ABSTRACT
The growth in the power of states was accompanied by a greater professionalism among diplomats and more elaborate means of conducting international affairs. Modern diplomacy was the product of the insecure world of Renaissance Italy, with its constant changes within and between states and the consequent need of rulers for regular, reliable information from representatives on the spot. As in other aspects of political life Italy had been the laboratory of the western world. The words of Ermaloa Barbaro would have been appropriate for an ambassador of the age of Louis XIV, two centuries on: his first duty was ‘the same as any other government servant’s: to do, say, advise and think whatever may best serve the preservation and aggrandizement of his own state’. The Italian and German wars of the first half of the sixteenth century fostered the spread of resident diplomacy and of chanceries capable of supporting rulers in the execution of foreign policy. But the long period of religious and civil wars which followed the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis checked the process. The Reformation gave rise to intractable problems over diplomatic immunity, for an ambassador might demand the right to worship God after his master’s manner. At the same time embassies were suspect as the centre of alien and subversive ideas. By the end of the sixteenth century only the Valois among the Catholic rulers of Europe held to the policy of exchanging ambassadors with Protestant powers. The virtual severance of diplomatic links between northern and southern Europe and the distortion of the envoy’s role were significant casualties of this period of ideological conflict, reflecting the morality that condoned religious persecution and political assassination. By contrast the seventeenth century saw the fashioning of a new doctrine of international law and the development of conventions that enabled envoys to do their business in a secure environment. The practice of holding congresses for the settlement of matters arising out of wars which involved a number of states, whether judged by the manner or by the outcome of their negotiations, should take a place among the civilized practices of the age.
