Letters 1536. 19 May 1536. 908. Chapuys (age 46) to Charles V.

The joy shown by this people every day not only at the ruin of the Concubine (age 35) but at the hope of the Princess' restoration, is inconceivable, but as yet the King shows no great disposition towards the latter; indeed he has twice shown himself obstinate when spoken to on the subject by his Council. I hear that, even before the arrest of the Concubine, the King, speaking with Mistress Jane Semel (age 27) of their future marriage, the latter suggested that the Princess should be replaced in her former position; and the King told her she was a fool, and ought to solicit the advancement of the children they would have between them, and not any others. She replied that in asking for the restoration of the Princess she conceived she was seeking the rest and tranquillity of the King, herself, her future children, and the whole realm; for, without that, neither your Majesty nor this people would ever be content. Will endeavour by all means to make her continue in this vein. Hopes also to go and speak with the King within three days, and with those of the Council in general and particular. Will also get some of the lords spoken with who have been called hither for the Parliament to commence on the 8th proximo. Thinks the Concubine's little bastard will be excluded from the succession, and that the King will get himself requested by Parliament to marry. To cover the affection he has for the said Semel he has lodged her seven miles hence in the house of the grand esquire, and says publicly that he has no desire in the world to get married again unless he is constrained by his subjects to do so. Several have already told me, and sent to say that, if it cost them their lives, when Parliament meets they will urge the cause of the Princess to the utmost (il pourteront jusques au boult laffaire de lad. princesse).

The very evening the Concubine was brought to the Tower, when the Duke of Richmond (age 16) went to say Good night to his father, and ask his blessing after the English custom, the King began to weep, saying that he and his sister, meaning the Princess, were greatly bound to God for having escaped the hands of that accursed whore, who had determined to poison them; from which it is clear that the King knew something about it.

Letters 1536. 19 May [1536]. Vienna Archives. Chapuys (age 46) to Granvelle.

Refers him for the news to his letter to the Emperor. Hopes to make amends for his present brevity by writing to him the history of the conduct of this English Messalina or Agrippina during her imprisonment. The woman who has her in charge will not conceal anything from Chapuys. She has already sent to tell him some news, among others that the said Messalina could not imagine that anyone but Chapuys had got her in disgrace with the King, for ever since he came to Court the King has regarded her with an evil eye. It is well for Chapuys she did not escape, because with her humanity she would have given him to the dogs to eat. There are still two English gentlemen¹ detained on her account, and it is suspected that there will be many more, because the King has said he believed that more than 100 had to do with her. You never saw prince nor man who made greater show of his horns or bore them more pleasantly. I leave you to imagine the cause.

Owing to my illness, and to await the last act of the story, besides that George must have informed you what was to follow, I have not hastened to write sooner. London, 18 May 1536.

Yesterday the archbishop of Canterbury declared by sentence that the Concubine's daughter was the bastard of Mr. Norris (deceased), and not the King's daughter. This already removes an obstacle in the way of the Princess, who, I hope, whatever difficulty the King has made hitherto, will be declared true heiress of the kingdom, not as born of lawful marriage, but as legitimate propter bonam fidem parentum. Others tell me that the said Archbishop had pronounced the marriage of the King and Concubine (age 35) invalid on account of the King having had connection with her sister (age 37), and that, as both parties knew of this, the good faith of the parents cannot make the said bastard legitimate. Although the matter is not much to be relied on, many think that most of the new bishops "ont davoir leur Sainct Marten," because, having persuaded the Concubine that she had no need to confess, she grew more audacious in vice; and, moreover, they persuaded her that according to the said sect it was lawful to seek aid elsewhere, even from her own relations, when her husband was not capable of satisfying her. The Concubine, before her marriage with the King, said, to increase his love, that there was a prophecy that about this time a Queen of England would be burnt, but, to please the King, she did not care. After her marriage she boasted that the previous events mentioned in the prophecy had already been accomplished, and yet she was not condemned. But they might well have said to her, as was said to Cæsar, "the Ides have come, but not gone." Has no doubt that if the Emperor intends to negociate with the English he will send some one to give greater weight to the affair, according to the letters of his Majesty; and if the said personage could negociate before the conclusion of Parliament, it would be very advantageous both for the interests of the Princess and for the rest. If he come about St. John's Day, he will probably assist at the new marriage and coronation, in which the King intends to do wonders. He has already given orders to build a vessel like the "Busentaure de Venice," to carry the lady from Greenwich hither. London, 19 May. Fr., from a modern copy, pp. 3.

Note 1. The mutilations in the original are supplied from Burnet. Compare also Herbert, who abridges.

Autobiography Simon D'Ewes. 03 May 1621. All things being provided for my journey thither, and Easter Term being ended, the same day the Parliament was again adjourned till after Whitsuntide, being Saturday the 19th day of this instant May, I went with my father and the rest of his family to Newplace, in Upminster, in the county of Essex, where my Aunt Lathum dwelt, being little out of the way to Lawford Hall aforesaid; whither I set forward alone upon Thmsday morning, lying at Maiden that night, May 24. The next day, being Friday, May 25, I arrived at Colchester between twelve and one, and that afternoon saw Miss Jemima (age 19) with the Lady Bingham (age 61) her mother, (whom, having been the widow of Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., Mr. Waldegrave had married to his second wife,) and had some discourse with the old lady, and some short view of the gentlewoman, whom I did not take to be so handsome at this first view as I thought her afterwards. I went not home at this time with the old lady, but lay at a town called Langham, near to Lawford, at one Mr. Littlebury's house; from whence, the next day, I went with him to Mr. Waldegrave's in the afternoon, and had full access in private discourse afforded me with the young gentlewoman. That night I returned again with Mr. Littlebury (who had used a great deal of faithful care to make up this match) to his house; where having staid till Monday, May 28th, in the forenoon we went again to Mr. Waldegrave's, and dined there. After which ended, I had several discourses with the young gentlewoman, and received from her so many remonstrances of acceptation and affection, as her own father acknowledged she never had done before, and we all thought the business in fair forwardness for the consummation thereof. But I, fearing my father's inconstancy, by reason he was to settle above £1100 per annum upon me, and to receive no portion, had all my expectations even at this present mixed with doubts, which were the more increased upon my return to him next day to Newplace, (for, his coach-horses going cheerfully, I went the whole thirty-eight miles from Lawford thither in a day,) where, having related to him my unexpected success, I found him in some atrtut, as if he knew not well now how to break it off, or go back.

Pepy's Diary. 19 May 1663. Thence home and being 10 o'clock was forced to land beyond the Custom House, and so walked home and to my office, and having dispatched my great letters by the post to my father, of which I keep copies to show by me and for my future understanding, I went home to supper and bed, being late. The most observables in the making of money which I observed to-day, is the steps of their doing it.

Note 1. Before they do anything they assay the bullion, which is done, if it be gold, by taking an equal weight of that and of silver, of each a small weight, which they reckon to be six ounces or half a pound troy; this they wrap up in within lead. If it be silver, they put such a quantity of that alone and wrap it up in lead, and then putting them into little earthen cupps made of stuff like tobacco pipes, and put them into a burning hot furnace, where, after a while, the whole body is melted, and at last the lead in both is sunk into the body of the cupp, which carries away all the copper or dross with it, and left the pure gold and silver embodyed together, of that which hath both been put into the cupp together, and the silver alone in these where it was put alone in the leaden case. And to part the silver and the gold in the first experiment, they put the mixed body into a glass of aqua-fortis, which separates them by spitting out the silver into such small parts that you cannot tell what it becomes, but turns into the very water and leaves the gold at the bottom clear of itself, with the silver wholly spit out, and yet the gold in the form that it was doubled together in when it was a mixed body of gold and silver, which is a great mystery; and after all this is done to get the silver together out of the water is as strange. But the nature of the assay is thus: the piece of gold that goes into the furnace twelve ounces, if it comes out again eleven ounces, and the piece of silver which goes in twelve and comes out again eleven and two pennyweight, are just of the alloy of the standard of England. If it comes out, either of them, either the gold above eleven, as very fine will sometimes within very little of what it went in, or the silver above eleven and two pennyweight, as that also will sometimes come out eleven and ten penny weight or more, they are so much above the goodness of the standard, and so they know what proportion of worse gold and silver to put to such a quantity of the bullion to bring it to the exact standard. And on the contrary, [if] it comes out lighter, then such a weight is beneath the standard, and so requires such a proportion of fine metal to be put to the bullion to bring it to the standard, and this is the difference of good and bad, better and worse than the standard, and also the difference of standards, that of Seville being the best and that of Mexico worst, and I think they said none but Seville is better than ours.

Note 2. They melt it into long plates, which, if the mould do take ayre, then the plate is not of an equal heaviness in every part of it, as it often falls out.

Note 3. They draw these plates between rollers to bring them to an even thickness all along and every plate of the same thickness, and it is very strange how the drawing it twice easily between the rollers will make it as hot as fire, yet cannot touch it.

Note 4. They bring it to another pair of rollers, which they call adjusting it, which bring it to a greater exactness in its thickness than the first could be.

Note 5. They cut them into round pieces, which they do with the greatest ease, speed, and exactness in the world.

Note 6. They weigh these, and where they find any to be too heavy they file them, which they call sizeing them; or light, they lay them by, which is very seldom, but they are of a most exact weight, but however, in the melting, all parts by some accident not being close alike, now and then a difference will be, and, this filing being done, there shall not be any imaginable difference almost between the weight of forty of these against another forty chosen by chance out of all their heaps.

Note 7. These round pieces having been cut out of the plates, which in passing the rollers are bent, they are sometimes a little crooked or swelling out or sinking in, and therefore they have a way of clapping 100 or 2 together into an engine, which with a screw presses them so hard that they come out as flat as is possible.

Note 8. They blanch them.

Note 9. They mark the letters on the edges, which is kept as the great secret by Blondeau, who was not in the way, and so I did not speak with him to-day¹.

Note 1. Professor W. C. Roberts-Austen, C.B., F.R.S., chemist to the Royal Mint, refers to Pepys's Diary and to Blondeau's machine in his Cantor Lectures on "Alloys used for Coinage", printed in the "journal of the Society of Arts" (vol. xxxii.). He writes, "The hammer was still retained for coining in the Mint in the Tower of London, but the question of the adoption of the screw-press by the Moneyers appears to have been revived in 1649, when the Council of State had it represented to them that the coins of the Government might be more perfectly and beautifully done, and made equal to any coins in Europe. It was proposed to send to France for Peter Blondeau, who had invented and improved a machine and method for making all coins 'with the most beautiful polish and equality on the edge, or with any proper inscription or graining.' He came on the 3rd of September, and although a Committee of the Mint reported in favour of his method of coining, the Company of Moneyers, who appear to have boasted of the success of their predecessors in opposing the introduction of the mill and screw-press in Queen (age 24) Elizabeth's reign, prevented the introduction of the machinery, and consequently he did not produce pattern pieces until 1653.... It is certain that Blondeau did not invent, but only improved the method of coining by the screw-press, and I believe his improvements related chiefly to a method for 'rounding the pieces before they are sized, and in making the edges of the moneys with letters and graining,' which he undertook to reveal to the King (age 32). Special stress is laid on the engines wherewith the rims were marked, 'which might be kept secret among few men.' I cannot find that there is any record in the Paris mint of Blondeau's employment there, and the only reference to his invention in the Mint records of this country refers to the 'collars,' or perforated discs of metal surrounding the 'blank' while it was struck into a coin. There is, however, in the British Museum a MS. believed to be in Blondeau's hand, in which he claims his process, 'as a new invention, to make a handsome coyne, than can be found in all the world besides, viz., that shall not only be stamped on both flat sides, but shall even be marked with letters on the thickness of the brim.' The letters were raised. The press Blondeau used was, I believe, the ordinary screw-press, and I suppose that the presses drawn in Akerman's well-known plate of the coining-room of the Mint in the Tower, published in 1803 'Microcosm of London,' vol. ii., p. 202, if not actually the same machines, were similar to those erected in 1661-62 by Sir William Parkhurst and Sir Anthony St. Leger, wardens of the Mint, at a cost of £1400, Professor Roberts-Austen shows that Benvenuto Cellini used a similar press to that attributed to Blondeau, and he gives an illustration of this in his lecture (p. 810). In a letter to the editor the Professor writes: "Pepys's account of the operations of coining, and especially of assaying gold and silver, is very interesting and singularly accurate considering that he could not have had technical knowledge of the subject"..

Note 10. They mill them, that is, put on the marks on both sides at once with great exactness and speed, and then the money is perfect. The mill is after this manner: one of the dyes, which has one side of the piece cut, is fastened to a thing fixed below, and the other dye (and they tell me a payre of dyes will last the marking of £10,000 before it be worn out, they and all other their tools being made of hardened steel, and the Dutchman who makes them is an admirable artist, and has so much by the pound for every pound that is coyned to find a constant supply of dyes) to an engine above, which is moveable by a screw, which is pulled by men; and then a piece being clapped by one sitting below between the two dyes, when they meet the impression is set, and then the man with his finger strikes off the piece and claps another in, and then the other men they pull again and that is marked, and then another and another with great speed. They say that this way is more charge to the King than the old way, but it is neater, freer from clipping or counterfeiting, the putting of the words upon the edges being not to be done (though counterfeited) without an engine of the charge and noise that no counterfeit will be at or venture upon, and it employs as many men as the old and speedier. They now coyne between £16 and £24,000 in a week. At dinner they did discourse very finely to us of the probability that there is a vast deal of money hid in the land, from this:-that in King Charles's time there was near ten millions of money coyned, besides what was then in being of King James's and Queene (age 53) Elizabeth's, of which there is a good deal at this day in being. Next, that there was but £750,000 coyned of the Harp and Crosse money², and of this there was £500,000 brought in upon its being called in. And from very good arguments they find that there cannot be less of it in Ireland and Scotland than £100,000; so that there is but £150,000 missing; and of that, suppose that there should be not above 650,000 still remaining, either melted down, hid, or lost, or hoarded up in England, there will then be but £100,000 left to be thought to have been transported. Now, if £750,000 in twelve years' time lost but a £100,000 in danger of being transported, then within thirty-five years' time will have lost but £3,888,880 and odd pounds; and as there is £650,000 remaining after twelve years' time in England, so after thirty-five years' time, which was within this two years, there ought in proportion to have been resting £6,111,120 or thereabouts, beside King James's and Queen Elizabeth's money. Now that most of this must be hid is evident, as they reckon, because of the dearth of money immediately upon the calling-in of the State's money, which was £500,000 that came in; and yet there was not any money to be had in this City, which they say to their own observation and knowledge was so. And therefore, though I can say nothing in it myself, I do not dispute it.

Note 2. The Commonwealth coins (stamped with the cross and harp, and the inscription, "The Commonwealth of England") were called in by proclamation, September, 1660, and when brought to the Mint an equal amount of lawful money was allowed for them, weight for weight, deducting only for the coinage (Ruding's "Annals of the Coinage", 18 19, vol. iii., p. 293). The harp was taken out of the naval flags in May, 1660.

Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Volume 30 1908 Page 155. May 19th 1825. We opened a barrow composed principally of stone situated on the top of Cronkstone Hill¹. It is on a farm belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, called Cronkstone Grange, in the Parish of Hartington, and is about three miles N.W. of Arborlow, which can be distinctly seen from it. We have discovered the remains of a human skeleton, deposited in a cist, formed of Stones, widely piled together, and about 4 feet in length. The body could not, of course, have been laid straight, but was doubled up with the knees towards the chin and breast, and reclined on the right side. This mode of interment is not very unusual in the Derbyshire barrows, and is supposed to be of the most remote antiquity. Under the head of the skeleton was placed the part of the horn of what I imagine to be the red-deer, and apparently must have been of large dimentions. It measures 9¼ inches round the base or root.

I have before noticed in my essay on Arbor-low that it was not uncommon to bury the horns of Deer with human bodies in these sepulchral tumuli. There was the usual accompaniment of rats' bones in this barrow, which I conceive, from analogous examples, should be referred to a very early date among the ancient Britons.

The top of Cronkston hill², which is of great elevation is surrounded by a vallum and rampart of earth and stones, of no great height, ranging about 100 yards on every side of the barrow, and apparently intended solely to enclose and protect it. On the East side of the Hill is an amphitheatre, which has been formed by the excavation of the earth from the sides of the hill in a semi-elliptic form. There is a low bench of turf running quite round the amphitheatre, which has clearly been used as a seat for the principal spectators. It is about 15 or 16 yards across, and to the eastward, which is the side open, a space of the same width, and perhaps 100 yds. in length has been carefully levelled, and may perhaps have served as a cursus. This place is very similar to the semi-circular cove of earth mentioned by Stukeley, in his 2nd Itinerary as existing at Staden Low, near Buxton, and which he, with great probability, imagined to have been used for shows. Whether these remains at Cronkstone have served as a place of common amusement for the inhabitants of this district, or have been used for games instituted in memory of, and to the honour of the warrior or hunter buried in this barrow, whose remains we have deterred, must, of course, be quite conjectural."

Samuel Mitchell Junior (age 22).

Note 1. Vestiges, p. 125.