The Cradle King (55 page)

Buckingham’s confident assertion that the Spaniards realised that their conversion to the Roman Catholic faith was unlikely to happen was completely disingenuous. Even as he wrote the letter, he and Charles were under immense pressure to consider the possibility, and during Holy Week in April Buckingham agreed to a discussion with Father Francisco de Jesus at the monastery of San Geronimo. Later in the month, Charles submitted to a similar session with Philip IV’s confessor, and was apparently shaken by his arguments for papal supremacy – much to Buckingham’s annoyance: the Marquis was seen to leave, and go ‘down to a place where he could be alone, in order to show his extreme indignation, going so far as to pull off his hat and to trample it under feet’. Buckingham forbade any future sessions.
¹⁷

On 27 April, the Prince and the favourite reported that the papal dispensation had arrived ‘clogged’ with conditions that were forwarded for James to consider; the boys urged the King to comfort himself with the thought that it ‘will not be long before we get forth of this labyrinth, wherein we have been entangled these many years’. Assuring him they would ‘yield to nothing’, they begged James to keep the conditions secret: ‘if you should not keep them so, it will beget disputes, censures, and conclusions there to our prejudice.’
¹⁸
But it became clear that they could not afford to wait for James’s authority to clear every little detail, and Charles asked his father for a formal written commitment to support whatever Charles agreed to in his name. ‘I confess that this is an ample trust that I desire,’ wrote the Prince, ‘and if it were not mere necessity I should not be so bold. Yet I hope your Majesty shall never repent you of any trust ye put upon your Majesty’s humble and obedient son and servant.’ On 11 May, James forwarded his commitment: ‘I now send you, my baby, here enclosed the power you desire. It were a strange trust that I would refuse to put upon my only son and upon my best servant. I know such two as ye are will never promise in my name but what may stand with my conscience, honour, and safety, and all these I do fully trust with any one of you two.’
¹⁹
As if to prove his trust, on 18 May James made Buckingham a Duke, raising him above all other English peers except the Duke of Lennox, who was now also created Duke of Richmond.
²⁰

As one problem was solved, another appeared. Now it transpired that the dispensation could not be delivered until Philip had sworn an oath that James and Charles would carry out the new conditions of the marriage treaty. The ‘conditions’ turned out to be a demand that James, subsequently endorsed by the Privy Council and Parliament, would allow English Catholics to worship freely and openly, and that the Spaniards would continue their attempts at conversion – in support of which the Pope wrote himself to James, arguing that even the fact of these current marriage negotiations was the silent word of the Holy Spirit telling him that he was right to embrace his mother’s faith.
²¹
The result was another round of talks in early May to thrash out the new amendments, and especially the matter of allowing English Catholics to worship freely. Worship was one thing – Charles quite promptly gave his father’s word that laws against recusants would be suspended and their repeal put before Parliament – but free worship was quite another. James would tolerate private Roman worship in the worshippers’ own houses, and even secret worship at the Infanta’s chapel, but he would never agree to the public toleration of open worship at the chapel.
²²

The Spanish were split on the issue. The Council of State was quite willing to allow the marriage to proceed, even without any assurance from James. But Philip’s theological advisers, along with Olivares, demanded proof of sincere change on the part of the English King before any marriage could take place – and Olivares had no realistic expectation that the change could or would take place. From a good start, relations deteriorated between Olivares and Buckingham, as the latter believed that it was his opposite number who was blocking the process.
²³
It could be argued that Buckingham was scarcely more cooperative: when the papal nuncio informed the Duke that he could not look beyond his orders from Rome, Buckingham retorted ‘I assure you that if this marriage is not concluded, what little remains of Catholicism in that kingdom [England] will be utterly rooted out, and they will proceed against the Catholics with the utmost rigour.’
²⁴
To Buckingham’s eyes, the only way to negotiate in future was, he declared, with a sword drawn over the heads of the papists.
²⁵
At the same time, Charles, though still enamoured of the Infanta, was having second thoughts. His conscience was piqued by the plight of his sister Elizabeth, who was said to be ‘in a pitiful case, almost distracted’ at news of the possibility of her brother marrying the Infanta. In early May, Charles sent word to Elizabeth that he would not consent to marry without first obtaining her permission. In Madrid, he tried to bring the Palatinate question into the negotiations, but Philip refused to consider the question until after the marriage – once that were done, Frederick ‘should be restored to all without any treaty – to lands, honours, and dignities’.
²⁶

Still the negotiations continued. According to Olivares, Charles had two options. Either he could send an agent to the Pope asking him to modify the articles, or send a messenger to James pleading with him to agree to the Pope’s terms. Neither appealed to Charles. Buckling under the Duke’s persuasions, he announced that he would go home, and fixed 13 May as his departure date. Buckingham told Father Francisco de Jesus that the Prince was experiencing a ‘great sinking at the heart’ at this unhappy conclusion, and that they were ‘much dissatisfied at having to go away after … failing to obtain that which they had hitherto looked forward to as sure and certain’. Although Buckingham insisted that he and the Prince ‘wished that there might be no change in the friendship between them’ he was clearly angry. Francisco recorded that the Duke ‘looked upon all plain dealing as an injury to himself’. But negotiations were not at an end. Gondomar rushed to beg Charles on Philip’s behalf ‘to be so good as to refrain from taking any resolution in opposition to the plans which had been proposed’. Charles reluctantly agreed, and a secret messenger was sent to inform James of the latest complications. (Charles changed his mind a few days later, and sent Cottington to ask Olivares if he might be discharged from his promise to stay, but Philip refused.)
²⁷

While in Spanish eyes Buckingham was a resented obstacle, to many Englishmen that position was utterly laudable. Sir Henry Rich, Viscount Kensington, praised Buckingham as ‘so brave, so judicious and religious as not only his master has reason to put honour upon him, but also our nation hath cause to reverence and admire him, so careful hath he been to serve, and nobly to serve, his King and country with offices of a true and religious heart, giving way to nothing but what wisdom and honour directs him’. The Duke’s stand had lost him favour at the Spanish court precisely because ‘those great and powerful persons here … would have pressed unfit and unlooked-for conditions upon us’. Sir George Goring declared that Buckingham had given ‘such proof of his courage, judgement, religion and true English heart, with such resolution of stability in all these, as the like, I believe, were never met with in any one person’.
²⁸
Capitalising on Buckingham’s dislike of James’s resident ambassador Bristol, whom he considered dangerously ‘hispaniolized’, they suggested that the Duke return to England, and leave the resident ambassador to negotiate; that manoeuvre was effectively countered by James, who sent a message saying that Bristol should leave all negotiation to Buckingham.
²⁹
But by June, Buckingham’s intransigence had begun to annoy even Charles. According to the Venetian ambassador in Madrid, the Prince ‘blamed the Duke for harshness in his methods’, and Buckingham was forced to soften his tone and allow Bristol back into the negotiations. Charles, it was rumoured, was growing increasingly dissatisfied by what he perceived as Buckingham’s lack of respect for him.
³⁰

Cottington was despatched back to England with the unwelcome news that negotiations were at an impasse, and that the ‘sweet boys’ would not be coming home soon. James received the news on 14 June at Greenwich; for the first time, his emotions overflowed: ‘Your letter by Cottington hath strucken me dead. I fear it shall very much shorten my days.’ How could he satisfy ‘the people’s expection here’? How would he explain to the Privy Council that the fleet, already delayed a fortnight by ill winds, now had to be held back longer. As for ‘advice and directions’, he was clear: if ‘they will not alter their decree it is, in a word, to come speedily away if ye can get leave, and give over all treaty’ whatever is offered. If not,

ye never look to see your old dad again, whom I fear ye shall never see, if ye see him not before winter. Alas, I now repent me sore that ever I suffered you to go away. I care for match nor nothing, so I may once have you in my arms again. God grant it! God grant it! God grant it! Amen, amen, amen. I protest ye shall be as heartily welcome as if ye had done all things ye went for, so that I may once have you in my arms again. And so God bless you both, my only sweet son and my only best sweet servant, and let me hear from you quickly with all speed, as ye love my life. And so God send you a happy and joyful meeting in the arms of your dear dad.
³¹

Realising that the Spanish theologians would not be budged and that they had nothing to lose, Buckingham drew up a long letter to Philip, putting Charles’s case in the strongest terms. The marriage must take place soon, he urged. Just by coming to Spain, Charles had made himself vulnerable; now there was the possibility that if he were to depart, and ‘leave his wife behind him in pawn’, his honour would be impugned. The whole affair was a question of trust, and should be resolved through friendship rather than bonds and ‘securities’. Matters had progressed so far that, if Philip insisted on postponing the marriage in this way, Charles would have no alternative but to believe there must exist ‘some disesteem of his person’.
³²
But the theologians remained adamant. The consummation of the marriage could not happen a single day sooner.

Charles could finally see the writing on the wall. The Spanish clearly intended to stall for as long as possible, and in the meantime he was trapped in Madrid. In late June, he wrote secretly to his father asking for his permission ‘to depart from Madrid as secretly as he came thither’, if Philip refused to give him formal permission to leave. And if this plan didn’t work, he urged James to turn his attention elsewhere: ‘reflect … upon the good of his sister and the safety of his own kingdoms.’
³³
James was only too happy to provide the permission. At the same time, Buckingham played his last hand with Olivares. Leaking to him a draft of a declaration Charles was supposedly about to make to Philip, Buckingham let Olivares know that it contained a complaint against Olivares, who had originally assured Charles that, if the Pope were not willing to give the Infanta as a wife, Philip would give her to him as a mistress. Now, however, Olivares had changed his mind, and risked ‘the breach of the business of most consequence in Christendom’. Olivares came back promptly with new, final terms from the King: Charles and the Infanta would be betrothed as soon as news was received that James had sworn to accept the amended articles. A formal marriage ceremony would then take place at Christmas, and the Infanta would sail to England when weather permitted the following spring.
³⁴

The terms were still unappealing, but Charles agreed to them. It seemed that the negotiations were done. For four nights, Madrid celebrated, and Buckingham wrote to Lord Treasurer Middlesex on 8 July that ‘our business here is at an end, all points concluded’.
³⁵
In London, on 20 July, James and the Privy Council formally swore to the articles of the marriage treaty, although, according to Simonds D’Ewes, hearing the unfavourable terms caused the King to start shaking.
³⁶
In the month between Charles’s agreement, and news of James’s swearing reaching Madrid, Buckingham continued to barter around the terms, suggesting that Charles would stay until September if the Infanta then accompanied him back to England; Philip suggested that if Charles stayed until Christmas, the marriage could be consummated before he left. But the theologians blocked each suggestion, and Buckingham fixed on 29 August as a departure date, urging James to send them ‘preemptory commands to come away, and with all possible speed’, just in case they had need of it, and Charles might then ‘press his coming away, under the colour of your command, without appearing an ill lover’.
³⁷