Adolphus
and the Swedes were not a factor in the dire strife which was convulsing
Europe. [Footnote: At this period the largest interest in European
politics was the rivalry between France and the House of Hapsburg, which
held the thrones of Spain and Austria. This rivalry led France to take
an active part in the Thirty Years' War, even though her allies in that
struggle were Protestants. Between 1627, when the Company of New France
was founded, and 1632, when Canada was restored to France, the Swedes
under Gustavus Adolphus had won a series of brilliant victories over
the Catholic and Hapsburg forces in Germany, After the death of Gustavus
Adolphus in 1632, Richelieu attacked the Emperor Ferdinand II in great
force, thereby conquering Alsace.] In 1632 the political problems of
Western and Central Europe had assumed an aspect quite different from
that which they had worn five years earlier. More and more France was
drawn into the actual conflict of the Thirty Years' War, impelled by
a sense of new and unparalleled opportunity to weaken the House of
Hapsburg. This, in turn, meant the preoccupation of Richelieu with
European affairs, and a heavy drain upon the resources of France in
order to meet the cost of her more ambitious foreign policy. Thus
the duel with Austria, as it progressed during the last decade of the
cardinal's life, meant a fresh check to those colonial prospects which
seemed so bright in 1627.

Richelieu's first step in resuming possession of Canada was to compose
matters between the De Caens and the Company of New France. Emery de
Caen and his associates were given the trading rights for 1632 and
79,000 livres as compensation for their losses through the revocation of
the monopoly. Dating from the spring of 1633, the Company of New France
was to be placed in full possession of Canada, subject to specific
obligations regarding missions and colonists. Conformably with this
programme, Emery de Caen appeared at Quebec on July 5, 1632, with
credentials empowering him to receive possession from Lewis and Thomas
Kirke, the representatives of England. With De Caen came Paul Le Jeune
and two other Jesuits, a vanguard of the missionary band which was to
convert the savages. 'We cast anchor,' says Le Jeune, 'in front of the
fort which the English held; we saw at the foot of this fort the poor
settlement of Quebec all in ashes. The English, who came to this country
to plunder and not to build up, not only burned a