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Pierre Le Pennec, Henry VII of England, and the Breton Plot of 1492: A Case Study in “Diplomatic Pathology”*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

John M. Currin
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Extract

In his attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Dr. De Puebla, Spain's first resident ambassador to England, Garrett Mattingly dismissed as unimportant certain unflattering remarks about the envoy made by a royal councillor to two Spanish officials, who knew the councillor as Dr. Pedro Panec. Mattingly, unable to identify Panec, believed him to be insignificant in Tudor service and, therefore, his remarks to be uninformed. Nonetheless, the available sources reveal Pierre Le Pennec as the Spaniards' Dr. Panec, a cleric and lawyer from Morlaix, doctor of civil and canon laws, prothonotary of the Roman Church, king's clerk and councillor, and political agent in Henry VII's foreign service.

Historians of early Tudor diplomacy (when the term is not used interchangeably with foreign policy) have focused on the routine functions of ordinary diplomatic representatives, but Pennec has not merited the interest of Tudor diplomatic historians because he did not serve extensively as one of the king's ordinary diplomats. His only ordinary diplomatic function was in 1499 when he carried procuratorial letters to the Roman Curia for Henry VII.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , Spring 1991 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1991

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Footnotes

*

Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Western Conference on British Studies, Austin, Texas, October 13, 1989, and to the Center for Early Modern History, University of Minnesota, January 30, 1990. I am grateful to Professors Stanford Lehmberg, James Tracy, Jacquelin Collins, and William Phillips for their comments on the earlier drafts. All dates are in New Style.

References

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7 de la Borderie, Arthur, Le complot breton de M. CCCC XCII, documents inédits, archives de Bretagne, vol. 2 (Nantes, 1884)Google Scholar. For briefer accounts of the plot, see idem, Histoire de Bretagne (Rennes, 1898–1914), 4: 585–87Google Scholar; de la Maulde-la-Clavière, René, Histoire de Louis XII, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1889–1893), 2: 258–60Google Scholar; de Saint-Sauveur, E. Durtelle, Histoire de Bretagne des origines à nous jours, 2 vols. (Rennes, 1935), 1: 391–92Google Scholar. The standard account of the French conquest of Brittany is Dupuy, Antoine, Histoire de la réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2 vols. (Paris, 1880)Google Scholar, which was published before Borderie had made available Pennec's correspondence and has no mention of the plot.

8 Pennec's correspondence are in Archives du Doubs, Fonds Chalon, E. 1300. For a discussion of these papers, see de la Borderie, Arthur, “Introduction,” Le complot breton, pp. xxix–xxxiGoogle Scholar.

9 WilheIm Busch and J. D. Mackie gave only brief mention of Henry VII's involvment in the Breton Plot. John Bridge, the English historian of late Valois France, drawing from Borderie, discussed the plot briefly, but he did not say much about Henry's role and he neglected to mention the king's letters to Pennec. See Busch, Wilhelm, England under the Tudors: King Henry VII, trans. Todd, Alice M. (London, 1895), p. 64Google Scholar; Mackie, J. D., The Earlier Tudors (Oxford, 1952), p. 106 n. 2.Google Scholar; Bridge, John S. C., A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1921), 1: 224–26Google Scholar.

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14 Robert Willoughby de Broke to Pierre Le Pennec, 24 December 1491; Robert Willoughby de Broke to Pierre Le Pennec, 28 January 1492; Pierre Le Pennec to Robert Willoughby de Broke, 30 March 1492; Pierre Le Pennec to Guillaume Carreau, captain of Brest, 26 March 1492. Le complot breton, nos. I, VII, XXI, XVII.

15 Guillaume de la Rivière to Pierre Le Pennec, 29 February 1492, ibid., no. XIV. All translations from Pennec's correspondence are my own.

16 Le Neve, John, Fasti ecclesiae anglicanae, 1300–1541, 12 vols. (London, 1964), 8: 3; 9: 3Google Scholar.

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18 For brief remarks on the maîtres des requetes in the administration of Brittany, see Planiol, Marcel, Histoire des institutions de la Bretagne, 3 vols. (Rennes, 1953–1955), 3: 157Google Scholar.

22 For Pennec's career the ducal government of Brittany, see Borderie, , “Introduction,” Le complot breton, pp. iv–vGoogle Scholar.

23 Chrimes, S. B., Henrv VII (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), p. 327Google Scholar.

24 CPR, 1494–1509, pp. 9–10.

25 Le Neve, , Fasti ecclesiae anglicanae, 1300–1541, 1: 100Google Scholar; CPR 1494–1509, p. 14. On the wealth of Lincoln Cathedral, see Lehmberg, Stanford E., The Reformation of Cathedrals: Cathedrals in English Society, 1485–1603 (Princeton, 1988), pp. 25–27Google Scholar.

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27 CPR, 1494–1509, pp. 37.

28 Le Neve, , Fasti ecdesiae anglicanae. 1300–1547, 5: 60Google Scholar.

29 CPR, 1494–1509, p. 167.

30 Given-Wilson, , Royal Household and the King's Affinity p. 183Google Scholar.

31 Ludovico Maria Sforza, duke of Milan, to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, vice-chancellor of the Roman Curia, 1 June 1499, CSP Milan 1, no. 620.

32 Bridbury, A. R., England and the Salt Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1955), pp. 117–18Google Scholar; Rowse, A. L., Tudor Cornwall (New York, 1969), p. 73Google Scholar.

33 The dukes of Brittany confined to style themselves as “comte de Richemont,” and the Duchess Anne called herself “comtesse de Richemont.”

34 Rowse, , Tudor Cornwall, pp. 95–96Google Scholar.

35 Jones, Michael, “‘Mon Pais et Ma Nation’: Breton Identity in the Fourteenth Century,” reprinted in The Creation of Brittany: A Late Medieval State (London, 1988), pp. 283–307Google Scholar; idem, “‘Bons Bretons et Bons Francoys’: The Language and Meaning of Treason in Later Medieval France,” in The Creation of Brittany, pp. 329–50. Louis XI once asked a Breton officer: “Et entre vous Breton, sérez vous Anglois et Bourgoignons?” to which the officer replied: “Nous ne serons ne Anglois ne Bourgoignons, mais tousjours serons bons Bretons et bons Francoys” (ibid., p. 346.)

36 For a survey of Brittany's place in English foreign policy in the later middle ages, see Jones, Michael, Ducal Brittany, 1364–1399: Relations with England and France During the Reign of Duke John IV (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar; Ferguson, John, English Diplomacy, 1422–1461 (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar; Cuttino, G. P., English Medieval Diplomacy (Bloomington, 1985)Google Scholar.

37 For discussions of Henry VII's policy in Brittany, see Dupuy, , Le réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2: 163–238Google Scholar; Bridge, , History of France, 1: 175–231Google Scholar; Mackie, , The Earlier Tudors, pp. 86–111Google Scholar; Wernham, R. B., Before the Armada: The Emergence of the English Nation, 1485–1558 (New York, 1966), pp. 32–37Google Scholar; Chrimes, , Henry VII, pp. 279–82Google Scholar; Crowson, P. S., Tudor Foreign Policy (New York, 1973), pp. 59–62Google Scholar; Alexander, Michael Van Cleave, The First of the Tudors: A Study of Henry VII and his Reign (Totowa, N.J., 1980), pp. 89–104Google Scholar.

38 Foedera, conventiones, litterae et cujuscunque generis acta publica etc., ed. Rymer, Thomas, et al., 20 vols. (London, 1727–1735), 12: 362–69Google Scholar. For a discussion of these negotiations, see Dupuy, , La réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2: 164–66Google Scholar.

39 Foedera, 12: 349–429Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers. Spain, ed. Bergenroth, G. A., et al., 13 vols. (London, 1862–1954), 1: 33–34Google Scholar (hereafter cited as CSP Spain). Anne adhered to Henry's coalition on October 28. See Archives de la Loire-Atlantique (Loire Inféieure), E. 102, 124, printed in Dupuy, , La réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2: 466–72Google Scholar.

40 Tudor Royal Proclamations, ed. Hughes, Paul L. and Larkin, James F., CSV, 3 vols. (New Haven, 1964–1969), 1, no. 23Google Scholar (hereafter cited as TRP). On this proclamation, see Lionel, bishop of Concordia, and Antonio Flores to Pope Innocent VIII, 16 October 1490, Calendar of State Papers, Venice, ed. Brown, Rawdon, et al., 38 vols. (London, 1864–1940), 4, no. 1022 (hereafter cited as CSP Venice)Google Scholar.

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42 Dupuy, , La réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2: 224Google Scholar; Thuasne, L., “Un diplomate d' autrefois: les missions de Robert Gaguin (1433–1501),” Revue d' histoire diplomatique 30 (1916): 472–80Google Scholar; Edwards, H. L. R., “Robert Gaguin and the English Poets, 1489–90,” Modern Language Review 32 (1937): 430–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Antonovics, A. V., “Henry VII, King of England ‘By the Grace of Charles VIII of France,’” in Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages, ed. Griffiths, Ralph A. and Sherbome, James (New York, 1986), pp. 169–84Google Scholar.

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45 Dupuy, , at least, recognized this when he wrote: “En somme, Henry VII nous átait évidemment hostile. Il regardait la situation de la Bretagne comme désepérée; mais il était décidé à entraver la conquête, qui lui semblait inévitable, et voulait se réserver un motif d'attaquer Charles VIII à la premiére occasion favorable” (La réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 2: 225)Google Scholar.

46 Borderie, , “Introduction,” Le complot breton, pp. xxiii–ivGoogle Scholar. Gladys Temperley is the one biographer of Henry VII who had noticed this (Henry VII [Boston and New York, 1914], p. 104Google ScholarPubMed).

47 Foedera, 12: 462Google Scholar; CSP Spain, 1, no. 63.

48 Henry VIII to Pope Innocent VIII, 8 December 1491, CSP Venice, 1, no. 613; Henry VII to Ludovico Maria Sforza, 10 January 1491, CSP Milan, 1, no. 452.

49 Henry VII to Pope Innocent VIII, 8 February 1492, volumen rerum Germanicarum novem sive de pace imperil publica etc., ed. Datt, Johann Philipp (Ulm, 1698), p. 503Google Scholar; Germanicarum rerum scriptores aliquot insignes, ed. Freher, Marquard, 3 vols. (Frankfurt and Hanover, 1611–1637) 3: 36–37Google Scholar; Labande-Mailfert, Yvonne, Charles VIII et son milieu (1470–1498): La jeunesse au pouvoir (Paris, 1975), p. 114Google Scholar.

50 Henry VII to the Imperial Electors and Princes of Germany, 8 February 1492; Henry VII to Pope Innocent VIII, 8 February 1492, Volumen rerum Germanicarum, pp. 502–04.

51 PRO, E. 101/ 72; Foedera, 12: 477–80, 482–83Google Scholar; CPR, 1485–1494, pp. 353–58, 392, 396–97, 414–15; TRP, 1, no. 28.

52 For example, see Henry's proposed ordinance for a regency council, PRO, C. 82/329/53, printed in Condon, M. M., “An Anachronism with Intent? Henry VII's Council Ordinance of 1491/2,” in Griffiths, and Sherbourn, , Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages p. 244Google Scholar.

53 7 Henry VII c. 1, Statutes of the Realm, ed. Luders, Alexander, et al., 9 vols. (London, 1810–1822) 2: 549Google Scholar.

54 De Champagne to Pierre Le Pennec, 26 December 1491, Henry VII to Pennec, 25 January 1492, Le complot breton, nos. II, VI.

55 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 January 1492, ibid., no. VI.

56 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 February 1492; Enclosed Articles by Olivier de Coetlogon (?), 27 February 1492, ibid., nos. XII, XIII.

57 Priests and women were first used in unofficial and secret diplomacy because assumptions about their character seem to allow them to go everywhere and to know all. See Maulde-la-Clavière, , La diplomatie au temps de Machiavel, 1: 448Google Scholar.

58 See the letters of Pierre Le Pennec to Guillaume Carreau for 9 March 1492, 13 March 1492, 26 March 1492, 15 April 1492, 2 May 1492, Le complot breton, nos. XV, XVI, XVII, XXVI, XXVIII. On the importance of baptismal kinship in medieval and early modern society, see Bossy, John, “Blood and Baptism: Kinship, Community and Christianity in Western Europe, 14th-17th Centuries,” Studies in Church History 10 (1973): 13–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Godparenthood: The Fortunes of a Social Institution in Early Modern Christianity,” in Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1800, ed. Kaspar von Greyerz (London, 1984), pp. 194–201; Lynch, Joseph H., Godparents and Kinship in Early Medieval Society (Princeton, 1986)Google Scholar.

59 This is taken from information given in Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem and Yvon de Coetcongar, November 1492, Archives Nationales, Trésor des Chartes, JJ 223, 69 and 70, as printed in Le complot breton, nos. XLV and XLVI.

60 Pennec to Carreau, captain of Brest, 9 March 1492; Pennec to Carreau, 11 March 1492, ibid., nos., XV, XVI.

61 Pennec to Carreau, 26 March 1492, ibid., no. XVII.

62 Pennec to Henry VII, 27 March 1492, ibid., no. XVIII. For the intrigues of Rieux and Rohan in Breton politics, see Dupuy, , La réunion de la Bretagne à la France, 1: 21–240Google Scholar, passim; Bridge, , History of France 1: 103–225Google Scholar, passim.

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64 Pennec to Henry VII, 27 March 1492; Louis de Rohan, sire de Rainefort, to Pierre Le Pennec, 28 March 1492; Richard Estienne, maître d'hôtel of Rainefort, to Pierre Le Pennec, late March 1492, ibid., nos. XVIII, XIX.

65 Letters of Remission for Yvon de Coetcongar, November 1492, ibid., no. XLVI.

66 Dupuy, Antoine, “Les Coataulem: un corsaire breton au XVe Siecle — Construction de la caraque La Cordelère,” Bulletin de la socété académique de Brest, 2nd series, 5 (1877–1878): 39–57Google Scholar.

67 Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem and Yvon de Coetcongar, November 1492, Le complot breton, nos. XLV, XLV1. See also Memorandum of Pierre Le Pennec, February 1492, and the Articles by Olivier de Coetlogon (?), 27 February 1492, ibid., nos. XI, XIII.

68 Maulde-la-Clavière, , La diplomatie au temps de Machiavel, 2: 342–64Google Scholar.

69 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 February 1492, Le complot breton, no. XII.

70 For some useful remarks on the relationship between magnificence, the king's honor as “good lord,” and reward in Tudor England, see Loades, David, The Tudor Court (Totowa, N.J., 1987), pp. 2–4Google Scholar.

71 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, Le complot breton, no. XXV.

72 Pennec to Carreau, 15 April 1492, ibid., no. XXVI.

73 Borderie, “Introduction,” ibid., p. xxv; Guillaume Carreau to Jean de Chalon, Prince of Orange, 18 July 1492, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Francais 15541, printed in ibid., no. XLI.

74 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., no. XXV.

75 Pennec to Carreau, 2 May 1492, ibid., no. XXVIII.

76 CPR, 1485–1494, pp. 365–66.

77 Olivier de Coellogon to Pierre Le Pennec, 26 December 1491; Olivier de Coetlogon to Pierre Le Pennec, 4 February 1492; Articles by Olivier de Coetlogon, 27 February 1492; Olivier de Coetlogon? to Pierre Le Pennec, 5 April 1492, Le complot brelon, nos. III, VIII, XIII, XXIII.

78 De Champagne, valet of the king of England, to Pierre Le Pennec, 26 December 1491; De Champagne to Pierre Le Pennec, 31 March 1492; De Champagne to Pierre Le Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., nos. II, XXII, XXIV. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henrv VII, ed. Campbell, William, 2 vols. (London, 1873–1877), 1: 529Google Scholar; CPR, 1485–1494, p. 340.

79 Campbell, , Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII 2: 70Google Scholar; CPR, 1485–1494, p. 238, 464; Rivière to Pennec, 29 February 1492, Le complot breton, no. XIV.

80 Campbell, , Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII 2: 225Google Scholar; CPR, 1485–1494, p. 344.

81 Willoughby de Broke to Pennec, 24 December 1491; Willoughby de Broke to Pennec, 28 January 1492; Willoughby de Broke to Pennec, 30 March 1492, Le complot breton, nos., I, VII, XXI.

82 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., no. XXV.

83 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 January 1492; Henry VII to Pennec, 25 February 1492; Memorandum of Pennec, February 1492; Pierre Le Pennec to Henry VII, 27 March 1492; Pierre Le Pennec to Olivier de Coetlogon, 30 March 1492, ibid., nos. VI, XI, XII, XVIII, XX.

84 Maulde-la-Clavière, , La diplomatic au temps de Machiavel, 1: 451–53Google Scholar.

85 CPR, 1485–1494, p. 213; CPR, 1494–1509, pp. 213, 255.

86 John Simon to Pierre Le Pennec, 6 February 1492, Le complot breton, no. X.

87 It was not uncommon for one person to secure carefully with his own signet the transfer of a sum of money to another person. Erasmus, for example, told Lord Mountjoy to send him money “carefully sealed with your seal-ring” (Erasmus, Desiderius to Blount, William, Mountjoy, Lord, November 1499, Collected Works of Erasmus: The Correspondence of Erasmus, tr. Mynors, R. A. B. and Thomsom, D. F. S., 8 vols. [Toronto, 1974- ], 1, no. 115)Google Scholar.

88 Memorandum of Pennec, February 1492, Le complot breton, no. XI.

89 Articles by Coetlogon (?), 27 February 1492; Pennec to Henry VII, 27 March 1492, ibid., nos. XIII, XVIII.

90 Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem and Yvon de Coetcongar, November 1492, ibid., nos. XLV, XLVI.

91 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., XXV.

92 For general remarks on safe conducts, see Maulde-la-Clavière, , La diplomatic au temps de Machiavel, 2: 46–63Google Scholar.

93 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 January 1492; Memorandum of Pennec, Le complot breton, nos. VI, XI.

94 Simon to Pennec, 6 February 1492; Memorandum of Pierre Le Pennec, May 1492, ibid., no. X; XXXII.

95 Estienne to Pennec, 4 February 1492, ibid., no. IX.

96 Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem and Yvon de Coetcongar, November 1492; Memorandum of Pennec, May 1492, ibid., nos. XLV, XLVI, XXXII.

97 Memorandum of Pennec, May 1492, ibid., no. XXXII.

98 Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem, November 1492, ibid., no. XLV.

99 Pennec to Henry VII, 27 March 1492, ibid., no. XVIII.

100 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., no. XXV.

101 Borderie, “Introduction,” ibid., p. xxiv.

102 Henry VII to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., no. XXV.

103 Henry VII to Pennec, 25 February 1492; Coetlogon to Pennec, 5 April 1492, ibid., nos. XII, XXIII.

104 Borderie, “Introduction,” ibid, pp. xviii–xix, xxii–xxiv; Spont, Alfred, “La marine française sous le règne de Charles VIII,” Revue des questions historiques, n. s. 10 (1894): 422–35Google Scholar; de la Roncière, Charles, Histoire de la marine française 2 vols. (3rd. ed.; Paris, 1909–1923) 2: 430–34Google Scholar. For an account of Willoughby de Brake's raid, see the letter by Guion d' Estouteville, Guion de la Haye, and the officers of the bailliage of Cotentin to Charles VIII, 18 June 1492, B.N., MS. Fr. 15540, f. 132, as printed in Le complot breton, no. XXXIX and also in Spont, “La marine française,” pp. 227–28.

105 B.N., MS Français, Nouvelles Acquistions, 1232, f. 254, quoted in Spont, , “La marine français,” p. 431Google Scholar; Roncière, , Histoire de la marine français, 2: 433Google Scholar.

106 Carreau to the prince of Orange, 18 July 1492, Le complot breton, no. XLI; Roncière, , Histoire de la marine français, 2: 433–34Google Scholar.

107 Vergil, Polydore, The Anglica Historia of Polydore Vergil, trans. Hay, Denys, Camden Third Series, 74 (London, 1950), pp. 50–57Google Scholar. On October 8, Maximilian promised to send aid to Henry (Maximilian I to Henry VII, 8 October 1492, Germanicarum rerum scriptores, ed. Freher, , 3: 39–40Google Scholar). It seems, however, that this aid came too late to change Henry's peace negotiations with France. Maximilian instructed his forces to join with the English at Calais, but Wilwolt von Schaumburg and Louis de Bauldreh delayed in obeying the order. They were then surprised to learn that the English had made peace with France. See Ulmann, Heindrich, Kaiser Maximilian I, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1884), 1: 162–63Google Scholar.

108 According to Coetanlem's testimony, which is recorded in his pardon: “La Mothe dist aud. suppliant [i. e. Coetanlem] que luy et led. Pennet alloient savoir pourquoy les Angloiz tardoient tant” (Letters of Remission for Nicolas Coetanlem, November 1492, Le complot breton, no. XLV).

109 For the French invasion of Milan and Pennec's part in English and Milanese diplomacy, see CSP Milan, 1: 353–81Google Scholar, passim; Pélissier, Léon G., Louis XII et Ludovic Sforza, 2 vols. (Paris, 1896), 1: 104–07Google Scholar.