he recovery of the Palatinate they would
adventure their fortunes, their estates, and their lives. "Rather this
declaration," cried a leader of the country party when it was read by
the Speaker, "than ten thousand men already on the march." For the
moment indeed the energetic declaration seemed to give vigour to the
royal policy. James had aimed throughout at the restitution of Bohemia
to Ferdinand, and at inducing the Emperor, through the mediation of
Spain, to abstain from any retaliation on the Palatinate. He now freed
himself for a moment from the trammels of diplomacy, and enforced a
cessation of the attack on his son-in-law's dominions by a threat of
war. The suspension of arms lasted through the summer of 1621; but
threats could do no more. Frederick still refused to make the
concessions which James pressed on him, and the army of the League
advancing from Bohemia drove the forces of the Elector out of the upper
or eastern portion of the Palatinate. Again the general restoration
which James was designing had been thrown further back than ever by a
Catholic advance; but the king had no mind to take up the challenge. He
was only driven the more on his old policy of mediation through the aid
of Spain. An end was put to all appearance of hostilities. The
negotiations for the marriage with the Infanta, which had never ceased,
were pressed more busily. Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, who had
become all-powerful at the English Court, was assured that no effectual
aid should be sent to the Palatinate. The English fleet, which was
cruising by way of menace off the Spanish coast, was called home. The
king dismissed those of his ministers who still opposed a Spanish
policy; and threatened on trivial pretexts a war with the Dutch, the one
great Protestant power that remained in alliance with England, and was
ready to back the Elector.

[Sidenote: Dissolution of the Parliament.]

But he had still to reckon with his Parliament; and the first act of the
Parliament on its reassembling in November was to demand a declaration
of war with Spain. The instinct of the nation was wiser than the
statecraft of the king. Ruined and enfeebled as she really was, Spain to
the world at large still seemed the champion of Catholicism. It was the
entry of her troops into the Palatinate which had widened the local war
in Bohemia into a struggle for the suppression of Protestantism along
the Rhine; above all it was Spanish influence, and the ho