Simancas: July 1585 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 3, 1580-1586. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1896.

Citation:

'Simancas: July 1585', in Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 3, 1580-1586, ed. Martin A S Hume( London, 1896), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol3/pp539-543 [accessed 27 November 2024].

July 1585



9 July. Paris Archives, K. 1448, 22.	397. The King to Bernardino De Mendoza. With regard to the proposals made to you about England by Geronimo de Gondi, and subsequently by Secretary Villeroy, contained in your letter to me of 7th ultimo, I may say that although their observations with regard to England do not lack plausibility, there is much artifice behind them all. They would like by this means to free themselves from the pressure in which they are, and embark us upon a business which they who suggest it would afterwards prevent, unless we took very good care to hold pledges in our hands of greater value than their fair words. It would not have been bad, when they proposed it, and asked you what money and forces I intended to employ in the enterprise, if you had sounded their intentions a little deeper, by asking them a similar question, and had tried to get at what they were willing to contribute. You might have said that you could hardly ask me the question without giving me that information. In the present state of the business, however, it will be best for you to tell them that my answer was to greatly praise the King's zeal in desiring to bring England to submit to God's law, and I am no less wishful of a thing so signally in the interests of our Lord, which I have never neglected. As, however, I am informed he has not yet consulted the Queen-mother upon the subject, and I have so high an opinion of her wisdom and advice if she agreed with the King, and I know the difficulties the matter would encounter if she disagreed with him, I think that it will be advisable for the King to consult his mother first. If she approves of it, they who before they proposed such a thing will naturally have considered it well in all its bearings, will be able to lay before you in detail their plans for the enterprise, the number of troops and ships, and the proportion of money and forces they propose to furnish, the commander who should be entrusted with the enterprise, the ports of rendezvous for the fleet, and if the latter should make a combined or divided attack, because in so serious a matter the fullest detail must be provided. When I know what they propose and what they expect me to do, I can reply to them better and more fully than I can now that my knowledge is limited to their good wishes, in which as you know I entirely concur. You will say so much, and pledge yourself to no more, and will try to get at their real feelings. If they seem straightforward enough for me to trust to their words, and afterwards to their help in carrying the matter through jointly, you well know how earnestly I desire the conversion of England. But I am forced by experience to expect from them quite a contrary course, and it is necessary that we should proceed with great care and circumspection with them. It was well to inform Muzio of all they said, and you will tell him that, if they try to draw him into this proposal, and perhaps suggest that he may lead it, he had better consider the matter deeply, for it will never be safe for him to leave France until he has first dispersed his rivals and broken the Huguenots. In any other case, as soon as his back is turned, the King and they (i.e. the Huguenots) will seize all he now possesses, and he, who knows so well the humours of his countrymen, will be the best judge as to whether the men who make this proposal are moved solely by Christian fervour or by more interested motives of their own profit and Muzio's prejudice, which is evidently the case. Report to me how they both take it.—Monzon, 9th July 1585.
11 July. Paris Archives, K. 1448. 49.	398. The King to Bernardino De Mendoza. In the margin : For Lord Paget and his brother Charles 150 crowns ; idem for Charles Arundel 80 crowns, Thomas Throgmorton 40 crowns." You are already aware that, having regard to the rank and parts of Lord Paget and his brother Charles, and considering that they are fugitives from their home and country for the sake of religion, I ordered Juan Bautista de Tassis in September last, 1584, to continue to pay these allowances, namely, to Lord Paget 100 crowns a month, and 50 to his brother Charles. I understand that this has not been done, and they petition me to have the allowances duly paid. I have granted this, and now order you to have them paid from the day the grant was made, and that in future the same allowances are to be paid regularly until contrary orders come from me, and the sums should be included in your account of extraordinary expenditure, which with their receipts shall be a good discharge for you. I have given strict orders to this effect, and no difficulty shall be raised about crediting you with the amounts.
15 July.	399. Count De Olivares to the King. As I had been informed that Cardinal d'Este (fn. 1) had caused the Pope to be told that it would be advisable for him to endeavour to have these forces in France united, for the purpose of undertaking the enterprise of England and placing the crown on the head of the king of Scotland, and as the Pope had subsequently conferred on the subject with Cardinal Sanzio and Baudemont, I thought necessary to go and speak to his Holiness about it, and point out to him how untimely this discussion was, whilst the heretics were still unexpelled from France. I said that the only aim of the proposal was to divert matters from France, and that Cardinal d'Este had no other object than to cool his goodwill towards helping these princes (the Guises?), who could only accede to this wish of his Holiness by turning their backs for ever on the task of expelling the heretics from France, and, indeed, by themselves becoming exiles, as in their absence the heretics, with the help of the king of France, would seize the government and afterwards support the queen of England. I also told him that when affairs in France and Flanders were settled it would be time enough to think about England, and that, in any case, Cardinal d'Este was a bad intermediary in the matter, as also was the king of France, who is now in favour of the queen of England, but that the duke of Guise, being the first cousin of the queen of Scotland, would be the fitting person. I also pointed out to him the small assurance that exists about the king of Scotland's religion, and how much safer it would be to place his mother the Queen in possession of the Crown, and I said that the more earnestness his Holiness showed in favouring and aiding the Catholic Princes of France, the more speedily would matters in that country be settled, and the sooner could the English affair be undertaken. He recognised the soundness of all these arguments, and I thought he seemed ashamed that it had come to my knowledge that he had moved so unreflectingly in the matter, so I did not dwell upon it.— Rome, 15th July 1585.
16 July. Paris Archives, K. 1563. 92.	400. Bernardino De Mendoza to the King. Since my last advices of 30th ultimo, I hear that the queen of Scotland has had assigned to her the houses of Borton and Beaudesert in the county of York, which were formerly the property of Lord Paget, and all the furniture in them has been given to her. Paulet declined to accept the oath binding himself to the custody of the Queen, unless all the gentlemen suspected of Catholicism were expelled the county. This was done, and I enclose herewith the articles adopted in parliament relative to the Queen of Scotland. The delegates from the Dutch rebels were already on the way back with their answer, which was to the effect that the Queen would help them with 10,000 men and would send Lord Grey as Governor. She told them that, even if France would not aid them, she would do so, and in such a way as would prevent your Majesty from ever subduing them, and that henceforward she would do so undisguisedly. Four thousand of these men were nearly ready to leave under Colonel Norris, and would go across at the same time as the delegates. It was said in London that the reason for sending them so hastily, was in order that they should arrive in time to succour Antwerp, and although the rumour is current here that they have arrived at Bergen-op-Zoom, I do not credit it. I also hear that Drake has sailed from the west country with some ships of the fleet to meet the Indian flotillas belonging to your Majesty. All advices concur in the fact of his sailing, but they differ in the number of his ships—some say 30, whilst the smallest number mentioned is 12—two of which belong to the Queen. The latter account is the most probable, but I cannot obtain positive information in consequence of the loss of Pedro de Zubiaur. The Queen, not satisfied with arresting the principal Catholics, has disarmed the whole of them throughout the country, and no one now dares to write, so that until this fury passes away I have to do my best to discover what the French ambassador writes hither, in order to send information to your Majesty. The earl of Northumberland, who was a prisoner in the Tower, has killed himself, according to the account written by Secretary Walsingham, who says that he asked his guard for a pistol loaded with three bullets. This is very hard to believe, for those who know how strictly prisoners are kept there, and that the guards are not allowed even to give them their food without the intervention of the constable, especially in the case of so important a person as the Earl, to whom they certainly would not have dared to give arms. It is therefore concluded, from the fact that he was found with three bullet wounds, that the thing has been managed by the councillors, and it is to be feared that they may do the same thing to the earl of Arundel and other Catholic prisoners, who are now very numerous, having regard to their discovery six months ago that poison had been given to the earl of Shrewsbury, and, as I am told, to this earl of Northumberland as well. The poison, however, was so slow in its action that the Catholic physician Harchilo (Harpsfield), who is now in prison, was able to cure them and told them both that their malady was poison. The earl of Northumberland had three sons here being brought up in a christian way. They report from Scotland that the King was expecting an ambassador from the king of Denmark, who was coming to discuss an alliance with the queen of England and other protestant sovereigns, and under this pretext bring about a marriage between the daughter of the king of Denmark and the king of Scotland, Edward Wotton the English ambassador in Scotland was still there, and was said to be endeavouring to get the King openly to take the rebels of Holland and Zeeland under his protection, the queen of England offering him great assistance if he will consent to this.—Paris, 16th July 1585.
23 July. Paris Archives, K. 1448. 25.	401. The King to Bernardino De Mendoza. In one of your letters of 21st ultimo, I note the intelligence from England, and beg you to continue to send news on every occasion, as nothing comes from there now except through you. Report especially whether Drake's or any other fleet has sailed, and, if so, with what number of ships and men, since Raleigh's return to France. You will inform me, if you can ascertain it, whether the lieutenant-governor of Biscay, whom the ship "Primrose" carried off from the bar of Portugalete, arrived in England alive, and what effect was produced on the Queen, her Council and the rest of them, by the seizure of English ships and property in Biscay and Guipuzcoa, until we see what amends they make for so grave an offence.— Monzon, 23rd July 1585.