One Letter that Made an Empire

The First Brexit and the Virgin Queen’s ‘Friend Request’ to Akbar

Sometime in the spring of 1583, an Englishman named John Newbery arrived in India with a letter from Elizabeth I to an Indian ruler. What happened of him after, is a tad fuzzy but it’s assumed he was robbed and killed on his way back. Newbery wasn’t alone. His expedition carried two merchants named Ralph Fitch and John Eldred, a jeweler named William Le…