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VIII.—New Light on St. Edward's Crown
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2011
Extract
One of the best-known documents in the possession of our Society is perhaps our MS. No. 108, with its detailed valuation of the Crown Jewels in 1649, and its uncompromising footnote ‘The foremenciond Crownes since ye Inventorye was Taken are accordinge to ordr of Parlamt totallie Broken and defaced’. We have seen it cited, in whole or in part, in various works on history in general and the Crown Jewels in particular, we have taken for granted certain conclusions from it, and we have perhaps been less ready to accept certain other conclusions drawn from it by other people. We think, in short, that we know it pretty well, and have seen all it has to show us; yet after all, this list of pieces of jewellery, with weights and valuations, may yield something more to us when we compare its information with thatsupplied by earlier inventories.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1959
References
page 214 note 1 British Museum Cotton MS. Claudius A. viii, f. 31 b. Cited by Legg, L. G. Wickham, English Coronation Records, p. 191Google Scholar.
page 214 note 2 Bodleian, Ashm. MS. 863, p. 297. Wickham Legg, op. cit. p. 242. Archaeologia, lxxxvi, 77 sq.
page 215 note 2 Chancery Miscell. Roll 18/3 (dors.) cited by Legg, J. Wick hamas Appendix XI to Three Coronation Orders (Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. xix), 1900Google Scholar.
page 215 note 3 ‘…troys espeys … qi serront pris hors del tresorie le Roy … deux ceptres, qi soront pris hors de la Tresorie le Roi.’ Op. cit.
page 215 note 4 ‘vestuz dun Tunycle de saint quest de la eglise de Westminster, soient les sudayrs, qi sont ensemewt de mesme la tresorie, et les esperouws qi sorowt de la pwrveance de Ministres du Roi aptez a sees peez’. Ibid.
page 215 note 5 ‘… les lays, et les custumes, et les Franchis, grantiz … de Gloriouse Roi Saint Edward… Ibid.
page 215 note 6 ‘la cote Saint Edward qi demwrt a Westminster’. Ibid.
page 215 note 7 ‘lespee qi demwrt en la tresorie le Roi8. Ibid.
page 215 note 8 ‘le cole de la tresorie de Westminster’. Ibid.
page 216 note 1 … land de Saint Edward…’ Ibid.
page 216 note 2 ‘sil se voile devestir des ornamewtz reaux de Saint Edward deinz le eglise’. Ibid.
page 216 note 3 ‘les ditz ornamewtz de Saint Edward oue safe conduitsoient reportez enteremewt a leglise de Westminster sicom apartient a droit.’ Ibid.
page 216 note 4 Westmonasterium, vol. ii, Bk. Ill, p. 10.
page 217 note 1 Froissart, Chronicles, Berners's translation, vol. ii, chap, ccxli (ccxlv). It is perhaps worth noting that Lord Berners translates Froissart's archief en croix by the words ‘close above’, which would convey to the sixteenth-century reader the impression of an ordinary covered-in crown. Berners is more than likely to have seen his close friend Henry VIII crowned with St. Edward's Crown, and would have amended Froissart's description (as he did in other instances) if he had thought it inaccurate.
page 217 note 2 Hall's Chronicle, sub anno xxv Hen. VIII.
page 217 note 3 Cited by Halliwell-Phillips, Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 1845.
page 219 note 1 Paris, Bib. Nat., fonds latin 10,575, fo. I30 b. (SurteesSociety, 1853, p. 100). Wickham Legg (op. cit. p. 3) gives this reference but transcribes a better text (Rouen, Bib.Mimic., MS. A. 27, fo. 88) for a similar service, known as the Pontificate Lanaletense, but supposed to be of northern English origin.
page 211 note 1 Since this paper was read, I am glad to say that General Sitwell has located the document. It is now B.M. MS. Add. 44915, and the February date is unquestionable.
page 222 note 1 B.M. MS. Harl. 7352.
page 223 note 1 It will be seen from pl. LXXIII, a and c that the crown carried by Lord Anglesey in Nayler' plate is copied from the engraving in Sandford.
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