294

NAVIGATION ACT.

[CHAP. XXXV. that goods from Asia, Africa, and America should be imported only in English bottoms, as also goods from any part of Europe, unless they were the produce or manufacture of the country to which the vessels belonged. The States-General sent ambassaders to London to endeavour to mitigate this law; but the Parliament. on its side, met their demands with others concerning the massacre that had been committed at Amboyna,' the fisheries, the right of the flag, &c.

It was during these negotiations that an apparently accidental collision between the English and Dutch fleets produced a war between the countries. The renowned Dutch admiral Tromp, being compelled, as he alleged, by stress of weather to take refuge at Dover with a fleet of more than forty sail, there met with Admiral Blake, who commanded a far inferior force; a battle, by whomsoever provoked, ensued, and was fought with obstinacy till night parted the combatants, when the Dutch retired, with some loss, to their own coast (May 19th, 1652. At the news of this affair the Parliament ordered all Dutch ships to be seized, and made preparations for a vigorous war. The Dutch sent the Pensionary Pauw to London to attempt a reconciliation; but the Parliament would listen to no explanations, demanded reparation, and, on its being refused, declared war (July). We shall not detail the naval war which followed. Suffice it to say that in 1652 and the following year several sanguinary battles were fought, in which Blake, Ayscue, Monk. and Penn distinguished themselves on the side of the English, and Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt on that of the Dutch. Victory sometimes favoured one side, sometimes the other; but, on the whole, the Dutch suffered most, and especially in their commerce. They are said to have lost more during these two years than in the whole eighty years of their struggle with Spain. At length they were so crippled by the great action fought in July, 1653, in which the gallant Tromp lost his life, that they were glad to accept of a peace on the terms dictated by England.

Cromwell's foreign policy was as vigorous as his domestic It was his hope, he used to say, to make the name of Englishm

The Dutch had, in 1623, massacred the English settlers in Amboyna.

2 Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 28, 31; also, Ordinance of the States-General, ib. p. 35. 3 The principal actions were, in 1652, between Sir G. Ayscue and De Ruyter, off Plymouth, August 16th (undecided); Bourne and Penn's victory over De Witt and De Ruyter, off the Kentish coast,

September 28th; Tromp's victory or Blake in the Downs, November 2 after which the Dutch admiral fixed a broom to his mainmast. In 1653 Bi and Monk defeated Tromp and De Ruyter off Portland, February 18th; the Eng also gained several smaller victories th year, besides the decisive one mentione i in the text.

CHAP. XXXV.] PEACE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND. 295 as much respected as ever that of Roman had been. He sought to obtain a footing on the Continent, both as a means of extending English trade and of supporting the Protestant interest in Europe. Hence when Beverningk came as ambassador from the States to treat for peace, the Protector, as the Parliament had done before, insisted on a union of the two republics; but this the Dutch immediately rejected as impracticable, nor would they listen to another proposition that there should be three Englishmen either in the Dutch Council of State or in the States-General, and three Dutchmen in the English Council.' The English demands were also in other respects so high, that the Dutch prepared to strengthen themselves with alliances in order to continue the war; and especially they entered into a treaty with Denmark, whose royal family was connected with the Stuarts, and that Power engaged to shut the Sound against the English. De Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland and President of the States-General, now almost directed the counsels of the United Netherlands. At the time of his election, in 1653, he was only twenty-five years of age; but he had already displayed all the best qualities of a statesman, besides a love of literature and a philosophical talent which had been developed by the teaching of Descartes. Although public feeling in the Netherlands was very much inflamed against England, De Witt was so convinced of the necessity for a peace, that he did not hesitate to stem the popular current, and, as Cromwell also lowered his demands, and abandoned the idea of a coalition, a treaty was at length concluded, April 15th, 1654. A chief point of contention was the sovereignty of the seas. The Dutch yielded the honour of the flag, and agreed to salute English men-of-war by striking the flag and lowering the topsail; but the Protector, on his side, abated some of his former pretensions, as, for instance, that whole fleets should render these honours to a single man-of-war, and that the Dutch should not send more than a certain number of ships of war into the British seas without the express permission of England. The Dutch agreed not to help the Stuarts, and to make atonement and compensation for the massacre at Amboyna and the injury done to English trade in the East Indies and other places. The province of Holland alone, in a separate article, engaged that no prince of the House of Orange should ever be invested with the dignity of Stadholder,

1 Van Beverningk ap. Van Kampen, Gesch. der Niederlande, B. ii. S. 151.

* The English demands on this head

2

were founded on Selden's Mare Clausum. Harris, Life of Cromwell, p. 264.

296

CROMWELL MAKES WAR ON SPAIN.

[CHAP. XXXV. or even be appointed Captain-General. The King of Denmark was included in the treaty, the States-General engaging to make good any losses the English merchants had sustained by the seizure of their ships at Copenhagen.

After the conclusion of this peace Cromwell was at liberty to take a part in the great debate between France and Spain, both of which Powers were soliciting his friendship. The Protector himself, as well as most of his Council, preferred a war with Spain. An attack upon the Spanish trade and colonies afforded a tempting prospect, whilst a war with France offered no such advantages. Cromwell's religious views had also great influence in determining him against Spain, which, with Austria, was the chief supporter in Europe of that Popery which the Puritans so much abhorred. The same feeling had imbued the Protector with a great fondness and admiration of Sweden, distinguished among the northern nations as the champion of Protestantism, and therefore made him averse to a war with France, the close ally of Sweden. Thus during this period the foreign policy of the two maritime republics took an exactly opposite direction. After the Peace of Westphalia, it was no longer Spain, but France, as an ambitious and powerful neighbour, that became the object of apprehension in the United Netherlands; whilst in the great northern war entered into by Sweden about this time against Poland, Denmark and their allies, the Dutch, in the interests of their Baltic commerce, opposed the Swedes anl supported the Danes.

In the course of 1654 Cromwell made some advantageous commercial treaties with Sweden, Portugal, and Denmark: Portugal especially granted the English an exclusive right of commerce with herself and her colonies.2 The negotiations were continued with the Spanish Cabinet, which made the Protecter the most dazzling offers. Besides the personal bait of assisting him to the Crown of England, Spain offered to aid him in taking Calais, provided he would help Condé in a descent upon Guyenne. But, while Cromwell pretended to listen to these offers, his resolution had been already taken. His demands upon Spain were such as it was impossible for that Power to grant-free trade with the Spanish Indies, and complete exemption for British subjects from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. The

3

Spain, see Thurloe, vol. i. p. 706, and p. 759 sqq.

CHAP. XXXV.]

PERSECUTION OF THE VAUDOIS.

297Spanish ambassador said that "to ask a liberty from the Inquisition and free sailing to the West Indies was to ask his master's two eyes." In the winter of 1654-5 two fleets left the shores of England, whose destination was unknown. One, commanded by Penn, with a body of troops under Venables, sailed to the West Indies, with the design of seizing the Spanish colony of Hispaniola. It failed in that enterprise; and, though it took Jamaica, both commanders were on their return incarcerated in the Tower. The other fleet, under Blake, which entered the Mediterranean, had a sort of roving commission. It employed itself in taking some French ships, in exacting reparation from the Grand Duke of Tuscany for some alleged former losses, while the Pope trembled at its neighbourhood; it then sailed to the coast of Africa, to chastize the Deys of Algiers and Tunis for their piracies. But its principal object was the seizure of the Spanish American galleons. The Spaniards, on receiving the news of the unwarrantable attack upon their West Indian possessions, immediately declared war against England, and Blake received fresh instructions to lie in wait for their American fleet. For want of water he was compelled to abandon the enterprise to one of his captains, who succeeded in capturing two galleons and destroying others; and Blake himself soon after met his death in another and more honourable enterprise against the Spaniards in the Canaries.

Although Cromwell had broken with Spain, he had not yet made any alliance with France. The two countries were for some time kept apart by a religious question. Early in 1655 the Duke of Savoy had commenced a bloody persecution against the Vaudois who dwelt in the High Alps of Piedmont. The numbers of these poor people had increased so much that there was no longer room for them in the three upper valleys, in which alone their religious liberties were guaranteed, and they had consequently descended lower down the mountains. In the middle of winter appeared an edict ordering them, under pain of death, to quit their new abodes in three days, unless they could make it appear that they were become Roman Catholics. Exasperated at this cruel proceeding, their brethren in the High Alps flew to arms, and solicited the assistance of the Vaudois of Dauphiné and of the Protestants of Geneva and Switzerland; but before help could arrive, they were attacked, and many of them massacred, by the Piedmontese troops, in conjunction with some French troops of the army of Lombardy. How the news of this act was received by the Protestants of

298

CROMWELL'S TREATY WITH FRANCE. [CHAP. XXXV. Europe may be imagined; the feeling excited in England is shown by Milton's sonnet on the subject.' Cromwell immediately ordered a general fast, and set on foot a subscription for the sufferers, which produced nearly 40,000l. He also desired Mazarin to pu: an end to the persecution. He told the Cardinal that he well knew that the Duke of Savoy was in the power of the French Court, and that if they did not restrain that sovereign, he must presently break with them. Mazarin, though he promised to use his good offices, at first demurred to this demand as unreasonable; but dreading the vigorous steps which Cromwell was preparing to take, and being apprehensive of the effect of his applications to the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, the StatesGeneral, and the Swiss Protestant cantons, the Cardinal obtained from the Duke of Savoy an amnesty for the insurgents, and an indemnity for the families which had been expelled.

Soon after the settlement of this affair, a treaty of peace and commerce was concluded between England and France (November 3rd). The most important provision of it, with regard to political matters, was that the Stuarts and their adherents were not to be harboured in France. Although England was now at war with Spain, no military alliance was concluded between England and France. Mazarin was not yet prepared to pay Cromwell's price for it—the surrender of Dunkirk, when captured, to England. Hence probably an attempt of the Cardinal's to negotiate with Spain in 1656; on the failure of which he again resorted to Cromwell, prepared to submit to his conditions. On the 23rd of March, 1657, a treaty was accordingly signed at Paris. by which it was agreed that 6,000 English foot, half to be paid by France and half by England, should join the French army in Flanders. Gravelines, Mardyck, and Dunkirk were to be attacked with the aid of an English fleet; Dunkirk, when taken, was to be delivered to the English; and the other two towns, if captured previously, were to be placed in the hands of England, as security till the condition respecting Dunkirk should be fulfilled.*

The help of the English troops under General Reynolds, and of the English fleet, turned the war in Flanders to the advantage of the French. In the campaign of 1657, Montmédy, St.

1 Sonnet xviii. Milton also wrote, as Latin secretary, several State letters on the occasion. See also Sir Samuel Morland's Hist. of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont; and Articles accordés par Charles Emmanuel à ses sujets habitants des vallées de Piedmont,

in Dumont, i. vi. pt. ii. p. 114.

2 Dumont, t. vi. pt. 1. p. 121. It is singular feature of this treaty that muta guarantees are given against piracy. T police of the seas was not even yet prperly established.

3 Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 224.