ELIZABETH I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland. - photo 1

ELIZABETH I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland.

Lot 66
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 25 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 993305
Lot 66 | ELIZABETH I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland.
Estimate value
£ 25 000 – 35 000
ELIZABETH I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland.

Document signed (at head, 'Elizabeth R'), Greenwich, 1 February 1587/8, a passport for her ambassadors to the Low Countries.

In English, on vellum, 18 lines on one membrane, 252 x 335mm, countersigned by J. Woods, docketed on verso. Provenance: Christie's, 13 June 2012, lot 30.



A passport for the special embassy seeking to stave off the Spanish Armada. This is Elizabeth's letters patent addressed to 'our High Admirall of England, and to all our Viceadmiralles, Cap[tai]nes, Souldiers, and others servinge us on the Seas', as well as to mayors, sheriffs and other public officials, providing a passport for a diplomatic party comprising Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (Lord Warden of the Cinq Ports), Sir James Croft (comptroller of the royal household), Dr Valentine Dale ('one of o[u]r ordinary masters of Requests') and Dr John Rogers ('one of the masters of our Requests extraordinary'), whom she has appointed to 'depart into the Lowe Contreys in speciall Com[m]ission and Ambassade from us': they are to be allowed to pass with all their train and baggage, and are to be furnished with horses, carts or any other necessary form of carriage by sea or land, 'Whereof fayle ye not, as ye tender our pleasure'.



The party's 'special commission' was to negotiate a peace treaty with Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, which would end the war with Spain. The failure of the negotiations was to be followed directly by the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada (which was originally intended to carry an army under Parma) later the same year. Derby's journal of the embassy survives at the British Library (Sloane MS 262).

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[ELIZABETH I (1533-1603)].
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