Kings MS 137-138

Negociation de Monsieur [Jean de Varignies, Seigneur] de Blainville, Ambassadeur en Angleterre en l'année 1626.' Two volumes, paged continuously, with table of contents at end. Another copy is in Add. MS. 30651. Cf. 'L'Ambassade de M. de Blainville' in Revue des Questions Historiques, xxiii (1878), p. 176. Blainville did not come to England till Oct. 1625, but the correspondence begins in July, when Daniel de la Mothe-Houdancourt, Bishop of Mende, the Queen's Grand Almoner, and Tanneguy le Veneur, Comte de Tillières, her Chamberlain, were transacting the interim business. The chief subjects are the disputes about her household and the treatment of Roman Catholics in England. The letters are chiefly to or from Louis XIII and his minister and secretaries, Card. Richelieu, H. A. de Loménie, and Raymond de Phelippeaux, Seigneur d'Herbault; and the collection ends with Blainville's recall (he had been forbidden the court by Charles I in February) in April, 1626. Richelieu's letters are printed by Avenel, Lettres de Richelieu, ii, pp. 110 sqq. Besides the main correspondence the following are among the contents :-