Product Code Database
The Spanish match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles, the son of King James VI & I of Kingdom of Scotland and England, and Infante Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations took place over the period 1614 to 1623, and during this time became closely related to aspects of British foreign and religious policy, before breaking down completely.
The policy, unpopular with England's Protestant House of Commons, where the recent Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) had not been forgotten, was initiated during the embassy to England of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, who arrived in London in 1614 with the offer that Habsburg Spain would not interfere with James's troubled rule in Ireland if James would restrain the English "" in waters. Further, he proposed a marriage alliance, offering a dowry of £500,000 (later increased to £600,000), which seemed especially attractive to James after the failure of the Parliament of 1614 to provide him with the financial subsidies he requested.
The climax of the ensuing decade of high-level negotiation to secure a marriage between the leading Protestant and Catholic royal families of Europe occurred in 1623 in Madrid, with the embassy of the Prince Charles and James's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. The wedding never took place despite the signing of a marriage contract by King James; criticism instead led to the dissolution of Parliament.
On the domestic front, the prospect of a Spanish dowry from a marriage between his heir Charles, Prince of Wales from 1616, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, was a potential source of income for James, who sought ways to rule without depending on the Commons for subsidies.Willson, p 357. The policy of the Spanish match was supported by the Howard family and other Catholic-leaning ministers and diplomats—together known as the "Spanish Party"—but deeply distrusted by some Protestant groups in England. Sentiment was voiced vociferously in the Commons when James called his first parliament for seven years in 1621 to raise funds for a military expedition in support of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, his son-in-law.
There was in fact no chance that Pope Paul V would have issued the required dispensation for the Infanta to marry a Protestant. This fact was known to the Spanish king, but apparently Gondomar was kept in ignorance of the correspondence. Paul V died early in 1621, and his successor Pope Gregory XV was thought amenable to the idea of the match. James sent George Gage to Rome to lobby, putting the case on behalf of English Catholics. The matter was passed to a small group of cardinals, who emphasised that improved treatment for English Catholics was a prerequisite.
In November 1621, led by Sir Edward Coke, the Commons framed a petition asking not only for a war with Spain but for Prince Charles to marry a Protestant, and for enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws. When James heard of the petition, he is said to have cried, "God give me patience". James flatly told them not to interfere in matters of royal prerogative or they would risk punishment;Willson, p 442. to which provocation they reacted by issuing a statement protesting their rights, including freedom of speech. James wrote: "We cannot with patience endure our subjects to use such anti-monarchical words to us concerning their liberties, except they had subjoined that they were granted unto them by the grace and favour of our predecessors."Quoted by Willson, p 423. Urged on by Buckingham and the Spanish ambassador Gondomar, James ripped the protest out of the record book and dissolved Parliament.Willson, p 243.
In 1620, and again in 1621, James issued decrees against writing or speaking on state affairs. (1990). 9781855671638, Pinter Publishers. ISBN 9781855671638 John Everard preached against the match in February 1621, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and spent about half a year in the Gatehouse Prison. When Robert Mason wrote in 1622 to his friend Thomas Hobbes about public opinion on the match, criticising James's policy and noting Gondomar's skill in gaining support for it by holding out the prospect of the Palatinate being returned to Frederick V, he hedged his comments with pleas for secrecy.
Thomas Middleton's 1624 play A Game at Chess allegorized the events surrounding the Spanish match. It was particularly harsh on Gondomar, represented by the Black Knight. Plays were in any case censored, and Henry Herbert as Master of the Revels passed it for performance; it was a short-lived succès de scandale in August 1624. It has been suggested that Herbert connived at the unheard-of dramatic liberties taken in portraying members of the royal family, in a court now dominated by the anti-Spanish party. Plays of the previous two years that had Spanish settings, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling and Thomas Dekker's Match Me in London, have been given readings that set them against the match, necessarily more covertly.
When negotiations began to drag, Prince Charles, now 22, and Buckingham decided to seize the initiative and travel to Castile incognito, to win the Infanta directly.Croft, p 118. Travelling under the names Thomas and John Smith, they arrived at the residence of the English ambassador in Madrid, the "House of the Seven Chimneys" on the Plaza de Rey, on 7 March 1623 (OS).Clare Jackson, Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588–1688 (Penguin, 2022), p. 170. The ambassador, John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, had been given no warning of the Prince's intentions, and Philip IV was astonished. Charles and Buckingham were ignorant of the key facts, that Maria Anna was strongly averse to marrying a non-Catholic, and that the Spanish, who had been protracting the marriage negotiations to keep English troops out of the war, would never agree to such a match unless James and Charles pledged to repeal the anti-Catholic Penal Laws.Croft, pp 118–119.
They were welcomed at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid. The reception at court and the journey was described by the author Andrés de Almansa y Mendoza.Henry Ettinghausen, 'Greatest News Story', in Alexander Samson, The Spanish Match: Prince Charles's Journey to Madrid, 1623 (Ashgate, 2006), pp. 77-89. Richard Wynn, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, sailed with other members of the royal household in the Adventure from Portsmouth to join the Prince. Wynn's account of the journey describes the costumes of Spanish country people and aristocrats, and the difficulties and uncertainties of the journey. Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II (Oxford, 1729), pp. 297-241
During the visit, Spanish national poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca made his debut as a playwright with Amor, honor y poder ("Love, honor, and power"), a verse drama about the life of King Edward III of England, which was performed before the Prince at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid on 29 June 1623. “WITH THE SEARCH FOR THE REMAINS OF CALDERÓN WE REMEMBER A FIGURE THAT UNITED ALL THOSE WHO WERE DIFFERENT”, Fundación Hispano Británica, March 2021.
Francis Stuart sailed to Castile in the St George bringing the patent creating the titles Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Coventry.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol.2 (Philadelphia, 1932), pp. 491, 497: John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 924: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer during the Reign of James I (London, 1836), p. 269. He also brought a parcel of jewels for Prince Charles, many of which had belonged to Anne of Denmark.Roy Strong, 'Three Royal Jewels: The Three Brothers, the Mirror of Great Britain and the Feather', The Burlington Magazine, 108:760 (July 1966), pp. 350-353: HMC Mar & Kellie, 2 (London, 1930), pp. 162, 167, 171. These included; the jewelled sword given to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales during the masque Tethys' Festival; the "Portugal diamond"; the "Cobham pearl"; jewelled head attires; and a ring with a diamond frog and a ruby set in its head. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 7 part 4 (Hague, 1739), pp. 75-6Robert Lemon, 'Warrant of Indemnity and Discharge to Lionel Earl of Middlesex, Lord High Treasurer, and to the other Commissioners of the Jewels, for having delivered certain Jewels to King James the First, which were sent by his Majesty into Spain', Archaeologia, XXI (1827), pp. 148-57Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1778), pp. 406-8.
Though a secret treaty was signed, the Prince and Duke returned to England in October without the Infanta. On their way to Santander they visited El Escorial, the Palace of Valsain, the Alcázar of Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, and Frómista.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 913-19 quoting The Joyfull Returne of Charles, Prince of Great Brittaine (London, 1623), a translation of one of Almansa's works. There was open delight shown by sections of the British people."There was an immense outbreak of popular joy, with fireworks, bell ringing and street parties." Croft, p 120.
Lord Bristol, though entirely blameless, was made the scapegoat for the failure of the match: he was recalled in disgrace, ordered to remain on his estates and later imprisoned for a time in the Tower of London. Charles thus antagonised one of his most gifted and trustworthy public servants, and they were not fully reconciled until the outbreak of the English Civil War.
The outcome of the Parliament of 1624 was ambiguous: James still refused to declare war, but Charles believed the Commons had committed themselves to financing a war against Spain, a stance which was to contribute to his problems with Parliament in his own reign."On that divergence of interpretation, relations between the future king and the Parliaments of the years 1625–9 were to founder." Croft, p 126. Charles eventually married Henrietta Maria of France.
A ship, the Mary Rose, was sent to Spain to collect jewels returned to the English ambassador in July 1624. The ship was threatened by a storm during the return voyage.Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, 2 (London: Colburn, 1849), pp. 465, 478.
In 2011, Sophia Institute Press released a novel based on historical events entitled The Spanish Match. Google Books
The Spanish Match is a large part of the plot in episode 7 of the Starz miniseries Mary & George.
|
|
