Cecil Papers: August 1577 | British History Online

Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House: Volume 2, 1572-1582. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1888.

Citation:

'Cecil Papers: August 1577', Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House: Volume 2, 1572-1582, (London, 1888), pp. 158-161. British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-cecil-papers/vol2/pp158-161 [accessed 29 June 2024].

August 1577



	472. Sir Amyas Paulet to the Queen.
1577, Aug. 6.	Gives full details of audiences he has had with the King of France and with the Queen Mother. Was afterwards informed by Monsieur Pinart, who was sent to him from the Queen Mother, that the advertisements received by herself and the King and which formed the substance of their grievances were as follows :—
	1. That seven or eight English ships appointed in warlike manner were lately seen to pass Brest on the way to Rochelle.
	2. That there arrived at the Isle of Wight four ships and eight or ten hulks in the name of the King of Navarre, the Captains, being English, the mariners English, and all the ships and hulks English, and all other provisions English.
	3. That four of her Majesty's ships are set to the seas in which are 1,200 men, and have been seen making their course towards Rochelle.
	Lastly, that her Majesty is arming three other ships which will be followed by small barks to keep the seas and to do such further enterprise as shall be thought meet.
	These advertisements he declared came not from Monsieur Mauvissiere but by other means, and this he repeated three or four times. Monsieur Pinart also made great protestation of the good affection of the King and Queen Mother towards her Majesty and received the like from himself.
	They had great conference together on many subjects and especially on the merchants causes wherein Pynart was content to yield to the truth and to confess that all things here were in disorder and that the French havens were full of pirates and thieves.
	Cannot too highly commend to her Majesty both Pinart's willing readiness and his plain dealing in matters concerning her Majesty's service.
	Two people whom he knows to be spies for the Queen Mother have told him within these two days that Don John hath sent to her Majesty to require the Queen of Scots for his wife, because their tale cometh from suspected men doubts it hath some further meaning.
	The siege continueth before Brouage where a supply of 120 men or more hath entered of late and have killed Captain Chamereau and divers of his company.
	The king seems very resolute touching this affair and, being out of fear of the Reisters for this year, bends all his forces against the place intending to have it any price whatsoever.
	The report continues of a league for certain years between the Turk and the King of Spain, which being true it is likely that the French King hath been the mediator between them, and then it behoves her Majesty to consider of it.—Poictiers, 6th Aug. 1577.
	Copy. 16 pp. [Murdin, pp. 305–314. In extenso.]
	473. The Earl of Leicester to Lord Burghley.
1577, August 8.	“Your water is here safely arrived, and I told her Majesty of it, who, now it is come, seemeth not to make any great account of it. And yet she more than twice or thrice commanded me earnestly to write to you for it, and after I had so done asked me sundry times whether I had remembered it or no, but it seems her Majesty doth mistrust it will not be of the goodness here it is there; beside somebody told her there was some bruit of it about, as though her Majesty had had some sore leg. Such like devices made her half angry with me now for sending to you for it, but I had rather be shent so than not to have performed her express commandment before. Nevertheless she thanks your Lordship for the well and careful sending of it. She is well in health and without any other grief but the old aching sometime when she takes cold in her legs.” Trusts Burghley finds ease of his pain. Would give 500 marks for a twenty days with him, and so be quite cured of his rheum.
	News from abroad. Taking of Antwerp town and castle, which are both now at the Prince's duty, “a happy thing for us and the States.” Don John, since taking Namur, assembles all the soldiers he can, but his and the King of Spain's want of money is great. Casimir writes there is to be a Diet in Germany in September, that sundry Princes, Lutherans and Papists, may take order flatly against Zwinglius, and requires the Queen's assistance and some sufficient man to dissuade them from such proceeding. The Queen means to do so. The matters of France will go hard, except Casimir relieve them in time. The King of Spain's estate is very miserable, if Sir Thomas Smith report right.—8 August.
	P.S.—Asks for stewardship of Longney and Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire, void by death of Kyrll the lawyer, to whom, at the instance of Sir Walter Mildmay, Leicester was content some years ago to leave them, although he had previously obtained them of Burghley.
	Endorsed :—“8 Aug. 1577.”
	2 pp.
	474. The Earl of Shrewsbury to Lord Burghley.
1577, August 9.	My lord, because I think it needful her Majesty should with the first understand of this chance, it may please your lordship, if you think my opinion good, to send this my letter as of yourself or otherwise, as your noble wisdom shall see meet. And, my lord, your noble dealings I find such to me that formerly I [minded] when God's will is to call for me, and if God spare [then] life, after to leave him and his charge to your disposition, or otherwise; if your lordship think it meeter I leave him to the disposition to any friend you like of, I shall upon your advice do therafter, for to my dearest friend, which I account you to be, I had rather it might hereafter appear in deeds than in words. I pray your lordship [tender] this as I shall do the like. Your lordship [ · ] safely deliver your letter again, for the safe carriage thereof, which now makes me writes this.
	Endorsed by Burghley :—“9 Ju Augu. 1577. The Erl of Shreusbury uppon the deth of Gilb. Talbotts son.” (fn. 1)
	¾ p.
	475. John Cheke to Lord Burghley.
1577, Aug. 17.	Although his service which was heretofore his lordship's is now divided by other duties, his mind and affection to serve him is not less than when he was bound to attend him. Is now about to undertake a journey to Rochelle, for which he asks his lordship's consent and promises to be directed in everything by his will. Plymouth, 17 August.
1577, Aug. 17.	1 p.
	476. George Wynter to the Earl of Lincoln, Lord High Admiral.
1577, Aug. 19.	Trusts his lordship is thoroughly informed of the taking of William Battes, with such commodities of elephants' teeth and grains, as then were found aboard him. On the 14th Aug. he arrived at Baltimore, with all her Majesty's ships in his company in good safety, and, finding the harbour very ill and unmeet for such ships, was forced presently to depart to the seas lying between the old head of Kinsale and Cape Clear, where he met with Robert Hicks in the ship which he took of the King of Denmark's, in which there are, as it is said 1,000 Indian hides and two tuns of aquavitæ, and he had also with him one small bark, wherein was certain wheat, which ships and goods he purposes to bring into the Thames, to be ordered and used according to instructions. As yet he cannot learn of any power of Frenchmen having arrived in any of her Majesty's ports in Ireland, nor yet of any that are like to come, so as he trusts he will be in case, towards the end of August, to make his repair homewards, at which time he will not have above 13 days' victuals.—From aboard the Lion, in Kinsale road, 19 Aug. 1577.
1577, Aug. 19.	1 p.
	477. The Earl of Sussex to Lord Burghley.
1577, Aug. 21.	Desires greatly to hear what success his Lordship has had at “the bathe of Buxtons,” which he hopes may be as good as any man ever had or desired to have there.
	Of the French actions and Flemish troubles his lordship is no doubt better advertised by Mr. Secretary and therefore forbears to trouble him therewith.
	The troubles of both places when they have been carried jointly have certainly bred our quiet, and so would continue it if they jointly be continued; but if the hope of the Flemish troubles do so lull us asleep in security that we forget the matters of France and thereby suffer that king to repossess at his own will his state and quiet, would then begin greatly to doubt that these kind of troubles in Flanders may either do us hurt or at the best bring us no good for our safety towards France.
	His lordship knows that it has been an old received opinion that the French would be loth to see the Flemish put in foot here and the Flemish would be as loth to see the French, and therefore we have been always assured in such cases to have if we listed the help of one against the other; and in the same respect it has always been good for us to have them kept in an even balance lest either of them should grow over strong.
	It therefore seems to him that if these countries can be so kept it must needs be the best for us, and we ought therefore to employ all our wits and power to bring that to pass. Wishes therefore with all his heart that we may not hope so much of Flemish matters as to forget the French.—From the Court, 21 August 1577.
	[Lodge, II., pp. 161, 162. In extenso.]
	2 pp.