But the situation changed when England became involved in war with the Netherlands. In the summer of 1653, when the _Leopolus_, a merchantman of Dunkirk, came into the Elizabeth River, the captains of two English ships came on board to demand her special license. Apparently the master had no license, for the vessel was seized by the Virginia authorities and sold for L400.[38] After this there seem to have been no further seizures by the Virginians. But the English masters took it upon themselves to try to break up the Dutch trade, and the planters looked on helplessly as they intercepted sloops taking their tobacco to the Dutch vessels, or seized the vessels themselves and took them off as prizes. In 1660 the Assembly plucked up courage to declare that "the Dutch and all strangers of what Christian nation soever in amity with the people of England shall have free liberty to trade with us." And they required the masters of all incoming English ships to give bond not to molest any vessels whatsoever in Virginia waters.[39] It is obvious that during the entire Commonwealth period the trade with Holland was kept open. In 1655 certain English shipowners complained that "there are usually found intruding upon the plantation divers ships, surreptitiously carrying away the growth thereof to foreign parts."[40] It was this which widened the market for tobacco, kept up the price, and brought a degree of prosperity to the colony. With the articles of surrender stipulating that Virginia should have its original bounds, it seemed a golden opportunity for the colony to regain the territory granted to Lord Baltimore. Surely the Puritan government of England would be eager to root out the group of Roman Catholics in Maryland. So when the Assembly sent Samuel Mathews to have the articles ratified they instructed him to plead for the annulling of Baltimore's patent. But Baltimore had cut the ground from under their feet by recognizing the Commonwealth as early as 1648, appointing a Puritan Governor of Maryland, and proclaiming religious freedom. Though Richard Bennett came over to join Mathews in defending Virginia's claim, the final settlement left Maryland a separate colony.[41] The people of Virginia watched with intense interest the dramatic events in England in the years from 1652 to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660--the dissolution of the Rump Parliament, the election of the Praise-God Barebone Parliament, the naming of Cromwell Protector, the foreign wars, the death of Cromwell, the brief rule of Richard Cromwell. But they were less affected by them than by happenings in the mother country at any other time during the colonial period. Virginia was left to her own devices because the men in power in London were too greatly occupied with other matters to bother with her. One wonders whether they knew what was going on, for the correspondence with persons in the colony dwindled to a trickle.