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A50829
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A relation of three embassies from His Sacred Majestie Charles II, to the great Duke of Muscovie, the King of Sweden, and the King of Denmark performed by the Right Hoble. the Earle of Carlisle in the years 1663 & 1664 / written by an attendant on the embassies ...
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Miege, Guy, 1644-1718?
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1669
(1669)
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Wing M2025; ESTC R15983
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195,535
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475
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The Right honble Charles Earle of Carlisle vicoâ—â—â— Howard of Morpeth Baron Dacre of Gilsland Lord Lieutenant in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland and one of the Lords of his Maiesties most Honourable Privy Councell etc. 〈◊〉 fec A Relation Of Three EMBASSIES From his Sacred MAJESTIE Charles II TO THE Great Duke of MUSCOVIE The King of SWEDEN and The King of DENMARK Performed by the Right honble the EARLE of CARLISLE in the Years 1663 1664. Written by an Attendant on the Embassies and published with his L ps Approbation LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Miter in Fleetstreet near Temple-Barr 1669. To his Excellency the Right Honourable Charles Earle of Carlisle Viscount Howard of Morpeth Baron Dacre of Gillesland Lord Lieutenant in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel and at this present Ambassador Extraordinary to the King of Sweden My Lord WHen I consider the Perfections and Sublime Qualifications wherewith Nature hath so advantagiously adorned Your Eâ—cellency I cannot but think would be an injury to the Publicâ— should I omit to attempt some deâ—lineation thereof And seeing 〈◊〉 is no new thing for others to bâ— ambitious of describing the Actioâ— of Great Men it is but reasonabâ— that I who for sometime have beeâ— an ocular witness of those of Youâ— Lordships should erect a Monâ—ment for Posterity of the same Upon this account it is that I noâ— publish this Work under Your Excellencies favourable Protection bâ— which it is manifest that Your Excellency hath born the Charactâ—â— of Your Prince thorow three foâ—raign Nations with all imaginabâ—â— Prudence and Honour There is nothing to be seen in the whole Sâ—ries of Your Lordships Conducâ— but what is generous and Noble and in which Your Excellency makes it appear with what Reason and judgement His Majestie made choice of Your Person for the Representation of his own under the Illustrious Title of His AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY Which same Honour being now conferred upon You again is a sufficient Proof of the Verity of my Sentement and without further Enlarging upon Your Lordships Worth I believe the Knowledge alone of Your Lordship is sufficient to render You beloved which yet one cannot do but with a most profound respect For my part my Lord if I have any Ambition in the Publication of this Work of which Your Excellency is both the Subject and Ornament it is onely that I may have the Advantage to testifie to the World with how much Zeal and Devotion I am MY LORD Your Excellencies Most humble and most Faithful servant G. M. The Authors Preface to the Reader IT was the saying of an Antient That the Spirit of Man affects Novelties which is justified by daily Observation For any thing to which a man is accustomed long commonly grows unpleasant whereas Variety delights him and rescues his Imagination from the tediousness of ordinary Objects Hence is the desire men have naturally to Travaile and though it withdraws one from his Relations and Country and exposeth him to several incommodities and perils yet the pleasure of his Voiage preponderates all apprehensions and renders all discouragements contemptible and vain And as there is Pleasure in Travailing so it hath in my judgment its Vtility likewise and its Profit as well as Diversion Of this Homer seems to be sensible when amongst all the Elogies and Encomiums he gives to Ulysses one of the principal was That he had seen several Countries and made Observation of their Fashions and Manners Ever since I understood that the World was not altogether shut up in my own Country I have had a constant inclination to travail and in my travels a curiosity to observe according to my talent what I thought most considerable In the Voiage I had the honour to make with the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle during his Embassies to Moscovy Sweden and Denmark I had a particular opportunity to gratify my self And forasmuch as Moscovy is a Country little known saving to its Neighbours I fixt my design there more particularly and resolved to inform my self as exactly as was possible of the nature of that Country and its Inhabitants In the mean time I observed also all the remarkable passages of our Travails but especially the pompous solemnities wherewith the Ambassador was received as I had besides the advantage of being imployed about the Negotiation I neglected nothing of that whereby I might instruct my self of States-business The Voyage being over I put my Memoires in order and framed them into a continued discourse so that afterwards I had the satisfaction now and then to review all what I had seen I communicated what I had done with some of my Friends who found the subject too good to be buried in oblivion and wanted not arguments to invite me to Print it But then I was not yet of that mind being very careful how I exposed my self to the Censure of the World and I took alwaies that enterprize to be too dangerous and bold Nam nulli tacuisse nocet nocet esse locutum Yet seeing at last that I might doe it under my Lord of Carlisles Protection and with a full Permission I thought nothing could excuse me if I neglected a thing wherein his Excellencies Interest the Publicks and my own perhaps were concerned And accordingly besides the General Description of the Voyage and the manner wherewith the Ambassador was received the Reader will find in the Relation of the first Embassy an exact Description of Moscovy and of all that passed there in his Excellencies Negotiation There I display the naked truth of the business how contrary to the expectations of all Europe his Excellency was treated there after so many effectual testimonies of Friendship the King of great Britain and the Tzar of Moscovy had received from one onother There a man shall see how unworthily some of the Tzars Commissioners dealt with my Lord Ambassador and made such an Embassy fruitless how instead of taking care for the preservation of that Amity which for so long time had continued betwixt the Crowns of England and Moscovy they suffered themselves to be so far transported as to become instrumental in the diminution thereof And this is clear thorough the whole Series of the Negotiation in which on the one side there is nothing to be seen but a just and well grounded deduction of reasons tending only to the reinforcement of the antient Alliance Whereas on the other it is plain their blind interest had prepossessed them and that they were contented to be Friends for the future but upon condition it seems they should be required no more to give any fair and competent testimonies of their being such This is the unexpected humour wherein his Excellency found the Court of Moscovy who causlesly disliking his whole manner of proceeding found fault with those very actions which were generous and honourable in him And indeed why that Court should have
my Father had at that time for reason of State desired the taking of them away whereas to the contrary He blessed Prince even to His last breath prayed and laboured for the good of His subjects and even as to this matter had prepared a Letter which I yet preserve among His other Reliques wherein He desires of your Tzarskoy majesty the Restitution of the privileges and disavowes Nightingale as an Impostor but had He I say then desired they might be revoked I also do now desire they may be restored The Merchants are complained of for several miscarriages contrary to the condition of the Privileges None of those miscarriages are verifyed but however I ordered my Ambassador to provide against the possibility of any such thing for the future and I my self should also have been a severe Inspector of any such default as intrenching highly upon mine own honour But the Goses and all the Tradesmen of Russia petitioned that the English were become rich by these Privileges and Your Majesties subjects were impoverished How is it then that your Tzarskoy majesty said in your Letter above mentioned that much happiness peace and tranquillity had accrued to both Dominions why do they not also against the Privilege which is enjoyed by the Dutch why not against the Cupshins of Persia for some of these in the mean time have privilege while the English are totally debarred it did the privileges impoverish the Country I should be glad to hear that since they were taken away which hath been time long enough to make an experiment the Country hath thereby grown richer But for my Subjects though if by honest industry they could grow rich they are rather to be commended Yet to the contrary neare thirty of them within this thirty years are undone by the Trade having brought considerable estates into your Dominions The English Merchants to whom the Privileges were granted are dead One of them is still living however which is so enough to continue the claim of the inviolable Tzarskoy privilege and though all were dead I understand it to have been granted to their Successors and I have given my Ambassador order to name new In other Countries every where strangers pay double custome How comes it then that the English Merchants Adventurers pay no custome in Holland and have besides free houses given them and freedom from excise and all other immunities denyed their own subjects That likewise they have the same privileges and pay no custome at Hamburgh in which places the English drive a much greater trade than here Do not the English Merchants not only pay no custom themselves but divide the customes of all other Nations with the Shagh of Persia at His Port of Ormus Do the English also impoverish all those Countries But then your Tzarskoy Majesty hath warre with the Crim and the Pole Your Tzarskoy majesty must pardon me if at this reason and considering most of those before which are in a manner word for word what was returned by the Messenger of that Usurper Cromwel I find my self something moved Were there therefore no warrs when the English privileges were first granted by Tzar Jvan Basilovich were there never in all the times they have been since enjoyed If your Tzarskoy majesty hath such Enemies that seem so considerable to you will it hurt you to continue me your Friend And is six thousand rubles yearly that is three thousand pounds which is the uttermost the English customes have amounted to since the cassing of the privileges is it I say so necessary a summe to so great a Prince for the carrying on of his wars that the effects of my friendship and the commerce of the English Nation cannot countervail it But I denyed your Tzarskoy Majesty the loan of mony I hope so impossible a summe to the greatest Prince of Christendome to advance on the sudden being I may name it to your Tzarskoy majesty ten thousand Poods of silver to the value of above thirty hundred thousand Rubles was not demanded on purpose to have a pretext to deny the privileges and by proposing an impossibility to refuse what is rational The less the Courtesie is asked the greater disobligation not granted and posterity which sits in judgement upon the memory of the greatest Princes will not so much blame Me for excusing so much as You for denying so little Your Tzarskoy majesty surely received from your own Ambassadors my Answer to that particular And the Merchants of the Muscovia Company refused a much less summe to Your Ambassadors Truly the former Merchants named in the privileges were dead all except one these now living have been impoverished and disinabled by the want of the privileges this seventeen years and Evan Zelobuskey offered them but ill security for the money an Obligation that it should never be that they should trade without custome These it seemes are the reasons with which they strive to shake to use your Tzarskoy majesties own expressions that brazen wall which hath stood so many years built by the wisdome of our Ancestors and now leaning upon the stability of Your own Princely promise and shall such Pellets be able to ruine it Have I for this sent mine own ship into the sound to fetch your Ambassadors Have I lodged them in the Palace of one of my greatest Princes layd them in mine own beds mine own hangings and treated them continually in mine own Vessel Have I done them the honor to enter in my Coach within the gate of my Court given them private Audience my self as oft as they desired it and as frequent Conferences with my Counsel as they pleased I repent it not I reproach it not I bear more honour to your Tzarskoy majesty my loving Brother than to do so But I doubt that some of them have not truly informed You of all the honour they received much more than I tell You. Have I not after this sent Ambassador to You my Cosin and whatsoever may have been told You to the contrary my privy Counsellor and that ever since my return into England one of the principal Noblemen of Our Kingdomes descended of Thomas Duke of Norfolk Charles Earle of Carlisle Viscount Howard de Morpeth Baron Dacre of Gillesland Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Comberland and Westmorland having destinated him not only for this Ambassy but to have been my perpetual Remembrancer could I have been forgetful of any thing that tended to your Service Have I committed to him the secret of my heart in all things wherein I might pleasure you and shall your Tzarskoy majesty by him refuse me so small and perhaps the only thing which ever I can have occasion to ask of you the Privileges This indeed would repent me for the World will take more notice of it then can stand with Mine and Your honor and it will be the subject of much discourse and wonder when men shall consider what advantages this your Tzarskoy Crown hath recived from time to