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Royal MS 18 B XXII

Record Id:

040-002107516

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002105724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0002f1

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Royal MS 18 B XXII

Title:

William Worcester, The Boke of Noblesse

Scope & Content:

The Boke of Noblesse, a tract encouraging Edward IV to go to war with France, citing historical precedents and quoting from several authors, particularly Christine de Pizan's Faits d'armes et de chevalerie, wrongly referred to here as the Tree of Battles (ff. 13r-v, 14v-16v, 28r-v). Written by William Worcester, secretary to Sir John Fastolf. Originally composed for King Henry VI in 1453 and later revised for Edward IV.

Imperfect, missing leaves between ff. 25 and 26 and ff. 33 and 34.

Extensive Latin and Middle English annotations and corrections in Worcester’s own hand suggest that this was his working copy. No other copies, including that presented to Edward IV, survive.

Contents:

f. 1r: pastedown with the words 'Edward [text erased] wych ys b-[text erased] bold'.

f. 2r-42r: William Worcester, The Boke of Noblesse.

ff. 42v-43r: book curse, a lyric, ownership inscriptions (f. 42v), pen trialling, and doodles, late 15th and 16th centuries.

f. 44: letter to Sir John Fastolf from John Appleton, captain of Le Pontdonné and La Haye de Puits, 31 May, La Haye du Puits, asking for a grant of one of his Normandy lordships, c. 1450. Middle French.

f. 45: letter from the bailiffs of Winchester to an unknown recipient, perhaps an Exchequer official, 3 May, Winchester, asking for a writ to compel the payment of dues, mid 15th century. Middle English.

f. 43 is blank.

f. 12* is a parchment stub.

f. 45**v once had a pastedown, now excised.

The colophon on f. 42r states that the manuscript was completed on 15 June 1475, but the erasure of Henry VI’s name on f. 1r and its replacement with Edward IV’s suggests it was begun earlier, during Henry’s first reign or his Readeption of 1470-71.

Decoration:

Large decorated red capital with green decoration (f. 1r). Decorated large capitals in red with red pen-flourishes. Pen drawings of 5 hands facing away from the text (f. 23r) and of a pillar (28r). Rubricated headings and initials. Red line fillers.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Medieval and Renaissance Women
Royal Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002105724
040-002107516

Is part of:

Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts

Royal MS 18 B XXII : William Worcester, The Boke of Noblesse

Hierarchy:

032-002105724[1669]/040-002107516

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1475

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Paper.

Dimensions: 285 x 205 mm (text space: 180 x 125 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1*-1***, 12*, 45*-45** + 76 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 1 at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half-leather binding, with the royal arms of George II gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.

Condition: Leaves have been trimmed, removing some of the marginalia (e.g. f. 6v).

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Symond Sampson, early 16th century (inscriptions, ff. 1***v, 42v).

Robert Saville, John Twychener, Richard Dickinson, Edward Jones of Clement's Inn, and Edward Banister, 16th century (inscriptions, ff. 35r, 42v).

John, 1st Baron Lumley (inscription, f. 1r), late 16th century.

Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

Publications:

William Worcester, The Boke of Noblesse, addressed to King Edward the Fourth on his Invasion of France in 1475, ed. J. G. Nichols (London, Roxburghe Club, 1860).

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 294-95

Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (eds), The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609 (London, 1956), no. 1024.

K. B. McFarlane, ‘William Worcester: A Preliminary Survey’, in England in the Fifteenth Century: Collected Essays (London, 1981), pp. 199-224 (pp. 212-16).

Catherine Nall, ‘Malory’s Morte Darthur and the Rhetoric of War’, Medium Aevum, 79:2 (2010), 207-24 (p. 222, n. 43).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

From George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 294-95:

'THE BOKE OF NOBLESSE compiled to the most hygh and myghty prince Kyng Edward the iiii ^th for the auauncyng and preferryng the comyn publique of the royaumes of England and of Fraunce' (this title, the colophon, and long marginal additions are in the hand of William Worcester, secretary to Sir John Fastolf): an epistle on the relations of England and France, with a view to the recovery of the English conquests by a fresh invasion, made originally, as appears from a passage on f. 21 b, in 1451, but revised by Worcester in 1475, as appears from the colophon, 'Here endyth thys epistle vndre correccion the xv day of June the yeere of Crist m ^l iiii ^c lxxv and of the noble regne of Kyng Edward the iiii ^the the xv ^ne'. Printed from this, the only, MS. for the Roxburghe Club, 1860, by J. Gough Nichols, who recognized some connexion with Fastolf, but failed to identify the hand of the reviser. For this see G. F. Warner's introduction to The Epistle of Othea to Hector, Roxburghe Club, 1904, where the authorship of both the earlier and later recensions is fully discussed and attention called to the connexion between the latter and Worcester's collections respecting the wars of the English in France and Normandy, printed from Lambeth MS. 506 by J. Stevenson , Wars of the English in France, Rolls Ser. 1864, ii, pp. [519]-[742], which form a sort of appendix of pièces justificatives to the present work. As to the original text, which includes considerable passages translated from Christine de Pisan's Faits d'armes et de chevalerie (here wrongly called the Tree of Batailes, the title of a work by Honoré Bonet, from which Christine borrowed, see 15 E. VI, artt. 10, 14), it is suggested that Stephen Scrope, Fastolf's stepson, may have had a hand in it. The words 'Edward' and 'iiii ^the 'in the title have been erased to substitute 'Harry' [? VI or VII], but the original reading has been restored (cf. somewhat similar changes made by Worcester's son in the Lambeth MS., where the dedication has been transferred from Edward V to Richard III). Leaves are missing after ff. 25, 33. Beg. 'First in the worship of the holy Trinite . . . . Here folowethe the evident examples and the resons of comfort'

Two paper leaves from an old binding contain:-(a) Original letter of John Appulton, captain of Le Pontdonné and La Haye du Puits, to Sir John Fastolf, asking for a grant of one of his seigneuries in Normandy, viz. either Pirou [near Lessay], which has been granted for 2,000 francs to Degory Gamel, who failed to pay, or Beaumont [? near Cherbourg], which also adjoins lands of the writer at Asnières' Reference is made to the recent loss of Granville [1450]. Dated La Haye du Puits, 31 May, s.a Fr. f. 44;-(b) The Bailiffs of Winchester to - [some Exchequer officer ?], asking for a writ to compel the farmers of awnage duties to pay their dues, without which the bailiffs cannot pay their own farm; Winchester, 3 May, s.a.[15th cent.]. Both these letters are printed by Nichols, op. cit p. lvi

Paper (with five vellum leaves, of which four are blank, from the old binding); ff. i + 45. Quarto. 111/4 in. x 81/4 in. Circ 1475. Gatherings of 12 leaves (iii ⁹). Sec. fol. 'lamentacions'. Attached to f. 1 is a scrap of purple skin with the words 'Edwarde iiii (?) wych ys' and in another hand (?) 'bold'. On f. i b is the name (15th-16th cent.) Symond Samson, on f. 35 (16th cent.) Robert Savyle. 'On f. 42 b much 16th cent. scribbling, including Symeon Sampson, Rycharde Dyconson, 'Edward Jones of Clementes in (sc. Inn), 'John Twychener ys boke he that stellys thys booke he shall be hangid a pon a hoke that wyll macke ys necke to brake and that wyll macke ys neck awrye', and 'A nyes wyffe and a backe dore makythe outoun (sc. often) tymys a ryche man pore'. Belonged also (f. 42 b) to Edward Banyster (cf. 7 D. III, &-c.) and (f. 1) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Not identified in the old catalogues'.