Memoirs of Leonora Christina, Daughter of Christian IV. of Denmark: Written During Her Imprisonment in the Blue Tower at Copenhagen 1663-1685Ulfeldt, Leonora Christina, grevinde
History
Memoirs of Leonora Christina, Daughter of Christian IV. of Denmark: Written During Her Imprisonment in the Blue Tower at Copenhagen 1663-1685
Ulfeldt, Leonora Christina, grevinde
Denmark -- History -- Christian V, 1670-1699 -- Sources; Denmark -- History -- Frederick III, 1648-1670 -- Sources; Princesses -- Denmark -- Biography; Ulfeldt, Leonora Christina, grevinde, 1621-1698 -- Imprisonment; Women political prisoners -- Denmark -- Biography
She showed some anger towards her guide, begged him in English to
give her respects to the governor,[52] but to convey to the traitor
Braten all the abuse that she could hurriedly call to mind in this
language, which was not quite familiar to her. She advanced towards
the boat; the vessel which was to convey her was in the roads, near
the Downs. She bade farewell to the nobleman. She had two bracelets
with diamonds which she wished to give him to convey to her children;
but as he feared they would be taken from him, she replaced them
without troubling him with them. She gave a pistol to her servant,
and a mariner then carried her to the boat; she was placed in an
English frigate that Petkum had hired, and Dreyer went with her.[53]
She was thirteen days on the road, and arrived near the Custom-house
pier on August 8, 1663, at nine o'clock in the morning.
[52] Leonora did not know that the governor of the castle was in
the plot.
[53] Additional light is thrown on the arrest of Leonora Christina
at Dover by the following extracts in the _Calendar of State
Papers_, p. 224, 225:--
_August 1_, _Whitehall_.--(Sec. Bennet) to Capt. Strode. The King is
satisfied with his account of the lady's escape and his own
behaviour; continue the same mask, of publishing His Majesty's
displeasure against all who contributed to it, especially his
lieutenant, and this more particularly in presence of M. Cassett,
lest he may suspect connivance. Cassett is to continue prisoner some
time. The Danish Resident is satisfied with the discretion used, but
says his point would not have been secured had the lady gone to sea
without interruption.
_August 1_?--Account (proposed to be sent to the Gazette?) relative
to Count Uhlfeldt--recording his submission in 1661, the present
sentence against him, his further relapse into crime after a solemn
recantation, also signed by his wife who was his accomplice, though
her blood saved her from sharing his sentence, but who has now
betrayed herself into the hands of the King of Denmark. She was in
England when the conspiracy against the King of Denmark's life was
detected. The King of England had her movements watched, when she
suddenly went off without a pass, for want of which she was stayed
by the Governor of Dover Castle, who accommodated her in the castle.
The Resident of Denmark posted to Dover, and secured the master of a
ship then in the road, with whom he expected her to tamper, which
she did, escaped through the castle window, and entering a shallop
to go on board, was seized and conveyed to Denmark. With note (by
Lord Chancellor Clarendon) that he is not satisfied with this
account, but will prepare a better for another week.
[The remaining part of the Autobiography treats of the commencement
of her imprisonment in the Blue Tower, which forms the subject of the
following Memoir.]
A RECORD
OF
THE SUFFERINGS OF THE IMPRISONED COUNTESS
LEONORA CHRISTINA.
PREFACE.
_TO MY CHILDREN._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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