In Parliament these views were not predominant, as may be inferred from the fact that Henry Martin (who had been the first to express decidedly anti-royalist sentiments—he had said that it was better for one family to perish than many—and had in consequence been driven from Parliament) in January 1646 ventured to return thither. But there was still a considerable Presbyterian party in the Lower House, which had been not a little strengthened by the result of the supplementary elections held in the autumn of 1645[441]. In the Upper House the Lords, who saw themselves slighted by the transformation of the army, were inclined the same way: both foresaw their own ruin if the Independents became entirely masters. Still they calculated on being able to withstand them: they had on their side the words of the treaties, and the interests of the Scots, against whom the Independents were specially hostile. The Scots greeted the manifestation in the city with indescribable satisfaction: the Scottish Parliament entered into direct communication with it; for the English Parliament, it was said, notoriously can do nothing without the capital. A.D. 1646. One of the Scottish clergy exclaimed, that after God he relied most on the capital of England.
But while a numerous party in Parliament, the city, and the Scots were united against the Independents, who on their side were equally well represented in Parliament, and controlled the army, men’s eyes turned back to the King in a new fashion. Although without any practical power, the King could still, through the authority of his name, which operated as a seal of legality, throw into the scale a considerable weight in favour of the party which he supported.
But how, it will be asked, could he possibly think of drawing nearer to the Independent party, which was as anti-royalist as it could be? A letter sent from Oxford to Henry Vane in March 1646, with the King’s knowledge, to a certain extent explains this[442]. It sought to convince him that he would gain nothing by totally overthrowing the King: the sole result would be the ruin of England at home and abroad. The King wished at that time to come to London, in order to deal in person with the Parliament. After his appeal to arms had failed, he thought that he should be able to return to much the same relations as had subsisted before he quitted Whitehall in the beginning of 1642. The most difficult point of the negotiations to be expected obviously lay in the Covenanting demands of the Presbyterians in league with Scotland; and in order to have any support against them, the King needed the aid of the Independents. He appears to have believed that their chief object was to obtain religious independence for their congregations; and this should be for ever assured through his authority; in alliance with them he would establish freedom of conscience for them and for himself[443]. And though they had once formed a league with the Presbyterians against the A.D. 1646. Episcopalian system, they now seemed not averse to enter into a similar one with the King against the Presbyterians. There were Independent influences at work about the King and even about the Queen. With the latter they were furthered chiefly by Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland. The Scots and Presbyterians were so much alarmed that they claimed the influence of the French government with the Queen on their behalf.
We return to the dealings of the French government with English affairs. The troubles in England had been of indescribable advantage to France, by allowing her free scope on the Continent: during this period the French in alliance with Sweden had done serious mischief to the strength of the house of Austria in Germany, and through the risings in Portugal and Catalonia, to the Spanish monarchy also: their power at this moment girdled the world. After long hesitation, and as a last resource against utter destruction, Charles I and his consort offered to the French court an offensive and defensive alliance; and Mazarin, who now governed the Regent in relation to foreign affairs as completely as ever Richelieu had done, was inclined to assent: but he would not take part with Charles I in his domestic affairs; he had recalled one of the plenipotentiaries sent to England, Grecy, because he had connected himself too closely with the King, and awakened mistrust of France in Parliament. When he sent over Sabran, with whom we are acquainted, in the spring of 1644, he instructed him before making any further league with the King to bring about a reconciliation between him and the Parliament, on the supposition that the equilibrium between the two, on which the due observance of the laws depended, would thus be maintained. He was to support the just claims of Charles I, but was not to help to make him monarch and lord of England[444].
Charles I had never any sympathy with Spain: the house A.D. 1645. of Braganza, under which Portugal was separated from the Spanish monarchy, found support from him, and sought, like the house of Orange, to obtain through him a dynastic alliance: the Portuguese ambassador managed his correspondence with his wife. Still it appeared to the French that in the struggle between France and Spain he leant rather to the Spanish side: they mistrusted the presence in his council of Bristol and Digby, who had long been known as representatives of the Spanish interest. All the less were they disposed to contribute to the full restoration of his power, so as to enable him possibly in the future to be troublesome to them.
It is obvious that Sabran, who acted according to these instructions, could effect but little. Apart from the practical difficulties—for a full recognition of Parliament must have preceded any negotiation—he could not win the confidence of either party. Charles I observed with astonishment that the ambassador, from whom he expected the most active support to his cause, and an unequivocal declaration in his favour, assumed the attitude of a neutral[445]: he requested the Queen to apply in France for his recall. On the other side, Parliament thought that Sabran encouraged the King in his resistance, which was actually true at least in relation to the religious question. Sabran was commissioned also to deal with the Scots; he was to warn them against too close a connexion with England, since they would in that way gradually become a province of the neighbouring country, and endanger their old alliance with France. The Scots replied that their view rather was to strengthen that alliance, and by means of their union with England to bring that kingdom also to join it: if an understanding between the King and the two Parliaments could be achieved, he would himself announce this alliance. They suggested the prospect that they themselves, on the strength of their old treaties, and the English with them, in agreement with France, would take part in the war in Germany, primarily for the recovery of the Palatinate—an undertaking which could not fail to gain them a great body of A.D. 1645. allies in Germany[446]. It is plain that this implied no opposition to the French schemes, but is rather a development of them. The Scots assumed that they would retain the upper hand in England. The connexion between France and Scotland seemed to both parties equally desirable.
The rise of the Independents contributed to the same result. The French government was horrified at the idea of their obtaining the superiority and changing England into a republic. Such a state would be mightier than the strongest kingdom: for as in republics all contribute to the common resolutions, so every one strives his utmost to carry them out. And if then the English republic should unite with that of the Netherlands, they would form a power quite irresistible, especially at sea[447]. Moreover so successful a rebellion would afford a bad example to other countries, and might easily lead them to imitate it. They durst not let them attain their end.
In the summer of 1645 we find Montereuil in London, resuming all the connexions which Bellièvre had formed, and he himself had extended: he renewed the closest intercourse with Lord Holland. Holland remarked that the King had entered into a kind of correspondence with the Independents, as believing that their views could never be carried out, and that friendly relations with them would be useful against the Presbyterians; but how much better would it have been for him to come to an agreement with the latter. For the views of the Independents pointed to complete equality in both Church and State: it was their purpose to destroy the very name of King of England: while it was the wish of the Scots, and of the better part of the English, to save the royal authority, only under limitations which were certainly hard, but were based on the old laws. He thought that it could not go against the King’s conscience to acknowledge the Presbyterian form of church, which approached far more nearly than did that of the Independents to the episcopal form, inasmuch A.D. 1646. as it made some church control and subordination possible. He requested that the influence of France might be used to bring the King round to an understanding with the Scots and Presbyterians: moreover he himself hoped thereby to regain the favour of the King and Queen. Montereuil said that he had instructions to assure him that his leading would be followed in this respect, and that by bringing about such an understanding he would earn immortal fame, and in the future be the first man in England[448].
It was actually to Holland that the idea first occurred that the King should retire to the Scottish army: so long as the King in any way kept the field, he had thought of other expedients; but when Bristol surrendered, and that defeat had been sustained near Chester, he saw no other means of resisting the Independents save by throwing the King into the arms of the Scots[449]. There he would find support enough to compel the Independents to accept endurable terms.
It is obvious that this fully suited the French policy. It seemed the best means of bringing about that connexion between the English Presbyterians, the Scots, and the King, by which not only the supremacy of the Independents might be hindered, but also grand prospects might be opened for the domination of France in Europe. A negotiation was begun, which by the manner in which it succeeded, and yet at the same time did not succeed, exercised an important influence over subsequent events.