Fakery, forgery, and [Mis]representation during the English Civil War: dubious royal letters and contested diplomatic authority in the Russia trade, 1642-49

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 1640s posed an existential threat to English trade interests in Russia. Tsar Aleksei’s accession to the throne in 1645 finally gave voice to native merchant opposition to the generously privileged Muscovy Company as the new government embarked on an aggressive protectionist course. By 1646, the Company in London and Moscow was pushing back against the stripping of its ancient right to duty-free trade. Resistance, however, was futile without the traditional support of the English monarch, which the London-based Muscovy Company failed to secure at this time. Instead, the Russia merchants found themselves under direct attack by the king himself as traitors. So would claim the royal envoy Luke Nightingale in a secret oral message to Aleksei, accompanied by letters from Charles of dubious provenance. These largely unexplored communications are fascinating for how they draw Russia into the dramatic orbit of the English Civil War. At the same time, they raise the possibility of documentary tampering and forgery in furtherance of personal and/or royalist objectives, while prompting consideration of how the collapse of royal authority in these years challenged merchants, trade, and diplomats.