The state of Europe was such as to threaten difficulty, even danger, to England. Two statesmen of unusual ability were at work in Europe; to both of them the fall of the new Government in England was an object, and when their intrigues for a moment brought them together, there was a brief interval of real danger. These were Charles XII. of Sweden, and Alberoni, the Prime Minister of Spain. [Sidenote: Charles XII.] Charles had found himself thwarted in his schemes for re-establishing his power by the opposition of the English King. The same opposition had checked the Czar in his ambitious schemes on Mecklenburg. In union with his minister, Görtz, an adventurer who had passed into his service from that of the Prince of Gotthorp, Charles determined on a new combination of the North to suit the altered politics of Europe. He allied himself with his old enemy the Czar, and despatched Görtz to Holland, to see what he could do in France and England. In each of those countries he found it possible to enter into communication with a large discontented minority. In France, the Duke of Maine, irritated at the loss of the position which the late King's will would have given him, had put himself at the head of the older and graver statesmen, who clung to the old policy of enmity with England. In England, the Jacobites were still looking out for foreign support. To both countries Görtz sent an agent,--while Spaar was, if possible, to produce a change of government in France, Gyllenborg was instructed in England to promise the Tories the assistance of 12,000 men under the personal command of the King of Sweden. In seeking assistance for his plans, Görtz had come across another intrigue tending in the same direction. He found in Alberoni a man whose views were for the time identical with his own, and Spanish money found its way largely both to the Pretender and to the Swedish agents. Fortunately the English Government obtained information of what was going on. Justly holding that his ambassadorial rights were forfeited by his treason, they apprehended Gyllenborg and seized his papers, and persuaded Holland to act in the same manner with regard to Görtz. The papers thus seized afforded full justification for what they had done. But though thwarted in this scheme, both Charles and the Czar continued to act in unison with Spain against the interests of England. It was to meet this plot that the supply was demanded which caused the final schism in the English ministry. The death of Charles in September 1718, at the siege of Friedrichshalle, whither he had gone in his haste to secure Norway, the possession of which was a part of his bargain with Russia, prevented the Northern branch of the intrigue from bearing fruits, and a revolution in Sweden, which changed it into little more than an oligarchical republic, removed it for more than sixty years from the scene of history. [Sidenote: Alberoni.]