Harley MS 530

This manuscript is a miscellany largely containing early modern transcripts from medieval historical works, mostly dating to the second half of the 16th century. Several entries were copied by the antiquaries John Stow [Stowe] (b. 1524/5, d. 1605) and William Camden (b. 1551, d. 1623). However, the manuscript also contains several items that were copied in the 2nd half of the 15th century and 1st half of the 16th century.

Contents:

f. 1*recto: A title inscription: ‘Severall collections of Mr Camdens and Mr Stowes, concerning the Historie of England ( & Perhaps of Sr Hen. Savil &.)’; written by Simonds D’Ewes.

f. 1r: A letter of Henry Savile to John Stow, 21 May 1592 (with a largely crossed out text in English by John Stow on f. 1v).

ff. 2r-2v: Extracts from a chronicle (‘ex Chronico de Dunmowe’), beginning: ‘Anno domini 453 the Englyshmen came fyrst into England’.

f. 3r: An order of Queen Elizabeth concerning theft from parish churches, beginning: ‘The qwene majestie, hearinge credibly by reporte, that certayne lewde persons, under pretence of executing Comissions for inquiries to be made, for lands concealed, contrary to his maiesties meaninge, chalenged lands, stocs of money, plate, etcaetera lettyng not also to make pretence to the belles leade, and othar suche things belonging to parishe churches or chaples, hir maiestie meanynge spedily to withstand suche manner and unlawfull practices’; dated 13 February 14 Elizabeth I; copied by John Stow.

ff. 4r-4v: A list, entitled: ‘.1601. The duke of biron togethar with the names of the principall noblemen and gentlewomen that accompany hym’; copied by John Stow.

ff. 5r-11v: Extracts from a chronicle, continuing those on ff. 2r-2v, with another reference to ‘Dunmowe’ (f. 10r) and a name (not transcribed) with the date ‘1579’ (ff. 8r and 10r), beginning: ‘Kyng henry after or at the battell of Lewes was taken in a wyndmyll by Symon de mountfort’; continuing until the year 1312.

ff. 12r-12v: A fragmentary account of a Fairy Banquet in a Yorkshire hill, based on William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum. A Yorkshireman, who discovered the banquet, took a cup ‘made of matter [un]knowen, of a strange colore, and rare forme’. It was given to King Henry I, passed on to Scottish kings David and William, and finally King Henry II.

f. 13r: Extracts ‘Out of William of Croylande’.

f. 13v: Extracts ‘Out of a Boke of the lyfe of Earle Walden [Waltheof of Northumbria] wryten by a muncke of Croilande Abbey, that lyved before William of Croylande’.

f. 14v: A description of a miniature Bible, written by Peter Bales (bap. 1547, d. ? 1610), that fitted inside a walnut, beginning: ‘A most strange and rare piece of worke brought passe by Peter Bales, an Englishman, a Clerke of the Chauncery of the proofe and demonstracioun of the Whole Bible to be written by hym everie word at length within an English Wallnut no bigger then a hennes egg’; written in 1586/7 [’29 R. Elizabeth’].

f. 15r: Historical notes, beginning: ‘Rex confirmed the gift of Richard basses and [...] his wyfe to the Canons of .s. Johannes baptist de landa by them founded for the soule of Rex William father to .h.’; copied by John Stow.

f. 15r: A list of houses of the Gilbertine Order (‘houses of Sempringham’); copied by John Stow.

f. 15v: An account of a wife who tried to falsely accuse her husband: ‘The xixth day of January Thomasys the wyfe of Will[iam] [...]rlett of the parishe of St mary Aldermanbury in london [...] conspyringe her husbondes death practizad with [o]ne Arthure Santford a boy of thage of x yeres falsely to accuse her syd [sic] husbond of [...] intendynge therby to have caused hym to be indyted of ffelony’.

ff. 16r-18v: ‘A searche mayd in and about the Tombe of the blessed father St Dunstane Archbishop of Canterbury at the commaundment of the Reverend Father and Lorde L William Warham Archbyshop of Canterburye, and Thomas Goldstone doctour of divinytye and moste careful Pastour of the saime Churche in the yeare of our Lorde 1508. the 22th day of Aprill’ .

ff. 19r-30v: Some (misplaced) fragments of the History of King Henry V; perhaps a translation of Titus Livius de Frulovisiis.

ff. 31r-38v: Notes and fragments of English History, written partly by John Stow, partly by others; relating to the times of Richard the II, Henry VI, and other kings.

ff. 39r-53r: Notes and fragments of the History of King Edward II and Edward III, partially written by John Stow.

f. 54r: A description of the imprisonment, torture, and execution of the Carthusian monks of the London Charterhouse in 1535, beginning: ‘In the ere of ouer lorde .1535. were xviij of the charterhouse [...] for the defendynge of the liberty of the cherche here in ynglande throughe every house of london : all condempnid for ther ryght : of the which vij were bounde[n] to hurdells and soo drauwyn troughe the citty off london unto the open place of execution of the which thes are there names’.

ff. 55r-55v: Historical entries for the years 1294 and 1295, ending with the execution of Thomas de Tuberville.

f. 56r: An account of how Pope Boniface VIII supplanted Pope Celestine V, reigned like a tyran, and ate his own flesh while in prison; with reference to John Gower [Confessio Amantis] as a source.

ff. 56r-56v: A list of the ‘heresis whereof Johan Wecklef was condempned for takyn owt of Cronica Cronicarum’.

ff. 56v-57r: An account of the death and burial of Martin Luther, 1545.

f. 57r: A description of a ‘monstrous fish’ found on the shore of Grimsby in Lincolnshire, in 1563, beginning: ‘In the monthe of december 1563 was drevyn on the shore at grymsby in lyncolneshire a great and monsterus fisshe being in length xix yerdis his tayle 15 fote brode and the length of 6 yeris’

ff. 58r-60v: Historical entries for the years 1269 to 1294 collected out of ‘Eversden’, probably the chronicler John Eversden (fl. 1294-1315).

ff. 61r-61v: Historical notes touching on Dover Castle and Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent.

f. 62r: A copy of a royal letter concerning receiving minstrels, messengers, and archers in one’s house ‘yeven at langley the syxt daye of August in the .9. yere of our reigne’; copied by John Stow.

f. 62v: ‘Of the wardes of Dover castell’.

ff. 63r-64r: Historical notes for the years 1261 to 1266, collected out of the chronicle of John de Taxster (fl. 13th century).

ff. 65r-66v: Historical entries for the years 1296 and 1297.

ff. 67r-68v: An account of the green children of Woolpit; excerpted from William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum; followed by other marvellous events, including an account of a quarry in which two dogs were found in a hollow stone and a toad with a gold chain, followed by the beginning of the Fairy Banquet, which continues on ff. 12r-12v.

ff. 69r-69v: Historical entries for the years c. 180 and 1189, taken from Ralph of Coggeshall (fl. 1207, d. 1226)’s Chronicon Anglicanum.

f. 70v: A list of ‘Raufe Coggeshall of the Dukes of Normandy and Kynges of Englande’.

ff. 71r-71v: An account of the Second Barons’ War in 1264.

ff. 72r-76v: Historical entries relating to the period 1065-1069.

f. 76*recto: An autograph note from William Camden to John Stow, asking to borrow some abbey foundations.

ff. 77r-78v: William Camden’s autograph emendations apparently to Stow’s Survey of London.

f. 78v: Entries of church donations: ‘William Copland taylar, and andrew fullar mercer wardens of bon churche in chope receyved of william Tiksill executor of Robart hardynge deceased in part of payment of .xl. pownde by hym geven to the steple building’; copied by John Stow.

ff. 79r-80r: The Office of a King, with the Epistle of Pope Eleutherius to King Lucius.

ff. 81r-94r: William Camden’s copy of passages out of Roman and Greek writers concerning Britain.

ff. 95r-95v: William Camden’s autograph draft of a character of Henry VI, beginning: ‘Thus ended this Kinge his transitorye Life’.

ff. 96r-100r: The succession of English kings from Brutus to Henry VI, in Latin.

ff. 100v-103r: Succession of the Kings of the Heptarchy.

ff. 103v-104r: The succession of Scottish Kings from the time of the Conquest to Edward Balliol, in Latin.

ff. 105v-110v: London Chronicle for the period 1547-1564, written by a Protestant merchant.

f. 111r: A few inscriptions, including: ‘[...] Croniclis Brevatlu:’ and ‘Croniks’ [sic].

f. 111v: A short chronicle in Latin, beginning: ‘Anno a creacione mundi 4077 Annis brutus venit in anglia[m]’; and ending in ‘1349 . in anglia sunt maxima mortalitas homini’.

f. 111v: A short chronicle in English, beginning: ‘The yere 140 the fynding of the Rode of the northedore of Powlis at london in the grete flode of Thamyse bi lucie the first kyng cristen in Inglond’; and and ending with ‘The yere 1381. In In the fest of Seynt basill was a gret Risyng thorough the comons of ynglond’.

f. 112r: Historical notes on early medieval English kings and bishops; with an addition by John Stow.

f. 112v: A crossed out English note on work done on York Minster in 1360.

f. 113r: A table with English kings from William the Conqueror to Edward III.

f. 113v: Notes on English kings and bishops.

ff. 114r-114v: A fragment of an account book in Latin from the collegiate chapel of Windsor, recording benefactors such as William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester (1366-1404), and Maud de Ufford (b. 1345/1346, d. 1413), Countess of Oxford; perhaps written in the 2nd half of 15th century.

ff. 115r-118v: Part of short annals of London in Latin and English, including a list of the mayors; written in the (?) early 16th century.

ff. 119r-120v: Memoranda, written in 1538-1539, ‘that one thorsday the viij day of may in the yere of owr lord m. v. c xxxix was made a muster in london suche a mouster seyn in no kynges day that eny man can tell of’; ‘that Mr Wylliam fforman that tyme beyng maier of london with the counsell of the chamberleyn and of the allderman of the warde of dowgat’; ‘that one wensday the xxij day of may in Anno Domini 1538 ffryer forest of grenewyche [John Forest (b. 1471, d. 1538)] a doctour of dyvyn was brent in smythe ffeld’ ; ‘that one monday the ix day of dessember the yere afore seyd Wi[lliam] my lord markys of excetar and my lord Mownttegws and sir edw[in] nevell a knyȝght they all ware behedded’; and ‘that kyng harry the eyȝght cawsy[d] a proclemacyoun to be made in the Cytte of london for all maner of straynegers commyng and goyng’, dated to 1539.

ff. 121r-121v: A fragment concerning the order of the making of a Knight of the Bath, beginning: ‘Governers take their maisters oute of the bathe and laie hyme softelie in his bede to drie’; written in the late 15th or early 16th century.

ff. 122r-122v: ‘Rumsays Articles agaynst the Prechars’; copied by John Stow.

f. 123r: A passage out of Leo Africanus; how the English besieged the city of ‘Arzilla’ [Asilah] in Morocco; written by William Camden.

f. 123v: The name of ‘Waltar mordon [...] fishemongar maior’; copied by John Stow.

f. 124r: An English note concerning the foundation of Embsay Priory, North Yorkshire, attributed to William fitz Duncan and Alice, daughter of Robert de Romille, his wife, and its subsequent translation to Bolton Priory; followed by an incomplete record of a foundation by William le Gros, Earl of York, and Cicely, Lady of Skipton, his wife; written in the early 16th century.

f. 124v: An English note on Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, 1518; written in the early 16th century.