No. XXIV. (Talbot Papers, Vol. P. fol. 73.) THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. My very good Lord, AFTER my heartiest commendation to your good Lordship; whereas of late I had occasion to send up to the court, and then and there my servant, Elias Markham, had, among other suits to be made for me to my Lord Chancellor, one to know of him when he thought I should be discharged of my three pledges, Scots, one uncle to the Earl of Cassilis, and two his brothers; and to declare to my said Lord that since their being with me, that is for one whole year and a half, they have not received from my Lord of Cassilis, nor from any of their friends here, towards the finding of their apparel to the sum of twenty pounds sterling; so that I was constrained to give them both coats and gowns, and other things. To this my said Lord answered, saying that the Earl of Cassilis doth not remember his honor, and that it should be well done that I Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, K. G. by whom he had a base daughter, Anne, married to Edward Grey, Lord Powis; and Mary, born after marriage, wife to Thomas Stanley, Lord Monteagle thirdly, Mary, Queen Dowager of France, who brought him Henry, created Earl of Lincoln in his infancy, who died in his father's life time; and two daughters, Frances, married to Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, and afterwards, meanly, to Adrian Stokes; and Eleanor, to Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland. His fourth wife was Katherine, daughter and heir of William Lord Willoughby of Eresby, by whom he had two sons, Henry and Charles, who succeeded to his titles, and died of the sweating sickness on the same day, July 14, 1551. The Duke died at Guildford in Surrey, August 24, 1545, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor. should write thereof to your good Lordship praying you to take some pains to write to my Lord of Cassilis herein.* This is, therefore, my very good Lord, as entirely as I can, to pray you to take some pains to address your letters to the said Earl of Cassilis, advertising him what you hear, and that this touches his honor, forasmuch as they are so nigh of kin to him, and also pledges for him, to see that they lack no necessaries. Other things beside apparel I am content to bestow upon them, both for themselves and their horses, at my charge, which sundry ways by their being with me is not small; but my Lord of Cassilis must provide for the rest, or else, the winter coming on, they will lack many things. My good Lord, I am so bold of you as to desire you to take this pains because you have order and way to convey letters to the said Earl at your pleasure. And thus, my very good Lord, fare you heartily well. From Cawood, the 20th of August, 1554. Your Lordship's, heartily assured, EDWARD EBOR.† To my very good Lord, my Lord * Lord Herbert's account of the Earl's conduct to his pledges See Kennett's (Coll. Vol. II. 235.) is contradicted in every instance by this and a former letter. + Edward Lee, third son of Richard Lee, of Delce Magna, near Rochester, an estate which remained in the family till the middle of the last century. His education, begun at Magdalen College, in Oxford, was completed at Cambridge, where he took his last degrees, and soon after his removal from that university held the preferments of Archdeacon of Colchester, Prebendary of York and Salisbury, and Almoner to the King. He was employed by Henry in several important negotiations, particularly in an embassy to the Pope, at Bologna, on the nice subject of the marriage with Queen No. XXV. (Talbot Papers, Vol. A. fol. 147.) LORDS OF THE COUNCIL TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. AFTER our most hearty commendations unto your good Lordship. The Queen's Highness having this night assured advertisement from the King's Majesty, by Sir William Herbert, Knight, one of the gentlemen of his Majesty's Privy Chamber, that Boulogne* is now in the hand and possession of his Majesty, without effusion of blood, not doubting but that these tidings will be joyful to you, and all others there, hath willed us to advertise your Lordship with speed of the same; to the intent that your Lordship, giving thanks to Almighty God, and causing the like to be done by devout and general expressions in all the towns and villages of those North parts, should also with speed signify to all the Wardens of the Marches this great benefit of God, heaped upon us in such sort as we all are most bound to render most humble thanks unto him, and pray for the long continuance of our most puissant master, whom Almighty God long preserve. Your Lordship will also understand that yesterday arrived here Sir Peter Mewtas, and Thomas Bishop, with a full declaration as well of the incred * Henry arrived at Calais on the 14th of July, in great splendour, having crossed the channel in a vessel the sails of which were cloth of gold, and immediately sat down before Boulogne, which surrendered on the 14th of September. It was restored to the French in April 1550. VOL. I. F ible treason and falsehood of the Earl of Glencairn, and the Master of Kilmore as also of all The Earl of Glencairn had been sent to England in the preceding Spring, to conclude a treaty of marriage between the infant Queen of Scots and the young Prince, afterwards Edward VI., and had been induced to subscribe to certain articles, dictated by Henry, which were highly advantageous to the English interest in Scotland; but on his return, finding a new arrangement of politics at home, he suddenly became an enemy to all that Monarch's measures. As the breach of this contract immediately produced a war, and may be considered as the primary cause of continual disputes between the two nations during four successive reigns, it may not be improper to give a slight sketch of the state of affairs in Scotland at this precise period, as a general introduction to several succeeding papers, and to save the reader and myself the trouble of a number of notes which would otherwise be necessary. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and David Beaton, Cardinal, and Archbishop of St. Andrews, were at this time the most conspicuous, and perhaps the most different, public characters in that country. The Cardinal, presuming upon his long administration under James V., expected, after that Prince's death, in 1542, to have been appointed Regent; but the nobility, who hated him for his haughtiness and dreaded his great abilities, because they had Deen frequently applied to evil purposes, determined unanimously in favour of Arran, a man whose virtues were calculated for private life, and whose presumptive right to the succession seems to have been his only recommendation to their choice. The first act, however, of Arran's government was spirited; at the instance of his Parliament, he imprisoned the Cardinal upon an accusation of his having forged the late King's will, and thus fixed him in an opposition to which his turbulent humour was naturally inclined. But this charge was never proved; Beaton, after a short confinement, was released at the request of the Queen Dowager, under whose directions he had for some time headed the French party in Scotland; and, by a few strokes of a refined policy which had always distinguished him, aided by the intrigues of that Princess, turned the tide of popular favor to himself. The Regent, in the mean time, acted with a duplicity dictated rather by a timid spirit than by any dishonest principle: engaged in an unpopular negociation with the King of England for the marriage before mentioned; tempted by the splendid offers privately made by that Monarch, even of the separate sovereignty of a great part of Scotland; and awed, on the other hand, by the superior abilities and increasing power of his adversary, he concluded the treaty with Henry, and declared the Cardinal a traitor by proclamation; but within ten days other their proceedings in those parts; who were immediately dispatched hence to his Majesty's town of Boulogne, to inform his Majesty of the same. And therefore it may like your Lordship to write to the Lord Wharton to stay any more sending or travel for getting intelligence of that matter, assuring your Lordship that the like treason we think hath not been heard of; and therefore it shall be necessary that your Lordship write to all such places in those parts where any of the Scottish hostages do now remain, that special respect be had to the sure keeping of them, and that such annoyances be done, from time to time, to the enemies as may conveniently; in the doing whereof it shall, in our opinion, not be amiss that George Douglas be remembered, who hath not been behind for his after met the latter secretly, and gave himself up to the French interest. Beaton soon after prevailed upon him to make a public abjuration of the reformed religion, of which he was considered as the grand patron; and now, having enjoyed the most complete triumph over his imbecility, left Arran only the title of Regent, as an useful cloak for his own designs. The The Earl of Lennox, likewise a claimant of the succession, and therefore an avowed enemy to the Regent, had hitherto been a serviceable engine in the Cardinal's hands. By threatening to espouse this young nobleman's interests in opposition to those of Arran, he had terrified the latter into several concessions, and, having obtained them, treated Lennox with contempt offended Earl immediately appeared in arms, at the head of a body of undisciplined reformers; but having suffered his opponents to raise troops while he listened to insidious offers of treaty, his men abandoned him, and he fled to England, and became a voluntary dependant on Henry, who received him with open arms. At this period a war was commenced in the usual manner, by the incursions of the English garrisons on the borders, and on the third of May, 1544, the Earl of Hertford entered Scotland with a powerful army. |