IV. 1654. Treaty with Sweden. spirit of The treaty with Sweden was framed about the CHAP. same time with the treaties with Holland and Portugal. In this alone Cromwel appears to have departed from the imperious tone he had assumed in the preceding instances. In the first place we Deferential had nothing to complain of on the part of Sweden. Cromwel. In the next place the gallantry of Cromwel appears to have been concerned. Sweden was governed by a young princess, only twenty-eight years of age, the daughter of a hero (Gustavus Adolphus), and who had already become distinguished throughout Europe for her learning and patronage of literary ment. Add to which, in the great division of the European governments into Catholic and Protestant, Sweden was at this time the most considerable of the Protestant monarchies with which we were called upon to ally ourselves. The first fruits of this favourable disposition 1653. displayed themselves in the summer of the pre- of Whitceding year. Viscount Lisle first, and afterwards locke. Cromwel sent his portrait See above, Vol. III, p. 243, 244. to queen Christina, inscribed with a Latin epigram, supposed to be the production of Milton, the sense of which is as follows. "Virgin, powerful in war, queen of the frozen north, bright star of the pole, you see what furrows the toils of the field have traced in my brow, while, already old in appearance, I still retain the energies of a soldier, and pursue the untried paths of fate, executing the heroic behests of that country with whose welfare I am intrusted. Yet to you I willingly smooth the sternness of my feature; nor shall the royal Christina find that I at all times regard the possessor of a throne with severity." Milton, Epigramma 13. Embassy IV. 1653. BOOK Whitlocke, had been named to be sent ambassador to the court of Christina". Subsequently Cromwel found that the presence of Lisle would be more useful to him at home, whose name was shortly after placed first in the list of the protector's council in the act of government; while he rather wished for the absence of the grave and circumspect Whitlocke at the critical period of this revolution. Whitlocke therefore received his instructions in October, and embarked at Gravesend on the fifth of November*. 1654. The treaty was not exposed to many difficulties. Conclusion. The Swedish government felt the desirableness of a state of amity with Great Britain; and the character and successes of Cromwel inspired them with unfeigned respect. The news of his accession to the protectorate reached the queen in less than a month from the event. The proposition that Whitlocke carried, was that of a treaty of commerce, and a prohibition of protection and favour to the enemies of either. Upon this point only Christina hesitated. She also desired that the peace with Holland should precede the conclusion of her own treaty. When that business was considered as finished, the articles received their confirmation on the twenty-eighth of April; Journal of the Swedish Ambassy, by Whitlocke, Vol. I, p. 2. See above, Vol. III, p. 569. * Journal of Anbassy, IV. 1654. and Christina resigned her crown one month CHAP. after". The treaty however had had the approbation of Charles the Tenth, her successor, and therefore sustained no interruption from the change of the sovereign. y Ibid. Vol. II, p. 113. 58 CHAPTER V. DISAFFECTION OF THE ANABAPTISTS.-CABALS IV. 1659. Dismission of Harrison. BOOK NEVER certainly was there a government more active and vigilant than that of Cromwel; and he needed all his energies in that sort to defend himself against his multiplied adversaries. Among the republicans, his most determined foes were the anabaptists; and the most distinguished man in this sect, was Harrison. Cromwel and Harrison had lived in cordial friendship. The former had received the zealous assistance of the latter, in the bold and critical measure of dispersing the Long Parliament. But, when Cromwel advanced a step further, and claimed to be the single person who should hold the office of executive magistrate, Harrison became his steady opponent. In addition to the love of liberty and equality which inspired Vane and Bradshaw and Marten, he held the government of a single person to be in V. 1659. irreconcilable hostility to the spirit of the Chris- CHAP. tian religion. "The kings of the Gentiles," says Christ, "exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors: but ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that servetha." The new government was constituted on the sixteenth of December; and, a few days after, Cromwel caused Harrison to be applied to, to know whether he could own and act under the present power. Harrison with his customary frankness answered that he could not; and his commission was in consequence taken from him". Feake and A political meeting of the anabaptists had been Proceedfor some months held in Black Friars every Mon- Christopher ings of day evening, which had attracted considerable no- others, tice by the daringness of its projects and the intemperance of its language. On Sunday, December the eighteenth, two days after that in which Cromwel was installed lord protector, Christopher Feake and Vavasor Powel, two of their most celebrated preachers, held forth in their sermons against him, denouncing him as a perjured villain, and desiring that, if any of his friends were present, they would go to him, and tell him in their name, that his reign would be short, and Luke, Chap. xxii. ver. 25. b Thurloe, Vol. I, p. 641. |