Acting Serjeant Trumpeter.
34. Mount Street.
* * * * *
JOACHIN, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR.
(Vol. ii., p. 229.)
Your correspondent AMICUS will I fear find very little information about
this mysterious person in the writers of French history of the time.
{281} He is thus mentioned in Cavendish's _Life of Wolsey_ (ed. 1825,
vol. i. p. 73.):--
"The French king lying in his camp, sent secretly into England a
privy person, a very witty man, to entreat of a peace between
him and the king our sovereign lord, whose name was John
Joachin; he was kept as secret as might be, that no man had
intelligence of his repair; for he was no Frenchman, but an
Italian born, a man before of no estimation in France, or known
to be in favour with his master, but to be a merchant; and for
his subtle wit, elected to entreat of such affairs as the king
had commanded him by embassy. This Joachin, after his arrival
here in England, was secretly conveyed unto the king's manor of
Richmond, and there remained until Whitsuntide; at which time
the cardinal resorted thither, and kept there the said feast
very solemnly. In which season my lord caused this Joachin
divers times to dine with him, whose talk and behaviour seemed
to be witty, sober, and wondrous discreet."