A

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE

OF

EDWARD, LORD HERBERT

OF CHERBURY,

FROM 1624 TO 1648.

In spite of his avowed indulgence in all the frivolous pleasures of the French capital, Herbert served his sovereign and his country faithfully during the five years that he was English Ambassador at Louis XIII.'s Court. His correspondence bears ample testimony to his self-denying industry. He set himself to estimate the political and social forces that dominated France during the period, and the record of his observations proves for the most part his energy and his discrimination. And Herbert

1 I give here a detailed statement of the facts of Herbert's later life. More general comment is made in the Introduction. 2 See Appendix vii.

had every reason to believe that his services were highly valued at home. James I. was a punctilious master, but in spite of an occasional misunderstanding, which was removed as soon as it was expressed, James had treated his minister with real consideration. The curt letter of recall which reached Herbert in April 1624 was the first sign that he had fallen into disfavour. James I. had found it good (so the note ran) to dismiss his Minister, and had directed the Earl of Carlisle and Lord Kensington to take his place.1 The rest was silence, and Herbert subsequently professed himself unable to discover the cause that prompted the King to cast so marked a slur on his reputation. But the clue is really not far to seek.

It was not to obtain a suitable partner in marriage for his son Charles that James I. had made his fruitless advances to Spain in 1623, and was about to make similar advances to France in 1624. The matrimonial alliance was a mere accident in the

1 The letter, dated 14th April, ran thus :-"JAMES R.—Trustie and well-beloved, we grete you well. We having upon further deliberation found good to call you from that service you are now in, we have signified so much by our letters to that King, which we send you herewith to bee delivered unto him, for as we having employed thither with our commission our right trustie and wellbeloved cousin and councellor the Earle of Carlisle, and our right trustie and well-beloved the Lord Kensington, we doe require you to present them to that King at their first audience, and so to take your leave and return unto us with what convenient speed you may."Powysland Club Collection, vi. 420.

policy that he was in both cases pursuing. His foremost anxiety was, without engaging England in a Continental war, to protect his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, the Elector-Palatine, from the overwhelming onslaught of the Catholic princes of Germany. James was a passionate lover of peace; but if peace became impossible, he wished his battles fought by anybody rather than himself. And another sentiment now combined with his love of peace-at-any-price to force him into a crooked course of action. James I. knew well enough that a straightforward war needed money, and that money implied an appeal to Parliament and a discussion of popular grievances. Such a prospect always alarmed him, and it was mainly to avert its realisation that he flung himself upon the barren hope of transferring to the shoulders of another nation his own responsibility in the German strife. He believed it practicable to introduce into a marriage treaty with a great Continental power (be it Spain or France) a clause pledging his new ally to intervene in behalf of his son-in-law, and of his sonin-law's allies the Protestant princes of Germany. When, therefore, Spain rejected the proposal, he coolly handed it on to France.

Herbert, his representative in Paris, saw at once the fatuity of the scheme, and he spoke out. Four years before, it is true, he had hinted that a marriage of the Princess Henrietta with the Prince

of Wales might be acceptable to the French nation, and that the religious obstacles were not insuperable. The suggestion had then taken James I. by surprise, and no one had paid much attention to it. But the situation in 1624 differed materially from that in 1620. Then Herbert was instructed to do all in his power to cement an alliance between the two countries, which offered equal advantages to each contracting party. Now England looked for a union in which her neighbour was to be saddled with whatever sacrifice the connection involved. French politicians, with all of whom Herbert was living on terms of intimacy, had not watched the tedious negotiation of Spain with England in the previous year without realising this, and although the proposals were unattractive, French amour propre was not conciliated by the bestowal on France's rival, Spain, of the first opportunity of rejecting them. When, therefore, directed to open the discussion of terms with the French King, Herbert plainly told James that it would be necessary to bring Louis to some real and infallible proofs of his intention to aid in the recovery of the ElectorPalatine's territory before placing the matrimonial offer beyond recall, Herbert was not talking at random; he was merely interpreting one of many important pieces of information which had just reached him. Louis XIII. was actually making proffers of friendship to the Elector's worst enemy,

the Duke of Bavaria. But the English Ministers failed to recognise the significance of this fact, and Herbert resolved on his own account to give the opening discussion the advantage of frankness. He told the French statesmen that the negotiation with Bavaria must provoke a breach with England. The Frenchmen were annoyed by Herbert's freedom of speech; they addressed a remonstrance to the English sovereign; and James accepted the remonstrance in the spirit in which it was offered him. He had no taste for plain dealing; he had always placed his confidence in the most tortuous forms of diplomacy. The conduct of his Minister was as repugnant to him as to his enemies, and he dismissed him without delay. Thus Herbert suffered for doing no more than his duty-for showing a little more resolution and fixity of principle than was habitual either to him or to his contemporaries. Did he cherish any ill-will against James, the final result of the negotiation gave him ample satisfaction. Prince Charles and Princess Henrietta Maria were duly married, but France stirred neither hand nor foot to retrieve the cause of the Elector and the Princess Elizabeth.

Herbert was nearing middle age when he had first entered on a political career, but he had no wish to retire from it at the early age of forty-two. He

1 Gardiner's "History of England," v. 218.