of cup-bearer would have attached Villiers to his
person, and might well have contented one of his age and family; nor
would any one, who was not cynically austere, have much censured the
singularity of the king's choice in his friends and favorites. But such
advancement was far inferior to the fortune which he intended for his
minion. In the course of a few years, he created him Viscount Villiers,
earl, marquis, and duke of Buckingham, knight of the garter, master of
the horse, chief justice in eyre, warden of the cinque ports, master of
the king's bench office, steward of Westminster, constable of Windsor,
and lord high admiral of England. His mother obtained the title of
countess of Buckingham: his brother was created Viscount Purbeck; and
a numerous train of needy relations were all pushed up into credit and
authority. And thus the fond prince, while he meant to play the tutor to
his favorite, and to train him up in the rules of prudence and politics,
took an infallible method, by loading him with premature and exorbitant
honors, to render him, forever, rash, precipitate, and insolent.

* See Biog. Brit, article Coke, p. 1384.

** Bacon, vol.iv. p. 617.

*** Franklyn, p. 30. Clarendon, 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 10

{1616.} A young minion to gratify with pleasure, a necessitous family to
supply with riches, were enterprises too great for the empty exchequer
of James. In order to obtain a little money, the cautionary towns must
be delivered up to the Dutch; a measure which has been severely blamed
by almost all historians; and I may venture to affirm, that it has been
censured much beyond its real weight and importance.

When Queen Elizabeth advanced money for the support of the infant
republic, besides the view of securing herself against the power and
ambition of Spain, she still reserved the prospect of reimbursement;
and she got consigned into her hands the three important fortresses of
Flushing, the Brille, and Rammekins, as pledges for the money due to
her. Indulgent to the necessitous condition of the states, she agreed
that the debt should bear no interest; and she stipulated, that if ever
England should make a separate peace with Spain, she should pay the
troops which garrisoned those fortresses.[*]

After the truce was concluded between Spain and the United Provinces,
the states made an agreement with the king, that the debt, which then
amounted to eight hundred thousand pounds, should be di