john and sebastian cabot - Cristo Raul

JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT 53
NOTE
Anspach, History of Newfoundland, 1819, p. 25,
makes an im
portant statement about John Cabot s early career in England as
follows : The Venetians had factories . . . and agents wherever they
deemed it advantageous. John Gabota, or Cabot, by birth a Venetian,
was employed in that capacity at Bristol ;
he had long resided in
England 5
and a successful negotiation in which he had been employed
in 1495 ^h the Court of Denmark, respecting some interruptions
which the merchants of Bristol had suffered in their trade to Iceland,
had been the means of introducing him to Henry VII. Anspach gives
no authority for this 5
but it is
certainly true that in the reign of
Edward IV. some Englishmen killed the Governor of Iceland in a
brawl 5
Christian I., of Denmark, then retaliated by seizing four English
vessels, and complaining to Edward IV. ;
the latter made no reply ;
then Christian sold his prizes, and war resulted between England and
Denmark, 1478-91. Cabot may have been employed by
Bristol or
London shipowners to help them in their recovery of claims against
King Christian in this business.