of Treating number of Commissioners safe Conducts c. should be adjusted according to the transaction betwixt the two Crowns in the year 1644. Provided that safe conducts in due form be without delay delivered to the Mediators and a reasonable time prefixed by the King of Denmark for meeting of the Commissioners This Reply of the Suede being communicated to the King of Denmark produced from him another Declaration of the third of November 1657. That he also consents to the Transactions in forty four only as to the place of the future Treaty he conceives Lubec or some other Town in that Neighbourhood to be most commodious That the Treaty commence under the mediation of England and of the States General of the United Provinces And so soon as France should Offer him their mediation he would accept thereof And that the designed Peace be not restrained to the two Crowns of Denmark and Sueden but the King of Poland and Elector of Brandenburg be comprehended in the same These things being first accorded by His Majesty of Sueden that he was ready to deliver his safe conducts into the hands of the Mediators It was easie to foresee how this comprehension of the Pole insisted on by the Dane would trouble the whole scene of Affairs which consideration put the English Mediator upon excepting against it as a new proposal forrain to the present question How that the mediation of England was offered only betwixt the two Crowns and so accepted by his Majesty of Denmark without any mention of Poland How that this would render the so much desired Peace tedious and difficult if not impossible for that the differences betwixt Sueden and Denmark were a sudden distemper easily cured if taken in time but those betwixt Sueden and Poland were in the nature of an inveterate malady harder by much to be eradicated That the Great Seal of Poland by which the Ministers of that Crown must be Commissionated as Plenipotentiaries for a Treaty was engraven with the Arms of Sueden which that King would never admit of However this second Declaration of the King of Denmark of the third of November was sent to the King of Sueden and begat another from him of the seventh of December dated at Wismar wherein he declares himself not satisfied with the nomination of Lubec for the place of Treaty as being a recession from the Customs anciently practised betwixt the two Kingdoms and the regulation agreed on in the year 1644. that when occasional differences arose betwixt the two Crowns the Commissioners of both sides should meet upon the Frontiers for adjusting thereof with the more speed Moreover He takes notice of the conquisite delays and difficulties made by the Dane in intermixing other controversies with his own and which have no reference to the Danish War Yet notwithstanding he was willing to grant safe conducts to such Confederates of the Dane as should testifie a desire of being present at a Treaty in any place of the confines And as for the States General after their ratification of the Treaty made by their own Ambassadors at Elbing whereby the friendship betwixt Sueden and them is renewed He would so declare himself on their behalf in case they offer him their mediation for composing this War as should sufficiently prevent any just occasion of complaint To this the King of Denmark rejoyn'd another Answer of the twenty seventh of Decemb. 1657. insisting upon the immediate admission of the States General to the mediation without suspending it upon the previous Act of first ratifying the Elbing Treaty a point which had been depending twelve months and was like to be longer Adheres to the place formerly nominated by him for assembling the Commissioners And that the Pole and Brandenburger should not only have a bare license of being present at the Treaty but that the respective Treaties to be had with them as Confederates and Principals with the Dane in the same War should proceed by the same gradations and measures as that with Denmark The truth is in the reasoning and debate concerning the place of meeting there was a secret drift on both sides unexpressed by either The Dane would have it at Lubec or any other neutral place in Germany convenient for the Pole and Brandenburger to be there present as parties with him whereby to have the opportunity of strengthning each the others hand by a communication of Councils and concerting of Affairs to the promoting of a common Interest On the other hand the Suede would have it on the frontiers over the Baltic whither the Pole and Brandenburger could not with any reasonable convenience come designing thereby to disunite the Confederates by the jealousie of a separate Treaty And perhaps might at the same time have treated openly with the Dane and underhand with the Pole and they two striving to prevent each other in the Peace for fear of being deserted each by other in the War where he found most advantagious conditions granted him there conclude Peace and prosecute the War against the other To prevent this the English Mediator endeavoured to draw from the King of Sueden a previous intimation on what terms and conditions he would rest satisfied in case the King of Denmark would condescend to a separate Treaty That so when the Commissioners came to meet they might have nothing more to doe then to digest the several Articles into form to be signed and sealed and so the business effected before the rumor of a Treaty divulged And likewise partly to facilitate the way of an Agreement and partly to foretaste the temper of Affairs some Conditions were insinuated of the following nature A general Amnesty of what was past Restitution of places taken each upon other A solemn Renewal under good Garranties of the Treaty in 1644. A redress of Grievances relating to Trade And a way ascertained for better prevention of all defraudations in the Sound the pretended cause of the War on the Danish part And to incline the King of Denmark to disjoin his Interests from Poland it was represented by the Mediator what a broken reed Poland had hitherto proved to him Sometimes making proffer to pass their forces over the Oder then presently retreating upon pretence of joining the Austrian foot not so much as entring Pomeren all this while to give the Suedish Army a diversion who lay securely quartered in Holstein and Jutland That the Conditions of the Alliance were mutual and reciprocal which not being performed on the Polish part His Majesty of Denmark was no longer obliged That Confederacies were for mutual safety and not intended to oblige Princes to their Ruine either singly or in company with others That he had the fresh Example of his Heroic Father of happy memory who though he had entred into an Alliance with the Protestant Princes of Germany yet the necessity of his Affairs to recover what was lost and secure what was left constrained him to make a Peace with the Emperor in the
year 1629. exclusive of his Allies But neither did these Reasons prevail with the King of Denmark to depart from his Alliance with the Pole till a more cogent necessity extorted afterwards from him a separate Treaty Nor was the King of Sueden willing to anticipate the business of his Commissioners by precedaneous intimations of his Demands Nor to content himself as to the terms and conditions of the Peace with less then an honourable amends for the wrong done him But in his jolly way of expression since the Dane had led him so long a dance from Poland to Jutland he was resolved at least to make him pay the fidlers Thus the War of the Cabinet was managed by missives and memorials but that of the field was carried on in a smarter manner The extraordinary violent frost was by this time encreased to such a degree that the little Belt which divides Jutland from the Isle of Funen was so intensely frozen as suggested to the Suedish King an Enterprize full of hazard but not disagreeable to a fearless mind edg'd with Ambition of marching over the ice into Funen with horse foot and Cannon Some little skirmishings there were upon the shoar of the Island if it may be called a shoar where there was no longer Sea and the Dane had in the most commodious landing places made large cuts in the Ice which were soon congeled again though with a softer crust Into one of these a small division of about forty Suedish Horse with a Cornet unwarily fell and were there swallowed up Major General Henderson a Scotch man was posted at Middlefar with a Body of men but upon the Suedes approach deserted his station for which he was after in great danger of a Council of War had not the English Minister seasonably interposed for his rescue The Dane had about three or four thousand foot and two thousand Horse upon the Isle who were all of them defeated and taken and some of them being Germans took party with the Suede invited by the hopes of good booty the plunder of a fertil and well peopled Island The Suede marched directly to Odensea the capital Town spacious and well built which they entred without resistance For as well Funen as the other Danish Isles are all open and unfortified and have no defensible places except Copenhagen and Cronenburg both upon the Isle of Zeland having been ever esteemed sufficiently fortified by being Islands and the Kings of Denmark having been alwaies Masters of a considerable Naval strength But now being no longer considered as such but as contiguous and fastned with the continent they were exposed an easie prey to an adventurous and forward Enemy 'T is observable that this miraculous march over a breadth of the Sea of more than twenty English miles for such is the distance betwixt Funen and Zeland the way the Army marched was the resolve of the King himself contrary to the sense of Wrangel and the principal Officers of his Army and 't is but just he should have the glory of the success who had he miscarried could not have avoided the imputation of temerity The News of the loss of Funen being arrived at Copenhagen brought the more terror with it because besides the loss of so important an Isle it awakened the apprehension that the same Bridge which had let the Suede over the little Belt into Funen might do the like over the great Belt into Zeland Whereupon the King of Denmark sends in haste to the English mediator desiring him to renew with all diligence the former proposal of a separate Treaty which had been for some time interrupted and to set it on foot with all possible Expedition The Mediator being assured of the reality of the King's Intentions dispatches forthwith an Express to the King of Sueden with a Letter the Contents whereof I shall insert as being that upon which the following business turned It acquainted him that the King of Denmark had already nominated and authorised the Lords Joachin Gersdorf Rix Hofmaster and Christian Scheel both Senatours of the Kingdom his Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries to meet treat and conclude with like Commissioners from him at such time and place as he his Majesty of Sueden should please to appoint It requested him on the part and at the Instance of England to depute in like manner his Commissioners to prefix a time and place for meeting to send safe Conducts for him the Mediator and the Danish Commissioners Adding moreover that his Majesty of Sueden being as it were in possession or at least in assurance of an Honourable Peace if he would Please henceforward to suspend Hostility testifying thereby the moderation and temper wherewith he Governed his Prosperity and success he would perform a work worthy the greatness of his Name gratify the neighbouring Princes and States and more especially oblige England by doing it in favour of a particular request This Letter bore date from Copenhagen February the third 1657. To which the King returned Answer by the same messenger from Newberg in Funen February the fifth so quick was the dispatch at a distance of fourscore miles English The King's Answer was as followeth To thank him the Mediator for his diligence in promoting the concerns of a Peace which the Dane had hitherto so obstinately opposed That he was willing to enter immediately upon a Treaty with Denmark under the respective mediations of France and England And since it was left to him to appoint the place and time he gave the King of Denmark the choice either of the Isle of Sproo or of Rudkoping in Langland for the Commissioners sufficiently Authorised on both sides to meet at within eight days after the date of this his Letter That together with this Letter he had sent safe Conducts in due form for him the said English Mediator and for the Danish Commissioners to come stay and return at pleasure That the business required the greater haste because he could promise himself no security in a suspension of Arms. This Answer was a full concession of the desired Treaty but the King would not be complimented out of his advantages into a cessation of Arms well knowing the powerful effects of panic fears from the suddenness of a successful Invasion and that the only way to profit by them is to give no respit for recollecting The Suedish King contiues his march with all possible diligence His nearest way to Zeland had been over the great Belt from Neuburg to Corsure about sixteen miles English but he chuses rather the way of Langland so to Laland Falster which though the farther was the safer because the traject from Island to Island was no where so broad as it was in the Channel of the Belt betwixt Neuburg and Corsure The forementioned dispatch with the safe Conducts from the King of Sueden being arrived at Copenhagen the Danish Commissioners accompanied with the English Mediator put themselves without delay upon their journey towards Rudcoping in
Peace on the Danish part upon the terms aforesaid to assist the Suede in a defensive way under certain cautions and restrictions In which case of Assistance for in War many things may be supposed and provided against which never come to pass the Suede was to give real gages and pledges for the Garrantie of his Faith To which end the English Mediator had often and closely remonstrated to him that 't was not reasonable to put a sword into anothers hand without a previous aslurance of its not being made use of against ones self And used it also as an Argument to dispose the otherwise unwilling Suede to a Peace with the Dane for a War with Denmark was of all Wars the most commodious for him because he was not to expect an Assistance from England which should cost him nothing And to foretast the temper of Affairs proceeded so far as to nominate Stade upon the Elb and Landscroon in the Sound to be put in case of such assistance into English hands which taking vent afterwards gave occasion to that frivolous report how that England and Sueden had agreed together to share Denmark betwixt them The English Fleet lay all the Summer in the Sound and Bel only as Spectators to see fair play and the year declining returned home without doing any thing contrary to the sense of the Commissioners who some time before viz. in July 1659. arrived from England and would have had the Fleet continued out longer to countenance their new begun Mediation Which new Mediation upon change of the Government in England was begun and mannaged by new measures taken from Holland For whereas a Treaty had but lately been concluded at the Hague viz. the eleventh of May 1659. betwixt France England and Holland for reducing the two Northern Kings to an acquiescence in the Roschild Treaty they in England upon the change aforesaid to gratifie the Dutch and ingratiate themselves conclude another Treaty with them at the Hague of the fourth of July following containing a recession from some material points and Articles in the said Roschild Treaty And moreover oblige themselves to obtain from the Suede and that forcibly if need be in favour of the Dutch the ratification of the Treaty made at Elbing betwixt Sueden and the States General with the Elucidations thereof made at Thoren The truth is they made no great scruple at least for that one time to come under the Stern of their Neighbouring Common-wealth thereby to have better leisure to recollect and refit the scattered planks and pieces of their own broken Republic The Dutch and Dane riding Masters at Sea the English Fleet return'd home and the Suede so disproportionably out-numbred as not to dare to peep out of his Ports the next Action of Importance was the descent which the Confederates made upon the Isle of Funen The strength of the Suede had hitherto consisted in being lodged securely within the Danish Isles where the Elector of Brandenburg with the Army of the Confederates could not reach him But what before was his strength becomes now his weakness for the Suedish Troops lay disjoyn'd upon the several Islands and the Enemies Fleets intercepted all Communication betwixt them of passing to each others assistance as occasion required Besides that no Island which has open landing places is defensive but by a Fleet and such a one as is able to keep the Sea And lest any should imagin that in this case the Suede ought to have drawn together all the divided members of his Army and to have kept them united in one Body upon the principal Isle which was Zeland it ought to be considered that the Countrey had been harass'd by a long War and one Island could not surnish a subsistence to all the Troops but the greater part must necessarily have perished for want of Forrage The Suede had upon this Isle of Funen about fifteen hundred Foot with some few Companies of Dragoons and about twenty five hundred of his best Horse Prince Palatine Sultsbach commanded in Chief assisted by Field-Marshal Steinboch Part of De Ruyter's Pleet transports General Ebersteyn with a good Body of Horse and Foot from the Confederate Army in Jutland over the little Belt into this Island of Funen Whiles at the same time Field-Marshal Schack by the help of the other part of the Fleet commanded in Person by De Ruyter lands upon the other side of the Isle by the way of the great Belt Either of these Bodies was sufficient to have fought the Prince with his whole united Force but divided as he was and his men posted in several the most suspected places to prevent landing he was much too weak One would think the proper time to have fought the Enemy had been at landing or if that could not be because the Cannon favoured his descent yet at least-wise before both Bodies had joyned which was not till after a leisurely march of some days And yet he did neither and which is more gave afterwards so satisfactory an Accompt to the King that he incurr'd no displeasure It seems all he could do was to reunite the scattered parts of his little Army and posting himself in the most advantagious ground he could make choice of there attend the Enemy and fight it out for Safety if not for Victory This was done at Newburg a small Town upon the extremities of Funen opposite to Corsure in Zeland in which last the King of Sueden was almost near enough to be the Spectator of the distress and calamity of his Troops and yet too far to help them For De Ruyter lay with his Fleet betwixt the two Towns The Suede fought it valiantly having also the advantage of the ground till the small Infantry overlaid by numbers was driven from it For the Confederates had not less than six thousand Foot the Suede not more than sixteen hundred As for Horse the greatest odds was in Courage and Discipline the numbers near equal I would not upon this occasion conceal the honour of our Country-men I mean the English Regiment commanded by Sir William Killigrew who together with the other Auxiliary Foot brought from Holland keeping firm and unshaken gave opportunity to the routed Troops to rally behind them by which good Order and Resolution they in great measure turned the sometime wavering fortune of the day The Suede at last was broken and lost Horse Foot and Cannon all were slain or prisoners none escaping but the Prince and Steinboch who by the favour of the Night and the skill and labour of a few rowers passed by the Dutch Fleet in a Fisher-boat and landing at Corsure brought unwelcome tidings to their Master This was the greatest foil that King had ever received and he did not long survive it and yet 't is not easie to say what impression it made upon him more than that 't was little or well dissembled No part of those many dispatches which were sent upon this occasion could be read in
his Countenance having besides his natural Courage the Art of concealing all inward emotions and disturbances under a free and masculine appearance and by seeming to fear nothing deserved to be feared Not but that in conversation he would often testifie a tender resentment for the loss of so many brave men who he thought deserved a better destiny The Prince was so far from being disgraced that the King during his absence made him Commander in Chief of all his Forces in Zeland For the Winter coming on and the Dutch Fleet sailing towards Lubec to Victual and soon after putting into Port and the Enemy at Land breaking up their Campagne gave the King leisure to pass over into Sconen and so to Gottenburg where he held a Convention of the States of his Kingdome for the better facilitating of such new Levies of men and other Contributions which were thought necessary for carrying on his many Wars to some desirable conclusion And as his leisure permitted he intended to make an Excursion to Stockholm that City much desiring to see their King after four years absence But his incessant Labours Care and Watchings brought him to a sharp defluxion that a Feaver and that his end He was cut off in the strength of his days not forty years of Age a Prince of undoubted Courage and unwearied Industry low of stature but of aspiring thoughts of a gross and heavy body of a quick and active mind No man of wit or courage could want Employment in his Court and he had the singular advantage of a happy judgment in discerning men and suiting them to such Affairs to which they were best adapted either by the secret dispositions of Nature or by acquired knowledge His War with Poland covered him with Laurels which bore him nothing but gaudy and unprofitable appearances but the Olive of the Roschild Treaty yielded him nourishing and strengthning fruit His first War with Denmark presented him the fair side of Fortunes medal in the second she turned to him the Reverse He had early been bred a Soldier under General Torstenson in Germany whom he usually called his Master and never named but with great marks of Veneration He passed through the gradations of the Art Military from a Captain of a Troop of Horse to Captain General of as good an Army perhaps as this Age has seen For at the time of the conclusion of the Peace in Germany by the Treaties of Munster and Osnabrug he had under his Command of everal Nations fifty three thoufand Foot and twenty four thoufand Horse in Field and Garrison Besides the Confederate Armies of Marshal Turene and the Landgrave of Hess who acted by concert with him and were at least thirty thousand more He kept to his dying day the Muster-Rols of every Regiment with the names of the Officers some of whom when disbanded upon the Peace he retained by Pensions at his own charge being then but Prince obliging them thereby to his service and foreseeing the use he might one day have of them And has been heard to say that he thought himself a greater man when Captain General in Germany than he was now when King of Sueden He would bewail the loss of so many good places which Sueden demolisht or surrendred and for doing whereof he as Captain General was also constitued Plenipotentiary at the Treaty at Osnabrug amounting to above two hundred Towns Castles and Forts By which it was easie to perceive that he sided in opinion with Chancellour Oxenstiern who when the Spanish Cabal carried all before them at Stockholm having received peremptory Commands from that Court to conclude the Peace in Germany he did it in obedience to the commands of his Superiors but with such regret that he could not forbear to utter those words Anima mea non intravit in secretum eorum He was the son of the Sister of the great Gustaphus Adolphus so famous in the German Story and upon the resignation of his Cosin Christiana was admitted to the Crown of Sueden by the general consent of all the Estates This King thus removed by the stroke of death all things resolv'd into a disposition to a general Peace His Son and Successor was a Minor of five or six years of Age. His Queen was left Regent during the minority of her Son a mild and gentle Lady deriving from the bloud of her Ancestors of the House of Holstein = Gottorp and Saxe a natural candor and benignity She was assisted by the great Officers of the Crown who were willing with peace and quietness to enjoy their share in the Government which the Laws and Constitutions of Sueden allowed them in the minority of their King The Suedes themselves had been harassd and tired out by long Wars and that Martial Nation almost rode off their metal by a more Martial King So that all things conspired on that side to Peace and Settlement On the other side the Queen of Poland a French Lady who had the ascendant in all the affairs of that Kingdom was wrought over by the means of France to a ready Concurrence in a Peace with Sueden Besides that the Pole was of himself readily disposed thereto partly in consideration of the many convulsions and distractions of that Kingdom occasioned by the contrary motions of disagreeing factions and partly in regard of the unprofitableness of a War with Sueden by which much might be lost nothing could be got A Peace is therefore concluded betwixt both Crowns of Poland and Sueden under the mediation of France at a place called Oliva and the Emperour and Brandenburger who were but accessories in the Polish War were easily comprehended in the Peace The onely difficulty was for Denmark the late Suedish King had made great scruple of admitting the States General of the United Provinces as Mediators for composing the War betwixt him and the Dane alledging and declaring that they were parties with the Dane and Enemies to him and that they ought to make their own Peace first before they could be in capacity to interpose for others But the now Suedish Court soon surmounts this difficulty and the four Dutch Deputies Extraordinary who arrived in the summer and went two of them to the Suede and two to the Dane attended with a splendid Retinue I mean with De Ruyter and forty men of War were now accepted by the Suede notwithstanding all former hostilities and provocations as Mediators in the ensuing Treaty This rub being removed the next was the adjusting the terms and conditions of the Peace For the Dane expected his Confederates should have assisted him to the obtaining of such a Peace as might in the conditions thereof have born some proportion to the benefits which they had received by the War and to the loss and hazard which he had sustained For this War of Denmark had drawn the Suede out of the bowels of Poland had delivered the Brandenburger from the imminent danger of having his Countrey made the seat
either in the beginning or the progress thereof Thus if the Suede for I suppose 't is no offence to put such a Case because what 's laid at stake no man can call his own I say if the Suede should lose all in Germany and be turned back again over the Baltic This would redound greatly to the mischief of France whose Interest it is to maintain the Suede in Germany as a check and counterpoise upon the House of Austria the hereditary Enemy of France But this consideration reaches not England because that House has in this last Age been under so sensible a decadency that it gives no longer any just ombrage or jealousie as formerly of any affectation of an Universal Monarchy But yet it may greatly concern England into what hands the Chance of War may throw those places the Suede now possesses Should the Elector of Brandenburg invest himself in the Ports of Pomeren and by that means erect a third power upon the Baltic Nay should the Duke of Curland whose little Dutchy is a Fief of the Crown of Poland and who of later years has affected to put in for a share in the Baltic under the Title of Admiral of that Crown though his design always suppressed by the early jealousies of those greater Powers of Denmark and Sueden should he I say by help of the favour and consanguinity he has with Brandenburg for that House married a Sister of that Elector added to the countenance and assistance of Poland establish a fourth Power upon the Baltic All this would not sensibly touch England for a Reason intimated in that Answer which a Duke of Burgundy once made when it was objected to him how he was no Lover of the Kings of France his Reply was on the contrary he was so great a Lover of them that whereas there was one King of France he wished there were many But if the Dane should seize the Ports of Pomeren or possess himself of Stade and Boxtehude in the Dutchy of Bremen or should he so far profit upon the present Conjuncture as to reinstate himself in the opposite Bank of the Sound which was taken from him in the year 1658. every of these will alter the Case in reference to England For 't is evident that the dividing the Banks of the Sound betwixt the two emulous Crowns as it was done by the Roschild Treaty is greatly to the security and benefit of England To our security in time of War for in case of a War betwixt England and Holland if Denmark incline to Holland which is not unreasonable to be supposed England in friendship with Sueden whilest possessed of one Bank of the Sound will in despight of the other two Confederates maintain the Trade into the Baltie and fetch from thence those materials which are necessary for the apparel and equippage of her Shipping To our benefit in time of Peace and that in reference to Trade and Commerce For 't is a Gain to the Dane to enhance the duties of the Sound but 't is the Interest of Sueden to oppose it because Stockholm and all the Ports of Sueden except Gottenburg being within the Baltic whatever Duties are imposed upon forein Ships in their passage through the Sound are a burden upon the Trade of Sueden The same Reason holds for the Elb where the Dane has Gluestad upon the one Bank the Suede Stade and Boxtehude upon the other If both Banks should come into Danish hands this would more immediately concern Hamburgh and so much the rather because of the old pretensions the Kings of Denmark as Dukes of Holstein have upon that City But it will remotely concern England for it will be in the power of the Dane to exclude us from the Trade of the Elb whenever he pleases Which perhaps he will not do But the Assurances of Princes are not to be founded upon the Will not but upon the Cannot Add to all this that as it is the Interest of France to maintain Sueden as a ballance upon the House of Austria so 't is the Interest of England to preserve Sueden as her proper counterpoise against the Confederate Naval Strength of Holland and Denmark The case thus standing and Sueden having changed the figure it lately made when the Mediation of that Crown was proposed in concert with England by entring into the War and becoming Party There is no Prince in Europe to whom it can so properly appertain to advance the great work of a Mediation as to his Majesty of England The Pope not so fit to interpose in these German Controversies as upon other considerations so particularly upon this because by the Munster and Osnabrug Treaties which are the Basis of the Peace of Germany many of the Lands of the Church and other Ecclesiastical Rights were Alienated and made Secular Which the Nuncio at that time was so far from consenting to that he entred a public Protest against it and Innocent the tenth declared all the Articles relating to Religion to be nul and void The Venetian State remote and though admitted Mediator in the Munster Treaty betwixt the Empire and France yet was not so in the Osnabrug Treaty betwixt the Empire and Sueden Besides the Councils of that Republic face most to the Levant neither does she intermeddle in the Affairs of the Western Princes so much as in former Ages Whilest the King of England besides his Power Interest and Authority seems to be selected by a coincidence of several Providential circumstances to undertake this Work not only Pious but Safe Honourable and Profitable Safe because all the Interessed Princes court the Friendship of the Mediator Honourable because the mediating Prince becomes the Arbiter of others Controversies Profitable because his Ministers being upon the place and privy to the secrets of the contending Parties have the opportunity of espying advantages for securing and promoting their Master's Interests But as in Naturals so in Civils 't is Time ripens all things And 't is the Wisdome of the Head which directs the diligence of the Hand to gather the fruit in its proper season The last War of Germany was of thirty years continuance and the Peace was seven years in treating reckoning from the Preliminaries agreed at Hamburgh to the conclusion of the Peace at Munster and Osnabrug This according to humane conjectures seems not of that duration But mediating Princes are most welcome and successful when the Parties are wearied with the War as those Physicians are most happy who come in the declension of a Disease FINIS Errata Page 117. for revolution read revulsion p. 124. for defensive read defensible p. 143. for left read lost p. 151. for Govern read Government Febr. 165 1659. Nov. 1659. Dec. 1659.
Marienburg Elbing and some other Towns in Prussia passes through Pomeren and marches directly for Holstein and Jutland It was generally conceived that now if ever the Dane would have fought him harassed and tired as he was with a tedious march But the new Levies durst not adventure the shock with veteran Troups used to fight and used to conquer The Danish Army plies and yields ground before the Suede without fighting who pursues his point and increases in numbers as he does in fame all things favouring the victorious The Danes diminishing as fast gave back till they came to Fredericsode in Jutland where they sheltred the remainder of their Infantry having left Garrisons behind them in Gluckstad Cremp and Rensburg The Horse were transported into Funen an Island opposite to Fredericsode so that the Suede was left absolute Master of the Campagne and possessed of the convenient quarters of Holstein and Jutland Some of the Inhabitants conveyed the richest part of their goods to Wensussel an Island on the North of Jutland and to Samsoe another near adjoyning Isle both which became soon after prize to the Victors Fredericfode was now besieged by General Wrangel a new Town endowed with a large Charter of Privileges to invite dwellers and Trade fortified according to the modern way with Bastions false bray and ditch but the. works not fully finished The Circumvallations describe a bow or semicircle and the little Belt running by it the chord To the Belt-side it was not fortified at all no more than by the water and channel only the two bastions upon the two extremities of the semicircle were set as far into the bed of the River as conveniently they could be and then from the corner of each bastion a strong palisade was run into the River as far as deep water Wrangel so far profited of the security of his Enemy or the treachery of some correspondents that he found means in a dark night to cut asunder those Palisades and making two false attacks in two other places to amuse and distract them within and rushing on at the same time with a prepared body of Horse and Foot up to the saddle-skirts in water wheel'd about the Bastion and entred the Fort. Had there been but an ordinary work along the bank of the River from one Bastion to another or a body of men drawn up in Battalia to receive the Enemy upon the file he must of necessity have taken the water again But there was neither of these The Governour was a Grave Senatour of the Kingdom but no experienced souldier only justified his fidelity to the King his Master by dying upon the place and was accompanied by about four thousand more who were either slain or taken prisoners Some time after a Lieutenant and a Corporal who had served in Fredricsode and were afterwards surprised by the Dane in the Suedish Quarters were publickly executed at Copenhagen as those who had traiterously betrayed the place But whether their Crime was really such or that they otherwaies criminal were made use of as a sacrifice to appease the angry Citizens enraged at the loss of Fredericsode is uncertain Thus we have posted the Suede in that important Fortress which bearing the name of the then King of Denmark and thus unhappily taken might seem as it were to presage by an inauspicious omen the succeeding misfortunes which involved that King We will leave him there a while Master of the Continent and the Dane retreated to his Islands And having thus far drawn down the general scheme of the military affairs let us step back a little to take a short survey of the civil transactions contemporary with the former England had too great an Interest in the Baltic the Mediterranean of the North to sit still without making reflection upon those commotions in the Northern Kingdoms For besides the general concerns of a free Trade which of necessity must have suffered interruption by the continuance of this War England being at that time Engaged in a War with one branch of the Austrian family viz. with Spain would rather the Suedish Arms had been at liberty to give check to the other branch in Germany as occasion might offer then to be diverted therefrom by a war with Denmark Two Gentlemen are sent over to endeavour a reconciliation betwixt both Kings Mr. Meadowe who was dispatched to the Danish Court arrived there in September 1657. much about the time the Suede entred Jutland His business was to remonstrate how unwelcome it was to them in England to understand of a Rupture betwixt the two Crowns albeit they esteemed the communication there of by the Letters and Manifest of that King as an expression of friendship That besides the effusion of Christian bloud betwixt two Nations linked together by the common bonds of Nature and Religion and both of them leagued in Amity with England the continuation of that War might in so perilous a juncture considerably endanger the whole Protestant Cause and Interest and nothing could have happened more advantagious to Spain with whom England was in open Hostility Besides his Majesty oâ— Denmark could not but be sensible how much the freedom oâ— Navigation and Commerce in the Baltic would be impeached thereby to the prejudice of the Neighbouring Nations but oâ— none more than England as continually fetching Naval Store from those Countries He was therefore sent on the part of England to that King to offer the best and most friendly offices for accommoding all differences be twixt the two Crowns and putting a stop to so unhappy a War and to assure him that they would imploy their utmost Interest with the King of Sueden to dispose him thereto and to that purpose had already sent a Gentleman to Him And that if this their tendred Mediation were accepted they would in the management thereof deal impartially and endeavour that the Peace once reestablished might for the future be inviolably observed To this Proposal the King of Denmark returned Answer in writing under his Seal and Signature bearing date September the twenty fifth 1657. Declaring that the care of England for the tranquillity of his Kingdoms the freedom of public commerce and quieting all differences was gratefully accepted by him And that he was ready to enter upon a Treaty of a sure and Honourable Peace under the mediation of England And so soon as the King of Sueden should testifie a suitable concurrence on his part he would further declare himself as to time place and other the Preliminaries to an ensuing Treaty This Declaration was transmitted to the King of Sueden with all possible diligence and drew from him a Reply dated at Wismar October the nineteenth 1657 In which after many Expostulations how injuriously he had been dealt with by the Dane intermixed with some language which the Dane resented as reproachful he declares likewise his consent to enter upon a Treaty under the mediation of France and England And that the Preliminaries as to place
City found his house well fraught with rich goods which the best of the Inhabitants had conveyed thither as to a sanctuary against the plundering Suede And yet this testimony is due to the person of the Danish King that he comported himself with a magnanimous constancy and firmness amidst all these misfortunes 'T is not irrational to suppose that if the King of Sueden had been truly informed of the state of the Town he would not have slipped the most advantagious opportunity he ever had of taking Copenhagen But though he knew all was not well with the Dane yet he did not know the worst and being already laden with a heap of prosperities crowded beyond expectation upon him esteemed it more prudential to lay hold on those eminent and securer advantages offered him by Treaty than to depend upon the issues of War subject to vicissitudes Yea 't is not irrational to believe that some of the wiser heads in the Suedish Court did not heartily desire to see their King Master of Copenhagen lest the commodiousness of the situation preferable to that of Stockholm should invite either him or his Successor to make that the capital seat of the Monarchy whereby Sueden should in process of time have insensibly degenerated from a Kingdom to a Province The minutes of the Treaty were in few days concluded at Torstrup upon which a cessation of Arms immediately followed And from thence the Mediators and Commissioners removed to Roschild to digest more at leisure those summary Articles into the body of a Treaty Ten days were spent upon that Affair till the whole was fully perfected and finished And then the respective Instruments were in solemn form signed and sealed by the Mediators and Commissioners on both sides and interchangeably delivered each to other Which from the place where it was finally concluded though begun at Wardinburg agreed at Torstrup yet finished here was denominated the Roschild Treaty By this Treaty the King of Denmark was a great loser if we consider what he quitted but it may as well be said he was a great saver if we consider what he kept For he who had lost all in the field could not reasonably expect to regain it in the cabinet And though some of his principal branches were lopt off which in time might grow again yet the root was preserved which else had been lost without resource So that it was but an expression of tenderness to his King and Countrey what the Danish Rix Hofmaster a right worthy person whisperd into the ear of the English Mediator Utinam nescirem literas The lands and Territories which by this Treaty were alienated and transferred from Denmark to the Crown of Sueden were the Provinces of Sconen and Bleking as for Halland I reckon the Suede had that before likewise the Isle of Bornholm and the two Governments of Bahuys and Drontheim in Norway The English Mediator had two parts to act in this Scene one was to moderate the Demands as far as he could in favour of the Sufferer without disobliging the Suede by a too notorious partiality The other was to watch lest any thing be stipulated betwixt the two Kings prejudicial to the Interests of England It was moved that the whole Kingdom of Norway should be rent off from Denmark and united to Sueden with which it lay contiguous This intrenched upon England as giving the Suede the sole and entire possession of the chief materials as Masts Deals Pitch Tar Copper Iron c. needful for the apparel and equipage of our ships too great a Treasure to be intrusted in one hand The Mediator in avoidance of this was the first who insinuated the Proposal of rendring Sconen and Bleking to the Suede which would cut off that unnecessary charge both Crowns sustained in garrisoning a Frontier each against other by enlarging the Suedish Dominions to the bank of the Sound the ancient and natural boundary of Sueden This though uneasie to the Dane because of the vicinity of those Provinces to Copenhagen the Metropolis yet was safe for England because by this means the Suede is become Master of one Bank of the Sound as the Dane is of the other though the accustomed Duty of passage the best flower in the Danish Garland was by this Treaty reserved wholly to the Dane Thus the Power over that narrow entry into the Baltic being balanced betwixt two emulous Crowns will be an effectual preventive of any new exactions or usurpations in the Sound which occasioned a fierce War betwixt them in the year 1643. In which the States General judged themselves so nearly concerned England being at that time most unhappily embroild with Intestine Commotions and not in condition to look after her concerns abroad that they sent a considerable Fleet of War to the assistance of the Suede by help whereof the Dane was beaten and forced to a dishonourable Treaty at Broomsborow as was before mentioned And the Duties payable in the Sound were from that time regulated as they now stand at this day An Article had been framed obliging both Kings to hinder the passage of any forrain Fleet of War into the Baltic which though directly and immediately levelled against Holland yet obliquely and remotely reflected upon England with which the English Mediator not being satisfied caused the word inimica to be inserted and then the sense was this that both Kings to their power should endeavour to impede the passage of any forrain Fleet of War Enemy of both Crowns By which the edge of the Article was rebated and the King of Sueden displeased thereat after acquiesced This Roschild Treaty thus concluded bears date February the twenty sixth 1658. or as we in England write 1657. and was ratified by both Kings under their Royal Seals and signatures together with the seals and subscriptions of the Senators of both Kingdoms according to the time and manner prescribed by the Articles The next thing which in order followed was the solemn interview betwixt the two Kings at Frederiosburg a Palace of the King of Denmark about four leagues from Copenhagen the most magnificent of any in the North. Thither both of them went and which is remarqueable without any previous stipulations concerning Guards or number of Followers usually practised betwixt doubtful Friends but with a frank and Northern simplicity without any seeming distrust each of other Yet the King of Denmark had at least five hundred horse with him being those who were formerly drawn out of Schonen besides his ordinary Foot-Guards in Livery and the several Gentlemen and Officers of his Court The King of Sueden had not above four hundred and those not so well mounted or armed as the other The Danish King set forwards from his House about two English miles or more to meet the Suede upon his way from Poschild Both Kings at a competent distance alighted at the same time out of their Coaches and saluted by joyning their right hands then both entred the Danish Coach
that omission challenged it as an appendix and accessary of Sconen but the Dane reclaim'd it as an appurtenance of Zeland The truth is the Isle of it self without any relative consideration was of little or no value but had it remained in Danish hands they might have built a Fort upon it to command the entry of Landscroon by which the onely or most considerable Port which the Suede had in Sconen would have been rendred useless And therefore they were resolved at any rate to have it and if by no other right at least by that new devised one which we in old English have no word for but the French call it Le Droit de bienseance Other Controversies arose of the like nature which the Suede though seemingly offended at yet profited upon making them the pretence for continuing their forces in Funen Jutland and other the Danish Dominions which by the sixteenth Article of the Treaty they were to have quitted by the first of May. 1658. Summer was now approaching and yet the King of Sueden was still at Gottenburg ordering the affairs of his Kingdome setling himself in his new acquired Estates and attending the Issue of his Ambassadors Negotiation at Copenhagen In June he parted thence and arrived at Fredericsode stopped some time at Flensburg and from thence went to his Father-in-law at Gottorp Four Ambassadors met him from the Electoral College for there was at that time a vacancy in the Empire and the Electors were assembled at Francfort upon choice of a new Emperour The business of the Ambassadors was to proffer all friendly offices for composing the War betwixt him and Poland and accommoding all differences betwixt him and the King of Hungary soon after chosen King of the Romans and Emperour As also to desire and forewarn him to abstain from marching with his Army upon the Territories of the Empire The Ambassadors had an unwelcome reception the King reproaching them with their Masters non-performance of the Garrantie of the Munster Treaty upon the Danish Invasion of the Bishoprick of Bremen Two Ministers came to him in particular from the Elector of Brandenburg but were not admitted to Audience the King requiring a previous satisfaction from that Elector for deserting his Alliance and confederating himself with his declared Enemy the Pole The Brandenburg Ministers were treated the more roughly the better to disguise a following design and to induce a general belief that the Dominions of their Master were forthwith to be invaded The English Mediator had been recalled from the Court of Denmark as supposing all quiet there and placed in that of Sueden and was now in Germany setting on foot a new mediation betwixt that King the Pole and Brandenburger The Armies of which two last subsisted all this while at the charge of their own Countries but that of Sueden made good chear at the cost of Denmark whiles the Suedish Ambassadors and Danish Commissioners were debating at Copenhagen The truth is the Suede was glad of a pretext for continuing in his old quarters contrary to the Treaty being at at a loss what to do with his Army To disband was not reasonable because he had the Pole with the Brandenburger his new Allie Enemies before him and not well assured of the Dane behind To have removed his Quarters into Pomeren in the Neighbourhood of Brandenburg had been to eat up his own Country and which was more would certainly have drawn together a confederacy in the Empire against him as a disturber of the Peace thereof The Suede thinking it now time to begin his Campagne which the Dane had long expected hoping to be rid of his troublesome Guests Ordered the Rendesvouz of his Army at Kiel a Maritim Town in Holstein with a Fleet of about sixty sail to be ready in the Harbour most of them vessels of burden the rest good men of War From Kiel he marched at the head of some selected Troops to Wismar making semblance as if the gross of his Army should follow But the Cabinet at Gottenburg had otherwise determined it for there I persuade my self the design was first hatched and cherished with all imaginable secrecy It was thought not advisable for the Suede to stir in Germany not being assisted by any powerful Allie France at that time faced towards a marriage and consequently a Peace with Spain England was a Chaos of confusion and disorder A War with Poland was remote and unprofitable and had already consumed him to no purpose one nearer home would be of more safety and advantage The Dane would never want a will so long as he wanted not a power to hurt Sueden It was judged easier to conquer him than reconcile him The King staid but a little time at Wismar with his Queen and then privately imbarqued himself upon a Dutch Boyer in the River and arrived at Kiel All hands were now busie in putting the Army Horse and Foot aboard which done the King went also aboard a man of War The French Ambassador went with him the English Minister though invited refused to go not being satisfied whether the design was upon Prussia or Denmark however would in neither case put himself as party in Company of an Enemy whose office had been and was still to be a Mediator The Fleet set sail with a fair wind and not many hours after arrived at Corsure upon the Isle of Zeland this was in August and the Peace had been concluded but in February before No longer time was spent at Corsure then what was necessary for landing the Army which consisting of near four thousand Horse besides several Regiments of Foot to be transported from Funen and joyned with those already brought from Kiel would unavoidably require some time to disembark which together with a march of about sixty miles English from Corsure to Copenhagen was all the warning the Dauc had to prepare an Entertainment for their unexpected Guest The King had prepared no Manifest to declare the grounds and reasons of this enterprise because he doubted not to carry all before him by the suddenness of the surprize and the success had been the best argument for justification of his Arms. The Danish King sent to know of him the Reasons of this sudden Invasion after a Peace so lately concluded and so dearly bought and by what just ways and means he might allay and pacifie any conceived displeasure But all was now too late the great Belt was behind him and Copenhagen before him he was over Rubicon and would to Rome The two defensible places upon Zeland being Copenhagen and Cronenburg the Suedish Army divided part under General Wrangel besieged Cronenburg whilst the King with the greater part invested Copenhagen It would neither be profitable nor delightful minutely to recount the particulars of a long siege but it was soon made evident that the same prosperous direction which had guided the Suedish Arms in the former War did not accompany them in this as indeed the state of the
the Suede going first then the Dane accompanied by the English Mediator and Duke Ernest Gunther of Holstein Sunderburg The French Ambassador was not present at this Entertainment The same Order was afterwards observ'd only at the Table the Queen of Denmark sat at the end on the Queens right hand the King of Sueden next below him on the same side the King of Denmark On the Queens left hand the Dutchess of Holstein and the Mediator at some distance the Senators of both Kingdoms and principal Officers of the Army Let it suffice to say the Entertainment was magnificent and such as became so unusual a Solemnity for two Kings but now in War to go together from the Field to the Table The Solemnity continued from Thursday to Saturday both Kings for two Nights lodging under the same Roof At parting they exchang'd Horses and other friendly Presents and those Officers of the Danish Court who were appointed to attend the Person of the Suedish King were Nobly regaled by him On Saturday he took his leave and went to Elsinore the King of Denmark accompanying him part of the way from thence he crossed the Sound to take possession of his new Conquests in Sconen the two Castles of Cronenbnrg and Elsenburg the latter now his own thundring out their Salutations during his passage From thence he went to Gottenburg where his Queen met him the first time she had seen him since his first enterprize upon Poland and there an assembly of the States of his Kingdom was celebrated The Mediators went to Copenhagen to meet the Commissioners newly arrived from the Duke of Holstein Gottorp Father in law to the King of Sueden for adjusting the satisfaction due to that Duke who had been a great sufferer by the War in pursuance of the twenty second Article of the Roschild Treaty The English Mediator received several Letters from the Duke requesting him to expedite that affair which by the said Article was to be terminated by the second of May. Besides the King of Sueden though he had already quitted Zeland yet he was resolv'd not to dislodge his Troops from the rest of the Danish Dominions till his Father-in-law had received an equitable satisfaction This Business met with more difficulties than was expected and grew so high that the Danish Commissioners entred a solemn Protestation in writing into the hands of the Mediators protesting that the impediment was not on their part if all things were not accorded betwixt the Royal and Ducal Houses before the Expiration of the time prefixed they having already condescended to all equitable Demands At last this Affair was ended also by Grant of the Bailywick of Suabsted and Release of the Vassallage of the Dutchy of Slesvic a sief-of the Crown of Denmark and the concept of Articles was signed and sealed by the Mediators and respective Commissioners and afterwards ratified by the King and Duke As to the Dutchy of Slesvic 't is to be noted that the Dukes thereof ow Fealty to the Crown of Denmark and consequently are liable to the forfeiture of their Fee in case of disloyalty But the King of Denmark is likewise Duke of Slesvic and moreover Hereditary in Slesvic and but Elective in Denmark so that by Release of the Vassallage the Crown of Denmark was a loser the King of Denmark a gainer The Royal House of Denmark and the Ducal House of Gottorp are extracted from two brothers whose descendants are equally and in common sovereign Dukes of Holstein and Slesvic All Contributions Imposts and public Revenues are put into a common Coffer to be equally divided betwixt both and all charges and expences of the Government to be ratably allowed out of the public Stock And yet they have their Bailywicks Lands and Possessions apart But the Prelates Nobility and Towns of both Dutchies remain undivided and do Fealty to both Princes who govern alternatively and change turns every year It had been urged on the part of the Duke that there should be an abolition of this alternative communion whereby the Government and public Justice within both Dutchies is one year in the King and another in the Duke But the States of Holstein would not consent to this and so 't was laid aside because those Holsteiners who upon the Division of the Government should have fallen under the repartition and share of the Duke should have been no longer subjects to the King of Denmark to the great hindrance and prejudice of those Noblemen who find better preferments in the Court at Copenhagen than can be expected from that at Gottorp Besides having two Masters successively when Justice is delaied them by one they can have recourse to the other as the Government comes to his turn which they of Holstein esteem a privilege Thus I have continued the Series of the principal affairs Military and Civil down to the Pacification of Roschild and should have ended here but that the War breaking out again and the new-made Peace soon after violated oblige me though unwilling to proceed Two Ambassadors were sent from Sueden to the Danish Court the Baron Bielk and Monsieur Coyet partly to Negotiate such things as appertained to the execution of the Roschild Treaty partly to make the Overture of a strict and intimate Alliance betwixt the two Crowns by a League mutually Defensive For it greatly imported the Suedish King having many Enemies still before him to double bolt and by all possible means secure the back-door of Denmark At leastwise not to leave Denmark like a smoaking torch though the flame of War was extinguished ready to take fire again upon every agitation But things fell out quite otherwise The Dane was more intent how to free his Country from the burdensome company of the Suede than desirous to entertain with him any stricter alliance of Amity And the Suede found it true that Treaties extorted by necessity upon unequal and disproportionate conditions are no longer durable than that force continues which first made them After the Suedish Army had quitted Zeland and the relenting Ice was no longer repassable some in the Danish Court whose Zeal and Affection to their King and Countrey was otherwise commendable were too free and open in Censuring the Roschild Treaty as if their Affaits had not been reduced to such extremity as to constrain them to so dishonourable conditions Thus when the danger is passed and the confternation over all will seek to appear valiant and wise and he who in a wrack thinks himself happy in a plank to save his life is no sooner ashoar but grows dissatisfied with himself for not securing his goods Van Beuning the Dutch Ambassador at Copenhagen was busie with Intrigues amongst the great persons of the Danish Court and suspected by the jealous and watchful Suede A great debate fell out betwixt the Suedish Ambassadors and Danish Commissioners concerning the property of the Isle of Hueen which not being expressly transferred to Sueden in the Roschild Treaty the Suede to salve