1630.] RUBENS. 9 



authorities) knighted by Charles I. during this royal 

 sojourn at Newmarket, when the king presented him 

 with the sword enriched with diamonds, which was 

 used on the occasion, and added to the arms of the 

 new knight on a cdiViton gules, a lion o?\ It is probable 

 that this honour was conferred on the diplomatist and 

 not on the painter, for Rubens came to England as 

 the ambassador of the Archduchess Isabella, to sound 

 King Charles, ascertain his views, and pave the way 

 for a peace, " the chief subject of whose employment 

 was his proposition of a suspension of arms." The 

 primary object of his mission to England was finally 

 accomplished on the /sth of November, 1630, when 

 the treaty of peace was concluded and signed at 

 Madrid. The painter Rubens was serviceable to the 

 diplomatist Rubens. His palette was often a passport 

 to familiar admission to presences where envoys were 

 admitted ceremoniously and seldom. The accom- 

 plished, winning, commanding cavalier, with brush in 

 hand (the maulstick he did not use, his nerves were 

 so steady) would charm and persuade, and overcome 

 a royal or noble adversary in the easy intercourse of 

 painter and sitter. Charles I., much prepossessed in 

 favour of the illustrious artist, gave him just the 

 opportunity Rubens desired, by sitting at once for his 

 portrait. It was at the court that a nobleman, with 

 the superciliousness with which the artificially elevated 

 are apt to bear themselves towards those whom nature 

 has placed on high, and with, perhaps, a smack of 

 the envy which the favourites of fortune often feel 

 towards the children of light (and sometimes vice 



