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The 29th we reached Hoorn: where the Burgomaster, who was a widower, asked the Queen to give him a wife from among our number; and being allowed to choose he chose the said Countess, but entertained all of us with extravagant compliments: as you may judge from the one he used when greeting the Queen on the morning of our departure, accosting her thus: ‘Madam, you have laboured long and hard to get yourself up this morning’. By the end of the journey the sexual innuendo comes thick and fast: Arriving [in Amsterdam] on the evening of the first of July, we found Ambassador Carleton with Colonel Morgan awaiting our arrival. . . . We were magnificently received there and paid for (as throughout North Holland) by the local magistrates, and entertained with diverse spectacles: of which the most notable were the two houses of the East and West Indies. In the first we found a banquet of nutmegs, cloves, ginger, and other fruits of the East [Indies]: which encouraged us to go with great zeal to the second, hoping to fill our pockets with gold and silver, as the fruits of the West [Indies]: but that had to wait for the return of the first fleet. In the great scales of the East Indies house the Princess, being weighed against the Queen, was found to have lost several pounds in weight in the four years since they had been in the same place: and on inquiring the reason why from the Sheriff [l’Escoutete]: ‘It is because (he said) during that time you have lost your virginity: which is generally a heavy burden for young women.’ . . . In the evening, thinking to say goodbye to the Magistrates, with the intention of leaving at dawn the following morning for The Hague, the old servant of the Queen who had fallen in love with the Princess [Amalia], kissed her and tickled her with so much affection, playing with his fingers on her buttocks, that the Queen began to be jealous, principally on seeing that the Princess, on the warm insistence of her lover, had agreed to stay one more day in Amsterdam. 21 So you see, the court circles of the Dutch Stadholder and the Queen of Bohemia really were as full of intrigue and saucy behaviour as that correspondence I came across between Sir Constantijn Huygens and Margaret 21 See full text, Appendix I. Temptation in the <strong>Archives</strong> 13
Croft had suggested to me. But unfortunately that does not seem to add much to our understanding of these powerful circles, led by formidable, ambitious, seventeenth-century women. Indeed, its indecorousness makes us uneasy, as it seems to undercut the story scholars have recently begun to tell of how significant as major players on the political stage figures like Elizabeth of Bohemia actually were. 22 So what are we to do with Croft’s letter? *** I cannot, of course, really end by throwing my hands up in the air and, after all that effort and anticipation, discarding Margaret Croft’s intercepted letter – although when I began writing this essay I intended it in part as a cautionary tale to remind us that not everything we scholars undertake in good faith will turn out to yield fruit. 23 Yet after all the effort spent on locating this particular document, transcribing it and translating it in its entertaining detail, surely it can contribute in some way to my continuing scholarly endeavours. So what avenues of research might it open up for us? Two figures stand from the letter itself – they are the two ladies about whom the scurrilous jokes involving thighs and buttocks are made, Amalia von Solms and the Countess of Löwenstein. At the beginning of 1625, both were maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia. Shortly before the letter was written, Amalia married Frederik Hendrik, the new Dutch Stadholder – almost by accident: Frederik Hendrik was quite a womaniser, Amalia happened to be his latest conquest – and the Countess of Löwenstein replaced her as the leading female member of Elizabeth’s household. She served Elizabeth loyally until the Queen’s death in 1662. Elizabeth liked to refer to her as ‘my merry widow’. 24 As far as Margaret Croft’s letter is concerned, no rules of propriety or decorum separate the behaviour of and towards Amalia von Solms and the Countess of Löwenstein. Amalia is simply the maid of honour 22 See Akkerman, The Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, for example. 23 When I began writing this chapter I was thinking of paying homage to Arlette Farge’s Le goût de l’archive (Paris: Le Seuil, 1989), which captures brilliantly the archival researcher’s emotional investment in the process of excavating meaning from disintegrating documents. 24 Elizabeth Dudley had married the Count of Löwenstein in spring 1622. The marriage occasioned some comment in Elizabeth’s correspondence, on the grounds that it was not appropriate for her to retain a married maid of honour. Huygens writes the Countess a letter in May expressing surprise that her new husband has already left to return to the wars. A month later he was dead, and the Countess became a widow. She remained loyally in Elizabeth’s service until the Queen of Bohemia’s death in 1662. 14 TEMPTATION IN THE ARCHIVES
Page 1 and 2: lisa Jardine Temptation i n t he Ar
Page 4 and 5: Temptation in the Archives Essays i
Page 6: For Arnoud Visser Amicus est tamqua
Page 9 and 10: which brought down the barrier betw
Page 12 and 13: Acknowledgements I owe so many debt
Page 14: Contents CHAPTER ONE Temptation in
Page 17 and 18: the northern Netherlands of Frederi
Page 19 and 20: Laud by letter to have Margaret pai
Page 21 and 22: knowledge. There is little doubt th
Page 23 and 24: As the record of [Elizabeth of Bohe
Page 25 and 26: me that in all her time checking Gr
Page 27: St Leger (who has a better nose tha
Page 31 and 32: Dickens, Thomas Babington Macaulay
Page 33 and 34: 2 1688 And All That: Some Curious C
Page 35 and 36: The Dutch success was so sudden and
Page 37 and 38: my own fortune, and I had already p
Page 39 and 40: clear in his letters to Constantijn
Page 41 and 42: of Pembroke), first published in 16
Page 43 and 44: He visited Wren’s new buildings:
Page 45 and 46: was only so far, given university p
Page 47 and 48: contribution he would be able to ma
Page 49 and 50: Island of Fuego, which is one of th
Page 51 and 52: announcing that they would retaliat
Page 53 and 54: we last parted. However, I have spo
Page 55 and 56: Since my Letters from Cape Coast we
Page 57 and 58: our Philosophers here are not incli
Page 59 and 60: In february 1664 as I remember my
Page 61 and 62: Fifty years have not changed that p
Page 63 and 64: Holland [beaver] hat’. Would Huyg
Page 65 and 66: sitting for by Michael van Mierevel
Page 67 and 68: collection of works of art, to esta
Page 69 and 70: This important piece of internation
Page 71 and 72: you where I am now living. Furtherm
Page 73 and 74: I have received no response. So you
Page 75 and 76: of the Stadholder. This gives us a
Page 77 and 78: The owner of this outstanding instr
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okered or presided over with the as
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In many ways, this is surprising. T
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Critics have identified this poem a
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In spite of her celebrated talents,
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source of all virtue, and I can gua
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Even more strikingly, the two lette
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with her ‘snow-white throat’ an
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the affection I vowed to the seruic
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First, Constantijn orchestrates - l
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understand the way things are in de
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6 The Afterlife of Homo Ludens: Fro
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To be sure, since the 1980s, schola
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Colie’s contribution depended on
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In Colie’s own important book, Pa
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village community, clarifying the r
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‘Imposture’ stands not as an is
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poised between engagement and detac
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of ill-health. For the remainder of
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My whole book . . . is an explorati
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Appendix I ‘Temptation in the Arc
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que par charité. M[onsieur] le duc
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Worp 1033. Aan den Hertog van Bouil
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Mlle Croft’s intercepted letter:
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d’Enchuysen: ou entre autres chos
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liures de poids depuis quatre ans q
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the Burgomaster of that place visit
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and looked like one too. Another ch
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children of fortune: but with those
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Letters from Christiaan Huygens to
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Appendix III ‘Never Trust a Pirat
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nay though equated w th . a Cycloei
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stiff and not at all plyable betwee
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& france. nor could I find any bett
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t dragen sal, warme sij mijn groote
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arré et enmanché par Maistre Nico
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manger de lavenaizon d’Angleterre
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à S[eigneur] Thomas, mais à vous
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l’ingratitude qui la puisse dispu
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il y a en Sa parole, qu’il m’es
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Colie, Rosalie L. 45-6, 64, 86-91,
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jewellers, jewellery 15, 57-60 Jews
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society 69, 96, 98-9 behaviour in 9
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