Episode 18: Harry and Freddy

Crown coins to single winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you won big at crown coins casino real people win real prizes every single day? Hi, this is Michael from Dallas and I won 40K and finally renovated my home. Visit crowncoins.com sign up in seconds, enter code crown and get a free lucky will bonus. You may win up to 10,000 sweeps coins. Crowncoins.com that's C-R-O-W and coins.com. No purchase needed. Code Val for new users on void were prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Crown coins to single. This is early steward England, episode 18, Harry and Freddie. Last time we saw Walter Rally emerge from his long imprisonment and return to the stage of English politics. Well, not literally. Though he partnered with Salisbury and Henry in organizing the Guiana expedition, he did so from the confines of the Tower of London. But Rally's ability to draw prominent political figures into his scheming was due to a shift in the prevailing winds of English foreign policy. Three factors served to end the consensus which had defined English policy since the Treaty of London in 1604. Firstly, events on the continent, over 1609, 1610, served to alter the playing board James had spent his evenings ruminating over. The assassination of Henry IV had both deprived Europe of its staunchest anti-Hapsburg voice and turned France into an unpredictable and weak European player. This, just as the Julius Cleves crisis demonstrated that the empire was driven by internal divisions. Europe suddenly looked like a far less stable place, and James would have to adapt to the new reality. Secondly, the failure of the great contract did not just weaken Salisbury's grip on domestic and financial policy, but also his control over foreign affairs. For the first time in James's reign a vacuum opened up at the King's ear. It was not immediately clear which vision of European affairs would gain the ascendancy. The Howard, led by the Earl of Northampton, saw closer relations with Spain as the best path forward. The marriage of Prince Henry to the Infanta Anna, which had been bandied about in 1604, now made even more sense. Together, Spain and England were ideally positioned to influence the Catholic and Protestant factions within the empire and Europe more generally. Appealing to James' sensibilities, Northampton argued that a general European crisis could be avoided through an Anglo-Spanish partnership. Of course, a pro-Spanish policy would also serve to further Northampton's goal of greater toleration for Catholics in England, not to mention the Suffolk family goal of continued cash injections from Madrid. But the Howard's were not the only voices James heard in his ear. The Scots, ever present in James' daily life, leaned towards a French alliance. Drawing on centuries of diplomatic and cultural connections, the Scots saw France as a natural ally. For them, the current erosion of French strength was a problem, not an opportunity. Europe needed a strong France to act as a counterbalance to Habsburg domination. Drawing too close to the Spanish orbit would merely facilitate the universal European rule of the Habsburg family. But while this was a general Scottish view, after the death of Dunbar, the Scots in the household did not speak with a coherent voice. The most important Scott of all, Robert Carr, enjoyed a tremendous out of access and influence with James, but he did not have any particular view of European affairs. The Howard's were in the process of wooing Carr in order to fashion a mutually beneficial political alliance. His support for a pro-Spanish policy would doubtlessly be part of the bargain. But his trusted advisor, Thomas Overbury, had also made contacts with a rival camp. The Earl of Southampton, formerly a trusted deputy to Essex and George Abbott, the Puritanish Archbishop of Canterbury, saw Europe in need of a bold Protestant leader. If a religious conflict was looming on the continent, then sideling up to the Catholic regimes in either Spain or France made no sense. What England needed to do was create a broad coalition of Protestant powers in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. To marry the Crown Prince off to some Catholic princess would only weaken the Protestant cause, far better to bind England to the leading Protestant kings and princes of Europe and present the rising Catholic threat with a united front. Each camp, whether pro-Span, pro-France, or those advocating for a broad Protestant alliance, had the same strategy for gaining the king's support. Win Robert Carr to their side. But although Carr would bring his influence to bear, the final decision on all foreign policy matters fell to the monarch, which brings us to the third factor, which drove this revision in English foreign policy, the emergence of the next monarch in line as a political actor in his own right. After all, Henry was the one being married off in these various schemes, naturally he had an opinion on the matter. How much his opinion would matter was itself a matter of some debate. Although both James and his son kept a keen eye on European events, they were seeing things differently. For James, the geopolitical disaster that Europe had narrowly avoided in Jewish cleaves set off alarm bells. Europe teetered on the brink of the general religious conflict James had always feared. Now more than ever, prudence and self-preservation called for preventative action. The only responsible thing to do was for James to marshal all of his diplomatic influence to avoid the looming calamity. Henry, on the other hand, saw European instability in starkly different terms. Rather than a potential conflict to be averted, he foresaw an inevitable war that England had to prepare for. If anything, Jewish cleaves had proven that the Habsburgs and Catholics in general could not be trusted or negotiated with. To concede anything would only serve to weaken the Protestant position when the coming battle arrived. As a result, the monarch and the crown prince approached Europe with different assumptions and as a result crafted different policies. Through a circle of like-minded friends, both at home and abroad, the teenage Henry conducted an informal diplomatic campaign to unite the Protestants of Europe. The lynchpin of his campaign was to insert England into the middle of the chaotic world of the imperial politics of the Holy Roman Empire. Technically, the Jewish cleaves crisis was still ongoing over the course of this episode, for the sake of clarity we're talking 1611 and 1612. Ultimately, the war would be resolved with a compromise, half the territory we ruled by a Protestant claimant, and the other half by a Catholic one. But the seeds of the next imperial crisis were already flourishing in the eastern kingdom of Bohemia. The Bohemians had actually been early to the Reformation game, with Jan Huss leading an attack on Catholic dogma a century before Martin Luther. As a result, the population of Bohemia contained a healthy dose of ethnically-checked Hussites. Alongside them, were a large number of urban dwelling, ethnic German Lutherans. Atop the political pyramid of Bohemia was the Habsburg family itself. Although Bohemians chose their kings through elections, since 1526, every election had put a Habsburg on the throne. In many ways, the Bohemian crown was as important to Habsburg power as their possessions immediately surrounding Vienna. As one of the seven electors, the king of Bohemia played a crucial role in ensuring that the Habsburgs won all imperial elections as well. Bohemia acted as a kind of swing vote in the Seven Seat Electoral College. Three of the imperial electors were archbishops of the Catholic Church. The so-called spiritual electors of Mains, Cologne, and Trier could be relied upon to back a Catholic meaning Habsburg candidate. Of the remaining four, three electoral seats were held by Protestants, the Palatine, Saxony, and Brandenburg. Although imperial stability tended to trump religious loyalty, the possibility of a Protestant majority among the electoral college gave the Habsburgs nightmares. Thus, the fact that Bohemians, were largely Protestant people, ruled by a Catholic king, had consequences, not only for the stability of Bohemia, but of the entire empire itself, not to mention Europe. If Habsburg power over Bohemia were ever loosened, the thin fabric holding the entire empire together could well unravel. In addition to these unimaginably high stakes, there were signs that Bohemia was ripe for crisis. In 1611, the Bohemians revolted for the second time in three years, demanding religious protections from the Catholic king. In part, this opportunism, fueled by the fact that Rudolf, the aging and infirm king, who also happened to be the aging and infirm emperor, appeared unable to do much to stop them. Rudolf's brother, Matthias, who had slowly consolidated imperial power in his own hands, managed to quell the revolt through negotiation. Coming to an agreement called the letter of majesty, Matthias promised the Protestants in Bohemia would be afforded religious toleration and protection from the persecution of any future Habsburg ruler. Although it was a resolution, it proved to be an uneasy one. The Bohemians were aware that they had secured their rights through force rather than the generosity of the Habsburgs. They may well have to take up arms again to protect their hard-won rights in the future. Additionally, the events of 1608, 1611 instilled within the Bohemians the confidence that armed resistance was an effective means to achieve results. "In all, not a recipe for long-term stability." For the time being, though, any potential crisis was delayed by the death of Emperor Rudolph II in January 1612. Matthias took over as both Emperor and King of Bohemia. His steadier hand left Bohemia fewer opportunities to rebel. But on the other hand, Matthias did not seem likely to press the issue of Catholic uniformity. He was no zealot and seemed to focus on husband and imperial resources to waste time and effort on a costly religious persecution. However, Matthias' likely successor, his nephew Ferdinand, was a different matter. Ferdinand surrounded himself with Jesuit advisors and actively sought to root out the Protestant faith from Habsburg territory. If Bohemia was to enjoy a reprieve from internal instability, it looked like it might be a briefone. "So, I can hear you asking, where did England fit into this Bohemian mess?" Well as we see numerous times, the Trump card James held in his foreign policy hand was his marriageable children. Or I guess, Trump cards would be more accurate as he had three of them. As the younger son Charles wasn't much of a catch at this point, but in addition to Henry, James also had his daughter Elizabeth to place on the European market. James' grand design was to marry Elizabeth to a Protestant prince, thereby positioning England as a major player on that side in the great European divide. Then, Henry would marry one of the great Catholic dynasties, either a French, Spanish, or imperial bride. Henry liked the first part of that plan, but was not so enthusiastic about the second. But when it came to Elizabeth's future, the king and prince were on the same page. Henry would worry about his role in this grand strategy later. As James and Henry scoured Europe for a Protestant prince, both worthy of Elizabeth and influential enough to be of use diplomatically, they landed on a man we've already met. Frederick V, Elector of the Palatine, was one of the three Protestant members of the Imperial Electoral College. In the winter of 1611 and 1612, he was 15, the same age as Elizabeth. In fact, he was just a weak older then. More importantly, Frederick led the Protestant Union, the coalition of Protestant princes within the empire that his father had founded in 1608. As a young man with influence among the Protestants of Germany, he suited James's requirements and as a vigorous supporter of the Protestant cause, he suited Henry's. Winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you won big? At Crown Coins Casino, real people win real prizes every single day. I mentioned at the conclusion of episode 14, assassination, that Henry and Frederick were like-minded young men. In many ways, they had similar personalities as well. Frederick Henry, Frederick excelled in martial and athletic pursuits. They were both charismatic figures, even as teenagers, inspiring, admiring followers. They were also both patrons of the arts, though neither had much of reputation as a scholar themselves. Artists and intellectuals flock to Frederick's capital of Heidelberg, which boasted one of the most prestigious universities in Europe. Both young men also took their faith very seriously, though neither was really a deep thinking theologian. Frederick was Frederick a bigoted crusader. Although Calvinist, Frederick found it easy to work with the sizeable Lutheran minority within his own kingdom, as well as the Lutheran princes of the Empire. Nor, despite his leadership of the Protestant Union, did Frederick go out of his way to persecute Catholics. Instead, the religion which shaped the politics of the two men was much more personal than that. Both shared a sense of providence. The God had placed them in this precise time and place for a specific purpose. And that purpose was to lead the forces of the godly, in the coming Armageddon of religious conflict in Europe. As you can imagine, having such young men at the center of European affairs did not bode well for international stability. In other words, Frederick was exactly the kind of brother-in-law Henry was looking for. The Palatine match became Henry's first major policy initiative, and he played an active role in establishing context on the continent and hammering out the details. In parallel to the marriage was a military alliance, and this was formalized in April 1612 with England officially aligning itself with the Protestant Union. In doing so, James and Frederick were making a profound statement about what the Protestant Union actually was. Since its inception in 1608, there had been some debate within the Imperial Protestant community. More modern Protestants argue that the goals of the Union were imperial stability. The best way to protect Protestant interests in the empire was to secure that there was a powerful emperor capable of acting as a neutral arbiter over disputes within the empire. As a result, membership in the Union should be restricted to members of the empire. To draw in outside support would undermine the imperial constitution. Frederick, on the other hand, saw the Union as part of a larger European Protestant community. Although he too sought to defend the imperial constitution, he increasingly saw the Habsburg emperors as the main threat to the empire. In listing broad European support would strengthen the Union's ability to achieve its goals. The English alliance acted as an unmistakable signal that Frederick's vision now defined the Protestant Union. But while English support strengthened the Union, it simultaneously weakened it as some of the Protestant princes, most notably the Elector of Saxony, began to see the Union as a threat to imperial stability, and so refused all invitations to join. But as ominous as that sounds, for now Henry had a royal wedding to plan. As he had quickly established himself as the cultural leader in the kingdom, Henry said about planning the festivities surrounding the arrival of Frederick in the summer of 1612. Having imported artists from Italy, a hydraulic engineer from France, not to mention promoting homegrown talent like Enigo Jones, Henry planned to outdo the year-long celebrations, which had marked his installation as Prince of Wales in 1610. But before we get to the celebrations, we'll have to make a somber aside here. Because on the 24th of May, as preparations in London were ongoing, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury, died. Despite being at the centre of political events for more than 20 years, he was only 49 years old. Salisbury has largely disappeared from our narrative since the failure of the great contract. Though that likely overstates the completeness of his fall. While he had been forced to compete with men like Northampton and Carr atop the political pyramid, he hadn't been banished to obscurity. In fact, he had made a resurgence of sorts in the summer of 1611. But failing health and the shifting political landscape kept him from his old heights. In December 1611, his personal physician discovered two large tumors. Lancelot Andrews and Richard Neal attended to him, their friendships embodying the political changes under foot. Salisbury's fall from power neatly coincided with the rise of abbot within the church. In the first decade of James's reign, Salisbury had dominated the political world, while the bandcroft Andrews Neal Circle had ruled the church, but new forces would be a play in the 1610s. But this would not merely be a cabinet shuffle, with new names stepping into familiar roles. Salisbury had overseen a remarkable period of stability. From the fall of Essex in 1601 to the fall out in the wake of the great contract in 1610, Salisbury had held a dominant position in English politics. The years following his death were remarks by factional infighting, in which men would rise and fall at an alarming pace. Not only did this disrupt the smooth operation of the kingdom's business, but had actively undermined the fragile political system. Battles between factions inevitably spilled over into public spaces, in particular Parliament. In the process, ideological and religious divisions were exploited and exacerbated to serve private ends. Even in the 1620s, a clear winner finally emerged from this period of instability, he presided over a much less unified, much less harmonious England. For now though, the coming wedding pushed aside sombre rumenations on Salisbury's death. On the 16th of October, Frederick arrived in London, marking a bold revision of England's place in European affairs. The groom and bride-to-be had both just turned 16, and their generous host Henry was all of 18. The trio represented not just England's participation in continental-power politics, but the future of the English monarchy. But despite his minute planning, a sudden illness forced Henry away from the festivities just over a week after Frederick's arrival. The symbolic importance of the event had driven him to work through the discomfort, but eventually he proved too weak to be seen publicly. After a brief sojourn to his sick bed, Henry emerged on the 26th of October, well enough to play some cards with his younger brother Charles, but observers noted that he spoke strangely, with dead sunk eyes. The next day, the prince was once again unable to rise from his bed. Henry had lobbied hard for the palatine marriage, at his moment of triumph, which should have been the first of many successful initiatives in his long career, Henry died. the 6th of November. In November, a case of what was probably Typhoid did him in. In a short time Henry had become an immensely popular prince. In part because he offered an outlet for political views which were not embraced by the King, but also due to his natural charisma and the cultural patronage which defined his household. His death crushed Queen Anne in particular, who later refused to view the ceremony which installed her other son Charles as Prince of Wales for fear that her emotions would get the best of her. Francis Bacon, who had worked with Henry during his brief political career, described the prince as an unknown quantity. He saw in the prince some things obscure and not to be discovered by the sagacity of any person but only by time which was denied him. In other words, we've landed on another what if. This is a big one. If for no other reason, then Henry's death meant the Charles was now the King in waiting. As so much of what comes in the second half of our narrative will be driven by the personality and decisions of Charles. This is a significant fork in the road. Though as we'll see when we get to the mid-1620s, Charles's first steps into the political limelight look like they were taken right out of the Henry playbook. Ultimately, however, the two brothers were quite different. As to what Henry IX's reign may have looked like, Bacon is perhaps right that it is beyond the ability of any person to say. But it is fun to speculate. One possible counterfactional avenue to stroll down is to return to the comparison between Henry and Frederick. With their similar personalities, similar ideological views, and similar sense of a personal religious mission, Frederick's reign as the Elector of Palatine may give some clues as to what Henry's reign as the King of England may have looked like. Considering Frederick's ambitions and sense of divine purpose would drive him headlong into causing one of the most destructive wars Europe has ever seen, maybe England was better off without Henry. Henry's other sibling, Elizabeth, honored his memory by embracing her marriage as a geopolitical as well as a dynastic union. By all accounts, she and Frederick shared a genuine affection for one another, unusual in political marriages, which helped matters along. After a suitable period of mourning, the wedding took place on the 14th of February 1613, resided over by Archbishop Abbott. In the coming years, Abbott, who shared Henry's views on the state of religion on the continent, would act as a friend and ally to the new couple. After the ceremony, Frederick, Elizabeth and a sizable entourage embarked on a continental procession, which slowly wound its way to Heidelberg. Part honeymoon, part diplomatic mission, the Dutch featured prominently in the trip. Now into the fourth year of their 12-year choose with Spain, the Dutch were eager to secure allies for the looming end of that peace in 1621. The palatine had a long-running relationship with the rebellious Dutch. Frederick's mother happened to also be the daughter of William of Orange, the man who had initially led the Dutch in revolt against the Spanish in the 1560s. Additionally, both Frederick and the Dutch had a mutual interest in living Spanish influence along the Rhine. As in May of 1613, Frederick happily expanded the Protestant using further to include the Dutch. Although Henry did not live to see it, his project of a united Protestant front in Europe seemed stronger than ever. When the couple arrived in Heidelberg in June, their court had a distinctly English character. Enigo Jones, who traveled in the couple's entourage, added his name to the growing list of foreign artists who found patronage under Frederick. He immediately set about redesigning the electors' castle, culminating in the famous Elizabeth's gate. An early experiment in pre-fabricated architecture, Frederick had all of its components meticulously fashioned before assembly began. As a result, he was able to surprise Elizabeth with a gate in her honor, which had seemingly sprung up overnight. Also accompanying Elizabeth was a trusted ally since childhood, Thomas Rowe, who had returned from Guyana the year before. Frederick Abbott Rowe would play an important role linking Elizabeth to the political world back in London. The Palatine's interests were now her interests, and Frederick would rely on her to ensure that those interests had a voice at her father's court. After a prolonged visit, Rowe would return to England, only to be sent off to the far reaches of India soon after. But he would return in time to help Elizabeth in the defining crisis of her life. Meanwhile, back in England, the political world was still attempting to sort out the consequences of the two deaths of 1612. We are now literally in the post-Salesbury world, and the death of Henry radically altered this world before it had really taken shape. Next time, we will finally begin to sort out the post-Salesbury factions. For the moment, the king's favorite, Robert Carr, held all the cards. But what he planned to do with them was anybody's guess. With no discernible ideological principles or policy preferences, everybody had reason to hope they could win his friendship, which suited Carr just fine. 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