Letter #406
Cornelis DE SCHEPPER to Ioannes DANTISCUSMechelen, 1528-05-21
English register:
De Schepper's embassy to Poland was postponed, because at the Mechelen court they considered sending him on a mission to Scotland. Now that the English declaration of war has been mitigated, he has received the order to leave for Poland.
Because the overland route (from Brabant) through Germany is too dangerous, he will sail via Holland to the Weser estuary, and continue his route overland via Bremen, Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Leipzig and Wrocław. He should avoid both Hesse, where troops are raised against the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg [Joachim I Nestor] and the Archbishop of Mayence [Albrecht von Hohenzollern], and Erfurt. De Schepper considers his own mission to be nothing special. A former cook of the Polish Queen, who is on his way to England, told De Schepper that the Polish sovereigns [King Sigismund I and Queen Bona Sforza] have left for Vilnius. So he faces a long journey. From Bremen to Leipzig he will travel by carriage, and then he will continue on horseback. Melchior Colditz will accompany him to Leipzig.
(The following is partly ciphered:)
He asks Dantiscus to recommend him to the Chancellor [Mercurino Gattinara], and to intervene for his further employment at the chancery. He alludes to his proposed marriage, an imminent uprising in the Netherlands, his own return to Spain, and Dantiscus' return to Poland.
The rumours that the Turks have invaded Hungary with a huge army, and that the whole of Germany is under threat, lead him to some gloomy reflections on the future.
He wants to be recommended to Johann Albrecht of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine, Juan Antonio Marliano, Dantiscus' brother and Dantiscus’ paramour [Isabel Delgada]. He asks for news about [Alfonso de] Valdés.
| received Zaragoza, [1528]-07-20 Manuscript sources:
Auxiliary sources:
Prints:
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Text & apparatus & commentaryPlain textText & commentaryText & apparatus
Magnifico et excellenti domino
Salutem.
Memini, cum semel colloqueremur domi tuae de negotiis meis, destinasse te mihi tempus, quo in
Itaque ego nunc sum intra triduum abiturus, non via publica, namque ea latrociniis
Heri mihi relatum fuit
Quicquid id sit, satis ingens iter instare mihi satis prospicio, ibo tamen, quam citissime potero, curru vectus a
Oro te, ut semper me commendes illustri domino
Rumor est hic
Commenda me plurimum illustrissimo principi domino
Ex
Tuus ex animo frater tamquam filius
[1 ] In 1528 Pentecost fell on May 31
[2 ] hac curia: the court of Margaret of Austria, Governess of the Habsburg Netherlands, in Mechelen
[3 ] caesaris (symbol A): solution of cipher based on Dantiscus’ solution of De Schepper’s use of this symbol preserved together with the fair copies of cf.
[4 ] De Schepper plans to travel by sea from Holland to the mouth of the river Weser, and then over land via Bremen, etc
[5 ] To be elaborated: political situation
[6 ] This is an allusion to De Schepper’s marriage to Elisabeth Donche