Let us now once more direct our close attention to the relations between England and France, which at that time, as they had almost always done, determined the general course of European policy.

In July 1637 the two powers, between which, notwithstanding the above-mentioned objections on the part of Wentworth, negotiations had always been going on, came to an agreement about the articles of an alliance for mutual assistance, which opened a wide prospect for the general relations of Europe, especially with regard to Germany.

By this agreement they combined in proposing to restore the Estates of the German Empire, which had been over-powered by the house of Austria, and especially the Palatine house, to those possessions and rights which they had enjoyed before the war. The King of England pledged himself that he would not permit either money or the necessaries of war to be supplied in future to the Austro-Spanish house, but on the contrary, that he would equip a fleet which should entirely prevent any transport of the kind: that he would never again allow the Spaniards to enlist soldiers in his dominions, but that he would give this permission to the French. In return the King of France promised not to conclude peace either with the German or with the Spanish line of the house of Austria without the consent of the King of England, and above all not to do so unless the complete restoration of the Palatinate had been obtained.