Egerton MS 2642

ff. 2r–418v: ‘The Booke of Heraldrye and other thinges togither with the Order of Coronacions’; a commonplace book chiefly of heraldic and historical collections by Robert Commaundre (d. 1613), Rector of Tarporley, Chester, and Chaplain to Sir Henry Sidney (see f. 254r). The book was compiled in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and a few additions were made in the reign of James I.

f. 3r: Blank page with the Latin heading ‘Fortuna opes auferre non animum potest’ (Fortune may take away our wealth but it cannot take away our courage.)

ff. 4r–34r: ‘The order and manner of the Election, Coronation, and Creation of Emperors, Kynges, Queenes, and Prynces; also of Dukes, Earles, Vicecountes, Barons, and other meaner Personages Creacions’, etc. Besides general forms of creations, the ceremonies of the following are given:

f. 8r: Henry Fitzroy, natural son of King Henry VIII, Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset, 1525.

ff. 8r–v: Donald McCarthy More, Baron of Valentia, to be Earl of Clancare, 1565.

f. 9v: Arthur Plantagenet, natural son of King Edward IV, Viscount L’Isle, 1523.

f. 10r: John Dudley, Viscount L'Isle, 1542.

ff. 10r–v: Sir Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, 1550.

f. 11r: [Henry Marney], Baron Marney [1523]. Forms to be observed in certain ceremonies, oaths of heralds, royal styles, fees etc. are introduced, and also the following :

ff. 11v–12r: ‘The names of those noblemen whiche did theire homage at the Coronation of king henrye the Eight.’

ff. 12v–13v: The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, reign of Henry VII.

f. 16r: Degradation of Edward [Stafford], Duke of Buckingham, as knight, 1521.

ff. 25r–v: Diet allowances to English ambassadors to foreign courts.

ff. 25v–26v: Fees paid by Lords in Parliament to Garter King of Arms, 1542.

ff. 28r–29r: Lords Spiritual and Temporal at the Parliament, 15 April 1523.

ff. 29v–31v: Lords Spiritual and Temporal at the Parliament at Carlisle, 1307.

ff. 31v–32r: ‘A note of certen coyne made A.D. 1280.’

ff. 35r–70v: Notes and dissertations on heraldry, partly in the form of dialogues, on the art of blazoning, badges, differences, bearings, gentry and nobility, ladies’ arms, standards, cognizances, etc.

f. 71r: Pedigree of the Mortimer family.

ff. 72v–73r: ‘Of the Twoo Noble Howses of Lacyes and Lancastre…’

ff. 73r–81r: Descent of Henry VIII and the Emperor [Charles V] from John of Gaunt, continued by notices of the reigns of English kings, from Henry I to Henry VI, but not in order.

ff. 81v–125r: ‘A speciall note of dyssent of certen kynges of Englande before the Conqwest and Sithence, vnto the reigne of our moste noble Queene Elizabeth…’: a history of the various reigns, the war of the Roses being described at some length, ending with the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

ff. 125v–131v: ‘Of the Lynyall discent of the noble howse and famylye of yorke’, continued by notices of the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

ff. 132r–v: ‘Of the Noble famylie of the Courtenyes’, Earls of Devon.

ff. 132v–136r: ‘Of the twoo noble Ladyes Margaret and Marye, daughters of King Henry the VIIth…’with particulars of the history of Mary, Queen of Scots and Grey.

ff. 137r–138v: Notes of the ancient family of Burke in connection with the province of Ulster.

ff. 139r–143r: Genealogy of the family of Lacy, and of the Earls of Chester.

ff. 143v–144v: Note on the name Plantagenet.

ff. 145r–147r: ‘The state of ye noble and famous howse and famylye of thearles of Warwicke.’

ff. 147v–149v: List of Wardens of the Cinque Ports.

ff. 149v–150r: ‘Of the Navye of England’, with a list of ‘the Queenes Ma[ies]tes shippes and galleyes which most commonlye lye at Gyllingham’, Kent.

f. 150v: Of the first Invencion of that horryble Instrument of Gonnes’, with the names of pieces.

f. 151r: Names of various pieces of defensive armour.

ff. 152r–168v: ‘Certen notes extracted owte of the Cronycles’, on the conversion of the English to Christianity, on inventions, social matters in England, places in England, ‘of the Excesse of wearinge of longe hayre’ (f. 163v), on sacred history (including the description of our Lord as given in the epistle of Publius Lentulus, f. 168v), etc.

ff. 169r–180v: ‘Of the Twoo Noble Howses of Yorke and Lancaster, and of the myserie of England that happened by the contention of the said howses’: a political tract, in the form of an argument between a lawyer, a gentleman, and a scholar, in defence of the succession of the house of Stuart to the English throne; followed by the declaration of the English peers on James I’s accession, and the King’s proclamation.

ff. 181r–210r: ‘The Ordre and Manner of Enterrementes, and Burialls, of Kynges, Queenes, Prynces, Dukes, Earles, Barons, and other noble Estates of olde Tyme vsed and accowstomed.’ It gives the particulars of the burials of: f. 183r: Henry V ff. 186v–188v: Edward IV ff. 189r–v: Henry VII ff. 189v–190v: Arthur, Prince of Wales ff. 191r–v: Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York ff. 192r–193r: William Courtenay, Earl of Devon, 1511 ff. 195r–v: John Langton, Bishop of Winchester, 1500 ff. 195v–196v: [Richard Nevill], Earl of Salisbury [1460] ff. 196v–197r: [Robert Willoughby], 1st Lord Willoughby de Broke [1503] ff. 197r–v: Sir Humphrey Stanley [1506] ff. 198r–199v: Anne de Bretagne, Queen of Louis XII, 1514 ff. 200r–201v: Anne of Cleves, late wife of Henry VIII, 1557 ff. 201v–202v: Elizabeth, second daughter of Henry VII, 1495 ff. 202v–203r: [Elizabeth], Countess of Kent, [wife of Richard Grey, 3rd Earl of Kent], 1516. ff. 203v–210r: Liveries, fees, and perquisites, (in some instances the names of the persons being given), and special regulations.

ff. 210r–272v: A collection of epitaphs, epigrams, panegyrics, and miscellaneous pieces, chiefly in verse, on various subjects, in Latin and English. Among them are:- Epitaphs, some of which, in Latin, are accompanied with English versions, on:

f. 213r: Geoffrey Chaucer, 1556; Queen Jane Seymour [1537]

f. 213v: Lady Jane Grey [1554].

f. 214r: Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, 1567.

ff. 215r–216r: Captain Edward Randolphe, 1566.

ff. 216v–217r: Catharine, Countess [wife of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl] of Huntingdon, 1576.

ff. 218v–219r: Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and other martyrs, 1555.

ff. 222r–225r: ‘Howe Every Estate shoulde ordre themselves in theire degree. Yt was fownde written in a booke belonging to the Abbeye and Monastery of Burye’; a poem in 29 stanzas.

f. 226r: John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, 1571.

ff. 228v–232r: Epigrams and verses against the Pope and the Church of Rome, etc.

ff. 237v: ‘Certen verses made by the Queenes moste excellent Ma[ies]tie against the Rebells in the north partes of England, and in Norfolke and other places of the Realme, A° Domini 1569 et 1570.’

ff. 239r–240v: Of that famous monasterye of Bangor; Of the monastery of Glastonbury, etc.

f. 241r: ‘Carmina composita per reuerendum in Christo patrem Stephanum Gardyner, quondam episcopum Wynton, cum privaretur episcopatu suo et in Turri Londoniensi esset conclusus.’

f. 243v: ‘Carmina edita invictissimo regi Edwardo sexto cum ad coronacionem assumeretur.’

ff. 244r–v: ‘Carmina in laudem generosissimi viri Domini Henrici Sydnei preclari ordinis Gartirii militis, presidentis Consilii Walliæ et Marchiarum ejusdem ac Domini Deputati Generalis Regni Hiberniae.’

f. 244v: ‘In laudem Francisci Drake, Militis. T. N. Cicestrensis scripsit hos versus.’

f. 247r: ‘In honorem domini Roberti Dudley al[ia]s Sutton, Comitis Lestrie…at Dorte in Holland over the Courte gates wer written theis verses and translated for the Reader sake.’

f. 250v: ‘Of Tyme’: verses by Skelton.

ff. 253v–254v: Of King Arthur, his tomb, etc.

ff. 255v–256v: Hugh Shadwell, Marshal of the Court of the Principality of Wales, 158[blank]. Printed in Steven W. May and Alan Bryson, Verse Libel in Renaissance England and Scotland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 93–97.

ff. 257r–262r: Various epigrams and verses on women.

ff. 267v–268r: ‘Exclamatio Leporum contra venatores’: in verse.

f. 270v: ‘A Blazon of Papistes, Anno Domini 1587’, addressed to Elizabeth I by William Seager, Portcullis.

ff. 272v–276r: Verses in honour of Queen Elizabeth, a list of owners of the castle of Ludlow, the names of the Council and Lords President of the Marches of Wales, as they were set up in the chapel of Ludlow Castle by Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President, 1574.

ff. 276v–277r: Vassals of the ‘great Turke’ and the ‘Sowdan’, etc.

f. 277r: Devices of Christian Kings.

ff. 277v–279r: Roll of the Peers of England [1553].

ff. 279r–280r: Creations and restorations of peers, reigns of Philip and Mary and Elizabeth.

f. 280v: Roll of Knights of the Garter, as set up at Windsor, 1528.

ff. 281r–282r: Roll of Knights of the Garter, as set up in Christ Church, Dublin, Sir Henry Sidney being Lord Deputy of Ireland, 1567.

ff. 282r–283r: Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Irish Parliament, 1568.

ff. 283v–284r: ‘The names of those noble howses in..........Ireland whiche nowe remayne owell and whiche so wer in tymes past, whereof some of them arre nowe, the more is the pittye, become meere Ireshe and some partely Ireshe to the great decaye of that noble Region.’

ff. 284v–285r: ‘Revenues of certen English Lordes in the provynce of Munster’, reign of Henry IV.

ff. 285r–287r: Notes on Ireland and list of Lords Lieutenants.

ff. 287v–288r: List of Peers of England in the parliament of 1573.

ff. 288v–298r: ‘Politia Regni Anglix’: a general description of the state of England, its parliament, officers, etc.

ff. 298v–300v, 301v: Of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

ff. 302r–303r: Of the shires, towns, and villages of England, and shires of Wales.

ff. 303r–308v: Of the bishoprics of England and Wales.

ff. 309r–315r: ‘Of the Degrees of People in the Common Wealthe of England.’

ff. 315r–317r: ‘Of Counterfect Poore’, beggars, and their slang names.

ff. 317r–319v: Punishments for various offences, according to the laws of England.

ff. 319v–320r: Of Three Sortes of poore People.

ff. 320r–321v: Of the Law Terms.

ff. 322r–323v: Notes of persons buried in Westminster Abbey.

ff. 323v–324r: Valuation and weight of the image of the Virgin at Windsor.

ff. 324r–328r: Various notes and verses in Latin and English, including ‘The Frenche Prymero, 1585’, ‘The Scottishe Libell, 1587’, etc.

ff. 328v–372r: ‘Of the Realme of Scotteland’: Scottish history from the earliest times to James VI, the events of Mary Queen of Scots’ reign being more fully described.

ff. 372r–404v: History of the Danish kings of England, and of the succeeding English kings to the Norman conquest.

f. 405r: ‘Carmina in honorem.........Friderici Comitis Palatini Secundi’ and ‘in honorem......Johannis Friderici Secundi Ducis Saxoniae.’

f. 405v: ‘In commendacion of Sir Frauneys Drake, Knight, the Renowned’: a note of his circumnavigation, 1577–1580.

ff. 405v–416v: ‘Of the Succession to the Corowne as shall please God in his greate Mercies for Christes his Sone sake’: a tract on the succession to the English crown, of a similar character to that on ff. 169r–180v.

ff. 417r–418r: Printed material pasted into the manuscript; ‘Rules made by E.B. for his children to learn how to write bye’ in Jehan de Beau-Chesne, A booke containing diuers sortes of hands (1570 and later editions).

f. 418v: Verses in Latin and English; a note about Doomsday, and three Bible verses.