 |
| Sir Francis Walsingham |
Here we see something of the tenor of Francis Walsingham’s
relationship to Johannes Sturmius in Strasbourg. This
letter was sent some three years after the previously posted letter from William
Cecil [Link], the Baron of Burghley, offering the Strasbourg scholar the stipend that had
been paid to Christopher Mount until the recent the death of that old workhorse
of the English diplomatic corps. Incidentally, Sturmius had negotiated with
Mount, on the behalf of France, during the mid-1540s. The English were quite impressed with his
abilities.
There are those among the Oxfordian community — as has
been pointed out — who consider Sturmius to have been a spy-master for a de
facto station operating out of the city.
Here he is pressed “again and again, to write more frequently, according as you have leisure.” The “any of you” to which Walsingham refers
are indeed the group of informants that Sturmius has recruited. So then, we can
say, at this point, that he is receiving a stipend from the English Court and
sending along information that the Court finds highly interesting but not
enough to satisfy their needs. But there
is no sense whatsoever that he is anything more than a valued correspondent:
agent yes, spy no, spy-master not even remotely. Further letters and information, however,
will show more precisely what was the nature of the relationship.
Of special interest should be the reference to one “Lewin”. He is William Lewin, a graduate of Cambridge
and the steady older servant of Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who wrote a long
letter to William Cecil, in July of the previous year[1],
to explain that his master, the Earl, had disappeared from Strasbourg leaving
him behind at a loss to understand what to make of the matter.
The letters I will be posting between Sturmius and the English, it bears
remembering, are translations from the Latin of the originals.[2]
Most learned Sturmius, I have earnestly requested her majesty's envoy[3],
who is now in France with the king, to interest himself as much as possible in
the arrangement of the money matters between you and the friends of the true religion;
in which he solemnly promised his credit and exertions, with this limitation,
as far as his influence and power extended. Of whose word I am so far from entertaining
any doubt, that I know and am fully assured, that all my own affairs, among
which I place yours, will not be less attended to by him than his own: and I
doubt not but that, if they will second his efforts in a manner suitable to
their piety and religion, the matter will shortly be accomplished according to
your wish and desire. With respect to what that worthy man, master Lanscade,
wished to be mentioned to her majesty, the lord treasurer has her commands to
send you an answer by master Lewin. As to the means by which you should procure
your letters to be forwarded to us, I have declared my mind and pleasure to
master Ashby, which I know he will explain to you; lest hereafter any of you
who shall entertain a desire of writing to us, whenever any occasion may arise,
may find any difficulty in this respect. I earnestly entreat you, again and
again, to write more frequently, according as you have leisure. Farewell and
happily. Dated at the palace of Hampton Court, Oct. 27, 1576.
Your sincere friend,
FRANCIS WALSINGHAM.
[1] A pdf
file of a modern language transcription of the letter can be found at html http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/StatePapersOther/SP_70-134_ff_186-7.pdf. Green, Nina.
The Oxford Authorship Site (http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/).
[2]
Both the original and the translation of this letter are are found in The
Zurich Letters. (Second Series.) A. D. 1558—1602. Cambridge University
Press, 1845.
[3]
Sir Amias Paulet.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Lord Burghley to John Sturmius, Sept. 15, 1572. April 22, 2018. "W. Ron Hess has suggested that Sturmius was a spy station-master and money launderer for the infamous spy network of Francis Walsingham and the Baron Burghley and that Edward de Vere's visit, in 1575, was a spy mission."
- Bayle's Dictionary Entry on Johannes Sturmius. April 15, 2018. “Diligence makes clear that his reputation as a cloak-and-dagger English spy is without basis. He did pass along information he thought might be of interest from his correspondence with many contacts throughout Europe to William Cecil and Francis Walsingham.”
- Edward de Vere's Memorial For His Son, Who Died at Birth May 1583. July 5, 2017. "The brief Viscount Bulbeck being the son of the renowned poet and playwright Edward de Vere, we might have hoped to have the text of the father’s own memorial poem. As far as traditional literary history is concerned, no such poem has yet been discovered."
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
No comments:
Post a Comment