In Legationem Domini Oliveri St John ad Provincias Foederatas

Abstract

This Latin poem of eight elegiac couplets ‘Upon the Embassy of Lord Oliver St John to the United Provinces’ is further evidence that Marvell was already at Appleton House very early in 1651. Oliver St John (1598–1673) was selected for the crucial Dutch mission in mid-February of 1651 and he sailed for The Hague in mid-March with 250 men in his suite; he was Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He came into Marvell’s orbit in February 1651 because he was related to Lady Fairfax by marriage. She was born Anne Vere, fourth daughter and co-heiress of Sir Horace Vere, Lord Vere of Tilbury (1565–1635) and she married Thomas Fairfax on zo June 1637. Her elder sister Catherine was the wife of an older Oliver St John who died comparatively young, an uncle of this Oliver.