Grotius went to Ruel on the 14th of December[264], again to solicit the payment of what was due to Sweden. He found there a courier from the Marquis de St. Chaumont, who delivered to him some letters he had brought with him from the High Chancellor. Grotius suspected that they had been opened, for besides their being dirty, the Courier had been arrived near a month; and he gave very bad reasons both for the condition of the letters, and his not delivering them sooner; he said they had fallen into the sea; that he had been at Paris, but could not find Grotius's house; and that he had been since kept at Ruel. What made Grotius easy, was that these letters were written with so much circumspection, had they been intercepted, the reading of them would rather have been advantageous than hurtful to Sweden. The French Court's fears lest the Swedes should conclude a separate peace made the Ministers promise him speedy payment of the arrears of the subsidies: Bullion assured him that he would without delay advance three hundred thousand Francs at several small payments (which Grotius disliked) and that he had already given orders for paying other two hundred thousand Francs: Servien promised that France would make greater efforts next campaign, if Sweden would continue the war.
In the beginning of 1636[265] Grotius went to see the Cardinal, who complained bitterly that Grotius had written to Holland that the affairs of France were in a deplorable situation, and the French still on the point of making their peace. Grotius assured him it was a pure calumny: the Cardinal pretended that it was known to the French Ambassadors at the Hague. Grotius assured him these false reports owed their rise to the artifices of Pau and Aërsens his declared enemies, that Camerarius the Swedish Ambassador in Holland, with whom he corresponded by letters, would attest the contrary; that this report was probably occasioned by an article inserted in the Brussels Gazette, that his letters had been intercepted, representing France as in the greatest declension, of which he had never had a thought; and that this was done with design to make him lose the friendship of his patrons. He added, that he had forgot his Country; that indeed he wished its preservation on account of the friends and the small estate he had in it; but that he had given himself entirely to Sweden, and was not so ignorant, not to know how much it imported Sweden that whilst she was in arms the Dutch should continue the war; nor so dishonest, to give counsels contrary to the interest of Sweden and of the High Chancellor, to whom he owed every thing; and that if his Eminence would put it in his power to do some service to France, he would much more chearfully refute these calumnies by his actions, than by his words. The Cardinal resumed an air of serenity, said several obliging things, and assured him that for the future he would behave to him with more openness. He reconducted him a pretty way, politely excusing himself that he did not go farther lest he should be oppressed by the croud that wanted to speak to him.
[266]The Duke of Parma arriving about this time at Paris to negotiate with the Court of France, great difficulties arose with regard to the ceremonial. The Pope's Nuncios, Mazarin, and Bolognetti, and the other Ambassadors, would not visit him because they could not agree about the manner in which he should receive them: the English and Swedish Ambassadors did not even send their Coaches to meet him, because they knew that those of the Nuncios would take the precedence. The Duke of Weymar came to Paris in spring 1636. Grotius[267], who was extremely circumspect, was in doubt whether he should pay him the first visit: and before he determined, he wanted to see what the English Ambassador would do. The Duke sent him his compliments, and the Ambassadors coming to an agreement to wait first on that Prince[268], Grotius went to see him, and was extremely well received: the Duke returned his visit. As it was through the mediation of the Count d'Avaux that the truce of twenty-six years between Sweden and Poland was concluded, Queen Christina[269] ordered her Ambassador to return her thanks to the King of France. Grotius obtained an audience, April 17, 1636, at Chantilly, and gave an account of what passed at it in a letter to her Majesty, dated April 24[270]. Having presented to the King the Queen of Sweden's letter, his Majesty assured him, that he interested himself most sincerely in her Majesty's health and prosperity; that she might depend upon the constancy of these his sentiments; that he had had the conclusion of the war between Sweden and Poland the more at heart, as he hoped her Swedish Majesty, having no longer any differences with the Poles, would give all her attention to the affairs of Germany; that he already saw with pleasure his hopes had not been without foundation: that he would write to his Ministers to know how the payment of the subsidies stood; that he had always had a good opinion of D'Avaux and therefore employed him in affairs of importance, and intended to make farther use of his service. Grotius sent the High Chancellor[271] a copy of this letter to the Queen. He used to send her Majesty the substance of any affair of importance without descending to particulars, as Oxenstiern[272] had recommended to him.
He had an audience of Cardinal Richelieu[273] in the beginning of May, 1636: The affairs of the allies were in a good situation. His Eminence greatly extolled the High Chancellor: he said what he had done was not inferior to the exploits of the great Gustavus; that it was a kind of miracle that the Swedes, after being betrayed by their friends, and forced into a corner of Germany, should have been able in such a short time to penetrate into the heart of the Empire. He assured Grotius, that a part of the money due had been paid by St. Chaumont, and that in a little time there would not be one sol owing. Afterwards embracing the Swedish Ambassador with great cordiality, he begged of him in the name of polite learning, which they both professed to cultivate, to do all in his power for the advantage of the common cause, especially with the English: and, to efface the remembrance of the ill treatment Grotius had received, he told him with a smile, that the French were often fools in the opinion of other nations, but they soon recovered their right senses. This change in the Cardinal proceeded from the Queen of Sweden's approving Oxenstiern's nomination of Grotius to be Ambassador in France; from the confidence which the High Chancellor placed in him; from Pau's having lost his authority in Holland; and from the Prince of Orange's having spoken of him in terms of friendship. The Cardinal magnified the preparations made by France at sea, from which great things, he said, might be expected if the English would join: he wanted they should be given to understand that the French and Swedes would undertake to obtain the restitution of the Palatinate to Prince Charles Lewis the King of England's nephew, if the English would unite their forces with those of France and Sweden. He added that it was unjust in the English to claim the Empire of the sea, but that it would be improper for some time openly to dispute their pretensions, for fear of preventing their joining in the treaty, or on the other hand to acknowledge directly the right they assumed.
This was all that passed directly between Cardinal Richelieu and Grotius: they never conferred together afterwards. The Swedish Ambassador thought he should derogate from his dignity by visiting a Minister, who, because he was invested with the Purple, refused to give the upper hand to Ambassadors. He resolved therefore to see his Eminence no more, but to treat with the other Ministers.
The English were the first who disputed the privileges of the Cardinalship. Lord Scudamore, Ambassador in ordinary from England to France[274], would not see Cardinal Richelieu: he sent to tell him that he was expressly ordered to visit no one who assumed in his own house the precedency of the Ambassadors of Kings. The English had been induced to take this step by the representation of the Protestants, that to suffer a Cardinal to take the upper hand of an Ambassador was to acknowledge the Pope's dignity. Grotius informed the High Chancellor of this by a letter of the fourth of September, 1635, where he adds, "I say not this as if I thought the English ought to be imitated in every thing, but that we may avoid whatever might expose us to contempt: than which nothing, I am persuaded, can be of more prejudice to the interests of kings and kingdoms."
He continued, however, to see the Cardinal till the arrival of the Earl of Leicester, who came to Paris in spring 1636, as Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of England, with orders not to visit the Cardinal, because the British Court thought it indecent that Ambassadors should yield the precedence to Cardinals; and that it was even contrary to the ceremonial of the Court of Spain. "I commend, says Grotius writing to the High Chancellor[275], those who defend their rights: I dare not however imitate them without orders." He thought it most proper therefore not to visit the Cardinal till he knew the High Chancellor's intentions. Receiving no orders to continue his visits to him[276], he wholly left them off; and the Queen's Ministry thinking the crown of Sweden at least equal in dignity to that of England, approved of his conduct. Count d'Avaux was ordered to use his endeavours with the Swedish Ministry to write to Grotius that he should continue to visit the Cardinal as formerly: D'Avaux spoke of it to Salvius, a Privy-Councellor, and Chancellor of the Court, who was with him at Hamburg negotiating a new treaty. Salvius answered, that Grotius had received orders to conform to the Earl of Leicester's example; that it would be absurd that the Minister of such a King as yielded not the precedence to any other King, should yield it to a Minister; and, in fine, that the dignity of Cardinal was unknown in Sweden.
Grotius informs us in several of his letters, that the English were the first who refused to give the Cardinal the upper hand. He writes to the High Chancellor, "[277]Chavigni asked, as by chance, whether I would see the Cardinal? I answered, that since the English had ceased to visit him, I was ordered not to see him. I have in fact letters on that subject from Schmalz. I added, if the Earl of Leicester, who wished so well to the common cause, and greatly desired the Cardinal's friendship, should find an expedient to reconcile what is due to the dignity, of his King to that of the Cardinal, it would be an example for me to follow: but (continues Grotius) the Earl of Leicester has assured me that the King will not change his resolution: and I dare make no innovation without a new order." He writes to Muller[278], "I have no personal dealings with the Cardinal: the Regents of the kingdom must send me their orders if they would have me follow the example of the English. If they think it improper, they need only speak, it is mine to obey. I have no interest in the matter."
We have enlarged so much on this article, because Puffendorf, the author of Vindiciæ Grotianæ, and Father Bougeant have pretended[279] that the Earl of Leicester only followed Grotius's example, in refusing to give the upper hand to Cardinal Richelieu; which they would not have advanced had they read with attention the Ambassador's letters.
Grotius's steadiness in supporting the interest and dignity of the crown of Sweden rendered him most odious to the court of France. The Marquis de St. Chaumont was ordered to demand his recall. Oxenstiern, who knew that it was his great zeal for the service of the Queen his mistress that displeased the Cardinal, would not consent to it: he apprised Grotius of what was plotting against him, and the Swedish ambassador wrote him a long letter on this subject[280], in which he tells him that St. Chamount's demand proved how greatly the Courtiers were changed towards him, for he had been extremely well received by the King at his last audience; Madam de Combalet, the Cardinal's niece, assured his wife in presence of several persons, that the Cardinal had a high esteem for him; and Count Brulon, Introductor of Ambassadors, had asked him to wait upon the King whenever he pleased, even if he had no business, his Majesty would take it extremely well. Grotius was persuaded that the ill-offices done him proceeded from Pau the Dutch Ambassador, and some Frenchmen. Pau and his accomplices hoped by this persecution to force Grotius to seek a reconciliation with the Dutch by some meanness. As to the Frenchmen, their dislike to Grotius was occasioned by his opposition to their design of abasing the crown of Sweden. "If the dignity of the crown of Sweden is to receive any diminution, I would rather, he says, it should be by another than by me." Father Joseph was one of the greatest opposers of Grotius[281], who would not visit him because the Capuchin had no title; and, besides, the English Ambassadors had declared they would not see him. As often as they met, Grotius treated him with civility; but the Monk, who had all the Cardinal's confidence, wanted to be considered as a Minister.