A relation of the ambassadors and agents, with other illustrious foreigners who were in England, during the reign of king James I, 1821.

1 v. (27 leaves) ; 27 cm.

English

Purchased from Sotheby's, February 1946.

This collection is available for research.

Manuscript, in a single hand, of a history which records the arrivals of foreign ambassadors to England between 1603 and 1623, quoting extensively from such historians as Camden, Stow, and Finet. The narrative is arranged in chronological order and provides anecdotes about the visitors' interactions with the court, including their social activities such as dinners and masks; gifts they gave and received; the behavior and order of precedence of the English nobility in the presence of the ambassadors; and the amounts of money James I spent on them. Of the visit of the French embassy in 1621, the author remarks on "French insolence" and comments, "We do things better now. We do not turn one of our legislative rooms, and one of our Courts of Law, into Banquetting ones. We do not receive at a vast expence, a retinue of foreigners, because the sovereign of France is just on the other side of the straits of Dover." The volume concludes with a critical summary of King James' character, and is prefaced by an introduction in which the author lists his sources and explains his methodology.

February 19, 2008

Mark Noble, A Relation of the Ambassadors and Agents. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Mark Noble, A Relation of the Ambassadors and Agents. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Histories.

Antiquarians.