The Embassy of William Harborne to Constantinople, 1583–8

H. G. Rawlinson

doi:10.2307/3678456

The Embassy of William Harborne to Constantinople, 1583–8

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

H. G. Rawlinson

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The Turkey Company, one of the many commercial ventures started during the reign of Elizabeth, was first organised in order to break the monopoly in Eastern commodities which had fallen into the hands of the Venetians, to the great detriment of English trade. The early history of the Turkey Company has already been submitted to detailed investigation, and need not be recapitulated here. The object of the present paper is to throw some light upon an aspect of the subject which has hitherto received little attention, namely, the part played in the foundation of the Company by William Harborne, our first Ambassador to the Porte, but for whose courage and perseverance the whole enterprise must have fallen to the ground. His services to the Turkey Company may be compared to those of Sir Thomas Roe to the East India Company; but whereas the journals and diaries of the latter have been worthily edited, those of Harborne remain almost entirely unknown. Harborne, during his six years at Constantinople, kept up a close correspondence with Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham and Mr. Secretary Davison. He was a voluminous but not an elegant letter-writer: his style is so cumbrous and involved that at times it is difficult to understand exactly what he means, and one is tempted to wish that he had written in Latin.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 5 , December 1922 , pp. 1 - 27

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678456 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1922

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References

^{page 1 note 1} Epstein, M., Early History of the Levant Company (1908)Google Scholar; Rossdale, H. G., Q. Elizabeth and the Levant Company (1904)Google Scholar.

^{page 1 note 2} The only account of which the writer is aware is the article in the Dictionary of National Biography, viii, 1200–1, which has been supple mented by this Paper.

^{page 2 note 1} Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars quarta. Ed. Hackman, Alfred, index p. 950Google Scholar.

^{page 3 note 1} Edward Osborne (1530–1602) was Lord Mayor of London 1583 and M.P. for London 1586. Richard Staper is justly described on his monument in St. Helens, Bishopsgate, as “The greatest merchant in his tyme; the chiefest actor in discovere of the trades of Turkey and East India.” They were the pioneers of English commerce in the reign of Elizabeth, and despatched Ralph Fitch and his companions on the epoch-making mission to Akbar (1583).

^{page 3 note 2} S.P.D. Eliz. 144, No. 70. Given in Epstein, op. cit. Appendix viii, 2.

^{page 3 note 3} Hakluyt, , Voyages, ed. Maclehose, , Glasgow, 1903, vol. v, 168Google Scholar.

^{page 4 note 1} 112, No. 26.

^{page 4 note 2} Hakluyt, v, 221.

^{page 5 note 1} Ibid., p. 178.

^{page 5 note 2} Catalogue of State Papers, Venice, by Brown, H. F., vol. iii, p. 30, IntrodGoogle Scholar.

^{page 6 note 1} Even Charles II describes himself as “Defender of the Christian Faith against those that worship Idolls and Images.” (Sir John Finch to the Kaimakam at Constantinople, May, 1674.)

^{page 6 note 2} Turkey Papers, Bdle I. Given in Epstein, op. cit. Appendix viii, I.

^{page 7 note 1} Harleian MSS. 6993, No. 2.

^{page 7 note 2} Hakluyt, loc. cit.

^{page 7 note 3} The money expended on the dogs “with their provision for sea and other things for their cost,” was £26. S.P.D. Turkey, Bdle I.

^{page 8 note 1} S.P.F. Turkey, Bdle I.

^{page 9 note 1} Lansdowne MSS. 42. Art. 15.

^{page 10 note 1} S.P.D. Eliz. 232, No. 54.

^{page 11 note 1} Lansdowne MSS. 42. Art. 15.

^{page 11 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 11 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 12 note 1} Abbot, , Under the Turk in Constantinople, p. 57, n. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 12 note 2} The author's British Beginnings in Western India, chap, ix, passim.

^{page 12 note 3} No. 57. Art. 23, para. 6.

^{page 13 note 1} 77, fol. 1.

^{page 13 note 2} Ibid., fol, 5.

^{page 14 note 1} Vol. 61, No. 32.

^{page 16 note 1} S.P.F. Turkey, Bdle I, No. 60.

^{page 16 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 17 note 1} In the five years 1583–8, the Levant Co. paid £11,359 6s. in customs dues. S.P.D. Eliz. 233–13. No wonder they had petitioned “to be discharged for the yearly sum of £500 in consideration of the Agent his great charges.” S.P.F. Turkey, Bdle I.

^{page 18 note 1} Cf. Statutes of the Realm, 7 Hen. VII, Cap. 7, preamble.

^{page 19 note 1} Tanner MSS. 77, fol, 8.

^{page 23 note 1} Deleted in MS.

^{page 24 note 1} Deleted in MS.

^{page 24 note 2} 57. Art. 23.

^{page 25 note 1} Lansdowne MSS. 67. Art. 106.

^{page 27 note 1} Ed. Park, Harl. Misc. VI, 156.

^{page 27 note 2} Information kindly supplied by the Rev. W. B. A. Chandler, M.A.

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