THE CONDUCTEUR DES AMBASSADEURS OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE AND SPAIN

Historians have long been aware that France, Spain and England in the course of the sixteenth century began to see increasing advantages in the appointment of resident envoys at foreign courts. However the question can still be raised as to how readily a sovereign adjusted to this presence of a regular representative. After the envoys had become, in Mattingly's acute phrase : 'symbols of a continuous system of diplomatic pressures' ('), what practical steps did the western monarchies take to provide an easier hearing to the foreigner? The monarchs of the late sixteenth century believed there were political merits to ceremonial, easy access to them was never, in fact, to be presumed. At that time attention was devoted to a first public audience for this was an official recognition of another prince that could never be omitted without a risk of hostile nuances. It was also appreciated that secret discussions and private visits to the palace were the only way to seek an advantage or to explain a viewpoint. How then was the court to keep a balance between the barriers of ceremony and the continuing requests for information and decision? The official who began to play a unique role in securing the king's attention was the Conducteur des Ambassadeurs in France and Spain, or at the Stuart court, the Master of Ceremonies. This officer has hitherto been misunderstood (2) or dismissed as an arbiter of diplomatic protocol. His office gave him direct access to the king and in most respects a monopoly over the rights of foreign envoys to see the king or his secretaries. Moreover, in so far as a monarch might play a personal role in foreign polcy, he was the king's spokesman to the diplomat.