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
A NARRATIVE OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTIONS Occurring in the WARS BETWIXT Sueden and Denmark Before and after the ROSCHILD TREATY WITH The Counsels and Measures by which those Actions were directed Together With A View of the Suedish and other Affairs as they stood in Germany in the year 1675. with Relation to England Occasionally communicated by the Author to the Right Honourable George late Earl of Bristol and since his decease found among his Papers LONDON Printed by A.C. for H. Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard M. D.C. LXXVII FOR The Right Honourable THE EARL of BRISTOL MY LORD I Esteem it as a singular favour and honour that your Lordship thinks me capable of giving you any information concerning the Northern Affairs the Scene of your Lordships many eminent Employments and Actions having been laid nearer the warm Sun The Draught I have here sent was made several years since and only communicated in private with some friends In the composing whereof I was not a little advantaged by being a spectator of the Actions and privy to some of the Counsels of both Kings But how far I have answered those advantages in the ensuing Narrative I submit to your Lordship's Censure and remain MY LORD Your LORDSHIP' 's Most humble and Obedient Servant Philip Meadowe Parham in Suff. Sep. 24. 1675. A NARRATIVE OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTIONS Occurring in the WARS BETWIXT SUEDEN and DENMARK Before and after the ROSCHILD TREATY With the Counsels and measures by which those Actions were directed THE ancient Emulation and jealousies betwixt the two Crowns of Sueden and Denmark occasioned by their near Neighbourhood and frequent Wars have been still heightned and promoted by the late Conquests the Crown of Sueden has made in Germany By which the Suede enlarging his Dominion beyond the Baltic to those goodly possessions of Pomeren and Bremen has betwixt his ancient Patrimony on one side and his new acquisitions on the other as it were enclosed and beleaguered Denmark The fatal effects of a Suedish Power established on this side the Baltic the Dane experimented in the year 1643. in the Reign of Christiern the fourth when upon occasion of some differences arising betwixt the two Crowns in relation to the commerce and navigation of each others subjects and the new impositions exacted by the Dane in the Sound Queen Christina without any previous denunciation of War sent secret Orders to General Torstenson who at that time commanded the Suedish Army in Germany to invade therewith the Danish Dominions which that wise General performed with such secrecy and diligence that the first intelligence of his attempt was brought to Copenhagen by the ordinary post advertising how the Suede was entred Holstein with an Hostile Army In that war the Dane lost Halland Jempterland Gothland and the Oesel For though Halland by the Treaty at Broomsborow was not formally alienated from the Crown of Denmark as it was in the succeeding Roschild Treaty but only mortgaged or leased to Sueden for thirty years lest the reputation of Denmark should seem too much prostituted by the utter abscission and dismembring of so considerable a Province from that Crown yet was it such a mortgage as in truth did amount to an absolute cession or alienation For the term of years when expired was made renewable from thirty to thirty till the Suede should receive an equivalent for Halland to his own liking and satisfaction A Peace being thus reestablished in the year 1644. by the Treaty made at Broomsborow upon the Frontier of both Kingdoms things continued quiet betwixt the two Crowns for some years till the late Charles Gustavus King of Sueden in the year 1655. imbarquing himself in a war against Poland transported thither the choicest of the Suedish souldiery to serve in that expedition where that martial King carried all before him but grasped at more than he could well enclose and conquered more than he could reasonably hope to keep till at length old Zarnetsky makes head against him with a powerful body of horse and by his example the newly submitted Provinces revolt as quickly from their new Lord insomuch that the Suede was embarass'd on all sides and his affairs in great decadency This conjuncture gratified the Dane who thought his turn was now come to retaliate upon the Suede and hoped by the favour of this opportunity to regain what he had lost in the former surprises And to give the better colour of justice to his Arms lest it should be thought he was rather invited thereto by the advantage of the occasion then constrained by the cause of any new provocations or injuries open war is solemnly proclaimed against Sueden by the antiquated formalities of a Herald Besides public letters and manifests are sent abroad to satisfy forein Princes and States and to vindicate the Right of his undertaking The truth is the Party was not ill concerted for the Brandenburger was already drawn off from the Suedish Alliance and upon good assurance given him from the Polish Court that the Soverainty of the Ducal Prussia should be conferred upon him which he accordingly now enjoys He confederated himself with the Pole and Dane against Sueden The Hollander also was of the party though as yet but covertly and great sums of money were advanced by Amsterdam and the trading Companies for they would not have it seem the Act of the States but of private persons by way of loan to the King of Denmark upon securities of the Customs in the Sound and Norway The Dane raised a considerable Army of about fifteen or sixteen thousand men well appointed rendesvous'd them in Holstein from thence passed the Elb besieged and took Bremerford a Town belonging to the Suede in the Bishoprick of Bremen But here some military men took the freedom to blame the Danish Conduct For had he carried the war on the other side of the Baltic entred Sueden it self at that time disfurnished of her principal Officers and Souldiers her King being absent in a remore Countrey reported to be dead the very terrour of an invading Army might have wrought such consternation in the minds of the people as probably to have given the Dane an opportunity of advancing the war as high as Stockholm But he on the contrary attacks the Suedish Dominions in Germany thereby alarming friends as well as enemies For the Princes of the nether Saxon Circle entring into a combination declare this invasion of the Bishoprick to be a breach of the Peace of the Empire and a violation of the Instrumentum Pacis concluded at Munster for the observation whereof they stood reciprocally Engaged Thus not waging war in good earnest the Dane by middle Counsels lost his opportunity for whilst his Army stood at a gaze not well knowing which way to take the King of Sueden marches with all imaginable speed from Poland and laying all in ashes behind him to secure his rear from the infal of the Polish horse and leaving strong Garrisons in Thorren
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
the Isle of Langland the place appointed for the Treaty They had travailed little more than sixty miles English when not far from Wardinburg the first Town from the Sea upon Zealand they met with the avant-curriers and scouts of the Suedish Army by whom they were advertised the King was newly entred upon Zeland and not far behind This incredible diligence was an astonishing surprise to the Danish Commissioners whom in their journey from Copenhagen to Rudcoping the King met at half way Passing by the Scouts unmolested under the security of the safe conducts they soon after met the King himself riding in a slide after the manner of the Northern Countries when the Snows are deep at the head of about two hundred Finnish Horse All alighting to salute the King and he the same to resalute them he willed them to pass on to the neighbouring Town where he would speedily be with them for that he was going only to view a ground where conveniently he might draw up his Army in Battalia To Wardinburg they went and there made the first entry upon the Treaty and met there the Chevalier Terlon Ambassador of France who came out of Germany in Company with the Suedish King The Commissioners for the Treaty on the part of Sueden were Count Ulefeldt who though a Dane yet having received great disobligations from his native Countrey after many services turned malecontent and had for some time refug'd himself with the Suede He being a person of Excellent endowments and withal of a haughty and vindicative nature was made use of as a fit Instrument upon this occasion against the Danish Court The English Mediator at the instance of the Dane had privately moved the Suedish King to change him for some more grateful person but it would not be granted The other Commissioner was the Baron Steno Bielk a Senator of Sueden But Monsieur Coyet and Secretary Ernstein though neither of them Commissioners because not being Senators of the Kingdom their Character was inferior to that of the Danes yet being persons of mature knowledg in affairs of State were made use of as principal Instruments in the negotiating part The Suedish King staid no longer at Wardinburg then was necessary for drawing over his Army from the Isle of Falster and then ranging them in Battalia with a large extended front in view of the Danish Commissioners and their retinue to oftentate their numbers and make them greater in appearance than they were in truth at length filed into a march the direct way to Copenhagen There was little comfort in Treating whilst the King was marching and the Mediators and Danish Commissioners whose persons might in so dangerous a crisis be needful nearer their own King not being satisfied to be left behind the Army adjourned the Treaty and breaking up from Wardinburg overtook the Suedish King at a Town called Keug four leagues from Copenhagen The next morning he drew up in Battalia again and then fell off as before into an orderly march after a division of Polish Horse upon the forlorn His number about seven or eight thousand men well disciplin'd and enured to hardships whereof one half were Horse and a small train of Artillery of eight or ten field-pieces Some were left behind to guard the conquered places besides the garrison of Fredericsode That night he took up his head quarters at a village within a league and half of Copenhagen and within sight of it of which he would sportingly say she was a fair Lady and deserved dancing for And he had reason to say so for had he won her as he wood her she had brought him for her dower all Denmark and Norway and then without the tedious enumeration of all his particular Principalities he might have shortned his Imperial Style and Title into that of King of the North. The Mediators and Commissioners went to Torstrup a near adjoyning village there to draw up the concept or minutes of a Treaty which when mutually agreed on all Hostilities were immediately to cease though it would require longer time to deduce those minutes into a larger form fit for the ratification of both Kings Let us leave them a while at their work and take a short view of the posture and condition of those in Copenhagen The Portifications of the City were much decayed partly through long security not having seen an Enemy for many Ages partly through parsimony to avoid an expence supposed needless Besides great Trading Towns are not willing to be fettered up with walls and bastions and perhaps in this case the Danish Nobility were as little willing as the Citizens fearing the strength of the Town might make the Burgers heady The Walls being only of earth and not revested or faced with brick or stone were much crumbled down with the frost and easie to be climb'd without the help of scaling ladders and the earth so petrified that spade or mattock could not be made use of for present repair The spring waters began to fail and some being long frozen were corrupted for want of air and motion There was not one piece of Cannon upon the Walls when the Commissioners parted thence but by this time good store were hastily drawn from the Arsenal and ships in the Harbour and mounted upon ship-carriages There was no provision of food or fewel for a siege no garrison more than the Burgers only upon this Alarm a body of five or six hundred horse and some few foot were drawn from Sconen and passed over the Sound upon the Ice into the City But the horse would soon have wanted forrage and being most of them Germans the least disorder might not improbably have seduced them over to others of their Country-men in the Suedish Army in hopes to have shared in the promised harvest of rich plunder Besides the Dane quitting the field in Sconen the Suedish Feldtheer Steinboch was ready on that side with five or six thousand men to have passed the Ice and joined his Master in Zeland But nothing so much dismaied the Dane as the consideration how none of his Confederates was in possible capacity of relieving him in this utmost extremity The Pole and Brandenburger were remote as in another world and seem'd glad that the storm had passed over their heads and fallen in another quarter The Ice which was a bridge to the Suede was a bar to the Hollander And so wonderful was that year the Seas were not open for above three months after On the first of May following a ship at an Anchor in the Road before Copenhagen had her Cable of sixteen Inches circumference cut by a shoal of Ice Add to this the temper of the people some murmuring as is usual in such occasions against the conduct of their Governours others exclaiming they were betrayed all affrighted and looking on their condition as desperate As a Testimony whereof let me add this one instance the English Mediator returning upon some occasions from the Camp into the
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
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