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King James I and the protestant cause in the crisis of 1618–22

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

W. B. Patterson
W. B. Patterson*
Affiliation:
University of the South Sewanee
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Extract

In the early seventeenth century, when Europe was divided along religious lines and works of polemical theology circulated widely, most Englishmen seem to have been convinced that their nation was part of a protestant community of nations with certain common interests. This attitude had its roots in the recent past, when the government of queen Elizabeth had aided—albeit adroitly—the Dutch and French Calvinists and had maintained close relations with several protestant states, particularly in the Rhineland. When the ‘Invincible Armada’ from Spain had been thwarted in its intended object, the English were thankful to Providence for the events which had preserved protestantism on the island. The common cause among protestant states thus came to be thought of, by statesmen and ordinary citizens alike, as an effort to safeguard the political autonomy of the protestant states, particularly against the great Hapsburg monarchy in Spain and Austria, and to preserve the protestant faith against the revived Roman Catholicism of the counter-reformation. Religion and national identity were so closely linked that English ‘papists’ had constantly to struggle against a suspicion that they were unpatriotic or disloyal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 18: Religion and National Identity , 1982 , pp. 319 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1982

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References

1 See, for examples of English views: Marvin A., Breslow, A Mirror of England, English Puritan Views of Foreign Nations, 1618-1640 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970) esp pp 10–99 Google Scholar; William S., Maltby, The Black Legend in England: The Development of Anti-Spanish Sentiment, 1358-1660 (Durham, North Carolina, 1971) esp pp 100-30Google Scholar; and Louis B., Wright, ‘Propaganda against James I’s “Appeasement” of Spain’, Huntingdon Library Quarterly 6 (San Marino, California, 1942-3) pp 149-72Google Scholar. For a sustained political analysis, see Simon L., Adams, ‘The Protestant Cause: Religious Alliance with the West European Calvinist Communities as a Political Issue in England, 1585-1630’, Oxford University DPhil thesis (1972)Google Scholar.

2 Thomas, Fuller, The Church History of Britain (London 1655) bk 9, pp 192-3Google Scholar. Elizabethan relations with protestant states are treated in Wernham, R. B., Before the Armada: The Growth of English Foreign Policy (London 1966) pp 290–405 Google Scholar, and Wallace T., MacCaffrey, The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime (Princeton 1968) pp 268-90Google Scholar, 372-92.

3 For a discussion of this and other aspects of English Catholicism in the period, see Caroline M., Hibbard, ‘Early Stuart Catholicism: Revisions and Re-Revisions’, JMH 52 (1980) pp 1–34 Google Scholar.

4 Discussions of James’s foreign policy include [Samuel R.], Gardiner, History of England [from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1601-1642] 10 vols (London 1884-6)Google Scholar esp vols 3-5; Leopold, von Ranke, A History of England, Principally in the Seventeenth Century, 6 vols (Oxford 1875) I, pp 367–536 Google Scholar; Willson, [D. Harris], King James VI and I (New York 1956) esp pp 271-87Google Scholar, 399-424; Godfrey, Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603-1660 (2 ed Oxford 1959) pp 47–67 Google Scholar; and [Maurice], Lee, James I and Henri IV: [An Essay in English Foreign Policy, 1605-1610] (Urbana 1970)Google Scholar passim. Fresh lines of investigation are suggested by [Charles H.], Carter, [The] Secret Diplomacy [of the Habsburgs, 1598-1625] (New York 1964)Google Scholar passim; [Robert], Zaller, ‘“Interest of State”: [James I and the Palatinate’], Albion 6 (Boone, North Carolina, 1974) pp 144-75Google Scholar; and Polišenský, J. V., War and Society in Europe, 1618-1648, trans Frederick, Snider (Cambridge 1978) pp 59–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 88-94, 109-12, 163-67.

5 James, I, The Peace-Maker; [or, Great Brittaines, Blessing, Fram’d for the Continuance of That Mightie Happinesse Wherein This Kingdomme Excells Manie Empires (London 1619)Google Scholar [first published 1618], sig A3 verso. According to Willson, King James VI and I, the king ‘probably wrote small portions’ of the book, ‘and Lancelot Andrewes the rest’. (p271) It has also been attributed to Thomas Middleton, the playwright.

6 James I, The Peace-Maker sig A4.

7 Ibid sig B1-B1 verso.

8 Ibid sig B1 verso.

9 See Lee, James I and Henri IV pp 12-13, 17-18, 61-70, 118-42, 175-6.

10 Willson, King James VI amd I pp 271-87; Carter, Secret Diplomacy pp 47-9 and ‘Gondomar: Ambassador to James I’, HJ 7 (1964) pp 189-208.

11 [Letters and Other Documents Illustrating the Relations between England and Germany at the Commencement of the Thirty Years’ War] ed [Samuel R.], Gardiner CSer 90 p 10. (1865) p 10Google Scholar.

12 Gardiner p 4.

13 Peter, Brightwell, ‘The Spanish Origins of the Thirty Years’ War’, European Studies Review 9 (London 1979) pp 409-31Google Scholar. This account corrects that in Bohdan, Chudoba, Spain and the Empire, 1519-1643 (Chicago 1952) pp 218-21Google Scholar, where Spanish policy is represented as consistently militant.

14 Gardiner p 13.

15 Ibid p 30.

16 Gardiner, , History of England 3, p 285 Google Scholar; Claus-Peter, Clasen, The Palatinate in European History, 1555-1618 (Oxford 1966) pp 22-3Google Scholar.

17 Gardiner pp 46-7. For the earlier stages of the proposal, which had apparently originated with Wotton, see Letters and Dispatches fiom Sir Henry Wotton to James the First and His Ministers, in the Years MDCXVII-XX, ed George, Tomline (London 1850) pp 35-6Google Scholar, 61-3, 98-100.

18 Gardiner, , History of England 3, pp 301-2Google Scholar.

19 [Edward], McCabe, ‘England’s Foreign Policy [in 1619: Lord Doncaster’s Embassy to the Princes of Germany’], Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 58 (Vienna 1950), p 473 Google Scholar.

20 Gardiner pp 64-74.

21 McCabe, ‘England’s Foreign Policy’, pp 473-76; Gardiner, , History of England 3, pp 300-7Google Scholar.

22 [Washington,] Folger [Library,] MS V. a. 24: ‘In what lamentable estate, and uppon what unapeasable termes all Europe now stands’, by a supporter of James I, c1620, p 1.

23 Folger MS V. a. 24, p 1.

24 Ibid p 17.

25 L’estat present des gverres [de la Boheme & Allemagne auec le denombrement des troupes qui y sont ariuees tant pour le secours de l’Empereur, que pour le party du Comte Palatin,] trans from German into French by J. D. C., (Paris 1620) [Chicago, Newberry Library copy], p 4 Google Scholar.

26 Ibid pp 4-9.

27 Ibid p 11.

28 The Fortescue Papers, [Consisting Chiefly of Letters Relating to State Affairs, Collected by John Packer], ed [Samuel R., Gardiner,] CSer ns 1 (1871) p 114 Google Scholar.

29 Gardiner, , History of England 3 pp 350 Google Scholar, 363.

30 The Fortescue Papers p 138.

31 [Robert], Zaller, The Parliament of 1621: [A Study in Constitutional Conflict] (Berkeley 1971) pp 6–36 Google Scholar. For events in central Europe, see Polišenský, J. V., The Thirty Years War (London 1970) pp 98–132 Google Scholar.

32 Folger MS Z. E. 1 (15): Historical Papers of the Time of James I, fol 2. For a shorter version of this speech, see [John], Rushworth, Historical Collections, 7 vols (London 1659-1701) 1, pp 21-3Google Scholar.

33 Folger MS Z. e. 1 (15), fol 2 verso.

34 Ibid fol 3.

35 Gardiner, , History of England 3, pp 37–71 Google Scholar, 338, 377.

36 Rome, Vatican Secret Archives, Fondo Borghese, Ser II, vol 103: Reports from the nuncio in Flanders (16 May 1620), fols 54r/v; Fondo Borghese, Ser I, vol 827 bis: Instructions to the nuncio in Spain (5 April 1621), fols 95-6.

37 Zaller, ‘“Interest of State”’, p 155.

38 Gardiner, , History of England 4, pp 186–90 Google Scholar; Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (London 1963) pp 318-19Google Scholar.

39 Zaller, ‘“Interest of State”’, p 160.

40 Gardiner, , History of England 4, p 201 Google Scholar.

41 McCabe, ‘England’s Foreign Policy’, p 473.

42 Zaller, ‘“Interest of State”’, pp 161-2; Gardiner, , History of England 4, pp 204-5Google Scholar.

43 Gardiner, , History of England 4, pp 206-16Google Scholar.

44 James asked that word be sent to Spinola in September that Frederick had had no hand in Mansfeld’s movements, a matter on which Digby would soon be able to give assurance; he asked Spinola to continue to work for a settlement. See The Fortescue Papers, pp 160-1.

45 Folger MS V. b. 303: Speeches delivered in Parliament and Other Political Documents, p 233. The speech is given in a different form in Rushworth, Historical Collections 1, p 39.

46 Zaller, The Parliament of 1621 pp 145-56; [Conrad], Russell, ‘The Foreign Policy Debate [in the House of Commons in 1621’], HJ 20 (1977), pp 289–309 Google Scholar; Adams, S. L., ‘Foreign Policy and the Parliaments of 1621 and 1624’, in Faction and Parliament: Essays on Early Stuart History, ed Kevin, Sharpe (Oxford 1978) pp 149 Google Scholar, 159-64.

47 Folger MS V. b. 303, p 233. The letter is to be found with some differences in Rushworth, Historical Collections 1, p 43.

48 Gardiner, , History of England 4, pp 246-8Google Scholar.

49 Zaller, The Parliament of 1621 pp 156-87.

50 Compare Russell, ‘The Foreign Policy Debate’, pp 292-9, 309 and Zaller, The Parliament of 1621 pp 156-9.

51 Gardiner, , History of England 4 pp 272–411 Google Scholar; Zaller, The Parliament of 1621 pp 188-90.

52 Gardiner, , History of England 4 pp 351-2Google Scholar.

53 [Oxford,] Bodleian [Library,] Tanner MS 73, fol 236. A Latin version is in the same collection Tanner MS 73, fol 235. See also Gardiner, , History of England 4 p 372 Google Scholar.

54 Bodleian Tanner MS 73, fol 236.

55 Ibid fols 236r/v.

56 Ibid fol 236v.