theology. He was created Duke of Albany at his baptism, Duke of York in
1605, and Prince of Wales in 1616, four years after the death of his
dear brother, Prince Henry, had left him heir to the crown of three
kingdoms. A Spanish match had been mooted as early as 1614; but it was
not till February 17, 1623, that, with Buckingham, his inseparable
friend, Charles started on the romantic incognito journey to Madrid, its
objects to win the hand of the Infanta, and to procure the restitution
of the Palatinate to his brother-in-law, Frederick. Both he and his
father swore to all possible concessions to the Catholics, but nothing
short of his own conversion would have satisfied the Spanish and papal
courts; and on October 5th he landed again in England, eager for rupture
with Spain.

The nation's joy was speedily dashed by his betrothal to the French
princess, Henrietta Maria (1609-69); for the marriage articles pledged
him, in violation of solemn engagements to Parliament, to permit her and
all her domestics the free exercise of the Catholic religion, and to
give her the up-bringing of their children till the age of thirteen.

On March 27, 1625, Charles succeeded his father, James I.; on June 13th
he welcomed his little bright-eyed queen at Dover, having married her by
proxy six weeks earlier. Barely a twelvemonth was over when he packed
off her troublesome retinue to France--a bishop and 29 priests, with 410
more male and female attendants. Thenceforth their domestic life was a
happy one; and during the twelve years following the murder of
Buckingham (1592-1628), in whose hands he had been a mere tool, Charles
gradually came to yield himself up to her unwise influence--not wholly
indeed, but more than to that of Stafford even, or Laud. Little
meddlesome Laud, made archbishop in 1633, proceeded to war against the
dominant Puritanism, to preach passive obedience, and uphold the divine
right of kings; while great Stafford, from championing the Petition of
Right (1628), passed over to the king's service, and entered on that
policy of "Thorough" whose aim was to make his master absolute. Three
Parliaments were summoned and dissolved in the first four years of the
reign; then for eleven years Charles ruled with but one, in its stead,
with subservient judges, and the courts of Star Chamber and High
Commission. In 1627 he had blundered into an inglorious French war; but
with France he concluded peace in 1629, with Spain in 1630. Pe