Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A38854
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An Exact account of the King of Sweden's dangerous sickness with a true relation by what means the constant report of his death hath been occasion'd.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing E3571; ESTC R1872
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3,188
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16
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AN EXACT ACCOUNT OF THE King of Sweden's DANGEROVS SICKNESS With a True RELATION By what Means the Constant Report of HIS DEATH Hath been Occasion'd LICENSED May 16. 1679. LONDON Printed for Gabriel Kunholt Bookbinder to His Highness Prince Rupert 1679 AN EXTRACT OF A LETTER Sent the 11th of April last past to one of the King of France's Ministers by a French Officer from Liungby the King of Sweden's Camp at the time of His Majesties Sickness My Lord I Cannot forbear to inform you by this Opportunity of the King of Swedens intire Recovery of His dangerous Sickness which did put both the Physitians and the whole Army into a despair And I do not doubt but that I shall give you some Satisfaction by informing you of the particulâ—r Circumstances and of the Pious Discourses and Kind Expressions which this Prince made during the heat of His Sickness For when he found himself at first ill on the 20th of March last past he strove to conceale it for several dayes as much as possibly he might by booting him as he daily useth to do viewing his Camp and keeping of His Council until the 23d of the said Moneth when he found himself so ill that he was forced to take his Bed and to declare that he had a violent Feaver with an exceeding heat and oppression of the heart And finding the Feaver increasing and the time of Death approaching he called for his Chief Minister made his Confession and received the Holy Sacrament with great Devotion he having alwayes lived an exemplary Life of Piety and Vertue Whereupon His Majesty sent for his Ministers of State and placed the Chiefest of them upon the side of his Bed and told them That whereas he perceived himself at the point of leaving the World he would not fail to give them His thanks for all the Care and Troubles which they had taken for Him and charged them with several things very tenderly relating to the Queen Mother which I could not fully understand being spoken in the Swedish Language and something low And seeing the Chiefest Officers of His whole Army round about His Bed-side he gave them thanks in a most obliging manner for the saithful Services which they had done Him and His Country He remembred very well the many Dangers they had run in all Encounters and Battels that had been fought and that next to God He attributed to their Valour the good Issue of them all Next to them He gave His hearty Thanks to all the Officers of His Houshold and Menial Servants and enlarged Himself very much upon the great troubles He had for not being in a condition to Reward them according to their Merits He hoped that God would do it being the True Rewarder of all honest Actions He desired their pardon if He had offended them and bid them consider that He was a Man like themselves and had His Failings like others but He could assure them that He never did offend any of them wittingly or with a set intention And whereas His Troubles and Pains increased more and more His Majesty supported them with as much Courage as any could do Yet at last He could not forbear to tell us that stood about Him that He must needs confess That all what He had suffered all the time of the War did never come near to that which He did suffer for the present and that the Enemy which now Attack'd Him did use Him more Cruelly than all the others that He had had against Him for many years together He Prayed to God to have Mercy on His Soul and with many earnest Repetitions recommended unto Him His Kingdom and Country which could not but be very unhappy by His death without Gods particular Favour and Protection bewailing very much that He should leave the same in such a distracted War but yet comforting Himself withal That all those that were about Him knew very well how He was drawn into the War and in His Minority too when He could not apply such Remedies as were necessary for to turn it another way And whereas He spoke all this with such tender expressions that all the Spectators could not forbear to burâ—t out in Tears He said to them Pray why do you grieve so much I am not to be so much lamented for I find in my self an Assurance that I am a Child of Heaven and of the everlasting God I never did any body harm nor any hurt to my Conscience and I have kept my Words very punctually to my Allies and my Engagement to my Subjects whom I have Loved very tenderly and have freely exposed my Life for their welfare And although you may have after Me a Wiser King yet never will you have any one that shall love you more than I have done And the usual hour for His daily Publick Prayer approaching He desired His Chaplain to be called for who in regard of His Majesties weakness endeavoured to shorten the Prayers but the King told him That it was not the Time to do it so for He never needed his and others Prayers more than at that instant But no sooner were they ended but that He spoke of Death with a great deal of courage and every one feared He should wrong himself by talking so much We endeavoured to get away but He no sooner perceived it but He called us back and desired that He might not be buried in any great State or Pomp reminding them of His plain way of living and as He never affected any Pride in His Life-time so He desired to be Buried as He had Lived seeing the present time could not afford any unnecessary Charges wherewith He gave us His Hand to kiss and took his leave with many tender expressions Some hours after his Majesty was taken with a great Sweat whereby the pains of the heart diminished and after a sweet sleep of Fourteen hours together his violent Feaver turned into a Tertian Ague the Fits whereof lessened from day to day till this very day when he had no Fit at all so that we judge his Majesty free from all danger and Sweden delivered from very dangerous troubles and disorders which would necessarily have followed upon the death of such a Prince I cannot represent unto you all the fine expressions which His Majesty used all this time onely I must tell you in few words that we all that stood about his Bed side did admire it and must needs confess that we have observed that within two or three moneths he hath improved mightily and hath got all the Parts of a Great Prince And I leave it to you to judge what strange alterations his death would have produced and what a joy we all must have who have seen him in this apparent danger and in the very Agonie A TRUE RELATION By what means the constant REPORT OF HIS DEATH Hath been occasioned OVT of this Relation it is clearly to be seen that the King of Sweden hath been dangerously ill and whereas nothing could be more acceptable as well as profitable to the enemies of Sweden then such news many of the Countrey people of Schonen and especially the Snaphanes snatched thereof an opportunity to be the first to inform the Danes of his Majesties death in expectation of very great Rewards And since it happened that one of the several dead Corps of some Great Officers that had been killed during this War and set by in the Parish Church of Liungby which lyes very close to the King's Camp was according to the usual custom in that Countrey with great pomp sent up to Stockholme for its burial and attended through the Swedish Camp with several Troops of Horse and Foot the said Countrey people and Snaphanes fully took it for a solemnity of His Majesties own Funeral and hastened to both the Danish Garrisons at Landscroon and Helsenburgh with the news thereof and for the greater appearance of its real Truth it happened that a Danish Officer was about the same time sent by the King of Denmark towards Christianstadt to inform the King of Sweden of the Cessation of Arms concluded at Nimeguen and to proceed further towards Norway and there to give also the same information thereof But whereas the said Officer was only provided with a Passport of the Swedish Ambassadors at Nimeguen to this effect and brought no Letters at all along with him from them to the KING nor any particular information of the Conditions of the said Cessation it was neither found conâ—â—…â—â—…nt nor an act of Prudence to suffer an Officer of the Enemy to pass under that pretension through the Swedish Territories Army and strong Holds to Norway but it was ordered that he should return for Helsingburg and with a Swedish Passport to go from thence by Sea as the usual and safer way for Norway which the said Officer as well as the rest of the Danish Partisans took for a Mistery and Product of the death of the King of Sweden and reported it accordingly FINIS