Harley MS 78

This manuscript is a composite miscellany of various 15th- and 16th-century English texts, predominantly letters, historical and heraldic texts and poems.

Contents:

f. 1r-v: Opinions of Lords on the question 'how goodd myght be had for the settinge forthe of the armes in to Normandye and Guyen'.

ff. 1v-2v: Charges against Hugh Despenser, entitled ‘The Artycles of Ateyndor ageinste Hugh le Spencer in the xvth yeare of kinge Edwarde the thirde’.

f. 2v: A note based on Domesday Book, ‘A note owt of the booke of Domesday of suche names conteyned therin, which be leste at this daye, and in what sheeres their landes laye’.

f. 3r: Pierce the Ploughmans Crede (fragment), beginning ‘And a [w]aited on that wold how wondirly bilt’.

ff. 3v-4v: A letter of Edward IV to his nobles (headed ‘By the kyng’) concerning the invasion of Scotland, beginning ‘Right trusty and welbeloved we grete you wele and where it ys soo that after long contynued Warre and divisyoun bitwene this our Royalme of Enngland and other Realmes and Countres’.

ff. 5r-6v: A declaration of Thomas Wyatt to King Henry VI concerning charges of treason, entitled ‘A Delaration made by Sir Thomas Wiatt Knight of his Innocence beinge [...] uppone the falce accusation of Doctor Bonarde Bishope of London made to the Councelle the yeare of oure Lorde 15 [sic]’

ff. 6r-15r: A declaration of Thomas Wyatt to his judges in his trial for treason, entitled ‘To the Judges after the Indictemente and the evidence’.

f. 15r: Anthony St Leger’s poem on Thomas Wyatt, entitled ‘Sir Antonie Sent Lenger of Sir Thomas Wiatt’.

f. 15v: Epitaphium Thomas Wiat, beginning ‘Wyatt restethe here that quicke cowlde nevere reste’.

ff. 18r-23r: The testament of Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy, [dated to 1527], entitled 'The Testament of my Lorde mountioyse [sic]'.

ff. 16r-17r: Account of expenses of Edward III’s attack on France in 1346, entitled ‘Kynge Edwarde the iij^d his viage into ffraunce Normandye and the wynninge of Calyce’; stated to be ‘The Coppie here of was founde at Peterburrow wryttyne in an aunctiente hande with rede and blacke ynke’.

ff. 24r-24v: A letter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to the Royal Council during his imprisonment in the Tower of London, entitled ‘The Erle of Surrie to the Lords of the Councelle at such tyme as he was in the tower’.

ff. 25v-26r: The epitaph of Anthony Denny, beginning ‘The Epitaphe of Sir A. Dennie’.

ff. 27r-30v: Thomas Wyatt, a collection of short poems, ballads, riddles, and an epitaph for Thomas Gravener, beginning ‘Nature þat gave þe bee so fatt a grace’.

f. 31r: Blazon of the arms of English Nobles (French), untitled.

f. 31r: Blazon of arms of nobles knighted at the Battle of Bosworth, entitled ‘knyghts made at the batell of Redmore’ (French).

f. 31v: Blazon of arms of nobles knighted by Henry VII, entitled ‘The names of the knyghts made by our Soverayn Lord Kyng Henry the vij’.

ff. 31v-32r: Blazon of the arms of English nobles, entitled Vocabulorum quondam [sic] exposicio wryth (French).

f. 32v: Fragment of an account of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, with the Pope (French).

ff. 33r-33v: The names of nobles kept as prisoners at Caerlaverock Castle, entitled ‘Le Nobles homez qui estoyent a la Sege du Carlaverok’.

ff. 34r-34v: The Names of nobles taken prisonerat the Battle of Gravelines, entitled ‘The Names of the prisoners which were taken by Gravelyn the 13 die Julij Amnno 1558’.

ff. 35r-52v: The Libel of English Policy [‘B’ Text, 1st version], beginning ‘Here begynnyth the Prologe off the Byble of Englysshe polecy’.

ff. 53r-53v: The Libel of English Policy [‘B’ Text, 1st version], fragment.

ff. 54r-69r: The Libel of English Policy [‘A’ Text], beginning ‘The trewe processe of English Policy’.

ff. 69v-72r: A poem on the kings of England, from William the Conqueror to Henry VI, beginning ‘At Westminster William crownyd was’.

ff. 74r-77v: The Lady Prioress (here attributed to ‘Lydgate’), beginning ‘O gloryus God oure governer, glad in all thys gesttyng’.

ff. 77v-79r: John Lydgate, A Ditty against Haste, beginning ‘All hast ys edyus where as dyscrecyoun’.

f. 80r: Doctrina et Consilium Galienis, ‘Onys a day / and twyes a day / Thryes a wook, And twyes a yeer / Onys a day [t]at is to seyne / Charge and bidde [t]y wyff.

ff. 80r-82r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Compleynt unto Pite, beginning ‘Pitye whiche [t]at I have sough so yore’.

ff. 82r-83v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Balade of Pite or A Compleint to his Lady, beginning ‘[t]e long nightes whane every creature’.

ff. 84r-85v: Memorandi of the Clopton family, Suffolk.

f. 86r-v: A poem on the Ten Commandments, beginning ‘To kepe well Crystes Comaundement’.