Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 9, 1592-1603. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1897.
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'Venice: December 1594', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 9, 1592-1603, (London, 1897) pp. 148-149. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol9/pp148-149 [accessed 26 April 2024]
December 1594
| Dec. 10. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives. | 318. Francesco Vendramin, Venetian Ambassador in Spain, to the Doge and Senate. |
|---|---|
| Two Scotch gentlemen came here this month on pretext of private affairs. They have had various interviews with the King, and, in the name of the King of Scotland, they have explained that his Majesty is afraid of treachery on the part of some of his powerful Catholic vassals. He is afraid to make an open enemy of the Queen of England, otherwise he would declare himself a Catholic, both because he is so inclined and in order to save his person from these treacherous attacks. He asks for advice from the King of Spain. | |
| At first the ministers were suspicious of this mission, thinking it highly probable that it covered some ruse of the Queen of England; especially as it is known that the English intend to attack the India fleet next year. Finally they resolved to send a private emissary to Scotland, as indeed was done last week, to speak to the King and to throw more light on the matter. | |
| Madrid, 10th December 1594. | |
| [Italian; deciphered.] | |
| Dec. 10. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives. | 319. Marco Venier, Venetian Ambassador in Constantinople, to the Doge and Senate. |
| The affairs of Bogdania and Walachia are going steadily from bad to worse. Those princes are in excellent order. Every day support arrives from England and from Warsaw. They are so thoroughly masters of all the towns on the Danube and all its shores that there is no fear that the enemy can cross that river. | |
| Every Turk in those countries has been killed; the population is devoted to the Princes and resolved to die rather than again to pass under Turkish yoke. Those who arrive from that quarter, and more especially a dragoman of the English Ambassador, declare that the Chancellor of Poland has been cut to bits by the Poles on account of his close relations with the Turks. The French Ambassador sent to ask the loan of two thousand crowns. I replied that in the well-ordered Government of the Republic no public moneys could be spent except on a vote of a large majority, that personally I could not help him, but if he liked 1 would write to Venice. The Ambassador inquired what was the method of voting public money, and was informed that the vote must first pass the Cabinet (Collegio) with a majority of six to one, and must then pass the Senate with the same majority, in a house of not less than one hundred and fifty. | |
| The Ambassador replied that he thought I could have disposed of so small a sum on my own responsibility; and that he would not trouble me to write, as before the answer could reach me he would have supplied himself. | |
| I am sorry that this has happened, for it may lose me the friendship of the French Ambassador as I have lost that of the English, because I would not violate my conscience to please him, | |
| Dalle Vigne di Pera, 10th December 1594. | |
| [Italian; deciphered.] | |
| Dec. 28. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives. | 320. Francesco Vendramin, Venetian Ambassador in Spain, to the Doge and Senate. |
| One of the two strong places (fn. 1) which his Majesty held in Brittany has been taken by the English, who cut the garrison to pieces. This is a heavy blow, for the Spanish still had hopes of making some progress in that country. Don Juan d'Aguila, commander of the other strong place Blauet, is held responsible for the misfortune because he repeatedly informed his Majesty that the place could hold out for four months more. | |
| The English have seized a Flemish vessel which the commandant of some galleons was bringing into Lisbon. | |
| Madrid, 28th December 1594. | |
| [Italian; the part in italics deciphered.] | |