Walton adds that the King offered Henry Wotton the choice of the French, Spanish, and Venetian embassies, and that of the three he chose Venice; but I find no corroboration for this. Indeed by December 5, 1603 (O.S.), before he came to England, Cecil told Nicolò Molin, the Venetian envoy, that Wotton had been appointed ambassador to Venice1; and James afterwards said he had chosen him for this post because he had formerly known him in Scotland, 'whither the Grand Duke had sent him, as being a discreet and prudent gentleman, who had lived so long in Italy that he was master of its manners and its tongue.' 2 3 Wotton remained in England till the summer of 1604. He visited the Venetian ambassador, Molin, in June, to discuss a smuggling case, and on Tuesday, July 10, Molin wrote to the Doge that Wotton had been knighted by the King on the previous Sunday (July 8, O. S.), and was to leave on Friday. He is a gentleman,' the ambassador added, 'of excellent condition, wise, prudent, able. Your Serenity, it is to be hoped, will be very well pleased with him.' On July 19 Wotton was at Dover, whence, as was customary at this time, when an ambassador went abroad, one of the King's ships was to convey him to Boulogne. It is worth noting that while Wotton was travelling to Venice, Shakespeare was probably engaged in writing his great Venetian tragedy, Othello, which was acted before James I in November of this year. 5 Cal. S. P. Ven., x, p. 124. 3 Ibid., p. 160. 2 Ibid., p. 190. For Donne's verse-epistle To Sir Henry Wotton at his going ambassador to Venice', see Walton's Life, and Chambers, ii, p. 41. CHAPTER IV WOTTON'S FIRST EMBASSY IN VENICE. 1604-1610. SPECIAL envoys, sent abroad to negotiate a treaty, arrange a royal marriage, or for purposes of formal congratulation or condolement, had for centuries played a part in European history, and great noblemen were still employed in this manner. The custom of sending resident or 'lieger' ambassadors to reside at foreign Courts dated from the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the more modern conception of the balance of power, replacing the mediaeval ideal of the unity of the Empire, lent importance to the negotiations by which that balance was maintained.1 Henry VII, who was the first English king to maintain agents at foreign Courts, had employed for this purpose men of obscure position who were meanly paid. But under the monarchs who succeeded him, the English Residents grew in position and importance. Although there was no regular diplomatic corps, and the profession was still an open one, it was usual to select for resident ambassadors gentlemen and knights of good family, and as a rule men who, like Wotton, had studied foreign politics abroad in their youth, or who, like Sir Dudley Carleton or Sir Ralph Winwood, had served an apprenticeship as secretary to an older ambassador.2 The pay of a resident ambassador in the reign of James I was at the rate of five marks, or £3 6s. Ed. a day, for his 'diets' 3 (a special ambassador was paid £4 or £5 a day), and in addition to this sum he was given about £400 a year for his special expenses, couriers, and secret service. There was a For an account of the growth of European diplomacy see Ernest Nys, Les Commencements de la Diplomatie, etc., Revue de Droit International, Bruxelles, 1883-84, vol. xv, p. 577; vol. xvi, pp. 55, 167. 2 The history of English diplomacy has not yet been written. For the English ambassadors in the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary see Arnold Oskar Meyer, Die englische Diplomatie in Deutschland zur Zeit Eduards VI. und Mariens, Breslau, 1900. 3 The ambassador was paid from the date of his appointment until his reception by the King on his return. On May 19, 1604, the sum of £730 was paid to Henry Wotton, being his diets from Dec. 26, 1603 (when he was officially appointed ambassador to Venice), till the end of July, at the rate of five marks a day. (Is. Ex., p. 12.) liberal allowance also for travel, and the transport of his goods. Out of his personal salary (about £1,200 a year in the money of the day, and perhaps six times as much in present value) he paid for his house, servants, food, and the salaries of his secretaries and staff. The money in itself was ample, but the payment extremely irregular; and James I's envoys almost invariably returned from their missions in financial distress, and found it almost impossible to extract the sums owing them from the public exchequer. His personal staff or 'family' each ambassador chose for himself, taking with him perhaps a dozen young men, who lived in the house of their chief, and returned to England when he returned.1 Of these the principal person was the chief secretary, who helped the ambassador in his business, kept a register of his negotiations, and had charge of his ciphers and papers of importance. When the ambassador was ill, or absent from the place of his charge, the chief secretary could act for him, and in some cases he wrote, or helped to write, the ambassador's dispatches.2 In addition to the chief secretary, there were one or two assistant secretaries, who were employed for translating and copying, and to whom the ambassador frequently dictated his dispatches. A native of the country where the envoy resided was moreover engaged as a secretary 'for language and compliments', and of all the suite he alone received his salary from the English exchequer. Another of the household was steward, keeping the ambassador's accounts, and acting as housekeeper and treasurer, and another was gentleman usher, or master of ceremonies. The ambassador also took a chaplain with him, being allowed by custom to celebrate the rites of his own religion in his private chapel; and he sometimes took his own physician as well. Five or six more young men of good family, who desired to see something of the world, or to push their fortunes under the ambassador's patronage, made up the envoy's household. Besides their duties at the embassy, these secretaries and attachés (as they would now be called) were George Chapman in his play Monsieur d'Olive (Act iii, Scene iv) gives an amusing picture of an ambassador choosing his suite. For the duties of an ambassador's secretary see Works of Roger Ascham (Giles), London, 1865, vol. i, pt. ii, pp. 243-71, and Roger Ascham, sein Leben und seine Werke, by Alfred Katterfeld, Strassburg, 1869, p. 96. Ascham was secretary to Sir Richard Moryson, ambassador to Charles V, 1550-3. For the household of an English ambassador in the reign of James I see Lord Herbert, pp. 197-8. sometimes sent on secret missions into neighbouring countries, and sometimes to England, to carry dispatches that were too important to be trusted to the ordinary post. These missions and journeys were often sufficiently adventurous; the disguised young Englishmen acting as spies were sometimes spied on themselves, and thrown into prison, and had to reveal their quality to obtain release; those travelling to England might be waylaid, and their dispatches stolen, or be attacked by robbers and left for dead where they fell. The privilege, however, of carrying dispatches to England was highly valued, as the bearer was by this means introduced to the notice of the Secretary, or even of the King himself. Each ambassador was provided with a service of silver plate,1 and in addition to the gentlemen of his suite, he was accompanied by a number of footmen and pages.2 The reign of the peace-loving James I was a time of numerous and brilliant embassies, and the sight of an English envoy on his travels was both picturesque and splendid. The ambassador shone, as a contemporary describes one of them, like a comet, all in crimson and beaten gold; behind him followed sometimes as many as one hundred attendants, footmen, and pages in splendid liveries, young men in satin suits, with gold lace and gilt spurs, and waving feathers-'a whole forest of feathers,' Chapman describes the train, though he detracts from the dignity of his image by comparing the ambassador, as he plodded along, to a schoolmaster followed by his boys.3 Wotton's company when he went on his first journey to Venice, included his nephew, Albertus Morton, his chaplain Nathaniel Fletcher (a brother of the dramatist, John Fletcher), and several young men of Kentish families, sons of gentlemen 1 On June 19, 1604, a warrant was issued for seven hundred ounces of plate to be delivered 'to Henry Wotton, Esquire, being sent Ambassador to Venice.' (S. P. Ven.) 2 See C. & T. Jas. I, i. p. 428: 'The Lord Roos is gone for Spain, very gallant, having six footmen, whose apparelling stood him in £50 a man; eight pages at £80 a piece; twelve gentlemen, each of whom he gave £100 to provide themselves; some twenty ordinary servants, who were likewise very well appointed; and twelve sumpter cloths, that stood him in better than £1,500. When Sir Isaac Wake succeeded Wotton as ambassador to Venice in 1624, he made a fine show, as well in liveries, flaunting feathers, and the like, as in number of followers, among whom are six footmen, three or four pages, and gentlemen not a few.' (Ibid., ii, p. 454.) Monsieur d'Olive, iii. 4. 3 George Rooke, of Kent, Rowland Woodward, Henry Cogan, and William Parkhurst accompanied Wotton to Venice, or were in his service during his first embassy there. Gregorio de' Monti was his Italian secretary, and another Italian, Giovanni Francesco Biondi, was in his employment. For all these names see Appendix III. |