l appearance he would not have trodden in the footsteps
of his father. He appeared quite capable of reviving the old plans of
conquest entertained by the house of Lancaster: he would have united
outspoken Protestant tendencies with the monarchical views of Edward
VI, or rather of Elizabeth. With the men who then held the chief power
in England he had no points of agreement, and they already feared
him.[359] They were even accused of having caused his premature death.

Yet the course which had been struck out with the co-operation of the
young prince was not abandoned at his death.

The Elector Palatine had already arrived in London. His demeanour and
behaviour quieted the doubts of one party and put to shame the
predictions of the other: he appeared manly, firm, bent on high aims,
and dignified: he knew how to win over even the Queen who at first was
unfavourable to him. Letters exchanged at that time are full of the
joy with which the marriage was welcomed by the Protestants. But it
was just as decidedly unwelcome to the other party. An expression
which was then reported in Brussels shewed how lively the hatred was,
and how widely and how far into the future political combinations
extended. It was said that this marriage was designed to wrest the
Imperial throne from the house of Austria; but it was added, with
haughty reliance on the strength of Catholic Europe, that this design
should never succeed.[360]

Another collision seemed at times to be immediately impending. In the
year 1613 the English government sent to ask the districts most
exposed to a Spanish invasion, how many troops they could severally
oppose to it, and had appointed the fire signals which were to
announce the coming danger. It is indeed not wonderful that under such
circumstances it continued the policy which was calculated to promote
a general European opposition to the Spaniards.

When the French grandees though fit to contest the Spanish marriages
which Mary de' Medici made up, they had King James on their side, who
regarded it as the natural right of princes of the blood to undertake
the charge of public affairs during a minority. At the meeting of the
Estates in 1614, it was their intention to get the government into
their hands, and then to bring it back again to the line of policy of
Henry IV. The English ambassador, Edmonds, showed that he concurred
with them.

Soon afterwards the differences between the Duke of Savoy and the
Spanish