It was the wish of Charles I to revert to the policy of his father. Experience had taught him that he could no longer advance in the path on which he had entered while [A.D. 1630.] still Prince of Wales, and which he had continued to follow after he became King. He had plunged himself into the gravest political embarrassments; and, although the hostility between Crown and Parliament had long been threatening, he had caused the first open outbreak. He now wished to establish tolerably good relations with both the two neighbouring powers alike. With France he felt himself more intimately connected in the great affairs of Europe, and he took good care not to loosen this tie: he did not drop the cause of the Elector Palatine; but he wished at the same time to open commercial intercourse between his country and the extensive and wealthy provinces of the Spanish monarchy. When Cottington returned home from his embassy, he had the silver brought by the ship in which he came laid upon wagons, and carried in a sort of procession through the town. For he intended the inhabitants to be impressed by the opulence of the country, the commerce of which was reopened to them by the treaty just concluded. Charles I shrank from bringing his whole strength to bear upon the great questions of religion and politics which engrossed the continent, that he might above all be the King of Great Britain. We may certainly ask whether he was morally entitled to renounce his connexion with European affairs after he had contributed so largely to increase the existing confusion, and to bring the Protestant cause to destruction. And moreover such a severance was hardly possible any longer. Religious and political sympathies and conflicting tendencies had become so strong on the continent of Europe, that in one form or another they could not fail to react upon Great Britain as well. FOOTNOTES: [1] Aluise Contarini, 20 Agosto 1628: ‘Essendo trattenuto ben quatro hore a disputar, risolver et adomesticar il negotio: sempre coll’ assistenza di Carleton che in questo fatto si è portato egregiamente.’ [2] ‘Tutto è vero, ma il mio honor importa più.’ [3] ‘That they should hazard for the relief of the town all his ships, that he purposed not to have it left re infecta, whatever it might cost.’ Mead to Stuteville, in Ellis iii. 269. [4] Contarini, Nov. 18. ‘Non può con doppio dishonore et parlare et perdere.’ [5] Contarini to Zorzi: ‘Mi manda a dire in molta confidenza che non vorrebbe disgustar il re interessandosi troppo in questo affare.’ [6] ‘S’il y a quelque chose à ajouter ou à diminuer, se fera de part et d’autre de gré à gré.’ Traité de paix fait à Suze, 24 Avril 1629, Art. iv. Dumont v. ii. 580. [7] Zorzi to Contarini, Jan. 20, 1629: ‘Che la Francia non vorrebbe servirsene, che da sola apparenza senza sturbar il riposo del re et il gusto degli Inglesi.’