Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
It was not always quite so easy to leave the Swedish
service as it was to enter it. Take for instance General
Leslie’s case. He was known to the Swedish Riks-Råd
as an ardent supporter of the Covenant, that is to say
an enemy of his own king.1 How was the Riks-Råd to
act? What was it to say more especially to Leslie’s
wish to take Swedish artillery with him to Scotland?
These were grave questions, questions that might lead to
international complications; but after much debate they
were finally settled in a manner that appears rather to
lack straightforwardness. Leslie’s desire had been only
temporarily to take his leave. But to this the Riks-Råd
objected, arguing that by taking his discharge for all time
he ceased to be a Swedish subject, and no responsibility
could attach to the Government. Secondly, as to artillery,
guns, and ammunition, it might be given to him as it were
in reward for his past services. He was to receive two
thousand muskets with all appurtenances, and, if he chose,
to take the risk of the passage through the Sound,
with ammunition and guns also, all free of duty, through
Jacob Maclier,2 a Scotch merchant in Stockholm.
In mitigation of this, as it would appear, flagrant breach
of international law, it must be remembered that similar
gifts, consisting of arms, were not unfrequent in those
days. Colonel Lumsden receives two hundred muskets
and two hundred cuirasses in 1640.3
General King, who left the Swedish service in 1639,
raised difficulties in another quarter. In a letter full of
1 “ Contra suum regem.” See Riks-Rådets Protokoll, vii. 274.
Cp. also vii. 279, 324.
2 Seven years later, in 1645, we again read that Leslie received 2000
muskets and 400 loads of lead (about 60 tons). Riks A.
3 Lumsden received besides a “ gold chain with the picture of Her
Majesty.” Riks-Rådets Protokoll, vii. 587. Indeed, this seems to have
been the usual parting gift to a Colonel.
H
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
