Storia do Mogor 46.1
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 46.1
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46.1.1
Manucci's Lord Bellomont is an historical personage, a Cavalier whose biography will be found under his name (Henry Bard) in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. iii., p. 175. That account, in spite of its giving much interesting information, cannot be called satisfactory, being in many places not only deficient, but incorrect. The most important points are : (1) Erroneous year of birth ; (2) omission of Bard's doings in Persia and India ; (3) erroneous place and year of death. First, then, as to the year of Bard's birth. He was born at Staines, Middlesex, where his father, the Rev. George Bard, was Vicar (died 1616) ; but I am informed by the present Vicar, the Rev. S. Theodore Wood, that the earliest parish records date from 1644 ; nor is there any register at Eton College of a date early enough to show when H. Bard entered and left that school. Fortunately, through the kindness of Mr. W. H. Macaulay, M.A., of King's College, Cambridge, I have obtained a valuable note drawn up by Mr. J. C. Clarke, the bursar's clerk. From this it appears that Bard was admitted a scholar on August 23, 1632, at the age of sixteen ; thus the year of birth must have been 1615 or 1616, and not 1604, as in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' On August 24, 1635, he was admitted a Fellow, took his degree of B.A. in 1636, and ceased to be a Fellow at Michaelmas, 1645 (no doubt owing to his marriage). There is no record of his proceeding M.A. In a MS.
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Catalogue of the Provosts, Fellows, etc., by John Hall (who came to King's College in 1645), is the following : 'Henry Bard travelled on foot (what possibly might be so passed) in France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, etc. When he came home he gave to the college a fair Alcoran in Arabic, which he had to that end purchased in Egypt. He came home a little before the time that King Charles set up his standard at Nottingham [1642]. He went into the King's army, where for his worth he was soon made a Colonel. He was a man of very personable body, and of a stout and undaunted courage. He was made prisoner at Ailsford fight, in Hampshire, near Winchester, being very much wounded ; he there lost the use of one of his arms. But he was soon released, and at his coming to Oxford, the King's headquarters, he had the command of a brigade committed to him, and was made Knight Baronet, October 8, 1644, and soon after Viscount Bellomont, still continuing Fellow of this college until he married. He was sent by His Majesty the King of Scots from Bruges in Flanders Ambassador to the Great Mogul, in which embassy he died (1656).' The Quran is still preserved in the college library, and the following description is taken from Dr. M. R. James's 'Catalogue of King's College MSS.' (1895) : 'No. 29, A Koran of cent. xvi., xvii.
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On paper 7^ + 4^, with two illuminated pages at the beginning, and the following inscription : "Henricus Bard, Eques Auratus et Baronettus [postea Vicomes Bellomontanus], Collegii Regalis Socius, postquam Collegiali commeatu impetrato Europam Asiam et Africam maxima ex parte perlustrassit, hunc librum Ægypte allatum amoris simul et peregrinationis monumentum Collegio Regali dedicavit, May 28, 1644."' In the life of Charles Mason (1616-1677), 'Dictionary of National Biography,' xxxvi., 416, and in Thomas Harwood's 'Alumni Etonensis,' p. 233 (under date A.D. 1632, Car. I., 8), it is said that H. Bard entrusted Mason with the manuscript account of his early travels. I have not been able to trace this manuscript ; it is not at King's College. Next, as to the embassy to Persia and India. Miss Eva Scott, in her recent work. 'The King in Exile' (1905), p. 285, speaks of Bard's appointment as Ambassador to Persia and Morocco ; beyond that fact she has no information. A rough draft of his instructions, undated, is to be found at the Bodleian, in the Carte MSS., vol. cxxx., fol. 144, and Miss Scott assigns this document to 1650. The terms of this draft are as follows : 'INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR RIGHT TRUSTY AND WELLBELOVED VISCOUNT BELLAMONT NOW BY US EMPLOYED AS OUR EXTRAORDINARY AMBASSADOUR TO THE EMPEROURS OF PERSIA AND MOROCCOS. '1. You shall beginne your iourney with what speed you may, and shall repaire first to eyther of those princes as shall be most commodious for you.
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'2. When you come to the Emperour of Persia you shall at your first audience deliver our letters to him, and shall as you have occasion acquaint him particularly with the circumstances of the King our late royal father's murther, and with the proceeding of the rebells since, and that the grounds upon which they proceede are such as are destructive to all Monarchy, and ayme only to sett up the power of the people, that accordingly they endeavour to exclude us from the right of our succession, have seised our revenew, palaces, Jewells, plate, and royal ornaments, together with our fleete, castles, forts, and forces within our Kingdome of England, of all which they now make use to invade and disturbe our right in our other Kingdomes, and that though we have considerable forces under our present command yet the Kingdome of England being by much the greatest, richest, and most populous of our dominions, we are much distressed for want of money to pay our armies and supply our other important occasions. '3. You shall therefore propose to the Emperour to fournish vs with some considerable summe of present money for our assistance in this great exigence of our affaires, and to pay it unto you for our vse to be returned or conveyed to vs, and we leave it to you to particularise the summe according to ye hopes you shall have of obteyning the same when you are vpon the place.
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'4. You shall engage our royall worde for the repayment of the same at Ormuz, or elsewhere within the Emperour's dominions as soone as we shall be settled in iust rights of our kingdom of England. '5. We authorise you in like manner to negotiate with the Emperor of Maroccos (sic) and to procure what money you can from him for our assistance (the like with the Prince of Georgia). '6. You shall advise with Mr. John Webster of Amsterdam how money may be returned from eyther of those places to Amsterdam or other part for our service, or how you may dispose of any commodities you shall receyve to our use. '7. You shall not pay any of the money you shall receyve but by spetiall order from ourselfe under our hands except it be for your owne charges and for necessary disbursements in the service, and you shall keepe very secret from the knowledge of all persons except those that are trusted with this negotiation what money you shall procure for vs in this employment. '8. You shall keepe constant correspondence with our secretary Robert Long, esq., and shall from tyme to tyme signify your proceedings and success to him who will give vs an account thereof when you cannot immediately send to ourselfe. 'The like instructions you are to observe in the rest of the kingdomes you goe into.' Endorsement. 'Instructions for Lord Bard. Mr. Mason drew the other, whereof I have noe copy.' I infer that these instructions were drawn up in 1651, and not in 1650, for the following reasons.
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In the same volume of the Carte MSS., fol. 238, there is another draft letter of a similar character, addressed to 'Mulay Mahomett Chek, King of Maroccos, Fez, Sus, and Ginie.' It has no day or month affixed, but professes to have been prepared in the 'third yeare of our Reigne,' and to be given 'at the head of our Army in our Kingdome of Scotland.' Now, the third year began in January, 1651, and Charles crossed the Border into England early in August, 1651 (E. Scott, 'King in Exile,' pp. 201, 202); therefore the draft was written between January and August, 1651, and I presume it is the 'other' referred to in the endorsement to the Persia instructions, and thus both would be of about the same date. It is possible that these letters were in existence in about June, 1651, for, as Mr. W. Foster has kindly informed me, at a court held on June 20, 1651, the committee of the then East India Company resolved : ' The Court having intelligence that there was a designe of sending some person by the King of Scotland or the late Queene of England to Persia to obstruct the Company's trade, and they considering how prejudicial it might prove unto them, if effected, They ordered Mr.
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Sambrooke to write a letter to their President and Councell at Suratt requiring them in case any Englishman or other shall arrive there with any letter or commission either from the King of Scotts or his mother with a purpose to interrupt the Company's trade, that they should seize upon him as a prisoner and return him for England with the first opportunity.'