be ready to set fire to the powder in the morning. He was made a prisoner, and his companions fled into the country. Some were killed but most of them were taken and executed.

6. The English Government of Ireland.-At the end of Elizabeth's reign, Ireland had been for the first time brought completely under the power of the English government. For some few years the English tried to do their best for the native Irish, and to give to those who wished to live quietly lands which they might have for their own, whilst those who could do nothing but fight were sent abroad to fight in foreign armies. Some of the chiefs who had ruled the Irish tribes before Ireland had been conquered did not like to see the English having so much power in the country, and settling matters where they had been themselves accustomed to have everything their own way. One of their number, O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, had a quarrel with another Irishman. He was summoned to Dublin that his case might be heard, and behaved so rudely to the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, who governed in the king's name, that he was ordered to go to England to give an account of his actions. He was afraid that if he obeyed he would never be allowed to come back again, and, with another Irish Earl, he fled to Spain.

7. The Colonisation of Ulster. The two earls who had fled had been chiefs over six counties in Ulster. Chichester advised that the lands of these counties should be given to the Irishmen who lived on them, and that, when they were all satisfied, the

land which remained should be divided amongst new colonists from England and Scotland. The English government did not take his advice. The best land was given to Englishmen and Scotchmen, and what remained was granted to the Irish, who were thus thrust out of their old homes. The new colonists were much more industrious than the Irish, and they soon made Ulster more fertile than the Irishmen would have done for a long time to come; but it was very cruel to the Irish, and it would not be easy to make them forget the treatment which they had received.

8. The Great Contract and the Impositions.— These troubles made it necessary to keep up a larger army in Ireland than before. The expense caused by this made James run into debt even more than he had done at the beginning of his reign. In 1610, therefore, he asked Parliament to agree to a scheme which was known as the Great Contract, by which he was to receive a large increase of income on condition of his giving up a number of rights which were burdensome to his subjects. The House of Commons, on its part, asked him to give way on another question of great importance. In order to get more money, he had made the merchants pay duties on goods taken out of the kingdom or brought into it, besides those payments which had been granted to him by Parliament. These duties being put on or imposed by the king himself, were called Impositions. The judges said that the king had a right by law to do this. The House of Commons said he had not. An agreement was very nearly come

to about both the Great Contract and the Impositions. But, after all, the king and the House of Commons quarrelled. The king wanted more money than the Commons were ready to give, and he dissolved the Parliament in an ill-temper.

last James

9. The Addled Parliament.-At summoned another Parliament. But that Parliament said just the same about the Impositions as the one before it had said. The king dissolved it after it had sat for only a few weeks. It is known as the Addled Parliament, because it did not produce a single new law.

CHAPTER XXIV.

JAMES I. AND SPAIN.
(1614-1625.)

1. James's Favourites.-James had quarrelled with his Parliaments because he wanted to have everything his own way, and did not care about the things about which his subjects cared. In managing the affairs of government, too, he did not like to take good advice. He thought it best to have a young man near him who was clever and amusing, and who would do everything for him, without wanting to have a way of his own. The first young man whom he chose for this purpose was a Scotchman named Robert Carr, whom he made Earl of Somerset. After some time, the new earl was

accused of committing a murder, and, though it is not quite certain whether he had done so, there can be no doubt that his wife had planned the crime. At all events, both he and his wife were tried and condemned to death, and, though James pardoned them, they never came near the court again. The next favourite was George Villiers, who was soon made Lord Buckingham, and some years afterwards Duke of Buckingham. He was a gay young man, fond of dancing and riding, and was able to amuse the king with his talk. James gave him very large landed estates, so that he soon became very rich, though when he first came to court he was so poor that he had to borrow money to buy himself a suit of clothes fit to appear in. Nobody was appointed to any office who did not first come to Buckingham to ask for his favour, so that though he was at first kind and affable, he soon became conceited, and used to speak roughly to men who did not treat him with very great respect indeed. This was very bad for the king, as men who were fit to give him good advice did not like to be humble to Buckingham.

2. The Spanish Marriage Treaty.-James knew that he would be obliged to send for another Parliament unless he could get money in some other way. One plan he had for getting money was to marry his son Charles to Maria the daughter of Philip III., king of Spain. She was known as the Infanta, a title given to the daughter of the Spanish kings. Philip offered to give a large sum of money when the marriage took place, but he asked that Catholics in England should be allowed to worship in their own

way without punishment. Englishmen were still so angry about the Gunpowder Plot that James would hardly have been able to do this if he had wished it, and, though the marriage was talked of for some time, it did not seem likely that it would ever be really brought about. The English people did not at all like to see their king friendly with Spain, as they had not forgiven the Spaniards for all that had happened in Elizabeth's time, and they thought that if the king of Spain got a chance he would be as ready to meddle in England as his father, Philip II., had been before him.

3. Raleigh's Voyage. One of those who hated Spain most was Sir Walter Raleigh. At the beginning of the reign he had been accused of a crime of which he had not been guilty, and had been condemned to death. But James had shut him up in prison in the Tower instead of having him executed. He now declared that if James would let him out he would go to a gold mine in South America near the Orinoco and bring home a large store of gold. James, who wanted gold, let him go, but told him that he must not go to any of the lands belonging to the king of Spain, and that if he did he should be beheaded, as he might be, without any new trial, because he had been already condemned. Raleigh sailed, and when he reached the mouth of the Orinoco it was arranged that some of his ships should go up the river to look for the mine, and that others should stay at the mouth to prevent any Spanish ships coming in. None of the sailors would go up unless Raleigh would stay to guard the mouth, as