Neville's Written Treaty Book, Bonds, Schedules, Plate List, and Embassy Paper Preparation, 1599
Neville's embassy documentary workbench
Sourced Facts
Neville's January–February 1599 correspondence identifies a working archive assembled for his French embassy. He requested Cecil's “written book of Treaties.” The February calendar says he examined the French king's bonds and contracts and their annexed schedules, wanted the treasurers-at-war accounts, and copied the instruments so that he could verify each debt. He also sought to inspect letters of credence and instructions before signature and returned a passport copy and “the note of the plate.”
These are distinct documentary objects:
- a manuscript treaty book;
- French royal bonds and contracts;
- attached schedules;
- treasurers-at-war accounts;
- Neville's copies;
- credentials and instructions;
- a passport copy;
- an inventory or note of plate.
They should not be compressed into a generic statement that Neville “studied diplomacy.”
Quoted Source Text
Neville's 19 January request identifies the central book:
“the written book of Treaties which your ho. hath, & the use of it for these few days that remain of my abode here.”
On 19 February he explains the work on the debt papers:
“detained with the perusing & copying of the fr. kings bonds & contracts whereupon his debts to her majesty grow”
The same letter says he returned “the copy of the passport, & the note of the plate.”
Later continuity
On 27 April 1600 Neville reported that, for verification of the French king's debts, he had brought copies of bonds and Mr Meredith's attested accounts, while several claims rested only on a note Cecil had sent him at Blois. This shows that the pre-departure copying produced a working debt dossier that remained active during the embassy.
In 1606 Neville separately called another archival compilation his “book of negotiations,” searched it for the Elliot project, and copied out a letter to Salisbury and Salisbury's answer. The wording does not prove that this was the same volume as Cecil's 1599 treaty book; it establishes a later Neville-held diplomatic archive.
Fact boundary
Firm: the named classes of papers and Neville's described copying/searching. Open: survival, present shelfmarks, whether one or several books are involved, the contents of the plate list, and which papers later reached Ralph Winwood or his editor.
Citations
- Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, 1598–1601, pp. 163–164, page image.
- Ralph Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State, vol. 1, pp. 177–178, page image.
- Ralph Winwood, Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 216–218, page image.
Notes on Access
The calendar and Winwood links are public. The January and February quotations follow project transcriptions whose manuscript witnesses should be inspected before diplomatic publication.