Reporting for a King: Valois France and Europe through the eyes of ambassador Dantas (1557-1568)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2023.010Keywords:
Diplomacy, French civil wars, England, Philip II, Espionage, EuropeAbstract
During his embassy to France between 1557 and 1568, João Pereira Dantas produced valuable reports on French events that have remained almost unnoticed. The purpose of this article is to present the major themes of Dantas’s epistolary and to invite experts on the history of France and Europe to make greater use of their contents. Additionally, this paper demonstrates the key role played by Dantas at the Valois court, by documenting his relations with Queen Catherine de Medici and King Charles IX. The study of Dantas’s epistolary, also reveals his use of France as a centre for Portuguese networks of European information. Finally, through a careful study of Dantas’s actions and a comparison to his predecessors in the French embassy, the importance of the French connection for Portugal - and, crucially, vice-versa - is made in an under-studied period of French-Portuguese relations deeply influenced by the French civil wars.
Downloads
References
Archivo Documental Español (1951-1953) vols. III-VII. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia.
Bordonove, G. (2009) Charles IX 1560-1574. Paris; Pygamalion.
Bourdon, L. (1955) Deux aventuriers portugais: Gaspar Caldeira et Antão Luís (1564-1568). Lisbon: Livraria Bertrand.
Bourdon, L. (1956) Francisco Dias Mimoso. Le "pilote portugais borgne" (1559-1569). Lisbon, offprint by Revista da Faculdade de Letras.
Bourdon, L. (1972) André Homem. Cartographe portugais en France (1560-1586). Coimbra, offprint by Revista da Universidade de Coimbra.
Brehm, A. and Trindade, C. (2020) "O Saque ao Funchal em 1566 e as suas repercussões no reinado de D. Sebastião." Arquivo Histórico da Madeira, Nova Série, n.º 2, pp. 15-79.
Chichkine, V. (2021) "Mirage d'une alliance. Les relations franco-portugaises dans lescollections manuscrites de Saint-Pétersbourg (1557-1572)." Histoire, Economie et Société, (1/2021), pp. 38-55. https://doi.org/10.3917/hes.211.0038
Cloulas, I. (1979) Catherine de Medicis. Paris: Fayard.
Cruz, M. A. L. (2006) D. Sebastião. Póvoa de Santo Adrião: Círculo de Leitores.
Cruz, M. do R. S. T. B. A. (1971) Rui Fernandes de Almada. Diplomata português do século XVI. Lisbon: Instituto de Alta Cultura.
Cruz, M. do R. S. T. B. A (1992) As regências na menoridade de D. Sebastião. Elementos para uma história estrutural, 2 vols. Lisbon: INCM.
Douais, A. (1900) Dêpéches de M. de Fourquevaux, ambassadeur du roy Charles IX en Espagne 1565-1572, vol. II. Paris: E. Leroux.
Faria, D. (2015) "Negócios matrimoniais entre Portugal e a França no tempo de Francisco I (1515-1547)." Anais de História de Além-Mar, vol. XVI, pp. 407-430. Available at: https://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/19813/1/AHAM%20XVI%20%282015%29_ISSN%200874-9671.pdf [accessed 10 September 2021]
Fedele, D. (2017) Naissance de la diplomatie moderne (XIIIe-XVIIe siècles); l'ambassadeur au croisement du droit, de l'ethique et de la politique. Baden-Baden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845284361
Ferreira, A. M. P. (1989) "Da defesa do monopólio do «Mare Clausum»: Alguns Apontamentos na correspondência de João Pereira Dantas (1562-1565)." In: A Viagem de Bartolomeu Dias e a problemática dos Descobrimentos. Maia: Centro de Estudos Gaspar Frutuoso, pp. 159-166.
Knecht, R. J. (1996) The rise and fall of Renaissance France. London: Fontana Press.
Knecht, R. J. (2000) The French civil wars, 1562-1598. Harlow: Routledge.
Matos, L. de (1952) Les Portugais en France au XVIe siècle: Études et documents. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade.
Oliveira, S. (2018) Uma cartografia das mentalidades. A diplomacia portuguesa na corte isabelina. PhD thesis. Lisboa: FLUL.
Ribera, J.-M. (2018) Diplomatie et espionage. Les ambassadeurs du roi de France auprès de Philipe II. Du traite du Cateau-Cambresis (1559) à la mort de Henri III (1589). Paris: Classiques Garnier.
Santarém, Visconde de (1842) Quadro elementar das relações politicas e diplomaticas de Portugal com as diversas potencias do mundo, desde o principio da monarchia portugueza ate aos nossos dias. vol. XV. Paris: Oficina Typografica de Fain e Thunot.
Santos, M. E. M. (1969) O caracter experimental da Carreira da Índia. Um plano de João Pereira Dantas, com fortificação da África do Sul (1556). Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar.
Santos, M. E. M. (1990) João Pereira Dantas um homem da expansão europeia. Lisbon: IICT.
Serrão, J. V. (1955) A Infanta Dona Maria (1521-1577) e a sua fortuna no sul da França. Lisbon: edition by Álvaro Pinto.
Serrão, J. V. (1969) A embaixada em França de Brás de Alvide (1548-1554). Paris: Centro Cultural Português/Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Tommaseo, M. N. (1838) Relations des ambassadeurs vénetiens sur les affaires de France au XVIe siècle, vol. II. Paris: Impremerie Royale.
Ventura, M. G. (1983) João da Silveira. Diplomata português do século XVI. Lisbon: Gabinete Português de Estudos Humanísticos.
Vila-Santa, N. (2023a) "Fighting for Mare Clausum and Secret Science: France, England and Spain in the strategies of ambassador Dantas (1557-1568)." Vegueta, 23 (2), in press.
Vila-Santa, N. (2023b) "The Untold Story of Oceanic Pilot Bartolomeu Borges who Guided Jean Ribault to Florida in 1562: Document Transcription and Translation, Accompanied by an Historical Introduction." Terrae Incognitae, 2023, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00822884.2023.2182986 PMid:37113215 PMCid:PMC10124547
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
Funding data
H2020 European Research Council
Grant numbers 833438
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Grant numbers UIDB/00286/2020;UIDP/00286/2020
