DIPLOMACY IN POLAND-LITHUANIA 291missions were welcomed by the Marshal, to underline the supremacy of the state
over the Court. Papal Nuncios and monarchical ambassadors were expected to
make a ceremonial entry, riding in the king's personal carriage. At the Royal
Castle, they were received in audience by the king, who in the company of his
senators remained both standing and covered. The formal reading of letters of
credence took place before the full Senate, where the ambassador's oration was
answered in Latin by the Chancellor. This was followed by coutesy visits to each
of the officers of state, starting with the marshal, the Hetman, the Chancellor, and
the Treasurer. At the time of royal Elections, the entire diplomatic corps was dis-
missed from the capital, each mission being assigned a counrty palace in which to
reside for the duration. By this ingenuous rule, formalized in 1683, the Sejm sought
to limit foreign interference. In practice, the ambassadors were able to contact
their partisans from outside Warsaw as easily as from within, and, with gold to
spare, their nefarious activities were impossible to control. On the day of the
Election, the ambassadors were permitted to enter the Wola Field and to speak on
behalf of their candidates. Afterwards, they proceeded to St. John's Cathedral to
assist in the official Te Deum, and thence to Cracow for the coronation. On tak-
ing their leave at the end of a mission, they were required to quit the territory of
the Republic within three weeks of submitting their letters of recredence.
Diplomatic immunity was a fragile privilege in early modern Europe. In
Muscovy or in Turkey, where physical violence and deliberate humiliations
were an accepted instrument of negotiation, it was unknown. In the Republic it
was recognized, but was subject to several signal lapses. French ambassadors
figure prominently among the victims, perhaps because under Louis XIV their
activities were particularly blatant and deeply resented. In 1683, the Marquis de
Vitry was expelled from the Republic not just for his private intrigues but
equally to save him from the Sejm which was clamouring to have him publicly
birched and castrated. In 1702, M du Heron was summarily arrested at Thorn
on suspicion of conspiring with the Swedes. In response, Louis XIV ordered all
Polish citizens in France to be interned as hostages against his ambassador's
safety. In 1733-6, the Marquis de Monti, whose zeal for the cause of Stanislaw
Leszczynski had led to the burning of Saxon books in the market place at
Warsaw and the purchase of all the city's printing-presses to prevent their use
by his rivals, spent some three years in prison after his seizure in Danzig by his
victorious opponents. The worst fate of all, however, awaited Jan Rheinhold
Patkul, the Russian ambassador to Augustus II during the Great Northern War.
As a native of Swedish Livonia, Patkul was regarded by the Swedes as a deserter
and a traitor, and a clause for his extradition to Charles XII was specifically
included in the Treaty of Altranstadt. In 1706, the unhappy ambassador was
broken on the wheel, and quartered.
At all official functions, protocol demanded meticulous attention to precedence.
As a Catholic country, Poland gave automatic priority to the Papal Nuncio, and
observed the traditional order of seniority, as drawn up in the papal bull of 1516.
The imperial ambassador claimed precedence over the representatives of other