LIFE AND TIMES
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON,
COLONEL OF AN ENGLISH REGIMENT IN THE DUTCH SERVICE, 1605-1631,
AND
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL,
1628-1638.
BY
CHARLES DALTON, F.R.G.S.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1885.
[All rights reservtd.]
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLFAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
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LETTERS IN VOL. II.
PAGE
SIR EDWARD CECIL TO THE EARL OF MIDDLESEX ... 5
SIR DUDLEY CARLETON TO SIR E. CECIL 42
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR D. CARLETON .'._,". . . .44
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR EDWARD CONWAY 46
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR D. CARLETON 52
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD ZOUCH 55
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 70
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY 85
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM TO SIR E. CECIL .... 92
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 100
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 108
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY 109
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM TO SIR E. CECIL .... 128
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 129
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY 130
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY . . 142
SIR E. CECIL TO KING CHARLES 1 143
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR JOHN COKE 144
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR JOHN COKE 148
SIR WM. ST. LEGER TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . .198
SIR THOMAS LOVE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . . 202
SIR GEORGE BLUNDELL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . 205
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 207
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR JOHN COKE 216
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY 219
SIR MICHAEL GEERE TO WM. GEERE 223
THE COMMISSIONERS AT PLYMOUTH TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL . 227
SIR THOS. LOVE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 229
SIR WM. ST. LEGER TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . . 231
SIR W. ST. LEGER TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . . 233
SIR JAMES BAGG TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM .... 234
SIR W. ST. LEGER TO LORD CONWAY 235
SIR E. HARWOOD TO SIR D. CARLETON 237
SIR JOHN BURROUGHS TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. . . 238
SIR W. ST. LEGER TO LORD CONWAY 239
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO MR. NICHOLAS 264
KING CHARLES I. TO THE EARL OF NOTTINGHAM AND VISCOUNT
WIMBLEDON 265
IV LETTERS IN VOL. II.
PACK
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO MR. NICHOLAS 268
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO LORD CARLETON 273
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . . 276
THE KING OF BOHEMIA TO THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA . . . 294
THE KING OF BOHEMIA TO THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA . . . 295
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO SIR C. HUYGENS 310
THE HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE OF VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO KING
CHARLES 1 322
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO KING
CHARLES 1 337
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO KING
CHARLES 1 339
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO SIR EDMUND SCOTT . . . .341
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO THE MAYOR OF PORTSMOUTH . . 344
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO SIR F. WINDEBANK .... 345
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON TO SIR F. WINDEBANK .... .346
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
SIR EDWARD CECIL,
VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON.
CHAPTER I. 1622-1623.
State of the British regiments in Holland — Spinola's triumphs — He lays siege to Bergen-op-zoom — The Prince of Orange sends troops there — Arrival of General Cecil at Bergen — He joins the States' army near Emerich— And takes part in the attack on Bois-le-duc — The operations of Count Mansfeld in Alsace— Is joined by the ex-King of Bohemia — Their short campaign in the Palatinate — Disastrous results — Christian of Brunswick is routed by Tilly — Defection of the Duke of Baden— Frederick and Mansfeld retreat to Alsace— Frederick leaves the army and retires to Sedan — Mansfeld's services engaged by the States-General — He marches with his troops into the Netherlands — Overtaken by the enemy near Brussels — Mutiny — Battle of Fleurus— Gallantry of Christian of Brunswick — Mansfeld joins the Prince of Orange — Their united forces march to the relief of Bergen — Journal of the siege of Bergen-op-zoom — Spinola raises the siege — The English in the Palatinate — Return of Sir Horace Vere — Death of the Earl of Exeter — The Spanish Marriage Treaty — Marriage of Albinia Cecil — Letter from Wimbledon.
THE ranks of the British regiments in the States' service had been sadly thinned by Death's remorseless hand during the four months of weary waiting and watching for an enemy who never came, when the Dutch army had last taken the field. The two regiments which had suffered most appear to have been Sir Edward Cecil's and Lord
VOL. II. B
2 LIFE AND TIMES OF
LTsle's l regiments of foot. The natural pride of a commander, in the strength and good appearance of his own regiment, made Sir Edward Cecil anxious that his regiment should be raised to its usual strength before again appearing in the field. When the winter passed away, and the spring drew near its end, without the necessary orders having been issued for the recruiting of " the regiment of Cecil," the angry feelings of the colonel of this regiment blazed out, and he expressed himself in very plain language to his friend Sir Dudley Carleton, who, with his customary kindness and helpfulness, had, it would seem, spoken to the Prince of Orange and the States- General regarding the need of new levies for Cecil's regiment.
" Instead of recompensing us that have so long and faithfully served them," wrote Cecil to the British Ambassador at the Hague, " the recompense is with interest to paye for these souldiers,2 when they take besydes all advantages and extremity in there necessity, as they did the last leaguer, when we had endured all misery both by sickness and death for their service. . . . Therefore I shall not be over this yeare so soone as I have beeyne others ; but I will rather take the advantage of it, [at] my coming over at the time his Exc. doth send out his patentes. Now I have given order that a man of war be procured to feach [fetch] me over. I commend my lo. lile [L'Isle] that he can so soone see into his masters unconscionable usage of there [their] servants." 3
Lord L'Isle seems to have been equally disgusted with the Dutch mode of recompensing their brave defenders, and
1 On the surrender of the cautionary towns to the Dutch, in 1616, an English regiment was given to Lord L'Isle (then Sir Robert Sidney) as a recompense for his father's services as governor of Flushing.
2 This phrase is ambiguous. Cecil may mean that he is expected to defray the cost of raising recruits ?
3 Cecil to Carleton, from " Cecyll House [Strand] this 4 of Maye " [1622]. —5. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 3
he determined to leave a service1 where there was little military glory to be obtained at that time, but much hard- ship and sickness to be encountered.
About June I, half of the foot regiments in the States' service were sent to their last year's quarters at Emerich, under the command of Henry of Nassau, and the re- mainder of the troops were to follow, under the Prince of Orange's command, as soon as news came of Spinola's taking the field.2
Spinola was one of those able commanders who formed his plans without taking any one into his counsel, and, having decided what to do, kept his intentions secret. This wise reticence on his part accounted for much of the success his arms met with, as his enemies were continually taken by surprise. In 1622 Spinola may be said to have nearly reached the zenith of his military fame. He had overrun and conquered most of the Palatinate, and had so effectually terrified some of the princes of the German Union, who were, as Maurice of Nassau wittily said, rich enough to make a feast, but too poor to make a war,3 that they had come to terms with the emperor. Spinola's lieutenants, Van den Berg and Cordova, had also been successful in their enterprises, and Van den Berg had inflicted a serious blow upon the United Provinces when he forced the aged governor of Juliers to surrender that fortress early in this year.4
1 Lord L'Isle to Carleton, May 8, 1622, acquainting him that in con- sequence of being straitened in his circumstances he thinks of making over his regiment to Sir Charles Rich. — S. P. Holland.
2 Carleton to Nethersole, Junes, 1622. — S. P. Holland.
3 Crosse, p. 1449.
4 Sergeant-Major Pithan surrendered Juliers to the Spaniards when the garrison was reduced to a state of starvation, having only dogs, cats, and vermin to eat. It is said that Pithan told Count Van den Berg how long and faithfully he had held the city for his Lords, the States, when he delivered up the keys. Van den Berg said it was well, "but yet," said he, "these are
B 2
4 LIFE AND TIMES OF
Having obtained possession of this long-coveted frontier stronghold, Spinola determined to carry the war into the enemy's country and lay siege to Bergen-op-zoom, which would open a passage for him into Zeeland. In order to throw the enemy off the scent, the Spanish commander marched to Wesel, and, without sitting down before any town, marched to and fro along the frontier, keeping Rees, Emerich, Grave, &c., in constant expectation of attack. The Prince of Orange assembled an army of 19,000 men in the neighbourhood of Rees to guard the threatened Dutch frontier. This large force drained several of the important Dutch towns of part of their wonted garrisons. One of the towns which furnished some companies to the States' army was Bergen-op-zoom. Spinola being cognisant of this fact took immediate advantage of it. He made a sudden descent towards Brabant and sent a detachment forward under Louis de Velasco, who besieged and captured Steenbergen without meeting with much opposi- tion.1
The Prince of Orange, knowing the weak state Bergen- op-zoom was in, both as regarded defenders and defences (some of the outworks being in a half-finished state), immediately sent some picked troops there, who arrived about July 18, three days after the Spanish detachment appeared before the town.
" General Cecil coming out of England," wrote the historian of these early Dutch wars, " with an intention to go towards his Excellencie's camp by Emricke (where he had a great command, as being Colonel of a Regiment of English foot and Captaine of a
not all the keys." " What mean you," said Pithan, " by this ? " "I mean," replied the count, with a Spanish elation, "the keys of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Delft, &c., &c., which the States of the United Provinces do so long detain from the Lord my master." — Crosse, p. 1419. 1 Crosse, p. 1421.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 5
horse troupe), tooke Berghen in his way, as well to see the seige as that he might be able to informe the Prince concerning the particularities of it. He was accompanied with divers great per- sonages, as with my Lord Mountjoy,1 the eldest son of the Lord President of the Council (now honoured with the title of Viscount Mandeville), Master John Meynard,2 brother to my Lord Meynard, Master Wray,3 and others. After some few days they departed towards his Excellencie's camp, where they arrived in safety." 4
Before detailing what Cecil saw and did at Bergen-op- zoom during his short stay there, we must follow him to the States' camp near Emerich, and relate in Cecil's own words what happened after his arrival.
SIR E. CECIL TO THE EARL OF MIDDLESEX.5
"... We hear the Spanish army hath left the Palatinate to come down upon us, although Austria having left that Countrye as the
1 Edward Montagu, second Earl of Manchester, was eldest son of Sir Henry Montagu, Lord Treasurer (created Viscount Mandeville in 1620, and Earl of Manchester in 1626). Edward Montagu was a successful Parliamentary general during the civil wars, and particularly distinguished by his victory over Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, in which engagement Cromwell acted as his lieutenant-general. He died 1671.
2 Sir John Maynard, of Tooting, Surrey, K.B., and M.P. for Lostwithiel in 1640. Impeached of high treason, expelled the House of Commons, and sent to the Tower in 1647 for the part he took in voting for the disbanding of the Parliamentary army. He died 1658.
8 This was doubtless Mr. (afterwards Sir Christopher) Wray, of whom more hereafter.
4 Crosse, p. 1427.
* Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, who from a low beginning was for his eminent qualities in mercantile affairs raised to that title, and to the post of Lord Treasurer of England, was son of Thomas Cranfield, Esq. He had been bred up in the Custom House, and was looked upon as a fit instrument to detect the frauds in those officers. Having married a kinswoman of the Duke of Buckingham, he was introduced to the Court of James I. by the reigning favourite, and rose rapidly from one high post to another. Created Baron Cranfield in June, 1621, and appointed Lord Treasurer in the October following, he reached the zenith of his fame in 1622, when he was created Earl ol Middlesex. In two short years Lord Middlesex was impeached by Parliament and deprived of all his offices. The Earl, who died in 1645, was
O LIFE AND TIMES OF
Croes do the Carkase of dead beastes that hath noe more fleash leafte. Wee have been upon a surprise of great importance which was the town of Burslo (sic) [Bois-le-duc], a place if the States had gotten it would have helped them to have kept 5,000 men more in the army then they did, and have made us all rich ; but wee have returned weary, without sleep, without bread, I [aye] and without good water, having worked 24 hours together." l
Cecil proceeds to relate in his letter to Lord Middlesex how their camp near Emerich was suddenly attacked one night by the Spanish troops, and several of the States' officers taken prisoners and carried off before the whole camp was aroused.
twice married. By his second wife, Anne Brett (niece of the old Countess of Buckingham), he left four sons and a daughter Frances (married to Richard, Earl of Dorset), who eventually succeeded to the Cranfield estates which devolved on her son.
1 The important town of Bois-le-duc did not fall into the hands of the States' forces until 1629. Sir Dudley Carleton refers to the above attempt to surprise this town in one of his letters :
" You will have heard of an enterprise the Prince of Orange failed of lately uppon Bolduc, which he had projected so well, that he never shewed more confidence in any. He was coming from his campe in Cleveland with 5,000 foote and 3 troopes of horse, within a league of the town, where he attended [waited], giveing order for the execution till the darkness of the night came on, and then sett forward under the conduct of guides that lead him all night out of the way, which defaced all theyr fair hopes of successe, the morning coming on, and they discovered, and he is since returned to his old quarter by Skenckesconce. . . The designe was to have Petarded one of the gates, and to have attempted entrance thereby, as likewise by another place where the wall was fallen downe, and the ditch drawn dry during the reparation
thereof." Carleton to , Aug. 15, 1622. — S. P. Holland. Sir Edward Cecil
commanded the British tooops on the march to Bois-le-duc, the second in com- mand being Sir Edward Vere, who commanded Sir Horace Vere's regiment during that general's absence in the Palatinate. A dispute arose between Cecil and Sir Edward Vere on the march as to the extent of Cecil's command. The dispute ended in a challenge. A meeting was arranged, and at the first halt Cecil and Vere left the camp attended by their seconds, Sir W. St. Leger and Captain Lindley. Before the duel took place the combatants we're arrested by a party sent from camp by the Prince of Orange. Carleton to Calvert, August 12. — S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 7
" Amongst the prisoners," continues Cecil, " was a Duke of Saxson,1 one of the bravest Duche [Dutch] I have known, the other Sir W. Balforde [Balfour], a Scoche man, whoe is returned upon his ransome ; the other I think is too great a man and too courtly to return to us again, altho' there can not be demanded more than ;£no, which is the ransome of a Captaine of Horse agreed upon between both our armies.2 . . . When I was at Bergen it grieved me to see English colours carried against English colours, and that his Majesty should lose his subjects' blood both ways.3 But I hope God will defend it some way as he hath begun, for there doth come unto us every day fifty at least crying out that if all could come they would do so, so we hope to have soldiers good [and] cheap. . . . Count Mansfieldt .... the States have agreed to his demand (.£3,000 a month) so long as he shall spoil their enemies country, and when he will join with us then to have his Army paid upon the Dutch foote ; we look for him daily, and if he come he shall be needfully welcome." 4
1 The Duke of Saxe- Weimar, whose estates in Germany were confiscated by the Emperor Ferdinand. Sir Dudley Carleton thus speaks of this noble- man on a subsequent occasion :
"Here is a noble gent, the Duke of Saxe Weymar, eldest of that house, who is much solicited by his frends to returne to his home and submit himself to the Emperor, whereby to save the loss of his estate, about which he hath often consulted with me ; and because he is the man for action on whom most assurance may be built of that nation, especially for command and service of horse, I have advised him to entertane some time without giving answer." Carleton to Secretary Conway, March 8, 1623-4. — 6". P. Holland.
3 For an account of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar's ransom, see further on in this chapter.
3 James had been weak enough to give leave to Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London, to raise two regiments for the Spanish service, one in Scotland and the other in England, in the spring of 1622, when he (the king) had been lulled into a belief that the Palatinate was about to be restored to Frederick through Spanish intervention. The two regiments were quickly raised, and Lord Vaux was appointed colonel-in-chief, but the recruits, who were chiefly, if not entirely, Roman Catholics, appear to have been deceived in several important matters regarding their future services. When Lord Vaux's companies arrived in the Low Countries, and found they had to serve against the Hollanders and their own countrymen, many of the men refused to fight and ran away. — Court and Times, i. pp. 306-7.
4 From the Knole MSS., dated " Skinke Sconce, 13 Aug.," and printed in the Fourth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. -p. 287.
8 LIFE AND TIMES OF
When we last heard of Ernest, Count of Mansfeld, he was at the head of a large army in the Lower Palatinate ; but after a few successes, followed by heavy fines extorted by the count from both friends and foes, and inhuman outrages committed by the godless hordes who followed a leader who could only promise them plunder for pay, the army which had come to reconquer the Palatinate had to flee from the avenging Tilly and seek safety in Alsace. Mansfeld looked upon bishops as his peculiar prey, and his entry into the territory of the Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Strasburg, was marked by fire, plunder, and the sword. Such was the man whom Frederick, Elector Palatine, had chosen, with the desperate recklessness of a gambler, to uphold his falling fortunes. Weak and un- decided as Frederick was, he knew enough of Mansfeld to make him suspect his integrity of purpose. The man who changes sides once can never be fully trusted again. Knowing this, and deeming his presence might have a beneficial and stimulating effect on Mansfeld and his army, Frederick determined to secretly join the count in Alsace. He accordingly left the Hague in March, in disguise, and, accompanied by only two persons, passed into France by sea. Making his way through Lorraine and through the midst of his enemy's troops, he arrived at Landau, where Count Mansfeld had a garrison. Here he made himself known, and from thence went to Gemer- sheim, where he was received with the general applause of the whole army.1 Frederick's arrival changed the aspect of affairs, as Mansfeld was secretly negotiating with an agent of the Archduchess Isabella's from Brussels, when
1 Roger Coke's Detection of Court and State of England during the four last reigns (edit. 1694), i. p. 133.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 9
the Palatine arrived on the scene.1 It might have been better, it could not well have been worse, for the Palatine's cause, if his rapacious and versatile lieutenant had then and there made terms with the enemy, and thrown up for good the commission he held under the ex-King of Bohemia. As it was, a sudden gleam of sunshine threw its cheering influence over the path of the exiled elector, and lured him on to his fate. Mansfeld broke off his negotiations with the Brussels agent, and returned with fresh zest to the Palatine's service. The Duke of Baden, hearing of Frederick's arrival at Gemersheim, raised troops to assist in the reconquest of the Palatinate, and last, but not least, the heroic Christian of Brunswick, adminis- trator of Halberstadt, took the field with all the forces he could raise, to fight for Frederick and the fair young Elizabeth.2
The story of Frederick's short campaign in the Palatinate is soon told. Mansfeld chose to separate his forces from those of the Duke of Baden. The latter was attacked near Wimpfen on the Neckar by a much superior force under Tilly, and his army routed. In the meantime Mansfeld was on his way to Haguenau in Alsace, a stronghold he had wrested from Archduke Leopold, and which that belli- cose churchman had now laid siege to, hoping to recover his own property in the count's absence. But Mansfeld swooped down on the archduke, causing him to raise the siege and beat a hasty retreat, leaving his artillery and baggage behind for his rapacious enemy. After this successful foray Mansfeld returned to the Palatinate and rejoined Frederick at Mannheim — one of the three cities of refuge still left to the elector. Having made a fresh agree- ment with the Duke of Baden, Frederick once more set
1 Villermont's Ernest de Mansfddt, i. p. 387. 2 Schiller, pp. 121-2.
10 LIFE AND TIMES OF
out at the head of a large army composed of Mansfeld's forces and the remnant of the Duke of Baden's troops. It was planned beforehand that they were to join forces with Duke Christian of Brunswick, who was approaching the Main at the head of a fine body of troops. Instead of attempting to reach the Brunswickian army with all possible expedition, Frederick committed the egregious blunder of marching to Darmstadt, and forcing the Land- grave of Hesse-Darmstadt to receive him and his troops into the town. Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt being a strong Lutheran had small sympathy with the disinherited Calvinist elector, but he had remained neutral in the late troubles, and had tried every means in his power to mediate a peace between Frederick and the jemperor. He had, indeed, been employed in trying to bring about a conference for negotiating a peace for some weeks prior to Frederick's invasion of his territory. Louis's neutrality having been hitherto respected, this generous-minded prince had, at Frederick's earnest solicitation, given leave for the Palatine's army to march through part of his territory en route for Frankfort, to join Christian of Brunswick. Twenty-four hours after this concession had been granted, Mansfeld's whole force, with Frederick at its head, left Mannheim and entered the neutral territory of Hesse-Darmstadt, sowing, according to its custom, ruin and death in its passage.1 Turning aside from the Frankfort road, Frederick and his army made straight for Darmstadt. An aide-de-camp was sent on in advance to request permission from the Landgrave for Frederick, his suite and ordinary guard to lodge in Darmstadt Castle for one night. This request was in reality a command, which Louis was obliged to obey, and he was still ignorant of the treachery
Ernest de MansfelJt, ii. p. 15.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. I I
of which he was to be the victim.1 The gates being opened, Frederick, Mansfeld, and some other officers of high rank with a strong guard were admitted into the town, while the army was quartered in villages outside. The next day the mask was thrown off. Louis was asked to furnish troops for Frederick's army, wagons to carry provisions, and to lend a sum of 200,000 reichsthalers to pay certain regiments to whom large sums were owing. Not satisfied with this dis- honourable action, Frederick's ill advisers drew up a treaty in the King of Bohemia's name for the Landgrave to sign by which the latter bound himself to support Frederick's cause both in the field and in the negotiations for peace, &c., &c., and to deliver up to Frederick's troops the Castle of Russelsheim on the Main, which commanded the passage of the river. Louis, feeling himself a prisoner and in the power of the Palatine, determined to secretly leave Darmstadt. In company with his second son he left the town one dark night, but was unfortunately met by a sentinel and arrested as he was leaving the town. Louis was now openly guarded as a prisoner in his own capital. Still refusing to deliver up Russelsheim or sign the treaty, the unfortunate prince was carried off as a prisoner by the invading army.
Mansfeld now marched to Russelsheim, hoping to capture that necessary stronghold, but meeting with a stout resistance, and time pressing, he had to abandon the attack. Before he could form a junction with Duke Christian's troops on the other side of the Main, Tilly
1 Frederick's messenger had assured the Landgrave of the ex-King's friend- ship and honesty of purpose in these words : " My Lord, the King, my master, comes as a friend, and is unmindful of any hostility which may be between you and him. He has charged me to add that since your Highness was employing yourself in the re-establishment of peace he would confer with you, and by this means much prolixity could be avoided and time gained." — ItU, p. 19.
12 LIFE AND TIMES OF
was reported to be approaching with a large force at his back. Not feeling strong enough to cope with Tilly's veterans, Mansfeld beat a quick retreat.1 Tilly's cavalry came up with the rearguard between Bensheim and Lorsch and inflicted a heavy loss upon it. The rest of Mansfeld's army found refuge once more within the walls of Mannheim. Christian was now left to the mercy of Tilly, who pounced upon him as he was crossing the Main at Hochst, near Frankfort, and annihilated most of the Brunswickian force, capturing all the baggage. Christian himself, with a few hundred cavalry, arrived at Mannheim just as Mansfeld was again marching forth to join him. The meeting of the two commanders was by no means friendly. They mutually loaded each other with re- proaches. The Duke of Baden, seeing the hopeless state of affairs, departed with his troops and made terms with the emperor.2 This defection completely humiliated Frederick. On June 23, he left Mannheim for Alsace in company with Mansfeld and Christian, after having released the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had been forced to sign a paper, in which Louis promised to do all in his power to bring about a peace in Germany, to advance the restoration of the Elector Palatine to his hereditary dominions, and to abstain from all acts of hostility and vengeance against Frederick. Thus did Frederick V., Elector Palatine, once more leave the home of his fathers, his last act being to wring from the friend he had so basely treated a promise that he would not retaliate upon the
1 Villermont says Mansfeld's return to Mannheim was due to his hearing that Tilly was threatening that place, and in his anxiety to save the spoils he had left behind in Mannheim, he retraced his steps, instead of attempting to cross the river and join the Duke of Brunswick, as Frederick and the Duke of Baden implored him to do. — Ernest de Mansfeldt, ii. p. 68.
2 Ibid. p. 71;
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 13
man who had carried out, if he had not planned in the first instance, a base deception almost unparalleled in the annals of war.
Three weeks after Frederick's departure from Mannheim he went through the form of releasing Mansfeld and his officers from their oath of allegiance to him, no longer being able to control their lawless actions. Frederick departed to Sedan for a season, where he was hospitably entertained by his uncle, the Duke of Bouillon, and Ernest de Mansfeld accepted the offer of the States- General to transfer his army to Holland and assist the States' army in relieving Bergen-op-zoom.
After a skilful, but disastrous, march from Alsace, Mansfeld arrived within half a league of the village of Fleurus, near Brussels, on the high road to Bergen-op- zoom. Here he found his way barred by Cordova, who had been sent with a large force to dispute the way. A battle was unavoidable. At the very moment that Mansfeld was marshalling his hosts in line of battle, two of his regiments broke into open mutiny and declared they would not fight unless they first received their arrears of pay. Mansfeld was equal to the occasion, mutiny of the worst kind being very prevalent in his army.1 He begged the mutineers, if they would not fight, at least to deceive the enemy by keeping together in a body at a distance, and so give the idea that they were being kept in reserve.
1 It is related of Mansfeld that when he was unable to pay his soldiers, which was very often the case, they would come and break open his doors, clamouring loudly for pay. On these occasions he always threw himself among them, pistols in hand. " What do you want? " he cried. " Money ! " they replied. "Those saying so," says the historian, "were sure to have those pistols discharged into their guts." He would then ask again, " Who will have money?" This time no one vouchsafed a reply, and they all slunk away. — Wilson's History of James /., pp. 759-60.
14 LIFE AND TIMES OF
They agreed to this, and with the rest of his army, assisted by Christian of Brunswick, he charged the enemy with the greatest bravery. After repeated charges Christian1 routed the Spanish cavalry and drove them from the field. The enemy retired, but Mansfeld was unable to follow them, and his victory, if so it can be called, was dearly bought
Mansfeld's arrival at Gertruydenberg is mentioned in a letter from one of Sir Edward Cecil's officers to Secretary Calvert : —
" On Saturday, the 24th of this [Sept.] n.s. our troops [the States' army] removed from before Skincksconce, and this the 28 we arrived at Gertrudenback, from whence I presume we shall march towards Bargin. Just now Count Mansfeld cam to see the Prince of Orange, who entertained him very curtoosly [cour- teously], but met him no further then the door of his dining room. The Troopes that he hath brought to the States service are fifty five Companies of Horse, each ought to be 100; 27 Companies of Foot, som at 200 and som at 150 — rekond to be 4,000 Foot and 4,500 Horse. . . . Just now his Ex. sent orders that all the Impediments of the Army shall march to-morrow, and he himself goes to Bredau in the morning to draw with us 77 peeses of Artillery, small and great, and [we] shal be 200 foot companies and 90 companies of horse." z
The four English regiments, which were in the service of the United Provinces, marched with the army sent to relieve Bergen-op-zoom. These were the regiments of Vere, Cecil, Morgan, and Sidney. The first numbered fourteen companies, and was commanded by Sir Edward Vere during Sir Horace Vere's absence in the Palatinate.
1 In the last cavalry charge Christian was severely wounded in his right arm, which had to be amputated soon after.
2 Captain Couldwell to Calvert, Sept. 28, st. no.— S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 15
Cecil's numbered eight companies, which had been drawn from their garrisons as follows : —
' Utrecht . . . Company Collonel [Cecil's company]
' Schoonhaven . . Lieut.-Col. Pakenham
' Breda . . . Alan Zouch
' Doesburgh . . Proude
'Utrecht . . . Corbett
' Wych . . . Couldwell
' Swolle . . . Sackvile
' Breda ... X Gerard Herbert." 1
It is interesting to note at this early period how well the system of Purchase was understood and carried out. Sir Charles Morgan, the lieutenant-colonel of Sir John Ogle's regiment, had purchased the colonelcy from Sir John Ogle in the spring of 1622, and by Sir John Ogle's account Morgan had not " overpurchased himself." 2 Whatever the sum was that Morgan agreed to pay, it would seem he had some difficulty in raising it.3 Lord L'Isle, being anxious to leave the army, had several good offers for his regiment. Sir Charles Rich offered him £2,000 for the colonelcy, and £ 300 a year for life.4 This, in those days, was a very large sum indeed. Lord L'Isle also received a very advantageous offer from Sir Edward Harwood,5 his lieutenant-colonel, a worthy and gallant officer, in every way fitted for the command. It was finally agreed, subject to the Prince of Orange's approval, that Harwood was to have the
1 List of troops in the Dutch army, Sept. 14, 1622. — S. P. Germany. The cross against Sir Gerard Herbert's name is doubtless to show he was dead. This gallant officer, a kinsman of the Earl of Pembroke, was killed at Heidelberg, on Sept. 6, whilst defending the castle against Tilly and his soldiers, who had, after an obstinate siege, captured the town. Ogle to Carleton, May 3, 1622. — S. P. Holland.
3 Sir E. Cecil to Carleton, May 4, 1622. — S. P. Holland.
4 Lord L'Isle to Sir D. Carleton, Jan. 31, 1623.— -S". P. Holland.
Ibid. The terms offered by Harwood were about £$oo less, but he had most right to the colonelcy.
1 6 LIFE AND TIMES OF
colonelcy, and Sir Henry Herbert the lieutenant-colonelcy, the latter paying Colonel Harvvood a certain sum for vacant step.1
On Sept. 29, the States' army, including Count Mansfeld's troops, set out from Gertruydenberg on their march to relieve Bergen-op-zoom. Their arrival there, with an account of the siege from its commencement to its close, is chronicled in an interesting manuscript journal of the period, by an eye-witness of some of the events he relates. Special mention being made of General Cecil in this journal, an abridged copy of it is now given : —
"A DISCOURSE OF THE BESEIGING, DEFENDING AND RELIEVING OF THE TOWN OF BERGEN OP ZOME IN THE YEAR 1622." 2
The writer begins his journal with praise of the Prince of Orange's military abilities and the discipline of the Dutch army.
" As he doth quarter his Army," says this unknown writer in eulogising the Prince of Orange, " so he doth quarter and divide the whole day, and most part of the night, to lodge his Army of busines in, and that for each quarter of an houre he hath a par- ticular man to despatch, and a severall [separate] busines to give order for .... for he neither eates, drinkes, nor sleepes, but it is in order : when his meat is once set upon the Table,3 it is not the
1 Lord L'Isle to Sir D. Carleton, Jan. 31, 1623. See also May 28, naming agreement between him and Harwood. Among the Holland State Papers for May, 1623, is a letter from Sir Wm. St. Legerto Sir D. Carleton, enclosing an indenture between him and Lieut. Edward Nelson, in which St. Leger agrees to make over his foot company to his lieutenant, the said Edward Nelson, for the sum of .£500, which appears to have been the price of a foot company at this period.
* Royal MSS. i8A, Ixiii.
8 The plainness of Prince Maurice's diet is known to us by the well-known anecdote of his inviting the luxurious Lord Hay (Earl of Carlisle) to dine upon two dishes, of which one was a boiled and the other a roasted pig.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 17
fashion to remove a dish as though [h]is vessell stood in battalia. His expences in his house and stables, his wages and liveries, are alwaies the same. His Pages and laquais are alwayes [dressed] in the same fashion hee is in, and hee himself is semper idem, the same outside and the same inside, for his Tailor conies not about him, but fitts a statue hee hath made of himself, soe [h]is clothes are alwayes of the same fashion, and most commonly of the same stuffe, and his gestulations and actions are still alike , . . ."
The army in the Low Countries was divided into three brigades : —
" i B ' d /Pr*nce of Orange, commander, English and Dutch
I regiments. 2nd Brigade. — Count Henry commands Walloons and French.
~ j T> • j (Count Ernest, the Marshal of the army, commands 3rd BngadeJ ' „ "
\ Dutch and Scotch.
". . . . and they (the Dutch) mingle and blend the Scottish among them, which are like Beanes and Peas among chafTe. These [the Scotch] are sure men, hardy and resolute, and their example holds up the Dutch."
The writer goes on to confess his weakness in military knowledge, and says, " I am but an apprentice in this craft of soulgerie." He then proceeds to say : —
" If I shall write freely of this or that commander, it is not my owne censure or opinion, but what I have gathered and learned from his Excellencie [Prince Maurice] and the rest of the Cheifes whom I found very affable .... There were three principal events in the Low Countries in the year 1622. The first, and most memorable, the Siege of Bergen op Zome ; the second, the battle of Ffleury ; 1 and thirdly, the leager at Skinkesconce .... I have often heard Generall Cecill say, whoe is a great Master of his art and hath the three perfections of a commander ; for first hee hath commanded horse as a private Captaine, which fewe
1 Fleurus. VOL. II. C
1 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF
Colonells of foote have don ; next, I believe his skill in fortifica- tion is his masterpeece (for at Gulicke he drewe his lines himselfe, and though he began last he was first in the Rampire to the honor of our Nation), and for his service and discipline of foote his privat Company and whole Regiment may be a patterne to the rest ; and if there be anything in this Treaty 1 [treatise] worthy yor reading, I must acknowledge my Author, whoe is this heroick gentleman, out of whose discourse and company I have collected theis loose notes, as out of a book of the Warres [and have heard Gen. Cecil say], that if one enemy knewe what another did, the Warres would quickly be at an end. Yet certainly those of the other side have better intelligence than the States. It is confessed and granted in a manner by his Ex. himself it was strange that such a body of 8,000 foote and 2,000 horse should march and lye before Bergen, and the towne be invested by the Horse before his Exc. got the least inkling of it. Directly word was brought to the Prince of Orange, he, knowing the small garrison there was in Bergen op Zome, poured with all expedition 7,000 men down the swift Rhine,2 who arrived before the enemy had attempted any- thing, which proves that what Generall Cecill said was right, for had Don Luis de Velasco known in what state the town was in, and how the few soldiers who garrisoned it were astonished and alarmed at beholding such a vast army before their gates, hee might have made but a Sport and Game of the towns and men . . . . hee that should have taken them napping it seems was in a slumber himself, for he laye ten daies before the towne loytring and playeing the Trewant. . . . Old soldiers in the garrison who had been at the siege of Ostend said they were sure the Marquis Spinola was not before the towne by their proceedinges. . . . I cannot understand what Don Luis de Velasco did in this interim, except he was studying the Mathematicks to inhable himself for the seige."
1 This manuscript journal, in its details of the siege, corresponds very exactly with A Journall or Daily Register of all those war-like achievements which happened in the siege of Berghen up Zoome, &c., &c., translated out of the original Low Dutch, and printed in 1622.
2 Crosse says the Prince of Orange despatched some ships from Skinckesconce with twenty-four companies of Dutch, French, English, and Scotch, under the command of Colonels Fama and Henderson (p. 1420).
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 1 9
The author describes how the garrison made up for the Spanish commander's idleness by repairing their outworks, and he then narrates how he had the honour to wait upon General Cecil on that officer's coming into the town before the enemy made their first approaches, and he overheard General Cecil say to Rhyhoven x (governor of the town), when walking upon the ramparts with Colonel Henderson (the British commanding officer in Bergen), that the enemy would approach that night, and he wished them to double the watch and to keep firing all night.
By next morning the enemy had advanced within half a musket shot of the hornworks. A council of war was held, and it was determined to sally forth with two or three hundred men.
" The Governor, Colonell Henderson, and Generall Cecill, who was but a looker on," continues our author, " went out together, but it seemes [General Cecil] sawe more than those who should have plaide the game, for they both asked his advice. The Governor confessed his ignorance in fortification and that hee never commanded foote; hee is a Colonell of horse, and is esteemed one of their ablest comanders of horse. Colonell Henderson, beinge a discreet and valiant gentleman, conferred with Generall Cecill, who was his great friend and his Generall at Gulicke. I stood close by, and heard what hee said and I sawe what hee did. Hee told the Governor and Colonell H. that they must be good husbands of their men, for, said hee, you shall see with small bodyes I will doe the same effect as with great ones ; soe hee sent [out] a Lieutenant with fiftie musketteers and seconds upon seconds. This skirmish lasted all the morning.2 At length hee did what hee desired, which was to beate theire enemys from the line and the little hedges which served them as under covert to come to the foot of the outworks."
1 Commander of Dutch cavalry.
2 This sortie was on August I. — Dutch Journal of siege.
C 2
2O LIFE AND TIMES OF
The completion of the outworks went on slowly on account of the enemy's fire, which killed divers men and ounded others. The British troops were conspicuous for their bravery.
" I sawe them run on and give fire in their Enemy's faces," writes our author, " and they would leavy in leaning on their [musket] rests and looke after their shott, as though they had been so many fowlers which watch to see the fowl fall that they may be sure of the body.
"Before Generall Cecill and his Company [party] came to Bergen, those of the towne had made a grand sally of three thousand.1 This was the first and greatest piece of service."
Describing this sally, our author says : —
" The English and Scotch had the van, the Dutch the battaille and the French the rere. They marched in length or tailwise, and the van making more hast than good speede, was at the Enemyes quarter and gone on, before the rere was out of the towne. The fault was laid on the French that they were too slow, though they have the reputation of being nimble footed and quick heeled ; but it seems then by their pace they delighted more in one of our English measures than in a French curranto .... our men goe on bravely : rushinge and thronginge upon one point (as in a crowd), they hendered one another. It was great pittie, for sure they had repulsed the enemy ; yet at length beinge over- done with multitudes, and not bringing half of their owne men in fight, they were beaten backe and forced to retreate, in which retreate they were in great disorder, and had it not been for Monsieur de May,2 a horse Captaine, our side had receaved a great overthrowe. His troop of horse made the retreate and fought bravely, for hee hurt [wounded] and tooke the Cornet prisoner, and soe disordered their troope of Horse that the Captaine ran a bride abatue to Antwerpe, with some thirtie horse and tould those of the Towne that theire men were beaten out of
1 On July 22. — Dutch Journal of siege.
2 De Mets, captain of French cavalry.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 21
their trenches, and that all was lost, for which newes hee was hanged for his paines. Wee had foure troopes of horse and the enemy had sixe, but our horsemen had a pretty stratagem to affright and amaze the enemy, for they set their boys with truncheons in their hands 1 afarr of[f] that they appeared soe many troopes more to second them, which made both the horse and foote to retreate. . . . There was one Captain Seton slaine, who was newly made Captaine, a valiant and hopefull gentleman ; and there was one Capt. Courtney hurt, who was hurt again in Bergen. This Captaine is of Gen. Cecill's Reg*, and he esteemes him to be an extraordinary brave souldier. There was likewise Capt. Fardinando Carey, who then receaved a wound, which is a reward and mark of honor for his brave service. Gen. Cecill could make no long stay at Bergen by reason his Excellency expected him daily in the field, but that time hee was there hee was alwayes in action, either giving direc- tions for sallies, or visiting the outworks and viewing the sally ports. . . . When Gen. Cecill left the Towne I observed the chiefes to be much troubled, especially the Governor, who was to blame to send his wife and children out of the Towne, for this ex- ample wrought upon the poor Burghers. . . . Col. Henderson and the rest of the Captaines though they could not feare, yet they did mistrust the Towne, but my Generall did cry ' courage, I am con- fident wee must releeve you, for,' said hee, ' both our rests are up.' " When Gen. Cecill had made his report of the state of the towne to his Exc. and that the Marquis Spinola [was] come2 (which wee understood by certaine runaways), and had begun to make his approaches, his Excy called for his mapp and inquired whether they approached upon Kick of the Pott (sic] or the Haven ? 3 Gen. Cecill showed him at what bulwarke they pointed and drewe their lynes at, and that they ran quite another course. His Exc. began to argue with him by reason the Marquis Spinola was so long before
1 Crosse mentions the "horseboys" being sent with "white staves" in their hands to a rising ground some distance off (p. 1424).
8 Spinola arrived at the Spanish camp on July 28 with additional forces. — Ibid. p. 1420.
3 The haven or harbour was to the east of the town. The fort of Kick-de- Pott, on the south-east of the town, was a most important outwork, and the Spaniards kept up a strong fire against it. — Ibid. p. 1423.
22 LIFE AND TIMES OF
hee came, and his manner of approachinge being contrary to ex- pectation and reason, hee was confirmed in his opinion that hee [Spinola] had some other designe, in making a faint at Bergen, to thrust home at Bridaugh [Breda] or the Grave. His Excellency assured himself that the Marquis knewe the towne as well as hee, and hee imagined hee could not be so mistaken, by reason the Prince of Parma had shewed him the waye long before ; l for hee went the right way to worke though hee had the wrong end of the staffe. Hee drewe his line directly upon the Haven. Generall Cecill tould his Excy the next newes hee heard hee should be certaine the Marques would make a winter seige of it, except hee [Prince Maurice] intended to releeve the towne, which at length hee would be constrained to doe, and that they would find their error in not approachinge upon Kicke of the Pott and the Haven, which they did at length, though they lost a great deale of time (which is the thinge of greatest consequence, especially in matters of fortification).
The chronicler of this siege now proceeds to describe, in his own pedantic style, the heavy fire kept up by the Spaniards against the town, " which made the inhabitants think their day of judgment was come." 2
1 The Prince of Parma had besieged Bergen in 1588. The town is situated on a stream connected with the Scheldt, and is bounded on the east by the island of Tholen, which is only separated from the mainland by a narrow stream. This stream (the Vosmeer) was, at the time we write of, practicable for wading at very low tide. It was along the bed of this stream that Parma sent a large force one night to capture Tholen, the key to Bergen, on the east side but the Spaniards could not effect a landing, and were forced to retreat with great loss.
2 According to the Dutch journal of the siege, most of the citizens of Bergen so soon accustomed themselves to the incessant cannonading and perpetual storm of falling bullets, that they paid little or no attention to them. A good story is told in this Dutch journal of a citizen who bragged of his courage to a soldier on the ramparts, and said he wished a bullet would wound him that he might have an honourable scar. As the citizen left the ramparts the soldier slyly picked up a bullet, and threw it at the citizen's retreating head. The sudden blow on the back of his head made the valiant citizen believe he had received his death wound, and he fell on the ground crying out he was killed. When convinced of his error he was anxious to find the bullet that had struck
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 23
" Cannon raked and wounded the earth, but the earth resisted and deaded the fury of the bulletts. There was such a perpetuall fogg and mist of gunpowder, as one would have thought the clouds were broken and fallen upon the earth. At every myne that was sprunge the heavy earth would spout and shoot herself upward, and poure downe like a suddaine storme and tempest, soe the earth seemed to be sky and the sky earth. Yet for all this allarum his Exc. was too backwards in sending those supplies of men, Cannon and Ingen- eers, which wants Generall Cecill put him often in mind of."
It was as this critical time that the gallant Colonel Hender- son was slain " in a terrible fight which lasted a night and a whole morning."
" I will say nothing in commendation of Colonell Henderson," says our author; "his owne actions commend him in the highest degree, for hee stood all the fight in as great danger as any common souldier, still encouradging, directing, and acting with his Pike in his hand. At length hee was shot in the thigh ; hee receaved his wound at the front, or, as most say, being over earnest, hee stepped into his enemy's trenches. Soe hee was nothing but spirit and courage. Hee shewed it cheefly in his devotion and in his earnest calling upon God in his time of sick- nes, and hee was so willinge to dye that hee made but a recreation of it ; for after he had receaved the Sacrament hee remembered his friends very chearfully, and being extreme[ly] hott, hee asked his Phisitian [for leave] to drinke some water; soe his Phisitian (seeing hee was but a dead man) let him have his will. Hee dranke five healthes ; the first was to the King, the second to the Prince, the third to the Queen of Bohemia, the fourth to the Prince of Orange, and the last to the Earle of Marre.1 When hee had done hee desired his brother2 to thrust him down into his bed, and soe tooke his leave of this miserable life."
him. The facetious soldier picked it up, but refused to give it to the citizen unless he gave him a piece of money and a bottle of wine. This the citizen did, wishing to show the bullet to his family.
1 John Erskine, 7th Earl of Mar, who died 1634.
2 This was doubtless his brother Francis Henderson, who obtained the colonelcy of this Scotch regiment on the death of his gallant brother. " Sir
24 LIFE AND TIMES OF
In this same action Sir Michael Everard, a gallant English captain, received a mortal wound.
" Wee may easily imagine the fury of this fight," says the old chronicler, " when wee doe but consider how much pouder was spent. I heard it reported by the States themselves that in the compasse of twelve houres those of the towne shott 12,000 pounds of powder. It was thought those of the other side lost eight or nine hundred men. . . . After the losse of Colonell Henderson, his Exc. was much moved, and conferred with Gen. Cecill, and as hee made use of his councell and advise, soe hee would have used his person, which Gen. Cecill was never dainty of, but hee knowes the States very well, for as they are the best paimasters, so are they the worst rewarders. Therefore hee had reason to make his conditions beforehand, in which hee did value his honor more than his profitt. Besides, hee did consider hee was to succeede one who had been Colonell under him at Juliers, and that hee had been the Kinge of England's Generall. Yet hee was soe willing to goe that his demands were not soe great as the States free offer to Sir ffrancis Vere where hee went into Oastend, for they made him Governor and Generall over all. Gen. Cecill's conditions were theis. Hee demanded to be Generall of the English and Scottish, and not to be onder the Governor, and to bee Governor of the towne if hee [the Governor] dyed. To have the disposinge of the places as they should fall [vacant], and he would warrant the towne on the English side as long as he lived.1 His Exc. could not find fault with those conditions, but the States are onwillinge any stranger should be Governor of their fronteere townes (which if the Low Countries ever suffer it will bee for the want of good Governors), yet if Colonel Morgan had miscarryed,
Francis Henderson is a man well deserving the preferment," wrote Sir D. Carleton to the Duke of Buckingham, " but much wrong is done to my Lord of Bucklugh who had a formal act of the States for the next regiment should fall of the Scottish nation in theyr service." August 25, 1622. — S. P. Holland. 1 Cecil's conditions are mentioned also by Sir D. Carleton in his letter to Buckingham (August 25). " This command," he writes, " was first offered Sir Edward Cecyll as eldest Coronel, but he refused it unlesse he might have a Comission equal to that wherewith Sir Fras. Vere entered into Ostend, with the government of the towne, with the outworkes [which] as it is now in practise will not admit of without a general discontent. ' — S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 25
sure the towne had been in a desperate case, and it is very probable his Exc. would have taken Gen. Cecill at his word, which I am sure hee would have performed willingly; but God bee praised it was a great deal better for all parts [parties].
" His Exc. made choise of Sir Charles Morgan, a noble and worthy gentleman, to succeed Colonel Henderson, who revenged his death and did our nation a greate deal of honor. Hee carryed a supply of 2,000 men,1 and order for Artillery, and his Exc. sent him one Captaine Clarke of Gen. Cecill's Regiment, a famous Ingeneere." 2
The arrival of Colonel Morgan with succours gave new life to the garrison, and our author, after carefully chronicling all the encounters with the enemy, in which Sir Charles Morgan and his troops gained the advantage, complains bitterly of the injustice done to the British in the Low Country wars by Dutch writers, who give their own countiymen all the praise of actions done by the English. The battle of Nieuport is given as an instance of a battle being won by the valour of the British.
" In this memorable battle of Newport," continues the same writer, " our countrymen appeared in their likenes. The world knowes Sir Francis Vere made that ever admired fight with the English at this battaile, and that hee complayned of the Dutch which should have seconded them, but did not. And after hee was hurt and had lost much bloud, and most of his men and was carryed of[f], General Vere, his brother, made that famous and memorable stand when the Van was beaten in peeces, and mayntained the fight when hee had not left 500 men of 3,000. Soe it was still expected [i.e. our defeat] when the enemy should
1 Colonel Morgan and his succours arrived on August 26, the communication with Bergen-op-zoom being open by water. Soon after this many volunteers of high rank came to Bergen, to aid in the defence of the place and learn the art of war. Amongst them were Sir William Nassau (afterwards Count of Mceurs), Lord Mountjoy, Sir Robert Oxenbridge with his two brothers, Henry and William ; W. Wentworth, Esq., and others. — Crosse, p. 1441.
2 Special mention is made of this scientific officer in Dutch Journal, p. 26.
26 LIFE AND TIMES OF
have had the execution of our men, but the Horse (which was not so outmached as the foote) was the cause of the sudden alteration and the turning of the battaile. And those of the other side doe at this present relate the true occasion and reason, for that they say a Colonell of theirs bringing up a Regiment of Horse in charge, a cannon bullett by accident raked off both his armes, and his horse being loose turned head, and the whole Reg* followed in great disorder and fell upon their own foote, which amazed the rest of the Army. His Exc. seeing the whole Army in disorder commanded his last reserve of horse (which were all English) to make a home charge. They put in execution very fortunately his Exc. direction, and it was Gen. Cecill's good hap (whoe was then a Captain of horse) to charge and rout the Archduke's owne gard of Harcabucas [Harquebusiers] being [wearing] blacke Velatt [velvet] coats, and tooke two or three of the Archduke's servants prisoners and gott of his [the Archduke Albert's] owne silver dishes. And I heard his [Gen. Cecill's] Lieutenant, Capt. Bowyer, say, if his Exc. would have given them leave to follow the execution, hee made no question but they might have taken the Archduke prisoner. For this peece of service his Exc. made Gen. Cecill a Colonell of horse. Soe this Battaile was begun, continued and ended by the English. Not to trouble you now with any more examples (though I could name divers), wee might have seen at Bergen that the Dutch desired to see their shades and the English had rather see their swordes.
" Thus much of the defendinge and beseiging of Bergen op Zome, nowe of the releevinge."
The author tells of the great preparations made by the Prince of Orange for relieving Bergen-op-zoom, how he drew all his best troops from most of the garrisons, and filled their places with companies of citizens.
" His [the Prince's] Randevous was att Gitterin Berck [Ger- truydenberg], where Count Mansfield mett him. Hee used Count Mansfield verie respectively, but with all kept his grandeza, for hee received him in a Roome of State and made an offer to bring him out, but did not. The most externall honor his Exc. did
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 27
Count Mansfield was, that after hee was out of the yard hee sent to speake with him and then hee walked out to meete him. Count Mansfield respected his Exc. as his Generall, and in his oath hee was sworne servant to the States and Gen. of his owne troopes to be commanded by his Exc. Next day his Exc. went to his house and Signory of Bridaugh [Breda], where the Duke of Brunswick lay to be cured of his wound. The Duke attended him at the [town] gate and behaved himself as his son, standing bare. His Exc. is a man of ceremony. Hee saluted the Duke and spake theis words, Vous avezfaict en brave homme.
" The States' army and Count Mansfield's troopes marched the next morning from Gitterin Berck to Bridaugh. They marched not together, but passed by two severall ports of the towne. His Exc. staid that day to see Count Mansfield's troopes pass by [march past ?], which Count Mansfield shewed with as much art and advantage as might bee, and both horse and foot marched in excellent order. His Exc. before had sent Monsr Marquett, Lieutenant-Generall of the horse, to visit the troopes, soe hee knewe them as well as Count Mansfield himself. Though the men were ill-horsed and most of them carreyed no armes, yet they were properable men. His Exc. seemed to like both horse and man. Hee comended the foote verie much, which were verie well accommodated and proper men. Count Mansfield's forces were about 7,500, whereof 4,500 horse and 3,000 foote. Wee tarried but a night at Bridaugh. Next day, till wee came to Rozendale * (which is two little daies march from Bridaugh), wee expected the Enemye.
" On Sunday morning the whole Army was on Rozendale heath, which his Exc. drewe out in Battalia. This was a sight able to have wrought upon a coward, and would have served as a whet- stone to set an edge upon any blunt appetite to see betwixt seaven and eight thousand horses together moving in so many bodies like so many clouds ; the generall neighing of the beasts expressed a
kind of joy and laughter Then to hear three or four
hundred Trumpetts sounding as though they had ben an houst [host] of God's Angells sent to usher and conduct them. Then
About a league from Bergen-op-zoom.
28 LIFE AND TIMES OF
againe to see the Pikes stalke as though it had ben a movinge grove or coppice and the Musketteers which flanked them seemed as a fence or hedge. And that which affected me most, to see the English Regiments in the Van (which were above 6,000), and to heare our most famous and renowned English march beaten ; wee thought the drumms did echo victorie and the whole Army was so chearfull and confident that every poore souldier would shrugg and show an itching desire to fight. . . . The whole Army was about 24,000, but they passed for 26,000. Never Army was in better equipage. They drewe 70 peeces of Artillery, great and small. To every Manapall (sic) or Battalion there was allowed two of his Exc. newe devised peeces called Drakes. There was at least 5,000 waggons loaden with all provisions necessary for such an Army. Gen. Cecill should have commanded his Exc. Brigade as Sir ffrancis Vere did at the battle of Newport, and I make no question if they had fought butt he would have gott as much honor that day by commanding the foote as hee did at the Battaile of Newport by commanding the horse ; hee is esteemed [considered] which [by those who] knowe him perfectly to bee verie like both his Masters, his Exc. and Sir ffrancis Vere, in having the method of the one and the daring of the other.
" But meethinks I perceive many of our yonge and brave spirits whoe, because they have performed a duell well, suppose themselves capable to censure and judge of Armyes and Generalls. Theis are impatient and importunate to knowe whether his Exc. would have fought or no. There are others who happily have been Comanders in the States service, and beinge discontented have quitted their Companies, and live in Garrison in the good Towne of London and hould their Councell of Warre in a taverne. Theis are those which are the cause of the lazines and ignorance of our youth ; for they will teach them to roar and vapour, and make them beleeve they are capable of any commaund. I have been in the company of one of these by chance whoe (when hee hath been in the midst of his cupps) hath shewed himself so valiant and ambitious, that meethought I sawe the briske clarret boylinge and seethinge out of his braine and his thoughts all in a flame, soe the whole man appeared unto mee like a gallant [gallon] of burnt claret. Hee would often wish himself a Generall, and though hee never sawe
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 2Q
mee before (I thank him) hee would make mee a Colonell amongst the rest of his company. It is good sport to heare this kind of people censure, which they will do both when they are drunk and sober. They will begin with the Prince of Orange, and not stick to say hee is a ranke coward ; and as they will make a valiant man a coward, soe they will make a coward a valiant man, and commend and disparage this and that Colonel of such and such a Nation.
" In the meantime, theise adopted and newe christened souldiers take the allarum hot and infect their companions, and by con- sequence all the youth of the Towne of London are thus poisoned. . . . Noe marvaile the Prince of Orange hath suffered by such impostures as theise when divers of his own Captaines and souldiers are most forward and apt to censure him. I have knowne others (who seemed more forward than the rest) would tell mee they feared nothinge but that they should have no fightinge work, and that let them say what they would they knewe his Exc. durst not releeve the towne of Bergen. But when I saluted them in [on] the march and asked them what they thought nowe, they wanted their Bone [Beaune ?] wine and pulled their hattes over theire eyes, when as before they putt up their broad brims and looked as though they would have shott theire enemyes through with their eyes. . . . There are likewise some ould Comaunders which are weary of the Warres, and having gott some meanes desire to retire themselves, and if they may not put of [part with] their Companies upon what Conditions they please, they will speake ill and raile upone his Exc. and the States, and disparage the country as much as they can. I have knowne some which are esteemed brave Comaun- ders to doe the like and have shewed more feare to loose [lose] their money than their lives, for when they have been wounded they would scarce goe to the charge of the Chirurgeon. There are many Captaines and officers which buy and value the title above the Comaund, and it hath bin often seen by experience that their [there] have been those which have bought a Company one yeare and soulde it the next. Soe likewise for officers, for they thinke it a brave thinge at their returne to be noted in the streetes and called out of a Taverne windowe to drink a quart of wine by the name of Captaine, Lieutenant, or Ancient [Ensign] such a one. Theis, though they looked sneakingly and were shamfast
3O LIFE AND TIMES OF
[shamefaced] in an Army, will talk bouldly of the Prince of Orange and discourse of leaguers, and every word that falls from their mouthes is a word of Art in souldiery ; nothing but Demilunes,
Ravelinges, Parapetts, Counterscarfes (sic), and Hornworkes.
*****
" As soone as his Exc. entered into the Dorpe of Rozendale, wee had no sooner sett our Avenewes of Horse but a troope of the enemye's horse charged our Centinels and made them retire, and fell upon our gard of horse. They came up daringly and fought bravely. There were three of the Enemye's [troopers] slaine by a squadron of our Musketteers which lay in ambuscado behinde a hedge and wee tooke two prisoners ; yet they had what they came for, and took a prisoner which was bravely don, and soe [they] retired to seaven other troopes of horse which were ready to second them. It seems Spinola would hardly beleeve (though hee knewe his Exc. would releeve the Towne) that hee was soe neere, or that hee was growne so bould of a suddaine to seeke him. So it seems the Prince of Orange came sooner than he was expected, for that night the Marquis set his Quarters on fire.1 From Rozendale wee sawe the flame perfectly, and wee did imagine onely that the horse which had beaten the enemy from Woe [Wouw], a castle two miles and a half of[f], was the cause that the enemy quitting the place had set some Barne, where their forage was, on fire. Soe his Exc. gott not word till the next morning that the Enemy was risen, and the newes came to him but by one man, and it was three or foure o'clock of the after- noone before it was seconded [followed], soe there was no stirring for him that day."
In describing the state the enemy's camp was found in, the writer says : —
" Spinola shewed a great deal of distraction, for he forgott his Gods and left his Altars behind him, and there were divers images
1 October 2. On October 6 a body of troops was detached from Bergen to retake the small town of Steenbergen, which lies due north of Bergen, and which had been taken by the Spaniards at the commencement of the siege. It was immediately surrendered to the States' troops.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 3!
found ; amongst the rest I heard it reported there was found a Medallion which was sent unto him from the Jesuites of Antwerpe with the picture of our Lady of [on] the one side and the figure and motto of Victoria on the other. I will not swear that this is true, but I am sure whether hee left the Medalia or not, yet hee left the thinge which was the Victorie itself behind him.1 . . . The Prince of Orange's welcome to Bergen was so great that one of the States [deputies] in the towne who should have made a con- gratulatory oration was not able to speake. . . . Another of the States [deputies] supplied his place with a short and hastie speech. His wordes were ' WELCOME OUR PRINCE.' ' Noe,' said the Prince, ' I am your servant, and I have but done my duty.' What they wanted in wordes they supplied in deedes, for they laid a generall imposition that every head over [in] the seaven Provinces should pay a Guilder, which is two shillings English, as an ex- traordinary towards the warres. The people were so pleased and transported at the releevinge of the Towne that in that fit they would have given them silver to their shirts. Ffor a week together there was nothing but drinking, singing, bonefires and a perpetuall concourse of people from Holland and Zeland.2 .... The prison gates were set open and everie man and woman had the shackells of feare knocked of[f] their leggs."
Nothing now remained but to exchange and ransom those officers of the States' army who had been taken prisoners by the Spaniards since the commencement of the summer campaign. Chief among the prisoners taken by the Spaniards was the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, whose capture was named by Sir Edward Cecil in his letter to Lord Middlesex of August 13. Our ancient chronicler thus refers to the ransoming of this gallant prince in one of
1 According to the Dutch Journal, the enemy lost ll,ooo men during this siege, and the besieged only 600 (p. 29).
2 There were great rejoicings in London when it was known that Spinola had raised the siege, and the Dutch commissioners then in London had a display of fireworks, &c. Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 5 [o. s.]. — S. P. Dom.
32 LIFE AND TIMES OF
the closing paragraphs of his narrative of the siege and relief of Bergen-op-zoom : —
" There is a new Quarter concluded which is by the Enemye's own seeking. There was two Commissioners deputed on both sides for the ransoming of Prisoners, especially the Duke of Wimarke, who was but a horse captain, yet being of so great a blood (as hee is the true Duke of Saxe by all right), Spinola would not let him be ransomed without acquainting the Infanta, and shee would heare first out of Spaine. ' Oh,' said his Ex., smiling, ' sure Munsr le Marquis thinks I begin to dote, doth he think hee can put his old gross cheekes and slurres of lingrings and deferringes upon mee ? ' After he had sent many Trumpets to and fro to Count Henry de Bergh (who tooke him) and to Spinola, at length hee despatches his Commissioners with a peremptory message to Marquis Spinola [to] send him his prisoner, the Duke of Wimarke, or ells hee would breake the Quarter presently and put all to the sword. At this time wee had many prisoners of the enemye both horse and foot. The Commissioners from Spinola excused the retayning of the Duke, that they did it because they desired to have the honor to cure him and restore him safe and sound. Soe they kept their words against their wills, for after so many puttings off at length hee was ransomed."
Thus was brought to an entirely successful conclusion the Relief of Bergen-op-zoom. It was unhappily the last gleam of sunshine that cast a bright halo upon the military career of Maurice of Nassau.
The first news the ex-King of Bohemia heard on his return to Holland was that Tilly had taken Heidelberg.1 A few weeks after, Mannheim surrendered after one of the most gallant defences on record, and Frankenthal, the only place now left to Frederick in the Palatinate, could not hold out many weeks. While these nails were being
Roger Coke's Detection of Court and Sta'e of England, &c., i. p. 133.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 33
driven into Frederick's coffin, slowly but surely, James was still pursuing his negotiations for peace with the Emperor, the King of Spain, and the Archduchess. Of all these three foreign rulers the widowed archduchess was the only one who really wished for peace, and who really had tried to stem the torrent which swept away with irresistible force the hereditary dominions of the exiled Frederick. Whether her reasons were disinterested matters not, as unfortunately her voice had but little influence with those whom she tried to sway. And the remonstrances and futile threats of James I., King of Great Britain, transmitted to Vienna and Madrid by his ablest diplo- matists, were productive of nothing but empty words and promises which were never meant to be kept when they were made. Despite of negotiations, remonstrances, and Protestant discontent, Ferdinand II. carried out what he had long secretly planned in his heart. He transferred the Palatinate to his colleague and friend Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, a man well competent to keep it. " Such," says an old writer, " was the effect of King James's three years' negotiations in favour of his son-in-law, who was at length stript of his dominions and dignities."
In the meantime Sir Horace Vere, the brave defender of Mannheim, had returned to England, after disbanding the English regiment which had accompanied him to Germany in 1620. Many of the men were transferred to General Cecil's regiment * by the King's command. Vere's arrival in London is thus referred to by one who knew him : —
1 " We have not anything from the Low Countries but that General Vere was discharging his men and putting them into General Cecil's regiment by order from hence ; yet Captain Knollys and Captain Thornen [Thornhurst ?] being put to sea with their companies, before the order was come, are since arrived at Gravesend, yet not permitted to land, but to return to serve the
States when the wind shall serve. From to Rev. Jos. Mead, Jan.
18, 1622-3. — Court and Times of James /., ii. p. 355."
VOL. II. D
34 LIFE AND TIMES OF
" On Saturday [Jan. 28 ?] arrived here the Lord General Vere, who was next day twice with his Majesty, brought in by the Lord Marquis Buckingham, graciously received, and kissed his Majesty's hands, who is said to have acknowledged his good services .... On Monday forenoon I first sought out Mr. French, the General's preacher; afterwards Dr. Wells, his physician, after dinner went and saluted the general himself, and learned from them all that the day before the yielding up of Manheim Castle they had sustained two fierce assaults ; that the enemy had received 3,000 fresh men ; that themselves had not sufficient powder left to serve two assaults more ; which at their departure thence they carried all away with them, and more also of the enemy's to make up the proportion which was agreed upon for them to have ; wanted water ; had not men enough to defend it [the castle] on the walls (the citadel being full treble as big as the Tower of London), each man standing single and a pike's length asunder and no hope of any succours ; and that had they not yielded when they did, they must have been, within three days after, taken by assault and had all their throats cut." 1
Sergeant-Major John Burroughs 2 made an equally brave defence of Frankenthal, which was besieged by Tilly and his lieutenant, Count Pappenheim. This last stronghold of Frederick, Elector Palatine, was, in consequence of a treaty of sequestration signed in London in March, placed in the hands of the archduchess on April 14. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and a Spanish governor took possession in the name of the Archduchess Isabella, who was to hold the place for eighteen months. " If at the end of that time no reconciliation had been effected between Frederick and the Emperor, an English garrison was to be readmitted." 3 This treaty, which James fondly hoped was to be the precursor of a lasting and
to Rev. J. Mead, Jan. 31, 1623. — Court and Times, ii. p. 360.
2 Knighted by James I. in May, 1623. — Ibid. p. 397. • Dr. Gardiner's Hist, of England, v. p. 74.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 35
advantageous peace for his disinherited children, was, as may be readily supposed, a mere sop to stop a troublesome suitor's mouth, and gain time.
On Feb. 7, in this year, died Sir Edward Cecil's father, the aged Earl of Exeter, having only survived his little daughter1 five months. The earl's death and funeral are recorded in one of the letters of that period : —
" On Thursday, in the afternoon, the Earl of Exeter's funeral was kept at Westminster. The body was brought from the Painted Chamber by the Court of Requests down through West- minster Hall and the Palace into King St., and so by the west door into the minster. The Archbishop of Canterbury meant to have preached, but being laid of the gout, Dr. Joseph Hall supplied his place. By reason of his absence, the Lord of Carlisle's, the Lord Andover's, two of his own sons that are sick, and some others, the show was not so great as it should have been, yet they say there was a fair many ; but in regard there was neither dinner, supper, banquet, nor so much as a cup of drink ; it was called a dry funeral." 2
By the death of his father, Sir Edward Cecil became possessed of Wimbledon House,3 with the estate attached to it, which had been settled upon him by his father.4
1 "The Lady Sophia Anna Cecill, daur. to the Earl of Exeter, was buried in St. John Bapt. Chapl, Sept. 15 [1621]." — Westminster Abbey Registers.
2 Chamberlain to Carleton, March 8 (?), 1623.— S. P. Dom. "Thomas Cecill, Earl of Exeter, was buried in St. John Baptist's Chappell, February 10 [1622-3]." — Westminster Abbey Registers.
3 Sir Thomas Cecil, first Earl of Exeter, having purchased Wimbledon Manor from Sir Christopher Hatton, began to rebuild it in 1588, two years before he obtained a grant of the manor by exchange with Queen Elizabeth. Aubrey calls it " a noble seat," and Fuller describes it as a " daring structure." See Aubrey's History of Surrey, i. p. 14, and Fuller's Worthies, pt. iii. p. 78.
4 Will of Thomas, first Earl of Exeter, proved Feb., 1622-3, leaves all goods, chattels, household furniture and plate at Wimbledon to his son, Sir Edward Cecil ; to his four grand-daughters, daughters of Sir Edward Cecil — Dorothy, Albinia, Elizabeth, and Frances — each an antique silver bason ; to his daughters-in-law each too oz. gilt plate ; .£200 to Sir Richard Cecil, and .£200 to Thomas Cecil. Eldest son sole executor.
D 2
36 LIFE AND TIMES OF
Only a passing reference has been hitherto made to the projected marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain. It is a subject that cannot be passed by in silence, for the Spanish marriage was, to use the words of a modern writer, " the needle in the compass which was to guide the voyage and destiny of Christian civilisation for centuries." l For this very reason, if for no other, the great marriage bubble scheme of the reign of James I. demands special mention.
As far back as the year 1614, we find James full of the Spanish marriage scheme, and this one idea shaping the course of his foreign and domestic policy. While the idea lasted, England may be said to have been subservient to Spain, for James, like Tantalus of old, was plunged up to his neck in a lake, the waters of which always receded from him whenever he attempted to drink. Over his head hung branches of fruit which receded in like manner when he stretched out his hand to reach them, and a rock suspended over his head was ever threatening to fall and crush him. Spanish statecraft was the lake James was immersed in. The fruit which was alternately dangled in his face and then swung out of his way was the Infanta with her large dowry, and the overhanging rock, always threatening to fall and crush him, was war, the very name of which froze the little marrow there was in his bones and benumbed him into a state of inglorious repose. Setting aside the difference of religion, the advantages of an alliance with Spain were many and great. Spanish power had not yet begun to wane or Spanish wealth to diminish. To be King of Spain and the Indies was the proudest title a European monarch could aspire to. And being, as Spain then was, a central pillar of that
1 Article in Quarterly Review, cxxxix. p. 25.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 37
colossal structure known as the House of Austria, a Spanish alliance, offensive and defensive, meant safety, and consequently peace and prosperity, to the kingdom happy enough to gain that alliance. James was well aware of all this, and his wish to keep on good terms with Spain was the ruling feature of his reign. A Spanish alliance for his son and heir seemed to him the only way to unite the two kingdoms in the bonds of friendship. James was not far-seeing enough to recognise the fact that even the close ties of marriage and blood are often entirely forgotten when political difficulties arise between two or more nations, which drag them, but not necessarily their allies, into war. The dismemberment of Denmark, and the absorption of Hanover, in modern times, are good instances of the inutility of the ties of marriage and blood between the rulers of two neighbouring kingdoms when one of them is attacked by an aggressive Power. But even supposing a Spanish marriage had taken place, all its good results would have been neutralised by the fact that the Prince's sister was married to the man who called himself head of the Protestant party in Germany. There are few who will not heartily echo the words of a modern historian who, in remarking upon the King of Great Britain's plan of marrying his son to a Roman Catholic princess, after marrying his daughter to the Elector Palatine, says : — " It seems as if he was purposely intro- ducing into his own family the disunion which rent Europe in twain." *
To please Spain, James put Raleigh to death.2 And when the Elector Palatine was chosen king by the Bohemians James was partly guided in his obstructive
1 Ranke, i. p. 489.
* Hallam's Constitutional Hist, of England, i. p. 355.
38 LIFE AND TIMES OF
policy by Philip III.'s representations to him that his own (Philip's) right to the kingdom of Bohemia was indis- putable, and that he would contend for it with all his strength.1 To show his trust and friendliness for Spain, James allowed English ordnance to be shipped to that country, and at the Spanish ambassador's request he gave permission for two regiments to be raised in Great Britain to serve under the Spanish flag. The English troops sent to the Palatinate under Vere, on the eve of the invasion of the Electorate by Spinola, were barely sufficient to garrison one town in the Palatinate. In short, the force was just large enough not to be of any permanent use.. While Frederick's dominions were being overrun and conquered by Austrians, Bavarians, and Spaniards, James still trusted to Spain to bring about a peace between Frederick and the Emperor — a peace that would result in the latter reinstating the former in his dominions and dignities. The reward for this Christian act was to be a firm alliance between Great Britain and Spain and the Prince of Wales's marriage to the Infanta. The death of Philip III., in the spring of 1621, and the accession of Philip IV., had greatly favoured James's matrimonial scheme for the Prince of Wales. It was said that Philip III. had never really intended giving his daughter in marriage to Charles, and had merely used her as a kind of decoy duck to allure James into his net of political intrigues. The son of Philip II., true to the ambitious schemes of his house, had thought no more of a king for a son-in-law when he saw his way to marrying his daughter to the future Emperor of Austria. His last words to his son and daughter on his death-bed revealed this fact.2 The wishes of a dying father were soon forgotten
1 Ranke, i. p. 490.
1 Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain, 1621-1700, i. p. 3.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 39
by the youthful Philip IV., who gave himself up to a life of pleasure, while all State affairs were left to Count Olivares, the all-powerful minister and favourite of the young monarch. Olivares seems to have been distinguished by patriotism, bigotry, and that dislike of foreigners which has characterised the Spanish race from the earliest to the latest times.1 True to the statecraft in which he had been educated, he dissembled his real feelings and appeared to fall in with the wishes of Philip, who was as favourably disposed to the English alliance for his sister as his easy- going, unstable nature allowed of. Thus the negotiations for the marriage dragged their weary course through 1621 and 1622, during which period Great Britain lost both honour and prestige, James, having delivered himself up to the counsels, or rather the corruptions, of Spain.2 It was in consequence of the standstill of the marriage negotiations that the Prince of Wales, inspired by youthful romance and eager to win the hand of a princess hedged round with so many difficulties, secretly left England for Spain in company with the Marquis of Buckingham, in Feb., 1623. The sudden departure of Charles for Spain caused a great sensation in England. Buckingham was the only Privy Councillor who knew of the intended journey, and he was with the Prince speeding through France en route to Madrid, when the unwelcome news became generally known. The King sent a message to the Council to say it was the doing of the Prince, who wanted to see if he was being fairly dealt with, and that they (the Council) were not told " because secresy was the life of the business." 3
1 Abajo el estrangero (Down with the foreigner) was the popular cry when an ungrateful nation wished to get rid of King Amadeus, their elected sovereign, a few years ago. Indeed, his being a foreigner seems to have been his only crime !
2 Burnet's Hist, of His Own Time, i. p. 29.
3 Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 22, 1622-3. — •£ ?• Dom.
4O LIFE AND TIMES OF
There was one good result in the Prince's journey to Madrid — matters were brought to a climax. For seven years had this marriage treaty been in progress, and when it seemed on the point of completion, it suddenly collapsed altogether. Pope Urban VI II., Olivares,1 and Buckingham (now raised to a dukedom) have all three been severally accused of wrecking the Spanish marriage ; — the Pope, by desiring too great concessions in matters of religion from the present and the future King of England ; Olivares, by moulding the Spanish Council into his way of thinking concerning the restoration of the Elector Palatine to his dominions and dignity by means of Spanish interference — James had commenced his negotiations with the idea that Spain could bring such pressure to bear on the Emperor as to cause him to restore the Palatinate ; but Olivares, the Buckingham of Spain, had no intention that pressure should ever be used against Ferdinand and Maximilian ; Buckingham, by his great influence over Charles, had no small "share in wrecking the marriage ; added to which his having quarrelled with Olivares and disgusted the Spanish Court by his insolence, freedom of manners, and dissolute habits, set the Spanish people against the English match. " The root of the failure lies in the conbination of the religious with the political relations of the two countries,"2 says a modern historian. This is very true as regards the root of the business, but there were other circumstances combined to prevent the growth of this impossible union. The affection of Charles for the Infanta died a natural death for want of nourish- ment. The sight of the princess, who was, as he thought,
1 Gaspar de Guzman, third Conde d'Olivares, Duque de San Lucar de Barrameda, born 1587, and died 1645.
2 Ranke, i. 516.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 41
to be the partner of his life, aroused his passion for her to fever-heat ; but Spanish etiquette forbid all private inter- views between them, and the Prince found to his chagrin that the Maria of his dreams was as far removed as ever from him. He saw her occasionally in public and even spoke to her, but his words were necessarily those of a courtier and not of a lover, while her answers were mere expressions of stereotyped formality. Her deeply religious nature made it an easy task for her confessor to pull her heart-strings in the direction wanted, and, as Olivares controlled the confessor, the poor Infanta1 became a mere mechanical State machine. She was, in fact, more a slave than the poorest wretch in the Spanish galleys. While the flame of the Prince's passion burnt brightly, Olivares and the Council ground him and bound him down to signing conditions which were highly dishonourable in him as a Protestant Prince to sign, and still more dishonourable in him if he only signed them with the intention to break them at some future time. Whatever Charles may have meant when his passion for the Infanta was at its height, it is very certain his feelings underwent a great change before he left Spain, and that he left that country deter- mined to break off the match as soon as he was at a safe distance, notwithstanding all the articles he had signed and ratified, even going so far as to sign the proxy for his marriage on the day of his departure.
The Prince and Buckingham sailed from Santander on Sept. 1 8, and arrived at Portsmouth on Oct 5. The following day the Prince passed through London on his way to join the Court at Royston. His arrival in the
1 The Infanta Maria, who had been the destined bride of Charles, was married some years afterwards to the King of Hungary, who became emperor by the title of Ferdinand III. She died in childbed in 1646. — Dunlop, i. p. 103.
42 LIFE AND TIMES OF
metropolis was hailed with joy by the people, to whom the Spanish marriage had long been most distasteful,1 and the day was kept as a great holiday. The Londoners were not mistaken in supposing that Charles's return without his bride was a hopeful sign that the marriage would not take place, for soon after the Prince's return it was rumoured abroad that the Spanish match was broken off, in consequence of Philip IV. declining to comply with James's request of bringing about the restitution of the Palatinate. " I like not," said James, " to marry my son with a portion of my daughter's tears." 2
To return once more to Sir Edward Cecil. Private affairs kept him from going over to Holland this year (1623), and he obtained leave from the Prince of Orange, through Sir Dudley Carleton, to remain in England, military affairs being very quiet in the Low Countries this summer. On June 9, we find the English ambassador at the Hague writing to Edward Cecil and sending him the news from the Hague.
SIR DUDLEY CARLETON TO SIR E. CECIL.
' ' MY VERY GOOD LORD,
" . . . . Wee were here this last night surprised by the sodaine arrivall of my Lady Wallingford,3 who without stay by the
1 A good story is told of the way a country preacher interpreted the order of the Bishop of London, that the clergy were not to prejudice the Prince's journey to Spain by their prayers, &c., " but only to pray to God to return him home in safety, and no more." An honest, plain preacher, being loth to transgress this order, which really emanated from the King's timid brain, offered up a prayer in his church, "that God would return our noble Prince home again unto us, and no more!" Mead to Stutteville, March 29, 1623. — Court and Times, ii. p. 380.
* Racket's Life of Archbishop Williams, pt i. p. 165.
8 Elizabeth, wife of William Knollys, Viscount Wallingford, and afterwards created Earl of Banbury. She was daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk. Her eccentric conduct in concealing the births of her two sons by
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 43
way, or sending before, took her adventure [chance] in finding a fitt lodging, wch yr Lop knoweth how it might have fayled her now the towne is full, but it fell out lukly that the Moiran (bespoken about a week or ten dayes hence for Monsr de Chastillon) was empty, where she lodgeth conveniently. It gives new life to this good and gratious Princess 1 to see her old frends, so as I am very glad when such occasions happen, which doe minister some entertaynemt, of wch (God knoweth) she hath neede, for she is otherwise full of discomfort. I have not fayled to present yr Lop'8 service to her, W* she takes with wonted kindnes, and asketh mee whether wee shall see yr Lp here this sumer, as his Excie doth often ; but because yr Lop sayth nothing of y1 coming, I doubt Wimbleton is so faire a tent to change so soone with any here, neyther do wee yet know where ors are like to be pitched, or when wee shall draw into the field ; for I doe not see there is any designe on eyther side by reason of want of money, but all will be governed by chance, and this chance may happen. Tilly is on foote to seeke out Brunswick; Mansfelt projects to march towards Tilly; Tilly, Anholt and Cordova follow Mansfelt. Henry Vandenbergh will undoubtedly follow them. When he stirrs the Prince of Orange will not sit still, and when his Excy leaves the Hagh, Bruxelles is no place for the Marquis Spinola. This is like to be the base [of opera- tions] ; meanwhile all rests in preparation and expectation, and I rest
" Yr L-P"
" &c., &c.
" D. C.
" Hagh, gth of June, 1623." 2
End. " To G'rall. Cecyll, the 9 of June, 1623, by Davison."
Lord Banbury was the eventual cause of the earldom of Banbury falling into abeyance. General Sir Wm. Knollys unsuccessfully preferred his claim to this title in 1808-13.
1 The Queen of Bohemia.
2 Copy of letter from Carleton to Cecil.— S. P. Holland.
44 LIFE AND TIMES OF
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR D. CARLETON. " MY VERY GOOD LORD,
" I am to give yr lo. many thanekes for the dispensatione it pleased yr lo. to procure mee from his Ex., and I hope it is fallene oute at a very fitt tyme, when littell is to be done, for that much of the tyme is now spent that must be to be imployed in seages .... I hope God will so assist our great Captayne that wee shall not loose [lose] the Contrie by Howie salle [wholesale]. But I doe imagine the lesse the[y] doe this yeare the more the[y] will doe the neaxte yeare, for the longer an enime is in prepar- ing he is to be feared so much the more.
" I shall not neede to advertis yr lo. from heance, for that yr lo. hath the returne of yr beaste [best] friend and soliceture, [and] that ther is littell unknowne to her heare that is worthy of yr lo. knowledge ; and she can not chuse (sic), for she hath beeyn so much made one [on], and so much honored of all, both great and littell, that what she desiered was in her power to knowe, for by her curtisie and good fatione she hath altered my lo. Thesaurers [Lord Treasurer's] flinty dispositione in affablenes, and redy pamente. For pore men as myselfe, she hath nether givene us occatione or leave to do her any servis, for wch I am sory, for that I reast still in deabte, not able any way to requitte the least of yr lo. and my la. [Lady Carleton] favors. But I hope I shall be happier for the tyme to come, when it shall please God to see yr lo. heare, and at wimbleton, wch plase I hope shall not displease y°. And so wishing yr lo. as much happines as yr harte can desier, I reast,
" yr lo. most affectionat servant
"to be commanded,
"Eo. CECYLL.
" From my house at wimbleton, this 10 of September." x
End. " From Generall Cecyll the 10 of September, 1623."
S. P. Holland, 1623.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 45
On August 3, Sir Edward Cecil's second daughter, Albinia, was married at St. Mary's Church, Wimbledon, to Mr. Christopher Wray,1 eldest son of Sir Wm. Wray, first Bart, of Glentworth, Lincolnshire (only son of Sir Christopher Wray, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1574- 1 592), by his second wife, Frances Drury, sister and co-heir with her sisters, Elizabeth, Countess of Exeter, and Diana, wife of Sir E. Cecil, to Sir Robert Drury, of Hawsted, Suffolk, Knt. Albinia Cecil was given away at the altar by her father,2 who was then residing at Wimbledon House with his family.
The first thing Prince Maurice did on taking the field in August was to order the ways along the Veluwe to be made twenty feet broad, from Yssell to Hattem,3 that troops, waggons, and cannon might march easily if the enemy should attempt to pass over the Yssel into the Veluwe, but they durst not adventure anything that summer.*
An amusing account is given of the conduct of an English knight, who came to learn soldiering under the Prince of Orange this summer, in a letter from John Sackville to Sir Dudley Carleton. This knight, Sir Anthony Hinton, was introduced by General Vere to the Prince of Orange, who saluted him, and said, " Parlez vous Frangais, Monsieur?" Hinton answered, "No, by God's blood, no more than you do English, and therefore you may spare your compliments ! " Sackville goes on to
1 For an account of this gentleman, who was knighted by James I. at Theobalds, in November, 1623, see last chapter in this volume.
2 " 1623. Christopher Wraye, Esqr, and Albinia, his wife, were married 3d August. She was given in marriage by her Honble. Father, Sir Edward Cecil, Kt, and son to the right honble. Earl of Exeter." — Registers, St. Mary's Church, Wimbledon.
3 A village near Zwolle. 4 Crosse, p. 1466.
46 LIFE AND TIMES OF
relate a few more eccentricities of this " gentleman " volunteer.
" He is come here almost like the seven sons of Amon [ Ammon], for he and his four men have but one horse. He hath his men in good living, and for himself he hath eighteen suits of apparell, but fewer and worse would serve him, for he appears nowhere but in tap-houses ; instead of visiting and waiting on Count Harry, he goes into a sutler's, and there drinckes drunck. He has never been sober since he came here. Last night going to the Count I found him lying druncke on a form in a tap-house, and for all this his good fellowship, he is miserable, for he cryes, ' thy pott and myne,' and will not pay a stiver more. I thank God I never did [such a thing]. Wee will send him back to Arnhem, and they were best send him to England." 1
The following letter shows General Cecil did not forget his profession in his retreat at Wimbledon : —
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR EDWARD CoNWAY.2
"SIR,
" Having beeyne of latte a mong my fellow deputies liftenants of Surry, a boute our musters, I fiend moste of them will not oute of the owlde beatane waye, that is upon a muster the[y] will say as the[y] have sayd many yeares to gether, bring better Armes, and the neaxte tyme the same thinge, wthoute telling them the[y] must make them of this fation or of that, for there is noe pattone ; so that if y° meane to have better armes, there muste be a patonne, and then the depute lifetenants will understand what armes, where now nether the lifetenants nor the souldires doe know how to meande there Armes wthoute the pattone, wch is very necessary. The reasone whie I have wryte these lines is to second yr owne Noble worke, wch is to bringe this Kindome in to a true
1 John Sackville to Carleton, from the camp near Rees, Sept. 15, 1623. — S. P. Holland, There was a Captain Sackville in General Cecil's regiment, who may have been the writer of above letter ?
2 Sir Edward Conway had lately been appointed one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 47
disepline — a worke so necessary and profitable, that it will be more to yr honor, till it will make it perpetuall, and showe the world that there was never till now a professed souldier at that borde, to wch honor I shall be carefull in what I am able to assiste w"1 my beaste servis. And so not having more to truble yr many busines, but only wth my humble servis, I reast
« Yre
" to be commanded,
"Eo. CECYLL. " this Sl Stivene day, from Wimbleton."
Add. "To the Rig. honorable, and his Noble friend, Sr Ed. Conwaye, Knight, Secritary of Statt, and one of his Maies moste honorable previ counselle."
End. " Decemb. 26, 1623, Sr Edward Cecill Concerninge Armes."
48 LIFE AND TIMES OF
CHAPTER II. 1624-1625.
Breach with Spain — The new Parliament — Sir E. Cecil elected one of the barons for Dover — Startling news from Holland — The Dover election petition — Cecil is unseated, but regains his seat — He is appointed member of the Council of War — Arrival of Count Mansfeld in London — His bargain with James — French marriage treaty — Impeachment of the Earl of Middlesex — Parliament grants the King a large subsidy — Four new English regiments sent to the Low Countries — Cecil goes over — Spinola prepares to invest Breda — The Prince of Orange attempts to surprise Antwerp — Failure of the enterprise — He divides his army into two divisions — Death of the Earl of Southampton and Lord Wriothesley — Illness of the Prince of Orange — He retires to the Hague — Cecil's command at Waelwick — His account of that place — Negotiations with France — Richelieu's trium- phant policy — The story of Mansfeld's ill-fated expedition.
AFTER the Prince of Wales's return from Spain a new era may be said to have commenced in England. Everything was now anti-Spanish. A violent reaction had set in. The nation, Court, and the Parliament, which had been sum- moned to meet in February, were all opposed to the Spanish match and Spanish interests.
" Since my dear brother's return into England," wrote the Queen of Bohemia to her trusted friend Sir Thomas Roe, " all is changed from being Spanish, in which I assure you that Buckingham l doth most nobly and faithfully for me. Worthy Southampton is much in favour, and all that are not Spanish." 2
1 It is asserted by Nani, and all the Roman Catholic historians, that the King of Bohemia offered to Buckingham to unite their families by the intermarriage of their children. See Miss Benger's Life of the Queen of Bohemia, ii., p. 212, note. 2 Roe Correspondence.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 49
The two exceptions to this almost universal feeling against Spain were James and his upright ambassador, the Earl of Bristol. The old King could not suddenly renounce the dream of a lifetime without many a bitter pang and sinking at heart. His minister was of too upright and noble a character not to see that after all that had been said, done, and ratified, the Spanish match could not suddenly be broken off by Great Britain without much loss of honour to King James and his son. " James knew he should be disvalued, to the wounding of all good opinion, if he did not engraft that alliance into his stem, which he had sought with so much expense of time and cost to strengthen and aggrandize his posterity," wrote a seven- teenth century biographer. " And he knew," continues the same writer, " he should lose honour with all the potentates of Europe, beside other mischiefs, if nothing were done for repossessing the Palatinate." l
The old King was not strong enough, morally or physically, to withstand the strong current that had now set in. He was carried along with the stream, and was a mere puppet in the hands of Buckingham, who had virtually seized, from the uncertain grasp of the poor mon- arch, the rudder lines which had become so inextricably twisted. Bristol was recalled from Spain, and Parliament was summoned to make all due preparations for the storm that seemed likely to burst over England at any moment.
In this Parliament, the last of this reign, Sir Edward Cecil was returned as member for Dover, in conjunction with Sir Richard Young. These two members were nomin- ated by Lord Zouch, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. It was customary for the Lord Warden at this period, and for long after, to assume the right of nominating, as a matter
1 Racket, ii. p, 167. VOL. II. E
5O LIFE AND TIMES OF
of course, one (and occasionally both) of the representatives of the ports.1 This assumption, as may be supposed, was often productive of much ill-feeling, and, in the case of Lord Zouch's nominees for Dover, there was, as we shall presently see, some difficulty in carrying their election and in establishing their right to sit in Parliament.
Parliament had been summoned to meet on February 12, but was put off till the i6th, and then, by reason of the Duke of Richmond's sudden death, till the igth. The King opened Parliament in person.
" He made a very gracious and plausible speech," wrote a contemporary letter writer, " confessed he had been deluded in the treaty of the match ; but referring it now wholly to their consideration whether it should go forward or no, according as they should see cause upon the Prince's and Duke of Bucking- ham's relation." 2
" Buckingham delivered to a committee of Lords and Com- mons a long narrative," says a modern historian, "which he pretended to be true and complete of every step taken in the negotiations with Philip ; but partly by the suppression of some facts, partly by the false colouring laid on others, this narrative was calculated entirely to mislead the parliament, and to throw on the court of Spain the reproach of artifice and insincerity. The Prince of Wales, who was present, vouched for its truth, and the king himself lent it, indirectly, his authority, by telling the parliament that it was by his orders Buckingham laid the whole affair before them. . . . The narrative concurred so well with the passions and prejudices of the parliament that no scruple was made of immediately adopting it ; and they immedi- ately advised the king to break off both treaties with Spain, as well that which regarded the marriage as that for the restitu- tion of the Palatinate." 3
1 Oldfield's Representative Hist, of Great Britain, v. p. 355.
2 Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 22, 1624. — S. P. Dom.
3 Philip IV., being determined to throw the blame of the rupture entirely on the English, delivered into Bristol's hand a written promise, by which he
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 51
A few days after the meeting of Parliament, Sir Edward Cecil was sent to request the King to have a fast for the happy deliverance of the Prince.1 Public rejoicings, bon- fires, and anti-Spanish demonstrations, proclaimed the feelings of the good citizens of London when it became generally known that the treaty with Spain was broken off.
Whilst these events were taking place in England, an unusual occurrence had taken place in the Low Countries which aroused the United Provinces from their accustomed winter sleep. This occurrence was nothing less than the sudden appearance on the Dutch frontier of Count Henry Van den Berg with a large force at his back.
"We have had here a winter war," wrote Sir Dudley Carleton to one of his English correspondents, "not much unlike our English boys' play of bidding of base, for Count Henry Vanden- berg having crossed the Yssell into the Veluwe, he retired to his passage and then stopt When his Excellency understood of his making a halt, he stayed likewise without going further. So as they did one another no great harm." 2
The crossing of the Yssel by the enemy caused much consternation throughout the States, and the fear of the consequences reached even to London, where Sir Horace Vere, Sir Edward Cecil, and other officers who held com- mands in the States' army were then residing. We find Vere and Cecil both writing to Sir D. Carleton on receipt of the unwelcome news,3 and expressing their readiness to come over if necessary.
bound himself to procure the restoration of the Palatine, either by persuasion, or by every other possible means. — Hume.
1 Jas. Millington to his brother, February 27. — S. P. Dom,
2 Carleton to Chamberlain, February 24. — Court and Times.
8 Horace Vere to Carleton, February 20. — S. P. Dom. It seems that Van den Berg, with 7,000 foot and 35 troops of horse, marched to the close vicinity of a place where the King and Queen of Bohemia were then visiting,
E 2
52 LIFE AND TIMES OF
SIR E. CECIL TO SIR D. CARLETON.
" MY VERY GOOD [LORD],
" Yrlo., y° can not imagine what comforte yr lo. letter hathe givene to many honest well wishers to the cause of the lowe countries and espetially to my selfe, whoe before by the generall repare, wch was more fearefully delivred then the truthe was. For the wch favore and comforte I am to give yr lo. most humble thanckes. I fiend as yr lo. did expect that this wholle Kindome dothe take a great alarome at this accedente, and espetially our Parlemente, and I hope that this ill accedente will turne to our good (by God's favore), in the same kind as the Prince's goinge into Spane, w011 was so terrible to us at the begining .... upone the generall reporte I was redy to have comde over, had there beeyne a shipe redy, thoughe I have many extrordinary busines to have hindered mee ; beside my being of the Parlemente, where I hope wee shall doe her MUe now servis, or never, for his MaUe hath given us as muche leave and freedome as wee can possibly desier, so that if wee have beeyne free in times of lese liberty, and in tymes that was so much our enimes, y° may please to letter [let her ?] her Maty know that we will not be negligent e in these tymes to stricke harde, now that the lorne is so hotte, and although his Maty dothe give us leave to advise him conserning the busines of Spane & the Mariadge, yet wee will first begine wth the setting religione in to his Joynts, that hath beeyne put oute of Joynte by this Spanishe treaty, and in that designe wee will give his MatT our beaste advise, for that is that w°h muste sett all busines righte, for that the Spaniard did us all the harme by advansing his Religion so far as he did, w011 gave his spite (sic) heare so muche credit, as hath cast us so farr behinde. I will be noe longer, but to remember my humble deuty to the Queene, and my truble servis to yr Noble lady, and reast yr lo.,
" most affectionat to be commanded,
" ED. CECYLL. " London, this 2 1 of february."
and for a short time much anxiety was felt for the safety of these Royal persons. — Green's Princesses of England, \. p. 419.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 53
[P.S.] " The comforte heare is that the nues commeth not so fast conserning this laste ill accedente." *
Add. " For y* lorV
End. " Prov. Unit General Cecyll, the 21 of Febry, red the 28."
The Spanish invaders got as far as Ede, two miles from Arnhem, where they received intelligence which caused a general panic among the troops, and they hastily retraced their steps.2 The sudden thawing of the ice on the Yssel also added to the enemy's alarm, and Van den Berg was obliged to recross the river and retire into winter quarters. So ended the winter campaign.
Returning to the Parliament now assembled at West- minster, we find from the Journals of the House of Commons that Edward Cecil was a prominent committee- man, and, as in the former session, he acted as one of the Privy Council of the House, as that prominent body of its members was termed. Early in this session we find Cecil moving for the breaking off of the Spanish match " which Spain never intended." 3 And in the debate on March II, concerning the advisability of a war with Spain, Cecil said " he remembered the declaration made last Parliament, and moved that this declaration be now made good." 4 Sir Edward Coke spoke still more to the point. " England," said Coke, " never prospered so well as when she was at war with Spain. If Ireland were secured, the navy furnished, and the Low Countries assisted, they need not care for Pope, Turk, Spain, nor all the devils in hell." 5 The breach with Spain was widening rapidly.
1 S. P. Dom. 1624.
2 Crosse, p. 1469.
3 Commons' Journals, i. p. 675.
4 Common? Journals, \. p. 682.
5 Dr. Gardiner's Hist, of England, v. pp. 194 5.
54 LIFE AND TIMES OF
The day after the above debate a committee from the Commons (on which committee was Edward Cecil l) went to the House of Lords to hear the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham give their narratives of the nego- tiations with Spain, which have already been referred to. It was in consequence of the disclosures made by the Prince and Buckingham that the two Houses advised his Majesty to break with Spain, and agreed to give him three subsidies and three fifteenths, which was equivalent to ;£ 300,000. This sum, by the King's own proposition, was to be paid to a committee of Parliament, who were to act as treasurers, and only issue the money for the purposes intended. These purposes were, for the war likely to ensue with Spain on the breaking off of negotiations, and, more especially, for " the defence of the realm, the securing of Ireland, the assistance of the States of the United Provinces, and the setting forth of the Royal Navy."
The session was barely a month old when a petition from the electors of Dover was brought before the House of Commons praying for an investigation into the return of Sir Edward Cecil and Sir Richard Young, knights, for the town and port of Dover, in this present Parliament The Committee of Privileges found that these knights had carried themselves fairly;2 but "it was resolved upon question that the freemen and free burgesses, inhabitants of Dover, ought to have voice in the election of their barons 3 to serve in Parliament." * It was also " resolved upon a second question that the election of Sir E. Cecil
1 Commons' Journals.
2 Commons' Journals, i. p. 748.
3 " The representatives of the Cinque ports in Parliament," says Oldfield, " are to this day styled barons, because they were formerly, as they still ought to be, chosen from amongst the inhabitants at large." — Rep. Hist, of Gt. Brit., \. p. 352.
4 Commons' Journals, as before.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 55
and Sir R. Young is void, and that a new warrant shall go out for a new choice with expedition, and that these men may be chosen again if they so please." * Both Cecil and Young were extremely indignant at being thus summarily turned out of Parliament, and both wrote to Lord Zouch, ascribing the petition against them to proceed from the malice of Sir Henry Mainwaring, who had apparently been a rival candidate for the seat. Cecil's letter is short and incisive.
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD Zoucn.2
" MY VERY GOOD LORDE,
"As yr lo. may understand by the Mallis of Sr He. Manering3 to yr lo. yr tow Burgis ar[e] put out of the Howse, upon the generall opineone that the Howse hath givene, that there is noe Burges to be chosene wthoute the choyse of the Commons by an Antiente lawe of Parlemente, and if this lawe were so generally followed, as it hath beeyne a gainste us there, there would be but fewe sitte in parlemente, yet a Blott is noe blotte till it be hitt, so now it is hitt, therefore if there be any meanes for us to recover the honour, I humble beseache yr lo. to take it into yr consideration, for that noe man is more yr lo. humble servant then is
"Eo. CECYLL. " this 25, in great haste."
[PJ3.] " I have receaved letters from the Prince of Orange to warne my Capnes to come over, and my selfe to be there the firste of Maye." 4
1 Commons' Journals, as before.
2 Edward, nth Baron Zouch, Lord President of Wales, 44 Elizabeth; Constable of Dover Castle, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports ; died August, 1625.
3 Captain Sir Henry Mainwaring had been Lieutenant of Dover Castle under Lord Zouch, but had been dismissed from that post for his many misdemeanours. He tried hard to get reappointed to his former post, and did all in his power to thwart Lord Zouch, and to injure him in the eyes of the Prince of Wales, who espoused Mainwaring's cause. Mainwaring and Sir Thomas Wilsford stood for Dover, and opposed the re-election of Cecil and Young, but unsuccessfully. See calendar of 5". P. Dom. 1624, pp. 100-9 > II3-I9 > 198 ; 200, 201. * March 25, 1624. — S. P. Dom.
56 LIFE AND TIMES OF
Add. — "To the Rig. honorable and his very good lo. the Lord Zouch, lo. warden of the Senke Ports, and one of his Maies moste honorable prive Counsell."
End. — "Frm Genrall Cecill, 25 of mch., to Ld Zouch, acquaint- ing [him] how 2 Burgesses are put out of Parl* upon their opinion that the[y] ought to be chosen by the Comon people."
Sir R. Young wrote in a very hopeful strain to Lord Zouch, seeming certain of his and Cecil's re-election for Dover. He informed the Lord Warden of the Parliament- ary order touching the late election at Dover, and declared his intention of having this order read at the coming election, to show "that there is no exception taken, but rather an implied approbation of our persons, with some tacit intimation that the freemen do choose us again." l
It was a common occurrence, even at this early period, for members to be turned out of Parliament for some election flaw,2 but Sir Edward Cecil and Sir Richard Young are two rare examples of members who, having been unseated for a flaw in their election, were re-elected for the same borough almost immediately afterwards. On April 7 we find Edward Cecil back in Parliament, and his name appears on the select committee appointed to confer with the Lords that day about the important Bill against Monopolies.3 Advantage was taken of the King's enforced passiveness to pass an Act against Monopolies, and the Parliamentary axe was employed against several crying abuses which had taken deep root in the English soil. One of the most glaring of these abuses was the extortionate
1 Young to Zouch, March 29, 1624. — S. P. Dom.
9 Sir George Chaworth, M.P. for Arundel, was turned out of Parliament, on March 25 in this year, for a flaw in his election. Nethersole to Carleton, March 25, 1624. — S. P. Dom.
3 Common? Journals, i. p. 757.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 57
charge made by the heralds on the creation of noblemen,1 baronets, &c. Edward Cecil was one of the committee appointed to enquire into and report on this grievance.2 But more important work was in store for Cecil. On April 21 he was appointed one of the Council of War,3 which consisted of ten members, all of whom had considerable experience in the art of war, viz. : Oliver Lord Grandison, Lord Deputy of Ireland ; George Lord Carew, Master of the Ordnance ; Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke ; Arthur Lord Chichester, Sir Edward Conway, Sir Horace Vere, Sir Edward Cecil, Sir John Ogle, Sir Thomas Button, and Sir Robert Mansell.4
In the warlike temper of the Court, both Houses of Parliament, and the nation in general, the Council of War was a most important body. The members of this Council were constituted treasurers of the three entire subsidies and three fifteenths paid by the laity. No money was to be issued out by the treasurers without a warrant from the War Council, nor upon any other account but for the war.5 So far no war had been declared by Great Britain, but there seemed to be a widespread belief that a war with Spain was unavoidable. This belief was greatly strength- ened by the arrival in London, on April 14, of that war- like adventurer — Ernest, Count of Mansfeld.
Mansfeld was in want of a job. The Dutch had sickened of him, the Germans would have none of him, and the French only wanted his services in the hopes that he might act as a decoy duck, and draw English troops to fight
1 In the Egerton Papers (Camden Soc. Pub.) it is stated that Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Egerton had to pay ^84 in fees on his being created a viscount in Nov. 1616 (p. 480).
2 Commons'1 Journals, \. p. 777.
3 Warrant, April 21, 1624. — S. P. Dotn.
4 Vice-Admiral of England.
5 Rapin, II., book xxiii. p. 231.
58 LIFE AND TIMES OF
French battles against a common Spanish foe. Like a very carrion crow, the modern Attila was attracted to England by the smell of coming carnage. His welcome was all that he could desire. Lodged in St. James's Palace, waited on by lords and courtiers, worshipped by a London mob who received him with acclamations whenever he appeared in the streets, and struggled to get near him that they might touch his clothes — he was the hero of the hour — the Garibaldi of that time. It was but twelve months since this great general had devastated the smiling province of East Friesland, and allowed his officers and lawless troops to commit the most dreadful and unheard of atro- cities on peaceful citizens, on unoffending women, and innocent children. But a year had elapsed since this same general had demanded in marriage the daughter of the Count of East Friesland, whose territory was then being devastated, and had offered as a bribe, that if the Count would give him his daughter, the Mansfeldian army should be at his disposal ; " yea, though it were to serve there- withall the Emperor or the King of Spain." x The Count of East Friesland wisely declined to give his daughter in marriage to Mansfeld, or accept the offer of his army, " which whether it was meant in earnest or as a tentative only," continues the narrator of this historical fact, " is hard to judge of a man of such variable disposition, who changeth with every wind, and hath every day new pro- jects." 2 The opinion entertained by the King's ambassador at the Hague as to Mansfeld's character was not enter- tained by Buckingham, or the Prince of Wales, who were guiding the old King in a direction the very opposite to the
1 Sir D. Carleton to Calvert, February 24, 1623.— .S. P. Holland.
1 Ibid. The same writer says in a letter to Chamberlain a few months later, " Mansfelt plays the juggler with all the world, offering his services to all, threatening one and another to get money." July n, 1623.— S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 59
one he would have taken if left to his own devices. Mans- feld was taken to see James, and he unfolded his plans for the recovery of the Palatinate. A bargain was concluded between them, by which James promised to furnish troops and money, provided that the King of France, with whom he was in treaty, would supply Mansfeld with a similar force. The treaty now on foot between Great Britain and France was for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Princess Henrietta Maria, youngest sister of Louis XIII. of France. Henry Rich, Viscount Kensington,1 had been secretly despatched to Paris, early in the year 1624, to open negotiations with the French Court and Cardinal Richelieu relative to this proposed marriage.
" It was the gravity of refusing such an offer, the difficulties attending and the wariness requisite on accepting it," writes a modern historian, " that had chiefly necessitated the admission of Richelieu to the Council. He was decidedly for the marriage, and for accompanying it with stipulations in favour of the English Catholics, less for their sake than to save appearances with the Pope and his party. Such an argument was indeed necessary in order to procure the dispensation from Rome. Whilst he sent Father Bruille thither on this errand, Richelieu arranged a treaty with England for aiding the Dutch, then sorely oppressed by Spinola, Before Richelieu entered the Council, Mansfeldt had no hope of inducing the French Court to aid him. No sooner did that event take place than negotiations commenced with the Dutch, and Mansfeldt was summoned to the vicinity of Paris. The Cardinal indeed proposed hard terms .... but he agreed in June to give them [the Dutch] two and a half millions of francs, whilst Mansfeldt was to bring an army from England for their succour and the relief of the Palatinate." 2
1 Sir Henry Rich, K.B., created Viscount Kensington in 1622, and Earl of Holland in September, 1624. He married the daughter and heir of Sir Walter Cope, of Kensington, and acquired the manor of Kensington, now known as Holland House.
2 Crow's History of France, iii. p. 447.
60 LIFE AND TIMES OF
Leaving the astute and wily Richelieu to his schemes for advancing the welfare of France, by overreaching and out-manoeuvring the English and Dutch nations, we must return once more to the English Parliament at West- minster, which was near its dissolution.
The Duke of Buckingham had no sooner established his credit with both Houses of Parliament by his one-sided story of the King of Spain's perfidy regarding the marriage treaty, than he proceeded, with the Prince of Wales's help, to undermine and cast down from their high estate the Earls of Middlesex and Bristol. The former, who was Lord High Treasurer of England, owed his rapid rise in life to Buckingham, whose kinswoman he had married. As a leading Privy Councillor, Middlesex had strongly opposed a war with Spain, and from first to last had been an advocate for the Spanish match. As a friend to Spain, the Lord Treasurer had incurred the ill-will of both Charles and the Duke, and it is said that, during their absence in Spain, the Lord Treasurer was not only negligent in disbursing the large sums demanded by the Duke for his and the Prince's unlimited expenses, but had the courage to dispute Buckingham's commands, and to appeal to the King, whose ear was always inclined to him.1 By means of his own party in the House of Commons, Buckingham easily procured some of the leading members in the Lower House to cause an impeachment for several corrupt practices and misdemeanours to be sent up to the House of Lords. The result is well known. Impeached and found guilty, despite a brave defence and the efforts of the King in his behalf (who begged the Prince and Buck- ingham with prophetic wisdom to use their interest with both Houses to withdraw the impeachment), the haughty
1 Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, \. p. 22.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 6 1
earl received this severe sentence at the hands of his peers : —
" Thou, Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, shalt never sit or have a voice more in this House of Peers, and shalt pay for a fine to our sovereign lord the King ^20,000." l
It was no easy matter to bring home any charge against the Earl of Bristol, who had both truth and law on his side, but Buckingham, by false representations, induced the King to refuse to see him on his return from Spain, and he was ordered to retire to his house at Sherborne, and stay there until his Majesty's further pleasure should be made known to him. Having thus effectually silenced one enemy and banished the other from Court, Buckingham was able to pursue the crooked and dangerous policy which his wayward and arbitrary spirit at this time inclined him to.
Sir Edward Cecil's duties as one of the Council of War doubtless prevented his frequent attendance in Parliament during the last six weeks of the session. His name only occurs on one of the Parliamentary Committees appointed during May, and that was on the committee of May 12, for drawing up an "Act against the secret receiving of pensions and gifts." 2
Parliament was prorogued on May 29 until Nov. 2 : —
" Our Parliament ended on Saturday with the passing of three or four and thirty acts, tho' divers were stopped that were much desired," wrote a chronicler of the times. " The parting were with no more contentment than needed on either side. The King spared them not a bit for undertaking more than belonged to them
1 Weldon's Court and Character of James /., in Francis Osborne's Memoirs, \. p. 453. The Lord Treasurer was at first fined ^50,000, deprived of all his offices, and ordered to be imprisoned in the Tower. — Lords' Journals, iii.
P- 383-
2 Common? Journals, i. p. 787.
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in many matters; and for answer to their grievances, which were presented in two very long and tedious scrolls, he said that having perused them he thanked God with all his heart they were no worse." l
The subsidy granted by Parliament was enough to have sent an army of 25,000 men- to the Palatinate under an English general, but the Court thought fit only to send 6,000 men to Holland to assist the States. The following extract shows that even this small levy of troops was against the King's inclination : —
" Here is much canvassing about the making of captains and colonels for these new forces that are to be raised to assist the Low Countries. Sunday last was appointed, and then put off till Tuesday, when they, flocking to Theobalds with great expectation, tne king would not vouchsafe to see any of them, nor once look out of his chamber till they were all gone. But word was sent they should know his pleasure twixt this and Sunday. The prime competitors are the Earls of Oxford, Essex, and Southampton. The fourth place rests between the Lord Willoughby, the Earl Morton, a Scottishman, and Sir John Borlase. It hath seldom been seen that men of that rank, and privy councillors, should hunt after such mean places, in respect of the countenance our ancient nobility was wont to carry. But it is answered they do it to raise the companies of voluntaries by their credit, which I doubt will hardly stretch to furnish 6,000 men without pressing ; for our people apprehend too much the hardships and miseries of soldiers in these times." 2
Four regiments of 1,500 men each were raised by the middle of July and despatched to Holland, where they arrived on July 23.3 These regiments were commanded respectively by the Earls of Oxford, Essex, Southampton, and the
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, June 5. — S. P. Dom.
* Ibid.
* Carleton to Secretary Conway, July 23. — S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 63
Lord Willoughby.1 Previous to the departure of these noblemen from England, there had been great contention between the Earls of Oxford and Southampton as to pre- cedence. The contention was so hot between them that the King had to interpose his authority and settle the disputed question. On the arrival of the new English troops in Holland, a fresh dispute broke out between the Earl of Essex and Lord Willoughby as to precedence. This quarrel was decided by Sir Horace Vere and Sir Edward Cecil, who were appointed arbitrators.2
General Cecil appears to have gone over to the Low Countries to join his regiment, which was about to take the field under Maurice of Nassau, on June 7. He travelled in style, as he took six horses with him,3 which was no small number, even for a general. A great outward, if not inward, change had taken place in the King of Great Britain's feelings for his unfortunate son-in-law, Frederick, since Edward Cecil's last visit to the Low Countries. Then, Frederick was almost universally styled " the Prince Elector," and to publicly pray for him as being " desolate and oppressed " was a crime of no small magnitude in the stern father-in-law's eyes. Now, all was changed, and we find an authorised form of prayer publicly used for the King and Queen of Bohemia and their affairs, the Lord General (Vere), the Earls of Oxford and Essex, and the English commanders and troops, at the services held by
1 Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, created Earl of Lindsey 1626, and slain at Edgehill, 1642.
2 Carleton to Conway, August 21. — S. P. Holland. In this^letter Carleton refers to " the good understanding between the two generals (Vere and Cecil) ever since their quarrel was made up, and their line of action settled by authority." The judgment of Generals Vere and Cecil on the question of precedence between the Earl of Essex and Lord Willoughby is given in S. P. Dom. 1624, clxxx. No. 92.
3 Warrant dated from Greenwich, June 7, 1624. — Doequet, S. P. Dom,
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the English troops in Holland — such prayer being used after that for his Majesty King James.1
The old adage, that "it is an ill wind that blows no one any good," was amply verified in the case of the Dutch when the rupture between Great Britain and Spain took place. The States sent ambassadors to London, in February, 1624, who carried with them secret despatches to the heads of the war party in England. How suc- cessful this mission was has already been shown by the despatch of 6,000 British troops to the aid of the United Provinces in their struggle against Spain. The British contingent arrived at an opportune moment, as Spinola had opened the summer campaign by an attack on Breda. Breda was a town of triangular form in Dutch Brabant, about three miles in circumference, and situated on the rivers Aa and Merk, by means of which rivers the whole surrounding country could be laid under water. Its fortifications had been rendered strong by art, and it was also protected by the streams, woods, and morasses with which it was environed.2 Spinola encamped about two leagues from Breda, in the middle of July, with an army of 24,000 foot and 3,000 cavalry.3 It is said that this able commander foresaw the great difficulties he would have to encounter in besieging so strong a fortress, the blood that would be shed, and the time that would be expended before Breda could be reduced. He accordingly sent a despatch to Philip IV. laying all these facts before him, and suggested that the army under his command might be more profitably employed in some other enter- prise. Philip, imbued with the highest ideas of the irre- sistibility of Spanish arms, returned this laconic response
1 S. P. Dom. Jas. I. July (?), 1624, ckx. 88. z Dunlop's Memoirs of Sfainy i. p. 115. 3 Ibid.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 65
to Spinola's representations : — " Marquis, take Breda ; I, the King." 1
The Prince of Orange looked upon Breda in much the same light that our Queen Mary regarded Calais. Breda was associated with his earliest years and first exploits in warfare ; moreover it was the ancient home of his fore- fathers, and honour alone demanded that it should not fall into the hands of the enemy. As soon as it became apparent that Spinola was about to besiege this strongly fortified place, Maurice reinforced the garrison, consisting of 1,600 men under the veteran Justin of Nassau, with 6,000 English and French troops, commanded by Sir Charles Morgan and Colonel Hauterive.2 Owing to the marshy nature of the ground and the difficulty of supplying his large army with provisions, Spinola made slow progress with his intrenchments, and this is said to have given Prince Maurice a feeling of false security and a mistaken idea of his enemy's ability.3 This mistaken impression can alone account for the Prince's march to the Rhine, and his besieging such unimportant places as Gennep and Cleves, " giving Spinola time," says a narrator of these events, " to complete very nearly a double line of circumvallation about Breda." 4 After the surrender of Cleves the States' army marched to Made,5 a small town close to Gertruyden- berg and within two hours' march of Breda. The two armies now lay facing each other, and a battle might have saved Breda, as Spinola was short of cavalry, but both
1 Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain, i. p. 115.
2 Davies' Holland, ii. p. 555.
3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.
* On October i, the Prince of Orange marched by Raensdouch over the bridge before Gertruydenberg to Made, with 176 foot companies, 28 troops of horse, and 72 pieces of ordnance. The English regiments of Vere, Cecil, Morgan, Harwood, Lords Oxford, Essex, Southampton and Willoughby accompanied him. — S. P. Holland.
VOL. II. F
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commanders were disposed to act on the defensive and not on the offensive, added to which both were engrossed with great designs of their own planning. Spinola's one idea was to reduce Breda, and Maurice had determined to make a sudden dash for Antwerp. This important city was ill-prepared for a surprise such as Maurice had planned in his fertile brain, and in imagination the Prince saw himself in possession of a fortress which was of more im- portance even than his beloved Breda. This great design was planned with the greatest secrecy, and even those who were chosen to execute it were kept in ignorance of their destination. General Broucham, governor of Bergen-op- zoom, had charge of this exploit, and he marched out of Bergen at the head of 1,000 foot and 200 horse, with a good store of waggons and " many portable instruments fit for such a business." l After leaving the town the men were commanded to pluck off their orange scarves, and they were furnished with red ones, so that they might be taken for Spanish soldiers. They arrived before Antwerp Castle on a very obscure night, having deceived all the people they had met on the road. Everything so far had favoured their design, but a mere trifling accident made their presence known to the garrison just as the Dutch troops were fastening their scaling ladders to the castle wall. This accident is quaintly narrated in a contemporary war tract : —
" Wee have received from severall places tydings how that our enterprise upon the Castle of Antwerps took no effect by reason of a horse of our men, which made such a great noyse that a sentinell of the Castle looked thereupon over the walls of it and discovered our men which came about it. The Drost of Borchem who was the chiefe conductor of this enterprise marched on the
1 Crosse, p. 1491.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 67
twelf day of this moneth of October, about foure of the clocke very early in the morning out of the town of Bergen-up-Zoome, with a thousand foote and foure troopes of horse and came about eleven of the clock in the night time before the Castle, and had before twelve of the clock laid some of their floates or bridges on the water which runneth about the Castle, fastened some Petards, and erected severall ladders against the walls, and were likely to speed well if they had not been discovered by the meanes of the afore-mentioned horse." 1
The States' army did not remain passive spectators of the operations which Spinola was employed on before Breda, but they had arrived on the ground too late to break through the iron chain which Spinola had drawn round the beleaguered town. At least Maurice of Nassau, " the man of the pick-axe and spade," thought so, and he contented himself with harassing the enemy and waylaying the convoys of provisions. The Spanish army had a hot time of it, as the Breda garrison made frequent sallies, and the States' troops assisted their besieged friends in retard- ing the progress of the outworks by firing on the troops employed in raising them. Provisions were still plentiful in Breda, but very scarce in the Spanish camp, added to which a great part of the country round about Breda was flooded, and in consequence of this the mortality in both the States' and Spanish camps was very great.
"The horse [soldiers] which came with the last convoy to Spinola's camp were not able to ride upon their horses," wrote a chronicler of the siege, " seeing they went deep in the mire, but were compelled to go afoote and lead them by the bridle. And they report, moreover, that the Marquesse Spinola hearing that the Prince of Orange hath given order to some commanders to meet with his convoy, had given directions that no convoy should
1 A Continuition of all the Principal! Occurrences which hath happened to the Leaguers lying before Breda, &c., 1625, 4°, p. 13.
F 2
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any more go or come without 8,000 foote, 2,000 horse, and some pieces of ordnance. But the way is growne so deep (as they say) that the horse go in some places unto their bellies in the water [so] that they will hardly be able to march." 1
The complete failure of Prince Maurice's cherished plan for surprising Antwerp struck deeply to his heart. Finding his position at Made untenable, and not being able to break the cordon round Breda, he divided his army into two divisions and made a sudden retreat. This movement was well timed, as Spinola, having increased his forces, was just about to make an unexpected raid on the Dutch camp.
"On Tuesday last, the 12th October [old style], at 9 o'night, his Excellency gave orders for marching at 3 in the morning," wrote the English ambassador at the Hague to his friend Sir Edward Conway at Court. " His Excellency went one way to Rozendale (as is thought), Count Henry [of Nassau] another to Waldwick in the Longstraat, from which places they may meet with the enemie's convoyes. Our English are divided between both. The Earls of Southampton and Essex, General Vere and Colonel Harwood going with his Excellency. With Count Henry, the Earl of Oxford and Lord Willoughby, General Cecyll and Sr John Proude, Lt. Colonel to Sr C. Morgan." 2
The summer and autumn of 1624 were remarkably un- healthy in the Netherlands. A pestilence, originated by the desolate condition of the Palatinate, had slowly travelled down the Rhine, and now made fearful ravages.3 The contagion spread rapidly, and the British troops suffered severely. The plague spared neither high nor low, and two of the earliest victims were the gallant Earl of Southamp- ton * and his eldest son, Lord Wriothesley. The son died
1 A Continuition of all the Principall Occurrences which hath happened to the Leaguers lying before Breda, &><:., 1625, 4°, p. 12.
2 Carleton to Secretary Conway, Oct. Jf. — S. P. Holland.
3 Green's Princesses of England, v. p. 428.
* Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, K.G., and Captain of the
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 69
at the camp at Rosendale, and the father four days later at Bergen-op-zoom.1 There was something peculiarly sad in this double catastrophe, and it is not surprising to read of the widowed Lady Southampton's " passionate carriage " on the receipt of the grievous intelligence. " The Countess of Southampton deeply mourns her husband and son, and has been prayed for at her own request in divers churches,"2 wrote the Master of the Ceremonies at Court to Sir Dudley Carleton. And another writer tells us how the widowed Duchess of Richmond, who had lost her noble lord early in this year, and who had shown her passionate grief by cutting off all her hair the day he died,3 on being told of Lady Southampton's inordinate grief, used this argument to prove that her own grief was greater than Lady South- ampton's, " for," quoth she, " I blasphemed." 4
The unhealthiness of the season, combined with dis- appointment and anxiety as to the fate of Breda, had wrought their injurious influences on the constitution of the gallant Maurice of Nassau, and every day he got weaker. " Prince Maurice is sick and crasie and not like to last long," wrote our Ambassador to his correspondent in England.5 His weakness of body was only too apparent, and soon after the retreat to Rosendale, Maurice gave over the command of the army there to his cousin, Count Ernest of Nassau, and retired to the Hague to recruit his health.
Sir Edward Cecil in the meantime had the important command of General of the British troops at Waelwick,6
Isle of Wight. His wife was daughter of John Vernon, Esq., of Hodnet, co. Derby, by Elizabeth, sister of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex,
1 Carleton to Chamberlain Oct $— S. P. Holland.
2 Sir John Finet to Carleton, Dec. 24.— S. P. Dom.
3 Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 22.— S. P. Dom.
4 Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 18. — S. P. Dom.
5 Carleton to Chamberlain, Oct J|.— S. P. Holland.
• Cecil to Buckingham, March 15, 1626. — S, P. Dom.
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a village of Brabant, ten miles east from Breda. The miseries of a winter encampment at that place, when the country all round was " drowned," are graphically described in one of Cecil's letters.
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
" This gentleman, Sir George Blundel, hath now quitted the service of the States, for this especial reason (as he assures me) to be the more absolutely employed in your Excle8 service. This I know, his friends here that love him (which are many) are very sorry to part with him, for there is no melancholy where he goes.1 And, therefore, considering the condition of this place, we shall be great losers, being upon a melancholy place and service, ill-payed, sick of all diseases in the world, in a place that is next neighbour to hell, if the book printed say true, which saith that the Low Countriemen are next neighbours to the devil. And I am sure we are now seated lower then any part of these Countries, for the waters are above us and about us, and we live in more fear of them then of the enemy ; for we may be drowned at an hour's warning, if we do not continually work against it, and yet, and it shall please your Excle this is the seat for a Winter War. Many more inconveniencies we are daily sensible of, of which I have endured as much, as I dare say without vanitie that few of my rank and fortune have suffered more or longer then I have done in these Countries ; having served these 27 years together without intermission, and all this for no other end (for I am ^£"900 a year the worse for the Wars) then to make me able to serve my Prince and countrie when occasion should be offered.
" But since the time is come that opinion doth so govern as strangers get the Command and new souldiers imployed, which was never heard of before among men of our occupation, it is
1 Sir George Blundel appears to have been a wag. Young Sir Edward Conway, who served at the siege of Bergen-op-zoom in company with Sir George Blundel, says in one of his letters from the beleaguered city to Sir Dudley Carleton : — "We watch five nights and sleepe two, whitch Sr George Blundell thinkes not to be an equal proportion." Sept. 16, 1622.— S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. Jl
high time for me to retire, and wish I had been of any other profession than this. For if long service can get no honour, nor reward, nor imploymente, but the contrary, it would touch a man's discretion to be more and more unfortunate. All my comfort is I shall have the honour and good fortune in my retreat to draw neerer to your Excies service, if not in my profession (which I desire above all) yet in something whereof your Ex. may make use of me. For I am ambitious of nothing more, then to prove myself by action and not by recommendation " your Excellencies most faithfull
" obedient and humble servant,
" ED. CECYLL. " From our Army at Wallike, the 4lh of Decemb." 1 [1624].
The reference in Cecil's letter to " strangers getting the command " of British troops, brings us back to Ernest, Count of Mansfeld, as he was the envied " stranger " who was about to get the command of 12,000 British troops, raised for the recovery of the Palatinate.
James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, who might justly have been styled the " magnificent " — not so much from his beauty of person as from his gorgeous apparel — had been sent to Paris in May, to assist Lord Kensington in his negotiations with the French Court, for concluding a marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, and the Princess Henrietta Maria. However anxious these two noblemen might be to conclude an advantageous treaty for their sovereign, they were quite outmatched and overreached by Cardinal Richelieu, who saw in this treaty a fitting occasion to advance the interests of his country, and raise France to the high position among European nations which she had occupied under Henry the Great's rule. In accomplishing
1 Printed in Cabala, Part i. p. 129.
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this great end, Richelieu saw himself to all intents and purposes the ruler of France. Carlisle had orders to propose to the French Court — a league against the House of Austria. This league was the Prince's and Bucking- ham's grand aim.1 It happened that at this time there was a dispute between France and Spain about the Valtelline,2 which was in the hands of the Spaniards, and which territory was to France what the Palatinate was to England. Why should not Great Britain and France league together against the common foe, and an Anglo- French force commanded by Count Mansfeld sweep the Valtelline and the Palatinate clear of the Spaniards ? Thus argued Buckingham, and the idea seemed a good one. But unfortunately he forgot the fact that France having no interest in the Palatinate, or England in the Valtelline, the league would be a very hollow and one- sided one — a league that might perchance benefit one of the two kingdoms, but at the expense of the other. Which kingdom was to benefit — England or France ? The sequel will presently show. In the meantime Mansfeld had been summoned to Paris, and preparations were made for war. Mansfeld served the double purpose of acting as a scare- crow to frighten the Spanish Government, and a decoy duck to lure the British King into the trap which Richelieu was preparing for him.
Richelieu's grand project was to achieve what Olivares had signally failed in, viz., a marriage treaty granting great rights and concessions to the English Roman Catholics, as well as freedom of worship, and, more important still, a clause in the treaty to the effect that " the children which shall be born of this marriage shall be brought up by
1 Rapin, ii. Bk. xviii. p. 234.
2 An extensive Alpine valley at the head of Lake Como and a highway from Italy into Germany.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 73
Madame, their mother, till the age of thirteen years."1 This condition, pregnant of evil results in the future, had been inserted in the Spanish marriage treaty by the Pope, and was, of course, with a view to imbuing the minds of the royal children born of the marriage with Roman Catholic principles and inclinations. James had not fallen so low, or changed his ideas as to Jesuits and Papists so com- pletely, as to tamely agree to conditions which he naturally considered as derogatory to his honour as a Protestant king. But James was no longer king. He was completely in the hands of his son and Buckingham ; and they, regardless of after-consequences, were ready to sign away their honour for the sake of carrying out their policy. Richelieu doubtless knew this, and he was the ventriloquist who made that useless wooden machine called Louis XIII. tell Lords Carlisle and Kensington that the Marriage and League were two distinct affairs, and that the latter would be taken into consideration directly the treaty for the former was ratified.
Mansfeld came over to England towards the end of September, and, after some conferences, agreed with the King, the Prince, and the Duke, that he should have 1 2,000 troops to carry the war into the Lower Palatinate. He brought verbal promises from the King of France to support the expedition under Mansfeld with men and money ; also to allow the British troops to land on French soil. Verbal promises and vague declarations were un- satisfactory things to count on when seeking an ally, but pending more decided utterances and actions on the part of the French King, steps were taken to levy 12,000 men, and Mansfeld crossed over to Holland to hunt up German recruits.2
1 Article xix. of the marriage treaty. 2 E. de Mansfeldt, ii. p. 239.
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"You have Count Mansfeldt with you and we expect him here again shortly," wrote a diligent observer of what was passing at this time, "for they say he is to have hence 8,000 English and 4,000 Scots under 6 regiments, whereof the first stands in question twixt the Earl of Lincoln and the young Lord Doncaster. The Lord Cromwell is to have the second, Sir Charles Rich the third, whose lieutenant [colonel] is to be your acquaintance, Mr. Hopton that married the Lady Steven ; the fourth is allotted to Sir John Borough. Colonel Gray ' and one Ramsay are named for the Scots. God speed them well whatsoever they do or wheresoever they go ; but it is beyond my experience and reading to have such a body of English committed to and commanded by a stranger, to say no more." 2
Early in November the marriage treaty was signed by the English ambassadors at Paris, and a month later it was ratified by James and his son in the presence of Buck- ingham and Conway, Secretary of State.
The treaty was a triumph for French diplomacy and an Emancipation Act for the English Roman Catholics, who, after the signing of the treaty were, practically speaking, endowed with greater rights and privileges than the English Protestants.3 " From this moment," wrote a commentator on this one-sided treaty, " may be dated the origin of the direful dissensions between the English parliaments and the Stuart monarchs."
Directly the marriage treaty was signed, James pressed
1 Col. Sir Andrew Gray had been an old German commander, and even in time of peace wore buff and went to Court with a brace of pistols stuck in his belt, which the King never liked to see.
2 Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 9. — S. P. Dom.
3 "One of the marriage articles secretly stipulated for a relaxation of the persecution against the Roman Catholics ; and, in proof that King James meant to observe his promise, he issued instructions, ordering all persons imprisoned for religion to be released and all fines levied on recusants to be returned ; likewise commanding all judges and magistrates to stop the execu- tions of papists convicted under the penal laws." — Strickland's Queens of England, iv. p. 149.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 75
the Court of France with respect to the league. But France had no longer need of the assistance of Mansfeld and British troops to recover the Valtelline. A league had already been formed between France, Venice, and Savoy, for the recovery of the Valtelline, and a French army despatched thither. The French policy was now to do without England's help if possible, but until France's foreign affairs were satisfactorily settled, to hold out hopes of an early Anglo-French alliance against Spain.
To clearly understand the folly of England embarking on a hazardous enterprise with no allies save the Dutch, who had their hands full already, it must be remembered that there was no Parliament sitting and that Buckingham overruled both the King and Privy Council. It is true that the latter body had given it as their opinion that Mansfeld should not receive his commission until the King of France had stated in writing his intentions to forward Mansfeld's design, and allow him and his troops to land in France en route for the Palatinate. The advice of the Privy Council and the refusal of the Council of War to advance the required money for levying and paying 12,000 troops were both overruled. On November 24 a warrant was issued by the Council of War — whose con- sciences had been won over to granting money out of the subsidies for a purpose never intended — for the payment by the treasurers of .£55,000. This sum was to defray the cost of levying 12,000 men, and provide pay for two months. These difficulties overcome, and Mansfeld having returned to London, preparations for this inauspicious winter campaign were hurried forward. The Archduchess Isabella had demanded from James an explanation as to the destination of these new levies, and the King had told her plainly they were only to be employed against the .Duke of Bavaria in restoring the Palatinate to his children.
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He also assured her and the Spanish ambassador that these troops should commit no act of hostility against the subjects or possessions of the King of Spain and the Arch- duchess.1 These representations gave little satisfaction, and it was generally believed that Mansfeld was about to lead his troops to the relief of Breda. The terror which his very name inspired in France, Holland, and the Spanish Netherlands, made his probable advent be looked forward to in these countries with the greatest dread, and it is amusing now to read of the wild reports which came from all quarters announcing the speedy arrival of the Count at the head of an enormous army in that particular quarter.2
Mansfeld 's 12,000 soldiers were pressed men, and, as there is a great similarity between the kind of soldiers pressed for this expedition and those raised a few months later to serve in the voyage to Cadiz, under Sir Edward Cecil, a short account of their doings will not be irre- levant.
The rendezvous was at Dover and the towns adjacent, and thither were the troops sent early in December.
" Our soldiers," wrote an interested spectator, "are marching on all sides to Dover; God send them good shipping and success; but such a rabble of raw and poor rascals have not lightly been seen, and go so unwillingly that they must rather be driven than led." 3
Arrived at Dover, these poor recruits found small pro- vision made for their comfort, either in the way of food or lodging.
" The soldiers commit great outrages," wrote the Lieutenant of Dover Castle to the Council, " pulling down houses and taking away cattle." 4
1 E. de Mansfeldt, ii. p. 24$. 2 Ibid. pp. 247-249.
3 Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 18. — S. P. Dom.
4 Sir J. Hippisley to the Council, Dec. 26.— S. P. Dom.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 77
Another resident at Dover wrote in the same strain, describing the soldiers as gaol birds, "who kill sheep in abundance and threaten to burn the town if left in want." l Things came to such a pass that the authorities at Dover were compelled to ask for martial law to be put in force against the soldiers, and James sent Sir John Ogle and Sir W. St. Leger down to Dover to inquire into and report on the condition of the troops. All this time letters were passing to and fro between the English and French Courts regarding the landing of these same troops on French soil. The English Court had been led to believe all along that Louis would allow these troops to land at some French port and march to the Palatinate in conjunction with a body of French cavalry. The French king had indeed verbally promised this, but now he drew back, and his ambassador proposed to James that Mansfeld should march to the Palatinate by the Spanish Netherlands — the quickest way. Hardly had James agreed to this plan and given Mansfeld directions to ask leave from the Arch- duchess that his troops might pass through her territory, and, if she refused her consent to that, then he was to force his way across the Spanish territory, than Louis sent word to James " that Mansfeld could not be permitted to land in France unless the English Government distinctly autho- rised his passage through the Spanish Netherlands." 2 This was plain enough, but James and Buckingham, hoping to the very end to engage France in the expedition by the very fact of the English troops landing at a French port, obliged Mansfeld to sail for Calais with his troops and effect a landing. As might have been expected, the French king, declining to be implicated in an undertaking he had
1 bir T. Wilsford to Nicholas, Dec. 27. — S. P. Dom.
2 Dr. Gardiner, as before, v. p. 281.
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long determined to slip out of, had given orders that none of the troops were to be allowed to land. Consequently, on their arrival before Calais, they were not permitted to disembark. To Mansfeld this was a matter of small moment. He had been won over by Richelieu and his party to their scheme, which was that the British troops should march to the relief of Breda.1 The able French minister knew that this would embroil James with Spain, and it was the policy of the French Government to bring this to pass. Mansfeld had now no choice but to sail for a Dutch port, and, on February I, the Hamburg vessels which contained his troops arrived at Flushing. Not being expected, no provisions had been made for their reception. While negotiations were going on relative to the landing and disposal of these troops, these same troops were star- ving on board ship, where they were packed together like herrings. Days passed before they were permitted to land, and they were then sent in open boats to Gertruy- denberg. Many died from starvation and cold long before they arrived there, and a pestilence carried off many more even when food was at last forthcoming. An Irish officer, then serving under Spinola before Breda, gives a most pitiful account of the unfortunate troops under Mans- feld.
" What with plague, with agues, with the sea, and with vomiting by reason of their long shutting up in the ships with the narrow- ness of the room, and many filled with the filthy savour, being almost all raw soldiers, and unaccustomed to tempests and stinks, were cast into the waves either dead or half alive. There was counted by some above the number of 4,000 ; some cast into the sea for dead, by swimming got to the shore and are yet living in the town. Many dead bodies floating by the shore side
1 Martin, Histoire de France, ii. p. 210.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 79
unburied, and more everywhere cast up by the sea on the land, breathed forth a grievous plague upon the neighbouring towns of Holland." l
The Duke of Brunswick was to have followed Mansfeld to Holland with 2,000 French cavalry, which was all the help the French King could be induced to give for the recovery of the Palatinate. Duke Christian had come over to England in December, and had been much feted in London by the Prince and the war party. In consideration of his past and future services to the Queen of Bohemia's cause, James made him a Knight of the Garter, gave him a pension of £2,000 a year, and a present of £3,000 at parting.2 When Mansfeld was refused permission to land at Calais, it was agreed that Duke Christian was to follow with the French cavalry to Flushing as soon as practicable. The Brunswickian horse fared as badly as the British infantry had done, and when they arrived off Zeeland, out of a force of 2,000 only a few hundreds remained — desertion previous to embarkation, and the loss of one or two vessels at sea in a fearful storm, having caused this woeful reduction. For such an attenuated force to march to the Palatinate in the depth of winter, with Tilly and his veterans waiting to receive them on the frontier, was out of the question. Mansfeld wished to lead his troops against Breda, notwith- standing the promise he had given James that he would not commit any act of hostility against the Spanish troops. The Prince of Orange, from his sick bed at the Hague, fumed and fretted at Mansfeld's delay in marching to Breda.3 He had been led to believe, both by the French King and Mansfeld himself, that these troops would be so
1 Captain Barry's Siege of Breda, p. 98.
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 8. — 5". P. Dom,
3 E. de Mansfeldt, ii. p. 284.
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employed, and his anger knew no bounds when he found the English colonels under Mansfeld refused to obey their general when he wished to march to Breda, having received express commands from James not to do so.1 Well might Maurice complain of having to feed troops who were of no earthly use to him, as but for Dutch charity the troops would have starved to a man, and well might he declaim against his most Christian Majesty, King Louis, who had deceived his allies all round.2
The expectation of being attacked by fresh troops had given a stimulus to the exertions of the Marquis Spinola, and he fortified his camp with an intrenchment " of a wonderful greatness, and brought it to perfection, although it was at the most unseasonable time of the winter. The compass of it was 52,000 paces." 3
The Spanish troops before Breda were much reduced by disease caused by the hardships they endured, the flooded state of their encampment, and the sickliness of the season, which even the frost did not take away. Spinola himself was afflicted with great bodily weakness and pain, and was carried about in a litter to superintend the progress of his works. He caused deep pits to be dug to drain the water from among his tents, and sluices were cut in the river to empty the water in another direction. The States' troops at Waelwick also suffered severely from the prevalent unhealthiness of the season and the hardships they en- dured. The losses sustained by the British regiments this winter are shown by a proclamation issued by the Privy Council to the Lords Lieutenant of counties.4
1 Lord Cromwell to Conwav, rv — V- 5^ — S. P. Holland,
}> March 8.
2 St. Leger to Conway, March 28, 1625. — S. P. Holland.
3 Crosse, p. 1500.
* Feb. 25, 1624-5.— 5".
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 8 1
" After my very harty comendacons to yor Lopp, whereas an humble suytt hath bene made to this Board by the lo. Willoughby, Sr Ed. Cecill, and others, the Colonells and Captaynes, both of the old Regim48, as also of those new Regitn1", raysed here the last summr for the service of the States, that in regard the said Troopes are much shrunke and weakened by lying in the field all the winter, and are nevertheless called upon by his Excellency, their generall, to have them compleate and in readines for some service within a short time, that therefore for the speedie supplie of the said English Regim18 it mought be permitted to them and their officers to beat their drums, and that they might receive such further countenance from this Board as hath been heretofore given upon like occasion of raysing voluntaries ; wherunto we having accordingly given allowance and p'mission, have likewise thought good to give yor Lopp intymacon thereof to the end that you may not only p'mitt and suffer any the said colonells or captaynes, or such officers they shall depute, to levye and take upp such voluntarie soldiers as shalbe willing to take entertainment under them, but that withall you afford them yor best direccons, assistance and furtherance therein, and that you give notice hereof to the Deputie lieutenants, Justices of the Peace, and other his Mto ministers unto whome it may appertaine within the precints ofyor severall Lieutenantcies. And in case any of those voluntaries shall, after they have accepted entertainment mony, whereby they are ingaged into the service, withdrawe themselves, or runn awaye from their Captaynes or conductors, you are upon any such complaint to yeeld yor best assistauncefor the apprehending and recovering of those runnawaies, and then to comitt to prison untill they submitt themselves, or otherwise to punish them as is usual in like cases. And soe wee bid yor Lopp very hardly farewell, from Whitehall the 25 of Feb., 1624. Yo Lo very loving friends,
" G. Cant : " Jo. Lincoln, C.S. " Jo. Mandevill.
" Grandisone. " G. Carew. " Alb. Morton."
" We hear that Mansfeld's troops are almost half starveed," wrote an indignant Englishman in London to the British ambas- sador at the Hague. " If it be so, majus peccatum habent that should have made better provision and taken better order for them. It
YOL. II. G
82 LIFE AND TIMES OF
will quite discourage our people to be thus sent to the slaughter, or rather to famine and pestilence."1
The prophecy contained in this last sentence was to be fulfilled unfortunately only too soon.
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 26.— S. P. Dom.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 83
CHAPTER III.
1625.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE TO CADIZ.
" It is not thus that generals set out when they are expected to achieve brilliant victories."
JAMES the First of England, and Sixth of Scotland, de- parted this life on March 27, 1625, and a month later, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, commander-in-chief of the States' army, and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter, finished his earthly career.
Of the former it is sufficient to say that, " he was a king almost from his birth." * The latter sovereign, for sovereign he was to all intents and purposes, though he was never crowned, was a soldier, in the highest sense of the word, almost from his birth. The history of his country is Maurice of Nassau's best epitaph. His death, bed at the Hague was overshadowed by the impending fate of Breda, and one of the last questions he asked was, whether Breda still held out ? The anxiety the soldier- prince endured during the last months of his life regarding Breda doubtless shrivelled up his lion heart. " The Prince of Orange has been opened," wrote the English ambassador
1 Shortly after the King's death, Bishop Laud delivered into the hands of the Duke of Buckingham ' ' brief annotations or memorables of the life and death of King James," of which the first on the list was the above indisputable fact. See Rush worth, i. p. 155.
G 2
84 LIFE AND TIMES OF
at the Hague to Secretary Conway, "and found to have the fullest brain and the least heart his physicians had ever seen." l
A few weeks before the Prince of Orange's death, his brother, Count Frederick Henry of Nassau, was married at the Hague to Emilie, Countess of Solms, and a few days after, by his brother's desire, he departed to join the States' army at Gertruydenberg, where the whole army met him, and took the oath of fidelity to him as their commander-in-chief.2
Under the able leadership of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, the States' army was eventually to achieve great things ; but the days of Breda were numbered before the new commander-in-chief had taken over the supreme command of the army. Nothing could break down the strong earthworks which Spinola had raised all round the beleaguered city, and the garrison was gradually being starved into submission.
" I have ever had a great opinion of Spinola," wrote a discern- ing Englishman to Sir Dudley Carleton, " as the ablest man of our age, for judgment, vigilancy, daring and wariness, and if he carry Breda, as we make account he will, it is one of the greatest services hath been done many a day, considering the manifold difficulties." s
James had obstinately refused to allow Mansfeld to employ his British troops in marching to the relief of Breda. Directly James was dead his son was asked to annul this restriction. If Breda could be saved by means of British troops, it would be a glorious beginning to his
1 Carleton to Conway, May 10. — S. P. Holland.
* Commelyn, Histoire de la vie de Frederic Henry de Nassau, p. 9 ; St. Leger to Conway, April $. — 6". P. Holland.
* Chamberlain to Carleton, April 23. — S. P. Dotn.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL 85
Majesty's reign, wrote Sir W. St. Leger to Secretary Conway from the Hague.1 Charles gave the required permission,2 but by this time Mansfeld's I2,OOO Britons had dwindled to 3,000, and this small body of men was composed of too poor stuff to face Spinola's seasoned veterans. Many of their comrades had already deserted to the enemy, who derived but little advantage from their services. An Irish officer in Spinola's army before Breda, who wrote an account of the siege, has left it on record that some of Mansfeld's runaways, who took service under Spinola, were so utterly ignorant of all that soldiers ought to know, that when they had to load their muskets, they poured all the powder they had in their flasks into the muzzles of their guns, scarcely leaving any room for the bullets.3 The narrator of this extraordinary story attri- butes the crass ignorance of these men to their having " been gathered compulsorily of the most basest sort of the rascalitie." 4
A letter from Sir Edward Cecil, written a few weeks before the fall of Breda, shows that the new commander of the States' forces was determined to make one grand effort to relieve the beleaguered city.
SIR E. CECIL TO LORD CONWAY. 5,
" MY VERY GOOD LORD,
" If I have not answered yr lo. Noble letter sooner, my
1 St. Leger to Conway, April ^.— S. P. Holland.
7 Carleton, in a letter to Lord Cromwell and the other colonels of Mansfeld's army, informs them that the restriction laid upon them not to march to Breda is taken away, and they can now go, May 7. — S. P. Holland.
* Barry's Siege of Breda, p. 99.
4 Ibid.
5 Sir Edward Conway had been created Baron Conway of Ragley, County Warwick, March 22, 1624, and in the December following was appointed Captain of the Isle of Wight.
86 LIFE AND TIMES OF
indisposition is the true cause that I have been lattly visited wthall. .
" Among those menn that love to hear well of there friendes, I am to offer yr lo. up my congratulation for yr diserved honor his late Ma* did conferre upon yr lo. After that it belonges to mee to render y° many thanckes for yr letter, wherein it hath pleased yr lo. to set yr hand to an acknowledgmente that makes mee more in debted to y° than if y° had not acknowledged any debte. By cause y° give me assurance of yr lo. noble affection and friend- shipe, therefore yr lo. may be confidente, wth the same freedome and certaintie wch y° have bestoed upon mee, that I will rather invite occasiones then omitt anie, whereby I may receave yr commandmentes and obey them.
" Wee are now ready to marche, w* a newe Generall, w01 as brave and compleatte and (sic) Army as was ever scene in these contries, or in any other, as I can lerne, for there [their] order and Reall provitions of all manere of thinges. And the actione that will seeme most easie for us is to fighte ; but the suneste [quickest] way wee can thincke one [on] to releave the towne of Breda, will be if wee can but vittall our selves. For if wee can, it is as easy, and more easy, to Blocke up the [enemy's] Army as it is for them to Blocke up the Towne. For the forcing of the Treanches I take it very dificulte, for the[y] have worked upon them ever sence they first sett downe, and now more then ever. They have dobled there [their] workes as well towardes us as to the Towne, and every treanche cannone profe, beside there [their] great Bastiones and trafferses wth in, and wee must come naked to assalte them if wee goe that way. Wee shall have in our Army 288 companies of foote and 92 of Horse, and nigh a 100 peases of Ordinance of all sorts. This is a fitt preportione to regaine the Palitenatte, where we shall not loose . neither honor nor charge, but make the conquiste repare much of it.
" I am, as I allwayes was, of the opinean that the charge of Mansfeld was lost labore and charge cast a way, but muche more now that when he goethe from us heare he will not be able to feade himselfe. Of the 12,000 menne there is scante [scarce] soe many hundreds leafte, and these last die as faste, according to preportione, as if God were not well pleased that a stranger should command our Nation. What will be the evente God knoweth.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 87
And soe, wth the remembrance of my humble servis to y°, I reast
"Yrlo.
" to be commanded,
" ED. CECYLL. " From our Army this £fof Apriell [1625]."
[P.S.] "I take it that about maye daye, newe style, y° lo. shall heare that our Army is marching towards our great Prince." *
Add. " To the Rig. honorable and his very good lord the lo. Connowaye, Barone of Raglind, and Principall Scecritary of State at Corte."
End. "29 Aprill, 1625. Sr Edward Cecill to the Lo. Conway, acknowledging the receipt of a Lre, and excusing the not answer- ing it till now ; congratulating his Lop8 new honor and expressing much thankfullness for favors receaved ; shewes how compleate an Army the States have, theire resolutions and hope to releive Breda, and thereupon makes a long discourse."
After the States' army had met Prince Frederick Henry at Gertruydenberg, and taken the oath of fidelity to him, they marched to Dungen.2 Finding Breda inaccessible on that side, the Prince of Orange marched to Gertruydenberg on May 3, with 6,000 men, and on the following night at- tempted the relief of Breda by beating up the enemy's quarters at Terheyden. The English had the vanguard, and were commanded by Sir Horace Vere, the Earl of Oxford being second in command.3 They attacked and carried two forts in gallant style, but meeting with most
1 S. P. Holland.
* A village in Brabant, three leagues east of Breda.
' Carleton to Conway, May 7.— S. P. Holland.
88 LIFE AND TIMES OF
determined resistance, and being unable to overcome the difficulties which presented themselves, they were obliged to retreat. Want of ammunition, and the vanguard not being duly supported by the rest of the troops, were two of the causes which were said to have contributed to the failure of the enterprise.1 The English troops suffered severely in this fight. The Earl of Oxford, Sir Thomas Winne, Captain Dacres, Captain John Cromwell, Captain Tyrwhitt, and Lieutenant Bell were wounded, and Ensign Stanhope was killed.2
This was the last attempt to relieve Breda. Sir E. Cecil (who did not take part in the attack on Terheyden) was right in his opinion that it was impossible to storm the enemy's trenches, and that victuals for the States' army, and want of victuals for Spinola's army, might accomplish what no fighting would. Unfortunately, victuals were very scarce with the Prince of Orange. He had no straw, or anything to make huts of, and the camp was deep sand, which the heavy rains had turned into a quagmire. Sickness followed as a matter of course. " The longer they stay here the worse it is like to be," wrote a visitor to the States' camp at Little Dungen.3 All hope of relieving Breda being now at an end, and the garrison being without food, the Prince of Orange contrived to let the governor of the town know that he was at liberty to surrender on the best terms he could. On May 26th the garrison surrendered and marched out with the honours of war. The Marquis Spinola, who had once more earned the proud distinction of being the first soldier of the age, stood near the gate, and saw the troops march out. He respectfully saluted the governor, the
1 Carleton to Conway, May 7.— S. P. Holland.
2 Crosse, pp. 1511-2.
8 Mr. Dudley Carleton to his uncle, Sir Dudley Carleton, May 8. — S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 89
English and French colonels, and other officers, and expressed his admiration of the valour and fortitude of the soldiers.
When King James died England was on the brink of a war, but no war had ever been declared. Mansfeld, indeed, had been sent to reconquer the Palatinate with an army chiefly composed of British troops, but he never reached his destination, and his army had wasted away like snow in spring. Christian IV., King of Denmark, had been induced, by the representations of James, to embrace the cause of the ex-king of Bohemia, and to take the field against Tilly and the Imperialists. Louis XIII. had, thanks to Richelieu's policy, kept on friendly terms with both Great Britain and Spain. The Anglo-French marriage treaty had been signed and ratified. The Princess Henriette Marie was to be married by proxy at Paris on May I (old style) to King Charles. Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, had not yet taken the field, though the heads of the Protestant party were in active negotiations with him, and his co-opera- tion was daily expected by the Protestant Princes of Germany. Such was the state of affairs when Charles succeeded to the Crown.
The new king was not long in letting his subjects see that the policy which had been pursued by himself and Buckingham during the last year of the late king's life was now to be followed at all hazards. War was to be declared against Spain, and a large fleet was to be sent to the Spanish coast to destroy Spanish ships and cripple Spanish power. Mansfeld was to be reinforced and assisted with money ; Christian IV. was to be helped in like manner. The four new English regiments in the Low Countries were to be kept there in the king's pay to assist the Dutch. All these things and many more, of less magnitude but of great cost, had Charles pledged himself to do. The late king's last days had been embittered by the adverse policy
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of his son and favourite. But Charles had not this trial to go through. Buckingham's policy was the king's policy, and they went hand in hand in their schemes for crushing their enemies, reinstating their friends in power, and re- filling an exhausted exchequer. The great duke's roving imagination dictated the policy which was to advance the honour and glory of Great Britain and humble her enemies. Charles adopted the policy and gave his royal assent. All that was wanting now was money to put these glorious schemes in motion. So certain was the king of getting the necessary supplies from an obedient Parliament, that he collected a large fleet at Plymouth, issued orders for the levy of 10,000 land soldiers to go with the fleet, and entered into negotiations with the States-General for their co- operation in the expedition, some time before the Parlia- ment, which had been summoned, had assembled.
The idea of sending a fleet to Spain to prey on Spanish shipping, and bring back the rich cargoes of a captured West India fleet, seems to have originated with Bucking- ham, and to have filled his busy brain ever since December in the previous year.1 It would seem that the Lord High Admiral of England contemplated sending an expedition to the Spanish coast exactly similar to the one sent out by Elizabeth in I596.2 Judging from the grand success of that fleet, — Buckingham thought that a combined naval and military force of equal strength as that which left the shores of England in the summer of 1 596, would cripple Spanish power, and by causing a war of diversion would pave the way for Mansfeld and his allies to reconquer the Palatinate.
^ * Dr. Gardiner's History of England, v. p. 303.
2 A memorandum in Carleton's handwriting, written on the margin of the States' reply to his memorial, asking them to lend certain troops to go with the fleet, states that the troops to be asked for were "according to the Cales voyage," April 17.— S. P. Holland.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 9 1
However widely different Buckingham's war schemes were, they all revolved on the same pivot — the reconquest of the Palatinate. This was absolutely necessary to give a healthy tone to his schemes and carry the public interest, and what was even more to him the interest of England's Protestant allies, along with him. James had consented to a breach with Spain in the interest of the Palatinate, and both Charles and Buckingham knew that the only ostensible reason they could give for declaring war against Spain must be on the score of the exiled Frederick.
The States-General were to be asked not only to furnish a certain number of ships to join the expedition, but to allow some of their best English officers and 2,000 picked soldiers to go with the fleet. All this was in accordance with what had happened in 1 596, when the Dutch had sent a squad- ron of twenty-four ships to join the English fleet, and had permitted Sir Francis Vere and other English officers, with an English regiment over 2,000 strong, to leave their service temporarily, and go with the expedition to Cadiz. But the state of affairs was altered now. The British troops were mostly paid by the States-General, and were on an entirely different footing since the treaty of 1598. Added to this, when their services were asked for, the fate of Breda still hung in the balance, and the States' army had experienced great reverses. The duke was not a man to think of obstacles, and we find his factotum and ready ambassador, Sir Wm. St. Leger, writing to Sir Dudley Carleton early in April and opening out his master's wishes in the matter.1
Charles had already sent his instructions to Carleton, and the king's wishes were laid before the States-General in their assembly at the Hague. Before that body had
1 St. Leger to Carleton, April ^. — 5. P. Holland.
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given a decisive answer to the king's requests, Buckingham, with his accustomed impetuosity, had written to several officers then serving in the Low Countries, requesting their services in the coming expedition. Of these historical letters, the following is the one that has most interest for us : —
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM TO SIR E. CECIL. " SIR,
" It hath pleased his Matie, in contemplation of the extremitie in w°h he sees his deare Brother and sister, at their earnest suites often offered to his gratious father of happie memorie, and now renewed to him, to thinke of the waies to remedie the necessities they are in, and of his meere Grace, and favour to mee, hath chosen mee to putt in Execution those wayes deliberated on, that may most conduce to the restoring of them to their Estates and Dignities. So as it is resolved upon that a ffleete of shipps may bee employed, accompanied w*h tenne thousand land souldiers, wch may doe some notable effects to move those that have disposes! his Maties deare sister of her inheritance, to loose that prize. And of having undertaken that charge, w*h that care and dutie I owe to that trust and service, have amongst my consider- ations of the wayes to those ends made choice of yu as a second person to myselfe, upon whom I must repose my honour, wch is ample argument of my opinion of yr vertue and abilities. And although I am confident that even that trust of myne is enough to stirr up a lesse noble heart then yours, to applie all in yr power to discharge it ; yet I will lay before you, that it is yr restauration of our gratious Master's Sister and Nephewes, for the publique good, for the honour of our nation, and the glorie of our Gratious King and Mr. And this I say, not to inflame yu to Action whereof there is noe need, but to stirr up yr endeavour to deale w*h that Prince and People, to bee sensible of the great case (by diversion) that will come to them. And in that manner w°h they would have purchased but two yeares since at any rate. And from these, and all other arguments that shall offer themselves to yu, to move that State according to a
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 93
negotiation of Sr William S*. Legers w'h them, not onelie to performe their promise of a 1,000 trayned men, and disciplined, but alsoe to encrease them to a thousand more if it be possible. And if they desire that new men should bee return'd for them, to conclude of a certaine day, and the easiest way for the conveying those men to Plymouth, where the rendez vous is for the whole Armie by Sea and Land on the 26. It is heere understood that the thousand or two thousand Men shall come w*h their Captaines and Officers ; And that further there should bee leave granted to some other principall Colonells to come into his Armie, for the better fortefying of it, who should have their Collonelships reserved for them, if it shall please God to returne them againe to their service. And for their officers and Captns to have like leave to come w*h like priviledge for the conservation of their Companies, and Lieutenants as many as yu shall thinke worthie to chuse, and have spiritts to quitt that day certaine entertaynemt for the ambitions to bee CaptM, Covetous to measure gould by their hatts, and other spoiles by shipps Lading, and the honour of a brave accord, ffor the Colonells, the officers, and some Lieutenants of speciall note yu shall receive a Lyst heerew'h. And to yu that know soe well the advantage of the practise of Armes and order, I shall not need to wish yu to make hast to send over the officers that must discipline the souldiers at their Rendez Vous, before they goe aboard ; nor to pray yu to make hast, to the end yu may bee readie to receive the Armie, distribute them, hold them in Justice and obedience, and advance the discipline as much as may bee possible.
" I hope Sr William St. Leger will bee able to come to yu w*h somewhat more particular Instruction and information. The King's Ambassadour is upon the ould negotiation, and these new directions to give yu as much light as is requisite and will assist yu w*h all endeavour, for the accomplishing of the propositions and for the perfecting of that yu shall conclude off; if yu find it to be councelleable to hast yr selfe hither, and leave one of those Colonells there whom yu shall thinke fitt to give expedition to the worke that must follow you. Corporalls of the field, Quartre Masters, Enginiers, and Commissaries of the Artillerie, yu will not forgett to furnish the Armie w*h, and whatsoever else yu may know to bee had more convenientlie there then heere.
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" I will use no other expression to yu then that I have putt into yr hands the first infinite trust and pawne of my good will that ever I had in my power to bestow, w'h I have done w*h the confidence and affection of
" Yr. Lop. faythfull friend
" and servant,
"G. BUCKINGHAM. " Whitehall, 4th of May, I625."1
There is no proof that Sir Edward Cecil had asked the duke to give him a command in the fleet now preparing for sea ; on the contrary, we have it on Cecil's own authority that he had never expected the honour now con- ferred upon him.2 It must also be distinctly borne in mind that the command which Buckingham offered Cecil in the first instance, was that of Lord Marshal of the army on board the fleet, the supreme command of the fleet being reserved by the Lord High Admiral for himself.
The same day that the duke wrote to Sir E. Cecil offering him the above appointment, he wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton, Sir Horace Vere, Sir John Burroughs, and the Earl of Oxford.3 All these letters were carried to Holland by Sir W. St. Leger, who was sent there on a special mission, as will presently appear. These letters all related to " the great design," as we may call it. Carleton was to get a commission from the ex-king of Bohemia appointing Buckingham to the command of the fleet. He was also to
1 From the copy of the duke's letter in Harl, MSS. 3638 f. gSb.
1 The letter from Cecil to Buckingham in Cabala I. 128-9, dated "20 Novemb.," has been wrongly supposed to have been written in 1624. It was really written in 1621, at the same time that Cecil wrote to the Prince of Wales soliciting for the command of any troops that might be sent to the Palatinate. See the Prince's letter to Buckingham given at the end of chapter I. in this vol.
1 S. P. Holland for May, 1625
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 95
use his influence with the States-General to induce them to send a certain number of picked English troops with their officers to serve on board the fleet. The duke's letter to Sir Horace Vere was almost an apologetic one for his not being asked to go with the fleet. Vere was told the States required his services to command the English troops in the field
" For the present I have bin soe happy as to obtain from his Maty the creating of you a Baron," wrote the duke, " of what place or name you will give yourself the nomination ; the patent is drawing, but cannot bee perfected till we heare from you." l
Richly as Sir H. Vere deserved the title, it is more than probable he would never have got it had not the king wished to atone to him for appointing General Cecil, his junior officer, to a high command in the fleet. The title was a sop to appease his wounded vanity in being left behind. Vere was one of those rare individuals who never solicited for vacant posts and commands, consequently he stood in danger of being neglected by venal ministers and royal favourites. He had been treated with the greatest ingratitude by Frederick, ex-king of Bohemia, whom he had served so faithfully and long when commanding in the Palatinate.2 Yet we never find him complaining or petition- ing royalty for any favours.
Buckingham's letter to the gallant Sir John Burroughs, then serving as colonel of a skeleton regiment in the service
1 This paragraph is specially noted in the duke's letter, as having been written with his own hand. — S. P. Holland.
* Sir Dudley Carleton in a letter to Secretary Calvert, alluding to Vere's distinguished services in the Palatinate, says : — " His paines and sufferance in that service deserve (I must confesse) better countinance than he hath found during the whole time of his abode here of the Prince Elector." January 20, 1623. — S. P. Holland.
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of Count Mansfeld, was an invitation to him to go with the fleet as a colonel of a foot regiment. This officer's gallant defence of Frankenthal was still fresh in the minds of the public, and his experience would be invaluable in an army mainly composed of raw levies.
The gallant Henry de Vere, Earl of Oxford, had written to Buckingham proffering his services in the forthcoming expedition, and having served as a " General at sea," he expected to have been appointed to the deputy command of the fleet under the duke's command. This command, however, was reserved for Sir E. Cecil, and Buckingham told the earl, in his letter of May 5, that "he could only offer him the Vice-Admiral's place, under the Lord Marshal, which he did not think worthy his acceptance." Before Lord Oxford could receive this letter, he had been wounded in the attack on Spinola's earth works at Terheyden, and had gone to the Hague to recruit his health.
" Lord Oxford came ten days ago," wrote Sir D. Carleton to Lord Conway on May 23, "and the first night of his arrival fell sick of the same fever that carried off Lord Southampton and his son. His Phisicians despair of his recovery." l
A few days after this letter was written, Lord Oxford departed this life at the Hague, to the great sorrow of a large circle of friends, and, most of all, to his charming young wife.2
Sir W. St. Leger's mission to the Hague was to move the Assembly of the States-General, with the help of Sir Dudley Carleton, to grant permission for 2,000 picked
• S. P. Holland.
2 Henry de Vere, i8th Earl of Oxford and Lord Chamberlain, had married, two years previously, Lady Diana Cecil, second daughter of the Earl of Exeter, the greatest beauty of her day, and a great heiress. Leaving no issue, the title went to a distant cousin.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 97
British soldiers in the States' service with their officers, to be exchanged for 2,000 recruits from home, who were presently to be sent over. This was Buckingham's plan for strengthening the body of soldiers who were to go with the fleet. And it was an excellent plan, as 2,000 seasoned veterans, interspersed among the remaining 8,000, would have leavened the new undisciplined levies who were in sad need of something to steady and cheer them. Unfortunately the States did not see their way to parting with so many of their best men, and, when they had been asked to do so in the previous month by the British Ambassador, they had objected to the arrangement, though they were quite willing to send twenty ships to join the expedition and certain whole companies of soldiers, the good and bad being taken together. As the Dutch were to partly reap the fruits of an expedition intended to cripple the Spanish nation, Buckingham had great hopes they would eventually yield the point about the picked soldiers being sent to England in exchange for the same number of recruits, and St. Leger accordingly was sent over, on May 5, to press the point, and help General Cecil to procure such warlike provisions for the troops as could not be readily got in England.
In a matter so entirely military, the States' Assembly would not act without the advice of the Prince of Orange, who, as Commander-in-chief of the States' army, was the most fitting person to be consulted in the business St. Leger was sent to negotiate.
"Sir Wm St. Leger went on igth [May] to the camp at Wall- wick," wrote Carleton to Secretary Conway, " to dyspose his Excellency, with the help of my Lord General Cecyll, to so good an advise as might give contentment" 1
1 Carleton to Conway, May 25. — S, P. Holland. VOL. II. H
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Illness had prevented St. Leger going sooner to the army encamped at Waelwick,1 but Sir Dudley Carleton had, with his usual promptness, attended to the instructions sent him by Buckingham, and had procured from the King of Bohemia Buckingham's commission.2 That facile monarch had also agreed to a paper being drawn up, sanctioning the King of Great Britain's arbitration in all his (Frederick's) affairs.3 Whilst Buckingham's friends were forwarding his great design in Holland, his friends in England were preparing for the coming expedition with a will. Lord Conway, Secretary of State, was the Duke's most devoted servant, and it is said that it was Conway who first set the fashion of addressing Bucking^ ham as "Your Excellency," which was a title then un- known to English ears.4 Whatever scheme Buckingham floated, Conway set himself to advance it with all his heart and soul. He only saw with the Duke's eyes, heard with the Duke's ears, and wrote what his "noble patron," as he called him, wished. Such a man, in the high position he filled, was able to play into the Duke's hands, and was of the greatest possible service to him in all his political undertakings. We find him writing, in his official capacity, on May 25, to Sir Dudley Carleton, Sir Edward Cecil, and Colonel Hopton. He asked the two first "to move Mr. Hopton to leave Mansfeld's service, and go with the fleet."6 His letter to Colonel Hopton contained the offer of an appointment on board the fleet.6 The anxiety displayed to obtain the services of this gallant
1 Carleton to Buckingham, June 20, Cabala i. p. 345.
* Carleton to Conway, May 25. — S. P. Holland.
3 Ibid.
4 Dr. Gardiner's History of England, iv. p. 410.
* Conway's Letter Book, May, 1625. — 5". P. Dom. 9 Ibid.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. 99
young officer affords proof of the estimation he was held in by those in authority. Besides his fitness to command a regiment in the field, his distinguished services to the Queen of Bohemia, after the fatal battle of the White Hill, where she owed her safety,1 under Providence, to the courage and presence of mind of young Ralph Hopton, were not forgotten by those who wished it to be generally understood, that the great fleet was meant to avenge wrongs done to the King and Queen of Bohemia.
The result of St. Leger's mission to Holland, and the preparations for the coming voyage, made by General Cecil before leaving the Low Countries, are detailed in a long letter from Cecil to Secretary Conway, written from the Hague on June 2, acknowledging the receipt of Conway's letter, and informing the Secretary that Cecil had forwarded Conway's letter to Mr. Hopton as desired.
" Touching your businesse here," wrote Cecil, " the State hath been as contrary to us as the wind. For though they see a great action likely to be performed to their own good, with little cost to themselves, yet they desire to be so wise as to make benefit, both wayes, and not to balk any advantage, which makes them stand so stiff upon the denying of us officers and souldiers by election, and will yield to send none but whole companies. . . . But Sir Wm St. Leger and I have utterly refused their offer as a proposi- tion against his Majestie's service, for by this ignorant winter war our Companies are grown half new men, having lost most of our old, and of those new men the half are sick besides. ... It pleased my Lord the Duke to write to me a letter and to let me know he had chosen me his officer, to attend and obey him this journey ; an honour too great for me, because I did never expect it"
1 "In the flight of Elizabeth from Prague, she travelled principally in. a coach, but when the badness of the roads, or the necessity for speed, rendered that impossible, she mounted horse behind a young British volunteer named Hopton, whose life-long boast was the service he had thus rendered her." Green's Princesses, v. pp. 348-9.
H 2
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Cecil goes on to detail what warlike materials he had bought from the States' Government for the use of the fleet. Amongst other things, he mentions having bought ten pieces of new ordnance called drakes, "which shoot 70 musket bullets."
" I hope," continued Cecil, " they will prove the profitablest pieces that were ever used in the quarrel of his Majestie's friends .... My Lord, now is the time for getting good musquetiers ; there are many hundred to be found in England that have served in this Land, which by proclamation and promise of money in hand, or more pay, will easily discover themselves, whom some of the new men (to be released) will be glad to satisfy, without charge to his Majestic." *
It would have been well if Lord Conway had taken Cecil's advice about procuring good musketeers, and it would have been still better if the Duke of Buckingham had taken precautions against what Cecil warns him against, in the following important letter, which is tinged with a prophetic colouring : —
SIR E. CECIL TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
" MY MOST EXCELLENT LORD,
" There are some letters of mine that had come to yr Lord- ship's hands a good many dayes since, had not the wind been contrary and withstood their passage, the substance whereof was only to shew you how thankful I hold myself to yr Excellencie for so great and infinite a favor as it hath pleased your Excellencie to think me worthie of. But, as it is a favour that will set me on work all the dayes of my life, so it is greater than I can ever deserve. Howsoever, my resolution is to do my best. And I humbly beseech your Excellencie to believe, that with my diligence and the best understanding I have, I will seek nothing but to
Cecil to Conway, Cabala, i. pp. 130-1.
GENERAL SIR EDWARD CECIL. IOI
please you and to honour you ; and if God say Amen, to make the world speak of your design as much (I hope) as ever our Nation hath given cause. And for the faults of myself and those I shall bring with me, they shall not be excused, but with our lives and bloods ; for I hope I shall bring none but such as know what to do, and when they come to it, will bite sooner than bark. I do promise myself your Excellencie will have no cause to doubt or repent you of your favours, for I know what men have done and what they can do in my occupation. But God is God, and men are but men.
"All my discouragement is that the States answer not his Majesties expectation, being fearful (especially since the loss of Breda) to part with any of their old officers, or ould Souldiers ; but my hope is now better, for we have put them to another resolution by answering all their objections. By this disposition of the States to the keeping all their old souldiers, I wish your Excellencie will be pleased to be as careful in your choice, as you are desirous of great designs. For otherwise the honour and the charge will both be cast away, as your Excellencie may perceive in some of our latter expeditions, seeing that although there are many called Souldiers in the world, yet but a few there be that are so ; for so long a man may live in the profession to inable him sufficiently, that many grow unable to perform what they know before they have attained to the knowledge of what to perform. The knowledge of war being the highest of human things that God suffereth man's understanding to reach unto.
" I have, according to your Excellencie's command, made as many provisions as I can for the shortnesse of the time of such things as cannot be gotten in England, and I could wish I had known of this imployment but some months sooner ; for then I could have saved his Majestic somewhat, and have added many things that would very much have