BOOKS.
ENGLAND IN VENETIAN DESPATCHES.*
THE despatches of Giovanni Michiel, Venetian Ambassador in England from 1554 to 1557, were lately noticed among the State papers in Venice by Mr. Duffus Hardy, who recommended them to the attention of the Master of the Rolls, as probably containing passages of historical interest on certain topics, though in a cipher which had hitherto baffled investigation. Photographs of the -documents were thereupon brought to England ; and M. Paul Friedmann seems to have worked out this tough problem by mere skill and patience, a little while before another inquirer; M. Pasini, had the better luck to find in the same Venetian library (in which he is an employi) what school-boys would call a crib to the subject. But Mr. Friedmann has filled up all lacunas in the de- spatches, except a few that seem minute and unimportant, and has prefixed to them a very readable introductory notice, purporting, like his own article in Macmillan's Magazine, November, 1868, to elucidate some " new facts in the reign of Queen Mary." He thinks our historians have not taken pains enough with this period, in which England, as he observes ingeniously, was an interesting -country, not indeed through her usual activity in the affairs of Europe, but as a passive object of the speculations of Spain and France, which were both hoping for opportunities to get a secure -control over her through the Queen, or her rivals, or her successors. This game was even shared by Venice, which had long ago, like the other Italian States, understood the doctrine of the balance of power ; and her representative, Soranzo, Michiel's immediate pre- decessor, had done his best to binder Charles V. and Philip from getting any such footing in England as would have given them an overwhelming advantage over Henri II. He had declaimed against Mary's proposed match till he was forced to desist, and then abetted the insurgents under Sir Thomas Wyatt, proceeding so far as to have an armed vessel stationed in the 'Thames in readiness to support them. This conduct provoked remonstrances ; the Emperor supported them ; and the Venetian Government found it necessary to recall Soranzo. Michiel was appointed to succeed him, March 27, 1554, and behaved himself with such moderation that the Imperial Ambassador took him to -be a partizan of France and the French Ambassador to be a par- tizan of the Empire. To the latter (Noailles) his correspondence used afterwards to be betrayed by his secretary, and was much valued for the information contained in it. Of what Michiel wrote during the first year of his residence in England we have no interesting remains ; but his despatches become very frequent during the spring of 1555, when Mary was expecting a child, and when her people, exasperated at the prospect -of a Spanish dynasty, were in many places showing the most alarming symptoms of disaffection and hatred of the foreigners. At this period Michiel usually wrote of the affairs
cf the country with much urbanity and graciousness, but he now and then indulges in a little sarcasm, especially where his -cipher has been in requisition. Thus he mentions a great conspi- racy alleged to have been discovered at Cambridge, and observes afterwards, " opinions about this matter are very various, some supposing it to have been of great import and others that all was mere suspicion ; for if it [suspicion) is wont to be found in other places, it may be said here to be in its own kingdom." A strange view to have been entertained of England ! At this time, many precautions were taken by the Royal pair for their defence, and apparently it was to soothe the people that they
Lea Dipeehes de Giovanni ;ruble', Arnbassadeur de 'Penile en Angleterre (1554-15.57),
clicidirrea el publuies &rip* les Documents eoneervjs sax Archives nationalee de ireniae. review the whole career of Cardinal Pole, insisting much on the Par Paul Friedmaan. Venice, Imprimerie du Commerce. London: William` and liberated Edward Courtney, Duke of Devonshire (a State prisoner since Wyatt's rebellion) about whose petition and its reception Michiel gives us some curious details. They took care, however, to send him immediately over to Flanders, and to keep him out of their way on honourable pretexts. As to their treatment of the Princess Elizabeth, it seems advisable first to copy the following extracts from the letters, and then to proceed to M. Friedmann's comments :— " In my letter of the 8th instant, I wrote to Your Serenity that it was hoped we should soon see the Lady Elizabeth ; and you must now know that to-day or to-morrow she will certainly be here at Court with their Majesties, whence for good reasons she will not depart before the Queen's delivery. For it is said that in case of the death of the Queen (which God forbid!) the safety and security of the King would depend more on her than on any other person. He might hope, with the help of many of the nobility, won over by his presents and favours, to re-marry him- self to her and thus succeed to the crown, the more so as she, being informed of his character and conduct, might feel some inclination towards him. If this, however, should prove impossible in consequence of her resistance or that of the English people, he would at all events have her in his power, and thus be secure against any revolt which otherwise might endanger his life or the lives of his retainers. Holding her in his power, he could depart safely and without peril." [29th April, 1555.] " The Lady Elizabeth, as I wrote, came very privately to Court, ac- companied by three or four women and as many servitors, but was not met or received by anyone, and was placed in the apartments [formerly] of the Duke of Alva, having hitherto been seen by no one except once or twice by their Majesties by secret accesses." [6th May.]
" The Lady Elizabeth, though she does not yet appear in public beyond her apartments, is yet allowed to admit freely her servitors and any other of the gentlemen about the Court; but her friends and all else display great reserve." [11th June.]
" On the departure of the Queen hence, the Lady Elizabeth had leave to retire with all her people to a house three miles from her Majesty's, and when her Majesty returns, as is expected of her within eight or ten days, it is believed that the Lady Elizabeth will come no longer to Court, but remain there or retire to another palace of hors, being free to do anything." [5th August.] On these intimations, M. Friedmann has observed that it is com- monly believed Elizabeth's removal from Woodstock to Hampton Court was a release from prison, and that Mr. Froude puts this removal at the end of June, 1855, when all hope of Mary's having a child had died away. In fact, however, the removal took place not in June, but at the end of April, just when the Queen was expected to be soon confined ; and it took place on that very account. It was not a liberation from prison, but a removal to a more secure custody. It was only when Philip had lost all hope of issue, and began to fear lest his wife might be succeeded by Mary Stuart, the ally of the French, if fie did not allow Elizabeth to be regarded as her heiress,—it was only then he gave more liberty to that princess, and began to protect her, and to obtain from the Queen an indulgent and unsuspicious treatment for her.
Another subject to which many of Michiel's letters refer at this period is the Conference near Calais, in which Cardinal Pole played the part of a mediator between the Emperor and the King of France, as well as his subsequent efforts to renew the negotia- tions, till he was eventually abandoned by both powers, and a truce concluded between France and Spain without his privity. In looking back on the conference, Michiel has expressed himself depreciatingly on the Cardinal's conduct (whereas Robertson has shown a high opinion of him, and thrown all the blame of his failure upon the belligerent parties). Michiel writes (January 27, 1556) that to both parties in the Conference of Calais, but to the French especially, it appeared that " if His Eminence had exerted himself as he could and ought to have done [si fusse riscaldata come doveva e poteva], the resolution that is now about to be arrived at would without doubt have been arrived at instantly." In another place the Ambassador mentions overtures from Paul IV., by which Cardinal Pole appears to have been deceived as to his desire to promote peace (see a passage in cipher dated December 23, 1555). He shows us also in the following passage how the same Pope had checked Pole's endeavours to place himself at the head of the administration of his country after Philip's departure from it, and after the death of Gardiner :- "I hear that the said Right Reverend Legate has had letters from Rome written by order of our Lord [the Pope], in which he is told that his Holiness has heard that their Majesties have given him charge to attend to the business and government of this kingdom as one of their chief councillors. His Holiness will think and consider how far and in what kind of affairs the Cardinal might take part. For as he, being Legate, represents the person of his Holiness, it does not appear becoming for him to take so much concern in matters belonging to the government of these princes." [25th November, 1555.] From these intimations -M. Friedmann has taken occasion to Weigel.. 1869. maladresse with which he at various times alienated from himself
the powerful persons with whom he had to deal (though they were, no doubt, too self-willed to be easily managed), and in this way leading us to form a much lower opinion than has hitherto pre- vailed of his abilities. At the same time, he represents Mary as a very ordinary though somewhat obstinate woman, and excuses Philip's long absence from her on the ground of political necessity. On the other hand, Michiel seems to us to like the Queen of England, and to give very pretty accounts of her politeness towards himself, and of the manner in which she took leave of her husband, of the emotion she betrayed when she did not believe herself to be watched, and her heroic efforts to suppress it before the eyes of the public. But perhaps he records less respectfully her continual anxious efforts to get Philip home, and at one time to send him over a good physician in the utmost haste, if it had even been a man so old and infirm that he might fairly have been excused from travelling. The despatches also place in a strong light the weakness of Mary's internal administra- tion by continual records of riots and conspiracies, of taxes levied with much difficulty, and of trouble given by daring piracies in the Channel.
Michiel wrote with great diligence of the investigations that followed the Dudley conspiracy, and noticed the treatment of Elizabeth and her dependents at the time, but heard nothing tending directly to inculpate her. With regard to the termination of his despatches in January, 1557, we must remark that he had been nominally sent out for two years only, and had often requested that his term might not be prolonged much farther. He appears, like the other ambassadors, to have found his residence at the English Court very dull when King Philip was on the Continent.
After his departure no fresh ambassador was sent to London by the Doge, who was content to be represented at Brussels before Philip and Mary conjointly, they having in like manner recalled about half their envoys from economical considerations. We take leave of Michiel as of a sagacious man, and one who, on some occasions, showed a good deal of spirit. His letters are sometimes entertaining (e.g., in the accounts of some affrays between English- men and Spaniards near the Court, where Philip took good care not to appear partial to his own countrymen) ; but his style of writing is so hasty and slovenly as often to be obscure or troublesome to the reader. It is not Michiel's despatches, but the report he read after his return to the Venetian Senate, which is several times quoted by Lingard in the reign of Mary.
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