Appendix: Miscellaneous 1480

Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 6, 1555-1558. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1877.

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'Appendix: Miscellaneous 1480', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 6, 1555-1558, (London, 1877) pp. 1600-1601. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol6/pp1600-1601 [accessed 29 March 2024]

Miscellaneous 1480

June 15. Lettere a Principi Esteri. Archives of Modena. 65. Hercules, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, Marquis of Este and Count of Rovigo, to the King of England (Edward IV.)
Sacred and Most Serene Royal Majesty, my most revered Father and Lord.
Would that my fluency and eloquence were such as not only to express the intense joy and incredible pleasure of my mind, but also to enable me to return such thanks as I feel are due from me to your Majesty, so that I cannot find terms sufficiently dignified for the subject. But I am so elate with joy because your Majesty in person, of your own accord, with consummate graciousness and liberality, elected me a fellow knight and fellow brother of your Order of the Garter, and, besides giving me so rare and great a gift, sent me the magnificent and most excellent knight, Sir Lawrence Raynsford, your councillor and ambassador, that in your Majesty's name he might thus invest me with this illustrious honour, that, owing so much to your Majesty, I confess I am by no means able to render adequate thanks, my faculties and powers (vires) being insufficient to deserve even any part of this most precious and most acceptable gift; though to the best of my ability I most gratefully, joyfully, and respectfully received the insignia and the statutes, and promised and do promise to observe all their contents; and as I always have been, so for the future do I openly profess myself your Majesty's most obsequious and most devoted son and servant, my thanks, if less than what I owe, being at least such as are in my power, and very great and eternal.
I received the Magnifico your ambassador (legatum) with extreme joy and delight, treating him honourably, as it behoved me out of regard for your Majesty, to whom, in my name, he will give intense thanks, thus supplying the omissions in this letter. Requests credence for Sir Lawrence Raynsford and for himself, whom he recommends very greatly to the King.
(Signed) Son and servant Hercules, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, Marquis of Este and Count of Rovigo, etc.
Ferrara, 15th June 1480.
[Italian.]