Folio 154. To Trenchard. The death of Strattmann [Oct 25] will not be less 'perplexing'...

Folio 154. To Trenchard. The death of Strattmann [Oct 25] will not be less 'perplexing' at the courts of [Brunswick-] Lüneburg than that of Grote, since Strattmann was the 'stiffest supporter' of the electorate [of Hanover]. The elector of Saxony let on that his affairs would 'go backwards' by 'this accident' which, Stepney interprets, he meant in regard of Schöning's liberty. It was chiefly Strattmann with whom Holtzbrinck had negotiated and now it will be Kinsky who is thought to have first counselled the field-marshal's seizure and who 'will now have more credit and courage to oppose' his release. Thinks that the Emperor has lost his ablest minister and the closest of his confidants, whilst England and the States and the rest of the allies 'a person unviolalably inclined to their interest'; no less than the elector of Brandenburg whose subject he was, and the elector palatine 'who raised him from a mean fortune to a considerable employment at the court of Newburg'. It leaves now only the Spanish ambassador [at Vienna, Borgomañero] 'whom the King may relye upon for keeping the Emperor steady in case wee should still go on to be unfortunate'. - [Christopher Dietrich] Bose jun. [a councillor of war and son of the president of the electoral council of war] intimated to Stepney that there might be 3,000 Saxons more than the 12,000 to be treated for if England and the States would contribute to their maintenance. He Stepney, replied that he would transmit the 'project Yet he fears that it may well protract the conclusion of the treaty.

Date and Place: 1693 Oct 20/30 Dresden