Sources:
Kristina wrote this letter to Cardinal Decio Azzolino on September 29, 1666.
The letter, with Kristina's spellings:
Vinthuitiesme lestre dAmbur le 29. 7.bre 1666
devan que de repondre a vostrelestre quisiesme lestre du 4 du Courant Je vous doneray une nouvelle qui ie Crois Vous sera agreable, qui est que laffaire des fermes sadiouste et que iattens tous les iours la Conclusion de cette affaire que le Gouverneur genl. me fait esperer au primier Jour celon les ordres que ie luy ay donne.
devan que de repondre a vostre
Cependant Adami est de retour de pomeranie d'ou Jl ma apporte toutes les informations quil a peu trie en si peu de temps, et ie lenvoy en Suede pour solliciter mes interest, et les affaires de pomeranie demeurent en suspandt iusques a son retour ou Jl les adiustera touttes dans deux ou trois mois, et Jespere et me promets qve tout sera adiouste tres avantageusement et utilement pour moy, mais Jl est necessaire quil allie primierement en Suede, pour remedier au desordres de cette province. outre Cela iay besoin denvoier vn homme fidele et affide en Suede Car ie nay pas Charge Strop de mille Chose tres importantes que iay a y negotier par ce que ie Croijois y aller moy mesme, mais a present que Je ne puis plus y aller, Comme ie Vous ay dit en mes presedentes, Jay besoin dy envoyer Adamy pour solliciter mes affaires, et Cest a present quil Va Commencer tout de bon ses negotiations, et que Je les mesteray mes interest entre les mains de lambassadeur de france de qui espere toutte assistance et ie voy les affaires disposes dvne maniere que ie Crois quon massistera sincerement. Voila lestat des mes affaires en peu de paroles.
pour repondre donc a Vostre derniere Je Vous diray que ie Vous remercie davoir agi avec tan de prudence et galanterye dans laccident du Casin. Je say que Vous ne pouvez faire austrement, mais ie ne laisse pas de Vous estre obligee et Vous prie de Croire que ie suis satisfaitte de Vostre procede au de la de tout ce que Vous pouvez immaginer ie vous prie seullement de Vouloir prendre la paine de tesmoinger a lAmbasadrisse, de ma part le deplaisir que iay eu de linsolence de ce Coquin.
Je voy bien que Vous voulez me trier tout le S. College sur les bras en Voulant monstrer mes lestres que ie vous ay escrit dans mes presedentes en Vous exhortant de faire Vostre devoir en un Conclave sur le suiet des neuveux. Vous voulez que ie Vous en escrive daustres sur le mesme suiet et Vous me menassez enCore de le faire Voir Je Vous ay escrit de plenitute de Coeur et celon mes sentiments Comme on escrit a son meillieur amy. ie Vous ay Cite la desus nos Conversations ordinaires sur ce suiet avec Jmperial et austres de nos amis, mais en fin Ce sont de folles idees, et mon desespoir est que ie les tiens inpatticables dans un Ciecle ausi Corrompu que le nostre. sJl ne faut que pester avec Vous Contre Cette peste du monde du nepotisme Cela me sera facile et ie povrois peut estre Vous en dire plus que Vous ne pouvez penser, mais que sert Cela si le mal est inCurable. on ne peut doutter du preiudice que le nepotisme apporte a leglise ny du desordre quil y mest tan dans le publique que dans le particulier Vous les savez mieux que moy, mais que sert il que nous le savons. le moien dy remedier. pour moy ie ny trouve qun seul remede qui est de faire vn pape qui aye asse de vertu pour executer ce que pape Alexandre avoit Commence avec tan de gloire, et ce quil a perdu avec tan de foiblesse qui estoit de ne les Vouloir pas. Je say que son intention na iamis este de le faire mais Cette simulation ou hypocrisie luy a donne au Commencement tan dapplaudissement tan de gloire Jugez quel seroit celle qu'aquiroit vn homme qui feroit sincerement et genereusement cette accttion et qui formeroit des bulles et des loix pour lextirpation de cette peste. Voysy mon sentiment Je say que Vous me direz ou trovver vn tel homme, et vous avez raison Je say quil est difficile de le trouver et Quasi impossible. ausi est ce par cette raison que Je tiens le mal incurable, Car sil y avoit esperance de le trouver Jespererois que le remede seroit trouve ausi. n'est Ce pas vne pitie et une honte que de Voir tant de millions des tressors de lesglise emploie au lux et aux appetits desordones des gens de rien qui vienne des temps en temps sasouvir du sang et sueurs des pauvres espuiser lesglise et son estat pour nourir des chiens des chevaux des bardasse des ruffians et austres des ces sorte de Canallies, laisser mourir les Cardinaux les Evesques les prelats de faim pour remplir la bourse a ses Jnfames. que se seroit ce si on eust employe ces profusions a soulager lestat a le defendre a lextirpation de lheresie on auroit Conquis lempire dorient si lon eust employe a cette effect Ce qui sest Consome en ses despanses intiles et honteuses, ou du moins on se seroit fait Craindre et respecter en europe. Combien des belles occasions se sont perdues a faut dapplication, et faute de ne Vouloir pas divertir la despanse et le Cours de largent accustume daller senfermer dans les Coffre de particuliers qui senrichisse au depan du publique. si les papes eussent travallie avec tan dapplication a la ruine de la maison ottomanne quils ont eu pour establir la leure Jl en seroit Venu a bout. mais ayant trouve plus de gloire a leur propre interest qua ce Vaste dessain Jl ont celle davoir ruine lesglise et lestat pour mestre au monde des gens qui pour toutte habilite nont austre que celle de Conduire un Carosse au Cours, et destre des for bons Chosgers. pauvre Rome Pauvre lesglise ou ont regnes autrefois tan des Vertus. mais ie suis trop longe sur ce Chappitre, et ie Vous demande pardon si le Zele ma trop emporte et pour rompre icy le Cour de ces speculations Je Vous participeray les nouvelles des ses quartiers.
les flottes des deu deux nations non pas Combattu et la Cause est que celle d'Angleterre sest retire dans ses ports sur lavis et ordre quelle eust de londre de leffroyable embrassement de cette pauvre Vile dont douse mille maisons a Ce quon dit ont este Consumme du fev et la plus riche partie de cette Vile sestant trouve engage en ce malheur cet accident fait la ruine de ce royaume. lon a parle enCore diversement de cet accident les vns dise que cela se soit fait par trayson daustres par malheur, les vns parle de quatorse mille daustres de dix huit mille maisons, mais par le primiere ordinaire de vendredy prochain on en saura la verite au net et ie ne manquerez pas de Vous la faire savoir. tout ce qui est de bon en ce malheur est que iespere quil produyra ou plustost avancera la paix. au reste la pretendue Vixtoire des Anglois nest pas telle que Vos nouvelles la portent et Vous aurez seu par mes presedentes que la trayson de tromp qui a esparnge aux anglois vne totale defaitte na peu obscursir la gloire de Rutery ny empecher que les ollandois neusse aquis plus de reputation a leurs armes dans cette Occasion quen aucune austre, estant ayant fait vne glorieuse retrette et non obstant Cela estant demeures maistres de la mer ce quils on fait Voir en laccion quils on faite ycy sur lelbe et en sortant trois semaine apres avec quatre Quattre Vint Vaissaux de gerre. pour moy ie ny ay pas daustre intrest que la paix et ie la souhaitte de touts mon Coeur pour mon interest particulier et pour Celluy de la Suede qui peut tout Conserver duran la paix et qui est en estat de tout perdre en la gerre.
Cepandant les affaires dallemange senbrullie touiour de plus. la blocade de Bemen Continue. lon a prix prisonniers vn officier genl. de lAtrillelirie du dvc de lunebur qui alloit se ietter dans la plasse pou y Commender. Vous entendez bien ce que Cela Veut dire. lon dit que les princes armes on ordre de lempereur de securir la Vile. si cela est cela terminera laffaire devan lhyver et empechera les Suedois de faire vn siege de troye, mais pour moy ie iuge quon ne le fera pas et ie tiens qve la propre misere des Svedois sera le plus gran secours quavra la vile dans Ce pays. pour les Ollandois Jen doutte sil labbandoneront et ie tiens quils yront a leur secours de haute lutte et le roy de france et lempereur leur laisseront faire mais le temps nous esclairsira mieux et ie ne Vous parle que mes reveries.
les affaires de Suede semboullie de nouvaux avec la france et la neutralite Closche. on Vous a trompe quant on Vous a fait a Croire que la france a traitte avec la Suede san les Ollandois, Car tout Cest fait dun Commun accordt, et les Ollandois son plus fiers et plus puissants que iamais et sil sorte bien de cette gerre Comme il y a apparence Jls donneront les loix a bien des gens qui Croioit les donner aux austres. les Suedois se sont Conduits si pitoiablement dans ses temps si Jmportans quils perderont a faute de Conduitte la france lAngleterre l'Ollande et les auront quasi touts pour ennemis, sans en estre mieux avec la maison dAustriche qui est plaine de foblisse de defience de ialusie et qui sest fait vn Idole de la france quelle craint iusques a tout perdre plustost que de l'offencer. Je noseray Vous parler du pitoiable estat de la Suede Car Vous ne me Croiriez pas ie Vous disois le Verites qui me sont Coneu sur ce suiet.
Je vous remercie du soin que Vous tesmoingez avoir pour ma sante qui graces a dieu est passablement bonne. Je n'ay suffert dan le boire qua faute de glasse ou de neige et de mais lhyver remediera a cet iconvenient Car ycy Jl ny a austre remede Car les gens ne save Ce que sest que de boie fray, et ie Vous avoue que sest la seulle inCommodite qui ma este insupportable de puis que ie sui sorti dJtalie des touttes les suffrances du Corps, mais lhyver y portera du remede et desia on Commence a sen sentir mieux. au reste ie bois vne espece de petitte biere qui est de mon invention et qui est a mon goust si excelante que ie ne la boiray pas seullement par necessite mais Casi par plaisir quoy ceux du pays la trouve abbominable, et Je vous prie de ne Vous iquietter pas sur ce suiet et de ne rien Craindre pour ma sante Car Je ne merite pas le soin que Vous Vous en donnez.
Je suis avec vne impacience extreme attendent Vos lestre, pour pouvoir Juger quel fin aura la maladie du pape. mes songes et presages ne me disse rien de bon et me font desesperer de le retrouver en Vie —. Je souhaitte de tout mon Coeur quil mentent. en tout Cas ie Vous prie de me faire savoir quelle messure Jl faut prendre dans vn novvaux pontificat au quel ie me prepare.
Je ne Vous repons pas a Vostre Chiffre Car ie ne say que dire si ce nest de Vous Confirmer tout Ce que ie Vous ay dit dan mes presedentes Vous asseurent seullement que 9920550413235622523266549 3576490556 qui pouront arriver 6423561573996093513435520917960 2635090323550625563235773623806902353036200352566395575335572530 527912730664455351735274753330353020040239564675122030955 —
Je vous envoy une lestre que les Ollandois ont escrit aux Roy dAngleterre qui me semble digne destre veue.
P.S. du 29. 76.
Joubliois de vous dire quon escrit dOllande la mort de Ryter par vn malheur estrange qui est que dans le dernier Combat la bourre de son propre Canon estant repousse par le Vent dans le Vaissau la frappe a la potrine et quapres quelques iours Jl en est mort par lordinaire prochain nous saurons si Cette nouvelle est Veritable mais Jl tres certain quil est blesse mais lon nest pas assue de la mort
English translation (my own):
28th letter from Hamburg, September 29, 1666
Before answering your fifteenth letter, from the 4th of this month, I will give you some news which, I believe, will be pleasant to you, which is that the farm business is adjusting and that I await the conclusion of this affair, which the Governor General made me hope for on the first day, according to orders I gave him.
However, Adami is back from Pomerania, from where he brought me all the information he could get in such a short time, and I send him to Sweden to seek my interests, and the affairs of Pomerania remain suspended until his return where he will adjust them all in two or three months; and I hope and promise myself that everything will be adjusted very advantageously and usefully for me; but it is necessary that he go first to Sweden to remedy the disorders of that province. Besides that, I need to send a faithful and loyal man to Sweden, because I haven't charged Stropp with a thousand very important things that I have to negotiate, because I thought I was going there myself, but, now that I can no longer go there, as I told you in my previous letters, I need to send Adami there to request my business, and it is now that he will start his negotiations all right and that I will put my interests in the hands of the French ambassador, from whom I hope all assistance, and I see the affairs arranged in a way that I believe will be sincerely assisted. Here is the state of my affairs in a few words.
To answer your last question, I would like to say that I thank you for having acted with such caution and gallantry in the Casino accident. I know you cannot do otherwise, but I will not be obliged to you, and I beg you to believe that I am satisfied with your process beyond wanting to take the trouble to testify to the ambassador, on my part, the displeasure that I had from the insolence of this rascal.
I can see that you want to pull the whole Sacred College out of my arms by wanting to show my letters that I have written to you in my previous ones, by urging you to do your duty in a conclave on the subject of nephews. You want me to write others on the same subject, and you still threaten to make me see them. I wrote to you full of heart and according to my feelings, as you write to your best friend. I quoted to you on our ordinary conversations on this subject with Imperiali and others of our friends, but finally these are crazy ideas, and my despair is that I keep them impracticable in a century as corrupt as ours.
If it is only necessary to curse with you against this plague of the world of nepotism, that will be easy for me, and I could perhaps tell you more than you can think; but what use is it if evil is incurable? There can be no doubt about the harm nepotism brings to the Church or the disorder it puts into it, both in the public and in the private sector. You know it better than I do, but what good is it that we know it? The way to fix it! — For me, I find only one remedy, which is to make a pope who has enough virtue to execute what Pope Alexander VII had started with so much glory, and what he lost with so much of weakness, which was not wanting them. I know that his intention was never to do it, but this simulation or hypocrisy gave him in the beginning so much applause, so much glory. Judge which one would be acquired by a man who would sincerely and generously do this action and who would form bubbles and laws for the eradication of this plague. Here is my feeling!
I know you will say to me: Where to find such a man? And you're right. I know he is difficult to find and almost impossible. So it is for this reason that I hold incurable evil, because if there was hope of finding it, I would hope that the remedy would be found too. Is it not a pity and a shame to see so many millions of the treasures of the Church used in luxury and in the disordered appetites of the people of nothing who come from time to time to savour the blood and sweat of the poor, exhaust the Church and its State to feed dogs, horses, abandons, ruffians and others of these kinds of rascals, let the cardinals, the bishops, and the prelates die of hunger, to fill the purse for these infamous people? — What would it be if we had used these profusions to relieve the State, to defend it, to eradicate heresy? We would have conquered the Eastern Empire if we had used for this purpose what was consumed in these useless and shameful expenses, or, at least, we would have been feared and respected in Europe.
How many great opportunities have been lost due to the need for application, and for want of not wanting to divert the expense and the course of money accustomed to locking oneself in the coffers of individuals who enrich themselves at the expense of the public! If the popes had worked so diligently to ruin the House of Ottoman that they had to establish their own, they would have come to the end. But, having found more glory in their own interest than in this vast design, they have that of having ruined the Church and the State to give birth to people who, for all skill, have no other choice than to drive a coach to the courts and to be very good coachmen. — Poor Rome! Poor Church, where so many virtues once reigned! But I am too long on this chapter, and I beg your pardon if the zeal has taken me too far, and, to break the course of these speculations here, I will share with you the news of these districts.
The fleets of the two nations did not fight, and the cause is that that of England withdrew in its ports, on the advice and order that it had from London of the terrible conflagration of this poor city, of which twelve thousand houses, it is said, were consumed with fire, and the richest part of this city having found itself engaged in this misfortune, this accident caused the ruin of this kingdom. There have been various comments about this accident: some say that it was done by treason, others by misfortune; some speak of fourteen thousand, others of eighteen thousand houses, but by the first ordinary next Friday we will find out the truth of it, and I will not fail to let you know it. All that is good in this misfortune is that I hope it will produce or, rather, advance peace.
Besides, the alleged victory of the English is not as your news carries it, and you will have known from my previous letters that Tromp's betrayal, which saved the English from total defeat, could not obscure the glory of Ruyter nor prevent the Dutch from having acquired more reputation with their weapons on this occasion than in any other, having made a glorious retreat and, notwithstanding that, having remained masters of the sea, which they showed in the action they took here on the Elbe and leaving three weeks later with eighty warships. For me, I have no other interest there than peace, and I wish it with all my heart for my particular interest and for that of Sweden, which can preserve everything during peace and which is in condition of losing everything in war.
However, German affairs are getting more and more mixed up. The blockade of Bremen continues. A general officer of the Duke of Luneburg's artillery was taken prisoner who was going to throw himself into the place to command there. You can guess what that means. It is said that the armed princes have orders from the Emperor to rescue the city. If that is the case, it will end the affair before winter and prevent the Swedes from making a siege of Troy; but, for me, I judge that it will not be done, and I hold that the own misery of the Swedes will be the greatest help that the city will have in this country. For the Dutch, I doubt if they will abandon it, and I want them to go to their rescue with great struggle, and the King of France and the Emperor will let them do it; but time will clear us up better, and I speak to you only of my reveries.
The affairs of Sweden are getting mixed up again with France, and neutrality is wrong. You were deceived when you were made to believe that France dealt with Sweden without the Dutch, because everything was done by mutual agreement, and the Dutch are more proud and more powerful than ever, and if they come out of this war well, as it seems, they will give the laws to many people who believe they are giving them to others. The Swedes behaved so pitifully in these important times that they would lose France, England, and Holland for want of conduct, and would almost have them all as enemies, without being any better with the House of Austria, which is full of weakness, distrust, jealousy, and which has made itself an idol of France which it fears even losing everything rather than offending her. I would not dare to speak to you about the pitiful state of Sweden, because you would not believe me if I told you the truths that are known to me on this subject.
I thank you for the concern you have shown for my health, which, thank God, is fairly good. I have suffered in drinking only for lack of ice or snow, but winter will remedy this drawback, because here there is no other remedy. For people do not know what it is to drink cold, and I confess that it is the only inconvenience which has been unbearable to me, since I left Italy, from all the sufferings of the body; but winter will bring a remedy, and already one begins to feel better. Besides, I drink a kind of small beer which is of my invention and which is, to my taste, so excellent that I would not drink it only out of necessity, but almost for pleasure, although those of the country find it abominable; and please do not worry about this and fear nothing for my health, as I do not deserve the care you give yourself.
I am, with extreme impatience, awaiting your letters so that I can judge what the end of the Pope's illness will be. My dreams and omens say nothing good to me and make me desperate to find him alive. I wish with all my heart that they're lying. In any case, please let me know what action to take in a new pontificate, for which I am preparing.
I do not answer your cipher because I do not know what to say except to confirm to you all that I told you in my previous letters, only assuring you that all the changes that may happen in your heart will not happen in mine, and that I will preserve for you an inviolable fidelity until death. —
P.S. — I am sending you a letter which the Dutch have written to the King of England, which seems to me worthy of being seen.
I forgot to tell you that Ruyter's death is written from Holland by a strange accident, which is that in the last fight the blast of his own cannon, being repelled by the wind in the ship, struck him in the chest and he died after a few days. By the next ordinary we will know if this news is true; but it is very certain that he is injured, but there is no guarantee of death.
Above: Kristina.
Above: Cardinal Decio Azzolino.
Notes: 9920550413235622523266549 3576490556 = tous les changements.
6423561573996093513435520917960 2635090323550625563235773623806902353036200352566395575335572530 527912730664455351735274753330353020040239564675122030955 = dans votre cœur ne changeront pas le mien, et que je vous conserverai une fidélité inviolable jusqu'à la mort.
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