Note 297 — Chapter X

Clarendon speaks often in his History, and still more frequently in his private letters, with great resentment of the conduct of France, and sometimes of Holland, during our civil wars. I must confess that I see nothing to warrant this. The States-General, against whom Charles had so shamefully been plotting, interfered as much for the purpose of mediation as they could with the slightest prospect of success, and so as to give offence to the parliament (Rushworth Abridged, v. 567; Baillie, ii. 78; Whitelock, 141, 148; Harris's Life of Cromwell, 246); and as to France, though Richelieu had instigated the Scots malcontents, and possibly those of England, yet after his death, in 1642, no sort of suspicion ought to lie on the French government; the whole conduct of Anne of Austria having been friendly, and both the mission of Harcourt in 1643, and the present negotiations of Montreuil and Bellievre, perfectly well intended. That Mazarin made promises of assistance which he had no design, nor perhaps any power, to fulfil, is true; but this is the common trick of such statesmen, and argues no malevolent purpose. But Hyde, out of his just dislike of the queen, hated all French connections; and his passionate loyalty made him think it a crime, or at least a piece of base pusillanimity, in foreign states, to keep on any terms with the rebellious parliament. The case was altered, after the retirement of the regent Anne from power: Mazarin's latter conduct was, as is well known, exceedingly adverse to the royal cause.

The account given by Mr. D'Israeli of Tabran's negotiations in the fifth volume of his Commentaries on the Reign of Charles I., though it does not contain anything very important, tends to show Mazarin's inclination towards the royal cause in 1644 and 1645.