A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

by Leopold von Ranke

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.