368 CHAPTER XXIII. 1650. Overtures of Lisbon and Madrid. OVERTURES OF THE COURTS OF LISBON AND MA- BOOK THE Successes of Blake, and still more the meIII. morable defeat given to Charles the Second, by Cromwel at Dunbar, gave a new face to the affairs of the courts of the commonwealth in foreign countries. The princes of the continent could no longer refuse to believe, that the present government of England had every promise of permanence. It was strong enough to assert its rights and make itself feared; and of consequence was perfectly fitted to enter into treaties and alliances. Towards the end of the year a sort of race took place between the kings of Spain and Portugal, which should be first to embrace the friendship, or appease the animosity, of the rulers of the commonwealth. The latter of these princes sent an envoy, don Joseph de Guimaraes, to make suitable propositions to the Eng XXIII. 1650. lish government". Alonso de Cardenas, who had CHAP. remained in London, and been in constant communication with the most powerful members of the council of state, being apprised of this, and properly prepared for the occasion, offered his credentials b. An immediate distinction was set up between the two candidates. With Spain we had never had any serious and defined misunderstanding; with Portugal we were in some sort in a state of war. Vane objected to the admitting the Portuguese altogether. This objection was overruled. But it was determined, inasmuch as Guimaraes did not come with the character of an am- received. bassador, that he should have his audience from a committee of parliament; while Cardenas, without a moment's delay, had his audience of the parliament itself. With Cardenas there was nothing to explain; and a series of letters, which had passed between Blake and the king of Spain, was laid before the housef. The whole was concluded in a spirit of the most perfect cordiality and good humour. The latter favourably 1651. tion with broken off. With respect to Guimaraes the case was widely Negociadifferent. Several severe preliminary articles were Portugal required, before he could be admitted to a treaty. It was demanded, that all the English that had been put under restraint by the Portuguese go III. 1651. 1650. Death of William the Second, prince of Orange. vernment in the way of reprisals, should be enlarged; that all ships, money and goods, should be restored, and reparation made for any damages that had been sustained; and that the king of Portugal should pay one hundred and eighty thousand pounds towards the expence we had incurred in fitting out an armament to obtain justice. These preliminaries being granted, the first two executed, and security given for the other, the parliament offered that there should be a suspension of arms for six months for the completion of the treaty. The preliminaries were granted by the envoy; but, inasmuch as the manner of performance, and the time for the cessation to commence, were disapproved, the whole was broken off, and the envoy was ordered to quit the English dominionsh. One further event happened towards the close of the year, which bore a favourable aspect upon the affairs of the commonwealth. The prince of Orange, the fast and zealous friend of the exiled princes, and who had married their sister, died of the small-pox on the sixth of November. He was considered as a person of promising talents, and had only attained to the age of twenty-four years. He died without issue; but he left his princess pregnant; and, eight days after his decease, she Ibid, Apr. 10. bore a son, who was afterwards William the Third, CHAP. king of England. XXIII. 1650. His in ambition. Through the whole period of his stadtholderate, which had begun in March 1647, disputes had croachrun high between the partisans of the house of ments and Orange and the aristocracy, who had always looked with much jealousy upon the ambition of this line of princes, and who desired a greater parity and a more complete circulation of authority in the government of the republic, than was consistent with the ascendancy of this house. The main subject of contention had been relative to the amount of military force to be kept up in the state. The province of Holland, whose quota in the distribution of the revenues, amounted to nearly as much as the proportions of the other six taken together, was the focus of republicanism. The influence of the house of Orange prevailed in five of the remaining six; and the populace uniformly ad-. hered to the Orange party. William the Second, whose temper was sanguine and imperious, thought to carry every point by force of arms. In the sum- Attempts mer of the present year he had attempted to take the city of by surprise the city of Amsterdam; and, having Amsterinveigled six of the leading members of the states of Holland into his power, he committed them to the castle of Louvestein in July. The leading names of the aristocratical party, were Bicker, i Le Clerc, Histoire des Provinces Unies, Tom. II, p. 281. to surprise dam. III. BOOK Pauw and de Wit. The death of the prince opened a favourable opportunity for the triumph of this party. The six prisoners were set at liberty, and reinstated in their functions; and Bicker was restored to the office of pensionary of Holland. 1650. Project of an union between England and the United Provinces. St. John appointed ambassa dor. All this appeared highly advantageous to the rulers of the commonwealth of England. The states of Holland had shewn themselves favourable to their demands, when they had been outvoted in the states general by the influence which the house of Orange exercised over the inferior provinces. The views of the English government were bold and capacious. They saw the constitution of the United Provinces to be not less republican than their own. Both were commercial states. Both were Protestant: and the Louvestein party, as they now began to be called, were the advocates of toleration in Holland, as the independents had been in England. On this basis Cromwel and Vane built the project, the idea of which they had early thrown out, of settling a more near and firm union between the two nations *. Faciamus eos in gentem unam, was a phrase that had been early put forward in their more intimate communications with the Dutch leaders'. Deterred by the unfortunate catastrophe of Dorislaus, and by the tenour of the events which followed, the statesmen of England waited pa * See above, p. 149, 150. 1 Thurloe, p. 130. |