CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 271 



combined fleet to withdraw altogether from the Channel, as 

 their further presence there was useless and might give occa- 

 sion for a conflict. 1 Thus it was that Lindsey could not find 

 them. While Richelieu's strategy succeeded, the course adopted 

 was somewhat pusillanimous and not calculated to add to the 

 laurels of France. He therefore took advantage of an incident 

 to raise the question of the flag diplomatically with England, in 

 the hope of having the respective rights of the two nations 

 settled, and no doubt for other reasons. He complained to 

 Charles that the Earl of Lindsey who denied the story told 

 a Dutch captain of whom he inquired the whereabouts of the 

 French fleet, that he was "going to make them lower their 

 colours " ; 2 he inquired as to the intentions of the king, and he 

 proposed that in future the French should salute the English 

 on the coast of England, and, reciprocally, that the English 

 should salute the French on the coast of France ; while if 

 the fleets were in the middle of the sea they should either 

 pass one another without saluting, or the weaker fleet should 

 first salute the stronger. If Charles did not like these pro- 

 posals, he was invited to suggest others. 3 It appears indeed 

 that instructions of a similar tenour had been actually 

 given to the French Admiral, except that they might 

 strike to the English when out of sight of the French 

 coast. 4 



Richelieu's proposals for equality and reciprocity in the 

 narrow seas were instantly rejected. Coke, in a despatch 

 to the English agents at Paris, the draft of which was revised 

 by the king, expressed astonishment that the French ambas- 

 sador, instead of the negotiation of a treaty for a confedera- 

 tion between England, France, and the States-General for the 

 restitution of the Elector Palatine, should raise " impertinent 

 questions " about the king's dominion at sea. The king could 

 enter into no such debate with the French ambassador. But 

 Coke had assured that personage that the instructions given to 

 the Earl of Lindsey were no other than had been given in 

 effect in all former times, and " for near forty years within his 



1 Gardiner, loc. eit. 



2 It was from this Hollander, met off Beachy Head on 9th June, that Lindsey 

 learned that the French fleet was at Portland. 



3 State Paper$, Don., ccxci. 80, 27th June 1635. * Ibid., ccxcvi. 14. 



