enter this City and if upon the fairest hopes given me by his Tzarskoy Majestie 's Boyars and Counsellors I leaving it upon the honour of so worthy persons I have passed from this Complaint into His Majestie 's other business and that no redress be given me then indeed I have done what I ought not And that such redress hath as yet not been given me I must affirm seeing all that is said tending thereto is that in the meeting of me the height of Honour was shewn me which is nothing if in not meeting of me the day before there was shewed me all Dishonour For the actions of his Tzarskoy Majesty are all equal and of one thread and so magnanimous a Prince is far from being so straitned and necessitated in courtesy that to make that Courtesy appear the higher He must do a Discourtesy the day before And then to say that those by whom the delay was caused have been punished I appeal to your selves whether if mine were your own case you would think so slender and transitory an account a sufficient satisfaction to his Tzarskoy Majesty or a competent discharge for your selves And therefore I insist upon my demands as they were expressed in my former Paper of the thirteenth of February Thus my Lord answered to their Excuses concerning the Hinderance of his Entry the first day Now he comes to the second part of their answer concerning the Privileges and indeed he does so discuss and refute their Objections alledged against the granting of them that nothing could be said more just and reasonable First sayes he as to the sending the English Merchants out of the Moscovian Dominions and whatsoever passed either in publick or in secret in any year in relation to those affairs is perfectly known to his Majestie my Master who hath chosen to interpret it all to the best advantage and accordingly both at Council before the King my Master as also here in publick I have still mentioned it with honour to his Tzarskoy Majestie Forasmuch as though all the English were involved in the calamitie of that Rebellion but the better part alwayes free from the guilt thereof and though the English here did generally put on mourning out of their abhorrence and grief for that detestable Parricide and though most of them had from the Lord Culpepper his Majesties Ambassador in this Court testimonie under his hand and seale of their fidelitie to his Majestie which they also witnessed by considerable summes of mony furnished at that time by them for the service of his Majestie to the said Ambassador nevertheless his Tzarskoy Majestie might very well not be informed of the said particulars And therefore though he sent the English out of the Moscovian Dominions and seized upon their houses and commanded in their bonds and bills which they had upon Russes yet did therein a generous and most obliging act to the King my Master Especially if as followes in the answer of his Tzarskoy Majestie near Boyars and Counsellors there came from his Majesties Father of ever blessed memory Luke Nightingale and as follows in the said Boyars and Counsellors narrative thereof before recited But neither did the same Luke Nightingale come with his Majesties Letters privately For what Letter he brought was very publick being without a seale or open neither was that Letter from his Majestie as will appeare if the near Boyars and Counsellors of his Tzarskoy Majestie produce that Letter they mention which in the name of the King my Master I desire may be done And whereas the said near Boyars and Counsellors say the said Luke was always about his Royal Majestie without going from Him to the contrarie his Majestie never knew such a person or heard of him before his crimes in Russia the said Luke Nightingale being a broken merchant a perjured fellow and a grosse Imposter Which will further appeare if the said his Tzarskoy Majesty near Boyars and Counsellors will be pleased to remember that his Tzarskoy Majestie in a Letter dated July 11. 7155. to his Royal Majesties Father of ever blessed memorie did make the same relation which his Tzarskoy Majesties Boyars and Counsellors do now make of the said Nightingale and to compare with that what I now offer them delivered to me by his Majesties command out of the Secretarie of States office being an extract of his Majesties Royal Father of ever blessed memorie His answer to the said Letter which having been prepared ready could not by reason of his death shortly succeeding be sent over Lastly whereas Your Imperial Majestie hath intimated that one Luke Nightingale hath presumed to treat with Your Imperial Majestie in Our name and to present a writing in Your Majesties Office we therefore finding our selves much dishonoured thereby desire a Copy of the said writing that thereupon when he shall repaire into Our jurisdictions we may according to justice proceed against him as a person abusing our name and treating without our Royal Commission and order in propounding matters repugnant to our Royal intentions 1648. And though the fellow be since dead and hath escaped so the justice of the King my Master yet in his Majesties name I desire the letter may be delivered into my hands as also that I may know with what Boyars he treated or writ or spoke in that matter that by what they remember of the matter I may give his Majestie more perfect information thereof And though by what appeares already whatsoever he hath said here of that nature is most false and not to be valued any further by any person of honor and understanding yet can I not omit what upon his account his Tzarskoy Majesties near Boyars add concerning Sir John Hebdon For I cannot comprehend to what purpose he is mentioned in this place the said Sir John Hebdon being ten years before free from the Service of Cartwrite and being he who procured the remanding of Nightingale from Novogorod and his detaining here some time till he got away as privately as he came and never daring to repaire to the sight of his late Majestie of ever blessed memorie or of his Majestie now reigning dyed like a villain at Riga But indeed the near Boyars and Counsellors did very prudently when upon their urging this matter upon me as a truth and realitie they made difficulty to admit the said Sir John Hebdon though then required by me according to the desire of his Royal Majestie and though at the same time Forainers were all the while present to spie and observe my discourse concerning his Majesties affaires For they could not be ignorant that Sir John Hebdon was able to give a pertinent account of all the Impostures of the said Nightingale and in two minutes to have discovered the nakedness of all that falshood which for want of Audience all this time has gone current for a truth of great authority And as for that Cartwrite if being opprest by some of the late Tzarskoy Majestie of
perfections so young a Prince is capable of He was very handsom and had a certain kind of cheerfulnes and alacrity in his Looks that made all those that were present admire him In short he is a young King in whom all the â—eroick virtues of his Ancestors seem to revive His hair was very light his habit cloth of silver with his cloake and sword and a â—aire plume of white feathers in his hat He stood before his chair of State under a Caâ—opy with the Regents of his Kingdome on each side of him besides a great number of other of his Nobles His Excellence assoon as â—e approached after his reverences made this â—omplement to him which the young Prince â—eceived with an admirable gravity and grace Most Puissant and most Serene King THe King my Master has sent me to Your Majesty to cultivate and celebrate the Friendship already happily established betwixt Your Majesties to congratulate in His stead and pertake of Your Majesties present felicity wishing You the same for the future and to assure You that wherein the affection of the King my Master may add to all Your blessings He will no wayes be wanting And when His Majesty saith that He speakes not only of that present Amity of State betwixt You He thinks friendship but narrow which is confined in Treaties buâ— He understands therewith a personal and most particular affection to Your Majesty an affection large and deep as the heart of Princes without condition without reserve upon all occasions wherein Hâ— may gratify Your Majesty And even thâ— seeming lateness of these professions is sâ— farr from any contrariety on his Majeâ—ties part that indeed He hath herein â—iven that precedence to this Embassy â—hich the end hath over the beginning to â—e first in intention though last in exeâ—ution and if there be any fault it must â—est wholy upon my misfortune coming â—rom a climate and people where it costs 〈◊〉 much time to do nothing But thereâ—ore I cannot but so much the more esteem â—e honour I now have to contemplate so â—reat a Monarch who are in so young â—ars so accomplished a Prince and as he â—â—ce said of that little Hercules Parvusque videri Sentirique ingens â—nd in so excellent a model represent all â—e magnanimity and grandeur of Your â—oyal Ancestors I congratulate the hapâ—ness of Your Kingdom for which it â—mes that Gods Providence would to 〈◊〉 the more exemplary alter its usual â—axime and what he once threatned as a malediction hath made it the greatest blessing of Your Subjects to have a Prince in His nonage to rule over them And in conclusion I profess and offer my self to Your Majesty as a most ready willing and I heartily wish as proper an instrument in all occasions to witness and approve his Majesties most sincere and constant desires of a most perfect correspondence with Your Majesty to Your mutual contentments and the further welfare of both Your Kingdoms His Excellence having delivered himselâ— in English with his hat on his Secretary rendered what the Ambassador had spoken iâ— the following Latin Domine Rex DOminus Rex meus ad Majestatem Vestraâ— me legavit ut excolerem concelebrareâ— amicitiam inter Majestates Vestras jam optimâ— auspiciis contractam ut gratularer sua viâ— participarem praesentem Majestatis Vestrae felâ— citatem eandem etiam in posterum augurandoâ— utque Majestati Vestrae confirmarem quod 〈◊〉 quo modo fortunis Vestris superaddere suo affectu contribueri possit nulla in re Majestati Vestrae defuturam Et quum Majestas sua haec dicit non tantum de presenti publica inter Majestates Vestras sua Regna societate loquitur angustiorem illam amicitiam existimat quae foederum hactenus tractatuum veluti cancellis circumscribitur Sed intimam quandam singularem benevolentiam innuit benevolentiam quantum ipsa Regum corda effutissimam profundam sine conditione sine limite quâcunque in re Majestati Vestrae gratificare commodare possit Ne verò hoc tardius quam pro summo quo Majestatem vestram complectitur honore profiteri videatur hoc ipsum Majestati Vestrae honori datum est ut quo modo finis initia antecedit ita haec ad Majestatem Vestram Legatio posterior quidem Executione sed meditamento consilio prima existeret Si autem alicubi hujus morae culpa residat sola mea fortuna argui potest utpote qui ab illa regione gente recens adveniam ubi ad nihil agendum non nimori tempore opus Erat. Sed eò jam impensiùs mihi gratulor dum Majestatem Vestram tandem conâ—emplor in tam tenerâ aetate jam consummatum Principem de quo uti de parvo illo Hercule meritò dici potest Parvusque videri Sentirique ingens Et in quo tanquam in perfectissimo modulo heroicam omnium Majorum Vestrorum magnanimitatem caeteraque Regii tam animi quà m corporis lineamenta recognoscimus videmus Nec possum Regni Vestri fortunas satis laudare quibus ut magis velisicetur ipsa Divina Providentia cursum suum mutavit quod suo olim populo interminata est in summam subditorum vestrorum faelicitatem convertit faciendo ut Pupillus super eos regnaret De caetero memet ipsum offero profiteor uti paratissimum utinam aptissimum instrumentum ad contestandum approbandum omni occasione constantissimum sincerissimum Majestatis suae voâ—um perfectissimae cum Majestate Vestra amicitiae societatis ad mutuum Majestatum Vestrarum gaudium quodcunque ulterius Regnorum Vestrorum emolumentum After this Interpretation the Count Magnus Gabriel de la Garde returned an answer in the Swedish language in the name of his Master the King which answer was likewise rendred in Latin He said the King his Master thought himself much honored by so splended an Embassy in which his Majesty of great Britain had done him the honour to salute him and congratulate the felicity of his Government That he also bore his part in the prosperity of the King of great Britain and that on his side he should be always ready to entertain a nearer and more strict amitie with him And at â—ength he intimated how great value and â—steem the King his Master had for the person of the Ambassador The next day my Lord Ambassador had audience of the Queen Mother in her own appartement She is a Princess which besides the graces of her minde is no less embellisht with the advantages of her person She was under a Canopy before her Chair with several Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court attending her His Excellence being advanced near delivered his Compliment bare in this manner Madam THe King my Master hath laid a peculiar Command upon me to salute and congratulate Your Majesty on His behalf both in respect of Your Quality â—s so great a Queen and of Your relation
the Negotiation Pag. 280 The Ambassadors Complement to the Great Duke when he took his leave of him Pag. 288 Some Memorable Passages that had hapned besides during our residence at Mosco and first the description of a Feast which the Tzar had made us Pag. 290 A Narrative of a noble Procession on Palm-sunday Pag. 295 Three several Conflagrations we saw in a little time Pag. 301 A Duel between one of my Lords Domesticks and a Scotch man an Officer in the Tzars Militia Pag. 302 How the Embassador refused the Presents which the Tzar sent him Pag. 302 Of his Excellences Journey from Mosco to Riga Pag. 306 A new business that fell out about Calthof at our departure from Mosco and the Letter my Lord Embssador sent to Mosco since about it which angered the Tzar very much upon occasion of a ridiculous mistake on their side Pag. 313 The danger we were in to be robbed at the Frontiers and how we were conveyed by 500 souldiers by the care of the Governour of Plesco Pag. 322 Another Letter sent by my Lord from Plesco about Calthof Pag. 324 How his Excellence was met at the Frontiers by two Swedish Officers sent from Riga by the Governour General of Livonia Pag. 332 A short Description of Livonia or Lifland Pag. 332 Of the Embassadors Entry into Riga and his Residence there Pag. 338 Of our Voiage from Riga to Stockholme Pag. 342 Of his Excellences Entry into Stockholme Pag. 349 Of our Residence at Stockholme wherein is contained a Description of the City Pag. 351 The Audience Pag. 353 My Lords Negotiation Pag. 361 Some Particular Passages during our stay in this Court Pag. 362 My Lords last Audience Pag. 368 Of our Voiage from Stockholme to Copenhagen Pag. 375 Of our Residence at Copenhagen wherein is contained a Description of the City Pag. 384 The Audience Pag. 385 My Lords Negotiation Pag. 400 Some particular Passages during our stay in this Court Pag. 406 My Lords last Audience Pag. 413 Of his Excellences Voiage from Copenhagen to London Pag. 424 My Lords Apology against the Russ Ambassador Pag. 535 FINIS A RELATION Of Three EMBASSIES From his Sacred Majesty CHARLES II. Into MOSCOVY SWEDEN And DENMARK Performed in the Years 1663 and 1664. THe most Serene and most Mighty Prince CHARLES the SECOND King of Great Britain c. being happily â—estored to His Dominions which the malice â—nd iniquity of this age had deprived him â—f His Alliance which had been interrupted â—uring his misfortunes was by the rest of the â—hristian Princes immediately re-desired To which end their several Ambassadors were disâ—atched with extraordinary Pomp and Splenâ—our sutable to the Dignity and Grandeur of â—im it had pleased God to restore But amongst all the Princes of Europe that by their congratulations of his Re-establishment seemed ardently to aspire at His Alliance the Tzar of Moscovy had the most equitable pretentions For besides that admirable Sympathy which has been so long time betwixt the Kings of England and the great Dukes of Moscovy Alexey Michailovitz the present Duke had so great an abhorrency of the murther of King CHARLES the First that he resolved in some measure to revenge it upon the English Company at Archangel whom he looked upon as assertors if not associates in the Rebellion And as a certain instance of the constancy of his affection he no sooner understood the calamities Our present King was reduced to but he assisted him immediately with a considerable sum of money From hence it was that his Majesty gave his Ambassadors so great a Reception as made the Friendship he had for that great Monarch conspicuous to all the World And it was this Embassage from the Tzar and those from the Kings of Sweden and Denmark that gave occasion to his Majesty of Great Britain to return these which are the present matter of this Relation The first Embassy was addressed to the Great Duke of Moscovy The second to the King of Sweden The third to the King of Denmark It is true the first had beside That a peculiar subject of Importance touching Commerce at Archangel in Moscovie viz. To obtain a re-establishment of the Priviledges of the English Company which consisted in this That the Merchants of this Kingdom did formerly trade into that place without paying any Impost Which Immunity was but a generous recompence that one of the former Dukes Ivan Basilovitz made the English for their discovery of that Port and introduction of so considerable a Commerce thither The present Great Duke had vacated these Priviledges in the time of the late Rebellion in England because conceiving the Merchants complices in that rebellion he esteemed them unworthy of his favour therefore of enjoying any longer these Immunities The Company having since that time to the happy Return of his Majesty been deprived of their Priviledges the King by this Embassage desired things might be restored to their former state and that upon two principal considerations One because his Subjects for whose rebellion they were taken away were returned again to their obedience The other because these very Priviledges were the basis and foundation upon which the Amity betwixt the two Crowns of England and Moscovy were superstructed And these were two fundamental Reasons that were strong enough to induce his Majesty to hope for success in his Demand but he could expect no less from the generosity and promise of the Tzar Yet He was flatly refused as if the Tzars kindness had been already quite exhausted The Earle of Carlisle to whom the King encharged these Embassies was without contradiction in all respects proper for the employment For besides that he was of a comely and advantageous stature a Majestick mine and not above four and thirty years of age he had a peculiar grace and vivacity in his discourse and in his actions a great promptitude and diligence In a word he was adorned with all perfections that could render a man acceptable and especially with those that were requisite for the discharge of so important an affair Gratior est pulchro veniens è corpore virtus Virg. His Train consisted of near fourscore persons amongst which he had ten Gentlemen six Pages two Trumpets and twelve Footmen He had also a Chaplain several Interpreters a Chirurgeon six Musicians besides many Tradesmen that were very necessary in Moscovy And forasmuch as his Excellence was to begin that way the circle of his Embassies to the end he might come back by Liefland into Sweden by Sweden into Denmark and from thence come into England before his departure he provided himself of all such necessary things as Russia could scarce afford So that besides the Liveries which were made at London he was also forced to provide himself of Beds Chairs and even of all Kitchin-moveables only the Chimney excepted and that would have been too most serviceable in several places Besides these his Majesty provided his Excellency with a magnificent Canopy of red
their Policie and after that to their Religion Policie and Religion are the two Poles on which the Globe of civil Societie moves And though it is possible some places may be found very barbarous and licentious where Learning and Civility were in no esteem and where the Government by Kings was not usual yet it is hard to name any place that hath subsisted without some Policie or other and where they have not had some sense or apprehension of a Deitie But amongst all the Policies of the World Monarchie is manifestly the most advantageous as most conformable to the Majestie of God who alone manages and presides over the whole Universe The State of Moscovie which is now before us is Monarchical but it is also Despotical and Absolute insomuch as the Tzar being Lord and Master as it were over all his Subjects disposeth uncontroulably of their lives and estates as he thinks good And under this kind of Monarchie it was they lived which were antiently called Barbarians as the Assyrians Medes and Persians whose Princes usurped that Magisterial Authoritie over their Persons and Goods governing their Subjects no otherwise than as a Lord doth his slaves And such at this day is the Government in Turky where the Grand Segniour hath so absolute a Sovereignitie over his Subjects that he disposeth of their lives and fortunes as an absolute Lord. But for the better comprehension of the State of Moscovie under the Domination of so unquestionable a Prince it is First to be considered in what his greatness and Authoritie consists Secondly the Submission Obedience and singular Respect his Subjects bear him Thirdly the Policie and Order by which his Dominion over his Subjects is maintained and the union and concurrence of Obedience in his Subjects preserved and established The Tzars of Moscovie having the Power and Right of disposing of the Lives and Estates of their Subjects in this vast Tract of ground under their Dominion no question but it is absolute over all depending upon that Government It is the Tzar alone that gives Laws to the People it is he that disposeth of the Government of the Provinces it is he that sends and receives Ambassadors it is he that levies Imposts and Taxes and in short doth every thing that he pleases And from hence it is he is called Grand Seigneur and * Tzar is the right pronuntiation according to the Russes therefore I had rather spell it so than Czar with a C as it is commonly written because it seems to be derived from Caesar Tzar which is as much as to say King or Emperour else he is called Velika Knez which signifies Great Duke His Armes are an Eagle with two Heads carrying three Crowns which import Moscovie Casan Astracan two Kingdoms he possesses in Tartary There is also in his Escutchion a Cavalier represented in Combat with a Dragon which without doubt must be intended for Michael the Archangel or St. George And as the Authoritie of this Prince must be acknowledged to be great so his Revenues must be owned to be extraordinary and commensurate For besides his proper Demains which are very considerable he hath an incredible Revenue from the Taverns which he licenseth thorow all his Dominions besides five per Cent he exacts for all Merchandise imported or exported and a vast Sum of Money he receives from the Factors he imployes himself He hath a great Revenue also out of his Furs and Cavyar being a commodity he reserves entirely to himself he makes very great advantages by that also Yet this I must needs say that if his Treasure be vast his Issues and Expences are not small as well in respect of the Splendour and extraordinary Pompe he lives in as the continual Wars he maintains with his Neighbors either the Swedes or the Polanders or else the Tartars For which reason he frequently raises mighty Armies and for his better Success gives great Pensions to his Officers which are paid very punctually and by this means he draws many Stangers to him whose service he likes very well and knows which way to gratifie their Prudence and Fidelity True it is generally upon the commencement of a War it is the People that supply him according to his demands by which he gives them severely sometimes to understand the Power he hath over their fortunes and estates The greatness of this Prince being establisht in this manner through the vast extent of his Dominion by the abundance of his Wealth the magnificence of his Court and the absolutenesse and indisputablenesse of his power over all his Subjects it is not to be doubted but the same imprints a most profound respect in the hearts of the people towards his Person And indeed so abject are they and submissive to the Soveraigns command that they will themselves declare their own servitude and caknowledg they hold their Estates from God and him only Some would not refuse any danger for his sake and would perhaps many times be over joy'd to expose their innocent lives at the Capriccio or fury of a Tyrant They will freely confess to be his Slaves and as a Testimony of their Humility they will never name themselves in his presence but with a diminutive as if a Petitioners name be Peter he will say I little Peter the humblest of all your Vassals do implore c. They boast of nothing more than the sparkling eyes of their Prince be he never so shore-sighted as Dyonisius of Syracuse was for they cry always I have had the honor or shall have the honor to see the cleare eyes of our Tzar And did not Christian modesty restrain them a little in the Religious respect they bear unto their Monarch they would be near to fly out into such Extravagant acclamations as were used to King Herod and say of his voice that it is the voice of a God and not of a man They are very careful also of insinuating this Reverence into their Children and of making them know the Majesty of their Prince before they are capable of understanding the misery of their condition And this discipline is principally founded upon three general Maximes one of which is That it is prohibited upon pain of death to any man to Travail out of that Country unless they be the Tzars Merchants or Ministers of State which he sends to other Princes in quality of Ambassadors The reason is lest by their Travails into other parts they should bring back some new customes at their return and having tasted the sweetness of the liberty other Nations injoy they should some time or other break asunder the chains of their own Servitude This maxime to us that are inamoured with the happy liberty we are born under might perhaps seem barbarous and intollerable but the Russians are so accustomed to this kind of Slavery that they are scarce sensible of it and do comfort themselves in the vastness of their Country which affords them space enough for their Travails and in
the Examples of other Countries which have lived and do live under the same maxime The Lacedaemonians amongst others who gloried and boasted that they lived under the greatest liberty were subject notwithstanding to this Law forbidden any Commerce with forreign Nations Whereas the Muscovites are permitted to Traffick with them in their own Country Which gives me some hopes they will in time leave off that rustick and barbarous humor which is so natural to them and learn by degrees to live with more civility for they are already delighted with the Conversation of forreign Merchants and do please themselves very much in their manner of living And were they under a gentler Government and had a free Trade with every body no doubt but this Nation would in a short time be taken with our civility and decent way of living But this maxime that we do now discourse of has no less effect towards the maintenance of their Religion than their civil Customes and is so exactly observed that the very Strangers themselves that have entred into the service of the Tzar or have otherwise embraced their Religion are not exempt from it For to have made himself a servant to the Great Duke is to have made himself his Slave and to have taken up his Religion is to have abandoned his own Country and to be always confined within the Limits of Muscovie In short by this Policy it may be easily imagined the Muscovites understand little of Navigation seeing they exercise it so little and indeed they know no other Compass than the Earth nor do any of them except some few fisher-men expose themselves to the Sea and they no farther than within sight of the Shore The Second Maxime the Tzars make use of for maintaining the Policie of their Estate is That they marry no forreign Princesses nor look out any farher for a Wife than their own proper Slaves The other Princes of Europe who are solicitous of nothing but the good and happiness of their Subjects do comport themselves cleer otherwise they marry themselves with forreign Ladies for the Alliance of their Nations and in order to establish a reciprocal and perpetual Amitie betwixt them for the benefit of both By which means they avoid the insolence of their Wives Relations which is almost inevitable where a Prince takes a Wife out of his own Subjects Moreover it is certainly more honourable and more worthy the Majestie of a King to espouse a Princess that is not of the number of his Subjects uniting and mingling as it were their Crowns as well as their blood to produce a Posterity perfectly Royal. Whereas to take a Wife from that infinite distance which there is betwixt a King and a Subject to join her to the Crown to descend from his Throne as it were to raise her up thither who perhaps is very unfit for so great an elevation is no less than to prostitute and debase the Majestie of a Monarch Yet amongst the Tzars of Moscovy it is very usual lest by introducing a foreign Princess she should bring some new Customes along with her which in time might cause some alteration in the State And from hence it was that this present Tzar vouchsafed on Shrove-Sunday 1647. which was then the seventeenth year of his Age and the second of his Reign to marry the eldest Daughter of Ilia-Danilovitz Miloslausky a person at that time in no excellent Condition for to speak properly there was nothing but the Beauty of his Daughter to induce the Tzar to honour him with so great a Relation The Third Maxime by which their Policie and Religion is preserved is their Ignorance of Learning which is so well established in this Country that they never learn farther than to write and read their own Language And indeed Experience doth teach us this truth that Seditions and Revolutions have not been any where so frequent as in Commonwealths where Learning was commonly in great esteem and even when it triumphed most The reason of which is plain forasmuch as Ambition and Pride march alwaies in the Rear of great Knowledge whereas Ignorance as is evident amongst the Peasants and common People every where renders them more supple and obedient And this Valentian and Licinius Emperors of Rome had experience of when they termed Learning the Plague and Poison of a Kingdom Lycurgus was not far from this opinion when he establisht Ignorance in his Republique And we see at this day the greatest Enemy of Christendom triumphing partly by vertue of this Maxime over all the Monarchs of this Age. The Tzars of Muscovie also find great benefit by this Policy which conduces much to the easie Conservation of Obedience in their Subjects towards their Soveraign Empire So that the Muscovites have this advantage that they quietly enjoy their apprehensions of Nature as they are at first sight represented to their sense or their reasons without any scandalous Imputation of Ignorance They do not trouble themselves with the heighth of the Heavens nor the greatness of the Earth whether the Sun as Anaximenes thought be as flat as a Trencher or whether it be hunch backed underneath like a Cockboat as Heraclitus held or whether it be round or square They disturb not their heads with the dimensions of the Moon to know whether she be hung loose in the Air or inhabited or not whether the Stars be but Earth Muminated as Thales maintained or whether perfect fire as Plato They leave Nature to it self and think it sufficient to know who is its Author to discover the use of things by experience and to give God thanks as they are able They amuse not themselves to make Syllogismes after the Model of Barbara or of Festino to dispute whether Logick be an Art or Science nor to determine sundry other curious and impertinent questions which though of no use but to molest and torture the brain are yet at this day amongst the learned people in great practice and use upon a meer principle of Curiosity Ambition or Interest In stead of Books the Muscovites use Rolls of Paper as the Jews did sometimes they glue every leaf together by the ends with a certain Glue they have out of Siberia a Province of the Tzars which they moisten only with the end of their tongue and drawing it upon the Edges of the two leaves they are to joyn they put the Edges upon one another which fasten so close it is scarce perceivable where they are joyned and in this manner they make Rolls sometimes of seven or eight Fathoms long Furthermore amongst the Magistrates that Govern Muscovie in their Councel of State there are in the first place thirty Noblemen or Boiars so properly called which the Tzar obliges to be Resident in Mosco After them there be the a Ockolnitz that is to say a Privy Councellor Ockolnitz the b Dumeny Duorainy signifies the same Office but in lower degree Dumeny Duorainy the Sin Boyarsky the Chancellor two
those other accommodations which their Tzarskoy Majesty have received upon several emergencies of State from the Crown of England his Majesty being disposed rather to continue and increase all such Obligations than to call them in and diminish them by any exprobration or demand upon His side But to tell you the upright truth as it is fit for us to do with one another his Majesty considers that these Privileges were the ancient and continued foundations of Amity and transmitted so long from Father to Son on both sides so that as men prize a token and memorial of a friend though otherwise of small value above pearls and diamonds he counts it a kind of unlucky thing to lose them Also He himself and all his Subjects upon his Tzarskoy Majesties Letter of July 28. 1661. where He saith Whereas Your Majesty writt in Your said Letter concerning other affairs in prosecution of which Your Majesty would send to Vs our Tzarskoy Majesty Your Subjects the Merchants together with Your Majesties Ambassador who shall further expresse the affection of friendship which Your Majesty Our loving Brother hath towards Our Tzarskoy Majesty we answer that when to Our Imperial Majesty Your Majesties said Ambassador shall arrive and shall declare to Vs the Commission he hath from Your Majesty Our Brother we Our Tzarskoy Majesty will be ready so farr as in Our power is and for the affection we beare to You Our Brother give assent thereto and command the same to be obeyed and again upon his Tzarskoy Majesties Letter of July 21. 1662. were he saies We the great Lord our Tzarskoy Greatness taking into our Princely consideration the flourishing State of our Empire and that intire Brotherly love and amity and frequent correspondencie which inviolably was held and continued from the beginning of the Reign of our Tzarskoy Father of famous memory the great Lord Emperour and great Duke Michaelo Phedorovich of all Russia self-upholder to and with Your Majesties Royal Father of famous memory Charles the first and the happiness peace and tranquillity accruing thereby to both Dominions wishing the like happiness had been and were still enjoyed by and between all other Christian Princes and Potentates do most earnestly and heartily desire not only the continuation thereof but a more nearer and dearer and firmer affectionate blessed Brotherly love and amity and frequent correspondency with your Royal Majesty our deare and loving Brother than formerly with all readiness and freeness on all occasions to the utmost of our power to answer the desires of Your Royal Majesty our dear and loving Brother did not â—n the least wise doubt but at the first word 〈◊〉 had spoken the Privileges would have been â—ranted For else what signifies When to our Tzarskoy Majesty Your Majesties Ambassador shall arrive and shall declare to us the Commission he hath from Your Majesty our Brother we our Tzarskoy Majesty will be ready so farâ— as in our power is to give assent thereto Anâ— again We our Tzarskoy Majesty do mosâ— earnestly and heartily desire not only the continuation thereof but a more nearer and deareâ— and firmer affectionate blessed Brotherly lovâ— and amity with Your Royal Majesty our deaâ— and loving Brother than formerly with all readyness and freeness on all occasions to the utmost of our power to answer the desires of Youâ— Royal Majesty our dear and loving Brother And how can there be a continuation and encreas of amity and the same amity unless thâ— same Privileges to continue as formerly Therefore his Majesty thought it the most honorable way for his Tzarskoy Majesty to reneâ— them at first frankly without all little capitulations as for other reasons so because hâ— would be in debt to his Tzarskoy Majesty that he might embrace all occasions to repâ— it with usury And that the near Boyars anâ— Counsellors may not be terrifyed with thâ— vastness or irrationality of the grant and feâ— to be accounted evil Counsellors should the advise indeed so small a thing and in whicâ— the Subjects of his Tzarskoy Majesty reap moâ— advantage than the English before they haâ— driven the market with me for some furthâ— interest of his Tzarskoy Majesty I desire they may be informed that some hundred years ago even England though always most potent at sea in men of warre yet for some part of their traffique were beholding to the Hans Towns who in Merchant ships brought all kind of their merchandise home to the English Whereupon the Kings of England granted several great Immunities to the Hans Towns with dwelling and all accommodations Which Immunities though so many hundred years ago granted and though the tide of â—rade be long since wholy turned the English â—ow carrying all that trade to their doors and much more than ever received from them nevertheless Their former Majesties have alâ—aies religiously continued the same Priviâ—edges as also his present Majesty hath reâ—ewed them since his happy Restauration at â—he ratification of which I my self was present â—n his Majesties Councel For it is for Merâ—hants to calculate and subdivide the present â—ccount but it becomes Princes to make eâ—erlasting obligations Princes are richer by â—iving than others by receiving and gratiâ—ude laid up in the breast of another Prince is â—pon any necessity better than ready money in is own Treasure But doubtless his Majesty â—nder whose most auspicious Government His â—wn Subjects have also every where else alâ—eady recovered and encreased all their former Priviledges cannot but take it ill should they only fail of them with his Tzarskoy Majesty the antientest and most constant of his Friends and Allies and the more must He lay it to heart seeing in the mean time those of other Nations do enjoy Priviledges and thereby drive a trade not much inferiour to that of all the English And this I must say that the English Nation and especially their Princes as They are generally the most frank and faithful in returning of Courtesies so are they by the same right most tender and sensible of any Unkindness and most when it seemes to touch upon Their Reputation I shall only add this for conclusion that if His Majesties desires be no better understood the near Boyars and Counsellors needed not to have given a NO of such a circumference or if it be yet intended to grant them it is too much like the second day of my Entrance Therefore I desire a definitive answer with the soonest that so I may obey His Royal Majesties Orders and accordingly provide for my departure But as to that new matter which the Lords Commissioners were pleased to advance over and above what there was occasion given for his Excellency did so explain it I reply saith he that I sent no such papeâ— into the Embassy-office but upon the desire of his Tzarskoy Majesties Councellor Evaâ— Offonassy Pronchissof I delivered it to him not being a paper of State nor written in the English Language wherein I treat nor put into the hands of
the near Boyars and Councellors of his Tzarskoy majesty nor subscribed by my self nor translated into Russe by my Interpreter but only as a piece of curiosity which is now restored me and I am possessed of it so that herein his Tzarskoy majesties near Boyars and Councellors are doubtless ill grounded But again I say concerning the value of the words Illustrissimus and Serenissimus compared together seeing we must here from affaires of State fall into Grammatical contests concerning the Latin tongue that the word Serenus signifieth nothing but still and calm and therefore though of late times adopted into the Titles of great Princes by reason of that benigne tranquillity which properly dwells in the majestick countenance of great Princes and that venerable stillness of all the Attendants that surround them of which I have seen an excellent example when I was in the presence of his Tzarskoy majesty yet is more properly used concerning the calmness of the weather or season So that even the night is elegantly called Serene by the best Authors Cicero in Arato 12. Lucretius l. 1.29 Serena nox and upon perusing again what I have writ in this paper I finde that I have out of the customariness of that expression my self near the beginning said And that most serene night c. Whereas on the contrary Illustris in its proper derivation and signification expresseth that which is all resplendent lightsome and glorious as well without as within and that not with a secondary but with a primitive and original light For if the Sun be as he is the first fountain of light and Poêts in their expressions as is well known are higher by much than those that write in Prose what else is it when Ovid in the 2. of the Metamorphoses saith of Phoebus speaking with Phaêthon Qui terque quaterque concutiens Illustre caput and the Latin Orators as Pliny Ep. 139. When they would say the highest thing that can be exprest upon any subject word it thus Nihil Illustrius dicere possum So that hereby may appear to his Tzarskoy Majesties near Boyars and Counsellors what diminution there is to his Tzarskoy Majesty which farr be it from my thoughts if I appropriate Serenissimus to my Master and Illustrissimus to Him than which nihil dici potest Illustrius But because this was in the time of the purity of the Latin tongue when the word Serenus was never used in the Title of any Prince or Person I shall go on to deale with the utmost candor forasmuch as in this Nation the nicety of that most eloquent language is not so perfectly understood which gives occasion to these mistakes * And indeed there being no literature amongst them they have no occasion to learne the Original Languages so that few of them do understand Latin True it is that in the Court some have the curiosity to learn it as this Golozof who is spoken of before Which gave my Lord occasion to write sometimes in Latin I confess therefore that indeed in the declination of the Latin tongue and when there scarce could be found out words enough to supply the modern ambition of Titles Serenissimus as several other words hath grown in fashion for a compellation of lesser as well as greater Princes and yet befits both the one and the other So there is Serenissima Respublica Veneta Serenitates Electoriae Serenitates Regiae even as the word Highness or Celsitudo befits a Duke a Prince a King or an Emperour adjoyning to it the respective quality and so the word Illustris But suppose it were by modern use which I deny depressed from the undoubted superiority that it had of Serenus in the purest antiquity yet being added in the transcendent degree to the word Emperour the highest denomination that a Prince is capable of it becomes of the same value So that to interpret Illustrissimus unto diminution is to find a positive in a superlative and in the most orient light to seek for darkness And I would seeing the near Boyars and Counsellors of his Tzarskoy Majesty are pleased to mention the Title given to his Tzarskoy Majesty by his Cesarian Majesty gladly be satisfied by them whether ever any Cesarian Majesty writ formerly hither in High-Dutch and whether then they styled his Tzarskoy Majesty Durchluchtigste which is the same with Illustrissimus and which I believe the Caesar hath kept for Himself But to cut short his Royal Majesty hath used the word to his Tzarskoy Majesty in his Letter not out of imitation of others although even in the Dutch Letter to his Tzarskoy Majesty of 16. June 1663. I finde Doorluchtigste the same and said with Illustrissimus but out of the câ—â—stant use of his own Court further joyâ—â—â—â— before it Most High Most Potent and adding after it Great Lord Emperour which is an higher Title than any Prince in the World gives his Tzarskoy Majesty and as high a Title of honour as can be given to any thing under the Divinity For the King my Master who possesses as considerable Dominions and by as high and self-dependent a right as any Prince in the Universe yet contenting Himself with the easiest Titles and satisfying Himself in the essence of things doth most willingly give to other Princes the Titles which are appropriated to them but to the Tzarskoy Majesties of Russia his Royal Ancestors and to his present Tzarskoy Majesty his Royal Majesty himself have usually and do gladly pay Titles even to superfluity out of meer kindness And upon that reason He added the word most Illustrious and so did I use it in the Latin of my speech Yet that You may find I did not out of any criticisme of honor but for distinction sake use it as I did You may see in one place of the same speech Serenitas speaking of his Tzarskoy Majesty and I would have used Serenissimus an hundred times concerning his Tzarskoy Majesty had I thought it would have pleased Him better And I dare promise You that his Majesty will upon the first information from me stile him Serenissimus and I notwithstanding what I have said shall make little difficulty of altering the word in that speech and of delivering it so to You with that protestation that I have not in using that word Illustrissimus erred nor used any diminution which God forbid to his Tzarskoy Majesty but on the contrary after the example of the King my Master intended and shewed him all possible honor And so God grant all happiness to His most high most Potent most Illustrious and most Serene Tzarskoy Majesty and that the friendship may daily increase betwixt His said Majesty and his most Serene Majesty my Master Such was concerning this matter my Lord Ambassadors answer who thought fit also on his side to give them notice seeing they were so scrupulous about the Tzar's Titles to use for the Kings Majesty the Title of Defender of the Faith which hitherto they had alwaies omitted The King
him into his Kingdoms with Extraordinary Ambassages of Congratulation the King my Master out of his singular kindness and affection did to your Tzarskoy majesty alone of all the Princes in Christendom write first the tenth of May 1661. before You had sent your Ambassadors to inform You of His happy Restauration acknowlege your Tzarskoy majesties brotherly kindness shewed to Him in His affliction And further in the same letter signified that though Sir John Hebdon had not presented any Letters of Credence to his Royal majesty from your Tzarskoy majesty yet in confidence of the trust your Tzarskoy majesty reposed in him his Royal majesty had upon his desire for your service granted the levy of three thousand horse and foot under Officers of great courage ability and fidelity Adding moreover that your Enemies should know by the instance of his Royal majesties Ministers that they should do a thing very grateful to him in making a good and lasting peace with your Tzarskoy majesty and if by Their default such peace were not imbraced that they and all the World should see the great affection He hath for the prosperity of your affaires which should be alwayes in his particular care Also in the same Letter his Royal majesty acknowleges your Tzarskoy majesties magnanimity in withdrawing your Protection from the English Merchants during the late Rebellion and desires that all his Royal majesties good Subjects being now returned to their Allegeance your Tzarskoy majesty would restore them their houses estates and privileges and that You declare the same Upon which your Tzarskoy majesties declaration he would send forthwith his Ambassador to expresse further His sense of your Tzarskoy majesties affection and to make all possible returns of the same Hereupon your Tzarskoy majesty returned answer of the 28. July 1661. That your Tzarskoy majesty desired to continue with his Royal majesty the same friendship and correspondency which had been betwixt both your Fathers of blessed memory and that as to what his Royal majesty said he would send his Ambassador about your Tzarskoy majesty would be ready so farr as is possible to give assent thereto After this your Tzarskoy majesty in your Letter of the 31. July 1662. sent by your late Extraordinary Ambassadors writ also that taking into your princely consideration the flourishing Estate of your Tzarsva and that intire brotherly love and amity and frequent correspondency which inviolably was held and continued betwixt both your Fathers of blessed memory and the happiness peace tranquillity accruing thereby to both Dominions your Tzarskoy majesty doth most earnestly heartilie desire not only the continuation thereof but a more nearer dearer and firmer affectionate blessed brotherly â—ove amity frequent correspondency with his Royal majesty your dear loving Brother than formerly with all readiness and freeness on all occasions to the utmost of Your power to answer the desires of his Royal majesty Your dear and loving Brother Upon these assurances on your Tzarskoy majesties part his Royal majesty dispatched me hither where what I said in the face of the whole World by his Royal majesties Command in his name concerning the mutual and equal affection of his Royal majesty is perfectly known to Your Tzarskoy majestie Your Tzarskoy was then pleased to appoint me Commissioners persons of great nobility and experience for which I give Your Tzarskoy majesty thanks and wish I could as justly give You thanks also for their affection all of them to the amitie and good correspondencie betwixt the two Crowns and for their expedition in the business committed to them But when as I at my first Conference according to his Royal majesties order moved first for the Restitution of the Privileges signifying in the same writing that these being granted I had other things to profer on his Royal majesties part out of his affection to your Tzarskoy majesty I received from my Commissioners so unexpected an answer that had heaven faln as the windowes of the Counsel-chamber broke in twice at the recital it could scarce have been more strange or miraculous to me It amounted in effect to an absolute denyal of the Privileges First indeed they say that they werâ— taken away upon occasion of the laâ— Rebellion But after that they affirm that his late Royal majesty of ever blessed memorie by Luke Nightingale desired that the Privileges might be nulled then they allege several miscarriages of the English Merchants after that a petition of the Goses and all the Traders in Russia then that the English Merchants are dead In a second paper they speak of Your warrs with the Crim and the Pole that his Royal majesty furnished not your Tzarskoy majesty with mony that the Merchants of the Moscovia Companie refused to lend mony towards your Tzarskoy majesties warrs being desired by your Ambassadors And several other reasons to make up the number though any one of them would have served if it be indeed resolved before hand not to grant the Privileges but altogether will not compound one solid argument if weighed by so piercing and deep a judgement as that of Your majesty So that my Commissioners wholly cutting off all hopes of the Privileges for the present insisted only that I should declare to them what else I had to offer from his Royal majesty And I profering to them that if they had any thing as that remained on their part and was proper for them to propound for your Tzarskoy majesties service I should give them a fitting answer And only desiring to be resolved by them whether in case my proposals should seem to them equivalent to the Privileges they had then power to grant them they could not or did not give me any satisfaction therein I appeale to your Tzarskoy majesty whether I having a plenipotential Letter from his Royal majesty to your Tzarskoy majesty which is in it self sufficient and over and above that a particular Commission under the great seale of England for the Recovery of the privileges it were fit for mâ— further to divulge the secrets of his Royal majesties singular affection and brotherly intentions towards your Tzarskoy majesty to persons not impowred and fully authorized to conclude with me or that had only a power to deny but none to assent to my proposals And therefore this being the whole State of my business and such being the answers which in your Tzarskoy majesties name I have received from my Commissioners so that the matter will now shortly return out of our hands to be decided betwixt his Royal majesty and your Tzarskoy majesty your selves I shall as I have the honour to represent his Royal majesties person â—o take the liberty to represent his words upon this occasion as if He and You could meet together and did in â—resence contemplate both Your unspeaâ—able Majesties in that glasse of friendâ—hip the most clear eyes of one another â—s farr as my weak judgement can â—ade into the dephts of his Royal majesties
wisdome Thus would He say Had I desired any new thing of your Tzarskoy majesty my dear and loving Brother or to which your Tzarskoy majesty had not formerly ingaged Your self I might with less unkindness have taken Your so long deliberation and perhaps have digested the refusal But as for the Privileges they have continued above an hundred years and have by that their duration approved the solidity of that reason of State upon which they were first founded and it has been always dangerous by new experiments to shake the foundation of ancient counsels and friendships And as for your Tzarskoy majesties ingagement to omit your Tzarskoy majesties declaration in the year 1645. at Your first coming to the Crown by the Governor of Archangel to the Merchants at Archangel that your Tzarskoy majesty confirmed to them all the Privileges granted by your Tzarskoy majesties Father of blessed memory and that You would be as gracious to them as ever Your said Father or any of Your Predecessors did not your Tzarskoy majesty in Your first letter upon my desire of the Restitution of the Privileges answer me that your Tzarskoy majesty desired to continue with me in the same friendship and correspondency that had been betwixt both our Fathers of blessed memory and that upon my Ambassadors arrival and proposition You would be ready as farr as is possible to give assent thereto Did not your Tzarskoy majesties Ambassadors being demanded by my self concerning the Privileges reply as their own opinion that they questioned not but your Tzarskoy majesty upon my desire by an honourable Embassy would for the love You had to me doubtless grant them Did not your Tzarskoy majesty in Your Letter by them of the 31. of July 1662. written from Your privy Chamber under your Tzarskoy majesties own hand use those golden words which could indeed drop from no other pen or sense than that of your Tzarskoy majesty and which are therefore ingraven in my heart as with the point of a diamond and which being also so consonant to mine own intire affection to your Tzarskoy majesty I commanded my Ambassador to return in the very same terms in my name to your Tzarskoy majesty that your Tzarskoy majestie taking in to consideration the flourishing estate of your Tzarsva c. So the whole Letter was here repeated again as afore forasmuch as it carries with it so strong a conviction as can receive no excuse and indeed it seemes the Commissioners found it to be so seeing they never said one word as to those Letters Surely the same correspondency and friendship includes the same treaties and agreements and therefore so You obliged Your self for the Privileges unless because your Tzarskoy majesty indeed limits Your self with that word afterwards it be not possible to grant them But that cannot be your Tzarskoy majesty being so great a Prince and having all power and therefore so properly stiled self-upholder If as farr as is possible signify a denyal I shall know how to understand it for the future And as to those words in your Tzarskoy majesties second Letter to me of the 31. of July 1662. how can there be a nearer and firmer correspondency betwixt Us unless first it be as near and as firm as formerly But suppose any person disaffected to Our mutual friendship could pick out some evasions in Your manner of expression to seem to disingage You yet let me tell You dear Brother such subtilties might perhaps be necessary or serve the turn with confining Princes with whom You are alwayes either at open warr or suspicious friendship But it would be much below You and Me Friends of an hundred years free from all reason of jealousy of one another to leave such loop-holes in Our souls and to penetrate and squeeze Our selves through our own words Neither let it seem strange to You or as an undervaluing of the mutual princely Amity betwixt Us that I seem to place it upon the restoring or not restoring of the Privileges and have therefore commanded my Ambassador before any further overture of my good intentions toward your Tzarskoy majesty to desire the Grant of those Privileges which belong but to my Merchants For they were so from the first a voluntary grant and I do not love to go less as God be praised I need not than any of my Predecessors And those Privileges are but the Princely constant reward of that perpetual and vast advantage which hath and may alwayes continue to the Tzars of Russia and their whole Tzarsva by the English Merchants first discovery and opening of the Trade at Archangel with the loss of many mens lives shipping and estates though great Princes even for an action once well done and whereof the fruit dyes with that time and person are used to recompense to perpetuity But my chief motive for such a preliminary desire was indeed your Tzarskoy majesties honour of which I shall always be most tender that as your Tzarskoy majestie took away the Privileges out of Your high generosity and resentment of the late Rebellion so it might appeare to the whole world by Your reinstating the English therein without any farther reach of reason only upon their return to their Obedience and my desire how just and perfect You were in the proportioning of Your actions and how like that great Prince you are you know to place Your Obligations upon me For that is amity to me which is the advantage of my Subjects and if even in my Exile I could not but partake some joy in their wellfare certainly upon my happy return I shall by all means strive to procure and advance it To what purpose are so many Treaties in the World betwixt Princes but all for the constituting the conveniencies and profit of their Subjects Treaties of Peace of Trade of Assistance nay even of Marriage of the Princes are they because those Princes fall in love with one another or are not all directed to the security and prosperity of the people But lest therefore as I demand them for the benefit of mine so You should refuse them for the benefit of your people let us if your Tzarskoy majesty please try the arguments against them of several natures as they ly before me They rebelled against me 'T is true but it would be too much care in your Tzarskoy majesty should You pursue the resentment for ever upon my subjects after I my self have forgiven them And I being the Head and making up hence forward but one Body with my Nations will your Tzarskoy majesty undertake to revenge upon me the disloyalty of my people But they say that Nightingale brought a Letter from my Father and treated with the Boyars for taking them away That Nightingale was a Traytor therein and an Impostor and I know your Tzarskoy majesty will according to the law of Nations and as Princes are obliged in honour to one another upon such impostures deliver me that open false counterfeit letter But if
employed a great while when He sent any message to my Lord Ambassador notwithstanding the solemn Declaration made against him at the private Audience and in his stead there was another supplied for a Pristaf who was indeed a civiller man but of lesser quality The Proposition given by my Lord in writing at this Conference was written after this manner HIs most Serene Majesty my Master desiring to fulfil all parts of a most sincere brotherly affection toward his most Serene Tzarskoy Majesty according to His promise in his former Royal Letters and by me his extraordinary Ambassador taking into consideration the present war continued betwixt his Tzarskoy Majesty and the King of Poland to the so great detriment of the Common Christian Interest hath therefore although He knowes that his Tzarskoy Majesty doth neither want sufficient forces nor most prudent counsels whereby He may probably bring that war to a conclusion yet for the better facilitating of a firme and honourable peace betwixt his Tzarskoy Majesty and the King of Poland Impowred me if it may be acceptable and desirable to his Tzarskoy Majesty to offer his Mediation toward so good a work and hath therefore laid aside all respects to the contrary believing that so laudable a design will so much the rather find with his Majesty of Poland all effect and acceptance And this being but as an earnest of all those other counsels and good offices which his Tzarskoy Majesty may promise Himself continually from his Royal Majesty I do no ways doubt but his Tzarskoy Majesty will manifest a just value of his Royal Majesties most sincere constant brotherly affection Vnto which I shall always strive to be in my place instrumental according to my duty to his Royal Majesty and my great devotion towards the service of his Tzarskoy Majesty so great a Prince and so dear a Friend and Brother of his Royal Majesty Given at Mosco 1. June 1664. The Commissioners Answer to this matter was that his Tzarskoy Majesty was well pleased with this profer of his Royal Majesty that his Excellency in prosecution thereof should send a Post to his Majesty of Poland by way of Smolensco and proceed himself in the business as might be meet and fitting But it seemes they did not or would not mind what his Excellency had required before he would ingage his Prince in so long and chargeable a designe Therefore he made them understand that otherwise he could not undertake it because his Royal Majesty took it for granted that he had before this effected his business which was the reason of this His last generous profer The Commissioners postposing any thing to the Customes taken and the English Merchants my Lord took occasion to give over his Profer and to take his Leave of the Tzar having left into the hands of his Tzarskoy Majesties near Boyars and Counsellors some Memorials of remaining business besides that point which he most insisted upon that in time they might be redressed The 24. of June He had his last Audience where he took his Leave of his Majesty in few words Most Serene and most Potent Tzar THe King my Master hath commanded me to make hast from hence about his other affaires committed to me and since your Tzarskoy Majesty hath not been pleased to grant what I was sent for the greatest Kindness You can shew the King my Master and the greatest favour to my self is the allowing me this liberty of taking my leave of your Majesty and permitting me to depart with speed I have nothing to desire of your Tzarskoy Majesty at parting but that as is due and right there may be the same liberty to all other his Majesties Subjects whensoever the respective time of their Obligations shall be expired and that to those who must in the mean time remain speedy and equal justice may be afforded which hath not been hitherto I return my thanks for the plentiful enâ—ertainment I have had in your Country 〈◊〉 shall very truly give the King an acâ—ount of all the honours and favours I â—ave received and with the same â—uth and candor give an account of all â—hings that have passed in my Negotiaâ—ion and shall pray to God to bless your Majesty with a long and happy Government Whereupon the Tzar being on his Throne desired the Ambassador to salute his Brother the King of great Brittaine and delivered the Letter he sent him with his own hand He pretended to be much troubled that the State of his affaires would not permit him to comply with his desires and prayed God for the prosperity of his Voiage Upon which his Excellence kist his hand as did likewise all his Gentlemen after him and being returned they brought him his dinner from the Palace This being the Negociation and success of the Embassie let us now take a prospect of the most memorable passages that hapned during our residence at Mosco The first thing that presents it self is the description of a Feast which the Tzar made to my Lord Ambassador the 19. of February in the hall wherein his Excellence had Audience it was a meale of near nine houres long from two in the afternoon till eleven at night My Lord Ambassador was conducted thither very solemnly but being entred into the hall the Tzar who was sitting upon his Throne forgot not to retain his ordinary gravity and though he had not then his Crown upon his head he thought it too great a condescention for a person of his grandeur to vaile his bonnet to the Ambassador From whence it may be easiely conjectured that his Excellence was not admitted to his table and indeed it was so farr from that that he was plac't at another on his left hand some steps lower than his own whilst his principal Boyars had not only their table on his right hand but at a less distance from his Throne In so much as in that place where my Lord Ambassador ought to have received all honor and civility there it was that they studied as it were to treat him disobligingly He was seated alone on one side next the wall and on the other there was one of the Tzars Councelors and a Stolnick to bear him Company In a direct line and near his table they plac't my Lord Morpeth and with him by express order from the Tzar not only the Gentlemen and Pages but the Footmen also it being his pleasure to regale us altogether Assoon as every one was sate his Tzarskoy Majesty uncoâ—ered himself and put not on his grave â—onnet of black fox again till we went away â—o that he continued bare as we did though is hair was so short that one of our Company â—ook occasion to say he wondered so great 〈◊〉 Monarch should want hair to cover his â—ars But in my judgment we had more reaâ—n to wonder when we saw that we had no â—apkins and that the Table-cloth was no â—ider than the Table In the mean time â—r meat not being
of his Antagonist and challenged him thereupon into the field And some few days after this quarrel was disputed by the sword and had the preeminence of these Princes depended upon the success of that combat his Majesty of great Brittaine had had the advantage For in a short time our Champion disarmed the Lieutenant and came triumphing amongst us that he had vindicated his King The sixteenth of June which was four days after my Lord had taken his Leave the Tzar sent the Ambassador a present of Sables for himself and his whole family His Excellencies portion was worth two thousand Crownes that of the Countess was worth fourteen hundred and my Lord Morpeth's a thousand the rest were to be distributed according to every mans rank and imploiment in the house But the Ambassador considering he had been neglected in all his affaires would by no meanes admit of this obligation but from a generous principle returned the Present as having been otherwise so much disobliged Nevertheless that his refusal might not pass for an affront in the judgment of the Tzar my Lord designed to have prevented the sending of it but he had not time enough for that For Golozof of whom we had occasion to speak in the Description of our Entry into Mosco imagining without doubt he should receive great kindnesses from the Ambassador dispatched away one of his Clerks to advertise him that he was coming to him with a Present from his Tzarskoy Majesty wherewith he intended to honour him before his departure And presently after without acquainting any of the Pristafs in which he did ill he arrived himself with four and thirty men bearing the Present in their hands The Ambassador took Golozof aside and let him know that he could not accept of this Honour for the reasons which he alledged Golozof extreamly amazed ran â—ut immediately swelled up with rage as he had been with vain hope of reward at his coming in he leapt down the stairs by half douzains as if he had been mad and clapping his breast cried out with a loud voice That such a thing had not been heard of nor ever happened before in the whole Empire of Russia In short he was in such a rage that one would have sworn he would have caused us all to be banished into Siberia as they sometimes did an Ambassador of France and that having refused the Great Dukes present they would make us hunt Sables in that Country which is the penalty of their greatest malefactors But that which most afflicted the Ambassador's Domesticks was the disadvantage they received by his refusal in being so deprived of the Honour of receiving so profitable testimonies of the generosity of so great a Prince However we comforted our selves in the Prudence of the Ambassador and although each of us was deceived in the hopes he had conceived yet we could not for all that forbear praising the generosity of his Conduct Whereas on the other side Golozof in very great passion mounted his horse his footmen following him two and two whereupon his Excellence took great pleasure to behold them marching in that Order and the indignation which they carried in their faces Every one looked after them with a profound silence imagining this refusal so Extraordinary that it affronted the Grandeur and Dignity of the Tzar and that his Tzarskoy Majesty would not fail to take exemplary vengeance upon an action so presumptuously bold others not knowing the cause suspended their judgments The Tzar being informed of this affair and exceedingly surprised with it called his Councel of State immediately and was present there himself the result of which was that Volinskoy one of the new Commissioners was deputed to repair to his Excellence to know the reason of this refusal which he performed with more mildness and discretion than we had occasion to hope for The Ambassador answered him that he was so far from doing it out of any contempt that on the contrary he looked upon his Tzarskoy Majesties Present as an effect of his great Generosity but that the acceptance thereof would oblige him too far He acquainted him how his affairs stood that his Embassy had had no success and that in this case it was not proper for him to receive any favour from his Tzarskoy Majesty till he had first received the Justice he demanded That otherwise he should have taken the least favour from his hands as a perpetual Ornament to himself and his family and that still he was ready provided any good order might be taken with his affaires to receive any testimony whatever of the Tzars affection This gave Volinskoy satisfaction in some measure especially when he understood after what manner Golosof had brought the Presents that is without the knowledge of his Excellencies Pristafs who ought first to have given him notice of the design and thereby prevented the dishonour of so publick a refusal So that Golozof had no recompence for all his pains but a grave reprehension for having wanted discretion in the discharge of this affair On the other side the Tzar returned the Present which he had received at his first Audience from the Ambassador to him again it was a Basin and Ewer of Silver parcel gilt two wrought Silver Dishes and another Dish of Silver parcel gilt also His Excellence received it with this Complement I give his Tzarskoy Majesty thanks for this and I receive it with as great kindness as if it had been a greater Present I shall keep it alwaies by me because it hath had the honour to be in the Possession of his Tzarskoy Majesty Of his Excellencies Journey from Mosco to Riga THis Embassy being finished and that which was to have been into Poland layd a side the Ambassador prepared for his departure towards Sweden choosing the way by Riga in Livonia to pass to Stockholm by Sea And being to Cross Livonia which is 〈◊〉 desart Country he dispacht an Express with 〈◊〉 Letter to Count Oxenstern Governour Generaâ— of Livonia to desire that being upon an Embassy towards his Majesty of Sweden he would please to give orders that at his arrival upon the frontiers he might be accommodated at his own cost with fresh horses and wagons for his train and baggage to pass that Country with all In the mean time my Lord Ambassador attended by a Regiment of horse departed from Mosco the 24. of June about the Evening with intention to retreat seaven Versts that night from the Town The 29. we arrived at T were the cheif City of Twersco The 3. of July we came to Tarsock and from thence to Budeva The 4. to Wisny Volsock the 7. to Zimnogoray and Volday the 8. we past by Rakina and Vena two Townes the 9. we lodged at Brunitze a little Borough The 10. in the afternoon we made 27. Versts by water in twenty boats they had provided against our coming so as passing a small Arm of the Lake Ilmin into which the River that passes by
Damask surrounded with a gold and silver Fringe and having on the back in a large circle the Arms of the King of England richly embroidered with silver together with a very rich Chair of State having its Footstool For other things it is the custome of the Tzar to defray the charges of all foreign Ambassadors from their Entrance into his Dominions till the time they are out of them In short all things being thus provided we prepared to depart in the month of July 1663. but before we come to the particular relation of our Voiage it will not be incongruous to give some general notions of its extent The whole Voiage contained at least eighteen hundred leagues that is to say upon the Northern Seas betwixt London and Archangel seven hundred and fifty from Archangel to Vologda by water up the Rivers Duina and Sucagna in Moscovy two hundred and fifty leagues after that an hundred leagues at least from Vologda to Mosco by Land So that the way the Ambassador went his Voiage from London to Mosco which is the Metropolitan in Moscovy made up eleven hundred leagues From Mosco to Riga the principal City in Livonia we travelled two hundred and fifty leagues the most part by Land which said Town is under the Dominion of the King of Sweden From Riga we passed an hundred leagues upon the Baltick Sea to Stockholm the capital City in Swedeland From Stockholm by Sea also an hundred leagues more to Copenhagen in Denmark where his Excellence concluded his Embassies And from thence returning to London he made a Tour at the least of two hundred and fifty leagues more Of our Voiage from London to Archangel THere were two Vessels appointed for this Voiage One a Man of war of 50. pieces of Ordnance The other a Merchants ship which last set sayle before the other with twenty two of his Lordships Domesticks of which number I was one A great part of his baggage and of the Presents his Majesty sent to the great Duke were disposed in this Vessel also besides eight Coach horses In this manner we embarked from London for Gravesend where our ship lay at anchor in the Thames with the Man of war in which the Ambassador was to come after us very shortly But after we were embarked there was an unlucky accident befel one of our Company who fell down upon the hatches and hurt himself in several places of his body so that we thought fit to get him carried immediately ashore into Gravesend where he found himself so ill that we concluded his journey would be at an end before it was well begun This person was of the number of them to whom the generosity of the Ambassador had given leave to transport themselves for Moscovie and to cross those Countries with his Train His Excellence being arrived at Gravesend in order to his embarkment received him into his Vessel where in a short time he recovered so well that he made a match with one of the Maid-servants and so gave us afterwards the entertainment of a Marriage at Mosco However this fall proved to be but a happy fall forasmuch as by that means he leapt out of a Merchants ship into one of the King's Men of war well provided and much happier in this Voiage than ours There they were entertained all the way with the sound of Trumpets and the melody of Musick whilst we Strangers to all these divertisements had no other harmony than what is ordinarily concomitant with the sickness of the Sea in which the most of us bore our parts On the 15 th of July we set sayle from Gravesend with a favourable gale to fall down the River But shortly after the wind turned so cross and violent that for the space of seven or eight days we were all in a very sad and dismal consternation and those chiefly who were but strangers to these confusions as yet It is true we had now and then a little calm weather and chiefly the 21. which gave us the opportunity of entertaining our selves with the sight of a Porpoise of an exceeding bigness for a full quarter of an hour She gave us great diversion with her constant plungings and leapings in the water on each side of our Ship as if she had come on purpose to make us that Recreation But as if all that had been but so many presages of a grievous Storm and a Prognostication of crosses impending us presently after the wind was at North-East which was directly contrary and continued there four days with a very great violence And so that Sea which in the calm appeared like an azure field wherein the fishes sported themselves with the wanton expressions of their joy on a sudden became a place of horror of mountains and abysses combating one another by the violence of the winds the foaming waves tossing up our Vessel to the clouds and in an instant re-plunging it in the bottom of the Sea and the Ocean after so pleasant a calm bellowing and roaring with incredible fury so long a time together At last we came in sight of Norway and here we sollicited the Master to go to an harbour which was in sight of us and stay there till the wind served But he refused it alledging in his excuse that he came out very late from England to make so long a Voiage that it was unseasonable to divert our selves with recreations ashore that he was obliged to keep himself at Sea as much as was possible so that he might be ready to make his advantage of the first favourable wind By all which we quickly discerned that we had not to do with an Acessaeus who was alwaies coyning of pretences to delay his voiage and quarrelling the Moon that she was no more propitious to his Navigation Our Master on the contrary would anticipate his oppotunities and resolved however to manage his Vessel in spight of the inclemency of the Heavens He was an old Sea-man so accustomed to the air of the Sea that he scarce subsisted but on Shipboord and never lived but by compulsion on shore Which made one say That he feared lest the Master being become by custom an Amphibium already should at last degenerate into some Sea-monster and that if he had lived in the time of the antient Pagans when the Gods transformed Men and Women into Stones Trees and Birds it would have been no hard matter to have Metamorphised him at least into a Man-fish his disposition contributing so much thereunto The 26. the wind increased with such fury that it blew down and brake in pieces the scuttle of our main Mast tore our main Sayle and sprung one of our masts so that it hung loose among the Tackling At first this disaster was very dreadful but we turned it presently into an occasion of joy intermingling with the common apprehension of extraordinary danger a secret hope of being for some time delivered from the importunity of the Sea And indeed the Master
ever glorious memorie His Ministers he sought abroad any reparation contrary to his late Majesties of ever blessed memorie will or knowlege I have nothing to say for him at this time But whereas the said near Boyars and Counsellors passing from that reason of taking away the Privileges upon occasion of the late Rebellion are pleased to alledge several Miscarriages of the English here in their way of trading in this Country I confess it is some thing new to me And it seemes thereby to appeare which I am unwilling to believe as if the said Boyars knew some other reasons than his Tzarskoy Majesties generous resentment of the injuries and inhumanities done to his late Majestie of ever blessed memorie for the taking away those Privileges Which being so contrary to what the King my Master hath always believed and that from several expressions in his Tzarskoy Majesties own Letters I am therefore the lesse prepared to answer Yet thus much I shall say after minding the said near Boyars and Counsellors of his Tzarskoy Majestie that their allegations had been more weighty had they named the particular persons guilty of such miscarriages as first to their not furnishing of his Tzarskoy Treasury wherewith they are charged The Merchants have from time all along yea to the very time of his Tzarskoy Majesties taking away of their Privileges furnisht his Treasury with Cloth Tyn Lead Pewter and all other Commodities of the growth and manufacture of England at prices farr cheaper than the Dutch or Hamburghers did or could deliver them if their Commodities were answerable to those furnisht by the English And it is affirmed by the Company of English Merchants that their Servants and Factors have at several times offered to deliver goods into his Majesties Treasury at the prices they cost there in England but they would not be accepted And when they have been accepted or received into his Tzarskoy Treasury the Factors here could very seldome or never get their monies without great bribes to his Officers nay several of them could never get any thing for their goods so delivered And the said Merchants do and can justly affirme that his Treasury hath not suffered in that particular but that they have been much sufferers in what they have delivered for want of good payment As to their dealing with Tobacco the Companies care and orders were such each member being under an oath to observe the same that if any man trading under the Privileges were known or found to have any it was presently taken and burnt before the Russes his Subjects whereof many presidents may be produced So that in this particular of what is said there is nothing proved no not so much as any one instance of any one member of the Company trading here under the Privileges As to buying of strangers Commodities the Merchants privileged here have ever been so farr from dealing in prohibited Commodities as also from taking or meddling with any strangers goods to carry them from Archangel to Moscow custome-free and so defraud his Majestie of his customes that they have from time to time made very strict orders to the contrary So that if any person were found faulty in that particular he should be delivered to the Emperors laws and not be protected by the Agent or Company there residing Nay further of late years the Company have been so fearful to offend in colouring strangers goods that they have made strict orders to prohibit all trade with the Dutch Hamburghers or any other strangers either at Archangel or any other place in his Dominions As to the first Merchants being dead It was never understood as farr as I know by the Tzar his Predecessors here nor I am sure by the Kings of England there who by their Ambassadors capitulated and made agreements in which the Companies Privileges were included that those Privileges were made only to particular and individual men and that when those men should dy the Privileges should cease and dye with them For it was then understood that the Privileges granted was a due to the Nation and not only those men which were then nominated but likewise to those who should succeed them in the trade And for what belongs the Petition of the Goess and all other Tradesmen of the Muscovian Dominions and all the pretences which are hudled together against the English Merchants I shall only say at present that it seemes natural enough to me that the Goses a small number of persons might desire thereby to ingross the whole trading to their own hand though to the prejudice of the generalitie of his Tzarskoy Majesties subjects But that the whole Tradesmen of Russia who receive great advantage from the traffick with the English should in that manner petition seemes not so probable because less reasonable Therefore passing over all such colours or realities which may easily be discussed in succeeding Conferences unless this new and abrupt answer shall give me occasion wholly to give over the business I shall my self say roundly inviting thereby the near Boyars and Counsellors of his Tzarskoy Majestie to the same way of proceeding that if the Privileges were only taken away upon occasion of the late Rebellion and the Impostures of Luke Nightingale as hath been given to understand to the King my Master that therefore the same Impostures being now discovered and the said Rebellion being extinguished and pardoned and his Majestie now desiring by me that they may be restored again It is now therefore time for his Tzarskoy Majestie hereby to redouble the former obligation upon the King my Master But if these other Pretences were the sole or the concurrent reasons of their taking away His Majestie is ready by me both to invigorate the execution of any good orders formerly made for the preventing the like miscarriages and also to make for the future such further provision and regulation as may secure the interest of his Tzarskoy Majesty and Subjects And therefore however the King my Master desireth that before all things the said Privileges may be revived not that thereby there is any advantage or gain to his Royal Majesty who could willingly shoot away yearly as much powder as the value of them comes to at the health of his Tzarskoy Majesty his dear and loving Brother Nor that the Merchants his Subjects have thereby as is alleged so inricht themselves in any comparison with what the Subjects of his Tzarskoy Majesty have reaped this hundred years from the English Trade For on the contrary the English merchants have in their free way of living and expense in the Country rather strove to defray only and maintain the friendship with the inhabitans than to accumulate wealth to themselves Which yet if they had done they could not be envyed nor ought to be reproached therewith by those whose Country hath by their benefit drawn in the Commerce and riches of all Europe Nor yet that his Majesty expects herein as it were a recompense of all
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