Beschreibung:

CROMWELL, Oliver (1599-1658). Document signed as Lord Protector (at foot 'Oliver P.') WITH FINE INITIAL LETTER PORTRAIT, 160 X 110MM, letters patent, Whitehall, 23 June 1654, confirming the diploma of exemption of neutrality and of safeguard ('neutralitatis exemptionis et salvae Guardiae diploma') awarded to Count Oldenburg on 17 February 1651, for whose ratification Oldenburg has petitioned through his envoys Frederic Matthias Wolzogen and Christopher Gryphiander, in Latin on vellum, one membrane, approx 580 x 610mm , subscribed with the name of the clerk 'Husey', three foliate panels in brown ink with grey wash, the upper one incorporating the coat of arms of Great Britain and Ireland, a large ink and wash portrait of Oliver Cromwell after the portrait by Robert Walker within an initial with interlaced staves, and the ground infilled with calligraphic flourishes (some spotting), punctured for attachment of Great Seal but lacking seal and laces. The recipient, Count Anton Günther (1583-1667) of Oldenburg (near Bremen) pursued a policy of neutrality during the Thirty Years' War which spared his territory from the devastations which affected many German states; at his death, Oldenburg fell under Danish authority. The existence of a number of engravings of the portrait by Robert Walker c.1649 (in the National Portrait Gallery NPG 536), as well as the present pseudo-royal initial letter portrait, indicates its importance in the iconographical campaign that accompanied Cromwell's assumption of power.