|
Dec. 1. Brussels. |
561. King Philip to William Earl of Pembroke, K.G. Is glad
to hear of his arrival [at Calais]. Hopes that with the aid expected
from England he will be able to resist the attacks of the enemy.
[Half a page. Copy.] |
Dec. 1. Venice. |
562. Laurence Priuli, Doge of Venice, to Queen Mary. Recredentials of Mr. Peter Vannes. [Latin. Broadside on vellum.] |
Dec. 5. Rome. |
563. Sir Edward Carne to King Philip and Queen Mary. Since
his last of the 28th ult. the Pope has set forth a bull of jubilee to
all who would pray for peace, of which a printed copy is sent
herewith. On St. Andrew's day his Holiness sang mass in his
chapel, and thereafter went in procession to St. Peter's attended
by all the Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops, solemnly to pray
for peace. After his second meeting with the Duke of Alva,
Cardinal Caraffa sent a trumpeter to his Grace with a present of
pheasants, venison, and divers other good meats, to the bearer
of which the Duke gave 40 crowns, and on the following
morning frankly made the Cardinal a present of all the captains
and soldiers who had surrendered the castle of Ostia and had
previously been commanded to be kept prisoners. In return the
Cardinal sends the Duke great presents; and the Pope also has
sent him thirty fat bullocks, eight great Parmesan cheeses, two
mule loads of capons and hens, and other fryandious victuals,
30 butts of wine, and two hundred robbias of barley for horses.
These all men consider sure tokens of peace. The most of the
Duke's cavalry have returned towards Naples, whither he goes
himself either to-day or to-morrow. But he still causes the island
of Ostia to be fortified; already one fort is made there on the
biggest arm of the Tiber entering to the sea, and another is begun
on the end of the island where the other arm of the river flows
into the sea; thus commanding all approaches to Rome from the
ocean. The Pope's camp is broken up, and his ordnance brought
back. People from the Duke's camp say that peace is in every
man's head, although the proclamation made here on the 2d inst.
is only for a truce of 40 days. At the settling of this treaty
none were present but the Cardinal and the Duke, alone in a tent
very long in communication every time they met, and unattended
by any secretary, so no certainty of what their agreements are is
known, though all hope for peace, the capitulation being so privily
kept that none of the other Cardinals appear to be acquainted
therewith. Sends copy of the proclamation of truce. [Two pages.]
Inclosing, |
563. I. "Bulla Jubilei pro Pace." Rome, November 27, 1556.
[Latin. Printed broadside.] |
563. II. "Bando della Triegua." Rome, December 2, 1556,
[Italian. Printed broadside.] |
Dec. 1. Poissy. |
564. Dr. Wotton to Sir William Petre. The bearer, brother
to Sir Thomas Wrothe, ventures to return home, wholly submitting himself to her Majesty's mercy. If he means to be as
true as he says, mercy will be well bestowed upon him. He
says that Dudley and the rebels, hearing that he has been with
Wotton and sued for help towards his pardon, have sworn his
death, and have sent men to Paris to watch him and kill him.
[Cipher, deciphered. One page.] |
Dec. 12. Poissy. |
565. Same to same. On the 10th the French King's Secretary
informed him that the French Commissioners have returned from
the borders and have done nothing; wherefore matters remaining
as before will serve to minister occasion of contention whenever
they have leisure and opportunity. Also that their Ambassador
Resident had written hither that Lord Pembroke was raising troops
to send over, which somewhat alarmed the King, who sent back to
his Ambassador to desire he would make diligent inquiry whether
her Majesty intended to make war against him. The Ambassador
dispatched his brother in post to declare that no war was intended,
and only three ensigns were raised to reinforce her Majesty's
garrisons on this side, and that he had told the King her Majesty
durst not, if she would, declare herself in this war, for if she were
to send them whom she trusted out of the realm, they whom she
trusts not would not fail to be busy within it. The Secretary
affirmed with oaths that the King has no intention to go to war
against her Majesty, but to keep peace with her. [Cipher,
deciphered. One page and a half.] |
Dec. 12. Poissy. |
566. Dr. Wotton to the Council. On the 10th of June had received
their letter of 17th May, with a supplication of certain merchants
of Plymouth, requiring restitution of a vessel named the Peter
of that port, which had been arrested at Brest in Brittany on the
pretext that she had been captured by Englishmen from them
of Brest before the last wars were proclaimed, and therefore
could not be good prize, and desiring him to see the Constable
thereon. When their letter arrived the King was in no certain
place, but hunting abroad, so that no good could be done until
his return. Whereupon the bearer hereof, John Hawkins, one of
the ship's owners, having a letter from Noailles, then Ambassador
in England, to the Justices of Brest, proceeded thither to see how
he might succeed. Having tarried there a great while suing for
his matter, he returned to Wotton, requiring his aid to have the
process revoked to the Privy Council here. Sets forth the correspondence between him and the Constable and Marillac, Archbishop
of Vienna, one of the Maitres des Requestes, to whom, as is usual,
the rapport was committed, and sends the last letter from the
former (missing). Requests they will send him a notarially
authenticated copy of the agreement between the Commissioners
for settling differences at the conclusion of the last peace. The
news here are that of the taking of Ostia and slaughter of its
garrison, the Duke of Alva granted the Pope a truce for ten days,
during which articles have been agreed upon, but not sealed by his
Holiness, because he intends to certify the French King of them
first. It is said his Holiness legates to King Philip and the former
Sovereign, to travail for some agreement, for which purpose the
truce is prolonged to the 10th prox. For this different grounds
are assigned, necessity on part of the Pope making the truce that
he may gain time and fortify himself in the interval, or such reason
being offered to him that it were unwise to refuse it. In consequence of Brissac remaining sick at Lyons, and De Thermes being
ill in Piedmont, the Duke of Guise has ridden in post from the
former to the latter place, "whither, if his men follow him now
in this time, which is as sharp a winter as men remember to have
seen any here, it cannot well be but that a number of them and
their horses must be lost by the way."[Five pages.] |
Copy, in modern hand, of the first three sentences of the
preceding, dated erroneously "Paris, 22 November." [One page.] |
Dec. St. James'. |
567. Queen Mary to Dr. Wotton. Desires Wotton formally to
complain to the French King and Constable, who, in spite of their
fair words to the contrary, entertain and reward Dudley and the
other unnatural conspirators, who cease not to continue their
devilish practices and devices against her Majesty and her
dominions, and to declare to them how dishonourable this violation
of their word is, and the bad example it may be to other Princes.
[Broadside, superscribed by her Majesty.] |