Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka roller Axel Oxenstierna och Johan Adler Salvius hade i det fredsförberedande arbetet inför och under fredskongressen i Westfalen, men även att utifrån Salvius brev till Oxenstierna undersöka hur deras relation såg ut under den aktuella tidsperioden. De uppgifter som framkommer i Salvius brevväxling till Oxenstierna angående deras relation, samt deras roller och uppgifter under de fredsförberedande åren 1643-1648 kommer därefter att analyseras och jämföras med hur detta har skildrats av historieskrivarna Gunnar Wetterberg och Sune Lundgren. De resultat som studien har frambringat visar på att både Oxenstierna och Salvius var innehavare av mycket centrala roller i det fredsförberedande arbetet, samt att deras tidigare relativt nära relation till varandra försämrades något under åren 1643-1648.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the seldom researched Swedish geopolitical interests inNorway in the first half of the 17th century, with the brief 1658 conquest of Trondheim as itscentral event of inquiry. Through the study of privy council protocols and chancellor AxelOxenstierna’s correspondence, the study builds a case for the confluence of security, commerce, andthe concepts of nations as the influencing factors that shaped Swedish imperial foreign policy in thedecades leading up to the dramatic war of 1658, yielding a theoretical construction of the Empire’sBaltic doctrine, or the Oxenstierna doctrine, as an explanatory model for Sweden’s early modernexpansion patterns. Subsequently through understanding of the Empire’s expansionist rationaleleading up to 1658, the conquest of the Norwegian province of Trondheim is put in a new light ashaving been an interruptive and complicated re-imagining of what the Swedish Empire should be.

<p>In November 1653, a vessel arrived in the harbour town of Gothenburg, on the west coast of the Protestant monarchy of Sweden. Aboard the ship was the newly appointed English Ambassador Extraordinary, Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-1675); jurist, Puritan and avid diary keeper. In his journal, Whitelocke noted down the entirety of what he was to experience during his stay in Sweden. From the heaps of papers he produced over his lifetime, he later edited this particular record under the title <em>Journal of the Swedish Embassy</em>. Spanning between 1653 and 1654, the pages of the journal contains information of the most mundane kind, as well as eye witness accounts of what must be recognised as a very interesting part of European history. More so, it reveals Whitelocke’s views on the political questions of his time, mainly presented through conversations with important actors from Swedish society, such as Queen Christina, Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, and the Archbishop of Uppsala, Johannes Canuti Lenaeus. In the eyes of the Swedes, Whitelocke became a representative not only of the new Commonwealth of England, but of the new ideas that had formed the basis of its government. As such, he was often made to explain the conduct of his country men, as well as defend the recent events in England. Thus, through these recorded exchanges, an image of Whitelocke´s representation and of his views regarding the changes in England emerges from the pages. This Masters Thesis will analyse this image, as well as discuss Whitelocke’s political views, both practical and ideological, at the time of his embassy to Sweden.</p>

In November 1653, a vessel arrived in the harbour town of Gothenburg, on the west coast of the Protestant monarchy of Sweden. Aboard the ship was the newly appointed English Ambassador Extraordinary, Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-1675); jurist, Puritan and avid diary keeper. In his journal, Whitelocke noted down the entirety of what he was to experience during his stay in Sweden. From the heaps of papers he produced over his lifetime, he later edited this particular record under the title Journal of the Swedish Embassy. Spanning between 1653 and 1654, the pages of the journal contains information of the most mundane kind, as well as eye witness accounts of what must be recognised as a very interesting part of European history. More so, it reveals Whitelocke’s views on the political questions of his time, mainly presented through conversations with important actors from Swedish society, such as Queen Christina, Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, and the Archbishop of Uppsala, Johannes Canuti Lenaeus. In the eyes of the Swedes, Whitelocke became a representative not only of the new Commonwealth of England, but of the new ideas that had formed the basis of its government. As such, he was often made to explain the conduct of his country men, as well as defend the recent events in England. Thus, through these recorded exchanges, an image of Whitelocke´s representation and of his views regarding the changes in England emerges from the pages. This Masters Thesis will analyse this image, as well as discuss Whitelocke’s political views, both practical and ideological, at the time of his embassy to Sweden.