Perceptions of Privacy in Diplomatic Correspondence: Dutch and English Ambassadors at the Early Modern French Court

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the professional epistolary practices of European diplomats at the royal court of France in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It discusses the concept of privacy within diplomatic missives sent to foreign powers, with a specific emphasis on the correspondence of Aernt van Dorp (c. 1528–1600), a Netherlandish envoy, and Robert Cecil (1563–1612), an English ambassador. By comparing their dispatches, these letters bring into sharp relief the private zones and the ideals of privacy existing within the inherently public life of the French court during the reigns of Henry III (r. 1574–1589) and Henry IV (r. 1589–1610). It will be argued that privacy at the French court was a muddy and highly ambiguous concept: it was as much a desired good as it was something to be avoided. Written correspondence, then, offered visiting envoys a privileged medium to reflect on the diplomatic implications of their private and public activities at the French court, as well as a tool to account for, and promote, these activities to their respective governments.