4S UNPUBLISHED NOTICES OF TlIK TIMES OF EDWAKD I.

tions of his predecessors with the Frank monarchs, and more especially with the court of Rome. He sent ambassadors to the Pope, and to the kings of France^ and England, urging them to join him in an attack on the Mohammedans ; and his envoys, one of ^Yhom was baptised at Rome, held out liopes that Arghun and his subjects might be induced to embrace the Christian faith. The chief agent employed by the Moghul prince in these negotiations was one Buscarelli de Gisolfi, a citizen of Genoa. . Several of the letters of Pope Nicholas IV. to Edward on this subject are still preserved. In 1289, the pontiff wrote to say that Biscarellus de Gisulfo, envo}'- of " Argon," king of the Tartars, had presented letters to him announcing that the Moghul ruler was prepared to invade the Holy Land, at the time of the general crusade then contemplated. As this envoy was about to visit England he recommends him to Edward's notice."* Another Papal brief, dated December, 1290, also recommends Bascarellus de Gisulfo, and the other ambassadors of Arghun, among whom was Zaganus, a Tartar, who had become a convert to Christianity, to the protection of the English king.^ From the Wardrobe Account of the eighteenth year of Edward I., we learn that Buscarelli arrived in London on the eve of the Epiphany, Januaiy 5, 1290, accompanied by three esquires, a cook, eight horses, and six gaiyons ; he remained thirteen days at the English court ; and, in all, twenty days in England ; his expenses were defrayed by Edward ; his Tartar colleagues are not mentioned in the account. On the departure of Buscarelli, the king delivered to him a letter addressed to Arghun,^ in which mention is ^ For the nef^otiations between the toris Argon' Regi Tartarorum illustri, !Mo;;hul sovereigns and the kings of sahibriter vivereac tronumregium justieia France, see " Memoires sur les Relations roborare. Reducentes ad sedule recorda- I'ohticiues des Princes Chretiens, et par- cionis examendevocioniseximie jiuritatein tienlierenicnt des Rois de France avec qua inclitus vir, genitor vester, erj;a les Enipereurs Mongols : par M. Abel Christicolas suis fulgebat temporibus, Renuisat, Paris, ]8"22,"4to. Two original attendeatesque quod vos, tanquam lauda- letters of Arghun are still preserved in bilis imitator ipsius, Christi noniinis et the Royal Library at Paris ; M. Reniusat honoris cupiatis augmentuni proinde virtu- has given fac-similes of them. turn, Domino gratiasvobisque grates referi-

• New Rymer, vol. i. pt. ii., 713. mus multiformes ; glorificetur altissimus
• Ibid. ]». 742. A third papal brief, Dorainus dominantium et Rex regum qui

dated Jaiuiary 1290, introduces Saabedin tarn bonum tamque laudabile propositum Archaon,another Tartar envoy, to Edward. inspiravit conceptui mentis vestre, ut lb. p. 743. contra Soldani I3abilon' sueque gentis I am in<lebted to my friend Mr. T. D. porfidiam exsurgere delectamini in terre Hardy, of the Tower, for the communica- sancte subsidium et fidei Christiane, tion i>t this hitherto unpublished missive : beatum quoque vos dicent onnies genera- it is us follows. " In omni nomine Salva- ciones si vobis votum perseveret luijus-