Add MS 78201-78203

EVELYN PAPERS. Vols. XXXIV-XXXVI. Diplomatic papers of Sir Richard Browne; 1625-1637, n.d. Partly copies. Partly Latin, French and Italian. The material derives from Browne’s early period in the diplomatic service. On the recommendation of Dudley Carleton, 1^st Viscount Dorchester and Secretary of State, he went as secretary to Sir Isaac Wake, English ambassador (Oct. 1628-circa March 1631) to Savoy and subsequently (circa March 1631-May 1632) to France; see letters of Peter Turner to Christopher Browne, 9 Sept. 1629 and 5 April 1630, in Add. MS 78186 above, and an itinerary of Browne’s journey from Turin to and from Rome, Sept. 1629-Feb. 1630, in Add. MS 78230 below. Browne’s passport, as ‘Gentilhomme de la bouche du Ducq de Savoye’, to travel via the Low Countries to England, signed by the Archduke Isabella at Brussels, 12 June 1630, is now in Add. MS 78263. Letters and papers in Add. MS 78201 derive from his service as secretary in the embassies of Wake. Those in Add. MS 78202 relate to the activities of John, 1st Viscount Scudamore (1635-1639), whose official dispatches, Aug. 1635-Mar. 1639 in Add. MS 35097 and Add. MS 45142 are mostly copied in Browne’s hand (and see also Add. MS 11044, ff. 77-85); and of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, ambassador extraordinary (1636-1641) +o France. According to the DNB, in 1641 Browne was sent on two diplomatic missions, to the Queen of Bohemia and the Elector Palatine, and to Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange. In July of that year he was appointed Charles I’s Resident at the French court, and continued in the same capacity until the Restoration. Some of the documents in the following two volumes may be later copies arising from Browne’s period as Resident; see Vane to Wake, 17 Sept. 1631, Add. MS 15858, f. 175.

Three volumes.