Maister with all the rest of his company have passed a long and a paynefull Journey in sauftie without perishing of horse or man, thanks be to God, as through the realme of Fraunce by Lyons, and soo by Avinion,a and from thens to a Castell in the borders of Spayne called Salsees, the strongest Castell (in myne opinion) in the World; and thence to Barsilona, and soo passed Catilone into Arragone, where we came into a Citie called Seragoza, where we were extremely handeled, as though we had been Jewes. All our cariage was had home to the serch house, where all my Master's apparail and the gentlemens, with the rest of the servaunts were serched to th❜uttermost. They made us to pay for all things that were unworne. There escaped not somoch as a dossen of points. b They be the spitefullest people in the world. We could have no favor amongs them. My Master told hem that he wold pay no custume; for it was limited that every Ambassador shuld goo and come fre in all places christened. All that wold not help. He told them he wold ride in post to th'Emperor without his commission, and declare unto him, he being an Ambassador, after what sorte he was handeled. They answered therunto and saide, that if Christ or Sanct Fraunces came with all their flock they shuld not eskape. Th'Emperes, but nowe of late, sent a Post to th'Emperor at Barsilona, with a litle Floure of silke, of her oune making, enclosed in a box, which she wold

have had conveyed secretely and as sone as the Post to the said Seragosa was come, they came to serch him. He wold have given them a hundereth crownes to have passed uncerched. They would not under a thousande; and whenne they had sene it, the thinge itself was not worth a cople of ducketts. They set as much by th'Emperors Lettres as they doo by myne.

From thens we came to Castila where we be nowe; whiche we shall praise as we finde hereafter. We have founde it veray good hitherto.

At my Master accesse in post to this Towne th'Emperor caused his officers to dislodge a Countie a for my Master, which is the fairest lodging in the Town next to th'Emperors.

Yesterday at after none th'Emperor sent for my Master, where he was gently entreteigned, nat with pompe and setting furth of himself, but with sobre and discrete words, like a wise man. Other newes we have none here worth the writing, but that I pray God sende you muche worship, with good lief and long, to the pleassour of God. From Valedolide the xxiijth. of June.

Your moost humble servant

To the right worshipful and my singuler good Mr. Mr. Thomas Wriothesley oon of the Clerks of the Kings moost honorable Signet.

a a Count.

JOHN BRIERTONNE.

LETTER CVI.

Eleanor Countess of Rutland to the Lady Lisle; a Letter of thanks and kindness.

[MS. COTTON. VESP. F. XIII. fol. 90. Orig.]

Eleanor, daughter of Sir William Paston of Paston in the County of Norfolk, knt. was the second wife of Thomas earl of Rutland.

My verie good Lady, in my right hertie maner I recommende me unto your good Ladishipe, signifying the same that I have received frome youe, by maister Hussey, a Pipe of Gascoigne Wyne and two barrells of heringe, for the whiche and others your manyfold kindnes heretofore shewed I rendre unto youe my hertie thankes, assuring the same that if there be any pleasure that my Lorde or I can doo for youre ladishipe, here or elswhere, ye shall have the same accomplished to the best we can accordingly. And where ye be verey desirous to have youre daughter maistres Basset to be oon of the Quene's Graces maids, and that wold I shuld move hir Grace in that behalf, thies shalbe to doo your Ladishipe to wite that I perceive right well the Kingis Highnes pleasure to be suche that no more Maids shalbe taken in, untill suche tyme as some of them that nowe be with the Quenes Grace

ye

be preferred. Albeit if ye will make some meanes unto mother Lowe, who can doo asmoche good in this matier as any oon woman here, that she maye make some meanes to gete your said doughter with the Quenes said Grace: and in soo doing I think ye shall obtene your purpos in every behalf. And I for my partie shall doo the best I can to preserve here, for I wold be right glad thereof bothe for the greate honestie that is in hir. And thus our Lorde kepe your Ladishipe in helthe. At the Corte the xvij. daye of February.

Your Ladiships assured

To my very good Lady my Lady Lislie her good Ladyshipp, these be yeven.

ELYNOR RUTLAND.

LETTER CVII.

John Coke to Master Thomas Cromwell reporting a satyrical exhibition at Barrow reflecting on King Henry and Queen Anne.

[MS. COTTON. GALBA..B. X. fol. 40. Orig.]

The respect of the English nation for Anne Boleyn's memory is as Queen. The extraordinary distinction which was shewn to her as a

child brought her very early into notice. Lingard conceives that it alone gave rise to the tale that she was in reality Henry's own daughter by the lady Boleyn, a story which Cardinal Pole would not have failed to have told if it had been true. Henry's profligacy toward MARY, the elder sister of Anne Boleyn, he has not spared, but reproached him in his Treatise" Pro Ecclesiastica Unitatis defensione," addressed to Henry himself, and written by his express desire, a first with seducing her, and then with retaining her as his mistress. The Work is rare; the reader shall be possessed of Pole's own words:

"Si uxorem idcirco reliquisses, quia legem tibi persuasisse nefarium illud et abominandum matrimonium pronunciare, an non maxime operam dares, ne te iterum tali matrimonio contaminares? an non ab iis personis penitus abstineres, quæ in eadem, ac deteriore etiam quam prior uxor, causa essent. Quid ea, quam tute tibi in repudiatæ locum consociasti, cujusmodi tandem est ? An non soror ejus est, quam tu et VIOLASTI primum, et diu postea CONCUBINE LOCO apud te habuisti? ILLA IPSA est. Quomodo ergo nos doces, quam refugias ab illicitis matrimoniis? an tu hic legem ignorabas, (i. Cor. 6.) quæ non minus profecto vetat, sororem te ejus ducere, cum qua ipse unum corpus factus sis, quam ejus cum qua frater ? SI UNA DETESTANDA EST, ALTERA ETIAM DETESTANDA." b

The precise date of Henry's misconduct with MARY BOLEYN is not preserved.

ANNE must have returned to England about or before 1526. When Mary Queen of Louis the Twelfth came back as a widow, Anne went into the train of Claude Queen of Francis the First, where she remained till the rupture between the two kingdoms.

After the detail here given, the reader will not wonder that Cromwell should be informed that his Master was held in derision at Antwerp.

RIGHT honorable Sir, and my right syngulier and especiall good Maister, after moost humble recomendacions precedyng, as to your right honorable Maistership apperteyneth. It shall please the same to understonde

■ -" in suis literis præcise imperavit, ut meam sententiam scripto testarer." Reg. Poli Apolog. at Car. V. super quatuor libris a se scriptis de Unitate Eccl. Edit. Brix. 1744. p. 70.

b Reg. Pole ad Henr. VIII. Brit. Regem pro Eccles. Unitatis defensione Libri IV. fol. Rom. lib. iii. fol. lxxvii b.