"If we can judge by outward shows," wrote Charles and Steenie to the
King, "or general speeches, we have reason to condemn your ambassadors
for rather writing too sparingly than too much. To conclude, we find
the Conde de Olivares so overvaluing our journey, he is so full of real
courtesy, that we can do no less than beseech your Majesty to write the
kindest letter of thanks and acknowledgment you can unto him. He said,
no later to us than this morning, that if the Pope would not give a
dispensation for a wife they would give the Infanta to thy Baby as his
wench,[33] {80} and hath this day written to Cardinal Ludovico, the
Pope's nephew, that the King of England hath put such an obligation
upon this King in sending his son hither, that he entreats him to make
haste of the dispensation, for he can deny nothing that is in his
kingdom.... The Pope's Nuncio works as maliciously and as actively as
he can against us, but receives such rude answers that we hope he will
soon weary on't. We make this collection that the Pope will be very
loth to grant a dispensation, which, if he will not do, then we would
gladly have your directions how far we may engage you in the
acknowledgment of the Pope's special power, for we almost find, if you
will be contented to acknowledge the Pope as chief head under Christ,
that the match will be made without him."[34]
It is difficult to know what to condemn most in this astounding
letter,--whether the simplicity that made Buckingham so easy a dupe of
Olivares' soft speeches, or the proposal at the end, which, as the
reply shows, was too much even for King James, that the latter should
abandon the main condition upon which he held the Protestant crown of
England. It is clear that the intention of {81} Olivares was to cast
upon the Pope the whole of the blame for the failure of the match, and
this, at least from the Spanish point of view, was a statesmanlike
policy, although the full falsity of it is evident to us now that we
have before us the communications that passed between Madrid and Rome
on the subject.[35]
[Sidenote: Charles in Madrid]