Money from an early time showed itself the enemy of Kingship, in which it recognized the bulwark against its operations. Money became concerned, like the rebellious nobles and prelates who were often its tools, to hold the King and his People apart and make them both dependent upon its own power. It was from this danger that Richelieu delivered France at the moment when, in England, a triumphant oligarchy based upon the City of London was hurrying King Charles I to the scaffold.