Elizabeth: June 1584, 21-30 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, Volume 18, July 1583-July 1584. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1914.

Citation:

'Elizabeth: June 1584, 21-30', in Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, Volume 18, July 1583-July 1584, ed. Sophie Crawford Lomas( London, 1914), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/foreign/vol18/pp562-573 [accessed 25 November 2024].

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June 1584, 21–30



June 21.	694. Stafford to Walsingham.
	The burial of Monsieur. Queen Mother's illness and grief. Fervacques forsook his master's body and has undone himself for ever. The King's great benignity to Monsieur's followers. Government of Monsieur's places to be given to those who had them before. Audience of condolence with the King and two Queens. Message to her Majesty. The King saw him before any other ambassador, as coming from the Princess who loved his brother most; wherefore all the rest waited and saw him brought in and out with great ceremony. Indignation of the nuncio and other ambassadors. Audience of the Spanish agent. The stay of Mauvissière's journey to Scotland. Intelligence between Lord Seton and the Queen of Scots.
	[So far, the letter is calendared very fully in the Cecil Papers, (iii., 39), and printed in extenso in Murdin, pp. 405–409.]
	The following is added in Stafford's own hand.
	Lord Seton took leave yesterday of the Queen Mother, “not dispatched to his contentment.” He keeps the day of his departure secret, and it is thought he maybe stayed “for want.” He has begged 5,000 crowns of the King, which is promised but not yet given. I am sure the greatest things he has annoyed them with here are private matters, as of the Guard, “which they have given him fair words for, but mean not to perform.” Also he has got a pension from the Pope and another from the King of Spain.—Paris, 21 June, 1584.
	Add. Endd. 6 pp. [France XI. 146.]
	Probably enclosed in the above.
	695. An account of the funeral solemnities of the Duke of Anjou.
	He was brought from Chasteau Thierry by four hundred horsemen, conducted by Marshal Biron, to the Monastery of St. Magloire, in the suburb of St. James, “where lying in a chapel and his counterfeit upon a bed of estate, apparelled as a prince, was visited . . . of innumerable people to perform the ceremonies of casting holy water upon the church which covered the body.”
	On Sunday at evensong, the King and Queen came to the chapel, the King on a Spanish horse, “mourning in a gown of serge violet, with a square cap of the same,” attended by three princes of the blood in black, the Cardinals in violet and the Dukes in black and upon white horses. “The Queen in a litter of tawny, herself also in tawny, her gown, kirtle and attire of her head, with a long and large veil of 'cipers' [Cyprus crepe] which covered her whole body behind.” Her train borne by three princesses; all her ladies mourning in black, in black coaches with white horses. The King and Queen “cast holy water upon the body, said their devotions and so departed.”
	Order of the procession attending the body of the prince on Monday (25th n.s.) from the monastery to Notre Dame, in which also was borne his counterfeit, lying in prince's robes upon a bed of cloth of gold. And the next day, after the same manner he was carried to St. Denis and there buried, on Wednesday June 27.
	3 pp. [France XI. 147.]
June 21.	696. Stafford to Walsingham.
	Epernon's treaty with the King of Navarre was concerning Monsieur's life and death. False accusations against them of the Religion. The Duke of Guise and Cardinal Bourbon never away from each other. Counterfeit letter of the King of Navarre. Great alteration in respect to him. At first after Monsieur's death all spoke well of him; now they say that he can never be king without a change of religion. Queen Mother envenomed against the Spaniard, thinking her son's illness was begun by the matters of the Low Countries. News come that Cambray is invested. Also that the King of Spain is dead, but that Stafford will never believe “till he be rotten.”
	Bishop of Glasgow has a packet from Mauvissière, whom they keep in with to serve their turn and get intelligence from the Queen of Scots. The King mistrustful of everybody and the Queen Mother “never out of great dumps.” Her Majesty should show her great kindness and use her while she can, for she will probably not live long.—Paris, 21 June, 1584.
	[Calendared so far very fully in Report on the Cecil Papers, iii, p. 36, and printed in Murdin, pp. 409–411.]
	Postscript in Stafford's own hand.—The news of the King of Spain's death is suspected to be true. One thing that makes it probable is that “the Duke of Guise and that house are in a great dump, who ordinarily are well advertised out of that place,” yet it is too good to be believed.
	Add. Endd. 3 pp. [Ibid. XI. 148.]
June 21./July 1.	697. Carenzone to Sir Philip Sydney.
	Has written to the Secretary concerning the business he is negotiating and which he hopes by God's grace to conclude. His Excellency much valued his [Sydney's] letter and kind remembrances of Count Maurice, who is at Leyden, at his studies. Is going thither two days hence with a letter from his Excellency, to kiss the Count's hands in his worship's name, and offer him the presents as directed; his Excellency declaring that nothing could be more grateful to him than Canelli.
	Since the death of Monsieur, it is said that the Queen Mother has begun her rule, and has already reinforced the garrison at Cambray.—Delft, — July, stilo nuovo, 1584.
	Add. Endd. with date. Italian. ¾ p. [Holl. and Fl. XXII. 15.]
June 21./July 1.	698. Carenzone to Walsingham.
	After being seven days at sea, in a horrible tempest, I have reached Delft safely, and have presented the letters to his Excellency and M. de Villiers. We have discussed the matter; they excuse themselves very stoutly, saying that this debt only concerns the United Provinces as regards their quota, and they marvel that proceedings are not taken against the other provinces and towns which stand bound. I have laid before his Excellency what dangers and inconveniences will ensue if her Majesty shall resolve to accept other arrangements, and what great prejudice to the good understanding and important traffic which Antwerp and the United Provinces have with that kingdom, a safe refuge, so to speak, in these calamitous times; also how important is the advantage they derive therefrom, three fourths of that business lying in their hands, envied by all others and especially by the enemy, who seeks every occasion to divert it, thinking that if they could make an agreement with her Majesty, they would have attained their object, to confine trade within the walls of Antwerp, and by this means, cutting the communications, to throw everything into confusion and open the way to their designs; and the mere sparks would be sufficient, without the thing itself, to make a great commotion amongst the merchants, from their private fears of being distressed, and so much the more farli entrar la pulice in l'orecchio.
	I gave them to understand that I myself have been very earnestly spurred on by promises to move in the business, showing that your honour, the Earl of Leicester, Mr. Sydney and other gentlemen, having thoroughly investigated the matter, are doing everything to hinder it; and that my coming hither is not with the intention of urging them with violence, but gently to try to find a method for giving some satisfaction to her Majesty and these her confidents, and the means, if she does not mean to show herself rigorous for the whole, will be very easy.
	His Excellency listened to me very attentively, desiring that I would inform myself concerning the means, and as they found me ready, I presented them the same memorial in French which will be enclosed in this, which being read and digested, seemed not to displease them, they keeping it by them, but it is necessary for them to broach the matter to the deputies of the States, who will be here on Monday, the 9th, new style, when I am to be introduced and shall know more.
	M. de Meetkerke is here, and commends himself very warmly to your honour. He has lost all he had at Bruges; his wife and children are at Ghent. He wished me to give him a copy of the instruction left with the prince. After considering it, he gave me reason to hope, and that is the point which we are at now.
	It will be well for your honour to get ear of M. Ortell, representing to him forcibly how her Majesty is solicited, and that, if these here show themselves obstinate, those others are very well inclined, and will not fail to let it go on apace.
	If, to encourage them the more, you should cause some third person to appear in it and bring it to their notice, it could not but greatly help.
	The said Ortell talked with me for two hours before my departure, exhorting me very boldly to the undertaking, yet by what I could understand, he had not done any very good offices thoroughly, showing an indisposition to write. The same day he sent a young Englishman named Richard Gibbon, who took passage in the same ship with me, and without my knowing him, made known to me that he was sent by M. Ortell in the same cause, with a paper and a letter giving express charge to support me, and was to deliver these before I should present myself. I thought well to inform you of this that you might make use of the information if the business is not concluded on these terms. It will be a great mistake to leave it unfinished and I hope by God's grace to be able to conclude before I give it up.
	His Excellency told me that it would be well for me to know the nature of the bonds, which are the towns bound, if they are bound for one another and what are the amounts. He further said that in the event of an agreement, a letter of attorney will be necessary, which they may make for Mr. Gilpin, or whoever may be most fitting; and moreover, that her Majesty being secure of her payments, it will be needful for her, from time to time to transfer her claims, so that he may recoup himself on the same conditions that she herself might do.—Delft, 1 July, 1584, new style.
	Add. Endd. Italian. 2 pp. [Holl. and Fl. XXII. 16.]
June 21./July 1.	699. Pietro Bizarri to Walsingham.
	It would be useless to write to you of affairs in France since Monsieur's death, and of what has lately happened in Paris, your honour being already fully informed of them.
	The States have sent M. de la Mouillerie (Moglieria) and M. Asseliers, with whom goes M. des Pruneaux, his highness's ambassador, to treat with the French Crown. They are making every effort to succour Ghent, and besides the fifteen vessels laden with men and munition gone to Dermonde yesterday, there are going six or seven and twenty, laden in like manner, doubling the troops, that they may receive no harm from the enemy, who will make every effort to hinder the design.
	Count Neuenaar is said to have intercepted the succours going to Zutphen, and is besieging a fort built for its defence.
	The Elector of Saxony and other princes of the Empire have gone to a place three leagues from Mainz in order to treat together of matters concerning the welfare of the Empire. May it please God to bring it to good effect, as is desired by those who love no tyranny but good government joined to public safety and moderation, and observance of good laws.
	It is said there has been a reconciliation between this illustrious prince [of Saxony] and the sons of Duke John Frederick; that a marriage is to take place between the daughter of the illustrious prince and the first-born son of the other, and even that the Duke John Frederick will then be liberated.
	No doubt you are already fully informed of what happened some months ago in Augsburg, where, by instigation of the Jesuits, the quiet of that noble city was greatly disturbed and is still in the same state, but it is hoped the princes of the empire may remedy it.
	The new Elector of Cologne, passing through a city in Westfalia, and the people running together to see him, some boys who were dancing were arrested, but he set them free with a bounty of twenty dollars; the fame of which they have spread abroad.
	On the 7th of la t month, the enemy with two galleys, well armed, took three barques, making prisoners those who were in them, but let them go on their way again, contenting themselves with taking what they had.—Antwerp, 1 July, 1584.
	Add. Endd. Italian. 2½ pp.[Holl. and Fl. XXII. 17.]
June 22./July 2.	700. Eustace Rogghe to Walsingham.
	Having no matter worthy of offering to him, prays him to attribute his presumption in writing to his sincere affection, and to be assured that he will not repeat it unless by his honour's orders. If he be in fault, it is partly to be attributed to the ambassador, who encouraged him to venture.—Lilborck, 2 July, 1584.
	Add. Endd. Fr. 1 p.[France XI. 149.]
June 24.	701. Ortell to Walsingham.
	As the present bearer, Captain Band, is going to the Court, I send this to inform you that immediately on receiving yours in favour of Mr. Bird, I used all possible diligence to his Excellency and the States to redress his case. The other letter which you say you sent me, concerning the prohibition made by her Majesty for Flanders, I have not yet received. I pray you to refresh the memory of whoever carried it, that it may not be lost or get into the hands of others.—London, 24 June, 1584.
	Add. Endd. Fr. 1 p.[Holl. and Fl. XXII. 18.]
June 26./July 6.	702. Horatio Palavicino to Burghley.
	Your lordship will have seen the writing which I gave on the 2nd of this month to the ambassador, and by it, the plan which I propose for obtaining from this King the money which Monsieur owed to her Majesty.
	Supposing that the King will charge himself with the debt, as in honour he ought, I think the said plan may facilitate the payment not a little; seeing that a few days ago, to obtain 200,000 crowns of ready money, he bound himself in 300,000 to some Italian merchants in this city, who had accepted them for the 100,000 acquired of his old debts, both of his own reign and those of his predecessors; debts neglected and forgotten, which are not reckoned, amongst the private ones, as more than three sous per pound, or thereabouts. And for this sum of 300,000 crowns he has given them very good securities, which they receive into their own hands, in the best provinces of the kingdom; besides that upon the 200,000 crowns paid by them in ready money, they have good yearly interest, at the rate of eight or ten per cent.
	I am now in hope that the King will lend an ear to what in her Majesty's service I am intending, and if you think my proposal and zeal will be pleasing to her 1 will do my utmost to execute all that you shall be pleased to command me.—Paris, 6 July, 1584, after this style.
	Add. Endd. Italian. 1 p. [France XI. 150.]
June 27.	703. Stafford to Walsingham.
	My lord of Weemys desires me to give this gentleman—whom he wishes to send into Scotland—letters to your honour, asking you to favour him all you may. My lord is so honest, that he would not send any body who was not so also, “yet all matters that come or go from the North are now-a-days so dangerous and so fickle, as I dare commend neither matter nor man with assurance” but must leave both to your judgment.—Paris, 27 June, 1584.
	Holograph. Add. Endd. ½ p. [Ibid. XI. 151.]
June 27./July 7.	704. [Carenzone] to the States General.
	My letters of credence to his Excellency will in part have shown you the cause of my coming, which is that some, on the part of Spain, are doing their best to practise at the English Court to arrange an agreement touching what her Majesty has at several times disbursed to the provinces and towns of the Low Countries, amounting in all to the sum of 100,000 pounds. The said dealings having come to the notice of some of the chief men of her Council, they have urged me, as one who has at other times employed myself in such affairs, to come hither and lay before you what is being done, as it is certain that party does not meddle in the matter without some great design, and chiefly, by this means, entirely to prevent the business and traffic of those of Antwerp, the centre of the mercantile intercourse, with the London Bourse, and consequently with the whole of England.
	The lords most attached to the cause having discovered the whole to me, desired me to employ myself and devise means in this behalf, and to explain the whole to the Earl of Leicester, Secretary Walsingham and Sir Philip Sydney, who as your good friends have sent me to you to try to find some means to hush up the affair, before it comes to the notice of her Majesty.
	And as we are not ignorant that to demand payment with rigour would be, at this time, to ask the impossible, if you will show that you have the affair at heart, and will agree to maintain a good understanding, not turning away from the means which may be put forward to give some amount of satisfaction—for otherwise her Majesty may think that you make no account of services rendered and may disturb what you have safely in the hand—I myself shall not fail to do all in my power to find some good and easy means, grounded upon a small imposition, which being general, upon the cases of each sort of merchandise, would be so small as to be of no importance and yet produce a pretty notable sum; and as the gentlemen above named refer themselves entirely to me, I have good hope so to deport myself as to give satisfaction to both parties.
	It will be well, to this end, to join with me some intelligent person to consult with in the affair, and, please God, we shall be able to go forward with it, and in what we shall make stay of, I will undertake to procure some personage who will guarantee the whole.—Delft, 7 July, 1584, stilo novo.
	Endd. “A letter written from Delft to the States.” Fr. 2 pp. [Holl. and Fl. XXII. 19.]
June 27./July 7.	705. The Magistracy of Bruges and the Free to the Magistracy of Ghent.
	In the old times this province was renowned above all the rest, and to its ancient flourishing state it can only be restored by the ending of this unhappy war. Therefore it was well done of you to propound to the other members a reconciliation with our natural Prince as the only means to escape these miseries; we willingly joined in the communication held at Tournay with the Prince of Parma, and hoped all would have been concluded, but to our unspeakable grief, you have given up the negotiation, preferring your own particular cause before the good of the other members.
	The original of this war was to obtain, under due obedience to his Majesty, the amelioration of the rigorous plackarts touching religion, and the departure of strangers. These things being now satisfied by permission of liberty of conscience, prohibition of search of households, and consent to departure of strangers, no lawful cause remains to continue the war.
	Concerning the public exercise of a religion other than that of his Majesty, all potentates claim to have free disposition to ordain the same in their own jurisdictions, as has been shown in England and in Germany; therefore it ought not to be thought a strange thing that his Majesty also refuses the exercise of any religion but his own.
	And even presupposing the making of war well-grounded, it should only be done with likelihood of good success. Your own means are not sufficient even to pay your garrisons, much less to carry on a war. The means must be supplied by the Prince of Orange and Holland and Zeeland, who show great liberality of words and promises, but nothing more.
	Men still seek to blind you with the confederation of France, but the Duke of Anjou having done nothing when the countries were in whole estate, was not likely to do better now; and now, not only is he dead, but most part of Flanders is reduced to his Majesty's obedience.
	It may be alleged that this confederation may now be made anew with the French King, but there is no hope in the world that he would take in hand a war to maintain here a religion for the extirpation whereof he has carried on a notable war against his own subjects.
	Wherefore considering “the small, yea no hope” of help from France, England, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Zeeland or the other provinces, and, on the other side, the goodness and clemency of his Majesty, whereby we now find ourselves freed from distress and are enjoying the effect of our reconciliation, we pray you to follow our example, to come out of your grief and misery, and free yourselves from the undoing of your town, wives and children, and the loss of your privileges and liberties, to the unspeakable grief and reproaches of your successors and the dishonour of so notable a province. And if to that end you think good to have further communication with us, you shall find in the camp some of our deputies, who jointly may further the matter, to our common contentment, to better end and deliverance.—Bruges, 7 July, 1584.
	Add. Endd. Translation. 15¼ pp. [Holl. and Fl. XXII. 20.]
	[The substance of this letter is given at some length by Meteeren, book XII., f. 236.]
June 28.	706. Gilpin to Walsingham.
	Nicholas Carenzone, by whom I received your last, has gone into Holland, and will not fail to care for the direction of letters to and from your honour.
	The Malcontents, still intent on impeaching the passage from Antwerp hither, have, since their last trial with galleys, come out of Flanders towards Brussels, and with some few men took St. Barnard's and the toll house by it, where they are fortifying, so to cut off the “travail” between the two aforesaid places, in hope to win them in time.
	The greater residue of their forces, about six or seven thousand, came within half a league of Antwerp, and thence “along the ditch to Lilloo town,” led by Mondragon. They cannot much harm that fort, but may “pass over the drowned country, as in the Commendador's [Requesens'] time into Tergoes land, which to rencounter I cannot yet hear of any great preparation, only that if they possess the place, the ditch shall be cut through and so the country drowned, which . . . is so desperate an enterprise as the recovery of that island again is thought altogether impossible.”
	The Prince is coming hither in ten or twelve days, and his lodging preparing for him.
	The States of Brabant have proclaimed that whoso will serve them shall have a month's wages beforehand. The Prince of Parma is come to Bruges, where he means to reside. His soldiers, this last week, have fired four or five fair places between that town and Sluys. They of Dunkirk begin to stir abroad in small boats and have lately taken a Flushinger and a pinnace of this Admiral's. Zutphen and the fort are still besieged by Count Hollock, who lately lost a few men in an enterprise they had in hand. The enemy begins to be doing again in West Friesland, “so as no place shall be free or quiet from troubles.” It is proclaimed here this week that nothing whatever shall be carried to the enemy on pain of loss of life, ship and goods, which, if strictly observed, and no provision brought out of England (in which they hope her Majesty will assist them) the enemy will ere long be put to great distress.—Middelburg, 28 June, 1584.
	Add. Endd. 1¼ pp. [Holl. and Fl. XXII. 21.]
June 28.	707. Harborne to Walsingham.
	I might stand in doubt, right honourable, to use hereafter monthly writing continued since my hither coming to your honour, not having yet understood whether the same be acceptable, a cause rather of sufficiency to desist unto perfect intelligence of your honour's pleasure; fearing lest my rude, ragged and tedious discourses wearying your honour occupied in most grave and weighty affairs, might show me another Thirsites, not perceiving by this long silence your honour's utter misliking hereof, than still to continue my former endeavour; but contrariwise calling to memory your very heroical and most honorable amiability, whom sundry evident perfections, virtue hath therefore established in chief degree, not disdaining the dutiful endeavour of such my like, unable otherwise to express the same, but especially encouraged by the former proof of your very great and most honourable beneficence, reaped abundantly beyond expectation and above merit, hope doth nourish with courage my well willing mind that your honour had, hath and will have for accepted in favourable part my honest intention proceeding from a most faithful affection worthily conceived to your honour; so as impatient of safe silence, lest I should seem to bury my duty in oblivion, not fainting with fear proper to base minds suspecting the worst, but animated with hope never leaving virtuous hearts expecting the best, I will persist as accustomed and commend my manifold imperfections to your honour's benign pardon, certifying that happened since my last of the fifteen May.
	Notwithstanding that then it was affirmed that of the Tartar's three sons to have been murdered with him by their uncle lately placed by the Grand Signor, now upon the return of the Admiral Occhiali (Oluchelye) with Osmond bassa, it is truly said one only to have pe [ri]shed, (fn. 1) th'other two in safety under protection of the Gran Tar[tar?], denying their delivery to Osmond and the Admiral in name of the [Grand Signor] in vain demanding them for a great price whom they he . . . hereafter shall be supported by him in the just quarrel of [this ?] their paternal inheritance against the usurper thei [r uncle] placed by this forceably and at this instant quietly in [that] barbarous and poor princely throne.
	As four days past . . . Osmond bassa made his entry in triumphant manner and th[ere did ?] reverence to his master, whose present according to custom was as [is said ?] three swords, three daggers, three girdles, three Persian caps concover [ed], a saddle of silver double gilt, all these things very richly beset with all sort of jewels of great price; forty pieces of cloth of gold, one hundred garments of crimson, white and green satin, sixty fine 'calicuthes' for turbans, eighty bales of the finest unwrought silk, three score young boys from fourteen to eighteen years, of comely form, richly clad, sixteen keys of silver signifying so many munited places won of the enemy and assubjected to his master, which his present is said to exceed the value of two hundred thousand ducats, being sixty-six thousand pounds sterling, although I esteem it a third part less, knowing in such like cases the order is always to reckon with the most.
	The said Osman enjoyeth the second place after the Vizier, to the great grief and more envy of the other five bassas on the bench, contrary to the ancient canon forbidding the place to any other than those issuing out of the seraglio, of which number Osman, a Turk by father and mother, never was, but such is God's appointment or as here, after the vulgar voice, the favour his merit hath procured, that what de jure not permitted de potentia by grace is granted, so as it may be with the poet rightly said, omnia trahit secum casaris gratia bonus, though we Christianly acknowledge all chiefly of God, in whose hand be the hearts of all princes his sovereign ministers on earth directed by his holy spirit (speright).
	As eight days past a young jew of the money changers taken in adultery with a Turkish woman, corrupted with one thousand ducats the under judge of Constantinople, called Naipe, the casas bassa and cassas, after our manner a constable and his watch, and thereby escaped, but in seven or eight days after his being at liberty, one of the said officers, not contented with the part allotted to him of that bribe, revealed the same to the Cogie, Master of the Rolls, who forthwith obtained the King's warrant for the impaling of the said jew (which is thrusting a sharp pole through the body of him alive and after fixed in the earth), and the drowning of all those officers consenting to his release, which in the sight of infinite people was performed, and the woman, inclosed in an ox hide, in like manner with them perished in the water, although the whole synagogue of the jews laboured by all means possible for his delivery, which if they could have procured with a great sum of money, after the common report he had not suffered death. God grant that these heathen people at the last may stand not up to condemn Christian judges, leaving unpunished that detestable vice, whose example herein to God his glory and good discharge of their duty in England, God give them to follow, as they do most surely in Transilvania of Hungary, confining with this country, where the delict committed by either of both kinds married is without respect of person punished with death.
	It was bruited for certain that the Grand Signor was dead, where-upon some aza moglanes began to rob and spoil the shops in Constantinople, and four janissaries presumed to enter in the court and demand the sight of him, who the next day after he showed himself were privily drowned for their temerity. Notwithstanding he was in such sort visited with the falling sickness. that few about him, as it is said, thought he would have recovered, with which disease he was very ill encumbered at the first entry to his regal seat, but never since unto this present, affirmed of the most part now to have insued of too too much use with the captived young women of the old seraglia, wherin since the decease of his mother (in whose days he lived most continent) he hath beyond measure and reason delighted, sundry whereof remain with child, whose masculine progeny subject on earth to violent death by unnatural tyranny, must of force make heavy hearted and woeful mothers. Also this morning departed the Admiral, with twenty gallies to protect the islands of the Archipelago from the invasions of the Christian gallies, and safe conduct hither the Alexandria fleet, whereof the chief, a gallion of eight hundred tons, in a great tempest of wind and ill weather, riding at an anchor, was burned within the harbour of the roads by a Christian captain, seeking thereby to revenge himself on his cruel master, who like a Samson with his said master and all the men, twelve excepted, were in the ship drowned, neither any goods saved, the value whereof said truly to surmount one hundred thousand ducats.
	Since my last, we have not news out of any parts of Christendom, neither of the success in Persia, which this pursueth still by sending away new supplies, in so much as one might marvel to see their daily departure. They begin to die here very much of the plague, between which and all other diseases the vulgar sort of Turks do not put any difference, so as one being dead thereof, presently the furniture of his bed and chamber, with his apparel, is carried forth-with into the market place and bought without any questioning of such matter, they presently put upon them, and though they were warned thereof, they fear not, for that they say God hath written each man's fatal end upon his forehead, which he cannot overpass, wherefore after Martial, “frange thoros pete vina rosas cape tingere iardo ipse jubet mortis te meminisse dues.” God grant us after Ambrose “ut mors vita via sit"Thus craving pardon of my tedious prolixity and your honour's accustomed honorable favour towards my poor aged parents in their distressed occurrences, I end, committing your honour with yours to God's merciful direction and holy tuition, who ever preserve the same in all perfect felicity with increase of honour in his divine and her Majesty's favour.—Rapamat, the 28 June, 1584.
	Add. 2¼ pp. Cipher, undeciphered. [Turkey I. 22.]
June 30.	708. Geoffrey le Brumen to Walsingham.
	A man has come from Rochelle, who says that the ships which were there have met with such tempests that their masts have been broken, their provisions spoilt, and they calculate to have lost 40,000 crowns. The design is broken, for although several of them had retired, as I informed you before, yet they had set up the enterprise again, and it is believed it was for Scotland; however, the Rochellois have kept good watch.
	Monsieur has been carried to St. Denis, escorted by the stammering (begue) brother of the Prince of Conde [the Marquis de Conti]. He was brought to the faubourg St. Jacques, whither the King and his train went all in mourning to sprinkle him with holy water. The King was in violet; the Cardinals in violet robes and tawny hats lined with green.
	He has left a testament by which he commends Cambray to the King, but not the Low Countries.
	M. de Guise had a process against the Prince of Conde in the Chamber of Concord, and being present, seated himself by the President as do the princes of the blood. But the advocate of the Prince refused to plead until he left that place, and after advice taken, he was desired to go elsewhere, with great indignation. Since then the said Chamber, seeing the dissatisfaction of such great personages, has given up the cause and referred it to the Privy Council.
	It is said that the King has sent a herald to summon the King of Navarre to court, in order to declare him the second personage in France. Also that M. d'Epernon has been sleeping with the King of Navarre, or at least in his chamber, in order more readily to communicate with each other. All things are very doubtful and the people are pricking their ears to learn the issue of M. d'Epernon's coming.
	The Queen Mother is ill. The King has changed several governors. The bearer of this is a servant of Madame de Montgomeri. He goes to obtain a commission from her Majesty to revise the sentence which M. de Champernon has obtained against her, which she wishes to prove has wronged her.
	If you could persuade M. de Champernon to be reasonable, it would be a great thing, for I fear his harshness may be the cause of many evils. She has several brothers, men of quality, and with many followers, who would be apt to revenge injury done to her. You know that in France, relatives are more given to revenge their own blood than in other countries. I leave the question as to whether she has done amiss, but if it were so, it would be better to use either stronger or gentler measures, for she will easily move her relatives by the treatment which she says she has received, and which one cannot listen to without pity. She greatly desires to have the commission, and I have let her know that you will obtain it from her Majesty, and how heartily you desire to guard her rights.—London, the last of June, 1584.
	Add. Endd. Fr. 3 pp. [France XI. 152.]