Venice: April 1626,1-13 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 19, 1625-1626. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1913.

'Venice: April 1626,1-13', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 19, 1625-1626, (London, 1913) pp. 370-377. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol19/pp370-377 [accessed 25 April 2024]

April 1626



April 1. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Francia. Venetian Archives.	523. SIMON CONTARINI, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	I fully perceive their duplicity here in trying to make us believe that they are operating differently in Spain from what they really are doing. The Earl of Holland and M. de Carleton have been to pay me a farewell visit. They told me they would leave for England in two days. They spoke freely of the scant satisfaction they had received in their affairs, as they were constantly changing here, took an endless time to make up their minds about Germany, and they do not believe the truth of what is told them by every one, that now the king has pacified his realm and peace has ensued in Italy they will make war in Germany, though indeed they had nothing about this from the king or from the ministers, or when or how. They were going together from me to the chancellor to hear what the king had decided about Germany. They promised to tell me with their customary confidence. They said a letter had come from their king to the Most Christian, in which, the disputes about the ships and merchants being settled, their king followed a custom observed between the two upon a new accession, in renewing their friendship. The king was very pleased with the letter, and asked them to see the ministers for his reply. They did so, and found the Council disposed to make a change in the business, adding particulars not admitted by the English. Accordingly they would not accept it, and came away, leaving this important matter incomplete. They told me that with the withdrawal of the crown all the Princes of Germany, Denmark and the States might easily look to themselves, and here they are merely forging the supreme greatness of the King of Spain.
	In the peace promised to those of the religion they promised that the garrison of Fort St. Louis should be reduced and they would change the officers, but now they are increasing the fortifications and not reducing the garrison. Leading men of la Rochelle had come to them to remonstrate about this. They had advised them to watch their action, as they would always be in time to remonstrate.
	I thanked the ambassadors for their friendliness, and said that your Serenity would always maintain confidential relations with their king, especially as the coldness of the government here demanded it more.
	Paris, the 1st April, 1626.
	[Italian; the part in italics deciphered.]
April 3. Senato, Secreta. Deliberazioni. Venetian Archives.	524. To the Ambassador in England.
	We have voted the instructions for your successor Contarini, as last week we did those of the Ambassador Zorzi for the Hague. The latter will leave very shortly, so you may be sure of speedy relief after your painful but most useful service. As regards his Majesty's journey to Scotland, the circumstances of the present time make it necessary that you should follow him, and while you do so you will receive 200 crowns a month. We are sure that you will carry out our wishes with your customary promptitude, still further increasing our satisfaction in your service. We imagine that you will communicate to the other Courts the advices which you sent to us, as you were instructed, for the information of our ministers, and we enjoin this afresh. You will observe what is done about the Persian who has reached that Court with silk and offers of trade, and how far the negotiations there have gone.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Secreta. Deliberazioni. Venetian Archives.	525. That the following instructions be given to ALVISE CONTARINI, ordinary ambassador designate to the King of Great Britain:
	We have chosen you for this charge as you have fully justified our expectations in appointing you as ambassador to the States. When your successor arrives you will pay the usual compliments and then proceed to England. In London, jointly with Pesaro, you will obtain audience of his Majesty for introduction and leave taking respectively. You will present your credentials, expressing our desire for a continuance of cordial and intimate relations and our wishes for every success to that crown. We are sure that you will always promote his Majesty's good will to us. You will wish him long and happy years, and throughout your embassy endeavour to foster good relations.
	You will express to the queen our great esteem, wishing her every felicity and presenting your letters of credence.
	The Duke of Buckingham at present enjoys such authority and reputation that you will insinuate yourself into his confidence, using every opportunity to secure his good will and confidence, whereby you may help our interests and the common service.
	You will have at heart the interests of our merchants on that mart, seeing that they are well and justly treated, as we treat English merchants.
	You will keep a look out for what happens at that Court touching the Palatinate and the States, and everything else, sending us word of everything that concerns our service.
	You will observe the terms prescribed to your predecessor with the foreign ministers at the Court, maintaining friendly relations.
	The popes have asked us to direct our ambassadors in England to support the Catholic faith; you will act with due reserve in this matter in order not to do more harm than good.
	You will receive the papers belonging to your office from the Ambassador Pesaro, as well as our instructions.
	We send you a copy from our Council of Ten about ciphers, and one from the Senate about keeping Roman affairs apart in your letters.
	We desire you to keep, besides your ordinary household, a chaplain and an interpreter; we have assigned 186 ducats yearly to the former and 100 ducats yearly to the latter.
	For your expenses you will have 300 gold ducats a month of lire 7 each, without having to render account, and you must keep eleven horses, comprising those for the secretary and his servant; we have supplied you for four months and presented you with 1,000 gold ducats and 300 ducats for horses, clothes and trunks, for which you need not render account.
	To your secretary we have given 100 ducats and 20 ducats each to two couriers accompanying you.
	For the expense of couriers and the carriage of letters we give you 150 ducats of lire 6 grossi 4 each, for which you will render account.
	For all other expenses we have assigned to you 40 crowns a month, paying four months in advance, as we have done for the salaries of the chaplain and interpreter.
	You may take what escort you require for going to England, and we will make it good to you.
	You may take silver at his Serenity's risk to the amount of 400 ducats, in accordance with the permission given when you left this city.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Secreta. Deliberazioni. Venetian Archives.	526. To the Ambassador in England and the like to the Ambassador at the Hague.
	So that you may have the thread of what is taking place at the Porte about Gabor, we enclose a copy of what we received from out Bailo Giustinian this week, and another from our Secretary Padavin at the Imperial Court. This will serve to compare with the advices which arrive from that part. We also hear from Spain that the Portuguese have gone to Ormuz with a strong force, and pressed the English and Dutch there so hard that they had to take refuge in the citadel, and it is thought that they must have yielded the place to the Portuguese. We expect to hear the truth of this from you and how it is received at that Court. We also hear from Spain that they announce a league between their king and the Genoese with the obligation to maintain 14,000 foot at the common expense until the close of the war; the Genoese to supply all the money and receive half the conquests. A viador had arrived to settle and arrange what moves to take against Savoy. We send all this information, and you may perhaps discover more in connection with such advices, in which case you will let us know the essentials.
	To England add the following paragraph:
	We also hear of a rumour in Spain that the king there and France propose to arrange a league against the King of England. We send this for information.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Secreta. Deliberazioni, Roma. Venetian Archives.	527. To the Ambassador in England and the like to the Ambassador at the Hague.
	The Ambassador Contarini from France has informed us of the signing at the Spanish Court of the treaty of peace between the Most Christian and Catholic kings, (fn. 1) but the former is said to disapprove of his ambassador's action, and the Ambassador Allegri has assured us that the Most Christian will arrange nothing without the counsel and assent of his allies, urges us to fresh efforts in the Valtelline and assures us that they will keep their conquests. We expressed in our reply our desire for peace, but it must be a real one upon which the interested parties agree, and we felt aggrieved that such important steps had been taken without consulting the allies, as the republic has never done anything except in conjunction with his Majesty; we had no precise information, as the very articles of the peace had reached us from another quarter.
	We have sent you this not in order that you may speak about it, unless provoked, in which case you will speak in conformity with our views expressed above, but because we wish to know how the news of this peace is received at your Court.
	Ayes, 146.	Noes, 3.	Neutral, 2.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Mar. Venetian Archives.	528. To the QUEEN of GREAT BRITAIN.
	Announcement that Alvise Contarini is coming as ambassador in place of Giovanni Pesaro, with request to give him a favourable reception, as he has instructions to express the esteem of the republic for her, which they hope her Majesty will reciprocate.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Mar. Venetian Archives.	529. To the KING of GREAT BRITAIN.
	Announcement that Alvise Contarini is to succeed Giovanni Pesaro; he will have the same aims as their ministers have always had, to show the republic's affection and esteem; request the king to give the new ambassador full credence.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 3. Senato, Mar. Venetian Archives.	530. To the AMBASSADOR PESARO in England.
	Alvise Contarini is coming to relieve him of his labours. He will hand over to him all the papers and give him all necessary instructions. He will perform the usual offices at leave taking with the king, queen and ministers, and that done he may return home in the assurance of having given complete satisfaction in his various embassies. For the safety of his journey he shall have such escort as is necessary.
	Ayes, 129.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 5.
	[Italian.]
April 4. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Francia. Venetian Archives.	531. SIMONE CONTARINI, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	I have been to return the visit of the English ambassadors and to learn if they had any reply from the ministers about Germany. The ministers told them that Soubise had an asylum in England contrary to the compact, yet nevertheless they would renew the alliance. They would first pacify Italy and then attend to Germany. They would pay money to Denmark now. They would like to see peace there also. Fargis had erred and would find that some points of the treaty arranged by him with Spain did not give satisfaction. They would wish to have them improved, especially about the Valtelline, and would inform Venice and Savoy. They could say nothing about Germany before they had spoken to the king. The ambassadors said they would go to him on the following day to take leave and depart the next, as they did. They thanked me warmly for my good offices and also for what Pesaro had done in England for the common welfare.
	On the following morning I went again to the ambassadors, who told me that the Prince of Piedmont had remarked to them that the French wished to pacify Italy and especially the Duke of Savoy with the Genoese and Mantua in a separate capitulation. They wanted to send the Duke of Rohan to Piedmont and 3,000 foot of Normany to the Valtelline. The prince told them that his father the duke will keep side by side with the most serene republic and would never depart from her or the King of England. The prince thought that France wished to act as mediator and arrange peace in Italy and Germany, doing nothing for either, and that he does not wish to break with the King of Spain.
	Paris, the 4th April, 1626.
	[Italian; the parts in italics deciphered.]
April 5. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Francia. Venetian Archives.	532. SIMON CONTARINI, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	I will bear in mind the ill behaviour of the French ambassador to Pesaro in London. I must tell your Serenity a remark of M. de Carleton, which I provoked, he being very friendly to the republic. He said that Abbeville took the queen to the window in order to be seen at her side and so give greater offence to the king her husband, who did not wish her to go there and still less have with her the ambassador, who is hateful to him. Carleton told me that your Serenity had all the honours of the crowned heads.
	Paris, the 5th April, 1626.
	[Italian.]
April 6. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Signori Stati. Venetian Archives.	533. ALVISE CONTARINI, Venetian Ambassador in the Netherlands, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	So far no officers or soldiers have appeared from France or England, although they were commanded for the first of this month, to fill up the companies. All this serves to delay their decisions.
	The Hague, the 6th April, 1626.
	[Italian.]
April 7. Senato, Mar. Venetian Archives.	534. To the Proveditore at Zante.
	Enclose memorial presented by the first secretary of state of the King of Great Britain to the Ambassador Pesaro; he will do his utmost to carry the secretary's request into effect, as it is most reasonable.
	Ayes, 136.	Noes, 1.	Neutral, 4.
	[Italian.]
April 11. Senato, Secreta. Deliberazioni. Venetian Archives.	535. That the following instructions be given to MARC' ANTONIO CORRER and ANGELO CONTARINI, knights, chosen as Ambassadors to the King of England:
	James I, King of England, having died and his son Charles succeeded, we, in testimony of our sincere affection and esteem for his Majesty, have decided to send ambassadors extraordinary to that Court, in addition to our letters and what our Ambassador Pesaro has done there, to pay our respects upon the late king's death and his present Majesty's accession. Owing to your previous distinguished services we have chosen you for this mission in the assurance that you will give us the utmost satisfaction.
	You will travel to England by the way you consider best, but not keeping so far apart that you cannot unite very quickly for necessary offices and compliments by the way, but more especially that you may cross the sea and enter England together, as becomes such an embassy, that being our firm resolve.
	On the road you will visit such princes and lords as you think proper and to the advantage of our service, presenting the credentials we shall give you and performing such offices as you consider proper.
	When you have reached the city you will communicate the present instructions to the Ambassador Pesaro, and will afterwards ask audience of his Majesty, to whom all three of you will go together, presenting your credentials. After suitably offering condolences on the late king's death, you will proceed in our name to congratulate his Majesty on his happy succession, adding that in addition to our letters and to what our Ambassador Pesaro had said, we desired to send you as ambassadors extraordinary, as a still clearer sign of our esteem and friendship, to express more fully our gratification and our wish for his every success, praying God that he may live many years upon those most powerful thrones. You will assure him that our friendly feeling will continue and if possible increase. You will tell him that we shall always rejoice at his happiness and content, and we are particularly rejoiced at his marriage with the queen, particularly owing to the relationship with the Most Christian and the connection and interests of our republic with that crown. You will conclude your office by exalting so far as you consider fit the goodness, prudence and other remarkable qualities of his Majesty, expressing yourselves so as to make a favourable impression upon him.
	You will visit the queen with your letters of credence, passing similar offices with her, so as to make her certain about our esteem and affection for that crown and her person in particular, expressing our desire to render her every satisfaction.
	After these offices you will pay your respects to the ambassadors and other foreign ministers at the Court, as you may think proper with your experience and prudence, and in particular with his Majesty's ministers, trying to gain their confidence during your stay in the kingdom, especially with those who have the most favour and influence with his Majesty, such as the Duke of Buckingham and some others, testifying to our esteem and conceit of their merits. After this you will take leave of their Majesties and return home.
	We will give you a copy of the deliberation of the Senate about the obligation of ambassadors extraordinary to report after their return, which you will obey.
	We have assigned to you 600 gold ducats a month each without any obligation to render account whereof we have given you 4,800 gold ducats between you for four months and 3,000 gold ducats to put yourselves in order. For horses, clothes, and trunks, 300 ducats of 6 lire 4 grossi each. To your secretary, 100 ducats as a gift. To the coadjutor, 50 ducats, and to two couriers accompanying you 20 ducats each. Besides this we have given you 300 ducats between you for rewards and other extraordinary expenses, for which you will render account on your return. You are obliged to take 25 horses each, including those of the secretary, coadjutor and their servants. At the risk of his Serenity you may take plate to the value of 500 ducats each, to be valued at the office of the Rason Nuove.
	Ayes, 126.	Noes, 4.	Neutral, 3.
	[Italian.]
April 12. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Corfu. Venetian Archives.	536. PAOLO CAOTORTA, Proveditore and Captain of Corfu, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	I enclose accounts of the 5,700 reals which recently reached this chamber from those of Ceffalonia and Zante. The sum is small for the present and most urgent requirements of these marts and also for what we should expect from those islands, where we hear a good number of English ships have arrived to lade currants, the more the better for the present needs.
	Corfu, the 12th April, 1626.
	[Italian.]
April 13. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Ceffalonia. Venetian Archives.	537. ANDREA DA MOSTO, Proveditore of Cephalonia, to the DOGE and SENATE.
	In conformity with what I wrote to your Serenity, I beg to report on the deposits made by the English merchants upon the lading of currants in their ships, more of which have come this year than usual. This has enabled me to remit to the chamber at Corfu 28,000 ducats, which are ready to go when the galleys return, which we expect any day, and this in addition to the 22,000 already sent, makes 50,000 ducats in all. As the 250 thousand of old currants were in danger of going bad, with loss to the owners and the customs, if not exported at once, and the merchants were short of money owing to the much larger deposits made this year than last, at the petition also of the customers, I postponed the deposit to a better time, when they expect money by the first ships, upon proper securities. I understand that this has been done in the past. The deposits have been so numerous this year that I calculate they will fall but little short of the entire duty of the new imposts for the whole of the three years, so that next year, when the farm expires, will be almost entirely to the benefit of the farmer. I will send further particulars later.
	Cephalonia, the 13th April, 1626.
	[Italian.]