298 SERENISSIMA
and were seizing all the Spanish ships which tried to trade with Danzig.
Dzialynski's task was to persuade the Protestant powers to desist. But his
methods were all too direct. At The Hague, he threatened to close Danzig com-
pletely, and to 'starve' the Dutch into submission. His Dutch hosts listened in
stony silence. At Greenwich, on 2.5 July 1597, he repeated his threats and treated
Queen Elizabeth to a pompous oration whose contents were 'prolix, thin, and
promiscuous'. Apparently, before leaving Poland, the city council of Danzig had
urged him to take a strong line, and he used their advice as a pretext for exceed-
ing his terms of reference. When the Queen realized what had happened, she
turned on him with all the force of her famous temperament. As an English wit-
ness observed, 'lion-like rising, she daunted the malapert orator... with the
tartness of her princely checks':
Expectavi legationem. In vero querelam mihi adduxisti. Per litteras accepi te esse
Legatum, inveni vero Heraldum. Nunquam in vita mea audivi talem Orationem. Miror
sane, miror tantam et tam insolitam in publico audaciam. Neque possum credere, si
Rex tuus adesset, quod ipse talia verba protulisset, sin vero tale aliquid tibi fortasse in
mandatis commisit, quod quidem valde dubito, eo tribuendum est, quod cum Rex sit
Iuvenis, et non tain iure sanguinis quam iure electionis ac noviter electus, non tam per-
fecte intelligat rationem tractandi istiusmodi negotia cum aliis Principibus, quam vel
majores illius nobiscum observarunt, vel fortasse observarunt alii, qui Locum eius
posthac tenebunt.
Quod ad te attinet tu mihi videris libros multos perlegisse, libros tamen Principum ne
attigisse, sed prorsus ignorare quid inter Reges conveniat. Nam quod Juris Naturae et
Gentium tantopere mentionem facis, hoc scito esse Juris Naturae Gentiumque, ut cum
bellum inter reges intercedit, liceat alteri alterius bellica subsida, undicunque allata,
intercipere, et ne in damnum suum convertantur precavere...
Interea vero valeas, et quiescas.*
In the margin of the official copy of this outburst, an obviously feminine hand
has added the words: 'O quam decepta fui' (Oh, how I was deceived!).
Dzialyriski's mission was an outright failure. But his troubles continued. On
returning to Poland, he found Zygmunt HI preparing to cross the Baltic to
"' 'I expected an Embassy. But in fact you have levelled an accusation at me. From your creden-
tials, I took you to be an ambassador. But in truth all I have found is a page-boy. Never in my
life have I heard such an oration. I am exceedingly amazed and astonished at such great
uncommon effrontery in public. Nor can I believe that your King, had he been present him-
self, would have spouted such words. If, however, he did commend something of the sort to
you in his instructions, which I very much doubt, one can only attribute it to the fact that your
King, as a young man and one newly chosen not by right of blood but only by right of elec-
tion, does not properly understand the rules for negotiating such matters with other princes—
rules which greater than he observe with us, and which others no doubt observe who hereafter
will take his place. As for you, you seem to me to have perused a great many books irrelevant
to the matter in hand and to be quite unaware of prevailing conventions between monarchs.
For, although you repeatedly talk of the ius naturale et gentium, I know this much of the law
of nature and of peoples that when war occurs between monarchs each side is entitled to inter-
cept the war supplies of the other, wherever they come from, and to prevent them being used
for hostile purposes... Meanwhile, I bid you be well, and be silent.'^10