Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frías

Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of FríasIn full, ( – 15 March 1613) was a Spanish nobleman and diplomat.

Biography Juan Fernández de Velasco was the son of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco; and of Maria Angela de Aragón y Guzmán El Bueno. He inherited his father's title of Constable of Castile, and was present at the signing of the Treaty of London (1604). Although he was not present for much of the negotiations, he was depicted in the Somerset House Conference group portrait now held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

London in 1604

He was sent to London to sign the recently negotiated peace treaty. The resident Spanish ambassador, the Count of Villamediana, asked King James if Velasco could be lodged at Somerset House, and Anne of Denmark granted his request.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 143 no. 207. The lodging was decorated with royal tapestries, and his bedchamber furnished with a bed of "morado damask" bordered with gold. The furnishings were intended to be as rich as if the King of Spain, Philip III, had come in person.Maurice Lee, jr., Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain (Rutgers University Press, 1972), p. 61.

The Count of Arenberg, in London as the diplomatic representative of the Spanish Netherlands, visited Theobalds and Wanstead House.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 175 no. 261: Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), p. 209. The Archduke of Austria's commissioners were lodged at Durham House on the Strand, then in the possession of Tobias Matthew, Bishop of Durham.Manolo Guerci, London's Golden Mile: The Great Houses of the Strand (Yale, 2021), p. 164: HMC 8th Report: Earl of Jersey (London, 1881), p. 98. Actors of the Queen's Company including Thomas Greene were paid to attend the commissioners at Durham House for 18 days as "groomes of the Chamber", while Augustine Phillips and John Heminges and their King's Men fellows served at Somerset House.Eva Griffith, A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen's Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (Cambridge, 2013), p. 63.Willem Schrickx, Foreign Envoys and Travelling Players in the Age of Shakespeare and Jonson (Universa, 1986), p. 75. The actors, possibly including William Shakespeare (who had been given red cloth for the Royal Entry in March 1604),Ernest Law, Shakespeare as a Groom (London: Bell, 1910), p. 8. may have employed simply as extra hired help in magnificent households appointed for the ambassadors, and were not necessarily the recipients of special royal favour.Leeds Barroll, "Shakespeare and his fellows", Joseph Candido, The Text, the Play, and the Globe (Farleigh Dickinson, 2016), pp. 121–154.

Arrival The Constable's arrival in England was delayed, said to be because of ill health. In May, the Venetian diplomat Nicolò Molin heard the delay annoyed King James who felt he was being slighted. The negotiations, held at Somerset House, proceeded without him. Villamediana was allowed to use the lodgings in Somerset House that had been allocated to the Constable, and some rooms were allocated to the English delegation.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), pp. 150 no. 217, 155 no. 229.

The Constable arrived at the Downs near Dover on 5 August. Lewis Lewkenor looked after his luggage which included ice for his wine. He was met at Barham Down on 7 August by 600 horsemen led by Lord Wotton. The riders were so well equipped that they might have been mistaken by the Spanish party for aristocratic courtiers.M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 16 (London, 1936), pp. 203, 205, 211. He reached London on 10 August 1604. King James was away hunting, based at Royston, Apethorpe, and Hinchingbrooke. He was at Drayton House on 10 August. James sent Lord Erskine of Dirleton from Bletsoe to meet the Constable.Maurice Lee, jr., Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain (Rutgers University Press, 1972), p. 61: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 16, pp. 208, 217, 219–220, 263. James had absented himself deliberately,Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 444. the date of the Constable's arrival had been known three weeks in advance. James wrote to Cecil that he would hunt in the season and "I doubt if the Constable of Castille hath any power in his commission to stay the course of the sun".G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, Addenda, 23 (London, 1973), p. 196.G. P. V. Akrigg, Letters of King James VI and I (University of California, 1984), pp. 232-233. Robert Sidney, the Queen's chamberlain, thought that James would await the Constable's arrival at Theobalds. In his letters to his wife Barbara, Sidney was unable to track of the planned movements of the English royal households.William A. Shaw, HMC Report on the manuscripts of Lord de l'Isle & Dudley preserved at Penshurst, 3 (London: HMSO, 1936), pp. 128–129

The Constable came to Somerset House on a barge on the Thames, in some ceremony.Maurice Lee, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603–1624 (Rutgers UP, 1972), 61. His arrival was managed by the Earl of Northampton,Linda Levy Peck, Northampton: Patronage and Policy at Court of James I (London, 1982), 110. and watched by spectators in boats and barges near the Tower of London, including Anne of Denmark, the Countess of Suffolk, the Earl of Nottingham, and Robert Cecil. The queen and her companions wore black masks and their barge was disguised, without royal insignia.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 1063: Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series vol. 3, pp. 207-15, citing Relacion de la Jornada de Condestable de Castilla en Londres 1604 (Antwerp, 1604), 22: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610, 141, SP 14/9A/f.12r.Willem Schrickx, "English Actors", Shakespeare Survey, 33 (Cambridge, 1980), p. 164.

Ceremonies The Constable saw King James on 15 or 16 August and he had an audience with Anne of Denmark three days later at Whitehall Palace. He watched Prince Henry dance and exercise with a pike in the garden. He gave the prince a pony.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), 178 no. 266. Prince Henry danced for the guests.Judy Smith and Ian Gatiss, "What Did Prince Henry Do with His Feet on Sunday 19 August 1604", Early Music, 14:2 (May 1986), pp. 198-207. The Constable gave Prince Henry a Spanish horse with a rich saddle and bridle and an embroidered doublet with a sash.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 212.

The Constable discussed the points of the treaty in two meetings with the English commissioners. He initially disagreed over a detail concerning duties paid by English merchants carrying German goods into Spain.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stewart: the regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 444. He conceded this point on 17 August, and the treaty was signed in the chapel at Whitehall Palace on 18 August.HMC 8th Report: Earl of Jersey (London, 1881), p. 98. The date of the signatures in Foedera is 18 August (Old Style) and 28 August (New Style).Thomas Rymer, Foedera, 16, p. 629 A concluding ceremony was held in the chapel of Whitehall Palace on Sunday 19 August.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stewart: the regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 445.

After the treaty was concluded, there was a banquet at Whitehall.Janette Dillon, The Language of Space in Court Performance, 1400–1625 (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 83–89. The Elizabethan Banqueting House had been redecorated with sky and clouds painted by Leonard Fryer.Edward Town, 'A Biographical Dictionary of London Painters, 1547-1625', Walpole Society Volume, 76 (2014), p. 83. The Constable gave Anne of Denmark a cup of crystal garnished with gold, shaped like a dragon.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 211–15. King James claimed that melon and oranges, which he shared as desert with the Constable, were Spanish fruits transplanted in English soil, a symbol of new international friendship.Óscar Alfredo Ruiz Fernández, England and Spain in the Early Modern Era: Royal Love, Diplomacy, Trade and Naval Relations (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 118: Gustav Ungerer, "Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and the Circulation of Gifts", Shakespeare Studies, 26 (1998), 149: Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 212. King James declared his daughter Elizabeth would prove less hostile than Elizabeth I to Spain, hinting at a dynastic marriage.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), 445: Clare Jackson, Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688 (Penguin, 2022), p. 107. From the windows, the party watched greyhounds and mastiffs fight bears.Ethel C. Williams, Anne of Denmark (London: Longman, 1970), 96–97.

Last days in England After the banquet, the Constable was confined to his bed for a couple of days with lumbago,William Brenchley Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and James the First (London: John Russell, 1865) 124. or, according to Nicolò Molin, an "attack of the kidneys",Calendar State Papers Venice, 1603–1606, p. 179 no. 266 and the Count of Arenberg was laid up with gout.HMC 8th Report: Earl of Jersey (London, 1881), p. 98. Due to the Duke's indisposition, King James came to Somerset House for the traditional leave taking,HMC 8th Report: Earl of Jersey, p. 98: HMC Gawdy (London, 1885), p. 95. and gave him a diamond ring (supplied by Martin van Somer) as a token of the peace treaty as a marriage.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 214: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610 (London, 1857), p. 148.

Amongst other visitors at his bedside, the Jesuit Henry Garnet attended in the company of Caraffa, the Constable's Spanish confessor.Henry Foley, Records of the English Province, 4 (London, 1878), 156. Philip III had hoped that the Constable would negotiate for the toleration and free exercise of religion for Catholics in James's realms, but he preferred to concentrate only on concluding the peace. He wrote a report on religion in England for Philip III in November, noting James's distaste for Puritanism.Albert J. Loomie, "Spain and the Jacobean Catholics, I", Catholic Record Society Publications, 64 (1973), pp. xx, 20–23, 26―44.

As a parting gift, King James sent the Duke of Frías a service of vintage gilt plate, extracted from the Jewel House by Edward and Henry Cary.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610 (London, 1857), p. 147. Anne of Denmark sent her vice-chamberlain George Carew to the Constable with her gifts of a jewelled locket with miniature portraits, supplied by John Spilman for £1000,Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain, 1066-1837 (Norwich: Michael Russell, 1994), 76.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stewart: the regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 199. and a collar or necklace (garganto) set with pearls (supplied by Peter Vanlore) for his wife.Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610 (London, 1857), p. 148. She sent the Count of Arenberg a jewel with her initials, "A.R".Gustav Ungerer, "Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and the Circulation of Gifts", Shakespeare Studies, 26 (1998), 152–153: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), 16–17.Jemma Field, "A Cipher of A and C set on the one Syde with diamonds: Anna of Denmark's Jewellery and the Politics of Dynastic Display", Erin Griffey, Sartorial Politics in Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam, 2019), pp. 139–160.