those religious interests, which but for the sake of peace, he would have prized so highly. As to the manner in which Urban VIII. sought to defeat the Hapsburgs’ defence, and how he was met from the side of Spain, the papers of Simanca offer many a disclosure, some of the most important of which I have consulted and used. Whatever other reasons may have influenced the Pope in his hostile attitude, the decisive cause seems to me to have been the inherited opposition to the dominion of foreigners, which led Urban to oppose the Spanish, as his predecessors had opposed the Germans.
In my narrative of the course of the war after the year 1636 and of the Westphalian peace negotiations, I have used almost exclusively the printed authorities.
Thus I now send forth to the world this work, which, notwithstanding its modest compass, is the result of long years of preparatory study. The correctness of its conclusions can, however, be finally decided only by evidence still to be published.
