80 CHAPTER VII. CONDITION OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF FRANCE IV. Conduct of towards Spain. Relative strength of BOOK WE have seen in how lofty a style Cromwel conducted himself towards foreign powers, Holland, 1654. and Denmark, and Portugal, and how beneficially Cromwel he concluded a treaty with Sweden. We are France and now to consider what was the tenour of his policy towards the states of the first class, that came nearest in contact with our own, France and Spain. France and Spain were not then what these pow- they have appeared in more modern times. France was just emerging out of a long minority, in the beginning of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth; she had been vexed with the wars of the Fronde, and the bitter and vehement contentions of her principal nobility. The court had been once and again driven into exile from the metropolis. Though France was superior in dimensions to Spain, and her provinces greatly more ers. VII. 1654. populous, she did not assume a formidable atti- CHAP. tude, and was far from promising that haughty and overwhelming character in which she appeared in a more advanced period of the reign of her present sovereign. Spain on the contrary retained much of the reputation she had acquired under Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second. She possessed all the riches of the new world, and her resources were supposed to be inexhaustible. Nevertheless she had in her secretly the seeds of decay. She had lost a good part of the Netherlands; she had lost Portugal. The government of Philip the Third, and still more of Philip the Fourth, was essentially feeble. English Such as these two countries were however, Flourish. Cromwel appeared to play with them as he tion of the ing condipleased, and to be in no haste to come to a perfect navy. understanding with either. He went on strengthening his navy, first, as if he did not intend to conclude the peace with Holland, and next, as if it had not been actually concluded. One of his principles of policy obviously was, to govern his discontented and impatient people, by the character he should assume, and the tone he should employ towards foreign powers. The state of England was not now, as it had been immediately after the death of Charles the First. Then all nations insulted us, and committed ravages on our commerce with impunity. Now they were taught, that a commonwealth, that had cast off IV. 1654. BOOK the line of its kings, could assert its authority in a higher tone than ever. The strength of our navy, and the vulnerableness of the neighbouring powers at sea, particularly favoured the views of Cromwel. Both France and Spain assiduously courted the smiles of the protector. France. The prime minister of France at this time was Policy of the court of Mazarine, an Italian, with all the subtleties of his country, a man of eminent talents, but at least as much distinguished by the cautiousness and timidity of his disposition. It was shortly after the rencontre in which Blake captured a whole squadron of Frenchmen, and by that means produced the surrender of Dunkirk to the Spaniard, that Bordeaux arrived in London as envoy from the court of France, to enter into negociation with the government of this country". But no sooner had Cromwel possessed himself of the supreme authority, than Mazarine resolved to court his favour with increased assiduity. He sent over De Baas, a confidential emissary, with the most ample professions of the readiness of the French government to banish the English royal family out of their dominions, and to enter into the strictest bonds of union with the newly established sovereign. At the same time Bordeaux received a commission to assume the character of ambassador; and it was even suggested, that, if the * See above, Vol. III, p. 398. b Journals, Dec. 14, 17, 21, 22, 1652. c Thurloe, Vol. II, p. 113. VII. 1654. English government judged him a person of not CHAP. sufficient importance to be received by them in that character, he should immediately be superseded by another person of higher station and rank d. Meanwhile the mind of Mazarine was in a state Versatility of the prime of great fluctuation and uncertainty. He did not minister. love Cromwel; but he exceedingly feared him. It was obvious that, if Charles the Second could be restored, close as his connection was with the court of France, infirm as his government must necessarily be, and his character being already established for idleness and dissipation, such an event must tend greatly to promote the aggrandisement of Louis; while on the other hand the imperious and able administration of Cromwel penetrated the cardinal with amazement and terror. Thus circumstanced, he eagerly listened to the representations of the exiled court. They told him, that nothing could be more precarious and uncertain than the government of the protector, that he was almost without friends, that the anabaptists deserted him, the republicans hated him, and the army was divided respecting him; while on the other hand the bulk of the English nation, the old royalists, and the presbyterians, looked with earnest impatience for the restoration of the house of Stuart. Struck with these views, Mazarine appears to have listened to the project of assassination, which was then in d BOOK IV. 1654. Energy and firmness of Cromwel. Account published by him of active progress. But Mazarine did not understand the character of the present government of England. Their activity was incessant; their eyes were every where; not the smallest motion of an enemy was hid from their observation. And here we are presented with a further instance of the magnanimity of Cromwel. He sent for De Baas; he confronted him with one of the conspirators; and, having heard him fully in his own vindication, at last overwhelmed him with the language of his indignation, and so dismissed him: De Baas's embassy was at an end. The conduct of Cromwel in thus civilly getting rid of a public minister, who under cover of that character had joined himself with conspirators to assassinate the first magistrate with whom he was sent to communicate, gained universal admiration. Meanwhile the protector did not fail to retaliate upon Charles for his sanguinary proclamation, the charac- and his concern in the plot which had just been Charles the defeated. In a True Account of the Late Bloody Conspiracy, published by special command, this ter of Second. prince is represented as one bedabbled in all Thurloe, Vol. II, p. 309, 336, 351, 352, 412. e Ibid, p. 379. Ibid, p. 437, 455. |