GARDINER'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.*
THIS is the third instalment of Mr. Gardiner's History of England, and forms with those already issued a continuous his- tory, extending from the death of Elizabeth in 1603 to the assassination of Buckingham in 1628 ; it begins about the time the Spanish marriage was broken off (1623-4), when James was letting all power slip from his grasp, and Buckingham was acquiring that ascendancy over him and the Prince of Wales which practically rendered him ruler of England for the five years preceding his death. Hence the title of the book. The period is one of special interest and attraction, and by the light now concentrated on it one is enabled to follow the course of events with a clearer understanding of certain matters hitherto but half ex- plained, and a better appreciation of the motives of the chief actors. When Mr. Gardiner first undertook to investigate the history of this period, he was somewhat deterred by the multitude of works that had already appeared on the subject, but there were, he con- sidered, two distinct reasons why he should proceed ; one was that previous writers had been either Whig historians or Tory historians, the former thinking it unnecessary to take the trouble to understand how the matter looked in the eyes of the King and his friends, and the other class, how matters looked in the eyes of the leaders of the House of Commons ; the second reason was the brevity with which recent authorities had passed over the relations between foreign countries and our own. Without a proper knowledge of the course of negotiations with France, it is not pos- sible to comprehend fully the history of England at the time just preceding and just following Charles's marriage with the daughter of Henri Quatre, when political events were veering about in the most perplexing manner, and the political atmosphere was charged with individual intrigue. To ascertain and record in due chrono- logical order each change in this ever-changing compass was no easy task, but by the help of the Foreign Series of State Papers in the Record Office, and by examining the French despatches of the period, Mr. Gardiner has succeeded in disentangling the troublesome details.
When Charles and Buckingham found themselves in England after their unsatisfactory visit to Spain, their one thought was how they might best bring on war with the latter country, feeling convinced they had been duped by the Spaniards, and eager to take their revenge. This, however, was not easily done, for in spite of the influence they possessed over the mind of the King, he would not permit a resort to final measures. To anything but actual hostilities against Spain he
• A History of England under the Duke of Buckingham and Charles 1E24-1628. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1875.
would consent, from his natural dislike to war and in the desire to recover the Palatinate from the Emperor of Germany ; and yet he knew, now that be had lost the help of Spain, such a thing was impossible without force of arms. While he was dallying with the matter, it appeared upon the cards that a French princess might be substituted for the Infanta as the wife of the Prince of Wales. It was rightly guessed that such an alliance would miti- gate the laws lately enforced against the Roman Catholics in this country, and though on that account it was not popular, its sting was softened in the joyful recollection that we had escaped a Spanish alliance. After James had referred the ques- tion of war with Spain to twelve of the leading Privy Coun- cillors, known as the Spanish Commissioners, and they in turn had failed to decide the matter, it was submitted to Parliament. Whilst the Commons were wishing to do as much as possible against Spain, and as little as possible in Germany, and James was wanting to do as little as possible against Spain, and was vowing that he would not own "one furrow of land in England, Scotland, or Ireland" without restitution of the Palatinate, the matter could but drag itself along wearily and inconclusively, and foster distrust between king and people. James's demand for money to carry on the war in Germany found no response in the House of Commons, whilst Coke got up and stated that England never prospered so well as when she was at war with Spain. At this juncture Buckingham's weight was thrown into the scale in favour of hostilities ; he wrote to James that "so long as you waver between the Spaniards and your subjects to make your advantage of both, you are sure to do it with neither;" and he besought him on his knees to give satisfaction to his subjects by a declaration of war against Spain, assuring him of the fair prospect of French co-operation. James was seldom capable of offering any serious opposition to his demand, and now that Charles and Parliament were also on the side of the Duke, it was impossible he could hold out against the three, and he compromised the matter ; though he did not get what he wanted, he succeeded in staving off the war with Spain.
During the short interval that elapsed before the King's death, the position of Buckingham was all-powerful. His blow- ing-hot-and-cold policy concerning the Roman Catholics in England and his exalted position had made him many ene- mies, yet none had ventured to oppose him except the Earls of Middlesex and Bristol ; and they were now powerless, the former since his humble submission and liberation from the Tower being excluded hopelessly from public life, and Bristol being exiled from Court. Mr. Gardiner has rather subdued the colouring with which tradition is wont to clothe the famous mission of Buck- ingham to France to fetch Charles's bride. He thinks that the extreme lengths to which the Duke went, and the undisguised manner in which he made love to Anne, the young Queen of Louis Treize, were due not altogether to his devotion to her, but to a desire to affront the husband who had thwarted his policy by publicly paying his addresses to the wife. The splendid wardrobe and brilliant staff with which he is usually accredited on the occasion of this visit to Paris, he did not really take with him, but were what he intended to take had he stood proxy for Charles at the marriage ceremony in Paris ; only three persons, Mont- gomery, Morton, and Goring, accompanied him, and he was rather short of clothes than otherwise, having started on his journey in such haste. Mr. Gardiner adds that the story told by Wotton of how the Duke dropped a diamond in Paris, which he subsequently recovered, is in his opinion the origin of the incredible tale that be purposely left his diamonds so loosely fastened on as to fall off, and that he then refused to take them back from those who picked them up. Buckingham is so essentially the one figure in this period of English history around which others revolved, that the narra- tive is more a biography of that gilded statesman than the history of a nation. The power he himself wielded, added to his influence over James and Charles, was so great, that in effect he held the reins of government in his own hands, and dictated the foreign as well as the domestic policy of the country. And this power was not merely skin-deep, not merely the acquisition of a favourite depend- ing for place on external graces and accomplishments, for there is abundant evidence to show he possessed the qualities of both politician and soldier. He took the part of the Commons against the King in advocating war with Spain after the rupture about the Infanta, partly, no doubt, from pique, but also because he saw the welfare of England lay in that direction by the protection of Protestants in the recovery of the Palatinate, and by the conciliation of the English people. In the expedition to Rhe, ill-advised and unsuccessful as it was, Buckingham showed that he was "no carpet knight, no mere courtier dancing attendance upon the powerful at banquets and festivities. No veteran could have surpassed him in the readi- ness with which he exposed his person to danger, and in his de- termination to see all with his own eyes, to encourage the down- hearted, and to care for the suffering of his men." But in spite of his power and, for a time, popularity, the nation turned upon him at last and made a scapegoat of him, the feeling growing to such an extent that when the news of his death became known, the first and general sensation was one of intense relief. We think Mr. Gardiner has judged him aright, and setting aside previous estimates of the Duke's character, has formed a just and inde- pendent opinion based upon a searching examination of his life and a reasonable construction of the motives of his con- duct. He has over-estimated King James's good qualities, and we must own to a preference for the more rigorous and inmincing notions of Macaulay on the worth of the Solomon of Whitehall. Mr. Gardiner says of him "that he had too little tact and too unbounded confidence in his own not inconsiderable powers to make a successful ruler." We do not remember any one occasion where he showed tact, and there are innumerable instances of exasperating conduct towards his subjects, whilst the historian just alluded to declares he was one of those kings whom God seems to send for the express purpose of hastening revolutions.
The chief events of Vol. II., all of which Mr. Gardiner has carefully and exhaustively treated, are the impeachment of Buckingbam,.the rupture with France, the expedition to the Isle of Rhe and the siege of St. Martin, the policy of Sir Thomas Wentworth, the struggle over and final assent to the Petition of Right, the assassination of Buckingham, and the siege of La Rochelle. With regard to the Petition of Right, Mr. Gardiner states that he can "find no ground for supposing that Charles, in the time which elapsed between the two Sessions, broke the Petition of Right in the sense in which he understood it, and that it is not true that in the printed copy of the Petition he substituted the first for the second answer. What he did was to print both answers, together with his speech at the close of the Session, as may be seen in the copy of the edition of the Statutes of 1628, -which is still preserved in the Museum Library." The contempt which even now Charles did not conceal for his Parliament, when it did not comply with his demands, the power and patronage of Buckingham, the lofty and independent conduct of Eliot, and the general feeling of insecurity which was creeping over the members generally, combined to produce scenes of excitement that left their mark upon the age, and were the earlier symptoms of the storm that was soon to burst upon the country.
Probably the most notable feature in these volumes is the thorough and intelligible account of Parliamentary procedure, illustrated when occasion required by extracts from the important debates ; and from one source and another, Mr. Gardiner has been able to unfold a good deal of new information. The careful arrangement of events as they occurred, and their dovetailing into very readable history, are two points in Mr. Gardiner's historical writing that should not be lost sight of. -Valuable too for its trustworthiness, acquired by long and patient investigation of official materials, for the judgment shown in the selection of those materials, and the endeavour to write without bias, this instalment will not fail to sustain the good name Mr. Gardiner has won by his previous works. The descriptions of individuals are, as usual, given with a distinctiness and delicacy of touch that indicate the hand of an artist as well as of an historian. We hope it is Mr. Gardiner's intention to continue this History at least through the reign of Charles I. Although so much has been written on that most stirring period, there is ample room for a contribution from his careful and impartial pen, and the recent labours of the Historical Manuscript Commis- sioners, together with the growing disposition on the part of foreign Governments to unlock their archives, will place at his disposal new and perhaps important information.
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