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ELIZABETHAN ARMORIAL, Nobility of England , in English, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
ELIZABETHAN ARMORIAL, Nobility of England , in English, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [England ca 1580 and ca 1616] 325 x 235 mm. 100 leaves, including 22 blanks, written in an English secretary hand with around 535 FULLY EMBLAZONED COATS-OF-ARMS OF THE PEERS AND RULERS OF ENGLAND, usually four to a page but the monarchs' shields larger and with full armorial bearings, foliated in an early 17th-century hand to f.67 to correspond with the added Indices (ff.90v-92v) of monarchs, with their accession dates, and the peers ennobled until 1578 (ff.64-65 with some spotting, small tears in upper and lower margins of f.67 and in lower margin of f.67, water-staining to upper edges of first 8 leaves and at end, occasional inconsequential spots and smudges). Late 16th-century panelled calf gilt with a central block of confronted cornucopias and at the corners smaller cornucopia blocks and a small hatched tool, the central device with the letters S I F, flat spine with later title and MS 20, presumably the shelfmark of the Library at Wrest Park (slight cracking at joints, small split at top of upper joint, minor rubbing, small surface cratches and stains, 3 wormholes in lower cover, hinges split, lacking ties). Provenance: Armorial bookplates of Anthony Grey, 11th Earl of Kent dated 1702, the year of his death, and Thomas Philip II Earl de Grey of Wrest Park. Thomas Philip Earl de Grey succeeded to the title of his aunt, a descendant of Anthony Grey and inherited Wrest Park, and presumably this book, from her; acquired from Bernard Quaritch, 1973. A HANDSOME ELIZABETHAN MANUSCRIPT IN AN ELABORATE CONTEMPORARY BINDING. As originally written and painted the armorial gave, in chronological order of their creation, the peers of England from the time of the Norman Conquest until around 1575: it starts with Edgar Atheling, heir to Edward the Confessor (f.1) and continues until Henry Cheney who was created Lord Cheney in 1572 (f.67v). The volume opens, on one of the leaves originally left blank at the beginning, with the armorial bearings of Elizabeth I, still with the Tudor supporters of a lion and a dragon. This appears to be an addition made at the same time as the continuation of the manuscript to include the nobility created in the reign of Elizabeth's successor, James I of England and VI of Scotland. This opens with James's coat of arms (f.69), and continues with entries on the peers up to Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in 1608 (f.74). These additions must postdate this creation, however, because the first biographical note on Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales, records his death in Whitehall (1612) and that of his brother, the future Charles I, records that he was currently Prince of Wales and Earl Palatine of Chester, titles he was given in November 1616. One extensive and informative insertion, perhaps indicative of its early ownership, is the entry added at the end of the Elizabethan section in the later hand (f.68): it which gives the arms and biography up to around 1608 of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham from 1597, and Lord High Admiral of England under both Elizabeth and James.