The company, thus composed of noblemen, wealthy merchants, and officials of great personal influence, with a large capital, and Cardinal Richelieu, who really controlled and shaped the policy of France at that period, at its head possessed so many elements of strength that, in the reasonable judgment of men, success was assured, failure impossible. [95] To Champlain, the vision of a great colonial establishment in New France, that had so long floated before him in the distance, might well seem to be now almost within his grasp. But disappointment was near at hand. Events were already transpiring which were destined to cast a cloud over these brilliant hopes. A fleet of armed vessels was already crossing the Atlantic, bearing the English flag, with hostile intentions to the settlements in New France. Here we must pause in our narrative to explain the origin, character, and purpose of this armament, as unexpected to Champlain as it was unwelcome. The reader must be reminded that no boundaries between the French and English territorial possessions in North America at this time existed. Each of these great nations was putting forth claims so broad and extensive as to utterly exclude the other. By their respective charters, grants, and concessions, they recognized no sovereignty or ownership but their own. Henry IV. of France, made, in 1603, a grant to a favorite nobleman, De Monts, of the territory lying between the fortieth and the forty-sixth degrees of north latitude. James I. of England, three years later, in 1606, granted to the Virginia Companies the territory lying between the thirty-fourth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, covering the whole grant made by the French three years before. Creuxius, a French historian of Canada, writing some years later than this, informs us that New France, that is, the French possessions in North America, then embraced the immense territory extending from Florida, or from the thirty-second degree of latitude, to the polar circle, and in longitude from Newfoundland to Lake Huron. It will, therefore, be seen that each nation, the English and the French, claimed at that time sovereignty over the same territory, and over nearly the whole of the continent of North America. Under these circumstances, either of these nations was prepared to avail itself of any favorable opportunity to dispossess the other.