ULFELDT, CORFITZ [SSNE 1319]

Surname

ULFELDT, EGESKOV

First name

CORFITZ, KORFITS, CORNELIUS

Title/rank

Nationality

DANE

Region

Social status

NOBILITY

Education

Religion

Text source

Corfitz Ulfeldt, son-in-law of Christian IV and brother-in-law of Frederik III had many direct dealings with events in the British Isles. In 1640 he travelled with Gregers Krabbe to try to offer Christian IV's mediaition in Charles Stuarts deteriorating situation. He returned again in 1642 with about as much success. In 1649, Ulfeldt arrived in The Hague as the Danish ambassador extraordinary to the United Provinces. He had left Denmark before the news of the execution of Charles I and on a technicality he therefore had no authority to negotiate with Charles II directly. However, as a supporter of the Stuart cause, Ulfeldt met frequently with Charles at the Court of Elizabeth Stuart in The Hague. While Montrose remained in the city he managed to ingratiate himself with Ulfeldt who daily encouraged the military preparations in the name of his king. Ulfeldt informed Montrose that he would be warmly received in Denmark and would be able to obtain arms and ammunition there for his mission against Scotland. The Danish ambassador also suggested that should Charles write to Frederik asking for these commodities, he would receive them instantly. This must have been done since Ulfeldt received orders to advance money directly to Charles from Frederik soon after. Perhaps owing to the friendship which had developed between them, the Dane did not do this. Instead he asked Montrose to get a letter from Charles II authorising receipt of the money which he then handed over to the Marquis. Ulfeldt gave over about £5,400 (24,000 rigsdaler) from the royal Danish purse and a further sum from his own resources amounting to some 18,700 rigsdaler. Montrose also gave the Danish Chancellor a receipt in July for the delivery of a quantity of arms which included 1,500 each of muskets, swords, pikes and cutlasses, 26 cannon and significant quantity of ammunition and powder. Only a short time after they had aided Montrose in his bid to retake Scotland for the Royalists, two heavyweight Danish diplomats found themselves accused of treason towards Denmark-Norway. Some of Charles II's ministers claimed that Korfitz Ulfeldt had embezzled the money which Frederik III had sent to Charles. Ulfeldt, therefore, found himself in exile with his family in Stockholm where he became friends with the English Republican, Bulstrode Whitelocke [SSNE 4438]. The Danes decided to take up the matter of financial irregularities with the Swedes whom they wished would not show any more favour to the one time Danish Chancellor. In fact, as already discussed, Ulfeldt had not only handed over the Danish Crown money, but contributed much of his own resources to the endeavour. During his stay at the Swedish Court, Ulfeldt confronted the Danish ambassador with the receipts he had received for the money and continued to seek redress for the slander for several years. In 1654, Ulfeldt told Sir William Bellenden, the Scottish Royalist agent who then informed Sir Edward Nicholas, that in order to clear his name he would publish correspondence between the Danish king and the Stuart Court which would both clear him and damage them. Nicholas believed that such a move would be very prejudicial since he would willingly damage the Stuart cause just to get back at his royal brother-in-law. Ulfeldt himself said he only sought the slandering from the Stuart side to be stopped and, indeed, Nicholas's answer suggests he had a good case against them. The 24,000 rigsdaler given over by Ulfeldt was still being pursued by the king of Denmark in 1654, while his wife, Leonora Christine, Christian IV's favourite daughter, pursued Charles II for the money in England in 1663. According to Denmark's official handbook; "A moving document is Leonora Christine's 'Jammersminde' (memories of woe), a princess' memories of 22 years imprisonment for her loyalty to a husband turned traitor. Written in the late 1660s and early 1670s, it remained unknown for 200 years, and was first published in 1869. As a human document it is without parallel in Danish or European literature".

E. J. Cowan, Montrose, For Covenant and King (Edinburgh, 1995), 273; Danish Rigsarkiv, TKUA England C 132. Frederik III to Simon de Petkum, 14 July 1654; R. Spalding (ed.), The Dairy of Bulstrode Whitelocke 1605-1675 (Oxford, 1990), pp.317, 348; G. F. Warner (ed.), The Nicholas Papers, correspondence of Sir Edward Nicholas secretary of State. Camden third series (4 vols., London, 1892-1920), II, p.73, III, pp.110-113; PRO SP75/16 f. 238 Korfitz Ulfeldt's claim for redress, September 1655; H. L. Schoolcraft, 'England and Denmark, 1660-1667' in The English Historical Review, XXV (1910), p.458; Bent Rying et. al. (eds.), Denmark, an official handbook (Copenhagen, 1970), p.609; E. Marquard, Danske Gesandter og Gesandtskabspersonale indtil 1914 (Copenhagen, 1952); A.J. Loomie (ed.), Ceremonies of Charles I, The Notebooks of John Finet 1628-1641 (New York, 1987), p.315.

Service record

DENMARK-NORWAY, STUART KINGDOMS

Arrived 1640-08-06

Departed 1640-10-31

Capacity DIPLOMAT, purpose DIPLOMACY

DENMARK-NORWAY, ENGLAND

Arrived 1642-10-26

Departed 1642-12-31

Capacity DIPLOMAT, purpose DIPLOMACY