Foreign Policy of James I and Charles I

Treaty of London

(1604) This achieved little for either side, except for ending the expensive military commitments against one another. It game English merchants the right to trade in Spain without having to convert to Catholicism beforehand. James, however, still sent money and troops to the United Provinces of the Netherlands so they had help in breaking away from the Spanish catholics. This gave James a position of mediation

Truce of Antwerp

(1609) A truce between the Spanish, Dutch and United Provinces to cease to fight for a period of 12 years whilst negotiations went ahead and a real truce was brokered.

The Cleves-Julich Crisis

(1609) When a leader of Cleves and Julich died in Germany, the Holy Roman Emperor sent troops to ensure a catholic succession of the land, however, Protestants were against this as the felt it was a dangerous position to allow catholics to reside, due to the positions of Cleves and Julich. James initially pledged to help Henry IV and the protestant side by giving troops, but when Henry was assassinated, he acted as mediator, and the dispute was settled.

Alliance with Protestand Union

(1611) When it seemed that Habsberg power was spreading through Europe, James signed an alliance betwen England and the Protestant Union of Germany, but James wished not to be the leader. This was because he wished to seek a diplomatic resolution to the issue, rather than take military action. He hoped to do this by marying into both the families of the Habsbergs and German Protestant Princes.

The Peace of Knared

(1613) Continuing with his peace making in Europe. James brokered a peace treaty between Denmark and Sweden. A further treaty followed between Sweden and Muscovy in 1617

Marriage into the Palatinate

(1613) James married his daughter, Elizabeth, off the Fredrick of the Palatinate. As he was a protestant prince, this lead to James and his kingdoms becoming the centre of the Protestant World.

Count Gondomar

(1613) Philip III sent the Spanish Ambassador, Count Gondomar to London to go through with discussions with James about a possible Spanish Marriage to the Spanish Infanta. Many saw this negatively as they saw a Spanish Match as a threat to the protestant religion in England and were worried that Gondomar would have too much influence on James and his policies in England

Spanish Marriage

(1613) The Spanish proposed a dowry of £600,000 for a royal marriage and Sir John Digby was sent to Madrid for negotiations, although there was little progress.

Sir Walter Raleigh

(1618) Sir Walter Raleigh was sentenced to death after his failed expiditon to Guyana in South America, where he had conflict with the Spanish. This was widely regarded as a diplomatic 'sop' to the Spanish.

Bohemian Crisis

(1618) When Archduke Ferdinand, a Habsberg anti-protestant, was elected as King of Bohemia, the Protestant nobles were angry and defenestrated (threw out of a window) his representatives in Prague and rebelled against Habsberg control. James acted as mediator in this dispute, but negotiations were slow.

Palatinate Crisis

(1619) After Ferdinand was then elected as Holy Roman Emperor, the Bohemian nobility offered Fredrick of the Palatinate the throne, which he accepted. This would mean that 4 of the 7 electors that chose the Holy Roman Emperor would have been protestant, so this would completely alter the balance from Catholic control to Protestant control. James warned Fredrick of the consequences of accepting the thrown. Fredrick did not possess great talents in military. He called for his allies of the Evangelical Union to help him. Whilst this happened, Spain dispatched generals to occupy the Palatinate and Fredrick lost the Palatinate. James had to reluctantly help, however, Fredrick was sent into exile and he fled to the United Provinces.

Spanish match

(1621) Unable to put pressure of Spain, James tried to revive the discussion of a Spanish Match. Although James assumed that it would continue as it had stopped, the terms from the negotiations in 1617 had remained unaltered and unacceptable. Therefore James found it very hard to put pressure on Spain to give back the Palatinate to Fredrick.

Spanish Marriage Treaty

(1623) 1) The penal laws against roman catholics in England were not to be enforced any more. Neither were any other objectionable anti-catholic laws. 2) No new laws were to be put through that were anti-catholic, and catholic worship would be tolerated within homes. 3) The Infanta would not be forced to change religion 4) James and Charles would force Parliament to accept the terms of the treaty.

Trip to Madrid

(1623) On 17th February 1623, Charles and Buckingham left for Madrid disguised as 'Jack and Tom Smith' to further negotiations with Spain. This was a terrible idea and it seemed to be a hope to force the Marriage Treaty through ad put pressure on Spain to accept it. When Charles arrived, the Spanish were courteous but did now allow Charles to see the Infanta. Instead, they used Charles as a was to force James to accept the marriage terms and bargain with him. They assumed that James and Charles were able to reconvert England to Catholicism without much opposition. Another failure was the fact that the Spanish did not allow Fredrick to be restored in the Palatinate.

Treaty of Hague

(1625) In December 1625, Charles committed himself to a subsidy of £30,000 per month for the Danish king, Christian IV, in return for his intervention in the Thirty Years War.

Treaty of Southampton

(1625) In September of 1625, Charles promised to send 6,000 troops to assist the United Provinces in their war against Spain

Expedition to Cadiz

(1625) Using money from his Dowry from Henrietta Maria, Charles assembled a fleet and army of 10,000 men at plymouth for an expedition to Cadiz. It was not equipped very well, so supplies were low. Many fell ill and died of malnutrition. When they got to Cadiz, they found a Vineyard, and as they had nothing to drink, the men drunk the wine, ending up drunk so they were not able to siege the town. They needed to return to England and the expedition failed.

Mansfield Expedition

(1625) When the French refused to send troops into an expedition to the Palatinate, a German Mercenary, Count Mansfield, paid by England led 12,000 troops on the Mansfield expedition. many died of disease or deserted before even reaching Germany, making it a waste of £60,000 of the Common's subsidy in 1624

Second Expedition to Cadiz

(1626) In October 1626, a second Expedition to Cadiz was carried out. As too much money was spent on it for it to go to waste, although it wasn't ready, they had to set sail. Due to Charles having no money, he was unable to maintain the ships during the winter. Due to storms, they were unable to even get to Spain this time and therefore were unable to mount a successful attack on Spain.

Expedition of Il de Rhe

(1627) In June, Buckingham spend £10,000 on an expedition he led to Il de Rhe, to capture the Islands of the Rhé to start a Hugenot uprising in France so the pro-Catholic foreign policy would be forced to change. As most of the country did no agree with this, supplies did not arrive, therefore, when they got there and tried to scale the walls, they were much too short to get to the top and storm the citadel.

Treaty of Suza

(1629) A treaty between England and France that was a simple agreement to end the fighting.

Treaty of Madrid

(1630) A treaty between Spain and England that restated the terms of the 1604 peace between the two countries, but the Spanish King agreed to return Fredrick the the Palatinate to get European peace.

French Marriage Treaty

1) Henrietta Maria was allowed to practice her Catholic religion with her children and servants freely. 2) She was to have a chapel in London open to the public, served by 28 priests and a Bishop. 3) Her children were to be educated as Catholics until the age of 13. 4) Catholics of England were to be granted toleration.

Charles' Return

By the time Charles had returned to England, he and Buckingham were ready to declare war on Spain and both pushed James to call parliament to get the money for a Spanish war. The English rejoiced and welcomed them back supporting their new outlook on the Spanish. Cranfield was opposed to this, so in 1624, Buckingham had pushed through the impeachment of Cranfield through parliament to remove any opposition of a war with Spain.

Charles' commitments

Charles estimated he needed £1 million to pay for his commitments, but it was shown that he only had £600 in the exchequer. Charles believed Parliament would be willing to fund his commitments, but he was wrong.

The Petition of Right

Charles was offered further subsidies by parliament is he accepted to renounce his rights to: 1) Levy forced loans or any tax without parliamentary consent 2) Imprison arbitrarily 3) Billet troops without the consent of the householder 4) Impose martial law. In June 1628, He accepted these terms.

Charles and Parliament II

Determined to successfully have an expedition to Cadiz, Charles tried once again with parliament and they were co-operative, voting 4 subsidies, as long as he dismissed Buckingham as Lord Admiral. Charles felt like his Royal Prerogative was challenged, therefore he dissolve parliament in June 1626 with no granted subsidies.

Assassination of Buckingham

In the summer of 1628, Buckingham was assassinated and this make Charles and Parliament grow further apart due to the celebrations within parliament about his death.

Death of James I

James died in March 1625 whilst the Mansfield expedition was ongoing.

French Marriage

James then tried to secure a French Marriage with Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII of France. This was to create an Anti-Habsberg alliance and try to force the French to declare war on the Spanish.

Coalition against Spain

James was busy creating a Coalition against Spain and a treaty was negotiated with the Dutch in 1624 and in Feb 1625, Christian IX of Denmark agreed to pay a subsidy of £30,000 a month in return for Danish intervention in Germany.

Parliament on the war

The house of commons, backed by Buckingham, accepted the idea of a war with Spain, however, they wanted a sea war, rather than the land war that Buckingham had wanted so the Palatinate could be liberated. James asked for £780,000, however, parliament only gave £300,000.

Charles and Parliament I

When Charles had called Parliament in 1625, he hoped they would give him subsidies. They only granted him Tonnage and Poundage for 1 year and two subsidies. Charles was angered and got impatient so dissolved parliament with no money to fund his foreign policy.