Venice: May 1582 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 8, 1581-1591. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1894.

Citation:

'Venice: May 1582', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 8, 1581-1591, ed. Horatio F Brown( London, 1894), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol8/pp34-36 [accessed 25 November 2024].

May 1582



May 4. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives.	82. Giovanni Moro, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
	The Duke of Alençon has taken Alost, a small but important position between Brussels and Ghent. The Prince of Parma is pressing the siege of Oudenard. Don Antonio is in Tours.
	Paris, 4th May 1582.
	[Italian.]
May 14. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives.	83. Matheo Zane, Venetian Ambassador in Spain, to the Doge and Senate.
	As regards my conversation with the Cardinal (de Granvelle) about the provisions taken for Flanders, I have nothing to say to your Serenity, because in part I have told you already, and in part yon will be informed from a better source. This only I will not omit, that the Queen of England intends to oppose the Duke of Alençon vigorously, and will prevent his landing in the islands, as she does not desire French influence to increase there. In this she is acting with his Catholic Majesty, whose interests and hers coincide.
	Madrid, 14th May 1582.
	[Italian; deciphered.]
May 18. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives.	84. Giovanni Moro, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
	The Queen of England has renewed her negotiations with the King of France on the subject of her marriage with Monsieur. She is supposed to have done so with a view to divert Monsieur from his operations in Flanders, which she does not like; she has helped him so far not in order that he might become powerful there, but solely to annoy the Catholic King. And seeing that the Prince of Orange, who is ill-pleased with the Queen because he has not been able to obtain the succours he desired and expected, has persuaded the population not merely to accept Monsieur but to allow him to place French garrisons in five or six fortresses, and fearing that this will be prejudicial the Queen has again raised the question of her marriage in order to tempt Monsieur once more to England, and to cause him to waste the summer in idleness.
	They say the Queen is ever in treaty with the Spanish Ambassador on this subject, and has published an edict condemning in property and life those who assist or encourage the Catholics. There is greater suspicion now than at first. Eugenio Pennachi, a Cypriote, requested a passport from the English Ambassador here, and was openly told that he must provide a guarantee from some well known person that he did not harbour evil designs against the Queen.
	The Prince of Orange does not recover. He is very weak. The doctors forbid anyone to visit him for fear of causing the wound to open again.
	The troops of Monsieur de Brisac, who is in service of Don Antonio, have embarked for Belleisle, where the fleet is to gather.
	Paris, 18th May 1582.
	[Italian.]
May 22. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives.	85. Giovanni Moro, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
May 22. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives.	I send your Serenity the proclamation of the Queen of England, translated into Italian.
Enclosed in preceding Despatch.	86. A Proclamation to denounce the Jesuit Traitors. (fn. 1)
	The Queen's most Excellent Majesty,
	We have been informed that certain societies and congregations known as Seminarists and Jesuits, have been created by the Bishop of Rome, not only in the city of Rome but also in the dominions of other Princes, and more especially in the countries subject to this Crown, with a view to nursing them and bringing them up in false and corrupt doctrines, until, by their persuasions, many of our subjects have actually been perverted and corrupted in their religion, and induced to withdraw from their allegiance to her Majesty, their natural Sovereign. By special decree of the Pope the Jesuits have been made the instruments of many a treason tending not merely to raise rebellions, which by the grace of God and the prudence and good government of her Majesty have been forestalled, but also to the peril of her royal person.
	Her Majesty, perceiving the dangers which may be brought about by such treasonable actions, has made proclamation to her subjects, dated from Westminster, January 10, as follows:—
	Whoever, after the publication of this proclamation, shall harbour, maintain, succour, or support any Jesuit or Seminarist, priest, or other person, shall be held to be of that way of thinking, and of that perverse condition.
	Likewise all who at the time of this proclamation shall have in their houses such persons, and shall not lead them before the nearest justice, shall themselves be had before justice, and shall suffer such punishment as shall seem fit for their demerits, and shall be esteemed and held to be the accomplices of rebels and seditious persons, and shall be punished for their disobedience. And although exemplary punishment overtook those who despised and neglected this proclamation of her Majesty's pleasure, still certain of these traitors, to wit, Edmund Campion, Jesuit, Rudolf Sernum (? Ralph Sherwin), and John Bryant, seminary priests, disguised, and in secret having passed through this country, and being discovered, have been, with others like them, tried and condemned. Therefore her Majesty, perceiving that through the obstinate malignity of some, and the ignorant opinion of others, neither the proclamation nor the exemplary punishment has produced that reform which she desires; and considering that certain perverse minds have lately tried to prove, in letters and in books, that these traitors have suffered unjustly, it is deemed expedient to declare to all her Majesty's subjects that the Queen and her Council had absolute proof from their own letters and their confessions that the rising in Ireland was due to such as they, Jesuits and Seminarists, sent by the Pope; and that the real object of these people is not only to prepare the way for a foreign invasion, but to deprive of her Crown, dignity, and life, the Queen under whom, thanks to divine assistance, this realm has been so long and so happily governed and preserved in abundance of all kinds of goods, and in peace and tranquillity. And considering the great evils which would follow were such attempts not rigorously punished, and that none may plead ignorance in excuse, her Majesty now declares that all Jesuits, Seminarists, and such like who come secretly to her kingdom, are to be held for traitors by all her subjects; and all those who wittingly harbour, lodge, assist, comfort, and maintain a Jesuit or Seminarists, are to be held as traitors. And all those who have in their houses now such persons, and delay to convey them to the nearest justice that they may be put in prison to answer for their doings, shall be arrested and tried as an accomplice of traitors.
	Further, her Majesty commands that none of her subjects shall allow children or wards to leave the country without special license from her Majesty. All subjects who are in seminaries abroad are to return within three months.
	Dated Greenwich, 1st April, 24th year of our reign.
	Long live the Queen.
	[Italian.]