guardianship of his mother, could oppose no effectual resistance to his more powerful foe, he suggested to the court of Lisbon a marriage between Donna Caterina, the king's sister, and Charles king of England. It would induce the English monarch to support the pretensions of his wife's family, and would open a new channel, through which France might forward assistance to Portugal without any manifest violation of its friendly relations with Spain'. The advice was adopted; and Francisco de Mello, the ambassador in London, offered with the princess a dower of 500,000l., the possession of Tangier on the coast of Africa, and of Bombay in the East Indies, and a free trade to Portugal and the Portuguese colonies. Charles consulted Hyde, Ormond, Southampton, and Nicholas; their advice concurred with the royal inclination; and De Mello was given to understand that the proposal would be accepted.

2

'Le premier, de soutenir les Portugais que je voyois en danger de succomber bientôt sans cela; le second, de me donner plus de moyen de les assister moi-même, si je le jugeois nécessaire, nonobstant le traité des Pyrénées, qui me le défendoit. Louis, OEuvres, i. 62. It is amusing to observe how the royal casuist proceeds to justify this un derhand dealing, the sending, under false names, of forces to the aid of a power, which he had bound himself by treaty entirely to desert. He tells us that the experience of centuries had taught the French and Spanish courts to know the real import of the words employed in the treaties between them that the expressions « perpetual peace » and << sincere amity, » etc., were used with as little meaning as compliments in ordinary conversation; and that neither party expected anything more from the other than to abstain from manifest and public violations of the articles, while each remained at liberty to inflict on his rival, by clandestine and circuitous means, every injury in his power. This necessarily followed from the great principle of self-preservation. Ibid. 63-65.

:

nish ambas

Opposition The treaty with this minister had not escaped the of the Spa- notice of Vatteville, the Spanish ambassador, who, the sador. moment he discovered its real object, represented to the king, that Spain would never forego her claim to the crown of Portugal; that the Donna Caterina was known to be incapable of bearing children; and that a marriage with her would infallibly lead him into a war, and deprive his subjects of the Spanish trade; but that, if he chose to take one of the two princesses of Parma, Philip would give with either the dower of a daughter of Spain. Charles began to waver; he listened to the suggestions of the earl of Bristol, the enemy of the Portuguese match and that nobleman proceeded by his order on a secret mission to the city of Parma. There he saw the two princesses on their way to church, and nothing more was necessary to hasten his return. One was so plain, the other so corpulent, that he dared not recommend either to the royal choice. '

The French

it.

In the meantime Charles had been recalled to his first king advises intention by the remonstrances. of his advisers, and the arguments of the French king. Bastide, secretary to the March. late ambassador, Bordeaux, arrived in England with a commission to purchase lead for the royal buildings in France; but, in a private conference with Hyde, he informed that minister that his real object was to propose the means of establishing a private communication between the two kings, to be conducted by the chancellor on one part, and Fouquet on the other, without the knowledge of their colleagues in the cabinet, or of the ordinary ambassadors at either court. Charles eagerly accepted the proposal; and the correspondence was main

Clarendon, 86-89. Clarendon, Pap. Supplem. ii, viii.

;

tained during five months, till the disgrace of Fouquet. During that time Louis continually inculcated the advan- Aug. 26. tages of the Portuguese match, offered Charles a considerable sum of money to purchase votes in the parliament, consented to lend him 50,000l. whenever he might want it, and engaged to furnish two millions of livres, in the event of a war between England and Spain '. Thus was laid the foundation of that clandestine and confidential correspondence between Charles and Louis, which, in a short time, rendered the king of England the pensionary, and therefore, in a great measure, the dependent, of his good brother, the king of France.

But Vatteville did not long rely on the success of Bristol's Resolved in mission. The representative of the catholic king undertook the council. to dissuade Charles from marriage with a catholic prin- March 28. s; he proposed to him a daughter of the king of Den

mark, or of the elector of Saxony, or of the prince of Orange, and engaged that his master should give with any May 3. of them the same portion which had been offered with a princess of Parma. At the same time he sought to form a party in the parliament and the city. He opened his table to the discontented, distributed money to the needy, and scattered in the streets printed copies of his memorials

Clarendon, 90. OEuvres de Louis XIV. i. 67, and the correspondence itself in the supplement to the third volume of the Clarendon papers, i-xv. Charles acquainted no one but his brother James with the secret. Two others were employed in it: Bastide, as secretary to Fouquet, and lord Cornbury, Clarendon's eldest son, as secretary to his father. Hyde had the prudence or the honesty to refuse an offer of 10,000l. from Louis, though both Charles and James laughed at his simplicity, but he afterwards accepted a present of all the books which had been printed at the royal press, in the Louvre. Clar. 92; pap. iii. Supplem. i. xi. xiv.

against a catholic, and of his offers in favour of a protestant, match. But these efforts proved fruitless. The amount of the dower, the settlements in the Mediterranean and the East Indies, and the concession of an unrestricted trade to Portugal and its dependencies, presented advantages certain and present; while the dangers predicted on the score of the infanta's religion were at the best distant and uncertain. A full council of eight-and-twenty May 2. members had, without a dissentient voice, advised the May 8. king to conclude the marriage; the two houses presented to him addresses of approbation; the treaty was signed; and Montague, now earl of Sandwich, received the command of a fleet, with instructions to cruize in the Medi-· terranean, and, at the appointed time, to bring the Portuguese princess to England. '

June.

Rencontre

Vatteville bore the disappointment with impatience, between the and whether he thought to mortify the French court for sadors. its interference, or only to gratify the pride of his coun

two ambas

trymen, he announced his intention of reviving the ancient

quarrel for precedency between the crowns of France and July 20. Spain. On the first occasion, the entry of Carara, the Venetian ambassador, Charles prevailed both on Vatteville and on D'Estrades, the representative of Louis, to take no part in the ceremony; but the latter was reproved for his condescension by his court; each prepared to assert his claim on the next opportunity, the expected entry of Brahé, the Swedish ambassador, and the king, unable to restrain these champions of vanity, forbad his subjects by proclamation to interfere in the contest. D'Estrades summoned every Frenchman in London, on his allegiance,

Clarendon, 89. Papers, iii. Sup. ii, v. vi. vii. L. Journ. xi. 241. 4. 252. Kennet, Reg. 431.

to support the honour of his sovereign; he sent for reinforcements to Boulogne of which he was governor, and introduced into his house in disguise several of the officers and troopers belonging to that garrison. Vatteville, who could not muster so formidable a force', sought to compensate by art for inferiority of number, ordering the traces of his carriage to be made of chains of iron covered with leather, and allotting to each of his followers his particular station and employment. The Tower wharf was Sep. 30. selected for the field of battle; at noon arrived the carriage of the Spanish ambassador with about forty servants in liveries; and about two, that of the French ambassador, attended by one hundred persons on foot, and about forty on horseback, armed with pistols, or musquetoons and carbines. At three Brahé landed at the stairs; and the moment he departed in one of the royal carriages, those of the two ambassadors started for the place of honour. The opposite parties charged each other; the shouts of the crowd animated the combatants; blood began to flow, and more than fifty persons were killed or wounded in this extraordinary fray. The victory remained with the Spaniards. The French coachman fell from his seat; the horses were disabled, and the traces cut. Vatteville's carriage instantly took the place of honour; its attendants, though repeatedly charged, gallantly repulsed the assailants; and the conquerors, as they passed through the streets, were loudly cheered by the populace and the soldiery. Louis received the news with feelings of grief

'D'Estrades assured his master that the Spaniards were aided by several thousand Englishmen. He can only mean that they encouraged the Spaniards by their shouts.

It is strange to see how all the city did rejoice. And, indeed, we

XII.

ΙΟ