In 1602, Elizabeth I sat down at Greenwich Palace and wrote a formal diplomatic letter to the

Emperor of China. She addressed him as the great, mighty, and invincible emperor of Cathay,

and she meant business. This wasn't a curiosity letter or a travel fantasy. It was a serious

attempt to open trade between England

and China. The problem was timing, and geography, and also ice. The letter was meant to be delivered

that same year. Instead, it didn't arrive until, I kid you not, 1984. Not because it was lost in a shipwreck or intercepted by rivals, but because

the ships never made it anywhere near China. The letter stayed in England, drifted out of relevance,

and eventually ended up lining a brand bin on a Lancashire farm, which is not really how royal correspondence generally expects to end its days.

Get comfy, grab a beverage, and let's chat about an Elizabethan letter that was 383 years late.

Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast.

I am your host, Heather,

and as always, I am delighted that you are here with me today. Just a quick housekeeping note about

this week. It is, of course, Christmas week, and I still want to put out content, but most of my

content is going to be just audio this week. No video of my smiling face. It's just a lot easier of a lift. And like most of you,

I've got plans and a house full of people and dinners to make. And so while I want to stay

part of this beautiful community and I want to keep putting stuff out and I want to keep doing

my research and all of that, I'm just not going to do the full videos during the next little bit

while Christmas and the holidays are going on. So with that out of the way, we'll just consider

it to tutor history by the fireplace. All right. So why was Elizabeth writing to China in the first

place? By the very end of her reign, England was desperate to break into Asian trade. Spices, silks, porcelain, luxury goods.

The problem was that the obvious roots were already spoken for. The Portuguese controlled

Macau. The Dutch had established themselves across Southeast Asia. Any English ship trying to

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