on field and scaffold, and when a King suffered the death of a traitor, men could hardly help reflecting how different might have been the state of matters under one combining the piety of the sixth Edward, and the far-seeing policy of Elizabeth, with Hampden's pure patriotism, and Cromwell's enthusiastic energy. The reader may smile at the idea of a Stuart figuring as the man of his age-as a heroic leader in war, and a wise ruler in peace; but Henry could hardly have been less, if he had fulfilled a moiety of the hopes that were buried in his untimely grave.

280

HENRY OF OATLANDS,

DUKE OF GLOUCESTER.

Ar Oatlands, an ancient palace in Surrey, on the 20th of July, 1640, Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, already mother of Charles, Prince of Wales, and James, Duke of York, gave birth to her third son Henry. Some writers have represented St. James's as the place of this Prince's birth; but he was called Henry of Oatlands from the first week of his existence, and it appears that he first saw the light in that "large and beautiful house of the Queen's, upon the river of Thames, where, upon the plaistered wall in the stone gallery, respecting the gardens, were very curiously pourtrayed that royal edifice, with Pontefract Castle, Havering, Eltham, Nonsuch, and some other palaces assigned to her Majesty." But however that may have been, Henry of Oatlands was born under an unlucky star, and his life was of short continuance, and full of trouble.

It appears that in 1612, almost ere the heart of the gallant Prince of Wales was cold-three days, it is said, after life had departed from his agonised frame-Robert

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Carr, Earl of Somerset, the Scottish favourite of King James, and the suspected poisoner of the Prince, sent instructions to Paris that negotiations which had been commenced for the hand of Madame Christine should be proceeded with only substituting the name of Charles for that of Henry. But the French Court was not very eager for the alliance, and notwithstanding a costly and pompous embassy, the project came to nothing. Madame Christine probably had a will of her own, and preferred being wife of the Duke of Savoy to uniting her fate with a Prince then unknown, save ar a sickly and retiring boy.

Soon after this French match was broken off, Somerset, then on the verge of ruin, was supplanted in the King's favour by a handsome young man named George Villiers, destined to acquire an unenviable celebrity in the illustrious annals of England. The birth of this adventurer was mean, and his intellect contemptible; but having learned to dance gracefully, and procured a suit of French clothes to set off his person to advantage, he attracted the eye of the King. Having profited by this piece of good fortune, Villiers, though he could not boast of a patrician ancestor or a patriotic achievement, ere long found himself elevated to the Dukedom of Buckingham, and exercising enormous influence in affairs of state.

While doing with the weak King just as he pleased, and doing his utmost to win the confidence of Charles, then Prince of Wales, Buckingham in 1623 persuaded

the heir-apparent to undertake an expediton in disguise to Madrid, and pay his addresses to the Infanta, sister of Anne of Austria, Queen of Louis of France. The Prince and Buckingham accomplished their journey in safety; and though the folly and presumption of the Duke caused considerable disgust, matters went smoothly. The Prince, on taking leave of the Infanta, presented her with a diamond anchor, as the emblem of his constancy; and the Spanish Court had reason to believe that nothing but the Pope's dispensation was wanting to complete the marriage. It appears, however, that Buckingham, having already resolved that the alliance should never take place, threw such obstacles in the way, that the King of Spain indignantly ordered his sister to give up studying the English language, and the Infanta having shed some natural tears, the affair was at an end.

Almost before the Spanish match was broken off, a new matrimonial treaty had been projected. The Prince and Buckingham, while on their journey to Madrid, passed through Paris, and had a glimpse of the royal family of France. The Prince on that occasion wrote to his father that he had visited the Court without being known, and seen the young Queen, and little Monsieur, and nineteen fair dancing-ladies, practising a masque. Among these was a princess destined to become his wife; and it has been supposed that the fascination of the dark-eyed Henrietta Maria, the sister of King Louis, was not quite lost upon the Prince, then

bent on a Quixotic expedition. At all events, overtures were formally made, a match was agreed upon, and the daughter of Henry of Navarre was brought to England as Queen. Fifteen years passed over; Charles the First quarrelled with his Parliaments; Buckingham fell by the dagger of Felton; John Hampden refused to pay ship-money; Oliver Cromwell commenced in the House of Commons that public career which conducted him to more than regal power; the Scots, after subscribing their solemn League and Covenant, mustered under Alexander Leslie to vindicate their national rights; and the clouds that had long darkened the political horizon were about to burst, when Henry of Oatlands drew his first breath.

The prescient had already become aware that a fierce struggle could not much longer be avoided; and exactly a month after his third son was cradled, Charles was under the necessity of leaving London, to meet, in hostile array, the inhabitants of that country of which he was a native. At Newburn the King had the mortification of seeing his troops fly before the Scottish Covenanters; and, after holding the Great Council of Peers at York, he recognised the necessity of summoning a Parliament. Before Henry of Oatlands was six months old the Long Parliament met, proceeded to business in a fierce mood, abolished everything that could be called an abuse, impeached Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and, having sent one to the block forth