The Russian Embassy in England in 1662-1663

The Russian envoys Pyotr Prozorovsky and Ivan Zhelyabuzhsky were sent to England in 1662. Traditionally, it was believed that their mission was a failure, because the Russian delegation failed to get money from English King Charles II the tsarist government needed. But the documents the authors found in the National Archives (UK) refute this opinion. The aim of the research was to revise 122 the assessment of the Russian diplomatic mission's visit to England in 1662-1663. The sources of the research were the letters of Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich and the receipt of Prince P.S. Prozorovsky from the collections of the National Archives (UK); the Reports of the Venetian ambassador in England F. Giavarina; memoirs of English courtiers J. Evelyn and S. Pepys. In the early 1660s, Russian economy was in deep crisis. Traditionally, the cause of the crisis is considered to be the Russian-Polish war (1654-1667), but the authors of the article determined that the decline of Russian economy was the consequence of the pan-European economic crisis of the mid-17th century. The Moscow government needed European silver. In 1662, on the initiative of the trade agent J. Gebdon, it sent a representative delegation of more than a hundred people, headed by Prince P.S. Prozorovsky and the nobleman I.A. Zhelyabuzhsky, to England. The official mission of the Russian delegation was to congratulate English King Charles II Stewart on his return to the throne, to resume Anglo-Russian relations and to borrow 10,000 Jefimok roubles (German thalers). The King of England refused to lend the money to the Russian Tsar because of the crisis in his country. Therefore, it is considered that Prozo-rovsky and Zhelyabuzhsky's mission in London failed. In historiography, this delegation is considered as an episodic event in the history of Anglo-Russian relations, and only twice it has become the subject of a special research. The trip of the Muscovites' delegation to London was poorly reflected in the Russian sources, whereas it was described in detail by the English and the Italians, which requires a more thorough analysis. From the receipts of Prozorovsky found by the authors in the collections of the National Archives (UK), it became clear that the Russian delegation left London with money. Charles II owed the Moscow state 40 thousand Jefimok roubles since 1650. After the refusal of the loan, the Russian delegation demanded payment of the debt. The state treasury had no such money, and only the king's appeal to major British merchants and bankers saved the situation. After several months, the money for Russia was collected and given to the Moscow Ambassador Prozorovsky. The receipt was made in English and Russian. This document was not preserved in the Russian archives and was not previously known to historians. The attraction of a wider range of sources, the introduction of new documents from the collections of the National Archives of the UK allowed the authors to reconsider the traditional assessment of the Russian Embassy in England in 1662-1663. The Moscow mission in London was successful. Moreover, new archival materials make it possible to change the idea of the mechanism of British foreign policy formation in the second half of the 17th century.

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