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CORRESPONDENCE OF PAUL DE FOIX, AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND 1562–1566

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2019

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Madame, ayant esté envoié par le Roy monseigneur vostre bon frere pour ambassadeur en Angleterre, j'ay receu commandement de luy et de la Royne sa mere et vostre de m'emploier diligemment durant le temps de ceste mienne charge en ce pays à tout ce que je seray commandé par vous ou que je pourrray cognoistre de moy mesme vous estre agreable et revenir à vostre service. A quoy, oultre leur commandement, j'apporteray de moy mesmes pour l'honneur et faveur que j'ay receu d'aultresfoiz de vostre maiesté et mesmes dernierement en vostre roiaulme et pour la memoire que je veulx retenir de vous avoir esté subiect autant de devotion et affection que vous scauriez desirer d'ung plus que tresaffectionné et treshumble serviteur. Et vous supplie treshumblement m'excuser si ceste mienne devotion me contrainct de me plaindre de quelque souspeçon que la Royne mere du Roy monseigneur m'a dict que vous avez eue de moy estant en vostre roiaulme et diray avec confiance de vostre benigne supportation et de ma bonne conscience que, d'aultant que par la grace de Dieu la condition de vostre maiesté est plus grande, d'aultant elle doibt estre plus esloignee de mal souspeçonner de ses serviteurs et encores plus d'ouir de personnes qui ne luy apportent rien moings que la verité destituee de toute verisimilitude et probable coniecture, comme il vous sera aisé à cognoistre s'il vous plaist considerer et ma qualité et cours de toute ma vie passee et mesmes aiant tel jugement de moy que, encores que j'apporte beaucoup d'ignorance et d'insuffisance, si est ce que je ne suis du tout destitué de quelque cognoissance de ce qui m'est utile et honneste et ay tousiours bien entendu qu'il n'y a rien qui me soit plus utile que de complaire à mon Roy, duquel tout mon / heur temporel depend et que je ne luy pouvoys complaire en chose qui luy fust plus agreable que en vous faisant treshumble service; et au contraire plus l'offenser qu'en vous desobeissant, luy vous aimant et honnorant comme sa treschere seur et sa proche parente, nee et procree de ceulx qui sans interruption de plusieurs siecles ont tousiours communicqué avec les heurs et malheurs des siens; et mesmes, lors que j'estoys envoié pour vous visiter des ses pars et vous offre tout ce qui estoit en son pouvoir pour la conservation et accroissement de vostre estat, l'establissement duquel je cognoissoys tresbien estre comme ung rempar et deffense du roiaulme de France. Et d'ailleurs vostre maiesté scait que depuis le temps que je suis sorty des escholles j'ay eu cest heur que d'avoir esté nourry au service de la Royne sa mere et ay deppendu d'elle seulle, laquelle j'ay tousiours cogneu vous porter aultant d'amitié et affection qu'il se peut desirer de mere treschere et tresaffectionnee et ne pouvoys qu'avec imprudence trop grossiere perdre en vous desobeissant et par mesme moien à elle, le service et attente de plusieurs annees. Quant à l'honnesteté, je l'ay tousiours mesuree par l'obeissance des commandemens de Dieu, ausquelz je ne pouvoys contrevenir en chose plus grande que en suscitant ou esmouvant contre ses expres commandemens ung vostre subiect à vous desobeir. Et quant bien j'en eusse eu commandement si est ce qu'en celle je n'eusse voulu complaire ny obeir à homme vivant, m'aiant tousiours proposé pour principal but et felicité derniere l'obeissance de Dieu et veulx toute ma vie regler et examiner tous les commandemens des hommes à la reigle et touche de son bon plaisir et vouloir. Il / est vray, Madame, que quelque personne me cognoissant peu pourroit avoir prins quelque occasion de mal penser de ce que le jour que je partiz de Lislebourg et aiant prins congé de vous le jour auparavant, monsieur le comte de Haran me fut trouver en ma chambre de bon matin mais il vous plaira croire que s'il m'eust tenu propoz qui eust esté contre vostre service que je n'eusse en chose au monde plus hastee que de la vous faire incontinant entendre. Mais tout ce qu'il me dist fut que, en recognoissance de la nourriture qu'il avoit receue en France, il retenoit affection envers le Roy monseigneur de treshumble serviteur, disant que son partement du roiaulme de France n'avoit esté que pour se veoir en peine et travaillé pour cercher de servir Dieu en sa conscience; et me prioyt continuer tousiours son pere et luy en la bonne grace du Roy monseigneur et le supplier vouloir qu'ilz jouissent des fruictz de la duché de Chastelerault. Auquel je feiz response que, s'il m'asseuroit qu'il avoit volunté de vous rendre l'honneur et obeissance de subiect tresfidelle, que je feroys voluntiers ce de quoy il me prioyt. Et vous asseure, Madame, que lors il me fist demonstration de vous estre treshumble, tresfidelle et tresobeissant subiect et m'asseura qu'il retiendroit toute sa vie ceste affection et mesme quant je luy en dict que vous m'avez chargé de faire semblable requeste pour monsr le duc son pere au Roy monseigneur. Et estant arrivé à Sainct Germain je le racomptay de mesme façon à la Royne mere du Roy, comme je croy qu'elle vous en escript par les lettres que je vous envoie. Par où vous pouvez cognoistre que je ne suis en aulcune coulpe et vous supplie treshumblement croire que, tant qu'il plaira à Dieu prolonger mes jours, je me garderay par sa grace de tumber en si grandes faultes et vous rendray tout ce que j'auray de vouloir et de pouvoir pour vous faire treshumble service. De Londres le xxe fevrier 1561.

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Primary source material
Information
Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series , Volume 58: THE LETTERS OF PAUL DE FOIX, FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT THE COURT OF ELIZABETH I, 1562–1566 , December 2019 , pp. 39 - 391
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Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2019 

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References

1 Endorsed (End.): ‘Minute d'une lettre escripte à la Royne d'Escosse’.

2 Sale description (trans.): ‘He excuses himself concerning the complaints that she is said to harbour against him.’

3 Crucial evidence on the service of de Foix to Catherine, confirmed below in No. 80, though he is not listed formally in her household.

4 James Hamilton, 3rd earl of Arran (c.1532–1609), son of James Hamilton, 2nd earl and duke of Châtellerault in France. The 3rd earl had gone to France with Mary in 1548 and became captain of one of the companies of the Scots guard. With his father's change of policy (having given up the Regency) towards a pro-English stance in 1556, Arran's position became difficult. He returned to Scotland in 1559 and was mentioned as a possible husband for Elizabeth I. English agents, however, reported his mental instability and the proposal was rejected in December 1560. An old plan for Arran to marry Mary was revived but rejected by her. She may have accused him of planning to abduct her in November 1561 in order to expand the royal bodyguard. A mental breakdown of some sort led to his long detention first in Edinburgh castle and then by his family after 1562. Hannay, R.K., ‘The earl of Arran and Queen Mary’, Scottish Hist. Review, 18 (1921), 258–276Google Scholar, esp. 272–273.

5 Arran had fled France in the summer of 1559, with the help of Nicholas Throckmorton, after his father declared himself a Protestant. He made his way home via Switzerland.

6 End.: ‘Memoyres d'Angleterre pour la Royne’.

7 Thursday before Easter, 26 March 1562.

8 Esprit de Harville, seigneur de Palaiseau (1530–1569), écuyer d’écurie, gentilhomme de la chambre du Roi, colonel of the Normandy legion, chevalier de Saint-Michel.

9 Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (c.1516–1571), ambassador in France 1559–1563, when formally replaced by Sir Thomas Smith. See C. Carson, ‘The embassies of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, 1559–1564: Towards a new politics for a divided Europe’, PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1973; K.M. Kisner, ‘Sir Nicholas Throckmorton: A diplomatic adviser to Queen Elizabeth’, MA thesis, Utah State University, 2003.

10 Nils Göransson Gyllenstierna (1526–1601), chancellor of Sweden, 1560–1590, known as ‘Guildenstern’ in England.

11 Matthew Stuart (1516–1571), 4th earl of Lennox and father of Lord Darnley.

12 Edward Seymour, 1st earl of Hertford, son of the Protector, Somerset, incurred Elizabeth's wrath by his marriage to Catherine Grey, a possible heir to the throne. He had been in France in 1560–1561 and on his return was detained in the Tower.

13 17 May.

14 Addressed (Addr.): ‘A la Royne ma souveraine dame’. End.: ‘M. de Foix du xxjme may 1562’.

15 There seems to be no English account of this audience.

16 Edward Lord Clinton (1512–1585), lord high admiral 1558–1585.

17 Francis Russell (1527–1585), 2nd earl of Bedford, who had been in France early in 1561 in order, nominally, to congratulate Charles IX on his accession.

18 William Cecil (1520–1598), Lord Burghley (1571), Edward VI's secretary (1550–1553) and secretary of state to Elizabeth I (1558–1572), lord treasurer (1572–1598).

19 It is not clear which of the highly successful and extensive Lippomano clan this is. Girolamo (b.1538) was Venetian ambassador to the Archduke Charles in 1566 and in France in 1576–1579, and this could have been him, though it was his elder brother Pietro who was prior of the monastery of La Trinità in Venice. It is more than likely that Lippomano was the bearer of a letter from Bedford to Throckmorton, 8 June 1562, in which he says ‘This bearer our frende retireth him to the Cardinall of Ferrara with what satisfaction I can not say’ but can report ‘what he hath woone therby’, TNA, SP 38/65, fo. 65.

20 Ippolito II d'Este, cardinal of Ferrara, who had been in France during 1561 to observe the Colloquy of Poissy and its aftermath.

21 James Hamilton (c.1532–1609), 3rd earl of Arran and son of the duke of Châtellerault, regent of Scotland.

22 James Hepburn (c.1534–1578), 4th earl of Bothwell and later (1567) husband to the Scottish queen.

23 James Hamilton (1516–1575), 2nd earl of Arran, duke of Châtellerault in France, next in line to the Scottish crown after Mary, regent 1543–1554.

24 See the note to No. 9 below on Elizabeth's reply to the ambassador.

25 Claude de L'Aubespine's absence in negotiations with Condé explain the lack of de Foix's surviving despatches until this point.

26 Addr.: ‘A la Royne’. End.: ‘M. de Foix du xxviije de may 1562’. Without contemporary decipher.

27 The Massacre of Vassy on 1 March and Condé's capture of Orléans 2 April and subsequent Declaration.

28 De Foix's observation was accurate, see Throckmorton to Cecil, 17 April 1562, CSPF, IV, no. 1015; [18 May] 1562, CSPF, V, no. 67, taken by Sir Henry Sidney.

29 Sir Richard Sackville wrote from Rye on 27 May, TNA, SP 12/23, fo. 69; Ambrose Darre is probably a mistake for Ambrose Cave among the commissioners.

30 Sir Henry Sidney, lord president of the Council of the Marches, who had been sent to France ostensibly to offer the Queen's advice (Instructions, 28 April, TNA, SP 70/36, fo. 139) but probably to assess the situation there.

31 Lit: du ledict.

32 On Arran's mental state see n. 4 above.

33 William Maitland of Lethington (1525–1573), Mary's secretary and frequent emissary to England.

34 Lethington received his despatch from Mary on 25 May (CSP Scotland, I, 181; Cal. Hatfield, I, 265). He had sent back encouraging news to Mary about a meeting by 9 June.

35 Listed in the Appendix as no. 2, 27 May.

36 Louis III de La Trémoille (1521–1577), comte de Benon or possibly his younger brother Claude.

37 Edward Baesche, see below n. 125.

38 Cipher text: ‘de deça’.

39 Lethington.

40 Henry Sidney's letter of 14 June to Throckmorton makes clear the extent of the Council's opposition to the idea despite Elizabeth's liking for it, CSPF, V, no. 187.

41 Raoul Moreau, whose accounts for this year survive. See BnF Clair. 232, p. 2711 for the difficulties with this payment.

42 As indicated below (n. 50) Arran, one of the leaders of Scottish Protestantism, had had in effect a mental breakdown and remained in confinement for the rest of his life, though a number of sources in 1562 indicate a degree of remission.

43 Arran had accused Bothwell, of whom he had an obsessional hatred, of planning to abduct Mary.

44 The two dominant lords of Munster, Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th earl of Desmond (c.1533–1583), and Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormond (1532–1614), a distant cousin of Elizabeth by the Boleyns. On their further disputes in 1565, see No. 112.

45 François Calluau, sr du Plessis, valet de chambre to Henri II from 1557 (BnF fr.7856, p. 1119), who brought royal letters from Etampes to England, BnF Clair.232, p. 2397 (quit. 14 juin 1562 de 250 lt.). La Quadra noted his arrival on 18 June and guessed that, since de Foix was distrusted by Catholic councillors in France, du Plessis had been sent to find out what was going on with English war preparations, CSP Simancas I, no. 169. A M. Plessis-Greffier to whom the king gave the post of gentilhomme de sa maison ‘en considération des services qu'il a cy-devant faictz à ceste couronne’, 19 December 1561, LCM, I, 260. By coincidence the sr du Plessis Clerambault was proposed as a replacement hostage in England in May 1562 (TNA, SP 70/37, fo. 14), but was turned down by the Queen as too poor.

46 De Foix clearly thought that, in agreeing to meet Mary, Elizabeth would not move in France against the Guise faction.

47 Elizabeth to Throckmorton, 23 June 1562, TNA, SP 70/38, fo. 170a: ‘the French ambassador here had a messenger named sr de Plessie which cam fro the Kyng there, upon whose arryvall the ambassador cam to report the state of thynges there’.

48 Dated 21 June. See No. 14.

49 Ludgate.

50 Blackfriars.

51 Fishmongers Hall jetty?

52 Sale: Techener, 1835, no. 244: ‘On twelve ships armed by the Queen supposedly against pirates. The interview between Elizabeth and Mary. Part cipher deciphered in the margin’.

53 William Winter (c.1521–1589), master of Navy Ordnance, 1557, vice-admiral, he was involved in operations against Scotland in 1560.

54 ‘Rastelay’ in the exact cipher. It is difficult to know what de Foix meant by this name, though Rotherhithe and Ratcliff (Wapping-Limehouse) would be in the right position on opposite sides of the river. Ratcliff was a provisioning location for ships.

55 Whitehead, who along with others named Johnson, Patrick Meagh and Fettiplace had been raiding in the area of the Irish sea.

56 Needless to say, there is no mention of this decision in APC, VII, 108. The arguments for and against are reflected in BL Cotton, Calig. B X, fo. 207 (30 June).

57 Not Volrad II (1509–1575), count of Waldeck-Eisenberg, but his half-brother Franz (1526–1574), son of Philip III of Waldeck and Anna of Cleves, aunt of the current duke of Cleves and Jülich-Berg, Wilhelm der Reiche. For the duke of Cleves’ letter of recommendation, 13 June 1562, see TNA, SP 70/38, fo. 101. See also below No. 55.

58 In the Ordinary for Gillingham, 1562: The Greyhound (Liepvre), (Le Siepvre – Cerf: Hart) and the Swallow. The (Golden) Lion, the Hoope (Hope), the Hart and the Swallow, four ships ordered ready for the pursuit of pirates on 30 July (Instructions, Haynes, State Papers, I, 394), C.S. Knighton and D. Loades, Elizabethan Naval Administration (Navy Records Society, 2013), 116–126.

59 Decipher: ‘et dict on que les envoye’.

60 Probably John Hurlocke, master of the Hope; William Barnes, master of the Swallow; William Rogers, master of the Christopher, Knighton and Loades, Elizabethan Naval Administration, 117, 122, 120.

61 Letter to Catherine in cipher, 1 July, ibid. fos 84–85. See No. 19.

62 Payment to Adam of 200 lt. in testons for this journey, ‘de Londres jusques au chasteau de Vincennes apportant lettres dud. sr de la part dud. sr de Foix, comprins son retour en pareille dilligence avec responce de sa depesche’, by certificate signed by Claude de L'Aubespine, 26 July, BnF Clair. 232, p. 2470.

63 None of the surviving articles mentions Nottingham as a possible location but La Quadra notes the possibility in June, CSP Simancas I, no. 169.

64 Thomas Percy (1528–1572), 7th earl of Northumberland, Henry Clifford (1517–1570), 2nd earl of Cumberland, Henry Neville (1525–1564), 5th earl of Westmorland.

65 Not ‘Arundel’, as Teulet suggests, but more likely William, 2nd Baron Eure (1529–1594), warden of the Middle March, or Robert, 6th Baron Ogle (d.1562) of Northumberland.

66 Thomas Young, archbishop of York 1561–1568.

67 Henry Manners (c.1516–1563), 2nd earl of Rutland.

68 There follows an extended discussion of the dangers of summits between princes and the implications for the recognition of Mary as successor for the ‘Auld Alliance’.

69 This basic hostility of Catherine towards any reconciliation between England and Scotland and thus of Mary's succession in England was understood generally. The Spanish ambassador Guzman in 1565 was convinced of Catherine's hostility to Mary at the time of the Darnley marriage, which could easily be seen as promoting Mary's claims in England, CSP Simancas, I, no. 295: ‘especially as the Queen Mother of France is very much against her’.

70 i.e. ‘pourvoir’.

71 The Treaty of Edinburgh (1560) as yet unratified by Mary.

72 La Quadra's few surviving despatches do not go into detail about these conversations.

73 La Quadra, of course, was deeply concerned about the meeting, especially if Mary's marriage should counter Spanish interests in the English succession, CSP Simancas, I, no. 169.

74 Vincenzo Parpaglia, abbot of San Salute, papal envoy in Paris, according to La Quadra, CSP Simancas, I, no. 175. Actually Nicholas of Gouda, a Jesuit, Flemish, Pollen, J.H., Papal Negotiations with Mary, Queen of Scots, during her Reign in Scotland, 1561–67 (Edinburgh, 1901), 74–76Google Scholar. Though commissioned in December, he did not set out from Zeeland until June.

75 See No. 25.

76 ‘On the impression in England of news of the pacification of the troubles in France’.

77 This was Throckmorton's despatch of 29 June, enclosing the terms of the accord of Beaugency, 25 June, CSPF, V, no. 264. By 12 July the provisional agreement had broken down over the demand that Calvinist ministers leave France.

78 Rather ‘cousin’, since Mary Stuart was the daughter of Navarre's first cousin, Marie de Lorraine.

79 It is inferred that this was the credence of Florent Adam based on his dispatch on 11 July. Otherwise, it could be the credence of another secretary dispatched on 1 July. Possibly acquired by the duc d'Aumale from the Villebon sale of 1835.

80 If Adam left on the morning of 11 July and arrived on the evening of 14th, this represents a journey of 4 days from London to Vincennes, residence of the court, a remarkable speed for the time.

81 Alvaro de la Quadra, bishop of L'Aquila.

82 The earl of Desmond, see above No. 19.

83 Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577), sent to France in September 1562, where he remained until 1566 and quarrelled bitterly with Throckmorton. He later wrote De republica Anglorum.

84 Sale description: ‘La Royne d'Angleterre manderoit en ses pais et gouvernements à ses ministres de tenir prestz et en equipaige d'armes et autres choses xijm hommes’.

85 Nicholas Wotton.

86 The Queen's despatch to Throckmorton, 12 July 1562, announcing a delay of the meeting with Mary and the sending of two councillors to France, CSPF, V, no. 324.

87 Probably the printed ordinance of 7 May, see App. no. 1.

88 Thomas Ratcliffe, earl of Sussex, deputy of Ireland. The most recent instructions to him, 3 July, concerned the maintenance of the garrison and the reduction of the ‘Irishry’ to obedience, TNA, SP 63/6, fos 96–102.

89 Elizabeth I to Clinton, 20 July 1562: ‘where two of our barkes the Phenix and Sacre wer lately warned to cery … certain provisions to Hull’ they are now redirected to conduct munitions to Ireland, TNA, SP 12/23, no. 57.

90 sic for Peter Meautis, commissioned on 4 July for the survey of Guernsey, Cal. Hatfield, XIII, 59.

91 i.e. ‘evidently’.

92 Devonshire.

93 Claude de Lorraine (1526–1573), duc d'Aumale, brother of the duke of Guise and lieutenant general of Normandy under the duc de Bouillon.

94 Cornish merchants complained of attacks at Conquet in Brittany, 21 June, TNA, SP 12/23, fo. 108. This case rumbled on for months. Throckmorton protested to Aumale on 5 July about depredations against English merchants by the baron de Clères in Normandy (TNA, SP 70/39, fo. 46), enclosing a copy of the Queen Mother's letters ordering an enquiry, TNA, SP 70/39, fo. 47. French.

95 La Quadra protested against this arrest of shipping on 24 July, CSPF, V, no. 363.

96 Most likely Robert Polastron, maître d'hôtel to the ambassador, paid 155 lt. ‘pour estre venu en diligence et sur chevaulx de poste de Londres en Angleterre au lieu de Vincennes apportant lettres concernans ses affaires et service de la part dud. sr de Foix, et ce pour son retour en pareille dilligence avec responce desd. lettres’, on Polastron's quittance signed by a notary 3 August, BnF Clair. 232, p. 2481.

97 Remonstrance concerning the troubles in France (5 pages).

98 No account of this audience survives in instructions to Throckmorton.

99 Louis III de Luxembourg, comte de Roussy (d.1571), one of the hostages exchanged in 1562.

100 An envoy of Condé.

101 August, Elector of Saxony 1554–1586, Lutheran head of the Albertine line.

102 End.: ‘Propos tenuz entre la Royne d'Angleterre et Monsieur de Vieleville’.

103 Marchand's summary is very deceptive both in tone and content of this document.

104 This audience is not reported in the Queen's message to Throckmorton of 17 August.

105 François de Scépeaux, sr de Vieilleville (1509–1571), who had been on mission to England in 1547, had (with François de Montmorency) met Elizabeth to take her oath to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis on 24/5 May 1559. The occasion had been sumptuous and the Queen had shown them great good will, CSP Venice VII, no. 77; Cecil, 26 May 1559, CSPF, I, no. 765.

106 Nip in the bud.

107 The opposite of the parable in Matthew 13: 24–43.

108 The Queen's account of this is in her Instructions to Throckmorton, 17 August, TNA, SP 70/44, fos 144–147.

109 End. (hand of de Foix?): ‘Memoire des propos tenuz entre la Royne d'Angleterre & messrs de Vieilleville & de Foix le xje jour d'aoust 1562’.

110 Throckmorton's recall, which the Queen claimed had been asked for by Vieilleville and de Foix, or to allow de Foix to return to France. Elizabeth insisted on replacing Throckmorton with Smith (letter to Throckmorton, 17 August, TNA, SP 70/40, fo. 42).

111 Jean de Ferrières, sr de Maligny (1520–1586), who had succeeded his uncle de François de Vendôme as vidame de Chartres in December 1560.

112 See No. 33.

113 On the reply given to Vieilleville by Elizabeth.

114 Presumably an escape attempt.

115 Accompanied by letters from the Queen and Cecil to Throckmorton of the same date.

116 ‘Our meaning is that the Quene mother shuld see and rede this in Frenche if she please, because she shall not thinke any part thereof sette furthe by yow … (signed) ELIZABETH, Cecill, s.’

117 The cipher used in this documents is faulty in places.

118 Jean de Ferrières, sr de Maligny, the vidame de Chartres.

119 sic for Veules-les-Roses (Seine-Maritime, cant. St. Valéry, arr. Dieppe).

120 sic for Caen.

121 Nicolas des Gallars, sieur de Saule, minister of the French Church in London, 1560–1563. See J. Olson, ‘Nicolas des Gallars, Sieur de Saules: Kith, kin, and aspects of his work in Geneva with Calvin’, Reformation and Renaissance Review, 9 (2007), 277–303.

122 Henry Knollys (d.1583), was brother of Sir Francis, vice-chamberlain of the Household, wrote to the Queen from Worms on 3 September and with Mundt from Frankfurt, 23 October 1562, CSPF V, no. 897. Not to be confused with Sir Francis's son Henry, born 1542.

123 Sir Thomas Gresham, the Queen's factor at Antwerp and later envoy to Margaret of Parma.

124 sic for ‘en Oostquartier’ (i.e. of Flanders).

125 Edward Baesche, surveyor general of navy victualling, 1550–1587, C.S. Knighton and D. Loades, eds, Navy of Edward VI and Mary I (Farnham, 2011), xxx, 526–528; Knighton and Loades, Elizabethan Naval Administration, passim, e.g. at 670.

126 Probably the Queen's Instructions to Throckmorton with the reply to Vieilleville, 17 August, CSPF V, no. 888.

127 Hugh Paulet, sent to Jersey and Guernsey in late August.

128 Franz von Waldeck had served in England in 1549 (APC, II, 299, 359), and was receiving a pension in 1552 along with Diaceto, ibid. IV, 95.

129 Addr.: ‘A la Royne’ and end.: ‘M. Paul de Foix’. The impression of the seal on this letter is the clearest that appears to survive.

130 Robert de La Haye, conseiller in the Parlement, a close ally of Condé who took a leading part in the negotiation of the treaty of Hampton Court. A friend of Bèze as well as Ronsard, who distanced himself from La Haye after 1562, Malcolm Smith, Ronsard & Du Bellay Versus Bèze: Allusiveness in Renaissance (Geneva, 1995), 67.

131 Uncertain but probably Jean Labbey, seigneur de La Rocque Baignard who m. the daughter of the baron des Essars. This family was based in Normandy (La Chesnaye-Desbois, Dictionnaire de la noblesse, VIII, 343). The château of La Roque-Baignard, the home of André Gide, is certainly in the region of Caen.

132 William, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton (d.1562), governor of Berwick and warden of the Middle March.

133 John Brigantine, stepson of Edward, Lord North (d.1564), had worked as muster commissioner for troop recruitment in Germany.

134 Thomas Gresham.

135 Knollys.

136 Probably Henry Strangways or Stranguish of Dorset, a notable privateer who sailed close to the wind and was constantly being imprisoned and released. He died later in 1562.

137 A captain William Drury was based at Berwick at this time, so this is unlikely to be him but another William Drury had been in prison in 1560, as had (his brother?) Drew Drury, CSPF, III, 349; TNA, SP 12/16, fo. 5.

138 See above No. 25.

139 Antoine IV Duprat, seigneur de Nantouillet (d.1589) and prévôt of Paris and grandson of Chancellor Antoine Duprat.

140 i.e. the peace negotiations conducted by the Queen Mother with Condé at Beaugency, which had come close to success in July.

141 Nantouillet's predecessor as hostage. The prévôt de Paris had been scheduled as hostage in 1560 but had been delayed by a family feud. He took the oath as hostage on 23 August 1562, TNA, SP 70/40, fo. 214.

142 ‘Concerning Calais’. Letter at first separated erroneously as two separate items of 15 and 16 August for the sale.

143 Uncertain.

144 Charles Poussard, sr de Fors (1505–1584) replaced by M. de Ricarville under Francis II and then reinstated under Charles IX, Lesens, E., ed., Histoire de la réformation à Dieppe par Guillaume et Jean Daval (Rouen, 1878)Google Scholar.

145 Thomas Smith (1513–1577), author of De republica Anglorum, appointed ambassador to France 1562–1563, deeply hostile to his predecessor Throckmorton.

146 John Somer, of Halstow, Kent, clerk of the signet 1561–1578. For his will, 1585, see TNA, PROB 11/68/621.

147 These arrests had taken place on 11–12 August at Morlaix and Auray and consisted of ships from Exeter and Lyme laden mainly with linen and worth £3,600, TNA, SP 70/40. fo. 126. Some of the mariners escaped to Guernsey but the rest remained in detention (Complaint in French, 19 August, TNA, SP 12/24, fo. 29).

148 The Mary Willobye.

149 The Hope, the Lion, (Lecuier –Cerf– Hart?), Swallow and Greyhound, see Instruction, 30 July 1562, Haynes, State Papers, I, 394.

150 End. By Cecil: ‘20 september 1562. Answer to the French embaxador concerning Maligny La Haye’.

151 End.: ‘Sept. 1562. The French ambassador to the counsell’.

152 Jean de Brosse de Bretaigne (1505–1564), comte de Penthièvre, duc d'Etampes, separated from his wife Anne de Pisseleu, mistress of Francis I; governor of Brittany from 1543. Etampes was reporting at this time that Breton Protestants were boasting that they would be helped by the English but thought such aid would not be coming soon, BnF fr.15876, fos 389–390, 436–437.

153 End.: ‘xixo octobr 1562. The French ambassadours declaration in French signed with his hand’.

154 The serious attack of smallpox which from 10 October laid the Queen low for a month at Hampton Court and led to a crisis over the succession.

155 A declaration of the Quene's Maiestie: Elizabeth, by the grace of God, quene of England, Fraunce, and Irelande, defendor of the fayth, &c. Conteyning the causes which have constrayned her to arme certeine of her subiectes, for defence both of her owne estate, and of the moste Christian kyng, Charles the nynth, her good brother, and his subiectes. Septemb. 1562. Imprynted at London in Powle's churchyarde: by Rycharde Iugge and Iohn Cawood, Printers to the Quene's Maiestie. Cum priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis. [1562] STC (2nd ed.) / 9187.3.

156 The prince of Condé, of course.

157 See Potter, D., ‘The French Protestant nobility in 1562: The “Associacion de Monseigneur le prince de Condé”’, French History, 15:3 (2001), 307–328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

158 The words in the Queen's declaration: ‘neither done by private furye, but by publique officiers, who were also maintained by gouvernours of the countries’.

159 It is not clear whether this is meant to refer to the current declaration of that of M. de Vieilleville in August.

160 Letter of Charles IX, 2 October 1562, TNA, SP 70/42, fo. 45.

161 Implicit threat of further action.

162 Crossed out here: ‘Et le tout en presence de Charles de Moy, seigneur et baron de Moy, Esperit de Harzille, gentilhomme de la chambre du Roy, seigneur de Palaiseau, Nicolas de Hellenvilley, seigneur et baron de La Ferté et Anthoine Duprat, prevost de Paris, seigneur de Nantouillet, ostaiges pour led. seigneur Roy pres lad. dame. Lesquelz il a requis luy servir de tesmoings de tout ce dessus, aiant commandé à son secretaire d'en prendre et retenir acte pour luy servir en temps et lieu. Faict à Hamptoncourt le xixe jour d'octobre 1562.’ In the margin a partially obscured note in de Foix's hand: ‘conducta nec duo ap'rta per me legatum requisitum [?]’ Nicolas de Hellenvilliers, sr de La Ferté-Fresnel in Normandy, was present as a replacement hostage, http://racineshistoire.free.fr/LGN/PDF/La-Ferte-Fresnel_Chambray.pdf (accessed 1 February 2017).

163 Delivered to de Foix by John Mason after the Lord Mayor's banquet in Guildhall. For an account of this occasion, see TNA, SP 70/43, fos 161–162: ‘Thursday the xxixth of octobre by such of her majesties privey counsell as wer that day in London at dyner with the new Mayour in the Guyldhall, together with the said ambassador. Where after dyner, being retyred into a counsel chamber, Sir John Mason in the name of the rest told the said embassadour’. De Foix began by reiterating his demands and asked for a written reply. The answer in this document was then read out to him. Another, much longer, version in numbered points answering de Foix's protest of 19th October is TNA, SP 70/43, fos 137ff.

164 Cecil commented on this in his draft of the Queen's reply: ‘The French kings letters beare date the 2 of october. Our men landed in Newhaven the 4 october. Mr Mason and Mr Wotton wer with the Fr embassador the 13. The wrytyng of the Q. was published the 12. The embassador delivered his wrytyng the 19 f. So cold he have no messaidge fro the Fr kyng of the matters opened after the 2 of October.’ TNA, SP 70/43, fo. 166v. The implication is that Cecil could not see how de Foix's instructions could refer to the actual landing of English troops.

165 To this point, de Foix answered on the question of his instructions that ‘he cowde there shew the same signed by the king, ther Quene mother and by the chief of his cownsell, whereby he was so certteinly instructed and every way that her majeste might take, so well forseane that how so ever things shuld fall out, he had his lesson ready written unto him how to procede’. This answer was described as ‘somwhat passionate’. He asked for a written copy of the reply ‘the same being of some lengthe and his memorye shorte’. He was told this was not the custom but that he could hear it again. He refused to do this and was told that, though he had delivered his own protest in writing, this was of his own volition. ‘In this point the said ambassadour taryed very longe with many earnest and passionate speeches’ and asked for a written answer by the Queen to his master's letter as well as a copy of her answer to his arguments.

166 End.: ‘The French Amb: for Florence de Diaceto’.

167 It seems that Diaceto's list of damages in TNA, SP 11/4, fo. 43 (in French) relates to this attempt by de Foix to help him. It enumerates his losses in his Danish embassy and unjust arrest during the Wyatt rebellion: 5,230 English crowns.

168 Florence de Diaceto. The chevalier de Seure had intervened for him in April 1560, Potter, Knight of Malta, 169. He was the nephew of the Cleves Chancellor Olisleger, born in Antwerp of Italian parents (came to England with Anne of Cleves – see CSPF Mary, no. 446). He had served as an envoy to Denmark in 1552, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, 3 vols (Oxford, 1822), II, ch. XIX, 77; envoy of Otto of Brunswick Luneburg to England 1553, CSPF Mary, no. 101. Having taken refuge in Paris, where he must have met de Foix, he was used as a courier to Scotland in 1560 and the Queen ordered that he be invited to return to England, CSPF Eliz II, nos 904–905. He wrote to Cecil from Paris in May 1561, ibid. IV, no. 215. It seems that he was asking for a licence to import French wine as compensation. No further record turns up in English records after this.

169 End.: ‘Protestations et requisitions à la Royne d'Angleterre’.

170 Nicolas Bacon, lord keeper of the Great Seal 1558–1579, brother-in-law of William Cecil.

171 End. (fo. 145r): ‘Response aux protestations et requisitions du xe novembre 1562 baillee par la Royne d'Angleterre le 17e dud. moys’.

172 With emendations by Cecil and headed: ‘To be answered to the second declaration delivered by Monsr de Foix embassadour for the French King to the lords of the Quenes majesties counsell at Strond the xth of November 1562’.

173 i.e. what was later to be called Cecil House in the Strand, Cecil's new town house and site of frequent Council meetings.

174 The letter is undated but probably relates to a report sent by Smith on 17 December that a proclamation of war had been made at Paris, though no copy was available and it seems to have just been a rumour, TNA, SP 70/47, fos 3v–4v.

175 End. By Cecil: ‘18 Januar. 1562. The messadg done fro, the Fr. embassador to W. Cecill’.

176 Further confirmation of Florent Adam's distinctive hand.

177 11 January.

178 Sir Thomas Lodge.

179 For Velsius and his relations with de Foix, see Introduction, pp. 6–7.

180 Cosmus – the name of this servant of de Foix is otherwise unknown.

181 Note in the margin by Grindal: ‘This Cosmus is now in Bethleem and madde’.

182 The affair of the arrest of the prévôt de Paris, Antoine Duprat de Nantouillet: CSPF, VI, nos 221, 262, 354, 436, 496, 509, 612. The affair concerned an accusation made by the perpetrator of an attempted murder of an Italian that it was Nantouillet who commissioned it.

183 Nicolas Dangu (d.1567), abbot of Juilly and bishop of Mende, chancellor of Navarre, legitimized natural son of Chancellor Duprat and therefore uncle of Nantouillet, prévôt de Paris.

184 Later Henri IV of France.

185 End. By Cecil: ‘Ult. Aprilis 1563. The request sent by the Fr. Embass. to the Counsell’.

186 These were 12–16 ships ordered arrested at Le Havre, laden with wines, in retaliation for arrests at Fécamp, Council to Warwick, 16 April 1563, TNA, SP 70/55, fo. 355. These were out of a fleet of 55 ships which arrived 16–17 April and valued in merchandise at £10,230 11 s 0d, TNA, SP 70/55, fos 6–12.

187 Blaise de Monluc, lieutenant general in Guyenne in the absence of the king of Navarre.

188 Henry Killigrew had been captured at Rouen the previous October and returned home after the payment of his ransom in May 1563.

189 Presumably bad news from Le Havre, where plague had broken out. See Wallace MacCaffrey, ‘The Newhaven Expedition, 1562–63’, Historical Journal, 40:1 (1997), 1–21, at 17.

190 The attempt of the French hostages, including de Moy, to escape, was discussed in an audience of de Foix with the Queen at the end of June 1563. See Elizabeth I to Smith, early July 163, TNA, SP 70/60, fo. 2 (CSPF, VI, no. 961).

191 Concerning the recent declarations of mutual hostilities. At some time after this, de Foix was subjected to some ‘evill handling and the redressing of it’, Smith to Cecil, 19 August 1563, TNA, SP 70/62, fo. 166.

192 The state of affairs was summed up by Clough in a letter to Challoner, 31 August: There was now open war between England and France. The French King proclaimed war until he had Newhaven, and the Queen proclaimed war until she had Calais; and now the French King made a new proclamation of war until the Queen ‘refused’ her last proclamation. The French said that the Queen has lost her title to Calais. Throckmorton was in prison in France, and the French Ambassador is un the Tower in England. Smith was yet at liberty, CSPF, VI, no. 1189.

193 Michel de Castelnau, sr de Mauvissière (c.1520–1592), who shared the seigneurie of la Mauvissière in Touraine with his brother Pierre, also a royal councillor. After a mission to Scotland in 1560, he was the most frequent emissary between the French court and the London embassy in de Foix's years. He succeeded La Mothe Fénelon as ambassador in 1575 and wrote an important memoir of his public career. Another branch of the family gave Antoine de Castelnau, bishop of Tarbes, and ambassador to Henry VIII 1536–1538.

194 Addr.: ‘Monsr de Mauvissiere gentilhomme servant de Monsr le duc d'Orleans’.

195 Anne de Montmorency to Smith, 1 August 1563 (TNA, SP 70/61, fo. 93, copy) inviting him to talks with the Queen Mother at Estelan. The content of these talks: the question of a ‘mariage which peradventure shuld troble both your majeste and them’ and the French fear of a marriage alliance between Mary Stuart and Don Carlos, with England as a ‘dowry’ to be conquered, Smith to Elizabeth I, 20 August 1563, TNA, SP 70/62, fo. 171.

196 The four chosen by de Foix were his two secretaries Florent Adam and du Boys, the sr de Mauvissière and the sr de Champs (TNA, SP 70/64, fo. 24, safe-conduct by the Queen, 8 Oct. 1563): ‘whereas for the quieting of the differences that ar presently betwixt the French King and us, its thought that certain persons shuld be sent aswell from hence into France … as also from thence hither to the said Kinges ambassador remaining here with us, of whom this berer, le sr Fleurant Adam, secretary to the French ambassador … is one of thise’. Horses, guides and ships are to be provided at reasonable prices. The names of the other messengers are listed in the endorsement.

197 Probably William Killigrew, youngest brother of Sir Henry (who was 35 by this year), hence the ‘young Killigrew’. He was sent to France in 1562 and 1563 in order to arrange the release of his brother Henry. Named in c.1564 as ‘fit to be employed in foreign messages’. See The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1558–1603, 3 vols (London: HMSO, 1982).

198 End.: ‘Copie de la depesche envoyee à Mr de Foy du 7 decembre 1563’.

199 Smith and Throckmorton saw the King and council at the Louvre on 5th (Smith and Throckmorton, St Germain, 8 December 1562, TNA, SP 70/66, fo. 27).

200 On 9 December 1563, the French court was at Montceaux-sur-Provins (Seine-et-Marne), where the Queen Mother had been building a house since 1547.

201 This interview taking place ‘hier’ at Paris indicates that Somer was in Paris a few days before the date noted in LCM, II, 122.

202 repait.

203 Neither Throckmorton nor Smith mention this in their letters to the Queen and Cecil of 8 December.

204 The irregularities of the normal cipher, probably caused by the copyist of the intercept, make some of these passages difficult to reconstruct.

205 Mauvissière was one of the special envoys authorized to carry messages during war. On this occasion, he had been marginally involved in the riot at Eton (see Introduction, p. 25).

206 Louis de Lannoy, sr de Morvilliers, a firm protestant, had been governor since 1559 but had not taken up his post. See Joblin, A., ‘Louis de Lannoy’ in Société et religion en France et aux Pays-Bas, XVe–XIXe siècle: Mélanges en l'honneur d'Alain Lottin, ed. Deregnaucourt, G. (Arras, 2000), 147–161Google Scholar.

207 The Convent of the Bons Hommes (Minimes), a mendicant order founded by Francisco de Paola, at Passy on the right bank beyond the walls of Paris, near the present Palais Chaillot.

208 Calendar entry, 1563 but end. ‘8 martii 1563 monsr de Foys the Fre. emb. to Mr secr.’, which would be 1564.

209 To the east of Windsor and Eton, in Berkshire (now Buckinghamshire), de Foix may have been accommodated in one its many inns such as the Ostrich.

210 The date ‘1563’ would normally signify the calendar year 1564. The reference to the case of the prévôt de Paris might relate to the correspondence of the previous year concerning his attempted murder of Masino del Bene (see CSPF Eliz, VII, no. 924) and that de Foix was using the Roman calendar at this point. However, Antoine Duprat remained in England throughout this period as hostage and this letter could refer to continuing problems with him.

211 Antoine Duprat.

212 William Broke (1527–1597), 10th Baron Cobham, lord warden of the Cinque Ports, influential privy councillor and ambassador.

213 Augier de Lestrille, brought to England by Laurence Mynter and Paul Fludd, June–July 1564, Cal. Hatfield, I, nos 1000, 1001, 1004. His captors claimed that he had freely agreed a ransom of 5,000 crowns and to be an agent in France, Eliz I to T. Smith, 21 Aug 1565, CSPF, VII, no. 1406.

214 End.: ‘Memoriall from the Fr. Ambassadeur’.

215 Jean Ribault (1520–1565) of Dieppe, a follower of Coligny's who led French attempts at colonization in Florida, founding Charlesfort. On his return to France he fled to England and was imprisoned in the Tower as a spy (during which he wrote his account of his voyage, published in English as The whole and true discoverye of Terra Florida). But the peace led to his release and proposal for a new expedition in 1564 under his former lieutenant Laudonnière (Fort Caroline). Ribault followed in 1565 but was massacred with his followers by the Spanish.

216 The name of this ship is uncertain.

217 End. By Cecil: ‘24 Julii 1564. Mémoire sur l'ordonnance for a proclamation ag. pyrates sent by the Fr. Ambassador to me. W. Cecill’.

218 End.: ‘24 julii 1564 memoire sur l'ordonnance’ and by Cecil: ‘for a proclamation ag. pyrattes sent by the fr. ambassador to me W. Cecill’.

219 ‘(less properly) a pirate or a rouer at sea’ (Cotgrave).

220 End.: ‘for an Hungarian’.

221 The identity of this Hungarian nobleman remains uncertain.

222 1519–1591. Military commander, resident ambassador in Spain from 1562–1565, gentilhomme de la chambre and conseiller d’état. See Cabié, Edmond, Guerres de religion dans le Sud-Ouest de la France et principalement dans le Quercy: D'après les papiers des seigneurs de Saint-Sulpice de 1561 à 1590 (Paris, 1906)Google Scholar, Préface.

223 De Foix had indeed been extremely active in formulating peace terms. See Throckmorton to Cecil, 29 Feb. 1564, TNA, SP 70/68, fo. 127: the French offer ‘wyche I thynke shall be renewed ageyne unto hyr majestie by the Frenche ambassador’.

224 Anne de Foix-Candale (1484–1526), wife of Ladislas II of Bohemia and Hungary (d.1516) and mother of Anne, wife of Emperor Ferdinand I. Yet another indicator of the pride de Foix took in his family's connections.

225 Diego Guzman da Silva (c.1520–1577), canon of Toledo, who replaced La Quadra after his death in office. An emollient figure, he was replaced by the much more combative Guerau de Spes in 1568. He was to be appointed as ambassador at Venice in 1569, at exactly the same time as de Foix.

226 Artus de Cossé Brissac, sr de Gonnor (1512–1582) and comte de Secondigny, known as le maréchal de Brissac (1567).

227 Copyist's error for Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, sent to take Charles IX's ratification to the Treaty of Troyes, 26 May 1564. The oath was taken by Charles IX at Lyons on 24 June (Hunsdon and Smith to the Queen, 27 June 1564, TNA, SP 70/72, fo. 203).

228 In fact, as will be seen below, Saint-Sulpice was to be succeeded by Raymond de Beccarie de Pavie, sr de Fourquevaux.

229 Henri-Robert de La Marck (1539–1574), duc de Bouillon, who was a Protestant.

230 Artus de Cossé sr de Gonnor, commissioned to receive Elizabeth's oath to the Treaty of Troyes.

231 William Paulet, Baron St John and marquess of Winchester (d.1572), lord high treasurer 1550–1572. The meeting of 27 June was at Austin Friars, Thomas Cromwell's old house, acquired by Paulet.

232 Addition in the hand of Florent Adam. An indication that, for practical purposes, the French embassy regarded the war as starting in September 1562 and not in August 1563, as was formally the case.

233 The first mention of Lestrilles (shown by a note in the margin by Cecil).

234 Dated January 1565 CSPF.

235 End.: ‘The Frenche embassadors complaint touching the taking of a certain french ship by an English pyrate etc.’

236 Dated here 26 September, but the content shows that it must be later.

237 Guernsey.

238 Literally: tops for combs, but expanded as ‘coupeaulx de buis à faire peignes’, slivers of boxwood for making combs. Tariffs were imposed on them in the 17th century. See du Fresne de Francheville, J., Histoire générale et particulière des finances (Paris, 1738), 135Google Scholar, 414.

239 Turpentine.

240 Jean de Moy, sr de La Meilleraye (d.1588/9), vis-amiral de France, governor of Caux.

241 Jeanne d'Albret wrote again on 8 October, see No. 81. The duc de Bouillon was Henri Robert de La Marck (d.1574), governor of Normandy.

242 The register of the Privy Council is missing for this period.

243 Holbrook, on the river Stour estuary, Suffolk.

244 Error for ‘octobre’?

245 See Saint-Sulpice to the court, 21 November 1564, secret letter: ‘Monsieur de Foix m'a escript qu'il avoit pleu à la Royne luy mander qu'il avoit esté esleu pour me succeder en ceste charge, dont je ne scauroys asses louer ceste deliberation pour estre du tout bon serviteur de lad. dame [Élisabeth de Valois] comme je le cognois et de bon lieu, avecques plusieurs aultres bonnes qualités que sont toutes choses requises à celluy qui tiendra ce lieu; et le duc d'Alve et moy en avons desia parlé, auquel en ayant nommé troys, il s'est arresté à parler dudict de Foix, que oultre les susdictes qualités a dict qu'il s'estoit tellement comporté en Angleterre avecques les ambassadeurs de ce Roy qu'il luy sera grandement agreable.’ (BnF fr. 3163, fos 33v–34r). On 9 December Saint-Sulpice wrote to Claude de L'Aubespine: ‘Je me réjouis que mr de Foix me succède, tant pour le connaitre bon serviteur de la reine que digne de cette charge et fort votre ami. Je vous prie tenir la main qu'il soit par deçà environ led. mois de mars, afin que je puisse aller aux bains, où il m'a été ordonné d'aller pour recouvrer ma santé.’ (Cabié, 325).

246 Élisabeth de Valois (1546–1568), queen of Spain and Catherine de Medici's daughter, had been seriously ill after a miscarriage in August 1564 and only started recover at the end of September, Duprat, Marquis, Histoire d'Elisabeth de Valois, reine d'Espagne (Paris, 1859), 164–165Google Scholar; Edouard, Sylvène, ‘Corps de Reine: Du corps sublime au corps souffrant d’Élisabeth de Valois (1546–1568), Chrétiens et Sociétés, 12 (2005), 9–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

247 Élisabeth de Valois was born in 1545 so de Foix's entry into Catherine's service would have been from around 1550.

248 Victor Brodeau, an old servant of the house of Vendôme and secretary to Antoine de Bourbon until 1562.

249 Parliament had been prorogued on 10 April 1563 and did not meet again until 13 September 1566.

250 Nicolas Barré, cartographer and participant in the Florida expedition was a servant of one of the hostages, Moy, who had been arrested for abetting their escape attempt in 1563.

251 Enclosed in Smith's dispatch of 14 December.

252 Nicolas Barré was an old associate of Villegaignon and went to Florida with Jean Ribaut as pilot in 1562 and produced a map which formed the basis of the Perreus map of 1562. Ribaut was detained on his return to England. Barré having led the troops left by Ribaut in Florida against the captain left in charge, they re-crossed the Atlantic and were detained by an English ship. See Hélène Lhoumeau, ‘Les Expéditions françaises en Floride (1562–1568)’, thesis, École des Chartes, 2000. http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2000/lhoumeau (accessed 1 February 2017).

253 The Lord's Mayor's banquet for 1564, which presumably involved a dispute over precedence.

254 End. By Cecil: ‘for Barrey’ and in a later hand ‘The French ambassadors representation on behalf of Barré a prisoner in the Tower, 1564’.

255 The attempt of the French hostages to escape in July 1563, CSPF, VI, no. 961.

256 Thomas Stukley (c.1520–1578), was a troublesome adventurer who had devised a plan for England to set up a colony in Florida but, having extracted the funds for a ship in 1562, he set off privateering.

257 Sir Richard Grenville would have been about 20 at this time.

258 Dated from de Foix's discourse of 18 February 1565. The sale catalogue slip conjectures ‘1563’, which is impossible.

259 End.: ‘Anglerre’.

260 ‘1564, December. Contemporary report or copy report of a French Envoy in England to Catherine de Medici on the proposed match between Queen Elizabeth and Charles IX. of France. This is an interesting document of 7 1/2 pages, foolscap size.’ This document, probably acquired from the Villebon sale belonged to the Rev. Francis Hopkinson, rector of Little Malvern, Worcestershire. In around 1892, his wife gave one of the documents, concerning Nell Gwynn, to the duke of ***. Other documents from the collection were sold at Sotheby's on 17 July 1916 and some acquired by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The original of this document was acquired by the Pierpoint Morgan Library from the dealer J. Pearson in 1906.

261 This is the earliest mention of the marriage proposal, though it does not necessarily indicate that the proposal came from Elizabeth. It is possible that she was responding to a proposal put to her in November by de Foix on Catherine's instructions, though the conclusion of the documents does suggest the need to respond to her initiative.

262 Hunsdon, the Queen's cousin, was sent to France in May 1564, partly to convey the Order of the Garter to Charles IX on the restoration of diplomatic relations.

263 The bottom right hand corner of the text is obscured by the 1835 sale slip.

264 Henri, duc d'Anjou, later Henri III.

265 Unusual coinage, meaning ‘sparing’. From ‘épargne’.

266 Hence the confidence on Utenhove's part that de Foix would be moving to Spain in October 1564 (see Introduction p. 15).

267 Jacques Bochetel, sr de la Forêt (d.1595), son of the secretary of state, Guillaume Bochetel (d.1558), and brother of Bernardin, bishop of Rennes, ambassador to the Emperor, and brother-in-law of Jacques Bourdin, secretary of state (d.1567), and later (1575) father-in-law of Michel de Castelnau-Mauvissière. La Forêt did not succeed de Foix in England until May 1566.

268 Presumably Cornish pewter, manufactured since the 15th century, rather than some sort of faience de Quimper, which is much later in origin.

269 On the 20 February 1565, Saint Sulpice wrote to the French court, secret letter, on discussing de Foix with Philip II: ‘faisant mention de Monsr de Foix. L'ay assuré du bon zele qu'il avoit tousiours monstree à la religion et conservation de la paix et qu'estant du tout bon serviteur de la Royne, il s'estoit tellement comporté en sa charge en temps si divers, que ses actions rendoient bon et suffizant tesmoignage de sa prudence et fidelité, dont il m'a respondu qu'il estoit grandement aisé de l'entendre et est demeuré du tout esclaircy de ce de quoy il estoit en doubte. Il me semble estre necessaire qu'il se trouve à Bayonne au temps que seroit ensemble.’ (BnF fr. 3163, fo. 52v).

270 Perhaps hinting at figures such as Bernardin Bochetel, bishop of Rennes and ambassador to the Emperor. On 3 December Bochetel wrote to Saint-Sulpice from Vienna: ‘Quant à ce que vous m’écrivez de votre succession, ce sera, comme j'entends, pour Mr de Foix, et n'y ai point pensé ni autre que je sache pour moi; non pas que j'estime que ce me fût bien grand honneur, mais la reine vous ayant accordé votre congé pour la fin de l'année, et quelque instance que je fasse d'avoir le mien depuis les premiers 3 mois que je suis en cette cour, m'ayant néanmoins lad. dame rélégué en Allemagne jusqu’à la fin de la Diète, sa maj. ne pouvait faire état de moi pour la charge d'Espagne.’ (Cabié, 323) Bochetel was back at the French court by 10 February, the date on which Robertet told Saint-Sulpice that de Foix had been alerted to be at Bayonne for the meeting of the courts (Cabié, 349). However, Thomas Smith reported to Cecil on 10 February: ‘that de Foix should go into Spaine I dowt and so doth other wise men beside, namely for that his religion ys to well knowen here and there also and King Philip ys verie scrupulous in those matters’, TNA, SP 70/76, fo. 108v.

271 Crossed out: ‘ou elle seront bien chères’.

272 Bertrand de Salignac La Mothe Fénelon, then secretary of Saint-Sulpice's embassy. The relationship must have been very distant since there are no known intermarriages between the Salignacs (of Périgord) and de Foix.

273 By the courier Roulleaux.

274 See Cecil's draft of complaints about English prisoners, some of them ‘brought as forsars contrary to the usage of the warrs of England in galleis to Marseilles’, Jan 1565 (TNA, SP 70/76, fo. 5) and Smith's list of forçats sent to L'Aubespine (Cal. Hatfield I, 314).

275 See the previous document on the conference between de Foix and the Council in September 1564.

276 Captain Henri d'Albisse. See Charles Germain Bourel de La Roncière, Histoire de la marine française, 6 vols (Paris, 1899–1934), III, 509.

277 A person often referred to in de Foix's letters as taking messages to Scotland from the Guise family.

278 Louis III de Bourbon (1513–1582), duke of Montpensier. His son was François de Bourbon (1542–1592), usually known as the Dauphin d'Auvergne.

279 Jean de Beaucaire (c.1505–1578), sr de Puiguillon (or Péguillon), maître d'hôtel to Mary, see the 1559 household account of Mary, BnF CC Colbert, 7, fo. 96v. His brother François, bishop of Metz, also councillor to Mary in 1559, was very close to the cardinal of Lorraine and in retirement wrote Rerum gallicarum commentaria ab anno 1461 ad annum 1580, published by Philippe Dinet, sr de Saint-Romain in 1625.

280 Louise de Lorraine, younger sister of Mary of Guise, had indeed married Charles de Croy, 2nd duke of Aerschot, but she had died in the 1540s. His successor, Philip III de Croy, 3rd duke, m. Jeanne de Hallewyn. The courier must have been confused.

281 Don Carlos.

282 William of Nassau, prince of Orange. Presumably, they thought that Don Carlos was destined for marriage to Marguerite de Valois at this stage.

283 Guzman da Silva, evidence for his using Leicester as counter-weight?

284 Mauvissière brought this present in May.

285 Louis III, duke of Montpensier, father of François, known as the comte-dauphin d'Auvergne, whose candidature for Mary's hand is otherwise unknown.

286 Lennox had returned to Scotland in September 1564, after an absence of twenty years and was restored to his estates in Western Scotland.

287 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who had a claim to the English succession through his mother Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Henry VIII's sister.

288 Thus £1 sterling would be worth 40 livres tournois at this time. The rate was more like 1 : 10. The ‘quatre’ must be an error.

289 The second session of this Parliament was delayed until September 1566.

290 Section of this despatch in cipher communicated to Elizabeth at the audience of 11 February. It was published twice from different MSS in LCM and in one given the date of 24 February. However, de Foix's letter of 18 February makes clear that the date should be 23 January.

291 BnF fr.15888: de delà.

292 One of the many references to princes’ perceptions of the differences between the ‘exterior’ and ‘interior’ in their competitors’ demeanour.

293 BnF fr.15888: et malheur.

294 BnF fr.15888: de la compaigneres de eux.

295 For de Foix's account of this see below, No. 98.

296 ‘15 Februar 1565. A summary of my speache with the fr. Ambassador at his house on Thursday in the morning 15 februar’.

297 See No. 98.

298 Again, the idea of concealment.

299 Previous document? or a decipher of the Spanish ambassador's despatch.

300 The Archduke Charles of Austria-Styria (1540–1590), who was already a suitor for Elizabeth's hand and whose claim was now being renewed by Habsburg diplomats. It was to counter this danger that the French court had decided to promote the marriage of the Queen to Charles IX. See Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony, and the correspondence of Zvetkovich in V. von Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners (London, 1928).

301 End.: ‘Discours de Monsr de Foix du xviijme de febvrier 1565’ (by the new dating system).

302 ‘Discourse on the attitude of Elizabeth to her proposed marriage to the King of France, early 1565’.

303 Actually the Thursday was 9 February. This despatch had taken around 18 days from Carcassonne, remarkably fast considering the bad weather.

304 11 February.

305 The Queen had been ill in early January with what sounds like a heavy cold or bronchial infection, Cal. Spain (Simancas), I, no. 282.

306 The Queen was then at Whitehall and this was the Privy Chamber.

307 See above 23 December.

308 See above No. 95. The implication seems to be conveyed that de Foix had in December 1564 responded to a démarche of Elizabeth's.

309 Henry FitzAlan, 19th (or 12th), earl of Arundel, had been a widower since 1545 but was aged 53 and therefore a surprising suggestion, other than for the ancient primacy of his title. He had been mentioned as a possible suitor in 1558 but was never taken seriously, Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony, 22.

310 The Queen habitually recurred to the dangers of 1553–1555.

311 Crossed out: ‘j'avoys’.

312 Omitted?

313 Omitted?

314 De Foix's argument being that Catherine had merely responded to the enthusiasm he had transmitted on behalf of the Queen.

315 We have here de Foix's account of the above discourse by Cecil to de Foix of 15 February, No. 96.

316 From this point we have Cecil's notes for his speech.

317 ‘Il a communiqué à la reine d'Angleterre les motifs de l'entrevue de Bayonne – Sentiments de celle-ci à cet égard. – Ses dispositions pour le mariage entre elle et le roi Charles IX. – Souper chez le chancelier, – Apparition d'Elisabeth’.

318 Thus 26 days from Toulouse.

319 Thus 20 days journey from Toulouse.

320 Florent Adam in fact returned on 22 March. See No. 101.

321 Smith's letters to the Queen for this period are not preserved (except for a brief letter of 7 January) and he does not mention any such honours, though hints at French cynicism regarding the Archduke Charles in his notes to Cecil, TNA, SP 70/76, fos 88, 106, 108.

322 Pierre d'Assézat (1515–1581), the great pastel merchant of Toulouse who had converted to Protestantism and had been forced to leave the city until his re-conversion in 1572.

323 Nicholas Bacon had fallen into disfavour in 1564 because the Queen suspected he had been involved in promoting a pamphlet by John Hales on the succession (favouring Catherine Grey's claim). Tittler, R., Nicholas Bacon (Athens, OH, 1976), 117–125Google Scholar, says he did not recover royal favour until April 1565.

324 Sophonisba: see Smith to Cecil, 10 April 1565. E.K. Chambers, ‘Elizabethan stage gleanings’, Review of English Studies 1925: ‘it was in latin as I suppose or the French ambassador was not much the wiser for it’. Guzman reported an event on 5 March which was very similar and where de Foix was also present, this time with an English comedy of Juno and Diana about the advantages of matrimony, CSP Simancas, no. 286.

325 Guzman da Silva to Philip II, 15 March 1565, CSP Simancas, no. 288.

326 The reference is either to those in Spain or other French officials who opposed his appointment as ambassador to Philip II because of his reputation.

327 The copyist has problems with this word, suggesting also ‘bardz’.

328 Curious conceit. ‘Pouldre’, possibly ‘poutre’ = ‘young mare’ (unlikely); vert = possibly ‘immature’; fiant = possibly ‘credulous’, though could mean ‘presumptuous’.

329 Florent Adam also brought with him Smith's despatch of 10 March (TNA, SP 70/71, fos 10, 19) and so had done the journey from Toulouse in a remarkable 12 days. Smith had received no letters via Adam, who said that his journey was just ‘for to procure the retourne of his Mr Monsr de Foix. He had longe communication with the Queen mother apart and as yt ys said she liked well the negociacion of the sayed de Foix in so much that the Kinge hath given hym as yt is sayed the Archbussopricke of Burges in Berry, which is accompted worth xvj or xviijM franckes. De Florence was quickly dispatched again and within iiij days after an other currour into England.’ Adam had predicted that Smith would be replaced by Middlemore, Throckmorton's ‘deerest freend’ and that M ‘should be as gratefull unto them as he was odious before’. Adam had to leave in a hurry on 10th.

330 There appears to be no English account of this audience.

331 Meaning: ‘à cestuy cy’.

332 Crossed out: ‘respondit que quant cela adviendroit se seriot tusjours l'Escosse’.

333 De Foix is quoting Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia, Book 26, ch. 41, though he gives the discussion as between the king and the ‘consilium’. Henry is supposed to have said: ‘Angliae non ad Scotiam, sed ipsius Scotiae ad Angliam fieret, tanquam ad totius insulae caput multo nobilissimum, cum semper quod minus est soleat ad decus et honorem ad id adiungi quod est longe maius, quemadmodum olim Normania in ditionem et potestatem venit Anglorum maiorum nostrorum.’

334 This despatch does not seem to have survived.

335 Guzman certainly had a long a revealing talk with the Queen about marriage on 20 March, despatch 24 March, CSP Simancas, no. 290.

336 Teulet's passage starts here.

337 Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk, executed 1572.

338 Text reads ‘treiue’, clearly a misreading possibly for ‘trame’.

339 Teulet inserts ‘manquer’ instead, which reverses the sense.

340 James Beaton (1517–1603), archbishop of Glasgow and nephew of Cardinal Beaton. Beaton was Mary's representative in France and frequently travelled there.

341 End of the passage printed by Teulet.

342 For Cecil's notes on the meetings of 26 and 27 March, see TNA, SP 70/77, fos 74–75: 26 March: ‘The Q. Maty sendeth me to th'ambassador to thintent that by his long and frequent debating with hir Maty no suspicion might arise and also because she can not so freely comen therin as hir servant maye and thirdly because I have bene made fre to the matter by the ambassador.’

343 Compare with Cecil's note: ‘non potest … in memor Regina, conubii sororis suae cum Rege Catholico, quanta incommode, quante perturbationis susequentae sunt’.

344 23 April.

345 Words omitted?

346 Copyist: ‘et’.

347 A surprising assertion, or maybe a joke, in that Cecil was 22 in the year of the birth of his first son, Thomas (in 1542).

348 Mistake for ‘vingthuitiesme’.

349 Possibly Saint-Sulpice's despatch of 21 Jan 1565, BnF fr.3163, fos 47vff., by Roulleau (Saint-Sulpice's secretary) or 16 February 1565, taken by Simon Thevenin, BnF fr.3163, fos 57vff.

350 William Paget, Lord Paget of Beaudesert, ambassador in France 1541–1543, to the Emperor 1549 etc. Leading privy councillor under Mary I.

351 Gomez Suarez de Figueroa (c.1520–1571), 4th count and 1st duke of Feria, accompanied Philip II to England in 1554 and served briefly as his ambassador to Elizabeth until May 1558.

352 The Guildhall.

353 Reference to the large number of creations of chevaliers of the Order of Saint Michel since 1560.

354 This was taken by Florent Adam who was back at the French court, then at Bordeaux, by 15 April (Smith, TNA, SP 70/77, fo. 124).

355 See the preceding document.

356 Copy: ‘aud. porteur de faire’.

357 Copy: ‘entrer aud. affaire’.

358 Copy: ‘qu'il poursuit combien’.

359 Copy: ‘grande’.

360 Copy: ‘doibt’.

361 End.: ‘Mr de Foys du xvije d'avril 1565’ and addr.: ‘A la Royne’ Acquired by Joseph Barrois, sold by him to E. of Ashburnham.

362 ‘He has had discussions with Elizabeth, Leicester, Cecil and Throckmorton. Queen's manoeuvres and ruses, The death of the marquess of Northampton, the Queen's illness – news from Scotland. Mary's attentions to lord Darnley. Game of pell mell and his illness, the Queen's provision for his treatment. The remarkable proposition of the Queen to sieur Piuguillan on the subject of Darnley. Sending of a hacquenee and a “haulbin” of Ireland.’

363 Guzman da Silva had reported on 7 April that he had spoken to Florent Adam, who left for France on 31 March. The secretary had denied that there was any serious business on hand. De Foix then came to him to insist that no negotiations were contemplated that were prejudicial to Spain but Guzman was sceptical of this, though he did think the negotiations between England and France were not important. He thought Elizabeth and Catherine shared a dim view of Mary's inclination for marriage to Darnley, CSP Simancas, I, no. 293. Guzman had a discussion with the Queen on 11th in which she hinted at the French marriage proposals, ibid. no. 294.

364 Bedford was in command at Berwick. He thanked the Queen on 21 March for permission to ‘come up to do my duety to your highenes, which I meane to do sone after Easter’, TNA, SP 59/9, fo. 27. No letters concerning Derby and Shrewsbury's attendance survive.

365 Shrewsbury.

366 William Parr, marquess of Northampton, married secondly Elizabeth Brooke (b.1526) daughter of Lord Cobham, governor of Calais. Their clandestine marriage was recognized by Act of Parliament in 1551. She was much courted by François de Vendôme, vidame de Chartres, while he was in London (April–July 1550). See Cal. Spain, X, 109–110. She had become close to the Queen when she was living with her sister-in-law Catherine Parr in 1547–1548 and was widely recognized as having key influence at court under Elizabeth I. She died of breast cancer on 2 April 1565. See James, Susan E., ‘A Tudor Divorce: The Marital History of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, ser. 2, 90 (1990), 199–204Google Scholar.

367 This letter does not seem to have survived. There are letters from Randolph to Cecil dated 15, 27 March and 15 April, none of which deal with this information. Randolph reported to Bedford on 7 April that Darnley was ill with measles in Edinburgh castle and being sent dishes from Queen Mary's table, TNA, SP 52/10, fo. 50.

368 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545–1567), eldest son of Matthew Stuart, earl of Lennox. Darnley, a grandson of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, was a subject of Elizabeth and a Catholic. Lennox, whose lands were concentrated in the west of Scotland, had supported the English during the war of the ‘Rough Wooing’ and had been living in England since 1545.

369 Monsieur Luserie was a physician in Mary's service. See Knox, John, The Historie of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland containing Five Books: Together with some Treatises Conducing to the History (London, 1644), 375–376Google Scholar. He is listed as  Maitre Jacques de Lugerye in the 1559 account of Mary's household, BnF CC Colbert 7, fo. 102v. ‘Le jeune Puiguillon’ (or Péguillon), was probably ‘sr Gilbert de Beaucaire, ecuyer tranchant’, probably the younger brother of Mary's premier maître d'hôtel, ibid., fo. 97r, and frequent messenger between the cardinal of Lorraine and his niece. See also n. 279.

370 George Gordon, 4th earl of Huntly, had died in October 1562. Having once supported Mary of Guise, he joined the Congregation in 1560 because Mary Stuart had transferred the earldom of Moray, to which he had a claim, to her half-brother James. He withdrew to his estates around Inverness but was defeated by Queen Mary's forces under Moray at Corrichie in October 1562 and died shortly afterwards, his son John executed. His successor George, the 5th earl, was married to Bothwell's sister Jean.

371 George, 7th Lord Seton (1531–1586). A determined supporter of Mary and master of her household.

372 The duel with Francis Douglas took place in March 1565 and Seton had to flee to France but returned in October with arms for Mary's cause.

373 The French term hacquenée was throroughly anglicized as ‘hackeney’ by the 14th c. and, developed as a breed in 14th-c. Norfolk, denoted a riding (as opposed to war) horse that could be rough to ride. It came to be most prized as a driving horse.

374 Rabelais refers to ‘hobins’ in Gargantua, which one editor points out is the word for a particular mixture of trot and gallop and came to refer to a horse with a gentler pace than that of the English ambler. La Noue stated that the ‘haulbin’ was properly a Scottish horse and invented a fanciful etymology related to ‘Albanie’, Oeuvres de Rabelais, ed. E. Johanneau, Paris, 1823, I, 238. See also Marot: ‘D'un haubin noir de parure tanée’ (Complainctes: Déploration de messire Florimond Robertet).

375 Acquired by Joseph Barrois and sold by him to the earl of Ashburnham in 1849. End.: ‘Monsr de Foix du xxvje avril 1565’.

376 ‘Leicester's contempt for this marriage; refusal of Throckmorton to negotiate on the matter without the express command of the Queen and agreement of the grandees. Conference of de Foix with Lethington on the subject and on the proposed marriage of Elizabeth and the King of France. Lethington and the Spanish ambassador collaborate in preventing this. Cardinal of Lorraine's consent for the marriage of Mary and Darnley.’

377 i.e. 21 April, a journey of five days.

378 Randolph's letter of 17 April to the Queen has not survived but the situation is commented on by his letter of the same day to Cecil, CSPF, VII, no. 1106, in which he laments the effect of Darnley's triumph on the Protestant cause.

379 Margaret Douglas (1515–1578), as the daughter of Margaret Tudor, queen of Scotland, and her second husband, the earl of Angus, stood next in line to the English throne after Mary Stuart (though only if Henry VIII's will were set aside) and had the advantage of both Margaret and her son being born in England. Margaret's legitimacy, however, was in question, since Angus had his marriage annulled on grounds of precontract. See L.B. Smith, ‘The last will and testament of Henry VIII: A question of perspective’, Journal of British Studies, 2:1 (1962), 14–27; Mortimer Levine, ‘The last will and testament of Henry VIII: A reappraisal appraised’, The Historian, 26:4 (1964), 471–485 and the latter's The Early Elizabethan Succession Question (Stanford, CA, 1966). Through her, Darnley had a claim to the English throne.

380 Sir Richard Lee (d.1575), surveyor of the king's/queen's works (1544–1575) wrote to Cecil from Berwick, 26 May, TNA, SP 59/9, fo. 116. He was largely responsible for the trace italienne fortifications at Berwick: see H. Colvin, ed., The History of the King's Works, Vol. 4, Part 2 (London: HMSO, 1982).

381 De Foix seems to be making an analogy with the presidents of the Paris Parlement. The judges were the chief justices of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, Chancery and Exchequer all of whom sat in Westminster Hall. De Foix was correct in his estimation of their public role; Elizabeth appointed no judges as Privy Councillors.

382 Charles Stuart (1555–1576), 5th earl of Lennox after his father's murder in 1571.

383 Yet another reference to this story, which seems to have been current, if erroneous. Cecil's marriage in 1541 was regarded as an indiscretion.

384 One of the few clues that we have to the location of de Foix's residence. The distance from Durham Place (Guzman's residence) to Charterhouse is just over two miles.

385 He had left Bordeaux on 10 April, so a journey of 16 days. He brought a packet of that date.

386 Adam von Zvetkovic. For his despatches see Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 208–248 passim.

387 Start of Teulet's extract.

388 Mauvissière's mission had been mooted in December 1564 as to present an elaborate present involving camels to the Queen, Smith, 17 December 1564, TNA, SP 70/75, fo. 175.

389 Addr.: ‘A la Royne’ and endorsed ‘Monsr de Mauvissiere le moys de may 1565’.

390 Cotgrave: ‘as pompon’, winter melon or as ‘popin’, trimming. Neither correct. It seems to mean poupées habillées, manikins or dolls dressed in French fashions. See Bonnaffié, Edmond, Inventaire des meubles de Catherine de Medici de Médicis en 1589 (Paris, 1874)Google Scholar and several other ‘poupines’ (p. 94) ‘une poupine vestue en damoiselle’ (p. 164), which Bonnaffié observes was an Italian fashion of earlier in the century. On fashion dolls in general: Paresys, Isabelle, ‘Corps, apparences vestimentaires et identités en France à la Renaissance’, Apparence(s): Histoire et Culture de Paraître, 4 (2012), 30Google Scholar. See also Arnold, Janet, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Leeds, 1988)Google Scholar. The sending of the poupines was being planned in February 1565, as is clear in Louise de Crussol's letter of 29 February: ‘Si j'estois l'une des poupines que sa maiesté vous envoye presentement je vous en compterois plus au long et ferois mes escuses d'avoir prins la hardiesse de vous escrire.’ TNA, SP 70/76, fo. 147.

391 Cut: ‘inviolablement’.

392 Marguerite de Valois (1523–1574), daughter of Francis I, married 10 July 1559 to Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy.

393 Louise de Clermont-Tallart, married to Antoine comte de Crussol, duc d'Uzès (1565), chevalier d'honneur of the Queen Mother. Louise was a favourite of Catherine de Medici.

394 De Foix's narrative of 6 May details his discussions with the Queen while Mauvissière was preparing the presentation (No. 109).

395 Possibly Monsembat.

396 Mais que = ‘when’.

397 Addr.: ‘A la Royne’. End.: ‘M de Mauvissiere du ixe de may 1565’. This letter was originally in the Feuillet de Conches collection.

398 ‘Façon dont la reine Elisabeth accueille tout ce qu'on lui dit de la cour de France. – cette lettre de 4 pages est des plus curieuses, et peint admirablement le caractère d'Elisabeth I. signée.’

399 One of the many indications of Mauvissière's enchantment with Elizabeth.

400 Smith's despatch of 10 April from Bordeaux only preserves that to Cecil, not to the Queen. His despatch of 15 April 1565 from Bordeaux would have had to travel very fast.

401 ‘prioit’ inserted by the copyist.

402 Smith's dispatch of 15 April must have arrived shortly before this audience on 28 April. This seemed to be favourable to the young king, though was more guarded than Elizabeth suggested: Charles would, he wrote, grow to be tall but he and his brothers had been too coddled as children by doctors. ‘The kinge ys amiable enough in cowntenaunce and cheereful to behold, of a more doulce and gentle nature and not so sterne as the duke [Henry]. This ys thopinion of courtiers. Howbeit I cannot perceive, but that thei are doulce and gentle of nature both. The kinge semeth of nature verie tractable and wise for his yeres and to understand more of his affaires, and to give wittier answers then a man would easelie thincke … The kinge speaketh somewhat fast and thicke, which is taken the he should be hote of nature and a greater doer then speaker, and of sodaine en hault enterprise and courage, but he neither lispeth not stamereth. He hath not much been brought up in lerninge and that I can lern speaketh neither Latyn, nor no tongue but his owen contrey tongue … I dare take upon me for his wit, not to be foolish nor hedstronge … I dare put my self in pledge to your highness that your Majestie shall like him.’ TNA, SP 70/77, fos 128v–129r.

403 Start of passage printed by Teulet.

404 Copyist: ‘leurs’.

405 End of passage printed by Teulet.

406 29 April.

407 Possibly the small enclosed garden near the privy stairs at Whitehall.

408 This must have been her despatch of 10 April.

409 30 April.

410 Sir Henry Killigrew (c.1528–1603), soldier and diplomat who had been on mission to France in 1559. Close to both Cecil and Leicester.

411 The Privy Garden at Whitehall.

412 The actual date was 11 February.

413 Words omitted by the copyist?

414 This seems to be the text which appears in the state papers under the date of 6 May:

‘Que comme ce marriage est en soy treshonorable, ainsi n'est la Royne si desraisonnable de  ne penser luy debvoir ester agreeable et comptant en tant que à elle touche.

Et combien que l'inequalité de leurs ages peult beaucoup à destourner son affection de ce mariage, sy  est ce, qu'estant rapportees tant d'illustres vertus de sa personne, accompaignés d'une disposition et naturel plain de bonté, sa majesté ne peult estre esmené de refuser ung tel mariage, pourveu que toutes aultres choses qui necessairement en dependent et y appertiennent, n'y soyent trouvees repugnantes.

Et affin que le Roy ne soit plus longuement tenu en suspens sur ceste affaire, sa majesté asseure le Roy son bon frere, qu'elle ne laissera partir d'avecques elle quelques ungs de ses nobles (l'authorité desquelz sa majesté entende user en ce negoce) avant qu'elle soit resolue en toutes les difficultez qui sur ceste deliberation se pourront naistre. Et lors sur ce fera respondre au Roy son bon frere clairement, apertement et franchement.’

TNA, SP 70/78, fo. 22 and Smith's despatch of 7 June, fo. 131v.

415 William Herbert (c.1501–1570) 1st earl of Pembroke, an experienced soldier and royal councillor.

416 Sir William Petre (c.1505–1572), secretary of state from the reign of Henry VIII to that of Elizabeth.

417 George Talbot (1528–1590) 6th earl of Shrewsbury and Chamberlain of the Exchequer.

418 Phrase omitted by copyist: ‘diviser’?

419 The document ends here.

420 See preceding document.

421 At Bayonne.

422 A clear indication that the whole marriage proposal had been designed to derail the talks with the archduke.

423 Roger Strange, who had been involved in negotiations in 1563 and was sent again to the Imperial Court early in 1565 and was back in London by April (Haynes, I, 319).

424 Presumably a long-standing English agent in Germany, Christoff Mundt or Mont (d.1572).

425 Guzman, 5 May 1565, Cal. Spain (Simancas), I, no. 298. Guzman, like de Foix later, was indulging in some fanciful promotion of Leicester's matrimonial ambitions.

426 Adam von Zvetkowich, baron von Mitterburg.

427 Start of the extract by Teulet.

428 Throckmorton's instructions were dated 2 May, TNA, SP 52/10, fo. 71ff., draft emended by Cecil.

429 Margaret Douglas, Darnley's mother, detained in the Tower because of Darnley's pretensions.

430 On this, see T. Randolfe to Leicester, 23, 29 April 1565, TNA, SP 52/10, fos 59, 64.

431 James Stewart, earl of Moray, Mary's bastard brother.

432 End of the passage printed by Teulet.

433 Presumably meaning that Adam was of de Foix's making.

434 This could be a misdated summary of the previous letter.

435 Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King of Arms 1550–1584.

436 Copie: ‘sermans’.

437 Copy: ‘envoier passer’.

438 Copy ends at this point. Guzman does not comment on this question of precedence in his surviving despatches.

439 The negotiations for a trade treaty with the Netherlands.

440 Desmond had been imprisoned in the Tower 1562–1564 for his arrogant conduct (see above No. 19) and on his return attacked a client of Ormond's, leading to war and the defeat and injury of Desmond. In London, they were bound over to keep the peace.

441 Start of second passage in copy.

442 Entitled ‘president de Walles’ in the copy.

443 i.e. 12/13 days from Bordeaux to London.

444 Teulet's extract starts here. This passage is the same as that copied from de Foix's register, dated May 1565 (Copy: BnF fr.15888 fos 264v–65r; Extract: Teulet, II, 198–200).

445 Lord of Ardmanoch, earl of Ross (15 May), he was not created duke of Rothesay until 22 July, one week before the wedding.

446 Rochefort, possibly a gentleman captured at Dreux the same time as the Constable, CSPF, VI, no. 22.

447 Luzerie, Mary's doctor.

448 Cotgrave: a cockerel.

449 End of Teulet's extract.

450 The question of precedence: Papal authority placed the king of England behind that of Spain but this was challenged by the English.

451 The Emperor Ferdinand I had died the previous July. As de Foix points out below, there was no convention his Garter accoutrements were returned by princes, though this was the custom with the Order of Saint-Michel.

452 The Reboul catalogue of 1841 lists as item 1518: ‘Discours contenant les propos tenus par M. Cecille à M. Paul de Foix, ambassadeur du roi T.C. (De Londres, 25 mai 1565)’. This has not been found, though the catalogue may have confused it with a very similarly labelled document of 6 June (see below No. 117).

453 This is probably the Discours of 6 June below.

454 19 May neither Guzman not Zwetkovich mention this.

455 It is not clear which mission of the Imperial envoy Caspar Breuner (Preyner), Baron von Rabenstein this was. His mission had taken place in June 1559 (CSPF, I, 630, 817, 872). The ‘late ambassador’ was presumably La Quadra.

456 De Foix means the legal term here, Parliament not then being in session.

457 Start of passage in Teulet.

458 ‘Difficulties of the marriage negotiations between Charles IX and Elizabeth. Liaisons of the Scottish Queen’.

459 Zwetkovich reported audiences on 20 May, 21 May, 23 May, 25 May, 1 June (report, 4 June, in Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 213–236). He was convinced by this stage that the French match was completely ruled out.

460 Another indication of the objectives of the French court.

461 Start of passage printed by Teulet.

462 In fact, Rothesay, on 22 July.

463 David Rizzio/Riccio di Pancalieri (c.1533–1566) from near Turin in Piedmont, introduced by the Savoyard envoy to Scotland, Moretta.

464 Surname unknown.

465 End of passage printed by Teulet.

466 Floris de Montmorency (1528–1570), baron de Montigny and governor of Tournai. Involved in the trade negotiations between the Netherlands and England. He was the brother of the count of Hoorn, executed in 1568. An opponent of the regime like his brother, he was executed secretly in Spain. The other Flemish commissioners were d'Assonleville and Joachim Aegidius.

467 Accompanied by a pasted note possibly in de Foix's hand: ‘Discours des propos tenuz en la negociation d'entre la Royne d'Angleterre et monsr d'ambassadeur le iije de Iuin et en la conference qu'a eu le secretaire dud. ambassadeur de messieurs Cecille et Throkmorton le cinqme dud. moys’.

468 This is one of the most important accounts of chess and politics under Elizabeth.

469 De Foix's devious argument was, stressing the inherent dangers of the Darnley marriage to her, underlining that many of her more informed subjects saw it as a means of uniting the two realms, to underline that her most secure course was the marriage alliance with France, which would thus deprive the Scots of their surest ally.

470 William Phayre, chargé d'affaires at the Spanish court, wrote on 12 May, CSPF, VII, no. 1168, and 2 June, ibid. no. 1220 – neither letter mentioning marriage negotiations of Charles IX and the Habsburgs but rather disputes between France and Spain over Florida. His dispatch of 22 June, ibid. no. 1262, did mention a plan which ‘semeth the most un lykste as to move the marriage of the kynges syster here with his master. Theye talke here affreshe that it is a doyng and difficulty but ther is non but the disequalitye of age.’ TNA, SP 70/78, fo. 175. Yet Philip's only available sister, Juana, widow of the king of Portugal, had been born in 1535!

471 See despatch of 4 June above.

472 The Bayonne meeting took place between 15 June and 2 July.

473 4 June.

474 Another indicator of Leicester's objectives.

475 Clear reference to the use by de Foix and his secretary Adam of the cause of the reformed religion.

476 ‘Affairs of Flanders. The arrival of Mauvissière from Scotland and his imminent departure for France’.

477 i.e. ‘archives’.

478 Anglo-Flemish trade had been restored in January 1565 but negotiations at Bruges continued and the documents concerned had to be to be verified, Ramsay, G.D., The Queen's Merchants and the Revolt of the Netherlands (Manchester, 1975–1985), 71Google Scholar. The English commissioners there were Wotton, Haddon, and Montagu.

479 ‘Marriage negotiations, that of the Queen of Scots, Condé etc.’

480 Hence 15 days from Bayonne.

481 Robert Polastron.

482 William Parr (1513–1571), marquess of Northampton, brother of Catherine Parr and experienced in negotiations in France, 1551.

483 William, Lord Howard of Effingham (c.1510–1573), brother of the 3rd duke of Norfolk, lord chamberlain of the household, 1558, involved in the negotiations of Cateau-Cambrésis.

484 No instructions to Somer survive but Smith reported his words to Charles IX on 26 May (to Elizabeth, 7 June 1565, TNA, SP 70/78, fo. 131; CSPF, VII, no. 1230): ‘Syre, your majeste hathe understood from the beginning what hath passed between the Queene my souverayne and Monsr de Foix your ambassador in England, upon the overture made by him of a marriage between your majeste and her.’ Somer then read out the Queen's formal answer (see 10 May above) Asked how long the final answer from Elizabeth would take, ‘Somer said, that he thought within fowre monethes.’ The audience was followed by a discussion on the marriage proposal with L'Aubespine.

485 Passage printed by Teulet starts here.

486 St John's Toun the name by which Perth was known in the later Middle Ages.

487 Either one of the Orléans lawyers in involved in a plot against the Huguenots in 1563 (CSPF, VI, no. 646) or a Scottish mercenary in France.

488 François de Bourbon (1542–1592), dauphin d'Auvergne, son of Louis, duc de Montpensier.

489 These words crossed out and the passage garbled by the copyist.

490 Donald McCarthy Mor, 1st earl of Clancare, created Sunday 24 June 1565.

491 Zwetkovich does not describe this in his despatches to Maximilian II but he does on 2 July report the French ambassador's machinations against the marriage of the archduke.

492 Passage printed by Teulet starts with next paragraph.

493 Cecilia (1540–1627), sister of Eric XIV, had married in the previous November Christoff II (1537–1575), margrave of Baden-Rodemarchen. Christoff had seen service in the wars of the 1550 s but when he came to London, he ran up large bills and got into debt that the Queen had to guarantee. Cecilia, who enthusiastically learned English, was a woman of heroic turbulence and some sexual licence in her time, later bearing an illegitimate daughter by the Spanish ambassador to Sweden, Eraso. See Svenskt biografist handlexicon (1906), I, 171; for James Bell's narrative of her journey, see Morison, M., ‘A Narrative of the Journey of Cecilia, Princess of Sweden, to the Court of Queen Elizabeth’, TRHS, 12 (1898), 181–224Google Scholar.

494 Teulet: ‘ung port’.

495 MS: dont.

496 Omitted by copyist.

497 MS: porter. The three youngest daughters of Howard were Mary (who married Lord Dudley in 1570) Frances (who later married Hertford as his second wife) and Katherine. No record of this placement survives otherwise.

498 Headed: ‘Par Nicolas Lescot chevaucheur descuyrye’.

499 Thus 15 days from Bayonne.

500 Thus 12 days from Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

501 Both in the same packet.

502 Bottom right-hand corner of this folio is torn away.

503 See No. 122.

504 An unusually critical view of Catherine's strategy at this time.

505 From archaic verb ‘laire’: laisser, abandoner.

506 Paistre, literally to feed, often used in sense of ‘give words instead of money’ (Cotgrave).

507 Pages torn at the bottom right-hand corner.

508 Henry Middlemore, Throckmorton's cousin and secretary while ambassador in France and a key member of his circle. He was special envoy to the Queen of Scots in 1568, Bell, Gary M., A Handlist of British Diplomatic Representatives, 1509–1688 (London, 1990)Google Scholar, SC 42. He was a legatee of Throckmorton's will in 1571 (TNA, PROB 11/54/109) along with William Killigrew. http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-54_ff_64-5.pdf (accessed 1 February 2017).

509 Killigrew had been sent to escort the daughter of Howard of Effingham to France (see above 4 July).

510 MS: ‘qu'il’.

511 Despite his trusted roles and ambassador Throckmorton had not been sworn of the Council and lost favour in 1569.

512 Some words must be omitted by the copyist.

513 i.e. ‘clauses’.

514 See Guzman, 2 July 1565, CSP Simancas, I, no. 305.

515 i.e. ‘suscité’, sustained, driven by.

516 i.e. Kaspar von Breuner, Imperial envoy in 1562.

517 See above 21 June 1564.

518 Clearly a misunderstanding as there were at least a dozen prisons in Tudor London, no doubt supplemented by private locations. L'Estrille was in any case held in the debtors’ prison of the Counter.

519 René de Lorraine, marquis d'Elbeuf (1536–1566), youngest of the Guise brothers and uncle of the queen of Scotland.

520 Unidentified.

521 L'Estrille.

522 The Counter, one of two London prisons for debtors, in Southwark adjoining St Margaret's Church, from 1551 (sharing space with the Admiralty Court), and one in Fennor, Poultry., The Counter's Commonwealth or a Voyage Made to an Infernal Island (London, 1617)Google Scholar: see Judges, A.V. ed., Key Writings on Subcultures, Vol. I: Elizabethan Underworld (London, 1930; repr. 2002), 518nGoogle Scholar.

523 Sussex wrote to Cecil (in Italian), 19 July asking him to his house in Westminster, bringing ‘le lettere dell'Imperator che si possa considerare sopra di quelle insieme’ (BL Cotton. Titus B VII, fo. 302).

524 Brief letters of Zwetkovich on this, 23, 28 July 1565, in Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 247, stressing de Foix's manoeuvres to turn the Queen against the Archduke.

525 Zwetkovich, 6 Aug. 1565, in Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 248–250, on the accumulating difficulties of the archduke's suit.

526 On the Habsburg conditions. See the Instructions of Maximilian II, 4 July 1565, in Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 238–244.

527 Elizabeth acknowledged the Elector Palatine's letter brought by ‘familiaris vester nomine La Luze’ on 23 July 1565, TNA, SP 59/9, fo. 185. Zwetkovich reported to Maximilian I on 28 July that the Elector Palatine had argued against the Habsburg marriage and that de Foix was pressing the case of Leicester, Klarwill, Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners, 247.

528 4 shillings.

529 Blanks in the MS.

530 18 August.

531 Letter of Charles IX, 30 June, Orig.: TNA, SP 70/78, fo. 210. Cecil's message is not preserved.

532 End.: ‘16 Aug. 1565. Depredations complained of by the Fr. Emb’.

533 This was the case complained of by de Foix in summer 1564, see above No. 76.

534 ‘Weymouth’ noted in the margin by Cecil.

535 Louis de Lannoy, sr de Morvilliers, a Protestant not yet formally accepted in the post.

536 Note by Cecil ‘Auchy’. Possibly François de Soyécourt, seigneur d'Auchy in right of his wife Charlotte de Mailly. The admiral is Coligny.

537 The corrupt text actually reads ‘Marie Tether’.

538 Presumably on the argument that Margaret's marriage to Angus had been annulled in 1528 in order for her to marry Henry Stuart, Lord Methven.

539 Actually 29 July.

540 This is more or less a summary of Mary's answer to the Articles presented by the Assembly of the Scottish Church, CSPF, VII, no. 1328.

541 As clear a definition of Elizabeth's objectives in a husband: simply to provide an heir.

542 This passage has been corrupted and I have supplied the missing passage re Cecilia of Sweden.

543 John Stuart, seigneur d'Aubigny in France (c.1517–1567), the father of Esmé Stuart, later 1st duke of Lennox and favourite of James VI. Aubigny was already captain of 100 archers of the Scots guard.

544 Addr.: ‘A Monsieur, Monsieur Cecille premier secretaire d'estat d'Angleterre et conseiller du conseil privé de sa Maiesté’. End.: ‘23 Aug. 1565. The fr emb. To my mr. With a booke from Ronsard’.

545 I have been unable to trace this quotation, which relates to the praise and honour to the gods and good/distinguished men.

546 Ronsard had dedicated his Elégies, Mascarades et Bergeries (Paris: Gabriel Buon, 1565) to Elizabeth and the book had been published on Catherine de Medici's instructions. Ronsard had also written in praise of de Foix and it was the latter who forwarded the book to Cecil. This was also the work that included the Elégie à Monsieur de Foix (ibid. 150–159) and a remarkably fulsome Elégie to Cecil (ibid. 159–70). See Oeuvres complètes, ed. P. Laumonier, XIII (Paris, 1914–1984), 31ff.

547 John Stuart duke of Albany, regent in Scotland 1515–1524 (d.1536). His natural daughter was Eleanor Stuart, by Jean Aberneth, who married in France Jacques de l'Hôpital, comte de Choisy in 1547.

548 Jean de Moy, sr de la Meilleraye (d.1589), lieutenant general of Upper Normandy and vice-admiral of France.

549 Referred to obliquely as the Queen's formal refusal in Smith to Cecil, 31 July 1565: ‘I never did message with better will then this last, for I love when the Quenes Maiestie is resolute.’ TNA, SP 70/79, fo. 64. De Foix is relating the terms of Smith's discourse to Catherine, concerning the desirability of the Queen's choice of an English husband.

550 i.e. the Archduke Charles.

551 Louis II, king of Hungary, killed at the battle of Mohács (1526), was married to Charles V's sister Mary; Christian II of Denmark, deposed by a revolution in Sweden in 1521 and in Denmark in 1523, had been married to the Emperor's sister, Isabella. Ferdinand had been unable to recover the whole of Hungary from the Turks when he became its king in 1526.

552 De Foix is referring to French conspiracies with rebels under Mary. See Loades, D., Two Tudor Conspiracies (Cambridge, 1965)Google Scholar, ch.7 and 8; Harbison, E.H., Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary (Simon Renard and Antoine de Noailles) (Princeton, 1940)Google Scholar.

553 i.e. appearances.

554 Zwetkovich.

555 This letter had not survived, though Cecilia of Sweden wrote to the Queen from Canterbury on 9 September.

556 John Dymock the London merchant, whose wife Maria was portrayed by Steven van Herwijk in a portrait medal around the same time as he portrayed Mauvissière. Dymock had contacts in the Baltic and had travelled to Sweden in 1562 to liaise with the king over his proposed visit. Dymock was a royal servant who had been muster-master for German troops in English service during the 1540 s, CSPF, V, no. 439; VIII, no. 561. Dymock had distrained on the Margrave and his wife and when he arrived in Sweden with a fleet in 1571 it was confiscated. There is a curious forced confession made by him at Stockholm concerning his robbery of the couple in TNA, SP 70/147/2, fo. 239. This seems to relate to the financial mess the royal couple fell into during their stay in England (see the letter of Princess Cecilia to the Queen, 6 July 1566).

557 James Stuart (c.1531–1570), earl of Moray, illegitimate son of James V and later regent for James VI from August 1567.

558 End.: By Cecil: ‘Premier jour Sept. Copy of the fr. ambassad. to the Q. of Scottes by Stafferton.’ In a regular French secretary hand.

559 The ‘Chaseabout raid’ in which Mary and Darnley confronted Moray and his allies among the nobility started around 26 August.

560 Mauvissière was sent both to Elizabeth and Mary (see No. 136).

561 Throckmorton had been sent to Scotland with this purpose in April/May 1565 but this having failed, Elizabeth sent John Thomworth/Tamworth of the Privy Chamber on 30 July, TNA, SP 52/10, fo. 156; ibid. 11, fo. 1.

562 On his return he had been detained at Home castle on the orders of Mary and Darnley as king and queen of Scotland, 21 August 1565, TNA, SP 52/11, fo. 41. The news of this was therefore very fresh in Elizabeth's mind.

563 Thomas Randolph.

564 Elizabeth seems to have alternated between irritation and benevolence toward Margaret Douglas, who was released twice from detention in the Tower.

565 Date of the day absent in the text but endorsed ‘Monsr de Foix du xviije septembre 1565’.

566 De Foix had complained about these depredations on 16 August. See No. 129.

567 Sometimes called ‘Comberon’, an agent used in relations between France and Scotland (La Mothe, III, 347; IV, 3; VII, 197, 212; Mémoires de Messire Michel de Castelnau, Seigneur de Mauvissière, ed. Jean Le Laboureur, 3 vols (Brussels, 1731), III, 511.

568 Edward Fortunatus, see below No. 141.

569 On 29 September the negotiations at Bruges were prorogued until l5 March 1566, CSPF, VII, no. 1539.

570 Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, count and 1st duke of Feria.

571 The marriage of the Archduchess Johanna to Grand Duke Francesco I of Tuscany took place on 18 December 1565. One of her two surviving children was Marie de Médicis, wife of Henri IV and regent of France 1610–1615.

572 Date of the day missing in text but endorsed: ‘M de Foix du xviije jour de septembre 1565’.

573 Text printed almost entirely by Teulet but from a copy in the Mignet collection which is systematically defective in spelling.

574 Inserted in margin.

575 Thomas Randolph.

576 Thus, Bacon, Cecil and Howard.

577 Thomworth/Tamworth.

578 James Hamilton, duke of Châtellerault (father of Arran) and Archibald Campbell (c.1537–1573), 5th earl of Argyll.

579 Crossed out: ‘porter’.

580 Lord George Gordon's father, the 4th earl of Huntly, had been outlawed shortly before his death in 1562, having opposed Mary because she gave the earldom of Moray, to which he had a claim, to her half-brother. The young Huntly had been sentenced to death and confined to Dunbar until he was released by Mary in 1565. Gordon's power was centred on Inverness.

581 David Rizzio.

582 John Stewart, 4th earl of Atholl (d.1579), descendant of Robert II, a firm Catholic who supported the Darnley marriage and was appointed lieutenant in the north of Scotland in 1565.

583 Bothwell.

584 John Gordon, 11th earl of Sutherland. He had fled to Flanders in 1563 when his lands along with those of his cousin Huntly were confiscated but Mary invited him to return in 1565. He was detained by Bedford at Berwick.

585 Cathcart?

586 Louis de Saint-Gelais sr de Lansac was a trusted agent of the Queen Mother but in the event it was Rambouillet who was sent for this purpose.

587 Falkland Palace?

588 James Douglas (c.1516–1581), 4th earl of Morton, a Protestant, had been chancellor of Scotland since 1563 had not sided with the enemies of Darnley in 1565 but joined the conspiracy against Rizzio in 1566. Later Regent for James VI.

589 John, 8th Lord Maxwell, was too young to be involved at this point. Maxwell lands were concentrated around Dumfries. This is rather his cousin, Sir John Maxwell of Terregles (1512–1583), who held the hereditary office of warden of the West March. A Protestant who sided with Mary.

590 The copy printed by Teulet has ‘Irelande’.

591 Original forwarded to the French court by de Foix. End.: ‘M. de Mauvissiere [à Monsr de Foix] du 27 septembre 1565’. Addr.: ‘A Monsieur, Monsieur de Foix, conseiller du Roy et son ambassadeur en Angleterre’.

592 For this Discours, see Teulet (Bannatyne), II, 101ff.; BnF fr.15971, fos 15ff.

593 Léonard de Chaumont (d.1571/2), chevalier, sr d'Esguilly in Champagne, maître d'hôtel and intendant of Mary.

594 St John's Town (Perth).

595 Word now archaic for pirate or corsair.

596 Captain of galleys, see 23 Jan. 1565.

597 David Chalmer/Chamber was a servant of Mary's for whom she requested a licence to take messages to Bothwell in 1564, CSPF, VII, no. 134. Chalmer was at the French court by early November 1565, CSPF, VII, no. 1654.

598 Robert Melvin was a servant of Mary's employed in messages. Spoken of approvingly by Throckmorton in 1561, CSPF, IV, no. 151. Present at her execution. ‘Young Melvin’ may be a different person, in the service of the opposition lords.

599 Carlisle.

600 Words omitted.

601 A decipher of the following passage survives in the Coppet collection AN AB XIX/3622, dossier 2, no. 38. This was printed by Teulet but in an incorrect place since he had not deciphered the original passage and he used the copy in the Mignet Collection. I have deciphered this passage from the original.

602 William Chisholm, in Rome to ask for dispensation to marry Darnley.

603 The clerk who made the original decipher did not understand the symbol for the king of Spain and left it blank.

604 Francis Yaxley, in the service of the privy Council from 1548, clerk of the signet, 1557. Though in royal service under Elizabeth, he was a Catholic who gravitated to Mary's service through the countess of Lennox in 1565. He was drowned on a return journey from Spain late in the year.

605 Robert Carnegie, John Balfour and John Leslie: Robert Carnegie of Kinnaird, judge of the College of Justice (d.1565); James Balfour, Lord Pittendreich (c.1525–1583), was a prominent councillor of the Queen; John Leslie, senator of the College of Justice 1565 and bishop of Ross.

606 Decipherment in margin.

607 Meaning ‘divided’.

608 Guessed phrase represented by the symbol 77 in the cipher.

609 Shane O'Neil, ‘the O'Neill’, lord of Ulster (though never formally recognized as earl of Tyrone) had invaded the territory of the MacDonnells and taken castles at Redbay and Ballycastle and defeated them at Glentasie in 1565. He had hoped for help from France which did not arrive. Defeated by the O'Donnells, he was killed by the MacDonnells in 1567.

610 There follows an extended justification of Moray's actions during the crisis of summer 1565.

611 Headed 27 November but the context – news of the princess of Sweden – makes clear that this is dated early October.

612 This image of Leicester as a sign of the Queen's proximity was widely noted.

613 Giraud de Mauléon, sr de Gourdan, governor of Calais from 1559.

614 Edward Fortunatus (1565–1600), who spent his first year in London, later converted to Catholicism, dabbled in black magic and died in a drunken fall.

615 Duke John (later John III), was duke of Finland and imprisoned at Turku by his half-brother Erik XIV in 1563 with his wife Catherine Jagiellonica. The Riksdag deposed Erik in his favour in 1569.

616 Probably from the papers of Florimond Robertet.

617 Another indicator of the exchange rate which would give a ratio of 1:10 between the pound sterling and the livre tournois.

618 On 7 October, Bedford reported from Berwick on Captain Read's company, CSPF, VII, no. 1565.

619 Randolph reported on 4 Oct. that ‘ther arrived in the Fyrth iiij or v dayes past the Q. mates ship called the Aide. Ther was a great brute that maynie mo wer following.’ TNA, SP 52/11, fo. 126v. The Ayde was a ship of 200 tons.

620 Capt. Charles Wilson, who had served Throckmorton in France, had letters of marque from Sweden and had taken the earl of Sutherland off Berwick and stood off the coast to help the Lords of the Congregation but was arrested as a pirate despite being under Bedford's protection (Bedford, CSPF, VII, nos 1443, 1528, 1668).

621 End of the passage printed by Teulet.

622 See de Foix's letter to Cecil, 16 Oct. 1565.

623 Sous peine de la Hart/Har: hanging by a halter (Cotgrave).

624 Roger Strange, see 10 May 1565.

625 Sir John Hawkins had sailed in 1564 with the Queen's investment, taking the Jesus of Lubeck and three other ships, collecting slaves in West Africa and trading them on he Guinea coast. On the way back he traded provisions for powder and shot with the French Florida colonists and so helped them to survive for their journey home under Laudonnière.

626 End.: ‘13 8bre 1565. The fr. emb. memorial’.

627 See the complaint of October 1564.

628 The Saker or Sacret (one month's cost, £26.14.8, Oct. 1565, TNA, SP 12/37, fo. 157). William Pearson?

629 Thus 14 days from Ceaux-en-Loudun (Vienne).

630 William Chisholm.

631 By whom is meant James, earl of Hamilton, duke of Châtellerault in France, who had opposed the marriage to Darnley.

632 End of the passage printed by Teulet.

633 See above, No. 145.

634 On 6 October, a warrant was issued for a commission under the great seal for the suppression of piracy, TNA, SP 12/37, fo. 147.

635 Start of passage printed by Teulet.

636 Decipher: ‘donnans’.

637 Decipher: ‘rentreront’.

638 i.e. battle.

639 The siege of Malta had been broken on 13 September.

640 Labelled ‘Archives du château de Villebon’.

641 On the banks of the river Annan in Dumfries and Galloway. Only a moat now remains.

642 Sir John, master of Maxwell, later Lord Herries (1512–1583), brother of the 6th Lord Maxwell, Protestant but strong supporter of Mary.

643 Names distorted by Mary's French secretary: the laird of Dunlaverock, CSP Scotland, I, 300; Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar (1530–1604).

644 This is the proclamation of the Queen of Scots, 15 September 1565, to be found in BnF fr.6613, fo. 54, listed in the Appendix as no. 6.

645 Presumably she means the earl of Moray.

646 On 11 November, Ambrose Dudley married Anne Russell. Bedford's daughter and 20 years his junior (she was 16). The celebrations were lavish.

647 End.: ‘Le memoire baillé au sr de Rambouillet allant en Angleterre et Ecosse le xije jour de decembre 1565’.

648 Albert de Gondi (1522–1602), comte and duc de Retz, seigneur du Perron, military commander and close counsellor to Catherine de Medici.

649 Crossed out: ‘deux manteaux et’.

650 Pierre de la Tannerie, heraut Roy d'armes of the Order of Saint-Michel 1548 in succession to Louis de Perreau de Castillon, a former ambassador in England. He had been in England in 1549. See Lefèvre-Pontalis, G., ed., Correspondance politique de Odet de Selve (Paris, 1888), 481Google Scholar; Matuszek, M.-N. Baudouin, ‘Henri II et les expeditions françaises en Ecosse’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 145 (1987), 351Google Scholar.

651 ‘a babbling, chiding, brawling debate, contention’ (Cotgrave).

652 Rye, Sussex.

653 Artus de Maillé, sr de Brezé, chev. de l'ordre, capitaine de cent archers de la garde (1557), gentilhomme de la chambre du roi, appointed in April 1548 to receive the young Mary, Queen of Scots, in France (de Sainte-Marie, Père Anselme, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, et des grands officiers de la couronne, 3rd edn, 9 vols (Paris, 1726–1733; repr. Paris, 1967)Google Scholar, VII, 516).

654 Listed as échanson in the roll of Mary's household, Teulet (Bannatyne), II, 123.

655 De Foix had lobbied long and hard for Lestrille's release from prison and detention in his own house.

656 Remarkable assertion in view of his arrest in 1559.

657 A reference to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, on friendship, probably section 2.

658 i.e. Elizabeth.

659 The extract breaks off here.

660 Louis Chasteigner, sr de la Rochepozay (b. c.1535), amateur of humanist letters, ambassador in Rome 1576–1581, chevalier du Saint-Esprit (1583) rather than his brothers François and René.

661 Thomas Butler, who had recently defeated his Desmond enemies in Ireland, was distantly related to the Queen through the Boleyns.

662 Name cut off.

663 Joseph Rizzio.

664 In the dead of night, a favourite phrase of de Foix (see 8 March 1564), perhaps echoing Sallust, Bellum Catillinarium.

665 Thomas Hoby (1530–1566), diplomat and travel writer, knighted 6 March 1566, on the eve of being sent to France as ambassador.

666 Jacques Bochetel, sieur de la Forêt, de Foix's successor as ambassador from 1566–1568.

667 The next surviving royal dispatch is to La Forêt, dated Saint Maur, 25 May, countersigned by L'Aubespine, concerning the extradition of Savigny, calling himself the bastard son of the late king of Navarre, TNA, SP 70/84, fos 103, 105.

668 Possibly Jean Le Maçon, sr de Belassise, husband of Nicole who set up a power of attorney in 1604 (AD Yvelines E 6575, fo. 231), but could be several others.

669 Fourquevaux had replaced Saint-Sulpice as French ambassador in Spain in October 1565 and may not have been aware of de Foix's imminent recall from London. This dispatch was presumably delivered to Cecil instead and retained by him.

670 The calendar lists this as by ‘unknown’. Addr.: ‘A Monsieur, Monsieur de Foix, conseiller du Roy Treschrestien et son ambassadeur en Angleterre. Angleterre’.

671 William Phayre, who had been the chargé d'affaires since March 1565.

672 Dr John Man, warden of Merton College, Oxford, dean of Gloucester, appointed in January 1566 and notably unsuccessful ambassador.

673 This imminent repetition of a Turkish attack on Malta of 1565 seems to have been a false alarm. Fourquevaux does not mention it in his surviving despatches to the French court.

674 Élisabeth de Valois gave birth to the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia on 12 August at Segovia.

675 End.: ‘22 may 1566 Monsr de Foix Memorial for the passeport’.

676 24 May.