Herbert’s embassy coincided with a particularly complex period of European diplomacy as Catholic and Protestant nations moved from negotiating to taking up arms in the Thirty Years War. Chapter 7 explores his diplomatic role, actions, and lifestyle. It considers the difficulties he encountered in serving an English monarch pursuing a pro-Spanish foreign policy unpopular with a majority of his subjects, while cultivating good relations with an inexperienced French monarch facing internal opposition from his politically ambitious mother, rebellious nobility, and a discontented Protestant minority. It looks at Herbert’s reinvigoration of his noble and princely contacts in France and other European states and his relations with princes, ministers, and fellow diplomats. It focuses upon his determination to maximize his status and dignity when representing James I in the renewal of the oath of alliance with France, his energetic but unofficial support for the elector and electress palatine when they accepted the Bohemian Crown and triggered European-wide war, and his robust defence of French Protestants. It emphasizes the quality of his diplomatic reports and the success of his diplomatic networking and intelligence gathering. It examines his controversial exchanges with Louis XIII, and the royal favourite, the duke of Luynes, when, on the direct instruction of James I, he criticized the French king’s use of military force to suppress French Protestantism in south-west France during 1620 to 1621.
