CHAP. XXXII.] ILL FEELING BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 169 resented by a pouting sullen behaviour, highly offensive to the King, and which drew upon her disagreeable remonstrances from Buckingham.

Some more tangible grievances threatened to produce an open rupture between the French and English Courts. Buckingham, to conciliate the Parliament, then sitting at Oxford, neglected to observe the engagements he had secretly entered into with the French cabinet in favour of the English Catholics; and he offered to dismiss all the Queen's French attendants. But the Parliament was of opinion that the promises made to the French King should be observed; and that the authors of them should be punished if they contained anything contrary to the laws. Blainville, who had come to London on an extraordinary embassy respecting these matters, was treated with studied indignity. Buckingham, besides refusing to restore the ships which Soubise had carried into Portsmouth, and which Richelieu charged him with having stolen, went to the Hague, and, without consulting the French ambassador, concluded a treaty with the Dutch and with Denmark. While in Holland he expressed a wish to go into France; but the French ambassador having refused him a passport till he should have given Louis XIII. some satisfaction, Buckingham, out of revenge, induced the Dutch to recall their ships. The English fleet, returning from an unsuccessful expedition to Cadiz, fell in with and captured several French vessels, on the ground of their having Spanish goods on board; and the ships were carried into English ports and sold under the very eyes of Blainville. Reprisals were in consequence made on English ships in French harbours.1 Richelieu, however, had no wish to break with England; he rightly attributed the conduct of the English Court to Buckingham's humours and caprices; to his desire to make the Queen renounce her faith, in order that he might acquire with the Parliament the reputation of a zealous Protestant; as well as to his wish to foment an ill understanding between Henrietta and Charles, and thus prevent her acquiring too much influence over her husband." Richelieu therefore determined to conciliate the capricious, but all-powerful Buckingham. Bautrec, a man of wit and talent, was despatched into England; the Duke was assured that he would be very well received in France; the refusal of his passports in Holland was explained to be quite a mistake; above all it was repre

Mercure Franç. t. xi. p. 1052; t. xii.

p. 259.

2 Richelieu, Mémoires, liv. xvi.: cf.

Clarendon, Rebellion, vol. i.; Merc. Franç. t. xii. p. 260.

170

ENGLISH EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.

[CHAP. XXXII. sented that the Duchess of Chevreuse, with whom Buckingham was supposed to have an intrigue, and with whom and her husband he had kept up a correspondence, which Richelieu denounced to Louis as traitorous, would be obliged to quit the Court if matters did not mend. Bautrec completely succeeded in his mission, and brought back with him to Paris, as extraordinary ambassadors, Lord Holland and Sir Dudley Carlton. This turn of affairs very much helped the Cardinal in making a peace with the Hugonots; which, though reprobated by the high Catholic party in France, and by the Pope's Nuncio Cardinal Spada, was necessary to Richelieu's foreign policy. To Spada he observed: "I know that I am regarded as a heretic at Rome; but ere long the Pope will canonize me as a saint."1 Riche lieu had already conceived the plan of destroying La Rochelle, but it was not yet ripe for execution; and with that extraordinary talent he possessed for making everybody serve his purposes, he effected a peace with the Hugonots chiefly by means of the English ambassadors." A treaty was signed at Paris February 5th, 1626, under the tacit guarantee of England, by which the Hugonots were left in much the same condition as at the beginning of the war.

The English expedition against Cadiz, just mentioned, was undertaken in consequence of the breach with Spain in regard to the marriage treaty. Buckingham, before he quitted Madrid in 1623, insulted Olivarez with threats of vengeance, which that minister heard with the greatest composure; and accordingly, in 1625, a fleet and army were despatched, under Viscount Wimbledon, to take Cadiz; but Wimbledon lost so much time in fortifying Puntal, that the Spaniards found an opportunity to throw reinforcements into Cadiz, which saved the place. The quarrels of Charles I. with his Parliament, and the difficulty he experienced in obtaining supplies, were not calculated to render him a very formidable opponent in any foreign war; and he, in common with the other allies of France, was, soon after this expedition. astonished and discouraged by an unexpected peace between that country and Spain.

After the French successes in the Valtellina, Urban VIII. hadi despatched his nephew, Cardinal Barberini, as Legate to Paris. where he arrived May 21st, 1625, and was received with the

1 Fontenai-Mareuil, t. ii. p. 29.

2 It appeared from an intercepted letter from Rohan to Soubise, that the Hugonots were chiefly induced to submit by

a threat of the English ambassadors * abandon them if they declined. Rebr lieu, Mémoires, liv. xvii.

CHAP. XXXII.]

TREATY OF MONCON.

171 magnificence due to his quality. Barberini was authorized by the Spanish cabinet, as well as by the Pope, to treat for peace, with which view he made the following propositions: a suspension of arms; satisfaction to the Pope for what had occurred in the Valtellina; and security for the maintenance of the Catholic religion in that valley, by preventing its restoration to the Grisons. The negotiations went off, chiefly on the third condition; yet Richelieu, as we have already remarked, was very unwilling to embark in an open war with Spain. The more zealous French Catholics were scandalized at his policy in attacking the troops of the Pope, in marrying the King's sister to a Protestant King, in summoning the hordes of Scandinavia to restore a heretic Prince in the Palatinate; and this sentiment was so strong among the sovereign courts and municipal bodies, as to cause the Cardinal to fear that he might soon have to struggle with another Catholic League, as well as with the Hugonots. It was chiefly to relieve himself of his fears and responsibility, that, after the departure of the Legate Barberini, Richelieu advised the King to summon an Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau. In this assembly Richelieu spoke in favour of peace, but of such a peace as might be concluded on honourable and advantageous conditions; and he was supported by a great majority, although the Cardinal de Sourdis was for an immediate suspension of arms. Spain appeared to have become more moderate; especially as in the winter Marshal Bassompierre succeeded in obtaining a fresh declaration of the Swiss Diet in favour of the Grisons; and after the departure of Barberini, the Spanish Court renewed the negotiations through the Marquis of Mirabel, their ambassador at Paris, and also made advances to Count du Fargis, the French ambassador at Madrid. Richelieu's instructions to Du Fargis had been purposely vague; and that minister, hearing that the Pope was about to send 6,000 men into the Valtellina, had somewhat precipitately signed a treaty with Spain, January 1st, 1626. Most of the conditions desired by France had been obtained; yet Richelieu disavowed the treaty, founding his objections chiefly on matters of form; though his real motive was probably his fear that the allies of France would get scent of it before his arrangements with the Hugonots were completed. At all events, soon after the peace with the insurgents, Du Fargis concluded a fresh treaty with Olivarez at Monçon, in Aragon, March 5th; which, though Richelieu again pretended to be very angry at it, was, with a few amendments, ratified at Barcelona a

172

DEXTERITY OF RICHELIEU.

[CHAP. XXXII. month afterwards. The principal articles of the treaty of Monçon were: that the affairs of the Grisons and the Valtellinese should be replaced in the same state as they were in at the beginning of 1617; that no other religion but the Roman Catholic should be tolerated in the valley; that the Valtellinese should have the right of electing their magistrates, subject, however, to the approval of the Grisons; that the forts in the Valtellina, as well as in the bailiwick of Bormio and district of Chiavenna, should be razed by the Pope; and, in consideration of the privileges granted to them, the Valtellinese were to pay to the Grisons such an annual sum as might be agreed on."

The news of this treaty was received with equal surprise and indignation at London, Venice, Turin, and among the Grisons. The allies of France had all been duped; and, besides the general insult of making none of them a party to the treaty, each found in it some particular cause of complaint. The rights and interests of the Grisons had been bartered away without their consent; the Swiss were offended at the part they had been made to play in the affair, to the detriment of their confederates; the Venetians thought themselves wronged by the demolition of the forts, which they deemed necessary to secure their right of way; the Duke of Savoy saw all the hopes cut off for which he had entered into the war, and himself insulted to boot by a pretended commission to his son, the Prince of Piedmont, to be the LieutenantGeneral of Louis in Italy at the very time of the conclusion of the treaty. The Dutch and the English, and especially the latter, had no less reason to complain. France had amused them with a pretended league, merely for the purpose of procuring better terms from the Hugonots and from Spain; and the English ambassadors had actually been made the tools for arranging a peace with the former.

Richelieu evidently chuckles in relating these tricks, though affecting the greatest candour and pretending to throw all the blame on the precipitation of Du Fargis. His next task was to pacify his angry allies, in which he perfectly succeeded. The Duke of Savoy was flattered with the prospect of obtaining the title of King through the influence of France; the Grisons and Venetians were mollified with compliments and excuses; the English ambassadors were assured that France, whose hands were

1 Richelieu even pretends to express his dissatisfaction at it in his Testament Politique, ch. i.

2 Dumont, t. v. pt. ii. p. 487. The sum agreed on was 25,000 crowns.

Mémoires, liv. xvii.

CHAP. XXXII.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST RICHELIEU.

173 now free, would act with more vigour than ever in the affair of the Palatinate, and that a French army of 11,000 or 12,000 men should join the English forces on the Rhine. At the same time the Cardinal dropped all complaints about Queen Henrietta and the marriage treaty. Thus Richelieu gained his point, but at some cost to his reputation. All Europe began to regard him as a slippery politician whom no engagements could bind; and the indignation which brooded in the hearts of those whom he had deceived only awaited a favourable opportunity to display itself.1

These events were followed by a conspiracy against Richelieu, which we can only briefly notice, as having little reference to the general history of Europe. The ostensible object of the plot was to prevent a marriage which had been arranged between Gaston, Duke of Anjou, the King's brother, commonly called Monsieur, and Mademoiselle de Montpensier; but it included the murder of Richelieu, and probably the deposition of Louis XIII., and a marriage between Gaston and Anne of Austria. The principal leaders of this conspiracy were the Marshal d'Ornano, who had been Gaston's governor, the Duke of Vendôme and his brother the Grand-Prior, the Dukes of Longueville and Epernon, and several more of the malcontent nobles. Even Anne of Austria took part in it. The plot was frustrated by the coolness and vigilance of Richelieu; who succeeded in completely overawing Gaston, and compelling him to perform the marriage (August 6th, 1626); after which he assumed the title of Duke of Orleans, which had belonged to his elder brother, dead some years ago. The King also distinguished himself by the slyness with which he personally effected the arrests of Ornano and Vendôme, as he had formerly done in the case of Condé. Such an employment had something very captivating for the mind of Louis XIII. It had in it something analogous to his field sports, and afforded the same sort of excitement that he felt in capturing his game. Indeed, he had himself become a King as it were by stratagem. Nothing could exceed the cool and imperturbable dissimulation with which he watched for the favourable moment, and secured his unsuspecting victim.

Richelieu thus triumphed over his domestic enemies, as he had over the enemies, or rather the allies, of France. Yet even this consummate politician had his weak point. The strong-willed

2 M. Martin (Hist. de France, t. xi. p. 229, note) has undertaken against Sismondi the defence of Richelieu in this matter. The gist of his argument is that

the Cardinal's conduct was justified by the manners of the period, and that he was no worse than his brother diplomatists.