James I to Tsar Boris Gudonov, Through Their Sons: The Highest Example of European Statecraft at the Time

An incredibly early document relating to the great first joint stock company, with artistic illumination in the hand of Elizabeth I’s great court herald, William Segar; Henry promises open trade with Russia and desires his agents “may have free leave for our service to buy any rare or strange things within the Emperor’s dominions;”  He specifically mentions an interest in Hawks.

The late 16th and early 17th century saw Europe in a twisting maze of alliances. Russia looked for allies to parties that were unfriendly to England, such as the Ottoman Empire and Denmark, while also engaged in periodic confrontations in the North, particularly against Sweden. To the extent that Queen Elizabeth I of England steered clear of meddling with the Ottomans and not bother its relations with his ally Denmark against the Swedes, Russia was content to keep peaceful though somewhat distant relations with England. The Tsar at the time was Boris Godunov and his son, the Prince, was Pheodor.

The Muscovy Company, also called the Russia Company, was formed in 1555 by the navigator and explorer Sebastian Cabot.  It was the first English joint-stock company in which the capital remained regularly in use instead of being repaid after every voyage. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor had sailed to seek out a Northeast Passage to China and the East Indies (Indonesian archipelago). Willoughby’s ship was lost, but Chancellor reached Arkhangelsk (Archangel) on the White Sea and established trade links with Moscow.  The original aim of the Muscovy Company was to exploit these contacts, as well as to continue the search for the Northeast Passage.  Indeed the company would fund explorations by men like Henry Hudson.

Trade continued at a reasonable level for the next 50 years or so during the reign of Elizabeth, but relations were not close.  She died in March of 1603 and James I came to the throne. James was the brother-in-law of the King of Denmark, and so the Tsar could have open relations with both. James sent a first mission over to Russia in 1604-1605. By then the Tsar was the legendary Boris Godunov, a descendant of a Mongol chief and advisor to Tsar Ivan the Terrible who recognized the need for Russia to catch up with the intellectual progress of the West and did his best to bring about educational and social reforms. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a large scale, the first to send young Russians abroad to be educated. However this mission was essentially a political and not a commercial mission.  His instructions to the mission seem to deal primarily with Ottoman relations with Russia. At the same watershed moment, James and his government determined to seek to open trade links of their own, outside of the old Archangel trade that had been maintained through the Elizabethan era. But perhaps because James sought to go around the pre-established path instead of through it, and was uncertain of the reception the move would receive, rather than do this in his own name in a direct approach to the Tsar, he had his son be the one to seek the new agreement. And since protocol precluded a prince writing a king, the son would approach the Tsar’s son.

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, was the elder son of King James I and Anne of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father’s English and Scottish thrones. He was ten years old when he would write this letter. The recipient would be the Tsarevich, Feodor Borisovich Godunov, aged 15. Setting the letter up as between the heirs apparent and not the reigning monarchs was a subtle and clever strategy, the highest example of statecraft at the time. But to impress not merely the purported recipient but his father and government, the manuscript would be a magnificent one.

William Segar was a herald and chronicler of Elizabethan life.  He was a portrait painter and officer of arms to the court of Elizabeth I of England; he became Garter King of Arms under James I.  He carried the Sword of State in the funeral procession of Elizabeth I in 1603. Like other artists of the Tudor court, Segar was active in more than one medium, painting portraits of luminaries of the court in addition to his duties in the College of Arms. He painted Elizabeth's favorite the Earl of Essex in his black armor for the Accession Day tilt of 1590. His "Ermine Portrait" of Elizabeth I is dated to the same period. Segar was heavily patronied by Essex in the early 1590s, and also painted portraits of Leicester, Sir Francis Drake, and other members of the court.

James Cocks was an early merchant for the Muscovy Company.  His brothers also traded on behalf of the enterprise.

Letter, with calligraphic artistry, decoration and text in the hand of Elizabethan artist William Segar, large and ornate, measuring a full 362mm by 473mm, dated September 11, 1604, from Henry, to Tsarevich Pheodor Borisovich, requesting a trade agreement.

“Henry by the grace of God, Prince of Great Britain, Duke of Cornwall, and Lord of the Isles in Scotland, eldest son of the High and Mighty Prince James by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the Faith etc.

“And that the said James Cocks or his associates may have free leave for our service to buy any rare or strange things within the Emperor’s dominions, as white hawks or hawks of any sort or whatsoever else that either he or they shall think shall be fit for us. Praying Your Highness further that he and they may have your Princely license to convey and transport such commodities for us at all times into England at his or their free liberty and pleasure. Assuring your highness that if there be anything in our Royal Father’s dominions that may be fitting your pleasure or service which either by your Princely letters directed unto us you shall require or by this our Marchant we shall have knowledge of, your highness shall receive such satisfaction there in as shall be expedient for so orthodox a Prince, with careful provision for the speedy and safe conveyance of the same from time to time as need shall require. And so committing Your Highness to the divine protection of the Allmighty God, we lovingly take our leave.” On the verso is the elaborate address panel to the Tsarevich.

The vellum document is illuminated along the upper border with acanthus leaves in gold and dark red, engrossed majuscules, and royal names in gold, with an initial illuminated “H.” In "Sir Philip Sydney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, Henry Woudhuysen, an academic specialising in Renaissance English literature and current Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, identifies William Segar as the artist and scribe.

Many of the documents of the Muscovy company were destroyed in the Fire of London, and this is a rare and important memento of its work.  James Cocks and his two brothers appear in the roles of names of traders of the Muscovy Company in later documents.

Tsar Boris Godunov died in April 1605 and his son, the recipient here, succeeded him as Tsar Feodor II. However, after less than two months he was murdered by supporters of the pretender, the First False Dmitriy. What followed became known as the Time of Troubles, which only ended with the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. As for Henry, at the age of 18, he predeceased his father when he died of typhoid fever. His younger brother Charles succeeded him as heir apparent to the thrones, eventually reigning as King Charles I.

It is interesting that this letter mentions hawks specifically, as the interest of English in hunting birds dates from the 1553 gift of a falcon to Philip and Mary by the Russian Ambassador at the time.