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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 83This apathy and indolence, which James I. concealed under the name of love of peace, would have completely brokenup the relations between England and the continent, hadthey not been renewed by family circumstances. The careof making a suitable marriage for his son, which, accordingto his notions, could only be with the daughter of a king,carried him into negotiations, which characterize more perhaps than any thing else the perversenessof this eccentricA Spanish princess was to be the wife of his son andking.future successor ;a Catholic, therefore, a descendant of thatfamily and of that nation, who, both by religious and political interest, were the hereditary foes of England. ThusJames I. was indifferent to riskinghis own interest, that ofhis son, and of his country, for the sake of gratifyinga caprice, which found a ready support in his prejudices. Thisis not the place for reviewing this extraordinary negotiation,in which Spain had the advantage during seven years(1617 1624) of leading the weak monarch according toher own views, and which, when at length it failed, was theoccasion of a war, byinengaging which the luckless Charlestook the first step towards his ruin. But during the progress of these negotiations, the marriage of Elizabeth, onlydaughter of James had I., created new continental relations,which had a considerable influence. In 1612 she was married to Frederic V., Elector of the Palatinate, who, in 1618,assumed the crown of Bohemia, which, as well as his ownfamily possessions, he lostby the battle of Prague and itsresults. If James I. had taken an active partin the German war, it would never have been laid to his charge, thathe bartered the interest of the empire for that of his daughter. "For the first was here concerned as well as the latter ;the interest of Protestantism was at stake, and this moreespecially, because in 1621, the war between Spain and theNetherlands was renewed. But here too James I. played adouble part.He did not approve of the undertaking of hisson-in-law, because he considered the Bohemians as rebels,and yet he would willingly have seen his daughter a queen.But the close connexion between Spain and Austria madethe policy of interference still more questionable for if he;had decided on coming forward, a threat from Spain ofbreaking off the negotiations for the marriage of his son