The Marlowe Society The French Connection (Part 2): Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 On the Trail of Jacques Le Doux Online Research Journal Article C.W.H.Gamble The French Connection (Part 2) On the Trail of Jacques Le Doux Introduction This article is the sequel to an essay first published in 2009 in the Online Research Journal of the Marlowe Society (Vol.6) 1, under the title The French Connection: New Leads on Monsieur Le Doux . In view of the extent of the new documentary evidence here presented, and the chronological overlap, the reader may wish to refer to the previous article for additional information on the links between “Le Doux” and Christopher Marlowe, and indeed on Marlowe’s claim to the authorship of the works of “Shake-speare”. I should begin by giving a brief outline of the background to the historical events and negotiations which are discussed in both articles, with apologies to those readers for whom this is already familiar ground: 1. In 1568 the United Provinces of the Netherlands rose in revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule. Their cause gained the open support of Queen Elizabeth during the mid-1580s; England provided both funds and military forces for the continuance of the war against Spanish occupation, a lengthy conflict which was not resolved until 1609, when peace was made with Spain. The Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, saw service in the Netherlands under the Earl of Leicester (1585-1586) and later, in 1591, led a force into France in support of King Henri IV against the Catholic League; Essex’s brother Walter was killed at the siege of Rouen. 2. Throughout the 1580s and 1590s, the Dutch navy assisted England against the threat of Spanish invasion, not only obstructing Parma’s landing barges in 1588 but also participating in the English assault on Cadiz (in 1596) and the less successful “Islands Voyage” of 1597. 3. After four decades of civil war in France, the Protestant King Henri IV, formerly King of Navarre, had taken the strategic step of officially “converting” to Roman Catholicism in 1593. King Henri made very astute use of the next five years, with the aim of unifying and strengthening his devastated country. By introducing widespread economic reforms and repairing the nation’s damaged infrastructure, Henri eventually succeeded in restoring prosperity to France. 4. Despite the signing of a peace treaty with Spain in 1598 (the Peace of Vervins, 2nd May), during the following ten years the King of France gave secret assistance to the Dutch revolt, sending large amounts of money and volunteers to the United Provinces, thus undermining the Spanish occupation in the South (present-day Belgium) and opposing the armies of Archduke Albert. The Archduke’s campaigns in the Netherlands and elsewhere were, of 1 See http://www.marlowe-society.org/pubs/journal/journal06.html © C.W.H.Gamble 2010 1 of 75 The Marlowe Society The French Connection (Part 2): Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 On the Trail of Jacques Le Doux Online Research Journal Article C.W.H.Gamble course, under the direction of the Catholic King of Spain, Philip II, with the financial backing of treasure from the New World and the vast resources of the Papacy. 5. In 1595 the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, instructed Anthony Bacon, the brother of Sir Francis Bacon, to begin the task of setting up an intelligence- gathering network in Europe, operating mainly in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Fortunately for historians, invaluable records of this network have survived amongst the Anthony Bacon Papers at Lambeth Palace Library in London. Our late colleague A. D. Wraight discovered in this archive certain papers and letters of a supposedly “French” intelligencer, “Monsieur Le Doux”, including a highly significant list of the books in his possession 2, many of which are source-works for the Shake-speare plays. These important documents, including the three extant letters from Monsieur Le Doux, were first published in A. D. Wraight’s Shakespeare: New Evidence (Adam Hart, London, 1996). The name “Le Doux” is now believed by many to have been the alias of the surviving Christopher Marlowe, previously supposed to have been killed on 30th May 1593, just ten days after his arrest by the Court of Star Chamber on capital charges, including that of Heresy. Marlowe’s predicament had been all the more perilous owing to the Court’s seizure of an “Heretical Treatise” which he had owned - it was a serious scriptural study, but of an Arian (i.e. anti- Trinitarian) nature. In my opinion, the arrest of Christopher Marlowe was a first step towards the planned indictment of his friend and fellow freethinker, Sir Walter Raleigh, on similar charges (i.e. “Atheism” and Heresy). The disappearance of Marlowe to some extent frustrated this plot. In the spring of 1594, Raleigh was subjected to a formal enquiry into his religious beliefs; however, the ecclesiastical Court of High Commission was unable to secure a conviction. New Discoveries in the Search for “Monsieur Le Doux” In my previous article, I assessed the significance of the twenty-one references to Monsieur Le Doux in the letters of Paul Choart, the Seigneur de Buzanval, French Ambassador at The Hague, addressed to King Henri IV in Paris and to his Secretary of State, Nicolas de Neufville, the Seigneur de Villeroy; these letters date from October 1598 to November 1599 3. In addition to his duties as the bearer of official dispatches between Paris and The Hague, on several occasions Le Doux supervised the transfer of large amounts of money to the Netherlands. In November of 1599, he appears to have left the service of Buzanval (and possibly also that of King Henri IV). 2 Lambeth Palace Library, Bacon MSS 655 f 186, 185r & v, dated 15th February 1596 OS 3 Lettres et Lettres et Negociations de Paul Choart, Seigneur de Buzenval, et de Francois d’Aerssen, 1598-1599, edited by George Willem Vreede (Leiden, 1846) © C.W.H.Gamble 2010 2 of 75 The Marlowe Society The French Connection (Part 2): Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 On the Trail of Jacques Le Doux Online Research Journal Article C.W.H.Gamble Pursuing the various “leads” identified in my previous research, I have located eight new documentary sources 4 which mention Le Doux by name; the dates range from March/May/September of 1597 to April and May of 1598 and January and August of 1599. These documents, in their turn, present us with much new information and some intriguing “clues” which are very promising for future investigation. There are also official records of payments made to the royal courier Jacques Le Doux, at The Hague, on eight separate occasions between 1595 and 1598. We have previously learned a great deal about the work of Anthony Bacon’s agent “Le Doux” during 1595 and 1596, based on the evidence of the Anthony Bacon Papers, as interpreted by A.D. Wraight, Peter Farey and others; more recently, as I have said, we have learned of Le Doux’s activities during 1598 and 1599, when he was travelling between the French Court (usually at Paris) and the French Embassy at The Hague. The extraordinary thing is, that we now find a diplomatic courier of the same name, “Le Doux”, operating in many of the same locations as before and carrying out very similar assignments, and all of this in association with an already-familiar cast of characters, many of them eminent statesmen and scholars. The principal persons whose names feature in the new documents are as follows: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619) , the Advocate of Holland, founder of the Dutch Republic. He was a statesman of great wisdom and rare patience, who together with William the Silent and his son, Prince Maurice of Nassau (1567-1625), succeeded in establishing the United Provinces of the Netherlands as a fully independent state. Justin of Nassau (1559-1631) , illegitimate son of William the Silent, Dutch army commander and Lieutenant-Admiral of Zealand; in 1588 he took part in the fight against the Spanish Armada, and his ships played a vital role in preventing the Duke of Parma from launching his landing barges. Justin’s navy also helped to deter later Spanish attacks on England. Liévin van Calvart (d. circa 28th May 1597) , Agent of the United Provinces of the Netherlands at Paris from the summer of 1593 until May 1597 (i.e. Ambassador, though he was not formally allowed that title). He attended the Anglo-French negotiations in London during April and May 1596, at the request of King Henri. He was also Secretary of the States of Brabant. Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609) , described as “the greatest scholar of the Renaissance” who “revolutionised ancient chronology”;5 he was a Classical Scholar, a Huguenot and Calvinist. From 1593 he was Professor in Greek at the University of Leiden, not far from The Hague. He lectured on Aristotle and Cicero. With his friends Justus Lipsius and Isaac Casaubon, Scaliger is the 4 See Appendix 1 5 Oxford Companion to English Literature , O.U.P., 1973 © C.W.H.Gamble 2010 3 of 75 The Marlowe Society The French Connection (Part 2): Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 On the Trail of Jacques Le Doux Online Research Journal Article C.W.H.Gamble subject of Charles Nisard’s Le Triumvirat Litteraire (1852). In the interim between the death of Liévin van Calvart and the appointment of his successor, Francois Van Aerssen, Joseph Scaliger acted as the unofficial agent of the States-General in Paris. Francois Van Aerssen (d’Aerssen) (1572-1641) , Dutch Ambassador in France from 1598 to 1613,successor to Liévin van Calvart.