| 12 March. |
88. Guerau De Spes to the King.
By many letters I have advised your Majesty that this Queen,
on the 19th December last, siezed the money in Lope de la Sierra's
ship in Southampton, notwithstanding her repeated promise, and her
passport and letters already granted for its safe despatch. I advised
the duke of Alba, and tried to gain audience of the Queen, in order
to signify to her the injury she was doing. I found her very hard
and harsh, full of falsehood and fictions to avoid returning the
money, and I understood at once that her intention, and that of
many of her Council, was to retain it, thinking thereby to inconvenience
the duke of Alba and, by this means and others, to
give succour to the French and Flemish rebels. Your Majesty
will have heard how the Duke also placed a general embargo on
English property, of which I received news here on the 3rd January
by a courier who came over with four others, despatched by Englishmen
and others there. They quite expected here that the Duke
would do this, for, before the news arrived, they had taken all the
ships belonging to your Majesty's subjects in the west country and
had landed the whole of their sails and rigging. In Southampton
they told Lope de la Sierra that the pirates would certainly attack
him in port and that they were in league with the captains of the
(Queen's?) ships. By this means they got him to discharge the greater
part of his cargo of wool and afterwards arrested him. They then
seized all the letters I wrote to your Majesty, to the duke of Alba,
and to Don Francés de Alava, and, on my sending to request secretary
Cecil to return them, he began to abuse the duke of Alba as if it
was his business to punish him, and threatened me greatly. His
threats were not entirely in vain for, on the 8th January, he and
the Admiral arrested me in this house with great insolence, sending
away all my English servants excepting one, and putting me under
strict guard. They divided the guard into four parties, for whom
they made three wooden houses in the garden, and posted the
fourth detachment in the lodge at the principal gate. At the river
gate they stationed two armed boats with many harquebussiers
and archers, and left three gentlemen with a large suite in the
house. They took one of my servants to the Chancellor's house,
and, under threats of torture, made him give information about a
courier who had already left, and the road he had taken, which
courier they at once brought back and siezed the letters. Cecil
used very harsh words against your Majesty, signifying that this
insult to me was partly in payment of what their ambassador had
to endure in Spain. This severity with me lasted many days,
during which the duke of Alba sent Dr. D'Assonleville hither.
They placed guards over him when he got to Rochester, and
detained him here in this manner for a long time, without allowing
him to communicate with me, feigning many reasons, all false,
which the Queen had for being offended with the Duke. Neither
the Duke, nor any other minister of your Majesty, has ever done her
any dis-service or disrespect, not even complaining of what we and
all persons know she has done to injure your Majesty's States, but
it is the fear and remorse of a bad conscience which make her
uneasy. They afterwards told D'Assonleville that he could see me,
but must not speak with the Queen, either in my presence or
otherwise, on any account. They said if he had anything to say
he must communicate with the Council, and both D'Assonleville
and myself thought best that the Duke should be consulted. When
his reply was received, D'Assonleville insisted on his request for
audience and the Queen in her refusal. The Duke wrote that if
the Queen would give him, D'Assonleville, audience, there was no
great objection to his telling any members of the Council, sent for
the purpose by her, what was the substance of his instructions, and
D'Assonleville, tired out, did so. The next day a decided reply
came from the Queen, by the marquis of Northampton and Cecil,
saying that the Queen would return this money to your Majesty,
but not through the duke of Alba, but that first all the points left
open at Bruges, and others pending here and in the Netherlands,
should be settled, and your Majesty should confirm all treaties now
existing ; and further, that satisfaction should be given mutually
for the treatment extended to both ambassadors. There are other
things that D'Assonleville will write about fully to your Majesty,
all of which I believe are so many falsehoods to gain time and see
how German affairs turn out for them. M. de Bourdeille has come
hither, paid by Condé and the admiral of France to effect an
offensive and defensive league between this Queen and themselves
and with certain princes of Germany, and they seem very much
set on this with the cardinal Chatillon, whom they have lodged in
a house in the garden of the palace. When D'Assonleville received
his reply they offered him his passports, and those who were to
accompany him were in such a hurry to get him gone that,
although he had orders from the Duke not to leave and had sent,
with my approval, a courier to inform his Excellency of the reply
given to him, saying that he ought not to remain here longer in
the interests of the business, he was obliged to travel slowly to
Dover, where he hoped to meet the courier, whose return had been
expected for some time. This courier had been sent in the name
of the French ambassador. In the meanwhile they are busy here
in persecuting the Catholics, and all those who have attended mass
or who are suspected of it. They put them in prison, and have
lately issued a harsh decree against tho3e who may introduce
Catholic books into England. They have also ordered that vacant
lands are to be cultivated, and have placed heavy burdens upon the
towns to see whether the people who were occupied in the wool
industry can be thereby diverted to agriculture. They have
forbidden, under heavy fines, trade with your Majesty's dominions,
and are preparing a fleet to send to Hamburg with large cargoes of
cloth, of which the Duke has been advised. Chance has brought
them so many vessels on their way from Spain that they are made
more obstinate than ever, and most of the other vessels passing off
the coast on their way to Flanders have been pursued by armed
ships of the Vice-Admiral, and have been forcibly brought into the
ports and detained. Others have been obliged to take shelter in
Plymouth to escape pirates that assailed them ; others, again, have
been taken into and robbed in Rochelle. In this way there are
in this country, belonging to subjects of your Majesty, 25 or 26
very valuable sloops, of which the Vice Admiral and other officers
have plundered most, and the pirates themselves have boldly entered
the ships lying in the ports and stolen great quantities of property,
as even M. de Bourdeille did as soon as he arrived. On the
16th ultimo 91 boxes of money were brought hither from the west
and put in the Tower, Hawkins accompanying them with four or
five boxes of gold brought from the Indies. During his voyage he
has lost at the rate of 50 per cent., besides the loss of his sailors,
not 15 persons having survived. They said that he had left in
Florida some of his men, but they tell me now that he left them in
Panuco. I have already written to your Majesty how the French
and English pirates, together and separately, have sallied forth
from the ports of the west to plunder the vessels of your Majesty's
subjects, and have brought them into the ports, selling and distributing
their booty as they pleased without any measures being
taken to prevent it. Indeed, many of the Council receive great
presents from the pirates. This Queen thinks that your Majesty
should send some person here to treat with her, without considering
how badly she and her people have behaved ; but, really, considering
the way things are going on here, it will not be conducive
to your Majesty's dignity to send anyone, but rather to punish
these people in a way which shall make them realize their offence.
It is disgusting to hear Cecil talk about his Queen being a
monarch, and that no other Christian prince is a monarch but she.
I have even heard that they are going to publish a decree ordering
every person to take an oath of allegiance to this effect, which will
mean a butchery of Catholics if God in His mercy does not prevent
it. They do not treat the Flemings on board the vessels very
badly, but they have treated the Spaniards worse than the Turks
would do, taking from them everything they had on board the ships,
and they even kept them for days without food. The Spaniards
came hither, but they were not allowed to approach my door for
a long time, although secretly many contrived to enter the house.
and I provided for the others as best I could. They have put
200 of them in Bridewell, and have had a Spanish heretic minister
to preach to them, which has been extremely difficult to prevent.
They have now somewhat lightened my guard, and, although by
means of the French ambassador, D'Assonleville, and the gentlemen
who guard me, I have endeavoured to get the Queen to hear me,
she has replied that it is not fitting that she should do so until
she receives a reply from Spain. They have ordered that all
persons here should have their arms ready for a general muster,
which is being obeyed, especially by the Catholics. The other
people, although heretics, are most unwilling to enter into this war,
for they know their weakness. The duke of Norfolk and the earl
of Arundel have been in close communication with me through a
trustworthy person during all this, and they write that they well
know the offence committed by this Queen and Council against
your Majesty, but that hitherto everything has been over-ridden
by Cecil and they have not dared to resist him, or even to point
out to the Queen his bad government, until they have felt their
way with the other nobles and with the people. They have now
done this and have many sure pledges. They say they will cause
this money and all the goods to be returned, and will change the
Government in such a way that there shall be no more pirates in
this country who will offend your Majesty's subjects. They will
respect all alliances and treaties, and will even restore here the
Catholic religion. They only ask that your Majesty should stand
firm in the stoppage of trade, as well as the king of France, so that
the English shall have no commerce with either country. The
people are already beginning to murmur, and these gentlemen will
find means to raise them and punish the evil doers. To add
strength to the enterprise, they sent me the draft of a proclamation
for me to forward to the duke of Alba for publication. It contains
a statement of the motives which they desire the public to know,
which are similar to what I have already written about the tyranny
of some members of the Government, of the non-fulfilment of the
passport given, of the favour shown to pirates and the support
given to rebels. I have sent it to the duke of Alba, and assured
him of the goodwill of these gentlemen and their power here. They
wish the affair to be conducted very secretly for the present, for the
Queen and Cecil are suspicious, even of the birds of the air. They
have put Thomas Cobham and many other gentlemen in the Tower
for a simple word in favour of the duke (of Alba). These
gentlemen desire that the Duke should sieze the ships which are
being loaded for Hamburg, which will carry 20,000 pieces of cloth,
and detain them on the same grounds as those alleged for the
detention of the sloops here. This would be of such great interest
to the merchants and people of London that, immediately on the
news becoming known, these gentlemen would begin their movement.
I have written all this to the Duke, so that he may in his
discretion decide what is best for your Majesty's service, and I have
also written to your Majesty a letter, of which this is the copy, by
the sailor who offered to take it in a boat starting from the extreme
point of this island for Spain. I also advised how Mildmay, one
of the Council, summoned Francisco Diaz, who came with the
money sloops from Spain, and, after much beating about the bush,
asked him at what season of the year the fleet from the Indies
usually came, and what ships came with it as a convoy. He also
asked him about the riches of the Rio de la Plata, and if the
country was populated yet by Spaniards, and many other questions
about the gold and silver mines there. From this it may be
believed that they intend to attack the fleet when it comes,
because, besides the ships which they are loading for Hamburg,
they are fitting out the ships in the west, and have sent captains
to raise troops, which they say, however, are for Rochelle. They
have moved the queen of Scotland to Tutbury and keep her very
close, so much so that the guards are placed on the roads for three
miles round. The bishop of Ross is kept similarly elsewhere. I
wrote to your Majesty that the queen of Scotland had signified to
me that she would find means to have her son delivered to your
Majesty to be brought up in your Court in the true religion with
every virtue and accomplishment, and she wishes to know if your
Majesty will favour her in this way. She also begs you, as a
magnanimous prince, to consider her in her trouble. The duke of
Chatelherault, since he has been in Scotland, has grown more
powerful than the regent James, who is already asking for aid from
here. I also sent to your Majesty the message that the queen of
Scotland had conveyed to my servant, who was sent to her at her
request whilst she was at Bolton, to the effect that Cecil's servant
(Alleyn?), who was in the habit of inspecting the guard occasionally,
was consoling Vice-Chamberlain Knollys and Captain Reid
who guarded the Queen, for the victories of the duke of Alba in
Flanders, and told them that, though your Majesty was destroying
their religion, they might rest easy, as an arrangement had been
made, through his master (Cecil), with some natives of the
Netherlands, who would soon give poison to your Majesty, which
God forbid. As this was known by me only a few days before
I was arrested the plan formed for discovering the details of this
business could not be carried out fully, especially as the bishop of
Ross is in his present strait.—London, 12th March 1569.
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