April 29, 1654.
Whitelocke’s passport through Flanders. Though Whitelocke received no letters this week from England, yet he had some from Hamburg and from Flanders, among which was one from Don Piementelle full of civility and compliment, giving Whitelocke notice of his safe arrival in Flanders, and advising him to take that way in his return; and in it was a letter in Spanish from Piementelle to the Prince of Mamines in Flanders, to be made use of by Whitelocke if he should have occasion there, for the more safety and accommodation of his journey. This letter Whitelocke caused to be translated:—
“Most excellent Sir,
“My Lord Whitelocke, the Lord Ambassador Extraordinary of England, having finished his embassy in this Court, is resolved to return through this province, having passed from Hamburg to Cologne, and that he may go to Brussels with better security, he desires a passport from your Highness to the Lord Archduke. I, having written that it may be despatched, and added that it may be remitted to your Excellence, do entreat you to order that the said despatch may be delivered to the party whom the said Lord Ambassador shall send from Cologne for it; and that, he passing through this town, his Lordship, by his civil entertainment, may understand the favour your Excellence doth afford me, I owing to this honourable person many and singular respects, which I desire to manifest and acknowledge. I am confident your Excellence will assist me herein, and will be disposed to employ me in many services of yours in Madrid, whither I am commanded to go, by order from my Lord the King, and shall begin my journey within three or four days, by way of Brussels, where I hope to find your Excellence’s commands, which I assure you I shall esteem in all places and obey with the highest punctuality. God preserve your Excellence the many years of my desires.
“Your Excellence’s greatest servant,
“Anto Pimentel.”
In the letter which Whitelocke wrote to Thurloe, after an account of the passages since his last, he wrote thus:—
Report of the signing of the treaty to Thurloe. “Having received no letters by the post yesterday from England, I was contented to seal the articles of our treaty; for if but a few days should be intermitted, they could not have been signed at all, because upon Tuesday next the Ricksdag, or Parliament here, is appointed to meet, and within two or three days after their meeting the Queen intends to resign her Government, and it will be some time after before the Prince be crowned. I shall have much to do to despatch the necessary ceremonies here of my public audience, to take my leave of the Queen, with the many visits I am to perform, according to the custom to which I am to conform, in regard of the honour of his Highness and our nation; for he who neglects these ceremonies here is censured for a mechanic or a boor. I intend from hence to go to the Prince of Sweden, to salute him from my Lord Protector, as I am advised that the Prince expects and desires it. From thence I purpose to go to Stockholm, where I am to take ship for Lübeck; and from thence to Hamburg, where I shall attend his Highness’s further commands, or some ships to be sent for my transport into England, which I earnestly entreat you to procure in time.
“I hope, before my going from hence, to receive his Highness’s order, which I long since wrote for, concerning my return; but however, my business being effected here, I presume I may, without displeasure to his Highness, be upon my return homewards; the rather, because upon the change which is shortly to be here my commission will be at an end.
“The Queen intends, shortly after her resignation, to go to the Spa, which I have cause to believe. In those parts they say the King of the Romans will wait upon her, but that I doubt.
“Her Majesty hath showed extraordinary affection and respect to my Lord Protector; so hath the Chancellor and his son Grave Eric, and my Lord Lagerfeldt, etc.”
Whitelocke’s interview with the Queen after the signing of the treaty. Whitelocke waited on the Queen, and gave her an account of the signing and sealing of his articles; whereupon she said:—
Queen. I am glad that this business is done to your satisfaction.
Whitelocke. There remains only your Majesty’s sealing your letters of full power to your Commissioners who treated with me.
Qu. I sealed them this morning.
Wh. Then my humble suit is, that your Majesty would appoint a day for my audience to take my leave.
Qu. This is Saturday, but if you desire it you may have it on Friday next.
Wh. Would your Majesty’s leisure permit to give me audience on Tuesday or Wednesday next, they being no holidays?
Qu. The Assembly is to sit on Tuesday, and at their first meeting I shall have a great deal of business with them, which will hinder me from any other affairs.
Wh. I humbly pray your Majesty to appoint it as soon as your own leisure will permit, for I shall have many businesses and ceremonies after it to perform, before my going away.
Qu. On Monday next I will appoint a day; and touching the secret article, about which I formerly discoursed with you, I have now altered my opinion, and am resolved to follow the advice that you and Mr. Woolfeldt have given me. I will write a letter under my own hand to the Protector to the effect you advised, and deliver it to you to be presented to him.
Wh. This will be much the better way.
Qu. I desire you to be careful of the letter; and before I seal it I will show it to you for your advice in it.
Wh. Madam, I shall have a special care of it, and to procure an answer of it from the Protector, I hope, to your Majesty’s contentment, that you may make use of it if there shall be occasion; and I believe the Protector will be a firm friend to your Majesty.
Qu. I doubt it not, nor your respects to me.
Wh. I am engaged by your many favours to serve your Majesty with all faithfulness.
Qu. I had some clothes in a ship coming hither, and the ship is taken, and my clothes detained in England, so that I cannot get them to wear.
Wh. If your Majesty want clothes, I have a piece of English stuff at my house, which cost two shillings a yard; and, if that were not too dear for your Majesty’s wearing, I would send it to you.
Qu. Two shillings a yard is dear enough for me: I pray send your stuff hither, and I shall willingly accept of it, and thank you for it.
Wh. Will your Majesty be pleased on Monday next to go into England?
Qu. Hardly so soon; yet perhaps I may one day see England. But what is your meaning in this?
Wh. Madam, Monday next is the first day of May, a great day in England; we call it May-day, when the gentlemen use to wait upon their mistresses abroad to bid the Spring welcome, and to have some collation or entertainment for them. Now your Majesty being my mistress, if you will do me the honour, that, after the custom of England, I may wait on you on May-day, and have a little treatment for you after the manner of England; this I call going into England, and shall take it as a very great favour from your Majesty.
Qu. If this be your meaning of going into England, I shall be very willing, as your mistress, to go with you on Monday next, and to see the English mode.
Lagerfeldt and the master of the ceremonies dining with Whitelocke, he inquired of them what was to be done by him as to presents to any of the Queen’s servants or officers who had done him respect in his business, or being here, and what other things were requisite to be done by him, according to the usage of ambassadors in this Court before their going away, and when he might obtain his audience to take his leave. The master of the ceremonies gave him good and chargeable instructions; and Lagerfeldt agreed in most points with him, and, upon Whitelocke’s entreaty, undertook to see that the letters of full power to the Queen’s Commissioners, and the recredentials to Whitelocke, should be perfected and brought to him, and a day of audience appointed.
Lagerfeldt told Whitelocke that the Queen was willing to present him with some of this country’s commodities, as copper, to carry with him into England, if it would be as acceptable to him as other presents of diamonds and the like; and he said he hoped there was no order of the Commonwealth of England to forbid the receiving of such presents by their public ministers. He said, that formerly he asked of Monsieur Chanut, the French Ambassador here, if he would accept a present of copper, and he willingly accepted it, and carried it with him, saying, that he rather desired copper than diamonds or jewels, because he could better sell the copper than jewels, and make money of it.
Whitelocke said, that whatsoever her Majesty pleased to bestow on him should be welcome to him, and that he liked the commodities of this country as well as those of the Indies, and that for Chanut’s reason. He said that the Protector had not forbid him to receive any testimonies of the Queen’s respect to him, as she used to do to all public ministers; that the order of the Commonwealth forbidding gifts or presents to public ministers was not now in force; that he thought her Majesty’s bounty to him, and his justification of the acceptance of it, might be the more from such valuable presents as her Majesty had done him the honour to receive from him, and his intention to bestow all his horses upon her, and such as she would appoint, which, for the honour of the Commonwealth, he would not sell.