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Bacon and Gondomar: An Unknown Link in 1618

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Albert J. Loomie S.J.
Albert J. Loomie S.J.*
Affiliation:
Fordham University
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Extract

In the summer of 1618 Francis Bacon wrote the following letter to the Spanish Ambassador to England, the Count of Gondomar, who had just left the kingdom:-

Illustrissime Domine, Hoc mihi per absentiam tuam reliquum est ut desiderium tui per colloquia literarum leviam. Huius rei etiam data est occasio non nulla. Rex enim meus cum profisceretur ab urbe dedit mihi in mandatis curaeque meae comisit ut accerbitates et corruptelas apparitorum versus Catholicos examinari et tempore quam primo coerceri curarem. Quod ipsum tametsi pertineat ad exhibendam justitiam qua nihil Regi nostro antiquius esse solet tamen facile perspexi serenissimam suam Maiestatem huic curae hoc tempore magis sollicite incumbere quod in hac re satisfactionem dominationis tuae Illustrissimae contempletur. Quod tibi non iniucundum fore existimo cum ipse hoc propter amorem tui libentius audirem. Vale et adhibe diligentiam ad valitudinem tuam quae rerum magnarum periculo constat. De prospera transfretatione tibi gratulor.

Julij 22° stilo vetero 1618

Fr. Verulam Canc.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Spring 1968 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1968

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References

1 Archivo General de Simancas, Sección de Estado (hereafter cited as E) 2598, fol. 87. On the cover: ‘Al Conde de Gondomar de los / Consejos de su Mag[esta]d Cat[olic]a, y su Embajador con el Ser[enissi]mo Rey / de la Gran Bretana.’ The signature is Bacon's autograph. On the back fold of the letter are two minutes in a Spanish Secretary's hand: 'Londres, 22 de Julio 1618 estilo de Inglaterra, que es a 2 de Augusto’ and ‘Varon de Berulam [sic], Gran Canciller de Inglaterra.'

2 Spedding, James, The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon, v. vi (London, 1872), 146–148.Google Scholar

3 E 2597, fol. 22, Gondomar to Philip III, Jan. 4, 1618, new style (hereafter n.s.).

4 Gondomar wrote that the speech occurred on Feb. 23, 1618, n.s. E 2597, fol. 43, letter of March 4, 1618, n.s. A copy printed in Duque de, Alba, ed. Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España (Madrid, 1936), v. I, 230 Google Scholar

5 Vienna, Haus-Hof-Staatarchiv (hereafter cited as P C) 54, fol. 68, Van Male to Archduke, London, March 7, 1618, n.s.

6 P C 54, no folio number (hereafter n.fol.), Van Male to Archduke, April 26, 1618, n.s.

7 P C 54, n. fol., Van Male to Archduke, June 7, 1618, n.s.

8 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Fondo Borghese, Serie II, v. 354, fol. 5, Lucio Morra to Cardinal Borghese, June 16, 1618, n.s. Gondomar's letter to him was dated June 7, 1618, n.s.

9 P C 54, fol. 142v, Van Male to Archduke, London, June 21, 1618, n.s.

10 The Fortescue Papers, ed. Samuel R. Gardiner, Camden Society, new series, v. I (1891), Buckingham to Gondomar, June 18, 1608, old style (hereafter o.s.).

11 London, Public Record Office, S P 94/23 /45, Digby to Buckingham, June 16,1618, o.s. See also Cal. S.P. Dom. 1611-18, pp. 547, 549.

12 P C 54, fol. 152, Van Male to Archduke, June 12, 1618, n.s.

13 Documentos Iniditos, v. n, 47-48, letter of July 15, 1618, n.

14 P C 54, fol. 163, Van Male to Archduke, July 27, 1618, n.s.; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1611-18, pp. 554, 565. On Sept. io, 1618, o.s., a proclamation of a pardon for those convicted in the riot was made. Steele, R., Tudor and Stuart Proclamations (Oxford, 1914), v. I, no. 1222.Google Scholar

15 E 2598, fol. 81, Sanchez to Philip III, July 30, 1618, n.s.

16 F. W. Brooks, York and the Council of the North (St. Anthony's Hall Publications, no. 5, 1954) describes Sheffield as ‘idle and tactless’ in his office (p. 15). Aveling, H., Catholic Recusants of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1358-1790 (Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, v. x, 1963, 232) describes Lord Scrope of Bolton as 'a corrupt man who notoriously had no desire to go out of his way to attack recusancy.'Google Scholar

17 E 2598, fol. 81. Sanchez to Philip III, July 30, 1618, n.s.

18 Ibid.

19 Madrid, Palacio Real, MSS 2170, n.fol., Digby to Gondomar, July 22, 1618, o.s.

20 See note I. Punctuation added

21 P C 54, fol. 174v, Van Male to Archduke, Aug. 17,1618, n.s. Hugh Bowler, London Session Records, 1605-85 (Catholic Record Society, V. XXXIV, 1934, 100-101) notes that while the surviving files of quarter sessions are incomplete, the extant cases do not mention recusants in 1618. Some previous Spanish protests about pursuivants are noted in the author's ‘The Spanish Ambassador and the Pursuivants,’ Catholic Historical Review, v. XLIX, 1963, 203-210. A crown investigation of 1636 is described in Havran, M.J., The Catholics in Caroline England (Stanford, 1962), pp. 128–131.Google Scholar

22 E 2598, fol. 101, Sanchez to Philip III, Sept. 24, 1618, n.s.

23 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Fondo Borghese, Serie 1, v. 959, fol. 141, ‘gia molti punti dei piu principali sono aggiusti… .’ Bentivoglio to Borghese, Sept. 12, 1618, n.s.

24 In March 1617 Baron du Tour, a French envoy, had left London without priests since none would promise not to return. P C 53, fol. 45, Van Male to Archduke, March 18, 1617, n.s.

25 Cal. S.P. Venetian 1617-19, p. 341; British Museum, Harleian 1580, fol. 102, Digby to Buckingham, Oct. 12, 1618, o.s.

26 P C 54, fol. 263, Van Male to Archduke, Nov. 16, 1618, n.s.

27 P C 54, fol. 301, Van Male to Archduke, Dec. 14, 1618, n.s.

28 London, Public Record Office, S P 94/23 /8ov, Digby to Buckingham, Dec. 1,1618, o.s. Joseph Creswell wrote to Gondomar from Brussels (on Sept. 28, 1618, n.s.) that he had asked the Archduke to support the sudden increase of clergy in exile, but he indicated that it was only temporary: ‘para cobrar nuebos alientos y uoluer mas dispuestos a trabajar … .’ Madrid, Academia Real de Historia, Manuscritos 9/84, fol. 150.

29 Samuel Gardiner, R., Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, 1617-23, v. 1 (London, 1869), 109.Google Scholar

30 E.g., Akrigg, G. P. V., Jacobean Pageant (Athenaeum, 1967), p. 327.Google Scholar

31 Only four of Bacon's addresses have been discovered. See notes 5, 12, 17, 27.

32 P C 52, fol. 107v, Van Male to Archduke, June 24, 1616, n.s.

33 Considerations Touching a Wane with Spaine (n.p., 1629, STC 1126) p. 19.

34 Shortly after this, March 27,1619, n.s., Sir Tobie Mathew wrote to Gondomar from Brussels asking his permission to dedicate to him a translation of a work of Bacon: ‘Resuelto estoy con licencia de V. S. dedicarle la Traducion que he hecho del Ubrillo del Senor Canciller, y quisiera auer dicho mas en la dedicatoria de lo que me dice el coracon de V.S….’ Academia Real de Historia, Manuscritos 9/86, fol. 42. Mathew had already, apparently, translated Bacon's Essays and De Sapientia Veterum into Italian (STC 1153, 1153A, 1154) but his Spanish version is unknown.