by the King of Denmark have been forced to endure all his affronts and injuries VVe know that the Laws of Nature and Nations are for Us and we do not think that any Prince will oppose it but those who over-byassed by Partiality or the desire of their own advantage would have a Peace for themselves and theirs though at Our Cost and the loss of Our Dignities and Dominions not reflecting that the sum of Our Cause is only whether VVe shall become a Subject or be a free Prince again and after Our Example Whether the other Princes of the Empire must not hereafter rather become Subjects than enjoy their ancient Rights of free Princes This being contrary to all Justice to the Treaties so often repeated and so Religiously Sworn to to the common Interest of all Princes and to the Honour and Authority of your most Serene Majesty and other the Princes who are Guarantees VVe do earnestly recommend Our Cause to their good VVill and just Affection and VVe have particularly great hopes in your most Serene Majesties Equity and Protection And if the King of Denmark desires to be admitted and heard at Nimeguen sure it cannot be upon any other Terms than that he must in all things stand to that Law which he intends to use against others and endure as patiently the just Complaints of those who have been highly injur'd by him preferred to that great Assembly as he has perhaps resolved vigorously to prosecute others there Nay let the King of Denmark be willing or not to accept of this Mediation and Place certainly VVe will rely so entirely and constantly upon the Guaranty of the several Princes who have entred into it and especially upon the general and particular one of your most Serene Majesty that VVe had rather suffer any thing whatsoever then be forced away from that Sacred Anchor being well assured that your Majesty will employ your Authority as well against those that decline your Mediation as for those that have accepted thereof and that Our Restoration and Safety will be secure and certain upon your most Serene Majesties Faith which the Kings of Great Britain have always Religiously kept to God and men May it please God that this Great Affair of the Peace may succeed under the Auspices of your most Serene Majesty and to your Immortal Praise That every body may have his own and none be hereafter Injur'd And so we most earnestly recommend your most Serene Majesty to his Grace and Protection Given at Hambourgh the first of Octob. 1677. Christian Albert by the Grace of God Heir of Norway named Coadjutor of Lubeck Duke of Sleswick Holstein Stormar Dithmars Earl of Oldenbourg and Delmenhorst c. A Letter to his Majesty the King of Denmarke from the Dukes of Brunswick-Lunenburgh c. Most Serene WE have thought fit to let your Majesty understand that his Highness the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Our Beloved Cousin has lately signified unto Us that although the Affairs concerning the Succession of the Imperial Feifs the Counties of Oldenbourgh and Delmenhorst after a long dispute have at last been brought to a full and final determination and particularly the Town and Country of Buâ—jading a Feif of Our Princely House has been adjudged not to depend upon the said two Counties which also at the time of Execution shortly after in the Month of May remained except and exempted accordingly his said Highness conceiving no other hopes but that as he equally shares with your Majesty in the same Rights and Regalities and has 1674 received the Investiture of the same from Our Princely House he should accordingly enjoy the same quietly for the future Yet his Highness found afterward in effect that the Provincial Judge constituted by your Majesty and him joyntly was removed from his Office without the knowledge or consent of his Highness and an other put into his room who in Publick Prayers contrary to the former Customs caused his Highness to be left out pretending that your Majesty had given him orders so to do a Copy of which being communicated to Us we thought fit here to insert it and commanded all those Officers both Ecclesiastical and Secular to do homage to none but your Majesty by which means the said Town and Country of Budjad seems in effect subject to the abâ—vesaid Imperial Execution VVherefore his Highness thought fit and necessary to mind Us of the Dominium directum which Our Princely House holds over those Lands and that your Majesty and He were joyntly invested therewith by Our Princely House and that according to the Universal Laws of Fiefs as well as by the abovesaid Covenant made at Hambourgh and the Instruments thereof duly interchanged we ought to Protect him as Feudatarie of Our House in this his manifest Right so solemnly gotten by the said Covenant and Agreement and to desire Us that without delay VVe would do Our parts and endeavour with your Majesty that his Highness neither directly nor indirectly be disturbed in the possession of those Regalities and enjoyment of the Revenues of the said Lands but be suffered to continue therein quietly VVhereas now it is manifest by the said Treaty which praemeditatè and after much pains was at last concluded 1653 at Hambourgh viz. That the said Town and Country of Buâ—jad is a separate thing and Independent from the Imperial Fiefs the Counties of Oldenbourgh and Delmenhorsâ— and since your Majesties Archives will show what between his late Majesty your Father of Blessed Memory and Us has passed and that his Majesty during the said Process of Law about the Succession of the said Counties in a Letter dated at Copenhaguen the 29 of January 1668 desired of Us that pursuant to the second Article of the said Treaty or Covenant wherein it is expresly provided that not any of the Princes of Holstein either of the collateral or any other line of that House shall ever have pretension now or for the future thereupon and that on the contrary it shall neither lie in Our Power to confer the same upon any of them VVe should make Our most humble Address to his Imperial Majesty to demonstrate the Interest of Our Princely House and so prevent that the Town and County of Buâ—jading from being drawn into the Controversie about the Oldenbourgh Succession c. which we have done accordingly and the effect of it was that that not only in the Sentence and Executions Commission afterwards published not one word of them was mentioned but also when VVe George William the 22 and 24 of May at Oldenbourgh and Delmenhorst proceeded to the Execution upon the said Town and County of Budjading by Our Sub-Delegats appointed for that purpose in the presence and hearing of the Duke of Holstein-Pleun's Deputy his Chancellor they were purposely and in plain Terms excepted and exempted as it appears by the Rolls kept for that Act. VVherefore we could not but find Our Selves obliged at the request of Our Cousin Duke Christian
explain and confirm I am wholly of the opinion of those who believe that laying aside the Civil Law by which the Obligation may be taken away or diminisht whosoever has promised a thing through fear is bound because he has given his absolute consent and not a conditional one as in the case of one that mistakes For as Aristotle says very well he that throws his goods into the Sea for fear of Shipwrack would willingly save them conditionally viz. if the danger was not imminent but he is absolutely content to lose them considering the circumstance of time and place But I esteem this most true if the man to whom the Promise is made has terrifyed â—he other not justly but unjustly though but a little and upon this has got a Promise he to whom the promise was made is bound to release him from it if the other desires it not becausâ— the Promise is of no force but for the injury done L. 2. de Jure B. P. c. 11. n. 7. He explains these last words thus in another place He that has by cunning force or unjust fear obtained from another a Contract or Promise is bound to release the Person of his said Contract for he had a right neither to be deceived nor to be forced the first by the nature of Contracts the other by the Liberty of Nature Lib. 2. de Jure B. P. c. 17. n. 17. And he repeats the same lib. 3. c. 19. n. 4. 10. The King of Denmark can so much the less deny this right of Restitution to the House of Gottorp because he himself would have challenged the same right when it was his own case For his Majesty having extorted from the Duke by meer force all he thought fit his Highness was reproached that he had gotten these things before by force and the Arms of an Enemy and had given just cause consequently to the King to repossess himself the same way It will then be very just that the King suffer the Duke to make use of the same Law against his Majesty which he would have used against his Highness since this is a Rule of the Law of Nature which obliges all Princes without distinction I say the King would have made use of this Law against the Duke that having been forced to the Treaty in question he ought to have been restored unto his Rights again But in this the Danes are very much mistaken that they do not distinguish by what kind of force or fear one is constrained whether just or unjust and have gone about foolishly to perswade themselves and others that the King had recovered the Soveraignty of the Dukedom of Sleswick the same way he had lost it For as Justice offers Restitution with both hands to a man forced unjustly to a promise or grant so it denies it flatly to one justly forced Therefore when any one has himself been the cause of his being compelled to promise oâ— give he cannot recover it the same way having lost his right of Restitution by giving a just cause to the other who has justly employed a just force Grot. lib. 2. c. 17. n. 19. 11. This Restitution due upon so many accounts ought not to be denied because of the great Evils and dangerous Errours which may spring from such a denial For if we take the Treaty of Rendsbourgh into serious consideration we shall find the Duke of Gottorp deprived of all his Royalties and the King alone invested with them and all submitted to his Pleasure For the King alone having undertaken the defence of both Dukedoms declared all the Dukes Treaties null deprived him of his Souldiers demolisht his Towns and Forts detained him against his will in Custody raised such great Taxes upon his Lands that his Highness and his Subjects have nothing remaining whence it is manifest that the Right of Peace and War and the other great Royalties are taken away from the Duke by this Treaty or at least so much incroached upon that all the Authority which he might of right and has hitherto after the Example of his Ancestors enjoyed and exercised is now in the King alone and at his dispose under whose power and pleasure his Highness must hereafter live under the Notion of a Client or Vassal but really as a Subject So heretofore the Latins complained That under the colour of a League with the Romans they lived in Slavery and the Achaians that their League was now become a precarious Slavery and as Tacitus speaks A miserable Slavery was now falsly called Peace And though Proculus be of opinion that free Tenants are not under the Dominion or Subjection of the Patron yet when a Prince or People come under the Protection of a Superiour Prince or People we know by experience that a fall is easie in slippery ground and that the Tenantship is soon changed into a soft Slavery which the Duke of Gottorp has the more reason to fear and avoid For that the King of Denmarks Power reaching from the further part of Norway as far as Holland is very great and that under the pretence of the Union at the Treaty of Rendsbourgh vainly called by the Name of Pragmatick Sanction an occasion may be taken to oppress or suppress the Authority and Dignity of the House of Gottorp Who ever saw a Soveraign Prince without Royalties Who can shew a Duke of Sleswick thus wholly divested of his high Prerogatives If the Dukes of Sleswick are to be invested hereafter by giving them a Banner and with the Ceremony observed at Ottenwaldt in 1580 will not that be a Proclaiming of them Subjects with the greater Pomp only and telling the world by this Investiture how proud they are of this Subjection If the Dukes of Gottorp were cast into this condition or abandoned in it and on the contrary the Kings of Denmark might govern at their Pleasure the Dukedomes of Sleswick and Holstein and that part of them also which belongeth to the Duke what an augmentation of Power would that be to them and how might they abuse it if ever they would make use of it against Germany and especially the Circle of the Lower-Saxony This may be made out by an exact account of the vast sums of mony and all other things they have extorted in a little time from those Provinces it is hardly credible how great the sums are And we know well enough what an ambitious Example they have shown and there is no question but opportunity and power will invite others to follow them Therefore Prudence requires rather that the Duke of Gottorp should be in time restored to his former condition and all his Rights than that so many Princes Provinces and Towns be destroyed by his Ruin which will be easily prevented if the injury now done to his Highness be looked upon by every one of them as done to themselves But suppose we should grant that the Duke of Gottorp has effectually bound himself by the conditions of
the Duke of as if he should have provoked them justly to what they have done For those break the Peace who first commit Violences and not those that repel them and much less those that only endeavour to defend themselves saith Thucydides wherewith agrees the common opinion of the Learned in the Law who say That to make a Defence lawful it is not necessary to expect or receive the first blow Therefore what is objected to Chosroâ— in Procopius may be applyed here Those break the Peace who in time of Peace or League are first found to endeavour to surprize others and not thâ—se that are first in Arms. Now if any one will impartially consider all Transactions since the Peace of Roschild it can never be made out that the House of Gottorp has conspired against the King of Denmark but on the contrary that the King hath laid snares for the Duke from time to time and at last surpriz'd him at Rendsbourgh as hath been before said 7. If we consider well the means taken by the Danes to gratifie their desire of Revenge though they have covered their intentions with many fair words we shall find them very false and unjust For the Duke of Gottorp and his Ministers having been drawn to Rendsbourgh upon the hopes given and so many times confirmed of a fair composure of things and several protestations of friendship and kindness were presently after shut up and detained in Prison where they were forced to most unjust conditions there was quite another thing intended than what was acted and any man may easily see by what trick they were betrayed and trepanned Therefore whatever was concluded there is void in Law and the Danes have done nothing either in forcing the House of Gottorp to agree to these unjust conditions or extorting fit and just ones from it Neither have they hereby confirmed their old Right nor got a new one They have only taken Papers and Parchments from the Duke but not the Right they lookt for and in truth there has been only a Play Acted at Rendsbourgh but it was a Tragedy For if we weigh this by the Law of Nations which is chiefly of Force between free Princes and People the Convention at Rendsbourgh is absolutely null and void nothing being more contrary to Faith and Justice than such tricks as these and Princes being more strictly bound not to depart from it than any private person especially since the Articles with the House of Gottorp of 1658 were agreed upon and signed with such Ceremony and in such manner as equal them to an Oath and that by them not the King but the injur'd Duke is to be entirely restored It was a saying of the Antients That amongst good men all proceedings ought to be sincere Now Princes ought not only to be counted good but the best of men and the more punctual and sincere they are in their Treaties with others the greater will their Reputation be 8. This Transaction was likewise no small breach of the Law of Nations The King had desired the Duke after they had Feasted together friendly and kindly at Dennewerk to come and see him at Rendsbourgh and the Chancellor of the Kingdom having repeated this desire of the Kings the Duke sent word he would do himself the Honour to come and wait upon his Majesty His Highness was received with the shooting of Guns and all other demonstrations of kindness and respect that he might believe himself welcome But when he was detained a Prisoner with Guards to watch him and that those who ought to have been used like Guests and well entertained were not permitted to go away nay not so much as to stir out the Law of Nations was eminently broken and sufficient occasion given for Reparation Many wonder that the Duke would trust his Person and his Ministers with the King and that in a very strong Town But they will cease wondering when they know all the repeated protestations of true Friendship made by the King and his Ministers so that the Duke who has a generous and great Soul was afraid to be thought mistrustful or give a suspition of it esteeming with Livy that to trust was the way to be trusted Thus of old perish'd Dio who knowing that Calippus had laid ambushes for him was ashamed to use precaution against a Friend and one whose Guest he then was saith Plutarch 9. And here we must not omit the Violences used towards the Duke of Gottorp and his Ministers and the Troubles they were put to If a man puts another in Prison or Custody to extort from him all what is done by it is null say the Civilians Vid. Paulus I ctus Lib. 22. ff quod met caus gest Nay he that shuts any one in his house to get a Promise or Obligation from him does force him to it V. L. 1. Sent. Tit. 7. Sect. 8. Therefore in the Commonwealth of Rome by the Julian Law he was guilty of publick Violence who had shut up a man with an ill design restrained him or got an Obligation from him by force the Law declaring all such void l. 5. pr. ff ad l. Jul. de vi publicâ As force imposes a necessity upon the mind and is commonly accompanied with fear because of the imminent danger that unsetles the Soul lib. 1. quod met caus So the Duke of Gottorp a Friend a near Relation a Guest a Brother c. being come to visit his Friend Relation Brother c. endured not only many hard violent injuries and unjust things as well as all his Servants but was terrified daily with new threats and apprehensions of great Evils by which his Mind and his Body were brought so low that his grief cast him into a dangerous distemper Some of the Danes have endeavoured to conceal the disguise nay deny too what passed at Rendsbourgh and perhaps are yet unwilling to confess the truth not because they can stiffle what hath been done in the view of so many people then at Rendsbourgh but to suppress all they could the remembrance of this Infamous Story For we do not doubt but that there are many good men among the Danes who abhor the Counsel of that man who was then the great man with the King and never kept within bounds But however the Danes may be thought of by impartial judges of these things for his inexcusable proceeding they can neither reap any advantage thereby nor cause any damage to the House of Gottorp or render its condition worse For though by the Principles of Philosophy whosoever has promised any thing by force or fear seems to be bound to it in strictness of Law Yet since the Ancients have been of opinion that summum jus is sometimes injurious and that the Law of Nature abhors an unjust force or constraint no Prince ought to be bound by this summum jus when accompanied with force but rather restored to what has been forced from him which the following words of Grotius
Rendsbourg to a Vassalage for the Dukedom of Sleswick which supposition we yet constantly deny as false yet the delay of demanding the Investiture cannot be imputed to the Duke but to the King alone for who does not know that the Strong-holds of Tonningen and Holme are seated in the Dukedom of Sleswick And the King without regard to his Word having razed them both taken away the Garrisons and all the Artillery kept the Duke besieged in his Castle of Gottorp and all this relating to the Dukedome of Sleswick hath not the Duke justly demanded that all these Grievances be first redressed and satisfaction be made to him for them If he had done otherwise and blindly asked the Investiture trusting himself to the Kings pleasure there had never been any notice taken of the old and new Grievances and his Highness had rashly submitted himself to a Vassalage that had deprived him and his Posterity of all his Royalties and exposed them to the eternal Scorn of the world Besides since it was suggested to the Dukes Ambassadors sent to Copenhaguen about the Fief and Grievances that they would do well to return to his Highness for new Instructions about the Fief without expecting any Orders from him the King had certainly no cause given him for Sequestrations and those other acts of Hostility committed by his Order in the Dukedom of Sleswick And so we must not yield that the King by doing Acts by which the Lord of a Fief uses to lose his Right should take away anothers Right and not only gain by the Ruin of the other but even by what ought to turn to his own loss contrary to the Laws of Nature Nations Feudal and all others whatsoever Eric Duke of Sleswick having left after his Death his Son Waldemar a Child Christopher the Second King of Denmark possessed himself of that Guardian-ship of Waldemar and at the same time of the whole Territory of Sleswick except Gottorp which when he also besieged to gain the whole Dutchy Gerhard Earl of Holstein Unkle to Waldemar with some others oppos'd him stoutly and for this Felony committed by the King in 1326 there was great Debate which Meursius thus relates The Dukedom of Sleswick having been held till then as a Fief from Denmark and these Princes by reason of this Vsurpation of the Kings being unwilling it should continue so hereafter was the occasion of a long Contention lib. 4. p. 70 which ended as we have said before If this demand in the Name of Waldemar was not unreasonable with how much more Justice doth our Duke desire that he might have his own and a full Restitution from the King of what he detains from him so unjustly and has Sequestrated by meer force and God Almighty having ordered Restitution to be made where Covenants are broken it is but just that his Vice-gerents upon Earth should endeavour to put his Decrees in Execution 13. If we look upon his Sequestration rightly and examine it by the Rules of Justice we shall find it wholly void by Law For it was neither done by any Convention of the Parties nor by any Judicial Authority The Danes I presume will confess the former and the other we do not question but to make them also agree to The King of Denmark having made himself Plaintiff against the Duke of Gottorp in the business of the Dukedome of Sleswick his Majesty cannot be a Judge in the same cause Which is explained by several Civilians Ad. Tit. Cod. Nequis in suâ causâ judicet vel jus sibi dicat that is to say Let no man be Judge in his own Case or do himself justice And this must not be understood as if the Positive Roman Law only by which the Danes are not bound did prohibite any one to be Judge in his own cause for the Law of Nature dictates the same and right reason which obliges all the world proclaims it Men blinded by their affections do not see the truth in their own affairs saith Aristotle And for this reason the Kings of Denmark themselves consented heretofore that all Disputes about this Fief should be determined by Impartial Judges according to the contents of the Treaty of Union and that both parties should abstain from hasty Sequestrations Ord. jud prov part 3. tit 3. A judicial Sequestration being thus prohibited because it is a kind of Execution wherewith a State ought not to begin This Sequestration of the Dukedome of Sleswick cannot certainly be defended by any Law nor by any Judicial Authority nor by a previous cognizance of the cause upon which a just Sentence had followed but only by the way of violence and absolute force by which the Duke of Gottorp has been thrown out of a certain Possession and all his Revenues and an usurped Possession transfer'd by pure Fact upon the Sequestrator against the nature of all Judicial Sequestrations which are made use of only for the better keeping of things so that this pretended Sequestration is really a violent spoil committed by the King supported with more than one Army upon the Duke naked and disarmed Now it is the Opinion of all wise men that a person who has been spoiled ought first of all to be restored 14. And this Restitution is so much the more earnestly to be pressed as this Sequestration may be dangerous both in Temporals and Spirituals For the King having suffered himself to be perswaded that he could absolve the common people Priests and Magistrates Subjects to the Duke in the Dukedome of Sleswick from the Allegiance they have sworn to their Prince he has caused sometimes one and sometimes another to be carried away by Souldiers from their habitations and from their Sacred and Civil Functions and some to Rendâ—bourgh where this whole Tragedy was begun and where they have been put in Prison at least detained for some time Those of the Dukes Officers and Subjects that have seen and understood all that hath passed between the King and the Duke must needs know that his Majesty has indeed a great Power over his Subjects but none over those of other Princes at least not such a one as can free them from their Oath to God and Allegiance to his Highness especially whilst the matter in difference is not onely doubtful but before no Judicial Court much less determined Nay they know that they are bound to suffer rather the greatest Miseries and the loss of their whole Fortunes than to act against their own Consciences and Oaths or do any thing to the prejudice of their Prince lest they should provoke the Anger of God and the Dukes just Revenge no obedience being due to any body that gives sentence out of his own Territory where he has no Jurisdiction L. Vel. ff de Jurisd And if others frighted with the noise of an Army or the fear of greater Evils renounce their Allegiance let them consider how they ensnare their Consciences if not expose themselves to the punishments for Perjury and
and all its Ammunition was delivered up This written Inventory with all the things set down therein were delivered and really received by me under-writen Lieutenant-General of the most Serene King of Denmark and Norway after the performance of the Surrender of the Fort of Tonningen and I do engage my Faith that all shall be fully restored according to the promise of his most Serene Royal Majesty and as it ought to be and to that end have subscribed this with my own hand Charles Arenstorff Out of the Instrument of Peace at Roschild 12. May 1658. As to the pretended satisfaction for the damages received by the last War the most Serene Duke of Gottorp the most excellent Mediators judging it fit condescends out of friendship and affection to remit all his pretensions thereunto for all the Vassalage remitted to him that the Amty between his most Serene Royal Majesty and the Duke and also the Kingdom of Denmark the Dukedoms and the Subjects of both Princes may remain firm and entire and that the good correspondence which ought to be between Allies Brothers and Neighbours may be preserved Out of the League between Sweden and Gottorp made May 24. 1661. And as there is no other cause for the making of this Alliance than to keep the Peace between the Princes of the North inviolate and render the security of the House of Gottorp established thereby more entire and the most Serene Duke of Gottorp not obliging himself in any thing to the King and Kingdom of Sweden but what relates to this Peace and Security and the preservation of the Friendship and Amity between them so no other Leagues whether already made or which shall be hereafter made shall prejudice either of the Parties nor be a hindrance to this Treaty or take place against it Besides the most Serene Duke that he may remove all suspition of his proceedings desires that the extension or interpretation of this League may no ways reach his Imperial Majesty or the Empire or any other Kings Electors and Princes if they do not injure the Duke contrary to the Peace of the North and he also reserves to himself the liberty to keep and improve by the best ways he shall think fit that good correspondence with the King of Denmark which may and ought to be between Neighbours and may be most advantageous to his Family Provinces and Subjects without derogating from the Peace of the North. Out of the Peace of Roschild made the 26 Feb. 1658. Art 22. His most Serene Majesty of Denmark shall be obliged to satisfie Prince Frederick Duke of Sleswick and Holstein-Gottorp according to Equity which satisfaction shall be treated of by his Royal Majesties and his Highnesses Commissioners yet so as that this Treaty be finished before the second of May. Out of the Instrument of Peace between the most Serene King of Denmark and the Duke at Copenhaguen 12 of May 1658. Art 6. And so in the Name of God the Grievances and Demands exhibited are either absolutely or provisionally taken off to the satisfaction of the interessed and the King and Prince do promise bona side and in words without equivocation that they will keep this Treaty and not recede from it under any pretence whatsoever whatever it may be and observe these Articles as faithfully as those of the Peace at Roschild employing all their cares to transmit and propagate this Friendship now renewed perfect and entire to their Posterity We Frederick III. King of Denmark and Norway c. declare by these Presents that we have after mature deliberation upon all that has been proposed by the Lords Mediators either by word of Mouth or in Writing concerning the Treaty and Conclusion of a Peace consented and by vertue of these Presents do consent to the same as far as they agree with the Acts passed by the three States for the establishing a Peace between Us and the King of Sweden Copenhaguen August 23. V. S. 1659. Another Declaration of his most Serene Royal Majesty upon the business of the Peace to be made with the King and Kingdom of Sweden presented to the Lords Mediators Plenipotentiaries at Copenhaguen We Frederick III. by the Grace of God King of Denmark and Norway Duke of Sleswick and Holstein c. To all and every one whom it doth or may any way concern Be it known that as we have among other things as well by our Declaration of the 14 24 August shewed our great propensity to a Peace to the Lords Mediators of the three States as by another of the 25 4 August Sept. delivered by Our Order into the Hands of the same Mediators by which we declare that after a due consideration of the Propositions of their Excellencies made as well by word of Mouth as in Writing the 18 28 of the same Month for a happy Issue of this present Peace We do consent to them all as far as they are agreeable with the resolutions past by the three States the 11 21 of May the 14 24 of July and 25 4 July August about the Peace to be made between Us and the King and Kingdom of Sweden so we do hereby testifie and confirm that VVe adhere still to the same Declaration and to give a greater proof of our said Inclination for Peace and to take away all sort of suspition of the contrary VVe declare by these Presents that VVe desire nothing more than that the Commissioners of both Parties without any delay of time may meet at the place before appointed for the Treaty of Peace and by the Mediation of the Ambassadors of the three States make a happy conclusion of the same without any further delay And VVe relying entirely upon the Integrity and Equity of the said Lords do also hereby declare That if it shall be thought fit to add or change any thing in the Treaty at Roschild we remit and leave it all to their discretion and care In greater trust and certainty whereof we have to these Presents set Our Royal Hand and Seal at Our Court at Copenhaguen the 19. of March 1660. Frederick III. Out of the Instrument of Peace at Roschild renewed in the Year 1660. Art 27 28. VVhereas it was agreed by the 22th Article of the Treaty at Roschild that his Royal Majesty of Denmark should be obliged to give an equitable satisfaction to the most High Prince the Duke of Sleswick and Holstein-Gottorp and his said Majesties and his said Highnesses Commissioners after several Conferences held at Copenhaguen the 12 22 of May 1658 having at last come to a final Agreement and Conclusion it is hereby stipulated that all those Treaties and Transactions shall be exactly observed and fulfilled faithfully on both sides Moreover if there has happened any thing in this or the precedent VVars which may any way create animosities and jealousies between his most Serene Royal Majesty and Kingdom of Denmark and his most Serene Highness the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp or any thing between
aforesaid Duke to a better and more exact observance and execution of the Ancient Treaties and all others to the performance whereof he has bound himself and seriously dissuade him from his usual pernicious designs against Us. The many proofs VVe have of your Justice and your experienced commendable Constancy and Faithfulness in keeping your Treaties makes Us promise Our Selves this from your Majesties friendship being also resolved never to suffer any thing to be wanting in Us that may prove for the advantage of your Majesty and your Subjects and perswade you of Our sincere affection towards you By which your Majesty c. Given at Our Court at Landscroon the 4th of August 1677. The Duke of Holsteins Letter to his Majesty the King of Great Britain in Answer to the King of Denmarks Most Serene and Potent Prince c. HAving had a view of the Letters written to your most Serene Majesty by the King of Denmark the 4th of August of this present Year We find by them that his Majesty of Denmark does indeed commend your Majesties offers of Mediation for composing Our Controversies but in reality shews an aversion thereunto and declines it as unnecessary endeavouring to demonstrate the same by colouring his Actions with the specious pretence of ancient and late Treaties and accusing Our Lord and Father and Us with a great many things These Letters being full of such complaints VVe cannot but defend Our Innocence and free Our Honour from such accusations by letting your most Serene Majesty understand Our Reasons why the differences between Us and the King of Denmark ought not to be excluded out of the Negotiations for an Universal Peace not indeed can be debated any-where else without great danger and prejudice to Us. VVe have been so observing of the ancient Treaties and Alliances that for several Ages the Dukes of Gottorp have lived under the Authority and at the Devotion of the Kings of Denmark But VVe are not by any Treaties to be oppressed by those who are obliged by Vertue of Our Alliances to defend Us nor are VVe to submit Our Selves to a voluntary Slavery but are rather by the said Treaties freed from so sad a Yoke Let the Kings of Denmark but consider how they could make VVars upon VVars and involve the Dukes of Gottorp's Territories so often in the Calamities attending VVar not only without consulting the Dukes but against their will and earnest dissuasions from the same without breach to the ancient Treatâ—es and Alliances from which VVe are sure it cannot be proved that Our Ancestors ever receded rashly or unjustly As to the Articles of Rendsbourgh VVe confess that VVe do not think Our Selves further oblig'd to them then either the goodness or equity of the cause or of the way of proceeding will oblige Us. We came as Friends and Guests to Rendsbourgh inticed with great hopes and ample Protestations that all things should be sincerely and fairly transacted and determined But We were against the Laws of Nations and Friendship Treated like Enemies detained Prisoners guarded with Souldiers and at last sent from one Prison to another every-where besieged and through fear and threatnings compelled unjustly to most unreasonable conditions which the very way of proceeding argues to be null Therefore VVe are so far from consenting to them freely and voluntarily that VVe have never so much as freely ratified them For those things that are done by force and through fear may be sometimes made valid by a subsequent free consent yet no consent is to be esteemed such except the person who is said to have consented freely be first set at full liberty when on the contrary fear once caused in any transaction is supposed to continue still and VVe were the more disturbed thereby because VVe were by the King deprived of all good Counsels Our Principal Ministers being violently carried away Prisoners to Copenhaguen and the rest frighted from Us by this unheard-of Example The Soveraignty of the Dukedom of Sleswick purchased with a very good Title and at a dear rate was yielded up to Our House by Frederick the Third King of Denmark by his own free and often repeated consent and has been quietly possessed by Us for above Sixteen years neither is it any matter that it was obtained partly by the fortunate Successes of the Arms of Sweden since it is undoubtedly true that VVars may be made not only for Oâ—r own good but for the good of others and that the King of Sweden was then justly provoked to take up Arms against the Danes and that if the King of Denmark has suffered any force it being but just he cannot pretend to any Right of Restitution VVe cannot like wise conceal that by this and the foregoing Wars made by the Kings of Denmark VVe have contracted many great Debts and Our Subjects are so exhausted by Contributions that part of them have been forced to quit the Country and the rest are glad if they can get the coarsest sort of Bread to eat Now when VVe quitted by the last Treaty all Our pretensions of satisfaction from the King of Denmark in consideration of the Soveraignty which was yielded up to Us what have we got I pray that any one should envy Us for It is the King of Denmark only is the gainer who by that opportunity got the Soveraignty of that part of the Dukedom of Sleswick which is his and thereby soon after an occasion of getting the Monarchy of the whole Kingdom Therefore since that Our Lord and Father was by so many Solemn and publick Treaties absolutely freed from the tie of Vassalage and Homage it cannot certainly be imputed to him that he had without any regard of his Alliance to the Kingdom of Denmark extorted the Soveraignty of the said Dukedome unless the King will slight all the Treaties of Peace and Conventions that have been made upon that occasion and by his Example incite the Kings of Spain and Poland nay his own Subjects to repossess themselves of their lost Provinces and Ancient Rights and Authorities as soon as they shall have an occasion and power to do it We do with all gratitude acknowledge your Majesties favour that besides the general Guaranty of all the conditions of the Peace at Roschild you have been pleased to oblige your Self to a special one for the Preservation and Assertion of this Soveraignty It is without any ground the King of Denmark pretends that VVe obtained the Soveraignty by the favour of Cromwell only For besides that the good Offices and Mediations of other Kings and States intervened in this Affair and the conclusion thereof VVe do not well conceive how the King of Denmark can show which of the Usurpers Acts your Majesty is pleased to hold â—or good and which not For it will not consist with reason of State and the publick good that they should be all annulled Nay if the King of Denmark will be pleased to look into the circumstances of this matter he
exclude us from that Treaty of a General Peace at Nimeguen and consequently from all hopes of redress and lately Navigation hath even been by open Proclamations absolutely Interdicted to all our Inhabitants and Subjects of the Dukedoms of Sleswick and Holstein without affording us as Prince Regent the least knowledge thereof much less designing us to joyn in the said Publication if the same had been required We therefore have had good reason to wave the sending over our Deputies the second time again after they were thus dismissed before but rather have taken a firm resolution to get our Cause ventilated and discussed at the Treaty of the General Peace at Nimeguen with this certain hope and confidence that no Potentate concerned therein will dispute our admission in regard that amongst other high concerns the re-establishment of the Northern Peace will be also treated there which is not only the foundation of our Soveraignty over the Dukedom of Sleswick with the other advantages stipulated for us and our Family but also is an essential part thereof and stands comprehended under the undertaken General and Special Warranty Neither do we think that your Majesties Ministers in Holland have had any orders to render difficult the impetrating of the Pasports by us desired from the States General of the Vnited Provinces for our Ministers destined to Nimegâ—n seeing they have not been able to alledge any thing at all which should deserve the least reflection and exclude us from the General-Treaty if we were but to be considered as a German Prince and had no concerns in the re-establishment of the Northern Peace which nevertheless hath first of all been endangered on our side But concerning those machinations discovered by a singular accident whereby as we do conceive some endeavours are used to justifie that in all points formally commenced Sequestration we have not the least cause to clear our selves in that respect before any particulars are nearer touched and it be duly made appear to us that we have been concerned in any of those Machinations represented to your Majesty However we are sure and confident that we never have been so deservedly suspected privy to any thing as that thereby just cause should have been given to charge us therewith by Potentates both within and without the Empire and to alienate their former inclination from Us and our Family much less can a Pretext thereby conveniently be taken to sequestrate that part of the Dukedom of Sleswick which with all right Hereditarily and Properly doth belong to us and to menace us with a total deprivation thereof and we do also fully perswade our selves that your Majesty will put this to the serious consideration of your Ministers who have brought this Process upon the Stage and perhaps do endeavour to assert it's consistency with the Feudal Laws That as your Majesty doubtless makes great doubt to assume a Judges part in your own Cause so neither the Sequestration of the Fief nor the Deprivation of the same can or may consist after that manner as it is intended against us although we should be indisputably oblig'd to that Vassalage of the Dukedom of Sleswick which yet saving all due respect to your Majesty we find our selves necessitated solemnly to contradict except one would presume to Act by nullities or by making no reflection upon the Law And the common Feudal Laws whereupon likewise the ancient Unions and Hereditary Agreements in case any difference as well in Feudal as other matters should arise are usually grounded do shew That not only in the total deprivation of a Fief but also in the Sequestration the hearing of the Cause before a Competent Judge ought solemnly to precede it notwithstanding one should presume to assert the necessity of a Sequestration in case the Parties shew themselves unwilling the reasons whereof nevertheless will never be made out of those pretended Machinations Having therefore pondered all the above-mentioned and such other concomitant circumstances we cannot but still keep to our resolution once deliberately taken and remit that point of our undeservedly questioned Soveraignty over the Dukedome of Sleswick with all the other alienâ—ted Dignities Prerogatives Territories and Fortresses as also all due and equitable satisfaction and what else can conduce to our future Security to the place of Congress for a general Peace at Nimeguen patiently expecting from God and time what Conclusion there will be made and come forth about the restoring the Northern Peace and consequently also of our Rights and Concerns But we do in the mean time very kindly and instantly intreat withal your Majesty that out of an Inclination to Justice and in regard of that desolate condition whereunto we and ours thus undeservedly see our selves more and more reduced your Majesty would be pleased till then and till the speediest God grant ensuing conclusion of a general Peace to preserve all peaceable thoughts and not to press upon us any further with the said Investiture and any other demands but on the contrary without delay to recal that unjust and ungrounded Sequestration and not only leave to us the enjoyment of all our Rights and Prerogatives undisturbed but also to take off the exceeding Contributions from our quite exhausted Subjects and to restore that part of Stadt and Budjadinger-Land and also of the Customs at Elistiet properly appertaining unto us and amicably and friendly to interpret this our unavoidable Justification and Declaration with this assurance that as we have in all Points carefully observed that high respect due to your Majesty so likewise we have intended to say or write nothing which should tend against the same All this is very consentaneous to equity and to your Majesties inbred Generosity and we shall be ready for our part every-where to praise such your Majesties kindness and with due thankfulness and all possible services always acknowledge the same most faithfully recommending withal your Majesty to God Almighty's Protection Dated Hambourgh the 16th of Jan. 1677. Your Majesties Obsequious Cousin and Brother-in-Law Christian Albrecht THE EMPERORS LETTER TO THE Duke of Holstein LEOPOLD by the Grace of GOD Elected Roman-Emperor Serene Duke c. BY these We give your Dilection to understand that We are informed how you have not only for your part approved of those proposals which were made to you by Graventable the Swedish Minister lately residing in Our Imperial City of Hamborough about certain Levies to be made in Foreign Parts and are come to a certain conclusion with him in that affair but also that your Dilection for the promoting of the said Levies hath made use of Kielman your late President 's Monys that lie there and taken thereof the Sum of 200000 Rix-dollars and that your Dilection doth employ in this affair the Swedish President Kley who hitherto hath pretended to live there as a private man and also another person named Vlke. And although We do repose a far better confidence in your Dilection than to think that you