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‘Well Disposed to the Affairs of Spain?’ James VI & I and the Propagandists: 1618–16241

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Roberta Anderson
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Extract

In any study of the pamphlet literature of the later years of the reign of James VI & I it becomes impossible to distinguish between the dislike felt by his subjects for the Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count Gondomar (1617), and disgust at any proposed alignment between England and Spain. It is clear that hatred for Spain was so deeply ingrained in the English psyche that it could be revived at any time and, if proof of this is needed, one only has to examine the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda literature which flourished around the time of the proposed ‘Spanish Match’. In the first instance this paper will discuss the genre in general and this will be followed by a more detailed examination of the work of Thomas Scott and Thomas Middleton.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 2001 , pp. 613 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2001

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Footnotes

1

Title taken from a letter from Julian Sanchez de Ulloa, Gondomar’s secretary who was left in charge of the embassy after the ambassador’s return home in July, 1618, to Philip III, 20th July, 1618 Simancas, E2598, fol. 81.

References

Notes

2 Gondomar was born, around 1567, in the Spanish province of Galicia where his ancestors had been Adelantados or lords-lieutenant. In 1593, family influence and distinguished service contributed to his being made a Knight Companion of the Order of Calatrava, and in 1600 he was appointed Corregidor of Toro, in the province of Leon. Over the next ten years he rose still higher until in 1610 he was made Governor of Bayona. A devoted servant of Philip III and a fervent believer in the Catholic crusade, he was appointed ambassador to the King of England in 1613. A discussion of his life and career can be found in Anderson, R., Foreign Diplomatic Representatives to the Court of James VI & I, chp. 4 (UWE, PhD Thesis, 2000)Google Scholar. Haro, A. L. de, El nobiliario Geneologico de los Reyes y Titulos de España (Madrid, 1622)Google Scholar is the earliest biography of Sarmiento. Lyon, F. H., Diego de Sarmiento de Acuña: Conde de Gondomar (Oxford, 1910)Google Scholar is little more than a retelling of the traditional assumptions about the ambassador. Villa-Urrutia, W. R. de, Villa-Urrutia, Marques de, La Embajada del Conde De Gondomar Á Inglaterra en 1613 (Madrid, 1913)Google Scholar is, again, a retelling of the traditions and is based on the work of Lyon. Sanchez-Canton, F. J., Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar, 1567–1626 (Madrid, 1935)Google Scholar, pays little heed to Gondomar’s English embassies, the only events in his life which make him of historical interest. Carter, C. H., ‘Gondomar: Ambassador to James I’, Historical Journal. Vol. 7 (1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Senning, C., ‘The Carvajal Affair: Gondomar and James I’, Catholic Historical Review, vol. 56 (1970)Google Scholar and the various articles and papers on Anglo-Spanish relations in the period by Loomie, A. J. S.J. are worth attention. The most modern biography of any distinction is Oro, J. G., Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña; Conde de Gondomar y Embajador de España (Xunta de Galicia, 1997)Google Scholar a composite biography of Gondomar taken from Lyons, Goodman, and Oro; the most recent research on Gondomar’s involvement in English politics is Pursell, B. C., ‘James I, Gondomar and the Dissolution of the Parliament of 1621’, History, vol. 85, no. 279 (July 2000), pp. 428–445 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For the background to the involvement of Spain and her ambassadors in the affairs of the English Catholics see Loomie, A. J., Spain and the Early Stuarts, 1585–1655 (Variorum, 1996)Google Scholar which reprints several of his articles on the subject and Spain and the Jacobean Catholics, Catholic Record Society, vol. Nos. 64, 68 (1973/78); see also W. S. Maltby, The Black Legend in England: the development of anti-Spanish sentiment, 1558–1660, chp. 8.

4 There are several publications which examine the relationship between Gondamar and James and which discuss James’s desire for a Spanish marriage for his son. See Lee, M., ‘James I and the Historians; Not a Bad King After All?’ Albion, vol. 16, p. 151, (1984 CrossRefGoogle Scholar); Carter, C. H., ‘Gondomar: Ambasador to James I’, Historical Journal, 7, pp. 189–208, (1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mattingly, G., Renaissance Diplomacy, chp. 26, (1965)Google Scholar; Peck, L. Levy (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, (1991)Google Scholar; Houston, S. J., James I, 2nd ed. (1995)Google Scholar; ‘James VI & I: Two Kings or One?, History, vol. 68, pp. 187–209, (1983)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Senning, C., ‘The Carvajal Affair: Gondomar and James I’, Catholic Historical Review, vol. 56, (1970 Google Scholar); Pursell, B. C., ‘James I, Gondomar and the Dissolution of the Parliament of 1621’, History, vol. 85, no. 279, (July, 2000), pp. 428–445 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; W. B. Patterson, King James VI & I and the Reunion of Christendom, (1997); R. Lockyer, James VI & I, (1998).

5 Philip’s interest in the English Catholics was first demonstrated by his continuation of his father’s generosity to the religious refugees in Spain. Funds were placed at the disposal of the colleges of Valladolid, Seville, Douai and St. Omer for the support of English students and orders given for pensions to be paid to the new English exiles arriving at the seminaries in a steady stream. It was these English refugees who were writing the apologia, theological and devotional tracts that were to become a large part of the recusant literature of the seventeenth century.

6 Both the pamphleteers and the clergy were vociferous in their condemnation of James’s perceived support for his Catholic subjects and his ‘fatal attraction’ for the Spanish ambassador and his master Philip.

7 T. Scott, Vox Populi (1620), pp. 4–5

8 T. Scott, Vox Populi; J. Gee, The foot out of the Snare, (1624); T. Robinson, Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbon, (1622).

9 Lake, P., ‘Anti-popery: the Structure of a Prejudice,’ in Conflict in Early Stuart England (ed.) Cust, R. & Hughes, A. (1989), p. 77 Google Scholar.

10 J. Foxe, Actes and Monuments of these latter and perilous dayes touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great persecutions & horrible troubles, that haue bene wrought and practised by the Romishe prelates, speciallye in this Realme of England and Scotlande, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande, unto the tyme nowe present/Gathered and collected according to the true copies and wrytinges certificatorie as wel of the parties themselues that suffered, as also out of the Bishops Registers, which wer the doers therof, by Iohn Foxe (1563).

11 This idea is discussed in Cogswell, T., The Blessed Revolution, English Politics and the Coming of War, 1621–1624, (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar.

12 C. Hill, Antichrist in Seventeenth Century England, (1971). p. 4.

13 Halliwell, J. O. (ed.). The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, (1945) vol. 1, pp. 161–162 Google Scholar.

14 Scott, Vox Populi, pp. 16–17.

15 T. Cogswell, The Blessed Revolution, p. 27.

16 PRO. SP 14/118, Locke to Carleton, April, 1622.

17 The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, p. 219.

18 Gardiner, S. R., The History of England, from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War (1883-1890), vol. 4, p. 347 Google Scholar.

19 Maclure, M., The Paul’s Cross Sermons 1559–1829 (Toronto, 1958), pp. 103–104 Google Scholar.

20 J. Everard, The Gospel-Treasury opened: or The Holiest of all unvailing: discovering yet more the riches of Grace and Glory . . . in several sermons . . . (1659); Notes and Queries, 2nd series, no. 107 (January, 1858), pp. 49–50; CSP Domestic, 1619–1623, p. 294.

21 Description of Ward’s caricature, BL Harleian MSS 389, fol. 13.

22 Wright, L. B., ‘Propaganda Against James I’s “Appeasement” of Spain.’ Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 6, (1942-1943), p. 155 Google Scholar.

23 T. Taylor, Mappe of Rome, (1619), p. 2

T. Jackson, Judah must into captivitie (1622), pp. 41, 96.

24 DNB. Thomas Scott BD.

25 Scott, Vox Populi, pp. 10–11, p. 74, pp. 50–51.

26 4th December, 1620. CSP Venetian, 1619–1621, vol. 16, no. 644, p. 491.

27 The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, pp. 158–160; PRO. SP 14/118, Thomas Locke to Carleton, 3rd Dec, 1620, notes that Gondomar had demanded a strong guard for his protection.

28 Scott, Vox Populi, pp. 10–11.

29 Scott, Vox Populi, p. 74.

30 Scott, Vox Populi, pp. 50–51.

31 Scott, T., ‘Robert Earl of Essex’s Ghost; sent from Elysium (1624), Harleian Miscellany. Vol. 5 (1765) p. 222 Google Scholar.

32 In 1610 William Camden set the historiography for Elizabeth’s reign. He stressed the problems that Elizabeth had inherited and credited her with the solutions to these problems. Elizabeth was seen as frugal, moderate and wise, inspiring her nation to greatness. Throughout his reign James was to be compared with his predecessor and was called upon to show a more militant front to the world. Unlike James, Elizabeth had a strong government, she had fended off challenges from the House of Commons and from dangerous elements among her Catholic and Puritan subjects. But most importantly she had defended her realm from the crushing and insidious might of Catholic Spain—qualities the English found it difficult with which to credit James.

33 Scott, Essex, p. 219.

34 Ibidem.

35 See K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, (1978), pp. 701–718.

36 T. Scott, The second part of Vox Populi, or Gondomar appearing in the likenes of Matchiauell in a Spanish parliament: wherein are dicouered his treacherous & subtile practises to the ruine as well of England, as the Netherlandes (1624).

37 T. Scott, The second part of Vox Populi, p. 16.

38 See Wright, L. B., ‘Propaganda against James I’s “Appeasement” of Spain,’ Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. Vii, (1942-1943), p. 163 Google Scholarn.

39 R. Cotton, A Choice Narrative of Count Gondomar’s Transactions during his Embassy in England (1659). Reprinted in 1679 as A Narrative of the Wicked Plots carried on by Seignior Gondomore for Advancing the Popish Religion and the Spanish Faction. Heartily recommended to all Protestants by Rich. Dugdale, gent. p. 10.

40 Cotton, p. 11.

41 Cotton, p. 13.

42 Cotton, pp. 18–19.

43 Cotton, p. 19.

44 T. Scott, ‘Vox Coeli. Or newes from heaven. Of a consulation there held by the high and mighty princes, King Hen. 8, King Edw. 6, Prince Henry, Queene Mary, Queene Elizabeth, and Queen Anne, wherein Spaines ambition and treacheries to most kingdomes and free estates of Europe, are unmasked and truly represented, but more perticularly towards England, and now more especially vnder the pretended match of Prince Charles, with the Infanta Dona Maria’ (1624) Somers Tracts, vol. 2, pp. 564–581.

45 Scott, Vox Coeli, p. 580.

46 ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ghost: or England’s Forewarner.’ (1626), Harleian Miscellany (1765), vol. 5, p. 55 Google Scholar.

47 Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ghost, pp. 59, 56.

48 Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ghost, p. 55.

49 Scott, Vox Coeli, pp. 567, 569.

50 ‘Tom Tell-troath: or a Free discourse Touching the Manners of the Time, Directed to His Majesty’ (1622), in Harleian Miscellany (1809), vol. 3, p. 428 Google Scholar.

51 Tom Tell-troath, pp. 438, 444.

52 Tom Tell-troath, pp. 431, 437.

53 Wright, L. B., ‘Propaganda Against James I’, Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 6, 1942-1943, p. 171 Google Scholar.

54 On the disputed authenticity of this petition see Wagner, B. M., ‘A Middleton Forgery’, PQ 14 (1935), pp. 287–288 Google Scholar.

55 Wright, L. B., ‘A Game at Chess’, Times Literary Supplement, 16th February, 1928, p. 112 Google Scholar.

56 Heinemann, M., Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama under the Early Stuarts, (Cambridge, 1980), p. 166 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Cogswell, T., ‘Thomas Middleton and the Court, 1624: A Game at Chess in context,’ Huntington Library Quarterly, no. 42, (1984), p. 275 Google Scholar.

58 J. Limon, Dangerous Matter: English Drama and Politics, 1623–1624, (1986), pp. 2, 98.

59 Howard-Hill, T. H., ‘Political Interpretations of A Game at Chess.’ Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 21, 1991. p. 283 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Middleton, T., A Game at Chess (ed.) Bald, R. C., (Cambridge, 1929), IV. iv, ll., 14–16Google Scholar; The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, pp. 216–217; M. A. de Dominis, Second Manifesto wherein he publicly repenteth and setteth down the cause of his leaving England and all Protestant Countries (1623).

61 Sir Toby Mathew. Sometime Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of York. An indefatigable preacher. Converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Jesuit, ordained 1614. Bellenger, Priests, p. 86. See also D. Matthew’s biography.

62 Both cited in Bald’s, R. C. edition of the play, A Game at Chess (Cambridge, 1929), p. 159 Google Scholar.

63 McClure, N. E. (ed.) Memoirs XII: The Letters of John Chamberlain, 2 vols, (Philadelphia, 1939), vol. 2, pp. 577–578 Google Scholar.

64 Several plays were produced in the early years of James’s reign that poked fun at individuals and events at court. James’s indiscriminate awards of knighthoods to Scots, his fondness for Scots favourites and his personal habits were sensitive issues which led to several playwrights finding themselves in gaol.

65 Middleton, T., A Game at Chess (ed.) Bald, R. C. (III. i. 11. 125)Google Scholar.

66 Conway to the Council. PRO SP 14/171 12th August, 1624.

67 Conway to the Council. PRO SP 14/171 12th August, 1624.

68 Howard-Hill, T., ‘Political Interpretations of A Game at Chess ’. Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 21, 1991, p. 278 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 PROSP 14/171 12th August, 1624.

70 J. Gee, The foot out of the snare (1624).

71 Gee had himself been a temporary convert to Rome. PRO SP 14/96/51. Loomie, A. J., Spain and the Jacobean Catholics, CRS (1978), vol. 68, pp. 104–106 Google Scholar.

72 J. Gee, The foot out of the snare, p. 9. See also Questier, M. C., ‘John Gee: Archbishop Abbot, and the use of Converts from Rome in Jacobean Anti-Catholicism.’ Recusant History, vol. 21, no. 3. May, 1993, p. 347 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 J. Gee, The foot out of the snare, pp. 13, 46–47

74 T. Robinson, Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbon (1622) pp. 3, 16.

75 See J. Carey, John Donne Life, Mind and Art (1990) for a discussion of Donne’s apostasy and the effect this had on his writings.

76 Healy, T. S. (ed.), John Donne, Ignatius His Conclave, (Oxford, 1969), p. 41–42 Google Scholar.

77 J. Limon, Dangerous Matter, p. 59.

78 Satirical ballad from the Harleian MSS in The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, pp. 233–234.

79 Cogswell, T., ‘England and the Spanish Match’, in Cust, R. and Hughes, A. (eds.) Conflict in Early Stuart England (1989), p. 113 Google Scholar.

80 Mattingly, G., Renaissance Diplomacy (Harmondsworth, 1955), p. 262 Google Scholar.

81 Firth, C. H., ‘The Ballad History of the Reign of James I’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5 (1911), pp. 53–54 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82 Larkin, J. F. & Hughes, P. L., Stuart Royal Proclamations (1973), vol. I, p. 599 Google Scholar.

83 By the King. A Proclamation against the disorderly printing, uttering, and dispersing of bookes, pamphlets, &c. (1623) (STC 8714); see also Davies, G., ‘English Political Sermons, 1603–1640’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 3 (1939), p. 6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 By the King. A proclamation against seditious, popish, and puritanical books and pamphlets. (15th August, 1624) (STC 8736); see Larkin, J. F. & Hughes, P. L., Stuart Royal Proclamations, vol. 1, p. 599 Google Scholar.