Treaty of London and Anglo-Spanish Peace, 1604

The Treaty of London was negotiated in 1604 after James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I as king of England. A Spanish and Habsburg delegation came to London to end a conflict that had continued since the 1580s through privateering, support for the Dutch revolt, the Spanish Armada and English expeditions against Iberian ports.

Talks were conducted at Somerset House amid ceremony, court entertainment and intense factional pressure. Peace promised relief from military expenditure and improved trade, but it alarmed people whose careers, religion or political identity had been built around opposition to Spain. Walter Raleigh’s imprisonment and the uncertain position of former Elizabethan courtiers formed part of this transition.

As the concluding phase of the Anglo-Spanish War, the treaty marks the movement from Elizabethan conflict into Jacobean diplomacy. Historical fiction can place actors, spies and courtiers around the negotiations, using masques and public celebration to contrast official reconciliation with private attempts to sabotage the settlement.