maximè augeri videmus. Et colligitur totus hic exercitus nomine Marchionis Alberti Norinbergensis; cujus exercitus supremus dux est Christophorus Comes Aldenburgensis, secundus vero post eum Dominus de Warburg, nec non Walderdom. Colligitur autem non cum summa festinatione, sed singulis diebus quasi pedetetim et equites et milites confluunt. Sum et ego ad hunc numerum vocatus, sed aliquid gravius quidam moliuntur, quod adhuc sub penna latet, et occultum est. Spero tamen me hac de re brevi certiorem futurum, quod ubi factum fuerit, pro mea erga R.V. M. fide et obedientia cum omni submissione significabo. Quid vero ex hoc tumultu bellico eventurum sit, videbimus et experiemur suo tempore. Hæc, pro mea fide et obedientia erga V. R. M. breviter hoc tempore scribere volui: Rogoque cum omni submissione V. M, velit pristinam voluntatem et favorem erga me retinere. Ego vicissim me V. M. offero cum omnibus quæ possum et habeo: Et si regia V. M. periculum facere meæ obedientiæ voluerit, experietur me velle et debere, et corpus et omnia quæ habeo pro V. M. expendere. Postremo oro, et summis precibus contendo, quod si R. M. meam operam desideravit, uti regia M. id mihi significare dignetur; nihil enim tam arduum, etiamsi capitale fuerit periculum, quod non libenter sim nomine R. M. subiturus. Illud quoque silentio præterire non possum, quod sine ulla temporis ferè intermissione me conveniunt rei militaris periti, tribuni et milites, nobiles, proceres, et exercituum duces, incredibili desiderio scisci

tantes a me num regia M. eorum velit uti opera, fide et constantia, se noctes atque dies fore paratissimos, si qua in re possunt R. M. prodesse. Juramento quoque affirmantes, se nullius regis et principis castris libentius, quam V. M. militare, se etiam, modo cedere possit in R. M. commodum, non solum omnes facultates et divitias, verum etiam ipsam vitam in discrimen posituros, quo tandem divino adjuti consilio R. M. totique regno laudem, gloriam, decus et honorem, bellica sua virtute possint acquirere. Quod profecto, pro mea erga R. M. fide et obedientia R. M. cælare non potui, cum ob summum amorem, quem semper erga R. M. totiusque ejus regnum gessi, et adhuc gero, tum ut R. M. cognosceret qualem animum Germani duces, proceres, nobiles, equites et milites, erga R. M. et totum regnum gerunt. His commendo V. R. M. Deo Opt. Max. oroque ut vestram M. diu conservare velit incolumem, cum ad nominis sui gloriam, tum ad regni V. M. salutarem gubernationem. Datum Hamburgi, 6 Junii, Anno a partu Virgineo 1553.

V. R. M.

Obsequentissimus,

CONRADUS PENNY, Miles.

Serenissimo ac potentissimo Edwardo sexto nominis, Anglia, Galliæ, Hyberniæque Regi, Ecclesia Anglicana Hyberniæque summo defensori, Domino suo clementissimo.

MARY.

No. I.

(Cecil Papers.)

LORDS OF THE COUNCIL

ΤΟ

AFTER our hearty commendations. We must need be sorry now to write that which comes both sorrowfully from us, and shall, we well know, with the like sorrow be taken of you; but such is the almighty will of God in all his creations, that his order in them may not be by us resisted. In one word we must tell you a great heap of infelicity: God has called out of this world our Sovereign Lord, the 6th of this month; whose manner of death was such toward God as assures us his soul is in the place of eternal joy, as for your own satisfaction partly you may perceive by the copy of the words which he spake secretly to himself at the moment of his death. The disease whereof

his Majesty died was the disease of the lungs, which had in them two great ulcers, and were putrified, by means whereof he fell into a consumption, and so hath he wasted, being utterly incurable.

VOL. I.

Of this evil, for the importance, we advertise you, knowing it most comfortable to have been ignorant of it; and the same you may take time to declare unto the Emperor, as from us, which know assuredly that as his Majesty will sorrow with us and this realm the departure and loss of a Prince of such excellency, and so dear a brother and friend to him and his countries; not doubting but his Majesty will have in remembrance the ancient amity that has been always betwixt this realm of England and the house of Burgundy, and other his Majesty's dominions; for conservation whereof you shall assure him that there shall not be any lack found of our part, but always a readiness to observe and maintain the same, for the weal of both the nations.

TO THE FRENCH.

And in the end you shall declare that his Majesty's Ambassadors have here shewed unto us that which he had in charge from his Majesty, by his letters, touching the detection of certain practices of the Emperor intended with the Lady Mary, to the danger of this realm, for the avoiding whereof his Majesty, like a Prince of great honor, offers such help as he may conveniently; where surely his Majesty shews himself so worthy of praise and thanks, of us and all this realm, as we shall never forget this his great friendship in so difficult times, although we doubt not but that the estate and power of this realm shall, by God's goodness, prevail against all manner of practices

or attempts, either by the Emperor or any other, either foreign or outward enemies, whatsoever the same be.*

No. II.

(Talbot Papers, Vol. P. fol. 223.)

THE COUNTESS OF SHREWSBURY

TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY.

AFTER my most hearty commendations unto your good Lordship, the same shall be advertised that yesternight, as the Queen's Majesty came from even song, which was sung in the chapel by all the singing men of the same, with playing of the organs of the solemnest manner, her Highness called me unto her, and asked me when your Lordship rode towards the North; and when I had told her Grace, she held up her hands, and besought God to send you good health, and soon to see you again; and also prayed God to send you good success in her affairs in that country (with many other good and comfortable words towards your Lordship too long here to write) whereby I perceive her Highness to be somewhat doubtful of the quietness of that country. Wherefore, good

*These papers are evidently rough drafts of letters from the Privy Council to the English Ambassadors at the French and Imperial Courts. It should seem by a note of Bishop Kennett's on Sir John Hayward's history of the late reign that the Bishop had perused the former, or a copy of it, probably in manuscript, for I have not met with it in any printed collection. I prefer, however, the chance of republishing the paper to that of withholding from the curious any information on so interesting a subject.