Thursday, November 14, 2019

Young Henry Neville, Walsingham, and Marco Antonio Pigafetta

It has been suggested for awhile that Henry Neville might have traveled in 1583 with Francis Walsingham to the court of King James VI in Scotland. I have uncovered some new evidence that supports this.

1582 Letter from Cobham to Walsingham Specifically Mentions Neville

In the National Archives there is a very interesting letter from Henry Cobham, ambassador to France, to Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's principal secretary:
If Signor Pigafetti, of whom I have written in my former letters ‘to be’ the acquaintance of young Mr Nevell, is at present on his departure towards England...  I beseech you that Pigafetta may receive the favour to transport at his return a gelding, having often been visited by him. He has written a book of his long ‘voyage’ passed in Turkey and Judea, which he desires her Majesty may see.—Paris, 17 Sept. 1582. (British History Online)
Here is a photo of the actual letter, I have marked the mention of "Pigafetti" and "young Mr. Nevell":


The "young Mr Nevell" here is almost certainly a reference to Henry Neville who was travelling in Italy at the time with his tutor and lifelong friend Henry Savile. "Signor Pigafetti" is a reference to Marco Antonio Pigafetta:
Hakluyt turned again to the Italian reformers, promoting the publication of the Itinerario da Vienna a Constantinopli by the Italian traveller Marco Antonio Pigafetta. Raised in the same family of the far more famous Antonio, Marco Antonio Pigafetta began to question his Catholic faith in Vicenza, one of the Italian centers of diffusion of Protestant doctrines. (The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo-Italian Renaissance Literature)
Pigafetta was related to Antonio Pigafetta whose book on Magellan's circumnavigation of the world, directly or indirectly, was a source for The Tempest ("Setebos" apparently comes from there ultimately).



1583 Walsingham's Embassy to Scotland

In August 1583 Walsingham traveled to Scotland to meet with King James VI; here is an excellent overview of the trip. Richard Edes was travelling there at the same time and comments on them in his poem Iter Boreale, which circulated in manuscript, and was translated by Dana Sutton in The Philological Museum:
Our number was great, but still was greater that of those who composed the Lord Ambassador’s retinue. Foremost among them was the Earl of Essex,  then the two Wardens of the border country, Lord Scrope  and fierce Foster (whom they say to be good at guarding himself).  There too were two brothers, both distinguished by the golden Garter, the true scions of Russell,  that Earl to whom Bedford lends its name. Joined to them were others resplendent in purple and gold, Mildmay, Neville,  distinguished for his book-learning [doctusque libros tractare Nevillus], that right noble lad of the North, Lowther,  Widdrington,  Barnston, the Musgraves, skilled at horse-riding, Fenwick
Sutton suggests that this "Neville" might refer to Henry Neville. The timing fits perfectly. By August 1583, Neville was back from his journey to Europe, and this was before he married Anne Killigrew in 1584 and moved to Mayfield in Sussex. So he would have had free time to travel to Scotland. The letter above shows clearly that Walsingham was familiar with "young Mr. Nevell," so it makes sense that he might have been included on the mission. The involvement of the Earl of Essex also would presage Neville's later imprisonment for his involvement in the Essex Rebellion.

Edes got his BA from Oxford in 1574 and MA in 1578, so he almost certainly knew Henry Savile and would have known of Savile's trip to Europe. The reference to "distinguished for his book-learning" would have been a reference to the hunting for Greek and Latin manuscripts Savile was engaged in during the trip -- and which Henry Neville, as his travelling companion, must have been involved with.

We also have a letter from Henry Neville's father to Walsingham in 1585, so the father might have helped arranged the journey through his connection to Walsingham. The father was involved in a lot of activities Walsingham would have been engaged with, including managing the imprisonment of the Duke of Norfolk in 1569. So Walsingham might have included "young Mr. Nevell" as a favor to his father.

Conclusion

More work needs to be done tracing the details of this trip to Scotland, but it seems possible that Henry Neville might have been part of this group in 1583. There would need to be further evidence, though, to conclude it is likely, since there were so many people named "Neville".

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