on one occasion, he says, "For my part, I hold it the office of a king, as sitting upon the throne of God, to imitate the primum mobile, and by his steady and ever constant course to govern all the other changeable and uncertain motions of the inferior planets*." Sir Henry Wotton mentions an occurrence in connexion with this system of secret intelligence which on several accounts is worthy of notice. "The queen," he observes, "having for a good while not heard anything from Scotland, and being thirsty of news, it fell out that her majesty going to take the air towards the heath (the court being then at Greenwich), and master secretary Cecil then attending her, a post came crossing by, and blew his horn; the queen out of curiosity asked him from whence the dispatch came; and being answered from Scotland, she stops the coach, and calleth for the packet. The secretary, though he knew there were in it some letters from his correspondents, which to discover were as so many serpents, yet made more shew of diligence than of doubt to obey; and asks some that stood by (forsooth in great haste) for a knife to cut up the packet, (for otherwise perhaps he might have awaked a little apprehension,) but in the meantime approaching with the packet in his hand, at a pretty distance from the queen, he telleth her it looked and smelled ill favouredly, coming out of a filthy budget, and that it should be fit first to open and air it, because he knew she was averse from ill scents. And so being dismissed home, he got leisure, by this seasonable shift, to sever what he would not have seen." The earls of Essex and Northumberland, and some others, were also actively employed in intrigues of this nature. But their influence was less considerable than that of the secretary, and the principal return in some instances was the more vigilant enmity of Cecil and his adherents +.

James pro

claimed the

successor of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth breathed her last on the twenty-fourth of March, 1603, about three o'clock in the morning; by six Cecil had assembled his colleagues, and at Whitehall and Cheapside proclaimed James VI. of Scotland her successor, in the presence of the populace. The people testified their joy by acclamations, bonfires, and ringing of bells. The first tidings that reached the ears of the king simply announced the death of Elizabeth, the effect of which was to call up "a concourse of doubts and questions." But the next messenger brought the news that the new sovereign had been proclaimed, and not only acknowledged without opposition, but

✦ Birch's Memoirs, ii. 315. Weldon's Court and Character of James I., 11, 12. . + Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, 169, 8vo. 1672. Birch's Historical View, 21. James "was careful to secure to himself the body of the English nation. Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, secretary to Queen Elizabeth, entered into a particular confidence with him; and this was managed by his ambassador Bruce, who carried the matter with such address and secrecy, that all the great men of England, without knowing of one another's doing it, and without the queen suspecting anything concerning it, signed in writing an engagement to assert the King of Scots' right of succession." Burnet's Own Times, i. 6. Osborn's Memorials, 447, 448.

with every demonstration of loyalty and affection*. This announcement removed distrust, and James, in the fulness of his joy, congratulated himself and his favourites on the speedy fruition of their long-cherished hopes. Nobles who had acted as an unwelcome check on the royal authority, now vied with each other in preparing the richest entertainment for their sovereign, while James hastened to exchange the restraints which the nobility, the clergy, and the poverty of his native country had concurred to impose on his strongest propensities, for the large means of indulgence always present to his view in his future dominions.

The progress of the king from Edinburgh to London.

In making his public progress towards London, James was the subject of much attention and observation, and there were occurrences which served to lessen his popularity very considerably before reaching the capital. On such occasions Elizabeth had always encouraged the familiar approaches of her subjects, aware of the favourable impression generally made by the most trivial instances of condescension in the conduct of persons of rank. But James seems to have possessed a natural dread of crowds, and on the pretence that such assemblages would raise the price of provisions he forbid the flocking of the people to meet him in the manner to which the different conduct of his predecessor had given the force of custom t. Added to this feeling was his jealousy of the fame of that princess, which discovered itself in the expressions used with respect to her, and in discountenancing whatever bespoke a regard for her memory. During this journey James indulged in degrading language with regard to the female sex in general, and in the presence of large companies at his table. He not only censured the conduct of Henry IV. of France in relation to females, but was understood to condemn sexual passions altogether, and suffered ladies to present themselves to him on their knees. The effect of such imprudence may be readily conceived §. Another circumstance which attracted much notice at this time, was the conduct of the king in ordering a man accused of theft to immediate execution without even the form of trial.

* Earl of Monmouth's Memoirs. Osberne's Memorials of the Reign of King James, 423. Rymer, Fœdera, xvi. 493. Strype, iv. 370.

+"She did not seldom fetch an entertainment at such grandees' houses as were understood to be most popular, by which she removed her subjects' eyes from these inferior stars, and fixed them on the greater splendour of her own: besides her outdoing them in the art of popularity, acting to the life the pageant of the people (which all princes really are and the wisest the most gaudy), from whence it is far more endearing to throw flowers than wildfire." Osberne, 381. "The people having been habituated to see Elizabeth in public, to give her applause and to receive her thanks, it appears to them strange that this king should despise them and live in complete retirement." Beaumont, May 24, 28, 1603. in Raumer, ii. 197.

Stowe, Chron. 821. Somers, ii. 147. Sully's Memoirs, 1. xiv. xv. Sully, as French ambassador, would have appeared at the court of the new king in mourning, but was informed that his doing so would be taken as an offence. James, however, professed himself willing to attend the queen's funeral, if deemed necessary, as a mark of respect to her memory. Ellis, Original Letters, iii. 65.

§ Depêches de Beaumont, Mai, 1603. Raumer, ii. Birch's Memoirs, ii. 516.

A contemporary in relating the occurrence observed, "It is strangely done; now if the wind bloweth thus, why may not a man be tried before he is offended*?"

In the appearance and general manner of the sovereign there was nothing to redeem these faults. "He was of middle stature," says a writer of the time, "more corpulent through his clothes than in his body, yet fat enough; his clothes being made large and easy, the doublet quilted for stiletto proof; his breeches in plaits, and full stuffed. He was naturally of a timorous disposition, which was the reason of his quilted doublets. His eye large, ever rolling after any stranger that came in his presence, insomuch as many for shame have left the room, as being out of countenance. His beard was very thin; his tongue too large for his mouth, and made him drink very unseemly, as if eating his drink, which came out into the cup of each side his mouth. His skin was as soft as taffeta sarsenet; which felt so, because he never washed his hands, only rubbed his fingers'-end slightly with the wet end of a napkin. His legs were very weak, having had, as some thought, some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, that he was not able to stand at seven years of age; that weakness made him ever leaning on other men's shoulders. His walk was circular t."

At the close of this progress James became the guest of his secretary, under whose roof the monarch formed his council, in

Council

cluding twelve persons, six being of each nation. The formed. English portion consisted of the earls of Northumberland and Cumberland, Lord Henry and Lord Thomas Howard, and the Barons Bourrough and Zouch: the Scotch men were the duke of Lennox, the Earl of Marr, Lord Hume, Sir George Hume (afterwards Earl of Dunbar), Lord Bruce, and Secretary Elphinstone. The government in relation to England remained for the most part in the hands of the English members of the council.

Among the abuses which had risen to an alarming height in the last

* Harrington's Nuga Antiquæ, i. 180. There was a statute which gave the king a summary power of this nature against theft committed within the bounds of the court: 33rd Henry VIII. c. 12. But a usage so obsolete as to have been wholly unknown to so old a courtier as Harrington, could hardly have guided the conduct of the king in this instance. It may be worth while to add that the offender was seized at Newark, to which place he had followed the court from Berwick in the garb of a gentleman.

+ Weldon, 177–179. “ I shall leave him dressed for posterity in the colours I saw him in the next progress after his inauguration, which was as green as the grass he trod on, with a feather in his cap, and a horn instead of a sword at his side." Osborn, 444.

I Stow, 816-822. "King James is governed by a small number of favourites, generally mere Scottish gentlemen of no great quality, who are always about him, and see and hear whatever passes-most of them are under his thumb, at least with respect to matters which he takes to heart. The courtiers are divided into two parties. The one is led by the Earl of Mar, and favoured by all who are devoted to the pretended reformed religion. At the head of the second party stands the queen." Villeroi, Aug. 15, 1603. Raumer, ii. 192. Cecil was the head of a third party.

of abuses.

reign was the manner of conferring privileged licenses, and the power A proclamaof monopoly, on certain merchants and tradesmen. When tion issued for the king arrived in London, a proclamation was issued the correction suspending all grants of this nature, until examined by the members of his majesty's council. Another pernicious usage-or one at least which like the former became pernicious from the frequency of its abuse-consisted in the granting protections from the crown for the purpose of delaying the decision of questions in the courts of law. It was required that such of these as still existed should be revoked. It was also an immemorial custom that the subject should be obliged to supply the royal household with commodities on certain terms, and the abuses connected with this system of " perveyance" as it was called, had been a ceaseless topic of complaint in every reign through many centuries. Some of the more fraudulent and unjust practices carried on under cover of this usage were prohibited*.

Distribution

of honours.

The matters contained in this proclamation were meant to prove the king's love of justice, and his solicitude in relation to the commerce and general prosperity of his people. As a further method of expressing his affection toward his subjects, titles of honour were showered upon them, until the value of such distinctions became of small amount. It happened also that these cheap marks of the royal favour were bestowed on the English aspirants in less proportion than on the Scots, and this circumstance may have led to the fixing of a pasquinade upon St. Paul's, which professed to teach a new art of memory, in the hope that it might not be found impossible to remember the titles of the new race of nobles +.

Arrival of ambassadors.

The arrival of ambassadors from the different powers, soon called the attention of the king from such employments to more important matters. The states of Holland dispatched Frederic, Prince of Nassau, with three able colleagues. The Count Aremberg appeared on the part of Austria; and the French monarch intrusted his affairs to the celebrated Rosny, afterwards Duke of Sully. The mission of the latter was to obtain a renewal of the

Lodge's Illustrations, iii. 159–162. The evils of " purveyance" went with the court in all its "progresses" through the land. The distinguished persons whose residences were honoured with the presence of royalty had to bear the whole expense of such visits. Elizabeth paid her minister Burleigh twelve visits of this description, each of which cost him some two or three thousand pounds. James was so far from lessening this evil, that five years after his accession his approach to a neighbourhood is described as a signal to the wealthy to vacate their mansions, as the only means of escaping these costly favours. "The progress holds on towards Northamptonshire, as unwelcome to those parts as rain in harvest, so as the great ones begin à remuer menage, and to dislodge, the Lord Spencer to his daughter Vane in Kent, and divers other gentlemen devise other errands otherways." Nichols's Progresses and Court of James I., ii. 20. But we shall find this evil weigh much more heavily on the middle classes than on the rich.

Stow, 816-827. Osborn, 469, 470.

secret alliance between France and England in favour of the Dutch provinces, who had long since cast off the odious yoke of Spain. The policy of Aremberg was to prevent this course of things: but he does not appear to have possessed instructions from the Spanish cabinet sufficient to allow of his prosecuting any serious negotiation; and James, though he questioned the right of the Hollanders to resist the authority of Spain, and sometimes spoke of them as rebels, dismissed the French ambassador with the pledge of a sincere compliance with the wishes of his master*.

State of Eu

rope.

At this time the Spanish monarchy was regarded as the most formidable in Europe, but without its really being such. On the accession of Philip II., its immense territories and resources seemed to justify the deep and general alarm with regard to his power. When that monarch became the successor of Charles V., Spain, with an army the most disciplined and powerful in Europe, had been made subservient to the maxims of absolute power, and as yet had participated only to a small degree in the common evils of despotism. The Netherlands, Milan, Naples, and Sicily were among the dependencies of the Spanish crown, as were the rich provinces of Mexico and Peru. Genoa, and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, were allied with Philip; Venice was constrained to do him homage, and the Pope to appear in his support. Philip moreover had been the husband of the Queen of England; was uncle to Sebastian of Portugal, then a child; and nephew to the Emperor of Germany, whose authority extended over Bohemia, Hungary, and the dominions of Austria. France at the same time was much disordered and weakened; and the Turkish empire, having reached the zenith of its splendour, had fallen into feeble hands.

But rarely have prospects so brilliant been followed by results so humiliating; and as these results-affecting as they did the fate of millions-flowed immediately from the personal character of the sovereign, they teach a salutary lesson on the folly and baseness of allowing communities to be dependent on the will of an individual, who is not controlled by some legalized check on his power. In Philip, the leading elements of the Spanish character were all embodied. Grave, cautious, patient, laborious, he seemed a man singularly qualified for his singular position. But his gravity was without wisdom, his caution was the ally of deceit, and of a deceit so ill concealed that it rarely imposed on any man, while his patient effort was not of a kind to deserve the name of enterprise. It soon also became manifest, that with Philip, as with the Spanish mind generally, Catholicism was everything, man was nothing, all nations being as nothing if not included in the pale of the church. From this source sprung his intolerance, and his assurance in the midst of the greatest atrocities that the end would justify the means!

*Sully's Memoirs, xiv. xv. xvi,