“The So-called Council of State” 1649–1652
During these busy months Milton probably had little time for uninterrupted study,
but some of the extracts entered around 1650 in his Commonplace Book bear
directly on his development of republican theory in the Defensio. They include
several passages summarized from Machiavelli’s Discorsi, e.g. that “Machiavelli much
prefers a republican form to monarchy” because it chooses better magistrates and
councillors, and that rebellions were often the means by which people regained
their liberty, as well as being “the principal means of keeping Rome free.”^79 His
Defensio was authorized by the council on December 23, 1650, and registered with
the Stationers on December 31, for publication “both in Latin and English.”^80 Per-
haps delayed by Milton’s difficulties in proofreading, it did not appear until Febru-
ary 24, 1651.
Milton was reappointed to the office of Secretary for Foreign Tongues in Febru-
ary 1650 and again took the oath of secrecy.^81 That June the council showed its
appreciation by making provision for his greater comfort, allowing him a warrant
from the sale of the king’s goods for “such hangings as shall bee sufficient for the
furnishing of his Lodgings in Whitehall” (LR II, 314). It would be fascinating to
know what “hangings” or pictures Milton chose.
His diplomatic work increased during 1650, some of it prompted by continuing
hostilities against the Merchant Adventurers in Hamburg. Milton may have drafted
(not merely translated) parliament’s letter of January 4, 1650 to the Hamburg Sen-
ate protesting that members of the company were being prevented from taking the
Engagement: it defends the Engagement, insists tactfully that this is strictly Eng-
land’s business, and reminds the Senate that the English Commonwealth is now
“remarkably prosperous,” having crushed its enemies everywhere.^82 A credentialling
letter, dated April 2, introduced the new envoy to Hamburg, Richard Bradshaw,
nephew to the council president.^83
Another focus of Milton’s work as Latin Secretary concerned Portugal and Spain,
at war since 1640 over Portugal’s declaration of independence from Spain.^84 Grate-
ful for Stuart support of Portugal’s independence, King John IV of Portugal al-
lowed the royalist fleet to use the Tagus river to attack, plunder, and capture the
republic’s merchant ships and freighters. Philip IV of Spain, battling the Nether-
lands and France as well as Portugal, gave somewhat ambivalent support to the
republic: he was the first king to send an ambassador and he opened Spanish ports
to parliament’s fleets. Milton’s letter from parliament to King John (January 25,
1650) vigorously protests that Portugal is protecting these “English pirates and ren-
egades”; it also urges the king to deny recognition to Charles Stuart’s “pseudo-
ambassadors” and to accord it to “ourselves, on whom, with God’s manifest favor,
the control of England has devolved,” threatening that otherwise the “sizeable and
mutually profitable commerce of our merchants with the Portuguese” must end
(CPW V.2, 500).^85 On February 4, 1650 parliament sent letters in Milton’s formal
Latin credentialling Anthony Ascham as diplomatic resident to Spain, and Charles
Vane, brother of Sir Henry Vane, to Portugal,^86 but within three months Vane had