Friends and Enemies in the Global History of Diplomacy

This chapter juxtaposes three episodes in the history of early modern diplomacy: Sir Henry Wotton’s tenure as England’s ambassador to Venice; the English state’s efforts to extradite a group of Catholic exiles in connection to the Gunpowder Plot; and Sir Francis Drake’s alliance with the nation of Cimarrons in Panama. The discussion of Wotton focuses on the unique position of the embassy as a space of residence, domestic business, and social and pedagogical conduct. In contrast to Wotton’s more autonomous model of state service, the English response to the Gunpowder Plot reflects the elision of any legal or conceptual place for the exile, extraterritorial subject, or nonstate agent. The final section examines the modes of sociability and definitions of enmity applied to colonial and extra-European regions, looking at the lines of amity, the premise that extraterritorial violence “beyond the line” did not disrupt peaceful relations among European states.

The Mercenary State

Throughout the late Elizabethan period, England’s population was incorporated in an ongoing military mobilization, with English armies maintaining a nearly constant presence on multiple fronts in the Low Countries as well as France and Ireland. Through an analysis of the autobiographical writings of English soldiers, this chapter examines how the conditions of military service enabled them to reflect on their economic position as mercenaries, able to transfer their labor power, as a way of reimagining their ability to assert their agency as political subjects. The chapter looks at texts written by English military agents themselves, with an extended discussion of George Gascoigne alongside analysis of lesser-known figures such as Sir John Smythe and the Norris family. The latter sections of the chapter examine the effects of extraterritorial military service on models of English domesticity, particularly the material histories of local communities, households, and families.

Afterword

The Afterword turns to the first citation of the term cosmopolitan, from James Howell, in order to explore some of the legacies of the early modern period that continue to resonate in our own historical moment. Howell’s model of cosmopolitanism is that of a comparative form of political knowledge, one deriving from a position of exile or social displacement that provides a framework for turning a critical gaze back to one’s national culture. Howell significantly correlates this critical, cosmopolitical outlook with the distinctive practices of writing that emerge from the “bureau” of state governance.

Introduction

The Introduction situates the study in relation to previous criticism on the role of state agents and practices of governance. The opening section returns to some canonical texts of early modern political theory, particularly the work of Jean Bodin, and explores how their theorization of sovereignty was interconnected with a reflection on the agents and practices of governance. The following section considers state formation in relation to the emergence of the public sphere, and analyzes the ways that state agents contributed to early modern publics through their writings. The latter part of the Introduction examines the extraterritorial histories of the state, looking at the conceptual impasse that resulted from efforts to theorize the place of religio-political exiles in many influential statements on the law of nations, with particular attention to the writings of the Catholic exile William Cardinal Allen.

The Information Economy of Early Modern Travel Writing

England’s relations with European states were mediated through an information economy that depended not only on credential extraterritorial agents but also the illicit labor of individual travelers and other informants. The earliest forms of English travel writing emerged out of this context of the state’s networks of intelligence gathering. As described in the opening section, most travel texts from this period were not autobiographical accounts of personal travel but rather advice texts—often written by leading state officials—that outlined procedures for organizing the experience of travel and converting it into narrative form. After an initial section surveying travel advice texts of the Elizabethan period, the chapter analyzes the influence of this tradition on the practices of writing and narrative forms of the first-person travel accounts of Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary (1617) and Thomas Coryat’s Crudities (1611).