Note 445 — Chapter X · (continued 2)

Clarendon's Hist. vii. 194. It appears by Clarendon's private letters that he had expected to see Cromwell assume the title of king from the year 1654. Vol. iii. pp. 201, 223, 224. If we may trust what is here called an intercepted letter (p. 328), Mazarin had told Cromwell that France would enter into a strict league with him, if he could settle himself in the throne, and make it hereditary; to which he answered, that he designed shortly to take the crown, restore the two houses, and govern by the ancient laws. But this may be apocryphal.