land's death, in that month, he was one of the commissioners to whose hands the treasury was entrusted, and his conduct in this office led to a breach of his long standing friendship with Laud. The cause was Windebank's consistent support of Cottington over the soap monopoly and his opposition to the archbishop's endeavours to check the peculation and corruption rampant in high quarters.
Windebank's Roman catholic tendencies found vent in his negotiations with the papal agent, Gregorio Panzani, with whom he was appointed by Charles in December 1634 to discuss the possibility of a union between the Anglican and Roman churches. ‘Morally and intellectually timid, the secretary was thoroughly alarmed at the progress of puritanism, and looked anxiously about for a shelter against the storm, of which he could avail himself without an absolute surrender of all the ideas which he had imbibed in his childhood and youth. By the side of Portland and Cottington he shows to advantage. If he was a weak man, he was not without a certain honesty of purpose; and if he missed the way in his searchings after truth, it was at least truth that he sought, and not pelf in this world and exemption from punishment in the other’ (Gardiner, viii. 90). Anxious for the reunion of the churches, he thought it possible, were it not for jesuits and puritans, and suggested that the latter might be got rid of by sending them to the wars in Flanders. He proposed the despatch of a papal agent to reside with Queen Henrietta Maria, pointed out to Charles the advantage of having some one to excommunicate unruly subjects, and referred to the sacrilege committed by ‘that pig of a Henry VIII.’ Later on, in August 1639, he talked to Rossetti, Panzani's successor, ‘like a zealous catholic,’ and offered to give him any information of which he stood in need.
Meanwhile, in 1636, Juxon vainly endeavoured to effect a reconciliation between Laud and Windebank, and in July of the same year the secretary was in temporary disgrace. He was confined to his house in August for issuing an order for the conveyance of Spanish money to pay the Spanish army in the Netherlands, but was soon at liberty. In 1637 Charles sent him to the Spanish ambassador Oñate to propose one more secret and abortive treaty for the settlement of the palatinate difficulty, and in the same year he was engaged in an equally ineffectual attempt to induce Dutch fishermen to take out English licenses to fish in the Narrow Seas. In July 1638 he was one of the committee of the council consulted by Charles with regard to Scotland, and, like Arundel and Cottington, he voted for instant war. In May 1639 he was directed by the king to spread exaggerated reports as to the number of men at his disposal, and in June supported a scheme for compelling the city of London to contribute towards their equipment and maintenance. On 9 March 1639–40 he was returned to the Short parliament as member for Oxford University, and on 16 April he read to the house the Scots' letter to Louis XIII. In May he conveyed a letter from the queen to Rossetti, asking him to write to Rome for help in money and men; and even in June he saw no difficulty in collecting an army to fight the Scots. His unpopularity was so great that in the elections to the Long parliament even Oxford University preferred Sir Thomas Roe and John Selden, and Windebank found a seat at Corfe, for which he was returned on 22 Oct. He did not retain it long; for on 1 Dec. Glynne reported to the house that Windebank had signed numerous letters in favour of priests and jesuits, and Hyde declared that ‘it was not in the wit of man to save Windebank’ (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, i. 212; cf. Prynne, Popish Royal Favourite, 1643, p. 22, and Rome's Masterpiece, 1644, p. 33). The house drew up ten articles, and sent for Windebank to answer them. The messengers were told that he was ill in bed, and that night he fled with his nephew and secretary, Robert Read, to Queenborough, whence he made his way in an open shallop to Calais (Addit. MS. 29569, f. 336 b; Harl. MS. 379, f. 75; Letters of Em. Lit. Men, p. 364; for the articles see Lansd. MS. 493, f. 188, Harl. MS. 1219 art. 29, 1327 art. 34, and 1769 art. 3).
Windebank's flight was the subject of some contemporary satire. In the ‘Stage-player's Complaint’ Quick refers to ‘the times when my tongue have ranne as fast upon the scaene as a Windebankes pen over the ocean’ (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 61); and in a print by Glover to illustrate ‘Four fugitives meeting, or a Discourse amongst my lord Finch, Sir Francis Windebanke, sir John Sucklin, and Doctor Roane’ (London, 1641, 4to, Brit. Mus.), Windebank is represented with a pen behind his ear. He was coupled with Laud in popular hatred, and in a ballad against the pair is described as ‘the subtle whirly Windebank’ (ib. 2nd ser. x. 110; cf. Cat. Brit. Mus. Satiric Prints).
From Calais Windebank wrote an eloquent appeal for compassion to Christopher,
