ment. I was at Delft to see the wrack that was made by the blowing up of the powder this day seuenight, it is a sad sight, whole streets quite razed; not one stone vpon another, it is not yett knowen how manie persons are lost, there is scarse anie house in the toune but the tyles are off. -(4 great blot on the paper.) Apollo with leaping into my lapp has made this blott. Thom. Killegrew is heere, who makes a rare relation of the Queene of Sueden. It is verie colde, which I hope will diminish the plague. I pray be confident that I am Your most affectionat frend, euer ELIZABETH. I ame extreme glade to heare that the King is satisfied with Ruperts letter, and that he has answered him so kindlie. I pray doe poore Curtius all the fauour you can, that he haue something from the King to incourage him the more to serue him. The Queen of Bohemia to Mr. Secretary Nicholas. HAGH No: 16. (1654). Mr. Secretarie, iust now I receaue yours, and for a cause that you shall know heereafter I now answer you, this is a riddle which none but your daughter and two more know. I was Satterday last with my best Neece' at Speilng, it being her birth day. I ashure you she is [in] much trouble for her deare Brother the D. of Glocester, all the world woulde looke for no other I can witness for you.-I ame sorie the King has so much cause of greef, I beseech God he may speedilie remedie it. I beleeue my deare Nephue has a good resolution, but there is no trusting to one of his age. I confess I did not think 1 Perhaps the Princess Dowager of Orange, par excellence; especially as the whole passage seems to refer to the attempts made at Paris, by Queen Henrietta Maria and her friends, to induce the young Prince to change his religion. the Queene woulde haue proceeded thus: all is kept heere verie secret that Prince Will:' doth in Overizel, but I ame tolde that all goes well, and that Deventer which toune was the most against will doe well, as also Rupert who was of the other faction,' not against the P. of Orange but Marshals. I pray beleeue me constantlie for I ame so Your most affectionat frend. I send you a letter for the best of Kings, tis about Thom. Killegrew's business. I pray remember me to Mr. Chancelour, and tell him his Ladie and my faourit his daughter came hither upon Saterday, and are gone this day to Teiling. I find my faourit growen euerie way to her aduantage. Nobris, 1654. R.. The Queene of Bohemia to me. The Queen of Bohemia to Sir Edward Nicholas. HAGH, De: 3. (1654). Mr. Secretarie, I receaued yours at Berghen, whither I was come from Anwerp and Bruxells. I find you haue vnridled my riddle verie right. I saw the Queene of Sueden at the play, she is extrauagant in her fashion and aparell, but she has a good well fauoured face, and a milde countenance. One of the players who knew me tolde her who I was, but she made no shew of it. I went the next day to Bruxelles, where I saw the Arch-duc at mass, and I saw his pictures and lodgins. I lay at S Harry de Vics,' 1 Prince of Nassau Dietz, married to the Stadtholder's sister. Evidently an allusion to the De Wit agitation, which at this moment was disturbing the United Provinces. The object was to deprive the infant Stadtholder of his official power, and give it solely to the Assembly of the States. This, in fact, had been one of the articles which Cromwell urged upon the States as a sine qua non. Sir Henry de Vic had been long in the English service. He was with the Duke of Buckingham at Rochelle; and there are several well-written letters from him to Lord Conway, respecting that affair, in Hardwicke's Collection of State Papers. who was verie carefull and dilligent to doe me all the service he coulde.. I stayed but Sunday at Bruxelles, and returned to Anwerp vpon Munday, and heearing from Duart how the Queene of Sueden had desired to know when I came back thither, that she might meet with me in an indiferent place, I made the more hast away the next day because I had no minde to speak with her since I heard how unhandsomelie she had spoken of the King my deare Brother and of the King my deare Nephue, and indeed of all our nation, so I auoided it and went away as soone as I had dined. Yett she sent Donoy to me with a verie civill message that she was sorie she coulde not use that ciuilitie to me as she both should doe and desired, hoping that one day wee might meet together with more freedome; I answered her as civillie as I coulde, and now when I went from Berghen I gaue S' Will: Swann charge to make her a complement from me. I came hither vpon Tewsday from Berghen, where I was extremelie well intertained by the Princess of Zolern1 who was with me and was my guide all the iourney, and defrayed me. her daughter is now so prettie euerie way that you would like her yet better than euer you did if you saw her; she is much growen and is still of a verie sweet disposition, and she doth become her: she has a great deal of witt and loues our nation extreamlie, it makes me think of your wishe' which I ame not against you know. by this post I haue had verie good news of the Duke of Glocesters constantie in his religion and of my Lo: of Ormonds handsome carriage in that business, so as the Queen saith she will press him no further Francisca, daughter of Frederick the Rhingrave, the wife of John George Prince of Hohenzollern. A plan for a marriage between Charles II. and this young Princess, one of the daughters of the Zollern family, appears at this time to have been under discussion. This alludes to the attempt made to force the young Duke of Gloucester into the Jesuits' College; from which, and other designs upon his religion, he was only saved by the Marquis of Ormond, who voluntarily offered his services in it, but I hope the King will not trust to it, but gett him away from thence, which will doe the King great right: it is so colde as I can say no more, but ame euer Your most affectionat frend. I pray excuse me to my Lo. Wentworth and reverent Dick Harding till the next. "For Mr. Secretarie." 8 Dec: St: No: 1654. R. 6°. The Queene of Bohemia cons her iourney to see the Qu. of Sweeden. The Queene of Bohemia to Sir Edward Nicholas. M' Secretarie, I haue receaued yours of the 18 of to the King to snatch his brother out of the hands of the Queen-mother and her Confessor Montague. Carte's Life of Ormond, vol. ii., pp. 163-7, contains a very amusing account of the whole transaction, telling much to the credit of the Marquis. The Duke of Gloucester, who had just been brought from Paris by the Marquis of Ormond. The Princess Dowager of Orange. • Lord Gerard of Bromley; a title now extinct. of the rebells fleet heerabouts, but they say that Blag' is to ioine with the Spanish fleet against the Duke of Guise. The French Ambassadour beleeues the treatie with Cromwell as good as broken: he is much ioyed that the meeting betwixt the Queene of Sueden and P. of Condé2 was to neither of theire content, for he desired to be receaued as the Queene receaued the Arcdduc, which she refused, saying she had done too much in that and woulde doe soe no more, yet he came to see her brusquement a l'improuist, and did nothing but railler her in his talke, which putt her so out as she said almost not one worde. This was in the morning; after dinner she sent to know if he woulde see the play at night, he said he would obey her, but desired to know whither he shoulde come knowen or as vnknowen, for if he came as Prince of Condé he looked to haue a chaise a bras as the Archduc had-she saide he had better come unknowen, so he came, and she stood all the play, railling with Mon' Quito the Princes favourit. the next day the P. went to Bruxelles, and neither of them well satisfied with the other. My La: Swann will be heere within a few days, by her I shall know more of this: I haue heard the reason of 8' Henry de Vics iourney to Coloign: since it is a doting time for the kings oulde Ministers of 'Admiral Blake is the personage here alluded to. The Duke of Guise died very soon after this letter was written, in consequence of wounds received at the siege of Arras. Yet the Prince de Condé was a great admirer of Christina, being recorded to have exclaimed of her abdication-"How great is the magnanimity of this Princess, who could so easily give up that for which mankind are continually destroying each other, and which so many throughout their whole lives pursue without attaining !" Condé, at the period here recorded, was in exile at Brussels; and though they had their differences on the score of etiquette, they appear to have talked familiarly on meeting. "Cousin!" exclaimed Christina, "who would have thought ten years ago that we should have met at this distance from our countries ?" The Prince might have thanked her for his exile, as it arose partly from her intermeddling in the affairs of the Fronde in France, a few years previous. It was an affair of courtship. Her Majesty again alludes to it in the next letter but one. |
