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The Negotiations between Charles II and the Cardinal de Retz, 1658–59
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
AT the beginning of April 1658, Charles II‘s most intimate advisers were giving up their hopes of an English rising and a royalist expedition from Flanders backed by Spanish arms. They now turned their thoughts in two other directions. The meeting of the long-drawn-out Imperial Diet at Frankfurt had given the English exiles in the Spanish Netherlands reason to believe that the house of Austria, in order to prevent further French interference in German affairs, would give support to the house of Stuart as a convenient and easy way of embarrassing Louis XIV's ally, Oliver Cromwell. It was also recollected that the Cardinal de Retz and Charles II had already had dealings with each other in Paris in 1652, so that the now-exiled Cardinal was considered as a suitable intermediary to secure Catholic support. When the postponement of the invasion of England was finally decided by the middle of the month, the crestfallen English Royalists were told that their king intended to go to Frankfurt to treat in person with the Electors. The Comte de Marchin, on whom Charles had recently bestowed the Order of the Garter, had preceded him with letters of compliment to the Elector of Mainz and the Spanish ambassador, the Conde de Peñaranda. This plan did not develop very far and, by June, a visit by the king to Spain was being hopefully encouraged by Henry Bennet, the royalist ambassador in Madrid.
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References
page 49 note 1 Thurloe State Papers, ed. Birch, T., i. 733Google Scholar .
page 49 note 2 Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, iv. 37, 40.
page 49 note 3 Ibid., 50.
page 50 note 1 Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, ed. d'Avenel, G. (Paris, 1906), v. 5, 14Google Scholar ; Ogg, D., Cardinal de Retz (London, 1912), pp. 124–38Google Scholar ; Pastor, L. v., History of the Popes, xxxi (London, 1940), 2 sqqGoogle Scholar .
page 51 note 1 Charles, II to Barberini, , 21/31 07 1658, Cal. Clar. S.P., iv. 56Google Scholar .
page 51 note 2 This story occurs in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, Bk. xiv, § 66, but Clarendon is vague about the beginning of the friendship with de Retz, merely saying that the latter ‘had always expressed great civility towards the King and a desire to serve him’. According to Clarendon the suggestion of an approach to the Pope came from the cardinal, who, he says, confessed that if the king changed his religion he might never be restored to his kingdoms.
page 51 note3 Cal. S.P, Clar., ii. 177, 183, 209, 244, 328, 405.
page 52 note 1 Carte, T., Life of Ormonde (new ed., Oxford, 1851), iii. 667–70Google Scholar .
page 52 note 2 Bodleian Library, MS. Clarendon 58, fo. 92 (Cal. Clar. S.P., iv. 49).
page 53 note 1 See Bennet's letters from Madrid to Hyde and Charles II, ibid., pp. 43, 48–50.
page 53 note 2 This precise information was passed by Downing to Thurloe(Thurloe S.P., vii. 161). The cardinal's residence near Amsterdam is disclosed in a letter to Ormonde( Carte, , Original Letters, London 1739, ii. 142)Google Scholar .
page 53 note 3 MS. Clarendon, 58, fo. 133r. This is a translation by H. Hyde of the cardinal's draft of a letter to Barberini. The limiting dates are approximately fixed by the fact that the king wrote Hyde from Brussels on 18/28 June about his dealings with the Nuncio, (Clarendon State Papers, Oxford, 1767–1786, iii. 403)Google Scholar . Reports by the Nuncio in Brussels (12/22 June and 3/13 July) of the king's departure for and return from this visit confirm these dates (P.R.O. Roman Transcripts, 9/96 Nunt. di Fiandra 42).
page 54 note 1 This was an illusion in view of the capitulations imposed on the emperor by French diplomacy and the Rhenish League of 4/14 August 1658 ( Firth, C. H., Last Years of the Protectorate, London 1909, ii. 251–6)Google Scholar .
page 56 note 1 Cal. Clar. S.P., iv. 56. (See Appendix I to this paper.)
page 56 note 2 See the accounts in the Commentarius Rinuccinianus, ed. Stanislaus, Fr. (Irish MSS. Commission, Dublin, 1936, ii. passim)Google Scholar ; Hynes, M. J., The Mission of Rinuccini, Dublin, 1932, pp. 85 sqq., 245–6Google Scholar .
page 56 note 3 Infra, p. 64.
page 57 note 1 Infra, p. 64. The book was published in London in 1655 (two editions).
page 57 note 2 Cal.Clar.S.P., iv. 55–7.
page 57 note 3 Lettres du C. Mazarin, viii. 773.
page 57 note 4 Pastor, , op. cit., xxxi. 2 sqq., 17, 23Google Scholar .
page 57 note 5 In the Ormonde correspondence he has the pseudonym ‘Roquevive’. He is described by Chantelauze, R., Le Cardinal de Retz et ses missions diplomatiques à Rome (Paris, 1879), P. 36Google Scholar as ‘l’homme le plus devouè au Cardinal de Retz, son confident le plus intime‘. Here the name is spelt ‘Charrier’.
page 58 note 1 Carte, , Orig. Letters, ii. 142, 143Google Scholar.
page 58 note 2 Ibid., 144–5.
page 58 note 3 Ibid., 145–7.
page 58 note 4 Ibid., 147–9.
page 59 note 1 Ibid., ii. 149–51.
page 59 note 2 De Retz to Ormonde, Salzburg, 28 Jan./7 Feb., 1658/9 (ibid., 151).
page 59 note 3 Ibid., 153.
4 MS. Clarendon 60, fos. 233–6. This is a copy by Bellings bearing the Lord Chancellor's endorsement. (See Appendix II.)
page 60 note 1 Clarendon, Continuation of Life, § 287. This was of course written during his second exile.
page 61 note 1 Supra, p. 56.
page 61 note 2 One of the rumours was that he was secretly reconciled by Fr. Peter Talbot at Cologne in 1655. See Carte's, Ormonde, iii. 652Google Scholar .
page 61 note 3 Pastor, xxxi. 79–81; Ogg, pp. 159, 164–5; Gazier, A., Les dernières années du Cardinal de Retz (Paris, 1865), pp. 96–7Google Scholar; MS. Clarendon, 74, fo. 322; Chantelauze, op. cit., chap. i.
page 62 note 1 The two letters in the Appendix are published by kind permission of the Bodleian Library.
page 62 note 2 Not dated, but belongs probably to July 1658; See Cal. Clar. S.P., iv. 55–63.
page 62 note 3 MS.: ‘dissatisfaction’ cancelled.
page 64 note 1 By Thomas White, Gentleman, London, 1655, sm. 8vo.
page 66 note 1 This had been received by the Cardinal just as he was sending his previous letter; see Carte, , Orig. Letters, ii. 153Google Scholar.
page 68 note 1 A postscript about l'affaire Elvas is omitted as not relevant to the subject of this paper. The inconsistent spellings of this copy have been slightly modernized and some missing accents have been added.