Guy Foulcart

Guy Foulcart, was a sea captain from Brittany.

Anne of Brittany helped Foulcart with his compensation claim

Foulcart was employed by James IV of Scotland.[1]

In July 1497 James IV hired Foulcart to transport Perkin Warbeck, known as the "Duke of York", and his wife Catherine Gordon from Scotland. Their ship was the Cuckoo, which James IV had acquired from Foulcart in October 1496 on his return from the Raid of Ellem.[2][3][4] The Spanish ambassador Pedro de Ayala rode with Perkin to Ayr and his 30 men on hired horses. Lady Catherine Gordon was dressed in a "sea gown" of tanny Rouen cloth.[5][6] A Brittany merchant John Peidzoun helped equip the ship and was rewarded with an exemption from customs.[7]

This did not have a good outcome for Foulcart, and some years later Anne of Brittany wrote from Blois to James IV on his behalf. Foulcart had complained about his imprisonment and the loss of his goods after transporting Perkin Warbeck. He had to pay a ransom and legal fees, which he owed to his business partner, Guillaume Pomptome.[8][9]

James IV replied to this letter, saying that Foulcart had freely accepted the commission, but had obtained letters to state he was acting under the king's instructions. This was according to the usual mutual customs of hiring sailors and ships. He suggested that Foulcart had not pursued compensation in Scotland because his case was weak.[10] It was recorded in June 1503 that the Breton captain had refused justice.[11]

References

  1. ^ Robert Kerr Hannay, Letters of James IV (SHS: Edinburgh, 1953), p. 9.
  2. ^ William Stanford Reid, Skipper from Leith: The History of Robert Barton of Over Barnton (Pennsylvania, 1962), pp. 46-7.
  3. ^ Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. clii, 301-3.
  4. ^ George Burnett, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland: 1497-1501, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1888), pp. lxii, 43
  5. ^ Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. cliii, 342-5.
  6. ^ David Dunlop, 'The 'Masked Comedian': Perkin Warbeck's Adventures in Scotland and England from 1495 to 1497', Scottish Historical Review, 70:90 (October 1991), p. 121.
  7. ^ Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh 1908), p. 13 no. 99.
  8. ^ Letters of James IV (SHS: Edinburgh, 1953), p. 9
  9. ^ James Gairdner, History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third (Cambridge, 1898), pp. 318-20.
  10. ^ Letters of James IV (SHS: Edinburgh, 1953), pp. 9-10.
  11. ^ Robert Kerr Hannay, Acts of Council, 1501-1554 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. lx.