¹ For an example, see Potter, D., ‘Jean du Bellay et l’Angleterre, 1527–50’, in Petris, Loris, Galand, P., Christin, O., and Michon, C. (eds), Actes du Colloque Jean du Bellay (Neuchâtel, 2014), pp. 47–66Google Scholar.

² Bergenroth, G.A., de Gayangos, P., Hume, M.A.S., and Tyler, R. (eds), Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, Preserved in the Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere (1485–1558), 13 vols (London, 1862–1954)Google Scholar; Hume, M.A.S. (ed.), Calendar of Letters and State Papers Relating to English Affairs Preserved Principally in the Archives of Simancas, 4 vols (London, 1892–1899)Google Scholar.

³ Bourrilly, V.-L. and de Vaissière, P., Ambassades en Angleterre de Jean du Bellay (Paris, 1905)Google Scholar; Scheurer, R. (ed.), Correspondance de Jean du Bellay, II (Paris, 1969)Google Scholar; Kaulek, J. (ed.), Correspondance politique de MM. De Castillon et de Marillac (Paris, 1885)Google Scholar, active and passive correspondence; Lefèvre-Pontalis, G. (ed.), Correspondance politique de Odet de Selve (Paris, 1888)Google Scholar, active correspondence only.

⁴ de Vertot, René Aubert (ed.), Ambassades de Messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre, 5 vols (Leyden, 1763)Google Scholar; based on one of the most extensive French ambassadorial archives of the sixteenth century in AE, Correspondance politique, Angleterre, vols 9–20. For a discussion of the structure of the archives, see Harbison, E.H., Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary (Princeton, NJ, 1940)Google Scholar, appendix.

⁵ Cooper, C.P. and Teulet, A., Recueil des dépêches, rapports, instructions, et mémoires des ambassadeurs de France en Angleterre et Ecosse pendant le XVIe siècle: correspondance diplomatique de Bertand de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon, 7 vols (London and Paris, 1838–40)Google Scholar. The original registers are in AN, KK, 1377–81. Letters to him, from 1572 to 1575, are printed in Le Laboureur, J. (ed.), Les Mémoires de Michel de Castelnau, seigneur de Mauvissière, 3 vols (Brussels, 1731), III, pp. 265–465Google Scholar.

⁶ Despatches of Paul de Foix for May–November 1562 are in BnF, fr. 6612, fos 34–147, and for March–November 1565 in fr. 6613, fos 2–57; copies from a register of de Foix for January 1565–July 1566, are in fr. 15888, fos 264–273; ditto for La Forest for July–September 1566 in fr. 15970–15971. The originals of de Foix's despatches from England in 1562 and 1565 were preserved in the archives of Claude de L’Aubespine at the château of Villebon and dispersed with much other material in 1835 (for a detailed inventory, see Catalogue analytique de manuscrits et documents originaux . . . retrouvés dans un vieux château de province (Paris, 1835)). The present author hopes in due course to complement the present study by an edition of Paul de Foix's despatches as ambassador in England.

⁷ Mauvissière's despatches from 1578 to 1581 were copied into a register beginning with his 108th despatch (BnF, fr. 15973). Some of the original despatches to him were published in Le Laboureur, Mémoires de Michel de Castelnau, III, pp. 466–559; these seem to be derived from a Gaignières volume, BnF, fr. 17972, fos 33–386. There are further despatches from the court in ibid., CC Colbert 337, printed in Teulet, vol. III. For publications of despatches of ambassadors later in the century, see Lafleur de Kermaingant, P., L’ambassade de France en Angleterre sous Henri IV. Mission de Jean de Thumery, sieur de Boissise (1598–1602) (Paris, 1886)Google Scholar. The despatches to and from Christophe de Harlay between 1602 and 1605 are in BnF, fr. 3449–3513, and form part of his enormous archive.

⁸ Baschet, A., ‘List of despatches of ambassadors from France to England, 1509–1714’, Reports of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, 39 (1878)Google Scholar, appendix 1, p. 618: ‘Le chevalier de Seurre nommé ambassadeur pour succéder à Gilles de Noailles à Londres y arriva dans les premiers jours de février 1560. Sa correspondance nous est restée inconnu.’ Louis Paris published two of de Seure's letters from the L’Aubespine archives in Paris, Négociations, and Alexandre Teulet some related documents in Teulet, II, pp. 15–51.

⁹ The spelling and pronunciation of his name are a problem. Usually given as ‘Seurre’ or ‘Seure’, he himself spelled it ‘le ch^lr [cheualier] de Seure’. Clearly, sixteenth-century orthography, which did not distinguish between u and v, is a problem, and it is very likely that his name was pronounced ‘Sèvre’, as in the modern district of Paris. References to him as ‘Seurre’ in other sources probably derive from the erroneous idea that his place of origin was the town of Seurre in Burgundy. Italians wrote ‘Sceura’; and the English referred to him as ‘Seury’ (Camden), ‘Cievre’ and ‘Cerve’ (CSPF, IV, p. 252), as well as ‘Sevre’ (as in Nicholas Throckmorton's letters). In Castelnau's Mémoires he appears as ‘le chevalier de Saivre’ (which would be close to ‘Sèvre’). Here, the policy of referring to him as he spelled his own name – ‘Seure’ – is adopted.

¹⁰ Antonio Maria Salviati to Tolomeo Galli, Paris, 19 September 1577, ANG, 13 (1975), p. 634: ‘è a Sua Maestà gratissimo, et in questa Corte in buon concetto, et reputatione, sì per essere conosciuito di buon spirito, come per sapersi che egli à quasi per tutto il mondo stato, et in diversi parti trattato gravissimi negotii di Sua Maestà’.

¹¹ Eliot, John, The Survay or Topographial Description of France (London, 1592), p. 15Google Scholar: ‘Brye is woodie, but yet in a manner as fruitfull as Champagne, the firmament cleere, and the aire gentle and temperate, the riuers great, the people actiue and giuen to good husbandrie, the Nobilitie courteous, valiaunt, and manye; the townes welthy, the villages well inhabited, and to be breefe, they want nothing necessarye for mans life: corne, wine, cattell, wood, fruit, game, flight, fishing, as plentifull as in anye other Prouince of Fraunce’. He writes elsewhere of the ‘very fat and fruitfulnesse of Brye’ (p. 18).

¹² de Sibert, Edmé Gautier, Histoire des ordres royaux: hospitaliers-militaires de Mont Carmel et Saint-Lazare de Jérusalem (Paris, 1772)Google Scholar: ‘il naquit à Lumigny dans la Brie’. The origin of the information on his family is given as the ‘registres du grand prieuré de France’, copied in seventeenth-century notes on the chevaliers de Malte, BnF, fr. 32665, pp. 10–16, listing parents and grandparents. In the sixteenth century, four quarterings were necessary for entry into the order in France, though it was eight in Germany, and in later centuries sixteen became the norm. Lumigny itself was owned by the comtes de la Suze, Protestants after 1560.

¹³ d’Hozier de Serigny, A.M., Armorial général de France, 10 vols (Paris, 1738–1768)Google Scholar, I, pt. V (1764), Champagne, p. 11 (275).

¹⁴ The arms given by modern commentators are: D’argent (ou d’or) à la croix d’azur chargée d’une croisette d’argent et cantonnée de quatre fleurs de lys de sable. However, early historians of the order were unclear about his arms, and his signet was a simple oval bearing the word ‘Virtus’ and a cross.

¹⁵ Hue de Sèvre's arms were drawn in the abbé Leboeuf's seventeenth-century collection of notes on Parisian families: BnF, fr. 4752, pp. 227–228.

¹⁶ Sibert, Saint-Lazare de Jérusalem, pp. 285–290.

¹⁷ The point was made by Charles de Baschi d’Aubais in the eighteenth century: ‘Il est singulier qu’une famille qui a donné un grand-prieur de Champagne, ne soit pas plus connue’ (Pièces fugitives pour servir à l’histoire de France, 2 vols (Paris, 1759), I, p. 122).

¹⁸ The dates have been variously given as 2 January and 11 June.

¹⁹ Catherine was negotiating for his advancement as Grand Prior of France ‘pour la conservation de sa religion’ (LCM, X, p. 146).

²⁰ Including the commanderie of Boigny.

²¹ On the background down to 1522, see Jean-Marc Roger, ‘Le prieuré de Champagne des chevaliers de Rhodes’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Paris IV, 2001). Pierre de Longueil had been Grand Prior of Champagne until his death in Rome in 1566 (Moréri, L., Grand dictionnaire historique, 10 vols (Paris, 1759), VI, p. 380Google Scholar).

²² Anthony Luttrell, ‘From Jerusalem to Malta: the Hospital's character and evolution’, Peregrinationes, <http://www.orderofmalta.int/wp-content/uploads/archive/pubblicazioni/FromJerusalemtoMalta.pdf> (accessed 8 May 2014), points out that the order was not primarily a crusading order since its function was that of continuous holy war rather than participation in papal-inaugurated crusades. On the importance of the chevaliers in French naval warfare, see Sire, H.J.A., The Knights of Malta (New Haven, CT, 1996), pp. 85–100Google Scholar, 115–138.

²³ Heulhard, A., Villegaignon, roi d’Amérique, 1510–72 (Paris, 1897), pp. 46Google Scholar, 264.

²⁴ Beaugué, Jean, Histoire de la guerre d’Ecosse, pendant les campagnes de 1548 et 1549 (Paris, 1556Google Scholar; repr. Edinburgh, 1830), pp. 30, 134.

²⁵ Sibert, Saint-Lazare de Jérusalem, p. 287, states that: ‘Le service sur les galères s’estant rendu très recommandables en France, le chevalier de Sevre, quoique très jeune, obtint le commandement d’une, sous le général Léon Strozzy et la baron de la Garde ensuitte de quoi le Roy François Ier lui en confia des escadrans dans les mers Océane et Mediterranée, et se servit de lui dans plusieurs emplois importans.’ (MS copy in BnF, fr. 24967, fo. 196v.)

²⁶ Odet de Selve to Secretary Phébus, in Charrière, E., Négociations de la France dans le Levant, 4 vols (Paris, 1848–1860)Google Scholar, II, pp. 150n, 154n. The French arrived at Tripoli on 5 August (letter of Aramon, 28 August 1551, in ibid., pp. 154–162).

²⁷ de Nicolay, N., Les Navigations, peregrinations et voyages faictes en la Turquie (Antwerp, 1577Google Scholar (first published Lyon, 1567)), p. 2. See Villegaignon's own Discours de la Guerre de Malte (Lyon, 1553), denying French responsibility for the loss of Tripoli and (from p. 52) describing Aramon's arrival with two galleys at Malta after the siege of Gozo and the siege of Tripoli. He does not mention Seure's presence with Aramon in his arguments in the latter's favour. On the background, see Lestringant, F., Voyages en Égypte des années 1549–1552: Jean Chesneau, André Thevet. Présentation, choix de textes et notes (Cairo, 1984)Google Scholar.

²⁸ Scheffer, C. (ed.), Le Voyage de Monsieur d’Aramon, ambassadeur pour le Roy en Levant escript par noble homme Jean Chesneau (Paris, 1887), p. 153Google Scholar.

²⁹ On this period, see Veinstein, G., ‘Les préparatifs de la campagne navale franco-turque de 1552 à travers les ordres du divan ottoman’, Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée, 39 (1985), pp. 35–67Google Scholar. On Franco-Ottoman operations in general, see Isom-Verhaaren, C., Allies with the Infidel: the Ottoman and French alliance in the sixteenth century (London, 2011), pp. 114–140Google Scholar.

³⁰ Scheffer, Voyage de Monsieur d’Aramon, p. lvii; Chesneau's narrative dates this around May 1555 (see d’Aubais, Pièces fugitives, I, p. 61).

³¹ BnF, Dupuy 322, fo. 76, Instructions for Ory; Fontana, B., Renata di Francia, 3 vols (Rome, 1889–1899)Google Scholar, II, pp. 344–350; Rodocanachi, E.-P., Renée de France, duchesse de Ferrare. Une protectrice de la Réforme en Italie (Paris, 1896), p. 231Google Scholar; zum Kolk, Caroline, ‘Les difficultés des mariages internationaux: Renée de France et Hercule d’Este’, in Poutrin, I. and Schaub, M.-K. (eds), Femmes et pouvoir politique. Les princesses d’Europe, XVe–XVIIIe siècle (Rosny-sous-Bois, 2007), pp. 102–119Google Scholar (also available online at <http://cour-de-france.fr/article1814.html>, accessed 8 May 2014).

³² Dominique du Gabre to Monsieur de Montmorency, 6 May 1556, in Vitalis, A., Correspondance politique de Dominique du Gabre (Paris, 1903), p. 167Google Scholar.

³³ Falgairolle, E., Le Chevalier de Seure, ambassadeur de France en Portugal au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1896), pp. 16–26Google Scholar. Falgairolle published letters from Portugal that he found at St Petersburg. Sixty years later, Luis de Matos published the letters in BnF, fr. 15871, which complement the St Petersburg documents (Matos, Les Portugais en France au XVIe siècle: études et documents (Coimbra, 1952)) but did not find de Seure's original despatches from late 1558 in BnF, fr. 3151: these appeared in Serrão, J.V., ‘Michel de Seure, embaixador francês em Portugal (1557–1559): duas cartas para o seu epistolario’, Archivio do Centro Cultural Portugues, 1 (1969), 455–458Google Scholar. Edmond de Barthélemy, in Archives historiques du département de la Gironde, 17 (1877), pp. 250–251, copied a letter by him in St Petersburg, asking for safe conduct via Spain, which he dates as Lisbon, 18 April 1555, but which must be from 1559. There is an original despatch from Henri II to de Seure, 4 October 1557, in Archivo General, Simancas, Estado, K. 1490, no. 86.

³⁴ De Seure to Robertet de Fresnes, 18 April 1559, in Matos, p. 284.

³⁵ De Seure to the Constable, 12 February 1559: ‘le grant danger qu’il va maintenant des Angloys et Bicayns’ (Matos, p. 276); de Seure to the duc d’Etampes, governor of Brittany, Lisbon, 30 May 1558, in Morice, Dom, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l’histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols (Paris, 1742–1746)Google Scholar, III, cols 1222–1223.

³⁶ De Seure to de Fresnes, 12 February 1559, in Matos, p. 281.

³⁷ Matos, pp. 6–7.

³⁸ Lestringant, F., Cannibals: the discovery and representation of the cannibal from Columbus to Jules Verne, tr. Morris, R. (Berkeley, CA, 1997)Google Scholar; idem, Jean de Léry ou l’invention du sauvage. Essai sur l’‘Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil’ (Paris, 1999).

³⁹ De Seure to Henri II, Lisbon, 12 October 1558, BnF, fr. 3151, fos 84–87, passage in cipher on fo. 85r–v. On Queen Catalina, see Scheuber, Yolanda, Catalina de Habsburgo: reina de Portugal (Madrid, 2011)Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ De Seure to Henri II, 12 December 1559, BnF, fr. 3151, fo. 84–87, in cipher, with decipher: ‘il seroit aisé d’oster à vostre enemy ce grant soullaigement qu’il a de ce monde de delà, ou pour myeulx dire, tout le nerf et tout le moyen qu’il a desormais de maintenir la guerre contre vous.’

⁴¹ De Seure to Henri II, 30 January 1559, in Falgairolle, Chevalier de Seure, pp. 15–29.

⁴² De Seure to Lorraine, 12 February 1559, in Matos, p. 279.

⁴³ ‘Sommaire du revenu qu’a le roy de Portugal’, Bibliothèque municipale de Carpentras, MS 490 (reproduced in Matos, pp. 82, 291–297). He estimated the revenues at 500,000 gold écus p.a., of which 300,000 came from the Lisbon customs.

⁴⁴ De Seure to Henri II, 30 January 1559, in Falgairolle, Chevalier de Seure, p. 23.

⁴⁵ De Seure to Constable, 12 February 1559, in Matos, p. 277.

⁴⁶ De Seure to de Fresnes, 18 February 1559, in ibid., p. 282.

⁴⁷ Matos, pp. 286–287.

⁴⁸ De Seure to Robertet de Fresnes, 18 February 1559, in Matos, p. 283.

⁴⁹ Matos, pp. 286–287.

⁵⁰ To Henri II, 18 April 1559, Archives historiques du département de la Gironde, 17 (1877), p. 250; de Seure to Portuguese secretary of state, 22 May 1559, in Matos, pp. 289–290.

⁵¹ Falgairolle, E., Jean Nicot, ambassadeur de France en Portugal au XVIe siècle. Sa correspondance diplomatique inédite (Paris, 1897), pp. xxvii–xxxiGoogle Scholar.

⁵² Romier, L., ‘L'abandon de la Corse par les Français (1559)’, Revue du seizième siècle, 2 (1914), pp. 376–378Google Scholar; Haan, B., Une paix pour l’éternité. La négociation du traité de Cateau-Cambrésis (Madrid, 2010)Google Scholar; de Ruble, A., Le Traité de Cateau-Cambrésis (Paris, 1889), pp. 63–84Google Scholar.

⁵³ BnF, fr. 15872, fos 139–144: letters of de Seure and Boistaillé from Marseilles, August 1559.

⁵⁴ Alvaro de Quadra, 19 February and 3 June 1561, in CSP Spain, I, nos 89 and 132. See also Kervyn, II, pp. 227, 454–456.

⁵⁵ Sibert's manuscript notes on de Seure (BnF, fr. 24967, fos 197–198) list the problems of his embassy as: ‘ménager l’esprit’ of Elizabeth over Calais, suspicions over the claims of Mary Stuart, and the Protestant settlement in England.

⁵⁶ Potter, D. (ed.), Foreign Intelligence and Information in Elizabethan England: two English treatises on the state of France, 1579–1584, Camden 5th series 25 (Cambridge, 2004)Google Scholar, p. 49.

⁵⁷ Pierre de Bourdeille de Brantôme, Oeuvres completes, ed. L. Lalanne, 12 vols (Paris, 1864–1896), III, p. 96: ‘le chevalier de Seure estoit celui de nostre roy : dont plusieurs s’estonnarent qu’un homme ecclésiastique estoit ainsi envoyé et se tenir près d’une reyne point catholique, ains luthérienne : envers laquelle pourtant ledict ambassadeur estoit bien venu et recueilly : aussi estoit-il honneste prélat et digne de sa charge, mais pourtant l’ambassade paroissoit estrange : tout ainsy comme si l’on envoyoit vers le pape un huguenot, il y auroit bien autant de nattreté et mocquerie qu’en l’autre’. The passage is actually discussing, in the context of the role of clerical ambassadors in general, the strangeness of appointing Bishop de Quadra as Spanish ambassador to Elizabeth. He argues that, despite his clerical status, de Quadra was quite acceptable. He could have added that de Seure's successor, Paul de Foix, was in clerical orders, as was his predecessor, Gilles de Noailles.

⁵⁸ Nicolas Throckmorton to the Privy Council, Paris, 4 February 1560, in Forbes, P., A Full View of the Public Transactions of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth, 2 vols (London, 1740–1741)Google Scholar, pp. 316–317. Draft in BL, Add. MS 35830, fo. 54; original in TNA, SP 70/11, fo. 5r, italicized passages from this version in cipher.

⁵⁹ De Quadra, 7 March 1560, in CSP Spain, I, no. 92; 19 February 1560, in Kervyn, II, p. 235.

⁶⁰ Santa Croce's despatch to Rome, 13 March 1563, copied into the volume BnF, f. it. 2182, and printed in part in ‘Lettres de Prosper de Sainte-Croix au cardinal Borromée’, in L. Cimber and F. Danjou (eds), Archives curieuses de l’histoire de France, series 1, vol. VI (Paris, 1835), p. 129.

⁶¹ de Valois, Marguerite, Mémoires et lettres (Paris, 1842), p. 148Google Scholar; de Valois, Marguerite, Mémoires et autres écrits, ed. Viennot, E. (Paris, 1999), p. 187Google Scholar.

⁶² On the list of the officiers domestiques for 1556, BnF, Clair. 1216, fo. 47 (copy). The chevalier de Villegaignon (see above, p. 5) was échanson du roi in 1551 (BnF, fr. 3132 and Clair. 813). In the list of all officiers domestiques in the reign of Henri II (BnF, fr. 7856, p. 1112), de Seure's date of appointment is given as 1553.

⁶³ de Martel, M. T.et al. (eds), Catalogue des actes de François II, 2 vols (Paris, 1999), I, p. 392Google Scholar. He had been mentioned as a gentilhomme de la chambre at the time of his appointment to Portugal in June 1557 (Matos, p. 81n).

⁶⁴ The office of greffier civil et criminel et garde du scel rouge in the court of the gouvernement of La Rochelle (BnF, fr. 4588, no. 41).

⁶⁵ On the general context, see Alford, S., The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British succession crisis, 1558–1569 (Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar; MacCaffrey, W., The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime (London, 1969), pp. 41–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, N.L., ‘Elizabeth's first year: the conception and birth of the Elizabethan political world’, in Haigh, C. (ed.), The Reign of Elizabeth I (Basingstoke, 1984), pp. 27–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Potter, D., ‘England and Europe, 1558–85’, in Doran, S. and Jones, N. (eds), The Elizabethan World (London, 2011), pp. 613–620Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ On Mary of Lorraine, see Ritchie, Pamela E., Mary of Guise in Scotland, 1548–1560: a political career (East Linton, East Lothian, 2002)Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Thomas Perrenot de Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador in France, reported on 17 January 1560 that the English were determined to break with France but that they said that ‘esto depende mucho de la voluntad de Vuestra Majestad en secreto’ (de Historia, Real Academia, Archivo Documental Español, Negociaciones con Francia, 11 vols (Madrid, 1950–1960)Google Scholar, I, p. 158). The question of Philip II's determination not to condemn Elizabeth's policy in France is explored in Haan, B., L’Amitié entre princes. Une alliance franco-espagnole au temps des guerres de religion (1560–1570) (Paris, 2011), pp. 229–234Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Haan, L’Amitié entre princes, p. 180. The correspondence of the Spanish court is full of requests for action on the part of the French (see Real Academia de Historia, Negociaciones con Francia, I, passim and e.g. nos 62, 63, and 77 in January and February 1560; also below, Appendix I, no. 7). Catherine de Medici wrote to Sébastien de L’Aubespine in May 1560, ‘combien il est bien requis et necessaire qu’à ce coup le Roy d’Espaigne mon bon filz monstre les effectz de tant de courtoysie et d’honneste offices dont il a usé jusques icy à l’endroict du Roy mon filz’, in order to persuade Elizabeth not to go to war. The Scots would come to terms if not ‘confortez en leur rebellion’ by the English queen (original, 21 May 1560, AE Acq. Extr. 11, fos 88–89; Paris, Négociations, p. 381). Marguerite de France, duchess of Savoy, wrote to Lorraine on 12 June 1560, thanking him for copies of documents from England and Scotland sent by Fresne and commenting: ‘ne me puys persuader que ceste royne d’Angleterre soit si mal conseillé que d’entreprendre si legerement de rompre le traicté d’entre le feu Roy mon seigneur et frere et elle, pour commancer une guerre si mal fondée et contre la puissance du Roy, n’estant mesmement secourue et aydée par le Roy catholique, lequel, comme vous me mendez, faict en ceste endroit tous les bons offices qu’il doibt pour empescher que le repos et tranquillitéde toute la chrestienté ne soit troublée par le malheur et inconvenient de guerre’ (Marguerite de France to the cardinal de Lorraine, Nice, 12 June 1560, Russian National Library, Autographs, 97, printed in Bertrand, G., ‘Lettres originales de Marguerite de France’, Revue des Sociétés savantes, 5th series, 4 (1872), pp. 479–480Google Scholar).

⁶⁹ An important contribution to this question is Eric Durot, ‘Le crépuscule de l’Auld Alliance: la legitimité du pouvoir en question entre Ecosse, France et Angleterre (1558–61)’, Histoire, économie, société, 26, no. 1 (2007), pp. 3–46. See also the ‘Questions on the invasion of Scotland’, 10 December 1559, in CSPF, II, no. 392.

⁷⁰ Guise noted in his letter to the bishop of Limoges, 6 March 1560: ‘nous sommes bien empeschez de voir que ceste royne d’Angleterre s’oublye tant, et qu’il faille que nous recommancyons ung mestier que je pensoys ne faire de long temps ; mais si après que le roy aura faict plus que son desvoir, il fault en venir là, j’espère que Dieu vouldra qu’elle s’en repentira la première’ (Paris, Négociations, p. 306, letter sold at Christie's, sale 7558, lot 6). See also 14, n. 70. Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 29 March 1560, in CSPF, II, no. 919, p. 488.

⁷¹ Sutherland, N.M., Princes, Politics and Religion, 1547–1603 (London, 2003), pp. 79–80Google Scholar.

⁷² Read, Conyers, Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth (London, 1962), p. 160Google Scholar; ‘Dr. Wotton's discourse touching the Queen's interference in Scotland’, in CSPF, II, no. 985, p. 528.

⁷³ Killigrew and Jones to Elizabeth I, 18 December 1559, in Forbes, I, p. 282; Noailles's intercepted despatch is reproduced in ibid., I, pp. 283–285.

⁷⁴ Killigrew and Jones to William Cecil, 6 January 1559/1560, in Forbes, I, p. 298. Chantonnay did not report these conversations to Philip II.

⁷⁵ Killigrew and Jones to Elizabeth I, 28 January 1560, in ibid., I, p. 313.

⁷⁶ The regent was well aware of this and thought that they had been obtained by Throckmorton in corrupting a member or clerk of the French council – see Appendix I, nos 28 and 32, for her letters of 21 and 28 May 1560.

⁷⁷ G. Dickinson (ed.), Two Missions of Jacques de La Brosse (Edinburgh, 1942), p. 144 (7 May 1560).

⁷⁸ Throckmorton to the Privy Council, 4 February 1560, TNA, SP 70/11, fo. 5: ‘I met with the chevalier de Sevre, sent from the French king to raise the siege of Noailles.’

⁷⁹ Killigrew and Jones to Cecil, 18 January 1560, in Forbes, I, p. 305.

⁸⁰ Throckmorton, 20 February 1560, in ibid., I, p. 328. Throckmorton was under suspicion himself in France and Mary of Lorraine was insisting to her brothers that he was the prime mover of the rebellion against her in Scotland (see Appendix I, nos 29 and 32).

⁸¹ Throckmorton, 20 February 1560.

⁸² Throckmorton to the Privy Council, 27 February 1560, in Forbes, I, p. 345; Throckmorton to Cecil, same date, in ibid., pp. 347–348.

⁸³ Elizabeth I to Throckmorton, 7 March 1560, in ibid., I, p. 348; Privy Council to Throckmorton, 7 March 1560, in ibid., I, pp. 349–350.

⁸⁴ Answer to French ambassador, 17 February 1560, in CSPF, II, no. 654. See also below, 4 and 5.

⁸⁵ Châtellerault wrote to Francis II on 25 January 1560, asking him ‘me recepvoir et les myens en vostres bonne grace. Je luy ay mis mon blanc-scelé entre les mains’ (Teulet, I, pp. 406, 409).

⁸⁶ Mémoire justificatif du droit qui appertient à M. le duc d’Hamilton de porter le titre de duc de Châtellerault (Paris, 1863).

⁸⁷ See 7 and 8, 21 and 28 March 1560.

⁸⁸ See Appendix I, no. 9.

⁸⁹ Throckmorton to the Privy Council, 21 March 1560, in CSPF, II, no. 881, p. 462.

⁹⁰ Letter to d’Oysel and La Brosse, 29 April 1560: Appendix I, no. 20.

⁹¹ Appendix I, no. 9. The letter was, of course, intercepted.

⁹² Appendix I, no. 15. The original of this letter is in TNA, SP 70/13, fos 48–49, dated 9 April, while there are copies of the decipher in AE, MD Angleterre 15, fo. 74 (dated 31 March) and BL, Cotton, Calig. B IX, fos 97–98.

⁹³ Throckmorton to Cecil, 8 March 1560, in Forbes, I, p. 355. Throckmorton to Cecil, 9 March 1560, TNA, SP 70/12, fo. 56, in which Monluc is described as ‘as conning as Cievre or beyond him’. Monluc's letters of credence were dated 7 March. Though he had not visited England before, he was well versed in negotiations with the English (see Potter, D., Henry VIII and Francis I: the final conflict (Leiden, 2011), pp. 440–455CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

⁹⁴ Marie de Lorraine to Guise and Lorraine, 30 April 1560: Appendix I, no. 21.

⁹⁵ For details of the different versions of the proclamation, see Appendix II, p. 161, n. 14.

⁹⁶ Remonstrance of Monluc and Seure, late March: Appendix 2, no. 2.

⁹⁷ ‘Answer to the French Ambassador's Cavillations’, 2 April 1560, in CSPF, V, Supplement, no. 1428.

⁹⁸ Appendix 2, no. 3.

⁹⁹ Appendix 2, no. 4.

¹⁰⁰ Monluc was at Berwick on 1 May and Darlington on 5 May (CSPF, III, pp. 1, 148). See also Appendix I, nos 18 and 21.

¹⁰¹ Monluc's memorandum of his negotiations is in Paris, Négociations, pp. 393–444. This important document, originally in the L’Aubespine archives at Villebon and sold in the nineteenth century, is now in BL, Add. MS 21227, fos 176–198.

¹⁰² Lorraine and Guise to Marie, Marmoutier, 31 March/9 April 1560, original in cipher, TNA, SP 70/112, fos 48–49; contemporary decipher, BL, Cotton, Calig. B IX, fo. 97 (Appendix I, no. 15). Throckmorton reported this to Cecil on 3 May 1560 (Forbes, I, p. 427). He implied that it was copied and sealed up again, yet the text in TNA is a signed original, though marked ‘dupplicata’.

¹⁰³ The regent herself was quite aware of the shock that the conspiracy had caused (see Appendix I, no. 19).

¹⁰⁴ Elizabeth I to Throckmorton, 19 July 1560, TNA, SP 70/16, fo. 42, in CSPF, III, no. 343.

¹⁰⁵ See ‘Communication with the French ambassador’, 13 December 1560, in CSPF, III, no. 798; TNA, SP 70/21, fo. 71. De Seure's argument was again that the delay in ratification was the result of the Scots’ delays.

¹⁰⁶ Forbes, I, pp. 152, 289–290, 387–390.

¹⁰⁷ TNA, SP 52/4, fo. 167, Cecil to Elizabeth I, 19 July 1560 (Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Cecil, p. 240); Privy Council to Cecil and Wotton, 19 July 1560, Hatfield, Cecil Papers (summarized in Calendar, Hatfield, no. 784, p. 249; Lodge, E., Illustrations of British History, 2nd edn, 3 vols (London, 1838), I, pp. 420–422Google Scholar).

¹⁰⁸ Sutherland, N., ‘The origins of Queen Elizabeth I's relations with the Huguenots, 1558–1562’, in Princes, Politics and Religion, 1547–1589 (London, 1984), pp. 73–96Google Scholar; W.T. MacCaffrey, ‘The Newhaven Expedition, 1562–63’, Historical Journal, 40, no. 1 (1997), p. 1; Trim, D., ‘The foundation-stone of the British army? The Normandy campaign of 1562’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 77 (1999), pp. 71–87Google Scholar; Adams, S., ‘The Queen embattled’, in Adams, S. (ed.), Queen Elizabeth I: most politick princess (London, 1983), pp. 38–42Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁹ Elizabeth thought that this was about a decision concerning giving up the pretension to the arms and title of England (Elizabeth I to Cecil, 3 July 1560, in Haynes, S., A Collection of State Papers . . . Left by William Cecill Lord Burghley (London, 1740), p. 342Google Scholar; Hatfield, Cecil Papers, 153, no. 25).

¹¹⁰ Wotton to Elizabeth I, 18 October 1560, in CSPF, III, no. 648.

¹¹¹ Throckmorton to Cecil, 3 September 1560, in CSPF, III, no. 483, p. 274. See also Kervyn, II, pp. 454–456.

¹¹² Appendix I, no. 40.

¹¹³ On the role of Throckmorton in particular in fostering links with French Protestant leaders in 1561, see Sutherland, ‘Origins of Queen Elizabeth's relations with the Huguenots’, pp. 89–95.

¹¹⁴ Instructions, 20 January 1561, TNA, SP 70/22, fo. 88, in CSPF, III, no. 898, p. 505.

¹¹⁵ Bedford and Throckmorton to the Privy Council, 26 February 1561, TNA, SP 70/23, fo. 132, in CSPF, III, no. 1030, p. 565.

¹¹⁶ Bedford to Elizabeth I, 12 February 1561, in CSPF, III, no. 998; Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 18 March 1561, in CSPF, IV, no. 49, p. 27.

¹¹⁷ See Appendix I, no. 38.

¹¹⁸ Letter to the Spanish ambassador, ‘Decembr. 1560 Communicatio inter Reginam et orator Gall.’, [13] December 1560, TNA, SP 70/21, fo. 71 (in CSPF, III, no. 798).

¹¹⁹ See 15, n. 79.

¹²⁰ France was also eager to assure the collaboration of Philip II in the arrangements for Mary's return, and the ambassador in Spain, Sébastien de L’Aubespine, arranged for a directive to be sent to Brussels in her favour for the crossing and that ‘leur ambassadeur en Angleterre [de Quadra] advertiroit vostre ambasadeur [de Seure] de l’office et devoir qu’il y auroit emploié’ (Memoir for Charles IX, 21 July 1561, BnF, fr. 16103, fo. 10r). Philip wrote to Margaret of Parma on 18 July 1561 (ibid., fo. 26r) to this end.

¹²¹ Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 8 January 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 789, p. 479.

¹²² Throckmorton to Cecil, 28 January 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 849; Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 7 February 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 872, p. 518.

¹²³ Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 24 January 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 833; Throckmorton to Cecil, 28 January 1562.

¹²⁴ BnF, fr. 6612, fo. 34.

¹²⁵ Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 7 February 1562.

¹²⁶ Noel Didier, ‘Paul de Foix et la mercuriale de 1559’, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, 56 (1939), pp. 396–435. Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 6 March 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 924: he thought de Foix inclined to advance religion.

¹²⁷ CSP Scotland, I, no. 1058; Thomas Randolph to Cecil, 2 January 1561/1562, TNA, SP 52/7, fo. 2.

¹²⁸ Throckmorton to Elizabeth I, 8 January 1562; Throckmorton to Cecil, 26 January 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 839; TNA, SP 70/34, fo. 95.

¹²⁹ De Quadra to Philip II, 13 March 1562, CSP Spain, I, no. 154, pp. 229–233.

¹³⁰ See 23.

¹³¹ See 18.

¹³² Bridewell was leased to the French ambassadors from 1531 to 1539 and subsequently to the Imperial ambassadors. By the 1550s it was part prison, part hospital.

¹³³ The Charterhouse was assigned to Noailles by Northumberland in early 1553 (Gilles de Noailles Journal, BnF, fr. 20147, fo. 22: ‘Le lundy xij j’arrive à la Chartouse qu’etoit le logis de mons^r l’ambassadeur de France’). The same year, Jehan Scheyfve, the Imperial ambassador, reported that ‘The King of England has decided no longer to give lodgings to the ambassadors in any of his houses; but they shall hire a house at their own expense, as his own ambassadors are expected to do. M. de Boisdauphin had chosen a house for his successor; but it seems that after all he will live in the same house occupied hitherto by Boisdauphin. As for the house at Bridewell, where I am, the King gave it recently to the citizens of London to lodge the poor in it, or use it as municipal offices’ (Jehan Scheyfve to the bishop of Arras, 30 May 1553, in Bergenroth et al., Calendar of State Papers Spain (1485–1558), XI, p. 47). Noailles described the Charterhouse as one of the most comfortable houses in London: Northumberland ‘me faict preparer la chartreuse, l’une de ses maisons, qui est des belles & commodes qui soit en ceste ville’ (Antoine de Noailles, 22 June 1553, in Vertot, Ambassades de Messieurs de Noailles, II, p. 41).

¹³⁴ Nichols, J., The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 3 vols (London, 1823), I, p. 82Google Scholar; Kervyn, II, p. 223.

¹³⁵ BnF, fr. 7856, p. 1268.

¹³⁶ BnF, Clair. 232, p. 2212.

¹³⁷ Ibid., pp. 2706–2707.

¹³⁸ In 1537 Louis de Perreau de Castillon was paid at the rate of 20 lt. p.d. as resident ambassador (accounts of the Epargne, BnF, Clair. 1215, fo. 1244v) but Charles de Marillac was paid at the rate of 10 lt. per day (1,800 lt. per half-year) (see ibid., fo. 1251v), though he also received 758 lt. for extraordinary expenses and in 1540 2,250 lt. ‘en consideration de ses services et outre et par dessus son estat’ (ibid., fo. 1251r). Georges de Selve, as ambassador to the emperor, received 2,600 lt. for six months (ibid., fo. 1250v). Odet de Selve was paid at the rate of 20 lt. p.d. in 1546–1549 (receipt of 27 May 1548, BnF, fr. 26131) and this was supplemented by 1,000 lt. p.a. as conseiller in the Grand Conseil (ibid., no. 83).

¹³⁹ Ibid., pp. 2704–2706.

¹⁴⁰ Ibid. See 26 for his outline to Catherine de Medici of the difficulties of paying for extraordinary expenses.

¹⁴¹ Spooner, F., The International Economy and Monetary Movements in France, 1493–1726 (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 151Google Scholar.

¹⁴² BnF, fr. 4588, fo. 7r–v, authorization for payment via the sieur de la Marque for Noailles's expenses in 1554.

¹⁴³ A survey of the value of the revenues of the Order of Malta, prieuré of Champagne, in 1588, is in BnF, fr. 20512, fo. 1776v.

¹⁴⁴ Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions, I, p. 129.

¹⁴⁵ BnF, Clair. 232, p. 2258. He is there entitled sieur de Semesseaulx. In 1548 Odet de Selve had had a courier service provided by a royal chevaucheur d’écurie, Guillaume Pelletier (certificate of 15 April 1549, BnF, fr. 26132, no. 275).

¹⁴⁶ Payment to him of 600 lt. ordered by Charles IX, Saint-Maur-des-Fossez, 26 September 1568, until he should be established on the household list: Arts et autographes, Catalogue no. 64 (Winter 2012), no. 23873; Ader Nordman, Catalogue, 26 June 2012, lot 67.

¹⁴⁷ See 18.

¹⁴⁸ De Seure refers to him as ‘Reuol mon secretaire’ on 16 March 1561 and there is a payment to ‘Lois Rauel secretaire de Monsieur de Seurre ambassadeur pour le Roy en Angleterre’ in February 1562 (BnF, Clair. 232, p. 2265).

¹⁴⁹ For a useful overview, see Simon Adams, ‘Tudor England's relations with France’, State Papers Online, <gale.cengage.co.uk/images/Adams%20France1.pdf> (accessed 9 May 2014).

¹⁵⁰ See a discussion of the Bourdin papers in Potter, D., ‘The duc de Guise and the fall of Calais, 1557–58’, English Historical Review, 98 (1983), pp. 483–512Google Scholar.

¹⁵¹ Louis Paris printed most of the documents relating to the reign of Francis II in Négociations, lettres et pièces diverses relatives au règne de François II, tirées du portefeuille de Sébastien de l’Aubespine, évêque de Limoges (Paris, 1841). Though the title does not make it clear, this collection included the papers of both brothers, Sébastien and Claude. Many items had already been detached and form part of the collection of the BnF, fr. 6604–6632. However, these do not include numerous items relating to England in the period 1560–1561. The archive itself, at the château of Villebon, was partly sold in the nineteenth century, then reconstituted by M. Pierre Pénin de la Raudière, and finally sold in the 1990s (a photocopy record being deposited at the Archives Nationales in 1992 (682 Mi 1/2), and some items being bought by the Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères).

¹⁵² A series of Châteauneuf's despatches from London, February–August 1587, is in BnF, fr. 3377.

¹⁵³ Pollen, J.H., Papal Negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots during her Reign in Scotland, 1561–67 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 419–434Google Scholar, printed some documents from this volume in the period 1557–1559/1560, though none of the texts that are published here in Appendix I.

¹⁵⁴ Dickinson, Two Missions of Jacques de La Brosse, p. viii.

¹⁵⁵ Grantrie is mentioned in the household list of the regent (Wood, M. (ed.), Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the Originals in the Balcarres Papers, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1923–1925), II, p. lv (1556)Google Scholar) and in a letter to the cardinal de Lorraine, 19 August 1556, as on mission to France (Cuisiat, no. 303). He was the son of Madeleine de L’Aubespine, the secretary of state's sister, who had married Albert sieur de Grantrie, grenetier à sel. It seems likely that he was the Grantrie involved in the La Molle–Coconas affair of 1574, saved from its consequences by the intervention of his uncle, the bishop of Limoges. See the will of the bishop in Paris, Négociations, p. xxxix; letters from Switzerland, 1567, BnF, fr. 20647, pp. 20–25; Gueneau, V., ‘Les Nivernais dans l’affaire de La Molle et Coconas’, Mémoires de la Société académique du Nivernais, 7 (1898), pp. 4–16Google Scholar; idem, Dictionnaire biographique des personnes nées en Nivernais (Nevers, 1899), p. 87. His brother was Guillaume de Grantrie Granchamps, ambassador to Constantinople in the late 1560s.