Effective and successful as the undertakings of the Commonwealth had been, especially in the Dutch war, yet the isolated position it held in the face of Europe was felt to be a source of annoyance and even of danger. The States-General found allies: Denmark for instance pledged herself to refuse not only English men of war, but English merchant vessels free passage through the Sound. They entered into negotiations with France, which was not willing to permit their ruin, and even gave them hopes of terminating their quarrel with Portugal. Lastly, had the Pope and Catholic clergy, among whom the design was incessantly discussed, succeeded in bringing about the peace between France and Spain, Charles II could once more have found enough support among the foreign powers to make him, in spite of the defeat of his adherents at home, again appear important and dangerous.

On the other hand, the mode in which the English Commonwealth had been founded had, as the catastrophes in Holland and Spain showed, evoked among high and low a prejudice against it which rendered a formal diplomatic intercourse almost impossible.

One of the most remarkable tokens of respect which the maiden daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Christina, Queen of Sweden, received from abroad, was unquestionably the gift of his own picture from Cromwell. The brow on which time and the untiring prosecution of a war which had led through the bewildering paths of fortune, and the hard helmet had imprinted wrinkles,—this brow bends reverently before her.