Note 73 — Chapter XXXIV

Bassompierre also expresses his dissatisfaction with his reception in England, and with the English generally, in a letter to the Bishop of Mende, formerly Grand Almoner to the Queen. “I found,” he writes, “condescension amongst the Spaniards and civility and courtesy amongst the Swiss in my embassies to those nations, but the English would abate nothing of their natural pride and arrogance.” So we see the charge of “insular pride” is nearly three centuries old, at any rate. The bishop replies: “I am not surprised that you found more courtesy and satisfaction amongst the Spaniards than in the island upon which the tempest has cast you. I have always found the English as unreasonable as the Swiss, but less faithful to their honour than the Spaniards.” No doubt the bishop thought it very unreasonable of the English government to deprive him of his post, but, unless all the charges brought against him by the commissioners appointed to reply to Bassompierre’s complaints are to be disbelieved, he had only himself to thank for it.