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A diplomatic gift is a gift given by a diplomat, politician or leader when visiting a foreign country. Usually the gift is reciprocated by the host. The use of diplomatic gifts dates back to the ancient world and givers have competed to outdo each other in the lavishness of their gifts. Examples include silks given to the West by the Byzantine Empire in the early Middle Ages,"Silken diplomacy" by Anna Muthesius in Shepard J. & Franklin, Simon. (Eds.) (1992) Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990. Aldershot: Variorum, pp. 236–248. the luxury book,"The luxury book as diplomatic gift" by John Lowden in Shepard J. & Franklin, Simon. (Eds.) (1992) Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990. Aldershot: Variorum, pp. 249–260. and panda diplomacy by the Chinese in the twentieth century.
The memoirs of James Porter criticize the submission of the foreign ambassadors to Ottoman rulers:
"Whoever is acquainted with the Oriental practice, and knows the ostentation, pride, and haughtiness of the Turkish government, must know that they look upon, and consider such presents as actual tributes."
The role of gift giving in establishing diplomatic relations is seen in the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire. First the queen sends gifts of tribute called pışkeşleri and with the acceptance of those gifts hedaya hayr-ı kabulda formal relations should be established. This culture was associated with corruption and bribery, and was essential to maintaining diplomatic relations. Baron Paget once said "If we can't find money to give the ministers their usual presents ... we who have ever passed with an esteem superior to all other nations shall make ourselves the most contemptible." Similar observations were made by Henry Grenville:
"money is the supreme mover of all measures in this corrupt, irregular, ill-conducted government; however that might reflect upon a Christian state, it carries no infamy with it here."
When Anne of Denmark came to Scotland in May 1590 as the king's bride, she was accompanied by diplomats who attended her coronation and assessed the value of the lands and palaces granted to her by James VI. The goldsmith Thomas Foulis provided gold chains as diplomatic gifts for Peder Munk and the other Danish envoys.James Thomson Gibson-Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 34, Appendix p. 16 Foulis made four gold chains for ambassadors attending the baptism of Prince Henry in 1594, those given to Christian Bernekow and Steen Bille of Denmark were heavier and more costly than those given to Adam Crusius from Brunswick and Joachim von Bassewitz from Mecklenburg.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 56, 77-78, 81, 87.
Diplomats brought gifts from the monarchs they represented, and were typically given presents for themselves when they left, often at an audience ceremony known as "taking leave". A French ambassador at the court of James VI and I, Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont, was rumoured to have caused offence by unexpectedly requesting valuable gifts. John Chamberlain wrote that Beaumont had blotted his reputation by "mechanicall tricks" when he left England, by asking for a greater gift of silver plate, receiving two horses and "pictures great and small with jewells", with gifts from English noblemen of his acquaintance.Elizabeth McClure Thomson, The Chamberlain Letters (London, 1966), pp. 58-9. By "mechanical", Chamberlain means conduct unworthy of the diplomatic class.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 214.
Exchequer records give some detail of the gifts given to Beaumont. The goldsmiths William Herrick and Arnold Lulls were paid £459 in October 1606 for "two pictures of gold set with stone" which Anne of Denmark had given to Beaumont and his wife Anne Rabot, the portrait miniatures mentioned by Chamberlain.Tracey Sowerby, 'Negotiating the Royal Image: Portrait Exchanges in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Diplomacy', Helen Hackett, Early Modern Exchanges: Dialogues Between Nations and Cultures (Ashgate, 2015), p. 121: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), pp. 48-9. Sir Robert Cecil gave Beaumont portraits of himself and his father William Cecil painted by John de Critz which cost him £8.Rachael Poole & Reginald Lane Poole, 'An outline of the history of the De Critz family of painters', Walpole Society Volume 2 (London, 1913), p. 58: Erna Auerbach & C. Kingsley Adams, Paintings and Sculpture at Hatfield House (London, 1971), p. 80.
A Spanish ambassador involved in the negotiations for the Treaty of London in 1604, Juan Fernández de Velasco, Constable of Castile, commissioned jewels in Antwerp as gifts to distribute at the English court. Against the current custom in Antwerp he tried to buy the jewellery on a sale-or-return basis and was flatly refused. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 85. Velasco gave jewels to prominent figures in the household of Anne of Denmark who seemed likely to promote the Catholic cause. Lady Anna Hay received a gold anchor studded with 39 diamonds, and Jean Drummond an aigrette or feather jewel studded with 75 diamonds, both pieces supplied by a Brussels jeweller Jean Guiset.Gustav Ungerer, 'Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and the Circulation of Gifts', Shakespeare Studies, vol. 26 (1998), pp. 151-2: Óscar Alfredo Ruiz Fernández, England and Spain in the Early Modern Era: Royal Love, Diplomacy, Trade and Naval Relations (London, 2019), p. 134.
During his time in London, in August 1604, Velasco gave Prince Henry a Spanish horse and an embroidered doublet and sash. He presented a crystal and gilt cup to Anne of Denmark during a banquet. King James gave him a vintage service of gilt plate, and Anne of Denmark gave him diamond-set locket with miniature portraits of herself and the king, which cost £1000,Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), 16–17. with a pearl stomacher or necklace, for his wife, described as a garganto in Spanish.Ethel C. Williams, Anne of Denmark (London: Longman, 1970), 96–97: Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 211–15: Relación de la Jornada del Condestable de Castilla (Antwerp, 1604), 47.
In the mid 19th century, the Chinese diplomat Qiying gifted intimate portraits of himself to representatives from Italy, Great Britain, the United States, and France as part of treaty negotiations with the West over control of land and trade in China after the First Opium War.
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