g believed that the bride would bring with her a dowry
of some half-a-million. Such a dowry would set him free from the need of
appealing to his Parliament, and give him the means of acting
energetically on the Rhine.

[Sidenote: The policy of Spain.]

That there were difficulties in the way of such a policy, that Spain
would demand concessions to the English Catholics, that the marriage
would give England a Catholic queen, that the future heir of its crown
must be trained by a Catholic mother, above all that the crown would be
parted by plans such as these yet more widely from the sympathy of the
nation, James could not but know. What he might have known as clearly,
had he been a wise man instead of a merely clever man, was that, however
such a bargain might suit himself, it was hardly likely to suit Spain.
Spain was asked in effect to supply a bankrupt king with the means of
figuring as the protector of Protestantism in Germany, while the only
consideration offered to her was the hand of Prince Charles. But it
never occurred to James to look at his schemes in any other light than
his own. On the dissolution of the Parliament of 1614 he addressed a
proposal of marriage to the Spanish court. Whatever was its ultimate
purpose, Spain was careful to feed hopes which secured, so long as they
lasted, better treatment for the Catholics, and which might be used to
hold James from any practical action on behalf of the Protestants in
Germany. Her cordiality increased as she saw, in spite of her protests,
the crisis approaching. One member of the Austrian house, Ferdinand, had
openly proclaimed and carried out his purpose of forcibly suppressing
heresy in the countries he ruled, the Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, and
Styria; and his succession to the childless Matthias in the rest of the
Austrian dominions would infallibly be followed by a similar repression.
To the Protestants of the Duchy, of Bohemia, of Hungary, therefore, the
accession of Ferdinand meant either utter ruin or civil war, and a civil
war would spread like wildfire along the Danube to the Rhine. But
Matthias was resolved on bringing about the recognition of Ferdinand as
his successor; and Spain saw that the time was come for effectually
fettering James. If troubles must arise, religion and policy at once
dictated the use which Spain would have to make of them. She could not
support heretics, and she had very good reasons for supporting their
foes. The great aim of