Cloth that serves not onely themselves but is also transported into other parts their chief City is London the Inhabitants are brave Warriors both at Sea and Land and many of them learned and witty The Orders of Knighthood are of St. George or of the Garter there are twenty six Knights of it whereof the King of England is the Soveraign the Ensign is a blew Garter buckled on the left leg on which these words are embroidered Hony soit qui mal y pense about their necks they wear a blew Ribond at the end of which hangeth the Image of Saint George upon whose day the Order is for the most part celebrated Secondly of the Bath instituted one thousand and nine They use to be created at the Coronation of Kings and Queens and the installing of the Prince of Wales Their duty to defend true Religion Widows Maids Orphans and to maintain the Kings Rights the Knights thereof distinguished by a red Riband which they wear ordinarily about their necks to difference them from Knights Batchelours of whom they have in all places the precedence unless they be also the Sons of Noble-men to whom the Birth gives it before all Orders Thirdly of Baronets an hereditary Honour the Armes are Mars three Lions passant gardant Sol. This Kingdome famous for Warlike Exploits abroad there being no Nation in the known world but where their dreadful Arms have been carried witness our Holy-Land Expeditions our Atchivements in Spain several Times our Conquests in France our defence of the Netherlands our Triumphs over Scotland and subduing of Ireland our Naval Power not less formidable in 88. and lately with the stubborn Dutch whom for all our more than uncivil Broyls we humbled into an intreaty of Peace was infinitely more terrible to it self in the late Convulsion and Subversion of the Laws and Government by a fatal Quarrel of the Parliament with the King A Prince no doubt of the greatest vertues piety and abilities that ever Swayed this Scepter nor could the Malignity of our Distempers have seized one of a sounder Constitution as to Honour Conscience Clemency Justice or what ever good quality is requisite for a King being absolutely the best of all the Princes that ever Reigned in this Island It will be alike grievous and tedious to relate the Miseries of this unnatural War the Battels Seiges and Surrenders that happened therein It will be too much to say that after a bloody Contest the King was worsted and with him the Laws and afterwards by his own rebellious and traite ous Subjects brought to a new unparallel'd High Court of Justice and by Sentence thereof beheaded before his own Court-Gates at White-Hall Ianuary 30. 1648. By the perpetration of this Murder and by a thing called an Act of Parliament Monarchy seemed to be actually dissolved it being made Treason to Proclaim the Prince or any other Person King or Queen of England All Empires have their certain periods and measures of Time at the Expiration whereof they tast of that Vicissitude and Change to which all other sublunary things are more frequently subject This Monarchy had â—…asted without any great alteration in a direct Line the Name only changed from Plantagenes which begun in Henry the second who restored the Saxon Line to Tâ—…wdor in the Person of Henry the seventh who united the two Houses of York and Lancaster after to Stuart in the Person of King Iames who united the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland and continuing and long may it in our present Soveraign six hundred years and upwards till this fatal Revolution was come when we were under an Anarchy no Government at all in reality There are reckoned during this interregnum no less then seventeen Forms of Authority we were under in the space of eleven years betwixt the Parliament Protector and Army In the year 1651 our present Soveraign to regain his Right entered England from Scotland where Cromwell had p evailed and very like to carry all before him and got a start of three dayes march and came to Worcester where he was not long after defeated but most miraculously escaped into France where Divine Providence preserved him safe and after many strange over-turnings after we had been ridden by a Rump of a Parliament and tyrannised over in our Lives and Estates by the Protector Oliver Cromwell who by wicked means had scrued himself into the Supreme Power and wearied with the lording Insolencies of an Army by the Conduct of General Monk returned him in Honour and safety to his Kingdomes and his Kingdomes to Peace and Prosperity on his most happy Birth-day May 29. 1660. since which His Majesty is most happily Married to the Infanta of Portugal and such an alliance made as will be most beneficial to the Trade and consequently promote the Glory of these Nations Scotland invironed with the Sea except on the south side where it bordereth with England is not so fruitful yet hath of all things enough to fustain it self the head-City is Edenborough Scotland giveth many sorts of course Woollen Cloth Wool Mault Hides Fish The principal Order of Knighthood here is that of St. Andrew The Knights did wear about their necks a Collar interlaced with Thistles with the picture of St. Andrew appendent to it The Motto is Nemo me impune lacesset Secondly of Nova Scotia ordained by King Iames one thousand six hundred twenty two hereditary but the Knights thereof distinguished by a Riband of Orange Tawney the Arms of the Kingdome are Sol a Lion Rampant Mars within a double Tressure counter-flowered Little can be said of Scotland because its story is all one with England as to latter Times But be it remembred that soon after the union of the two Kingdoms was dissolved by dividing the Head thereof by the hand of Violence that Realm was totally Conquered by the English which all the English Prowess and valour of our Ancestors could never effect This was atcheived by the incomparable Felicity and conduct of the thrice renowned General Monck who in 1653. marched over Hills Rocks and Praecipices into the furthest Northern parts of Scotland and there forced General Middleton to fight where the said Middleton was overthrown and the whole Countrey thereupon submitted to the Conquerour Ireland is full of brooks marshes waters and woods hath good pasture and abundance of tame and wilde beasts but little grain the Inhabitants are rude and wilde People yet through the conversation and Government of the English are daily more and more brought to Civility the air here is very temperate cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter than in England the Arms of Ireland are Azure an Harp Or stringed Argent This Kingdom was never in a better constitution of Government as to appearance than in the beginning of our Troubles in 1639. by the prudent steerage of the Earl of Strafford Deputy thereof but in 1640. the 23. of October such a sudden and bloody Rebellion broke out that from that day
Government popular These People first knew their strength by the defeated Ambition of Charles Duke of Burgundy some Ages since whom after their request to him for Peace which he would not admit without Subjection intending also to swallow Italy they utterly overthrew at the Battel of Nancy but Francis the first of France made them know they were not invincible at the Battel of Serisolles in the Dutchy of Millain where he slew near 20000 of them and brought down their stomachs They are now the best strength the Kings of France have for Infantry of which there is a constant standing Force maintained but so Mercenary that upon any failure of their Pay their cry grown into a Proverb iâ—… No Money no Switzer The Cantons of the two different perswasions Roman and Zuinglian were lately at feud and several skirmishes happened to the Breach of the Confederacy and Union but all was at last Composed by the mediation of the French Ambassadors no lesse a Person then the Duke of Longoville being employed in that affair to prevent the designs and intrigues of the Spaniard and the Pope who promoted that difference The Country of the Grisons is bounded on the east with the Country of Tyrol with Switzerland on the north with Suevia and a part of the Switzers on the south with Lombardy on the west a very Mountainous and barren Land the People now Protestant their Government popular in these Alpine parts there are two Arch-bishops thirteen Bishops This Countrey is modernly called the Valtoline being the passage out of the Emperour 's Hereditary Countrey in Germany into Italy and therefore anxiously and jealously look'd upon by both the Crowns of France and Spain lest the Spaniard should have it open for any assistance suddenly to overwhelm the Princes thereof upon which account these Grisons suffered by both Armies in the business of Mantua aforesaid but in that Peace were re-established in their own Signiory as it now continues more out of others distrust then its own impregnability In this Country of the Grisons some thirty years agoe a Mountain by an Earth-quake fell and covered a Village called Pelura burying the Town and Inhabitants together in its ponderous Sepulchre so irrecoverably that not the Cry of any of those miserable persons was ever heard and were swallowed up quick in that terrible manner France hath alwayes been held the principal and worthiest Kingdome of all Christendome it is bounded on the east with Germany and southward with the Mediterranean Sea south-east with the Alps and on the north with the British Sea It is very fruitful in all sorts of grain and whatsoever is needful for the maintenance of life especially it hath great abundance of wines wherewith many other Lands are also served It is divided into many great Dukedoms and Provinces it hath in it also divers great mighty and famous Cities the People are heady but ingenious and good Warriours The Government is meerly Regal and at the pleasure of the Prince of which it hath had many great and powerful ones The Religion of the Land is Popish but there are many Protestants there who although they have been greatly persecuted yet sometimes their number hath indulged them in the exercise thereof The chief Orders of Knighthood yet extant here are first of St. Michael instituted one thousand four hundred and nine It consisted first of thirty persons but after of three hundred the Habit of the order a long Cloak of white Damask down to the ground with a border interwoven with cockle-shels of gold interlaced and furred with Ermins with a Hood of Crimson Velvet and a long tippet about their necks they wear a Collar woven with Cockle-shels the word Immensi tremor oceani the Picture of S. Michael Conquering the Divel was annexed to the Collar the Seat thereof antiently Saint Michael's mount in Normâ—…dy and the day Saint Michael's day Secondly of the Holy Ghost ordained one thousand five hundred seventy nine The order of St. Michael is to be given to none but such as were dignified with this whereunto none were to be admitted but such as could prove their Nobility by three descents their Oath to maintain the Romish Catholick Religion and persecute all opponents to it their Robe a black velvet mantle pourtrayed with Lillies and flames of gold the Collar of Flower-de-luces and flowers of gold with a Cross and a Dove appendent to it The Arms of France are Azure three Flower-de-luces Or it hath seventeen Arch-Bishops one hundred and eight Bishops and one hundred thirty two thousand Parishes The Pyrenean hills are only a bound between France and Spain two potent Kingdoms the whole length not reckoning in the windings and turnings affirmed to be eighty Spanish Leagues at three miles to a League the People barbarous but of what Religion my Author saith not It may be he esteemed them so barbarous that he thought they could live without any Religion at all The Kingdom of France hath been Governed and possessed by three several Races of Princes since the failure of the Issue of Charlemayn the last of whose name Chilperick the fourth was deposed first by the Pope and then by the common Consent of Parliament and Pepin the Great Son of the Mayre of the Pallace which Officer a long space of 120 years and upwards had successively mannaged the State both for Peace and War was advanced to the Crown which after a long descent vested in the name of Valois which for some centuries of years and during the Wars with England valiantly and prudently swayed the Sword and Scepter This line was extinct almost in memory in the Person of Henry the 3. of France stabbed at the Siege of Paris by a Iacobine Monk when by vertue of the Salique Law which admits of no Females to the Crown it devolved after a long and bloody war worse then their three Civil Wars concerning Religion the Head of the Protestant Armies being this very Prince to Henry of that name the fourth of Bourbon This was a Son of Valour the Great Captain who by assistance of Queen Elizabeth by some Forces under the Earl of Essex broke that abominable League of the Guisians against him and established his Throne and preparing for some great design was stabbed by one Francis Ravilliac in hâ—…s Coach in the Streets of Paris His Son Lewis the 13 succeeded in whose Reign in the year 1627. was that unfortunante Expedition of the English to the Isle of Rhee in relief of the Rochellers where the French taking advantage the English as they were retreating after four Months Continuance in that Island defying the whole strength of France but in vain besieging the strong Citadel of St. Martins were at last ventured on as they were passing over a Cawsey to their Ships On both sides this way there were Salt-pans the way it self broad enough but for four Men a Breast where they were put unto some Confusion and a great many perished in the Salt-pans but the
especially in weaving cloth of gold and silk The Dominions of it are eighty miles the revenue is eighty thousand crowns yearly it can raise for war fifteen thousand foot and three thousand horse the Government is mixed of Aristocracy and Democracie the principal Magistrate called Gon Falinere is changeable every second month assisted by a certain and determinate number of citizens whom they change every sixth month also during which time they lie together in the Palace or common-hall their Protector is also elective of some neighbour King or State their Religion is Popish they have two Bishops onely acknowledging the Arch-bishop of Florence for their Metropolitan The Common-wealth of Genoa in Italy lieth west of Tuscany from which it is divided by the river Macra They were anciently a large State but have now onely Liguria and the Isle of Corsica in their power the men were good warriors Merchants and given to usury which they learned of the Jews Mr. Heylin reporteth that it was the saying of a merry fellow that in Christendome there were neither Scholars enough Gentlemen enough nor Jews enough not Scholars enough for then so many would not be double or treble-beneficed not Gentlemen enough for then we should not have so many Pesants turn Gentlemen nor Iastly Jews enough for then so many Christians would not turn Usurers The Women here are priviledged above all Italy having liberty to talk with whom they will and be courted by any that will both publikely and privately from hence and some other particulars they have made this proverb of the State of the Countrey Mountains without wood Seas without fish Men without faith and Women without shame They have a Duke and eight more assistant with him all subject to the general Councel of four hundred men the Duke and his eight assustants hold but two years Spain is their Protector and they have one Arch-bishop fourteen Bishops This Common-wealth hath maintain'd it self in perfect peace at home and free Commerce at Sea by its good Government for many ages past having sometimes been troubled by the quarrelling interests of its Neighbour potent Princes viz. the Duke of Savoy the French and the Dutchy of Millain belonging to the Spaniard They are the King of Spain's constantest Exchequer The State of Lumbardy in Italy is bounded on the east with Romandiola and the State or Territory of Ferrara on the west with that part of the Alps which divides Italy from France on the north reckoning Marca Trevigiana within the bounds thereof with that part of the Alps which lyeth towards Germany and on the south with the Apennine which parteth it from Liguria or the States of Genoa as Italy is the Garden of Europe so Lumbardy is the Garden of Italy for the fruitfulness The Dukedome of Millain in Italy hath on the east the States of Mantua and Parma on the west Piemont and some part of Switzerland one of the Provinces of the Alps on the north Marca Trevigiana and on the south the Apennine which parteth it from Liguria or the States of Genoa It hath had several Lords and Dukes of Millain accounted the chief Dukedom in Christendom but now under the Spaniards the annual rent worth eight hundred thousand Duckets but considering all charges the Spaniard is taken to lose in keeping it The arms are Argent a Serpent Azure crowned Or in his Gorge an infant Gules There are one Arch-Bishop six Bishops The title to this Dutchy was as above long contested for by the two Crowns of France and Spain but was finally vested in the most Catholique King during the last rupture between those two Monarchs this was a sad Theatre of War and Bloodshed The last parting blow not to recite more before the whole general peace concluded 1659. was at the City of Pavia besieged by Prince Tho. of Savoy General for the French and the united strength of Savoy and Prince of Modena which by the valour of the besieged and the succour brought them by the Marquess of Caracena Governour of Millain was freed after four months siege and the two aforesaid Princes put to the rout with the loss of 3000. Men some Cannon Bag and Baggage the said Duke shot in the Arm and the Prince thereby contracted such a Feaver that it soon after ended him The Dukedome of Mantua in Italy is bounded on the west with Millain on the east with Romandiola on the north with Marca Trevigiana and on the south with the Dukedom of Parma the Soyl is reasonable good and yieldeth all sorts of fruits being well manured plentifull in Corn Pastures and abundance of Vines but the Inhabitants not so civil and well bred as the rest of Italy childish in their Apparel without Manly gravity in entertainment of friends and exacting all they can from strangers it is a Soveraignty and hath had many Dukes thereof The chief Order of Knighthood in these Dukedomes is of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ instituted Ann. one thousand six hundred eight it consisteth of 20 Knights whereof the Mantuan Dukes are Soveraigns The collar hath threds of gold laid on with fire and enterwoven with these words Domine probasti To the collar are pendent two Angels supporting three drops of blood and circumscribed Nihil isto triste recepto It is accounted a great circuit but not worth above five hundred thousand Ducats the arms are Argent a cross Patee Gules between four Eagles sable membred of the second under an Escuchion in fise charged quarterly with Gules a Lion Or and Or three bars Sable here are one Archbishop and four Bishops In the year 1627. the 26 of December Duke Vincent of Mantua deceasing without Children the succession fell to the Duke of Nevers a Peer of France of the illustrious kin and family of Gonzaga who received it and precipitated his investiture therein without the knowledge of the Emperour to whom that Dutchy is Feudatory The Spaniards out of jealousie the Savoyards out of an old pretension seized of many places in Montferrat and besieged Casal The Duke of Neverâ—… garrisoned many tenable places and joyned with the Venetians untill such time as the French forces arrived who had been detained at the seige of Rochel under the command of the Duke of Crequi who opposed those Armies and at last came an Army of twenty thousand out of Germany sent by the Emperour to assert his own Authority By these numerous Hosts the Country was almost depopulated the Churches robbed the Germans being most Lutherans and so enemies to the Romish Superstition till at last by the powerfull instance of Cardinal Richleiu who set up this Duke in spight of the Emperour and to allay the greatness of the House of Austria a peace was concluded at Vienna wherein the Duke of Nevers was established and did his Homage and published just as the Armies of the French and their Confederates were ready to joyn in battell at the Seige of Casal defended by the brave French Marquess De Toyrass
Van that had passed resolutely returning to the assistance of those Companies in the Reer thus endangered the French their first fury being over fled back over the same Cawsey with more Confusion than the English were driven before and durst never attempt any further upon them but permitted them and gladly too to embarque where the Duke of Buckingham stayed eight dayes resolving to do something more if the supply under the Earl of Holland had come sooner This Invasion of the English put the French into another pannick Fear of their Victorious Armes but Providence and the Policy of Cardinal Richleiu secured them by whose Conduct the Raign of this Prince was very fortunate though embroyled in a War with Spain and the House of Austria for some years before his death which a while after the decease of the said Lewis 14 and Cardinal Richleiu by the prudence of Cardinal Mazarine was Concluded in a Peace and Marriage betwixt Lewis the 14. present King of France and the Infanta of Spain by which Treaty France gained some Provinces and since by the Surrender of the Duke of Lorrain is possest also of that Soveraignty The Nobility are Couragious and valiant but the Plebe or Peasants the most abject heart-less People in the World the Gentry also of a like temper with the Nobility so that if they have no War abroad to spend that fury they will waste it among themselves in intestine troubles as long Experience hath demonstrated it Spain is severed from France by the Pyrenaean Mountains on all other sides it is environed with the Sea it containeth at this day divers Kingdoms One Goths Two Navars There have been fourty one Kings The Arms are Gules a Carbuncle nowed Or. The chief Order of Knighthood was of the Lilly their Blazon a pot of Lillies with the pourtraicture of the Virgin ingraven upon it their Duty to defend the Faith and daily to repeat certain Ave Maries Third Biscay and Empascon it hath had nineteen Lords Their Arms Argent two Wolves Sable each of them in his mouth a Lamb of the second Four Leon and Oviedo hath had thirty Kings The Arms are Argent a Lion passant crowned Or Five Gallicia hath had ten Kings the Arms Azure semee of Cressets ficed a Chalice crowned Or Six Corduâ—…a hath had twenty Kings the Arms Or a Lion Gules armed and crowned of the first a border Azure charged with eight Towers Argent Seven Granado hath had twenty Kings the Arms Or a Pomgranate slipped Vert Eight Murcia Nine Toledo hath had eleven Moorish Kings Ten Castile hath had twenty Kings the Order of Mercy is the chief Order here their Arms are a Cross Argent and four Beads Gules in a field Or their Habit white the rule of their Order that of St. Augustine their Duty was to redeem Christians taken by the Turks with such Money as was bestowed upon them Eleven Portugal hath had twenty one Kings the principal order of Knighthood here are first of Avis wearing a green Cross second of Christ instituted one thousand three hundred twenty one their Robe is a black Cassock under a white Surcoat wherewith a red Cross stroked in the midst with a white line their duty to expel the Moors out of Boetica the next neighbour to Portugal the Arms of this Kingdome are Argent on five Escouchins Azure as many Besants in Saltire of the first pointed sable within a border Gules charged with seven Towers Or Twelve Aragon hath had twenty Kings the Order of Knighthood is of Mintsea their Robe a red Cross upon their breast the Arms Or four Pallets Gules All these but Portugal and Navar are united in one Monarchy of the King of Spain their Religion is Popish whereunto they are kept by the violence of the Inquisition The Land yields all sorts of Wines Oyles Sugar Grain Mettals as Gold and Silver it is fertile enough for the Inhabitants whose ambitions for the most part are base the meanest proud the best superstitious and hypocrites many of them lascivious yet good Souldiers by patience in enduring hunger thirst labour The King is not rich by reason of his great expences to keep his Dominions in which he hath eleven Arch-bishops fifty two Bishops This Kingdome of Spain is risen to this grandeur and united strength within the Memory of our Grandfathers Ferdinand King of Aragon by his valour in vanquishing the Moors and expelling them out of Spain and his prudence and happiness in marrying with the Heir of the Kingdome of Castile made it of many one entire Realm The wealth of the Indies by the offer and fortunate discovery of Columbus being thrown as an addition to his Felicity This was further aggrandized and increased by the Marriage of his Heir Ioan to the House of Austria who by a late Marriage with the Heir of Burgundy was reckoned the most considerable Prince in Europe This was Philip the first of that name King of Castile Son to Maximilian Arch-Duke of Austria Duke of Burgundy and from which Marriage with Ioan descended Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany who had Issue Philip the second King of Spain who by pretence of a Right by his Wife and by Force of Arms wrested Portugal from the right Heir the House of Braganza This Philip long Coveted an universal Empire and for which ambition many thousand lives and more hundred thousand pounds drawn from his inexhaustible Mines have been expended His War in the Low-Countries 〈◊〉 the United Provinces which revolted from him lasted above 80. years during which time He had several ruptures with the French and English both being his constant Enemy all Queen Elizabeths Reign Yet since the Peace of the United Provinces he hath been as hard put to it as before his Provinces in the Low-Countries much harassed and his Forces over-powered by the united French and English Forces sent by Oliver Cromwell to attaque him there while a Fleet was sent to the West Indies to seize his Mines that his Treasure by the great charge difficulty and danger in bringing it from thence was neer exhausted so that a Peace was very requisite for him whereby he regained Catalonia who revolted at the same time in the year 1640. with Portugal and hath advantage of employing his Armies solely against that Kingdome but it is not to be doubted with but little success so that he will be constrained to abandon his pretences as he did to the Hollander He hath quitted the Provinces of Artois and Henault in Flanders and the County of 〈◊〉 to the French as Dower with his Daughter England together with Scotland on the north part thereof maketh the greatest Island of Europe and the richest in the World situated in a very temperate Soil and wholesome Air and exceeding fruitful in Wheat and other grain hath many pleasant Rivers plentifully stored with Fish excellent Havens both commodious and safe Mines of Silver Lead Iron especially of fine Tinn bearing fine Wool of which is made
of Castles and Villages such abundance of People and with such Politique Government that she may compare with any The Soil is fruitful both in Corn and Wine it hath many Navigable Rivers stored with plenty of Fishes most excellent Fountains and hot Bathes Mines of Gold Silver Tin Copper Lead and Iron it hath very Learned Men skilful in all Sciences and Mechanick Arts The Religion is here very diverse for there being many free Provinces some are Papists some Protestants and of these again some Calvinists some Lutherans There are six Arch-Bishops and thirty four Bishops The Wars of Germany ushered in by the Comet or Blazing-Star in 1618 have had dire and prodigious effects first the Prince Elector Palatine undertaking the Crown of Bohemia was worsted at Prague and the King of Denmark seconding him was likewise brought very low by Count Tilly the Emperour's General and glad to accept of a Peace upon hard terms when in 1629 enters Gustâ—…vus Adolphus the King of Sweden whose victorious Armes conquered Tilly at the Battel of Leipsick and presently over-run all Germany defeated the Emperours next General Wallestein Duke of Freidland at Lutzen where notwithstanding he was killed his Army had the Day of whom it was said that Before Death in Death and after Death he was victorious At the Battel of Nordlingâ—…in the Fortune of the Swedes failed a great slaughter being made on them by the Imperial Army and so a Peace was afterwards patched and again interrupted till the solemn and general Pacification at Munster since which time the Princes and People have been in quiet The Prince Elector Palatine losing the one half of his Estate as forfeited to the Emperour who hath invested the Duke of Bavaria the Electors neerest kinsman in the upper Palatinate Denmark and Norway are very great Regions bordering southward upon Germany they extend toward the north to seventy one degrees and thirty minutes north Latitude towards the east they border upon Sweden and on the west and north-side they are invironed with the Sea they at this time are under the Government of one King who is Lord of Seland Greenland Hitland and Gothland These Kingdomes afford unto other Lands Oxen Barley Mault Stock-fish Tallow Sand Nuts Hides Goat-skins Masts Deals Oaken-boards Wood to burn Pitch Tarr Brimstone and the like their Religion is the Lutherans The chief Order of Knighthood in it is that of the Elephant their Badge a Collar powdered with Elephants towered supporting the Kings Arms and having at the end the Picture of the Virgin Mary The Arms of the Land are Quarterly Of three Lions passant Vert crowned of the first for the Kingdome of Denmark and two Gules a Lion rampant Or crowned and armed of the first in the Paws a Dansk hatchet Argent for the Kingdome of Norway there are two Arch-Bishops thirteen Bishops This King is allyed to the Crown of England Queen Ann Wife to King Iames being Aunt to this present King Frederick Twice in twenty years not to mention other Wars before hath this Crown been endangered by the Swedes but more neerly in 1657 and 8 when the King of Sweden Carolus Gustavus being drawn out of Poland to prevent the Dane then in Arms against him with strange success almost over-run his Countrey In a most hard Winter he passed his Arms and Canon over the Sea from the Continent unto the Island of Funen where he overthrew the Dane took Cronenburg Castle which Commanded the Sound and at last laid Seige to Copenhaguen the chief City of Denmark where attempting a Storm by night he was repulsed with the loss of three thousand Men and soon after the Hollanders with a Fleet in spight of his Navy and the said Castle entered and relieved the Town with Conceit whereof and a violent Feaver the said King not long after deceased and the Danes in gratitude and Honour of their King Frederick who had so bravely defended and stood by them consented to make that Kingdome hereditary as now it is established all the Estates having done Homage which before was onely Elective the Family of this King afore injoying onely the Crown of Norway by descent and inheritance This Prince suffered much for siding with the Dutch against the English in the late difference seizing there twenty of our Merchant-men on pretence of his Aunts Dower but was forced at last to make recompense for the dammages which the Dutch undertook for him Sweden is a great and mighty Kingdome bordering on the East upon Muscovia on the south upon the Baltick Sea and Denmark on the West upon Norway and on the North upon the Finmark and the Zurick Sea The Merchandises it selleth are Copper Iron Lead costly Furrs Buff and Ox-hides Goat-skins Tallow Pitch Barley Mault Hazel-nuts and such like things their Religion is Lutheran the Arms of the Kingdom Azure three Crowns Or It hath two Arch-Bishops eight Bishops It is a wonder and Men can scarce comprehend how this Nation is come to this greatness to make War in so many parts of Europe being to pass over the Sea or how they get so many Men in Arms the Dominions thereof being large but not populous so that there never came from thence sixty thousand Men. It was reported that many Women in Mens clothes supplyed their places and fought like Amazons The beginning of this upstart greatness was from Charles Duke of Sunderman who being Uncle to Sigismond King of Sweden by Descent and of Poland by Election upon his seating himself in that Kingdom and constituting his Uncle Vice-Roy of his Native Kingdome of Sweden he with the consent of the Senators assumes the Crown and maintaines it against his Nephew whereupon ensued divers Battels the Usurper wafting over his Swedes into Poland and beginning an offensive War when he dying his Son the Great Gustavus prosecuted it afresh till after various Successes a Truce was concluded on before the expiration of which he fell with that strange success into Germany before said After his death his Daughter Christina was Crowned and Reigned seventeen years when another occasion of War hapning they judging her not capable to mannage it procured her to renounce her right to the Crown and resign it to her kinsman Carolus Gustavus who with a powerfull Army invaded Poland prompted thereunto by Cardinal Mazarine and the Usurping Protector of England who by an Ambassador Mr. Whitlock projected that Invasion to keep the Arms of the House of Austria in suspence and attendance of the issue of that War which were raised to the assistance of the Spaniards then in War with both French and English Carolus Gustavus dying as aforesaid the Crown is placed on the head of his Son Charles a Child of five years old by his Wife the Daughter of the Duke of Holsteyn Of their late Conquests within these fourty years there remains to that Crown all Pomerania and the Arch-Bishoprick of Brâ—…men in Germany besides other less Provinces gained from the Dane and several Islands