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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
page 58 note 1 It will be noted that it was in the house of Lopez de Aldaya that Cole was put to torture and confessed to being an Englishman, after his arrest by the Governor. In the Canaries, as elsewhere, torture was part of the machinery of the civil law.
page 62 note 1 John Phillips, an English merchant, was really Mayor of Plymouth, but, oddly enough, not till 1593–4, later than the date of this confession. (Worth, History of Plymouth, p. 128.) Possibly “ Mayor ” is a mistake for Alderman. Whoever Bartholomew Cole may have been, he was evidently well acquainted with west country trade; much of the information he gives is corroborated from other sources. Possibly he may have been related to Richard Cole, who was Mayor of Bristol in 1586. (Latimer, Sixteenth Century Bristol, p. 85.)
page 63 note 1 Owing to molestations of his subjects by the Cossacks, the Sultan was at this date preparing to invade Poland. England, however, had trade relations with Poland, receiving thence corn, gunpowder, timber, ordnance, etc., and on these grounds, among others, Elizabeth appealed to the Porte in favour of the King of Poland. The English Ambassador at Constantinople at this time was Edward Barton, who had replaced William Harborne after 1588. His mission was successful; the Sultan made peace, as he declared, at Elizabeth's desire. (Hakluyt Voyages, Hakluyt Soc. ed., vol. vi, p. 69, et seq.; also Ven. St. P. Cal., Nos. 946 and 947.) In fact, England and the Porte were drawn together by their common hostility to Spain. As far back as 1586 the Turks had been provoked by the Spanish occupation of Perim. This enabled Spain to command the route from the Indies to Cairo and so threaten the Pilgrims Road to Mecca. (Cal. Ven. St. P., No. 385.) About the same time the Grand Vizier was said to have been much impressed by England's success against Spain. (Ib., No. 330, p. 147.) Meantime the Spanish annexations of Portugal had rendered Turkish trade more important to England in proportion as the latter's commerce was injured in other directions. Thus both economically and politically England and the Porte had interests in common, and this the Sultan so far acknowledged that in 1591 he promised to send a fleet of three hundred vessels against the coasts of Spain. (Letters of Sultan to Elizabeth. Ven. St. P. Cal, No. 999.)
page 64 note 1 A warrant was issued on October 10, 1590, to pay Thomas Wilcocks £200 for bringing letters from Turkey, Poland, and other parts. (Cal. St. P. Dom.)
page 64 note 2 Appendix F.
page 65 note 1 This does not sound a very likely project, even in that era of companies. The ground was already covered by the company of merchants trading to Spain and Portugal, which was very hard hit, not only by the war, but by their multitude of smuggler rivals. Where this company could not succeed, another was little likely to have a chance; an open organized trade could easily be suppressed, whereas trade by a multitude of individuals, any one of whom might be ruined without involving the others, was practically irrepressible. At the same time, trade to the Azores was sufficiently important to tempt persons desirous of a monopoly. In 1584 a very large part of English trade with Portuguese possessions had been with the Azores; the staple of the exports thither was, as usual, cloth; the returns were in sugar and green woad. The trade to the islands, as elsewhere, was hampered by the war; yet in 1592 it was declared that “ under the names of Scots and Frenchmen they (the English) have continuall trade there ” (Purchas, , Pilgrims, vol. xviii, p. 362.)Google Scholar; a circumstance which may have encouraged “ Arthur Hussey ” in his project.
page 69 note 1 Spragg and Munday both appear to have been Chard names, though we have not been able to identify the individuals. (See Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. xxviii, pt. II, pp. 36–7Google Scholar; Emanuel Green, The Manor of Chard.) The activity of these little west country ports in sixteenth century trade is notorious. Traces of Lyme's trade both with Brittany and the Azores appears in the Domestic State Papers, Eliz., vol. 233, No. 39; ib. Calendar, 1590, p. 647, No. 65.
page 70 note 1 It is noteworthy in this connexion to observe that when it was arranged to remove the Breton trade to the Channel Islands, the Exeter merchants were said to persist in trading to Morlaix. (Hatfield MSS., iv, p. II.)
page 71 note 1 A Thomas Alder was warden of the Merchant Adventurers of Bristol in 1566 (Latimer, Merchant Adventurers of Bristol, pp. 46–7); and a certain Robert Alder was among the Bristol merchants sending provisions to Spain in 1587. (Dom. St. P. Add. Cal., p. 232, No. 62.)
page 72 note 1 Robert Kitchens of Bristol was for long an alderrnan of the town. He was among those whose goods were embargoed in Spain in 1586. His property in the country does not, however, seem to have been great, as the total value of his goods seized in Seville, Xeres and San Lucar amounts only to £62 6s. 3d. (Dom. St. P., Eliz., vol. 191, No. 34.)
page 72 note 2 Probably “ sardines ” should be “ pilchards.” The latter were a very common article of export from the southern coast of England; so much so that about 1594 an extra tax was laid on their export from Plymouth to provide funds for the fortification of the town. (N. Worth, Plymouth Municipal Records, p. 2.) The cases of pilchards brought from England to Spain are numerous. In 1592 various Dutch and German vessels are mentioned as loading wheat and pilchards, nominally for Italy, but really for Spain (Dom. St. P., Eliz., vol. 243, No. 57), and there are other similar instances.
page 73 note 1 “ Doderich ” is presumably Richard Doddridge, who was Mayor of Barnstaple in 1589. He was an enterprising and fortunate merchant. His ship the “ Prudence ” sailed over the bar of Barnstaple on a “ reprisal voyage ” in 1590 and seized a great prize of gold off Guinea. (J. B. Gribble, Memorials of Barnstaple, p. 438.) That the merchants of the smaller western ports should have employed Scotch vessels and captains shows the universality of the practice.
page 73 note 2 This merchant may perhaps be the same as George Collymoore, merchant, who is mentioned in the Hatfield Papers as having to answer an accusation brought by the Scotch Ambassador in regard to a ship called the “Christopher,” of Kirkcaldy, . (Hatfield MSS., vol. iv, p. 85.)Google Scholar
page 73 note 3 This person was probably the same as a certain Rynkyn, an English merchant of Madeira, who was taken prisoner and sent to Madrid (Lansd.MSS., 76, No. 1), and who may be identified with a certain John Rankin who was convicted of espionage in Spain and condemned to torture and the galleys. John Rankin is first mentioned as a prisoner in 1594 and his sentence was passed in 1596. (Sim. Trans., p. 613, No. 624, and p. 643, No. 662.)
page 74 note 1 A certain John Clark was arrested in England for forging the Scotch seal and released. Possibly the authorities thought the forgery good service. (Halfield MSS., iv, p. 348.)
page 77 note 1 Bernardo or Bernaldo Luis was a Portuguese merchant, resident both in London and Lisbon. He was also one of Burleigh's informants, and was said to be an excellent writer of “ advertisements,” i.e., news. (Dom. St. P., vol. 240, No. 4.) He was the brother-in-law of Dr Hector Nũnez, who was related to the family of Anes, who were involved in the Anglo-Spanish intrigues of the period. Luis like Nũnez used his trade to cloak his correspondence, or possibly he may have considered political spy work an enlivening and profitable incident of trade. In 1587 he, being then in Madrid, received a vessel with cloth worth 70,000 ducats, which was promptly embargoed as English, but he was presently allowed to have the cargo (which had really been sent by Richard May and other English merchants); and it was reported that he continued to trade with a Portuguese correspondent in England. (Sim. Trans., p. 222, No. 229.) Unlike many spies of the time, Luis does not appear to have acted on both sides; at the time of Cole's confession he had already been once arrested by the Spanish Government in 1588 on suspicion, and after this little is heard of him.
page 78 note 1 Appendix G.
page 78 note 2 It will be remembered that Sir John Perrot died in the Tower, September, 1592, before sentence on him was executed. One of the chief witnesses against him was the ex-priest, Denis Roughlan, whom Perrot had prosecuted for forgery. This man asserted that he was the bearer of a letter from Perrot to King Philip.
page 80 note 1 Cole appeared in the eleventh public auto-de-fé, celebrated on December 21, 1597. This was the last public auto in the islands, and the last in which Englishmen took part. There were fifty-one culprits to be penanced and reconciled. Among the latter were the following Englishmen: Bartholomew Cole, eight years' imprisonment, and absolute prohibition to return to sea; William Roger, confiscation of property and prohibition to return to his own or any other heretic land; John Boniface, six years' reclusion in Seville, presumably in a monastery; Francis Lewis, four years' imprisonment: Matthew Jeffrey (Xifre); Constantine Colling; and Robert Estreig (?), two years' reclusion in a monastery at Seville; Richard Percy, (Serzi?), three years' imprisonment; William Rider and John Japhton, two years' reclusion; and William Sebastian, two years' imprisonment. (Millares, op. cit., Book v, P 134.)
page 81 note 1 Cole's name appears, however, among the “ poor ” prisoners who were maintained by the Inquisition. Among the items in his account are 222 maravedis for medicine, 624 maravedis for a hat which the Inquisitors had ordered him to be provided with, and 579 maravedis for stores given him when he was sent to Spain. He left the prison on December 22, 1597. (Birch, vol. 1, p. 367.)