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CHAP. VI - Relations with France. Sale of Dunkirk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2011

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Summary

It is now time to return to the negotiations with Portugal, with which we broke off above.

Francisco Mello, who had returned to England for the purpose of carrying through the marriage, met, to his delight, with a very favourable reception there. He was given the key of the palace gardens, where the King could be most easily and confidentially spoken with. But during March and April 1661 he was still under constant apprehensions of the failure of his design. He dreaded the counter intrigues of the Queen-Mother and her friends, the remonstrances of the Dutch, the machinations of the Spanish ambassador Vatteville, who had a strong following at the court and in the country, and was able to make rich presents. His threat that Spain would treat the conclusion of the marriage as an act of hostility was not without its influence on Charles II. For to the Spanish monarchy still attached the prestige of a great power, and the trade with Spanish dependencies still formed the chief support of English commerce. How would matters stand should the young King of France combine with his father-in-law Philip IV? One of the first occasions on which Louis XIV actively interfered in general European politics was now when he empowered Fouquet, who was still in his employ, to assure the King of England of the contrary.

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A History of England
Principally in the Seventeenth Century
, pp. 380 - 392
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1875

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