d would
promote his greatness. They therefore made him a tender of their crown,
which they considered as elective; and the young palatine, stimulated
by ambition, without consulting either James[*] or Maurice, whose
opposition he foresaw, immediately accepted the offer, and marched all
his forces into Bohemia, in support of his new subjects.

The news of these events no sooner reached England, than the whole
kingdom was on fire to engage in the quarrel. Scarcely was the ardor
greater, with which all the states of Europe, in former ages, flew to
rescue the Holy Land from the dominion of infidels. The nation was
as yet sincerely attached to the blood of their monarchs, and they
considered their connection with the palatine, who had married a
daughter of England, as very close and intimate; and when they heard of
Catholics carrying on wars and persecutions against Protestants,
they thought their own interest deeply concerned, and regarded their
neutrality as a base desertion of the cause of God, and of his holy
religion. In such a quarrel they would gladly have marched to the
opposite extremity of Europe, have plunged themselves into a chaos of
German politics, and have expended all the blood and treasure of the
nation, by maintaining a contest with the whole house of Austria, at
the very time and in the very place in which it was the most potent, and
almost irresistible.

But James, besides that his temper was too little enterprising for such
vast undertakings, was restrained by another motive, which had a mighty
influence over him: he refused to patronize the revolt of subjects
against their sovereign. From the very first, he denied to his
son-in-law the title of king of Bohemia.[**]

* Franklyn, p. 49.

** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 12, 13.

He forbade him to be prayed for in the churches under that appellation;
and though he owned, that he had nowise examined the pretensions,
privileges, and constitution of the revolted states,[*] so exalted was
his idea of the rights of kings, that he concluded subjects must ever be
in the wrong, when they stood in opposition to those who had acquired
or assumed that majestic title. Thus, even in measures founded on true
politics, James intermixed so many narrow prejudices, as diminished his
authority, and exposed him to the imputation of weakness and of error.

{1620.} Meanwhile affairs every where hastened to a crisis. Ferdinand
levied a great force, under the command of