Rochfort to the Duke of Buckingham My Lord I Have received great wrongs about my Lord of Oxford by reports which can find no authour yet have they wrought such impressions in the hearts of some that it is hard to remove those Calumniations for divers are possessed that I am to be his accuser which is so strange and so malitiously bruited that it is somewhat suspected yet know I not any one particular for which he is in the Tower neither if I knew any such slip in so noble a person as might deserve the Kings displeasure would my nature give me leave to play the Informer except it neerly concerned the safetie or the honour of my King and then should my discoverie be publique to the face and not private behind the back for that I account too base to be found faultie in Sorry I am to be so much as suspected but since ill disposed persons will raise ill rumours without any ground the eleernesse of my heart is sufficient content unto me and as my heart hath been alwaies most faithful and watchful to do you service so good my Lord let me intreat you that for my sake my Lord of Oxford may receive some testimonies of your great favour for his speedy enlargement and that it may appear you are the more willing to do it for my earnest intreatie My Lord you shall not onely hereby oblige all my Lord of Oxford's friends but likewise the Lady Diana's who doth lose a great deal of precious time by my Lords imprisonment and therefore let all be arguments to excite your noble heart to procure his freedome And so I kisse your hands and rest More yours then his own H. R. Postscript PRay make all haste from Spain for neither are your pleasures and contents so great there as you may find them here neither have you so faithful friends there as you deserve but sure I am your have many false ones For I have work enough both in Court and Citie to falsifie their reports of you yea some of them about women very base ones and much tending to your great dishonour And it goes currant among very great ones that the Prince hath been somewhat displeased with you of late I have sent you another Letter of larger contents and I should be glad to hear from you King James to Pope Gregorie 15th 30. September 1622. James by the Grace of God King of great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the faith c. To the most Holy Father Pope Gregorie the 15th greeting and all manner of Felicitie Most Holy Father YOur Holinesse will perhaps marvel that we differing from you in point of Religion should now first salute you with our Letters Howbeit such is the trouble of our mind for these calamitous discords and bloudsheds which for these late years by past have so miserably rent the Christian World and so great is our care and daily sollicitude to stop the course of these growing evils betimes so much as in us lies as we could no longer abstain considering that we all worship the same most blessed Trinitie nor hope for salvation by any other means then by the bloud and merits of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus but breaking this silence to move your Holinesse by these our Letters friendly and seriously that you would be pleased together with us to put your hand to so pious a work and so worthy of a Christian Prince It is truly to be wished and by all means to be endeavoured that this mischief creep on no farther but that these storms at the last ceasing and the rancor being removed by which they were at the first raised the hearts of these Princes whom it any way concerns may be re-united in a firm and unchangeable friendship and as much as may be knit together in stricter obligations then before one unto another This we have alwaies had in our desires and to bring it to passe have not hitherto spared any labour or pains not doubting but your Holinesse out of your singular pietie and for the credit and authoritie that you have with the parties both may and will further this work in an extraordinary manner No way can any man better merit of the state of Christendome which if it shall take the desired effect in your daies and by your assistance your Holinesse shall worthily reap the glorie and the reward due to so excellent a work That which remains for us further to say concerning this matter this Gentleman our Subject George Gage will deliver unto you more at large Praying your Holinesse that you will give him in all things full credence and belief beseeching Almightie God from our heart to preserve you in safetie and to grant you all other happinesse From our Palace at Hampton Court the last of Septemb. 1622. Pope Gregorie the 15th to the Prince of Wales Most Noble Prince Health and light of Divine Grace c. GReat Brittain abounding with worthy men and fertile virtues so that the whole earth is full of the glorie of her renown induceth many times the thoughts of the great Shepherd to the consideration of her praises In regard that presently in the infancie of his Church the King of kings vouchsafed to choose her with so great affection for his inheritance that almost it seems there entred into her at the same time the Eagles of the Roman Standard and the Ensigns of the Crosse And not few of her Kings indoctrinated in the true knowledge of Salvation gave example of Christian pietie to other Nations and after-ages preferring the Crosse to the Scepter and the defence of Religion to the desire of Command So that meriting heaven thereby the Crown of eternal blisse they obtained likewise upon earth the lustre and glorious ornaments of sanctitie But in this time of the Brittanicks Church how much is the case altered yet we see that to this day the English Court is fenced and guarded with moral virtues which were sufficient motives to induce us to love this Nation it being some ornament to the Christian name if it were likewise a defence and sanctuarie of Catholique virtues Wherefore the more the glorie of your most Serene Father and the property of your naturall disposition delighteth us the more ardently we desire that the gates of Heaven should be opened unto you and that you should purchase the universal love of the Church For whereas that the Bishop Gregorie the Great of most pious memorie introduced amongst the English people and taught their Kings the Gospel and a reverence to the Apostolical Authority we much inferiour to him in virtue and sanctity as equal in name and height of dignity it is reason we should follow his most holy steps and procure the salvation of those Kingdomes especiallie most Serene Prince there being great hopes offered to us at this time of some successeful issue of your determination Wherefore you having come to Spain and the Court of the Catholique King with
desire to match with the house of Austria it seemed good to use most affectionatetly to commend this your intent and to give clear testimony that at this time your person is the most principal care that our Church hath For seeing you pretend to match with a Catholique Damosel it may easily be presumed that the antient seed of Christian pietie which so happilie flourished in the minds of British Kings may by Gods Grace reverberate in your breast For it is not probable that he that desires such a wife should abhor the Catholique religion and rejoyce at the overthrow of the holy Romane Church To which purpose we have caused continual prayers to be made and most vigilant orisons to the Father of Lights for you fair flower of the Christian world and only hope of great Brittain that he would bring you to the possession of that most Noble inheritance which your Ancestors got you by the defence of the Apostolique authority and destruction of monsters of haerisies Call to memorie the times of old ask your forefathers and they will shew you what way leades to heaven and perceiving what path mortal Princes passe to the Heavenly Kingdom behold the Gates of heaven open Those most holy Kings of England which parting from Rome accompanied with Angels most piously reverenced the Lord of Lords and the Prince of the Apostles in his Chair Their works and examples are mouthes wherewith God speaks and warneth you that you should imitate their customes in whose Kingdomes you succeed Can you suffer that they be called Heretiques and condemned for wicked men when the faith of the Church testifieth that they reign with Christ in Heaven and are exalted above all the Princes of the Earth and that they at this time reached you their hands from that most blessed Country and brought you safely to the Court of the Catholique King and desire to turn you to the womb of the Romane Church wherein praying most humbly with most unspeakable groans to the God of mercy for your salvation to reach you the arms of Apostolical charity to imbrace most lovingly your children so often desired and to poynt out as it were with a finger the blessed hopes of Heaven And truly you could do no act of greater comfort to all Nations of Christendom then to return the possession of those most Noble Isles to the Prince of the Apostles whose authority for so many ages was held in England for the defence of the Kingdom and divine Oracle which will not be uneasie to do if you open your breast upon which depends the prosperity of those Kingdoms to God who is knocking And we have so great desire of the honour and exaltation of your Royal Name that we wish that you should be called through thee whole world together with your most Serene Father the Freer of Great Britain and restorer of her antient Religion Whereof we will not lose all hopes putting them in mind in whose hands the hearts of Kings lie and he that rules all nations of the world by whose Grace we will with all possible diligence labour to effect it And you cannot choose but acknowledge in these Letters the care of our Apostolical charity to procure your happinesse which it will never repent us to have written if the reading thereof shall at leastwise stir some sparks of Catholique religion in the heart of so Great a Prince who we desire may injoy Eternal comfors and flourish with the Glorie of all virtues Given in Rome in the Palace of St. Peter the 20. of April 1623. In the third of our Pontificado The Princes answer to the Popes Nuntio that brought him this Letter I Kisse his Holinesse Feet for the favour and honour he doth me so much the more esteemed by how much the lesse deserved of me hitherto And his Holinesse shall see what I do hereafter and I think my Father will do the like So that his Holinesse shall not repent him of what he hath done The Prince of Wales his Reply to the Popes Letter Most Holy Father I Received the Dispatch from your Holinesse with great content and with that respect which the pietie and care wherewith your Holinesse writes doth require It was an unspeakable pleasure to me to read the generous exploits of the Kings my predecessours in whose memorie posterity hath not given those praises and Elogies of honour as were due to them I do believe that your Holinesse hath set their examples before my eyes to the end I might imitate them inall my actions for in truth they have often exposed their estates and lives for the exaltation of the holy Chair and the courage with which they have assaulted the enemies of the Crosse of Jesus Christ hath not been lesse then the care and thought which I have to the end that the peace and intelligence which hath hitherto been wanting in Christendom might be bound with a true and strong concord for as the common enemy of the peace watcheth alwaies to put hatred and dissention amongst Christian Princes so I believe that the glory of God requires that we should endeavour to unite them And I do not esteem it a greater honour to be defcended from so great Princes then to imitate them in the zeal of their piety In which it helps me very much to have known the mind and will of our thrice honoured Lord and Father and the holy intentions of his Catholique Majestie to give a happy concurrence to so laudable a design for it grieves him exceedingly to see the great evils that grow from the division of Christian Princes which the wisdom of your Holinesse foresaw when it judged the marriage which you pleased to design between the Infanta of Spain and my self to be necessary to proture so great a good for 't is very certain that I shall never be so extreamly affectionate to any thing in the world as to endeavour alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the true Religion with my self Therefore I intreat your Holinesse to believe that I have been alwaies very far from Novelties or to be a partisan of any faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion But on the contrary I have sought all occasions to take away the suspition that might rest upon me and that I will imploy my self for the time to come to have but one Religion and one Faith seeing that we all believe in one Jesus Christ Having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in the world and to suffer all manner of discommodities even to the hazarding of my estate and life for a thing so pleasing unto God It rests onely that I thank your Holinesse for the permission you have been pleased to afford me and I pray God to give you a blessed health and his glory after so much pains which your Holinesse takes in his Church Signed Charles Steward The Pope to the Duke of Buckingham Gregorie P. P. XV. Nobleman health and the light
concerning that particular whereof you were pleased to write unto me after your departure from St. Lorenzo and have presumed to set down exactly the case as it stands In what sort a woman betrothed and post Matrimonium ratum may before the Consummation of marriage betake her self unto a religious life I have likewise set down unto your Highnesse all sorts of security that may be taken before the betrothing for the preventing of any such course in the parties that are to be betrothed To this your Highnesse may adde any other you can think of for that the King and his Sister and all the Ministers professe so really the punctual and present performance of all that is capitulated with your Highnesse That they will refuse no kind of security that in reason can be demanded in this behalf so that your Highnesse may set down whatsoever you think this King and his Sister may do with decencie and honour and they will be ready to perform it I must now crave leave to speak unto your Highnesse like a faithful plain servant which is if your Highnesse pleasure be to have use made of the Powers you have left in my hands I no way doubt but in this particular such satisfaction will be given as will appear reasonable to all the world But if your Highnesse desire that these Powers should not be used they may be detained upon other just reasons which will arise in the treatie of the temporal articles And I doubt not but the Deposorio's may be deferred for some few daies upon other fair pretexts But these inconveniencies I conceive will follow First it will be of great discomfort to the Infanta who until the Deposorio's are past is not her own woman but must be governed by the pleasure of the Junto which I think she is very wearie of neither till then may she declare her self to be yours nor Comply with your Highesse in answering of your Letters and Messages and giving you those respects and Comforts which I know she would be glad to do But if she should any way judge that the delay of the Deposorios should arise from your Highnes part I conceive she would take it most heavily Secondly it will certainly raise great jealousies in this King and his Ministers and retard the resolutions that are fit to be taken with speed for the putting in execution that which is capitulated I therefore offer it unto your Highnes wisdom whether upon the satisfaction which they will give in this particular which will be whatsoever you can desire and upon the agreement of the temporal articles your Highnesse would upon the coming of the Popes approbation make any farther scruple in the delivering of your Highnesse powers If I shall I am confident they will not presse it as not decent for the womans part to urge the hasting of the Marriage But I conceive it will cast such a cloud of Jealousie and distrust upon the businesse that besides the discontent and affliction which I know it will give the Infanta which most worketh upon me it will so disorder the businesse that it will make a stand in your whole proceedings and preparations wherein they now go on chearfully and confidently and I conceive will punctually perform all that they have capitulated with your Highnesse I dare not so much as give my self leave once to question your Highnesse intentions of proceeding to the real effecting of the match which makes me desirous that all things may be executed that may any way retard or disturb it Only I shall like a faithful poor servant presume to say thus much to your Highnesse That for divers years past I know the King your father and your self have held this the fittest Match in the World and by a desire of effecting it your Highnesse was induced to undertake that hazardous journey of coming to this Court in person In the time of your being here admitting that their proceedings have been in many things unworthy of you And that divers distastes have grown by intervenient accidents Now things are reduced to those terms that the Match it self is sure the portion and the temporal Articles settled I hope to the Kings liking and yours And all other good effects that could be hoped for by this alliance are in a fair way If to these reasons may be added That on his Majestie and your Highnesse part you have already passed by and overcome the main difficulties and your Highnesse by your journey hath satisfied your self of the person of the Infanta God forbid that either any personal distastes of Ministers or any indiscreet or passionate carriage of businesses should hazard that which his Majestie and your Highnesse have done so much to obtain and whereby doubtlesse so much good and peace is to accrew to Christendom by the effecting of it and contrariwise so much trouble and mischief by the miscarrying of it Besides the individual happinesse of your Highnesse in such a Wife which the World supposeth you infinitely esteem for her person And for her Birth and Portion is no where to be matched And questionlesse for her vertue and settled affection to your Highnesse deserveth you better then any woman in the World I humbly crave pardon for writing unto your Highnesse in this manner which I hope your Highnesse well enough knowes neither the benefits I have received from Spain nor their grateful usage of me upon occasions nor I protest unto your Highnesse any other earthly respect moveth me unto it but the zeal and love I bear to your service for which I shall ever undervalue any thing that may concern my self And therefore I shall conclude by intreating your Highnesse that if you would have things go well that a Post may instantly be dispatched back unto me authorizing me to deliver the said power upon the arrival of the dispensation and having taken fitting securitie in this particular point And this I earnestly beseech your Highnesse may be done with all possible speed and secresie and that the Spanish Ambassadours may not know that ever there was any suspension made of the delivery of the powers In the interim I will find means if the dispensation come for 20 or 24 daies to alledge some other fair pretexts for the deferring of the Deposorios But herein I desire I may know your Highnesse resolution with all possible speed c. And so with c. Madrid Bristol The E. of Bristol to the Prince his Highnesse Septemb. 24. 1623. VVHen your Highnesse shall remember that your Highnesse being here in person it was not possible in lesse then a moneth to get that dispatcht which you were promised Mr. Secretary Cottington should have carried with him if your Highnesse would have but stayed him 24 hours I hope you will pardon your servants although they sometimes mistake in the time which they limit for the procuring of the dispatch of businesse especially if they depend upon the dispatches that are to be procured from
plots would be most acceptable to the Puritans not without great injury to your Councel of State from which he fled and disclaimed by way of an appeale and with such successe that we may be bold to say that the Parliament is now above the King Nay which is more that this daring Duke propounded many things to the Parliament in the Kings name your Majestie being neither acquainted with them nor willing to them Yea and that he propounded many things contrary to your Majesties service Who is there that doth not see and commend the royal disposition of the Prince adorned with so great endowments of his mind that he doth not in them all shew and approve himself to be a very good son of a very good King And yet neverthelesse that the Duke doth so much presume upon his favour that he contemneth all men as knowing that those who are obedient to his Highnesse will also subject themselves to his will I would to God he did direct those his actions to the good of the Prince But that is a thing so far from the opinion of good men that they rather believe that he who hath overthrown the marriage with Spain will be of no lesse power to the breaking of any other marriage and that is it which many do prophesie They knew in Spain that very same day that he had received Letters from the most illustrious Prince Palatine that he caused the procuration to be revoked and in a few dayes after when the comming of the foresaid Princes Secretarie and the confirmation of his hope of having his Daughter married to her Highnesse son all things were utterly dashed in pieces Let your Majestie have a care of your self and the Prince and foresee the hurts and damages which a man of such a turbulent humour may stir up whose headie spirit your Majestie saith you have noted and have desired to mittigate A man I say that is ambitious of popular ayr as plainly appeared in Parliament when the casting of all odious matter upon your Majestie he did arrogate the thanks of all things that were acceptable to himself being stiled the redeemer of his countrie I say again a man that hath envied so great a good to the Christian world and principally to the kingdomes of England and Spain having used some certain meanes which do argue that he aymed at such an end as many already do fear and to prophesie in it the worst event that can be if the Puritans desire a kingdome which they do against their wills they wish it not to the most illustirous Prince the best and true Heir of your Majestie but to the Prince Palatine whose spie and Scout Mansfelt is what shew soever he makes He that makes these things known to your Majestie dischargeth the part of a good man as well towards God as your Majestie and the illustirous Prince whom it now standeth in hand to foresee the vengeance of God provided by the Dukes plots and the furie of the Parliament there having been so many and so great testimonies published against Spain contrarie contrarie to truth so many and so frequent infamous Libels begotten and brought forth and many such other things so full of bitternesse and ignominie that they cannot be read even of our enemies without some taint upon the English Nation It is mostapparent and stories will testifie that here Leagues have been broken by the will and pleasure of them whom it especiallie concerneth to provide for your peace and quiet and to wish from the bottom of their hearts that after many and these most happie yeares that Motto of yours blessed be the Peace-makers might be verified in Letter of the person of your Majestie and to propound the same Counsel to the most illustrious Prince to be imitated which your Majestie hath done to the whole world to be commended and admired A happie Prince will he be if he comes and succceeds peaceably into the haereditarie possession of his kingdom and which will be of no lesse advantage to him having his peace established with those Princes whose friendship and amitie your Majestie hath procured and deserved He would certainly love and commend those that had given him those Counsels of peace Peace and tranquillitie are by haereditarie right devolved to the most illustrious Prince in as much as he is born of the Father who hath with so much industrie procured them not onely to this Island but to the continent also esteeming them at a higher value then his kingdomes themselves Which since it is thus and that the blood of his Father which is in him and the love wherewith he is carried towards your Majestie and the experience of this your most happie Government and that great example wherewith your Majestie hath drawn and won the Christian world to an admiration and love of you did all direct the most illustrious Prince with a kind of connatural motion to the same Counsel and purpose of peace as might have heretofore been likewise hoped Certainly this Machination is very strong violent and mighty which doth suddainely labour to turn him into a clean contrarie course And questionlesse if the very entrance into a war the war it self if it want justice it will want also happie successe It cannot be unknown to your Majestie that the Duke of Buckingham carrieth himself so lofty that he would have all men perswaded that he hath and doth exercise a kind of dominion over the will of your Majestie and of his Highnesse All things shall be made manifest to your Majestie if you will have them so for there are not meanes wanting whereby you may free your vassal from fear and diffidence who will otherwise dare nothing nor say nothing which certainely appeares so far to be true that when all things standing as they do it is an easie matter to find who will speak against your Majestie yet there is none that dare speak against the Duke Let your Majestie call some certain men unto you and sist out of them the opinion of the more moderate Parliament and enquire of those that come out of Spain who did first give the first cause of falling out whether the Complaints against the King of Spain be true or no whether that foresaid King were not desirous to satisfie the desire of the Prince his Highnesse Whether he did not faithfully endeavour to effect the marriage Whether the Duke of Buckingham did not many things against the authoritie and reverence due to the most illustrious Prince Whether he was not wont to be sitting whilest the Prince stood and was in presence and also having his feet resting upon another seat after an undecent manner Whether when the Prince was uncovered whilest the Queen and Infanta looked out at the Windowes he uncovered his head or no Whether sitting at the Table with the Prince he did not behave himself unreverently Whether he were not wont to come in to the Princes Chamber with his cloathes half on so