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Harley MS 4243

Record Id:

040-002050080

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050080

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000307

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4243

Title:

Collection of historical tracts and letters from the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I and Philip II, and Queen Elizabeth I

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: List of payments.

f. 1r: 'The chardge of a toun of wine'.

f. 1v: 'The accompt of all the rentes and revenues of King Phillip yerelie due to him as they were given up Anno domini 1562'.

f. 1v: The great expenses of King Phillip Anno domini 1562'.

ff. 2r-2v: Lists of payments for the Exchequer and the Royal Household, beginning: 'The Councell and offices in the Marches of Wales fee of the kinge 1808li viijs iiijd'.

f. 3r: Epitaphs in English and Latin.

ff. 4v-10v: English and Latin tracts on coinage, exchange, and imposts, beginning: 'The abuse of the moneis with the discomodities thereby grewinge'; and including: 'A Conference of the Weightes Bolyon and Valewes of the money of England, and of the moneys of the lowe Cuntries with a comparison of the exchange used to and fro betwene the Burse and Antwarpe and Lombardstrete in London'.

ff. 11r-14v: 'A perswasion for all Christendome to ioyne against the Turk'.

f. 14v: 'Reasons to declare that the licence to be granted to strangers for 12000 clothes is not hurtfull but profitable to the comon wealthe'.

ff. 15r-16v: 'Towchinge hte procuringe of the Kinge of Scottes into her Majesties possession'.

ff. 17r-19v: 'A lettre written by a frenche Catholique ['A.D.M. the Frenche Catholique'] to the kinge of Navarre to perwade him to turne to the Apostolike and Romaine Churche'.

ff. 20r-21v: 'Concerninge the deteyninge and deliverie of the Bishop of Romes Legate'.

ff. 22r-22v: 'Instructions given by the Queenes Highnes unto her right trustie and welbeloved Cosen and Councellor therle of Bedford keper of her Prime Seale and her right trustie and welbeloved Lord ffitzwater presently sent as her highnes Embassadors to the Prince of Spayne for the purposes ensuinge given the xiijth of Marche 1553'.

ff. 23r-25r: 'A discourse by waie of Questions and answeres to the same affirmativelie and negativelie concernine the presente state of the lowe Contries upon the deathe of the Prince of Orange 1584'.

ff. 25v-26r: 'A Lettre from the Queen of Scottes to a papist, an Englishman beyond see'.

ff. 26r-26v: 'Instructions given by the King Majestie to Sir Philipe Hobbie [Philip Hoby (b. 1505, d. 1558)] knight one of his Majesties Prime Councell gent. of his Privie Chamber and Minister of his Ordinaunce, being sent to his majesties dere Sister and Cosen the Quene Dowager of Hungarie Regent for the Emperors in the base Cuntries'.

ff. 27r-34v: 'Allegacions against the surmised title of the Quene of Scottes and the favorers of the same'; with 'An answere to certen allegacions against the Title of the Quene of Scottes and the favorers of the same'.

ff. 35r-55r: 'A Communicacion or discourse of the Queen Highnes mariage debated betwene 4 gentlemen at [? Wonthall] in Essex, reported by Sir Thomas Smithe knight to his friendes neighboure frauncis Wyat gent. 1561: Aprilis primo'; featuring 'The Oration or tale of him who is after named Spitewed'; 'Philoxenus, Love-Alien his Tale'; 'Axemias or Home-Frends oration' [see Strype, The life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith (1698), passim].

ff. 55v-56r: 'A note of the Ecclesiasticall policie and the state of the presbiterie in the Churche of England at this daie for the manitenaunce of the true woorshippinge of god, suppression of Schisme and correction of vice and of the origine of the same'.

ff. 56r-59v: 'A discourse touchinge the Lowe Cuntreis [sic] and givinge aide to the same'; with a list of 'Reasons to perswade the unitinge of Holland and Zeland to the Crowne of England'.

ff. 60r-63r: 'A Discourse of Corporations'.

ff. 63v-65r: 'An opinion for the reducinge of the Coigne of the Realme to iijs iijd the ounce ssilver, and gould ratablie as it was afore the warres of Bolloigne'.

f. 65v: 'A brief Instruction for the better understandinge of the diversitie of the Exchaunge betwene Cuntrey and Cuntrie; which the Marchantes keape in great secreat, and many of them use it and understand not the ground thereof themselves'.

ff. 66r-66v: 'The cause of the great decaie and losse of the kinges majesties Revenues and of all the nobilitie and the redie remedie to redresse the same'; with 'The Sanderdes of the moneys of England and the waight of the same'.

ff. 67r-69v: 'A Discourse touchinge aides to be given to the Frenche Kinges .1589.'.

f. 69v (written upside down): A letter of recommendation for 'one Mr C a man woll studied in Phisicke' for the title 'Doctor in Phisicke', entitled: 'A noble mans desire to procure friendes for one, intendinge to procede Doctor'.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050080", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4243: Collection of historical tracts and letters from the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I and Philip II, and Queen Elizabeth I" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050080

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4243 : Collection of historical tracts and letters from the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I and Philip II, and Queen Elizabeth I

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4236]/040-002050080

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1584

End Date:

1594

Date Range:

c 1589

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 350 x 225 mm (text space: 295 x 155 mm).

Foliation: ff. 69 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated modern paper pastedown on f. [iv]recto (bibliographical notes); 1 unfoliated paper strip after f. 69, which served to cover text (written upside down) on f. 69v.

Collation: Indicated by catchwords; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: 16th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers; re-bound on 25 May 1967.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Samuel Morland [Moreland] (fl. ? early 18th century), owned the manuscript: according to Humfrey Wanley’s Diary, this is one of the five manuscripts that were acquired from Morland for the Harleian Library on 22 August 1724 (see Diary (1966), II, pp. 309-10, n. 2; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 244).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '22 August 1724' (f. 1r).

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

John Strype, The life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith, Kt., doctor of the civil law principal secretary of state to King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth : wherein are discovered many singular matters […] With an appendix, wherein are contained some works of his, never before published (London: Roper, 1698).

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), pp. 129-30.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1715-1726, pp. 309-10 n. 2.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 244.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England