The Golden Falcon

Chapter XII/1 - India

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

"Hiram, king of Tyre sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots and such as were skilful in navigation, to whom Solomon gave this command, that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India to fetch him, gold.  About the same time there were brought to the king from the Aurea Chersoneus, a country so-called, precious stones and pine trees and the trees he made use of for supporting the temple and the palace as also for the material of musical instruments, the harp and the psalter.  ("Antiquities" VIII viii, 6.4. & 7.1 - Flavius Josephus).

Sir William Winter was a member of the Merchants Adventurers of London & Bristol and later of the Spanish Company.  Thomas and Edward Winter (who claimed to be his great grandsons) were in the East India Company, an off-shoot of the Merchant Adventurers.

Chartered companies (dating from the Middle Ages) consisted of groups of people given exclusive rights to trade in specific areas in exchange for a percentage for the king.  The earliest of these companies trading overseas was the Merchant Adventurers or Hamburg Merchants to whom Edward I gave the first charter with the arms "barry undée of 6, argent and azure, a chief quarterly, gules and or, in the 1st and 4th quarters, a lion of England and in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, 2 Lancastrian roses" which appears on the brass to John Terri (1524) at St. John's, Maddermarket, Norwich.

The Merchants of the Staple of Calais was incorporated by Edward III and given the arms "Barry undée of 6, argent and azure, on a chief, a lion of England" depicted at Standon, Hertfordshire (1477).

The Merchant Venturers. Company was an off-shoot of the powerful Mercers Company (whose patron saint was St. Thomas a'Becket, Bishop of Canterbury murdered on 29.12.1170) which was incorporated in 1394 and given the arms "gules, a demi-virgin, couped below the shoulders proper, vested or, crowned with an Eastern cross, her hair dishevelled, and wreathed about her temples with roses of the second, issuing from clouds and all within an orle of the same proper" (there is an example at Higham Ferrars, Northamptonshire dating from 1504).

The Mercers Company, called the "Brotherhood of St. Thomas over the Seas", was founded in the 15th century and traded until 1578 exporting cloth to Northern Europe.  It was given the arms "Barry wavy of 6, argent and azure; over all a bend, or, charged with a dragon passant, with wings endorsed and tail extended, vert , on a chief gules, between two besants, a lion of England."

A hundred years later the Spanish Company (an off-shoot of the Merchant Venturers), traded with Spain; the Eastland or Russia Company with the Baltic (arms: "barry wavy of 6, argent and azure, over all a ship under full sail proper, the sails etc charged with the Cross of St. George, all between 3 besants; on a chief or, between two Lancastrian roses, a pale gules, bearing a lion of England"), the Turkey or Levant Company with the Levant (arms: "azure, between two rock, a ship under full sail on the sea, proper, the sails, ensigns and pendants charged with the Cross of St. George; a chief engrailed or, in base, a seahorse"), the African Company dealt with the slave or the Triangular Trade in Indian workers and the East India Company with the East Indies.

When the East India Company was incorporated by Elizabeth I in 1600, it was given a coast of arms "azure, ships under full sail, on the sea proper, their sails, ensigns and pendants all charged with the Cross of St. George; on a chief, argent, between two Lancastrian roses, a pale, quarterly, of the first, and gules, bearing a fleur-de-lys of France and a lion of England."  These arms appear on the brass memorial to the navigator, John Eldred (1632) at Great Saxham, Suffolk.

Its first charter, dated 31.12.1600, conferred on the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London to the East Indies" the right to trade between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.  ["Stuart Century" - S.R. Read Brett].

Its headquarters, East India House, was in Leadenhall Street, east of the present Leadenhall Market in what was originally Sir William Craven's house.

The Leaden Hall, originally a private manor house, was turned into a granary and then became a warehouse where goods were weighed.

It belonged in 1309 to Sir Hugh Nevill whose wife Alice enfeoffed Richard fitzAlan, earl of Arundel with it in 1362 and in 1380 she confirmed it to Thomas Gogsall and others.  It passed in 1384 to Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and in 1408 Robert Rikeden of Essex and his wife Margaret confirmed it to Richard Whittington, mercer and thrice mayor of London and other citizens.  In 1411 Whittington and others confirmed it to the mayor and commonalty of London.

In 1443 (21 Henry VI) John Hatherley, mayor purchased the licence of Leaden Hall from the king and the following year a merchant upholsterer and draper (who became mayor) named Simon Eyre built a granary there.  Edward IV granted Letters Patent for the tronage or weighing of wares at Leadenhall and another specifically for the tronage of wool in 1464.

The Leaden Hall was burnt down in 1484 and must have been rebuilt as in 1504 in the reign of Henry VIII the commons requested: "that all Frenchmen bringing canvass, linen cloth and other wares to be sold and all foreigners bringing wolsteds, sayes, staimus, covering, nails, ironwork or any other wares and also all manner of foreigners bringing lead to the city to be sold, shall bring all such their wares aforesaid to the open market of the Leaden Hall, there and no where else to be sold and uttered, like as of old time it hath been used, upon pain of forefeiture of all the said wares showed or sold in any other place than aforesaid; the show of the said wares to be made 3 days a week, that is to say, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."  [John Stow - "Survey of London"].

An old print shows East India House as a 3 or 4 storey building surmounted by a sailor standing on a hemisphere, resting his right hand on a sword with his left hand on his hip.  There are steps on either sides leading to a lower level with two dolphins at each side.  Underneath him, in the centre of the building, is a painting of three sailing ships, the one in the middle being the largest, with dolphins at the cornices on either end.  The first storey has the royal coat of arms in the centre with bay windows to the left and right of it.  The next storey has the coat of arms of the East India Company in the centre of what appears to be a balcony.  It was rebuilt in 1726 and Charles Lamb worked there in the 19th century as a clerk for 33 years.  The building was demolished in 1925 and Lloyds Insurance premises built on the site.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to settle in India.  They wanted to secure the trade in spices and other luxuries for the European market.

Portugal (originally part of Roman Iberia) came under Visigothic rule.  The last Visigothic king Wamba repulsed a joint Moorish, Turkish and Arabian invasion force of 260 ships in 672 AD but after his death, quarrels amongst the barons and treason on the part of Count Julian, exarch of Ceuta (whose daughter had been ravished by king Rodrigo), allowed the Moors into the Iberian Peninsula.  Rodrigo was defeated in 711 AD at Guadalete and the Moors marched through Spain into France where they were defeated by Charles Martel at Poitiers.  A small group of Christian nobles under Pelayo fought back from Asturias, Galicia and Leon and by the 12th century Burgos, Toledo and Santiago had been recaptured by the Christians.

Amongst the followers of Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar known as "El Cid", conqueror of Valencia, was Henry of Champagne, count of Burgundy who married Teresa, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VI (1072-1109), king of Leon.  Her dowry comprised lands located between the rivers Douro and Minho in "Portucale".  Their son, Alfonso Henriques, freed himself from his mother the Queen Regent in 1128 and from the sovereignty of Leon, expelling the Moors to the south and capturing the Moorish fortresses of Lisbon, Leiria, Santarem, Sintra, Palmela, Montemar and Evora.

Alfonso's descendant Dom Dinis, the poet-king married Isabella of Aragon.  Their son Alfonso rebelled against his father and was succeeded by his son Pedro, given in marriage to Constança, princess of Navarre but fell in love with her Galician cousin Inés de Castro who was murdered by the king.  When Pedro succeeded, he executed the murderers and crowned Inés's corpse before she was buried at Alcobaça.

When Pedro (last of the last Burgundian king) died without legitimate heirs, the Spanish marched into Portugal.  Pedro's illegitimate son, João head of the military and religious Order of Aviz, took charge and was elected king as João I, founding the Aviz dynasty.  A battle was fought on the Plain of Aljubarrota on 1.4.8.1385 when 14,000 Portuguese infantry and crossbowmen together with 3,000 English archers and horsemen defeated 30,000 Castilian soldiers and horsemen.

Portugal began trading with the East under João I and prospered.  African slaves were brought into country to do all menial work and monuments rose in Lisbon and its environs, built with the enormous profits.

João married Philippa Plantagenet, daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.  His son, Henry the Navigator, became patron of seamen, cartographers and astronomers who established the principles of navigation and designed ships.  He sent out explorers who discovered the Madeiras and Azores; Christopher Columbus who discovered America in 1492, sailed with Henry's captains.  A period of Portuguese exploration began; Bartolome Dias who sailed round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Vasco da Gama who reached Calcutta in 1498, Pedro Alvars Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500, Corte-Real explored Greenland, Cabrilo and João Martins, the coast of Alaska and California and Magellan circumnavigated the world in 1520.  Portugal traded with the Moluccas, China, Japan, Ethiopia and trading posts were set up at Malacca, Guinea, Ceylon and Oceania, Ormuz; Malacca and Goa were conquered and colonised.

Portugal's Golden Age was achieved under Manuel I "the Fortunate" (1495-1521) styled "lord of the Conquest, navigation and commerce of India, Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia."  An expedition led by Vasco de Gama landed in Western India in 1498 and by the mid-16th century the Portuguese were well established on the coast.

Their main outpost Goa was taken by Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1501.  One of the first Englishmen who spent his life in India before the English had trading posts there, was Rev. Thomas Stevens (d. 1619) from Wiltshire, a Jesuit of the Order of St. Paul, educated at Winchester and St. Andrew's College, Rome who worked in the Portuguese colony (1503-1961) in Goa and wrote a letter dated 10.11.1579 to his father describing the voyage which Richard Hakluyt published in his "Voyages".

The conquest of Goa was followed by the conquest of Malabar, Ceylon and Malacca and Albuquerque became governor on the Portuguese East Indies.  To please his in-laws, Fernando and Isabella of Spain, Manuel I expelled the Jews which had a disastrous effect on commerce.

Manuel I's son João III fell under the influence of his religious advisers and admitted the Inquisition into Portugal in 1536, the Jesuits entered 4 years later.  When João died leaving a 3 year old grandson Sebastian, they ruled the country and continued doing so even after he came of age.  Sebastian, last king of the Aviz dynasty, was persuaded to go on a crusade into Morocco and died at Alcazarquivir in 1576, leaving his elderly great-uncle, the Inquisitor-General Cardinal Prince Henry who became king of Portugal but died within 18 months.  João III's nephew Philip II of Hapsburg, king of Spain was installed by force of arms and the backing of the Jesuits  For the next 60 years Portugal remained Spanish.  Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV of Spain showed no interest in the Portuguese colonies, many of which were lost and Portugal was dragged into Spanish wars with France, Holland and even England, her traditional ally, lost her overseas territories to the English and the Dutch.  After a bloodless coup in 1640, the Spaniards were expelled with popular support and the most important Portuguese nobleman, the Portuguese installed the Duke of Bragança, as João IV on the throne but Portuguese independence was not recognised by Spain until 1668.  Six years after he died, his widow confirmed the Anglo-Portuguese alliance by marrying their daughter Catherine to Charles II (1660-85).

John Evelyn wrote in his "Diary" about the Queen Catherine of Bragança and so did Samuel Pepys who knew all the most recent Court gossip:

15.5.1662: "At night, all the bells of the towne rung and bonfires made for the joy of the Queene's arrival, who landed at Portsmouth last night.  But I do not see much true joy, but only an indifferent one, in the hearts of the people., who are much discontented at the pride, and luxury of the Court and running in debt."  (Pepys).

21.5.1662: "King dined at my Lady Castlemaine's (his mistress Barbara Villiers), and supped every day and night the last week; and that the night that the bonfires were made for the joy of the Queene's arrivall, the King was there; but there was no fire at her door, although at all the rest of the doors almost in the street which was much observed; and that the King and she did send for a pair of scales and weighed one another; and she, being with child, was said to be the heaviest.  But she is now a most disconsolate creature and comes not out of doors, since the king's going."  (Pepys).

23.5.1662: "My Lord Sandwich among other things, saying that the Queene is a very agreeable lady and paints well."  (Pepys).

24.5.1662: "The Queene hath given no reward to any of the captains or officers, but only to my Lord Sandwich and that was a bag of gold, which was no honourable present, of about £1,400 sterling.  How recluse the Queene hath ever been and all the voyage never come upon the deck nor put her head out of her cabin but did love my Lord's musique and would send for it down to the state room and she sit in her cabin within hearing of it.  But my Lord was forced to have some clashing with the Council of Portugall about payment of the portion before he could get it, which was beside Tangier and free trade in the Indys, 2 million of crownes, half now and the other half in 12 months.  But they have brought but little money, but the rest in sugars and other commoditys and bills of exchange.  The king of Portugall is a very foole almost and his mother do all and he is a very poor Prince".  (Pepys).

25.5.1662: "Out with Captain Ferrer to Charing Cross; and there at the Triumph taverne he showed me some Portugall ladys, which are come to towne before the Queene.  They are not handsome and their farthingales a strange dress.  I find nothing in them that is pleasing; and I see they have learnt to kiss and look freely up and down already and will soon forget the recluse practice of their own country.  They complain much for lack of good water to drink."  (Pepys).

25.5.1662: "I went this evening to London, in order to our journey to Hampton Court to see the new Queene, who having landed at Portsmouth had ben married to the King a weeke before by the Bishop of London".  (Evelyn).

29.5.1662: "This day, being the King's birthday, was very solemnly observed; and the more, for that the Queene this day comes to Hampton Court.  In the evening bonfires were made, but nothing to the great number that was heretofore at the burning of the Rump."  (Pepys).

30.5.1662: "The Queene arriv'd with a traine of Portuguese ladies in their monstrous fardingals or guard-infantas, their complexions olivader and sufficiently unagreeable.  Her Majesty in the same habit, her foretop long and turn'd aside very strangely.  She was yet of the handsomest countenance of all the rest and tho' low of stature, pretily shaped, languishing and excellent eyes, her teeth wronging her mouth by sticking a little too far out, for the rest lovely enough".  (Evelyn).

31.5.1662: "I saw the Queen at dinner; the judges came to complement her arival, and after them the Duke of Ormond brought me to kisse her hand" .(Evelyn).

31.5.1662: "The Queene is brought a few days since to Hampton Court; and all the people say of her to be a very fine and handsome lady and very discreet; and that the King is pleased enough with her; which will put Madam Castlemaine's nose out of joynt."  (Pepys).

2.6.1662: "The Lord Mayor and Aldermen made their addresses to the Queene, presenting her £1,000 in gold.  Now I saw her Portuguese ladies, and the Guarda Damas, mother of the maids."  (Evelyn).

3.6.1662: "My lady come from Hampton Court, where the Queene hath used her very civilly; and my lady tells me is a most pretty woman.  Yesterday the Aldermen of the City did attend her in their habits, and did present her with a gold cupp and £1,000 in gold therein."  (Pepys).

8.6.1662: "I saw her Majesty at supper privately in her bed-chamber."  (Evelyn).

9.6.2662: "I heard the Queen's Portugal musiq, consisting of pipes, harps and very ill voices.  Hampton Court is as noble and uniforme a pile and as capacious as any Gotiq architecture can have made it.  There is incomparable furniture in it.  The Queen's bed was an embrodery of silver on crimson velvet and cost £8,000, being a present made by the States of Holland when his Majesty returned and had formerly ben given by them to our King's sister the Princesses of Orange and being bought of her againe was now presented to the King.  The greate looking glasse and toilet of beaten and massive gold was given by the Queene Mother.  The Queene brought over with her from Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before ben seene here."  (Evelyn).

23.8.1662: "I offered 8 shillings for a boat to attend me this afternoon and they would not, it being the day of the Queen's coming to town from Hampton Court.   Anon come the King and Queene in a barge under a canopy with 1,000 barges and boats.  And so they landed at Whitehall Bridge and the great guns on the other side went off.  My Lady Castlemain stood over against us upon a piece of Whitehall, her Lord and her upon the same place walking up and down without taking notice one of another only at first entry he put off his hat and she made him a very civil salute but afterwards took no notice of one of another; but both of them now and then would take their child which the nurse held in her armes and dandle it."  (Pepys).

23.8.1662: "I was spectator of the most magnificent triumph that ever floated on the Thames; considering the innumerable boates and vessells, dress'd and adorn'd with all imaginable pomp, but above all the thrones, arches, pageants and other representations, stately barges of the Lord Maior and Companies, with various inventions, musiq and peales of ordnance both from the vessels and the shore, going to meete and conduct the new Queene from Hampton Court to Whitehall, at the first time of her coming to towne.  Her Majestie and the Queene came in an antiq-shap'd open vessell, cover'd with a state or canopy of cloth of gold, made in form of a cupola, supported with high Corinthian pillars, wreath'd with flowers, festoons and garlands.  I was in our new-built vessel, sailing amongst them."  (Evelyn).

7.9.1662: "Meeting Mr Pierce, the chyrugeon, he took me into Somerset House; and there carried me into the Queene Mother's presence-chamber, where she was with our owne Queene sitting on her left hand, (whom I did never see before) and though she be not very charming, yet she hath a good, modest and innocent look, which is pleasing.  Here I also saw Madam Castlemaine and Mr Crofts (later Duke of Monmouth), the King's bastard, a most pretty sparke of about 15 year old, who, do hang much upon my Lady Castlemaine and is always with her, and the Queens both are mighty kind to him.  The King and Queene were very merry and he would have made the Queene-Mother believe that his Queene was with child and said that she said so.  And the young queene answered "You lye" which was the first English word that I ever heard her say, which made the King good sport and he would have made her say in English "Confess and be hanged."  (Pepys).

21.9.1662: "The Queene coming by in her coach, going to her chapel at St. James's (the first time it hath been ready for her).  I got up to the room where her closet is, and there stood and saw the fine altar, ornaments and the fryers."  (Pepys).

24.10.1662: "Mr Pierce, the chyrugeon, tells me how ill things go at Court; that the King do show no countenance in any that belong to the Queene; nor, above all, to such English as she brought over with her, or that here since, for fear they should tell her how he carries himself to Mrs Palmer (Lady Castlemaine); insomuch that though he has a promise and is sure of being made her chyrugeon, he is at a loss what to do in it, whether to take it or no, since the King's mind is so altered and favor to all her dependents, whom she is fain to let go back to into Portugall (though she brought them from their friends against their wills with promise of preferment) without doing anything for them.  That her own physician did tell within these three days that the Queene do know how the King orders things and how he carries himself to my Lady Castlemaine and others, as well as anybody but though she hath spirit enough, yet seeing that she do no good by taking notice of it, for the present she forbears it in policy."  (Pepys).

15.12.1662: "The King is very kind to the Queene; who, he says is one of the best women in the world.  Strange how the King is bewitched to this pretty Castlemaine."  (Pepys).

25.4.1663: "I did hear the Queene is much grieved of late at the King's neglecting her, he having not supped once with her this quarter of a year, and almost every night with my Lady Castlemaine; which had been with him this St. George's feast at Windsor and come home with him last night, and which is more, they say is removed as to her bed from her own home to a chamber in Whitehall, next to the King's owne."  (Pepys).

7.6.1663: "The Queene hath much changed her humour and is become very pleased and social as any; and they say is with child, or believed to be."  (Pepys).

10.7.1663: "I met Pierce the chirugeon, who tells me that for certain the King is grown colder to my Lady Castlemain than ordinary and that he believes he begins to love the Queene, and do make much of her more than he used to do."  (Pepys).

15.5.1663: "The Portugalls have choused us in the island of Bombay in the East Indys for after a great charge of our fleets being sent thither with full commission from the king of Portugall to receive it, the Governour by some pretence or other will not deliver it to Sir Abraham Shipman, sent from the King, nor to my Lord of Marlborough [James Ley, 3^rd earl of Marlborough, killed in the great sea fight with the Dutch in 1665] which the King takes highly ill and I fear our Queene will fare the worse for it.  The Dutch decay there exceedingly it being believed that their people will revolt from them there and they forced to give up their trade."  (Pepys).

5.9.1662: "I did inform myself well in things relating to the East Indys; both of the country, and the disappointment the King met with the last voyage, by the knavery of the Portugall Viceroy, and the inconsiderableness of the place of Bombain [Bombay] if we had it.  But above all things, it seems strange to me that matter should not be understood before they went out; and also that such a thing as this, which was expected to be one of the best parts of the Queene's portion, should not be better understood; it being, if we had it, put a poor place, and not really so as was described to our King in the draught of it, but a poor little island, whereas they made the King and Lord Chancellor and other learned men about the King, believe that, and other islands which are near it, were all one piece; and so the draught was drawn and present to the King and believed by the King and expected to prove so to our men come thither; but it is quite otherwise."  (Pepys)

17-27.10.1663: "Some discourse of the Queen's being very sick, if not dead.  Coming to St. James's., I hear that the Queene did sleep 5 hours pretty well tonight and that she waked and gargled her mouth and to sleep again; but that her pulse beats fast, beating 20 to the King's or my Lady Suffolk's 11; but so strong as it was.  It seem she was so ill as to be shaved and pidgeons put to her feet and to have the extreme unction given her by the priests who were so long about it that the doctors were angry.  The King is most fondly disconsolate for her and weeps by her, which makes her weep.

The Queene's sickness is the spotted fever; she was as full of spots as a leopard.  The King do seem to take it much to heart, for that he hath wept before her; but for all that he hath not missed one night since she was sick of supping with my Lady Castlemaine.  This morning hearing that the Queene grow worse again, I sent to stop the making of my velvet cloak till I see whether she lives or dies.

The Queen slept pretty well all last night but her fever continues upon her still. --- The Queen is in a good way of recovery.  ----- Dr Pierce tells me that the Queen is in a way to be pretty well again but that her delirium in her head continues still; that she talks idle not by fits, but always, which in some lasts a week after so high a fever, in some more and in some for ever; that this morning she talked mightily that she was brought to bed and that she wondered that she should be delivered without pain and without being sick and that she was troubled that her boy was but an ugly boy.  But the king being by, said "No, it is a very pretty boy."  "Nay" says she "If it be like you it is a fine boy indeed and I would be very well pleased with it."  ---- The queen had a very good night last night but yet it is strange that still she raves and talks of little more than of her having children and fancys now that she hath three children and that the girl is very like the King.  And this morning about 5 o'clock, the physician feeling her pulse, thinking to be better able to judge., she being still and asleep, waked her and the first words she said was "How do the children?"  (Pepys).

31.12.1663: "The Queene after a long and sore sicknesss become well again and the King minds his mistress a little too much."  (Pepys).

8.2.1663-4: "Mr Pierce told me how the King do still doat upon his women even beyond all shame; and that the good Queene will of herself stop before she goes sometimes into her dresing-room, till she knows whether the King be there, for fear he should be, as she hath some times taken him, with Mrs Stewart; and that some of the best part of the Queen's joynture are contrary to faith, and against the opinion of my Lord Treasurer and his Council, bestowed or rented to my Lord Fitzhardinge and Mrs Stewart and others of that crew."  (Pepys).

24.6.1664: "Mr Pierce showed me the Queene's bed-chamber and her closet, where she had nothing but some pretty pious pictures and books of devotion and her holy water at her head as she sleeps, with a clock by her bed-side, where in a lamp burns that tells her time of the night at anytime.  Thence with him to the Park and there met the Queene coming from Chapell, with her Maids of Honour, all in silver-lace on gowns again."  (Pepys).

4.9.1667: "Our Queen is to go into a nunnery, there to spend her days; and my Lady Castlemaine is going into France and is to have a pension of £4.000 a year."  (Pepys).

9.5.1668: "The Queen hath miscarried of a perfect child, being gone about 10 weeks which show that she can conceive though it be unfortunate that she cannot bring forth."  (Pepys).

17.4.1673: "I saw her Majesty's rich toylet in her dressing roome, being all of massive gold, present'd to her by the King, valued at £4,000".  (Evelyn).

15.11.1684: "Being the Queene's birthday, there were fireworks on the Thames before Whitehall, with pageants of castles, forts and other devices of gyrondolas, serpents, the King and Queene's armes and mottos, all represented in fire, such as had not been seen here.  But the most remarkable was the severall fires and skirmishes in the very water, which actually mov'd a long way, burning under the water, now and then appearing above it, giving reports like muskets and cannon with granados and innumerable other devices.  It is said to cost £1,500.  It was concluded with a ball, where all the young ladys and gallants danced in the greate hall.  The Court has not been seene so brave and rich in apparelll since his Majety's Restoration."  (Evelyn).

4.2.1685: "Thus died King Charles II..  The Queene was in bed in her appartment but put forth her hand, seeming to be much afflicted, having deported herselfe so decently upon all occasions since she came to England which made her universally belov'd."  (Evelyn).

5.3.1685: "There came over divers envoys and greate persons to condole the death of the late king who were received by the Queen Dowager on a bed of mourning, the whole chamber, cieling and floore hung with black and tapers were lighted, so as nothing could be more lugubrous and solemne."  (Evelyn).

25.5.1685: "The Queen Dowager, hitherto bent on her returne into Portugal, now on the sudden, on allegation of a greate debt oweing her by his Majesty disabling her, declares her resolution to stay."  (Evelyn).

The English also travelled along the overland route to India.  In 1583 John Newbery and Ralph Fitch travelled from Aleppo to Ormuz via Syria, Basra and Babylon, sailed to Goa and from there to Golconda, Agra and Fatipur Sikri, the new Imperial capital built by the Moghul emperor Akbar in 1571, 24 miles west of the old capital Agra.  Newbery returned to England but Fitch continued down the Ganges to Hugli, then to Kutch Bihar and the Himalayan foothills, by ship to Pegu in Burma, to Siam, along the Malay coast to Malacca, returning in March 1588 via Colombo in Ceylon and Goa to Ormuz and was back in London by 1591, eight years after he had set out.  He became a member of the East India Company.

The first voyages to the East were disastrous and only the efforts of leading City merchants like Sir Thomas Smythe kept the enterprise going .

In 1591, the "Penelope", the "Merchant Royal" and the "Edward Bonaventure" (the last commanded by  James Lancaster) made the first voyage to India.  Lancaster's ship was driven by a storm to Point de Galle, Ceylon, then went to Malaya and the Malacca Straits, back round the Cape of Good Hope to the Caribbean through the Florida Channel where his ship was blown back to the Bermudas, being the first English ship there.  Lancaster and 18 men landed on the island of Mona in search of provisions and were marooned by the rest of the crew who were later cast away on the coast, Lancaster and the men with him were brought back to England by a French ship.

Another expedition set off in the "Bear", the "Bear's Whelp" and the "Benjamin" owned by Sir Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester which was a complete failure, all the English crew were lost, the only survivor was a Frenchman who managed to get to Mauritius.

In about 1598 Lancaster in the "Red Dragon" and three other ships, made a successful journey to Achin in Sumatra from where they brought back a cargo of pepper to England in 1603.  They established the first English "factory" or trading settlement at Bantam in Java.

In 1600 a Levant merchant, John Mildenhall (buried at Agra) and a clergyman John Cartwright arrived at Agra, having travelled overland from Aleppo and obtained trading privileges for the East India Company from Akbar.

Middleton went to the Moluccas in 1601 and in 1607 William Hawkins established a factory at Surat (after which a coarse uncoloured cotton was named) and met the Mogul king Akbar's son, Jehangir at Agra but failed to get a permanent agreement on trade.

Ships that followed were attacked by the Portuguese but Downton's defeat of the Goan squadron helped to establish English trade.

Sir Thomas Smythe (who led the Company from 1608) made a proposal to the East India Company to send a special ambassador to the Moghul and Sir Thomas Roe, (formerly Esquire of the Body to Elizabeth), was sent out with a letter from James I (1603-25).

Its first venture in 1601 consisted of 5 ships under Sir James Lancaster which called at Galle, Ceylon and returned with a rich cargo of spices.

Charles I (1625-47) tried to form a "new" East India Company as proposed by Sir William Courtine for the king's profit and that of its members, which outraged merchants of the "old" company.  The King had borrowed £100,000 pounds in 1641 which he still owed the "old" Company and as Parliament refused to accept liability, which gave the "old" Company a good reason for supporting the king.

To trade in the East Indies, the English had to compete not only with the Portuguese but with the Dutch and the French.  The Portuguese established the first East India Company, followed by the Dutch, the French and even the Scots.  Whilst Portuguese power declined, there was great rivalry between the English and the Dutch in the East.  Goa was Portuguese till well into the 20th century, Pondicherry and later Tuticorin were held by the French and Pulicat by the Dutch.

Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford tried to negotiate a four million ducat Anglo-Spanish Alliance but when he fell ill, the French and Dutch managed to scupper it.

The Dutch envoy, Baron Heenvliet, did everything in his power to prevent the Alliance, which would not have affected France much but would have been a disaster for the Dutch.  Heenvliet threatened that if English ships helped Spain by transporting troops, the Dutch would cease treating them as neutral and would declare war on England.

He contacted the English East India Company merchants (the Dutch East Indies company's rivals in Asia) whose ships were hired by Spain to carry men and money.  The English East India merchants were Protestants like the Dutch and their ships carried copies of Fox's "Book of Martyrs" and the Bible so Heenvliet used religion as a lure, also offering large concessions by the Dutch East Indies Company.  This helped towards the breakdown of Strafford's planned Anglo-Spanish Alliance.

By 1614 the East India company (nicknamed the "Honourable John Company" by the Chinese) had taken India from the Portuguese.  Their first factories or depots were established at Surat in 1617 and Masulipatam in 1622 from where the Company imported spice and European manufactured goods into India and exported handloom calicoes to Europe and chintzes and muslins to Java.

Madras became the first permanent settlement.  The unsettled conditions following the fall of the Vijaranagar dynasty, combined with falling trade and the proximity of Dutch, forced the Company to look for another site for their factory.

In July or August 1639, Francis Day, Chief of the East India Company at Armagon near Pulicat, acquired land and trading rights for a new settlement at Madraspatam from Naik Damarla Venkatappa or Venkatadiri, ruler of the coast from Pulicat to San Thome under the Rajah of Vijayanagar.  On 20.2.1640 Francis Day and Andrew Cogan reached Madras with 25 armed men, builders and servants and erected some thatched huts on 6-mile strip of coast, lying between the river Cooum and the sea (where the Secretariat building now stands).

Fort St. George, Masulipatam was constructed on an island off this coast 14 years afterwards.  By 1641 a small settlement, called White Town, soon sprang up around it, populated by employees of the East India Company, Portuguese settlers from San Thome, Indian merchants, 400 families of weavers and dyers.

The English factors at Surat traded regularly with the Persian Gulf and defeated the Portuguese at Ormuz , ending their century-long supremacy in the East.

The English also entered the Shan States of Siam and Will Adams, pilot of the "Clove" who went to Japan in 1600, was given land, servants and a wife by the shogun Iyeyasu and never returned to England where he already had a wife.

At first Company employees were not allowed to take out their wives and many Englishmen married Portuguese women or set up house with Indian wives known as "bibis" - there exist delightful paintings of them in their flimsy silk saris, sitting cross-legged on cushions.

Several English families have Eastern or African blood in their veins such as the Hearseys and Gardners.  Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Wilson Hearsey (1752-95), Commandant of the Fort at Allahbad had a legitimate son, Lieutenant-General Sir John Bennet Hearsey, KCB (1793-1865) and an illegitimate family by an Indian mother.  One member, Hyder Young Hearsay (b. 1782) married a Kanhum or princess Zuhur-al-Nissa, daughter of a deposed prince of Cambay.  Her sister married Colonel William Linneaus Gardner, nephew of the first Lord Gardner and their son James Gardner married Nawab Mulka Mumanu Begum, one of the 52 children of Mirzo Suliman Sheko, brother of the Mogul emperor Akbar II (1806-37).  Hyder Young Hearsey had several children of whom Harriet married her step-uncle Sir John Bennet Hearsey and left descendants so did William Moorcroft Hearsay in India.

William George Tyrell (1866-1947) created baron Tyrell (1929) was son of William Henry Tyrell, (d. 1895), High Court judge, North West Province, India by Julia, (d.1892), daughter of Colonel Wakefield by an Indian lady, daughter of a Vizier and ward of the Rana of Kumasin.

Thomas Chambers of Bromley, superintendent of the East India Company or his son was knighted on 6.3.1666 - his first wife (or mother) was Eurasian.  In 1670 he purchased the manor of Hanworth, Middlesex and married Mary, daughter of the earl of Berkeley and had two daughters Mary the elder married Lord Vere Beauclerk, Baron Vere (grandson of Charles II and Nell Gwynn) and Anne married Richard Grenville, earl Temple.  Horace Walpole printed her poems at the Strawberry Hill press and there is a portrait of her at the National Portrait gallery (where there are paintings of two Lady Temples).

John Marham Becher and Harriet Cowper who married at St. John's, Calcutta in 1786, had a daughter Anne, who in 1810 married Richmond Thackeray.  They were the parents of William Makepeace Thackeray whose daughter referred to Anne as "my brown grandmother".  According to family tradition Anne had Indian blood.

Robert Browning (1749-1833), son of a Dorset innkeeper and grandson of Mr Bankes of Corfe Castle's butler, married Margaret Tittle of St. Kitts on 13.10.1778.  She had West Indian blood and their son was so dark-skinned that when he went to his Creole mother's sugar plantation at St. Kitts, he was asked to sit with the coloured people.  His son was Robert Browning (1812-89) and this may have been the reason why Mr Barrett, a West Indian plantation owner, opposed the marriage of his daughter to the poet.

The "nabobs" who came to England from India with great fortunes in the late 18th and 19th century, settled in certain areas like Clapham and were looked down upon as "nouveau riche" with strange behaviour.

By 1675 young men began entering Company service as a career and by then there were fixed grades.  Apprentices served for 5 years for £5 per annum, rising to £10 after a further 2 years, after which the became writers for a year and then factors on £20, rising to merchants on £40 and senior merchants at £50.  The Governor had a salary of £300 and the two senior Council members received £100 and £70.  The Company's employees were had free quarters and servants and received a diet or allowance in lieu, they were entitled to wines at reduced prices from the Company warehouse.

Private trade was allowed but had at first been frowned upon; both Aaron Baker and Sir Edward Winter were dismissed for indulging in it but the Company realised it could not be stamped out and began to allow it.  Soon everybody trade privately to make their fortunes - soldiers, sailors, doctors and clergymen.

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