statesman and followed in his steps.  Moreover, during this same period the outbreak of civil war in England had for the time being caused that country to be wholly absorbed in its own domestic concerns, and it ceased to have any weight in the councils of western Europe.  Thus it came to pass that there was a kind of lull in the external affairs of the United Provinces; and her statesmen were compelled to take fresh stock of their position in the changed situation that had been created.

Not that this meant that these years were a time of less pressure and anxiety to the Prince of Orange.  His new relations with the English royal family were a source of difficulty to him.  Henrietta Maria (March, 1642) came to Holland, bringing with her the princess royal, and for a whole year took up her residence at the Hague.  She was received with kindliness and courtesy not only by the stadholder and his family, but by the people of Holland generally.  Her presence, together with that of the Queen of Bohemia, at the Princess of Orange’s court gave to it quite a regal dignity and splendour, which was particularly gratifying to Amalia von Solms.  But the English queen had other objects in view than those of courtesy.  She hoped not merely to enlist the sympathies of Frederick Henry for the royal cause in the English civil war, but to obtain through his help supplies of arms and munitions from Holland for King Charles.  But in this she did not succeed.  The Parliament had sent an envoy, William Strickland, to counteract the influence of Henrietta Maria, and to represent to the States-General that it was fighting in defence of the same principles which had led to the revolt against Spain.  The prince was far too prudent to allow his personal inclinations to override his political judgment as a practical statesman.  He knew that public opinion in the United Provinces would never sanction in any form active support of King Charles against his parliament, and he did not attempt it.  Intervention was confined to the despatch of an embassy to England with instructions to mediate between the two parties.  When the unfortunate queen found that all her efforts on behalf of King Charles were in vain, she determined to leave the safe refuge where she had been so hospitably entertained and to return to her husband’s side.  She sailed from Scheveningen on March 9, 1643, and reached the royal camp at York in safety.

In the autumn of this year, 1643, two special envoys were sent by Cardinal Mazarin to the Hague; and one of the results of their visit was a renewal of the treaty of 1635 by which France and the United Provinces had entered upon an offensive and defensive alliance and had agreed to conclude no peace but by mutual consent.  Nevertheless Frederick Henry, whom long experience had made wary and far-sighted, had been growing for some little time suspicious of the advantage to the republic of furthering French aggrandisement in the southern Netherlands.  He saw that France