Books: Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
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Lady Fanshawe >> Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
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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.
Last night was before the palace a masquerade on horseback. I had a
balcony appointed me in the armoury over the stables of his Majesty:
the Dutch Ambassador, another for him next below mine, the rest of the
Ambassadors in an entresuelo of the palace.
Mine I left to my gentleman, and sat myself with the Duke of Medina de
las Torres, at his quarters in the palace; my wife in another room
thereby with the Duchess.--Ibid. p. 376.
TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
Madrid, the 24th of January, 1664, N.S.
MY LORD,
I send your Lordship herewith enclosed, two transcripts, the one of a
project, at making of which I was never good; but this is of a peace,
and therefore I wish I were; a peace between Castile and Portugal,
hardly practicable upon any terms, as I do humbly conceive, much less
upon these, proposed by an unknown author, with regard to either side;
yet I have thought them not unworthy your Lordship's notice, as
possibly more practicable elsewhere, as to form, and in a great
measure as to matter likewise, than in the altitude for which they
were designed.
The other transcript is of a fresh libel, in and upon this Court and
palace; a commodity I have in my nature no inclination at all to vent,
either by wholesale or retail; yet is this fit also, in my humble
judgment, for persons of great nearness to his Majesty not to be
unacquainted with, representing sores which are in foreign kingdoms,
whereby to praise God the more for the modesty of ours at home, as
ours for the great goodness of his Majesty that stops our mouths, or
rather fills them with prayers to God and him; not censuring other
princes, neither for the liberties of their subjects in their
disparagement, much less these of Spain, than whom, from all times,
none talk more against, or (our own nation only excepted) act more
for, their kings. This damnable libel doth not spare one Councillor of
State here present, but the Inquisidor General; and to crown the
damnation of it, the King himself bears the burden, besides the
smaller game it picks up by the way. So more than ordinary black is
the Spanish ink at this day, and the mouths of two too many, loud ones
too, much of the same dye.
This King, by what I can collect, as crazy as he is, may rub out many
years: his Majesty eats and drinks ordinarily with a very good
stomach, I am told, three comfortable meals a day; and full of merry
discourse, when and where his lined robe of Spanish royal gravity is
laid aside.
Some discourse begins to be of swearing the Prince. The sending the
Infanta this spring to her Imperial Crown is absolutely concluded, say
the most, and some say no. Certain it is, (the ceremony of this
kingdom requiring it,) that a Cardinal in the spiritual, and some very
great lay-person in the temporal, should be joint conductors of her
Imperial Majesty; for the first, Cardinal Colonna, a vassal born of
this Crown, chosen by the Pope, is now actually entered in this Court
to the same end; and for the second, the Duke of Cardona, invited
thereunto by his Catholic Majesty, after many great ones, namely, the
Duke of Alva and Montaldo, had refused or excused it, hath publicly
accepted the charge.
By this latter hangs a story. Your Lordship well knows, that in these
more civilised countries, no man will go upon his master's errand
without a reward beforehand, (so the Marquis of Sande, the Conde de
Molina, and others innumerable,) therefore his Catholic Majesty, even
after acceptance as a thing of course, was graciously pleased to bid
the said Duke of Cardona propose for himself, referring him for that
purpose to the Duke's friend, the Conde de Castrillo, President of
Castile. The Duke tells the Conde he must have three things granted
him in hand, else would he not budge a foot. 'What are those?' said
the Conde, in some disorder. 'First,' said the Duke, 'I will be made a
grandee of Spain,' and his Excellency is so, I take it three or four
times over: 'Secondly, I will have the Toison' he has it long since:
'Thirdly, the Conde de Chincon shall treat me with EXCELLENCY.' The
riddle of this is, that the said Conde de Chincon, being no Grandee,
and nominated for Ambassador Ordinary to the Emperor, though since
excused of going for want of health, or other allegations, doth, upon
that account alone, during life, according to the style of this Court,
remain with the title of Excellency. This action of the Duke of
Cardona is here very much celebrated, and the saying little less.
--Ibid. p. 420.
To THE KING.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 195.]
Madrid, Monday, 6th of February, 1664-5, O.S.
"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
"The bearer hereof, Mr. Charles Bertie, son to the Earl of Lindsey,
having done me the honour, together with other gentlemen of rank and
personal worth, to afford me his company out of England hitherto, and
now with them homewards bound by the way of France; I find myself
encouraged by the opportunity of so noble a hand for conveyance, to
give your Majesty this first immediate trouble of any lines of mine,
since I had last the happiness to kiss that of your Majesty, as well
to throw myself, in all humility, at your royal feet, as to render
very briefly a faithful character of this young gentleman, in a more
particular manner, whose virtues and extraordinary qualities, the
former not lost, the latter acquired with much travels at few years,
do no whit degenerate from the nobility of his blood, and active
loyalty of his progenitors; my duty to your Majesty, as well as my
affection to his person, obliging me ex officio to this short
testimony of his merits unrequested, to the end so hopeful a branch of
that house may not want even this means among others, of being early
known to his Sovereign, I could humbly wish I could add, his master
too, and that in some near degree of service to your sacred person,
for the present, in order to public employment for the future; towards
which, as years shall increase, and occasions be ministered, he is
already furnished, in a very good measure, with two principal and
proper gifts, that of tongues, and that of observation. But I forget
to whom I speak, for which most humbly begging your royal pardon, I
crave leave to subscribe myself," &c.--Ibid, p. 437.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Tuesday, 18/28 April, 1665.
This King, with the Queen and Empress, have now been almost a
fortnight at Aranjuez, to their great content, and also of this Court,
to hear his Majesty is so vigorous there, as at one time to have set
on horseback a matter of three hours, and in that posture to have
killed a wolf from his own hands; whereas, before his going hence, it
was doubted by many whether he had sufficient health and strength to
perform the journey, though but seven leagues, in a coach or litter,
and that in two days. The little Prince remains here in the palace, as
far as I can learn, nothing so lively as his father; pray God he prove
so lasting!
In this interim, Don John de Austria hath had leave to reside at a
house within two leagues of Aranjuez, and from thence stepping over to
get a sight of his Majesty, which he did. The ceremony between them
was very short, and yet all that passed was ceremony; Como venis? Como
estays? Dios os guarde, &c., with which his Highness departed to the
Queen and Empress, and from thence to whence he came, after the same
brief ceremony; only the Queen and Empress sent him each of them a
jewel for a present.--Harleian MSS. 7010, f. 239.
TO LORD ARLINGTON.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 200.]
Madrid, Wednesday, August 1665.
My last to your Lordship of this day was a se'nnight, made mention of
a conference I was to have the Friday following with the Duke of
Medina de las Torres, but it happened the same Wednesday night I fell
so extremely sick as forced me on Thursday to send my excuse to his
Excellency, continuing my bed all that day, and since my house,
though, I thank God, with some amendment daily, and now to such a
competent degree of health and strength, that upon Friday next I hope
our meeting will hold.
In the mean time, upon occasion of my wife's being brought to bed, on
Sunday, the Duke hath been with me to give me the joy of my son, yet
so as not to mingle therewith one word of business, making that
expressly a piece of the compliment; the rest consisting of great
riches of jewels upon his person, and extraordinary splendour of
equipage.--Ibid. f. 346.
TO LORD ARLINGTON.
[See MEMOIRS, p, 201.]
Madrid, Thursday, 7/17th September, 1665.
My letter to your Lordship, delivered his Catholic Majesty, King
Philip the Fourth, in a condition utterly deplored by most, though
with a little spark of hope in some, even physicians, upon a
lightening that showed itself before death as it proved, his Majesty
giving up the ghost this morning between four and five of the clock,
witnessed immediately by all the bells in the town; this being
somewhat observable in my opinion, that neither his Majesty's
sickness, nor his death, was concealed one moment from the people.
Some care is taken that the news thereof shall not be sent out of
these kingdoms till it hath first gone by their own Correos, stopping
all others.
In observation of the custom which ought to be observed in like cases,
the Council of the Chamber of Castile met to open his Majesty's
testament, which he left closed; the which accordingly was opened and
read before the President and said Council, by Don Blasco de Loyola,
Secretary of the Universal Dispatch: this was done at eleven of the
clock this forenoon. His Majesty left the Queen declared Governess of
his kingdoms, assisted by four counsellors ex-officio, viz., the
Archbishop of Toledo, that is or shall be; the President of Castile,
that is or shall be; the Vice-Chancellor of Arragon, that is or shall
be; the management of the kingdom, in like cases, belonging, by
ancient laws of the kingdom, to these three dignities, though his
Majesty should omit to name them; and the Inquisitor-General, that is
or shall be: he is introduced by a new law. His Majesty added to this
number of four, two more, one for a Grandee of Spain, which is the
Marquis of Aytona; and the other, who is the Conde de Penaranda, for
Counsellor of State. His Majesty left for executors of this his will,
the Duke of Medina de las Torres, Fray Juan Martinez, who was his
Majesty's confessor, and the Marquis de Velada.
Don John of Austria came post from Consuegra, soliciting to see his
Majesty by the means of the President of Castile, who, telling his
Majesty that Don John desired his blessing, his Majesty answered, 'He
had not called him, and that he should return presently;' which he
did, as soon as the King expired. This as to the seeing him at the
King's hour of death; but for all that, it is said, his Majesty had
already so far remembered him in his will as to recommend therein to
the Queen and her assistants, his son Don John of Austria, to regard
him and employ him, and if the means he hath be not found sufficient
for his support, to augment the same in some other way. [Footnote: In
the margin, Sir Richard has written, "Sic transit gloria mundi."]
It is said it will not be necessary to make more ceremony for the
giving of obedience to the new King Charles the Second, than with a
banner upon the tower of St. Salvador, to proclaim, 'Castilla,
Castilla por el Rey Don Carlos Segondo nuestro Senor!' and this ought
to be done by the Conde de Chinchon, unto whom, being Regidor of
Madrid, it belongs to execute the said ceremony.
They have embalmed his Majesty, and found in one of his kidneys a
stone of the bigness of a chestnut, in the other a kind of thin web.
They put his dead body, open-faced, with the state accustomed, in the
great gilded hall of the Palace; and upon Saturday, at night, will
carry it to the Escurial to be interred in the incomparable Pantheon
there, begun by his grandfather, carried on by his father, and
finished by himself in his life-time to a ninth wonder, if the
Escurial be the eighth, as the Spaniards term it.--Ibid. f. 387.
TO LORD ARLINGTON
Madrid, Wednesday, 18/28 October, 1665.
"This evening I have had audience of the young King; giving him, in
our Master's name, first the pesame, and then the parabien of the
time. On Friday, begin the honras of the King, his father; after
which, and, as I do believe, on the 5th of the next month, because it
is the King's birth-day, the Queen will give her first audience to
Ambassadors; none having yet seen her Majesty but the German, and he
in his private capacity."--Ibid. f. 415.
FROM LORD SANDWICH TO SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE
[See MEMOIRS, p. 211]
La Coruna, March 20/30, 1666.
MY LORD,
Being arrived at this place through necessity of the weather, which
put us off from Santander, whither we were designed, I find it
requisite to give speedy notice thereof to Madrid, and in the first
place to your Excellency; hoping this letter will have the good
fortune to meet you there, and if it do, I then beseech you, either
from yourself to give notice to the Court of my arrival, or direct
this gentleman, Mr. Weeden, of whom I have great esteem, to deliver
the letter he hath from me to the Secretary of State, a copy whereof
is here enclosed, if your Excellency doth not think fit that the same
be signified to the Court both ways. I also farther entreat your
favour in sending me such advice for my journey, and procuring me such
helps and furtherances therein, as may enable me to accomplish it with
most expedition. Mr. Weeden is fully instructed in the condition of my
retinue and carriage; and as the affairs of both Crowns, the time of
the year, and other circumstances considered, require much haste to be
made in this negotiation, so the particular interest of the King our
Master, needs as speedy a meeting as can be between your Excellency
and me, which I pray to have in your mind, and contrive in the best
manner you can. In the meantime, as soon as anything is concluded by
you fit for my notice, I pray you to despatch Mr. Weeden back to me,
whether I remain in this place, or shall be on my way to Madrid. I
have not more to say unto you fit for a letter, but to desire you to
present my most humble service to my noble Lady, and that you would
believe that I come with that respect and resolution of doing you a
service, and of expressing myself upon all occasions,
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