bees
without a queen. Indeed, so strong was their instinct to get a royal
head that they tried to preserve themselves by kidnapping Charles's
mother, poor, mad Joanna, to fill the political vacuum that they had
made. So in the civil wars in France; notwithstanding the more
promising materials for the formation of a republic in that country,
all parties were, in fact, headed by claimants to the throne.

[Sidenote: Councils of State]

Next to the king came the Council of State, composed of princes of the
blood, cardinals, nobles and some officers and secretaries of state,
not always of noble blood but frequently, especially in the cases of
the most powerful of them, scions of the middle class. What proportion
of the executive power was wielded by the Council depended on the
personal character of the monarch. Henry VIII was always master;
Elizabeth was more guided than guiding; the Councils of the Valois and
Hapsburgs profited by the preoccupation or the stupidity of their
masters to usurp the royal power for themselves. In public opinion the
Council occupied a great place, similar to that of an English Cabinet
today. The first Anglican prayerbook {478} contains petitions for the
Council, though it did not occur to the people to pray for Parliament
until the next century.

The countries were governed no longer by the nobles as such but by
officials appointed by the crown. It is an indication of the growing
nationalization of policy that the sixteenth century saw the first
establishment of permanent diplomatic agents. The first ambassadors,
selected largely from a panel of bishops, magistrates, judges and
scholars, were expected to function not only as envoys but also as
spies. Under them was a host of secret agents expected to do underhand
work and to take the responsibility for it themselves so that, if found
out, they could be repudiated.

[Sidenote: Parliaments]

Very powerful was the national popular assembly: the Parliament, the
Diet, the States General, or the Cortes. Its functions, prescriptive
and undefined, were commonly understood to include the granting of
taxes. The assent of the body was also required, to a varying degree,
for the sanction of other laws. But the real power of the people's
representatives lay in the fact that they were the chief organ for the
expression of that public opinion which in all countries and at all
times it is unsafe for governments to disregard. Sitting in two or