He had an audience of Cardinal Richelieu[273] in the beginning of May, 1636:  The affairs of the allies were in a good situation.  His Eminence greatly extolled the High Chancellor:  he said what he had done was not inferior to the exploits of the great Gustavus; that it was a kind of miracle that the Swedes, after being betrayed by their friends, and forced into a corner of Germany, should have been able in such a short time to penetrate into the heart of the Empire.  He assured Grotius, that a part of the money due had been paid by St. Chaumont, and that in a little time there would not be one sol owing.  Afterwards embracing the Swedish Ambassador with great cordiality, he begged of him in the name of polite learning, which they both professed to cultivate, to do all in his power for the advantage of the common cause, especially with the English:  and, to efface the remembrance of the ill treatment Grotius had received, he told him with a smile, that the French were often fools in the opinion of other nations, but they soon recovered their right senses.  This change in the Cardinal proceeded from the Queen of Sweden’s approving Oxenstiern’s nomination of Grotius to be Ambassador in France; from the confidence which the High Chancellor placed in him; from Pau’s having lost his authority in Holland; and from the Prince of Orange’s having spoken of him in terms of friendship.  The Cardinal magnified the preparations made by France at sea, from which great things, he said, might be expected if the English would join:  he wanted they should be given to understand that the French and Swedes would undertake to obtain the restitution of the Palatinate to Prince Charles Lewis the King of England’s nephew, if the English would unite their forces with those of France and Sweden.  He added that it was unjust in the English to claim the Empire of the sea, but that it would be improper for some time openly to dispute their pretensions, for fear of preventing their joining in the treaty, or on the other hand to acknowledge directly the right they assumed.

This was all that passed directly between Cardinal Richelieu and Grotius:  they never conferred together afterwards.  The Swedish Ambassador thought he should derogate from his dignity by visiting a Minister, who, because he was invested with the Purple, refused to give the upper hand to Ambassadors.  He resolved therefore to see his Eminence no more, but to treat with the other Ministers.

The English were the first who disputed the privileges of the Cardinalship.  Lord Scudamore, Ambassador in ordinary from England to France[274], would not see Cardinal Richelieu:  he sent to tell him that he was expressly ordered to visit no one who assumed in his own house the precedency of the Ambassadors of Kings.  The English had been induced to take this step by the representation of the Protestants, that to suffer a Cardinal to take the upper hand of an Ambassador was to acknowledge the Pope’s dignity.  Grotius informed the High Chancellor of this by a letter of the fourth of September, 1635, where he adds, “I say not this as if I thought the English ought to be imitated in every thing, but that we may avoid whatever might expose us to contempt:  than which nothing, I am persuaded, can be of more prejudice to the interests of kings and kingdoms.”