Stowe MS 574

A volume of miscellaneous texts from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and VI.

ff. 2r–v: 'The order of the queenes goinge to the Perlament.'

f. 3r: Copy of a letter from James I to Robert "Lye" [Lee], Lord Mayor, and the Aldermen of London, on his accession, 28 March 1603, Holyrood. Another copy is Lansdowne MS 512, f. 112. Published as The copie of the K. Maiesties letter to the L. maior of the citie of London, and to the aldermen and Commons of the same (n. p.: R. Barker, 1603).

f. 3v: Copy of a letter from James I to 'the nobilitie and peeres of England and to the Councellors of State at White Haule', concerning the release of the Earl of Southampton, 5 April 1603, Holyrood.

ff. 4r–5r: Catalogue of the dukes, earls, viscounts and barons created, restored and called by writ in England in 1603–1617.

f. 6r: Earls, viscounts and barons created by James I in Scotland in 1603–1609.

ff. 7r–v: 'Valuation of the severall revenues of all the Bishopprickes in England, with the tenths which everie one paieth to the Kinge': list of the bishoprics and deaneries in England and their value.

ff. 7v–12v: Salaries of officers in James I and VI's service.

f. 7v: The court of first fruits.

ff. 8r–v: The revenue courts.

f. 9r: Court of wards and liveries.

ff. 9v–10v: Receivers and surveyors in every county.

ff. 10v–11v: Courts of Justice.

f. 11v: Officers at arms.

ff. 12r–v: Secretaries, clerks and officers at court; the admiralty.

ff. 13r–14r: "The names of the Kinges shipps, with the number of men and furniture requisite for theire going to seae." Probably made about the beginning of James I's reign. See also Lansdowne MS 171, f. 15.

f. 14v: Fees for the Duchy of Lancaster.

f. 15r: Armoury; the Mint.

f. 15v: Officers for the King's Works.

f. 16r: The Great Wardrobe; Tents; Revels; Hunting.

f. 16v: Musicians; Watermen.

ff. 16v–17r: Artificers.

ff. 17r–19r: Royal Household.

f. 19v: Officers for the body; Harbingers (i.e. household officers who secure accommodation for the royal family and the rest of the royal retinue when the court went on progress.)

ff. 20r–21v: Towns of war, castles and bulwarks, with the salaries of their garrisons.

ff. 21v–25r: The keepers, officers and ministers of castles, houses, forests, parks and chases with their salaries.

f. 25v: Fees and pensions belonging to the court of first fruits and tenths.

ff. 26r–27r: The general musters taken throughout England and Wales, from the reign of James I.

f. 27v: Fees of the several officers of ordnance.

ff. 28r–34r: List of Edward III's household, with the number of soldiers and ships retained in his service, the names of the places which supplied them, and also the daily rates of pay, from 'the parcells of the accompte of Sir Walter Wentwagge, knight and Treasorer of the said howshould', 21 April 1344–24 November 1347.

ff. 35r–42v: Names and arms (in colour) of the chief captains who were with Edward III at the siege of Calais in 1347, with the numbers serving under each of them. Printed from another manuscript in E. R. Mores, Nomina et insignia gentilitia nobilium equitumque sub Edoardo I militantium: accedunt classes exercitus Edoardi III Caletem obsidentis (Oxford, 1749).

ff. 43r–v: Salaries of the officers at Berwick Castle; of the Middle Marches against Scotland, and of the West Marches.

ff. 44r–45v: Prince Henry's challenge at the barriers performed by him and six associates in front of the king, 6 January 1610.

ff. 46r–47r: Order of James I and VI's procession from the Tower through the City of London, 15 March 1604. Printed in J. B. Nichols (ed.) The Progresses, Processions and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First (London: J. B. Nichols, 1828), I, pp. 325–327.

ff. 48r–52r: Imperfect copy of a letter [from Robert Wingfield] to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, describing the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 11 February 1587. Printed (from Harley MS 290, f. 196) by J. Nichols, 'History of Fotheringhay', Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, no. 40 (1787), p. 63. Another account, endorsed by Burghley, is Lansdowne MS 51, ff. 99r–102r, printed by H. Ellis, Original Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd series, vol. III (London: Harding and Lepard, 1827), pp. 113–118.

f. 53r–58v: Treatise on the decay of English trade through Dutch competition, with suggestions as to the best remedies, addressed to James I, after 1611 (see Cotton MS Vespasian F IX, f. 257).

ff. 59r–61v: Copies of two letters from Charles Cornwallis to James I and VI [1614].

ff. 62r–63r: The service and ceremony to be performed at a christening where the queen or her deputy is present, from James I and VI's reign.

f. 64r: The form of the oath sworn by the queen's servants, from James I and VI's reign.

f. 64v: Fees due to the king's servants for making a knight, established by James I and VI in 1619.

ff. 65r–v: 'Fees due to be paid to divers of his maiesties officers by everie knight that was dubbed auncientlie." Followed by a table of fees for the creation of a baron, viscount, and earl.

f. 66r: 'An approved medisine for the bytinge of a madd dogge, either in mankind or in beastes'; with the note "per Mr Mathias.'

ff. 66v–67r: Memoranda of events, 1605–1621, including particulars of the marriage of Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home and Mary Sutton, daughter of Edward, 9th Lord Dudley, on 11 July 1605; the visits of Christian IV of Denmark in 1606 and 1614; and the great frosts of 1607–8 and 1621.

ff. 67v–68r: Names of the Knights of the Garter, 1607.