hath a controversy with your enemies, even with that Roman Babylon of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper. In that respect we fight the Lord’s battles’ (Letter cciv.) In another he urges the seizure of Providence or any other island off the Spanish main, ‘for it is much designed among us to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas’ (Letter ccvi.)
At the time when Penn*s expedition was despatched, Cromwell hoped to confine hostilities to the new world, in the Elizabethan fashion, and believed that he would be able to maintain an independent position in the European struggle between France and Spain. But the disgraceful failure at San Domingo and the retaliatory measures of Spain led to the extension of the war to Europe and obliged Cromwell to accept the offered alliance of France. The first step to the closer alliance which finally took place was the treaty of 24 Oct. 1655. It was a commercial treaty, which also bound each party not to assist the enemies of the other, and contained a secret article promising the expulsion from French territory of Charles II and nineteen other persons (Chéruel, Histoire de France sous le Ministère de Mazarin, ii. 392 ; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 287). This was followed in June 1656 by a commercial treaty with Sweden, the most important clause of which was one binding Sweden not to supply Spain with naval stores during the present war. Cromwell was anxious to develope this into a general league of all protestant powers, and earnestly endeavoured to reconcile Sweden and the States-General for that purpose (Masson, Life of Milton, v. 270–2 ; Carlson, Geschichte Schwedens, iv. 77, 82).
In order to raise money to carry on the war with Spain, Cromwell reluctantly assembled a second parliament (September 1656). But even a parliament from which all open opponents were excluded was far from being in complete agreement with the Protector’s policy. The votes against James Naylor showed how little most puritans shared his hostility to persecution. The refusal to legalise the position of the major-generals proved how repugnant even to his supporters was the military side of his rule. At the same time acts annulling the claims of the Stuarts, making plots against the Protector high treason, and appointing special tribunals tor their punishment, proved their attachment to Cromwell’s person (Scobell, Acts, ii. 371–6). Foreign successes and domestic conspiracy combined to suggest the idea of making Cromwell king. Waller proposed it in his verses on the capture of the Spanish treasure ships in September 1656 (Poems, ed. 1711, p. 198).
Let the rich ore be forthwith melted down
And made more rich by making him a crown;
With ermine clad and purple, let him hold
A royal sceptre, made of Spanish gold.
In the discussion of Sindercombe’s conspiracy in parliament one member declared that it would tend very much to the preservation of himself and us that his highness would be pleased to take upon him the government according to the ancient constitution (19 Jan. 1657; Burton, i. 363).
In February 1657 a proposal for the revision of the constitution and the restoration of monarchy was introduced into parliament. According to Ludlow, this scheme was prepared by Cromwell’s creatures and at his instigation; but this is hardly consistent with his hesitation to accept the crown, and his dissatisfaction with some of the provisions of the constitution. On 25 March it was decided by 123 to 62 votes that the Protector should be asked to take the kinship upon him, and on 31 March the ‘petition and advice’ was presented to him for acceptance. Cromwell replied by expressing his general approval of the provisions of the scheme and his sense of the honour offered him, but saying that he had not been able to find that either his duty to God or his duty to the parliament required him to undertake that charge under that title (Carlyle, Speech viii. 3 April 1657). A series of conferences now took place, in which parliament endeavoured to remove Cromwell'’s scruples as to the title, and agreed to consider his objections to some of the details of the new constitution. On 8 May he grave his final answer: ‘Though I think the act of government doth consist of very excellent parts, in all but that one thing of the title as to me . . . I cannot undertake this government with the title of king’ (Speech xiv.) All the efforts of the constitutional lawyers had failed to convince Cromwell of the necessity of the restoration of the kingly title.
‘I do judge for myself that there is no necessity of this name of king; for the other names may do as well' (Speech xi.) He was half inclined to believe that God had blasted the title as well as the family which had borne it (ib.) He contemptuously described the title as ‘a feather in the hat,’ and the crown as ‘a shining bauble for crowds to raze at or kneel to’ (Carlyle, Letter cc.) But if it signified nothing to him, it signified much to others. To the army it meant the restoration of all they had fought to overthrow, and from the first moment they had been loud in their opposition. On 27 Feb. 1657 Lambert and a hundred officers addressed the Protector to refuse the crown,
