LS signed "George R" and "GR," three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 12.25, April 6, 1720. Letter to Sir John Norris, commander of the British squadron sent to protect Sweden from invasion by the "Czar of Muscovy [Peter the Great]," headed, "Instructions for Our Trusty and Welbeloved Sr. John Norris…whom We have appointed to command the Squadron of Our Ships of War going to the Baltick Sea." In part: "Whereas by the eleventh Article of the Treaty concluded between Us and Our good Sister the Queen of Sueden at Stockholm the 21th Day of January…We are particularly obliged to send a strong Squadron of Our Ships of War this Spring to the Assistance of the Kingdom of Sueden to act in Conjunction with the Ships of War of her Suedish Majesty. You are therefore upon the Receipt of these Our Instructions to you to proceed with Our Fleet under your Command with all the Expedition possible to the Baltick Sea; and you are to joyn the Fleet of Our said Sister the Queen of Sueden at Carlseron, or at such other place of Station where you shall learn they are, or where it shall be most proper to make the Conjunction in order to the better carrying on the Operation of the Campaign.
2. As We have not yet found any Effects of Our Endeavors to promote an Accommodation—between the Crown of Sueden and the Czar of Muscovy, and as We have declared by the aforesaid Treaty that if Such amicable Applications should prove fruitless We would not Suffer any longer Time to be lost to no purpose: You are therefore upon your Junction with the Suedish Fleet to know the Orders and Designs of her Suedish Ma’ty and to concert such Operations as shall be judged proper for repelling any Invasion or attempt on the part of the Muscovites upon the Kingdom & Territories of Sueden, and for obtaining from the Czar as soon as possible the Conditions of a just and reasonable peace.
3. You are to take under your Convoy & Care such Merchant Ships going to the Baltick, as are ready to sail with you, and you are to protect and assist them as far as you can without prejudice to the Service you are principally sent upon, & to the due performance of which we are specially engaged by Treaty.
4. You are to give Us regular Accounts of your proceedings by one of Our principal Secretarys of State, and you shall likewise correspond as the Service may require with Our Ambassador Extraordinary or other Minister residing at the Court at Stockholm.
5. You shall follow and observe such further orders and Instructions as We shall from time to time think fit to give you by one of Our principal Secretarys of State." The official letter is boldly signed at the head and initialed at the conclusion by King George I. The white paper seal affixed at the head remains fully intact. In very good to fine condition, with scattered light foxing, and old tape repairs to the ends of folds and along the hinge.
As a flag officer in the Royal Navy, John Norris had once been sent with a fleet to the Baltic Sea to support a coalition of naval forces from Russia, Denmark, and Hanover taking part in the Great Northern War against Sweden. Peter the Great took personal command of the coalition fleet and appointed Norris as his deputy in 1716; together, they protected British and other allied merchant vessels from attack by Swedish warships. Following the death of King Charles XII of Sweden in 1718, Britain switched sides and Norris returned to the Baltic region to protect British merchant shipping from attack by Russian raiders. It is probable that Norris was appointed to command the squadron as he was known to, and esteemed by, the now-enemy leader Peter the Great. Norris would go on to act as a commissioner in the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the conflict in September 1721. In the agreement, Sweden formally gave up the Baltic provinces, part of Karelia, and the city of Vyborg (near St. Petersburg) to Russia.
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