UNJUST APPRECIATION OF BUCKINGHAM’S CHARACTER--HIS ENERGY IN
RESPECT TO THE NAVY--SIR WALTER RALEGH’S WORKS ON MARITIME
AFFAIRS--PRINCE HENRY’S PREDILECTION FOR THEM--HIS MINIATURE
SHIP--HIS DEATH--LORD NOTTINGHAM’S NEGLECT AND VENALITY--HIS
POWERS--£60,000, YEARLY, ALLOTTED FOR THE NAVY--BUCKINGHAM’S
EFFORTS--EXAMPLE SET BY RICHELIEU--IGNORANCE OF SHIP-BUILDING
IN THOSE DAYS--BUCKINGHAM DRAWS UP A PLAN OF DEFENCE--FEAR OF
THE SPANISH ARMADA--THE DUKE PROPOSES TO FORM A COMPANY FOR
THE WEST, AS WELL AS THE EAST INDIES--PLAN OF TAXATION--ALSO
OF DEFENCE ON SHORE.
=CHAPTER VI.=
Hitherto the character of Buckingham has been considered merely in
the light of a courtier, in which capacity his good fortune, more
than his merits, secured him success. In foreign Courts, the
infirmities of this changeable and imprudent man were brought
conspicuously to light; his vanity, his assumption, his growing
arrogance, these, and his love of pleasure, added to the dissolute
morals of the day, constituted the sources of that obloquy;
nevertheless, the memory of this celebrated man has been
indiscriminately blackened. Hence he has been described as “utterly
devoid of every talent of a minister,” and the popular opinion
points to the notion that he did much harm, no good,[264] and that
the sole qualities conspicuous in his career were his love of
oppression, his venality, and his insolence.
Footnote 264:
Hume.
Happily for the reputation which has been thus maligned, numerous
documents,[265] which have of late been rescued from neglect,
abundantly prove that Buckingham achieved one important benefit to
his country--the restoration of the British navy. Whatever may have
been his motives, by what means soever he may have compassed his
ends, there can now be no doubt but that to him we owe the
re-establishment of that mighty power to which we are indebted for
our existence as a nation, and it may be presumed that had his life
been prolonged his exertions in this respect would have produced
still more apparent effects; and that the country would have
acknowledged, in after ages, the services which it seems to have
overlooked.
Footnote 265:
Those in the State Paper Office, to which Mr. Lechmere the Keeper,
and Mr. Lemon the Deputy Keeper, first directed my attention; and
to those gentlemen I am, therefore, wholly indebted for any new
view of Buckingham’s character which these remarks, and those
which are to follow, may afford. The Domestic Papers have been
within the last few years completely arranged, and an accurate
calendar made of them, by which the historical reader may derive
the greatest possible assistance.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the merchant ships were
considered to constitute the principal part of our maritime power;
they then amounted to one hundred and thirty-five, many of them of
five hundred tons each. The ships of war belonging to the Crown were
thirteen only in number, so that the navy, so boasted and renowned,
was composed chiefly of merchant ships which were hired for the
queen’s service.[266]
Footnote 266:
Anderson’s History of Commerce, vol. ii., p. 140.
King James, on his accession to the crown of England, called in all
the ships of war as well as the numerous privateers belonging to the
English merchants, and declared himself “at peace with all the
world.” This was certainly not the means by which the navy was to be
improved and maintained. It was, nevertheless, increased in his
reign to nearly double the number of Queen Elizabeth’s ships of war;
namely, from thirteen to twenty-four.[267]
Footnote 267:
The largest of Queen Elizabeth’s ships, at her death, was of 1,000
tons, carrying 340 mariners and 40 cannon; the smallest, of 600
tons, carrying 150 mariners and 30 cannon; besides the hired
vessels.--Macpherson’s History of Commerce.
In the very commencement of James’s reign the far-sighted Sir Walter
Ralegh discerned the dangerous condition of a sea-girt country
devoid of its proper defences; he perceived how ruinous this system
of curtailment of what was essential, accompanied by the most lavish
excesses in many things of trivial import, must prove; and he placed
before his sovereign a manuscript essay, entitled, “Observations
concerning the trade and commerce of England with the Dutch and
other nations.” The design of this work was to show how supinely
England suffered other nations to carry away the commerce of the
world, by her neglect of maritime affairs. This was one of eight
treatises that Ralegh wrote on maritime affairs; being, as he
proudly announces, “the first author, either ancient or modern, that
had ever treated this subject.”[268]
Footnote 268:
Hist. World, lib. 5, cap. 1, sect. 6.
Although these works have long since been obsolete, and the
practices recommended in them superseded by modern invention, they
afford a curious view of the progress of navigation, and of those
arts and sciences with which it is connected; to say nothing of the
wonderful amount of knowledge which they display, and of the
powerful intellect portrayed in every page written by this great
man.
His eloquence, however, was powerless as far as James was concerned;
but stimulated a far more comprehensive mind than that of the pedant
king. Several of these essays were addressed to Prince Henry, whose
awakened mind perceived his father’s blindness, and comprehended the
value of that which James cast away. Whilst James, forgetting that
Elizabeth had checked the Spanish Armada by her reliance, not on her
own ten ships, but on the far better appointed merchant
vessels--that she had rested, not on the size of her fleet, but on
the material which composed it--he curtly dismissed his maritime
auxiliaries, and, discharging the privateers from any bond to assist
him for the future, slept soundly, it may be presumed, on his pillow
at Westminster, congratulating himself on having set an example to
all Christendom, whilst he had, in fact, almost invited another
Armada to invade our shores.
Nevertheless, the progress of society was stronger that the royal
will. “The seventeenth century,” thus writes Macpherson, in his
History of Commerce, “may be said, from its commencement, to
approach to modern times, whether considered in a political light,
or in respect to riches, knowledge, or religion.”
In the celebrated treatise which Ralegh presented to his sovereign,
he recommended that the “land should be made powerful by the
increasing of ships and mariners;” and that such “order in commerce
should be established, that the havens of England should be full of
ships, the ships full of mariners.” It is singular to find the
language of the seventeenth century so singularly according with
that of the nineteenth.
His counsels failed to convince the self-opinionated James, but they
incited the courage of a boy, who, amid his playthings, listened to
the voice of Ralegh, and imbibed his sentiments; and the important
measures which were disregarded by men in authority, were promoted
by the fancy and favour of a precocious child. Henry, Prince of
Wales, that short-lived “type and mould of an heir-apparent,”
delighted in maritime pursuits; he brought again into vogue the
fast-declining spirit of enterprize. The citizens of London, as they
were rowed in their stately barges by Whitehall stairs, saw, with
satisfaction, the royal embryo-hero disporting himself with the
launch of a ship--twenty-eight feet long only, to be sure, and
twelve feet broad, but built by Phineas Pett, one of the ablest
shipwrights of his time. Ten years rolled away; the boy, who, at
nine years of age, loved his miniature frigate as a toy, became
sensible that the days of amusement were past, and that those of
actual business were about to commence. He resolved to visit that
then-neglected dock-yard at Woolwich, which has since become a
wonder of the world. The Prince there honoured an entertainment,
given by the ship’s company of the “Royal Anne,” with his presence.
Phineas Pett attended his young patron, and the result of that day’s
inspection was of great importance to the interests of the navy.
Some years had then elapsed since a new ship had been built. In
1609, James actually ordered and completed the construction of the
“Prince Royal,” a vessel far superior to any that had yet appeared
in the Thames; it carried sixty-four cannon, and was of fourteen
hundred tons burden. From this standard, we may infer how miserable
had been the previous state of naval force, such a ship being, in
our time, the smallest of those admitted into the line-of-battle. It
was then regarded as one of the most extraordinary productions of
native skill and of royal munificence, and was the theme of praise
amid an astonished and adulatory court.
The young Prince next conceived an excellent project. He recommended
his father to order the construction of ships to be carried on in
Ireland, not only that the natives might be employed, but also
because materials were cheaper in the sister island. The King’s
shipwrights approved of this plan, and the Lord High Admiral, a
doting old functionary, the most ancient servant of the crown then
encumbering the service, actually countenanced the enlightened idea.
It was not, however, matured; and another scheme, not so practical,
but still of the utmost importance to the science of navigation, was
frustrated, for the time, by the death of Henry. This was the
discovery of the north-west passage, which was, nevertheless,
attempted in 1612; but the ear of the gifted youth, whose patronage
had fostered the design, was unhappily closed in death before the
return of Captain Bretton, the first of the adventurous band of
heroes who have attempted the gallant enterprize.
Still improvement was not wholly retarded. The incorporation of the
East India Company (in 1613), gave a new impetus to navigation, and
everything appeared favourable to the navy, except that branch of
the government. Lord Nottingham seemed to consider his important
office as a sinecure, except in regard to his privileges and
perquisites. His dominion comprehended--to use the actual words
which described it--"the government of all things done upon the
sea-coast, in any part of the world; of all ports and havens, and
over all rovers below the first bridge next below the sea." He was a
sort of mortal Neptune; his privileges were thus defined:--"All
penalties, of all transgressions, on sea or on shore, were his; the
goods of pirates and of felons at sea were his; all stray wrecks
were his; deodands, and the share of all lawful prizes not to be
granted to lords of manors, were his." It may be easily conceived
what ceaseless fighting and squabbling, what corruption, litigation,
and oppression were the result of an authority which was so little
controlled by the discussions of Parliament in those days, or by the
honour and conscience of individuals in power. So long as the Earl
of Nottingham slumbered over his duties, dreaming, doubtless, of
delightful shipwrecks and desirable transgressions and piracies, the
navy, of course, was not augmented. Sixty thousand pounds a-year had
then been allotted to that shadow of a shade, the naval service; but
the only time that the naval service was recalled to the memory of
King James, was when the octogenarian, Lord Nottingham, appeared at
Court in his full-dress uniform. Most people began to think that the
Lord High Admiral was immortal; but, happily for the country, old
age fairly captured him at last; he died, and made room for the Duke
of Buckingham to step into all his beloved privileges and
perquisites, which, in truth, the Duke also too well appreciated. It
soon became a question what had become of all the sixty thousand
pounds yearly which had been granted for the naval service, for
there seemed to be scarcely any navy whatsoever. Buckingham, in his
new office, however, displayed qualities for which the world had
given him little credit. One of his first steps was to drag poor
King James, aguish, peevish, and prejudiced as he was, to Deptford,
to see how little there was there to be seen. His next, to get
commissioners appointed to superintend the construction of new
vessels, and the repairs of old ones, the sum allotted to them being
cut down to thirty thousand pounds, for which consideration they
were to build two new ships yearly. Cardinal Richelieu had also
endeavoured to remedy the neglect of his predecessors in power, and
to support a widely-extended commerce, the only channels of which
are on the wide ocean. In his concern for maritime affairs, he set
the first example of energy to Buckingham. From this era, therefore,
may be traced the rise of our modern naval service in importance;
the very vices of both these favourites of fortune, of Richelieu on
the one hand, and of Buckingham on the other, had the effect of
virtues under certain circumstances. To their lavish expenditure, to
their fearlessness of responsibility, to their boundless ambition,
France and England owe the maintenance of their maritime power, and
the restoration of their national defences.
Numberless obstacles, of course, occurred at the very outset of the
Duke of Buckingham’s undertakings in England; one of the great
impediments was the ignorance which prevailed in those days of the
proper mode of building ships of battle. The shipwrights were
unaccustomed to construct any vessels but such as were intended to
carry merchandise. There was a certain man, named Burwell, who had
been employed by the East India Company, and who was so
distinguished for his skill as a shipwright that he was entrusted to
build for the British navy. He committed a grand error in the very
first ship that he launched, because, to make use of the language of
a contemporary historian,[269] "he did not observe the difference
between the merchant ships and the King’s ships, the one made for
stowage, the other only for strength and magnificence."
Footnote 269:
Bishop Goodman’s Life of King James I.
On his accession, Charles I. renewed his father’s warrant granted to
twelve commissioners of the navy; and the exigencies of the times,
and the probability of a speedy war with Spain, stimulated the
exertions of the Lord Admiral and the generosity of the country.
Spain was preparing the finest armament that had ever left her
shores; and an invasion on the part of that power was openly
threatened, and almost anticipated, even by the stout-hearted
English.
Buckingham then drew up a plan of assault, as well as of defence, in
order to lower the pride of the enemy. A company was, he proposed,
to be incorporated for the West, as well as for the East Indies. A
fleet, consisting of two ships of the line, eighteen ships and two
pinnaces of the merchant-adventurers, was to be equipped, and to
this force were to be added twenty Newcastle ships, for the nautical
skill and gallant characteristics of the collier crews were wisely
resorted to in this emergency by the Lord Admiral. To meet the
expenses of the fleet, a general subscription of all estates of men
was proposed. The nobility were each to contribute a hundred pounds;
the gentlemen and yeomen were to be taxed to a certain amount;
cities and corporate bodies were to give a sum of twenty-four
thousand pounds. The merchants and the East India Company were not
to escape the general infliction. Thus, to man and to furnish the
first great fleet that England had sent forth, was the principle of
arbitrary taxation commenced in this country.
At the same time, with the fear of Spanish Armadas, of conquest,
torture, and slavery, acting upon the public mind, efforts to
restore the national defences on shore were promptly carried on.
In those days, pirates infested the narrow seas; and all the seaport
towns were taxed, in order to support a sort of coast-guard to keep
off these troublesome visitors. But every usage which could ensure
public safety had been neglected. Our national defences had fallen
into decay simultaneously with our navy. The correspondence between
Buckingham and his agents in different ports exists in the State
Paper Office, and affords a mournful picture of forts neglected and
in ruins. Shoals, and sands, and points, fatal even to the most
experienced mariners, were the snare and gulf of many a vessel, and
not a single light-house had been erected to warn the navigator of
his danger. The office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, which, in
part of the reign of James the First, devolved on Lord Zouch, had
been conducted with scarcely more zeal and honesty than the post of
Lord High Admiral by the Earl of Nottingham. Until the stirring
exertions of the ill-fated Duke of Buckingham were directed both to
the augmentation of the naval armaments and to their preservation
from risks, the Goodwin Sands were without a light-house; and a
project for erecting one upon that dangerous passage was first
suggested to Buckingham by Sir Thomas Wildrake, and subsequently
adopted by the Duke, whose efforts to guard the narrow seas, and to
clear them of pirates, are beyond all praise, when we consider the
supineness of his predecessors in office. It was not until 1619 that
a light was placed upon the Lizard Point, which had already been
fatal to the Dutch merchants, who had lost, in the course of one
year, a hundred thousand pounds by shipwrecks.
Great offence was, of course, given by all these reformations; and
Lord Zouch even, as is implied in a letter of Buckingham’s to him,
had ventured to threaten the dreaded favourite with an attack.
Whatever has been said of Buckingham’s arrogance, his letters are
generally expressed with much courtesy, and his reply to Lord Zouch
was forbearing, though explicit. He recommended that the disputed
powers--those contested between the Lord High Admiral and the Warden
of the Cinque Ports--should be defined, to the end, not of present
controversy, but of an amicable and permanent arrangement.[270] Some
years afterwards, Buckingham found it convenient, probably in order
to have the repair and management of the forts in his own hands, to
purchase of Lord Zouch his post; a consideration of one thousand
pounds in ready money, and an annuity of five hundred pounds, were
given for it. Such was the state of the Duke’s affairs that he was
unable to pay down the stipulated one thousand pounds at once, but
was constrained to “offer land or any other security.”
Footnote 270:
See the Domestic Papers for 1619-20, State Paper Office.
Not many months had elapsed, after his appointment to the office of
Lord High Admiral, before Buckingham made use of his influence over
James the First to induce him to augment his navy. Commissioners
were chosen and selected to promote ship-building, and to regulate
the expenses attendant thereon. James, attended by his Lord Admiral,
visited Deptford in order to see two new ships, with which he was
greatly delighted; and still more that from the yearly charge of
sixty thousand pounds, in which his navy had stood him heretofore,
it was reduced to thirty thousand pounds, for four years, during
which time the Commissioners undertook to build two new ships every
year, and to repair the old; and after that to discharge these
claims for twenty thousand pounds a-year.[271]
Footnote 271:
Domestic State Papers, inedited. The agreement is dated July 17,
1624.
The King, adds the narrator of this incident, “congratulated with
the Lord Admiral that he had appointed so good officers to assist
him in his beginnings, so that he named the one ship ‘Buckingham’s
Entrance,’ and the other, in the memory of the Commissioners’ good
service, ‘Reformation.’”[272] This timely encouragement produced, of
course, the most salutary effect.[273] We have seen that during the
reign of James the First the number of ships of war was nearly
doubled; and it is due to Buckingham to state that almost the whole
of this increase was the result of his exertions.
Footnote 272:
Letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated London,
Nov. 12, 1619.
Footnote 273:
A note of the charge of the fleet, among the undated papers in the
State Paper Office, probably 1625, computes it at 65,656_l._ Our
Navy Force had then been considerably augmented. Some of the items
are as follow:--"For bringing of the King’s shippes into full
equipage, for clothes for the men, for impress for surgeons."
The young Lord High Admiral had declared, at his outset, that his
inexperience almost disqualified him for that important position to
which the partiality of his Sovereign had promoted him; but it was
soon perceived that his very wilfulness and impetuosity, and his
liberal notions of expense, were almost virtues under certain
circumstances. The Dutch were our great maritime rivals; for France
had no naval armament; and although the contemptuous assertion of
Voltaire, that Louis the Thirteenth had not, at his accession, one
ship of war, is false, yet he might be said almost to be destitute
of naval force, so poor and ill-provided were his vessels, and so
incompetent and miserable his seamen. It became Buckingham’s pride
to outvie all continental nations in naval power. The design might
have been ascribed to his animosity in the event of the treaty with
Spain, against that kingdom; but it is clear that he cherished it
whilst the British nation was at peace with all the world, and that
his schemes of improvement were formed before.
Charles the First renewed his father’s commission to twelve
commissioners of the navy. These were, at present, confined to three
distinct branches; such as a comptroller, a surveyor, a clerk of the
navy. They were subordinate, in Buckingham’s time, to the Lord High
Admiral, and afterwards to the Admiralty Board, from whom they were
to receive directions.[274] During the short period of Buckingham’s
rule, after the accession of Charles, much was effected, more still
was planned.
Footnote 274:
Macpherson’s History of Commerce.
It was not merely with ambitious views that Buckingham had obtained
the post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. An active and liberal
hand was required to restore our national defences, which had fallen
to decay simultaneously with our navy. In all matters the Duke of
Buckingham himself interfered; most of the letters on important
affairs are addressed to him directly, not through his secretaries;
and most of the epistles appear to have received immediate replies,
which, it is to be regretted, are dispersed and extinct. On more
than one occasion, tributes to the Duke’s impartiality and energy
are proffered. “I am yet comforted,” writes a suitor, "that your
grace is so wise and just as to ask account of every man’s part, and
where you find most fault, there to lay most censure."[275]
Sometimes “my lady of Buckingham,” as she is designated in one of
the letters on naval affairs, is employed as a mediator, as in the
case of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, who, wishing to pass the ship “Sea
Horse,” obtained a warrant through her interest.
Footnote 275:
Domestic Papers. Letters from J. Burgh, dated Plymouth January 8,
1628.
As Buckingham progressed in experience, and his views became more
enlarged, his enthusiasm for naval affairs increased; and was,
doubtless, heightened by the knowledge that Cardinal Richelieu, who,
amongst his other titles, enjoyed that of High Admiral of
France,[276] and who thought it no shame to wear the badge of office
over his cardinal’s robes, and famous hair shirt beneath, supported
commerce, the very channels of which are on the wide ocean. These
considerations were, early in the reign of Charles the First,
strengthened and brought into play by the certainty of a speedy war
with Spain.
Footnote 276:
Macpherson, 339.
But it is reasonable to infer that the example and the works of Sir
Walter Ralegh still held their influence over society, as they had
done over the dawning intellect of Henry, Prince of Wales. The
immature projects of that royal youth, suggested, it is probable, by
the spirit of enterprise to which Ralegh had sacrificed his own
interests, were now revived by Buckingham. King Charles co-operated
with him in these earnest endeavours to carry out the discovery of
the north-west passage to China, “an action,” says Macpherson, “of
great importance to trade and navigation, and in sundry respects of
singular benefit to all our realms and dominions.”[277] As a reward
for this undertaking, Buckingham received a present from King
Charles of one of his pinnaces;[278] but death put a stop to these
public-spirited endeavours.
Footnote 277:
Macpherson, iv., 4, 377.
Footnote 278:
Ibid.
The period of Buckingham’s administration over the Admiralty affairs
was, however, one of incessant activity, carried on, as is shown by
correspondence in the State Paper Office, almost to the last hour of
his life. It seems idle to adduce the language of panegyric to
support a statement, else might we refer to the verses addressed by
Carew “to my Lord Admiral, on his late sickness and recovery,” in
which he alludes to
"Sorrow like that which touched our hearts of late;
Your pining sickness and your restless pain,
At once the land affecting, and the main:
When the glad news that you were Admiral
Scarce through the nation spread, ’twas feared by all
That our great Charles, whose wisdom shines in you,
Should be perplexed how to chuse a new."
It was not until the year 1624, after the rupture of the Spanish
treaty, that Buckingham could have been fully aware of all the
responsibilities of his post. There were then great complaints of
want of shipping; the Spanish nation, it was said, setting out one
of the finest fleets that had ever been seen.[279] To meet the
terrors of what Buckingham termed “the pretended Spanish invasion,”
he drew up a list of propositions, whereby the pride of the enemy
was to be lowered, and the supremacy of England maintained. First,
as the plan went, the enemy “was to be entertained in successive
fleets upon his own coasts, which were to destroy his shipping, to
intercept his provisions, to hinder him from gathering a heading
whereat to possess some place of accompt.”
Footnote 279:
Inedited Letter from Sir J. Hippesley, Jan. 19, 1625. Calendar,
vol. cxxxix., No. 18.
Secondly, the Spaniard was to be assailed in the West Indies;--to
intercept his fleets, to invade his possessions, to fortify
garrisons, and to establish there government confederacies. This, as
Buckingham planned, was to be undertaken, at the common charge of
the kingdom, by a company “incorporated for the West, as there
already is for the East;” and the naval force was to consist of a
fleet composed of two ships of the line, eighteen ships, and two
pinnaces of the merchant adventurers.
The King’s ships were to be manned with twenty seamen and fifty
soldiers, the merchants’ with sixty seamen and one hundred soldiers,
the pinnaces with twenty seamen. To this armament was to be added
twenty Newcastle ships, each with thirty seamen and one hundred
soldiers apiece, making in all 2,120 seamen and 3,900 landsmen.
Parliament was to be applied to in each estate for a general
subscription. The nobility at the rate of 100_l._ a man, to be paid
in two years--this, it was computed, would amount to 4,900_l._
(60,000_l._); the gentry and yeomen, 150,000_l._; the cities and
corporate towns, 24,000_l._; the six confederate companies of
merchants, including the East India “companies, may,” as the author
of this plan remarked, “well contribute.”[280] To the principle of
this scheme of Buckingham’s may be traced the origin of many
subsequent discontents. In his ardour for achieving the power of
England, or perhaps, in part, for avenging affronts which he might
consider as almost personal, he forgot all constitutional rights.
The remark of Bolingbroke occurs to the mind, on reading this plan
of arbitrary and almost indiscriminate taxation. Buckingham, says
that writer, “had, in his own days, and he hath in ours, the
demerits of beginning a struggle between prerogative and privilege,
and of establishing a sort of warfare between the prince and the
people.”[281]
Footnote 280:
Domestic State Papers, inedited, dated April 14, 1625.
Footnote 281:
Remarks on History, vol. ii., p. 220, Letter XX.
On the first of April, 1624, Buckingham addressed the committee of
both Houses, assembled in the painted chamber. The object of his
speech was to press the necessity of raising a loan of 100,000_l._,
to fit out the navy. Buckingham had, by this time, fully determined
upon a war with Spain, not, as Roger Coke expresses it, for the
“recovery of the Palatinate,” but to express his hatred against
Olivarez, and, therefore, “a fleet must be rigged up.”[282]
According to the Duke’s account of the matter, upon the breaking off
of the treaty with Spain, he was commanded by His Majesty to take a
survey of the navy, and to prepare it for “all occasions.” Upon
conferring with the “officers thereof concerning their reparation,”
Buckingham was informed that a very large sum would be requisite to
furnish the fleet with necessaries and crews. No means could be
suggested of raising the adequate sum. “My lords and gentlemen,”
said the Duke, “His Majesty has imposed a great trust on me in this
office of Admiralty, and I can do nothing without money. Such monies
as I have of my own I will most willingly expend in this service,
but that alone will do no good without future assistance.”
Footnote 282:
Coke’s Delection, vol. ii., p. 188.
He then expounded his plan; that which has already been detailed, of
levying a tax on the three estates for the expenses of the fleet,
appears for the time to have been abandoned. He now recommended
their sending for “monied men,” to raise a loan, of which, he
assured them, not one penny should be applied to any other purpose
than the one mentioned.[283] “And let me tell you,” he added in
conclusion, “that you have great reason to take this into a present
and careful consideration, for I have lately been advertised, by
letters from Spain, that they have now in readiness a great fleet,
exceeding that of eighty-eight, with provisions of 200 or 220 of
flat-bottom boats, to serve them in this their intended designs; and
the Spaniards have of late so intruded upon our coasts, that they
have taken an English ship in the face of us. This was advertised by
a servant of mine own, who spake with the pilot who was in that ship
when it was taken.”
Footnote 283:
Inedited State Papers, dated April 1, 1624.
This application was followed by immediate efforts to restore the
British navy; the numerous documents in the State Paper Office, to
which reference has been made, most completely contradict the
assertion of one of Buckingham’s bitterest enemies, Roger Coke, that
after “Buckingham became Lord Admiral, the English navy lay unarmed,
and fit for Spain; that he neglected the guarding of the seas,
whereby the trade of the nation not only decayed, but the seas
became ignominiously infested by pirates and enemies, to the loss of
very many of the merchants and subjects of England.”[284]
Footnote 284:
Inedited State Papers, Domestic, 1623.
With regard to pirates, most of the ports were taxed in King James’s
time, by way of contribution, to prevent them; and little more could
be done until the navy was repaired and augmented. There are
innumerable letters manifesting Buckingham’s extreme care to clear
the Channel from pirates. The light erected on the Lizard Point, as
Sir J. Killigrew, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, then
ambassador at the Hague, remarked, “might speak itself to most parts
of Christendom.”[285] The forts and defences were inspected, and
many oversights in Lord Zouch’s wardership remedied. Such were
Buckingham’s exertions. His contemporaries were singularly
ungrateful to him for the benefits which he laboured to procure
them; but posterity experienced their effects. Thirty years after
his time, Pepys thus comments upon the improvement in our naval
force, as a popular theme of remark--"Sir William Compton I heard
talk with great pleasure of the difference between the fleet now and
in Queene Elizabeth’s days, when, in ’88, she had but thirty-six
sail, great and small, in the world, and ten rounds of powder was
their allowance against the Spaniard."[286]
Footnote 285:
Letter from Sir J. Killigrew to Sir D. Carleton, December 12th,
1619, and February, 1619-20. Inedited State Papers. By the same
letter it appears that it cost ten shillings a night to supply the
light.
Footnote 286:
Pepys’s Diary, 3rd edition, vol. ii., p. 31.
Among the articles of Buckingham’s subsequent impeachment, in 1626,
there was inserted the following statement: “The East India Company
having, in 1624, loaded four ships and two pinnaces for India, the
Lord High Admiral, knowing that they must lose their voyage unless
they sailed on a certain day, extorted from them the sum of ten
thousand pounds for liberty to sail for India.” Upon being charged
with this act of tyranny, the Duke justified himself by the plea
that the Company had captured several rich prizes from the
Portuguese at Ormuz and elsewhere, and that a large portion of the
plunder was due to the King, and also to himself as High Admiral;
and he proved that the sum said to be extorted from the Company was
given by way of compromise, instead of 15,000_l._, which was legally
due; and he was able to show that the whole sum, except two hundred
pounds, was appropriated by the King for the use of the navy.[287]
Footnote 287:
Macpherson’s History of Commerce, vol. iv., p. 317.
One fact was soon acknowledged, that even King James the First had a
stronger and more magnificent navy than any of his predecessors. It
is worthy of remark, that such was the comparative ignorance of the
times in ship-building, that when a shipwright named Bunnell, who
had been employed by the East India Company, was brought, on account
of his pre-eminence, into the British navy, “he was mistaken in the
construction of the first ship that he built for the King;” because,
as Bishop Goodman relates, "he did not observe the difference
between the merchant ships and the King’s ships--the one made for
stowage, the other only for strength and magnificence."[288]
Footnote 288:
Bishop Goodman’s Memoirs, vol i., p. 55.
Such was the state of our maritime affairs at the accession of
Charles the First. The object to which all these preparations were
destined was soon apparent. Trifling as this naval force appeared in
those days, it was deemed magnificent in the reign of the Stuart
Kings.