Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Contemporary manuscript copy of a letter : to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland [John Maitland], ca. 1587.

BIB_ID
283985
Accession number
MA 289
Creator
Walsingham, Francis, Sir, 1530?-1590.
Display Date
ca. 1587.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1906.
Description
1 item (17 p.) ; 29.9 cm
Notes
Letter mentions Philip II of Spain and his ambassador to England, Don Bernardino De Mentoza.
Manuscript transcribed by two hands; title in mixed hand. Pages ruled in red and with catchwords throughout.
Watermark: Pot with one handle, letters IQQ inside, with crescent moon at top. Two variants present. Page 5. 283985wm_MA289_p5_WM_beta
Watermark: Pot with one handle, letters IQQ inside, with crescent moon at top. Two variants present. Page 7. 283985wm_MA289_p7_WM_beta
Provenance
From the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 4907); John Scott sale (London, Sotheby's, March 1905, lot 1435) to Quaritch; purchased by Pierpont Morgan from the London dealer J. Pearson & Co. in 1906.
Summary
Concerning potential retaliation by James VI and I against England in response to the recent beheading of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. Expressing sorrow at any potential "alienac[i]on in the kinge your Sou[er]eignes mynde and of that people from the Amitie of this Realme" (p. 1); advising that it would "bee everye waie best for his Maiestie to forbeare such a desperate and violent Course as maye render him subiecte to soe manie hazards and inconveniences where on the other side Carryeinge [sic] himselfe w[i]th that moderac[i]on that becometh a Prince of his perfections and educac[i]on and is necessary in this remediles accident" (p. 7). Also hinting that "the advancem[en]t of such a one to this Crowne who [would be] soe much the more mightie by the Vnion of the two Crownes" (p. 10), and advising that "it shall be the more his for honor assuredly, to show howe [being shee is nowe deade,] he Can modderate his passion by ... reason" (p. 17).