]
On one subject, in the protector's estimation of considerable importance,
he was partially successful. Possessed of the supreme power himself, he
considered Charles as a personal rival, and made it his policy to strip the
exiled king of all hope of foreign support. From the prince of Orange, so
nearly allied to the royal family, Cromwell had little to fear during his
minority; and, to render him incapable of benefiting the royal cause in his
more mature age, the protector attempted to exclude him by the treaty
from succeeding to those high offices which might almost be considered
hereditary in his family. The determined refusal of the States had induced
him to withdraw the demand; but he intrigued, through the agency of
Beverning, with the leaders of the Louvestein party;[1] and obtained a
secret article, by which the states of Holland and West Friesland promised
never to elect the prince of Orange for their stadtholder, nor suffer him
to have the chief command of the army and navy. But the secret transpired;
the other states highly resented this clandestine negotiation; complaints
and remonstrances were answered by apologies and vindications; an open
schism was declared between the provinces, and every day added to the
exasperation of the two parties.
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