from the Sound and the coasts of Norway. A day or two later English sailors were tramping through the streets of London as mutineers, and the English fleet was in no condition to make its former mastery felt. It was only lack of provisions which prevented the ships of the States from making a dash at the mouth of the Thames, and sinking vessels to block up the entrance to the

Proposal

to make a dash at the Thames.

river in support of the negotiations for peace.

The struggle for the command of the North Sea had certainly not resulted in its complete domination by the English fleet.

Letters of Intelligence,

Oct. 28 Nov. • 7

Thurloe, i. 557, 560.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE DUTCH PEACE

So far as foreign affairs were concerned, the election of the new Council of State on November 1 gave Cromwell a freer

1653. Nov. I. Cromwell has a freer hand in foreign affairs.

Oct. 25. Return of the Dutch

com

missioners.

Oct. 28. They propose a league.

were

hand,' a change especially grateful to him because the time had now arrived when the negotiations with the Dutch commissioners must be seriously resumed. The two who had gone back to the Hague to report on the situation 2 once more in England, having brought instructions to propose 'a firm alliance and close union' without any reference to the coalition which had been pressed on them at Westminster. On October 28, when they made their final proposal, they showed some inclination to gratify Cromwell, at least in words, by offering a leaguepurely defensive, it is true-with France and the Protestant States, of which an alliance between England and the United Provinces was to be the corner-stone. This alliance, as they subsequently explained, implied joint action in Their ex- behalf of the freedom and interests of both States. planation. If this principle were accepted it would be easy, they imagined, to come to an understanding.3

Oct. 31.

Nov. 17.

It was not till November 17, when the new Council was settled in office, that Cromwell, who had been appointed one of the commissioners for carrying on the negotiation, Cromwell's replied in the name of his colleagues, arguing that, reply. if the coalition had been accepted, the rights and interests of the two nations would have been fused together, 2 See p. 45. 3 Verbael, pp. 165–173.

See vol. ii. p. 307.

Nov. 18. His draft treaty,

but that, the situation being changed by the rejection of the English proposal, it was necessary to define the rights possessed by each as a preliminary to the consideration of concessions which each might be disposed to make. On the following morning, to bring matters to a crisis, he produced a draft treaty as a basis of discussion. It was to be stipulated that neither side should assist or even give shelter to the enemies or rebels of the other. If either nation were about to conclude a treaty, it was-upon a demand being made to that effect-to insist that the other should be included in it. There was moreover to be freedom of trade between the two republics, provided that the existing laws were observed -a stipulation which indirectly upheld the Navigation Act. Natives of the United Provinces being Protestants might settle and even hold land in the British Isles.

and demands.

Other requirements were likely to rouse greater opposition. In the first place satisfaction was to be made to England for the charges of the war, though the ships and goods captured were to be reckoned as forming part of the compensation. In the second place neither the States General nor any single province should ever appoint the young Prince of Orange to any place of civil or military command. In the third place no Dutch ships of war beyond a certain number, to be fixed by the treaty, should pass through the British seas without the consent of the Commonwealth of England, and that too only upon three months' notice previously given. In the fourth place, all ships of the United Provinces meeting any ships of the Commonwealth were to strike their flag and lower their topsail, and submit to be visited, if required, as well as to 'perform all other respects' due to the said Commonwealth of England to whom the dominion and sovereignty of the British seas belonged. Lastly, the right of fishery in these seas was to be permitted to the Dutch for twenty-one years only on payment being made of a sum hereafter to be determined. It was impossible that such articles could lead to mutual respect and good will. They were terms imposed by a conqueror on a vanquished nation.

1653

Peace despaired

of.

No wonder that peace was regarded in the Netherlands as desperate, and that De Witt urged the States General to persistent efforts and to alliance with the powers, such as France and Denmark, which had most to fear from the ambition of England. Though the extreme demand for the limitation of the numbers of the Dutch men-ofwar had been promptly dropped, Cromwell showed no sign of being prepared to make further concessions, and on December 5 the three surviving representatives of the United Provinces-Van de Perre had died on the preceding day-demanded their passports. Two days before this Desborough and Penn were appointed Generals of the Sea in addition to Blake and Monk,3 whilst every care was taken to strengthen the fleet in order that it might be ready for all emergencies.1

Dec. 5. The Dutch

com

missioners ask for

passports.

Effect of the establishment of the Protectorate.

2

It is by no means unlikely that Cromwell's insistence upon demands so harsh was, in part at least, the effect of his wish to conciliate the nominated Parliament, which was notoriously disinclined to make peace except on terms most humiliating to 5 the enemy. At all events his establishment in the Protectorate was followed by the adoption of a more considerate policy. On December 22, when the conferences were resumed, Oliver agreed to drop the requirement that the Dutch should pay a sum of money in acknowledgment that the war had originated with them; as well as the demand that they should lease the fishery in the North Sea from the English Government and acknowledge the right of search. He continued, however, to insist that Dutch ships should strike their flags and lower their topsails in the British Sea,' and that the Prince of Orange should be excluded from office, though he

Dec. 22.

Resumption of the conferences.

1 Aitzema, iii. 880; Geddes, 374; Verbael, p. 188.

2 Verbael, p. 243.

3 C.J. vii. 361.

4 Monk to the Admiralty Committee, Nov. 28, Dec. 3, S. P. Dom.

xli. 118.

5 See p. 56.

The King

agreed that this should be done by a secret article. of Denmark was to have no benefit by the treaty, and a fresh demand was made for compensation for the murder of Englishmen in Amboyna. To provide for the future, commissioners were to be appointed to settle the East India trade to the advantage of both States, and to examine the wrongs alleged to have been done to the English, not only in the East by the seizure of Pularoon and Puloway, but also in other parts of the world. Further, in notable anticipation of modern procedure, Cromwell asked that if within three months the commissioners proposed. failed to agree, the differences between them should be referred to the arbitration of the Protestant cantons of Switzerland.1

International arbitration

2

On the far greater number of the points still at issue, an agreement, if not actually reached, might, at least, be reasonably expected. Two only stood out as the subject of prolonged Question of antagonism-the exclusion of the King of Denmark the King of Denmark's from the benefits of the treaty and the exclusion of exclusion the Prince of Orange from office. On the first head from the treaty. the Dutch, naturally, showed themselves irreconcilably hostile. Angry as Cromwell may have been with the King for his seizure of the twenty-two English ships detained at Elsinore, the United Provinces were bound by all considerations of honour to see that a Prince, who had damaged English commerce on their behalf, suffered no loss thereby. Though Cromwell was driven to agree to an arrangement for the restitution of the ships and the payment of a compensation to their owners, he persistently refused to include the King in the treaty. As, however, he acknowledged that he had other grievances against the King, the Dutch commissioners came to the conclusion that he wished to isolate Denmark, and declare war against her nominally on the ground of these further complaints, but, in reality, in consequence of the seizure of the

3

S. P. Dom. xli. pp. 198-274. For the seizure of Pularoon and Puloway, see Hist. of Engl. 1603–1642, iii. 167; iv. 407.

2 See vol. ii. p. 199.

3 See Thurloe Papers, ii. 401-404.