Chapter 9

_Chancellor._ My dear son, this is very full, and a large testimony of the good opinion your master hath of you. All your powers and the originals of your commissions (according to custom) are to be left with us, to be registered in our Chancery.

_Wh._ I suppose you will also deliver to me the originals of your powers, to be enrolled (according to the English custom also) in our Chancery.

_Chan._ That shall be done.

_Wh._ The like shall be done on my part; and the Protector will be ready to do whatever shall be judged further necessary for the ratifying of this business.

_Chan._ It will be requisite that you let me have in Latin your instructions from the Protector.

_Wh._ I shall cause it to be done, except such part of them as are secret.

_Chan._ That which is to be reserved in secresy I desire not to see; there will be sufficient besides to show your powers.

_Wh._ They will fully appear.

_Chan._ I should counsel you, before your departure out of this kingdom, to make a visit to the Prince of Sweden; he will take it in good part, and it will testify a respect of the Protector to him, and render the alliance the more firm.

_Wh._ It is my purpose to visit the Prince; not that I am in doubt of the validity of the treaty made with the Queen, unless the Prince approve of it, but, as you advise, to show the respect of the Protector to his Kingly Highness, and to acquit myself of a due civility.

_Chan._ It will be fit for you to do it; and I shall advise you, at your return home, to put the Protector in mind of some particulars which, in my judgement, require his special care.

_Wh._ I shall faithfully do it, and I know they will be received with much the more regard coming from you: I pray do me the favour to let me know them.

[SN: Oxenstiern's advice to Cromwell.]

_Chan._ I would counsel the Protector to take heed of those dangerous opinions in matters of religion which daily increase among you, and, if not prevented and curbed, will cause new troubles, they never resting till themselves may domineer in chief.

_Wh._ Will not the best way to curb them be to slight them, and so they will fall of themselves?

_Chan._ I doubt they have taken too much root to fall so easily; but if they be not countenanced with preferments, they will the sooner wither and decay.

_Wh._ That will surely lessen them.

_Chan._ The Protector must also be careful to provide money and employment for his soldiers, else he will hardly keep them in order.

_Wh._ That is very requisite; and for money there is good provision already made.

_Chan._ He must likewise be watchful of the King's party, who will be busy at work, especially upon the new change.

_Wh._ The care thereof is the life of our affairs, and his Highness is most vigilant.

_Chan._ It behoves him to be so, for they that could not vanquish him by arms will endeavour to do it by craft and treachery of your own party, which you must look to.

_Wh._ He hath good intelligence of their plots.

_Chan._ It will also be prudence in him to let the people see that he intends not to rule them with an iron sceptre, nor to govern them by an army, but to give them such a liberty and enjoyment of the benefit of their laws that the continuance of his government may become their interest, and that they may have no cause to desire a change; else, though they must bear the yoke for a time, yet as soon as they meet with an opportunity they will shake it off again.

_Wh._ This is counsel proper to come from such a mind and judgement as yours is, and I shall not fail to report it to his Highness; and your Excellence hath rightly stated the disposition of my countrymen, who love peace and liberty, and will hardly brook slavery longer than they are forced to it by necessity; and the best way to govern them is to let them enjoy their laws and rights, which will rule them better than an iron sceptre.

_Chan._ It is the disposition of all generous and free people, as the English are, whom I truly respect, and him that is their head, that gallant person the Protector.

They had much other discourse; and after being together till six o'clock, the father and son, and the Chancellor and Whitelocke, called one another, and all the company parted.

_April 11, 1654._

[SN: The Queen proposes a secret article.]

The Chancellor had promised to procure Whitelocke his despatch in a few days. He sent Canterstein to communicate to him the articles drawn in form, with the amendments, to see if there were any mistake in them. Whitelocke and the secretary perused them together, and agreed on all except two or three points, in which was some small difference; and Canterstein promised to hasten the engrossing of them.

Many strangers dining with Whitelocke made him the later in his visit to the Queen, to take his leave of her Majesty before her intended journey to see her mother. She promised Whitelocke that during her absence she would leave order with the Chancellor and his son to conclude the treaty, and at her return she would do what belonged to her for the speedy despatch of Whitelocke, to his contentment. She promised also to give order to her Chancellor about the business of Guinea, whereof they had much discourse.

She was pleased to propound to Whitelocke a secret article to be between her and the Protector, and not to be in the treaty between her Commissioners and Whitelocke, nor to be known to any of them. She said, that if it might be done, she should take it in very good part; but if Whitelocke thought it not likely to be done, then she would think no more of it. She said the substance of what she desired was that it might be agreed, by a particular article between the Protector and her, that in case those here should not perform what they promised to her upon her resignation of the government, that then it should be in the power of the Protector to break the treaty now made, and not to be bound by it.

Whitelocke was much troubled at this proposal, and upon a great difficulty in it--that if he should deny it, the Queen might be distasted and break off from his treaty; and to consent to it he had no commission, nor held it reasonable; but he told the Queen that it was a matter of great weight, deserving her Majesty's serious thoughts what to do in it. He said he had no instructions upon any such article as this, nor could agree to it; but if her Majesty pleased to have such an article drawn up, and to sign it herself and send it to the Protector, he promised to use his best interest to persuade his Highness to a consent thereunto, and to sign it at Whitelocke's return to England, and so to return it to her Majesty.

She said that Woolfeldt should confer with Whitelocke about the drawing up of such an article, whom she would trust in it, but not any of the Swedes, because it might concern them, and occasion prejudice to them. Whitelocke agreed that Woolfeldt was a fit person to be trusted in this business, and one with whom he should willingly confer about any service for her Majesty; that he believed something might be done herein to the Queen's advantage, but whether in this way of a secret article, and as part of the treaty, he doubted, lest thereby offence might be given, and the treaty thereby, as to both parts, be weakened. The Queen replied that it would keep those here in some fear lest if they should break with her, that then the Protector would not keep the treaty with them.

Whitelocke thought it best to be at some reserve in this article of secresy, not wholly to dissuade the Queen from it, lest she might be distasted. He saw advantage to the Protector to have it put into his power to break the treaty upon this occasion; but he doubted the honour and clearness of it, and therefore he judged it best to say the less at this time. Only he observed what a condition the Queen had brought her affairs unto when she thought not fit to trust any of her countrymen in this business; and before her resignation she distrusted the performance of the conditions of it towards herself, and therefore would have this secret article as a bridle to them. But as she distrusted her own party, so she testified great confidence in the Protector and in Whitelocke, to whom she propounded this secret article of so much concernment to her.

Whitelocke persuaded her Majesty to appoint faithful persons to order her revenue for her, and not to stay long here after her resignation, because she would then find a great difference in the carriage of persons to her. She said she had taken care about her revenue as he had advised her, and that she would be gone out of Sweden presently after her resignation; that she expected the alteration of men's carriages towards her after it, but it would not trouble her; that the world was of such a condition, that nothing of respect was to be looked for but where advantage was hoped for by it. She never esteemed the fawnings of men for their own ends, but her own private contentment and satisfaction.

Whitelocke sent his son James and his secretary (Earle) to Canterstein with a copy of the form which Whitelocke intended to follow in the instrument intended to be delivered by him, where he put the Protector's name first, and some other small variations, as usage required; wherewith Canterstein promised to acquaint the Chancellor and to return an answer.

Whitelocke employed his son for his experience to be gained in these affairs.

_April 12, 1654._

[SN: Woolfeldt opposes the secret article.]

Mr. Woolfeldt having done Whitelocke the favour to dine with him, they retired and discoursed privately to this effect:--

_Woolfeldt._ The Queen was pleased the last night to send for me, and to communicate to me the matter of a secret article which, she said, she had before imparted to you.

_Whitelocke._ What is your opinion of such an article?

_Woolf._ Truly, I dissuaded her from it, as not convenient, in my poor opinion, for either party.

_Wh._ I know your judgement is grounded upon solid reason.

_Woolf._ My reasons are, because this article is to be kept secret, and to be added as a part of the treaty by her Majesty without the knowledge of those here, which, when it shall come to be known, will give them the more cause of objection and hatred against her for it, and expose her to more inconveniences than it can bring advantage to her; and therefore I thought it better for her Majesty to forbear it.

_Wh._ Your reasons were the true ones: was her Majesty convinced by them?

_Woolf._ She seemed to make more doubt of it than at first, but told me that you were not much against it, and desired to confer with me about it while she was out of town, and she wished me to prepare something against her return.

_Wh._ As I told her Majesty, I can consent to nothing in this point, having no instructions in any matter of this nature, as you will easily believe; but if her Majesty shall think fit to have anything drawn up by way of a secret article, all that I can do will be to present it to the Protector at my return home, and I know he will be as ready as any person to show respect to the Queen; but what he will do as to a consent in this particular I cannot tell, but am doubtful lest it may be apprehended as a weakening of the treaty and alliance.

_Woolf._ That is a great and true objection against it; and, in my opinion, it would be better for the Queen to write a letter to the Protector in general compliment, and in it to desire him to be a friend to her, and to give her his assistance upon any occasion that may fall out concerning her; and this letter may be sent by you, and delivered by your hand to the Protector, when you may acquaint him with anything further or more particularly relating to her Majesty.

_Wh._ I think this will be much the better way; and if such a letter be sent by me, I hope I shall be able to procure such an answer, or, upon any occasion, such a return as will be to the contentment of her Majesty. But in case the Queen should sign such an article, and then the Protector should not approve it, it would distaste the Queen and her friends, and she would be censured to have done too low an act in it.

_Woolf._ I had yesterday a long discourse with the Chancellor about your affairs of England, and particularly of your fleet now at sea--what should be the design of having so strong a fleet at sea, the sea-war between you and your enemies being reported at an end, and peace concluded; and whether your design might be for France or Spain or Portugal.

_Wh._ Or for the defence of England.

_Woolf._ He was much amused about it.

_Wh._ I hope that was not lessened by you.

_Woolf._ No indeed; I endeavoured to amuse him more, and told him, that for France, England did not care to have it; it would be but a charge and no benefit to them, and embroil them in a long chargeable war.

_Wh._ England hath had experience thereof formerly when they were masters of France, and many of us think our own country as good as France.

_Woolf._ I am of that opinion; and I told him there was as little probability for any design against Spain because of its distance, and little advantage to England by a war with them.

_Wh._ I hope you commended a kingdom called Denmark?

_Woolf._ I first told him that for Portugal or the Indies the like objections were against any design for them; but as for Denmark, I told him that England had just cause to make war upon that king, and that it would be no hard business to gain upon him; and the advantage of traffic made me think that to be the most probable design of any other to be intended by this great fleet of England, wherein it is most likely for you to gain advantage to your Commonwealth and to give offence to none, having a just cause of quarrel against him.

_Wh._ Your brother the King of Denmark hath given cause indeed to be visited.

_Woolf._ I shall inform you of one thing, of which you may now make advantage. Your King James made a treaty with the last King of Denmark concerning the Isles of the Orcades, which were claimed by the Dane as part of their territories; and after the death of King James and our last King, that then, upon payment of £13,000 by the Dane, he should have the Orcades again. Now both these kings being dead, according to that treaty it is in the liberty of the King of Denmark to redeem those islands; and it would be good for you, in the treaty with that Crown, who would be included in your treaty with the Hollanders, to have a clause for the present King of Denmark to quit his pretences to the Orcades upon the treaty with King James.

_Wh._ This is a very material thing, and I shall not fail to do somewhat in it, if I can return to England time enough; and I thank you for putting me in mind of it.

[SN: Discussion on the Guinea settlements.]

Grave Eric came to Whitelocke, who had much discourse with him touching Guinea, and the injuries done by the Swedes to the English there.

_Grave Eric._ One of the principal persons of the Swedish plantation there is now in this country, and complains of injuries done by the English to the Swedes there. I think it may be fit to hear both the complaints of the one and of the other part, and thereupon to come to some agreement upon the whole matter.

_Whitelocke._ I have here many examinations taken upon oath concerning this matter.

_Gr. Eric._ Those complaints ought to be determined by the King of that country, who sold the lands to the planters, and can resolve all differences about that matter.

_Wh._ I believe that the complaints of this nature are properly to be made to the Queen, whose subjects are concerned in them, and they are always under her rule.

_Gr. Eric._ The Queen will make no difficulty to do justice in this case, and I hope that the Protector will do the like.

_Wh._ You need not at all to doubt it.

_Gr. Eric._ This messenger, now come to me, hath brought me letters from the Queen, in which there is mention of this business.

_Wh._ Why may not an article touching Guinea be inserted with the rest?

_Gr. Eric._ That will not be convenient, because the articles are entirely concluded and engrossed on our part; and this of Guinea is but a particular business, which till now came not under consideration, nor hath been examined, and it will be better to have an article by itself upon this subject.

_Wh._ I am satisfied with your reason, and think this way will be no disadvantage to the merchants of either nation. I desire an addition to the article touching passports, that none shall do anything contrary to the letters of passport.

_Gr. Eric._ I cannot consent to that, for it will render the whole article fruitless in both parts; and there is another article, that in case any shall act anything in prejudice of the treaty, he shall be punished.

In consideration of this article, and in regard that the agreement touching the form of passports was remitted to something to be done therein afterwards, and he found Eric stiff against any alteration, Whitelocke did not think it material to insist further upon it. As to that which Whitelocke desired to the last article of ratification, that the words "vel successoribus suis" might be omitted, Eric said he would consent thereunto if he found it material, and desired the business might be finished; and he desired Whitelocke to excuse a little small delay at present by his absence for a few days, he being necessitated to go out of town tomorrow, but at his return all should be concluded; and as soon as the Queen came back, the whole business should be finished, which had been done before, but by reason of the Queen's unexpected journey.

_April 13, 1654._

[SN: Whitelocke confers with the Chancellor, and invites him to dinner.]

In the morning the Chancellor came to Whitelocke and staid with him near three hours. They had much debate touching Guinea, to the like effect as before with his son; they had also debate about the amendments which Whitelocke had desired might be inserted in the articles, chiefly that touching passports, to which the Chancellor would by no means agree. He likewise said to Whitelocke:--

_Chancellor._ The Queen caused the articles to be copied out, to the end (as I believe) to communicate them to the Prince, which will be for the greater validity of the treaty and alliance.

_Whitelocke._ I am glad her Majesty is pleased to take the advice of the Prince in this business, and am willing to promise myself that nothing is contained in the articles which he will not approve.

_Chan._ I believe the same.

_Wh._ This might be the occasion that my business was not finished before her Majesty's going out of town.

_Chan._ I myself am also going into the country, and come now to take my leave of you.

_Wh._ I hope you will return before her Majesty.

_Chan._ I purpose to stay abroad but four or five days; and I find that frequent exercise and change of air tendeth very much to the improving of my health.

_Wh._ I do heartily wish your health, and hope that the Queen and you will shortly be in town again, and that then my business will be finished.

_Chan._ There is no doubt but that your business will be despatched within a very few days after the Queen's return.

They had much other discourse touching the affairs of England, in which the Chancellor testified much respect to England and to the Protector.

Whitelocke invited the Chancellor to dinner to his house, but he excused himself, alleging that his age and infirmities would not permit him to take a meal out of his own house, or at the houses of some of his children, where he might enjoy the same liberty as at his own house. Whitelocke told him that he should have the same liberty at his house, who was one of his sons, as he could take at the houses of any other of his children; but the Chancellor earnestly desired to be excused, and Whitelocke thought not fit further to importune him, but desired him to hasten his return hither, which he promised to do.

Whitelocke received his letters from England, and in that from Thurloe he writes:--

[SN: Letters from Thurloe.]

"There hath been consideration taken of your return home, but the issue of the treaty with the Dutch not being yet known, his Highness's resolutions as to your return are deferred until the next; the difficulty of that business lies in the article relating to the Danes, etc. All things else remain as they did by my last, so that your Excellence will be saved this week the labour of reading my long letter. This day we have a fast for the great drought.

"My Lady was here with me to hasten your return, wherein I should be glad to be instrumental. I pray God preserve your Excellence, and bless the affairs under your hand. I am,

"Your Excellence's humble servant, "JO. THURLOE. "_March 24th, 1653._

"I saw a letter to his Highness from Upsal, wherein some expressions were used as if your Excellence were like to be removed from the Seal. His Highness commanded me to assure you that there are no such intentions, but much the contrary, whereof your Excellence will have real demonstrations upon all occasions."

_April 14, 1654._

[SN: Passport given to a Swedish ship.]

Grave Eric desired Whitelocke to give a passport to a Swedish ship bound from Stockholm to Portugal. The Chancellor requested the same, and both father and son engaged to Whitelocke that there was nothing aboard the vessel, nor any design in her voyage, against England; that she was freighted for Portugal only, and that they should esteem the favour as done to themselves, because they had a share in the goods on board this ship. Whitelocke, though he were hardly persuaded to give his passports to Swedish ships or to any other, yet considering the time when this was desired, and the persons desiring it, he thought not fit to deny it, but gave it in this form.[130]

Whitelocke gave an account in his letters this day to Thurloe of all passages of moment since his last, and wrote further:--

[SN: Letters to Thurloe.]

"My letters, I confess, have been tedious heretofore, but I ask your pardon, and do hope that my business is now at such a period that I shall not have occasion to trouble you with the like.

"There is little to do here at this time; almost all the great lords and courtiers are gone out of town, so that here is a lamentable silent place. I shall be heartily glad to receive my Lord's order to authorize my return; but my business being now ended, I presume I may expect his pleasure at any other place. I purpose to visit the Queen-mother and the Prince of Sweden, because other ambassadors have done it, and I have been particularly invited to it. I think it will be a respect from my Lord Protector which they will take very kindly, and may be some strength to the alliance, and is not the less requisite for me, because our enemies report that none but mechanics are of our party; but since our being here the Swedes acknowledge the contrary.

"I hope within two or three weeks to be at sea, and that my God, who hath hitherto been so good to me, will give me a safe return to my Lord and to my native country, to whom I wish all prosperity.

"Your affectionate friend to serve you, "B. W. "_Upsal, 14th April, 1654._

"I hope you will pardon the importunity of my wife's solicitation, being for my return. I have been informed this week that some Holland ships are loading here with ordnance and other provisions of war. I hope his Highness hath been pleased to give order for two or three ships to be at Hamburg for my transportation into England, and therein I entreat your favour.

"B. W."