Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/146

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INTRODUCTION

the Golden Fleece, which Charles the Fifth celebrated with great pomp. The emperor on that occasion gave him in reward for his services the uncommon distinction of allowing him to add to his own arms those of the archduke of Austria, and of the king of Castile, and to bear as his crest the portraits of the Roman emperor, of the king of Spain, and the czar of Russia. From the Netherlands Herberstein went to Nuremberg, where at the imperial diet he had to represent the archduke Ferdinand. Subsequent to this he was employed upon various commissions: first at Stuttgard, twice to Prague, then to Nördlingen, where the Swabian diet was held, then twice to Hungary, where he succeeded in bringing about an amicable relation between the archduke Ferdinand and king Louis of Hungary.

It was not till this year that Herberstein’s marriage with Helena von Saurau, which had been arranged in 1521, could be solemnized. In his Latin autobiography, he mentions his marriage in these few words:—“Hoc anno uxorem duxi”; and, as has been mentioned above, he never speaks about his wife’s family, nor of his wife, nor had he any children. But she survived him by nine years, and died in 1575.

Herberstein’s second journey to Poland and Russia took place in 1526. The more immediate purpose of this new mission was to return the civilities of Vasiley Ivanovich, who, on receiving the news of Charles the Fifth’s election as emperor of the Romans, had sent ambassadors to Spain, expressing his wish for a continuation of the ami-