Simancas: December 1572

Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 2, 1568-1579. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1894.

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'Simancas: December 1572', in Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 2, 1568-1579, (London, 1894) pp. 448-455. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol2/pp448-455 [accessed 27 March 2024]

December 1572

1 Dec. B. M.
Cotton, Galba, C. IV. Original draft.
369. Letter of Intelligence from London (unsigned) to the Duke of Alba, Governor of the Netherlands.
In my last of the 25th ultimo I said I had not learnt the result of the long interview of the French ambassador with Leicester and Burleigh. I now learn that the ambassador was assured in many words that nothing against his King should be allowed here. The ambassador complained much of the treatment of the queen of Scotland and the closeness with which she was kept, as she was not allowed to leave one room. As a consequence of these remonstrances, the Queen has ordered the earl of Shrewsbury to allow the queen of Scotland to go to a neighbouring house for a change. She at once wrote a letter warmly thanking this Queen for the additional liberty thus given her. She also wrote to the king of France, the Queen-Mother, and the duke of Guise ; the letters having been read by the earl of Shrewsbury before they were sealed, all three in one packet with a letter to the French ambassador asking him to forward them. He sent them by his secretary at once.
A gentleman named M. de Mauvissière arrived here on the 29th from France with much ostentation. He comes on business from his King but has not yet seen the Queen. He has been here and in Scotland several times before and is liked by this Queen. I will endeavour to discover his business. The nine ships with stores all arrived safely at Brille, thanks to the zeal employed, and discharged their cargoes. Three have returned hither. The servant of Orange who is to take the bills for the 20,000l. has not left yet. I will advise his departure promptly, as also that of the man who is going to kill the earl of Westmoreland.
I am told that the French refugees here are to fit out several ships and load them with victuals and stores, as if for a voyage, but really for Rochelle, whither some have already been sent and where much distress exists. I have not yet discovered what are the negotiations going on between Montgomeri and the Rochelle merchants here.—London, 1st December 1572.
Note.—Damaged by fire.
15 Dec. 370. Antonio De Guaras to the Duke of Alba.
On the 8th instant I wrote a letter to your Excellency through Tassis, copy of which I enclose.
I have subsequently received a letter from Antònio de Tassis saying he had received the packets sent but I have no letters from your Excellency. The third person is constantly coming to me, apparently on behalf of Burleigh, to learn whether I have any reply, and, although Burleigh himself sometimes sees me he says nothing and takes no more notice than if he did not know me ; his bearing displaying annoyance that he has spoken so openly upon the question as to ask, on the Queen's behalf and his own, that the ports should be opened and commissioners appointed. The third person assures me that this is Burleigh's feeling upon the matter.
By this and other signs it is quite clear that they have now lost hope that your Majesty will extend your friendship to them. On the contrary, the general rumours at Court and amongst people who know anything about the business are to the effect that the Queen and Council have no expectation of this agreement with us being concluded, and that they are trying to provide against the trouble which they expect will fall upon them. For this purpose they have sent a person secretly to Germany, the name of whom I have not yet learned, to negotiate with their friends there. They have for a long time past had troops forewarned for them in Germany, the Hamburg people being sureties, guaranteed by the English merchants there.
In pursuance of the same end it is publicly said that Montgomeri will go to Rochelle with overt help, and twelve or thirteen ships are being fitted out here, at Portsmouth and Plymouth for that purpose. This is to encourage their friends in France, whence comes the news that the people of Guienne, Gascony, and Languedoc have offered to declare themselves in the service of this Queen, although those who best understand the matter do not believe that these people here will have anything to do with it, until they are quite sure about our friendship.
It is said that in Scotland there is a show of taking up arms again in consequence of the Prince being in the hands of the Catholics. The faith is being preached over the greater part of Scotland, and large numbers of people are being converted by the preaching of some very wise friars who have gone there from France. On the other band, those who are friendly to this Queen are opposing this, and Killigrew has gone from here as ambassador. In Ireland the people are all up in arms against the English, as the Irishmen will not allow the Englishmen to colonise certain lands there.
An English soldier tells me that he heard for certain at Flushing that, when any force comes against the place, the people will abandon it. It is said that there are three hundred Englishmen belonging to M. de Lumay's force at Caunfer.
Parliament will open on the 12th of January, and it is said that the earl of Leicester will be created a duke and Lord Burleigh a marquis. The French ambassador has returned, the Queen having consented to be godmother, and the earl of Leicester will leave here to represent her.
For the last five or six nights a terrible comet of immense size has been seen in the sky, and as these people here are fond of speculation, a great deal of discourse is taking place about it, the general talk being that such a sign has never been seen here excepting when it has presaged a change of government.
It is believed that the queen of Scotland has been given rather more liberty and that the bishop of Ross will shortly be released. The earl of Arundel, also, has been set free, he having hitherto been under arrest in his own house.
It is confidently reported to me that the people of London are to lend the Queen, at her request ; a hundred and fifty thousand crowns for one year, she adding to it a like amount ; two hundred crowns in addition being collected amongst the French and Flemish rebels here and their Huguenot friends in France, Flanders, and Germany. The object of this is to enable the Vidame and Montgomeri and their friends to raise troops in Germany, and, although it is presumed that the purpose is to trouble the king of France and enforce this Queen's demand that Rochelle should be held, and to press the question of Guienne, it is also understood that part of the force is destined to support the prince of Orange in his traitorous pretensions. With the same end great quantities of grain, flour, bacon, and other provisions are being gathered in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk to supply Flushing and Holland. There is a great rumour, although secret, that seven or eight thousand soldiers, French, Walloon, and English, are to leave here for Flushing, and they tell me that, whatever designs the Vidame and Montgomeri may have subsequently, they will first go to Flushing and Holland with this force, and unite with Orange. Yesterday the Council was gathering information from one of the principal men of Flushing, who is secretly here, respecting the guns, ammunition, and stores which were in that place, and the number of men for its defence. As may be imagined, this Government, with Orange and the French, are very busy with these treaties, and there seems to be no doubt about their plans being carried out, but, please God, your Excellency will confound them all, to the great service of God and the King, and the admiration of the world.
By experience we see that these ships in the Channel will go, as I said they would, in the direction of Rouen, to plunder. They have taken there a cutter loaded with wool and oranges, another with sugar from Barbary, and another with a cargo of woad. The two latter are French ships, and they are now on this coast, where the plunder will all be put up for sale.
By the last courier the Flemings here received news that Orange had been in danger of capture in Holland, and that he will fly hither from our army. When the French ambassador took his leave to return he had long secret conferences with Montgomeri and the Vidame, all of which goes to show that the treaties are directed against Flanders, although it is announced that four ships which have left here since for Portsmouth to join the others of which I spoke are going together to plunder. But they will go to Rochelle or to succour Flushing.—London, 15th December 1572.
371. Antonio De Guaras to Zayas.
Confirms his letter of the 8th instant, and encloses another packet for the King.—London, 15th December 1572.
372. Antonio De Guaras to the King.
Confirms his letter of the 8th, enclosing copies of his letters to the duke of Alba, and encloses herewith copies of other letters to the Duke of this date.—London, 15th December 1572.
22 Dec. 373. Antonio De Guaras to the Duke Of Alba.
Confirms his letter of 15th, by Tassis, and has received nothing since that date.
Two days since Lord Burleigh sent the third person to tell me that he wished to see me. I went, and he asked me whether I had any letters from your Excellency. I answered him that I had not, and he then asked when I expected them. I replied that I looked for them hourly, and that there had been no undue delay, considering that the special courier I had sent to Gravelines with the packet of the 9th, enclosing his draft, had been detained in Dover for more than eleven days by contrary weather, and also that, no doubt, your Excellency would be fully occupied with the prosperous events which had taken place against those bad rebels of Gueldres and Holland.
He then made a long speech to me, which sounded as if it had been well studied, about his hope that I was satisfied with the goodwill which he himself had always shown towards an arrangement, and said that, so great had been his desire for concord, that, since he had handed me the draft head of agreement, many of his fellow Councillors had been trying to persuade the Queen that your Excellency and I, for my part, were deceiving them in this business, which, they said, was evident from the fact that the Queen had received no reply from his Majesty to the letters from her which had been forwarded to your Excellency for him, which reply, they thought, was due to the goodwill and favourable desire of the Queen in the business. Seeing, however, that no reply had been received from your Excellency with regard to the draft agreement, he, Burleigh, and his friends on the Council were, so to speak, confused and ashamed. I told him that I hoped in a few days to come to him with as good news as could be hoped for, and, as regarded his goodwill to the business, I was quite sure that his Majesty and your Excellency were entirely satisfied.
During this conversation he reminded me of the hope he had expressed some time since, that I would write to your Excellency requesting that the ports should be opened on the 29th instant, that having been the day of the seizure in Flanders ; which hope he had repeated when he handed me the draft. He had, he said, continued to entertain that desire, but, as no courier had arrived with the reply and the day was now approaching, he and his companions could not avoid feeling aggrieved, and the Queen herself was much surprised. I replied, as before, that I hoped before the day arrived that a favourable answer would be received from your Excellency. He asked me whether there was any news from our army in Flanders, and I told him that he would no doubt know better than I, but that I learned that many towns in Holland which has been disturbed by the adherents of Orange had submitted to his Majesty, and it was expected that, with the force your Excellency had, you would soon bring them all on to the good road. It was said that Orange was very near being surrendered to your Excellency, but that he had been rescued by the aid of M. de Lumay and had retired with him to Brille. Burleigh pretended to be surprised at such events, although he said that nothing else could be expected.
When I said that it was public talk that Orange was coming here, he replied, "If he were to do so, as I have already told you, the Queen is very anxious to intercede with his Majesty in order that Orange may be once more pardoned and received into the King's favour, and her Majesty will so deal with the business as to satisfy the King with regard to the Prince's humble petition for pardon, in view both of his great services and many faults." He added that, otherwise, Orange with his French, German, and other friends, would presumably continue to push his claims passionately and persistently. I said that, perhaps, in the interests of God and his Majesty, the arrival of Orange here might be desirable, if thereby the Queen could carry through this good purpose.
Burleigh said that, since it was expected that your Excellency would entirely settle matters in the States and bring them to complete submission to his Majesty, although, hitherto, the severe execution of the malcontents had been necessary ; in order to enhance the great renown of your Excellency and the courageous services (these were his words) of his Majesty, it would be no less glorious if your Excellency, after so many successes won by the sword, would lean to clemency and pardon for these mistaken men, and to quiet and concord in affairs. This was in substance what he said, and I replied that I hoped everything would turn out to the satisfaction of all. This conversation took place in his room on the 19th instant, only he and I being present. As I have written, the Queen and Council are undoubtedly in favour of friendship, and, if it be his Majesty's will to accept an agreement, it will cause great rejoicing to the people, and will be gladly accepted.
I am assured that Montgomeri and the Vidame, with the secret support of these people, have agreed to disturb France and Flanders in company with Orange, and no doubt your Excellency will hear more fully than we do, the news of the raising of troops in Germany for this purpose, with the aid of credits which have been sent from here and the hundred thousand pounds which are now ready in this place. The credits I speak of were for a hundred and fifty thousand crowns payable in Antwerp ; half in the middle of January and half in the middle of February. Your Excellency may be assured that, when they think the time suitable, they will place men, munitions, and victuals in Flushing for its defence, the idea being that if they can keep those States in turmoil, and trouble the king of France about Rochelle, they will be quite safe from any assult from us or the French during next summer, which they otherwise fear. So great is their alarm of this that it is public talk all over the country that they are to be conquered by your Majesty in union with the king of France, and there is hardly anything else spoken about. The man who was sent to Germany, as I said, about their sinister designs is a man, under forty years of age, who was a servant of the so-called bishop of Winchester, but I have not been able to learn his name. News has recently come that there are many armed ships on these seas, and that three Spanish sloops have been captured on their way to Rouen, as well as three French ships loaded with wine.
Quantities of artillery, powder, and other stores have recently been loaded in the Tower of London to be conveyed to the ships, in order that they may be ready to be sent where they are wanted.
Certain Frenchmen who have just arrived from Dieppe bring news that Montmorenci had fled and that his brother had been killed.
In every parish in the country it has been arranged to ask people, rich and poor, to give what each person pleases for the defence of the country against its enemies. Much money will thus be obtained, because the heretics will give more than they can afford out of zeal, and the Catholics will do the same in order not to mark themselves out as different from the others.
Dr. Dale is going to France as ambassador, and they have made him a dean to give him more weight. I have been assured this afternoon that Orange had arrived at Flushing. It is asserted that an English ship which sailed from the island of Azores on the 6th ultimo left there the fleet from the Indies which had arrived on the 26th of October, and was waiting for Melendez to convoy it.— London, 22nd December 1572.
22 Dec. B. M.
Cotton, Galba, C. IV. Original draft.
374. Letter of Intelligence from London (unsigned) to the Duke Of Alba, Governor of the Netherlands.
Since my last of 18th instant a courier came to this Court from the Queen's ambassador in Paris with a letter of a sheet and a half for the Queen, all in cipher, but, as the cipher is kept by a private man of the Treasurer's, I have been unable to discover the contents, or the purport of the negotiations being carried on by the private persons who are concerned in these affairs, except that they are about French and Scotch matters. As soon as the Queen received the letter she sent post haste to Morton and Killigrew, saying that Cardinal Ursino had submitted to the king of France many things against her and the kingdom of Scotland, and had tried to persuade the King that all the heresy in his kingdom has come from hers, as well as the rebellions and invasions from which he had suffered. He (the Cardinal) said that she was acting in the same way towards Flanders. She therefore tells them that it will be better not to proceed in the matter of the election of Regent and the other affairs which were to be undertaken, so as to satisfy the King (of France) for the present.
The ambassador writes that the friend who gave him the letter urged him to send it at once by a safe hand, as it was so important. I am striving all I can to learn the name of this person in Paris who keeps them so well posted in all that passes, in order that a stop may be put to his wickedness, for great evil is wrought by it.
Weston (?), who was attached to Orange from this Queen, has returned to this Court, and says that, if Orange were furnished with money, he has good means of again raising trouble in the States. He says there are 300 English in (Brille ?), fortifying it, and they are doing the same in Flushing. From the latter place, a few days ago, a burgomaster came to London and went to Court. I do not yet know his business. All these rebel places are being constantly supplied with provisions from here, and they will continue to be so as long as things remain as they are. I am told that Orange will come here secretly to negotiate with the Queen and Council about these affairs. My friends have not yet been able to tell me what his servant came about, except it be about this visit of his master.
These people are preparing with astonishing diligence and care, and as secretly as possible. The Queen has borrowed 600,000 crowns, 200,000 of the merchants here to be paid in Hamburg or Cologne. An express courier was at once secretly sent off with the ordinary courier to Antwerp on the 15th instant, taking a letter to the Englishman in Hamburg who is the governor or head of the merchants there, telling him to get together the merchandise required, and to have ready by January the 200,000 crowns in Hamburg or Cologne. The other 400,000 are to be raised in this country, 100,000 from the clergy and 300,000 from the nobles, under warrants from the privy seal binding the Queen to reimburse all these sums out of the customs' revenues and the new subsidy. All the money is to be ready by the end of January.
The Queen has secretly given orders for the holding in readiness of 10,000 foot soldiers and 1,200 horse of the general muster called recently, and has authorized Montgomeri to raise a force of 4,000 men from the Flemish and French bandits and some Englishmen from Flushing and elsewhere who are with him. His captains are now busy organizing this force. Four private ships carrying much ordnance and stores have left this river ; it is said for the west, to join the other 15, of which I have written, for the purpose of going together to re-victual Rochelle, as they have done before with other ships.
My friends tell me that, so far as they can gather, these preparations are intended to carry out the following plan. The 200,000 crowns will suffice, when supplemented by promises, to raise 10,000 or 12,000 men in Germany to enter France. These men will willingly go thither, as they know there will be plenty of plunder. The troops raised here will be sent to Guienne, where they have much promise of support from the nobles, and they will then try to raise the whole country of Gascony and Languedoc and as far as the Rhone and the Loire, so that there will be greater civil wars than ever before in France. At the same time they will not be idle in the States, and, judging from the support they have in France and here, their plans are well laid.
On the 19th instant the Treasurer, who was in London, sent for Antonio de Guaras, and said that he was much surprised he had received no reply from your Excellency. What passed between them and the answer given to him I leave for Guaras to tell, as no doubt he will write to your Excellency about it ; although I have heard the whole of the conversation from a person who overheard it.
They are anxious to know what attitude your Excellency is going to adopt towards them, in order to make their arrangements in conformity therewith. They are very desirous of coming to some settlement with Spain or Portugal, in order to be able to concentrate their attention on France ; and, quite recently, a gentleman of position, who is a friend of mine and a confidant of the Treasurer's, approached me twice over, to ask me whether there was not some way we could devise by which the trade with Portugal might be resumed. In the course of conversation he said that the religious question was the cause of these negotiations being ineffectual. I answered him fittingly, and I have no doubt he will carry the matter forward. I am much surprised at such a hint reaching me in this way, because the Treasurer looks askance at me, as he believes it was I who prevented the last arrangement with Portugal from being carried through. It shows their need to be even greater than it appears.
An Englishman arrived here on the 20th in great haste from Paris, to tell the Treasurer that Cardinal Lorraine had arrived at Lyons and had sent a courier at once to the King. The Queen was immediately informed of this, and it is evident that they are full of distrust and alarm at the coming of the two cardinals, and with very good reason, for it may result in their being punished as they deserve.
The earl of Arundel has been released, and, it is said, he will go to Court and fulfil his office as Lord Steward. There are good hopes, too, of his son-in-law, Lord Lumley, and of the earl of Southampton.
There are signs that they are likely to release the rest of the Catholics who are in prison for religion's sake, as the Treasurer and others were conferring with them in the Tower for a long time the other day. This show of friendship with the Catholics is a proof of the alarm they feel.
Letters came on the 19th from the king of France to his ambassador, who is to have audience to-morrow. I will report what I hear. I have just heard that a certain M. de St. Marie, of the duchy of Guienne, has written to the Treasurer confirming Montgomeri's promise given here, that the province shall be delivered to this Queen.—London, 22nd December 1572.
Note.—Damaged by fire.