Home / Topics / Henry Neville to Dudley Carleton, 26 February 1613

Henry Neville to Dudley Carleton, 26 February 1613

Verified Complete evidence packet

This newly recovered direct letter is The National Archives SP 14/72 f.113. Neville wrote it from London on 26 February 1612 Old Style, or 26 February 1613 in modern dating. The body is subscribed Henry Nevill; the address names Dudley Carleton at Venice. John O'Donnell's diplomatic transcription now supplies the complete text and controls original spelling pending an independent line-by-line manuscript collation.

The outer evidence explains a longstanding catalogue problem. The user identified the address as Henry Savile's hand and the rotated recipient-side note as Carleton's docket, Sr H: Savile. The immediately preceding item is Savile's separately signed, sealed letter to Carleton of the same date, SP 14/72 f.112. Neville's sheet was therefore probably enclosed with, or accompanied, Savile's dispatch. That is a strong inference from the physical sequence and handwriting, not a statement made in either body text.

Manuscript image

Henry Neville to Dudley Carleton, TNA SP 14/72 f.113, 26 February 1612/13
Henry Neville to Dudley Carleton, TNA SP 14/72 f.113, 26 February 1612/13

The frame preserves Neville's signed body on the right and the separately folded address leaf on the left. Credit: The National Archives, SP 14/72 f.113; digital image viewed through State Papers Online.

Quoted Source Passages: John O'Donnell diplomatic transcription

My very good lord, I will not take vpon me to send you my advertisements, because I know your secretary commeth full fraught with them, and hath bin much conversant with those that manage our affaires, by whome he might be best informed. Therefore my only argument shallbe, to give you thankes for your kind & oft remembring of mee: whereof at all times I shall have cawse to be glad, and at this time to be prowde, that amiddest your publike imploiments, you retaine a memory of so vnprofitable a freend as I am. But what I want in power, I assure you I supply in will and desire to merit of you. Therefore yf you thinke I may be of vse in any kind, I pray you commaund mee. I said as much to m[r]. wake, when he delivered me your letter (who men immagine had som secret Commissions from you) but either he had none, or they were very secret. So as yf I have bin wanting in any office, wherein I might have don you service, I hope I shall not be blamed. Of S[r]. henry Savilles health & my ladies, and his proceedings about his daughter, I am sure you shall understand from them selves. And by this time, I hope both your self and my lady are accustumed to the climate there, so as you will agree better with yt. I shall be glad to heere yt is so, becawse you see our remooves are very slow and uncertaine heere, and no sure foundation to be made vpon them. Our other wheeles do all depend vpon the mocion of that in Court: w[ch] howsoever yt seeme now to be at a stand, yet, yf my intelligence faile me not, is neerer to be mooved then is generally conceaved. And thus presenting my love & service vnto your Lo[p] & my lady, and wishing you health and contentment whiles you are there, and the due of your merittes when you returne, I kisse your hands and remaine

your Lo[p][s]. in all true affection

to be commaunded

Henry Nevill

from london the xxvi[th]

of february 1612

Transcription credit: John O'Donnell. Raised letters follow the DOCX formatting. Punctuation, capitalization, and spellings are retained. The DOCX contains no manuscript image; the image above is the separately controlled SP 14/72 f.113 witness.

Why the letter matters

Neville declines to duplicate the news carried by Carleton's secretary, Isaac Wake, and thanks Carleton for remembering him during his public employment. He reports on Henry and Margaret Savile and their daughter's affairs, wishes Dudley and Anne Carleton well in the Venetian climate, and offers a compact image of Jacobean political dependence: Our other wheeles do all depend vpon the mocion of that in Court.

The letter raises the secure direct Neville–Carleton census to three items: Neville to Carleton on 8 April 1606; Carleton to Neville on 13 January 1608/9 Old Style; and this Neville to Carleton letter of 26 February 1612/13.

Public source controls

Notes on Access

The complete text was supplied by the user in John O'Donnell's DOCX. The manuscript frame was inspected through the user's authenticated State Papers Online session and is reproduced here at the user's direction with archive and database credit. The Archive.org calendar page is public. No account name, session token, or access credential is embedded in the topic or image.