Add MS 47214

HISTORICAL AND LEGAL COMMONPLACE BOOK, written probably for a lawyer in East Anglia, mid 14th cent.; to which was added a chronicle of the Franciscans of King's Lynn, apparently between 1360 and 1377. Latin, except for art. 9 which is in French. See A. Gransden, 'A Fourteenth-Century Chronicle from the Grey Friars at Lynn', English Historical Review, lxxii, 1957, pp. 270-278. Contents:-

(1) Annals from the Incarnation to 1314. Down to 1295 these are brief extracts from the Chonicle of Bury St Edmunds (on which see V. H. Galbraith, 'The St Edmundsbury Chronicle, 1296-1301', ibid., lviii, 1943, pp. 51-78). Additions to this source are: under 672, a synopsis of the history of Ely Abbey (f. 10); under 1259 and 1289, mention of the Franciscan house of Babwell, Suffolk (ff. 16b, 17). After working down to 1314, or 1315 which has no entry, on f. 17, the scribe tabulated ff. 17b-20 for 1316-1377 and made entries for 1340, 1345-1348, 1356, 1357, 1360. Under 1349, 1361-1370, and 1373-1377, a Franciscan of King's Lynn wrote in a chronicle for those years, which reveals itself as almost certainly a contemporary account from 1361 onwards. It is printed by Gransden, op. cit., pp. 273-278, together with the original scribe's entries for 1340 and later, (ff. 18b-20). The Lynn chronicle is interesting as one of the few surviving minor mediaeval chronicles (see Gransden, op. cit., p. 272). ff. 2b-20.

(2) Lists of the kings of the Heptarchy, with various notes. ff. 20b-21b.

(3) List of the kings of Scotland 844-1285, with a note on the subsequent succession and the accession of John de Balliol in 1292. f. 22b.

(4) Pope Boniface VIII's letter of 27 June 1299, requiring Edward I to cease from hostilities against Scotland, and notes on the king's reply of 7 May 1301 and the legal opinions behind this. The pope's and the king's letters appear in Rymer, Foedera, i, 1816, pp. 907-908 and 932-933 respectively. ff. 23-24.

(5) Order of coronation of a king and a queen, with the rubrics in full, but only the incipits of the prayers. The rite is that known as the shorter version of the Fourth English Coronation Order, which was probably compiled for the crowning of Edward II in 1308 (see P. E. Schramm, 'Ordines-Studien III: Die Krönung in England', Archiv für Urkundenforschung, xv, 1938, pp. 340-356; P. L. Ward, 'The Coronation Ceremony in Mediaeval England', Speculum, xiv, 1939, pp. 177-178). The present MS. was not known to Schramm. The Order in it is prefaced by directions about the procession from the palace to the Abbey, concerning which see Schramm, op. cit., pp. 337-338, 346-347. ff. 24b-25.

(6) Anglo-Saxon and Norman laws (incomplete at the beginning), temp. Alfred-Henry I. Cf. F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i, 1903. ff. 26-44.

(7) Reissue, 13 Jan. 1215, of King John's charter granting freedom of election to the churches, which was first issued 21 Nov. 1214 (see Statutes of the Realm, i, p. 5). f. 44b.

(8) Letters Patent of King John, 24 June 1213, revoking the interdict known as 'ut legatio' (see T. D. Hardy, Rotuli Litterarum Patentium, i, 1835, p. 100). f. 45.

(9) Form of homage made by Edward I to Philip IV of France, 1294. French. See Foedera, vol. cit., p. 807. f. 45.

(10) Legal opinions on the law of succession to the throne of Scotland after the death of Alexander III (1285). The opinions are described as those of experts of the council of the king of France and the university of Paris and other justices and experts of England. They are printed from a mid 15th cent. text in Johannes de Fordun, Scotichronicon, ed. W. Goodall, ii, 1759, pp. 139-145 (see further Gransden, op. cit., p. 271, note 1). ff. 45-47b. On the flyleaves at the front of the MS. are various notes, including details of a miracle in Scotland in 1184 and another in England in 1188 (f. 1) and a piece 'De orbis dimensione Prescianus (sic) in Cosmographia', beg. 'Julius cesar diuinis humanisque singulariter' (f. lb; cf. L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin, 1963, col. 801.). Paper (ff. 1, 48 vellum); ff. 48 + i. 298 mm.×190 mm. Mid XIV cent. and 1360-1377. Gatherings of 12 leaves, except for i²⁴ (lacks ii, 11 and 12 of iv cancelled). Watermarks: a 'T' for gathering i, and an eagle for gatherings iii and iv (cf. C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, 1907, nos. 9089 and 77 respectively). Except for the Lynn chronicle, written by one scribe in charter hand. The back cover of the original binding of white leather over vellum remains. On f. 48 is an inscription, circ. 1400, 'iste quatemus est fratris iohannis medilton de dono fratris nicholai fakynham magistri'. A late 16th cent. hand has added a reference to the second edition of John Bale's Catalogue, 1557, p. 530, where mention is made of a Nicholas Fakenham of Norfolk, provincial minister of the Franciscans in England, presumably the donor of the present MS. On Fakenham, who was provincial circ. 1395-1402 and died in 1407, see A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, ii, 1958, p. 664. In 1560 the MS. belonged to the antiquary Thomas Hatcher (see ff. 2 and i) and in the 17th cent. to Sir Thomas Powys (see f. 1), Attorney-General 1687, judge 1713, died 1719, ancestor of the Barons Lilford. It was sent to the saleroom by the executors of John, 5th Baron Lilford, who died in 1945 (Sotheby's sale-cat., 31 May 1949, part of lot 556). Presented by Messrs Sweet and Maxwell.