Part 17
So that hitherto, as to this action, they can have nothing to boast of, but an excess of civility towards the crown of England, or the person of our Royal Master. In return whereunto, his Majesty, in my humble opinion, will think fit to command me, or whosoever shall succeed me, to perform the same office towards the successor of this French Ambassador. As to both points, which make it worthy of peculiar estimation, that is to say, with an exception in this one particular only, though his Catholic Majesty should continue his present general rule to the contrary; and although also, even whilst his compliment was generally practised, it was not by any extended so far as to accompany any Ambassador back to his house; and this the rather, if it shall be found that the French Ambassador, conforming hereafter to the general rule, as to all others, shall have made the English Ambassador his single exception in the case. The experiment will now soon be made, a new Venetian Ambassador being daily expected here; though possibly he may not have his audience so very soon after, but that, in the interim, I may, upon this clear, though brief, stating of all actions and circumstances to me, as yet appear above ground in this matter, receive his Majesty's particular directions and cautions how to carry myself in all events, the which I am exceedingly desirous of; and, in default thereof, will, with all fidelity, proceed and work according to the best of my understanding.
If it be not already clear enough from the premises, you may be pleased to take notice, that no one stranger went with me but those French in the Ambassador's coach, which, without any least dispute whatsoever, did give place to my principal coach, as mine did to that which brought the Marquis, being the King's proper coach, a thing not formerly usual upon these occasions.--Ibid. p. 117.
SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR.
I humbly thank your Excellency for the civility you showed to the King my Master, and the honour you did me, in sending your coach and domestics to accompany my entry; and whereof I retain so lively a sense, that I am just going to acquaint my Master with it, not doubting in the least but it will meet with that esteem from him which your Excellency so highly deserves. My instructions, indeed, were to observe a more than ordinary intimacy and amity with your Excellency at this Court, which I shall always continue to do, and whereby I imagine we may not a little contribute towards the good and welfare of both kingdoms. I kiss your Excellency's hands, and wish you a long and prosperous life, being, My Lord,
Your Excellency's most obliged and most humble servant,
RICHARD FANSHAWE.--Ibid. p. 123.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, 2 July, 1664, Stilo Loci.
The herewith enclosed papers do contain my complaint of a studied neglect put by a Venetian Ambassador, whom I found in this Court ready to depart the same within a short time, upon the Ambassador of the King of England, in not giving me a visit either of welcome or farewell, as the custom of this and all other Courts do require in the like case; the which I have thought it my precise duty to represent to the King our Master, as knowing how highly the like neglect in the Court of England, by a Venetian Ambassador also, with others, towards an Ambassador, but of a Duke of Savoy, was resented; his then Majesty himself, in his Princely judgment, condemning the omission, as will here appear in the first place.
And lest this Venetian Ambassador should justify himself in this towards me, as pretending to be aggrieved by me, because I am entitled by his Catholic Majesty to the house of the Seven Chimeneas, which he was possessed of, and endeavoured to entail the same upon his successor, both against the decree of his Majesty and the consent of the owner, I having both, I do likewise herewith, in the following papers, make it clearly appear, that I did neither think of that individual house, till it was already embargoed for me, nor pursue it afterwards, as most men but myself would have done, being so destitute of conveniences of dwelling as I then was, and yet am, merely out of a respect I bear to the character of an Ambassador. So that, even in this particular, which is all the colour he can have for excuse of not visiting, I have just cause of a second complaint, but this second I totally let pass.
The other being much taken notice of by this Court as a matter of a more public nature, I humbly submit it to his Majesty's consideration, whether, in his Royal wisdom, he may not think fit to expostulate it with the Senate of Venice; in the mean time, his successor being arrived, I intend to send just such a message to him as his predecessor did to me; but have already declared, with the seeming approbation of all, that I will never give to, nor receive a visit from, this, or any Venetian Ambassador whatsoever, that shall be in this Court while I remain here, unless the King my Master, being applied to by the Republic, shall command it.--Ibid. p. 129.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Thursday, 28th July, 1664, English Style.
You proceed expressing your gladness to hear I was housed in Madrid, upon which, after my humble thanks for the favour, I must needs observe the expression was very happy, if you rightly understand my case, and happier if you understand it not. Housed I have been here, that is, under a roof, these two months, making a shift with an upper quarter; such a one, indeed, as the Duke of St. German contained himself and family in; but a house I never had till this morning, then I had delivered into my possession the Casa de las siete Chimeneas.
This house was defended, for the space of time I have mentioned, against the King of Spain, and all his Aposentadores, [Footnote: Aposentadores are persons belonging to the Household, whose duties resemble those of the Harbingers in that of the Kings of England, namely, to provide lodgings on his journies or progresses. The office of Aposentador-Mayor is one of great honour and dignity.] by two Venetian Ambassadors successively; the first was really leaving it without any thought, as I am assured, of asking it for his successor; then the Duke of Medina de las Torres, when I never dreamed of it, and was in pursuit of another, procured it to be embargoed for me in reversion; this the Venetian apprehends an affront to him and his Republic; and whiles off the time of his stay here, to his great inconvenience, in respect of the advancing heats and otherwise, till he had got his successor up to him, marching furiously, who, contrary to the King and Council's expectation and express decree, doth amanecer in the Seven Chimeneas, fortifying himself there with his privilege of Ambassador, and makes it point of reputation so to do (patriaeq. suaeq.); in this security his predecessor leaves him about six weeks since, not to be removed with all the King and the Duke have been able to do, without imposition of hands, till the last night.
I dare confidently say nothing hath troubled both the Ambassadors so much in this whole business, as that they could never draw me in to make myself a party in the dispute; for as, at the first, I never asked that individual house; so when promised and decreed to me, I never insisted upon it, provided some other convenient one were found out for me, or that I myself could find out such a one for my money, and, effectually, about a fortnight since, did contract, under hand and seal, with the owner, for the entire house where I am, upon condition the Court did approve thereof; but the Duke told me, that must not be now, how well soever it might serve my turn, for the King would be obeyed in his own kingdom, and the Venetian should out. Upon the whole, all circumstances which I have seen, considered, it is to me apparent enough, that these Ambassadors of Venice, in this contest, did nourish double ambition, either to carry the house against an English Ambassador, or that an English Ambassador should carry it against them; but my business throughout hath been never to come in any competition or comparison with them.
This story I have been the longer in, because the matter thereof hath filled this Court, and may do some others, with as much noise, expectation, and, I do believe, secret sidings too, as it had been some very weighty interest of princes or states.
The heats of this summer have risen here proportionable to what you express of those in England.
"From a Letter to my Lord Holles, sent by mistake to my Lord Ambassador Fanshawe."
Whitehall, May 26, 1664.
"It is truly observed by you, that Monsieur de Lionne doth you wrong in not treating you with 'Excellency,' but then it is truly observed, that that style is quite out of use in that Court, and so much, that Frenchmen of any tolerable quality do not use it to their own Ambassador here, or in any other Court."--Ibid. p. 141.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Wednesday, ..th July, 1664.
"Upon Sunday the 3d, stilo novo, of July, 1664, being the day of celebrating the Empress's birth, I attended his Majesty with the parabien; also, in the Queen's apartment, her Majesty, the Prince, and Empress: it was the first time I had seen the Prince."--Ibid. p. 142.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Friday the 12th of August, 1664, N.S.
The design of the French courtesy in my public audience, even then perceivable and perceived, is now full blown; that the King hath in person expostulated with the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, why the King his Master would offer, by an innovation in the Spanish Court at that time, to bereave him, the said French King, of an opportunity of vindicating his just precedence of the King of England, and in pursuance thereof hath since sent letters to his Court to the same effect, and to demand restitution of the former custom in first entrances of Ambassadors from such others as they found here, which demand this French Ambassador hath done and doth manage to that degree of heat, with and in this Court, as, amongst other expressions, to have plainly threatened, that if he were not satisfied in this point, he would himself dispute the precedency with the Ambassador of the Emperor, I cannot say with the Pope's Nuncio too, because that hath not been told me, but the sequence is as if it had been so; for of certain, both the Emperor's Ambassador and Pope's Nuncio, and more, if not all, have addressed themselves to his Catholic Majesty, either by word of mouth or memorial, or both, (the which I do rather believe,) that since the French Ambassador did assume that liberty and privilege to himself, as to send his coach and family to the English Ambassador, contrary to the new order, it might be free for them to do the like to all other hereafter. All these particulars I have had from the Duke de Medina de las Torres; with this farther, that the French King enforced his said demand with many presents; the Duke told me the matter is sub judice, and not determined; therefore, yesterday, having obtained audience, I presented to his Catholic Majesty, according to my late intimation to your Honour, the herewith enclosed protest, or not protest, as this or any other Court shall understand it, or rather as the King our Master, in his princely wisdom, shall interpret or command me to interpret the same, whose royal directions in the case, long since to be foreseen, I shall now by every post expect, for my better light, in case of revival of the former custom, which, by the packing of the cards, I conceive to be most probable; keeping myself in the interim that they come not upon my guard, the best I may.
The Venetian Ambassador's entry, which is next expected, can put me to no difficulty at all, in respect his predecessor never thought fit to give me a visit, either of welcome when I arrived, or farewell when he departed, whereof I formerly advertised you at large, and how such neglect hath been resented in another age. The Holland Ambassador, now resident mutato nomine, will have his entrada soon after; there will be some scruple, yet no very great one; on the contrary, I think there is a rational query whether I, or any other of the Ambassadors de Capilla [Footnote: Ambassadors of the first-class, who have the right to be covered at their audience of the Sovereign to whom they are accredited.] should visit him at all. The case is, in his quality of Resident he hath totally declined the visiting either the Emperor's, or me, or the French Ambassador; because the other two first, and then I, by their example, did not assent to treat him with 'Senoria Illustrissima,' and in our own houses with the hand and upper chair, this latter, of giving him precedence in our own houses, being, I conceive, the only point he absolutely insists upon. Now if we do him wrong in this, why should we not right him whilst he is yet under the notion of Resident? And if we do him none, why should we visit the Holland Ambassador in our turn, when the Holland Resident, especially, being the same person, will not visit us in this?
Here is a Danish Resident, and an Enviado of Genoa, who stand off upon the very same terms both with those Ambassadors and with me. The latter having obliged me, by message, to solicit for the King our master's orders to guide me on behalf of his pretence, because I had sent him word, that without such I could not in discretion and civility, being a new comer, vary from the judgment and practice of my seniors in this Court.
Your Honour, by your long and late experience here, will understand the pinch of this business better than yet I do; who, by what I can learn, am of opinion, that according to the style of this Court, perhaps of all others likewise, a King's AMBASSADOR, in his own house, doth not give the hand to another King's RESIDENT, much less 'illustrissima,' twenty years ago; but then again, I am informed, that now these very Ambassadors of Germany and France, who may with justice enough make scruple of that, may at the same time give 'illustrissima,' and, within their own doors the hand, to a Ducal Ambassador, thereby preferring them to their own Residents: an old controversy not easily decided, and yet in a fair way to be so, when by strong inference we shall be found judges against ourselves. I have farther to avow, in justification of my not sending to accompany the Hollander in his entrada, or any other but a new French Ambassador, that having been myself accompanied from none of them who show themselves now so zealous to perform that function to others, I have no reason to perform it towards them, until I shall have received the King my master's particular direction therein, after knowledge of what hath passed.
This, by way of discussion, not of decision of the question; for although, by my seventeenth instruction, it is very clear I must give not the hand to any King's Ambassador, on which behalf his Majesty shall not need to doubt my zeal, neither, I hope, the success, how roughly soever the precedence may be jostled for, whether by them or theirs; yet, whether by receiving by such arts as are now on foot, and for such ends as are now declared, the forementioned custom of Ambassadors sending their coaches and families to each others entradas, be such a point of advantage above me, as in the same instruction I am commanded to be wary of; and whether, in that case, I am not to thrust in for a share, in as good a room as I can get by scratching for, since others by their unquietness, or by their inconstancy, impose the necessity, there will be the question; whereof I do now hope for resolution from his Majesty by every post, of what I formerly writ concerning this matter, then in prospect, and find, by your honour's last, that those despatches were at the writing thereof come newly to hand.--Ibid. p. 199.
TO MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 179.]
Madrid, Wednesday, 12th of October, 1664, English style.
"Since my last to you of yesterday, the President of Castile having by the King's special and angry command, gone forth to the neighbouring villages, attended with the hangman, and whatsoever else of terror incident to his place and derogatory to his person, the markets in this town begin to be furnished again plentifully enough, yet so as that the bullion remaining fallen to the half value, bread, wine, and other provisions, are held up much higher than they were before in the numerical money; the reason is, whether upon intelligence or jealousy, the people that sell, do expect a second speedy fall, in which regard they rather choose to part with their wares upon trust, as many do and will, to receive for the same at the rate money shall go awhile hence, than for present money, though to persons whom before they would have been very scrupulous to have trusted."--Ibid. p. 265.
TO MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 178.]
Madrid, Wednesday, 19th of October, 1664, English style.
Upon the 10th instant, stilo novo, invited by the delicacy of the weather, and not knowing whether I should have another opportunity for it during my residence in this Court, together with my family, man, woman, and child, I took a small journey by stealth, of three days going and coming, to Aranjuez.
As soon as it was known that I was gone, the Duke of Medina de las Torres sent a post after me, with a letter to myself, of courtly chiding, that I had given the Spanish civility the slip in that manner, with another to the officers of the palace, to perform their part towards me, which was not wanting in any needful degree, although the Propio [Footnote: The Duke's courier.] tracing me all the way, could not reach me till I got home again.
For the same reasons, we began another journey, upon Monday last, to the Escurial. [Footnote: Lady Fanshawe, p. 180, says they went to the Escurial on the 27th of October. Her Ladyship calculated by the NEW, and Sir Richard by the OLD style.] This was not, nor could be kept secret; therefore the Duke, prompting his Catholic Majesty, sent his orders before, by virtue whereof I was lodged in the quarter there of the Duke of Montaldo, Mayor-domo Mayor to the Queen, and of like special order, by the Prior of that most famous monastery, showed, with all demonstrations of courtesy, the much that is there to be seen, besides an extraordinary present of provisions, of all which Don Juan Combos, whose company I was favoured with in this excursion, is able, if he pleases, to give you a better account than I.
Before I was returned half-way to this Court, we met some French, who told us the French Ambassador was following them to the Escurial. Advanced as far as a very small village, about a league from Madrid, the highway lying by a single house, at the outskirts thereof, at the door of the same, were two that wear his livery, of whom one of my people, asking whether the French Ambassador was coming towards the Escurial? they replied 'No;' but that his Excellency was in that village, and thence immediately to return to Madrid. That is all I yet know pertaining to that matter; unless this be, that it hath rained plentifully from morning to night, being, as the year hath fallen out, very extraordinary, the first day here of winter. Thus much may be built upon as a certainty, that neither the palace here upon Monday morning when I went, nor the Escurial this morning when I left it, had the least notice or inkling of any intention of the French Ambassador to go thither at this time.
A report there hath been for some days whispered, that the said Ambassador is revoken. To notify which the more, it is possible he might design this visit to the Escurial, which is commonly left to the last by all public persons from abroad.--Ibid. p. 267.
TO MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Wednesday, 12th November, 1664, N.S.
On Monday last, in the afternoon, I should by appointment have had a conference with the Duke of Medina de las Torres, but in the morning his Excellency sent to excuse it for that time, upon notice then arrived of the death of his kinsman, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, which obliged him to the offices which those cases require.
The manner of this Duke's death, like his quality, was extraordinary. His Excellency was, for his diversion and recreation, being as then in good health to all outward appearance, and not much stricken in years, at a town of his own, not far from Valladolid, where you know his constant appointed abode was; in that place of recreation, his Excellency had some number of dogs, newly given him, the which, looking out of his windows, he happened to see worrying a poor woman. They neither killed nor maimed her, but the Duke's apprehension was so great they would do the one or the other, that violently crying out from the place where he was unto his people to prevent it, he fell into a sudden ecstacy; from that into a deep melancholy, and from that into a fever, which dispatched him before his physicians could come from Valladolid; so thereby verifying in his particular the surname of his family, de puro bueno murio.
Upon the 7th of November, N.S. I gave the King, Queen, Prince, and Empress, the parabien of the Prince's birth-day. The day itself was the precedent, and then it was that I desired audience to that end, by the Master of the Ceremonies; but it was appointed me, as I have said, to avoid concurrence with others, as I do believe, according either to the old or new style of this Court, the which I have formerly mentioned. However, for the English Ambassador alone, as might be supposed, all the royal persons put themselves de gala, both as to apparel and humour. True it is, to make up the jollity enough for two days at least, there met in one, and the parabien was accordingly both from the other Ambassadors the day before, and from me then, the Peace of Germany, and the Prince's birth-day, and both were very well taken.--Ibid. p. 290.
TO MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Monday, 14th of November, 1664, English style.
"Inclosed with this, I send you a print of that new invention here for ploughing, which you did lately command me to enquire out." [Footnote: Mr. Bennet, in a letter to Sir Richard Fanshawe, dated 29th of September, 1664, observed, "Sir George Downing tells me of a new invention of a plough in Spain. I beseech your Excellency to enquire after it. He saith an Italian hath made it, and that it is not only received in Spain, but sent into the Indies also, for the good of their land."--Ibid. p. 279.]--Ibid. p. 321.
TO MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 185.]
Madrid, Wednesday, 14th of December, 1664, O.S.
These five or six nights last past here hath appeared a very strange blazing star, so high and so clear that I presume it must needs have been seen in England likewise, and therefore forbear to give any description or judgment thereof, the people of this country not being so curious in such matters as ours are there.
Yesterday I went to give the King and Queen the nova buena of her Majesty's birth-day, which was the day before. As soon as I came from the King, the Dutch Ambassador was called in; and at his coming out, it being a very dry day, and we having an hour to spend before the Queen would be ready to receive us, I invited him into my coach, and we took a turn in the town, which caused almost as much wonder in this people as the blazing star; and indeed I did it to that end partly, there being no offence in it that I know, so long as his Majesty hath an Envoy in Holland, and the States an Ambassador in England. The truth is, many of this people begin to apprehend, that our disputes with them will have a quite other issue, and a very different operation, as other interests, and Spain amongst the rest, than Spain imagined.