Slippenbach That with a great deal of reluctancy he departed from a place where he had hoped to have met with an occasion to have laid a stable and firme foundation of an eternall Peace between the Princes of Christendom but since he had sent him word that his Majesty desired he should be accompanied with a more ample Instruction and Commission then that which he had brought along with him he deemed it fitting to retire himself with his Colleague to Hamborow there to expect his Electorall Highness further Orders True it is that one of the Kings Trompeters was immediately sent after the Ambassadours who overtook them at Rensbough where he delivered them a Letter annexed and marked i Proof 9. by which the Commissioners sent them word That they had been the more surprised at their precipitated departure in as much as the Ambassabours of Lunenburg and Hesse had the day before declared That the Conference it self was not so much objected against as the intervâ—ning of other strange Ambassadours and that his Majesty having condescended that they should have a private meeting they desired the Ambassadours either to return back again or to repair to some neutrall place where the Treaty might be begun And upon the said Letter the Ambassadours might happily have resolved to have returned to Flensbourg had it not been accompanied by another Paper annexed and marked k Proof 10. which made them see That not only they could not expect any good from the said Conference but that also they were looked upon as Heralds who rather came to declare warre then like Ambassadours from a Prince who only seemed to desire Peace Wherefore they contented themselves to return this answer to the Letter annexed and marked l Proof 11. Declaring That they wondred they were blamed for parting from Flensbourg after they had made so long a stay there and had not seen the King and not so much as perceived any appearance to be treated or dealt withall according to the Dignity of their Character And being arrived at Hamburrough they returned a more ample answer unto the said Commissioners Letters and also unto the Writing which was sent unto them annexed and marked m Proof 12. and told them That however they were resolved to have expected his Electorall Highness commands in that place yet having maturely reflected on what the said Commissioners had sent them they deemed it requisite to give his said Electorall Highness a verball account thereof and to receive his positive Order thereon But at their return to and arrivall at Berlin they found the Prince Elector so well advertised of the King of Swedens proceedings as that he would not permit his said Ministers to return towards him but to the contrary he caused them to send the Writing which you will finde annexed at the end of this Relation marked n Proof 13. unto the said Commissioners in answer to their former exhibited Paper And to the end that no man may have cause to doubt of the truthes afore-specified and that all the world may be the better able to judg of his said Electorall Highness proceedings and of his willingness and affectionate desires to the begetting of a Peace whilest the Swedes did endeavour to ingage him in a new Warre against his own Countrey we have thought good to add hereunto those Proofs which we have before alledged and we shall remit our selves to the judgment of all disinteressed and unconcerned persons Whether on the one part there be not a great deal of reason to blame the proceedings of those who make a mocking stock of God and of the whole world by using of his Name to colour their violences and outragious dealings and on the other part there be not a necessitated constraint to take up Arms in and for the defence of ones Countrey the preservation of the Empire and the maintenance of the bonour of the German Nation So that the true and entire knowledg which we have of either parties intentions hath engaged us to divulge this unto the world and to communicate unto all men these ensuing Proofs which have been copied out of the very orginall Letters themselves The first Proof His Electorall Highness of Brandenburgs Letter to the King of Sweden Most Serene and Puissant King my most honoured Cousen and Brother I Had well hoped that your Majesty having ended the Denmark Warre would have caused the Treaty with Poland to have been set on foot and that you would have authorized the same by your presence But having heard that your Majesty was passed into Sweden I would not omit by this occasion to give you a visit by this Letter humbly and amicably to request you to remember your promise and without any further delayes to cause the Treaties of Peace with Poland to be advanced your Majesty hath made me hope it should be effected and have so often promised it me as that having absolutely assured it to all the interessed parties I hope you will disingage the promises which I have made unto them thereon and forasmuch as my preservation and assurance doth entirely depend upon the speedy conclusion of the said Treaty you Majesty cannot doubt but that I will contribute what lieth in me to accomplish the same so likewise shall I alwayes preserve a most sincere Friendship for your Majesty and the Crown of Sweden which I also know is the intention of the King and Crown of Poland I remain Signed thus Your Majesties most humble Brother and Servant FREDERICK WILLIAM Elector From Collen on the Spree the 10th of March 1658. The second Proof The King of Sweden's Answer to his Electoral Highnesses Letter Most serene Prince Elector welbeloved Cousen and Brother YOur Letters of the 10th of March were safely delivered to me and I do thereby perceive not only the passion which you bear towards the advancement of the Peace of Poland but that you do assure me I shall meet with the same affection and sincerity in the King of Poland's intentions but likewise see the paines you do promise to take in the promoting of so godly a work and the Amity and Friendship which you tell me you will constantly preserve for my Person and my Crown wherefore I would not omit to answer the said Letter and to tell you as your good Friend and Cousen That you do know I have long since nominated Commissioners to treat on the Peace of Poland and that I have given them sufficient instructions and full power as well before as since the Conclusion of the Treaty with the King of Denmark and express Orders incessantly to labour in the promoting of so good a work Insomuch that it is neither mine nor my Ministers faults who were alwaies ready to proceed being sufficiently impowered that the Peace of Poland and of its Allyes hath not long since been concluded But the insolent and arrogant answers which the Polanders returned to the Ambassadour de Lombres touching the said Pacification hath
in the least upon those things which are to ensue not being so discreet as to consider what they did and were wilfully resolved to trouble the Peace of Christendome by new affected quarrels in stead of setling and reestablishing the same by new and well grounded alliances But since the Honour of and even his Electorall Higness conscience art engaged in this concerment we shall desire you not to take it ill that we enter no further thereon at this present but that we leave the resentment thereof unto himself There is but one thing which we finde our selves obliged to touch on by the by which is that in your writing you say the King hath changed his resolution and that he would have so much complaisance or indulgence according to the Latin original word they are your own words for the Ambassadours of Lunenbourg and Hesse as to dispence with them so far as that they might not entervene at the Meeting or Conference which he had caused to be propounded unto us But we crave your pardon if we averre that you do maintain with too much assurance a thing which is not so For the said Ambassadours themselves and the Kings Ministers do full well know as you your selves Sirs who are Persons of Honour can testifie that we knew nothing thereof and that the least word thereon was not told unto us the last Letters from the Lord of Slippenbach and the visits which were made to the said Ambassadours to take our leaves of them are manifest Proofs to the contrary and do plainly evidence that there was no appearance at all for us to expect an audience in such a manner as was due unto us nor that the King would alter the resolution which he he had taken to make us serve as an example unto Posterity and to expose us unto an unavoidable affront such a one as was not to be repaired instead of treating of us as Ambassadours from a Prince Elector of the Empire But we can with more truth alledge That we never refused to admit of the Ambassadours of Lunenbourg and Hessen by reason that the subject our of Embassy being just and plausible we had no reason at all to debarre the Ministers of those Princes from the Cognisance thereof who professe a most particular friendship to our Master neither did we ever hinder the Kings Ministers from visiting of us nor never refused to enter into any Conference with them But we would not nor could not consent into a Conference the manner place and time whereof was prescribed us We believed it was not expedient but very unseasonable because it was to have preceed our audience besides we had reason to suspect the said Conference neither would we acknowledge that superiority whereby it was intended to have enforced us thereunto Or rather we would not accept of that which the Ambassadours themselves could not approve of For we came not thither to debate or for to enter into a contestation with the Kings Ministers but we were there in the quality of Ambassadours for to demand Audience of the King We appeared there I say because the King had desired it and because his Ministers had invited us thither had received us had entertained us and had done us several other Civilities After all which not to be admitted unto audience to have the same deferred and delayed and finally absolutely refused which was never yet done by any Prince who had once received Ambassadours into his Court since it is to the Person of the Prince and not to his Ministers That Ambassadours do make their addresses This was the thing at which we were offended and this was the cause why to our great grief we departed Nor can you alledge That we precipitated our said departure since it could easily be imagined that after so long a stay we were not like to beg for an audience which in Justice ought not to have been refused us But all these things are so well known unto you as that we shall not need to adde any thing else hereunto being ascertained in our Consciences that you must needs acquiesse unto those Truths which we have alledged Moreover we remain SIRS c. Dated from Hamborrow on the 30 of June 1658. The thirteenth Proof A third Letter from the Brandenburg Ambassadours in Answer to the Proposition in writing sent after them by the Swedish Commissioners Sirs NO Person whatsoever who hath the least insight and knowledge of the state of our Affairs can be ignorant That the Piety and the Interest of our Elector doth oblige him earnestly to endeavour the generall Peace and to see it maintained and preserved throughout all Christendome For all men who profess themselves to be versed in the managing of publique affairs must needs avouch That this Prince whose Prudence is of as large an extent as his Provinces by interesting himself in the establishing of the publique tranquility of the Christian world doth at the same time include the setling of his own private security because his Principalities bordering on most of the Dominions of the Princes of Germany it is unpossible for him to preserve them but by his keeping a perfect good intelligence betwixt his Neighbours His Electoral Highness hath so well accomplished the same as that being unreproachable upon this account he thought himself not bound to be offended when by our relation he heard the ill Treatment which we received by your King and saw the calumnies wherewith all he finds himself slandered by that Paper which you sent unto us from Flensbourgh This great Prince is willing to forget and pass by the particular wrongs which are done unto his Person to bewail poor Germany which is like to be involved in new disorders However he cannot choose but detest the Ingratitude of those who cloak their pernitious designes and the rage by which they endeavour to continue the Warres by such unjust pretentions Our Prince is rendred guilty because he hath not quite ruined himself for your Kings sake and he is threatned with a Warre because he cannot any longer second an others ambition without the exposing of his Person and his Dominions to a finall ruine And moreover he is at this present reproached with that which the King did formerly esteem the most of all in him when he confessed that he should never be able to acknowledge those Obligations for the which he stood engaged to his Electoral Highnesse Just as if there were a great deal of advantage to be reaped by finding out a pretence to ruine a Friend unto whom a man is over-obliged and a great deal of glory to be taken in the pillaging of a Creditours House thereby to find wherewithall to pay a Debt which would otherwise reman unsolved They affect to render all the Princes actions odious without reflecting on those things which he hath formerly done and instead of the dissembling or at least excusing those things which might be blamed in the conduct of a Friend so great
Pomerania into Holstein was that which saved you True it is that the said Polanders made one irruption into the Swedish Pomerania but it is also true that this hapned whilest the Elector was with his Army in Prussia and the loss which we sustained thereby doth sufficiently denote our innocence Thus you see Gentlemen how you thrive by your Accusations for all your following discourse even to the end is in the like style â—ndeed you talk much of the intelligence we should have held with the King of Denmark and what a design we had to joyn our Forces to Warre upon you But this you must prove You do accuse without proofes and do slander without fear of being punished In the conjuncture of affairs at the time we were threatned we were sought unto designes were fomented against us and proffers were made unto us as unto a Prince who had not as yet declared himself and to my thinking that we had the civility to hearken to those Proposals it cannot be misinterpreted since it is neither in our power not to hear or not to suffer another to speak Why would you not have it left to the Electors choice to give ear to those Propositions which were made to answer them and to treat upon them since you were not prejudiced neither his Electorall Highness engaged thereby We cannot beleeve that your King intends to debarre a free Prince from his liberty especially such a one as doth not acknowledg him in the least But because we cannot imagin that a Prince who professeth generosity should possibly be capable to harbour such a conceit we shall rest satisfied by urging you to prove not that we never began but that we ever ended those Negotiations not that we have not only begun but also that we have concluded signed and ratified the said Treaties as then we shall willingly beleeve your allegations although otherwise there is but little faith to be given to you That which you alledg concerning the House of Austria is most abominably false But patience we can dispell these Illusions as well as the others All men know at what a vallue the said House is in Germany wherefore we shall not need to answer your allegation which we account meerly as a thing which partly is not at all or if there be any thing of it it is so remote from truth as that we shall only say Had you not threatned us we had not needed to have troubled our selves with alliances and that we beleeve the Elector might have made an alliance with as great a Prince of Germany without asking you leave unless you already perswade your selves to be Masters of the liberties of all the Princes of the Empire But we have just reason to complain whenas this said alliance having not passed the tearms and limits of a just and lawfull defence you take occasion thereby to cry us down as if we had conspired against you because you hope to draw this advantake thence That your Calumnies though never so false will alwayes leave some impressions in mens mindes capable to make us odious all the world knows we alwayes abhorred Warre neither did we ever enter into any Negotiation whatsoever no not with your selves but our ends were for Peace We endeavoured to make Friends on all sides that we might the better compass the aforesaid ends and we confess that we were not sorry sometimes to see the great prosperities of the victorious checked by small adversities to render them the more capeable of reason Nor can we forbear to tell you that you are besides your wits when you alledg That we shared the Estates and Provinceâ— of your King and that we have treated him as a common Enemy You may say what you please but you are so farre from proving of it that to the contrary we will give whatsoever you please That in case you undertake nothing against your Neighbours that your Armies enter not into the Empire that you leave the Prince Elector and his Estates in tranquillity we will not only never pretend any thing of Sweden nor upon your other Estates in Germany but that also we shall alwayes retain that respect and consideration for the Kings Person which we owe to his deserts and to the advantage of his birth which he hath had in one of the most Illustrious Families of all Germany wherefore we can hardly resolve to adde hereunto That this Alliance of which you so much talk which hath been negotiated with so much circumspection and the conclusion whereof hath for a great while together been delayed even by the consent of the House of Austria purposely to debarre you from all evasions of refusing the Peace was not concluded and ratified till such time as it was known that you declared your selves publikely against the Peace and after they began openly to disclaim that security which was promised us against their threatnings and violences The same reason hinders us from answering those things which you alledg concerning succours leavies garrisons rendezvous of Armies ceising of Gunpowder c. for we can very wel justifie our selves by one word denying what you say That 〈◊〉 have not hindred your leavies That we demanded no succours against you That we disturbed not your assembling of your Troops As to the other things you reproach us with they are such indifferent and free voluntary ones as that we might do by them as we pleased our selves without the offring you any injury at all And as concerning your Gunpowder you may thank your selves we had given your King notice thereof long time before and we had so deeply engaged our selves to the Polanders that we would not permit any ammunitions of warre â—o pass as that we could not break our word unless we were minded to have exposed our selves again to those hostilities which we chose to avoid by the said alliance which we made with them Which being so and that there is not any thing to be replied thereunto it doth of necessity hence arise That we have not committed any act of hostility against you in the Empire and that we sided not with the Polanders save upon constraint Insomuch as that without all doubt in case you had been as much inclined unto Peace as we alwayes were it would be an easie matter to preserve it amongst us and that on both sides we might enjoy a profound tranquility and by a happy succession leave to our Posterities the Estates which the Almighty hath entrusted under our Government The very name of Warre ought to be terrible nor truly can it be pleasing save only unto such ears as bear no respect to those things which are above them nor fear of those which are below them But we of all men abhor it the more by how much we cannot endure it amongst those whose proximity of Neighbourhood or the bond of Amity ought to contain within the streighter limits and tyes of conjunction Would to God you had harboured the same thoughts
and God grant as yet you may possess them truly it is a part of your duty and if so be the charming name of Peace if the continuall prayers of the people if the just apprehensions of ill successes of an unjust war and if the sense of the wrath of God which hath been so rashly provoked are not sufficient to cause you to change your resolutions at least you ought to â—â—â—sider if possibly you can That the hopes of an inconsiderable advantage ought not to have so great an ascendent upon you as meerly in a frolick and in an humour to cast a faithfull Friend into an irrecoverable enmity You full well know we have sworne to the Alliance which we have made with Poland and since you enforced us thereunto it was a part of your prudence to have endeavoured the regaining of a Friend who had not as yet offended you instead of declaring warre against him and reducing him to the last extremity unless it turns more to your advantage 〈◊〉 have constrained him to declare himself against you Now if there be any fault in this which we have done surely you that have enforced us thereunto cannot scape innocent The Interests of Religion which are alledged are very considerable 't is true but the means to preserve them were propounded unto you as well as the others since the Polanders proffered to have a care thereof and to remedy all those particulars which might have induced you to wage warre and all this with the more certainty as to Religion in that the conscience and the Religion of the Elector found their security in the Soveraignty of Prussia which the King had granted unto him But we must likewise confess That you did not greatly heed Religion whether or no you judg wisely and piously that she may be perswaded but not commanded that it is not warfare but a godly life not force or violence but sufferings to Martyrdomes which establish it or whether you really know that there is no place in the world where the pretence of Religion is of less effect in martiall affairs as in Poland For it is most true and we know it by experience that the warre hath most of all shaken the state of our Religion and whereas in times of peace we enjoyed an entire liberty of conscience throughout all Poland the warres were no sooner begun there again but in hatred unto your forces they persecuted those who made profession of the Protestant Religion whereas Peace would have preserved the same and also by a Treaty you might have had great advantages granted for the furtherance of the same But truly this is not th◠… ing which we can expect from you for how can those be zealous as to concernments of Religion who are manifestly unjust by demanding and possessing of Prussia who violate all the Laws of Friendship to become Masters of the Baltick Sea We have seen you stirre Heaven and earth tosse all things topsiturvy make no distinction betwixt Friends or Enemies party or party to compass your designs which you have laid to joyn all these spatious and great Provinces to your Crown This is an effect and mark of your Religion but whereof till now we had not learnt the rules when you say for you do not at all disguize it that Kings are the Masters of all It is a pretious and pious Notion to say That the Polanders are obliged in conscience to defend Christendome from the invasions of so many Enemies and barbarous Nations whilest your poverty permits you to be pious and puts you in a most blessed condition if your ill fortune shut you up at home where you will alwaies reap this comfort by the assurance you have that you may alwayes unpunished assault others without your fearing of being assaulted by others in your own homes In case your King be resolved to continue the warres which we hardly beleeve he would not be a little troubled to beget the same minde in all those of his party It would prove a new unheard of kinde of Justice to prefer warre before peace Prussia before the interests of the whole world and your particular Laws to the Almighties In regard whereof the Prince Elector being sensibly touched with all these disorders and seeing that the state of affairs required him to take a strong resolution either to prevent and remedy them or to perish he would essay whether his example might prove capable to bring you back unto reason or at least in case our sinnes would not permit us to hope that to try whether all honest men might not be perswaded That it was not his fault the Peace was not made and that all the North at this present doth not enjoy a profound Tranquillity But since this hath not succeeded by reason that your King not being satisfied with his too unadvised rejecting our Embasie endeavours moreover to cast a blame upon us which he knoweth cannot be excused on his part you will therefore not take it ill Gentlemen that we both remit you and our selves unto the judgement of the whole world as to what is past that so they may immediately decide this first question viz. Whether or no in the present conjuncture of affairs the Elector can be blamed for having sent Ambassadours to the King Whether or no his Majesty hath done well to send us back again without hearing of us Whether it may not be said That the King by refusing to acknowledg us otherwaies then in the quality of Ambassadours from Enemies hath not declared Warre against the Electorall Highness and whether by refusing of the Peace he hath not infringed the same We are willing to remit our selves hereon unto your own selves Gentlemen and we have so good an opinion of your prudence and of your justice as that we perswade our selves your belief is the same with ours That the Motions which induced the Elector to depute this Embassie are good and Religious and that the Parties which were employed therein did behave themselves like Persons of Honour and therefore we conceive we ought not to insist any further thereon For since we had no other design save to preserve that Friendship which we had contracted with you and to procure a just and honourable Peace between the two Crowns to your advantage to the content of all our Friends and Allyes and for the repose and peace of our consciences me thinks we might have gone directly to the King although we had been your declared Enemies we might have done it I say because you had approved of it for I pray what other means have you speedily to remedy those disorders which afflict us You are all Learned men and you know that one Associate may act for the other and moreover it may easily be perceived that our Prince did send this Embassie unto you with a very good intention not as an Enemy but as a Friend not with your thoughts but with his own Do but consider I pray with
believe that the Elector was the Enemy since he laboured in Prussia towards the procuring of an Agreement even with your consents and that he rather endeavoured Peace then Warre and how can you convince him of the least hostilities in the Empire unless you conceit you build them upon imaginary apprehensions or upon the uncertain reports which are spread abroade against which there are other remedies then force and violence Time would have taught you the one and the divine providence accompanied by an innocent precaution would have cured you of the other But suppose the Elector had declared himself against you that could not justifie you neither For the example of severall Pagans would have taught you that there is nothing ought to hinder the hearing of an Ambassadour no not from declared Enemies were it but to let the world see that you only wage Warre to obtaine Peace The first Christians would have made a scruple of conscience to have done otherwise But to desire a Prince to send his Ambassadours to make much of them to receive them at Court and afterwards to send them away again refusing them audience is a thing not only unheard of but against all piety against the publick faith and against the Law of Nations We marvell that you endeavour to excuse this reproach by the Maxime That the Law of Nations and former customes permit the receiving of Ambassadours according unto the dignity of the Prince which sends them and in relation unto the nature of the buisness whereon they are to Treat all which is just as much as nothing For that is only to be understood as to the ceremonies and exterior honours which are usually done to the persons of Ambassadours which is not our dispute we are agreed as to the ceremonies insomuch as that if you would deliberate whether you should receive the Embassie or no whether the Elector should be considered as a declared Enemy or as a suspected Prince who was ready to Arme against you that you might have done at least if you could have conceived us to have been such before your having approved of our Embassie by your receiving of us We do not deny but that sometimes Ambassadours may be refused to be received but to deny those Ambassadours audience who have been received this we deny expresly and do judg it the more extravagant since in things of so high an importance Sovereigns cannot proceed with too much circumspection We likewise say that it is an unheard of thing to go about to oblige an Ambassadour who hath been received and acknowledged as such to declare the subject of his Embassie and his secret Instructions before he hath spoken with the party unto whom he is sent and likewise to endeavour to force him to undergo a kinde of Interrogatory before Commissioners this is very impertinent All men know that the Character of an Ambassadour is most holy and inviolable between Princes and Soveraignes and that from all ages and amongst all people they have been received with honour and respect and that their persons are held in the more veneration by reason they represent those Kings and Princes by whom they are sent Now whether this be performed or no by those manner of proceedings which you use we desire you your selves Gentlemen to judge Truly we believe that there is not one amongst you who would not be offended if a friend having appointed you an houre to come and visit him should let you stay in the Hall and should send to know of you by a Foot-boy or some other of his donestick Servants that thing which you would not disclose save unto himself But there is great deale of difference between Princes and particuler Persons wherefore we beseech you to consider whether the most barborous Nations in the world would not be laughed at should they undertake to examine those Ambassadours which are sent unto them and require of them the subject of their Embassie and consequently whether this kind of proceeding be not impertinent and insusportable especially among such as profess civillity and whether it be a thing to be endured that the secret which an Ambassadour hath express Order to communicate to none save the Prince unto whom he is sent should be extorted from him We should have derogated from that Character wherewithall our Prince had honoured us had we been so ill advised as not to have made a distinction betwixt the Prince and his Ministers Truely Gentlemen you shall hardly be able to perswade it us and therefore we beseech you not to build too much upon the Maxime which you so often use and which makes you swerve so farre from the mark thâ— the dignity of the Commonwealth permits not to hear Enemy Ambassadours in the Senate This is no generall rule nor caâ— you make use of that which was heretofore said only up on the accounts of those who came as Spies and who would be heard without having asked audience against us who came upon the publick Faith who were invited received and honoured as Friends and therefore ought not nor could be gainsaid nor put by unless you did it purposely to offend us wilfully to faile in the point of civillity and moâ—â— cruelly to outrage us But we have said too much hereon the thing being so clear and manifest The Lacedemonians the Florentines the Dukâ— of Nevers and the Lord of Langey have by their example shewn us what is to be done on the like occasions to wit rather to withdraw then to be affronted Wherefore we shall only adde one word that at the same time you treated 〈◊〉 so ill your Resident who was with the Electors person a Berlin was there lodged and defrayed was admitted to audience as often as he pleased to demand the same and received all the other civilities which could be conferred upon a publick person We confesse we could not imagine what their designe should be by these your two different manner of actings and we had rather remit our selves thereon unto others then to become too importunate by an overcurious searching thereinto We desire not to penetrate into your reasons and we will leave it to the discretion and liberty of others to give your proceedings the blame or praise they may deserve But our Prince Elector who doth nothing but what he would have all the world know troubles himself not at all hereat or in case he had remained there to hinder his Electorall Highness from the declaring of himself our Prince who only aspires after Peace desired nothing so much as that even during the midst of the Wars We may easily believe that you did it purposely to entertain and amuse us till such time as the affairs of Denmark being regulated the King might have proceeded in another manner with us But our generous Prince vallues this not a straw for having not at all offended the King he needed not to apprehend any thing upon that account neither And if it be not in regard