The king, Clarendon tells us (438), pretended that the anger of parliament was such, and their power too, as it was not in his power to save him. The fallen minister desired him not to fear the power of parliament, "which was more or less, or nothing, as he pleased to make it." So preposterous as well as unconstitutional a way of talking could not but aggravate his unpopularity with that great body he pretended to contemn.
[636] State Trials, vi. 318; Parl. Hist.
[637] Ludlow, iii. 118, 165 et post; Clarendon's Life, 290; Burnet, 226; Œuvres de Louis XIV. ii. 204.
[638] Harris's Lives, v. 28; Biogr. Brit. art. Harrington; Life of James, 396; Somers Tracts, vii. 530, 534.
[639] See Kennet's Register, 757; Ralph, 78 et post; Harris's Lives, v. 182, for proofs of this.
[640] Mem. of Hutchinson, 303. It seems, however, that he was suspected of some concern with an intended rising in 1663, though nothing was proved against him. Miscellanea Aulica, 319.
[641] Life of Clarendon, 424. Pepys says, the parliament was called together "against the Duke of York's mind flatly, who did rather advise the king to raise money as he pleased; and against the chancellor, who told the king that Queen Elizabeth did do all her business in 1588 without calling a parliament, and so might he do for anything he saw." June 25, 1667. He probably got this from his friend Sir W. Coventry.
[642] Ralph, 78, etc. The overture came from Clarendon, the French having no expectation of it. The worst was that, just before, he had dwelt in a speech to parliament on the importance of Dunkirk. This was on May 19, 1662. It appears by Louis XIV.'s own account, which certainly does not tally with some other authorities, that Dunkirk had been so great an object with Cromwell, that it was the stipulated price of the English alliance. Louis, however, was vexed at this, and determined to recover it at any price: il est certain que je ne pouvois trop donner pour racheter Dunkerque. He sent d'Estrades accordingly to England in 1661, directing him to make this his great object. Charles told the ambassador that Spain had made him great offers, but he would rather treat with France. Louis was delighted at this; and though the sum asked was considerable, 5,000,000 livres, he would not break off, but finally concluded the treaty for 4,000,000, payable in three years; nay, saved 500,000 without its being found out by the English, for a banker having offered them prompt payment at this discount, they gladly accepted it; but this banker was a person employed by Louis himself, who had the money ready. He had the greatest anxiety about this affair; for the city of London deputed the lord mayor to offer any sum so that Dunkirk might not be alienated. Œuvres de Louis XIV. i. 167. If this be altogether correct, the King of France did not fancy he had made so bad a bargain; and indeed, with his projects, if he had the money to spare, he could not think so. Compare the Mémoires d'Estrades, and the supplement to the third volume of Clarendon State Papers. The historians are of no value, except as they copy from some of these original testimonies.
[643] Life of Clar. 78; Life of James, 393.
[644] See Supplement to third volume of Clarendon State Papers, for abundant evidence of the close connection between the courts of France and England. The former offered bribes to Lord Clarendon so frequently and unceremoniously, that one is disposed to think he did not show so much indignation at the first overture as he ought to have done. See pp. 1, 4, 13. The aim of Louis was to effect the match with Catharine. Spain would have given a great portion with any protestant princess, in order to break it. Clarendon asked, on his master's account, for £50,000, to avoid application to parliament. P. 4. The French offered a secret loan, or subsidy perhaps, of 2,000,000 livres for the succour of Portugal. This was accepted by Clarendon (p. 15); but I do not find anything more about it.