[184] [This entry is evidently a repetition of the conversation reported
at length on the 5th of April. The story here related by M. Woolfeldt is
his own.]
[188] "We Christina, by the grace of God Queen of Swedes, Goths, and
Vandals, etc., do make known and testify, that, whereas it is the common
and mutual interest of us and our kingdom, as also of Oliver, Lord
Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the
dominions thereof, our good friend, and of the said Commonwealth, that
the ancient friendship and alliance which hath always been between this
kingdom and those nations be conserved and increased; and especially that
the freedom of commerce and navigation do continue straitly conformed and
uninterrupted; and for that cause the foresaid Lord Protector and
Commonwealth have been pleased to send their Extraordinary Ambassador
unto us: therefore we have commanded, and do by these presents, in the
best form, command and commit unto the most illustrious our sincerely
faithful and beloved the Lord Axel Oxenstiern, Chancellor and Senator of
us and the kingdom of Sweden, etc., and also to Lord Eric Oxenstiern of
Axel, likewise a Senator of us and of the Kingdom of Sweden, etc., that
they do treat, agree, and conclude with the before-named Ambassador and
Plenipotentiary about the making of a league concerning the foresaid
matters and other things thereunto pertaining. Whatsoever therefore our
said Plenipotentiary Commissioners shall act, conclude, and appoint with
the before-named Ambassador, we shall hold the same ratified and
confirmed by force of these presents; in witness and strengthening
whereof, we have commanded these presents, subscribed with our hand, to
be corroborated with our great seal of the kingdom. Given in our castle
of Upsal, the fourteenth day of March, in the year one thousand six
hundred fifty and four. CHRISTINA."
[193] [No sooner had Cromwell assumed the Protectorate than his foreign
policy took a more definite shape, and was steadily directed to two great
objects--peace with Holland, and the union of the Protestant States. The
conclusion of the Dutch peace was however not an easy matter. Cromwell
himself had declared in favour of the daring project of a union of the
two Republics, and the Dutch alliance was hated by many of his stoutest
military supporters. Moreover he required of the Dutch, as a condition
_sine quâ non_, that they should engage never to make the young Prince of
Orange or his descendants their Stadtholder, or to give him the command
of their forces. This was the secret article against which the States
General most vehemently protested, and Cromwell was at length obliged to
content himself with an engagement of the province of Holland to exclude
the House of Orange. Even this pretension was strongly opposed by De
Witt, but Cromwell insisted. The public treaty of peace was signed on the
5th of April, 1654; but it was not until the 5th of June following that
the secret article was ratified. The King of Denmark, the Swiss
Protestant cantons, the Hanseatic towns, and some of the Protestant
Princes of North Germany were included in the treaty, which formed the
complement of the negotiation on which Whitelocke was engaged in
Sweden.--M. GUIZOT, _Histoire de la République d'Angleterre_, vol. ii. p.
67.]
[200] "We, Christina, by the grace of God Queen of the Swedes, Goths, and
Vandals, etc., do make known and testify that whereas the endeavours of
the illustrious and generous, of us sincerely beloved, the Lord Bulstrode
Whitelocke, Extraordinary Ambassador, are most grateful to us, which he
hath negotiated for the common good of our Kingdom and his Commonwealth,
for the making of a league of stricter friendship between both parties:
therefore, and to the end it may appear as a testimony of our goodwill
and grateful memory on this behalf, we have thereupon granted and
assigned, and by these our letters do grant and assign to the said Lord
Ambassador two hundred pound of copper, commonly called ship-pounds; the
which two hundred pounds of copper our treasurers and officers of our
Chamber of Accounts are obliged, without delay, to deliver into the hands
of the before-mentioned Ambassador. In greater testimony whereof we have
commanded these presents, subscribed with our hand, to be confirmed by
our seal. Given in our castle of Upsal, the 3rd day of May, in the year
1654. CHRISTINA."
[240] "I, the subscribed Bulstrode Whitelocke, Constable of the Castle of
Windsor, and one of the Keepers of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth of
England, Commissioner, Procurator, Deputy, and Extraordinary Ambassador
of the Most Serene and Most High Lord Oliver, Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereof
and the said Commonwealth, do make known and testify, that whereas by the
treaty of alliance between the said Most Serene and my Most High Lord
Oliver, Lord Protector, and the Most Serene and Most Potent Prince and
Lady the Lady Christina, by the grace of God Queen of the Swedes, Goths,
and Vandals, etc., a firm peace and friendship is established: and I have
judged it chiefly consonant thereunto to find out means to remove certain
grievances of the people and citizens of either State, and to take away
all grounds and occasions thereof which may arise in time to come.
Therefore, upon some differences moved, I have agreed with the most
illustrious and most excellent Lords, Plenipotentiary Commissioners and
Senators of her said Royal Majesty and of Sweden, the Lord Axel
Oxenstiern, Chancellor of the kingdom, etc., and the Lord Eric
Oxenstiern, son of Axel, President of the General College of Trade, etc.,
in manner as by the following articles is expressed and explained.
"First, whereas a certain company of English exercising merchandise in
Guinea have complained of one Henry Carelove, who, being Governor of the
Swedish Company in that country, did take away from the English certain
places inhabited by them, and did other injuries to them; but the said
Swedish Company not only took upon them to prove that the before-named
Governor did commit no fault, but likewise made complaint of grievances
against the officers of the said English Company; but these particular
differences of merchants at this time could not for certain reasons be
wholly determined, and therefore it seemed most counselable to both
parties that in a friendly way, without any indirect courses, they may be
composed by certain Commissioners on both sides. In the meantime it is
agreed that the differing hereof shall be to the prejudice of none of
either part, so that neither the fellows or officers of the said
companies nor any subjects or citizens of either State shall offer any
injury or molestation to one another in Guinea, or in the free commerce
or travelling there; but, as before is expressed, the determination of
the differences being referred by both sides to the superiors, they may
live friendly among themselves, and treat one another with that goodwill
which is consonant to the league concluded between them. The same also
shall be observed in America between the colonies of New Sweden and of
the English, that they do embrace a sincere friendship, and that either
party do abstain from all troubles and injuries to the other, but chiefly
that they do endeavour their mutual preservation until there be a clear
agreement before the deputed Commissioners on both sides about the limits
of the colonies, and other rules of friendship that shall be requisite,
together with other affairs of particular persons. Which matters, that
they may be enjoined to all and singular the subjects and citizens of
either State, and may be observed by them, I have fully taken upon me by
these presents, by virtue of my commission, and do confirm by
subscription of my hand, and by my seal."
[268] [Whitelocke, in his zeal to exhort the Heir-apparent to the service
of God and the observance of the Lord's Day, appears to have appreciated
very imperfectly the extraordinary character and the political capacity
of the Prince who paid him so signal a mark of deference. Yet in the
romantic and chivalrous annals of the House of Vasa, scarcely any reign
is more remarkable than that of the sovereign to whom Christina ceded the
throne. In the course of the ensuing five years Charles Gustavus, at the
head of a chosen band of Swedish veterans, conquered Prussia, and
compelled the Great Elector to acknowledge himself to be a Swedish
vassal; invaded Poland, and commenced the partition of that republic;
allied himself to Rakoczy, to the terror of the House of Austria, and
attacked Denmark with such success that he crossed the Little Belt on the
ice and laid siege to Copenhagen, which was only saved by the mediation
of the Maritime Powers. Such was the splendid career of Charles Gustavus
between the period of his accession to the throne and the year 1660, when
he died, not having completed his thirty-eighth year. More than any of
his predecessors or of his successors on the Swedish throne, he may be
said to have held the Empire of the North; and the favour here shown to
Whitelocke indicates the importance attached by the Swedish Prince to
secure at least the goodwill of Cromwell during the prosecution of these
Extraordinary enterprises.]
[283] [Oxenstiern died about three months afterwards.]
[314] [It would be idle to speculate on the political motives which may
have combined with other reasons to induce Christina of Sweden to
conceive and execute this extraordinary design. Other sovereigns have
abdicated from the lassitude of age or the burden of unpopularity, or the
desire of ensuring the succession to their offspring; but the resignation
of a Queen in her twenty-ninth year, surrounded by able ministers and a
loyal people, and who had reigned with splendour and success, is an event
without a parallel in history. The explanation of it is to be found in
the eccentricity, the levity, the feverish curiosity, and the indomitable
love of independence and singularity which are to be traced in every part
of the Queen's character. She was a woman of powerful but ill-regulated
mind, capable at one time of sharing in the speculations of Descartes or
of applauding the exhortations of Whitelocke,--at another, of bowing to
the spiritual bondage of Rome, and even of committing the brutal murder
of Monaldeschi. The character of Cromwell pleased her by its adventurous
exploits and its arbitrary tendency, and her reception of the English
Embassy was as much the result of personal predilection as of policy.
Whitelocke amused her by his somewhat pedantic erudition, and flattered
her vanity, but he seems scarcely to have divined the extraordinary
variations of her character.]