Sir Jerome Horsey S Travels And Adventures In Russia And Eastern Europe

This volume details Sir Jerome Horsey’s account of his experiences in Russia and other countries. Horsey, who spent the better part of seventeen years in the country until leaving in 1591, was an employee of the Muscovy Company, but also operated as an unofficial ambassador for both the English and Russian governments. He was personally acquainted with such people as Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor I and Boris Godunov, and gives lively and interesting accounts of his interactions with them, as well as with many other prominent people, both Russian and English. Horsey has been accused of exaggeration, chicanery and self-advertisement, but his account is by far the most readable and enjoyable of the many books written by English people sojourning in Russia. It has been published only twice, both times in conjunction with Giles Fletcher’s contemporary and more “professional” account of the Russian state; this edition, with a full introduction and extensive notes, is the first to present Horsey’s book on its own. It is a travel-book, an adventure story and an autobiography of a controversial and significant figure.

Cormack demonstrates that geography was part of the Arts curriculum between 1580 and 1620, read at university by a broad range of soon-to-be political, economic, and religious leaders. By teaching these young Englishmen to view their country in a global context, and to see England playing a major role on that stage, geography helped develop a set of shared assumptions about the feasibility and desirability of an English empire.