THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



from the fact that he was constantly sent on missions 

 and embassies. His office on these occasions was, 

 we gather, rather social and magnificent than of 

 great political importance, for he was not the kind of 

 man employed by kings and ministers to ferret out 

 the state secrets of friendly courts. The ordinary 

 ambassador of the fiifteenth and sixteenth centuries 

 was indeed a kind of legalised spy, whose duties 

 somewhat resembled those the Dreyfus case has 

 shown to be expected from certain military attaches 

 in our own day. In Henry's time they were often 

 men of inferior birth and were wholly dependent on 

 the minister who appointed them, their duty being to 

 write home the most minute and trifling occurrences 

 at the court to which they were accredited. No- 

 thing came amiss. Gossip and scandal were mixed 

 up with more serious political matters in their com- 

 munications to their Government. Then when 

 the time arrived for the settlement of one of the 

 innumerable treaties that no one of the parties 

 concerned had the slightest intention of observing, 

 a more important person was sent out on a tempo- 

 rary mission to bring to a close the inconclusive 

 arrangement. On such occasions, both under Henry 

 VII. and Henry VIII., Charles Somerset was 

 employed. No doubt both his relationship to the 

 sovereign and the personal friendship that existed 

 between them gave added weight to his magnificent 

 personality and pleasant tact. 



And Charles Somerset had other titles to the 



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