Note 159 — Chapter III · The Bailly of Troyes French Ambassador in England (1533)

On one occasion the king sent instructions to Cromwell to despatch Barnes immediately in post, to Germany, with Deryk (or Diryk). (Foxe, “Life of Melanchthon,” p. 385.) Holbein, as is well known, painted two Dericks in 1533: Derick Born, whose portrait is now at Windsor, Derick Tybis at Vienna. The latter certainly, the former probably, was a German merchant of London. As the king’s servants were frequently spoken of by their Christian names only (Holbein as “Haunce,” Kratzer as “Nicolas”), either of these Dericks may have been the one sent on the diplomatic mission. Augustus de Augustinus, a foreign agent in English pay, writing to Cromwell from Ratisbon, incloses a copy of an Imperial decree, presumably written in German, with the comment, “Any of the Steelyard merchants will interpret it to you.” (Letters and Papers, vol. v., 1532, No. 1027.) In 1538 Kratzer forwarded to Cromwell various papers through the agency of Hans Holbein. It is well known that Kratzer never acquired the English tongue. Had Holbein more success? (Ellis’s “Original Letters,” 3rd series, vol. i., p. 230.)