d 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."

He continued, however, to see the Cardinal till the arrival of the Earl
of Leicester, who came to Paris in spring 1636, as Ambassador
Extraordinary from the King of England, with orders not to visit the
Cardinal, because the British Court thought it indecent that Ambassadors
should yield the precedence to Cardinals; and that it was even contrary
to the ceremonial of the Court of Spain. "I commend, says Grotius
writing to the High Chancellor[275], those who defend their rights: I
dare not however imitate them without orders." He thought it most proper
therefore not to visit the Cardinal till he knew the High Chancellor's
intentions. Receiving no orders to continue his visits to him[276], he
wholly left them off; and the Queen's Ministry thinking the crown of
Sweden at least equal in dignity to that of England, approved of his
conduct. Count d'Avaux was ordered to use his endeavours with the
Swedish Ministry to write to Grotius that he should continue to visit
the Cardinal as formerly: D'Avaux spoke of it to Salvius, a
Privy-Councellor, and Chancellor of the Court, who was with him at
Hamburg negotiating a new treaty. Salvius answered, that Grotius had
received orders to conform to the Earl of Leicester's example; t