Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/373

 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,