A five-volume printed book containing transcripts of letters from Antoine Le Fevre
De
La Boderie, French Ambassador to
England
, to King Henri IV
and his administrators in
Paris
.
Letter from M. de la Boderie to M. de
Puisieux
;
London
, 27 [i.e. 17] December, 1608. Volume 4, pp. 136-7.
[p. 136]
Mon alarme de ce certain Ballet s'est beaucoup
diminuée depuis que ma femme a revu la Reine. Elle lui a avoué que l'Ambassadeur
d'Espagne avoit vivement été la prier de convier lui & ledit
Don Fernandez de Girone
à le voir; mais qu'elle ne le lui avoit nullement accordé, ains l'avoit du tout renvoyé
au Roi: ajoutant qu'elle desireroit beaucoup plutôt que ce fût moi que le visse; &
que si je l'en faisois prier par le Comte de Salisbury, mais sans qu'il sçut que cela
vînt d'elle, elle y feroit tout son effort. J'ai fait sçavoir le tout confidemment
audit
Comte, qui m'a dit que je le laissasse faire, comme je fais; étant d'autant plus assuré,
qu'il m'y servira fidélement, que sa nouvelle alliance avec le Grand Chambellan ne
le
tire de ce côté-là rien de
[p. 137]
plus qu'il étoit déja; car je
sçais de très-bon lieu qu'il est venu audit mariage si mal volontiers, qu'il eût bien
voulu pouvoir retirer la promesse qu'il y avoit donnée il y a longtemps. Mais comme
cela
ne se pouvoit sans faire éclat, il s'y est laissé aller, espérant que le temps lui
ouvriroit quelqu'autre meilleure occasion de s'en dédire. Les mariés n'ont point couché
ensemble; & aussitôt ledit Comte de Salibury a envoyé son fils, que je persiste a
supplier très-humblement S.M. de vouloir favoriser d'un bon accueil, l'assurant que
cela
obligera grandement le pere.
Translation by Karen Britland and Line Cottegnies
My alarm about this ballet has greatly diminished since my wife saw the
Queen
again. She admitted to her that the Spanish Ambassador had forcefully begged her to
invite him and
Don Fernandez de Girone to see it, but that she had not granted him
anything, but had referred everything to the King
; adding that she would prefer it if it
was me who saw it, and that if I contrived to have the
Earl of Salisbury
ask her about
it, but without him knowing that [the idea] came from her, she would do what
she could. I told the Earl everything in confidence, who told me to leave it to him,
which I did; being more than ever assured that he would serve me faithfully, that
his
new alliance with the
Lord Chamberlain
will not make him lean that way [ie. towards
the Spanish] any more than he did already, because I know from a very good
source that he came to this marriage so unwillingly that [he] wished he could
have taken back the promise he gave a long time before. But because that could not
be
done without making a scandal, he had to let it go, hoping that time would offer him
some better opportunity to break his word. The married couple have not slept together,
and immediately [after] the
Earl of Salisbury
sent his son away, whom I
persist in begging Your Majesty to favour with a good welcome, assuring you that this
would greatly oblige the father.
Bibliography
La Boderie, Ambassades (1750)
H&S, 10.498-9
M. Sullivan (1913), 211-19