Catalogue description Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Italian States and Rome

Correspondence and papers mainly of the Secretary of State with representatives of the Vatican and Papacy and with certain Italian states, including the duchies of Modena, Mantua and Parma. There are generally few documents before 1583 and after the middle of the eighteenth century.

The series includes despatches from various agents, especially detailed reports from Rome on the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart and the Jacobite court, submitted by the secret service agent Baron von Stosch, alias John Walton, between 1722 and 1729. Amongst other states referred to, there are a reports on the republics of Lucca and Genoa, but the main series of correspondence with the Italian states of Genoa, Savoy and Sardinia, Sicily and Naples, Tuscany and Venice will be found in separate series of records.

For references to the more important papers for the period August 1589 to December 1595 see the List and Analysis of State Papers Foreign Series Elizabeth I I-VI ed by Richard Bruce Wernham (London 1964-1993). Please speak to staff at the Map and Large Document Room enquiry desk for the precise location.