"It became normal to have at each of the major courts a resident "ambassador"—a word defined by the English poet and diplomat Sir Henry Wotton in a punning epigram as “a man sent to lie abroad for his country’s good.” Given the time required for travel, and the hazards en route—especially in an age of dynastic and religious warfare—permanent ambassadors offered a convenient substitute for personal summitry. And their detailed reports required the attention of specialist secretaries who oversaw foreign affairs, such as Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan London or Antonio Perez at the court of Philip III. Day-to-day diplomacy tended to slip out of the hands of rulers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
University of Cambridge alumniUniversity of Cambridge facultyHarvard University facultyTelevision presentersHistorians from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 17
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Reynolds
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
David Reynolds
10 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by David Reynolds →
Related Quotes
"The origins of diplomacy date back at least to the Bronze Age in the Near East. Caches of documents from the Euphrate…"
"In the heyday of the Byzantine Empire its rulers tried to manage affairs from Constantinople, either bringing foreign…"
"In the post-Roman West personal diplomacy was more normal, for instance when family members were vying to divide up a…"
"The importance of status is vividly illustrated by perhaps the most celebrated summit in German history: the meeting …"
"Throughout history, security as much as status has been an obstacle to summitry. In 1419 France was in turmoil from w…"
"Although by about 1500 several strong national states had emerged in Europe, they remained greatly dependent on their…"
"After Westphalia brought peace to Europe, the second half of the seventeenth century saw a further spread of resident…"
"[A]t the time praise was showered on Chamberlain for brokering the deal. On his return from Locarno, he received a sp…"
"Unlike the French government, Britain had no formal obligations to Czechoslovakia. A cardinal axiom of British foreig…"
"Both in the theatre and on television, I have often drawn on Giorgio Gaber's clear and witty insights: from Il potere…"