in spite of overtures to Venice, until the last few months of the reign, when the Doge and Senate sent over the Secretary Scaramelli.[1] The accession of James and the peace with Spain brought about a considerable change in international relations, and henceforward there were regularly 'lieger' ambassadors from France, Spain, Venice, and Flanders, as well as ambassadors or agents from the Dutch states, Savoy and Florence. For the entertainment of these an occasional dinner or supper with the King sufficed, together with invitations to such ceremonies of state, revels, and tilts as were held in ordinary course. But the revels were perturbed and an infinity of trouble given to the officials who organized them by the persistent jealousies and disputes for precedence which prevailed amongst the diplomatic representatives themselves. The records of these intrigues, which especially centred round the great Court masks, and often determined the dates on which they were held, occupy much space in the dispatches sent home to Paris and to Venice, and furnished Sir John Finet in 1656 with material for the curious pages of his Philoxenis. The rival claims of the 'Catholic' King of France and the 'most Christian' King of Spain to be regarded as the first Sovereign in Christendom had already caused
- [Footnote: and State Papers relating to English Affairs, preserved principally in the
Archives of Simancas (1892-9, cited as Sp. P.). The ambassadors 1603-16 were Don Juan de Taxis, Count of Villa Mediana (Aug. 1603-July 1605), Don Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Duke of Frias and Constable of Castile, and Alessandro Rovida, Senator of Milan (extraordinary as commissioners, with John de Ligne, Prince of Brabançon and Count of Aremberg, Juan Richardot, Councillor of State, and Ludovic Verreyken, Audiencier, representing the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella of Flanders, for the treaty of Aug. 1604), Don Pedro de Zuniga (July 1605-May 1610), Don Fernando de Giron (extraordinary, 1608-9), Don Alonzo de Velasco (May 1610-Aug. 1613), Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, afterwards Conde de Gondomar (Aug. 1613). Their dispatches are not in print, but a Relacion de la Jornada del Exc^{mo} Condestable de Castilla is in the Colección de Documentos Inéditos, lxxi. 467.], to suggest the desirability of an embassy (V. P.]*
- ↑ The Venetian ambassadors were Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli (Secretary, Feb.-Nov. 1603), Pietro Duodo (extraordinary, 1603), Nicolò Molin (Nov. 1603-Dec. 1605), Giorgio Giustinian (Dec. 1605-Oct. 1608), Marc' Antonio Correr (Oct. 1608-Apr. 1611), Francesco Contarini (extraordinary, 1610), Antonio Foscarini (Apr. 1611-Dec. 1615), Gregorio Barbarigo (Sept. 1615-May 1616). Reports of the state of England by Molin, Contarini, and Correr are in N. Barozzi e Guglielmo Berchet, Le Relazioni degli Stati Europei . . . nel secolo decimosettimo, iv (1863). The current dispatches are calendared in Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs . . . in Venice and . . . Northern Italy (cited as V. P.). A report to the Senate by Zuanne Falier and others who visited England privately in 1575 states that they were advised by a Bolognese groom of the privy chamber, favoured by Elizabeth as an excellent musician [? Alfonso Ferrabosco
