of the King, and the recognized interest of the nation. Be that as it may, the broad contrasts of character which existed between the wearer of the crown and its heir apparent became increasingly obvious during the long negotiations and correspondence about the projects of marriage for the prince himself and for his sister. [Sidenote: THE PROJECTS FOR ROYAL MARRIAGES.] [Sidenote: 1611–1612.] Something, indeed, of the difference in character between JAMES and HENRY was indicated when, in 1611, the prince directed RALEGH to draw up, in his prison, a paper of advice on the scheme of a double marriage with Savoy and on the relations between Savoy and Spain. It came out more forcibly when, on occasion of the proposal from France for his own marriage with CHRISTINA (the elder sister of HENRIETTA MARIA), he wrote to his father in these words: ‘The cause which first induced your Majesty to proceed in this proposition by your Ambassador was the hope which the Duke of BOUILLON gave your Majesty of breaking their other match with Spain. If the continuance of this treaty hold only upon that hope, and not upon any desire to effect a match with the second daughter, in my weak opinion I hold that it stands more with your Majesty’s honour to stay your Ambassador from moving it any more than to go on with it. Because no great negotiation should be grounded upon a ground that is very unsure and uncertain, and depends upon their wills who were the first causers of the contrary.’ For this letter the Prince was rebuked. Two months afterwards, it was found indispensable to desire him to express again his opinion upon a new stage of the negotiation. He did so in words to which the events of the next few years were destined to give significance. I quote from the original letter, preserved (with a large mass of other letters from the same hand) amongst the Harleian MSS.[28] ‘As for the exercise of the princess’ religion,’ wrote HENRY, on the 5th of October, 1612, ‘your Majesty may be pleased to make your Ambassador give a peremptory answer that you will never agree to give her greater liberty in the exercise of it than that which is agreed with the Savoyeard, which is—to use his own word—_privatemente_; or, as Sir Henry WOTTON did expound it, “in her most private and secret chamber.”’ Then he touches on the delicate question of dowry, and the relative preferability of the alliance proffered by France and that proffered by Savoy; adding,—with an obvious mental reference, I think, to the advice given him by RALEGH in the preceding year,—these pregnant words: ‘If your Majesty will respect rather which of these two will give the greatest contentment to the general body of the Protestants abroad, then I am of opinion that you will sooner incline to France than to Savoy.’ [Sidenote: 1612. Oct. 5. Henry to James; MS. HARL., 6986, f. 180.]