Dodmore Cotton

Sir Dodmore Cotton (* 1600 in Hastings of Landwade, † July 23, 1628 in Qazvin ) was a British diplomat .

Life

Dodmore Cotton was a son of Elizabeth Dormer and Sir Robert Cotton. Dodmore Cotton was commissioned by Charles I to determine whether Robert Shirley was a horse dealer, military advisor and ambassador on behalf of the Persian Shah or an agent of the British East India Company , who presented all kinds of letters of accreditation if required .

Shirley reported that he and his wife traveled from British India to Isfahan via Kandahar in 1613 . There he claims to have been entrusted by Abbas I with a mission to Europe. From 1615 to 1620 he tried at the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial Philip III. to convince for an alliance against the Ottoman Empire .

In 1623 Shirley traveled to London and acted there, as in 1608, as Persian ambassador.

In 1625 Abbas I sent an embassy to London led by Nogdi-Ali-Beg, Naqd Ali Beg, Naqdi Beg. The embassy included the silk merchant Khajah Shahsavar, who carried 50 bales of silk with him. The British East India Company was looking for control over the flow of goods, people and communications to British India. According to the company's statutes, the ships only carried the company's property. According to the EIC's legal opinion, Khajah Shahsavar transferred this to her when he had his bales of silk loaded onto an EIC ship.

In 1626 Dodmore Cotton was knighted .

At an audience with Jacob I in 1626, Nogdi-Ali-Beg Naqd Ali Beg appeared, claimed that Sherley's letter of accreditation was a forgery, hit Shirley, snatched the letter from him, tore it up, crumpled it up and declared that it was Abbas -Signature would be placed on the outside front of the letter and not on the bottom of the back as it was on the Shirley letter.

Jacob I died on March 27, 1625. His successor Charles I sent Dodmore Cotton, Shirley, Nogdi-Ali-Beg Naqd Ali Beg, Thomas Herbert and Robert Stodart to Persia in May 1825 to investigate the case and sign a trade agreement with Abbas complete. The group left London on April 16, 1626.

Nogdi-Ali-Beg Naqd Ali Beg traveled with the Shah's identity card, since there was no passport or shipping agreement between Persia and the British East India Company, there were formal reasons to delay the duration of the journey to about two years.

The journal of Robert Stodart: being an account of his experiences as a member of Sir Dodmore Cotton's mission in Persia in 1628-29. , a diary, begins with R. Stodart's departure from London on April 16, 1626, interrupts the presentation on April 29, 1626, starts again on April 30, 1628, when he is already in Persia, and ends on December 18, 1629 .

The group traveled on different ships. Nogdi-Ali-Beg Naqd Ali Beg never left the territory of the British East India Company.

The delegation reached Surat on November 27, 1627 , where, according to the diplomatic announcement, Nogdi-Ali-Beg Naqd Ali Beg committed suicide on November 30, 1626 with an overdose of opium and was buried near the grave of Thomas Coryat .

Herbert reported that before they docked in Bandar Abbas in 1628 , the Persian committed suicide.

The delegation was warmly received at Abbas I's country estate in Asraf in Mazandaran .

Sir Dodmore Cotton submitted: The main purpose of his mission was to congratulate the Shah on his success against the common enemy, the Turks, to make an everlasting alliance, to promote trade, and to see Sir Robert Shirley's proceedings justified. In his reply, the Shah first poured out a few attacks against the Turks and expressed the wish that the Christian princes would like to be united, since the Ottoman Sultan owed his conquests mainly to their disagreement. He agreed to the proposal of direct trade, provided that the English wanted to give up the old trade route through his enemy's territories. On the subject of Sir Robert Shirley, he recognized that if he had been unjustly accused, he should receive satisfaction.

The Persian court was relocated to Qazvin , where the British legation followed. I'timäd ad-daula Muhammad 'Ali Beg (Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Bey), who knew and hated Shirley, was entrusted with the research into the Shirley case. He was committed to the investigation and received from the delegation the letter of accreditation submitted by Shirley. After three days he appeared at Dodmore Cotton and explained to him: The Shah had examined the letter, did not recognize it for his own and burned it in anger. Sir Robert, incidentally, has his master's permission to leave. The management of the delegation could no longer follow this diplomatic expulsion .

Robert Shirley died on July 13, 1628, his death was initially not announced and he was buried under the doorstep of the house in which he lived, the diplomatically reported cause of death was diphtheria . The cause of death of Dodmore Cotton was announced and he was buried in the Armenian cemetery.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Henry St. George (sir.), Thomas Phillipps, Henry St. George, The Cambridgeshire visitation , 1619, ed. By sir TP, bart
2. ^ The journal of Robert Stodart: being an account of his experiences as a member of Sir Dodmore Cotton's mission in Persia in 1628-29. Published from the unique manuscript preserved in the Bodleian library, Robert Stodart, Bodleian Library, Oxford (England). University. Bodleian library. Mss. (Carte 271) Luzac & co., 1935 - 128 pp
3. ^ Donald F. Lach, Edwin J. Van Kley, Trade, missions, literature , Volume 3

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert Shirley	British Ambassador to Tehran July 1 to 23, 1628	Jonas Hanway