CHAP. 1639. Bellievre advocates interven ⚫tion. Dec. Offers of line and Loudoun. The memory of the ancient league had not died away. Scottish archers still guarded the person of the King of France, and Scottish visitors to Paris in need of protection were in the habit of going straight to Richelieu's Scottish chaplain Chambers, seldom troubling themselves to pay even a visit of ceremony to the English Ambassador. Even in our days it has sometimes happened that a Scotsman can procure unwonted attention in Paris by the mere mention of his nationality. He The policy of giving active assistance to the Covenanters had a warm advocate in Bellievre. had long ago entered into communication with their leaders, and had sent emissaries to Scotland to watch the course of affairs. When Dunfermline and Dunferm- Loudoun arrived in London at the end of the year, they sent to the Ambassador to ask for French support in case of need. In return, they were ready to engage to make no further treaty with Charles in which their alliance with France was not recognised, as well as to stipulate for the admission of Scots to the Committee of Foreign Affairs,' where they would be in a position to give warning of anything which might be contemplated to the prejudice of that alliance. Richelieu refuses to accept them. Bellievre would gladly have fallen in with this proposal. Richelieu would not hear of it. All through the summer he had been warning the Ambassador that it would be unwise to enter into any engagements with the Scots. The sagacious Cardinal 1 This proposal was based on a suggestion made by Bellievre in the autumn. Ranke, who was the first to tell the story, missed the point of this demand by translating the 'Conseil des Affaires Etrangères' by the Privy Council. A man might be a Privy Councillor, and know nothing of importance. THE LETTER OF THE SCOTS TO LEWIS XIII. 301 CHAP. 1639. Dec. held that Charles would ruin himself without any effort on the part of France. He now positively ordered Bellievre not to meddle in the affairs of Scotland. It was probably in consequence of this rebuff that Bellievre was recalled at his own request. Bellievre's Early in January he returned to Paris.1 1640. Jan. recall. Feb. Scottish sioners in In the beginning of February Traquair arrived in London, bringing with him the Scottish Commis- Commissioners who had been deputed to lay the case of their London. countrymen before the King. By neither side could it be seriously expected that any good would result from their mission; and Charles was more especially distrustful because Traquair had come into possession of the letter which the Covenanters had intended to send to France by Colvill in the preceding spring. Charles saw it he was confirmed in all his suspicions. Now, he thought, he would be able to prove to all men that religion had been but the pretext under which the Scots had cloaked deliberate treason. When The letter falls into to Lewis Charles's hands. Feb. 18. son of The garri Edinburgh Castle re inforced. Nor were the Scots more hopeful of a satisfactory issue. They did not, indeed, break out into open resistance, and they even allowed a hundred English soldiers to enter the Castle of Edinburgh as a reinforcement of Ettrick's scanty garrison. Yet they knew that they must be prepared for the worst, and, on the day after the soldiers entered, Colvill was despatched to France with a second letter asking for despatched the mediation of Lewis in the name of the ancient league.1 5 1 Chavigny to Bellievre. Lewis XIII. to Bellievre, Apr. Dec. 20 Dec. 30 30 Jan. 97 la Barde, July 7, Arch. des Aff. Etr. xlvii. 510. 2 Balfour, iii. 76. 3 Ettrick to the King, Feb. 18, S. P. Dom. ccccxlix. 58. 4 The Covenanters to Lewis XIII., Feb, 19, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,915, fol. 410. The instructions printed by Mazure, ii. 406, refer to this mission. Feb. 19. Colvill to France. CHAP. 1645. Feb. Montrose's position. To this letter Montrose's signature was appended. If he was tending towards Charles, he had not yet gone over to him altogether. It was necessary to keep up appearances, and in December he had been compelled by popular clamour to refuse an invitation to Court which had reached him from Charles himself.1 Yet it would probably be unjust to ascribe his conduct simply to a wish to keep up appearances. It may very well be that Charles's reluctance to throw the Bishops frankly overboard had its effect upon Montrose as well as upon others. How much Charles's hesitation on this point contributed to give strength to his political opponents is evident to all dispassionHope's con- ate inquirers. Sir Thomas Hope was one of the most fanatical of the Covenanters. "My lord," he said one day to Rothes, who had assured him that the King meant to restore the Bishops, "let no reports move you, but do your duty. Put his Majesty to it, and if it be refused then you are blameless. But if on these reports ye press civil points, his Majesty will make all Protestant princes see that you have not religion for your end, but the bearing down of monarchy." If Charles expected to derive any strength from the monarchical sentiment which was still living in Scotland, he must agree quickly with the Presbyterians. versation with Rothes. The sion is heard. March. " 2 Unluckily for Charles, it was to England rather than to Scotland that he was looking for help. In his discussions with the Scottish Commissioners he showed no alacrity to win the hearts of Scotsmen by any plain declaration on the subject of Episcopacy. After some preliminary fencing, he took up the position that the supreme magistrate must have authority 228. 1 Montrose to the King, Dec. 26, Napier, Memoirs of Montrose, i. 2 Hope's Diary, Jan. 14, 115. THE SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS IN ENGLAND. to call assemblies and to dissolve them, and to have a 303 CHAP. VII. 1640. March. Feb. Prepara war. rences in These discussions, meaningless in themselves, were carried on in the midst of warlike preparations. On tions for February 24 arrangements were made for pressing 30,000 foot from the several counties south of the Humber, the northern shires being excused as having borne the burden heavily in the last campaign. At OccurEdinburgh an appeal to arms was no less imminent. Edinburgh. On the 25th some ill-built works which had been erected as a defence to the castle, fell down, and the population of the town refused to allow Ettrick to carry in the materials needed to repair the damage. A few days later the Earl of Southesk, Sir Lewis March. Gordon, and other noted Royalists were seized and imprisoned. The struggle for sovereignty in Scotland was evidently about to recommence. One gleam of hope shone upon Charles's path. On March 16 Strafford crossed the Irish Sea, suffering, as 1 Rushw. iii. 1,035. 2 Ibid. iii. 994, 1,018. 3 Nicholas's Minutes, Feb. 24, S. P. Dom. ccccxlv. 6. ccccxlviii. 81. Spalding, i. 260. March 16. sets out for Strafford Ireland. CHAP. VII. 1640, he was from his old disease, the gout. "Howbeit," he gaily wrote as he was preparing to embark, "one March 16. way or other, I hope to make shift to be there and back again hither in good time, for I will make strange shift and put myself to all the pain I shall be able to endure before I be anywhere awanting to my master or his affairs in this conjuncture; and therefore, sound or lame, you shall have me with you before the beginning of the Parliament. I should not fail, though Sir John Eliot were living.". Meeting of the Irish 1 Strafford kept his word. On the 18th he landed Parliament. in Ireland. The Parliament had been already two days in session. A body so equally divided was always at the disposal of a strong ruler. With his little phalanx of officials well in hand, he could throw the majority in the House of Commons on which side he pleased. In 1634 he had thrown it on the side of the colonists of English birth. In 1640 he threw it on the side of the native Irish. Predisposed by their religious ties to dread the victory of the Covenanting Scots, the Irish Catholics would be ready to follow Strafford at least so long as he could convince them of his power. When he left England he had intended to ask for six subsidies, a grant which was estimated as equivalent to 270,000l. On the recommendation of the Council, however, he contented himself with asking for four, or 180,000l., on condition that the Commons would supplement it by a declaration that, if more were required, more should be given.2 1 Strafford to -? March 16, Straf. Letters, ii. 303. The editor gives this letter as written to Secretary Coke, though Coke was no longer Secretary. I suspect Conway to have been the man. 2 The King to Strafford, March 2, 3. The Irish Council to Windebank, March 19, 23, Straf. Letters, ii. 391, 394, 396, 397. Cromwell to Conway, March 31, S. P. Dem. ccccxlix. 47. |