There was also the _Army Party_ or _Wallingford-House Party,_ led by Fleetwood and Desborough, with an immediate retinue of Cromwellian ex-Major-Generals and Colonels purposely in London, and a more shadowy tail of majors, captains, and inferior officers, coiled away among the regiments.[1] [Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII.

447-449, 454-455, and 498; Phillips, 639; Guizot, I.13-19, with Letters of M.de Bordeaux appended to the volume.] More than questions of home-administration was involved in this division of parties.

It involved also the future foreign policy of the Protectorate.

The desire of Richard himself and of the Court Party was to prosecute the foreign policy which Oliver had so strenuously begun.

Now, the great bequests from the late Protectorate in the matter of foreign policy had been two: (1)_The War with Spain, in alliance with France._ The Treaty Offensive and Defensive with France against Spain, originally formed by Cromwell March 23, 1656-7, and renewed March 28, 1658, was to expire on March 28, 1659.