ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS, 1641 to 1649 By D. A. Bigby
It seems strange at first sight that France should have done little or nothing to help Charles I and his French consort against their rebellious subjects But, as Miss Bigby explains in her very able monograph on Anglo-French Relations, 1641 to 1649 (University of London Press, 6s.), France had her bands full with the Thirty Years' War ; furthermore, Henrietta Maria hated Richelieu and was none too favourable o Mazarin, and Charles's Court preferred a Spanish to a French alliance. However, Miss Bigby's close study of the French diplomatic correspondence has enabled her to show that Mazarin feared the Independents and tried to ally the Scots and the English Presbyterians against them and in support of the King. She publishes the hitherto unknown Treaty of Rneil made by Goring for Charles -with Louis XIV on July 3rd, 1644, and she shows that in giving himself up to the Scots at Newark Charles acted on the advice and with the assistance of the French Ambassador. It proved to be a false move, for the Scots sold the King to the Parlia- ment. Charles might have saved himself if he had agreed to a Presbyterian Establishment, as his wife, his counsellors and Mazarin strongly advised. His refusal to abandon the Church of England cost him his throne and his life. Miss Bigby brings out the curious fact that throughout these troubled years the French Government was trying to obtain British and Irish recruits for its depleted armies. Her book throws new light on the Civil War period and deserves attention.
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