True Depression
Jamie Saxt out of character:
He saw something of the terrible catastrophe of a war-torn Europe; he was distressed that it was his own son-in-law who had taken the step which was likely to reduce his peace policy to ashes. So strong was James’s belief that he should remain uncommitted that it was not until March that he gave his consent to the raising of volunteers and permitted the City loan to go forward. He worried incessantly and gave vent to his feelings against Frederick: ‘It is only by force that he will ever be brought to reason !’, he exclaimed. ‘If my son-in-law wishes to save the Palatine’, he said on another occasion, ‘he had better at once consent to a suspension of arms in Bohemia !. He would not allow prayers to be said for Frederick as King of Bohemia. ‘James is a strange father’, the Prince of Orange reputedly remarked, ‘he will neither fight for his children nor pray for them.’ No wonder it was reported that the King ’seemed utterly weary’. ‘I am not God Almighty’, he was heard to mutter, a remark so out of character that in itself it demonstrated his depression. He busied himself with writing a meditation upon St Matthew’s Gospel, which he called The Crown of Thorns.
Online biography of Charles I by Pauline Grigg, though easier to read in the printer version…
So so… Usual querulous stuff about him, but well-written.
Good pic though
Charles in character:
Charles was to remain at Windsor until 19 January 1649, while his opponents discussed his fate. A strong party of soldiers still urged his trial and condemnation. Fairfax shrank from such a procedure and kept outside the discussions. Lilburne and his party continued to assert that neither Parliament nor Army had the legal right to try the King and that to do so would be to open the door to further arbitrary government. Cromwell hesitated; even Ireton hung back. The Earl of Denbigh was sent with a secret message to Charles at Windsor which could have paved the way to further negotiation. Charles refused to see him. He would struggle for terms no longer; he could not consult his wife; he would no longer plague his conscience to determine what was right; there was no need to prevaricate; as he had written, they had left him with but the ‘husk and shell’ of life; he merely had to make his peace with himself, which meant with God, and he was helped by the wide, grey river that symbolized the best of his life. He believed that, except for the betrayal of Strafford, he had acted well; he believed his son would reign after him; he believed his captors were evil men and he knew what to expect. It was consequently easy for him to wait. As he had written: ‘That I must die as a Man, is certain, that I may die a King, by the hands of My own Subjects, a violent, sudden, and barbarous death, in the strength of My years, in the midst of My Kingdoms, My Friends and loving Subjects being helpless Spectators, My Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over Mee . . . is so probable in humane Reason, that God hath taught Mee not to hope otherwise.‘
