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The Publication of Sir Edward Hyde's Consideraciones at Madrid in June 1650

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Albert J. Loomie S. J.
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Extract

In the biography of Sir Edward Hyde, his visit to Madrid between November 1649 and March 1651 has usually been neglected for the little that is known about it is largely found in the episodes recalled nearly two decades later in Book XIII of his History of the Rebellion. Yet his sojourn, for close to a year and a half, at the court of Philip IV deserves attention since during it he published anonymously in Spanish an eloquent short pamphlet defending the legitimacy of Charles II’s right to the English throne, while he denounced the Commonwealth as a tyrannical usurpation of authority without a basis in English law or the law of nations. The occasion was the unexpected murder of Anthony Ascham, the diplomatic agent of the English régime, early in June 1650 in the capital by six young English royalists. While writing in their defence Hyde presented one of the earliest examples of his case to earn diplomatic support for the exiled Charles II by the Catholic kings of western Europe and the papacy during the coming decade.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 447 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1988

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References

Notes

1 Wasey, Sterry ed. The Eton College Register, 1441-1698 (1943) p. 11;Google Scholar J. & Venn, J. A. eds. Alumni Cantabrigenses, Part One (1922) 1, p. 43;Google Scholar Ascham, A. The bounds & bonds of publique obedience, 1640,Google Scholar After Ascham's death, a report of the council of state noted that his father, a brother and two unmarried sisters were all ‘well affected to this state’, P.R.O. SP 94/43 f. 110.

2 Quentin, Skinner ‘Conquest and Consent: Thomas Hobbes and the Engagement Controversy’ in Aylmer, G. ed. The Interregnum, The Quest for Settlement, 1646-60 (reprint 1987) pp. 87–94.Google Scholar

3 Journal of the House of Commons, 6, p. 353,Google Scholar commission of Ascham, 31 Jan. 1650; P.R.O. SP 25/63 f. 550, instructions for Ascham, 23 Jan. 1650; E 2576, letter of credence for ‘Antonium Acamum’, 15 Feb, 1650, E 2526, Cárdenas to Philip, 22 Jan. 1650.

4 Bodl. L. Clarendon MS 40, f. 9, Hyde to Toby Mathew, Madrid 4 June 1650, noted that Fisher ‘was at Madrid two yeeres since with the reputation of a cavalier and a catholique, his father, one Fisher, a knight, having behaved himselfe honestly during all these troubles’.

5 P.R.O. SP 94/43 ff. 35-36 ‘narrative touching Mr. Ascham’ of Lawrence Chambers, 31 August 1650.

6 One of several hospitals for foreigners in Madrid. Others included San Antonio de los Portugueses, San Luis de los Franceses, San Pedro de los Italianos, and the Hospital de Montserrat de los Aragoneses, see José Deleito y Piñuela, Solo Madrid es Corte (1953) pp. 93-97.

7 They were not of the same religious background, but their surname was ‘of distinction in Monmouthshire and Brecknockshire’. At this time Cottington was corresponding with an Edward Proger, a former page to Charles I, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Tenth Report, part iv, pp. 146-48, ‘Proger MS’. 8. C.S.P. Venetian 1647-52, p. 147: ‘The Spanish know nothing whatever of the sixth who, being a Calvinist, refused to quit my house’. George Fisher reported that Henry Progers later ‘made an escape by the favour of some Spaniards his friends … He sheltered himselfe some 3 or 4 dayes in Lord Cottington's house & afterwards got through Catalunia for France’. P.R.O. SP 94/43 f. 71.

9 E 2576, De los autos criminales, by don Fernando Altamirano, Alcalde de la casa y corte, 10 June 1650: ‘movidos de el justo dolor de la ruina de su patria, de la persecución de la religion Católica Romana que profesan, de la muerte de su rey difunto y de la usurpación de el reyno que pertenece a su hijo, levados de el celo de ombres nobles y debarallos leales, se encendieron en deseo de benganca en el ministro como en persona …’

10 P.R.O. SP 94/43 f. 37v.

11 E 2576 Geronimo de la Torre to Philip, 7 June 1650.

12 Madrid was in the diocese of the archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Baltasar Moscoso y Sandoval, the former duke of Lerma's nephew. The vicar was his administrative deputy. However since San Andres was also under the king's protection, a justice of the Chapel Royal sat alongside of the vicar's appointee.

13 Two months after his father's execution, Charles asked Hyde and Cottington to seek audience in Madrid, but the council of state placed several obstacles. Archives Generales du Royaume, Brussels, Secretairerie d'Etat et de Guerre, 244, ff. 108, 110, Cottington to Cárdenas, 8 and 16 April, 1649; E2576 Philip to Cárdenas, 29 Oct. 1649; Bodl. L. Clarendon MS 38, ff. 175-177v.

14 E 2526 consultas 3 Jan. and 23 March 1650; Brit. L. Egerton MS, 1968, f. 170, Courllé to Mazarin,17 Jan. 1650; E 2576 Puntos para tratar con los embaxadores, 12 Feb. 1650.

15 E 2567 consulta 21 April 1650; E 2526 consulta 10 May 1650.

16 Bodl. L. Carte MS 130, f. 221, Hyde and Cottington to John Long, 7 June 1650.

17 E 2526 Hyde to Haro, 6 June 1650; C.S.P. Venetian, 1647-52, pp. 149-50; Moreda was arrested at first for negligence of duty until the governor of Andalucía, the duke of Medinaceli, who had commissioned him, insisted that his duties ceased upon entering Madrid, E 2576 Medinaceli to Philip, 25 June 1650.

18 Bodl. L. Carte MS 130, ff. 224-225v, Hyde and Cottington to Charles. There was an additional paper prepared by Hyde ‘upon the matter of the laws’; which was intended for the council of Castile,in Bodl. L. Clarendon MS 40, ff. 47-51v, endorsed ‘against the learned Fiscall's arguments preventive’.

19 The copy cited here is in Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid, Estado, libro 723. Additional copies are in E 2526; Bodl. L. Clarendon Ms, 40, ff. 31-38, a handwritten copy by Hyde's secretary William Edgeman, followed by two printed copies, and another in Carte MS 130, f. 224. A latin translation in Hyde's handwriting is also in Clarendon MS 40.

20 Scrope, R. and Monkhouse, T. eds. The State Papers Collected by Edward Hyde Earl of Clarendon (3 vols. 1767-83) 2 (1773) pp. Ixvi–lxix.Google Scholar

21 See Ogle, O. Bliss, H. Macray, W. D. eds. Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers (3 vols. 1869–76)2 (1873) pp. 42, 70,Google Scholar Hyde to Robert Meynell, 13 Feb. and 15 July 1650.

22 Consideraciones Sig A lv: ‘contra el gouierno de las monarquías y contra la persona de su Magestad que oy viue, a quien los mismos perniciosos rebeldes desatinada y locamente, han pregonado por traydor y que sera licito por qualquiera el matarle … ‘; see ‘Considerations’ in State Papers … Clarendon, 2, p. lxvii.

23 Here Hyde anticipated his views developed at length in the History of the Rebellion that the successful revolution was by a conspiracy of a party of violence after 1644. See Robinson, T. H. ‘Lord Clarendon's Conspiracy: a Theory’, Albion 13 (1981) pp. 96–116,CrossRefGoogle Scholar especially 109-111.

24 Consideraciones, Sig A 2 v to A 4, see also State Papers … Clarendon 2 pp. lvii-lviii.

25 Consideraciones Sig A 4v: ‘sobre prudentissimas y piisimas consideraciones que algunos delitos se podrian cometer con tales circunstancias de tiempo, y por la enfermedad, y flaqueza de las pasiones humanas, que merecerian ser amparados y defendidos del rigor de la justicia comun … ‘; see State Papers … Clarendon 2 p. lxix.

26 Agustín, de Hierro The Process and Pleading in the Court of Spain upon the Death of Anthonie Ascham, London, 1651,Google Scholar reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, (10 vols., 1808-13) H, (1809) pp. 280–288.Google Scholar

27 The influential president was don Diego de Riaño y Gamboa, count of Villariezo. For his and Hierro's careers see Janine, Fayard Les Membres du Conseil de Castile a I'epoque moderne, 1621-1746 (Geneva, 1979) pp. 152, 450, 454.Google Scholar

28 Nuncio (July 1644 — December 1652) in Spain, he was later elected pope as Clement IX, 1667-69. Hyde recorded amicable meetings with him in Madrid in Book XIII of the History. Dr. Pedro de Velasco of the Chapel Royal was judge for this appeal.

29 E 2576, The Parliament of England to Philip, 28 June 1650; E 2526 consulta 3 Sept. 1650; E 2528 consultas of 4 Sept. 15 Oct. 1650; C.S.P. Venetian, 1647-52, p. 155.

30 E 2576 Philip to Cárdenas, 24 Oct. 1650: ‘di luego orden que se les agravasen las prisiones sinpermitirles la communicacion con nadie declarando que esto se hazia por causas y razon de estado’.

31 E 2567 Don Geronimo de Moya, Relacion del Pleito Criminal … 24 Oct. 1650; E 2526 Hydeand Cottington to Haro, 24 Oct. 1650; E 2527 Philip to Cárdenas, 1 Dec. 1650; C.S.P. Venetian 1647-52, p. 164.

32 See Aldea, Q. Marin, T. Vives, J. eds. Diccionario de Historia Ecclesiastica de Espa ña, (Madrid, 4 vols. 1973) 2 p. 1152,Google Scholar ‘Iglesia y Estado’; 3 p. 1785, ‘Antiguo Tribunal del Nuncio’.

33 C.S.P. Venetian, 1647-52 p. 171; P.R.O. SP 94/43 f. Ill, Fisher to council of state, 21 March 1651; Bodl. L. Clarendon MS 42 f. 86, Hyde to Edgeman, 13 July 1651.

34 E 2568 consulta 9 April 1651; ‘alabándose mucho la acción y del valor con que Ueuan los trabajos de la prisión, dándoles grandes esperanzas de que muy brevemente saldrán della para vengar a su rey como tienen obligación porque les amparan protectores mas poderosos que imaginan y que han gastado en el pleito mas de quatro mil ducados … ‘

35 E 2527 consulta 6 May 1651 and 17 May 1651: ‘que votaron en este negocio sin el conocimiento que se deviera tener de las razones grandes de estado que havian y ay … ‘

36 C.S.P. Venetian 1647-52, p. 191; E 2527 consulta 5 Aug. 1651: ‘la causa de los matadores del Residente tengo muy a la vista y los motivos que se me representen, pero siguiendo en justicia y tratándose de la inmunidad ecclesiastica es menester ir por los términos della’.

37 E 2528 petición de Guillermo Sparque y consortes Yngleses Católicos, 21 Sept. 1651; Bodl. L. Clarendon MS 42 f. 165, Wadding to Hyde, 4 Oct. 1651.

38 E 2528 petitions of 10 Jan. 1652 and 18 Jan. 1653; Bodl. L. Clarendon MS, 45 ff. 113-114, 165-166, Sparke to Edgeman, 4 and 15 March 1653, and 46 f. 6, Halsall, Guillen and Sparke to Hyde, 3 July 1653.

39 E 2528, relación sumaria de la causa formada a los asesinos del Residente hasta Setiembre 1653; consulta, 18 Sept. 1653, endorsement by Philip: ‘procuren haver los a los manos en parte donde noles valga ninguna inmunidad y en este caso se proceden contra ellos con el rigor tan merecido aldelito’. C.S.P. Venetian 1653-54, p. 131.

40 ibid. p. 179, Bod. L. Clarendon MS 48 f. 30 Juan de Vega to Edgeman, 9 March 1654: ‘que digiesse a su magestad que muria su humilde escalvo y que se holgaria que los demas caballeros se pusieron en saldo para que el pagara por todos’.

41 Richard, Baker The Marchants Humble Petition and Remonstrance, London, 1659, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

42 Leo, Miller John Milton & the Oldenburg Safeguard (New York, 1985) pp. 162–63.Google Scholar Cromwell's Declaration of the causes of his war with Spain noted that the murder of Ascham had produced ‘no satisfaction or condign punishment’ Brit. L. Thomason Collection E 1065 (1) pp. 119-20.

43 Perez, Zagorin ‘Clarendon and Hobbes’, Journ. of Modern History, 57 (1985) p. 609.Google Scholar In England in 1540 a restriction of the rights of sanctuary had been enacted (32 Henry VIII cap. 12) and finally in 1623 a statute (21 Jac. I cap. 28) declared ‘no sanctuary or privilege of sanctuary shall be hereafter admitted …’ Statutes of the Realm 3 p. 756-758 and 4 p. 1237. See also Baker, J. H. An Introduction to English Legal History, (1971) pp. 280–81.Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr. Colin Tite for thisinformation.