One must believe neither the people of the palace, who ordinarily measure the power of the king by the shape of his crown, which, being round, has no end, nor those who, in the excess of a discreet zeal, proclaim themselves openly as partisans of Rome.

Cardinal Richelieu. God Oh

Oh

Oh

Oh Oh, Oh, Cardinal Matzarin, the First Minister of France, approached the beginning months of 1644

with caution, concern, and a consideration for events occurring in Scandinavia

that had dragged their major ally Sweden into making war on Denmark.

Matsirin knew that France's position was not militarily strong at the beginning of that year.

France had troops stationed to numerous strategic points in Catalonia, the South Netherlands border, along the Rhine, watching the Pyrenees in North Italy, but the fact that the soldiers existed there did not necessarily mean that the state supplying them was enjoying prosperity.

Matsirin knew his country was stretched, that the war had taken its toll on the French

finances and that war in this form could not be endured by France much longer.

He was reliant on Sweden to pick up the slack of Northern Europe and ensured that France

did not have to face both the Austrian Habsburgs and the Spanish Habsburgs alone.

When the Swedish Council and Sweden's chancellor, Axel

Oxens Tierra, made the decision to declare a preemptive war against Sweden's eternal

Baltic rival Denmark, though, the race was on in the Habsburg camp to first support their new

ally by default, and then to use the combined forces of the two Hasberg branches to crush the French across Europe.

That was the story of 1644, and we'll cover it in some more detail here, because it is important for setting in concrete the events that followed.

1645 will then see Sweden by France's side, and the negotiations at Munster and Osnabrook entering

their own critical phases. All the while, you're likely to notice the pattern emerge

that demands will be changed with the change in military fortunes, and that a state, who believes

he's on the up, will try to talk the talk at the same time.

...