|
| Nov. 16. | Giustiniano and Rizzo, factors of Signor Horatio Palavicino,
to his Excellency [Lord Burghley.] |
|---|
| The four thousand pounds last received by his Excellency's
orders have all been remitted in accordance with Signor Horatio's
orders, and as there is still a good sum to be provided in
Embden and Hamburg, and letters of exchange upon them for
500l. have come from Antwerp and for 1500l. from Venice,
they pray him to give orders that they may be paid the other
4000l. asked for in their last memorial, that they may make an
end of providing payment of the letters of the said Signor Horatio
and also pay the above mentioned sums to Antwerp and Venice,
good part of which is already due, and the rest will be so in
a few days. |
|---|
| The Signor Horatio had already provided the value of all this
sum, and was shortly to furnish the small remainder, as he had
lately given report to his lordship.
Unsigned. Endd. by Burghley "16 Nov. 1586." Italian ½ p.
[Germany, States IV. 120.] |
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| Nov. 17. | Stafford to Burghley. |
|---|
| "Surely I know that Bellievre is gone with private instructions from the King that nobody but himself is acquainted withal,
I think not Villeroy, who is the King's right hand and the
other's most especial and private friend. The King reposeth a
great trust in the man." If there be good to be done with
this country there is no way better than by his means, for he
is very wise and discreet. And if now you see how hardly this
matter of Flanders can be maintained and wish for some other
way from hence to keep him [the King of Spain?] occupied,
I think this man's coming over will bring more effect than
any body else that could be sent, as he is a great enemy
to the Spaniards and to Spain, and I think will be very
willing to divert the civil war of this realm to somewhat against
Spain. I write of very good knowledge that (if he see things
disposed in England) he has commission to hearken to it and
perhaps to speak of it; not that I think the King will declare
himself openly, but that some means may be found without
this, and that to good purpose, for the French minds are very
much bent against Spain, and a small help will set them
forward. |
|---|
| But if he do make a motion, I think he will move for the
Queen's help to a peace in France, and if a good reasonable
one might be made, "it were not the worst for the King of
Navarre." Perchance the news which they have of the certainty
of the reisters coming will help it, whereas I fear, if they be
once come, and find, as they will, great want of victual, that
want will make them mutiny, want of pay will make them
worse, "and if, they either returning or by hunger starving,
be defeated without fighting, all the money that the Queen hath
bestowed and the rest of their friends [will] be lost, the succour
melt away to no effect, and so they in worse estate than before." |
|---|
| This a Frenchman of the Religion will not abide to hear, nor
that an army of a hundred thousand men might die of hunger
in France, but they who see that there is already a general
famine, and know that all that is possible will be taken away
into the towns, "whereof they hold never a one," will soon find
it probable. |
|---|
| Besides, their light government makes me to fear bad success;
for if they have a thing in their heads, they will execute it, and
not forsee what harm may come of it; as they now, "in surprising a town in the Duke of Guise's government called Rocroy,
which serveth them to little effect, have brought a house upon
M. de Bouillon's head that will cost him sweat, and, which is
worst of all . . . have given the colour to the League to take
arms, and an occasion that the King cannot refuse them to find
means to recover it," and so arm them again, when he was
seeking by little and little to disarm them, as he had almost done. |
|---|
| I know that the Queen Mother has secret commission to offer
exercise of religion in all the places that they hold, and liberty
of conscience throughout all France; and if they offer this of
themselves, what further they may be brought to, I leave you
to judge. "They persuade themselves, and I think the Queen
hath charge to offer it, that if the King of Navarre will become
a Catholic, the King will declare him his heir, and give him
the Duchy of Anjou and many things more; but they be all
tales. If they thought the King of Navarre would take it, they
would never offer it, but they know that if he leave his religion,
he loseth the party that is only sure unto him, and is not
assured what the others will be to him, though he fall to their
religion. . . . I can assure you this, that if the King of
Navarre were a Catholic, and upon that change the King had
declared him heir apparent, he would first fear him, and then
hate him ten times more than he doth, being a Huguenot. . . ." |
|---|
| I write this only to you, to use as it shall please you, for
what comes from me to any other is subject to what interpretations they list, and I fear to write anything "that doth
not please every body's humour," but to your lordship I dare
show "that though I love the King of Navarre and his house
very much . . . yet I am her Majesty's subject, and thereby
bound to look to the best way to provide for the good of
the general estate, and to seek to have them helped according
to reason . . and not according to their fond imaginations."
And if from what I write there come any matter to build some
good upon, and I hear from your lordship, I think I can find
out their meanings in anything they propound, and those who
will be best disposed to help forward the weal (welthe) of both
the realms.—Paris, 17 November, 1586.
Holograph. Add. Endd. 3 pp. [France XVI. 77.] |
|---|
| Nov. 17. | Quitry to Buzanval. |
|---|
| The latest dispatch brought by Quatreguillen, ordering that
the last sum granted by the Queen of England was to be
employed only by the advice and consent of the Landgrave, has
delayed our proceedings and thus given some dissatisfaction to
Duke Casimir; as has also the condition which M. de Palavicin
wished to obtain, viz: to retain in the hands of the said Duke
the half of the hundred thousand crowns if the German princes
should contribute to the succours for the King of Navarre; not
to be used but by notification of the Queen, a thing which Duke
Casimir has strongly disputed and finds very strange, both because
the King of Navarre, to whom the money is lent, is bound for
the whole sum, and also because, as he alleges, the Queen
had always offered, in case the princes should contribute, to
add a good sum thereto. |
|---|
| For the above reasons, and also that M. de Palavicin has
not yet been able to collect all the ready money (which he will
not be able to accomplish till the end of January) . . . we
have been kept to this day. I beg that Mr. Walsingham will
enable us to go on in our good work with M. Palavicin. . . . |
|---|
| So much for the past. As to the present, M. de Palavicin has
at last signed the articles and conditions, and I have got
them received and agreed to by Duke Casimir, though not
without great difficulty. Now it only remains to pass the
capitulation, which is to be done a week hence. The dangerous
illness of M. 'Beuthrick,' and also of the Duchess, who was
believed to be dying of smallpox and is not yet out of danger,
has prevented the Duke from engaging in this affair, which
I think is as good as settled, if M. de Palavicin does not
change his mind; but they can agree so little in their discourse,
either for lack of understanding each other or from craft,
that we thought to have lost our match, and but for my
plan of putting their intentions into writing, we should not
have reached our goal. Now as by the treaty there remains a
large sum to be paid in January, for which Palavicin and other
merchants stand bound, there is great need of the continuation
of Mr. Walsingham's friendly letters, seeing that the Duke
has sworn to me many times that he would treat only on
condition that if Palavicin should fail in any one point of
his promises, he himself would fail in all. They have obliged
us to negotiate only with him, without power to treat elsewhere,
and he is impressed with the idea that they wish to embark him
in the affair and then leave him to bear the burden of this
war, so that we have got the name of quibblers. |
|---|
| As soon as the capitulation is made, I will let you know, and
if in discourse on the above you see that there is any thing
which might bring prejudice to Palavicin, I pray you to be
silent about it; for I have never seen in him any lack of good
will, but only the exigencies of his charge and instructions. I
pray you also to communicate these news to M. de la Fontayne
and M. de la Tour; my excuse for not writing to them being
that I should only repeat the same things.—Angrefsheim, 17
November, 1586, old style.
Signed. Add. Endd. Fr. 1¾ pp. [Germany, States IV. 121.] |
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| Nov. 18. | Horatio Palavicino to Walsingham. |
|---|
| We are falling here into very dangerous delays, and the
humour of Casimir and of his men is such that they cannot be
persuaded to give us satisfaction by telling us the reason of it, and
so quieting our minds. Wherof, it is not wonderful if I desire
at once to inform your honour and to obtain some remedy for
it from you; this proceeding from a passionate desire for the
good of the commonwealth. And although I know that after
such a loss of time as there has been, nothing can be more
unseasonable and wearisome than a new proposal to begin a
new negotiation with a new person; yet better late than never;
and the present season may be better employed in this than
in any other action. And such a resolution will perhaps have,
on Casimir's mind, the same effect that a like one had in the
year 1575; in which, if he brings his mind to give us honest
satisfaction, we shall desire nothing better; and his terms are
always to be preferred to those of all the others. |
|---|
| Before Christmas I mean to go to the Landgrave, and with
him shall try to get to the bottom of what may be done under
another chief; and that he would do me the favour to persuade
him and afterwards to facilitate matters for his taking horse,
whereof your honour shall be diligently advertised. |
|---|
| So that although, from my inexperience, I cannot promise any
sure fruit of this new course which I propose, and that it is
grounded rather upon divers discourses with these French gentlemen than upon any knowledge of my own; yet, since they
approve it, and also that we do not mean to mar any thing
with Casimir, I hope you will not blame my idea, and will
accept in good part any fruit thereof, be it small or great;
not holding me bound for anything more than what depends
on my own diligence.—Francfort, 18 November, 1586.
Holograph. Add. Endd. Italian. 1 p. Seal. [Germany,
States IV. 122.] |
|---|
| Duplicate of the same, signed only.
Add. Endd. Italian, 1 p. [Ibid. IV. 123.]
[Probably despatched by another route.] |
|---|
| Nov. 18. | Gio. Battista Aurellio to Walsingham. |
|---|
| A letter of sympathy on occasion of the "common loss," [i.e.
Sir Philip Sydney's death]. Grief is natural. St. Paul did
not write to the Thessalonians that they should not weep for
the dead, but only that they should not weep as those without
hope of the resurrection. |
|---|
| And since he has lately published a little book on this subject,
he has thought well to send it—not that he esteems it worthy
of his honour's leaving the matters of weight in which he is
always engaged, to read it entirely—but first because it is a
record of what was first said by St. Paul of the true reason
for consolation on losing a relation or friend, and secondly
to offer him a small fruit of the mind of him who will be always
his honour's true servant, and who prays to the Father of all
consolation, not only for him, but for both his ladies.—London,
18 November, 1586.
Add. Endd. Italian. 2 pp. [Italy I. 16.] |
|---|
| Nov. 20. | Stafford to Burghley. |
|---|
| "I have sent your lordship the little mulett (fn. 1) ; I pray God he
be as good as I wish him. He is young, and little, and very
towardly paced, which I think you desire as much as anything,
but if you desire a bigger I will fit you the best I can. |
|---|
| I have written to the Secretaries such things as have passed
since Mr. Wotton's departure, and therefore refer you to their
letters. For the Spaniard I have written to them of, [Don Pedro
Sarmiento; see p. 154 infra], I think never a craftier knave came
this side the sea. He says that of all he dealt withal, he thinks
you trusted him least, which I think is no small honour to
your lordship, for of all the rest he brags that he "cousened
them kindly," and so I believe he has done. |
|---|
| Mr. Wotton has told divers here that "he is afraid that he cannot put off any longer coming hither shortly, now Sir Philip Sidney is dead, who was his only friend he trusted upon to unburden
him of this burden." He thought his man would have brought
him a commission, and stayed five days after his dispatch,
hoping for his coming. "I would he were here already, so I
were not wrought out with cunning; it may be he will be
full weary of the place ere long, specially if he be as well used
in it as I have been," for I am fain to find out the news of
England a fortnight or three weeks before I have it from
thence, and when it comes, it is very short. "This last time
by Mr. Wotton's man I had never a letter at all from Mr.
Secretaries, . . . and if it had not been for your honourable
dealing in writing to me at large I had had nothing; but
I must bear all with patience and say nothing, and so I beseech
your lordship not to be a known that I have complained to
you for that will make me far worse. . . . |
|---|
| "The more I look into the necessity of this country, the
more I have cause to think of the inconveniences that will
come to the army of the reiters . . . if they come afore May
out of Germany, that they may be in Lorraine in June and
July, and eat both the old in the barns and the new on the
ground, and enter into France in August, when they shall find
all in the barns and uncarried away. . . . To make the
bruit run that they are ever coming afore is necessary
and convenient, but if they come afore, if all expences be
not lost and their army go to wrack, never trust me; and that
without fighting; but [to] persuade a Frenchman that hath no
brain to look further than the top of his nose is lost labour.
But when I see that the King's armies, which be but small, and
divided into sundry provinces and have all places opened to
them, are fain to break themselves only for want, [I] may
with reason write what I think to your lordship . . . I have
since more cause, in speaking with them that be here from the
King of Navarre and deal for him, to believe that their intent
is, the reisters being upon the frontier, to take the vantage of
the large offers that shall be made them of peace in soothing
them a little; they tell me plainly enough their intent."—Paris,
20 November, 1586. |
|---|
| Postscript. I beseech your lordship be good to this bearer in
a suit he has to you, of which I wrote to you before.
Holograph. Add. Endd. 2 pp. [France XVI. 78.] |
|---|
| Nov. 20. | Horatio Palavicino to Burghley. |
|---|
| I yesterday (fn. 2) wrote very fully to Mr. Secretary on the state
of this negotiation, and cannot now, because of the haste of
the messenger, advertise your Excellency thereof, only telling you
that our negotiators here have put us off, today with a warm
hope, tomorrow with a cold one, very grievously, awaiting the
reply which Casimir is expecting from these Princes, without
whose aid it is idle to think that either by reason of his
promise given or from pity for the common weal will he satisfy
our demand. Segur and Guitry, who have said so and wished
others to believe it on their report, go on with sole regard to
their own convenience and to satisfy their particular ends,
neglecting all else. The man who went to the King of Denmark arrived yesterday [margin, by Burghley, 19 November]
so that they will have no further occasion of delay, and with
my next, I shall be able to write either of a conclusion or
postponement until July next, for if it cannot now be settled
for the month of March, it cannot be done except for that
time or thereabouts, unless my new proposal to seek another
captain should expedite matters, on which point I greatly desire
your lordship's orders how to proceed. |
|---|
| It being reported from many places that the King of Spain
is preparing troops, money and munitions against England
for this next spring, and although it is probable that when they
come to put these preparations into effect there will be better
known the great difficulties or even impossibility of carrying
out the design, none the less it is very wise on our part to
make the dangers appear the greater, in order to provide abundantly against them on all sides, and above all not to abate
our efforts or feed ourselves with hope of peace, whereby the
wisdom of the Spanish Council might easily enjoy every advantage. |
|---|
| Some think that the Duke of Savoy will conduct the war,
and here I bethink me of what Lorenzo Grimaldo wrote, that
they had one there who had troops and a bond to lead it in
person. I doubt not but that your lordship, on whose shoulders
is borne all the weight of affairs, will know much more of
this and be able to judge thereof even to its most secret depth,
therefore I will say no more, but only await what I may do
in the service of her Majesty. |
|---|
| Certain French gentlemen of the Religion have surprised a
town named Raucroy, half a league from the Meuse, below
Messiers [Mezières], a strong town, armed with thirteen great
guns, munition and other furniture of war; which is esteemed
to be of some importance and may, in time, serve our affairs
in the Low Countries.—Frankfort, 20 November, 1586.
Holograph. Add. Endd. by Burghley. Italian. 2 pp.
[Germany, States IV. 124.]
[The words in italics are in cipher, undeciphered.] |
|---|
| Nov. 21. | Horatio Palavioino to Walsingham. |
|---|
| I wrote on the 18th and 19th. Now, believing that Zolcker
will be long on the way, going by Embden as he does, I will
just say that he carries letters from the Duke to her Majesty
written on the 16th, in which he may have more freely declared
the true cause of his irresolution or delay, and imparted his
intention for the future; whence you will gain light on what to
order me to do as to my new proposal, which I eagerly await. |
|---|
| The Councillor of the Duke returned on the 19th from the King
of Denmark; and I expect every hour the news of the final
resolution, whether negative or affirmative, which I will at once
send to your honour. |
|---|
| Some French gentlemen of the land of Tierache have surprised a place called Raucroy [details as in previous letter]. |
|---|
| I pray God to console you for the loss of Monsieur Sidney
and me also, who am much afflicted thereby.—Frankfort, 21
November, 1586. |
|---|
| Postscript. Zolcher much desires to return home quickly. |
|---|
| Holograph. Add. Endd. Italian. 1 p. [Germany, States
IV. 125.] |
|---|
| Nov. 21. | Duplicate of the above.
Signed. Add. Endd. Italian. 1 p. [Ibid. IV. 126.] |
|---|
| Nov. 25. | Stafford to Walsingham and Davison. |
|---|
| Since Mr. Wotton's departure there has been nothing here of
moment, "the King having been almost always absent, and
not yet returned, in a voyage to Nostre Dame de Chartres,
whither he hath carried the Queen his wife with him. It is
given out she should be with child, but I rather think it an
imagination grounded upon the kindness of their two voyages
together, which is not often seen, and to Chartres too, where
their fond superstition hath persuaded them that be of that
religion that women come oft from thence with child, than for
any truth I think there is in the matter . . ." |
|---|
| There is no assurance when the Queen Mother shall see the King
of Navarre, and she has sent to the King that she desires either
to return or to go to Montmorency, to see if she can reduce him
to the King's obedience; but the King will by no means consent,
but will have her to remain there. Two days ago she wrote that
she hopes to see the King of Navarre this next week, which is not
believed here. If she do, I think she must go to him at
Rochelle. |
|---|
| There has been talk of sending Villeroy thither, "and for
my part I do not think that till he go, the bottom of the King's
will shall ever be delivered," for Villeroy is his viceroy in all
matters of weight, and I have not seen any treaty of peace or
matter of that weight concluded (whosoever may have begun
them) till Villeroy has been sent. |
|---|
| "In the last conference at Nerac, where Queen Mother was
so long; in that where Monsieur was, where I was present; in
this last . . . with them of the League, never anything was
agreed upon till Villeroy came, and he was not so soon come
but he brought the King's thorough will with him and all
things were ended presently. . . . If he go, I think he will
carry wherewithal to give a hard push and wherewithal to content the King of Navarre, if ever they will seek to content him
at all." |
|---|
| The news which came at Mr. Wotton's departure I feared
was too good to be true: "that Epernon should have had a
great defeat in Provence . . . and thirty of the chief of his
army killed and hurt." Sobolle, (fn. 3) one of his chief confidants
is since come to the King, bringing letters from him "that he
hath taken by force or composition all towns and castles that
held against the King's authority; that in all that province there
is not one house but is in the King's obedience save Orange,
which is a sovereignty, which yet he hath not dealt withal, and
as far as I [have] seen, doth not mean it . . . At Breoulle,
which is the last that he took in the end by composition, he
had, afore he took it, Grillon and two or three of his chiefest
hurt, but hoped there was no danger. |
|---|
| "He hath showed, as he writeth himself and as I have heard
otherwise, great favour in all places that have yielded to him
to all them of the Religion but to the ministers, but he hath
not spared any one of them. He carryeth himself in such
sort as we cannot tell here what to judge of him, for the
League suspecteth him to have intelligence with Montmorenci,
and they of the Religion have no great cause to trust him . . .
dealing so hardly with their ministers. But this is certain,
that they that be of the League in that country be as
little favoured of him, and whereas he carried from hence
the Count de Saux (fn. 4) with him, the greatest man, one of
them in that country that had been of the League, feeding of
him with hope that he would leave him his lieutenant there, now
he hath the full possession of his government (which he
thought the other, with the help of M. de Vins, his brotherin-law, might have found great means to impeach him of),
after that the Baron d' Allemaigne (fn. 5) and 'Ediguieres' had quite
defeated Vins at Epernon's first entry (which is suspected to
have been with intelligence from himself) he determineth (now
that he meaneth to come away shortly) to leave his brother [the
Sieur de la Valette] his lieutenant-general there; so that which
way he is affected nobody but God himself I think knoweth
except the King, whom some think doth not know all the bottom
of his meaning; but surely I think his meaning is, howsoever
the world go, to make himself as great as he can. |
|---|
| "Bernardin de Mendoze hath taken the advantage of the
Spaniard's release (fn. 6) that Chester came over withal . . . for
a colour to put jealousies into their heads here that there is
a private seeking underhand by us to compound with the King
of Spain to their disadvantage, which is to be trafficked by
him and that it is the only cause of his release, insomuch
that . . . ; favourers of the chiefest counsellers here have come
to me themselves, and have set the Venice ambassador to sound
me in the matter, which I have, (as in truth you know if
there be any such matter I know not of it) denied with great
assurance. . . . The Spaniard's own carrying himself hath
helped me greatly by his never coming at me or sending to
me," for they have been so jealous of it that they have kept
continual watches both on him and me; by which jealous
research of me I have found out (what I had some advertisement
of before) that if Bellievre find things in England disposed to
his liking, "he is to make, or at the least to sound you of
some plot to be laid to annoy the King of Spain some way,
though I think not by any open breach." |
|---|
| This Spaniard either dissembles with the King and his ambassador here or is a very flat knave towards England, for
when he thinks it may come to my hearing, "he speaketh honour
of the Queen's Majesty and of all them that have used him
well, but . . . when he is in any company that is not affected
to us ward, he maketh a jest of his delivery, of her Majesty
and of all them that have used him best, and hath declared
to the Ambassador that he hath used the matter so cunningly
that he hath gotten away; that he hath promised to set all
irons in the fire for a peace and . . . that in England he hath
left opinion of him that he thinketh there is not so strong a
prince in Christendom as her Majesty, but he hath found there
is not so weak a prince as she; that he had rather have been
cut in a thousand pieces than to move his master to have peace
with her; that she hath taken so much in hand that she shall
be fain to come and cry peccavi (for those were his terms), not
being able to 'furnish' it; with other words not fit to be writ,
both of her Majesty and the general estate, and of them particularly that he hath been most beholding unto. With whom
he doth dissemble I know not, but I think for my part the
worst, in the which there is more likelihood than in the best." |
|---|
| The Queen of Navarre is where she was, and the King is
"upon deliberation" to send her a train of women at his devotion,
and certain Swissers of his guard. The 2500 Spaniards have
not yet passed the Franchecomté, nor at the last news were
not out of Savoy.—Paris, 25 November, 1586.
Holograph. Add. Endd. 3½ pp. [France XVI., 79.] |
|---|
| Nov. 27. | Horatio Palavicino to Walsingham. |
|---|
| Sends a copy of the letter despatched by Zolcher, since whose
departure he has received the annexed letter from the Sieur de
Quitri, whereby his honour may see how his own and their
hopes of a settlement still continue. Is going on the morrow
to enter into those bonds and hold himself ready for their resolution, which, God grant may be according to desire.—Frankfort,
27 November, 1586.
Holograph. Add. Endd. Italian. ½ p. [Germany, States
IV. 127.] |
|---|
| Enclosing. |
|---|
| Quitry to Palavicino. |
|---|
| The Sieur de la Borde, a gentleman of the chamber to the
King of Navarre, has today arrived, and declares to us that this
King will not treat with the Queen on any condition whatsoever
without assurance of being succoured, which he desires to have
without delay. Also that he complains of the delay of
M. de Mongla's journey. I send this word, with M. de la
Borde's despatch to you, to say that as soon as ever I get Duke
Casimir's reply, you shall know it. The illness of M. Beutrich
and mortal danger of the Duchess Casimir has caused this
delay, but you will be informed of it at the end of this week,
there now remaining no difficulty save the interview of the
master and the counsellor which will take place today or tomorrow. I hope that in a few days we shall see you, and
shall take the pen in our hands to sign what we have so
greatly desired.—'Franctal,' 23 [November].
Holograph. Add. Endd. as received on the 25th. French.
1 p. [Germany, States IV. 127a.] |
|---|
| Nov. 29. | Stafford to Burghley. |
|---|
| This bearer, coming from Mr. Anthony Bacon, has brought
me letters from some of those about the King of Navarre,
saying that the interview with Queen Mother will be presently;
but that though the King is willing to see and hear her, in
respect of the pains she has taken to come thither, he will not
conclude anything without the advice of her Majesty and other
princes with whom he is allied. Poigny de Rambouillet, who
is come from the Queen, says the meeting is to be between
Coignac and Jarnac. |
|---|
| "The King is at Chartres, all alone with his wife, one valet
of his chamber and his guard. He is not always so kind a
husband to her, but many think this kindness comes of a belief
he hath she is with child. There is news lately come hither
that she is fallen very dangerously sick, more than women
with child be commonly."—Paris, 29 November, 1586. |
|---|
| Postscript in his own hand.—"I am afraid that as the interview is, which was not looked for, more things will follow
which are not thought upon now."
Add. Endd. 1 p. [France XVI. 80.] |
|---|