he daughter of
Denmark, Saxony, or Orange; and on any of these he promised to confer
a dowry equal to that which was offered by Portugal. But many reasons
inclined Charles rather to accept of the Portuguese proposals. The great
disorders in the government and finances of Spain made the execution of
her promises be much doubted; and the king's urgent necessities demanded
some immediate supply of money. The interest of the English commerce
likewise seemed to require that the independency of Portugal should be
supported, lest the union of that crown with Spain should put the whole
treasures of America into the hands of one potentate. The claims, too,
of Spain upon Dunkirk and Jamaica, rendered it impossible, without
further concessions, to obtain the cordial friendship of that power; and
on the other hand, the offer, made by Portugal, of two such considerable
fortresses, promised a great accession to the naval force of England.
Above all, the proposal of a Protestant princess was no allurement to
Charles, whose inclinations led him strongly to give the preference to
a Catholic alliance. According to the most probable accounts,[*] the
resolution of marrying ihe daughter of Portugal was taken by the king,
unknown to all his ministers, and no remonstrances could prevail with
him to alter his intentions.

* Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. p. 254. This account seems better
supported than that in Ablancourt's Memoirs, that the
chancellor chiefly pushed the Portuguese alliance. The
secret transactions of the court of England could not be
supposed to be much known to a French resident at Lisbon:
and whatever opposition the chancellor might make, he would
certainly endeavor to conceal it from the queen and all her
family; and even in the parliament and council would support
the resolution already taken. Clarendon himself says, in his
Memoirs, that he never either opposed or promoted the
Portuguese match.

When the matter was laid before the council, all voices concurred
in approving the resolution; and the parliament expressed the same
complaisance. And thus was concluded, seemingly with universal consent,
the inauspicious marriage with Catharine, a princess of virtue, but who
was never able, either by the graces of her person or humor, to make
herself agreeable to the king. The report, however, of her natural
incapacity to have children, seems to have been groundless, since she
wa