Saturday 30 July 1664
All the morning at the office; at noon to the ’Change, where great talke of a rich present brought by an East India ship from some of the Princes of India, worth to the King 70,000l. in two precious stones. After dinner to the office, and there all the afternoon making an end of several things against the end of the month, that I may clear all my reckonings tomorrow; also this afternoon, with great content, I finished the contracts for victualling of Tangier with Mr. Lanyon and the rest, and to my comfort got him and Andrews to sign to the giving me 300l. per annum, by which, at least, I hope to be a 100l. or two the better.
Wrote many letters by the post to ease my mind of business and to clear my paper of minutes, as I did lately oblige myself to clear every thing against the end of the month. So at night with my mind quiet and contented to bed. This day I sent a side of venison and six bottles of wine to Kate Joyce.
27 Annotations
First Reading
cape henry • Link
"...to sign to the giving me 300l. per annum..." So there is, in fact, a contract of some sort covering the 'commission.' Pepys makes out nicely; Lanyon & Andrews make out handsomely, I imagine; and those lucky sailors of the Tangier Company will be generously fed by the low bidder. Meanwhile, Kate Joyce gets venison and wine.
Robert Gertz • Link
No doubt the Ottoman Empire will crumble as its deputies see the high living of the British forces in Tangier thanks to our hero and his associates.
Nice to see Lanyon didn't die...Yet. It was beginning to look too convenient.
"Maes? Lanyon still alive?"
"It wasn't my fault Wight...I did my best."
"Thomas, it seems our Iuduco has failed us...Again."
"Most unfortunate, Wight...And it seems to be becoming habitual. First your nephew survives each effort, now Lanyon escapes us."
"Povy, you must understand...I must work carefully."
"Wight, do you recollect what happened the last time a Jewish Portugese was arrested on suspicion of attempting to poison the monarch?"
"The monarch?...Gentlemen...Please..."
"Too distasteful to mention, Povy...Unfortunate fellow turned out to be innocent as well. Overzealousness on the part of that headstrong Essex, I understand."
"Yes, a sad case, Wight...And all too likely to be repeated even in these more enlightened times...Should such a man have the misfortune to be
falsely accused..."
"I'll try again gentlemen...Both of them. I shall not fail you."
"Tis all we ask, dear fellow." Povy, beaming.
***
Terry F • Link
"got him and Andrews to sign to the giving me 300l. per annum"
Is it to be in writing?! Pepys's portion of it on paper?
Martin • Link
End of month, income and net worth on the brain, no thoughts of Fleet Alley today, for a change.
Australian Susan • Link
Jewels
I have been trying to find out more about the jewels mentioned in this extract, but can find nothing in sites to do with British Crown Jewels. Anyone know any more??
Mary • Link
precious stones.
An L&M footnote states that there were in fact three stones, not two. When Charles showed them to the French Ambassador, the latter thought them to be of no very great value.
The donor of the jewels, the self-styled Governor of Maliapur, was asking for a ship in return for his present, so the gift came with loose strings attached. The subsequent history of the stones is not mentioned, so perhaps they weren't terribly good after all.
Mary • Link
"I hope to be 100l or two the better"
Presumably Pepys foresees that up to two-thirds of this £300 may have to be laid out in payments to others further down the supply chain.
Michael Robinson • Link
Jewels
L&M note the following: "There were three (not two) stones, which the King showed to the French Ambassador, wrapped in a red satin bag. De Cominges, thought them of no great value: J-J-Jusserand, 'French Ambassador,' pp 228-9. They were a present from an Armenian styling himself Governor of Maliapur who asked in return to be given a ship: 'Cal. court mins E. India Company, 1664-7' (ed. E. B. Sainsbury), pp. 59-60."
Pedro • Link
"styling himself Governor of Maliapur"
Probably Mylapore near Chennai (Madras), famous for the Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple.
Near Madras there is an old Portuguese town of great historical interest, called Mylapore or San Tome. The Armenians who were found on the Coromandel Coast in the early 16th century, are known to have lived in Mylapore since the 17th century. Alberto de Mandelslo, a Portuguese traveler who traveled in India from 1638 to 1640, found some Armenian merchants in that area.
In May 1662 this town was captured from the Portuguese by Abdullah Kutub Shah, the King of Golcond. Later on he appointed Markus Erizad (Hoorizad), an Armenian, as the Governor of Mylapore.
In the Public Records Office Museum in Chancery Lane, London, a letter is exhibited written by the Governor of Mylapore Markus Erizad to Charles II, King of England on 14 February, 1664. In his letter the Governor was asking the King to grant him a ship and instead he sent some valuable presents for His Majesty, along with their description in that letter. However, there is nothing in the Public Records to whether the King of England favoured the Governor of Mylapore or not. It is not possible to specify how long Markus Erizad governed Mylapore. It is only known that in 1698 he was still holding this position. There is such a reference in an old manuscript which was written in that city and the governor was referred to as "friend of kings and the pride of Christians".
http://menq.am/history/chap1_part…
Michael Robinson • Link
Governor of Maliapur
If a 'con' it is an interesting place to emanate from; St. Thomas the Apostle is traditionally said to have established Syriac Christianity there, circa AD 50. Having been placed under Rome by the Portuguese and attempts to force the Latin liturgy at the end of the C16th., a Syrian bishop was to arrive there in 1665.
Could this perhaps be an attempted parallel to the approach of the Orthodox patriarch, Cyril Lascarius, to James I with the gift of the codex Alexandrius, (accepted after James death by Charles I in 1627), a substantial gift to a fellow non-Roman Christian / church leader of influence, but one appropriate for a monarch who lacked James' interests.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syri…
Pedro • Link
"Near Madras there is an old Portuguese town of great historical interest, called Mylapore or San Tome"
As our Queene would point out this should read São Tomé, named before the occupation and now being free of the Spaniard.
Michael Robinson • Link
to clarify the thought
The Syriac Orthodox Bishop headed to south India, Gregorias, came from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey) the Patriarch there being traditionally responsible for churches in all of the East; at the time of the gift of the codex to Charles I, Lascarius was Patriarch of Constantinople.
Pedro • Link
"where great talke of a rich present brought by an East India ship from some of the Princes of India, worth to the King 70,000l. in two precious stones."
This may not be a con as Sam is sometimes taken in by the gossip, and a gift from a Prince of value 70,000l may be an exaggeration.
The letter and gift arrive by ship from The Indies where the English have had a factory at Madras since 1639 and have built Fort St. George. The factors would probably be used to dealing with the Governor.
jeannine • Link
The Jewels
The letter about the stones from India that Michael Robinson refers to (J. J. Jusserand's book "A French Ambassador At the Court of Charles The Second") from Cominges to Louis will be dated August 18, 1664 and reads as follows:
Les vaisseaux qui sont venus des Indes et principalement les duex derniers, sont chargés d'assez bonne marchandise, ainsi qu'il paraît par l'inventaire, mais, pour les présents envoyés au Roi, que l'on faisait si magnifiques, il m'a fait l'honneur de me les montrer pour s'en diverter. Ils sont contenus dans une petite bourse de satin rouge cramoisi. Il y a un caillou jaune deux fois aussi gros que le Sancy, d'une assez belle forme pour valoir un million, mais je crois qu'il serait bien payé à un écu blanc. Il y a une autre pierre rouge, que l'on nomme escarboucle qui me paraît assez belle, mais j'en ai vu plusieurs semblables sur des reliquaires, ce qui me fait croire qu'elles ne sont pas de grand prix. Un saphir blanc et bleu, admirablement beau pour faire une bague d'évêque accompagne une fort grosse perle que le Roi a donnée à la Reine, que la nature avait eu dessein de faire ronde et blanche, mais elle n'a pas réussi.
Pedro • Link
que l'on nomme escarboucle
[a. OF. escarbuncle, Fr. escarboucle: see carbuncle.]
= carbuncle 2.
1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 26 b, Beareth quarterly Golde, and Gules, an
Escarboucle Pomettè.
1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. vi. (1660) 126 The Escarbuncle is of most use
in Armes.
1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 39/1 An Escarbuncle..is a kind of precious Stone.
1864 Boutell Heraldry Hist. & Pop. xix. §4. 304 Badges: Henry II..an Escarbuncle.
1. (Formerly often more fully carbuncle-stone): A name variously applied to
precious stones of a red or fiery colour; the carbuncles of the ancients (of
which Pliny describes twelve varieties) were probably sapphires, spinels or
rubies, and garnets; in the Middle Ages and later, besides being a name for
the ruby, the term was esp. applied to a mythical gem said to emit a light in
the dark; in mod. lapidary work the term is applied to the garnet when cut en
cabochon, or of a boss form, usually hollowed out to allow the colour of the
stone to be seen.
[from the OED]
Pedro • Link
"mais je crois qu'il serait bien payé à un écu blanc."
A guess at the meaning of the above...that yellow stone worth only one ecu? What a miserable French evaluation?
Sir Isaac Newton's estimate of the value of the ecu in 1717 was 4s. 6d.,
http://www.farlang.com/diamonds/t…
George R • Link
For thoe who have not the French
Re. "The jewels"
The vessels which came from the last Indies and mainly duex, are charged with rather good goods, as it appears by the inventory, but, for these envoys at the King, than one made so splendid, it made me the honor show them for of diverter. They are contained in a small crimson red satin purse. There is a yellow stone twice as large as Sancy, of a rather beautiful form to be worth a million, but I believe that it would be well paid with one ecu white. There is another red stone, which one names escarboucle which appears rather beautiful to me, but I saw several similar on reliquaries, which makes me believe that they are not great price. A white and blue sapphire, admirably beautiful to make a ring of bishop accompanies strong a gross beads that the King gave the Queen, that nature had had intention making round and white, but it did not succeed
Pedro • Link
"that the King gave the Queen, that nature had had intention making round and white, but it did not succeed"
Presumably these were the pearls that he had sorted, giving the round ones to Castlemaine.
Cumsalisgrano • Link
not worth one ecu that became not worth a sou ????
jeannine • Link
"For thoe who have not the French'
Thank you George-my typing skills are bad enough BUT my translation skills are really pathetic so I was hoping we'd have someone who could figure this out! And I'm with Pedro- my guess is that Castlemaine got the pearls!
JWB • Link
Sancy
http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/…
Terry F • Link
"Wrote many letters by the post to ease my mind of business and to clear my paper of minutes, as I did lately oblige myself to clear every thing against the end of the month."
L&M note Pepys was accustomed to keep monthly "to do" lists (the "minutes"); some later ones survived in his *Private Correspondence* and *Tangier Papers*.
Terry F • Link
The Troubles prefigured
Ossory to Ormond
Written from: [Dublin]
Date: 30 July 1664
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 220, fol(s). 141-142
Document type: Holograph
Among the Bills now transmitted is one for upbringing, in the Protestant Religion, the children of deceased Catholic parents. The writer has little liking for it. He accounts it "a force" to take children out of the hands of their nearest relatives, and to breed them up in another faith than theirs. It is, he thinks, plainly a harsh, if not an unwarrantable, way of propagating religion. And opinions, too, grow in persecution.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
pepf • Link
"Les vaisseaux qui sont venus des Indes et principalement les duex derniers, sont chargés d’assez bonne marchandise, ainsi qu’il paraît par l’inventaire, mais, pour les présents envoyés au Roi, que l’on faisait si magnifiques, il m’a fait l’honneur de me les montrer pour s’en diverter."
Well, "For thoe who have not the French" there's always the possibility of doing la traduction par le Google, hopefully after checking for typos.
"The vessels which came from the last Indies and mainly duex, are charged with rather good goods, as it appears by the inventory, but, for these envoys at the King, than one made so splendid, it made me the honor show them for of diverter."
FWIW, my own p'tit-nègre, trying to preserve the zeitgeist in SP his own write:
The vessels which came from the Indies, and especially the last two (or should I congenially translate wto?), are laden with rather good merchandise as the inventory seems to show, but, regarding the presents sent to the King which are so hugely cried up he did me the honour to show them to me for his own disport.
"Un saphir blanc et bleu...accompagne une fort grosse perle que le Roi a donnée à la Reine, que la nature avait eu dessein de faire ronde et blanche, mais elle n’a pas réussi."
A white and blue sapphire...comes with a very big pearl that Nature had intended to make round and white in vain which the King bestowed upon the Queen.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Pepys makes out nicely; Lanyon & Andrews make out handsomely, I imagine; and those lucky sailors of the Tangier Company will be generously fed by the low bidder. Meanwhile, Kate Joyce gets venison and wine."
Well, she -- the occasion of the gossiping -- is just out of child -bed. (L&M)
Linda • Link
Terry's post regarding "the Troubles prefigured . . . Ossory to Ormond" in 1664 -- regarding "force . . . to take children out of the hands of their nearest relatives, and to breed them up in a different faith than theirs" in Ireland -- brings to mind the parallel universe of this practice in England, namely the contemporaneous bringing up of Mary and Anne, the daughters of the Catholic Duke of York James and his wife Anne Hyde, as Protestants, no doubt at the insistence of then-Protestant-for-form's-sake-because-he-was-perforce-Fidei-Defensor-or-Head-of-the-Church-of-England King Charles II.
This destined first Mary and then Anne for the Crown, but also for lives of "troubles," Mary being very unhappily married and childless and Anne being the mother of eighteen(!) children who died young.
It meant lives of royal misery for them.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Google translate is always worth a try these days, and makes quite a reasonable job of the French passage:
"The vessels which came from the Indies, and chiefly the latter, are loaded with fairly good merchandise, as appears from the inventory, but for the presents sent to the King, which were so magnificent, Has done me the honor of showing them to me to divert myself. They are contained in a small purse of red crimson satin. There is a yellow pebble twice as large as the Sancy, of a fairly good shape to be worth a million, but I think it would be well paid to a white shield. There is another red stone, which is called a carbuncle, which seems to me quite beautiful, but I have seen several similar ones on reliquaries, which makes me believe that they are not of great value. A white and blue sapphire, admirably beautiful to make a bishop's ring, accompanies a large pearl which the King has given to the Queen, which nature had intended to make round and white, but she has not succeeded."
One can they tidy it up to please oneself.