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Cromwell's Diplomatic Blunder: The Relationship Between the Western Design of 1654–55 and the French Alliance of 1657*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

John F. Battick
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Extract

The principal historians of the Cromwellian period, from S. R. Gardiner to Christopher Hill, have asserted that Oliver Cromwell was a master of statesmanship whose foreign policy was guided by clear, though perhaps archaic, objectives; that his diplomacy was always aggressive, and largely successful; and that with him England entered into her rightful place in the community of nations. These axioms have been repeated in every textbook. The phenomenon is not unknown in recent history where, until A.J.P. Taylor suggested differently, few English writers dared to question the culpability of Adolf Hitler in bringing on the 1939-1945 war. Though Mr. Taylor's views excited critical comment, they have not been without supporters, and are being addressed by historians of the Twentieth century. This essay re-examines the diplomacy of the Cromwellian period, specifically in the years 1654 through 1657. It suggests that a revision of long-established views is in order.

Milestones of English foreign affairs during the Protectorate exhibit an apparent uniformity of policy. From the Treaty of Westminster of April 1654 to the Battle of the Dunes, June 14, 1658, the trend was towards a firm association with France, with the ultimate objective to destroy Spanish power in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. Such a generalization must be treated with caution, however, for it can be demonstrated that the course of English policy between the conclusion of the First Dutch War and the death of Oliver Cromwell was guided less by a desire for an alliance with France than by a series of miscalculations, the cumulative effect of which left the Protector little choice but to join with France, and thereby to assist in the establishment of the hegemony of Louis XIV.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , Winter 1973 , pp. 279 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1973

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Footnotes

*

Revised version of a paper read at the New England Conference on British Studies, Worcester, Massachusettes, April 1971.

References

1 During the decade 1650-60, the United Provinces and the Commonwealth could each set forth around 150 warships; France, some fifty; and Spain, about thirty. The Dutch possessed none of the “first-rate” (70-100 guns); the twenty galleys of the French Navy had no utility on the high seas; and only half of the Spanish vessels were in full commission. Society for Nautical Research, Occasional Publications No. 5, Lists of Men-Of-War, 1650-1700 (London, 1935–1939), Parts I, II, and IVGoogle Scholar; Perkins, James Breck, France Under Mazarin, With a Review of the Administration of Richelieu, 2 vols, (third ed., New York, 1887), II: 354–65Google Scholar; Lynch, John, Spain Under the Habsburgs, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1964–1969)Google Scholar, Volume II, Spain and the Americas, 1598-1700, p. 113; Smith, Rhea Marsh, Spain, A Modern History (Ann Arbor, 1965), p. 212.Google Scholar

2 Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy, 1653-54 (London, 1929), pp. 72, 78–79, 146Google Scholar (hereafter cited as C.S.P.-V.).

3 Guizot, F.P.G., History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth…, 2 vols. (London, 1854), II; 439, 441–445Google Scholar; Abbott, Wilbur Cortez, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1937–1947), III: 78–79, 84–85, 106–107Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Abbott, W. & S.); Birch, Thomas, ed., A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe… 7 vols. (London, 1742), II: 8Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Thurloe).

4 See reports in the Thomason and the Burney Collections of newssheets in the British Museum, London. On the balance of prizes, see SirRichmond, Admiral Herbert, The Navy as an Instrument of Policy, 1558-1727 (Cambridge, 1953), p. 94.Google Scholar

5 Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, A History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1656, 4 vols. (London, 1903), III: 53–55Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Gardiner, C. & P.); Cheruel, A. and d'Avenel, G., eds., Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministére, 9 vols. (Paris, 1872–1906), VI: 124, 133–139.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., p. 141.

7 Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, The Commonwealth, 1654 (London, 1880), p. 94Google Scholar (hereafter cited as C.S.P.-D.); Several Proceedings of State Affairs (London), April 13-20, 1654Google Scholar; Thurloe, III: 28.Google Scholar

8 Cheruel, and d'Avenel, , Lettres du Mazarin, VI: 160.Google Scholar

9 Abbott, , W. & S., III: 275–76, 288, 300–301.Google Scholar

10 Thurloe, II: 233, 241, 275, 287–288, 325.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., pp. 247, 269, 306.

12 Abbott, , W. & S., III: 326, 339Google Scholar; Thurloe, II: 365, 447.Google Scholar

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15 Firth, Charles Harding, ed., “Edward Montagu's Notes on the Debates in the Protector's Council Concerning the Last Indian Expedition,” in The Clarke Papers, Vol. III, Camden Society Publication, New Series, Vol. 61 (London, 1899), pp. 203–206Google Scholar. Also, see my article “Cromwell's Imperial Vision, A Re-evaluation of the Western Design,” Barbados Museum and Historical Society Journal, 34 (1972): 76–84.Google Scholar

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17 C.S.P.-D., 1654, pp. 200-201; Firth, , “Montagu's Notes,” pp. 207–208.Google Scholar

18 Gardiner, , C. & P., III: 160 and note.Google Scholar

19 Thurloe, II: 729Google Scholar; ibid., III: 465.

20 Powell, John Rowland, The Letters of Robert Blake Together With Supplementary Documents, The Navy Records Society, Vol. 76 (London, 1937), p. 270.Google Scholar

21 Abbott, , W. & S., III: 552.Google Scholar

22 C.S.P.-V., 1655-56, pp. 16, 34, 56; Perfect Diurnal (London), April 30-May 7, 1655Google ScholarPubMed; Gardiner, , C. & P., IV: 163–164.Google Scholar

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25 Thurloe, III: 381, 469Google Scholar. The text of the treaty is printed in Abbott, , W. & S., III: 930–937.Google Scholar

26 Thurloe, III: 658.Google Scholar

27 Abbott, , W. & S., III: 759 and note.Google Scholar

28 Thurloe, III: 613Google Scholar; C.S.P.-D., 1655, p. 240.

29 Gardiner, , C. & P., IV: 170.Google Scholar

30 Thurloe, IV: 93.Google Scholar

31 C.S.P.-V., 1655-56, p. 119.

32 Thurloe, III: 734–735.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., IV: 120.

34 See my document and notes, “William Lockhart's First Audience as Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV,” in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (May 1974).

35 Firth, , “Montagu's Notes,” pp. 207–208.Google Scholar

36 See my doctoral dissertation, “Cromwell's Navy and the Foreign Policy of the Protectorate, 1653-1658” (Boston University, 1967), pp. 100–101, 115–117.Google Scholar

37 See my article cited in note 15 above.

38 I am presently completing a book manuscript on the Western Design. The best currently available account is by Taylor, S.A.G., The Western Design (2nd ed., London, 1969).Google ScholarPubMed

39 Powell, Letters of Blake, pp. 277–279Google Scholar; C.S.P.D., 1655, p. 18; Thurloe, IV: 190-191.

40 Powell, J.R., “The Expedition of Blake and Mountagu in 1655,” Mariner's Mirror, 52 (1966): 363–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Richmond, Herbert, The Navy as an Instrument of Policy, p. 132Google Scholar. Convoy arrangements are indicated by lists of ships in British Library (formerly British Museum) ADD. MSS. 9305 and Carte MSS. 73. passim, and Public Record Office, S.P. 18/156, 157 and 180, passim.

42 Abbott, , W. & S., IV: 911–919.Google Scholar