Peter Julius Coyet (1618–1667), was a prominent Swedish envoy to England during the time of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
.
Biography
He was born in Stockholm as the son of
Gillis Coyet and the brother of Otto and
Frederick Coyett; the family was of Flemish origin. He grew up in
Falun
Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabitan ...
, but in 1629 his father moved to Moscow and settled there as a goldsmith and
master of the Mint
Master of the Mint is a title within the Royal Mint given to the most senior person responsible for its operation. It was an important office in the governments of Scotland and England, and later Great Britain and then the United Kingdom, between ...
. In 1634 his father died. Peter was sent to Amsterdam, attended lessons at the Athenaeum Illustre and moved to Leiden in 1637 to study at the university. He returned to Sweden in 1642 and was appointed as secretary in the
chancellery. In 1647 he was sent to Moscow in an embassy. He probably assisted Queen Christina where to bind or buy books from Dutch booksellers. Like his brother - the first Swede to travel to Japan and China - Coyet was knighted in 1649, and in December 1654–May 1656 he was sent as an envoy in England. In July 1655
Crister Bonde arrived as ambassador to England and both dealt with
Bulstrode Whitelocke
Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (6 August 1605 – 28 July 1675) was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.
Early life
He was the eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke and Elizabeth Bulstrode, and was ...
on using Swedish ports, but their negotiations during the
Second Northern War about the English trade in the Baltic and with Russia seems to have been unsuccessful, although he was
knighted by Oliver Cromwell the
Lord Protector in 1656.
In 1657 he was appointed
State Secretary of Sweden and reassigned to Holland to deal with
Coenraad van Beuningen
Coenraad van Beuningen (1622 – 26 October 1693) was the Dutch Republic's most experienced diplomat, burgomaster of Amsterdam in 1669, 1672, 1680, 1681, 1683 and 1684, and from 1681 a Dutch East India Company director. He probably was bipolar, ...
and
Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt (; 24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672), ''lord of Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp en IJsselvere'', was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, the ...
. He was involved in the
Treaty of Roskilde
The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat ...
. He also negotiated the breach of the peace with Denmark in the summer of 1658..
[J. Römelingh (1986) Een rondgang langs Zweedse archieven, p. 117] Shortly afterwards he was sent again to the Dutch Republic to persuade the Dutch not to supply weapons to the Swedish enemy, Denmark. In 1660 he met in the Hague with
Charles II of England. In 1667 he was involved in the
Treaty of Breda between the English and the Dutch, where he died within a few weeks. His remains were sent to Stockholm.
Family
Coyet was married twice, in 1645 and in 1649; he was wealthy and left behind many estates, farms, books, letters and nine children. One of them was
Wilhelm Julius Coyet (1647–1709).
Notes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coyet, Peter Julius
1618 births
1667 deaths
Swedish diplomats
Swedish diarists
17th-century diarists