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No. VIII.
Charles the Second by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.
To the most illustrious and most high Prince, the Lord Nicholas Cottoner,
Grand Master of the Order of Malta, our well-beloved cousin and
friend--Greeting:
Most illustrious and most high Prince, our well-beloved cousin and friend.
Some years have elapsed since we first addressed letters to your highness
concerning certain goods and merchandise, to the value of 4500 pieces of
eight, which had been unjustly seized by some of the ships which it is
customary to despatch annually from your highness' island to cruise against
the Turks in the neighbourhood of Cyprus, from our subject Roger Fowke, a
person for many reasons by us well beloved, and our consul in the island of
Cyprus; and also concerning the sentence which, after many delays and much
trouble, had been at last unjustly given in favour of your people.
Farther complaints have, however, been received from our subject, stating
that our letters have had little effect with your highness, and that he,
already wearied with long expectation, has not had anything restored, that
his expenses are increasing to a great amount, and that little or no hope
remains of reparation for his loss.
Painful, indeed, was it to us to hear our subject relate such injustice on
the part of the Knights of Malta; we, however, thought is right to make it
clearly appear that nothing has remained untried to bring back to more sane
counsels the generous minds of the Maltese; and therefore, under the advice
of our Privy Council, we deemed proper to refer, without loss of time, the
complaint of our subject, together with the letters which we formerly
addressed to your highness, and those which your highness latterly wrote to
us, to our advocate in our High Court of Admiralty, Sir Robert Wyseman,
Knight; who, having well considered the whole, has expressed his opinion in
the following terms:
"I have read and seriously pondered the petition of Roger Fowke,
transmitted to me by your {264} Majesty's special mandate; as also the
letters written by your Majesty to the Grand Master of the Order of
Malta in favour of the above-mentioned, and those from the said Grand
Master in reply; and it is evident to me, after mature examination,
that your Majesty has done so much, and that it is proved that the
sentence of the Maltese Tribunal against the said Roger Fowke was
pronounced contrary to right and justice (as is clearly shown in the
letters written by your Majesty to the Grand Master); that therefore it
appears to be incumbent on me only to set forth to your Majesty, and to
the Lords of the Privy Council, whether it be my opinion that
sufficient satisfaction has been given by the Grand Master's letters to
your Majesty, who by the above-cited letters demand restitution; and if
not, whether in consequence it be lawful to your Majesty to grant the
so-called letters of reprisal, on which subject I beg humbly to submit
to your Majesty, and to the singular prudence and judgment of the
above-mentioned Lords, this my opinion; that is to say, that the
answers of the Grand Master are so far from being in any way
satisfactory, that from them it may be easily perceived that the
above-mentioned Grand Master, although he does not deny in express
terms reparation for his loss to the above Roger, nevertheless does not
decree anything certain on this head; from which your Majesty may
reasonably conclude that the said reparation was refused. Nor does it
tend to his defence that he asserts that all that was done by his
tribunal was done by solemn sentence, that the judges were men of great
reputation, and that it is to be believed that the reasons produced by
both sides were justly considered; for judicial authority is not of the
same value as regards foreigners and subjects. It is not lawful for
subjects to demand a re-examination of the sentence pronounced by their
superiors, although to foreign princes it entirely appertains to make
such demand, in cases interesting themselves or their subjects;
otherwise, if all given sentences were considered as freeing nations
from reprisals, such decrees might perhaps be obtained in any case,
even though manifestly unjust; and consequently it is by all agreed to
be a just cause for reprisals, not only when justice is not rendered,
but also when in any case, not of a doubtful nature, judgment may have
been given against right; although certainly, in cases of a doubtful
nature, the presumption would be in favour of those who may have been
elected as public judges. Had the Grand Master indicated to your
Majesty that the said Roger Fowke might have preferred an appeal
against the sentence pronounced against him to a superior tribunal, and
that by the negligence of the said Roger the first sentence had become
affirmed, in that case the remedy demanded by your Majesty would have
been untenable; but the said Grand Master makes no mention of such
appeal: I am therefore of opinion that nothing in the law of nations
could militate against the lawfulness of your Majesty's granting
letters of reprisal in the manner demanded.
(Signed) ROBERT WYSEMAN."
Without doubt the law of nations would warrant our extorting from the hands
of your highness' subjects, by issuing letters of reprisal, that which we
have not been able to obtain after so many years by means of the letters
written in favour of our beloved subject and friend; and the deplorable
state of the said Roger requires that we should now exact by our own
authority that which we have in vain sought to obtain by means of simple
communications. But taking into serious consideration the lamentable
present state of Christianity, and the daily augmentation of the large
empire of our common enemy, and how distinguished has been the valour of
the Maltese knights, always constantly exposing themselves as a bulwark to
so pertinacious an enemy, it would be very painful to us to be compelled to
have recourse to reprisals, or to any such severe mode of proceeding, for
the reparation of the loss. The glory also of the Christian name, so often
valiantly defended, has caused us willingly to believe that we must not yet
despair of obtaining from your highness' authority that reparation for his
loss which our subject hopes to obtain by reprisal, and therefore, putting
aside the remedy of right, and our Privy Council persuading us to milder
measures, we have thought proper by this letter to seriously request your
highness, by that justice which is the duty of princes, and of the
defenders of Christianity, to deign to procure without delay to our
trustworthy subject, who has suffered so great an injustice from the
Maltese Tribunal, and who is exhausted by the delays of so many years, full
compensation for all his losses, including also the amount of his expenses;
so that we may never have cause to regret that we, putting aside the law of
nations, have till now abstained from reprisal, and so that henceforth the
world may eulogise the Maltese as not being less just than valiant.
We have only now to recommend your highness and all your Knights to the
most good and most great God.
Given in our Palace of Whitehall on the 29th day of April, of the year of
Human Redemption 1668, and of our reign the twentieth.
Your Highness'
Good Cousin and Friend,
CHARLES REX.
Raphael Cottoner, to whom the last letter was addressed, ascended the
Maltese throne in October, 1663, on the decease of his brother Raphael.
{265} All historians agree in stating that he was a man of a noble
carriage, high and honourable character, and withal a clever diplomatist.
He died in March, 1680, after a happy and glorious rule, in the
seventy-third year of his age, and seventeenth of his reign. The following
letter written by him may be of sufficient interest to excuse its length.
Its perusal will show the great respect which was paid by the Order of St.
John to an English monarch, and the "incorruptible" manner in which justice
was administered at this island nearly two centuries ago.
To the King of Great Britain.
Most serene and invincible King:
A short time since John Ansely, the attorney of Roger Fowke, delivered to
us your most serene Majesty's gracious letters, in reply to mine regarding
the affair of the said Roger; from which, not without great disturbance of
mind, I perceived how incorrectly what had taken place had been reported to
your Majesty. But my grief was in some measure assuaged by your Majesty's
continued benignant protection of this my Order; through which it came to
pass that it was determined to abstain from granting the letters of
reprisal which it was the opinion of your Majesty's advocate in the High
Court of Admiralty, inserted in the above-mentioned Royal Letters, might
have been granted to the aforenamed Roger, for which I truly return your
Majesty my most sincere and humble thanks. The above Roger still claims of
right the sum of 4,500 pieces of eight, which he asserts had been formerly
seized by some armed ships of this island; from which sum, together with
the expenses incurred, or to be incurred, he forms another greater sum of
about 24,500, which he also claims.
But as it would sufficiently appear from your Majesty's letter, which
contains the above-mentioned opinion of the said advocate, and also from
the verbal report made to me by the said John Ansely, that your Majesty
felt persuaded that the said Roger had both lost his cause before the Judge
of the Prize Court, and subsequently been denied an appeal to the Supreme
Court, and, lastly, that his attorney had been treated with violence,
rather than under any order of right, I, to confess the truth, being much
mortified, cannot but endeavour, with all due respect in my power, to
demonstrate the real state of the case to your Majesty; and hope, by a more
faithful narrative of all that occurred, to convince your Majesty of that
equal distribution of justice which in this place is constantly observed,
both to the inhabitants and foreigners, with incorruptible honesty.
Before, however, beginning to explain the affair from its commencement, it
behoves me to inform your Majesty, that not only subjects of Christian
Princes, but Greeks and Armenians, and other persons subject to the rule of
the Turks, the bitterest enemies of this Order, are continually coming to
these islands for the purpose of instituting or continuing suits at law
against the captains of our ships and other inhabitants, yet we have never
heard from them that justice is either denied or refused. I therefore
humbly beseech your Majesty to consider, and with benignant mind to
reflect, what faith ought to be given to those who have dared to affirm
that any contrary course had been pursued or tolerated by me against the
said Roger; and the more so, as it has been the constant wish of my Order
to deserve well of your Majesty's subjects, and to take particular care of
all foreigners. This we trust will be sufficiently shown from the fact of
our always having employed one of the principal lawyers to undertake the
defence of foreigners; not indeed altogether gratuitously, but under such
laws and restrictions that he must remit to them the third part of the
usual stipend which it is customary to receive from the inhabitants, and
even my knights. From which it may be concluded how well and how honourably
foreigners are treated here, and how unlikely it is that justice should be
denied to any of those who it is proved are favoured with such grace and
love.
But to return to the affair in question, I humbly submit to your Majesty,
that in the year of our salvation 1661, John, called De St. Amand, acting
as attorney in the name of the above-mentioned Roger, appeared before the
aforesaid judge of the Prize Court, demanding the restitution of different
kinds of merchandise, which he asserted had been seized by certain captains
of ships; but it not appearing to the said judge that he had produced
convincing proofs of the fact, they were declared inadequate, and not
sufficiently legal. From this decision the said attorney, as is usual in
such controversies, appealed, on the 10th of July, 1662, to the Supreme
Court of Audience in council, at which I, together with the Chief Grand
Crosses of my Order, assist; but he afterwards of his own accord neglected
to follow up said appeal.
Subsequently, in the year 1665, there appeared another attorney of the said
Roger furnished with letters from your most serene Majesty, to whom I
immediately explained that I had no right to order the actual restitution
of the money demanded; but that if he would act according to law, and seek
it by a judgment, I promised to give my co-operation, which I undoubtedly
would have done; so that he might have been permitted by the said Court of
Audience to recommence the suit, although it had been in a former instance
deserted. But the attorney having replied that he was not furnished with
this authority, left the island of his own free will and accord.
From that time no other person has appeared, except the above-mentioned
John Ansely, who {266} recently delivered to me your Majesty's
above-mentioned letter; which I having thought proper to communicate to my
Council, I procured that the venerable brethren Henry de Estampes Valancay,
the Grand Prior of Campania, and Don Gregory Caraffa, Prior of Rocella,
should be deputed commissioners to examine this case. And they having heard
what the said Ansely had to say, offered to him in any name, and in that of
all my Order, an opportunity to make an appeal which had been deserted; but
the said Ansely, for want of proper authority as he stated, did not accept
the proposition.
Such being the case, I reverently submit to your most serene Majesty the
following arguments, to which I earnestly entreat your Majesty to apply
your Royal attention, and your Majesty's accustomed serenity and clemency.
In the first place, it is possible that the said Roger may have been really
deprived of his property; but it does not follow that the proofs adduced by
him of that fact were perfectly convincing, or entirely in accordance with
the law. And even if they had been such, they might have appeared otherwise
to the said judge of the Prize Court; and it is on this account that the
Superior of Ten rescind the decrees of the Inferior Tribunals.
Secondly, the omission to continue the above-cited appeal, can in no way be
attributed to the judges of this island; neither is it true that any
threats were made use of towards the above-mentioned attorney. Such a
course would have been diametrically opposed to the statutes of my Order;
neither would its members have dared to act in such a manner, either
against foreigners or the inhabitants my subjects, without incurring a
heavy responsibility.
Finally, as it is impossible for my knights, putting aside the order of
right, and neglecting the rule of our statutes, to restore to the
above-mentioned Roger that which he claims, nothing remains in our power
but to grant him the faculty of again prosecuting his right before the
above-mentioned Court of Audience as in law so often and earnestly offered
to the aforenamed attorney. Nor certainly can it be presumed, that your
Majesty in your clemency and justice can desire anything farther. To this
conclusion I am the more drawn from the decision of the advocate of the
Admiralty himself, for he proposes the granting of letters of reprisal not
for any other reason than that he supposed justice had been denied to the
said Roger, and that he had been precluded from the remedy of a Court of
Appeal. This having been an erroneous conclusion, the entire foundation of
the above-mentioned opinion is wholly removed. And it is the more to be
hoped that this decision will be approved of by your most serene Majesty,
as my necessary subjection to the Apostolic See and to the Roman Pontiff
cannot be unknown to your Majesty. From which it necessarily results that
so large a sum could not be taken arbitrarily or by force from the parties
concerned, without grave reprehension and prejudice, and also without
infringing the forms of right as prescribed in the statutes above alluded
to.
Confiding therefore in the singular clemency of your Majesty, I entertain a
hope that your Majesty, moved by so many and such valid reasons, and
considering also the high respect of this my Order towards your Majesty,
will be pleased to direct the said Roger not to prosecute his right by
other means than by action at law before the said Court of Audience. And
that he at length will cease to excite the mind of your Majesty against the
innocent by any such vain and unjust complaints; and that he refrain from
any more seeking so inopportune and final a remedy of right, as the
concession of letters of reprisal against an Order obediently subject to
the wishes of your Majesty, and most ready to do anything for the advantage
and utility of your Majesty's subjects, as those who daily touch at these
islands to re-victual or refit their ships can testify. And now, in my own
name, and in that of my Order, I humbly submit all this to your Majesty by
these letters, as I shall also do shortly by a Nuncio, whom I shall send to
your Majesty with the necessary documents, in _order more clearly to prove
the truth of my statements_.
In the mean time, most submissively kissing your Majesty's most serene
hands, I devotedly implore the benignity of the Most High and the Most
Great God to grant to your Majesty prosperity in all things.
Given at Malta, on the eighteenth day of February, in the year 1669.
Your Serene Majesty's
Most obedient Servant,
COTTONER.
To the above submissive letter the following reply was sent:
No. IX.
Charles the Second by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. &c. &c.
To the most illustrious and most high Prince, the Lord Nicholas Cottoner,
Grand Master of the Order of Malta. Our well-beloved cousin and friend,
Greeting:
Most illustrious and most high Prince, our well-beloved cousin and friend.
Your highnesses letters of ---- February, having been delivered to us by
the Nuncio selected by your highness for that purpose, we caused Roger
Fowke, our subject and Consul in the island of Cyprus, in whose favour we
sometimes since addressed your highness, to be summoned before {267} Us,
and having well pondered the grounds and reasons in which your highness'
replies are based, we judged it right to announce farther to our said
subject, that in our opinion the power of appeal to the Supreme Court of
Audience offered to him by your highness, after his attorney's previous
neglect in the first instance, ought not by any means to be slighted; and
that it did not seem to Us there remained, all things considered, any other
hope of future remedy. This we did the more willingly, in order to prove to
your highness more clearly, that being so dear, and so highly esteemed by
Us, as is your highness personally, and all your knights, that we have
preferred accepting any mode of properly settling this affair, rather than,
by recurring to any harsher measures, diminish our friendship and affection
towards so celebrated an Order. This, our determination, We have also made
known by our letters to the Grand Prior of France; and of which testimony
may be borne by the bearer of the present, to whom we have thought proper
particularly to recommend the urging of your highness, in Our name, to see
that such certain and speedy method of justice be established in the affair
of our subject as may be lawful, and as was offered; and such as may afford
new and sound proof of our ancient amity, and establish and affirm a mutual
faith worthy of the Christian name.
In the mean time, We, from our heart, recommend your highness, and all your
knights, to the safeguard of the Most Good and Most Great God.
Given from our Palace of Westminster on the 7th day of June, in the year of
our Lord 1669, and of our reign the twenty-first.
Your Highness' good Cousin and Friend,
CHARLES REX.
No. X.
Charles by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith, &c. &. &c.
To the most eminent Prince, the Lord Nicholas Cottoner, Grand Master of the
Order of Malta, our very dear cousin and friend, Greeting:
We apprehend that long since it must have come to the knowledge of your
eminence, that a vessel of war of our Royal fleet, named the "Sapphire,"
went ashore some months ago on the coasts of Sicily; and was so much
damaged, that she became entirely unseaworthy. We have however heard, that
some guns which belonged to the said ship have been taken to the island of
Malta, and there preserved. Having, in consequence, ordered our
well-beloved and faithful subject Rudolf Montague, the Master of the Horse
of our most serene Consort, and our Minister near his most Christian
Majesty, to send there some fitting person to inquire after any remains of
the said wreck, and to depose of them in a manner most advantageous to Us,
we, as friends, beg your eminence to be pleased to interpose your
authority; so that the persons already sent, or hereafter to be sent by our
said Minister, may experience no delays nor impediments, but rather find
all favour and due aid from each and every chief of the arsenal, ports and
customs, and other officers to whom it may appertain; which we, in a
similar case, will endeavour fully to reciprocate to your eminence.
In the mean time we recommend, with all our heart, your eminence to the
protection of the Most Good and Most Great God.
Given from our Palace of Whitehall, on the 28th day of November, 1670.
Your Eminence's good Cousin and Friend,
CHARLES REX.
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