pointment of a permanent
ambassador Venetian. The earliest record[8] is contained in the
announcement by Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, in 1455, of his
intention to maintain a permanent embassy at Genoa[9]; and in 1460 the
duke of Savoy sent Eusebio Margaria, archdeacon of Vercelli, as his
permanent representative to the Curia.[10] Though, however, the early
records of such appointments are rare, the practice was probably common
among the Italian states. Its extension to countries outside Italy was a
somewhat later development. In 1494 Milan is already represented in
France by a permanent ambassador. In 1495 Zacharia Contarini, Venetian
ambassador to the emperor Maximilian, is described by Sanuto (_Diarii_,
i. 294) as _stato ambasciatore_; and from the time of Charles V.
onwards the succession of ambassadors of the republic at the imperial
court is fairly traceable. In 1496 "as the way to the British Isles is
very long and very dangerous," two merchants resident in London, Pietro
Contarini and Luca Valaressa, were appointed by the republic
_subambasciatores_; and in June of the same year Andrea Trevisano
arrived in London as permanent ambassador at the court of Henry VII.[11]
Florence, too, from 1498 onwards, was represented at the courts of
Charles V. and of France by permanent ambassadors.

During the same period the practice had been growing up among the other
European powers. Spain led the way in 1487 by the appointment of Dr
Roderigo Gondesalvi de Puebla as ambassador in England. As he was still
there in 1500, the Spanish embassy in London may be regarded as the
oldest still surviving post of the new permanent diplomacy. Other states
followed suit, but only fitfully; it was not till late in the 16th
century that permanent embassies were regarded as the norm. The
precarious relations between the European powers during the 16th
century, indeed, naturally retarded the development of the system. Thus
it was not till after good relations had been established with France by
the treaty of London that, in 1519, Sir Thomas Boleyn and Dr West were
sent to Paris as resident English ambassadors, and, after the renewed
breach between the two countries, no others were appointed till the
reign of Elizabeth. Nine years before, Sir Robert Wingfield, whose
simplicity earned him the nickname of "Summer-shall-be-green," had been
sent as ambassador to the court of Charles V., where he remained from
1510 to 1517; and in 1520 the mutua