Egerton MS 1693

Miscellaneous papers of Robert Beale, 1569-1593, comprising: continental correspondence; papers relating to Mary, Queen of Scots; and correspondence about the Church of England in the 1580s.

This is a miscellaneous collection of papers once belonging to Robert Beale which have become separated from the main series of his papers amongst the Yelverton manuscripts.

The collection, allowing for a few other items, falls into three main areas:

ff. 3r-51v, 66r-80v: Letters to Robert Beale from his connections in the Protestant world of north Europe. The most frequent writer here is the leading Huguenot Hubert Languet (1518-1581), but other significant figures are Johannes Drusius (van den Driesche) (1550-1616), Flemish Protestant minister and orientalist; Johann von Glauburg, Frankfurt diplomat; and David Chytraeus (1530-1600), Lutheran theologian.

ff. 54r-65v: Notes and correspondence relating to Mary, Queen of Scots.

ff. 81r-129v: Letters and reports relating to the Church of England in the 1580s. A number of them are letters to Sir Francis Walsingham (Beale married the sister of Walsingham’s wife).

Contents:

f. 1r: 19th-century title-page.

f. 2r: 19th-century note of descent of the manuscripts to Baron Grey of Ruthin.

ff. 3r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert. Beale, Frankfurt, 20 May 1569 [12 Calends June]. In Latin. The letter is addressed to Beale at the house of the Italian Calvinist minister Girolamo Zanchi, Heidelberg.

ff. 4r-v: Letter of Odet de Coligny (1517-1571), Cardinal de Châtillon, Count and Bishop of Beauvais, to Robert Beale, 10 Jun 1569. In French.

ff. 5r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 27 Mar 1570. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 6r-7v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Spire, 5 Nov 1570. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 8r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Paris, 28 Jun 1571. In Latin.

ff. 9r-10v: Letter of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, to Robert Beale, 7 Jul [1571]. Addressed ‘To my frend Robt Beale attendant’ on the Queen’s ambassador in France. Leicester only gives day and month; Beale’s endorsement gives the year 1572 but Taviner, ‘Robert Beale’, p. 104, considers this must be a misdating as there is too much evidence of Beale being in London in 1572 whilst 1571 fits his being in Paris.

ff. 11r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert. Beale, Vienna, 7 Sep 1573. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

f. 12: Letter of - de Harlay, Robert Beale, Paris, 3 Mar 1576. In French. The signature is simply ‘de Harlay’. He is either Charles de Harlay, Seigneur de Dolot (for whom, see Nicollier-de Weck, Hubert Languet, 197-99). or his elder brother Achille de Harley, Seigneur de Beaumont, later first president of the Parlement of Paris.

ff. 13r-v: Letter of Daniel Crucius [de la Croix] to Robert Beale, Frankfurt am Main, 25 July 1576. In Latin. Although unfortunately his precise relationship has been lost through damage to the page, he signs himself ‘Daniel Crucius Jacobi Crucii’, and the latter Crusius (de la Croix) was a Protestant Walloon preacher.

ff. 14r-15v: Letter of Ludwig III, Duke of Württemberg (1554-1593), to Robert Beale, Stuttgart, 23 Dec 1577. In Latin.

ff. 16r-17v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 20 Jan 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 18r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 20 Jan 1578. In Latin. A short letter additional to ff. 16r-17r.

ff. 19r-20v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 14 Feb 1578. In Latin. Noted as addressed to Beale in London, and a further note of receipt, 15 Mar.

ff. 21r-22v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 31 Mar 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 23r-24v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 20 Jan 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 25r-26v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Cologne, 16 July 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

f. 27r: Decree of banishment of Joshua Opitz, Lutheran preacher in Vienna, 21 Jun 1578. In Latin.

ff. 28r-29v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Cologne, 25 Aug 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 30r-31v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 22 Sep 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 32r-33v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Cologne, 23 Oct 1578. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 34r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Frankfurt, 20 Apr 1579. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 35r-36v: Letter of William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, to Robert Beale, 1579. Endorsed: ‘A Letter from the Lantgrave of Hesse concerning the Augustine Confession, &c.’.

ff. 37-38v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Antwerp, 21 Nov 1579. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 39r-40v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Antwerp, 20 Feb 1580. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 41r-v: Letter of J. de Monnange, Huguenot minister, to Robert Beale, 9 Mar 1580. In French.

ff. 42r-43v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Antwerp, 12 March 1580. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 44r-45v: Letter of Johann von Glauburg (Joannes à Glaidburgo) to Robert Beale, 18 Sep 1580. In Latin. Endorsement: ‘Another Latter from Glansurge to recommend his son &c’. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 46r-v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Delft, 15 Feb 1581. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 47r-v: Letter of William IV (1532-1592), Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, to Robert Beale, Kassel, 1 Apr 1581. Endorsed as ‘A Recommendatory Letter of Henry Westphalg from the Lantgrave to Mr Beale’. In Latin.

ff. 48r-49v: Letter of Hubert Languet to Robert Beale, Antwerp, 22 Apr 1581. In Latin. Addressed to Beale in London.

ff. 50r-51v; Jacobus Telones Bipontinus [i.e. of Zweibrücken] to Robert Beale, Oxford, 25 Jun 1581. The author appears as James Telones of Queen’s College, Oxford, graduating BA 7 Feb 1583, in Alumni Oxonienses. For other letters of his to Beale, now in Aberdeen University Library, see the digital images on Early Modern Letters Online, http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/forms/quick?everything=telones&search_type=quick (accessed 9 April 2019). He is probably the Jacob Telones who was a Protestant minister in the Rhineland later in the decade.

ff. 52r-53v: Letter of Sir Francis Walsingham to Robert Beale, at the Court, 14 Nov 1581.

ff. 54r-57v: Memoranda in his own hand of Robert Beale on the demands and sayings of Mary, Queen of Scots, Nov 1581. These include her demands and sayings touching George Talbot, 6^th Earl of Shrewsbury, ff. 55v-56r. The date comes from an endorsement, also in Beale’s hand.

ff. 58r-61v: ‘Notes touching an Answer to be made to the Queen of Scottes from A Declaracion of the Scotish Queens actions and demenors against her Majesty’, November 1582. The heading and date are in the hand of Robert Beale, as are many textual emendations and marginalia, so it may be a text he is revising. But the text itself, an account reviewing Mary’s history, and some of the marginalia, are in another hand. The account relies heavily (from the marginalia) on George Buchanan. Beale’s own previous negotiations with Queen Mary are discussed on f. 61r.

ff. 62r-63v: Letter of Claude Nau de la Boissellière, Secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, to Robert Beale, Sheffield, 7 Mar 1582. In French.

ff. 64r-65v: Letter of Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de Mauvissière. French envoy to England to Robert Beale, 18 Sep 1583.

ff. 66r-67v: Letter of Johannes Drusius (van den Driesche) to Robert Beale, Leiden, 12 Feb 1585. In Latin.

ff. 68r-69v: Letter of Sir Francis Walsingham to Robert Beale, Barn Elms, 21 Apr 1585.

ff. 70r-71v: Letter of Johannes Drusius (van den Driesche) to Robert Beale, Leiden, 4 May 1585. In Latin.

ff. 72r-v: Imperial letter informing the chapters of Bremen, Osnabrück and Paderborn of the election of Friedrich Herzog, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg to their sees, issued Prague, 2 June 1585. In Latin.

ff. 73r-74v: Letter of Johann von Glanburg [Joannes à Glauburgo] to Robert Beale, 20 Sep 1585. In Latin. Endorsed: ‘From Glanburgh; that he designed to send his Son to England: by he was prevented by Sicknesse: he recommends another young man to him.’

ff. 75r-76v: Letter of Johannes Drusius (van den Driesche) to Robert Beale, 13 Mar 1590.

ff. 77r-78v: Letter of David Chytraeus to Robert Beale, Rostock, 20 Aug 1593. In Latin. Endorsed that this is ‘A letter from David Chyreus to Mr Beal to acquaint him that Mr Sackvil and Mr Nevil made him a visit in their way &c. It is not concerning any publick busyness’.

ff. 79r-80v: Letter of Johannes Drusius (van den Driesche) to Robert Beale, n.d

f. 80*r: 19th-century title-page for the rest of volume, ‘Church Affairs, &c.’

ff. 81r-v: Letter on the state of religion in the chapter and City of Hereford to [Herbert Westfaling?], Bishop of Hereford, n.d. The next item, ff. 82r-84v, perhaps suggests a date before that April 1582 (when John Scory was bishop). However the catalogue originally posited 1585 or 1586, and it pe3rhaps makes most sense as a letter to a new bishop, Herbert Westfaling (consecrated 30 Jan 1586). The letter talks of the vivid Catholicism of the days of Mary I, when the author was a child, and the strength of popery in the city. He sends a list (no longer attached) of poor householders who ‘doe favoure the truthe’. When the author has examined them as to why they do not attend sermons, they have told him that ‘yf they that doe relieve them now and then shold perceive or know that they resorte to sermons they shold have noe more succor or comforte which is a grevous hearinge the Lord god help the poore Amen’.

ff. 82r-84v: Letter of William Aubrey, Vicar-General of the Province of Canterbury, to Sir Francis Walsingham, 22 Apr 1582. On the state of the cathedral chapter of Hereford. Endorsed by Robert Beale: ‘The disorders in the church of Hereford and howe they may be reformed’.

ff. 85r-86v: Letter of William Aubrey, Vicar-General of the Province of Canterbury, to Sir Francis Walsingham, 10 May 1582. A further letter on reforming Hereford chapter. Endorsement in Beale’s hand that this is Aubrey’s opinion for a commission for the reform of Hereford church.

ff. 87r-88v: Letter of Sir Robert Jermyn, JP for Suffolk, to Sir Francis Walsingham, Feb 1583. Endorsed by Robert Beale, ‘answeare to the B. of Norwich’s articles’ (i.e. Edmund Freake).

ff. 89r-90v: Articles exhibited by Edmund Freake, Bishop of Norwich, against Sir Robert Jermyn, Sir John Higham, Robert Ashfield and Thomas Badby, Suffolk JPs, n.d. [Jan 1583]. On the disturbances in Bury St Edmunds. Endorsement by Robert Beale.

ff. 91r-95v: Answers to the Bishop of Norwich’s articles (ff. 89r-90v) of Sir Robert Jermyn, Sir John Higham, Robert Ashfield and Thomas Badby.

ff. 96v-97*v: Additional articles of Edmund Freake, Bishop of Norwich, against Sir Robert Jermyn, Sir John Higham, Robert Ashfield and Thomas Badby. [n.d. 1583].

ff. 98r-100r: Answers to the Bishop of Norwich’s additional articles (ff. 96v-97*v) of Sir Robert Jermyn, Sir John Higham, Robert Ashfield and Thomas Badby.

ff. 101r-102v: Letter of John Aylmer, Bishop of Norwich, to Sir Francis Walsingham, Fulham, 1582. The date only gives the day of the week, Friday, and year, 1582.

ff. 103r-104v: Letter of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, to Sir Francis Walsingham, London, 11 March 1583. A letter in support of one clergyman and against the Presbyterian preacher Thomas Barber who is preaching in his parish.

ff. 105r-106v: Letter of Sir Christopher Wray, Chief Justice of King’s Bench, to Sir Francis Walsingham, Serjeants’ Inn, 31 Oct 1583. His revised legal judgment on the oath administered by John Aylmer, Bishop of London, to Barnabe Benison.

ff. 107r-108v: Letter of Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln, to the Privy Council, 3 Dec 1583. The situation over a lease in reversions of the fruits of a prebend to Richard Topcliffe.

ff. 109r-110v: Letter of Thomas Smythe, Farmer of the Customs of the Port of London, to Sir Francis Walsingham, London, 25 Jan 1584.

ff. 111r-112v: Letter of John Jewel, Bishop of London, to Sir Francis Walsingham, Fulham, 29 May 1584. Endorsement by Walsingham, “he desyreth me to be present at the meetinge for the touchinge the Comission for [St]Paules’.

ff. 113r-114v: Letter of the Privy Council to John Aylmer, Bishop of London, Greenwich, n.d. [6 Aug 1581]. A letter of reprimand that Aylmer has both licenced and recommended for use in schools in his diocese a pamphlet, De Vera Fide. He is reprimanded both for doing something he had no authority to do and because the book, despite its disguised name, is the work of Sebastiano Castalio, and the book is unorthodox both in its content and author. Aylmer is ordered to revoke both the licence and its use in schools. The book is evidently De vera christiani hominis fide, dialogus. Huc accessit oratio pia quae petitionibus complectitur: per A. Fleming (Lonon: ex off. T. Purfutij, 1581) (STC: 29534.5; ESTC: S959050): there is also an English translation, with dedication to Aylmer, Concerning the true beleefe of a Christian man, a most excellent and profitable dialogue, by S.C. (STC: 4301; ESTC: S109605). The letter is undated: the date comes from the corresponding entry in Acts of the Privy Council of England: A.D. 1542-[June 1631], ed. by John Roche Dasent. Vol. 13: 1581-1582 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1896), 478-9.

ff. 115r-116v: Letter of Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Winchester to Sir Francis Walsingham, 18 Jun 1584. For his receiving his first fruits for five years.

f. 117r: Petition of (Thomas Cooper), Bishop of Wincheste,r for repressing recusancy in Hampshire, n.d. [c. 1585?]. Cooper became bishop of Winchester in 1584; the suggestion that 100 or 200 obstinate recusants, able to labour, should be sent over as pioneers into Flanders also puts the letter from 1584 onwards.

ff. 118r-119v: Letter of William Overton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield to the Privy Council, Lichfield, 19 July 1584. Overton explains why he has rejected William Jennings as insufficient for the Rectory of Church Eaton, Staffordshire. Reasons include both Jennings’s own personal insufficiency, and that of the 150 cures in the Archdeaconry of Stafford (where the parish is) scarce a thirtieth part are furnished with a tolerable preacher. Overton is responding to Privy Council letters of 11 July, though the original royal presentation went back to Dec 1579 and Jennings was formally instituted to Church Eaton in Feb 1585 (The Clergy of the Church of England Database, http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/locations/index.jsp?locKey=2893 (accessed 10 Apr 2019).

ff. 120r-121r: Draft letter from the Mayor and Aldermen of London to the Doge of Genoa on behalf of William Shute of London who was proceeding to Genoa on behalf of Paul Grimaldi of London, London, 27 July 1584. In Latin.

ff. 122r-124v: Letter of Sir John Popham, Attorney-General, to Sir Francis Walsingham, his house in Chancery Lane, 9 Mar 1585. A letter on his exceptions to the Queen’s General pardon of 23 Elizabeth [1580-1581].

ff. 124r-125v: Draft of patent for Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby Baron Willoughby of Willoughby, Beck, and Eresby to be Commander - in - Chief in the Netherlands, in the hand of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burleigh, 9 Feb 1588. In Latin. Date from endorsement in another hand.

ff. 126r-127v: A.B. to Sir Francis Walsingham, Principal Secretary: ‘That there maie be a reformation for the supplying of the Churche’, Nov 1589 [?possibly 1584]. The author’s initials, date and summary quoted all from endorsements in another hand. The letter itself is unsigned.

ff. 128r-v: Reasons set down by the Dean and Chapter of Chichester Cathedral to their Bishop against admitting as residentiary canon Edmund Curteys, late Vicar of Cuckfield, Sussex, n.d [1585 or 1586?]. The likely date is derived from Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1541-1857: Chichester Diocese, ed. Joyce M. Horn, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol2/pp71-80#h3-0002https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol2/pp71-80#h3-0002 (accessed 10 Apr 2019)

ff. 129r-v: Note of ‘horrible abuses’ committed within the Diocese of Exeter by its Bishops, n.d. [1580s]. An accusation of two cases of incest left unpunished by the bishops, with insinuations of bribery. The first case stretches from the time of Bishop William Alley (1560-1570) to two years ago in the time of Bishop John Woolton (1579-1594); the second case is in Woolton’s time. To the complaints, made by an anonymous puritan author, f. 129r, Robert Beale had added his own notes, f. 129v, touching the Bishops of Exeter.