The Height of Victorian Diplomacy During the Great Game: Queen Victoria Issues Her First Ambassador to Romania Sweeping Instructions, Making Him Not Merely Minister But Spy

The goal was to discover as much as possible about the volatile politics in Southeastern Europe, and check Russian influence there .

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The only complete set of ambassadorial credentials signed by Queen Victoria that we can find ever having reached the market

Europe was in a ferment in 1878 as a result of the Russian defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the last of a series of wars. In the Treaty of San Stefano,...

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The Height of Victorian Diplomacy During the Great Game: Queen Victoria Issues Her First Ambassador to Romania Sweeping Instructions, Making Him Not Merely Minister But Spy

The goal was to discover as much as possible about the volatile politics in Southeastern Europe, and check Russian influence there .

The only complete set of ambassadorial credentials signed by Queen Victoria that we can find ever having reached the market

Europe was in a ferment in 1878 as a result of the Russian defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the last of a series of wars. In the Treaty of San Stefano, the Ottomans were forced to cede to Russia parts of Armenia and the Dobruja, pay a huge indemnity, recognize the independence of some of their territories, and enlarge Serbia. Bulgaria was made an autonomous principality and was immensely enlarged. As the Serbs and Bulgarians were considered traditional allies of the Russians, this greatly increased Russian influence in Southeast Europe. That development brought deep concern to the power brokers on the continent, and particularly to Great Britain and Austria-Hungary. Because the San Stefano treaty modified the Treaty of Paris of 1856 that ended the Crimean War (which pitted Britain, France, Austria-Hungry and others against Russia), these signatory powers demanded its revision. Russia agreed to submit the treaty to revision only after Great Britain threatened war.

Germany’s Otto von Bismarck was determined to act as “honest broker”, and the signatory powers called the Congress of Berlin at his venue in July 1878 to revise the San Stefano treaty. Britain was represented by Benjamin Disraeli. The agreements reached in the resulting Treaty of Berlin and the accompanying British-Turkish pact, deeply modified the Treaty of San Stefano and snatched away from Russia much of the influence in Southeastern Europe that it had won on the war. Montenegro, Serbia and Romania were declared independent states. Bulgaria, which had been created at San Stefano, was divided into North Bulgaria, a principality under nominal Ottoman suzerainty; Eastern Rumelia, to be governed, with certain autonomous rights, by a Christian appointee of the Ottoman emperor; and Macedonia, under unrestricted Ottoman sovereignty. Bosnia and Herzegovina, original cause of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, were assigned to Austria-Hungary for administration and military occupation. Cyprus was to be under temporary occupation by Great Britain. The conference was considered a British victory, and Russia was sullen about the results and antagonized by Bismarck’s handling of it. Everyone expected the Russians to jockey for influence in the now formally-recognized independent states of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, and the British wasted no time in sending an ambassador to Romania with a list of instructions.

Sir William Arthur White’s family had estates in Poland, and he spent a part of his early days there. He gained an intimate knowledge of the Polish language and questions relating to Eastern Europe. In 1857 he accepted a post in the British consulate in Warsaw, and had almost at once to perform the duties of acting Consul-general. The Polish January Uprising against Russia in 1863 gave him an opportunity of showing his immense knowledge of Eastern European politics and his combination of diplomatic tact with resolute determination. He was promoted in 1864 to the post of consul at Danzig. What was then called the “Eastern Question” encompassed the diplomatic and political problems posed by the decaying Ottoman Empire as its political control over the Balkans weakened over time. This gave rise to national aspirations especially in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and the rest of the Balkans, and the goal of the Russians to dominate the Balkans. This was  the great passion of White’s life, and in 1875 he succeeded in getting transferred to Belgrade as Consul-general to Serbia. In 1879 he was named the first British Ambassador to Romania, a likely hot spot in the chess game of Victorian diplomacy in Southeastern Europe. He proved a wise choice, as the Foreign Office would discover. He was also the first Roman Catholic appointed to a British embassy since the Protestant Reformation.

Document signed, London, March 3, 1879, 27 pages with 17 numbered topics, addressed to White as ambassador, being the original “Instructions for Our Trusty and Well beloved William Arthur White Esq., a Companion of Our Most Honorable Order of the Bath, whom We have appointed Our Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Our Good Brother and Cousin the Prince of Romania”. Queen Victoria, and the Foreign Office, wanted to know, and ordered White to discover, as much as possible about the volatile politics of the region, including what the Russians and Ottomans were up to, making White both ambassador and spy. The numbered points for White were:

1. Upon arrival “demand” an audience with the King of Romania. Express earnest desire to improve and strengthen our friendship.
2-3. Take care that your treatment and reception are equal to those of equal rank. There is much on what this meant in practice.
4. “You will make it your business to discover” any overtures to extend or alter the terms of any treaty between Romania and any other nation or for renewing former alliances or forming new connections, or making new engagements. Transmit to Foreign Office copies of    everything you discover.
5. Maintain friendly relations with other ambassadors and “discover their private views of their respective governments, and procure early information of all affairs between them and Romania”.
6. “You will make the commercial interests of Great Britain an object of your constant attention.” You will protect our subjects and ensure they receive proper favor.
7. Send home constant advice of affairs at the Romanian court, “giving us all the information you can procure as to its policy, views, and designs. Also with regard to factions and parties within Romania.
8. “You will procure the most accurate description possible of the present state of all the fortifications” in Romania.
9. Procure and send to the Foreign Office all information you can gather regarding Romania’s finances, expenses, revenues, etc. Plus statistical information on population, nature of commerce and manufactures carried out there.
10. You will keep in touch with our ministers in other lands.
11. Relay on any other useful information not specified herein.
12. In your contacts to the Foreign Office and elsewhere, use caution and secrecy, use cyphers and decrypers, which we are providing to you.
13. Send all dispatches in cypher.
14. This relates to ambassadorial expenses.
15. You will receive the mission’s previous files etc.
16. When your mission is over, you will turn over your records to your successor.
17. On your return “we shall expect from you a narrative in writing of whatever may have happened in Romania during your residence there…with your remarks and views” based on the information you have acquired.

In Romania, on White’s watch, Prince Carl was proclaimed King in 1881.

It was largely owing to White’s efforts in 1885 that the two-month war between Serbia and Bulgaria was prevented from spreading into a universal conflagration involving Austria-Hungary, Russia, and ultimately Britain, and that the unification of Bulgaria was instead accepted by the great powers. In the following year White was rewarded with the embassy at Constantinople.

This is the only complete set of ambassadorial credentials signed by Queen Victoria that we have ever seen reach the market, and a search of public sale records going back forty years fails to turn up any others.

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