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Harley MS 6368
- Record Id:
- 040-002052217
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002052217
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000899.0x0002d4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100155076655.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 6368
- Title:
- John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'A Treatise towchinge the Right title & intrest of the Most excellent princesse Marie, Queene of Scottland, & of the most Noble Kinge James, her graces sonn to the Succession of the Crowne of England'
- Scope & Content:
-
John Leslie [Lesley] (1527-1596), Bishop of Ross, was the leading polemicist of the right of Mary Queen of Scots to the English throne. His arguments were made in a number of printed versions in English, Latin, French and Spanish, and also survive in significant numbers of manuscript copies. There is another version of this particular tract in British Library, Stowe MS 272, and a riposte to it by the herald Robert Glover (one of two manuscript challenges to it by figures close to the Elizabethan regime), Stowe MS 273.
This is a manuscript copy of John Leslie, A treatise towching the right, title, and interest of the most excellent Princess Marie, Queene of Scotland, and of the most noble king Iames, her Graces sonne, to the succession of the croune of England ([Rouen], 1584 [printed by G. L'Oyselet]) (STC 1557; ESTC: S108494). (1584), published at Rouen and printed by G. L'Oyselet (STC: 15507; ESTC: S108494). It is written in English, with some brief Latin quotations. The book had previously been published in Latin as De titulo et jure Serenissimae Principis Mariæ Scotorum Reginæ, quo regni Angliæ successionem sibi juste vendicat, Libellus (Rheims, J. Fognaeus: 1580), which was in turn a revised version of 'A treatise touching the right, title, and interest of the mightie and noble Princesse Marie, Book 2 of the enlarged edition of A defence of the honour of the right highe, mightye and noble Princesse Marie Quene of Scotlande and dowager of France, 2nd edition (1571).
ff. 1r-v reproduce the text of the title-page and the subsequent verses dedicated to Mary and James, and it is from the published title-page that the date of 'Anno 1584' comes. It is possible that the manuscript copy may be a little later.
The manuscript text follows the published version and its sections. These include prefatory material which addresses the Emperor and kings and princes of Christendom (ff. 2r-4v) and to Queen Mary and James VI (ff. 5r-8v) and a preface containing the argument of the piece which concludes with a verse purportedly by 'T.V. English mann' (ff. 9r-12r). The Treatise itself follows (ff. 12v-61r), and is rounded off with and exhortation to the English and Scottish nations to 'ioyne to gether in one firme league of fast frindshipp and amytie' (ff. 61v-72r). Some of the marginal references have omitted or abbreviated.
The treatise is in one hand throughout. A marginal comment (not in the published version) has been added in another 16th-century hand: 'Designe of some to war up[on] Scotland upon the Match' (f. 68r).
At the rear of the volume a third hand has jotted down individual points from the text with the page references as a sort of very summary and selective index (ff. 72r-75r)
Where an elaborate family tree has been omitted 'Here is to folow a Table of the sayd Genealogie' becomes 'Here should Follow a table of all the descendentes from Wm. the Conqueror vnto our most gratious soueraigne Ladie Queen Elizabeth' (f. 19v).
Contents:
ff. 1r-72r. The treatise.
ff. 72r-75r: Summary jottings and page references in another hand.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002052217", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6368: John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'A Treatise towchinge the Right title & intrest of the Most excellent princesse Marie, Queene of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002052217 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 6368 : John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'A Treatise towchinge the Right title & intrest of the Most excellent princesse Marie, Queene… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[6373]/040-002052217
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100155076655.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1584
- End Date:
- 1584
- Date Range:
- 1584
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 200mm x 150mm (writing area: 200mm x 125mm).
Foliation: ff. 75 (plus one contemporary leaf at the front, two modern flyleaves at the front and three modern flyleaves at the back).
Script: 16th-century secretary hand.
Binding: British Museum.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (1694-1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Former External References:
- 156.C.16
22/V B
57g
6368 - Information About Originals:
- John Leslie, A treatise towching the right, title, and interest of the most excellent Princess Marie, Queene of Scotland, and of the most noble king Iames, her Graces sonne, to the succession of the croune of England ([Rouen], 1584 [printed by G. L'Oyselet]) (STC 1557; ESTC: S108494).
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London, 1808–12), III (1808) no. 6368.
Margaret F. Beckett, 'The political works of John Lesley, Bishop of Ross (1527-1596)' (Ph.D. thesis, University of St Andrews, 2002).
Margaret J. Beckett, 'Counsellor, Conspirator, Polemicist, Historian: John Lesley Bishop of Ross, 1527-1596', Records of the Scottish Church History Society, (2009), 1-22.
Peter Lake, Bad Queen Bess?: Libels, Secret Histories, and the Politics of Publicity in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
John Leslie, De titulo et jure Serenissimae Principis Mariæ Scotorum Reginæ, quo regni Angliæ successionem sibi juste vendicat, Libellus (Rheims, J. Fognaeus: 1580), reprinted in De vita & rebus gestis Serenissimae Principis Mariae Scotorum Reginae, Franciae Dotariae, ed. by Samuel Jebb, 2 vols (London, 1725: James Woodman and David Lyon), I, 37-116. The original Latin text.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)