Leonardo Frescobaldi

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Leonardo Frescobaldi (1485–1529) was an Italian merchant based in England at the court of Henry VIII.

Career[edit]

He was a son of Jerome Frescobaldi (died 1517), a merchant of Florentine origin based in Antwerp and Bruges, and Dianora Gualterotti. The Frescobaldi family had a wide mercantile interest.[1] Jerome (Girolamo) Frescobaldi supplied luxury goods to the court of James IV of Scotland, and some textiles for the coronation of Henry VII of England in 1485.[2]

His brother Francesco Frescobaldi is said to have offered hospitality and employment to Thomas Cromwell in Florence around the year 1504, according to Matteo Bandello.[3][4]

Leonardo and his brother Filippo Frescobaldi based themselves at the English court from 1511, where there were several other Italian merchants in residence.[5] Leonardo obtained a licence to export 100 sacks of wool from Southampton without paying custom duty.[6] Filippo Frescobaldi supplied cloth of gold to line a pair of wide russet sleeves and crimson sarsenet for a traverse (a cloth partition or canopy) and curtains supplied to Mary Tudor, Princess of Castile in July 1511. Antonio Cavilari of Lucca (died 1527) also supplied fabric for her costume. The chronicle writer Edward Hall noted that Leonardo Frescobaldi and Antonio Cavilari supplied cloth of gold and silks to the court.[7] Frescobaldi and Cavalari imported Turkish alum.[8]

Leonardo Frescobaldi was involved in the contract for the tomb of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Westminster Abbey

Leonardo Frescobaldi stood as a guarantor with John (Giovanni) Cavalcanti for the Florentine artist Pietro Torrigiano when he was contracted to make the tomb of Margaret Beaufort in 1511.[9] He was a party to Torrigiano's indenture of 23 November 1511.[10] His name however does not appear with the Florentine merchants listed in Torrigiano's indenture for a tomb for Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon,[11] or in an agreement underwritten by merchants from Lucca printed by John Britton.[12]

A Netherlandish artist involved in the project for Lady Margaret Beaufort's tomb, Meynnart Wewyck had been in Scotland in 1502 and 1503 painting portraits.[13] Later, in 1529, Giovanni and Antonio Cavillari of Lucca were involved in expenses for Cardinal Wolsey's tomb, advancing money for gilding.[14]

Leonardo Frescobaldi and John Cavalcanti were partners in supplying harness (armour), saltpetre of good quality "after the finest making in Naples", guns, and cable to Henry VIII for the Tower of London armoury and John Heron.[15]

In 1513, Leonardo Frescobaldi was given an annuity or pension by Henry VIII as a vendor of cloth of gold and silver, and he was made an usher of the king's chamber,[16] with an income of 50 marks.[17]

Leonardo Frescobaldi supplied damask gold thread to the king's embroiderer John Milner.[18] He also supplied guns and military equipment to Henry VIII, including halberds, axes and handguns, 4,500 suits of armour, cables for the king's ships, and a suite of twelve cannons called the "Twelve Apostles". Some of this weaponry may have been used in France and against Scotland at the battle of Flodden.[19] Cardinal Wolsey raised loans to pay for the armour and artillery purchases of Henry VIII from the Frescobaldi and Cavalcanti banks.[20]

The Frescobaldi company undertook to convey money from Henry VIII to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1516, according to Edward Hall, in partnership with "Anthony Caveler of Genoa".[21] However, they failed to make the transfer in due time, compromising the Emperor's military operations in Italy. Under pressure, and despite the advocacy of Cardinal Campeggio in England, the Frescobaldi firm was bankrupted in May and June 1518.[22][23]

Leonardo Frescobaldi was advised of plans for the meeting of Henry VIII and Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and notified Italian merchants that Henry VIII would order a large quantity of silks and cloth of gold.[24] Some of the textiles used were supplied by the Bardi and Cavalcanti families.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Francesco Guidi Bruscoli, 'Mercanti-banchieri fiorentini tra Londra e Bruges', Mercatura è arte: Uomini d'affari toscani in Europa e nel Mediterraneo (Viella, 2012), pp. 14, 30–31.
  2. ^ William Campbell, Materials for a history of the reign of Henry VII, vol. 2 (London, 1887), p. 6
  3. ^ Caroline Angus, The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell (Pen & Sword, 2002), pp. 9-10.
  4. ^ Henry de Vocht, 'Jerome De Busleyden', Humanistica Lovaniensia (Brepols, 1950), pp. 346-7.
  5. ^ Michael E. Bratchel, 'Italian Merchant Organization and Business Relationships in Early Tudor London', Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World, 1450–1800 (Routledge, 1996).
  6. ^ Derek Hurst, Sheep in the Cotswolds: The Medieval Wool Trade (History Press, 2005): The Third Book of Remembrance of Southampton, 1514–1602, (Southampton, 1952), p. 10 no. 68.
  7. ^ Maria Hayward, Great Wardrobe Accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII (London Record Society: Boydell, 2014), pp. xliii, 86, 133, 153–54.
  8. ^ Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2, p. 747 (BL Add Ch 9461.
  9. ^ Thomas P. Campbell, Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty: Tapestries at the Tudor Court (Yale, 2007), p. 114: Elizabeth Cleland, The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England (New York, 2022), p. 204.
  10. ^ Robert Forsyth Scott, 'Contracts for the tomb of Lady Margaret Beaufort', Archaeologia, 66 (1915) p. 368
  11. ^ William Illingworth, Archaeologia, 16 (London, 1812), pp. 84–88
  12. ^ John Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, 2 (London, 1809), pp. 22–26
  13. ^ Charlotte Bolland & Andrew Chen, 'Meynnart Wewyck and the portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort in the Master's Lodge, St John's College, Cambridge', Burlington Magazine, 161 (April 2019), pp. 314–319.
  14. ^ Alfred Higgins, 'Florentine Sculptors', Archaeological Journal, 51 (London, 1894), p. 155.
  15. ^ HENRY VIII (1491-1547). Letter signed (Henry R) to his treasurer of the chamber, Sir John Heron. Christies, 12 Jun 2019
  16. ^ Maria Hayward, The Great Wardrobe Accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII (Boydell, 2012), p. xliii, xlix, 153.
  17. ^ J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 1 (London, 1862), p. 479 no. 3679
  18. ^ HMC 8th Report: Ashburnham, p. 13.
  19. ^ Dino Frescobaldi & Francesco Solinas, The Frescobaldi: A Florentine Family (Florence, 2004), p. 77: British Library, Stowe MS 146, f.107.
  20. ^ John Matusiak, Wolsey: The Life of King Henry VIII's Cardinal (History Press, 2014).
  21. ^ Hall's chronicle (London, 1809), p. 585
  22. ^ Richard Ehrenburg & H. M. Lucas, Capital And Finance In The Age Of The Renaissance (New York, 1928), pp. 199–201.
  23. ^ Dave de ruysscher, 'Antwerp', Thomas Max Safley, The History of Bankruptcy (Routledge, 2013), p. 193: Herman Van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy, vol. 2 (Springer, 1963), p. 131.
  24. ^ Rawdon Brown, Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII, 1 (London, 1854), p. 47
  25. ^ Eleri Lynn, Tudor Textiles (Yale, 2020), pp. 15, 38.
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