Chapter VIII: Part 8

Oldys (in the Biographia Britannica, 1750, p. 1907) attributes to Worcestre "a particular treatise, gratefully preserving the life and deeds of his master, under the title of _Acta Domini Johannis Fastolff_, which we hear is still in being, and has been promised the publick;" but in the second edition of Oldys's life of Fastolfe (Biographia Britannica, 1793, v. 706), we find merely this note substituted: "This is mentioned in the Paston Letters, iv. p. 78." The letter there printed is one addressed by John Davy to his master John Paston esquire after sir John Fastolfe's death. It relates to inquiries made of one "Bussard" for evidences relative to Fastolfe's estate; and it thus concludes: "he seyth the last tyme that he wrot on to William Wusseter it was beffor myssomyr, and thanne he wrote a Cronekyl of Jerewsalem and the Jornes that my mayster dede whyl he was in Fraunce, that God on his sowle have mercy, and he seyth that this drew more than xx whazerys (quires) off paper, and this wrytyng delyvered onto Wursseter, and non other, ne knowyth not off non other be is feyth." It appears, I think, very clearly that this passage was misunderstood by Oldys, or his informant, and that the historian of the "journeys" and valiant acts of sir John Fastolfe was not Worcestre, but the person called Bussard. It is not impossible that the person whom John Davy meant by that name was Peter Basset, who is noticed in the next page.

Mr. Benjamin Williams, in the Preface to "Henrici Quinti Gesta," (printed for the English Historical Society, 1850,) says of Worcestre that "he wrote the _Acts of Sir John Fastolfe_, contained in the volume from which this chronicle is extracted," _i.e._ the Arundel MS. XLVIII. in the College of Arms; but that statement appears to have been carelessly made, without ascertaining that the volume contained any such "Acts." "Also (Mr. Williams adds) the _Acts of John Duke of Bedford_ (MS. Lambeth);" but those "Acts" again are not an historical or biographical memoir, but a collection of state papers and documents relating to the English occupation of France, which will be found described in Archdeacon Todd's Catalogue of the Lambeth Manuscripts as No. 506. Its contents are nearly identical with those of a volume in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, MSS. No. 41, as will be found on comparison with Sir Henry Ellis's Catalogue of that collection, p. 17. The latter is the volume which Oldys, in his life of sir John Fastolfe, in the Biographia Britannica 1750, has described at p. 1907 as a "quarto book some time in the custody of the late Brian Fairfax esquire, one of the Commissioners of the Customs," and of which Oldys attributes the collection to the son of William of Worcestre, because a dedicatory letter from that person to king Edward the Fourth is prefixed to the volume.

Another very valuable assemblage of papers of the like character, and which may also be regarded as part of the papers of sir John Fastolfe, is preserved in the College of Arms, MS. Arundel XLVIII., and is fully described by Mr. W. H. Black in his Catalogue of that collection, 8vo. 1829. This is the volume from which Hearne derived the Annals of William of Worcestre, and Mr. Benjamin Williams one of his chronicles of the reign of Henry the Fifth.

It is probable that the Lambeth MS. was formerly in the Royal Library, for abstracts of some of its more important documents, in the autograph of King Edward the Sixth, are preserved in the MS. Cotton. Nero C. x. These have been printed in the Literary Remains of King Edward the Sixth, pp. 555-560.

[76] From the authority of Tanner and Oldys, we gather that there was formerly a volume in the library of the College of Arms, bearing the following title: "Liber de Actis Armorum et Conquestus Regni Franciae, ducatus Normanniae, ducatus Alenconiae, ducatus Andegaviae et Cenomanniae, &c. Compilatus fuit ad nobilem virum Johannem Fastolff, baronem de Cyllye guillem vel Cylly quotem, &c. 1459, per Pet. Basset armig." (Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannica, 1748, p. 79; Oldys, Biographia Britannica, 1750, iii. 1903, again, p. 1906; and 2nd edit. 1793, v. 701.) Both Tanner and Oldys describe this book as being in the Heralds' Office at London, but it is not now to be found there; and is certainly not a part of the Arundel MS. XLVIII. the contents of which curious and valuable volume are minutely described in the Catalogue of the collection by Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A.

[77] Bale (Scriptores Brytanniae, vii. 80, Folio, 1557, p. 568,) describes Peter Basset as an esquire of noble family, and an attendant upon Henry the Fifth in his bedchamber throughout that monarch's career. Bale states that this faithful esquire wrote the memoirs of his royal master, very fully, from his cradle to his grave, in the English language; and we find that the work was known to the chronicler Hall, who quotes Basset in regard to the disease of which the king died. It is remarkable, however, that this work, like that formerly in the College of Arms, mentioned in the preceding note (if it were not the same), has now disappeared; and the name of Basset has been unknown to Mr. Benjamin Williams and Mr. Charles Augustus Cole, the editors of recent collections on the reign of Henry the Fifth for the English Historical Society and the series of the present Master of the Rolls, (1850 and 1858,) as also to Sir N. Harris Nicolas, the historian of the Battle of Agincourt, and the Rev. J. Endell Tyler, the biographer of King Henry of Monmouth (2 vols. 8vo. 1838).

[78] Its real author is supposed to have been AEgidius Romanus, or De Columna, who was bishop of Berri, and died in 1316. See Les Manuscrits Francois de la Bibliotheque du Roi, par M. Paulin Paris, 1836, i. 224. It was printed at Rome in 1482, and at Venice in 1598: see Cave, Historia Literaria, vol. ii. p. 340. Thomas Occleve, the contemporary of Chaucer, wrote a poem _De Regimine Principum_, founded, to a certain extent, upon the work of AEgidius, but applied to the events of his own time, and specially directed to the instruction of the prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V. The Roxburghe Club has recently committed the editorship of this work to Mr. Thomas Wright, F.S.A.

[79] Preface to The Buke of the Order of Knyghthede (Abbotsford Club, 1847,) p. xxiii.

[80] Ames's Typographical Antiquities, by Dibdin, iii. 198. Moule (Bibliotheca Heraldica, 1822, p. 12,) conjectures that this may have been the same with "A Treatise of Nobility," by John Clerke, mentioned by Wood, in his Athenae Oxonienses, as being also a translation from the French; this was printed in 12mo, 1543. (Ath. Oxon. edit. Bliss, i. 205.) In that case the name of _Larke_ is an error of Ames.

[81] Wyer also printed "The Boke of Knowledge," a work on prognostics in physic, and on astronomy (Dibdin's Ames, iii. 199, 200), and "The Book of Wysdome, spekyng of vyces and vertues, 1532." (ibid. p. 175.)

[82] Typographical Antiquities, first edition, iii. 1527.

[83] Mr. B. B. Woodward, F.S.A. the author of a History of Hampshire now in progress, kindly undertook for me to search the records of the city of Winchester in order to discover, if possible, any information in elucidation of this document; but he found them in so great confusion, that at present it is impossible to pursue such an inquiry with any hope of success.

[84] _Here is written above the line, in a later hand_, yn yo^r most noble persone and

[85] _In MS._ whiche whan

[86] _MS._ of

[87] _These words are inserted by a second hand._

[88] _Inserted above the line by a second hand._

[89] _sc._ weight

[90] _MS._ infinitee

[91] _MS._ to

[92] _MS._ if it

[93] _MS._ defoule

[94] _MS._ be that

[95] _MS._ they

[96] _MS._ it is

[97] _The words_ thowsands and _are inserted above the line._

[98] _Added by second hand._

[99] _Altered by second hand to_ youre

[100] _Inserted above the line by a second hand._

[101] _qu._? yet

[102] _Inserted by second hand._

[103] _Added by second hand._

[104] _This passage is inserted by the second hand._

[105] _Added by second hand._

[106] _The Hague._

[107] _So the MS._

[108] _Inserted by second hand._

[109] _Inserted by second hand._

[110] _MS._ cons.

[111] _Inserted by the second hand._

[112] _The word_ king _has been erased, and altered to_ prince.

[113] _The insertion occupying the ensuing page is written by the second hand in the margin._

[114] _Inserted by the second hand._

[115] overthrow _in MS._

[116] _Inserted by second hand._

[117] _Inserted by second hand._

[118] _Inserted by second hand._

[119] _Added in the margin by second hand._

[120] _Added by second hand in the margin._

[121] _Inserted by second hand._

[122] _Inserted by second hand._

[123] _Inserted by second hand._

[124] _So in MS._

[125] _Inserted by third hand._

[126] _Inserted by second hand._

[127] _Inserted by the second hand._

[128] _Inserted by second hand._

[129] ? all.

[130] _Inserted by second hand._

[131] _Inserted by second hand._

[132] _The word_ innocent _is written by some Lancastrian over an erasure_.

[133] _Inserted by second hand._

[134] _Added by second hand._

[135] _Inserted by second hand._

[136] _So in the MS._

[137] _Inserted by second hand._

[138] _So in MS._

[139] _Inserted by second hand._

[140] _Inserted by second hand._

[141] _Inserted by second hand._

[142] _Inserted by second hand._

[143] _So in the MS._

[144] _MS._ youre.

[145] _MS._ of.

[146] _MS._ they owre.

[147] of _in MS._

[148] _Added by second hand._

[149] _Inserted by second hand._

[150] _Inserted by second hand._

[151] _In the margin is here placed the following note respecting Dame Christina of Passy:--_ "Notandum est quod Cristina [fuit] domina praeclara natu et moribus, et manebat in domo religiosarum dominarum apud Passye prope Parys; et ita virtuosa fuit quod ipsa exhibuit plures clericos studentes in universitate Parisiensi, et compilare fecit plures libros virtuosos, utpote _Liber Arboris Bellorum_, et doctores racione eorum exhibicionis attribuerunt nomen autoris Christinae, sed aliquando nomen autoris clerici studentis imponitur in diversis libris; et vixit circa annum Christi 1430, sed floruit ab anno Christi 1400."

[152] _Inserted by second hand in the margin._

[153] _Inserted by second hand._

[154] _MS._ goodis.

[155] _Inserted by second hand._

[156] _MS._ startees.

[157] _So in MS._

[158] Sir John Fastolfe.

[159] _This word has been in the MS. by error altered to_ stode, _which belongs to the next line_.

[160] _So. in MS._

[161] _MS._ wounding.

[162] _This word is written on an erasure._

[163] _So in the MS._

[164] _Inserted by second hand._

[165] _Inserted by second hand._

[166] _Written over an erasure._

[167] _MS._ nede or of.

[168] _Written on an erasure._

[169] _Inserted by second hand._

[170] _So in the MS._

[171] _Inserted by second hand._

[172] _Inserted by second hand._

[173] _MS._ youre.

[174] _Inserted by second hand._

[175] _MS._ Gentiles.

[176] _Written on an erasure._

[177] _Inserted by second hand._

[178] _Written on an erasure._

[179] _Inserted by second hand._

[180] _MS._ excersing.

[181] _Inserted by second hand._

[182] _Inserted by second hand._

[183] _So in MS. sc._ stir?

[184] _So in MS._

[185] _MS._ where.

* * * * *

Corrections made to printed original.

Page xxxvi. "the gate should be delivered up": 'he delivered' in original.

Page 38. "the seneschalcie of Pierregort": 'of of' (across line break) in original.

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