Views such as these were undoubtedly held by Philip the Second of Spain, but were utterly opposed to the free spirit of the Netherlands, who saw in James nothing but a feeble tyrant-a despot lacking courage and opportunity. In England the direct line of the Tudors had ceased on the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the collateral branch of the Stuarts had introduced the King of Scotland to the English throne. The celebrated Buchanan had been the tutor of this king, and he being accused of having made his pupil a pedant, replied that he could do nothing better with him. In appearance, the king was of middle stature, more corpulent, says one of his contemporaries, through his clothes than in his body, his attire being made large and easy, the doublet quilted for stiletto proof, his breeches in great plaits, and well stuffed; his eyes were large, ever rolling after any stranger who came into his presence; his beard was very thin, his tongue was too large for his mouth, his skin " as soft as taffety sarcenet, which felt so because he never washed his hands, but rubbed his fingers slightly with the wet end of a napkin." He was very weak in the legs and disposed to lean on the shoulders of any who stood near him. His manners were as uncouth as his appearance was ungainly. He was in all points the most singular contrast to the stately and dignified queen who had preceded him, and whose intellectual and diplomatic powers were made still more apparent by the pedantry and weakness of King James. Among those who first arrived at Court to pay homage to the new king was Prince Frederic of Nassau, from the United Provinces, attended by the three able diplomatists-Valck, Barnevelt, and Brederode. King James, as we have shown, had no sympathy for the Hollanders; he looked upon them as rebels and traitors, regarding the struggles of Protestantism on the shores of the North Sea as a dangerous example to set before his own subjects. Besides, there were some thousands of crowns still due to the English treasury, and James was in want of this money, which the Hollanders seemed in no hurry to pay. The marriage of Elizabeth, the daughter of King James, to the Elector of the Palatinate, who subsequently became King of Bohemia, led the English into a closer alliance with the Protestants of Germany, and consequently on avowedly friendly terms with the Dutch. "Frederic, the elector, was a Protestant of the Calvinistic school, and the Protestants of Bohemia, anxious to prevent the Catholic Emperor of Austria acquiring their crown, offered it to him, which he was imprudent enough to accept. Views such as these were undoubtedly held by Philip the Second of Spain, but were utterly opposed to the free spirit of the Netherlands, who saw in James nothing but a feeble tyrant-a despot lacking courage and opportunity. In England the direct line of the Tudors had ceased on the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the collateral branch of the Stuarts had introduced the King of Scotland to the English throne. The celebrated Buchanan had been the tutor of this king, and he being accused of having made his pupil a pedant, replied that he could do nothing better with him. In appearance, the king was of middle stature, more corpulent, says one of his contemporaries, through his clothes than in his body, his attire being made large and easy, the doublet quilted for stiletto proof, his breeches in great plaits, and well stuffed; his eyes were large, ever rolling after any stranger who came into his presence; his beard was very thin, his tongue was too large for his mouth, his skin "as soft as taffety sarcenet, which felt so because he never washed his hands, but rubbed his fingers slightly with the wet end of a napkin." He was very weak in the legs and disposed to lean on the shoulders of any who stood near him. His manners were as uncouth as his appearance was ungainly. He was in all points the most singular contrast to the stately and dignified queen who had preceded him, and whose intellectual and diplomatic powers were made still more apparent by the pedantry and weakness of King James. Among those who first arrived at Court to pay homage to the new king was Prince Frederic of Nassau, from the United Provinces, attended by the three able diplomatists-Valck, Barnevelt, and Brederode. King James, as we have shown, had no sympathy for the Hollanders; he looked upon them as rebels and traitors, regarding the struggles of Protestantism on the shores of the North Sea as a dangerous example to set before his own subjects. Besides, there were some thousands of crowns still due to the English treasury, and James was in want of this money, which the Hollanders seemed in no hurry to pay. The marriage of Elizabeth, the daughter of King James, to the Elector of the Palatinate, who subsequently became King of Bohemia, led the English into a closer alliance with the Protestants of Germany, and consequently on avowedly friendly terms with the Dutch. "Frederic, the elector, was a Protestant of the Calvinistic school, and the Protestants of Bohemia, anxious to prevent the Catholic Emperor of Austria acquiring their crown, offered it to him, which he was h to accept. dent were publicly recognised, and treated with all honour. But Baby Charles was determined to be still further romantic, and so, having ascertained that the princess was out in the early morning gathering May dew, he climbed a wall, and sent her off shrieking with terror at the daring impropriety. Dog Steenie, in the meanwhile, was striving to outshine the grandees of Spain, and rapidly making enemies. To James he was continually writing letters for money and jewels, describing Baby Charles as quite poor in appearance, compared with the Spanish splendour. "Sir, he hath neither chain nor hat-band; and I beseech you to consider, first, how rich they are in jewels here; then, in what a poor equipage he came in ; how he hath no other means to appear like a king's son; how they are much needed at such a time as this, when you may do yourself, your son, and the nation, honour; and, lastly, how it will neither cost nor hazard you anything. These reasons, I hope, since you have already ventured your chiefest jewel, your son, will serve to persuade you to loose these more after him: first, your best hat-band, the Portugal diamond, the rest of the pendent diamonds to make up a necklace to give his mistress, and the best rope of pearl, with a rich chain or two for himself to wear, or else your dog must want a collar, which is the ready way to put him into it. There are many other jewels which are of mean quality, and deserve not that name, but will save much in your purse, and serve very well for presents." This was the tenour of all Buckingham's letters to the king. A George was wanted for one courtier, a garter for another, a jewelled ring for a third, and so on until James's treasury was more than exhausted—in debt deeply; forming a collar for Baby Charles's neck neither light nor jewelled. A singular contrast was thus afforded by the relations between the Courts of England and Spain under James and under Elizabeth : Oh! for the swords of former times; Time had been when an English sailor was singeing the beard of the King of Spain, when Spanish galleons were brought into English ports laden with treasure, when a grey-haired letter-writer at the Escurial was absolutely more afraid of the petticoated King of England than of all the potentates in Europe. Now it was England who sued humbly for alliance with Spain, who wasted her substance in costly presents to the grandees of Madrid, and who virtually ignored all that had been done by Howard of Effingham, Leicester, Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins, Frobisher, and the rest of the heroes who gathered round Queen Bess. And in the Netherlands the contrast was almost as striking. Time was when the provinces, struggling for freedom, and almost destroyed by Parma, had found a staunch ally in England's Queen. Now, they had no friend at the English Court, but at the Hague were royal pensioners, the King of England's son-in-law and daughter-ex-king and queen of Bohemia-who had lost their crown and were humbly thankful for the Dutchman's crust. The imbecility, obstinacy, and despotism of James, rendered him an object of derision throughout the Netherlands. They introduced him freely into burlesque plays, and at Antwerp a player enacting a courier rushed hastily on the stage, crying-"News! News!" On being asked what news, he replied that the ex-king of Bohemia was soon likely to have an immense force in the field, for the King of Denmark had engaged to send him a thousand, the Dutch ten thousand, and the King of England a hundred thousand. "Thousands of what?" demanded those |