It is now the spring of 1636. For the past two-and-a-half years, our ambassadors from Holstein have traveled to Moscow twice over land and sea. Not only have they been shipwrecked, shot, kicked by horses, and thrown off sleds into the snow, they’ve been attacked by Russian insects and German mercenaries. And they’ve partied with Livonian nobles, with Swedish ambassadors, and with working-class Russians on the frontier.

Ambassadors Bruggeman and Crusius are negotiating the company’s departure to Persia, imploring the Tsar to confirm everything previously agreed with Duke Frederick, and invoking the family ties between the two men.

On April 3, Crusius addresses the Tsar on behalf of the Duke. The abbreviated version is: “His Princely Excellence now requests Your Tsarist Majesty, as a friend, uncle, brother-in-law, to grant us a secret audience, to hear our plea, and to act upon it favorably.”

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