the dinners he offered Chancellor. The tsar was pleased to open the sea trading routes with England and other countries, as Muscovy did not yet have a connection with the Baltic Sea at the time and the entire area was contested by the neighbouring powers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire. In addition, the Hanseatic League had a monopoly on the trade between Muscovy and Central and Western Europe. Chancellor was no less optimistic, finding a good market for his English wool, and receiving furs and other Muscovian goods in return. The Tsar gave him letters for England inviting English traders and promising trade privileges. When Chancellor returned to England in the summer of 1554, King Edward was dead, and his successor, Mary, had executed Northumberland for attempting to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. No stigma attached to Chancellor, and the Muscovy Company, as the association was now called, sent him again to the White Sea in 1555. On this voyage he learned what had happened to Willoughby, recovered his papers, and found out about the discovery of Novaya Zemlya. Chancellor spent the summer of 1555 dealing with the tsar, organising trade, and trying to learn how China might be reached by the northern route. In July 1556 Chancellor departed for home, taking with him the first Russian ambassador to England, Osip Nepeya. The fleet consisted of four ships, the Philip and Mary, the Edward Bonadventure and Willoughby's relaunched ships, the Bona Confidentia and the Bona Esperanza. Along the coast of Norway the weather turned bad and the fleet sought shelter in Trondheim. The Bona Esperanza sank and the Bona Confidentia appeared to enter the fjord but was never heard of again. Only the Philip and Mary successfully wintered in Trondheim and arrived in London in April 1557. The Edward Bonadventure did not attempt to enter the fjord, instead they reached the Scottish coast and were driven ashore by a storm at Pitsligo near Aberdeen on 10 November 1556. Most of the crew, including Chancellor, lost their lives. Only the Russian envoy and a few others survived and reached London the following year. In fiction Chancellor appears as a major character in the novel The Ringed Castle (1971), fifth of the six novels in Dorothy Dunnett's historical fiction series, The Lymond Chronicles. See also Company of Merchant Adventurers Society of Merchant Venturers Muscovy Company Notes References