A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654 Part 25

"Her Majesty wisheth that the most high and most powerful G.o.d would conserve and protect our dear country, with all the inhabitants thereof and all the subjects, from all harm; and to conclude, that the estates of the kingdom, as well in general as in particular, may continue and increase from day to day, and may for ever flourish."

After this proposition was read, the Queen's servants were called in, and she went out of the hall, attended by them and the Ricks-Senators in the same way and manner as she came in; and after she was gone, first the Archbishop of Upsal and the clergy following him; second, the Marshal and n.o.bility; third, the Marshal and Burgesses; fourth, the Marshal and Boors, went out of the hall in the same order as they first came in; and when they were all gone, Whitelocke returned to his lodging.

[SN: The solemnities of the marriage resumed.]

About eleven o'clock in the evening, the master of the ceremonies came to bring Whitelocke to the remainder of the solemnities of the marriage.

Whitelocke, in no good condition to go abroad, having sat up the last night, yet rather than discontent the Queen and the n.o.bility, who had sent for him, he went with the master in the Queen's coach to the bridegroom's lodging in the castle, who met him in the outer chamber and brought him into another room where were many senators and lords; they all took their coach, and went in the same order as the day before to the Queen, where the bride and ladies were expecting them.

They came all to the great hall, where the Queen and the company took their places, and the drums beating and trumpets sounding. A gentleman entered the hall carrying a spear or pike covered with taffeta of the bridegroom's colours, all but the head, which was silver, worth about twenty crowns; he stood by the bride, holding the spear in the middle, both ends of it about breast-high, and the bridegroom was brought and placed by his bride. Then Senator Bundt made a solemn speech to the Queen, which (according to the interpretation made to Whitelocke) was to thank her Majesty for the favour which she did to the bride and bridegroom in permitting the nuptials to be in her Court; and he acquainted the Queen, and published to the company, what dowry the bridegroom had given that morning to his bride, with two thousand ducats for her provision; and that twelve of the n.o.bility, of the alliance and friends to them both, were witnesses thereunto, and were to take care that the money should be disposed to the use of the wife and children, in case she survived her husband.

Then a gentleman read aloud the names of the twelve witnesses, who, as they were called one after another, making their honours to the Queen, went and laid their right hands on the spear; and then was published the dowry and augmentation thus by these twelve witnesses. After this the spear was laid down at the feet of the bride, and all, making their solemn reverences to the Queen, took again their places. Then the same gentleman that laid down the spear, took it up again and threw it out of the window into the great court; where a mult.i.tude of people stood expecting it, and scrambled for the head of it, and for the taffeta, which they tore in pieces and wore in their hats as the bride's favours.

After this ceremony ended, the bridegroom came and took the bride by the hand, and they marched after the torches to the sound of the drums and trumpets; after that the bridegroom took the Queen by the hand, and the bride came and took the English Amba.s.sador by the hand, and other n.o.blemen took their several ladies, and they marched two and two amidst the torches and to the same loud music as they had done the night before. After this the n.o.blemen and ladies went to dance French dances and country dances; but Whitelocke having watched the night before, and not being well, he privately withdrew himself from the company and retired to his house, wondering that the Queen, after so serious a work as she had been at in the morning, could be so pleased with this evening's ceremonies.

_May 12, 1654._

[SN: Despatches from England.]

About one o'clock the last night, Whitelocke, coming from the solemnities of the Court, received two packets of letters from England. He had the more cause to remember the time, because then, although midnight, he could perfectly read his letters without any candle or other light than that of the heavens, which in this season of the year scarce leaves any night at all, but so as one may well read all the night long with the help of twilight.

The letters from Thurloe of the first date acquainted Whitelocke that now he had sent duplicates of the last instructions by a s.h.i.+p going to Sweden. In Thurloe's second letters, dated 13th of April, he mentions the instructions sent formerly to Whitelocke, and acquaints him again with the effect of them, and the Protector's order, by which he leaves it to Whitelocke to return home when he shall judge it fit; and that if he should stay the ceremonies of the coronation of the new King, it would occasion great delay. And he writes further:--

"But in truth we cannot believe, notwithstanding all that is said, that her Majesty will quit her crown, being so well qualified in all respects to govern as she is, and seems to be very well accepted of her people."

Then he again mentions the signing of the peace with the Dutch, and that the Protector had appointed Commissioners to treat with the French, Spanish, and Portugal Amba.s.sadors, but had not yet declared himself to any of his neighbours.

"That the business in Scotland was well; that the Protector had taken away Colonel Rich's commission, whereof the officers of his regiment were glad; that many congratulatory pet.i.tions to his Highness came from divers counties, one from Bucks; that the Protector proceeded to reformation of the law and ministry, and I hope he will merit as well in that as in the military affairs. I return your Excellence my humble thanks for your acceptance of my endeavours to serve you; I can say they come from an honest heart, which very really embraceth every opportunity wherein I may manifest myself

"Your Excellence's faithful humble servant, "JO. THURLOE.

"_Whitehall, 13th April, 1654._"

Whitelocke received several letters in these packets from Mr. c.o.kaine; one, dated the 2nd of April, saith thus:--

"You will have leave from his Highness to take your first opportunity to come away, and I hope it will not be without bringing your business to a happy and an honourable issue, which is the constant subject of our requests to the Lord for you, and I doubt not but we shall have a comfortable answer. In the meantime I think, as I have hinted to your Excellence in former letters, it will not be amiss if you draw good store of bills upon us, though but _pro forma_, that we may get as much money for you as we can before your return, and that you may have a sufficient overplus to pay all servants' wages off, which I believe will amount to a considerable sum; and upon this peace I hope it will be no hard matter to get your bills paid, especially if your Excellence please withal to write to my Lord Protector and Mr. Thurloe and some of the Council about it. I could wish that you would make what haste you can home, for I am informed by a special hand that there is great labouring to make a Chancellor whilst you are absent, and to take that opportunity to put you by, whom I believe they doubt to be too much a Christian and an Englishman to trust in their service; but I hope G.o.d will give you a heart to submit to His will, and to prize a good conscience above all the world, which will indeed stand us in stead when all outward things cannot in the least administer to us.

"Your Excellence's most humble servant, "GEO. c.o.kAINE.

"_April 2nd._"

In another letter from Mr. c.o.kaine he saith:--

"Mr. Thurloe was pleased to acquaint me that it was his Highness and the Council's pleasure to make some alteration in the Chancery; that it was determined that your Lords.h.i.+p and Sir Thomas Widdrington and my Lord Lisle should have the custody of the Great Seal, and I believe an Act to that purpose will pa.s.s within few hours; but I perceive this business was not done without some tugging; but my Lord Protector and John Thurloe are true to you, and now I am out of all fears that any affront should be offered you in your absence.

Mr. Mackworth deserves a letter from you; but nothing, I pray, of this business. Indeed Mr. Thurloe hath played his part gallantly and like a true friend, for which I shall love him as long as I live."

In other letters from Mr. c.o.kaine in this packet, dated 14th April, he saith:--

"Your old servant Abel is much courted by his Highness to be his Falconer-in-Chief; but he will not accept it except your Excellence had been here to give him your explicit leave to serve his Highness, and told me, without stuttering, he would not serve the greatest prince in the world except your Excellence were present, to make the bargain that he might wait upon you with a cast of hawks at the beginning of September every year into Bedfords.h.i.+re. It is pity that gallantry should hurt any. Certainly it is a n.o.ble profession that inspires him with such a spirit.

"My Lord Protector this week hath expressed great respect to your Excellence upon the death of the Clerk of the Peace of Bucks. Some of the justices came up and moved his Highness to put one into his place, who thereupon asked who was _Custos Rotulorum_. They answered, the Lord Amba.s.sador Whitelocke. He thereupon replied that the place should not be disposed of till his return. They urged it again with many reasons; but he gave them the same answer, only with this addition, that he was to return sooner than perhaps they were aware of."

By this packet Whitelocke received letters from Mr. Selden, which were thus:--

"_For his Excellence the Lord Whitelocke, Lord Amba.s.sador from the State of England to her Majesty of Sweden._

"My Lord,

"Your Excellence's last of the 3rd of February brought me so unexpressible a plenty of the utmost of such happiness as consists in true reputation and honour, as that nothing with me will equal or come near it. First, that her most excellent Majesty, a Prince so unparalleled and incomparable and so justly acknowledged with the height of true admiration by all that either have or love arts or other goodness, should vouchsafe to descend to the mention of my mean name and the inquiry of my being and condition with such most gracious expressions. Next, that your Excellence, whose favours have been so continually multiplied on me, should be the person of whom such inquiry was made. All the danger is, that your n.o.ble affection rendered me far above myself. However, it necessitates me to become a fervent suitor to your Excellence, that if it shall fall out that her Majesty and you have again leisure and will to speak of any such trifle as I am, you will be pleased to represent to her Majesty my most humble thanks, and my heart full of devotion to her, of which I too shall study to give, if I can, some other humble testimony. G.o.d send her most excellent Majesty always her heart's desires, and the most royal amplitude of all happiness, and your Lords.h.i.+p a good despatch and safe and timely return.

"My Lord, your Excellence's most "obliged and humble servant, "JO. SELDEN.

"_Whitefriars, March 2nd, 1653._"

Whitelocke had also in this packet letters from his old friends Mr. Hall, Mr. Eltonhead, the Lord Commissioner Lisle, his brothers Wilson and Carleton, Mr. Peters, Sir Joseph Holland, and divers others; also letters from Hamburg, from Mr. Bradshaw, the Protector's Resident there, with some intercepted letters from the King's party, as Sir Edward Hyde and several others.

[SN: His audience of leave-taking.]

This day being appointed for Whitelocke's last audience, he was habited in a plain suit of very fine English cloth of musk-colour, the b.u.t.tons of gold, enamelled, and in each b.u.t.ton a ruby, and rich points and ribbons of gold; his gentlemen were in their richest clothes; his pages and lacqueys, above twenty, in their liveries. In the afternoon two of the Ricks-Senators, with the master of the ceremonies, came with two of the Queen's coaches to Whitelocke's house, to bring him to his audience. He received them with the usual ceremony, and after they had sat a little while in his bedchamber, one of the Senators said that by the Queen's command they were come to him to accompany him to his audience which he had desired this day, and that her Majesty was ready to receive him.

Whitelocke answered, that he was always desirous to wait upon her Majesty, and not the less now because it was in order to return to his own country. They made no long compliments, but went down and took their coaches.

The n.o.blemen's coaches sent thither to accompany him went first, then followed his two coaches, and last the Queen's coaches. In the last of them sat the two Senators in the fore-end, Whitelocke in the back-end, and the master in the boot; the gentlemen in the several coaches, the pages and lacqueys walking and riding behind the coaches. At the bridge of the castle was a guard of musketeers more than formerly, of about two companies, with their officers; they made a lane from the bridge to the end of the Court. As soon as Whitelocke was alighted out of the coach, the Ricks-Hofmeister with his silver staff met him at the stairs' foot, very many of the Queen's servants and courtiers with him very gallant.

Whitelocke's gentlemen went first, two and two up the stairs; after them the Queen's servants, then the master of the ceremonies, then the Hof-Marshal, then the two Senators and Whitelocke between them, followed by his sons, his chaplains, physician, secretaries, and steward, and after them his pages and lacqueys. In this order they mounted the stairs, and through the great chamber to the guard-chamber, where the Queen's partisans stood in their rich coats, with the arms of Sweden embroidered with gold, their swords by their sides, and rich halberds gilded in their hands; they stood in a fixed posture, more like images than men.

When they came to the audience-chamber, there was scarce room for any of Whitelocke's gentlemen to come in; but by the civility of the Queen's servants room was made for them, and they made a lane from the door of the chamber to the upper end near the Queen, who was upon a foot-pace covered with carpets, and a rich canopy over her head. Her habit was black silk stuff for her coats, and over them a black velvet jippo, such as men use to wear; she had upon her breast the jewel of the Order of the Knights of Amaranta; her hair hung loose as it used to do, and her hat was after the fas.h.i.+on of men. A great number of senators and of civil and military officers and courtiers,--many more than ordinarily did appear at any audience,--stood all bare about her, and a few ladies were behind her. She stood upon the carpets before the state with her hat on; and when Whitelocke came first into the room, and pulled off his hat, the Queen presently pulled off her hat; and when Whitelocke made his honours, she answered him, though at that distance, with a short curtsey. After his three obeisances, being come up to the Queen, he kissed her hand; then the Queen put on her hat, and Whitelocke{8} put on his hat, and after a little pause, with high silence and solemnity in all the company, Whitelocke took off his hat, and the Queen took off her hat likewise, and all the time of his speaking both of them were uncovered. Whitelocke, having made his ceremonies, spake to the Queen thus:--

[SN: Whitelocke's farewell speech.]

"Madam,

"I confess that the time of my absence from my relations and concernments in my own country would have seemed very tedious, had I not been in the public service and honoured with admittance into your Majesty's presence, whose favours, answerable to your greatness though above my merit, have been enlarged towards me during the whole time of my residence under the just and safe protection of your Majesty; the which,--with the civilities of those most excellent persons with whom I treated, and of those who have been pleased to honour me with their acquaintance in your Court,--I shall not fail to acknowledge with all respect.

"But, Madam, to your Majesty I shall not presume to return any other acknowledgment than by the thanks of my Lord the Protector, who is able to judge of the affection shown to him, and to the Commonwealth whereof he is the head, by the honour done unto their servant.

"Madam, it is your great judgement in the public interest, and your desire to advance the good of your own State and that of your neighbours, and the particular respect that you bear to my master, whereby the business trusted to my care by his Highness is brought to such an issue as I hope will be a solid foundation of great and mutual prosperity to both these nations.

"I have nothing to add on my part, but to entreat that my failings and errors, not wilfully committed, may be excused; to take my leave of your Majesty, and to a.s.sure you that there is no person who honours you more than I do, and who shall be more ready to lay hold on any opportunity whereby I may endeavour, to the utmost of my power, to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of your royal Majesty and of your people."

As it was done at Whitelocke's first audience, so he now ordered it, that Monsieur De la Marche, one of his chaplains, did, at the end of every sentence, as Whitelocke spake, interpret the same to the Queen in French.

During all the time of his speaking to the Queen she looked him wistly in the face and came up very near unto him, as she had done at his first audience,--perhaps to have daunted him, as she had done others, but he was not daunted; and when he had made an end of speaking, after a little pause the Queen answered him in the Swedish language, which was then interpreted in Latin to Whitelocke, to this effect:--

[SN: The Queen's reply.]

"My Lord Amba.s.sador,

"It may well be that your stay in this place, where you have been so ill accommodated, and your absence from your near relations and native country, hath been tedious to you; but I can a.s.sure you that your residence in my Court hath been a contentment to myself and to those who have had the honour to converse with you in this place; and it would have been a blemish to me and to all under my government if in this time anything of injury or danger had fallen out to your person or to any of your people. I hope I may say that there hath been no such thing offered to you, and I am glad of it.

"I do not know that your judgement hath deceived you in anything but this, that you have too great a value of my understanding of public affairs. It hath been your prudent management of the business committed to your trust by the Protector, and my particular respects to him and to your Commonwealth, with the good inclinations of the people of this country towards you, and the general interests of the Protestant party, which have brought your business to effect, and which, I hope, will occasion much good and happiness to these nations and to all the Evangelical party. And truly, Sir, your demeanour on all occasions requires from us this testimony, that we have found much honour and great abilities to be in you; and I should be very unwilling to part with so good company, were it not in order to your own satisfaction for your return to England.

"I know no errors committed by you here, but desire your excuse of the want of those expressions of our respect which this place would not afford. The thanks are due to you for your patience, and for the affection which you have testified to me and to this nation, from whom you may depend upon a firm friends.h.i.+p and amity, with a true respect to the Protector and Commonwealth of England, and an honourable esteem of yourself in particular, to whom we wish a safe and prosperous return to your own country."

After the Queen had done speaking, Whitelocke had some private discourse of compliment with her in French, to give her Majesty thanks for her n.o.ble treatment of him and many favours to him; then, according to the usage of this Court, he delivered to Mr. Lagerfeldt, standing by, a copy of his speech, in English, signed by him with his hand, and another copy of his speech in Latin, not signed by him, to be presented to the Queen.