Beschreibung:

ELIZABETH I, Queen of England (1558-1603). Letter signed ('Elizabeth R') to the Earl of Nottingham (Charles Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham), Palace of Westminster, 1 December 1600, one page, 188 x 295 mm , separate oblong address leaf ( 290 x 235 mm ), traces of seal, dispatch slits, contemporary endorsement (worn at upper and lower edges affecting the 'b' of the signature and the flourish, and about 8 words in the last 3 lines of text, strengthened on verso, address leaf worn); and a copy of a letter, in a contemporary secretary hand, from Elizabeth I to Sir Henry Sydney [Sidney], Rycott, 4 September 1570, integral address panel, contemporary endorsement (presumably by the recipient) and annotations, 1½ pages, folio . An order to the Earl as Lord Lieutenant of Surrey for troops to be levied for the continuation of the suppression of the Irish rebellion. 'Right trustie & wellbeloved Cousin & Counsaylor ... it is well knowen to the world that we have very largely exhausted o[u]re own treasure and often putt our loving subjectes to the charge of Levyes for supressing of the rebellion in Ireland ... now that it hath pleased God to blesse us in this summer service with so good success against those unnatural rebels, as we do now perceave that the corces already taken shall be but for a tyme well followed, we shall neyther be forced to trouble our people extraordinarily, not so much spend o[u]r owne treasure hereafter ... [we have] so proportioned the numbers as we doo now recommend you only to levye within our countie of Surrey the number of fifteene men'. The letter continues with further persuasive comments about the reasonableness of the levy. Despite the optimistic tone of the letter, the rebellion begun by the Earl of Tyrone in 1595 was not finally crushed until 1603. The growing fear of support reaching him from Spain increased the urgency of sending reinforcements to Lord Mountjoy, the present Lord Deputy. Sir Henry Sidney (father of Sir Philip Sidney) was Lord Deputy in Ireland from 1565-1571. The Queen's instructions refer to an indenture to be made between him and Edmund Duff, substituting an annual rent for the 'bonnaught of Kinshellagh' [a tax for quartering the 'gallowglass' or soldiery] in Wexford, also reserving the castle of Ballymartyr for the president of Munster, referring to the impost and to laws for 'marking lether' [tanning]. (3)