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Published under the direction of the Royal Society of Literature
Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
Oxford Printed at the University Press
By Horace Hart Printer to the University
til
V
Rare Engraving of Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
A Diplomatic and Literary Episode of the Establishment of our Trade with Turkey ,
Edited with Twenty-six Fac-simile Illustrations of Manuscripts and other
Interesting Plates, from Manuscripts in His Majesty's Public Record
Office, the Manuscript Department of the British Museum,
and the Archives of Venice, &c.
By the
Rev. H. G. Rosedale, M.A, D.D., RR.S.L.
Vicar of St. Petefs, Bayswater
London: Henry Frowde
Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner, E.C.
1904
HF
L5-R7
PREFACE
DURING the course of researches into the history of the Levant Company and the early relations between this country and the Turkish Empire, I happened to find in the Record Office a document which greatly surprised me owing to its curious want of connexion with most of the dispatches amidst which it had been preserved.
The opportunities, however, that I had had of studying life in the East made me feel sure that any document of this sort, sent from Constantinople and preserved by the Foreign Office for so long a period, so carefully written and possessing such an elaborate title, must have had its own purpose. Though I was obliged to leave this consideration for a time, in order to undertake a more minute and careful examination of the literature and persons associated with the early days of our Turkish trade, I found that every fresh document brought me significant information tending towards an unravelling of the problem I had before me. In due course I re- turned to a more careful study of the document I
vi Preface
have alluded to ; and after devoting considerable time and attention to it, came to the conclusion that I was face to face with evidence tending to show, that the year ijpy was one of the few occasions in the history of England when a piece of ' doctored ' or spurious historical literature was used to influence the action of an English Sovereign and her Privy Council.
So curious a circumstance seemed to me a sub- ject eminently germane to the interests of the Royal Society of Literature, and with that conviction in mind I prepared a paper which was read before that Royal Society on July 26, 1902. At the same time I had the pleasure of offering for the inspection of the Fellows, a series of photographs and engravings bearing on this subject, some of which are reproduced for the reader's benefit.
When the Council of the Society did me the honour of suggesting that this ancient and unpublished document, together with my notes and explanations, should form the subject of a work to be issued by the Royal Society of Literature as one of their special publications, I gladly fell in with the proposal, and the volume now presented to the Fellows is the result.
It will I think be obvious to any careful student, that, an incident like this, in the long history
Preface vii
of our relations with the Turkish dominions, is but a leaf out of a very large book, and whilst the account of the episode, here dilated upon, is complete in itself, I trust that the surrounding history, to which I have already alluded, may prove of sufficient interest to warrant its publication at a later date.
I cannot, however, refrain from pointing out that many of the facts, referred to in the documents under consideration, are such as appear in no history of Turkey, and are not to be found in any other writings that have come under my notice. Con- sequently I trust that what may be lacking either in the style or method of their setting may be atoned for by the novelty and quaintness of the reproductions themselves.
H. G. ROSEDALE.
13 LADBROKE GARDENS, W.
N.B.--In all quotations from MSS., the original spelling has been adhered to; it will be found to vary considerably.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
INTRODUCTION i
LETTER FROM THE SULTANA SAFIYE, WIFE OF MURAD III AND
MOTHER OF MEHEMET III, TO QUEEN ELIZABETH (ENGLISH) . a
LIST OF PRESENTS SENT TO MURAD III 1595-1594 y
ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENTATION THEREOF TO THE SULTAN OF
TURKEY AND OTHER HIS CHIEF BASSAS 7
DISPATCHES FROM OUR AGENT AT ' THE PORTE ' RELATIVE TO THE
DEATH OF MURAD III 17
CHAPTER II
A CURIOUS ITALIAN 'DOCUMENT,' BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE
(a) DEATH AND CHARACTER OF MURAD III
(*) ACCESSION, CHARACTER AND FIRST ACTS OF MEHEMET IU
SENT TO THE LORD TREASURER IN i^y (ITALIAN TRANSLATED) 19 SONNETS ON THE DEATH OF MEHEMET'S BROTHERS (ITALIAN
TRANSLATED) 33
CHAPTER III
A QUERY AS TO THE MEANING OF SUCH A DOCUMENT AMONG
'STATE PAPERS' 34-
THE VENETIAN AMBASSADOR'S DISPATCHES ON THE SAME SUBJECT —MARKED DIFFERENCES AND CONTRADICTIONS . . 36
IN ELUCIDATION:- CHAPTER IV
OUR REPRESENTATIVE'S DIFFICULT POSITION.— THE NEED OF A PRESENT FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE SULTAN AND
HIS COURT SIR EDWARD BARTON'S DILEMMA .... 4.1
HIS SCHEMES FOR MEETING THE DIFFICULTY :—
i. AWAKENS THE QUEEN'S INTEREST IN THE NEW SULTAN —BY MEANS OF A SPECIALLY PREPARED ACCOUNT OF THE AFFAIRS AT THE ' PORTE ' ... 4.5
Table of Contents
PAGE
». DELAY— DISPATCH TO SIR THOMAS HENEAGE ... 47
j. OFFICIAL APPLICATION FROM SIR EDWARD BARTON FOR HELP FROM THE QUEEN.— PR±CIS OF HIS LETTER PRE- SERVED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 4$
4. THE TURKEY COMPANY TO CO-OPERATE — APPLICATION AND PETITION FROM THE TURKEY COMPANY . 74
y. LETTERS FORWARDED FROM THE SULTAN AND VICEROY OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH ANNOUNCING 'THE ACCESSION' AND ASKING FOR AN 'EMBASSY' (ITALIAN AND ENGLISH) j6
6. PRIVATE INFLUENCE WITH THE CECILS. DR. CHRISTOPHER PARKINS' LETTERS 61
CHAPTER V
R&SUM& OF THE FOREGOING— ADDITIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES TENDING TO SHOW THAT THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT WAS DESIGNED AND
USED FOR POLITICAL ENDS <J?
i. THE IMPORTANCE ACCORDED 'THE DOCUMENT' BY LORD
BURLEIGH. PRECIS IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING . 66 a. THE UNSATISFACTORY CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR OF THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT HIS PREVIOUS RELATIONS TO- WARDS THE AMBASSADOR.— HIS CHANGE OF ATTITUDE . 67 3. QUOTATIONS FROM CONTEMPORARY HISTORY CONTRA- DICTING THE STATEMENTS IN THE ITALIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CHARACTER OF MEHEMET, &c. <58
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING 77
THE VICTORY OF DIPLOMACY.— A SECOND PRESENT SENT TO TURKEY 77
RECEIPT OF THE ORGAN SENT TO SULTAN MEHEMET HI EXTRACT
FROM THE PRIVATE DIARY OF MASTER THOMAS DALLAM . . 78
APPENDIX A SIR EDWARD BARTON . 83
APPENDIX B SIR CHRISTOPHER PARKINS 84
APPENDIX C THE LEVANT TRADE IN ifjf .87
APPENDIX D ORDER OF THE BASSAS ON THE < BENCH '. ." . .90
APPENDIX E THE VENETIAN PRESENT ... ... pi
LIST OF PLATES
PLATES
L A RARE ENGRAVING OF QUEEN ELIZABETH . . . FRONTISPIECE
II. FIRST SHEET OF THE INVENTORY RECORDING THE PRESENT SENT TO THE SULTAN OF TURKEY AND HIS COURT IN 15:5,3 ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH NATION To FACE P. 6
HI. PORTR AIT OF MUR AD HI, SULTAN OF TURKEY, 1 574.-! w „ „ 14.
IV. A PORTION OF THE DISPATCH OF JANUARY n, i?(>?, IN SIR EDWARD BARTON'S OWN HANDWRITING, AN- NOUNCING THE ILLNESS AND PROBABLE DEATH OF SULTAN MURAD El ........ „ „ 17
V. A PORTION OF THE DISPATCH OF FEBRUARY i*, if 95, COVERING AND REFERRING TO THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT .......... „ „ 18
VI. FIRST PAGE OF THE 'ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS IN CON- STANTINOPLE AT THE DEATH OF MURAD AND THE ACCESSION OF MEHEMET III BY THE JEW SALOMONE.' ITALIAN COPY SENT TO LORD BURLEIGH, FEBRUARY
VH. SECOND PAGE OF THE SAME ..... . . „ „ 18
VIII. THIRD PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
IX. FOURTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
X. FIFTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XI. SIXTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XII. SEVENTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XIII. EIGHTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XIV. NINTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XV. TENTH PAGE OF THE SAME ....... „ „ 18
XVI. ELEVENTH PAGE OF THE SAME ...... „ „ 18
XVII. TWELFTH PAGE OF THE SAME ...... „ „ 18
xii List of Plates
PLATES
XVIII. PORTRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM,
SECRETARY OF STATE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH . . To FACE P. 41
XIX. PORTRAIT OF LORD BURLEIGH, 1510-1798, LORD HIGH
TREASURER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH . . . . „ „ yx
XX. LETTER FROM THE VICEROY OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO
QUEEN ELIZABETH, ENCLOSING THE OFFICIAL LETTER FROM THE NEW SULTAN MEHEMET ANNOUNCING HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE (ITALIAN AND ENGLISH VERSIONS) ........ „ „ 77
XXI. THE ARMS OF THE 'TURKIE COMPANEY'. . . . „ „ 6*
XXIL PORTRAIT OF SIR ROBERT CECIL, tyyo-KJia, FIRST LORD SALISBURY; SUCCEEDED WALSINGHAM AS SECRETARY OF STATE ........ „ „ 6*
XXIIL LIST OF BASSAS (PASHAS) DRAWN UP BY SIR EDWARD BARTON AND SENT TO LORD BURLEIGH TO ASSIST HIM IN UNDERSTANDING THE REFERENCES MADE TO THEM IN THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT . . . „ „ 64.
XXIV. PRECIS OR NOTES ON THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT, MADE ON THE BACK OF THE FOREGOING BY LORD BUR- LEIGH, DOUBTLESS FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE BETTER DILATING THEREON TO QUEEN ELIZABETH „ „ 6j
XXV. PORTRAIT OF MEHEMET III, SULTAN OF TURKEY,
.......... „ „ 71
XXVI. AN EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF THOMAS DALLAM, DESCRIBING THE RECEIPT BY THE SULTAN OF THE ORGAN SENT BY QUEEN ELIZABETH, WHICH REACHED CONSTANTINOPLE IN iW ....... ,,,,78
QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE LEVANT
COMPANY
A DIPLOMATIC AND LITERARY EPISODE
CHAPTER I
' I VHE history of the relations between England and Turkey is a subject full of interest; but so far as I have been able to investigate, the period from 15-79 to the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, is by far the most entertaining.
I should have liked to trace the history of the various political and commercial enterprises which enabled Sir Wil- liam Harborne, the pioneer of our Turkey trade, to effect such great things for this country's welfare in so short a time ; but, to have attempted to do so, would have involved the necessity of raising larger issues and making a wider departure from our present subject than is possible in this volume.
At a time like the present, however, when memories connected with the accession of a new Sovereign are still fresh in our minds, there cannot fail to be some interest felt in a literary fragment, dealing with the official recognition by his nation of another monarch, intimately associated with the history of England more than 300 years ago. The considera-
2 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
tion of such a document written in 15-95- and forwarded to England by our Ambassador at Constantinople, is the theme I propose to bring before my readers.
Passing over the whole of Sir William Harborne's life (our first ambassador to Turkey), as well as over the greater part of that of Sir Edward Barton, his successor, I shall begin my narrative in the year 15-94, shortly before the death of Sultan Murad III and the acces- sion of his son Mehemet III to the throne of Turkey. In the autumn of 15-94, Queen Elizabeth received the following letter from the Sultana Safiye wife of Murad, or Amurath III. She was a Venetian lady of the house of Baffo, who had been captured by a Turkish Corsair in her youth and who exercised a great influence over the Sultan her husband, as well as over her son when he came to the throne : —
THE SULTANA'S LETTER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH
Translation into English of a letter 'written by the most high and mighty Empresse, the wife of the Grand Signior Sultan Murad Can to the Queenes Maiesty of England, in the yeere of our Lord 15-94.
Let the beginning of our discourse be a perfect writing in the foure parts of the world, in the name of him which hath indifferently created such infinite numbers of creatures, which had neither soule nor body, and of him which moveth
The Sultana's Letter to §(ueen Elizabeth ?
the nine heavens, & stablisheth the earth seven times one above another, which is Lord and king without any deputy, who hath no comparison to his creation and worke, and is one inestimable, worshipped without all comparison, the most high God, the creator, which hath nothing like unto him, according as he is described by the Prophets, to whose power no man can attaine, and whose absolute perfection no man may control ; and that omnipotent creatour and fellow- worker, to whose Maiesty all the Prophets submit themselves, among whom the greatest, and which hath obtained greatest favour, the garden of Paradise, the beanie of the Sunne, the beloved of the most high God is Mahomet Mustaffa, to whom and to his adherents and followers be perpetuall peace, to whose fragrant sepulture all honour is performed. He which is emperour of the seven climats and of the foure parts of the world, the invincible King of Graecia, Agiamia, Hungaria, Tartaria, Valachia, Rossia, Turchia, Arabia, Bagdet, Caramania, Abessis, Giouasir, Siruan, Barbaria, Alger, Franchia, Coruacia, Belgrade, etc. : alwayes most happy, and possessour of the crowne from twelve of his ancestours, and of the seed of Adam, at this present, emperour and the sonne of an emperour, preserved by the divine providence, a King woorthy of all glory and honour, Sultan Murad, whose forces the Lord God alwayes increase, and father of him to whom the imperiall crowne is to descend, the paradise and woonderfull tall cypresse, worthy of the royall throne, and true heire of the imperiall authority, most worthy Mehemet Can the sonne of Sultan Murat Can, whose enterprises God vouchsafe to accomplish, and to prolong his happy dayes : on the behalf of whose mother this present letter is written to the most gracious and most glorious, the
B Z
§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
wisest among women, and chosen among those which triumph under the standard of JESUS CHRIST, the most mighty and rich governor and most rare among womankinde in the world the most gracious Queene of England, which follow the steps of the virgine Mary, whose end be prosperous and perfect, according to your heart's desire. I send your Maiesty so honourable and sweet a salutation of peace, that all the flocke of Nightingales with their melody cannot attain to y like, much lesse this simple letter of mine. The singular love which we have conceived one toward the other, is like to a garden of pleasant birds : & the Lord God vouchsafe to save and keep you, and send your Maiesty an happy end, both in this world & in the world to come. After the arrival of your honourable presents from the Court of your Maiesty, your Highnesse shall understand that they came in such a season that every minute ministred occasion of long cosolation, by reason of the comming of your Maiesties Ambassadour to the triumphant Court of the Emperour, to our so great contentment as we could possibly wish, who brought a letter from your Maiesty, which with great honour was presented unto us by our eunuks, the paper whereof did smell most fragrantly of camfor & ambargriese, and the incke of perfect muske ; the contents whereof we have heard very attentively from point to point. I think it therefore expedient, that, according to our mutual affection, in anything whatsoever may concerne the countreys which are subject to your Majesty, I never faile, having information given unto me, in whatsoever occasion shall be ministered to gratifie your Maiestie to my power in any reasonable & convenient matter that all your subjects businesses and affaires
The Sultanas Letter to §(ueen Elizabeth 5
may have a wished and happy end. For I will alwayes be a sollicitour to the most mighty Emperour for your Maiesties affaires, that your Maiesty at all times may be fully satisfied.
Peace be to your Maiesty, and to all such as follow rightly the way of God.
Written the first day of the moone of Rabie Liuol in the Year of the Prophet loox '.
I have quoted this remarkable letter not only for the quaintness of its language, or its mention of the two sove- reigns to whom the document in question refers, but because it makes allusion to a present which the writer (the renowned Empress Safiye) had received from Queen Elizabeth. The present was part of a larger one sent out in the Queen's name by the f Levant Company,' then known as the ' Turkey Company.'
A list of the presents covering four large pages is in the possession of the British Museum. The following is a transcript of the first page.
PRESENT SENT TO TURKEY 1793-1794
The Perticulers of the severall Presents sente by the Queenes Mali to the Grand Senior : his Vice Rey and other his nobls and counsell are as foil0:
1 A.D. If 94.
6 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
The Grand Senior 6 chests, viz :
No.
r. i. ?• 4. ?• 6.
fine Scarlett fine Blacke fine Blewe fine light grene fine sad grene . fine Violett
I!
(
40 Pikes 40 pikes 40 piks 40 piks 40 piks 40 piks
10.
a standing cuppes gourds Create liverey potts lesser liverey potts .
•L Flagan Bottles poiz 4 greate candlesticks 8 small cheste of botles silver and guilte poiz 6 halfe pecis verie fine hollands
oz. 148! oz. 114 oz. 148}
a?.. 137! oz. 133
oz. 140
19.
His Capiaga or Hedd Porter No.
19. fine Blacke . 1 8. fine L. grene.
4JPiks 4 piks
His Clemyne or Steward fine Blacke . . .4! piks
His Bustangi Bashawc — Gardener 1 8. fine sad grene . . 4} piks
Mahamed Aga blacke Cuke 1 8. fine sad grene . . 4$ Piks
11. *?•
20.
The Vice Rey ^ chests, viz :
fine Scarlett . . .10 Piks fine blacke . . .10 piks fine Blewe . . .10 piks
fine L. grene . . .10 piks fine sad grene . . .10 piks fine Violett . . .10 piks
liverey potts poiz . . oz. 113 flagan Bottle poiz . . oz. 6 1 gourde standinge cupp . oz. in
{4 halfe pecis Verie fine hollands 3® fine Conic skynnes in 6 bags 3 Barrelles Tyne barrcs
I!
His Caya — Mr of his House 19. fine Bkcke . . .4! Piks
His Capiaga hedd Porter 19, fine Blacke . . .4! piks
His Salem chaous-Sargeant 18. fine L. grene. . . ? Piks
His a clarks of the councell 1 8. fine L. grene . . . 9 Pikes
For one Bassa i cheste, viz :
|
f fine Scarlett |
. 10 Piks |
|
|
fine Blacke |
. 10 piks |
|
|
fine blewe |
. 10 piks |
|
|
9- |
fine L. grene . |
. 10 piks |
|
fine sad grene . |
. 10 piks |
|
|
fine Violett |
. 10 piks |
|
|
13. a liverey Potts poiz . |
. OZ. Ill |
|
|
10. i halfe pecis verie fine |
hollands |
His Caya, comptrolr of his house
19. fine greene . . • 4i Piks His Capigia . . -4$ piks 19. fine grene . . 4^ piks -
•.wVvmt v ^
\VA\ '
First Sheet of the Inventory recording the Present sent to the Sultan of Turkey and his Court
l-ww^ r J a • «rttW<r-t'» Ca .1 . -i »l
•-» «.
2.0
-JT ^-
\-\~-
,' tpef-n* — ^-'
• •*•
m —
Present sent to Turkey
A curious and interesting description of the arrival and presentation of this gift,, which had been sent out to Sir Edward Barton in the ship Ascension in the year 15-9 3 , is worth quoting in part.
The following is the account given by Hakluyt at the end of the i6th century :—
A description of a J^oiage to Constantinople and Syria begun the xi of March 15-93 and ended the 9 day of August T^pT 1 3 wherein is showed the order of delivering the second present by Master Edward Barton her Male sties Am- bassador, which was sent from her Maiestie to Sultan Murad Can Emperour of Turkie.
We set saile in the Ascension of London, a new shippe very well appointed, of two hundred and three score tunnes (whereof was master one William Broadbanke, a provident and skilfull man in his facultie) from Gravesend the one and twentie of March 15-9 3. And upon the eight of Aprill folowing wee passed the streights of Gibraltar, and with a small Westerne gale the 14. of the Same wee arrived at Zante an Island under the Venetians. The fourth of May wee departed, and the one and twentie wee arrived at Alexandretta in Cilicia in the very bottome of the Mediterrane Sea, a roade some i$ miles distant from Antioch, where our marchants land their goods to bee sent for Aleppo ..................
Having the winde prosperous, wee sailed by Nicaria, Pharos, Delos and Andros, with sight of many other Hands in the
1 A mistake for A.D.
8 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
Archipelago, and arrived at the two castles in Hellespont the X4 of August Within few dayes after we came to Galipoli some thirty miles from this place, where foure of us tooke a Parma or boat of that place, with two watermen, which rowed us along the Thracian shore to Constantinople, which sometime rowing and sometime sailing, in foure days they performed.
The first of September wee arrived at the famous port of the Grand Signior where wee were not a little welcome to M. Edward Barton untill then her Maiesties Agent, who, (with many other great persons) had for many dayes expected the present. Five or six dayes after the shippe arrived neere the Seven towers, which is a very strong hold, and so called of so many turrets, which it hath, standing neere the sea side, being the first part of the city that we came unto. Heere the agent appointed the master of the Ascension to stay with the shippe untill a fitte winde and opportunity served to bring her about the Seraglio to salute the Grand Signior in his moskyta or church: for you shall understand that he hath built one neere the wall of his Seraglio or pallace adioyning to the Sea side ; whereunto twice or thrice a weeke hee resorteth to perform such religious rites as their law requireth : where hee being within few dayes after, our shippe set out in their best maner with flagges, streamers and pendants of divers coloured silke, with all the mariners, together with most of the Ambassadours men, having the winde faire, and came within two cables length of this his moskita, where (hee to his great content beholding the shippe in such bravery) they discharged first two volies of small shot and then all the great ordinance twise over, there being seven and twentie or eight and twentie
Present sent to Turkey if 93-1? 94. 9
pieces in the ship. Which performed he appointed the Bustangi- Bassa or captaine of the great and spacious garden or park to give our men thanks,, with request that some other day they would show him the like sporte when hee would have the Sultana or Empresse a beholder thereof, which few days after at the shippes going to the Custome house they performed.
The grand Signior's salutation thus ended, the master brought the ship to an anker at Rapamat neere the Ambassa- dor's house, where hee likewise saluted him with all his great ordinance once over, and where he landed the Present, the deliverie whereof for a time was staied : the cause of which staie it shall neither be dishonorable for our nation, or that woorthie man the ambassadour to show you. At the departure of Sinan Bassa, the chiefe Vizir, and our ambas- sador's great friend towards the warres of Hungarie there was another Bassa appointed in his place, a churlish and harsh natured man, who upon the occasion of certain Genouezes, escaping out of the castles standing towards the Euxine Sea, nowe called the blacke Sea, there imprisoned, apprehended and threatened to execute one of our Englishmen called lohn Field, for that hee was taken thereabouts and knowen not many dayes before to have brought a letter to one of them : upon the sollicking of whose libertie, there fell a jarre betweene the Bassa (being nowe chief Vizir) and our ambassador, and in choler he gave her maiesties ambassador such words, as without sustaining some great indignitie hee could not put up. Whereupon after the arrivall of the Present, hee made an Arz, that is, a bill of Complaint to the grand Signior against him, the maner in exhibiting whereof is thus performed.
The plaintifes expect the grand Signior's going abroad
io §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
from his pallace, either to Santa Sophia or to his church by the sea side, whither, with a Parma (that is one of their usuall whirries) they approach whithin some two or three score yards, where the plaintife standeth up, and holdeth his petition over his forehead in sight of the grand Signior (for his church is open to the Sea side) the rest sitting still in the boat, who appointeth one of his Dwarfs to receive them or to bring them to him. A Dwarfe, one of the Ambassador's favorites, so soone as he was discerned, beckened him to the shore side, tooke his Arz and with speed carried it to the grand Signior. Now the effect of it was this ; that except his highnesse would redresse this so great an indignitie, which the Vizir his slave had offered him and her maiestie in his person, he was purposed to detaine the Present untill such time as he might by letters over-land from her maiestie bee certified, whether she would put up so great an injurie as it was. Where upon he presently returned answere, requesting the ambassador within an hour after to goe to the Douan of the Vizir, unto whom himselfe of his charge would send a gowne of clothe of gold, and command him publickely to put it upon him and with kind entertainment to embrace him in signe of recon- ciliation. Where-upon our ambassador returning home, took his horse accompanied with his me and came to the Vizirs court, where, according to the grand Signior 's com- mand, he with all shew of kindnesse embraced the ambas- sador and with curteous speeches reconciled himselfe and with his own hands put the gowne of clothe of gold upon his backe. Which done, hee with his attendants returned home, to the no small admiration of all Christians that heard of it, especially of the French and Venetian ambassadors who never in the
Present sent to Turkey iTp^-iTp^ n
like case against the second person of the Turkish Empire durst have attempted so bold an enterprize with hope of so friendly audience and with so speedie redresse. This recon- ciliation with the great Vizir thus made, the ambassadour prepared himselfe for the deliverie of the Present, which upon the 7 of October 1793, in this maner he performed.
The Ascension with her flags and streamers, as aforesaid, repaired nigh unto the place where the ambassador should land to go up to the Seraglio : for you must understand that all Christian ambassadors have their dwelling in Pera where most Christians abide, from which place, except you would go 4 or 5- miles about, you cannot by land go to Constantinople, whereas by Sea it is little broder than the Thames. Our Ambassador likewise apparelled in a sute of cloth of silver, with an upper gowne of clothe of gold, accompanied with 7 gentlemen in costly sutes of Sattin, with 40 other of his men very well apparelled and all in one liverie of sad French russet cloth gownes, at his house tooke boate : at whose landing the shipp discharged all her ordinance, where like- wise attended i, Bassas with 40 or 5-0 Chauses l to accompany y ambassador to the court, and also horses for the ambassadour & his gentlemen, very richly furnished with Turkish servants, attendat to take the horses whe they should light. The ambassador thus honourably accompanied, the Chauses foremost, next his men on foote all going by two and two, himselfe last with his Chause and Drugaman or Interpreter and 4 Janisaries1, which he doeth usually
1 Court servants.
* The hereditary soldiers of Turkey— a turbulent set, but, at the same time, a great political factor in the Empire. There were no other organized soldiers at the time in Constantinople.
12 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
entertaine in his house to accompany him continually abroad, came to the Seraglio about an English mile from the water side, where first hee passed a great gate into a large court (much like the space before Whitehall gate) where he with his gentlemen alighted and left their horses. From hence they passed into another stately court, being about 6 score in bredth and some 10 score yards long, with many trees in it ; where all the court was with great pompe set in order to entertaine our ambassador. Upon the right hand, all the length of the court was a gallerie arched over, and borne up with stone pillars, much like the Roiall Exchange, where stood most of his guard in rankes from the one end to the other in costly aray, with round head pieces on their heads of mettall and gilt over, with a great plume of fethers somewhat like a long brush standing up before. On the left hand stood the Cappagies or porters and the Chauses. All these courtiers being about the number of xooo (as I might well gesse), most of them apparelled in clothe of gold, silver, velvet, sattin and scarlet, did together with bowing their bodies, laying their heads upon their brests in courteous maner of saluta- tion, entertain the Ambassador who likewise passing between them & turning himselfe sometime to the right hand and sometime to the left answered them with the like. As he thus passed along, certaine Chauses conducted him to the Douan, which is the seat of Justice, where certaine dayes of the weeke the grand Vizir with the other Vizirs the Cadi- lesker or lorde chiefe Justice & the Mufti or high priest do sit to determine upon such causes as be brought before them ; which place is upon the left side of this great court, whither the ambassador with his gentlemen came, where hee found
Present sent to Turkey 1793-1 5^4.
the Vizir thus accompanied as aforesayd, who with great shew of kindnes received him ; and after receit of her maiesties letters & conference had of the Present, of her Maiesties health, of the state of England, and such other matters as concerned our peaceable traffique in those partes; dinner being prepared was by many of $ courtiers brought into another inner roome next adioining, which consisted of an hundred dishes or ther abouts, most boiled & roasted, where the ambassadors accompanied w the Vizirs went to dinner, his gentlemen likewise with the rest of his men having a dinner with the like varieties prepared upon y same side of the court, by theselves sate downe to their meat, 40 or yo Chauses standing at the upper end attending upon the gentle- me to see them served in good order ; their drinke was water mingled with rosewater & sugar brought in a Luthro (that is a goate's skinne) which a man carrieth at his backe, and under his arme letteth it run out at a spout into cups as men wil call for it. The dinner thus with good order brought in and for halfe an houre with great sobrietie and silence performed, was not so orderly taken up ; for certaine Moglans officers of the Kitchen (like her Maiesties blacke guard) came in disordered maner and tooke away the dishes, and he whose hungry eie one dish could not satisfie, turned two or three one into the other, and thus of a sudden was a cleane riddance made of all. The ambassador after dinner with his gentle- men, by certaine officers were placed at the upper ende upon the left side of the Court, nere unto a great gate which gave entrance to a third court, being but little paved with stone. In the midst whereof was a little house built of marble, as I take it, within which sate the grand Signior, according to
14. §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
whose commandment given there were gownes of clothe of gold brought out of the wardrope, and put upon the ambas- sador and 7 of his gentlemen, the ambassador himselfe having i : one of gold and the other of crimson velvet, all the rest one apiece. Then certaine Cappagies had the Present, which was in trunks there ready delivered them by the ambassadors men, it being 11 goodly pieces of gilt plate 36 garments of fine English cloth of al colors 10 garments of clothe of gold, 10 garments of sattin, 6 pieces of fine Holland, and certaine other things of good value : al which were carried round about the court, each man taking a piece, being in number very neere 100 parcels and so i and i going round, that all might see it, to the greater of the present and of him to whom it was given : they went into the innermost court passing by the window of that roome, where the grand Signior sate, who, as it went by to be laid up in certaine roomes adioining, tooke view of all. Presently after the present followed the ambassador with his gentlemen ; at the gate of which court stoode 10 or 30 Agaus which be eunuchs. Within the court yard were the Turks Dwarfes and Dumbe men, being most of them youths. At the doore of his roome stoode the Bustagni-Bassa with another Bassa to lead the ambassador and his followers to the grand Signior who sate in a chaire of estate, apparelled in a gowne of clothe of silver. The floore under his feete, which part was a foote higher than the rest, was covered with a carpet of green sattin embrodered most richly with silver, orient perles & great Turkeses; ^ other part of the house was covered with a carpet of Carnation sattin imbrodered w gold, none were in the roome with him, but a Bassa who stood next the wall, over against him
Portrait of Murad III
Present sent to Turkey 179 ^-
hanging down his head, and looking submissely upon the ground,, as all his subjects doe in his presence. The Ambas- sador thus betwixt two which stood at the doore being led in, either of them taking an arme, kissed his hand, and so backwarde with his face to the Turke they brought him nigh the dore againe, where he stood untill they had likewise done so with all the rest of his gentlemen. Which ended, the ambassador according as it is the custome when any present is delivered, made his three demands, such as he thought most expedient for her maiestie's honor, & the peaceable traffique of our nation unto his dominions : whereunto he answered in one word, Nolo, which is in Turkish as much as, it shall be done : for it is not the maner of the Turkish emperor familiarly to confer with any Christian ambas- sador, but he appointeth his Vizir in his person to graunt their demands if they be to his liking ; as to our ambassadour he granted all his demands, and gave order that his daily allowance for his house of money, flesh, wood & haie, should be augmented with halfe as much more as it had bene before. Hereupon the ambassadour taking his leave, departed with his gentlemen the same way he came, the whole court saluting him as they did at his comming in & comming to the second court to take our horses, after we were mounted, we staid halfe an houre, until the captain of the guard with ^ooo horsemen at the least passed before, after whom followed 4-0 or 5-0 Chauses, next before the ambassador to accompany him to his house. And as before at his landing so now at his taking boat, the ship discharged all her great ordinance, where arriving, he likewise had a great banquet prepared to entertaine those which came to bring him home. The pompe
16 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
and solemnitie of the Present with the day thus ended, he shortly after presented the Sultana or empresse who (by reason that she is mother to him which was heire to the crowne Imperial) is had in far greater reverence than any of his other Queens or concubines. The Present sent her in her maiesties name was a jewel of her maiesties picture, set with some rubies and diamants, $ great pieces of gilt plate, 10 garments of clothe of gold, a very fine case of glasse bottles, silver & gilt, with x pieces of fine Holland, which so gratefully she accepted, as that she sent to know of the ambassador what present he thought she might return, y would most delight her maiestie; who sent word that a sute of princely attire being after the Turkish fashion would for the rareness thereof be acceptable in England. Where- upon she sent an upper gowne of clothe of gold very riche, an under gowne of clothe of silver and a girdle of Turkic work, rich and faire with a letter of gratification . . . which letter and present, with one from the grand Signior, was sent by Mr. Edward Bushell and M. William Aldridge over-land the ^o of March &c
In consequence of this present and as a result of the bold action of our representative, English prestige at the Porte rose high ; for Sir Edward Barton had found a great friend and supporter in the Empress, who at that time practically ruled the Empire.
Sir Edward, then Mr. Edward, Barton was just beginning to realize the enormous possibilities to England of this con- dition of affairs in the Turkish Court and had already begun to urge an aggressive political alliance against Spain, when
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Dispatch from Turkey
there came to him the worst possible news : that the Sultan was ill and possibly dead.
The fact was reported by him at once, in a dispatch addressed to cThe Right Honourable My very good Lord the High Treasurer of England.' The information is added as a Postscript in Sir Edward's own hand.
DISPATCHES FROM TURKEY MENTIONING THE SICKNESS AND PROBABLE DEATH OF MURAD III AND CONTAINING THE IMPORTANT ' ENCLOSURE
f 105- r is extreame sick, some say deade & his sonne f sent for out of Magnasia in Natolia ; whether he was accord- fing to y costome of the Gentry confined for the tearme e of his fathers life : but of 105- his lyfe or death no certenty f though within these two days wilbe courte dayes, & then f cannot be longer hidden.
f In meane tyme comend yr Hr to the protexion of the f almighty this u of January 15-94. l.
f Yor H" most dutifull ever to comaund,
' E. BARTON.'
1 The code cipher for the Sultan of Turkey.
1 Some confusion exists with reference to the dates on documents of this period; but when it is understood that the year commenced on March a?th, it will at once become evident that the dates between January ist and March *4th in each year require to be altered to one year later than that shown upon their endorsements or as dated at the time. Thus nth of January, 1594, should be i ith of January, ifjy.
D
1 8 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
The next letter, of which Plate V is a reproduction, is dated nth February, 15-94 ', and ends as follows :-
. . . 'Concerning the late novelties succeeded in this ' Empire, I have particularly sent advise to 9 *. Yet a f curious Jew having effectualy penned in Italian, what heer 'hath lately passed, as also the byrth, lyfe, qualityes, con- c ditions and death of the late Sultan Murad and successe to ' this Empire of Sultan Mahemed, I thought it expedient to f send the same to your Honour, as well because I heare your c Honour to be alike curious & desyerous of such noveltyes, as ( also bycause I esteeme the same his labor consonant to the ' truth & framed by no comon reporte of the vulgar sorte ; f butt by advise of diverse of authority about the sayed deceased c Murad ; which your honour pleasing, may take in good f worth & retayne me in the number of those who desyers to f your Honour the increase of all desyer of felicity.
f This ii February 15-94 3
c your Honours most dutiful ever to comaund
f E. BARTON.'
The dispatches of Jan. i8th or ^^th9 which must have contained f the late novelties,' are missing : but the 'effectually penned ' Italian account of these matters by the 'Curious Jew ' is still available and was enclosed in the above covering dispatch.
The Text is so clear in this document that I have considered it quite unnecessary to make a transcript.
1 A.D. 1595.
1 The code cipher for Queen Elizabeth.
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CHAPTER II
TRANSLATION OF THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT
DESCRIBING THE RECENT EVENTS AT
CONSTANTINOPLE
To His Excellency Sir Edward Barton, Ambassador of Her Majesty the Queen of England to the Grand Signior, my truly worthy Tatron.
I submit to your illustrious Highness a narrative of the events that have happened here, both at the death of the Sultan Murat and on the accession of the new Sultan Mehemet III, who has now entered upon his reign. I will relate them with as much truth & brevity as is possible in so short a time. I know well that these things are no secret, yet having had some information through Signior Abentabon, (that he obtained through His Beatitude the Master of the Church of Scieres,) which, I believe is known to few, I ven- ture to send it you, both for this reason, and also, that, my effort may be made known to others. I have wished to avail myself of your illustrious name, as my friend and benefactor. May God prolong your life and fulfil all your desires: February 15-95-.
Your old & obliged Servant
SALOMONE the Jewish man.
ex/ 'narrative of the events which occurred in Constantinople on the death of the Sultan Murat and the accession of the new Sultan Mehemet by Salomone the Jewish man.
Sultan Murat began to reign in 15-74, m tne month of December, on the loth day of the month, which the
D Z
20 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
Hebrews term Tebed. His Azam-Vizier, that is to say, his grand Bashaw was the very famous Signior Mahomed Bassa, who had held this dignity under Murat's father, Sultan Selim, and his grandfather, Sultan Soliman; and the illus- trious Antonio Tiepolo was the Baillo here in Constantinople for the Signiory of Venice, also the illustrious Lord Abb£ de Lile was ambassador of the most Christian King.
The Sultana ', the first wife of the said great Sultan, a wise and prudent woman, was 13 years old when the king married her and is, in this year of lypy, 4-5". She was with him for 31 years, during 10 of which he had no other wife but her : moved however by the solicitations of the Queen Mother and his sister (wife of the illustrious Signior Me- hemet Bassa) and finally by the people, who said it was not well that the kingdom should only found hopes on one son, he took so many wives that their exact number is well nigh lost. The above said first Sultana gave the said King many sons and daughters, most of whom having died, there remained only one son, the present Sultan Mehemet, who has just commenced to reign, and two daughters who are both married to Viziers, one to the illustrious Signior Hebul Bassa, and the other to the illustrious Signior Ibrahim Bassa. The Sultan Murat reigned ^o years and ^6 days, and his age was 5-0 years and some few months and he died on Monday night the 6th of January of this year of lypy, and on the 6th of the Hebrew month of Siebat in the year 5-35-5-, from the creation of the world. His illness was caused by a kidney complaint and stone, which lasted some 10 days or more, at the end of this time they said he was better and
1 The Empress Safiyc.
The Italian Document 21
then a tumour (carbuncle) appeared, and having little faith in medicines, and still less in doctors he refused their remedies and for this reason he would not submit to any other treat- ment than the application, upon the afflicted part of cold, iced water, which, owing to the fact that the season was bitterly cold, caused him, it is believed, to be frost bitten from his loins downwards, and so he died. May God give peace to his soul. Sultan Murat was of medium stature, and so stout that he seemed to have no neck. His complexion was pink and white, and his countenance regal, large, handsome and hearty ; his beard was fair, almost golden, and he wore it long and flowing and dignified looking. His attire was rich and gorgeous. He was very fond of jewels and precious stones, whereof he always wore a considerable number, of inestimable value, in the plumes which adorned his turban. He was bright and jovial, and, either by nature, or as others said owing to the influence of the Queen Mother, averse to shedding blood. He was a warrior by nature, but he always made war by means of his captains. He warred against Persia many years and conquered the greater part thereof whilst remaining in his palace and he gained more than his ancestors did in their many wars and in many days, though they went thereto in person. He became convinced that the Ottoman princes gained more by not going in person to the wars. Because the wars between kingdoms being lengthy affairs are not ended in one or two years ; and thus the Emperors, desirous of returning home in the winter, often lost the states they had gained during the summer. But Sultan Murat remained at home and by having the places taken, fortified and not going himself with the armies, nor with his captains,
22 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
he conquered the greater part of Persia. He also began that other very important war with Hungary, and under his auspices the fortresses Chianarini, called by the Turks Gianuch, Tata, Sprin, Papa, and San Martin were gained.
Sultan Murat was fond of literature and read the ancient history of all the peoples and nations of the world. He caused some to be translated into the Turkish language, and was particularly fond of poetry, which he wrote marvellously well. I have seen some compositions of his of great import- ance. He proposed subjects for people to write on and offered prizes to those who best expressed their ideas. These were for the most part gained by experts. He was most interested in hearing about all the princes of his time, about their wars, truces, and all that concerned them.
He amassed much treasure, more than all the other Ottoman princes put together, he gave liberally and expended much money in gifts. He also spent a great deal of money on the many wives that he rejoiced in, hence they all had plenty of clothes, jewels and ornaments, and were kept in regal state and pomp. He also spent much on his many children, giving liberally day by day to those who looked after and those who taught them. He did a great deal to the interior of the Palace, more than all the other kings preceding him had carried out. He adorned it with state- rooms, baths, and fountains, porticos and loggias and gardens, and decorated it with gilding and with royal magnificence.
He enjoyed music greatly, both singing, and every kind of instrumental music. He liked novelty and was well disposed towards all new things. He was sanguine about all the things he undertook. In everything he followed out the objects on
The Italian Document 2.3
which his wishes were intent, and began always with extreme measures and never contented himself with a middle course. He commenced war with Persia and pursued it for 11 years. He made a festival on the occasion of the circumcision of this Sultan Mehemet, his son, and kept it up for several days. He encouraged building which still goes on. He took new wives and took so many that no one knows the exact number. He accumulated money and also treasures from all parts of the world. With all this he was a merciful and benign prince, rarely saying f No ' to anyone, he easily believed what he was told, which was the cause of his constantly giving fresh orders about the same thing, varying according to the last information brought to him. He can certainly be numbered rather among the good princes than the opposite.
A dowry was never given to his queen to whom he was married for 31 consecutive years (as I have said), inasmuch as she, who receives it not, be she wife or legitimate queen, remains always a slave. In this he did not imitate the Sultan Soliman, his grandfather, who gave it to the c Rossa ' whereby he made her free, and gave her the title of Queen, nor the Sultan Selim his father, who also gave the dowry to the queen his mother, for which reason they were both buried close to their husbands. His reason for not doing so, was the advice given him by some malicious enemies of his Mother, that if he gave it, he would die soon, like his father, who did not live long after giving it.
Sultan Murat having died on Monday at i o'clock in the night of January 6th, [according to modern style] there were sent quickly, the following day, several galleys to the two sea- ports whence the new prince might come from his govern-
24- §(Heen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
ment of Magnesia, one part went to Modania close to the city of Bursia ' ; and the other to a place called Samali *. And on the same Tuesday, Bostagni Bassa, the head of all the Royal gardens and who is always near to the royal presence, departed publicly, taking with him as his credentials to the prince, two seals, one belonging to the king, the Sultan's deceased father, the other to the queen, his mother. He went to conduct him back to the paternal estate, a thing that was never done before. The Ottoman Emperors have generally been brought at night and secretly to their kingdom, in order to prevent anyone knowing of the Sultan's death ere the arrival of the new Emperor : for it was an ancient custom for the Janizaries to rise and sack the city of Constantinople straightway upon hearing of the death of a Sultan. Certainly the obedience of the Turks to their captains is great, for they remained quiet for the space of 3 weeks, suspecting the king was dead and for ii days when everyone knew it for a certainty, and said in public that he was dead. One heard and saw nothing, there was no uprising, nothing was touched, no house or shop in the city sacked, and thus passed a day so perilous as the Wednesday the loth day after the king's death when the Signer Bassa (brother-in-law) had departed for Scutari, ancient Calcedonia, the day previous, for what reason no one was aware. Then all the people rose and ran early in the morning to the gate of the Grand Seraglio to see the dead king buried and also to see the new king, who did not arrive until 3 days after, and this caused great uneasiness in the city. But so great is the respect, fear, hope and reverence that the
1 Moudania, close to the city of Broussa. * Possibly Shahmalik.
The Italian Document
Turks have for this new king, that this alone kept them in order, for while he was prince, he shewed such tokens of justice, sense, liberality and magnanimity and also pronounced such just sentences, and achieved such heroic deeds, that they hope and not without reason to see much good ensue. On Friday, therefore, January X7th at a quarter-past nine in the day the new Sultan Mahomet arrived in Constantinople amidst sunshine and fine weather, which suddenly changed into rain. This occurring on the accession of a prince is taken as a sign of fertility and abundance. He arrived in an admiral's galley, one that they call Critali, a captain of Damiata. He entered with flags flying on the ship and came ashore publicly, close to the gate, called by the Jews Chiosco or the new loggia that was built a short time ago on the sea shore, close to the Grand Seraglio. He arrived eleven days after the death of his father and came in the coldest and severest weather (snow and wind) that has been known in this country for 5-0 years.
He entered as I have said close to the new loggia, which was opened for him and there he sat for a little while and there he appointed the captain of the galley that had brought him, King of Cyprus, and he freed all the slaves of the ship and commanded that the galley should be pre- served and not used again in memory of his coming into his new kingdom. He entered on foot, he would not ride on horseback though a horse was brought for him, but he walked in company with his Lala (that is the Bassa, his tutor and governor while he was prince) and Bostagni Bassa, the head of the gardens, the same who went to fetch him and had conducted him back. He begged this latter to ask any favour of him
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26 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
that he wished — Bostagni replied, that he wished for nothing but that he might remain in his office for life, which favour the king conceded him, and then quickly went in to see the Queen, his mother whom he had not seen for 11 years and also his dead father. After he had entered into the royal chamber, and sat down on the imperial chair, all the Signers Bassas and Vizirs arrived by the public gate of the Grand Seraglio and kissed his hand. In the meantime a public proclamation of the death of the Sultan Murat and the acces- sion of the new Sultan Mehemet was made in all squares and public places of the City, and there were posted in the same, detachments of Janizaries, and the city began to be guarded. Preparations went on at the same time for the burial of the dead king. To this all the people of the city crowded. It took place in St. Sophia, close to the tomb of his father, King Sultan Selim. At the time that the i^th hour was called out from the tower, that is at 11 o'clock, they carried the body of the deceased king out of the grand Seraglio in a coffin of cypress wood, covered with a cloth of silk and gold, inscribed all over with Turkish letters, which was held by the Turks in great reverence, because it had come from Mecca, and had covered the tomb of their prophet. With it was a turban made after the fashion he generally wore, set off with feathers and bedecked with jewels such as only the great Signiors wear.
In front went the illustrious Signiors Vizirs of the Kingdom, that is, the illustrious Signior Ferrat Bassa, and Mehemet Bassa, and the Captain Bassa or Cigala and Assan Bassa, and nearest to the body the illustrious Ibraham Bassa and Hallul Bassa, his sons-in-law. Palms were borne over him
The Italian Document 27
by the Aghas1 and the other chief personages of the court, who were all dressed in black, and over their turbans, which they wore of small dimensions, on account of mourning, some wore black veils, and others wore turbans made of woollen texture in sign of grief and mourning. Then followed all the Aghas and Janizaries with all their captains and heads of squadrons. Thus the Sultan was borne to St. Sophia close to the tomb of the king, his father, as I have already said. His tomb will be made and adorned with the richest marbles like that of the other kings.
That night his nineteen new brothers were conducted to the king Sultan Mehemet, they were the male children then living of his father, by several wives ; they were brought to kiss his hand, so that he should see them alive, the eldest of them was eleven. Their king brother told them not to fear, as he did not wish to do them any harm ; but only to have them circumcised, according to custom. And this was a thing that none of his ancestors had ever done, and directly they had kissed his hand they were circumcised, taken aside and dexterously strangled with handkerchiefs. This certainly seems a terrible and cruel thing, but it is the custom and people are used to it. On Saturday these innocent princes were washed and got ready according to custom, one after another according to age, and were laid in cypress coffins, and placed in the piazza of the Divan and shewn to the king dead. For it is the custom that he should first see them alive and then dead and with the blood of his brothers establish the foundations of his Kingdom. From that place, accompanied by the like mourning as the day before and twice the
1 Captains.
E x
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number of people, the remains of the poor princes were carried. They were followed by the Bassas and the other Signiors and Aghas of the Kingdom. They were buried accord- ing to age, around the tomb of their father amidst the tears of all the people. The correct number of children male and female that the king had is not yet known, there are 19 of these now buried and he has 17 daughters living, which makes 46 and two others married, in addition to this, King Sultan Mehemet which makes 49 and besides these several died in his life time, making the number mount up towards 100, and if the number falls somewhat short of this figure it might be made up by the many wives he left pregnant, two male children have already been born since his death and were quickly drowned. Besides this, the number of the wives is not precisely known ; many say there are over 5-0. Directly after these poor princes, who people say possessed great beauty, had been buried, the populace waited at the gate to witness the departure from the Seraglio of their mothers and all the other wives of the king, with their children and their goods. All the carriages, coaches, mules and horses of the court were employed for this purpose. Besides the wives of the king and the X7 daughters, there were 100 others, consisting of nurses and slaves and they were taken to the Eschi Seraglio '
1 From the following extract it will be seen that the practice remained in vogue at least up to the beginning of the last century — ' Nearly in the centre of the City on the third hill, stands the old palace (cski serai) built or appropriated by Mahomet II, who surrounded it with an octangular wall, extremely lofty, and nearly a mile in circumference. When he quitted it for that now called the Seraglio, it was applied to the reception of the wives and harem of the deceased Sultans. On the demise of a Sultan they are immediately removed into this retreat from the world, from which they are secluded for life, if they had been noticed by him; where they are bound to monastic severity in one respect only. The mother of a prince not immediately succeeding to the throne of Osman, is indulged with seeing him only at the feast of Beyram j but on his accession is liberated and exerts as Queen mother (Valide Sultan) the
The Italian Document
[that is, the old Seraglio], where the wives and daughters of the king reside, with their Aghas, that is eunuchs, who guard and serve them in a royal fashion. There they can weep, as much as they like for their dead sons, a thing that was forbidden at the other Grand Seraglio, under penalty of capital punishment; and there by degrees they will marry according to the custom of the kingdom. Inside the grand Seraglio there remained only the wives with child, and there they stay until their children are born.
All the nurses and the tutors of his dead brothers were also sent away together with a large number of eunuchs, and a great crowd of mutes and dwarfs who were there for the diversion of the Sultan's father. It is understood that they are sent off from the Seraglio, because the king has not much liking for any such folk. And now this is finished we will return to say something about the new King, who is called Mehemet III, a name held among the Turks as one of good omen and a most lucky one, it being the name of their Prophet and also the name of him who took the city of Constantinople from the Christians. He was born in the year 15-64 in the month of August which is the month of the great Emperors, because besides bearing the name of the most fortunate Caesar Augustus ; in it also Alexander the Great was born.
This Sultan was born on Thursday at the break of day, under the signs of Sagitarius and Pisces, the ruler of the day being the angel Sachiel and his planet Jupiter. He was born
very decisive sway of secret influence, of which the present reign is no uncommon instance. The Hekim Bashi or chief physician, is the onJy man who is admitted within these devoted walls, and his attendance is rarely required, and under the strongest restrictions. When a Sultan dies the young ladies who are declared to have been unknown to him are generally bestowed as wives upon some of the courtiers of his successor3 (Dalaway, vol. i, pp. 114, ny). Date,
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while his father was still Prince and living in tents out in the open, beyond the mountains called by the Turks Bosdaga Aglassi, half a day's journey from Syria and one from Magnesia. He began to reign in this year 15-95-, at the age of 30 and a little more. His father was the same age when he began to reign.
The said Sultan has now 6 or 7 children, male and female, the eldest of whom is eleven and is called Selim ' after his grandfather and the second is called Soliman *. On Sunday he suddenly had a council called which people thought he ought not to have done so soon, and he ordered to be with- drawn from the treasury 136 bags of 10,000 shekels of gold and he commenced giving donations to the soldiers and especially the Janizaris to whom he gave 15- sequins of gold each, to the amount of i^ thousand. All this was apart from the increase of their pay, for not only were gifts bestowed on all the soldiers ; but an increase given to all who had been attached to the household, and who had held great or small appointments with the king. They say the sums amounted to 3 millions of gold.
In this first council he made his tutor and governor (whom I spoke of as Lala Bassa), one of the Vizirs of the kingdom and gave him the charge of all the imposts and revenues of the kingdom. He also made his brother-in-law Hebul Bassa, admiral of the sea, taking this dignity from the illustrious Signior Cigala, while allowing him to retain the rank of vizir. Several other offices he changed, putting his own people in office and others that appeared worthy.
1 Strangled in his father's presence in consequence of his having plotted against his father. * Died a natural death before coming to the throne.
The Italian Document
They say that he gives to the Queen, his mother, all the imposts that come from the great Cairo; which are 75-0 Venetian sequins, and the royal garden of Fonducli which is called that of Agha Bassa, which is very large and they believe that she will build a mosque there.
He took the amounts of his father's debts and found that he owed for food given in hospitality, more than a thousand of money which he had fetched from the treasury and paid at once. He also ordered that all salaries which had become due were to be paid to the soldiers and also to all belonging to the court and particularly to the sailors that which they ought to have received, together with some 4 or y other claimants, so that it came to an infinite amount. In the war with Hungary a great Agha had died leaving large treasure : Sultan Murat had sent for it and as it hap- pened to arrive just then it was presented to the king; but he asked whose treasure it was, and on being told, he asked if the dead Agha had any brothers or relatives. They replied that he had, upon this, the Sultan commanded that the direct heir should be found out and the treasure made over to him ; for he himself did not wish for the goods of others. On Thursday, at mid-day, an ambassador from Persia arrived. The Chauses of the Porte richly dressed, also the Agha of the Janizaries with his soldiers went to receive him. This Thursday night Ibrahim Bassa's brother, who was put in prison by the Sultan Murat for his many misdeeds, was consigned to the hands of the executioner. He was confined in the seven towers, whence he was taken to the public prison and there strangled, and thrown into the sea.
The Judge-High-Governor of the city was ordered to be
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beheaded, because there was no bread in the city; but his Lala interceded for him, as being a personage of great importance and because he was not responsible for the hard times and great cold prevailing that year. On Friday the new Sultan went to the Mosque of S. Sophia to pray, dressed all in white, in sign of mourning.
On Saturday and Sunday he sent away from the Seraglio more than a thousand young people, from all parts of the world, who were being kept there with their paid governors. He also sent away all mutes and dwarfs and cleared the grand Seraglio of such riff raff1.
1 Thomas Dallam, in his Diary written before A.D. 1600, gives the following description of this strange collection of human beings.
'Tow hundrethe of them weare his principal! padgis, the yongest of them i<? yeares of age, som
* ao, & som 30. They weare apparled in ritche clothe of goulde made in gowns to the mydlegge ; 'upon theire heades litle caps of clothe of goulde, and som clothe of Tissue; great peecis of silke
* abowtc theire wastes instead of girdls ; upon their leges Cordivan buskins, reede. Theire heades ' wear all shaven, savinge that behinde Their ears did hange a locke of hare like a squirel's tailc ; ' theire beardes shaven, all savinge theire uper lips. Those aoo weare all verrie proper men, and
* Christians borne.
' The thirde hundrethe weare Dum men, that could nether heare nor speake, and theye weare 4 likewyse in gouns of riche clothe of gould and Cordivan buskins ; bute theire Caps weare of
* Violett velvett, the croune of them made like a lether bottell, the brims devided into five picked
* [peaked] corners. Som of them had haukes in theire fistes.
' The fburthe hundrethe weare all dwarffs did weare a simmeterrie [scimitar] by his side and
'they weare also apareled in gowns of Clothe of gould.'
Sir Paul Ricaut, in his book on Turkish policy, thus describes the dumb :—
' They are called Bizibani or mutes, which are taught mute language made up of several signs,
' in which, by custom, they can discourse and fully express themselves. Eight or nine are called
* favourite mutes, who serve for buffoons to sport with, which he sometimes kicks, sometimes < throws in the cisterns of water, sometimes makes fight together . . . the mute language is much ' in vogue at Court, amongst others, as it is rude even to whisper in the Grand Signior's presence '. . . the dwarfs are called Giuge, and especially valued if they are also eunuchs and deaf.'
Many of the principal organs of the seventeenth century were built by Dallam and his sons. Such, for instance, as the organs for King's College, Cambridge, Worcester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral (which remained in St. Michael-le-Belfrey, York, until 1885), New College, Oxford, and Hereford Cathedral, as well as in many of the principal towns, such as Rugby, Hackney, King's Lynn, and Greenwich.
He came from the village of Dallam in Lancashire, and worked under the auspices of the Blacksmiths' Company, of which he was a liveryman.
The Italian T)ocument
SONNETS.
When Mehemet his father's body saw
Bereft of life by Allah's holy law ;
He wept ; lamenting o'er the power of Death
That dared to claim of such, his vital breath.
Then spake the Mother Queen — cWouldst thou secure
c Thyself upon the throne ? By method sure
f Remove thy brothers from this light below ! '
f O custom dire/ quoth he, f That they should go !
f My father, why so many an added wife,
f If these their sons must cease this mortal life,
c And 'neath thy gaze, through shades beyond, no less
c In death than life, must show their keen distress?'
From out the palace pass two Sultans great ;
One living and one dead in regal state.
The many wives of Murad follow next,
Trembling, oppressed by fears that greatly vexed
Each mother's heart; least Death once more should tread
His path within the palace gates. Mid dread
For noble sons and unexpressed lament,
The grief-charged air with anguish deep is rent.
For lo! a Mute appears. — Him feared by all —
And one by one the strangled princes fall.
A beauteous race, fair as the very sun!
Who can relate their anguish? Every one
A noble scion! None can ere portray
The awful grief, the tears that flowed that day.
CHAPTER III A CRITICISM OF THE PRECEDING DOCUMENT
curious document has interests quite apart from its value as a scrap of ancient literature, or even from
its points of antiquarian or historical value.
I shall endeavour to show that it was in reality an
attempt to use literature for political and commercial ends.
In the first place, the text under examination, which has been re-produced in fac-simile, is obviously corrupt. It must have been copied by some member of the English Embassy, who was not really conversant with the language, but who was probably accustomed to the crude conversa- tional Italian, which even up to a comparatively late date, was the chief medium of communication between the numerous races that had established themselves in the great emporium of all Eastern trade. Though the handwriting is beautifully clear, yet as the document in question is professedly forwarded to Her Majesty's Secretary of State on the plea of its being a piece of elegant literature of con- siderable interest, we can hardly believe that the Jewish author, who could compose such a work, could be the person to whom the errors are to be attributed; but that rather, as those who are accustomed to study dispatches of that date will agree, the faults are readily to be ascribed to the copyist employed by Sir Edward Barton to reproduce it for trans-
A Criticism
mission to England. Personally, I have little doubt that the document now at the c Public Record Office ' is only the dupli- cate copy of the original account, since, at that time, it was the invariable practice of our Ambassadors in Turkey to forward two and sometimes three copies of each dispatch at intervals in order to insure the arrival of the information, should any misfortune happen to the special messenger entrusted with the delivery of the dispatches, a contingency not at all unlikely to happen in those days and in such a country.
What then has become of the original? We do not know ; but I suspect, that, if we could find it, we should soon notice that it contained more information than the version which we have, and that in accordance with Eastern modes of thought it ended with a somewhat lengthy passage teaming with adulatory epithets and concluding with a request for personal recognition. I venture also to think that it did not contain the usual request for reward for the simple reason that the payment had been previously arranged and possibly already paid.
In studying this document, full of value for our own day, one is compelled to ask, cwhat could have been the peculiar interest attaching to it at that time ? ' As a literary product it shows signs of no extraordinary merit. The composition is quaint; but it is not striking. We are bound also to ask ourselves, why, at a time when com- mercial enterprise dominated men's minds to an almost unparalleled extent and when history counted for nothing, an account of the character and qualities of the dead Sultan and the events surrounding the accession of his son, should have been considered of unusual public interest ?
F 1
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This consideration is accorded more weight when we turn to the very interesting archives of Venice and compare the report sent home to the Doge and Senate of Venice by their Ambassador at Constantinople, Marco Venier.
That Ambassador was doubtless extremely well in- formed, as Venetian Ambassadors of that period always were, and therefore it will be worth while to compare the facts as given by him with those recorded in the Italian document before us.
TRANSLATION OF VENETIAN RECORDS RELATING TO EVENTS AT THE f PORTE' IN
i. f Marco Venier, Venetian Ambassador at Constanti- nople to the Doge and Senate of Venice.'
. . . CI made use of every means in my power ( to find out whether the Sultan were really dead ; and 'amongst other steps, I sent Borisi to Memi Pasha, who c assured him that the Sultan died on Monday the night of the f i6th-i7th of this month at the hour of the first cry. Ferrad f wished to send Memi Pasha in his galley to bring back the c Prince Mehemet, but the Sultanas declared that this sudden c departure would awaken suspicion. Accordingly they resolved f to send Bostagni Bassa (chief gardener ) in the middle sized f caique, as he was accustomed to go every day to Akbumar c (Acbaba) to fetch water for the Sultan's use. His caique has c a double relay of rowers, and so it is expected that he will f be back in 7 or 8 days.
Venetian Records 37
c As to the details of the Sultan's deathbed, Memi Pasha csaid, that, before His Majesty died, he ordered his son c Mahmoud, as graceful and charming a lad of twelve or thir- e teen as you could see, to be placed in safe keeping, so that * the women of the Harem should not make away with him.
c Had the death of the Sultan not taken place, a week c would not have passed before the dismissal of the Capudan ' Pasha.'
f Delle Vigne di Pera, xist January, 15-94 V
i. 'Marco Venier, Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople to the Doge and Senate of Venice.'
f The rumour of the Sultan's death has spread down to c the very children ; and a riot is expected, accompanied fby a sack of shops and houses, as usual.
. . . cThe new sovereign arrived this morning at the f hour of Salaam, and I saw him arrive and disembark at the f Kiosk. In the eleven days which have elapsed since the death c of the Sultan Murad, several executions have taken place, so as c to keep the populace in check. Inside the Seraglio there has c been a great uproar and every night we hear guns fired, a sign f that at that moment someone is being thrown into the sea.
cAs regards the death of Sultan Murad, I must repeat that che was attacked by his old Epilepsy, whilst receiving the f Capudan in Audience. He was carried inside and suffered all ' night. Next day he began to mend and progressed so favour- c ably that they almost thought him out of danger, when ( a second fit came on. This kept him for two days and two
1 A.D.
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* nights languid feeble and almost dead. It was followed ' by stricture which caused him to cry out in pain and on the s top of the other illness carried him to his grave. He refused f all medical attendance and all medicine.
f Even when in health, his habit of life was strange ; and ' they say, though it is hardly credible, that he eat no bread f but lived on solid meats, thick soups and sheeps marrow and ( other aphrodisiacs, for he lay immersed in lust. His funeral f was a sad sight ; nineteen unhappy children strangled, as is f the law of the land, followed their father to the tomb. He f leaves twenty nine daughters and six wives with child. If c males are born they will share the fate of their brethren. . . .' ' Delle Vigne di Pera, X7th January,
g. f Marco Venier, Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople, to the Doge and Senate of Venice.7
c Cicala x has been deposed from the office of Capudan f Pasha and Halil Pasha has been named in his stead. The c new Capudan will not, in my opinion, be any better than the { last. He has no experience in seamanship. He is married * to the Sultan's sister and she will not willingly let him leave f her. He is a man of quiet disposition and is held to be c simple rather than otherwise. His court is composed of c excellent men, not rapacious like those shameless thieves who f surrounded Cicala. All this makes it unlikely that he will c take the sea with a great fleet. He is very poor ; so, to win f him, it would be judicious, now at the beginning, to be rather ' open handed with him.
1 Cigala Bassa.
Venetian Records
f The new Sultan seems to be a resolute man and terrible. c The moment he arrived at the Seraglio he went to look on c his fathers corpse ; then his nineteen brothers were brought c before him one by one. They say that the eldest a most c beautiful lad and of excellent parts, beloved by all, when he c kissed the Sultans hand exclaimed, " My Lord and brother, c now to me as my brother let not my days be ended thus in this c my tender age." The Sultan tore his beard with every sign of c grief, but answered never a word. They were all strangled c all the nineteen. That same day, in the evening, the dead f Sultan was carried to the tomb with less pomp than usuaMy c accompanies persons of even low degree. The new Sultan, c dressed in purple cloth followed the corpse to the first door of c the Seraglio, Ferrat and the other Pashas, dressed in black, f attended further. On the bier, which in this country is borne chead foremost was placed a small turban with aigrettes. c The bier was covered with a cloth of gold with a jewelled c belt of gold across it. It was placed on a piece of ground cnear St. Sophia, under a great magnificent military tent f and round it will soon arise the mortuary chapel, where the f coffin will repose on a lofty platform in the middle. All f round, lower down, will lie the nineteen sons, who were not c carried in procession that day, owing to the late hour ; but f were taken out the day following. At present they are all in f plain wooden coffins ; but later, these will be covered and c adorned. The day of his brothers funeral, the Sultan " placed cin Divan " his tutor, Mahomet of Mecca, a man held in high 1 esteem, wise and not avericious. Ferret is in great favour f with the Sultan for the way in which he kept the city quiet f during so many days of interregnum. The Sultan has given
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' his seal to no one yet. Sinan will soon be here, in spite of ' a false rumour of his death. His Majesty has made great 1 changes in the Seraglio. He has expelled all the buffoons, ' the dwarfs, the Eunuchs and the women. They were all ' sent to the old Seraglio ; the amount of goods they carried 'out with them is incredible, for the carriages chests and c baskets of the whole city hardly sufficed.
c They say the secretary of the late Sultan will retain his 'post. The present to the Janissaries is one hundred and f twenty purses, of ten thousand sequins, per purse.
'The Sultan is about medium height, strong and c well made. He wears a black beard and two huge ' moustaches.'
f Delle Vigne di Pera, gist January,
CHAPTER IV
THE DIFFICULT POSITION OF OUR AGENT WITH THE GRAND SIGNIOR
NO careful observer can, I thinly fail to see a remarkable similarity both in style and language between the fore- going dispatches and the work of our Jewish author, especially at those points in which the two narratives are identical ; but nothing is clearer than the fact, that, on all matters relating to the character, either of the new Sultan or of his officials, the accounts are curiously contradictory. That there must have been a common source of information appears likely from the phrases used, and if this be so, we are naturally forced to the conclusion that either the account sent to Venice is a garbled one, which does not seem to be indicated by the circumstances, or that the account by the Hebrew writer Salamone is at least not a disingenuous production, although purporting to be so.
Let us try to probe the problem a little further, both by examining the circumstances that prompted this docu- ment and by a reference to contemporary history.
POLITICAL CONDITIONS AND THE TURKEY
TRADE
In the year 15-95- our trade with Turkey had only been in existence about 15- years. Sir Edward Barton was
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the second ambassador from England to the Turkish Empire and his position was an extremely difficult one. It involved the necessity for the greatest tact and judgement, in order to maintain friendly relations with the Sultan on the one hand and with the Privy Council, represented by Sir Francis Walsingham, on the other, whilst at Constantinople it was necessary for him to protect himself and the English merchants against the intrigues of the French and Venetian Ambassadors, who were very naturally anxious to oust the British competitor for the lucrative trade of the Levant. At home too, he was in constant danger of falling foul of the c Turkey Company/ who paid his salary and who appear to have been more desirous of making large profits and avoiding all possible expenditure, than of securing, for the future, their position with the authorities at the Porte. Between all these rocks and quicksands our representative had to steer his course.
To gratify Sir Francis Walsingham, whose portrait is appended, he was obliged to forward the most minute and optimistic dispatches at short intervals of a fortnight and to adopt an attitude of considerable servility, as shown by the conclusion of his dispatches, from which the following are typical extracts : —
f Other I have not to enlarge at this present ; but humbly { commend my dutiful service to your Honour, to whome CI wish the colour of all felicitie with the continual pro- f tection of the Almighty ixth October 15-88.'
c . . . yet hope to wax more perfect to your c Honour's better contentacion therein, the meantime, myself
Portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham
light
A. D.
Sir E. Barton's 'Difficulties 4.3
c and all my dutiful service to your Honour's disposing. The c last of August 15-88 V
Nor was this style peculiar to the man ; it was a neces- sity of his condition. I find that his predecessor, Sir William Harborne, was no less obliged to adopt the same attitude, in spite of his great achievements: I quote from a dispatch of his, dated February 17, ij-88 x, addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham : —
1 ... I cease to be further tedious but never to c beseech the Almightie to increase your Honours health with ( most honourable and happy events in all your weighty and c godly enterprises, to His Glory, Commonwealth's increase, c your own content and my continual desire '
The dangers at Constantinople, whether arising from the rapacity of the authorities or from the intrigues of the French and Venetian Ambassadors, could only be met in one way — a judicious mixture of bribes and bluster. The latter Sir Edward Barton had learnt from Sir William Harborne, whose skill in dealing with the Turkish authorities must have been of a very high order ; but the bribes were quite another matter, for not long before, in 15-9 3, the Company, acting on the repeated requests both of Sir William Harborne and himself^ had sent out a large present to Sultan Murad, to which allusion has already been made. Now that the recipient thereof was dead, in accordance with Eastern practice, the giving of presents must begin again. This must necessarily involve
A.D. C
44 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
a considerable outlay, and to the uninstructed minds of the Court of the f Turkey Company ' in London, it would, he well knew, seem preposterous to send a second present so soon after the first, or at least until they had received a f quid pro quo ' for their previous outlay.
In order better to understand the position and difficul- ties which Sir Edward Barton found himself compelled to meet, it is important to realize that the Ambassador to Turkey was not only the nominee of the Turkey Company ; but that his entire income was derived from the resources of the Company, though his every act was done in the name of the sovereign and under the direction of the Minister of State at home. This policy, in wonderful accord with the parsimony of the period, enabled the Government to direct the political acts of the Ambassador without the necessity of providing for his maintenance. Under such circumstances, then, it will not be difficult to see that Sir Edward Barton was face to face with a dilemma. To ask the Company to send another present would be futile and possibly dangerous to his position ; yet he well knew that unless some considerable gift were presented to the Sultan and his c entourage ' similarly propitiated, nothing but failure could ensue, with the result, that English enterprise, now so markedly in the ascendent, would have to disappear from the waters of the Levant.
Sir E. Bartons Methods
SIR E. BARTON'S SCHEMES i. THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT.
In order therefore to meet these difficulties, our Am- bassador in the first place found it necessary to procrastinate. To gain time for his plan was all-important. Accordingly, he tries by every means in his power to delay. But at the same time he does not forget to awaken in the minds of the authorities in England as much interest as he possibly can in the new Sultan. In my humble opinion the account of the events at Constantinople by ( the Curious Jew ' was simply one of many cleverly devised schemes to effect this end.
^. DELAY.
Difficult as it would seem to delay over such an im- portant matter as congratulating an Eastern despot on his accession to the throne, six months after the death of Murad, when some definite step was obligatory, we find him con- cocting a plan not merely to justify the previous delay, but still further to gain time. He suggests to the Secretary of State to write a letter to the Sultan complaining that no official notification of the death of Murad or of the accession of Mehemed had been made to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ; although he, Sir Edward Barton, had persistently refused to accept these letters until a certain quarrel he had with the French Ambassador had been settled in his — Sir Edward Barton's — favour. This is alluded to in the correspondence of the period as f the matter of the Flemmings,' and was the question whether other nations, such as the Flemings,
4.6 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
should come to Turkey under the banner of England or that of France, and, what was of more importance, whether the cConsulage of Forestier' should be paid to him or to the French Ambassador.
3. DISPATCHES FROM THE AGENT AT THE ' PORTE ' ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PRESENT, &c.
On July 17, Sir Edward Barton wrote to Sir Thomas Heneage to give him the first intimation that it would be necessary to forward the present to the new Sultan by the hand of a special Ambassador, since he was at that time only c agent at the Porte ' and therefore, until Letters Patent nominating him Ambassador had been sent out he was unable to present any gifts to the Sultan in person, or even to obtain an audience. Doubt- less in his former dispatch he has explained why he had not liked to approach the matter before, and probably laid blame on the Company for not having done so, whilst in this dispatch of July 17 he expounds his plans, which seem to me to have been well thought out and to have enabled him to put off his application for another present for so long a period.
To the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Heneage Knight, Her Majesty* vice Chamberlain & of the Most Honourable Tr'wy Council.
(a). f The Venetian Ambassador or Baillo be expected
c within this month ; so that it importeth, as my last specified,
'Dispatches from the Agent at the 'Porte' 4.7
c that 9 x either resolve by writing a letter to excuse the tar- c dance of Her Highness' Ambassador which letter may go after c this form. To commend the straight friendship 9 had with e Sultan Murad, specified by many friendly actions of the one f towards the other & particularly by oft letters congratulatory, c mutually to each other. Which not being unknown to his f Highness, Her Majesty marvelleth that having sent advice of c his happy access to the Empire to all princes in confederation f with him ; that among the rest he should be unmindful of 9 ; c the rather because 9 hath her Ambassador resident in his c Porte/ c which maketh her Highness suspect that he hath had some f ill information of her Highness' inclination to the due con- ' servance of amity & friendship with him : being particularly f in doubt that Cigal Ogli hath performed some ill office to the f diverting of 105- * his good affection towards 9 ; as openly he ' hath laboured to dissolve the friendship by taking unjustly f Her Majestys subjects contrary to the priveleges & articles of f friendship established between 9 & 105- and therefore required f testimonial of 105- his inclination by his princly letters and c proof thereof by setting free 9 subjects taken by the said Cigal f Ogli, that accordingly 9 may provide by a honourable am- c bassage to congratulate with 105- as doth beseem the friendship c between 9 & him.
f Or otherwise if 9 shall be of the mind to hasten & f send away the Present, (which I do not think), then, were it c convenient in respect of the small trade the merchants have finto these partes & little gain they reap thereby, Her c Highness made some princely resolution to ease the burden f and charge of the said merchants in the Present, by adjoining
1 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. 2 The Sultan.
4.8 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
f of her princely benignity to 105- his pension, a clock, in form c of a cock, which I hear Her Highness hath in one of her * palaces or some other princely gift in room thereof and to ' remember the old Empresse with some princely token which c may both show Her Highnesses bountifulness and conserve ' her friendship for future occasions. It is my duty to give ' my advice that it imported! 9 consider the request. . . .
' E. BARTON.'
The next dispatch is typical of Sir Edward Barton's position. On the one hand he urges the authorities at home to hurry the preparations for the forwarding of the Present, whilst on the other he plays off the cupidity of the Turkish officials against the schemes of the French Ambassador to deprive him of the cConsulage of Forestier,' which he claimed, and for that reason refuses the official letters to the Queen, to which allusion was made in the last dispatch, whilst still urging the Government to action, on the supposition that the letters will arrive very soon.
To the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Heneage Knight, Her Majestys vice Chamberlain & of the Most Honourable Privy Council.
(b). 'Will procure 105- letters to 9 in conformity of that f sent to ii r and all others in league with him ; but still f refused by me in and for the said Flemmings cause. Which ' obtained and sent, will be most requisite that 9 present to 105- c be incontinently provided for, &c. This 7th of September 15-95-.
' Your honours, &c.,
CE. BARTON.'
1 Code cipher for the King of France.
Dispatches from the Agent at the 'Porte3 4.9
Then follows the official application for the present, although the royal letters are not yet in his hands, and also a remark showing that, in spite of all his care, the demand for a further gift from the Turkey Company, had raised up enemies for him notwithstanding all his bona fide efforts to place the burden upon the Queen rather than upon the Company.
To Sir Thomas Heneage Knight, Her Majesty* Vice Chamberlain & of Her Majesty s Honourable Trivy Council.
(c). f Your Honour by my diverse former letters hath per- cceived the industry I use (By the excuse of the wrongful e taking of the Angel of London and her company), to defer ' the sending of the present to this 105-, knowing the same f would be of great charge unto the Company who, instead of c thankfulness which I expected from the care I had of their f profit, without admonishing me of my offence, if there were c any, complained most severely unto your Honour and would f have done the like unto Her Majesty if your Honour had not f withstood the same, touching which, as I hope, fully by my c last letter to have answered and satisfied your Honour. So c now must advertize the same that being deprived of all future f excuse to defer the Present, it importeth greatly Her Majesty s f reputation and amity with 105- that the said Present be incon- 1 tinently provided & sent, weighing on the one side what c great time already is spent since this 105- his access to the ' Empire.
' xndly. The cause which was to congratulate, how much
§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
cthe later it performed so much the less affection it doth c demonstrate and less acceptance here made of it; yea interpreted ( in all parts as the tardance of that from n ' hath been; which c these say to have been so long deferred to see the progress of c 10 * & accordingly to govern themselves which also may be c aledged against us. Then the vicinity (at the arrival of these c letters) of the summer, when for the danger of the Straits 3 f the merchants will not dare to send forth their shipping and c therefore is most requisite that speedy expedition be made of f the said present and not to be deferred unto the next winter.
f Touching the particularities of which I have addressed c them, as alike humbly required of your Honour to have due c regard, that all things may pass with honour of conservance f of the name and reputation 9 hath in this Empire, for which, f as also to ease the company in so great a charge as they shall c be forced unto, it were requisite, Her Majesty did use some c bountifulness towards 105- in the said Present, or to bestow on ' him a clock in form of a cock, which I hear to be in one of c Her Majestys palaces, that at least in the said present there c may be somwhat beseeming to the bountifulness of so mighty f a prince & worthy the person of so great an Emperor.
f ^rdly. That 9, if Her Highness so thought good, for con- fservance of amity with the old Empresse did send some f princely token of friendship to her, as she did by Mr. Aldrich cunto her majesty. And that Her Majesty have a special c charge that a principal tall ship were sent with the present.
1 The code cipher for the State of Venice.
1 The code cipher for * The Emperor.'
8 Straits of Gibraltar, where the Spanish men of war were in waiting to capture ships trading to and from the East. It seems that the Spaniards were averse to standing out to sea in the winter.
Dispatches from the Agent at the ' forte ' 51
c 4thly. It were very convenient that I had Her High- c nesses portrait in largest form,, as well as to comfort diverse c of her Highnesses faithful subjects of whom some of us have f not seen her Highnesse now 14, years, as also to show to the c Turks the picture of her, who, from East to West, is renouned c the mirror of the world.
c Lastly. On my own behalf, I require your Honour to c procure some bountifulness from her Highness for me, who c both in the ceremonies belonging to the delivery of the said f present, in the atire of myself and family and in the due enter- tainment of the sundry foreign ambassadors, who at that c instant will be resident there, shall have occasion to be at f diverse extraordinary expenses, which I cannot so compass to c her Majestys honour except by her Highness I be bountifully c and graciously supplied and therefore humbly require your c Honour to favour me therein.
c Resteth to advise your honour of the recovery of 107 f and p z their letters to 9 which I am promised within two days c and mind to send them by Mr. Henry Winkfield and the inter- c pretation by my next ; until which, ceaseing to be further f troublesome, I commit and commend. . . . This xoth of c September 15-95-.
f Your honours, &c.,
CE. BARTON.'
Among the manuscripts in the British Museum is a curious document bearing on the subject. It is an official resume' of the foregoing letter and contains the following paragraph : —
1 The code cipher for the Viceroy of Constantinople. H x
T2 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
NOTES OF MR. BARTON'S LETTER INTENDED FOR THE USE
OF LORD BURLEIGH
c Hitherto Mr. Barton hath excused the sending of Her cMajestys present but the Merchants not satisfied, have
c wrongfully complayned of him He hath now no
f further excuse for delay. It is needful therefore, it be pre- c sently provided and sent, for the longer it is delayed the less 4 affection it will represent. . . .
c For the particularity of the present is to be regarded. 'That it be correspondent to Her Majestys fame and f reputation and that Her Majesty doe bestow some particular 4 bountifulness on the Grand Signer as the Clocke in
f form of a Cocke and doe also send some token to the old f Empresse.
f Thirdly that a Principal tall ship of Her Majestys c owne be sent with the present for increasing Her Majestys f reputation.
* Fourthly that Her Majestys portraiture at lardg be c sent, as wel to comfort her subjects there, as to show to the f Turk.
f Finally he requesteth some bounty from Her Majesty c to himself for the better furnishing his chardg and enter- ftaynment of Embassadors in this so great a solempnitie. f Within two days he wil send the Viceroyes letter to her f Majesty by Mr. Henry Winkfield.'
To emphasize the importance of the matter, on Oct. 10 of the same year, Sir Edward Barton thus concludes his dispatch : —
Portrait of Lord Bur/eigh
GllL : CECILIUS
* \
Tke^aur:
Burgtle^ ^ Ot>iit
^Dispatches from the j4gent at the ' Porte '
To Sir Thomas Heneage Knight, Her Majestys Vice Chamberlain & of Her Majesty"** Honourable Privy Council.
c Resteth to require yr Honr to have due regarde unto the f conservance of the freindship with this 105- which greatly cconsisteth in the speedy dispach of some Honble present c thence, and messenger to congratulate with Him according c to the use of contry. The long tardance of which though f hitherto I have excused by the injurie offered our nation by c Cigall Ogli as having taken on of Her Magties subjectts ships, fand incaptived the men contrary to our previ leges, yett f nowe by yr Honr and the Compny beinge deprived of that c excuse and consequently 9 of all just cause of further c reteyninge or deferringe of the sayed present, reason and c pollicie wold yl all speede be made in dispach thereof: the f rather by cause from all partts and nations in league with c 105- the same hath byn pformed except only from n whose c d x playnly excuseth the tardance thereof by reason thatt his f maysters treasury by His continual wars is exhausted. And fyr Honri dexterity procuring (as rightt necessary and con- f venient itt is) the dispach of the sayed present besyds the c letters which 9 will writt to 10? it is requisitt to writt to f Sinan Bassa as general!, and Cheife Vicerey of the whole f Empire, alike unto Ebrahim Bassa, cheife vicerey presently f of the bench, to Halul Bassa Admirall and if be itt seeme c good to 9 for the conservance of freindship with the old f Empresse to writt also unto her and of 9 owne expense and c bountifulnes to send her some princely token. So with
1 Code cipher for the French Ambassador.
Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
' y* Honbte favors, I wold require yr furtherance for some f opticuler gracious benignity of Her Highness towards me, in c consideration of the greatt extraordinary expences I shalbe f forced unto, in the Honble performance of the ceremonyes f due att cominge of the sayed present. That as my zeale is f greatt in the conservance of 9 reputation in these partts, so c by Her Mag*64 bountifulness and yr Hon" furtherance, my f ability therto may nott be wantinge ; for which I will not c cease continually to rest obligatt, and presently comitt and f cofhend yr Honr to the protexion of the Almighty this ioth
f October, 15-95-.
c Yr Hon" most dutifull
f ever to comaund,
C£DW. BARTON.*
A still more important step, however, was the preferment of the following petition to Lord Burleigh ; a step which was doubtless the result of urgent advices from the British agent at Constantinople.
4,. PETITION FROM THE LEVANT COMPANY
c To the Righte honourable the L. Burghley, Lorde highe f Treasorer of Englande?
f The Companie of the Merchants tradinge the Levant care humble sewters unto your Lp, to move Her Majesty f for her letters of Congratulacion to the Grand Signior, who c hath ben settled in his Kingdome this twelve months and c hath bene presented with giftes and presents from the Esterne ' Princes, the Venetians and others that have entercourse with
Petition from the Levant Company
'him. In which letters, it maie please Her Majestic to ' mention her purpose, so to sende unto him a further remem- c brance of Congratulacon by Shipp, to come from hence c about November next ; which hadd be"n sent ere this tyme ; cbut that Her Highness was letted by suche meanes as cyour L. wisdome shall think meete to sett down fore f excuse. Which letters wee hope will give contentmente to f the Grand Signior, who otherwise is likely to take the matter c in suche ill pte as maye turne to the losse of all our goods in c that Contry and the capty vinge of our people there resident. 'Thus wee humblie beseeche your good Lp in our favor to f be a meane to Her Maie herein and wee shall dutifullie praie f for your Lp our Honorable Patron. 15-95-.'
To further support this application, the astute politician had advised the Turkey Company to approach the Govern- ment with the object of persuading the Queen to provide a present for the Sultan. The Governing body also applied to the Queen through Sir Francis Walsingham, and to support their application prepared and presented to Sir Robert Cecil, who had in the meantime taken the place of Sir Francis Walsingham as Secretary of State, a detailed account of all the shipping in connexion with Turkey as well as the revenues which accrued therefrom. This interesting document con- cludes as follows : —
c If it please your Honour to take information by the f Customer ' here in London what Custom we paid last year c from Michelmas 15-94 to Michelmas 15-95- and we doubt not
1 The chief Custom House official.
§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
* but your honour shall find it to amount to above the sum c of £5700.
c The king of France doth yearly give to his Ambassador ' at Constantinople, for his Maintenance, 10,000 crowns and ' doth always supply the present at his own whole charge ; cthe which is £3000.'
The same document complains that the merchants belonging to the Turkey Company have very great expenses ; the hire of the 11 ships alone costing £16,910. (See Appendix C.)
Whether these arguments had much or little influence with the authorities, we do not know ; but no steps of any sort were taken during the year I^T. In fact, it was not until the following year that Sir Edward Barton received and forwarded the letters of the Sultan and Viceroy to the Queen. The originals of these letters are not forthcoming, but I have found an Italian version of each of them, which run as follows : —
5-. LETTERS FROM THE VICEROY AND SULTAN TO THE QUEEN ASKING FOR AN f EMBASSY.'
VICEROY'S LETTER
Letter from the Viceroy of Constantinople to Queen Elizabeth covering the Sultan's letter written in the middle of the month of Saffar 1004 '•
cAlla gloriosa fra tutti li principi Christian! e^ castis- ' sima fra tutte le done del mondo, moderatrice delle cause
1 A.D.
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Letter from the Viceroy of Constantinople to Queen Elizabeth (Italian and English versions}
Viceroys Letter 57
cdi Nazareni, La Serma Regina d'Inghilterra plena di c honore ed virtu, con amorevoleza si fa intendere che il f Sacratiss : Sultan Murat Kan di fellice memoria per coman- cdamento di dio e passato di questo mondo a meglior c vita nel anno 1003 alii 16 di luna di Gumasiul evil, del c qual essendo usanza che avisiamo tutti li Principi amici di cquesta excelsa porta, con ogni amorevoleza lo faciamo f intendere a vra Alteza, a fin che allegriate insieme con noi ' della successione di questo nro nuovo Invittissimo Imperatore ' & mandiate persona degna di congratularsi con sua Magta e)' f per confirmare li patti e^ amicitia gia stabilita col invittis- ' simo suo padre, qual nostro Imperatore desidera per tutti c li modi augmentare, e^ a vra Magta e^ li suoi fare tutto c quel magior honor potra.'
Translation of letter from the Viceroy of Constantinople to Queen Elizabeth covering the Sultan's letter written in the middle of the month Saffar 1004.
To the most illustrious amongst all Christian Princes and the most chaste among the women of the world. Arbitress of the actions of the followers of the Nazarene and most serene queen of England, full of honour and virtue. Be it known that the most Holy Sultan Murad Kan, of blessed memory, has, by command of God passed from this world to a better life, during the year 1003, on the i6th of the month of January. Whereof, it being the custom that we should give notice of the fact to all the princes friendly to this great King- dom, with all affection, we acquaint your Highness, to the end that you may rejoice with us at the accession of this our
5*8 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
new and most invincible Emperor and send some person, worthy to congratulate his Majesty and to confirm the treaties and friendship already established with his royal father, the which our Emperor desires to augment by all means within his power and to pay all the honour he can to your Majesty and her subjects.
THE SULTAN'S LETTER
Traducione della lettera del Gran. Sig alia Ser™ Maesta
d? Inghilterra.
( Alia splendidissima, gloriosissima et fulgidissima Eliza- fbetha Regina, sopra tutti li grandi che seguitano Jesu, ' sapientissima moderatrice de tutti li affari della generatione f Nazarena, Ser™ e grades"* nebbia di pioggia, fonte,^ splendor c di honesta, dulcissima signora e^ Erede de beatitudine & gloria f del inclyto regno d'Anglia, al favor del qual tutti recorono cdesiderando il prospero fine di ogni sua reale attione e^ c ofFerendoli la benevolenza e^ gracia degna della nfa amicicia c con ogni fellicita.
f Doppo che la Maesta. vf a ricevera queste lettere Reggie, cdegne di honore, sapera che quello che doppo morte e nell c paradiso di gloria e^ vita Sultan Murath Kan che per la c misericordia de Dio e libero di ogni peccato, con ogni fcolmo di gratia, & con Tlnfinita sua potenza ha liberato cdi questo misero mondo in fellicita perpetua in gloria ceterna & gracia di quello omnipotente Dio e^ donator di f ogni bene che 1'ha fatto possessor di tanta beatitudine, come
Sultarfs Letter
f possessor & potente sopra 7x leggi del mondo. Questo c potentissmo e^ eterno creatore ancora ha fatto gratia a me di c elleggiermi in governo e^cappo de populi & loro Imperatore e^ f questo anno 15-95- a di 7 Genaro ho sentato nella mia Imperial f sedia piena di gloria per la qual ocasione e necessario che io lo c facci intendere a tutti li potentati che conservano 1'amicicia f con li fellici Imperatori di questa porta accio che si allegrino f di tanta fellicita. Al arrive dunque di questa lettera di bene- cvolenzza va. Altezza sapera che da li tempi antiqui fin a c questa hora del modo che la grandezza di questa ecelsa porta si ( e conservata e^ e stata honorata dalli amici della mia singular ' gratia, e^ che sempre sono stati conservati nel numero de veri c amici, cossi la Maesta vfa intendendo che io p gratia di Dio c sono seduto come nella sedia di Salamon Re, lo fara sapere p c ogni paeseeHoco p mezzo della nfa amicicia,e^particolarmente enel paese posseduto della Maesta vfa accio che con la nova c allegrezza di questo mio Imperial possesso ogni uno pigli con- f solatione, & che del modo che nel fellize tempo del deffimto f Imperator mio padre e^ altri mei Avoli che sono in gloria, f e stato conservato 1'amicicia a questa fellice porta, cossi voglio c sia mantenuta senza che mai sia alterata, anci conservata con c quella amorevolezza & amicicia che si conviene, si che vfa f Maesta mandara alia mia ecelsa porta persona degna p c confirmare con la renovacion delli patti la benevolenza fin c qui conservata con la vfa Maesta.
c Scritta alia metta de la Luna de Saffar 1004 \ c [Endorsed] The grand Senor to her Magtie, translated.'
A. D.
60 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
Translation of the letter of the Grand Seignior to the most Serene Mag* of England.
To the most splendid, most glorious and most resplendent Elizabeth, Queen above all Rulers who follow Jesus, most wise arbitress of all the affairs of the Nazarene race, most Serene and most gracious, shadow in heat, fountain and mirror of virtue, most sweet lady and Heiress of the bliss and glory of the renowned realm of England, unto whose favour all have recourse ; these presents, desiring the happy issue of her every royal act and tendering to her such good-will and grace as beseem our friendship, with all manner of happiness.
After your Majesty shall receive these Royal letters, that are worthy of respect, You will know that after death Sultan Murat Kan, who is in the paradise of glory and life, who by the mercy of God is free from all sin with all fulness of grace, by His infinite power hath been delivered from this miserable world into perpetual felicity in the eternal glory and grace of that omnipotent God, the giver of every good thing, who hath made him possessor of so great bliss, as (erewhile) master and lord over 7x estates of the world. This most powerful and eternal Creator hath further done unto me the grace to elect me to the governorship and headship of the peoples and to be their Emperor, and in this year 15-95- ' on the 7th day of January hath seated me in my Imperial and glorious seat, on the anniversary whereof it is necessary that I should make it known to all potentates who preserve friendship with the happy Emperors
AJ>.
Sultans Letter in English 61
of this Porte, to the intent that they may rejoice at so happy an event. On the arrival therefore of this letter of good-will, your Highness will know that after the manner in which from olden time until this hour the greatness of this Sublime Porte has been preserved and honoured by the friends of my peculiar favour, who have ever been maintained in the number of true friends, so in like manner your Majesty, when you understand, that, by the grace of God I am seated as it were upon the throne of King Solomon, should make it known in every country and place by means of our friendship, and particularly in the country possessed by your Majesty, to the intent that with this new rejoicing in my domains all men may take comfort ; and furthermore, that, after the manner in the which in the happy time of the deceased Emperor my father and other my Ancestors, who are in glory, friendship has been preserved with this happy Porte, so in like manner I wish that it be maintained without alteration, nay that it be preserved with such loving-kindness and friendship as make it fit that your Majesty shall send unto my Sublime Porte some person accredited, worthy, to confirm by the renewal of treaties, the good-will until this time pre- served with your Majesty.
Written in the middle of the month Saffar 1004. The grand Seiior to hr. Majesty.
6. APPEAL BY DR. PARKINS TO SIR ROBERT CECIL
It would appear, that the government, or at least the Turkey Company, was already aware of the text of these letters before their arrival and had taken some little trouble
62 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
to secure a suitable answer to them ; for in addition to the extremely practical petition already quoted, the Rev. Dr. Christopher Parkins, or Perkins ', on behalf of the Company, and doubtless at the request of Sir Edward Barton through Alderman Radcliffe, addressed himself as early as Sept. 15-95-, (some considerable time before the receipt of the letter,) to Sir Robert Cecil his friend and patron, on behalf of the c Turkey Company.'
After waiting for more than three months he again approaches Sir Robert Cecil by means of the following letter : —
' Right Honble Sir.
c For duties sake I thought good to remind you how the ' Turkish Merchants desirous to follow their trade with safety, ' and the honour and good of the state also doth require, have ' made choice of such times as the sea being rough in the c Straits, they may not be hindered by the Spanish Gallies f there lying at scout. The which time now will endure no 'longer than the entrance into March. It is thought also c requisite by the usual order of Turkey, for the maintaining c of friendship and trade there, that some compliments be now ' used with the new prince, the which being deferred till ' another voyage may seem stale. I beseech your Honour the 4 rather at my dutiful request, you will have some favourable ' consideration for the dispatch of the letter. And if perhaps ' it hath not been yet seen by Her Majesty, yet, if I might c know what course will be approved by Your Lordship's father c and yourself, especially for the stile, I would do my endeavour
1 See Appendix B.
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Anns oj the '•Titrkie Companey '
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Portrait of Sir Robert Cecil, first Lord Salisbury
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Letters from Dr. Ch. Parkins
f to make it fit, so that it might presently be fare written in cVellome; doubting not that Her Majesty, will well like, c what by my Lo : and yourself shall be approved and thus c beseeching your Honour to keep me in good favour, I pray f God prosper you.
f London from the Mr. Radcliffe's house the i^th of
'January 15-95-.
' Yours honours ever to command
cCn: PARKINS.'
Addressed to : — The Right Honble Sir Robert Cecill one of Her majesties most Honourable privie Councell.
Endorsed: — From Dr Ch : Parkins.
This letter was written from the house of his friend Alderman Radcliffe, who was intensely interested in the trade with Turkey, and at whose instigation he probably wrote to Sir Robert Cecil. The letter was received on Jan. lyth, 1596, or, according to the endorsed date, lypy, and next day Lord Burleigh sent him a draft of the points to be mentioned in the Letter to the Sultan. He seems to have lost no time, for on the I7th of the same month (the day after) he addressed the following letter to Sir Robert Cecil : —
* Right Honble Sir
c I send you here enclosed, the English I have for the c Turks letter with two latin letters, one of them to be chosen f at pleasure. As for the style it is as it hath been hitherto c used on both sides as near as I can learn. The first letter is f as in the English, word for word ; but only where mention is c made of the gift as from the Merchants. Wherein it is to be
64. §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
' considered how the enemies of the trade have ever impugned * the same upon no other, but that it was handled for, only by ' the Merchants. Supposing as certain, that the Turk would 4 nothing esteem of it in this manner; but that he would rather c scorn it and be offended. So that it may be thought, if the ' enemies intent may once be proved by Her Majesties own c leters, then can no good effect rise thereby. The Merchants ' also signify that it would be perilous to their men and goods in f that country, if the manner hereto used should be lessened, for c hitherto all hath been handled in the form of State, as from e Her Majesty and so at the beginning with due consideration it c was agreed upon by common consent of the Lords, and such c letters have been written accordingly, in confirmation whereof fMr Barton's commission hath been sent under the great ( seal. Yet perceiving it was intended no advantage be given ' by these letters, whereby Christian Princes may impute any f sending of gifts to the Turk from Her Majesty, I have of c purpose used such general form of speech, that all may be ( saved. Signifying only, that the gift in good time shall be c sent ; but making no mention from whom, leaving the inter- pretation thereof to good interpretation, wherewith the f matter seemeth rather to be put, than, that the enemies be f armed against us to the dishonour of the cause and the peril ' of Her Majesties subjects and utter overthrow of this trade. c Thus much for duties sake, leaving the better judgement of c others wherewith beseeching your Honour to keep me in good f favour I pray God prosper you. London I7th of January
f Your Honour's ever at commandment
4 CH : PARKINS.'
List of Bassas (Pashas) drawn up by Sir Edward Barton
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CHAPTER V A REVIEW OF THE FACTS
1HAVE been attempting to show how anxious our Am- bassador at Constantinople was to procure the interest of the Queen and her counsellors in the new Sultan. Sir Edward Barton was, as I have already pointed out, desirous of gratifying the Sultan and his Ministers at the c Porte' by propitiatory offerings, but at the same time he felt the impossibility of procuring from the Turkey Company, his employers, what he wanted. He therefore seems to have suggested to them the idea of obtaining the assistance of the Queen by making formal application for Her help, whilst he, on the other hand, makes use of everything he can devise, to bring about the same ends. He appeals to the vanity of a vain woman as well as the dignity of the state. In other letters to the value of an alliance with Turkey against Spain. He even sends a detailed account of the present recently forwarded from the State of Venice in the hope of stimulating Her Majesty's Government to do the like or more, of which letter the transcript added in Appendix E is a copy of that portion of the letter relevant to our subject.
All this however had been led up to by the carefully pre- pared document, the object of which was, to awaken interest on behalf of the Sultan in the minds of the Queen and her advisers and to make it appear how great, powerful, noble, just and honourable he was and therefore how desirable an
66 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
ally. I have especially come to this conclusion from three facts, over and above the considerations already mentioned.
i. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ITALIAN DOCUMENT.
In the first place we have ample proofs of the im- portance accorded to the Italian document of the Jew Salomone in the notes made in Burleigh's own handwriting, which are a r&sum6 of the document in question. These notes were doubtless intended for Queen Elizabeth's guidance, a view which the curious genealogical tree at the side of the notes would seem to support, whilst the notes on the various Bassas at the f Porte ' sent by Sir Edward Barton were probably forwarded for the same purpose (Plate XXIII) '.
At any rate it is clear that the document was considered of sufficient importance not to be pigeonholed, as so many similar papers are nowadays when they reach state offices ; but was evidently put to practical use, whilst the following notes, based upon the original document, must have been considered of some real importance to have been so carefully preserved.
A cursory glance at the notes in the handwriting of Lord Burleigh, will show how carefully he must have studied the somewhat complicated relationships at the Turkish court. The notes, being his own, seem to me to indicate that the great statesman had thoroughly mastered the Italian document, and was indeed conversant with the intricacies of the Turkey problem. The genealogical tree is strong evidence of the thorough manner in which he had studied the document in question.
1 This plate is not a reproduction of the original, but of the copy made for Lord Burleigh, upon the reverse of which he made his notes. The original is extant among the MSS. at the British Museum. The writing is so distinct, that no transcript seems necessary.
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Precis or Notes on the Italian Document
Notes by Lord Burleigh
Sulta SolimaQ
Sulta Selim id O
vixit annos fo Sultan Murad3d^rdP
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Sultan Mehemet o y psent Turk Nact a° actatis 30 a°
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TRANSCRIPT OF LORD BURLEIGH'S NOTES
The state of Turkey in 1794 re- ported by Salomone Uschehebrea Jew in Constantinople.
Sultan Murad lately dead, in January, bega his reign a° 15-74. Gra Sultana his wiff lyveth beig of 45- yers a verie wyse woan beyg wiff to ye Turk 3 2 yers. Sulta Mahemet ca fro his sangiacato in Magnesia neare to ye Cite of Bursa co- ducted to Costatinople by bostagi Basa, who was ruler ovr all ye Gr Turck orchards, he made ye Capt of ye Galle yt brought hy to Costatinople kyng of Cyprus sulta Murad was buryed in sophie The vesyres de la porta y* wet wl the Corps was ferrat bassa Mehemet bassa Capita bassa called cigala. Assa bassa. and next to ye body Ebrahy bassa and Halel ba
The p'sent Turk caused nynten of his fathers so to be circusise and then strangelled to deth, and buryed the by their father lala bassa was his Govnor wha his father reigned and is now 6 of ye vesiris Halal bassa is capita of ye sea w4 office Cigala had
^. CHARACTER AND POLICY OF THE USCHE-HEBREA.
In the next place the character of the man to whom we are indebted for the curious recital of events at Constanti- nople is not above suspicion. Salomone or Solomon Cormano is constantly to the front about that time. His powers
Halal Bassa
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6$ §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
must have been considerable ; but all that he did was done with the object of obtaining some advantage for himself. His chief duties seem to have been in connexion with commercial relations at Constantinople. He was probably an official of some sort under the f Porte ' whilst at the same time acting as Dragoman for more than one Ambassador, and as might be expected, invariably selling his employer's secrets. Shortly before the death of Murad, we find him acting as informer against Sir Edward Barton and trying to injure him at home ; but this not succeeding, and realizing that the influence of the English Ambassador at the Sultan's court was very great, he appears to have completely reversed his policy and to have placed himself at the disposal of the English Embassy. His sudden conversion and the apparent guilelessness of Sir Edward in speaking of him as c a curious Jew/ when fully aware of all that had taken place, make me feel that the document in question is not as disingenuous as might at first appear. This impression with regard to Salo- mone is strengthened by the consideration of (a) his personal character, (b) the probability that the information sent by Marco Venier to the Signiory of Venice, though so divergent in character, was probably derived from information sold by him to that Ambassador, and (c) most of all in consequence of the absolute contradiction of fact which appears in his account.
3. HISTORICAL REFERENCES
When, however, we turn to recorded history and realize that the whole description of the new Sultan and his proceedings is couleur-de-rose3 and that this description is not borne out by historical fact, there remains for us no alterna-
Historical Comparisons 69
tive but to search for the cause of such a flagrant departure from well-known facts. — Let us compare —
Of all the Sultans none was better affected towards France than Sultan Mahomet III ; yet in Vigenere's History of the Turks, published in 163 x in French, the writer, whilst glorying in the supposed victory of French diplomacy at the ' Porte ' during this period, nevertheless gives a very different idea of the character of Sultan Mahomet from the one which our f Curious Jew's ' description conveys.
Vigenere's Histoire des Turcs, Book VII, Chapter I, gives the following version of the character of Mahomet III : —
f . . . The Christians were filled with terror, on the rumour c of the death of Amurath and the prospect of the kingdom c falling into the hands of Mahomet III his eldest son. The f remembrance of this name, so hateful to and ill disposed e towards Christianity, caused them such panic, that they ' thought that there was no help for them, and that they f would have much to endure under this Prince, who had the f name for being quarrelsome and very cruel.
* As for the Turks, they were none the less apprehensive, cfor they seem to have entertained great fears, that, since f Constantinople owed its greatness to one Constantine and cwas taken and destroyed under another Constantine, and, as cthe Roman Empire really commenced to flourish under c one Augustus and deteriorated and declined under another f Augustus, so the town of Constantinople and the Greek f Empire, conquered by one Mahomet, would come to ruin f and destruction under another Mahomet.
Jo §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
f This prince (Mahomet) was naturally
' industrious and cruel but owing to circumstances became 'weak, timid and altogether lazy and effeminate, although c retaining his ambition. During his father's lifetime he had 'plotted against him on several occasions and from a very
' early age he became a great danger to his father
c After his circumcision, without further delay, his father ' (Amurath) sent him to Magnesia, which he allotted to him 'for his residence and over which he made him Governor. ' He had hardly reached that place before that spirit, which ' could only breathe amidst blood, led him to perpetrate all ' sorts of cruelties. They say, that, amongst other things, he f had the breasts of women torn off with red hot tongs and 'that on one occasion he put x,ooo Sophys to death in a ' most cruel manner, because they showed signs of less modest 'demeanour than was correct in his presence. Not only 'did he put these to death but several others, for very slight
'cause Presently he became so dissolute,
'that, he could not live even in his camp without his 'voluptuaries and what is worse, he betrayed the most 'important state secrets affecting the Empire to his chief 4 favourites.
' On his arrival the soldiers at the " Porte " made some sort ' of sedition in consequence of his having been elected without 'their concurrence. After pilaging the City they resolved ' to attack the Seraglio; but the principal Bassas appeased them ' by means of Bribes and this is why Mahomet made fewer ' changes amongst the officers both of his palace and army than 'his father had done. They say that the sedition re-com- 'menced at a public festival which he had proclaimed in
Historical Comparisons 71
c honour of his happy accession, and so great was the rising that f he was compelled to bring the Cannon, which are ordinarily ' at Top-Han^, into the public places in order to keep down f the sedition V
In a MS. in the possession of the British Museum, which, from its wording, seems to have been at least one of the sources of Vigenere's information, we have the same facts rehearsed.
f In the Turkishe Empire now raignethe Mahomet the 4 thirde of that name : a Prince by Nature of Witt and c Courage : but by Accidente dull timorous, and very effeminate c as hath appeared by divers proofes bothe before he came to f the crowne & sithens.
* While he was yet younge, kepte in the Serraglio neere c his father, and much hating an Eunuche called Nasuf-aga, c for the great favoures which he continually receaved from ' the Emperoure Amorat ; he spyed so far into his doings, that c having observed how every morning he sent out of the c serraglio a Baskett of flowers, he suspected that under those c flowers there might be hidden somewhat of more importance. e Whereupon one morninge staying the bearer by force, he c threw the flowers on the grounde which were above & ' underneathe, finding the Basket full of Goulde, he accused ' him to his father with great disdaine, saying, that he was f lesse favored than the slaves ; since they abounded with fthat, whereof he was denied. This because he found his c father straiter-handed unto him than he desired.
1 Top-Hane is in Galata across the Golden Horn j it is the Arsenal of Constantinople even at the present time.
72 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
f Besides he was so proude that he could not endure with ' Pacience that his Grandmother, which was said to be c a Gentelwoman of Venice, of the howse of Baffo, should ' rule the Courte & his mother ; a pore mans daughter of f Rezi a village of the mountaines of Ducagini in Albania. In 'sort that complayninge herof divers times, to his father, c & giving him every day new causes of disguste & of feare, f he presently caused him according to the law of Mahomet f to bee circumcised & sent him away to Magnesia in Natolia, ' there to Remaine, where discovering daily more & more f his fiercenes ; causing sometime upon malice, sometime c upon Humour, Womens breastes to be seared of with hote ' irons & xooo Softy (which are Schollers) cruelly to be f slayne, only because some of them, seemed to haue borne f an unchast opinion of him : & killinge many others for f slightest causes & briefly showing himself careless of Venus c sportes & wholely given to Martiall actions : he became so f suspected of his father that ... he resolved to hould him c not only better guarded ; but also to take away his life, if ' he changed not his maners. Wherof having oftimes bin c advertised by the Sultana his mother, and counsailed to f extinguishe suche suspicions in his father, by giving him- c self unto Pleasures, He obeied.
cSithens, he is therein so drowned, that changinge, or c covering his proper Nature, he is become by Accident & c will most sensuall ; be it by habit or by witchcraft (wherein fthe Greeke Hebrew & Turkishe, women are held most c skillfull) he canot liue, no not armed in the field without c such Pleasures ; nor without comunicating unto his Con- f cubines, the most important secrets of his State. Moreover
Portrait of Mehemet III, Sultan of Turkey
Historical Comparisons
f he loveth Peace ; forasmuch as that same fierceness which is 'naturall in him & which as Iron by the fire hath bin c softened by Pleasure & ease : is now rather an inclination of f a Tirant then the Valoure of a trew warriour. This he c showed clearly at that time, when towardes his Jorney into 'Hungary, being intreated in the gardens by one of his c dearest women, with teares & most importunat humble * prayers not to adventure his Person to the Warres ; & that c in respect of a prodigious dreame which she had had the 4 night before : Enraged, Darest thow presume (saith he) to f offer,, then to hinder my Glory, & Security & straight with 4 barbarous cruelty, he killes her dead.
c Not forbearing neither, to threaten his owne Mother c with the like, though otherwise she be muche esteemed c & beloved of him. As appeared, when at her instance he f slew also his before named Grandmother, withe his owne c handes '. . . .'
In Sanday's Travels, a very reliable source of information published in 165-8, we read as follows : —
c Him, Amurath the third succeeded : who warred not in ' person, nor atchieved much by his deputies ; yet reigned he f 19 years. Neither was Mahomet the third his son a soldier, ' being but once in the field, and thence terribly affrighted. c Nor enlarged he his dominions by the valour of others : f his forces being chiefly employed in suppressing of intestine ' rebellions. He reigned 8 years ingloriously and left the now f reigning Achmet to succeed him.
1 This early document, consisting of fifty-four folios written on both sides, ends as follows : 'finis the 6 of January, 1604., in a most filthie Dungeon in Constantinople.'
7-f §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
' This City [Constantinople] by destiny appointed, and by f nature seated for Sovereignty, was first the seat of the Romane * Emperors, then of the Greek, as now it is of the Turkish : c built by Constantine the son of Helena and lost by Constantine c the son of another Helena (A Gregory then Bishop, whose f first bishop was a Gregory) to Mahomet the second in the c year 14,5-$ with the slaughter of her people, and destruction of c her magnificent structures. The like may be observed of the c Romane Emperours; whose first was Augustus and whose c last was Augustulus. So have they a prophecy that Mahomet c shall lose it.'
While Knolles' History of the Turks, published only eight years after the actual events, in 1603, makes the perver- sion of fact even more definitely obvious :-
cThe people having in distrust the fierce nature of c Mahomet, Amurath his eldest sonne, were generally better c affected to Amurath the younger brother, a prince of a more cmild spirit and courteous disposition, unto whom they in c heart wished those stately honours which could by no meanes f without the great wrong and prejudice of his elder brother, c and danger of the whole state, be given unto him. Ten dayes c after, came Mahomet in post from Amasia to Constantinople, f and was there by the great Bassaes, and other his mightie cfavourits saluted Emperor: which done, he presently after c caused all his brethren to be invited to a solemne feast in the f Court : whereunto, they, ignorant of the death of their father, c came chearefully as men fearing no harme, but being come, c were there all by his commandment most miserably strangled : c and at once to rid himselfe of the feare of all competitours
Historical Comparisons
f (the greatest torment of the mightie) he the same day (as is f reported) caused ten of his fathers wives and concubines, such f as by whom any issue was to be feared, to be all drowned in f the sea.
f The Janizaries and other soldiours of the Court not c before acquainted with the death of Amurath, either with f the choice that the great Bassaies had without their priuitie c made of Mahomet, and not a little offended to see themselves c so disappointed of such spoyles as they reckon due unto them c in the vacancie of the empire, as men discontented rise up e in a rage and made such hauocke and spoyle in the imperiall f citie as greater they could not well have made had there been c as yet no emperor chosen at all : and not so contented, were f now even upon the point to have rifled their new emperour's ' Court, and to have laied violent hands upon the person of f himself, in revenge of the tyrannic by him executed upon his f brethren and father's wives (which inhuman cruelty the e Turkish emperors easily excuse by the name of The policie cof their State). For the appeasing of which so dangerous f a tumult, Mahomet called unto him certaine of the chiefe c men among these seditious, such as were thought to be able f to do most with them whom he sought by faire persuasions f and large promises to win unto him and by them to pacific f the rest : which serued him to little or no purpose : until csuch time as the great Bassaes themselves came out with f their followers, who with many faire persuasions, mixt with f most grieuous threats and firme promise of a general pardon, fwith much adoe appeased the tumult: yet for the more * safetie kept all the chief streets of the citie with strong watch cand ward.
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§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
'This broile thus ouerblown, a new tent was by the 'commandment of the new emperour set up before the c temple of Sophia : wherein on the right hand was placed c the dead bodie of the late Sultan Amurath, his father, and ' on the left hand the bodies of his nineteene strangled brethren, ' layed forth of purpose as a heauie spectacle for the people ' to behold : who all not long after were together with their ' father with great solemnitie after the Turkish manner buried, ' and Mahomet himselfe (being about nine and twentie years c old) now openly proclaimed great emperour of the Turks, f and lord of all, from the rising of the Sunne to the going c downe of the same. After that returning to his pallace, he f made unto his Bassaes and other great men a sumptuous and c royall feast, as the manner was : but whilest they were in f the middest of their mirth, upon the sudden all the citie ' was again in an uprore, and the people in armes, in such sort, f as that it was thought scarce one man would have escaped f aliue from that banket, had not the chiefe Bassa with his cgrauitie and wisdome and wonderfull labour in good time f appeased their furie and withall to their greater terrour caused f all the great ordinance in the citie to be brought forth into f the streets readie charged to be shot off amongst them.'
Such are the accounts which may be taken as representa- tive of the general impression of the character of Mehemed III, and strikingly at variance with the character portrayed in the writings of Salomone.
CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION
IN view, then, of the extraordinary contradictions here involved, of the character of the writer and the difficult position of the sender, the necessities of the situation, which demanded that every possible means should be em- ployed, and the entire uniqueness of the appearance of such a document among state papers, as well as many other cir- cumstances which have been touched upon, I cannot but assume that this scrap of curious and interesting literature was one of the levers in the complex political machinery employed, at that time, to influence the opinion of the Government, and of the Queen herself, in favour of the new Sultan in order to obtain a suitable present for him and his courtiers, notwithstanding that the former gift to his father had but recently arrived, and had only been presented to that Sultan a short time before his death.
It may be asked, Did the scheme succeed 5 Yes, it did, but not for some two or three years. It was only in the autumn of 15-99 tnat t^16 Hector entered the Bosphorus, carrying as the chief present to Sultan Mahomet, a wonderful mechanical organ together with its maker, Master Thomas Dallam, as well as a beautiful gilded carriage for the Sultana. The circumstances which surround that event are full of interest, but would be too lengthy for me to deal with in this volume. Therefore, whilst leaving the further elucidation of the problem I have propounded in the hands of those who
78 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
are more expert politicians and are better acquainted with ancient political methods and practices than I can pretend to be, I must rest satisfied to conclude with a description of the receipt by Sultan Mahomet of the Present from Queen Elizabeth that had cost Sir Edward Barton so much thought, work and strategy to obtain.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RECEIPT OF THE PRESENT OF AN ORGAN BY THE SULTAN IN A.D. 15-99
c The Grand Sinyor haveinge a desier to se his presente, f came thether wythe marvalus greate speed. I and my c company that was with me, beinge put forthe, and the Dore f locked after us, I hard another Dore open, and upon a soden f a wonderfull noyes of people, for a little space ; it should c seme that at the Grand Sinyore's coming into the house the c dore which I hard opene did sett at libertie four hundrethe c persons which weare locked up all the time of the Grand 4 Sinyore's absence, and juste at his cominge in theye weare c sett at libertie, and at the firste sighte of the presente, with ' greate admyration did make a wonderinge noyes.
f The Grand Sinyor beinge seated in his Chaire of estate ' commanded silence.
f All being quiett, and no noyes at all, the presente began c to salute the Grand Sinyor, for when I lefte it I did alow f a quarter of an houre for his cominge thether. Firste the ( clocke strouke ^^ ; then the chime of 16 bels went of, and c played a songe of 4 partes. That beinge done tow personagis f which stood upon to corners of the seconde storie, houldinge ' tow silver trumpetes in there handes, did lifte them to theire
Extract from the Diary of Thomas Dallam
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An Organ presented to the Sultan 79
f heades, and sounded a tantarra. Than the muzicke went of, e and the orgon played a song of 5- partes twyse over. In the f tope of the orgon being 16 foute hie, did stande a holly bush c full of blacke birds and thrushis, which at the end of the fmusick did singe and shake their wynges. Divers other 'motions thare was which the Grand Sinyor wondered at. c Than the Grand Sinyor asked the Coppagawe ' yf it would cever doo the lyke againe. He answered that it would doo c the lyke againe at the next houre. Cothe he : I will se that. cln the meanetime, the Coppagaw being a wyse man, c and doubted whether I had so appoynted it or no, for he 4 knew that it would goo of itselfe but 4 times in 14, houres, so f he cam unto me, for I did stand under the house sid wheare c I might heare the orgon goo, and he asked me yf it would c goo againe at the end of the nexte houre ; but I tould him c that it would not, for I did thinke the Grand Signer would c not have stayed so longe by it ; but yf it would please him, c that when the clocke had strouk he would tuche a little pin c with his finger, which before I had shewed him it would goo f at any time. Than he sayde that he would be as good as his f worde to the Grand Sinyor. When the clocke began to strick c again, the Coppagaw went and stood by it ; and when the f clocke had strouke 13, he tuched that pinn, and it did the c lyke as it did before. Than the Grand Sinyor sayed it was f good. He satte verrie neare vnto it ryghte before the Keaes ' [keys], wheare a man should playe on it by hande. He asked f whye those keaes did move when the orgon went and nothinge cdid tuche them. He Tould him that by those thinges it f myghte be played on at any time. Than the Grand Sinyor
1 Lit. Gate-keeper, a high official in the Royal household.
80 §(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
( asked him yf he did know any man that could playe on f it. He sayed no, but he that came with it coulde, and he cis heare without the dore. Fetch hime hether cothe the 'Grand Sinyor and lett me se how he dothe it. Than the f Coppagaw opened the Dore which I wente out at, for I stoode f neare unto it. He came and touke me by the hande, smylinge f upon me ; but I bid my drugaman ask him what I should ' dow or whither I should goo. He answered that it was the ' Grand Sinyor's pleasur that I should lett him se me playe ' on the orgon. So I wente with him.
f When I came within the Dore, that which I did se was fverrie wonderfull unto me. I cam in directly upon the ' Grand Sinyores ryghte hande, som 16 of my passis [paces] f from him, but he would not turne his head to louke upon fme. He satt in greate state, yeat the sighte of him was f nothinge in comparrison of the traine that stood behinde f him, the sighte whearof did make almost to thinke that I was c in another worlde. The Grand Sinyor satt still behouldinge f the presente which was befor him, and I stood daslinge my ( eyes with loukinge upon his people that stood behinde him ' the which was four hundrethe persons in number
f. . . . Than the Coppagaw cam unto me and touke my c cloake from aboute me and laye it Doune upon the carpites, * and bid me go and playe on the orgon, but I refused to do ' so, because the Grand Sinyor satt so neare the place wheare f I should playe that I could not com at it, but I muste needes cturn my back towards him, and touche his Kne with my c britchis, which no man in paine of deathe myght doe savinge f only the Coppagaw. So he smyled and lett me stande a litle.
An Organ presented to the Sultan 81
f Than the Grand Sinyor spoake againe and the Coppagaw with f a merrie countenance, bid me go with a good curridge, and f thruste me on. When I cam verrie near the Grand Sinyor ' I bowed my heade as low as my kne, not moving my cape, and ' turned my backe righte towardes him, and touched his kne c with my britchis. He sat in a verrie ritche Chaire of estate, f upon his thumbe a ringe with a diamon in it half an inche f square, a faire simeterie by his side, a bow, and a quiver of f Arros. He satt so righte behinde me that he could not se ( what I did ; tharfore he stood up, and his Coppagaw removed c his Chaire to one side, wher he myghte se my handes ; but, f in his risinge from his chaire, he gave me a thruste forwardes, f which he could not other wyse dow, he satt so neare me ; but c I thought he had bene drawinge his sorde to cut of my heade. f I stood thar playinge such thinge as I coulde untill the f clocke stroucke, and than I bowed my heade as low as I coulde, c and wente from him with my backe towardes him. As I was ' taking of my cloake, the Coppagaw came unto me and bid f me stand still and lett my cloake lye ; when I had stood a c litle whyle, the Coppagaw bid me goo and cover the Keaes of ' the orgon ; then I wente close to the Grand Sinyor againe ' and bowed myselfe, and then I went backewardes to my ( cloake. When the company saw me do so theye semed to f be glad, and laughed. Then I saw the Grand Sinyor put his chande behind him full of goulde, which the Coppagaw f Receved, and broughte unto me for tie and five peecis of gould f called chickers (sequins) and than was I put out againe wheare ' I came in, beinge not a little joyfull of my good suckses.'
THE END.
M
APPENDIX A
SIR EDWARD BARTON
SIR EDWARD BARTON was born in 1561 at Whenley, in Yorkshire, where his father was a man of some position — either in the direct employ of Sir William Harbourne, or, more probably, as a factor or official representative of one of the Levant merchants in London. He went to Constantinople, and in 15-90 he appears as c agent for Her Majesty with the Grand Signior,' but it was not until 15*96 that he received his commission as Ambassador. Immediately after his appointment he was compelled to go to the war against Hungary, in company with Mahomet III, who seems to have greatly appreciated him.
In 15^97, worn-out and weakened by his privations, he went to the little island of Halki, in order to escape the plague which was raging in Constantinople; but his effort was in vain. He fell a victim to its virulence at the end of that year, and was buried in the island. The slab above his grave has now been removed to the Embassy Church at Pera, and bears the following inscription: —
cEduardo Bartono, Illustrissimo Serenissimas Anglorum f Reginse Oratori, viro prasstantissimo, qui post reditum c a bello Ungarico, quo cum invicto Turcor imperatore ( profectus fuerat, diem obiit pietatis ergo, astatis anno fxxxv, Sal. vero MDXCVII xvm Kal. lanuar.'
M
APPENDIX B
THE REV. DR. SIR CHRISTOPHER PARKINS
THE REV. SIR CHRISTOPHER PARKINS, or Perkins, was a well- known character at the end of the sixteenth century ; he had had a very varied career. At the age of twenty, after graduating at Oxford, he went to join the ' Society of Jesus' at Rome, presumably to complete his education in the Roman Catholic priesthood ; but for some reason or other he turned his attention to other matters, and when Lord Burleigh's grandson William Cecil, afterwards second Earl of Exeter, visited Rome, and through the indiscreet expression of Protestant opinions was in considerable danger, he was saved by the interposition of Parkins, who returned to England with young Cecil, who recommended him to his grandfather's favour.
He was sent as Diplomatic Agent to Denmark, Poland, and Russia, where he remained for some time, and then returning to this country became an ordained minister in the Church of England. Whether or no he had any clerical appointment in London is doubtful ; but it was probably about this time that the Pope offered jfiooo for his life. For some time he assisted Dr. Awbry, then Latin Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, and on the latter becoming very ill, did most of his work. On the death of Dr. Awbry he made an application to Sir Robert Cecil for preferment, both by
Appendix E 85-
letter and through the medium of certain influential friends. The following record is the endorsement made by Sir Robert Cecil on the back of his letter of application : —
f The writer has been recommended for post of " Master c of the Requests extraordinary ': with a pension ; but some c object to his foreign education. He went out of England f when xo years of age,, received no education about but what c might stand with good English duty ; and at Rome they c never boasted of him ................ has been 7 years in
f Queenes service, writes some good part of the Queenes letters. f He desires to be " master of requests ordinary " especially for c foreign causes and Latin Secretary and concludes that such f an appointment would be honourable.
( goth March
After waiting three months, Dr. Parkins became im- patient, and sent the following somewhat characteristic letter to his friend and patron : —
Endorsed : c Dr. Ch. Perkins to Sir Robert Cecil 15-96 Juty 9-
* After 7 years service, having in Her Majesties dominions f no other benefit of living, but only 100 Marks yearly, which c I bestow upon my servants, kept for occasion of Her f Majesties service, it may seem good time to seek some place f with better enabling me to serve and some consideration of f my desert.
c There are void, the office of Requests and L.S. Dr. c Awbry in his death bed wished the place to be given me,
§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
' as in his opinion most fit for it So that if
' it please Her Majesty that I have both the Requests and the f Latin Letters with the fees and Carlisle or somewhat equiva- ( lent as St. Cross &c., I shall be able exactly to perform the 'charge as well as other. I must hope that Her Majesty ' meaneth some better thing towards me.
CI send the writing I have conceived for Her Majesty f in my behalf, desiring your pleasure for the delivery of it ' by yourself or some other means.
' Ch. Perkins.*
This application resulted in his appointment to the Deanery of Carlisle; but it was not until 1617 that he was appointed ( Master of Requests' in succession to Sir Daniel Doune.
Knighted by James I in 1604-, he became Member of Parliament for two Constituencies, and died in 1611.
The documents quoted are in the possession of H.M. State Paper Office.
APPENDIX C
THE TURKEY TRADE
Account of the shipping and trading to Turkey supplied by the Turkgy Company to the Secretary of State Sir Robert Cecil.
ACONTENTE of suche Shippinge as wee the merchants tradinge Turkey, doe looke daiely for to come home out of the Straights be as followeth : —
The Jewel of igo Tonnes and in her 30 marriners.
The Centurion of xoo Tonnes and in her 44 marriners.
The Riall Exchang of xyo Tonnes and in her 60 marriners.
The Great Suzan of xdo Tonnes and in her 66 marriners.
The Mdgett & Elizabeth of do Tonnes and in her 16 marriners.
Soma 5- shippes of 900 Tonnes in them 116 marriners.
Theis Shippes doo Lade in Allexandreta in Siria with theis commodities followinge: — Rawe Silke Indico Blewe All sorts of spices All sorts of poticary
Druggs Grograynes Waltered & unwaltered
Chamblletts Cotton Yearne Cotton wooll Some Turkye carpitts Cotton Clothe Gawles
Hir Maties custome of them will amount to at the least for soe wee dare adventure to geave for the same, the some of
§(ueen Elizabeth and the Levant Company
The hier of the Shippes which wee doo paye to ] owners, maisters & marriners, at £10 per tonn amounts to
Shipps to retorne out of other places : from Candie — The merchant Bon- v
advent nr of 15-0 Tonnes with
95- marriners
The Hercules of 15-0 Tons
with 60 marriners from Zante — George Bonadventur
of 14,0 Tons with 35- marriners from Sio — ^4ngell of 180 Tons
with 4-0 marriners
The Gyllyon of 130 Tons with
30 marriners from Venis — Trosperos of xoo
Tons with 44, marriners from Argier — Recovery of 80
Tons with 10 marriners t
Soma 7 shippes of 1130 To with 164 mariners.
The hier of the said shippes will cost us, to the owners and marryners £j p tonne, which amounts to
Yf it please your Honnor to take informaton by the customers here in London what Custome wee paid the last yeare from Michaelmas 15-94, untill Michaelmas 15-95- and wee doubte not but yr Honnor shall fynde it to amount to above the somme of
£9000.
Theis shipps for\ the most parte lade Currants and other grosse fcorhodities yet hir maiesties Custom will amounte to
oo.
Appendix C
The Kinge of ffraunce dothe yearelie give to his Ambassador att Constantinople for his mayne- tennce 10,000 crowns and dothe alwaies supplie the Present at his owne Charge the which is
£3000.
This document is in the possession of H.M. State Paper Office.
N
APPENDIX D
THE PRINCIPAL OFFICIALS AT CONSTANTINOPLE
IN
T
HE names and order of the Vicereys as they sit in courts.
1° Sinan Bassa Generall in Hungary.
1° Feratt Bassa cheife at the Porte.
3° Ebrahim Bassa, who hath Sultan Mahemed his elder
sister to wife. 4° Mahemed Bassa, who hath Sultan Mehemed his aunt
sister to Sultan Murad to wife.
y° Cigall Ogli, otherwise called Sinan Bassa, the ipth of January I5"94 deposed from his Admiralship and yett remayneth Vicerey on the bench. 6° Halull Bassa, who hath Sultan Mahemed his second
sister and is presently highe Admirall. 7° Hassan Bassa Eunuch. 8° Mamud Bassa comonly called Lula Bassa bycause he
was Sultan Mehemeds gouvernour in his nonage. Chancellor Hamza Bassa comonly called Nizangi
Bassa.
Secretary Musa Cheliby.
Beglerbey of Gecia is Mahemed Bassa sonne to Sinan Bassa, which sayed Mahemed Ba is also Vicerey on the Bench, for service done in Hungary. Beglerbey of Cayro, Achmatt Ba Eunuch. Beglerbey of Argia, Baban B*. Beglerby of Tunis, Mamy Bassa, sonne in lawe to
Hassan Ba late Admirall. Beglerby of Tripoly & Barbaria Giaffer Ba.
This document is in the possession of the MSS. Department of the British Museum.
APPENDIX E
THE ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT SENT TO THE SULTAN BY THE STATE OF VENICE
Venetian Ambassador went to kisse ioj his hands the 21 of this ' instant, the present he brought from 1 2 1 was a ship made of silver
* guilt with the forme of masts, sayles, artilirie, so weighty as two men {mightt carry —
< Three bassons and ewers of silver guilt, of divers workmanship.
« Three greatt bassons or Caldrons of silver to keepe wine or watter ( fresh in.
< Three flagons of silver guiltt, and i o greatt standing cups. 4 Twenty peeces of most rich cloath of gold.
< Twenty peeces of imbraunchtt velvett with gould.
* Twenty peeces of pure velvett.
< Twenty peeces of taffatties and damaske wrought with gold.
* Twenty peeces Satten and damaske, and divers cullored cloathes.
< And what disgraced so rich a presant, was broughtt therwithall, four 'greate parmesan cheeses, certen whitt waxe candles, and certen basketts 'of sugar loaves.
4 Itt was greatly coinended of the Turkes and esteemed at a greatt price
< by the Christians : In which respectt it greatly Importeth 9 creditt with iof
* y* like dilligence and carfulnes be used by the Company, the rather bycause
* as above speciefyed i o y goeth in person a warfar nextt springe, when what 1 a trouble itt wilbe to follow him, with the sayed present yr Honrs 1 wisdome may judge, and therefor require the same, to solicitt the sendinge
< of the present, all y' may be, in as much as yf itt come by Aprill nextt ' itt wilbe heere tymly inough.
• ••••••••••••••
'. . . 23d October 1/95-.
* Your Hrs most dutifull
< ever to comaund
<E. BARTON.'
•
This document is in the possession of the MSS. Department of the British Museum.
1 The code cipher for the state of Venice.
Oxford Printed at the University Press
By Horace Hart Printer to the University
Honyel Gough vlizabeth and the ->any
VE OCKET