David Hume on James I’s attempt to use “soft power” to restore his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, to the lands he had lost in attempting to claim the throne of Bohemia, at the very beginning of the Thirty Years’ War:
[James] had entertained the notion, that, as his own justice and moderation had shone out so conspicuously throughout all these transactions, the whole house of Austria, though not awed by the power of England, would willingly, from mere respect to his virtue, submit themselves to so equitable an arbitration. He flattered himself, that, after he had formed an intimate connextion with the Spanish monarch, by means of his son’s marriage, the restitution of the Palatinate might be procured, from the motive alone of friendship and personal attachment. He perceived not, that his unactive virtue, the more it was extolled, the greater disregard was it exposed to.
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