Authors, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography; Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678
place of the same speech _Serenitas_, speaking of his Tzarskoy
Majesty: and I would have used _Serenissimus_ an hundred times
concerning his Tzarskoy Majesty, had I thought it would have pleased
Him better. And I dare promise You that his Majesty will upon the
first information from me stile him _Serenissimus_, and I
(notwithstanding what I have said) shall make little difficulty of
altering the word in that speech, and of delivering it so to You,
with that protestation that I have not in using that word
_Illustrissimus_ erred nor used any diminution (which God forbid) to
his Tzarskoy Majesty, but on the contrary after the example of the
King my Master intended and shewed him all possible honor. And so God
grant all happiness to His most high, most Potent, most Illustrious,
and most Serene Tzarskoy Majesty, and that the friendship may daily
increase betwixt His said Majesty and his most Serene Majesty my
Master."
On the 19th of February the Tsar invited Lord Carlisle and his suite to
a dinner, which, beginning at two o'clock, lasted till eleven, when it
was prematurely broken up by the Tsar's nose beginning to bleed. Five
hundred dishes were served, but there were no napkins, and the
table-cloths only just covered the boards. There were Spanish wines,
white and red mead, Puaz and strong waters. The English ambassador was
not properly placed at table, not being anywhere near the Tsar, and his
faithful suite shared his resentment. Time went on, but no diplomatic
progress was made. The Tsar would not renew the privileges of the
British merchants; Easter was spent in Moscow, May also--and still
nothing was done. Carlisle, in a huff, determined to go away, and,
somewhat to the distress of his followers, refused to accept the costly
sables sent by the Tzar, not only to the ambassador, Lady Carlisle, and
Lord Morpeth, but to the secretaries and others. The Tzar thereupon
returned the plate which our king had sent him, which plate Lord
Carlisle seems to have appropriated, no doubt with diplomatic
correctness, as his perquisite in lieu of the sables; but the suite got
nothing.
The embassy left Moscow on the 24th of June for Novgorod and Riga, and
after visiting Stockholm and Copenhagen, Lord Carlisle and Marvell
reached London on the 30th of January 1665.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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