Antony Jenkinson
Antony Jenkinson (* 1530 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire , England , † February 1611 in Ashton in Northamptonshire) was an English diplomat .
Life
Antony Jenkinson was the second son of Elisabeth and William Jenkinson a latifundist. Antony Jenkinson studied at Oxford until 1546 . Then he traveled to the Levant . He had traveled widely in Europe, knew all the islands of the Mediterranean, visited Damascus and Jerusalem . In 1553 he was in Aleppo when Suleyman I. ordered 300,000 soldiers to march through the city to war . He reported on Suleyman I's visit and received from him the privilege of free trade and safe conduct for his ships in the Ottoman ports. In 1555 Jenkinson became a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers . In 1557 he became captain general of the Muscovy Company fleet, succeeding Richard Chancellor and Hugh Willoughby . On May 3, 1557, he set sail from London with the Primerose and three other ships to bring Osip Nepea the Russian ambassador to Saint Petersburg.
In Moscow he was supposed to negotiate an Anglo-Russian trade agreement and explore a trade route through Russia to the Orient. The ship's formation reached the White Sea on June 12, 1557 and explored Vologda and Cholmogory . On his trip to Moscow, he studied Russian trade and industry. He was received by Ivan IV on December 25, 1557 with a banquet. He received a passport from the tsar that allowed him to travel along the Volga and through Astrakhan . In the spring of 1558, Jenkinson led a small tour group that traveled down the Volga and sailed across the Caspian Sea and continued to Buxoro by car . He negotiated a trade agreement with the emir. Political unrest and dangers in Central Asia made him abandon his plans to travel to China. He led the tour company back to Moscow, reported to the Tsar, and returned to London in February 1560. In August 1561 Jenkinson led another tour group across the Caspian Sea to the court of Abdullah II in Derbent in the Caucasus. He traveled overland to the Persian capital Qazvin , where Tahmasp I granted him no trade advantages. On his way back he reached a favorable agreement with Abdullah II to trade English woolen clothing for Persian silk. This opened up long-term trade relations for the Muscovy Company, which were ended by the spread of the Ottomans in the region, epidemics and the untimely death of Abdullah II. He returned to London on September 28, 1563, where he asked Elizabeth I for support for an expedition to discover a northeastern passage . His request was not granted and Jenkinson was preoccupied with a failed attempt to prevent the return of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell to Scotland. The Muscovy Company asked Elizabeth I to send Jenkinson back to Russia so that she could deal with the company's affairs. With Ivan IV he received on September 22, 1567 the trade monopoly for the White Sea trade. In 1568 Jenkins was back in London. In 1571 Jenkinson was sent to Moscow again to vote Ivan IV, who had revoked the trade monopoly and expropriated goods from the Muscovy Company , as his proposal for a military agreement was ignored.
Jenkinson's last trip to Moscow, in 1571, coincided with an attack by Crimean Tatars on Moscow and the outbreak of an epidemic in northern Russia, which delayed his trip to the Tsar's court. Jenkinson managed to negotiate a comprehensive reconciliation with the tsar. He returned to London in September 1572 with the aim of being retired. In 1576 he was employed in a committee that prepared the search for a northeast passage . In 1577 he was ambassador to Denmark . In 1610 he was retired and ran his estate in Sywell, Northamptonshire .
Map of the Grand Duchy of Moscow after Anthony Jenkinson from 1562. The Latin inscription on the card reads: "RVSSIAE, MOSCOVIAE ET TATARIAE DESCRIPTIO. Auctore Antonio Ienkensono Anglo, edita Londini Anno 1562 & dedicata illustriß: D. Henrico Sÿdneo Walliae praesidi."
Map of Russia from Jenkinson 1562 Caspian Sea area.
Map by Jenkinson, published in Amsterdam in 1598
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
|
British ambassador to Russia 1557–1572 |
Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens | |
| Geoffrey of Langley |
British ambassador to Tehran 1561 |
Robert Shirley |
| British ambassador to Denmark in 1577 |
Daniel Pulteney |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Robert Shadle, Historical Dictionary of the British Empire: AJ, Volume 1, Volume 6 , page 603
- ↑ Sir Clements Robert Markham, A general sketch of the history of Persia , Longmans, Green, and co., 1874-565 pp, p. 556
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jenkinson, Antony |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1530 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Market Harborough, Leicestershire , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1611 |
| Place of death | Ashton , Northamptonshire |