n an independent
position, in which he was no longer at the mercy of the King. He may
perhaps be set down as the first English minister who, supported by
Parliament and by public opinion, induced or compelled the King to
adopt a policy on which of his own accord he would not have resolved.
In conjunction with his new friends Buckingham succeeded in breaking
up the Spanish party, with which he now for the first time came into
conflict: his adherents congratulated him on his success.[441] In
court and state a kind of reaction against the previous importance of
this party set in. The offices which were vacated by the fall of
Cranfield were conferred on men of the other party, the kind of men
who had formerly been displaced under the influence of Gondomar.
Seamen were acquitted who had shown the same disregard for orders as
Walter Ralegh had once done, and preparations were made to indemnify
Ralegh's posterity for the loss of property which they had suffered.
The Spanish ambassadors at court availed themselves of a moment of ill
humour on the part of the King, to whom indeed they had again obtained
access, to call his attention to the loss of authority which
threatened him on account of Buckingham's combination with the leading
men in the Parliament. But in what they said they mingled so much
falsehood with the truth that they could be easily refuted; and
Buckingham successfully resisted this attack also.

People still perceived in the King his old indecision. He consented,
it is true, that Mansfeld, whom he had formerly helped the Spaniards
to expel from his strong position on the Upper Rhine, should now be
supported by English as well as French money in a new campaign to
recover the Palatinate. But nevertheless he wished at the same time to
enjoin him as a condition to abstain from attacking any country which
rightfully belonged to the Archduchess Isabella, or to the crown of
Spain.[442] So far was he still from undertaking open war against
Spain, as his subjects hoped and expected.

And though he acceded to the negotiations with France, yet in this
transaction the very circumstance which displeased the majority of his
subjects--namely that he was hereby making an alliance with a Catholic
power--was acceptable to him. For even then he would not have
consented at any price to have interfered in the general religious
quarrel merely on religious grounds. He felt no hesitation in
promising the French, as he had the Spaniard