Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

offences shall deserve. Geven und' or signet at or

manor of St. James, the xxvith of Januarie, in the fyrst yere of our Reigne.

To our trustie and welbeloved Sr

Thomas Cawarden, knyght.

( 49.)

The Queen deputes Lord William Howard, Lord Admiral of England, into the Counties of Surrey and Kent, by letters given at St. James's 29th January, 1553, at night.

By the Quene.

We wyll and comand you, & every of you, to gyve credit unto or right trusty and well beloved Councellor the lord Wyll'm Howard, lord Admyrall of England, whom we have depetyed unto or shires of Surrey and Kent, for certayn or affayres comyttyd unto hym, requyring and chargyng you also to be unto the same or Councellor aydyng, assystyng, & obedyent, as ye tender or presence and the savetie of or parson royall, and wyll answer to the contrary at yor extreme peryll. Geven under or signet at or Manor of Saynt James, the xxvith of January at nyght, The fyrst yere of or reygne.

To o' Sherreif of o' Counties of Sussex & Surrey, and other Offycers, Mynysters, o' subjects in the sayd Counties & elsewhere, & to everye of them.

(50.)

Lord William Howard commands the Sheriff to seize Sir Thomas Cawarden's harness, weapons, horses, and munitions of war. The insurgents had already rifled the armoury of Sir Henry Sydney at Penshurst, during his absence at the Court. Sir Thomas Cawarden's adherence to the Queen was mistrusted, and his warlike stores it will be seen were formidable.

These be to comaund & charg you & ev'y of you furwth, uppon the sight herof, imediately take, carry, and convay away from the howse of Sr Thoms Cawarden, knyght, all such harnes, weapons, gonnes, muny cions of war, & horses, unto munycions such place & places wher it shalbe unto you approvyd, & that you wyll make answer for. And this my writyng shalbe unto you & ev'y of you a suffycient warrant & discharg agaynst the sayde Sr Thoms and all others in that behalf. Geven at Rygat the xxixth of January, anno primo D'ne Marie Regine.

To the Sheryffe of Surr' Justic's of Peace of the same, gentylmen, bayles (bailiffs), constables, and all other the Quenes lovyng subjects.

(51.)

On the same subject.

Mayster Sheriffe,

W. HOWARDE.

Because I was in dowte wyther I did put you in remembrance at Mr. Carden's house, that you should bring away the ordinaunce that is ther,

this ys to dessier you in any wyse to se that brought away. I writt to my lordes of the councell of all o'r doyings, and further that they shuld wryte to you whither you shuld bring all that stuffe, and who shulde receyve it of you, wch I doubt not but you shall receyve knowledg from them by nyght. I pray you also bryng away the rest of the horses that be ther, and so I byd you farwell. From my house of Ryegate this p'sent sonday wt hand of yo' assured ffrend,

To my very good ffrend Sir Thomas Saunders, Sheryffe of the Shyre of Surrey.

W. HOWARDE.

( 52.)

Sir Thomas Cawarden's Armoury.

Artillery, weapons, harneis, and munitions of warre, received from the Lady Elizabeth Carden, by the Sheriff of Surrey, to the Queen's use, 30 January 1533.

102 corseletts at 28s. the pece; 100 morys pikes at 3s. 4d.; 50 moryans with close eares at 8s.; 50 moryans with eares for hackbutts at 6s. 8d.; 20 stele collars at 3s. 4d. ; 22 horsemen's hedd peces at 13s. 4d.; 20 stele sadells at 16s. 30 pair of gantlets at 5s.; 6 pair of vambraces with polderns at 10s.; 4 velvet sadells and a horse harneis of vel vet £28.

20 shertts of mayle £20; 50 blacke corsletts £75; 26 whyte corsletts £38; 50 burgonetts £18; the Italyan burgonetts (number not specified) £16. 14s.; 30 pair of gauntlettts £5; 16 pair of cushetts (cuisses) £10.

Almayne Ryvetts with their furniture 54; 24 demy launces, 50 black bills 1s. 4d. each; 40 horseman's staves, coloured white and black, 46 light horseman's staves; 100 bowes of the best kynd (wych * bowes) 3s. 4d. each; 100 sheves of arrowes of the best kynd, cassyd in cases, at 28. 4d. (the sheaf); 100 pikes £16. 13s. 4d.; 20 corseletts; 100 sallets lackyng gorgets; black brigantynes of stele plate 40s. each, with their murryons 10s. each; white brigandines of stele plate 40s. each; plated jacks 9s. each; gilt partisans 13s. 4d. each; white ditto 5s. each; white halberts 5s. each; yellow javelyns with broad heads halberds, garnished with red, yellow, and silk tassells; 40 half hakes, 2 Spanish hand guns, one with a fiar lock (fire-lock) and the wrest (rest) to the same, the other playne, 2 demyhakes stocked, 34 without stocks, 2 bases in stocks, 2 chambers for bases, 16 great peeces of ordnaunce of yron, whereof 2 are chamber peeces, double bases wrought, double bases cast, a cast robenett of yron, double, single, and waggon base chambers, 50 black corseletts, 26 white, 8 lawnes, 3 grand guards, a dagge with a case, bender, and charges, 10 pair of moryan sleves, 1 dozen of old swerds, a little house with 10 jacks, another with certain fyles.

90 Almayne ryvetts,† a complete harnes graven, lackyng a gauntlett; another of whyte plate, lackyng shoes.

* Of the best kind of wych, the material for the bows of the common sort of archers. Ascham says it was very inferior to the yew. Toxophilus, Reprint, p. 144.

↑ What Almayne ryvet precisely was, none of the writers on ancient armour have, distinctly, instructed us. That the term was applicable to the whole suit of armour appears to be decided by a passage in Hall's Chronicle, which describes King Henry VIII. as apparelled in Almayne ryvet, crested, his vambrace of the same, and on his head a chapeau montauban (a steel cap, we

Horse caparisons.-A black velvet harness with gilt studs £6. 13s. 4d.; a jennet's ditto, fringed and tasseled

conjecture) with a rich coronal, the chapeau lined with crimson satten, and on it a rich broach with the image of St. George; wearing over his Almayne ryvet a surcoat of white cloth of gold with a red cross. See the Editor's Introduction to Stothard's Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, p. 7.

That Almayne ryvet was not the ordinary plate armour may be gathered from the distinction between them observable in this list. We may conclude that it was a defensive suit for the body, of German manufacture, composed of splints rivetted together. There is a document in the Loseley Collection which we shall, as the most apposite place, append to this note, which shews that the art of making body armour and offensive weapons was introduced into this kingdom from Germany by the care of Henry VIII. The paper has no date, but is evident of the reign of James the First; we transcribe it at length:

To the Honorable Assembly of the Commons of Englande, in the high Courte of Parliamente, the humble petic'on of the Armor makers, Gonne makers, and of the like Artificers, within the City of London and the suburbs thereof: Shewinge that whereas our late soveraigne Lord King Henry the eyght, out of his royall care for the goode of this Realme, did direct his gracious letters to certaine Princes in Germanie, for the sendinge over in this Realme of artificers of the foresayd like arts. But alsoe at their coming hither did give and allowe unto them lardge ffees during their aboad here in his realme, intending thereby that his Ma'ties subjects might learne of them the making of municion fitt for the warrs, that the future service of this realme might be sufficiently furnisshed with armor and weapons that should bee made within his realme. According to his Ma'ties sayd intention his Ma'ties subjects were so carefull in learning the sayd trades, that this realme, through their greate industry, has ever since bin better furnisshed with suffi

« AnteriorContinuar »