454 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



For the match with Spain, it is too great and dark a busi 

 ness for me to judge of. But as it hath relation to concern 

 yourself, I will; as in the rest, deal freely with your grace. 



My lord, you owe, in this matter, two debts to the king : 

 the one, that, if in your conscience and judgment you be 

 persuaded it be dangerous and prejudicial to him and his 

 kingdoms, you deliver your soul, and in the freedom of a 

 faithful counsellor, joined with the humbleness of a dutiful 

 servant, you declare yourself accordingly, and shew your 

 reasons. The other, that if the king in his high judgment, 

 or the prince in his settled affection, be resolved to have it 

 go on ; that then you move in their orb, as far as they shall 

 lay it upon you. But mean while, let me tell your grace, 

 that I am not of the general opinion abroad, that the match 

 must break, or else my Lord of Buckingham s fortune must 

 break. I am of another opinion ; and yet perhaps it will 

 be hard to make you believe it, because both sides will per 

 suade you to the contrary. For they, that would not have 

 it go on, will work upon that conceit, to make you oppose 

 it more strongly. They that would have it go on, will do 

 the same, to make you take up betimes, and come about. 

 But I having good affiance in your grace s j udgment, will 

 tell you my reasons, why I thus think, and so leave it. If 

 the match should go on, and put case against your counsel 

 and opinion ; doth any man think that so profound a king, 

 and so well seen in the science of reigning, and so under 

 standing a prince, will ever suffer the whole sway of affairs 

 and greatness to go that way ? And if not, who should be 

 a fitter person to keep the balance even than your grace, 

 whom the king and prince know to be so intirely their own, 

 and have found so nobly independent upon any other ? 

 Surely my opinion is, you are likely to be greater by coun 

 terpoise against the Spanish dependance, than you will by 

 concurrence. And therefore, in God s name, do your duty 

 faithfully and wisely ; for behaving yourself well other 

 wise, as I know you will, your fortune is like to be well 

 either way. 



For that excellent lady, whose fortune is so distant from 

 her merits and virtue, the Queen of Bohemia, your grace 

 being, as it were, the first-born, or prime man of the king s 

 creatures, must in consequence owe the most to his children 

 and generations ; whereof I know your noble heart hath far 

 greater sense than any man s words can infuse into you. 

 And therefore whatsoever liveth within the compass of your 

 duty, and of possibility, will no doubt spring from you out 

 of that fountain. 



