issue, enabled the Prince to gratify his love of books by purchasing a Library which probably was more valuable than any other collection then existing in England, with the exception of that of Sir Robert COTTON. Thirty years before, Lord LUMLEY had inherited the fine library of his father-in-law, Henry FITZALAN, Earl of ARUNDEL, who had been a collector of choice manuscripts at a time when the reckless dispersion of monastic treasures impoverished the nation, but gave, here and there, golden opportunities to openhanded private men. When the estates of the FITZALANS came to LUMLEY-in virtue of an entail made by the Earl of ARUNDEL during Lady LUMLEY'S lifetime-the splendid succession had lost its best charm. The wife who had thus enriched him was Chap. III. HENRY, at Norf. dead, and he was childless. His wife's sister, the Duchess Book I, of NORFOLK, was also dead, but had left a son. LUMLEY LIFE OF sold his life interest in the broad lands, and forests, and in the famous castle of Arundel, to the next heir, but he kept WALES. the library and found one of the chief pleasures of his Muniments remaining term of life in liberally augmenting it. HENRY'S House first care, after his purchase, was to have a careful cata- Box 7), as logue made of the collection. And he soon gave evidence cited in that he had bought the books for use; not for show. He drundel, also made many important additions, from time to time, during his three years' ownership. (Sussex, Tierney's p. 19. Privy Purse Book; in ence, JAMES 1, vol. Ivii, § 87, p. 4. (RI) NAMENTS OF Perhaps the most festive days of that brief span were the Correspondsixth of January, 1610, and the sixth of June of the same year, on both of which Whitehall again witnessed a gay tournament. On twelfth-day, at the head of a band of THE TOURknights which included LENNOX, ARUNDEL, SOUTHAMPTON, 1610 HAY, Sir Thomas SOMERSET, and Sir Richard PRESTON, HENRY kept his barriers against fifty-six assailants, and before a brilliant court, for whose pleasure the long mimic fight was diversified by the gay devices of Inigo JONES, and the graceful verses of Ben JONSON. Next day the jousting was followed by a banquet not less splendid. At White- Chronicle of hall, as at Stirling sixteen years before,—the banquetting lasted seven hours, but it was enlivened by a comedy in The Speeches which the ladies were not condemned to silence. In the Henries Barfollowing June, HENRY'S creation as Prince of WALES Was celebrated by tiltings on a more extensive scale, as well by masques and dances, and by an elaborate naval battle upon the Thames. But the prince himself seems to have 1st edit.) taken more pleasure in witnessing from time to time, at Woolwich or at Chatham, the launching of real ships fitted for real warfare. Nor are indications wanting that during his ponderings on the many advices which he England, p. 898. at Prince riers; and Masque. Oberon, a as Jonson's Works, vol v. pp. 965-974, BOOK I. LIFE OF PRINCE OF WALES. THE PRO received of the course of public events in Europe, he had! Be that as it may, the broad contrasts of character which existed between the wearer of the crown and its heir apparent became increasingly obvious during the long negotiations and correspondence about the projects of marriage ROYAL MAR for the prince himself and for his sister. Something, indeed, of the difference in character between JAMES and 1611-1612. HENRY was indicated when, in 1611, the prince directed JECTS FOR RIAGES. RALEGH to draw up, in his prison, a paper of advice on the scheme of a double marriage with Savoy and on the relations between Savoy and Spain. It came out more forcibly when, on occasion of the proposal from France for his own marriage with CHRISTINA (the elder sister of HENRIETTA MARIA), he wrote to his father in these words: The cause which first induced your Majesty to proceed in this proposition by your Ambassador was the hope which the Duke of BOUILLON gave your Majesty of breaking their other match with Spain. If the continuance of this treaty hold only upon that hope, and not upon any desire to effect a match with the second daughter, in my weak opinion I hold that it stands more with your Majesty's honour to stay your Ambassador from moving it any more than to go on with it. Because no great negotiation should be grounded upon a ground that is very unsure and uncertain, and depends upon their wills who were the first causers of the contrary. For this letter the Prince was rebuked. Two months afterwards, it was found indispensable to desire him to express again his opinion upon a new stage of the negotiation. He did so in words to which the events of the next few years were destined to give significance. I quote from the original letter, preserved (with a large mass of other letters from the same hand) amongst the Harleian MSS.* 'As for the exercise of the princess' religion,' wrote HENRY, on the 5th of October, 1612, 'your Majesty may be pleased to make your Ambassador give a peremptory answer that you will never agree to give her greater liberty in the exercise of it than that which is agreed with the Savoyeard, which is-to use his own word-privatemente; or, as Sir Henry WOTTON did expound it, "in her most private and secret chamber." Then he touches on the delicate question of dowry, and the relative preferability of the alliance proffered by France and that proffered by Savoy; adding,—with an obvious mental reference, I think, to the advice given him by RALEGH in the preceding year, these pregnant words : 'If your Majesty will respect rather which of these two will give the greatest contentment to the general body of the Protestants abroad, then I am of opinion that you will sooner incline to France than to Savoy.' The writer then hints a fear that he may, unwittingly, have incurred a renewal of the paternal displeasure which some expressions of opinion in his former letter on the same subject had excited. Let his father kindly remember, he entreats, that his own special part in the business,which is to be in love with any of them, is not yet at hand.' Death, not love-making, was at hand. One month after In dealing with royal letters it is, of course, necessary to keep in mind how largely the vicarious element is apt to enter into their composition. Those, however, that are quoted in the text seem to have a plain stamp of individuality upon them. Book I Chap. III. HENRY, WALES. 1612. Oct. 5. Henry to James; MS. HARL, 6986, f. 10. |