7 - Peace proposed

Summary

Why then did the Rump begin negotiations with the States General in March 1653? Why were the English willing to treat with a nation which had perfidiously attacked them less than a year previously while an alliance was being discussed in Westminster?

There were, of course, many in England, even many supporters of the Rump, who opposed the war against their Protestant brethren. Almost as soon as newsmongers heard that Blake and Van Tromp had fought in the Downs, they began disseminating stories of an Anglo-Dutch rapprochement. Though these stories were certainly exaggerations and mere fabrications, there can be little doubt that there was a significant sector of the English population hostile to the war. “There be thousands who mutter at the business,” conceded the Hollandophobic Donald Lupton, “and seem to bear affection to” the Dutch cause. In the Rump itself there were frequent murmurings of discontent. “Parliament never meets,” the Venetian resident reported in February 1653, “without accusations and reproaches being heaped on the authors of this war.” Hugh Peter, one of Cromwell's favorite preachers, was known to have written to Sir George Ayscue “desiring him to forbear engaging the Dutch in this unjust quarrel.” Peter, in fact, was quite anxious to tell anyone who would listen that many in the United Provinces were anxious for peace. Though Peter was fiercely attacked for his activities in the summer, his very public rehabilitation by the Rump in January 1653 reveals a good deal about the temper of the House.