The Year after the Armada, and Other Historical Studies
David Hume · en
On the 16th of July, 1565, the Queen lent Durham Place to Sir Ambrose
Cave, one of her Privy Council, for the celebration of his daughter's
wedding with the son of Sir Francis Knollys, the Vice-Chamberlain, and
the new Spanish Ambassador, Canon Guzman de Silva, was invited to the
supper in the evening, at which the Queen had promised to be present.
By mutual consent it had been arranged that the French and Spanish
Ambassadors should never meet at Court, or where the vexed question of
precedence might arise; but the two diplomatists, wily Churchmen both,
were for ever on the look out for a chance of scoring off each other.
No doubt Ambrose Cave thought he had cleverly evaded the difficulty by
asking the French Ambassador to the more important meal, namely, the
eleven o'clock dinner, and the Spanish Ambassador to the supper in the
evening, at which the Queen was to be present. But when De Foix learnt
at the hospitable feast at Durham Place that the Queen was coming
later, he announced his intention of staying to supper as well. If
Guzman did not like it, he said, he might stay away, and poor Cave,
foreseeing an unseemly squabble in the Queen's presence, rushed off in
despair to the Spanish Ambassador to beg of him not to come. But this
was too much for the Toledan pride of the Canon, and he told Cave that
he had not sought an invitation to the feast, but since it had been
given and accepted he was not going to stay away for the French
Ambassador or any one else. As for precedence, his master was the
greatest King on earth, {283} and if the worst came to the worst he
would fight out the question. In vain Cave protested that the Queen
would not come if there was to be any quarrelling, and he would be
ruined at Court. He could not, he said, get rid of the Frenchman, who
flatly refused to go, and he could hardly throw him out of the window.
Guzman said if there was much ado about it he would throw him out of
window himself, and sent off Cave in a huff. Then Guzman hurried to
Whitehall in order to catch the Queen before she started for Durham
Place. He waited for some time, he says, in the privy garden by which
she would have to pass to her barge; and after she had vainly attempted
to smooth matters over, and said she herself must refrain from going if
there was to be any disturbance, she pretended to fly into a rage at
Cave's management of the affair, and sent Cecil and Throgmorton off to
Durham Place to get rid of the French Ambassador somehow. What
arguments they used Guzman neither knew nor cared, but when he arrived
with the Queen the rival Ambassador was gone, and he was the principal
guest next to the sovereign. "The Queen stayed through the
entertainment, and the Emperor's Ambassador and I supped with her in
company with the bride and some of the principal ladies and the
gentlemen who came with the Emperor's Ambassador. After supper there
was a ball, a tourney, and two masques, and the feast ended at
half-past one in the morning."