As an art, diplomacy has always tended to be shrouded in secrecy, very little, save the names of treaties, being known by the general public. As the early modern period progressed diplomacy gradually emerged as an activity possessed of an increasingly stable and for the most part, honourable body of precepts and traditions. Nevertheless, the code of honour of diplomacy should not be exaggerated – its working practice could never be any better than those whose tool it was. This study provides an opportunity for the investigation of foreign ambassadors and the evolution of the diplomatic structure in place during the early years of the seventeenth century at the court of James VI and I. Traditionally work on these men was concentrated on individuals, the country the individuals represented or on specific negotiations in which they were involved. In the early years of the seventeenth century, men of varying talents were being sent to England on diplomatic missions that required great delicacy and tact. They were the ambassadors from one state, accredited to the Court of St. James, who were sent to negotiate matters of mercantile importance, arrange state marriages and political alliances and to protect the reputation and political status of their matters.



Dr. Roberta Anderson FHEA, FRHistS, is a retired Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Bath Spa University, Bath in the UK. She has published widely on themes in early modern diplomacy and reformation religion and society. Her latest publication, with Dr Charlotte Backerra, is an edited edition, Confessional Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe. Abingdon: Routledge, [forthcoming, 2019] (Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge).



Preface

Introduction



CHAPTER 1



James VI and I and the Early Seventeenth-Century Political Scene



CHAPTER 2



The Rhetoric of Conduct Books

and the Realities of Ambassadorial Politics



CHAPTER 3



Ambassadors and their Function



CHAPTER 4



The Spanish Machiavelli:

Don Diego de Sarmiento de Acuña and King James



CHAPTER 5



The United Provinces and England



CHAPTER 6



Conclusion



APPENDIX



A Handlist of Foreign Diplomatic Representatives

to the Court of James VI and I



Translation of the Letter from Boderie to Secretary Puisieux, March, 1608



The Pension List of Juan de Tassis, Count of Villa Mediana



Translation of the Report from Sir Noel de Caron 'Nievs uyt Engelandt

gheschzeben dooz den Heer Ambassadeur, Noel De Caron.' (1621)



Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Places