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Richard Berry: Gondomar's English Catholic Adviser

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2017

Albert J. Loomie
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Extract

The embassy of don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña during the later half of the reign of James I has remained the topic of considerable debate as to its influence over the politics and attitudes of the first Stuart monarch. It is time, perhaps, to move the discussion to an opposite quarter by asking whether there were any English efforts to sway the ambassador, and if so, what impact did they have on the embassy's performance. One interesting example of this is the evidence that English Catholics approached Sarmiento upon his arrival in the summer of 1613 with a new suggestion for a closer liaison. The court of King James had been already alerted to this prospect by a letter of Sir John Digby from Madrid of the preceeding year. Here he noted that there had been dissatisfaction among the Catholics of his acquaintance over the unproductive performance of don Alonso de Velasco previously on their behalf. He offered as a forecast about his successor: ‘And hereupon it hath been held fitt, that the succeeding ambassadour who is to come shortly into England, should rather take the course of Intelligence and dependency of our English papists on the king of Spaine transferred unto him by don Pedro [de Zufiiga] then by don Alonso de Velasco …’ Digby expected that a large sum of money was to be available to the next envoy to ‘revive and reestablish the meanes of Intelligence’ that were available as before.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 47 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1971

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References

Notes

1 Carter, C., ‘Gondomar: Ambassador to James I’, Historical Journal, Vol. 7 (1964), pp. 201 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 P.R.O. S.P. 94/19/143 Digby to King James, Madrid, 1 September 1612 o.s.

3 The two that that have hitherto excited the interest of historians are the troubles occasioned by the conduct of Luisa de Carvajal, a diplomatic crisis which Sarmiento actually inherited on arrival, which has been ably appraised in Senning, C., ‘The Carvajal Affair: Gondomar and James I’, Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 56 (1970), pp. 42 ff.Google Scholar; and the dispute over the requirement to lower the Spanish flag before an English warship in Portsmouth harbour as narrated, for example, by Mattingly, G., Renaissance Diplomacy (London, 1955), pp. 262-3Google Scholar.

4 Loomie, A., ‘Sir Robert Cecil and the Spanish Embassy’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Vol. 42 (1969), pp. 36 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Duque de Alba, et. al. edd. Documentos Iniditos para la Historia de Espana (1936- ), Vol. 1, pp. 171-2 (hereafter cited Doc. hied). There was also in Sarmiento's household ‘Gaspar Grande Irlandes’, Gaspar Grant (7) an Irishman, who had previously been employed by the Count in Galicia, ibid., Vol. 1, p. 191, Vol. 2, p. 185, Vol. 3, p. 274.

6 Loomie, A., The Spanish Elizabethans (London, 1964), pp. 14–45, 108-12.Google Scholar

7 Archivo Historico National, Madrid, Estado, libro 254, fol. 98v, cedula of appointment of T. James, 4 March 1603; Sawyer, E., ed. Sir Ralph Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I (London, 1725), Vol. 1, p. 389 Google Scholar (hereafter cited Winwood, Memorials).

8 Archivo General de Simancas, Section de Estado, Legajo 2590/42 (hereafter cited E), Creswell to Lerma, 17 May 1613.

9 The Visitation of the County of Devon of the Year 1620 (London, 1872), Harleian Society. Vol. 6, p. 26.

10 See Robert Treswell's Relation of such things … observed … in the Journey of… the Earl of Nottingham in Somers Tracts, Vol. 2, pp. 70-97.

11 Winwood, Memorials, Vol. 2, p. 95.

12 P.R.O., S.P. 94/18/211V, Digby to Cecil, Madrid, 12 October 1611.

13 H.M.C. Downshire Mss., Vol. 3, p. 431, J. Sanford to W. Trumbull, Madrid, 5 December 1612.

14 E 2590/42, Creswell to Lerma, 17 May 1613.

15 E 2591/126, Creswell to Philip III, 27 October 1613.

16 E 2591/125, letters of 30 November 1613 and 4 July 1614.

17 P.R.O., S.P. 94/21/66 and 67 with depositions of June 1615.

18 E 2593/78, Sarmiento to Cirica, 16 May 1615.

19 Surviving reports that have been traced are E 2027 n. fol. ‘De una de Londres de los 8 de Mayo de 1613’; E 629 n. fol. ‘Este papel a dado don Ricardo Berri Yngles’, 2 June 1615; E 2595/66 and 67 and 91, ‘Cartas escritas a don Ricardo Berri’, April 1616.

20 E 2572/46, Philip III to Sarmiento, 7 July 1615.

21 E 2594/4, Sarmiento to Cirica, 2 July 1615; E 2594/61 Sarmiento to Lerma, 26 November 1615.

22 E 845/81, Sarmiento to Philip, London, 10 September 1615.

23 E 2514/71, consulta of 6 February 1616.

24 Doc. Ined., Vol. 1, p. 188. The sum was approximately £90.

25 E 2595/40, Sarmiento to Cirica, 1 February 1616.

26 E 2595/91, Berry to Sarmiento, 15 April 1616; Sarmiento advised Berry that he had already sought permission to return to Spain in a letter of 24 May 1616 (E libro 371 f. 24v).

27 E 2595/55, Sarmiento to Cirica, 27 April 1616.

28 E 2595/90, same to same, 20 May 1616.

29 E 2595/54, Michael Walpole to Cirica, Madrid, 27 April 1616.

30 E 2595/112, Berry to Sarmiento, Madrid, 20 May 1616 with enclosure.

31 E 845/88 consulta of 29 May 1616.

32 P.R.O., S.P. 94/22/38, Cottington to Winwood, Madrid, 12 May 1616 o.s.

33 P.R.O., S.P. 94/22/66, Cottington to Winwood, 23 September 1616 o.s. He also carried letters for Sarmiento from Cottington, which the Spaniard acknowledged in 16 October 1616 (E libro 373, f. 28).

34 E 2596/148, Gondomar to Cirica, 15 November 1617, Doc. Ined., Vol. 1, pp. 147-8.

35 E 2596/149, Creswell to Gondomar, Louvain, 21 September 1617.

36 E 2596/13, Gondomar to Cirica, 9 September 1617.

37 Doc. Ined., Vol. 1, pp. 133-41, 148-50.

38 A. Loomie, ‘Bacon and Gondomar: An Unknown Link in 1618’, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 21 (1968), pp. 1-10.

39 Ghent, Archives d'Etat, Mss. Jesuites, liasse 74/264, Letter of'Adrian Collier’ to Creswell, 15 June 1618.

40 For the period of January 1618 to April 1619, Berry received a payment of 1100 reales, approximately £27. (Doc. Ined., Vol. 2, p. 187). Cottington wrote from Madrid: ‘Baldwin the Jesuite is newly come hither and come instantly to me, he speaks well of his Majestie and professeth with great oathes much affection to his service …’ (P.R.O., S.P. 94/23/219, Cottington to Naunton, 21 June 1619 o.s.).

41 Doc. Ined., Vol. 2, p. 122, letter of 28 January 1619.

42 ‘Ricardus Phillippus’, Palacio Real, Madrid, Manuscritos, Vol. 2165, Sr Clara Mariana to Gondomar, Gravelines, undated ca. September 1618. For Mother Maryann Tyldsley, 3rd Abbess of the Convent, see C.R.S., Vol. 14, p. 36

43 E 2515/94, ‘Relacion de Estado de las Pensiones …’ undated, ca. 30 April, 1622, covering the period from 1 January 1620.

44 W. Prynne, Hidden Workes of Darkness (London, 1645, Wing 3973), pp. 191-2.

45 E 3590/40, Berry to Lerma, undated, ca. May 1613.

46 S. Gardiner ed. ‘The Earl of Bristol's Defence of his Negotiations in Spain’, Camden Miscellany VI, (London, 1871), Camden Society, Series I, Vol. 104, pp. 4-5.

47 Doc. Ined., Vol. 1, pp. 158-9 Sarmiento to Philip, London, 30 December 1617.