máy truely aunswer for your frend, who hartily desyreth the increase of your worship. And I pray you continue your favor towards Mr. Raynsford whom ye shall fynde as honest and faithfull as any that ever ye were acquaynted with. And I beseche Godd send you longe lif, and well to doo. Writen at Carleton the viij. day of Decembre.

By yours assured

To the right worshipfull and myne assuryd frende

Mr. Cromwell.

TH. ELYOT K?

LETTER CXLIII.

Edward Earl of Hertford, afterwards Protector, to Lord Cromwell.

[MS, COTTON. VESP. F. XIII. fol. 104. Orig.]

Mi veri good Lord, after mi right harte commendacions, this schal be to advertise the same that this day, the xiith of Juli, I reseyvid your Letter datid att Okyng the ixth of the same, wher in I perseyve your Lordshep hath made me partisipant to the kyngs Highnis Let's latli com from Mast Wottun and the biship of Heriford, for which yo1 jentell rememberans I most harteli thank yo' good lordship, and am as glad of the good resolucion of the Deuk of Cleves his mother and

Cunsell, as ever I was of thing sithen the birth of the Prense; for I think the kyngs Highnes schould not in Cristundum mari in no plas, meght for his Grasis onar that schould be lesse prejudiciall to his majestes succecion. And as conserning the other part of yor Let', that the French Kyng begenith to be veri jentell to the Kyngs Highnes, I am right glad ther of, for that I think the amite of Aquamort will not long indeur, but I would abena more gladar yf that his jentillnis had prosedid of love and not for his porpos. I am nothing sori to perseyve yo' Lordship is lik schorteli to prove a profit, in that you would allweis sey yeu were suar the amite betwene the Emperour and French Kyng wouldnot contineu: and as for yo lordshipis rememberans of Shen I doo not dowght but that you woull acomplich hit when oportunite will sarve. I intend with Gods leve to se the Kyngs Highnes and yo' Lordshep with in a wik, wherfor I will forber fro fardar trubeling you att this time. Thus I comit you to God, hood send yo' lordshep as well to far as I would mi sellfe. Fro Wollfall the xvij Juli wt the ill hand of yo1 lordshepis assurid

e

LETTER CXLIV.

Extract of a Letter from Nicholas Wotton to King Henry the Eighth, giving an Account of the Person and Accomplishments of the Lady Anne of Cleves.

[MS. COTTON. VITELL. B. XXI. fol. 186. Orig.]

Nicholas Wotton and Richard Berde were the persons deputed to negotiate Henry the Eighth's marriage with Anne of Cleves. A previous Letter to that from which the following extract is made, occurs in the same volume, fol. 178; dated Cleves, May 3d. 1539. The former part of the present Letter, which is much burnt, reports some negotiations between the Duke of Cleves, the Elector of Saxony, and some other German Princes.

I fynd the Counsell willing yn nough to publisshe and manifeste to the World, that by eny covenauntes made by th'olde Duke of Cleves and the Duke of Lorayne, my Lady Anne is not bownden; but ever hathe ben and yet is at her free libertye to marye where ever she wille.

As for th'education of my sayde Ladye, she hathe from her childehode (lyke as the Ladye Sybille was, tyll she wer maryed, and the Ladye Amelye hathe ben and is) ben brought up withe the Ladye Duchesse her mother, and yn maner never from her ellebow, the Ladye Duchesse being a wyse Ladye, and one that verye streytelye lookithe to her children. All the gentylmenne of the cowrte, and other that I have ask

a Sybille, or Sybilla, was married to the Elector of Saxony, the head of the protestant League.

yd of, rapporte her to be of verye lowlye and gentyll condicions, by the whiche she hathe so muche wonne her mothers favor, that she is verye lothe to suffer her to departe from her. She occupiethe her tyme moste with the nedyll, wherwithall she .

She canne reede and wryte her

but Frenche, Latyn, or other langaige she .

one nor yet canne not synge nor pleye upon onye instrument; for they take it heere yn Germanye for a rebuke and an occasion of lightenesse that great Ladyes shuld be lernyd or have enye knowledge of musike. Her witte is so goode, that no doubte she wille yn a shorte space lerne th' Englisshe tongue, when so ever she puttithe her mynde to hit. I cowde never heere that she is ynclyned to the good cheere of this Cowntrey, and merveyle it wer yf she shulde, seinge that her brother, yn whome yet hit were sumwhat more tolerable, dothe so well absteyne from hit. Your Graces servante Hanze Albeina hath taken th'effigies of my Ladye Anne and the Ladye Amelye, and hathe expressyd theyr imaiges verye lyvelye.

Written at Duren the xjth daye of August Ao. Dni.

1539.

Yor Highnesse moste bownden subject, and

dayelye bedemanne,

a Hans Holbein.

NICHOLAS WOTTON.

AFTER the death of Jane Seymour, Henry the Eighth made several attempts to marry. His first offer was to the duchess dowager of Milan, but her answer is said to have been that she had but one head; if she had had two, one should have been at his majesty's service. He was next anxious to have had Mary of Guise, but she was betrothed and afterwards married to the King of Scots. Henry would then have made choice of one of the two sisters of Mary of Guise, if Francis the First would have consented to have brought them to Calais for his inspection: but this being refused, Holbein was despatched to Flanders to paint the very Miniature of Anne of Cleves mentioned in the preceding Letter: and he drew so favourable a likeness that Henry made up his mind to be enamoured of her. The consequences of the painter's flattery were serious. Anne of Cleves landed at Deal December the 27th 1539, and was married to Henry, Jan. 6th 1540. But Henry did not give his inward consent when he espoused her; a sentence of divorce was, in consequence, passed between them on July 9th following: Cromwell losing his head on July 28th.

Anne of Cleves, though evidently unsuited as a wife to Henry, appears to have been a woman of good sense. She saw the danger to which she was exposed, and made no scruple to acquiesce in the separation; still, after the affront she had received, a residence in Flanders was not to her taste; she preferred passing the remainder of her days in England. She died at Chelsey, July 15th. 1557.

The identical picture mentioned in Nicholas Wotton's Letter, is believed both by Granger and Lord Orford to have been the Miniature which was a few years ago in the Collection of Mr. Barrett at Lee in Kent; and which was engraved for the Illustrious Heads. Lord Orford thought it the most exquisitely perfect of all Holbein's works, as well as in the highest preservation. The print, he adds, gives a very inadequate idea of it, and none of her Flemish fairness. It was preserved in the ivory box in which it came over, and which represented a rose so delicately carved as to be worthy of the jewel it contained.

LETTER CXLV.

The Lords of the Council to King Henry VIIIth respecting the Lord Lawarre.

A. D. 1539.

[MS. COTTON. TITUS B. I. fol. 70. Orig.]

The particular fact alluded to in the following Letter, the offence given to King Henry the VIIIth by the Lord La Warre, is not mentioned by our Historians. Dugdale, in his Baronage, is equally silent upon it.