| Copyright | ||
|
Home The First Two Stuarts and their Foreign Policy The First Two Stuarts and their Foreign Policy; Part 4 |
The First Two Stuarts and their Foreign Policy; Part 4"That prince," said the Pope, referring to Frederick "has cast himself into a fine labyrinth." The Pope was right.' The Catholic powers in Germany at once combined to support the claims to Bohemia of Ferdinand the new Emperor and head of the Austrian dominions. Frederick, on the other hand, was not cordially supported by the Protestant princes in Germany. His forces were consequently defeated, in little more than an hour, at the battle of the White Hill, just outside Prague; and he was expelled from Bohemia (1620). But that was not all. The Duke of Bavaria invaded and occupied that part of Frederick's dominions known as the Upper Palatinate, which bordered his own territory (1621) The King of Spain, both as an ardent Catholic and a cousin of Ferdinands, also intervened, and proceeded to send an army from the Netherlands to occupy the Lower Palatinate, which lay on the Rhine (1622). The result of the opening stage of the war was, therefore, that the Elector Palatine lost not only his new kingdom, but his hereditary possessions as well.We must now see what part Great Britain played in these proceedings. Public opinion in England had been enthusiastic in support of Frederick, the Protestant husband of an English princess (The enthusiasm even extended to the lawyers, and thirty gentlemen of the Middle Temple swore on their drawn swords, after the fatal battle outside Prague, to live or die in the service of Queen Elizabeth; and Charles, who was devoted to his sister, was so much upset by the news of this battle, that for two days he shut himself up in his room and would speak to no one). It wanted to force a Protestant policy upon the Government, and clamoured for an immediate war with Spain. In this public opinion was right The Spanish king would probably not have occupied the Palatinate at all if he had felt convinced that it would have led to hostilities with England. But he was well served by Gondomar, his ambassador in London, who was much more aware of James's timidity and indecision than James was himself, and knew exactly how, by a mixture of firmness and flattery, to manage him. And therefore, though English volunteers went out to fight on the Continent, and the House of Commons enthusiastically passed motions in Frederick's favour, (The members waved their hats " as. high as they could hold them ' when one motion was put to the vote) nothing else happened. James, indeed, wished to be the peacemaker of Europe, and sent numberless embassies to the Continent; but he never realized that diplomacy, unbacked by armed force, was useless, and that the differences between Protestants and Catholics in Germany were, at that time, too deep to be settled merely by a little judicious management. |
Chronology |
| copyright by www.uuo-ununoctium.info |