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.