| Summary: | This article studies Oliver Cromwell’s foreign policy in France during the Commonwealth (1649-1653) and the Protectorate (1653-1658). France played a significant part in Cromwell’s diplomatic game as it became England’s partner following the signing of the 1657 treaty for a military alliance against Spain. Back in the early 1650s, however, the Commonwealth and Cromwell in particular had sought to destabilise and weaken France further than it was because of the Fronde. Under study here is the role played by two actors at the behest of England’s authorities: on the one hand, Edward Sexy, a former New Model Army Agitator who was sent to Bordeaux as a Commonwealth agent in support of the rebellion there and translated the Leveller manifesto The Agreement of the People into English, and on the other hand, William Lockhart, Cromwell’s trusted friend-cum-relative who was appointed special ambassador to France with instructions to strengthen Anglo-French relationships and negotiate with Mazarin for a military alliance against Spain. Cromwell’s dealings with France are thereby examined, from the half-hearted support given to French rebels’ efforts to oust Mazarin, while England was busy conducting unofficial negotiations with the French government, to the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
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