Notes to Chapter 1Tuscany the following day. Miller, Anglo-Dutch Negotiations, 196–269 reprints the Eng-
lish Declaration and the Latin Scriptum.
14 There was no land action. The sole Dutch victory was at Dungeness on November 28,
- The definitive victory for the English was at the Texel (July 31, 1653).
15 CPW V.2, 625–7. On November 23, to show their gratitude for the duke’s “good will
and amity,” they agreed to his request for the release of a Tuscan merchant ship, despite
a contrary judgment by the Admiralty Court (641–2).
16 CPW V.2, 651–5. On this occasion parliament made a special point of seeing that
the changes they made in the document were exactly rendered in Milton’s Latin
version: Journal of the House of Commons VII, 246. For these incidents and their long
aftermath see Robert T. Fallon, Milton in Government (University Park, Pa., 1993),
112–20.
17 CPW V.2, 584–7, 608–12; Leo Miller, “New Milton Texts and Data from the Aitzema
Mission, 1652,” Notes and Queries 37 (1990), 285–6. Letters from parliament in Milton’s
Latin include one to Queen Christina (March 11, 1652) that desires increased amity and
trade and invites a replacement for the Swedish envoy who had died suddenly (CPW
V.2, 582–3); and another (January 8, 1653) to the Doge of Venice responding to his
cordial greetings with assurances of reciprocal favor and good will (647–8). The council
(February 2) wrote to ask the Doge’s assistance in a mercantile dispute involving a
Venetian citizen (656–7).
18 CPW V.2, 601–3, 622–4. See chapter 8, p. 253.
19 See Fallon, Milton in Government, 94–8, for evidence of Milton’s involvement with
these treaties. Daniel Skinner’s 1676 prospectus for a volume of Milton’s state papers
included among the contents these Spanish treaties, which he could only have had from
Milton’s files. On other matters, Milton wrote for the council to Cardenas (November
11), thanking the Spanish warmly for opening Porto Longone to an English fleet dam-
aged in a Dutch attack, but another letter carrying the same date firmly defends the
seizure of two Spanish ships carrying Dutch goods, softening the tone somewhat by the
promise of an inquiry in Admiralty Court (CPW V.2, 636–40). An undated letter of
1653 complains of the seizure in Flanders of an English merchant ship, insisting that the
Spanish see to its return; a similar letter was sent directly to the governor involved, the
Marquis of Leida (CPW V.2, 643–6).
20 In February, 1653 Cardenas was still seeking to negotiate on the basis of the old treaty;
on September 9 he returned a copiously annotated version of the 35 articles, accepting
only 12 without change.
21 The council assigned this letter to Weckherlin, but it was evidently passed on to Milton,
since he retained two Latin versions among his papers (CPW V.2, 604–7).
22 Fallon (Milton in Government, 100–11) argues for Milton’s extensive involvement in the
Danish negotiations, on the ground that Thurloe was short-staffed and would have seen
the efficiency of having one secretary carry through a complex set of negotiations.
23 Miller, Anglo-Dutch Negotiations, 270–2, 68–9. This letter, discovered by Miller, may
have been withheld until Milton’s translation was ready.
24 CPW V.2, 628–33. These letters are undated. CPW dates them October 14 and 22 but
Fallon (Anglo-Dutch Negotiations, 104, n. 74) argues persuasively for September 13, two
days before they were presented to the ambassadors; the later dates would place them
after negotiations had broken off.
Notes to Chapter 9