The Works of Sir John Suckling in prose and verse/Appendix
APPENDIX
The following letter, in Suckling's handwriting, is among the Domestic State Papers in the Public Record Office (Charles I., vol. ccxvi., No. 4). It was printed by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his edition of Suckling's works, with a facsimile of the signature and date. In the present edition it is printed from the editor's own copy of the original. The spelling has been modernized, save in the case of proper names and of two or three characteristic words. The passages printed in italics are in cipher in the original, in which the translation has been interlined. One ciphered word has been left without explanation by the translator.
The letter is interesting for the information which it affords with regard to English diplomacy during the most critical period of the Thirty Years' War, and with respect to Suckling's return from his expedition as a volunteer in the Lutheran army. Sir Henry Vane, Comptroller of the Household, had gone in 1631 on a mission to Gustavus Adolphus to ask his help for the dispossessed Elector Palatine, and had spent the winter at Mainz, Gustavus's headquarters. Here Suckling, who had taken part in the campaign of 1631, probably met him. Suckling returned to England in the spring of 1632, and arrived in London on Tuesday, May 1, the day before this letter was written. It was addressed evidently to Sir Henry Vane, and gives an account of Suckling's reception by the King and by the Lord Treasurer, Sir Richard Weston, then Baron Weston of Neyland, created Earl of Portland in 1633. Clarendon's long account of Lord Portland (History of the Rebellion, ed. 1705, i. 47-55) is emphatic as regards his haughty and jealous temper, and his more than suspected leaning to Spain and the Roman interest, which this letter corroborates. Gustavus had entered on his spring campaign, and his advance on Munich had been secured by the capture of Donauwörth at the beginning of April. In February the Emperor Ferdinand had concluded an alliance with Philip IV. of Spain; and, later, a Spanish force, at the invitation of the Chapter of Trier, had entered the Archbishopric of Trier, and, pressing on from the Moselle to the Rhine, captured Speyer in the Palatinate. Wallenstein had been induced, on extraordinary terms, to get an army together; the final agreement had been made in April, and when this letter was written Wallenstein was already moving on Prague from his headquarters at Znaim in Moravia. The allusion to the Landgrave of Hesse's defeat is not very clear: William, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, was Gustavus's most steadfast supporter in the Rhenish territory, and probably had attempted to check the Spanish advance on the Palatinate. For English policy (1630-1635) with respect to a Spanish alliance, as criticized in this letter, see Cambridge Modern History, vol. iv., 1906, pp. 275, 276.
Sir Henry Vane's negotiations with Gustavus were not successful: England had not enough money to offer. Sir Henry's son, afterwards the famous Sir Henry Vane of Commonwealth times, had been attached to the English Embassy at Vienna, and had returned to England shortly before Suckling. Of the other persons referred to, Maxfield and Murray were gentlemen of the King's bedchamber, William Murray being created Earl of Dysart in 1643. Sir Isaac Wake was English Ambassador at Paris in 1631-32; he died in 1632. Sir Thomas Roe, a personal friend of Charles I.'s sister, the Electress Palatine, was employed throughout the period in missions on behalf of the Protestant cause, and, as Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, had prevented an alliance between the Emperor and the Sultan in 1628; presumably his friends regarded his influence with Gustavus as likely to be injured by Vane. 'My Lord Marquis' is James, Third Marquess of Hamilton, the leader of the English volunteers in the Lutheran army; he appears to have been at Mainz with Gustavus, while his troops, or a remnant of them, remained with David Leslie in Silesia. 'Jacob Ashley' is Sir Jacob, afterwards Baron, Astley, who, in spite of his advanced years, did good service with the King in the Civil War. 'My Lord of Middlesex' was, of course, Suckling's uncle, Lionel Cranfield, who at this time occupied no official position. The sense of the passage implies that, by 'my Lord Vane,' Suckling referred to the younger Henry, though neither he nor his father were peers.
The allusion to the appointment of a Cofferer of the Household is obvious, but who actually received that appointment at this time the editor has not discovered. 'Pharneses'' case is doubtful: the allusion is certainly to one of the House of Farnese, and may be a historical reference to Alexander, Prince of Parma, famous in the statesmanship of Philip II.'s reign.'Right Honourable,
'What my journey through France afforded your Lordship had in haste from Dover by the way of Antwerp. On Tuesday I arrived at court, and came soon enough to find the face of it extremely changed, looking asquint upon you in Germany, as well as upon all us that were sent from thence. The fault at first I laid upon the night and my own bad eyes, but the next day made it clear and plain. The packet to my Lord Treasurer I presented first, and the taking of Donawart, who both to the bearer and the news showed alike indifferent, something cool, if not cold perchance, his garb. From thence I went to the King, and made my way by Maxfeild, Murrey being not there. His Majesty was well content the King was still victorious, but took it not so hot as those of France; nor did he at first conceive of it of so great importance. The bedchamber men were most of them there, and the King spoke loud: that little, therefore, I had to say to him from Sir Isaack Wake and your Lordship, I reserved for a more private audience, that I might see something more into the King's mind. Mr. Murrey would have had it been the next morning, but I deferred it a day, and, having seen my Lord of Middlesex, and spoken with your son, I found, as I conceived, the reason of what I so much wondered at, and a better way than otherwise perchance I had taken. Before, therefore, I went to the King, I attended my Lord Treasurer, and told him that by more particular command I was more specially to wait upon his Lordship, that I was to speak to the King that morning, but was come before to kiss his Lordship's hands; and, having in a manner repeated what I was to say, because I knew that which I had both from you and Sir Isaack Wake was something too much Sweden and monarchy, I mingled with it the noise of the Spaniards passing the Mosell, the confirmation of the Landgrave of Hessen's defeat, and the voted forces of Wallesten (of which I conceived by circumstance you writ nothing), all which more specially he commanded me to represent to his Majesty. In the conclusion I told him that, if there were any thing in what I had said that could seem less fit to his Lordship, or any thing besides that his Lordship could think more fit, I stood there ready to be disposed of by him. Upon which he imbraced me, thanked your Lordship more especially for that address, promised to send away presently to you, and willed me to attend while he came to the King, that he might present me; which he did. The King was very well pleased and satisfied, much better than he was at my first appearing. He questioned me much and about many things; resolved for a dispatch, but seemed to refer it to my Lord Treasurer: he conceived you had … already, but yet should have more since you required them. Thus things have passed in shew well in this last act. By the dispatch itself you will easily judge whether really be intended or no, if, after all this delay, it be full and without reserves, the fears of all those that honour you and serve you are at an end. Howsoever, though there be some, yet the next from you (I conceive) will take them all away. The disposal of the Coferer's place after this manner makes the world think that there is some staggering in the friendship betwixt my Lord Treasurer and you, if not a breach; and those that are of Sir Thomas Roe's cabinet would persuade that you were sent over to undo the affairs of the King of Swede and your own. Many that really wish you well begin to imagine that you shall be kept there longer than you would. If there be any such thing, the causes certainly will be these. First, your greatness with my Lord Marquis, and your too strict intelligence one with another, which is here represented to the full. And howsoever your Lordship thinks things are reconciled betwixt my Lord Treasurer and him, yet they say otherwise here, and the effects speak no less. No man dares think well of him here; and, by what your son and I have observed, it is easy to believe the King's ears himself has been a little too open to the reports. I do him all the service I can, where I find it may do any good, though I know Jacob Ashley has lost himself about the same thing.
'Jo. Sucklinge.'
'May 2d, 1632,
'Whitehall.
'If your Lordship would please to think it fit to send at random (and by any messengers rather than none) the news, it would not certainly be amiss.'