ABSTRACT
Sir Thomas Newport and Sir Thomas Sheffield were only briefly at Venice in September 1513 but their visit provides an informative illustration of Anglo-Venetian diplomatic relations at this period. Newport was a knight of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and seems to have entered the order as a hospitaller by 1478 when he was based in Rhodes. Newport was an experienced and financially shrewd administrator. Between 1489 and 1503 he served as the order’s receiver-general for its common treasury in England. He supervised the collection of funds in England and their dispatch, via Venice’s banking institutions, to Rhodes. Newport and Sheffield brought diplomatic letters from Henry VIII to the doge and Senate. Thomas was more successful in avoiding Wolsey’s lethal hostility and served in England as Preceptor of Beverley and Shingay and as Treasurer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
