ckinghamshire squire, appeared at
the board to begin that career of patriotism which has made his name
dear to Englishmen. "I could be content to lend," he said, "but fear to
draw on myself that curse in Magna Charta, which should be read twice a
year against those who infringe it." So close an imprisonment in the
Gate House rewarded his protest "that he never afterwards did look like
the same man he was before."

[Sidenote: Charles and France.]

The fierce energy with which Buckingham pressed the forced loan was no
mere impulse of angry tyranny. Never was money so needed by the Crown.
The blustering and blundering of the favourite had at last succeeded in
plunging him into war with his own allies. England had been told that
the friendship of France, a friendship secured by the king's marriage
with a French princess, was the basis on which Charles was building up
his great European alliance against Spain. She now suddenly found
herself at war with Spain and France together. The steps by which this
result had been brought about throw an amusing light on the capacity of
the young king and his minister. The occupation of the Palatinate had
forced France to provide for its own safety. Spain already fronted her
along the Pyrenees and the border of the Netherlands; if the Palatinate
was added to the Spanish possession of Franche-Comte, it would close
France in on the east as well as the north and the south. War therefore
was being forced on the French monarchy when Charles and Buckingham
sought its alliance against Spain; and nothing hindered an outbreak of
hostilities but a revolt of the Protestant town of Rochelle. Lewis the
Thirteenth pleaded the impossibility of engaging in such a struggle so
long as the Huguenots could rise in his rear; and he called on England
to help him by lending ships to blockade Rochelle into submission in
time for action in the spring of 1625. The Prince and Buckingham brought
James to assent; but Charles had no sooner mounted the throne than he
shrank from sending ships against a Protestant city, and secretly
instigated the crews to mutiny against their captains on an order to
sail. The vessels, it was trusted, would then arrive too late to take
part in the siege. Unluckily for this intrigue they arrived to find the
city still in arms, and it was the appearance of English ships among
their enemies which forced the men of Rochelle to submit. While
Englishmen were angered by the use of English ves