Details
PATKUL, Johann Reinhold (1660-1707, Livonian politician, diplomat). Autograph letter signed ('J.R. Patkul') to a diplomat [possibly the ambassador to Moscow of Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony and Poland], n.p., 29 May 1702, in French, 4 pages, folio, bifolium.
Attempts to influence his former master, Augustus the Strong, in favour of his new master, Peter the Great of Russia: 'la Réponce, que le Roi de Pologne a donné aux articles, que je lui ai laisseés en partant de Varsovie, marque assés clairément [sic] de quelle intention il est envers sa Majesté Czarienne, de sorte que je trouve fort malheureux et embarrassé un Ministre, qui à la Cour de Mouscau doit negocier pour le Roi de Pologne, lequel ne veut pas paroitre tel qu'il est effectivément', counselling the recipient to speak plainly to the Tsar, without leading him into false hopes, and to assure him of Augustus's good intentions; he should persuade him of the usefulness of having German troops in his service, to give an impression of order; 'Il en faut parler au Czar nettement et vigoureusement, sur tout dans un tems où il se voit abandonné de toutte part'.
Having been much involved in the service of Augustus the Strong in the negotiations which led to the Great Northern War (1700-21), in which his own interest was the liberation from Swedish rule of his native Livonia, Patkul exchanged this for the service of Peter the Great in 1702. It was as Peter's ambassador to Augustus that he was arrested by the Saxons in 1705, and handed over to his original master Charles XI of Sweden, who had him broken alive on the wheel for treason.
Attempts to influence his former master, Augustus the Strong, in favour of his new master, Peter the Great of Russia: 'la Réponce, que le Roi de Pologne a donné aux articles, que je lui ai laisseés en partant de Varsovie, marque assés clairément [sic] de quelle intention il est envers sa Majesté Czarienne, de sorte que je trouve fort malheureux et embarrassé un Ministre, qui à la Cour de Mouscau doit negocier pour le Roi de Pologne, lequel ne veut pas paroitre tel qu'il est effectivément', counselling the recipient to speak plainly to the Tsar, without leading him into false hopes, and to assure him of Augustus's good intentions; he should persuade him of the usefulness of having German troops in his service, to give an impression of order; 'Il en faut parler au Czar nettement et vigoureusement, sur tout dans un tems où il se voit abandonné de toutte part'.
Having been much involved in the service of Augustus the Strong in the negotiations which led to the Great Northern War (1700-21), in which his own interest was the liberation from Swedish rule of his native Livonia, Patkul exchanged this for the service of Peter the Great in 1702. It was as Peter's ambassador to Augustus that he was arrested by the Saxons in 1705, and handed over to his original master Charles XI of Sweden, who had him broken alive on the wheel for treason.
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