DIPLOMACY IN POLAND-LITHUANIA 293
protest, as a device for invalidating the investiture if the terms of acceptance were
avoided. In 1641, the Grand Elector was contesting the title of 'First Prince of
Poland' customarily reserved for the Primate - a claim not enhanced by his
appearance at the investiture ball wearing mud-spattered riding boots. In 1648,
however, he succeeded where his predecessors had failed, and obtained a vote at
the royal Election. Having used his vote in favour of Jan Kazimierz and having
sworn allegiance to the new monarch, he then proceeded to conspire in the
Swedish invasion of the Republic and to participate in the occupation of
Warsaw. In 1657, he insisted on recognition of his claim to sovereignty in the
Duchy of Prussia, as his price for abandoning the Swedes. Only three years later,
he was pressing Jan Kazimierz again to address him as 'Brother', having exacted
the same doubtful favour from Louis XIV. Jan Kazimierz, whose vassal he
remained for Bytau and Lauenberg if not for Prussia as a whole, categorically
refused, and no official of the Republic was to concede anything further for the
next century. In 1698, the Grand Elector's grandson, Frederick-William II laid
claim to a royal title. Augustus II, careless of the distinction between his powers
as Elector of Saxony and those as King of Poland, readily agreed to the wording
'Koenig in Preussen'. Nor did he object when at that same Johanisburg meeting,
the Hohenzollern contrived to sit beside him in an identical armchair. It was a
sign that the two men had accepted the equal standing of their respective
domains. As Stepney, the British Ambassador, remarked, 'It is true the Elector
hath gained this point, and has his arm'd chair, which "triomphe de fauteuil" you
may expect will be placed among the trophies of the Family.'^5 The grant of the
Prussian title was not ratified by the Sejm until 1764, and then only under duress.
The wording 'Koenig von Preussen' was not approved until after the First
Partition in 1773. Throughout the period from 1657 to 1764, Polish officials
confined their address of the Hohenzollerns to 'le Regnant de Berlin' or
'Serenissme Souverain'.
As sticklers for form the Muscovites were equally intractable. Until the time
of Peter I, when their ambassadors suddenly appeared in wigs and gaiters in the
European style, they had always been regarded as savage exotics living beyond
the pale of Christendom. In Warsaw, their embassies were received with a mix-
ture of awe and amusement. On the one hand, the luxury of their following -
their retinue of hundreds of horsemen and merchants, their pearl-encrusted furs
provided at the Tsar's expense, their elaborate gifts of jewels and wild animals,
their long beards, pointed hats, and caftans, and the chanted tones in which they
affected to speak, were all designed to create a strong impression. On the other
hand, many of their habits and demands were so extreme that western ambas-
sadors were invited to watch their performance in court from behind a curtain.
For one thing, they had a justified reputation for violence. The story was told
how in 1570 Ivan IV had ordered Zygmunt-August's gift of a stud of stallions to
be served up as mincemeat when he suspected that his own gift to the Polish
King was not fully appreciated. More than a century later, the experiences of the
English ambassador to Ivan were still being retailed - Sir Jeremy Bowes was