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THE CAPUCHIN MISSION TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 229' .since the year 1617 74 • When The MacDonald of Clanranald wrote to Nugent in April 1618, encouraging the development of the Capuchin Mission to Scotland, he stated that James I and his advisers held the Capuchins in high esteem 75 • There was a belief current among the friars that Anne of Denmark, J ames's wife, who was supposed to have died a Catholic in 1619, had been attended in her last moments by a Capuchin missionary in England 76 • This reflects their wishes rather than the historical reality. When Nugent wrote from Brussels to Cardinal Barberini on 18 November 1622 he declared that the king of England was well-disposed towards the English Catholics 77 • He mentioned that he had already visited Trumbull on a few occasions, and had been encouraged by him to write to King James on behalf of his Catholic subjects. The visits of the Capuchin, Alessandro d'Ales, to London as a papal agent during the years 1622-1623 were welcomed by the king who hoped to drive a bargain with the Holy See by improving the lot of English Catholics in return for the restitution of the Palatinate to his son-in-law, Frederick V. The prince of Wales had several friendly religious discussions with a group of Capuchin friars during his romantic but fruitless visit to the Spanish court in 1623, and is supposed to have given one of them, Zacharias Boverio da Saluzzo, a standing invitation to visit him in England 78 • James I was aware of the considerable power exercised by two Capuchins in the diplomatic sphere - Giacinto da Casale on behalf of the papacy in German affairs, and Joseph of Paris ·as a colleague of Richelieu in France. Moreover, as far as James was concerned the Capuchins were innocent of the sinister motives and methods attri– buted to the Jesuits. It was not surprising therefore that James expressed himself as willing to treat personally with Nugent about the restoration of the Palatinate to Frederick V, or at least to his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of James. The details of the negotiations preceding Nugent's intended visit to James have been told elsewhere 79 • Agreement about the visit had almost been reached when there was 74 See MARTIN, Nugent, 207. 75 Cited in O'CONNELL, Hist.Miss., 196. 7 0 ARCHBOLD, Hist.fr.Cap., 133. For the question of Queen Anne's alleged conversion to Catholicism see Albion, op. cit., 194. 77 APP, Scritt.rif.cong.gen., 294, 39r. 78 ALBION, op. cit., 33-34. For Charles's invitation to Boverio see ARCHBOLD, Evangel.Fruict,. 7, 406-407. In 1633 Boverio, Alessandro d'Ales and two other Capuchins again attempted to· convert Charles to Catholicism; sec P. Hucms, The conversion of Charles I, in Clergy Rev. 8(1934) 118-119. 79 MARTIN, Nugent, 204-214.