Mazarchuk D. V.

Newport and Sheffield’s mission to Venice in 1513: an episode in the diplomatic history of the Italian Wars period. Pp. 45–54.

UDC 94(450).06

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2024.84.3.006

 

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to clarify the tasks of the first official English diplomatic mission to Venice. The subject is the embassy of T. Newport and T. Sheffield to the Republic of Venice in September 1513. The relevance of the problem is connected with the need to clarify the circumstances of this episode of diplomatic history of the era of the Italian Wars.

The article is based on diplomatic letters and narrative sources. On the basis of these sources, the context of the Newport and Sheffield mission was analyzed in three aspects: the interests of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller; the English campaign in northern France; the military conflict on the Apennine Peninsula (the Third Italian War). It is suggested that the impetus for the mission of the English Hospitallers was the proposal of Ferdinand of Aragon to the English King Henry VIII to make peace with Venice, in the long run reconciling it with the Emperor. The implementation of this plan would lead to the collapse of the Venetian-French alliance, which was to change the balance of power in the third stage of the Third Italian War in favor of the anti-French coalition.

Although the project of withdrawing Venice from its alliance with France soon lost its relevance and was not implemented, the specifics of Ferdinand of Aragon’s complex diplomatic game influenced the formation of Henry VIII’s political consciousness. The understanding of the functioning of the system of international relations in Western Europe that he developed in 1509–1513 formed the basis for the actions of English diplomacy and the functioning of the English diplomatic service in the first half of the 16th century. This was the main result of the Newport and Sheffield mission.

 

Keywords: English diplomacy, England, Venice, diplomatic history, Italian Wars, Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, early modern history, Tudor England, Tudors.

 

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