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VIII.—A Letter of Sir Henry Lee, 1590, on the trial of Iron for Armour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

The Letter from Sir Henry Lee, Master of the Armoury to Elizabeth, addressed to Lord Burghley, which forms the subject of this paper, has not before been printed. It is calendared among the State Papers, in the Public Record Office, and is holograph bearing the date 12 Oct. 1590.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1888

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References

page 167 note a Sir Henry Lee was appointed to the office of Master of the Armoury by letters patent of June 9, 22 Eliz. (1580). His military services not less than his devotion to Elizabeth, as displayed by him in the tilt-yard, led his royal mistress to bestow on him in 1597 the exceptional honour of the Order of the Garter.

page 167 note b Domestic Series, vol. ccxxxii. 92.

page 168 note a Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII. vol. ii.

page 168 note b Ibid.

page 169 note a Calendar of State Papers. Henry VII, vol. i.

page 169 note b Ibid.

page 169 note c Ibid. vol. vii.

page 169 note d Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers in the City of London. London, 1878Google Scholar.

page 171 note a Proving of arms was evidently customary at this period, for among the accounts of the Ordnance, it is stated that over twenty-two hundredweight of the two sorts of powder come and serpentine were expended between 17th November 1558, and 4th October, 1559, “in provinge of gret Ordynance harquebuttes and daggs.”

page 171 note b The expression Inayched is not clear, but by badge may be meant armour painted black.

“Their hands and faces were all badged with blood.”— Macbeth, ii. 3Google Scholar.

In a report of the stores at the Tower in 1564 is “The making black of vc corslets pt of Gresham's provision drowned in the sea v years past and by reason of the salt water will by no means be kept clean except they be blacked at 5/ the pece.