Add MS 46455-46456

SHREWSBURY (TALBOT) PAPERS. Vols. II, III (ff. 154, 168). Papers of Jean de Blicquy de Houpplines, French Secretary at Calais, which probably came into the possession of Sir Gilbert Talbot when Deputy Lieut. there. A former subject of Charles the Rash of Burgundy (cf. Add. MS. 46456, f. 33), Houpplines was sent on an embassy from England to France by Henry VII ( see Add. MS. 46455, ff. 136-144 ). References to the conspiracy of the Earl of Warwick, the imprisonment of Perkin Warbeck in the Tower, and the flight of the Earl of Suffolk show that this embassy was probably late in 1499 (the draft report is dated 3 Feb.), and according to a subsequent letter to Louis XII from Houpplines, which seems to refer to the same embassy, he must have been appointed secretary at Calais circ. 1500 (Add. MS. 46455, f. 145). In Add. MS. 46455, ff. 52-56, are papers in his hand (? drafts or copies ) rel. to Sir Richard Nanfan's appointment as Deputy Lieut. of Calais circ. 1490. None of the papers seems to be later than 1513, when Sir Richard Wingfield was appointed joint Deputy Lieut. of Calais with Sir Gilbert Talbot. The present MSS. are chiefly drafts of letters and documents written for the Deputy Lieutenants of Calais, with corrections and interlineations. The majority are undated and the same leaf often contains drafts to different persons at different times. There are also translations and copies of other documents. The arrangement has been made under subjects and recipients, and the papers have been indexed accordingly. They include:-

(1) Drafts relating to payments from France to England under the Treaty of Étaples. Vol. II, ff. 148-154.

(2) Drafts relating to the handing over of the Earl of Suffolk to the English in 1506. Vol. III, ff. 122-124.

(3) Evidence taken in 1511 relating to the cashiering of two soldiers at Calais, John and Bartholomew 'Flammake', and their quarrel with Sir Richard Nanfan. Vol. II, ff. 123-128 (cf. John 'Flamark's' information relating to Calais printed in Gairdner, op. cit., i, pp. 231-240).

(4) Letters (3) from Wolsey relating to Henry VIII's French expedition of 1513. Vol. III, ff. 166-168. Among Houpplines' private correspondents was Quintin Poulet, the Keeper of the King's Library at Richmond (Vol. II, f. 115b; Vol. III, ff. 126, 127). See also Add. Ch. 74099-74110, F. Lennel, Histoire de Calais, ii, 1910, ch. viii, and J. G. Nichols, The Chronicle of Calais, Camden Society, 1846.