The Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Conde were of the same sentiments[403].  Cardinal Mazarin soon gained all the Queen’s confidence, and the principal part in the Ministry:  he pretended to support the dignity of Cardinal with the same grandeur as his predecessor:  which made Grotius resolve[404] to wait for orders from Sweden before he saw his Eminence.  September 26, 1643, he writes to Salvius[405], “I received with great pleasure your Excellency’s letters.  I caused them to be delivered to Cardinal Mazarin, whom I have not seen, nor will see, unless the Queen order it.  He takes the precedence of the Ambassadors of Kings; and though the title of Eminence be given him, he refuses that of Excellence to Ambassadors.”  Sweden having declared war against the King of Denmark[406], who had taken several Swedish ships trading in the Sound, Grotius communicated the Queen of Sweden’s motives to the French Queen[407], without having orders for it, in an audience which he had of her Majesty about the middle of April, 1644; acquainting her that justice and necessity obliged Sweden to have recourse to arms against the Danes; he also shewed her the declaration of war, which he translated into Latin, and printed at Paris.  Some time after, Christina sent him orders to inform the Queen of France of the reasons which obliged the Swedes to enter into a war with Denmark; which Grotius did accordingly at an audience in the beginning of June, 1644.

FOOTNOTES: 

[403] Ep. 1594. p. 743.

[404] Ep. 632. p. 946.

[405] Ep. 1611. p. 717.

[406] Bougeant, l. 8. p. 542.

[407] Ep. 1661. p. 721.

XI.  It was the adventurer Cerisante who brought Grotius Queen Christina’s letters, ordering him to lay before the Queen of France Sweden’s grounds of complaint against Denmark.  He had had interest to get himself nominated Agent of the crown of Sweden at Paris, with orders however to do nothing but in concert with the Ambassador[408].  Some years before, the continual jars between Grotius and the French Ministers made the Regents of Sweden[409] hesitate whether it would not be proper to recall Grotius:  he himself had wrote to the High Chancellor[410], that, to obviate all difficulties raised against him, it would perhaps be more proper to have only an Agent at Paris.  It is pretended that the inclination which he was suspected to have for the Roman Catholics contributed to set the Swedes against him; and Crusius wrote from Bremen, November 27, 1642[411], “It is publicly reported that Grotius is become a Papist, and has lost all credit in Sweden.”  He was not consulted in the nomination of Cerisante; accordingly it gave him much uneasiness, which he did not dissemble[412]:  he regarded this Agent as a spy sent to observe his conduct, and his mission as a proof that the Ministry were not satisfied with him:  this greatly contributed to increase the disgust he had taken to his embassy,