FOOTNOTES:
[111] I have taken the description of these contending motives from an essay entitled, Révolte des Écossais (Biblioth. imp. at Paris, Melanges Harlay 218), with the inscription: ‘fait deux mois après la révolte d’Écosse’—apparently from the pen of a French Catholic who was closely connected with the English Court.
[112] Strafford Letters ii. 250.
[113] John Spalding: Memorials of the trubles of England and Scotland, i. 77, gives a very detailed account. He knew of ‘ane clandestine band drawn up and subscrivit secretly between the malcontents, or rather malignantis of Scotland and England, that eche one should concur and assist utheris, while they gat their willis both in church and policie, and to bring both kingdomes under a reformed religion, and to that effect to root out the bischopis of both kingdomes crop and root, quairby His Majesty should loiss ane of his trie estatis: and likevayes that they sould draw the King to dispenss with diverss pointis of his royall prerogative.’
[114] Cuneo, Dec. 18, 1637: ‘Io non contraverro mai ad alcuna di queste conditioni che voi pretendete, ma con vostra buona licenza, io voglio mostrare essere di quella religione che professo. So che il papa mi vorebbe altrimente che sono.’
[115] G. Giustiniano, Oct. 1: ‘Avanzate le loro istanze nel pretendere che anche in questo regno si chiami il parlamento per unitamente dare la miglior forma al governo.’
[116] As early as September 1637 the Venetian ambassador speaks of the ‘pericolo evidente che s’estenda la sollevatione anche per questo regno, dove i popoli non meno che gli Scocesi avidi si mostrano dell’ occasione di sottrarsi al giogo a cui poco a poco si sono universalmente piegati.’
[117] Compare ‘A design to extricate His Majesty out of these present troubles with the Scots,’ in Clarendon Papers ii.
[118] Chemnitz, Schwedischer Krieg i. 43.
[119] The pass given to Lesley by Charles I extends over a year (May 1637-38). In a Venetian report of April 1638 it is stated that Lesley had taken leave of the King in order to go to Scotland and from thence to Pomerania into the Swedish service. In that case Rothes must have induced him to remain behind.
[120] ‘To help their bested mother church and country, they have deserted their charges abroad to their great loss, which they knew she was never able to make up.’ Baillie, Sept. 1639, i. 223.
[121] ‘They are a people that can live of nothing, and we that can want nothing.’ Countess of Westmoreland to Windebank: Hardwicke Papers ii. 129.
[122] Depêche de Bellièvre, 12 Mai: ‘Les seigneurs qui étoient à York s’étoient déjà assemblés pour voir ce qu’il il y auroit à faire en ce rencontre, et avoient été à trouver le comte d’Arundel, qui est le premier, pour porter la parole.’
[123] Sir Henry Devick’s account of this conference in Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton 133. Although it there appears to have taken place later than the application to the King, yet it must have preceded it. The application was made in consequence of the conference.
[124] Pacification of Berwick. Hardwicke Papers ii. 241.
[125] Giustiniano July 1-8, 1639.
CHAPTER II.
RELATIONS OF THE ENGLISH COURT WITH THE COURT AND POLICY OF FRANCE.
Let us now once more direct our close attention to the relations between England and France, which at that time, as they had almost always done, determined the general course of European policy.
In July 1637 the two powers, between which, notwithstanding the above-mentioned objections on the part of Wentworth, negotiations had always been going on, came to an agreement about the articles of an alliance for mutual assistance, which opened a wide prospect for the general relations of Europe, especially with regard to Germany[126].
By this agreement they combined in proposing to restore the Estates of the German Empire, which had been overpowered by the house of Austria, and especially the Palatine house, to those possessions and rights which they had enjoyed before the war. The King of England pledged himself that he would not permit either money or the necessaries of war to be supplied in future to the Austro-Spanish house, but on the contrary, that he would equip a fleet which should entirely prevent any transport of the kind: that he would never again allow the Spaniards to enlist soldiers in his dominions, but that he would give this permission to the French. In return the King of France promised not to conclude peace either with the German or with the Spanish line of the house of Austria without the consent of the King of England, and A.D. 1637. above all not to do so unless the complete restoration of the Palatinate had been obtained. In order to achieve this end, their allies, Holland and Sweden, were to be invited, in common with the two Kings, to lay before the house of Austria and the Duke of Bavaria conditions for a general agreement, and were to enforce these by arms if they were not accepted within a month. The two Kings were then to sanction any kind of enterprise on the part of their subjects against the possessions of the crown of Spain in America, in the East Indies, or in Europe: they were to cut off the communications of Spain with the distant parts of the world, as well as with Flanders and Germany; and they were to settle beforehand how to deal with the conquests which they hoped to make in the Spanish Netherlands.
On the last point negotiations had not yet led to any agreement. Charles I had demanded that if Dunkirk, or other places in the Netherlands, were conquered, they should then be handed over as a pledge to his nephews, the Princes Palatine. The French, on the contrary, adhered to their intention of erecting in the conquered Netherlands either a Catholic republic, or a government under the common sovereignty of the allies, like the bailiwicks in Switzerland. In the further progress of the negotiations Charles I expressed himself at last not disinclined to assent to a government in the form of a common sovereignty. All points in the agreement were to be again deliberated on in a congress of the powers at Hamburg, and to be there brought to a settlement.
Thus matters were settled after long negotiation. When we read the articles it is hard not to believe that a powerful joint effort for restoring the former condition of affairs was to be made without delay.
A closer consideration of the circumstances however shows beforehand that on neither side was there a decided intention of making such an effort.
The French were convinced that Charles I wished for the continuance of the war between France and Spain in order that meanwhile he might revive his naval power, recover his lost reputation, and enrich his country; but that he was so fettered by the profitable relation which he secretly maintained with A.D. 1638. the Spaniards that he would never proceed boldly to fight for the interests of the Palatinate: that, if he now seemed inclined for an agreement with France, he was only trying to induce the house of Austria by arousing anxiety as to his alliance, to make some trivial concessions to his nephews with which he would be content. The obligation of keeping up a fleet on the coasts, which Charles undertook by the treaty, was considered by the French far too contemptible considering the greatness of the cause which the two powers upheld.
Why then, we may ask, did the circumspect Cardinal Richelieu consent to this alliance? His anxieties were the reason for his conduct: he wished to keep King Charles from allying himself more closely with the house of Austria. He put off the definitive conclusion of the treaty until the conference at Hamburg, because he foresaw that it would encounter obstacles there and be delayed. In the summer of 1637 the articles had been laid down: in the autumn of 1637 Richelieu gave to Bellièvre, the President of the Parliament, who went as ambassador to England, instructions not indeed to conclude anything, for this was far from his intention, but only to keep Charles I in the belief that France wished for the conclusion of the treaty, and that she would promote it at Hamburg. Meanwhile he was to induce that sovereign to throw more obstacles in the way of intercourse between Spain and the Netherlands[127]. In February 1638 the Council of State, which worked under Richelieu’s directions, once more considered the treaty. Father Joseph, who sat in this council, proposed to insert the condition that the King of England should employ his ships not only for the protection of his own coasts, but for the attack of the coasts of the Spanish Netherlands, or of the Spanish peninsula[128]. The other members agreed, but went a step further still: they demanded that a joint attack should be made upon some place or other in the Netherlands, to be more A.D. 1638. precisely determined by and by: they thought that it was in the highest degree unjust that England should not support the French, and yet should wish to prevent them from conquering Dunkirk for instance. They thought, moreover, that any share in governing the conquered territory after the fashion of the Swiss bailiwicks could be allowed to England only if that power itself took an active share in the conquest. But however much stress the French laid upon this co-operation, they nevertheless also thought right not to break off negotiations, if Charles I should still be inclined again to defer his answer.
But if we ask what views Charles I really cherished, it is plain that he would never have consented to engage in direct hostilities against the strong places in the Netherlands. He might possibly have allowed an attack to be made by the Dutch and French, supposing that he were to have a share in the government of the conquered places, but he would never have taken part in such an attack. In the summer of 1637, whilst he was acceding to the preliminary stipulations with France, the Spaniards made advances to him on the other side, and, to say the least, he did not reject their overtures. He treated the Spanish court at all times with the greatest respect. In 1638 the Elector Palatine had been placed in a position to appear in some force in Westphalia: the King of England had assurances given to the Spaniards that this was not his doing, although on the other hand he was not opposed to it; but that he looked upon it as an exclusively German affair, which had no reference to the Spanish crown. He assured them that his wishes were only directed to the restoration of general peace in Christendom, in which every one should again enjoy his own.
Cardinal Richelieu may have been quite right in his opinion that the main object of the King of England in his stipulations with France was to compel the Spaniards to show greater compliance in the affair of the Palatinate than had been displayed at the time of Arundel’s mission[129]. But that A.D. 1638. however was not the only reason why the projected agreement could not be executed. During the negotiations of the allies as to the agreement on proposals to be made to the house of Austria, England, as it had intimated to the Spaniards, expressed the opinion that each one ought to have his own, and therefore that not only the Palatinate, but everything else which had been taken from its rightful owner, must be given up. Cardinal Richelieu was agitated by this proposal, for he thought that the house of Austria might well accede to it, but that it was impossible for France and for Sweden to do so; and that the consequence of the negotiations would be that they would lose England as their ally, whom they had hoped to gain[130].
The negotiations underwent fluctuations which were often of a petty character. Neither side was altogether in earnest in them: but notwithstanding these uncertainties and the momentary complications which crossed them, the great interests at stake and the opposition between them came under discussion. The opposition arose from the dislike of Charles I to allow either the acquisition of Lorraine by France or the exclusive occupation of the strongholds in the Netherlands by the arms of France and Holland, without any advantage or participation on his part, and his equal dislike to the establishment of the Swedes in Pomerania. His wishes and, in regard to the Palatinate, his interests also were engaged in bringing about the restoration of the old distribution of territory in the German empire, not merely however with reference to the Princes and the estates which had been injured by Austria and Bavaria, but with reference to those also which had suffered from Sweden and France. This was a scheme which even at the present day might awaken a certain feeling of sympathy for King Charles, especially in Germany: had it been carried out, the maintenance of the balance of power in A.D. 1638. Europe would still have been possible. But for that object far other efforts would have been needed than those which he could make, and far other resources than those which he could wield, but above all an energetic and always decided policy. The first result was that even the suggestion of those ideas in France, where the very designs were entertained which he wished to defeat, made the conclusion of the projected treaty impossible.
The political difference was aggravated by personal misunderstandings springing from those divisions which at that time were agitating the court and kingdom of France. It is indispensable in this place to bestow a word upon them.
The marriage of Charles I with a French princess had been desired on the part of the English in the year 1624, because they thought by this means to find support against other enemies: for the Queen-mother Mary de’ Medici, in concert with Cardinal Richelieu, still ruled at the French court, and there was every appearance that her dominion was likely long to endure. She herself had promoted the alliance because she wished to see her daughters the consorts of the neighbouring sovereigns of Spain, Piedmont, and England: she thought by this means to acquire a personal influence in all the important affairs of Europe.
But then followed an epoch in which the interests of the dynasty began to be thrown into the background by the interests of the state. While Mary de’ Medici sought to maintain the former in her dealings with Spain, and to be just to that country, in spite of all other disputed questions, she fell out with Richelieu, who supported the principle of the power of the sovereign, to which he wished to give effect in France, by the principle of the exclusive ascendancy of that country abroad, in favour of which he enlisted the sympathies of Louis XIII. The mother of the King was obliged to give way to his minister. The ‘Day of Dupes,’ though it appeared like an act of a comedy, was nevertheless a great event both for France herself, and for all her relations with other countries.
The quarrels between the Queen-mother and the Cardinal, her subsequent flight, and her attempt to return in conjunction A.D. 1629. with her second son and a strong native party, but at the same time with foreign aid as well, reacted upon those countries in the west and south, with whose reigning families she was allied, and on which she sought to support herself. Her daughters—who could wonder at it?—took part with their mother.
The English court had scarcely attained a certain measure of domestic repose, when it was acted upon by these divisions of the French court, and even drawn into them.
In the year 1629 the Marquess of Chateauneuf was ambassador-extraordinary at the English court. In public he attached himself to the policy of Richelieu, to whom he owed his advancement; and he sought to bring about an union between France and England against the house of Austria. He gave satisfaction to the Cardinal in the conduct of affairs, so that after the fall of Marillac the great seal was entrusted to him. But, as is mentioned in the instructions to the next French ambassador, Poigny, Chateauneuf at that time was already secretly labouring to poison the mind of the English Queen against the Cardinal[131]. He had succeeded in acquiring the confidence of Henrietta Maria: it was also affirmed that he had formed a connexion with the Chevalier Jars who stood, through the medium of a lady of the bedchamber, high in her favour, and that Henrietta had been estranged from the French policy of the time and from the Cardinal. But how much easier must it have become to produce an effect of this kind after the scenes at the Luxemburg and the flight from Compiègne? Chateauneuf carried on a correspondence which, being sometimes intercepted, revealed his unbounded ambition.
Chateauneuf at that time stood in intimate relation with the notorious, perhaps still beautiful, certainly seductive and ever excitable Madame de Chevreuse. We cannot say whether she, like many other French ladies of that time, formed connexions from inclination uncontrolled by any regard to prudence, or from policy directed to very different ends. A.D. 1633. As Marie de Rohan she had already a very important position in the world, through her descent from a family related to the house of Bourbon, and itself among the most distinguished in France. Owing to the influence of her first husband, the Constable Luynes, the favourite of Louis XIII, she was appointed Mistress of the Household to the young queen Anne, whose favour she completely won as she cheered her otherwise melancholy days. After the early death of the Constable she married, while still quite young, the Duke of Chevreuse, son of the greatest of the antagonists of Henry IV, that Henry of Guise who was murdered at Blois. She thus became a member of the house of Lorraine, which at that time was endangered by Richelieu’s policy, and formed the centre of the European political combinations which countermined him. It was the chief ambition of the Duchess of Chevreuse to oppose the Cardinal, just because he was so powerful and was daily becoming more so, and because he imposed upon each and every one his own will as law. Her rank, her position, her connexions, her personal charms, resistless to the young and even to older men, gave her a variety of constantly fresh means of fomenting this opposition. She had already had the principal share in the conspiracy of Ornano: the unfortunate Chalais fell a victim to her; for no one could approach her without suffering for the connexion. At that time the Keeper of the Great Seal had the highest place in her regard, a man of adroitness and of great attainment, of industry and ability, who seemed well fitted to become the successor of the Cardinal, if he should once be overthrown. Richelieu accuses him of having betrayed to the lady the decisions of the Council, which had been directed against Lorraine. And as the Duchess of Chevreuse also had relations with the Queen of England, whom she had known from her youth, these machinations extended even across the Channel[132]. The attention of Richelieu was called by people in England to the efforts made to overthrow him, and to put Chateauneuf in his A.D. 1633. place. Queen Henrietta was said to have given out ‘that Chateauneuf, who was her friend, and had no share in the pernicious designs of the Cardinal, would manage the affairs of France better than he.’ Even in matters of religion Chateauneuf preferred to oppose the views of the Cardinal. But these projects were not restricted in their application to the administration of France. We have mentioned the various enmities which the Lord Treasurer Weston had to encounter at the English court. They originated to a great extent with the Queen, who would have wished to bring her friend the Earl of Holland, the friend of Chateauneuf, to the head of affairs[133]. Richelieu and Weston, although in other respects much unlike, yet resembled one another in this:—they both had no other interest in view than the extension of the royal power, which put out of sight all personal considerations. It was intended to overthrow them both, and to replace them by more accessible men, who belonged to a different system. With this object was connected the design of restoring the Queen-mother in France, and with her the line of policy common to the Austro-Spanish party and to that of Lorraine.
In the midst of this net of political entanglements and intrigues King Charles remained calm and unconcerned. He took pains to hinder the threatened outbreak of factious violence, despite of which he knew how to support his minister.
In France such proceedings were taken as were usual at that time. Chateauneuf and Jars were arrested in February 1633: the former, whom his enemies wished still to spare, was sent to prison at Angoulême; against the latter criminal proceedings were instituted. He was condemned to death, reprieved A.D. 1637. only upon the scaffold, and then thrown into the Bastille. All their friends experienced a similar fate, except such as were able to save themselves by flight. Madame de Chevreuse was banished first to Dampierre; and as she sometimes came thence to Paris in order to see the Queen, she was sent before the end of a twelvemonth to Tours, where she spent four long years.
From that place, so far as the secrecy enjoined by her dangerous position allowed, she kept up a very extensive correspondence with friendly members of the various courts, and received messages from the Duke of Lorraine. In the year 1637 Richelieu came upon traces of the share which the consort of his sovereign took in these and similar combinations. But he had no mind to suffer any deviation from the policy to which he adhered, in any member of the court. Queen Anne had established a correspondence with the Cardinal-Infant, which she used to conduct by means of English agents in Paris and at the Hague. She was forced to confess her guilt, and was then pardoned, but only upon promising to renounce for ever all intercourse of this sort. Madame de Chevreuse, who knew that she was involved in this discovery, in order to avoid arrest, fled to Spain in the disguise of a young cavalier, as suited her bold and adventurous character.
The Queen of England, who had no share in these matters, sided at that time in her political leanings with France. The ambassadors report how sensible she was of every token of friendly feeling exhibited by her brother and the Cardinal, and how she at times even resisted proposals made by Spain[134]. After the death of Weston she acquired more importance, as the King exhibited a passionate and growing attachment to her, and it was thought that she would turn it to the advantage of France, if she were properly advised. In Bellièvre’s despatches it was said that the Queen was well disposed, but still had slight influence; and that nothing more must be desired of her than she herself thought expedient for maintaining the good understanding between the two crowns: A.D. 1637. that perhaps an opportunity would soon arise when she could do more[135]. The Cardinal thought it worth while to secure her good-will by fulfilling one of her most urgent requests. Nothing was nearer to her heart than the liberation of Jars, who had been thrown into the Bastille on her account. She made requests in his behalf through the diplomatic agent who attended to her especial business at the French court: she spoke to the French ambassador in London on the subject, and wrote to the Cardinal about it. Richelieu granted her request. One day in May 1638 Chavigny, one of the ministers employed under Richelieu, went to the Bastille and brought out Jars, in the first instance to the dwelling of the Queen’s agent, to whom he said that, at the command of the Cardinal, he delivered Jars into his hands; henceforth he was the prisoner no longer of the King of France, but of the Queen of England, and she might deal with him according to her pleasure[136]. It would have been impossible to fulfil the wish of the Queen so as to confer a greater obligation on her. The way seemed opened for establishing the best personal understanding between the two courts and the two kingdoms, as it had already for some time been opened for establishing a cordial understanding politically by the plan of an alliance already referred to.
But meanwhile even in the personal relations between them a strong counteracting influence came into play.
As early as the autumn of 1637 intelligence had reached the French court that Mary de’ Medici, the mother of the King, weary of her residence at Brussels, which led to no result in her favour, wished now to visit England. The French ministers thought the matter important enough for them to call the attention of the King of England to the untoward consequences that might arise from it. They said to him that the whole A.D. 1637. world knew that the Queen-mother cherished views favourable to Spain: that if she found a reception at the court of the King of England, people would conclude that the latter was not seriously in earnest about the alliance with France. They added that Charles I would not be able any more than others to succeed in reconciling mother and son; if for no other reason, because Louis XIII had declined the mediation of his brother and of his brother-in-law the Duke of Savoy, and regarded the matter as exclusively his own affair; and moreover because he was convinced that the Queen-mother, if she returned, would, with her friends and adherents, only give trouble[137].
In England this expression of opinion awakened some displeasure. Charles I expressed himself surprised that any one should think that the Queen-mother could acquire so much influence over him as to shake him in his inclination in favour of France. He said that she doubtless did not even desire this: that he himself would not entertain the thought of mediating, were he not certain that the Queen-mother was resolved to think no more of what had occurred, and to throw herself unreservedly into the arms of her son through the mediation of the Cardinal[138].
It appears to have been the fact that the Queen-mother had decided to go to England mainly in order to take advantage of the friendly relations established between the two courts, and so to effect her return by means of the influence exerted by the one upon the other. But in France people regarded her project only as a design suggested by the Spaniards. As it had become clear to the latter that the Queen-mother could render them no kind of assistance so long as she lived away from France, the French thought that the Spaniards were desirous of procuring her return to France in order to avail themselves of her services; but that the French government could not allow itself to be so grossly deceived; that if A.D. 1638. it was as important to the Queen-mother as she affirmed to detach herself from the influence of the Spaniards, she had better return to her native place, where she might expect ample maintenance to be given her by the King her son.
At first the matter rested here. But Madame de Chevreuse coming from Spain made her appearance at the English court, long before the Queen moreover, early in 1638. As a great lady and a friend of the Queen she met with a very honourable reception, in which no expense was spared: the charges borne by the King every month of her stay were reckoned at a considerable sum[139]. To her old admirers, among whom Earl Holland was the greatest, new ones were added: every one sought her company; and she produced a fresh and cheerful excitement in the naturally grave court. This however did not prevent her from showing herself a strict Catholic in other respects, as we perceive from an attempt she made to convert Lord Holland. She inspired the Queen with the fatal thought of favouring Catholic tendencies in the education of her children: all her wishes and manœuvres were directed to the removal of the hindrances, which seemed to obstruct a close alliance between the English and Spanish courts: she made proposals for an union between the Princess Royal of England, who was still extremely young, and an Infant of Spain, without regarding the objections advanced against it on the ground of the experience of former times, which she jestingly set aside. She had paid especial attention to the Spanish ambassador Cardenas: the Papal envoy, Cuneo, relates that on one occasion she even borrowed his carriage from him in order to visit that ambassador without exciting remark[140]. Charles I had been angry with Cardenas on account of one of the ambassador’s reports which had come to his knowledge; Madame de Chevreuse succeeded in removing the misunderstanding, A.D. 1638. and in restoring friendly personal relations between them, which opened the door to further negotiations.
If Richelieu was inclined at that time to allow Madame de Chevreuse to return to France, and to promise her an entire indemnity for the past, his inclination may have been due to the material hindrances thrown in his way by her activity at a foreign court. That she was ever in earnest about the negotiations for her return may be doubted.
In October 1638 Mary de’ Medici found means to set out for England from Holland, where, out of regard for Richelieu, her residence was not altogether viewed with favour. It was only when she put to sea that she sent to announce her approach, adding however that she would turn back again if she were likely to cause embarrassment to her children. Queen Henrietta Maria in reality feared that the maternal authority would place restrictions on her freedom: but it also gave her great pleasure to see her mother again after so long a separation, and to show her hospitality in her exile; her husband also would not now offer any opposition, although the restless activity of the people who came with the Queen was distasteful to him[141]. The Queen-mother, who had a rough passage of seven days, was received with all the honour due to her rank and to the ties of relationship. Even in England she exhibited the self-respect which she maintained during her misfortunes. When the Privy Council paid her a visit, she did not even rise from her seat: the King was seen to speak to her only with head uncovered, although she was maintained by his kindness, which cost him no small sacrifice; the Queen took pleasure in the performance of filial duties. Mary de’ Medici also had a Spanish match in view: she is said even to have opened a negotiation for that object of her own accord, without being authorised by her son-in-law. Above all she clung to her purpose of using her residence in England to effect her return to France.
One day in December the French ambassador Bellièvre had had business at the royal palace. He was desirous of A.D. 1638. leaving, when he was detained by Lord Holland in one of the galleries, and after a short time the King and Queen of England with the Queen-mother came in through the very door by which he would have been obliged to withdraw. He had intentionally avoided paying her his respects, as all the other ambassadors had done: when she came nearer she now said to him that she had a word for his ear, and the King and Queen left her alone with him. She then assured him that, after so many painful experiences, she was of quite another mind from that in which she had formerly been when she left France: that she conjured the Cardinal to deliver her out of her misery, and not to leave her under the necessity of begging her bread: that she wished for nothing except to be near her son, and that she promised if near him to interfere in nothing: but that if this indulgence could not be obtained for the present, she wished to be allowed to remain anywhere else in France, and have a maintenance given her; that she would remove from the neighbourhood of her person all who were displeasing to the Cardinal, and would in all things do what he advised her[142]. Bellièvre in vain declared that his commission did not go so far as to allow him to listen to her; that he was merely ambassador at the court of the King of England. She replied that she knew that the French ambassadors were bound to report what was said to them, and that this was enough for her.
Cardinal Richelieu however had made up his mind never to allow her to return to France, and to give her a maintenance only if she would repair to Florence. There was no question of compassion with him.
The Queen of England remembered full well that her brother had forbidden her to interfere in any way in the affairs of the Queen-mother: but the unhappy plight of her mother, the general interest which she awakened at court, and her own confidence in herself, founded upon the respect which the power of her husband must procure for her, moved A.D. 1638. her notwithstanding to make an attempt to do something for her mother. After some time, as her first expression of opinion had no kind of effect, she sent one of her people, Henry Jermyn, who of them all perhaps stood highest in her confidence, to the French court in order to set on foot in France itself a negotiation for the Queen-mother’s return.
Bellièvre not only did not recommend the Queen’s proposals, but was even adverse to them.
There are everywhere petty motives of animosity which not seldom exercise an influence upon affairs: and here also this appears to have been the case. Bellièvre, a small but well-shaped man, still young, and of lively aspiring spirit, had special reasons for dissatisfaction. He was a member of a French family that belonged to the nobility of the long robe, and it was his ambition never to stand in the position of an inferior. He was annoyed that the honour of the tabouret, i.e. the privilege of being allowed to sit in the presence of the Queen, had not been conferred on his wife, although it had been conceded without hesitation to the Duchess of Chevreuse. The efforts and intrigues of this lady were therefore all the more obnoxious to him. He believed that she brought the King offers from the Spaniards which ran counter to those of the French: he pretended to know that she expressed her undisguised joy at losses which had overtaken the French in the field. On the whole it appeared to him that, under her influence and that of the Queen-mother, Queen Henrietta Maria herself had contracted an inclination for the policy of Spain, from which she had hitherto been free, and which gained ground also among her suite; not perhaps with Lord Holland, who continued true to French interests, but with the rest, from whom for that very reason Lord Holland was beginning to detach himself.
Bellièvre expressed his conviction that it would do no good to receive back the Queen-mother into France: he thought that, if she were replaced in exactly the same position which she had enjoyed before, she yet would never part with her advisers. He was of opinion, even with regard to the Queen of England, that it would not be of much use to give ear to her proposals. Certainly if they were declined the ministers A.D. 1639. of the Queen-mother would do everything to sever England from France: but even if her proposals were acceded to, the same men would for that very reason be so much the more completely masters of the English court, and would enforce their wishes on the Queen, and even on the King[143].
In consequence of this Jermyn not only found no opening for his proposals, but met with a bad reception generally. Queen Henrietta Maria made a jest of it, but nevertheless she was irritated. Among her friends she let it be known that she was treated in France as a daughter of the house, that is, without any respect, and with the contempt which had always been shown there towards England; but that some day she would be able to take her revenge. Among her friends Montague, who for love of her had become a Catholic, was regarded as the one who principally confirmed her in her views.
How long had people in France already waited for the day when the Queen of England would acquire influence over her husband! This came to pass for the first time in the course of the disputes with the Scots, after which a certain community of interest sprung up between the Episcopal Church and the English Catholics, both of whom had to expect their ruin from the rise of the Puritans. The Queen was useful to the King from her influence with the Catholics: cases had arisen in which her counsels had proved suited to the occasion: he began to listen to her. But when this period arrived, the Queen was no longer on the side of the French government. She felt affronted and rebuffed by the Cardinal: she thought him capable of allying himself with the Scots against England; and she espoused the cause of her mother with increasing warmth. In March 1639 the French ambassador expresses to his court his fears that the Queen of England, under the influence of the friends of the Queen-mother, A.D. 1639. would do everything which the latter might suggest to her against the interests of France. Many other opponents of Cardinal Richelieu also happened to be in England at that time;—Vieuville whom he had once overthrown, and De la Valette who had retired from France because he had allowed himself to be entangled in a plot against the Cardinal. Bellièvre reports that the latter was almost every day in the company of Madame de Chevreuse; that he had long conferences with the ministers of the Queen-mother, and on those occasions also saw the English Queen; that they all were in uninterrupted communication with the Spanish ambassador[144].
Already long before this time new projects of wide range had been spoken of, which were said to have been set afloat in England by means of the friends of the Queen-mother. At that time a Frenchman named Petit, who possessed property in Lorraine, and was engaged in chemical researches in London, paid a visit to the French ambassador, and told him that they had embraced the design of hazarding an attack upon Brittany: he said that they had selected a place (of which he did not mention the name), which might be captured with little trouble, and maintained without difficulty. Moreover people in France spoke of an impending alteration in the government on the death of the Cardinal, who was very weak and sickly. Vieuville said to the Duchess of Chevreuse that she would be wrong if she did not take care to be on the spot in France at the moment when such a change occurred. People expected everything from the preference Queen Anne felt for her.
These hostile tendencies, which certainly were primarily of a personal character, but which nevertheless penetrated deeply into politics, now fell in with those differences in the conduct of political affairs which allowed no hope of union.
However seriously Charles I on his part might affirm that he would not estrange himself from France, yet Bellièvre nevertheless adhered to the opinion that this was quite A.D. 1639. possible, nay probable. He knew that the Queen, so far as could be seen, was an enemy of France; that many members of the Privy Council were in the pay of Spain and drew pensions from that power; that many others, who had hitherto been prevented by regard for the Queen from speaking against France, were now on the contrary invited to do so by her change of feeling: and that nothing less could be expected than that even the King would allow himself to be hurried into hostility to France.
Under these circumstances people in France were very far from expecting King Charles to come into the French and Swedish alliance in consequence of the Pacification of Berwick. On the contrary this agreement seemed to constitute a danger, as it untied the hands of the King of England. It cannot be doubted that alliances between the Scots and Cardinal Richelieu had already been formed: they were carried on through his almoner Chambres. They may have inspired the Scots with a general feeling of courage, owing to the support which was held out to them in consequence; but they could hardly have had much effect upon the steps which they actually took, if only because the medium of communication was a zealous Catholic. But now Bellièvre advised his employers to espouse the cause of the Scots with a very definite political aim. He considered that the old alliance between France and Scotland ought to be renewed, and the King of England hindered from ever embarking on hostilities against France without the fear arising in his mind that he would have the Scots against him. Bellièvre thought that the negotiations which were being carried on between Charles I and the Scottish Parliament ought to be made use of and directed towards the attainment of this object[145].