ALASTAIR BELLANY -- Ph.D. – Professor at Rutgers University

Dear Dr. Kolkey,
 
To an extent, your hypothesis works quite well for the 1620s, though I'd probably want to modify it to take into account the role of popular anti-catholic and anti-Spanish sentiment in the unfolding of events....

The war with France is often seen as peculiarly Buckingham's folly. It made no strategic sense to many observers--the one rule of English diplomacy being never to take on Spain or France at the same time. Both Buckingham and Charles felt ill treated by Richelieu and the French in the aftermath of the marriage of Charles to Henrietta Maria--both felt their honour had been impugned. The ostensible goal of war with France--to defend the Huguenots of La Rochelle against the French crown--had a certain degree of popular traction in England which could be enhanced by evocations of Agincourt and the old enemy, but many saw the war as inexplicable, and as a suspicious distraction of English attention and resources away from the real enemy, Spain.
 
The major military action against France, the Ile de Re expedition of 1627, was commanded by Buckingham himself and he clearly hoped that military success would bring him glory, a secure position at court, and the love of the people and Parliament. He conducted an innovative press campaign that presented highly flattering accounts of the first phases of the action, and if he had somehow achieved his goals (the liberation of La Rochelle) he would undoubtedly have increased his power and popularity. The abysmal failure of the expedition, however, destroyed Buckingham's popular reputation completely, and further intensified attacks on him in Parliament and on the streets. The decision to try once more to relieve La Rochelle in 1628, despite the near calamitous state of England's fiscal-military machinery, was again probably more driven by Buckingham's desire to play the military hero and recuperate his image than by any strategic evaluation. He would undoubtedly have led a fleet in the summer of 1628 if an assassin's knife hadn't intervened. When the fleet finally did set sail, it found La Rochelle on the verge of surrender, and had no impact at all....
 
Best wishes,
 
Alastair Bellany

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