![CHARLES I, King of England (1625-1649). Letter signed, addressed to 'The high and excellent Lord the Visier Basha to the Grand Signor' [Ekrem Khalil Pasha, the Grand Vizier to Sultan Murad IV], Westminster, 20 March 1626[27].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2000/CKS/2000_CKS_06298_0039_000(011248).jpg?w=1)
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CHARLES I, King of England (1625-1649). Letter signed, addressed to 'The high and excellent Lord the Visier Basha to the Grand Signor' [Ekrem Khalil Pasha, the Grand Vizier to Sultan Murad IV], Westminster, 20 March 1626[27].
Manuscript on vellum, one membrane, 330 x 700 mm. Illuminated border in upper and side margins, 14 lines written in an elegant scribal hand in brown ink with initial letters in liquid gold;
large initial letter 'C' and baluster-shaped capitals in first line, and border of symmetrical scrolling tendrils and foliage in red and gold. Signed by the King in the lower margin (the vellum slightly cockled, patches of light discolouration), address panel of similar design on verso (worn), seal slits, old linen backing.
The letter announces the appointment of Sir Thomas Wyche as successor to Sir Thomas Roe, to be 'our Ambassadour with the Grand Signor & in our name to negotiate & do all fitt offices, whereby the amitie betweene Us may be confirmed & increased to the mutuall benefitt & advantage of Us our Frends & Allies, and the increase of Trade and commerce betweene our Subiects in freedome and securitie', inviting the Grand Vizier to receive him 'as your frend', and to assist him with his authority and good offices in all his activities.
The English ambassador to the Sublime Porte was commissioned by the king as his representative but paid as an agent of the Levant Company, first chartered in 1581, when English merchants secured the privileges already won by the Venetians and the French.
The commission to Wyche ended a complicated and somewhat acrimonious episode when the Duke of Buckingham, to the consternation of the directors of the Company, resolved to meddle in the appointment of a successor to Sir Thomas Roe, who had been ambassador in Constantinople since 1621. The unexpected death of his first candidate briefly pre-empted his machinations, but he then secured Wyche, who had been a merchant in Spain (and twice bankrupt), and was pleased to offer £1,000 for Roe's post, which he secured over the heads of two candidates put forward by the company. He eventually arrived in Constantinople in April 1628, when Roe discovered that a promised commission from Charles I to remain there in order to complete negotiations with the Transylvanian Prince Bethlen Gabor did not exist. Wyche was an effective emissary, and also enriched himself in his post sufficiently to offer £6,000 for the Comptrollership of the Royal Household on his return to England in 1641. Lady Wyche and her attendants astonished the ladies of the Ottoman court by appearing in the harem wearing farthingales.
The clerk of the Signet in 1627 was Edward Norgate (d. 1650), author of a work on the art of limning, whose duties included the preparation of the king's formal correspondence, writing and ornamenting in gold and colours, and who is recorded as having been employed in writing letters to, among others, the Emperor of Russia and the Grand Signior. The present document is probably the work of either Norgate or one of his assistants.
Manuscript on vellum, one membrane, 330 x 700 mm. Illuminated border in upper and side margins, 14 lines written in an elegant scribal hand in brown ink with initial letters in liquid gold;
large initial letter 'C' and baluster-shaped capitals in first line, and border of symmetrical scrolling tendrils and foliage in red and gold. Signed by the King in the lower margin (the vellum slightly cockled, patches of light discolouration), address panel of similar design on verso (worn), seal slits, old linen backing.
The letter announces the appointment of Sir Thomas Wyche as successor to Sir Thomas Roe, to be 'our Ambassadour with the Grand Signor & in our name to negotiate & do all fitt offices, whereby the amitie betweene Us may be confirmed & increased to the mutuall benefitt & advantage of Us our Frends & Allies, and the increase of Trade and commerce betweene our Subiects in freedome and securitie', inviting the Grand Vizier to receive him 'as your frend', and to assist him with his authority and good offices in all his activities.
The English ambassador to the Sublime Porte was commissioned by the king as his representative but paid as an agent of the Levant Company, first chartered in 1581, when English merchants secured the privileges already won by the Venetians and the French.
The commission to Wyche ended a complicated and somewhat acrimonious episode when the Duke of Buckingham, to the consternation of the directors of the Company, resolved to meddle in the appointment of a successor to Sir Thomas Roe, who had been ambassador in Constantinople since 1621. The unexpected death of his first candidate briefly pre-empted his machinations, but he then secured Wyche, who had been a merchant in Spain (and twice bankrupt), and was pleased to offer £1,000 for Roe's post, which he secured over the heads of two candidates put forward by the company. He eventually arrived in Constantinople in April 1628, when Roe discovered that a promised commission from Charles I to remain there in order to complete negotiations with the Transylvanian Prince Bethlen Gabor did not exist. Wyche was an effective emissary, and also enriched himself in his post sufficiently to offer £6,000 for the Comptrollership of the Royal Household on his return to England in 1641. Lady Wyche and her attendants astonished the ladies of the Ottoman court by appearing in the harem wearing farthingales.
The clerk of the Signet in 1627 was Edward Norgate (d. 1650), author of a work on the art of limning, whose duties included the preparation of the king's formal correspondence, writing and ornamenting in gold and colours, and who is recorded as having been employed in writing letters to, among others, the Emperor of Russia and the Grand Signior. The present document is probably the work of either Norgate or one of his assistants.
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