Louvain to Bale

Diverted to Italy by the Spanish, the earls undertook a rollercoaster trip to Rome. At an early stage in the journey, they were received in Nancy by the duke of Lorraine with great ceremony and pomp - and this despite the fact that the English government had specifically requested the duke to cold shoulder them. When the duke died a short time later, James I refused to send a representative to his funeral in protest.

The earls later travelled through the German city of Colmar, a 'remarkable' place adjacent to the 'most beautiful, wide, level and fruitful plain in the greater part of Christendom'. The spectacle was spoiled somewhat by the fact that Colmar was inhabited by heretics. Indeed, travelling through areas of Europe at once catholic and then protestant brought its share of danger. The earls promptly left the Swiss city of Bale, for instance, 'through fear of conspiracy by the heretics'.