A universal and perpetual piece, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events which will never exist, but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.

James Madison.

James Madison. The other than me. And The So that they get of a stronger negotiating position in 1644, there was the genuine French need to make concrete gains in the military sphere, which throughout 1644 were generally frustrated by the Bavarian general Franz von

Mercy. However, France was not only fighting along the Rhine, where the French and Bavarian borders

met. French arms had better look in Flanders and Catalonia, as well as Lorain, where it was now

practically secure from the hazeburgs.

But still, the French plententiaries, remember we like to call them plenny's,

began to see Sweden as the major cause for the French military shortcomings.

French statesmen at home blamed the Swedish war against Denmark as the reason for the French not

getting the job done along the Rhine, and believed that only with a combined Franco-Swedish

offensive could the small German princes be persuaded to abandon the Emperor and send

their own independent plenies to negotiate a war-ending peace, which will simultaneously rupture

the Hausberg imperial influence.

Before the war turned so completely against the Danes, the French tried to send a rep

overland to Denmark to negotiate an end to the war with its king, Christian IV.

Interestingly though, Ferdinand III's agents managed to block him and stop him from reaching his goal.

Hardly surprising when one considered the new lease of life Denmark granted Ferdin

Mazzarin considered sending a rep by sea, but there were concerns that amidst the naval war going on in the region,

a single French vessel would become lost. In addition, before the Danish

fleet were decisively defeated at Femmerne, Matzer undoubtedly he'd even be able to find the Danish

king in the first place, let alone get him to listen. France had a strong bargaining chip,

though, when it came to Sweden, its annual subsidy. If France threatened to withdraw

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