troops in the Palatinate but the English garrisons; and King James
engaged that, if the treaty were concluded, he would take arms himself
against the allies of his son-in-law. But while expectation was
directed to the conclusion of the contract by which the Elector should
be re-established in his country, the League advanced against those
strongholds which the English held in his name. Neither Heidelberg nor
Mannheim could hold out. The English troops were obliged to bend to
necessity and to march out, although with the honours of war. Only in
Frankenthal did they still maintain themselves for a while. When
Weston at Brussels complained of this conduct he was actually told
that the League must have everything in their hands first, in order to
restore everything hereafter. He was astounded at this subterfuge, and
asked for his recall.

In England the friends of Spain fell into a sort of despair at the
course of events. For what could follow from it but open war between
the King of England and the Emperor? But on whose side would Spain
then be found? Would that power pledge itself to fight to the end
against every one, even against the Emperor, in behalf of the treaty
when concluded? To prevent England from coming into closer alliance
with France, the government of Spain had planned the marriage and
opened direct negotiations: would it now, when its cause appeared to
be advancing, withdraw in violation of its word of honour? Even the
Privy Council represented to the King that he was bringing dishonour
and danger on his country. The Duke of Buckingham, who also had
himself been in close agreement with Gondomar, and was considered to
be the man who held the threads of politics in his hand, regarded the
increasing discontent as dangerous to his own position.[419]

While affairs were in this situation and these impressions afloat, a
plan for bringing this uncertainty to an end was embraced by the King,
the Prince, and the Duke, in those private discussions in which the
general course of affairs was decided. It was determined that the
Prince, accompanied by Buckingham, should visit Spain himself, in
order to bring about the marriage and arrange the conditions. None of
the Privy Councillors, not even Williams, who on other occasions was
in their intimate confidence, knew anything about this plan. It
pleased the King's sense of the romantic, that as he himself had
formerly brought home his newly married wife from the icy North,