Sept. 6. Sept. 7. Running fight in the Channel. visitors would soon be in the Sound. If the Spanish admiral, Oquendo, had any such intention, it was speedily abandoned. On the 6th his course was waylaid by the Dutch viceadmiral with seventeen ships. All the next day a running fight was kept up as he made his way to the eastward. On the evening of the 7th the two fleets were off Dungeness, the smaller Dutch squadron keeping well to windward. Tromp, who was blockading Dunkirk, heard the sound of the firing, and on the 8th he Sept. 8. joined his vice-admiral with fifteen sail.' That day The battle there was a fierce battle between Dover and Calais. One Dutch ship blew up. Of the Spanish galleons three were sunk and one taken.2 Before nightfall the Spaniards had fired away all their powder, and Oquendo did not venture to pursue his course to Flanders. With the shattered remnants of his fleet he put into the Downs for shelter, with Tromp following hard behind him.3 in the Straits. Sept. 9. iards in the Downs. The Spanish admiral met with a rough greeting from Pennington. The English vice-admiral bade him lower the standard of Spain in the presence of his Majesty's The Span flag. He had no choice but to obey. Pennington then insisted that Tromp, who was pressing on to follow up his victory, should abstain from hostilities and keep to the southern part of the anchorage, whilst the northern part was assigned to the Spaniards. Three days after his arrival, Oquendo took advantage of the distance which separated him from the enemy, to send off to Dunkirk, Sept. 12. 'Account of the action, Nalson, i. 258. Aitzema, Saken van Staet en Oorlogh, ii. 609. Oquendo to Cardenas, Sept. 12, Brussels MSS. Sec. Esp. cclxxx. fol. 86. 22 2 According to other accounts, two were taken and one sunk. ⚫ Manwood to Suffolk, Sept. 1, S. P. Dom. ccccxxviii. 52. Cave to Roe, Sept. 23, S. P. Germany. Rossingham's News-Letter, Sept. 9, Add. MSS. 11,045, fol. 53. Cardenas to Windebank, Sept. 10. Cardenas to 14 20 the Cardinal Infant, Oct., Brussels MSS. Sec. Esp. cclxxx. fol. 106, Salvetti's News-Letters, Sept. 3. Windebank to Hopton, Sept. 29, Clar. S. P. ii. 71. 129. 23 1639 THE FLEETS IN THE DOWNS. 61 under cover of the night, fifteen of his smaller vessels laden with soldiers.' Appeal Oquendo and Tromp appealed, through their respectivel ambassadors, to Charles. Then ensued an auction, the strangest in the annals of diplomacy, in which Charles's protecto Charles. tion was offered as a prize to the highest bidder. As a prelude to the main bargain, Charles was not ashamed to make a hucksterer's profit out of the distress of the fugitives who had taken refuge in his port. Cardenas applied to the Master of the Ordnance, the Earl of Newport, for permission. to purchase gunpowder from the King's stores. Newport told him that he might have the powder, if he were willing to give a handsome present in addition to the regular price. Cardenas remonstrated. "The King of Spain," replied Newport, "is very rich, and it is of no importance to him how much he gives for the powder of which he is so greatly in need." In the end, Cardenas was forced to pay 5,000l. to the King, and 1,000l. to the Earl, beyond the value of the powder. Those who are aware of this incident will not find much difficulty in understanding how it was that Lady Newport found her husband's religion unsatisfactory. Terms offered to Before the powder could be conveyed on board, fresh difficulties had to be met. Charles, indeed, appeared at first willing to concede all that the ambassador could demand. He would allow the Spaniards to sail two tides beSpain. fore Tromp was permitted to leave the Downs, so as to enable them to reach Dunkirk without further opposition.3 Sept. 15. Suddenly, however, he altered his tone. NorthThe King's umberland informed Pennington that the delay of changed. two tides was never granted to so large a fleet. At the same time an embargo was laid upon all vessels in the tone Oquendo to Cardenas, Sept. Cardenas to the Cardinal Infant, 13, 20 23, 30' Sept. 2 Cardenas to Salamanca, Sept. Brussels MSS. Sec. Esp. cclxxx. fol. 97, 107. Order to Newport, Sept. 20, S. P. Dom. ccccxxviii. 113. Joachimi to Van Tromp, Sept. 14 Add. MSS. 11,677, Q, fol. 39. Secret negotiation Thames, in order that they might be pressed into the King's service for the purpose of strengthening Pennington's fleet, and a special prohibition was issued against the employment of any English ship in carrying troops to Flanders. These measures, which were taken upon the advice of the Privy Council, were, however, but the screen behind which with Spain. was concealed a secret negotiation with Spain. Windebank told Cardenas, that as long as his master did so little for the Elector Palatine, he must not expect many courtesies in England. Then came a formal demand for money. If the King of Spain would give 150,000l. his ships should be placed in safety. The next day Cardenas told Windebank that he had suggested to his master the payment of 100,000l., but that he might as well have asked for a million. It would have been Sept. 17. Neutrality to be enforced. as easy to procure the one sum as the other.2 The King proclaimed his intention of enforcing strict neutrality. He told Joachimi that not an English ship or an English man should render assistance to either side. There was a talk of compelling both fleets to put to sea together to try their fortune there.3 There was no doubt which of the two would gain the mastery. Tromp had been heavily reinforced from Holland, and by the end of September he mustered some eighty sail, well manned and supplied. His crews were full of warlike ardour. Pennington would be hard put to it if he were called on to defend the helpless Spaniards against so overpowering a force. In the meanwhile the King's directions grew more contradictory than ever. Northumberland was fairly puzzled. To a friend of Pennington's, who begged for more precise orders, he replied that he had often pressed his Majesty to 'Northumberland to Pennington, Sept. 16, S. P. Dom. ccccxxviii. 93. Joachimi to the States-General, Sept. Add. MSS. 17,677, Q, Sept. 30. foi. 94. 16 26' 107. Windebank to Hopton, 18, Sept. 21 Add. MSS. 17,677, 1639 THE QUEEN'S INTERVENTION. 63 "Northumber declare his resolution, but never could get any." land was not in the secret. He did not know that Charles was only waiting for the answer from Madrid to his demand for 150,000l. as the price of his assistance. Sept. 25. Bellievre's intrigues. assists him. The French ambassador, Bellievre, had been no less active than Cardenas. He had waited, indeed, till Tromp's reinforcements arrived, before he broached the subject. Then he commenced operations by winning the Queen over to his side. How he accomplished this feat is a mystery which he did not care to reveal. In the beginning of the month Henrietta Maria was a passionate supporter of Spain. At the end of the month she was a passionate supporter of France. She told Bellievre that the Spanish offers were magnificent, and that he must be prepared with Sept. 26. The Queen offers more magnificent still. The King had assured her that his intention was to convoy the Spanish fleet to a place of safety. So well did she play her part, that a few hours later Charles declared himself ready to abandon the Spaniards to Tromp if the French Government would place his nephew at the head of the army which had been commanded by Bernhard of Weimar. Bellievre urged the Queen to ask that the Elector might carry with him ten or twelve Sept. 27. thousand English troops in Charles's pay. Charles had no money to spare, and he answered that the utmost he could do would be to send over six thousand men, to be paid out of the French treasury. In return, Louis was to bind himself to make neither truce nor peace without comprising the rights of the Elector. Charles was ready to promise that he would conclude nothing with Spain till a fortnight had elapsed, in order to allow time for the consideration of his terms in France.2 Sept. 28. Charles could hardly have made a proposal to which Richelieu was less likely to consent. Ever since Bernhard's death he had been engaged in negotiation with the officers of his army. During the whole of September communications 1 ' Smith to Kensington, Sept. 30, S. P. Dom. ccccxxix. 83. * Bellievre to Bullion, Sept. 29 Arch. des Aff. Étr. xlvii. fol. 558. Oct. 9 tion for with them had been carried on briskly, and on the 29th, the The negotia very day on which Bellievre's despatch left England, the articles were signed by which the colonels army. of the army, in accordance with the stipulations of Bernhard's will, placed both themselves and the fortified towns which they held in Alsace and the Breisgau, at the disposal of the King of France.' Bernhard's Charles Oct. 4. Since the beginning of August, Charles Lewis had been in England, urging his uncle to obtain for him the command of this very army. So little did Charles understand the realities of his position, that he fancied that the Elector had but to present himself at Breisach to be received with enthusiasm as the successor of the great duke. On October 4 the helpless young man sailed from the He sails for Downs, disguised as Lord Craven's valet, hoping to make his way through France to Alsace. For a few days Charles fancied himself master of the situation. He had but to choose between a gift of 150,000l. from Spain, and a binding promise from France to support vigorously his nephew's claims in the Palatinate, whilst in any case the young Elector was to put himself without trouble at the head of the finest army in Europe. France. Cardenas. In the meanwhile Cardenas was playing his own game. His negotiation for the purchase of gunpowder had given him some insight into Newport's character, and he now Newport's bargain with concluded a bargain with the Master of the Ordnance for the transport of the Spanish soldiers to Dunkirk, at the rate of thirty shillings a head, in direct defiance of the King's prohibition. It was Newport's business to send boats laden with munitions to Pennington's fleet in the Downs, and he now promised that these boats should be placed at Oquendo's disposition as soon as they had accomplished their legitimate 1 Gonzenbach, Hans Ludwig von Erlach. I owe my knowledge of this book, in which the misstatements of former writers are corrected, to Prof. Stern. 6 16' 2 Bellievre to Chavigny, Oct. Arch des Aff. Etr. xlvii. fol. 572. Memoir for Bellievre, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,913, fol. 381. Pennington to Suffolk, S. P. Dom. Oct. 5, ccccxxx. 35, i. |