THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF JAMBS I. 125 



his reasons for receiving the crown from this brave people ; while the 

 charge against James, repeated in many different modes and supported 

 by various assertions, of his having sacrificed the interests of Frederic 

 to the projected marriage of his son with the Infanta of Spain, from 

 which he anticipated such mighty advantges, but none of which he ob- 

 tained,* renders perfectly ludicrous the declaration of Higgons, that 

 to borrow his own dignified phraseology, " he left no stone unturned, 

 to save the Palsgrave by mediations, treaties, and advantageous pro- 

 posals to the house of Austria."f Nor could that critical enquirer 

 into the foreign and domestic history of these times be so grossly ig- 

 norant as not to have known, that when the States of Bohemia deter- 

 mined to proceed to the election of a new king, upon Ferdinand being 

 chosen king of the Romans, their unanimous choice fell upon the 

 Elector Palatine. Equally notorious was it, that this prince hesitated 

 for some time to accept the diadem which they had so earnestly wished 

 to place upon his brow. But being urged by his uncle, Prince Mau- 

 rice, and the Duke de Bouillon not to decline that which proved to 

 him a fatal gift, and finding that the majority of his allies were fa- 

 vourable to the wishes of the states, he consented to be crowned to- 

 gether with his consort at Prague. So eager however is this censor 

 to catch at any statement of Burnett's which might exhibit him in a 

 disadvantageous light, as a man, or an author, that he shuts his eyes 

 to facts familiar to the merest compiler of history. 



We have already shown the invariable repugnance in James to 

 display that powerful interposition for his son-in-law which feeling 

 and sentiment, as well as prudence and equity, seem so obviously to 

 have demanded. Can it be matter of astonishment, therefore, that 



• Whoever has studied the reign of James the First, well knows that the 

 alleged reason of the match being so long delayed, viz. the necessity of a 

 dispensation from Rome for the marriage of an Infanta with a Protestant 

 Prince, was a mere pretext on the part of Spain, to gain time for the exe- 

 cution of its selfish and ambitious projects. Lord Herbert addressed a long 

 letter to the king after the match was broken off, which must have convinced 

 James, unless we are to suppose an incredible silliness on his part, that he 

 had been completely deluded and mocked through the whole affair. See this 

 interesting letter in the Harleian MSS. 1581. Fol. 



•y A writer of that day has observed with as much truth as force, " that he 

 assumed the title of Defender of the Faith, yet suffered the Protestants of 

 Germany and France to be extirpated. That he might almost have pur- 

 chased such a country as the Palatinate with the money sent on embassies; 

 anil that by his promising the French Protestants assistance, he had only 

 made them confident to their ruin." — Wilson, p. Till, in Kennet, General 

 Hilton, vol. ii. 



