286 



x CHAPTER VIII. 



CHARLES i. NAVY continued. 



CONSIDERING the failure of his foreign policy and the in- 

 glorious fiasco of the first ship-money fleet, it might be 

 supposed that Charles would pause in the unusual method he 

 had adopted of wringing money from the country for empty 

 displays. While the Earl of Lindsey was still cruising at sea, 

 and before the issue of the second ship-money writs,, he knew 

 that his schemes had miscarried. He was left drifting about 

 without any definite policy, but still clinging to the plan of 

 the restoration of his nephew to the Palatinate as the one 

 thing before him. He was equally ready to ally himself with 

 France against Spain, or with Spain against France, whichever 

 would be most likely to aid him in realising that object ; * and 

 as he had neither money nor troops to attract a Continental 

 alliance, his only pawn lay in the navy. In the summer of 

 1635, while Selden was busy in the Temple at his book, it was 

 resolved to equip a fleet far more formidable than Lindsey 's 

 for the following year. Coventry made his speech to the 

 Judges in June, and in August the second writs for ship- 

 money were sent out. In this case, as is well known, they 

 were addressed not only to the coast towns but to the whole of 

 England, with consequences notorious in English history. The 

 number of ships it was at first intended to set out was forty- 

 five, totalling 21,850 tons, and with 8650 men, the estimated 

 cost being 218,000. 2 At the beginning of December the Ad- 

 miralty considered what number should be set out in the 

 spring ; and by an Order of the King in Council on December 



1 Gardiner, op. cit., viii. 84. 2 State Papers, Dom., ccxcvi. 69 ; cci. 26, 97. 



