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The Meeting of the Duke of Marlborough and Charles XII. at Altranstadt, April 1707

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The two most interesting periods in the career of Charles XII. of Sweden are for many people, curiously enough, the two periods during which he did nothing—the two years spent at Altranstadt and the years spent at Bender. During the former period he engrossed the attention of all Europe; during the latter he was forgotten by the world. The stay at Altranstadt contained picturesque incidents—picturesque incidents, indeed, occurred almost every day of Charles's life. The visit of his protégé Stanislaus, the visit of his conquered enemy Augustus, would both afford material for the historical word-painter; but the incident which was fixed upon by contemporary Europe as a topic of wonder and speculation was the visit of Marlborough in the spring of 1707. From the common man's point of view, as something merely picturesque and extraordinary, nothing so wonderful had occurred in the memory of living men. It was the meeting of the two greatest men of their time, an event almost without precedent in history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1898

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References

page 105 note 1 Robinson to Hedges, 19 July 1704. All Robinson's letters quoted will be found in Public Record Office, ‘Poland,’ vols. xix. and xx.

page 106 note 1 Robinson to Hedges, 23/12 July 1704.

page 106 note 2 Ibid. Robinson to Harley, 8 Dec, N.S., 1706.

page 107 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 3/14 Nov. 1706.

page 107 note 2 Same to same, 13/24 Nov. 1706.

page 108 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 15/26 March, 1707.

page 108 note 2 Same to same, 2/13 and 3/14 Nov. 1706.

page 109 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 4/15 Jan. 1706/7.

page 109 note 2 Vreede, , Correspondance diplomatique et militaire du due de Marlborough, &c., Amsterdam, 1850, p. 219Google Scholar.

page 109 note 3 Ibid. p. 35.

page 109 note 4 Robinson to Harley, 1 Dec. 1706, N.S.

page 110 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 6/17 Nov. 1706, 8 Dec., N.S., 1706, 15/26 March 1707.

page 110 note 2 Same to same, 8/19 March 1706/7, 4 May, N.S., 1707.

page 110 note 3 Instructions to de Ricoux and his successor de Besenval, Recueil des Instructions aux Ambassadeurs. Suède. A copy of these instructions was in th e hands of Marlborough. See Coxe, , Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough, ch. 54, vol. ii. p. 185 of 1818 editionGoogle Scholar.

page 111 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 7/18 Dec. 1706. Enclosure.

page 111 note 2 Ibid. 7/18 Dec. 1706.

page 112 note 1 Coxe, ch. 54. The details of Matvieff's mission are contained in Public Record Office, Russia, vol. ix.

page 113 note 1 Robinson to Harley, 7/18 Dec. Enclosure.

page 115 note 1 The italicised words are in cypher in the original.