Chapter VII: Book I: The Court (4)

It is rather surprising that the Privy Council, whose members were carrying out duties roughly analogous to those of a modern Cabinet, should at any time have concerned itself with such trifling matters of domestic routine as the signature of certificates authorizing the payment of rewards at recognized rates to companies of actors and other entertainers. The explanation, however, is that the Privy Council, like the Household and the Departments of State themselves, was a direct representative of the Norman _curia regis_, and that the _curia regis_ had been the organization through which the King's subjects and servants gave him assistance in all his affairs, small and great, domestic as well as political.[218] For all practical purposes, indeed, the Elizabethan Privy Council consisted of little more than the chief officers of the State departments and Household, sitting together, and acting collectively. The great territorial magnates, who at certain periods of its history had turned it into an instrument for the control rather than the exercise of the royal prerogative, were now, unless they happened to hold official positions, rarely sworn amongst its members; but upon it, side by side with the Chancellor and the Treasurer, the Admiral and the Privy Seal, sat not only the Secretaries, but also the Steward and the Chamberlain, the Master of the Horse, the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Household, and often the Vice-Chamberlain or the Treasurer of the Chamber. It was therefore natural enough, to Tudor no less than to mediaeval ways of thinking, that among its numerous and imperfectly defined activities should be included some which give it the aspect of a Household board of control. It was in fact by means of a Household ordinance that Henry VIII regulated the composition of the Privy Council and directed the constant attendance of the members upon his own person[219]; and throughout Elizabeth's reign we find the Council in the closest possible association with the Court, following it from palace to palace, and even from stage to stage of the progress, so that the record of its meetings serves practically as a royal itinerary, and sitting under the most direct Household influences in some convenient apartment of the Privy Chamber. There was even no longer, as in the time of Henry VIII, a 'council at London' as well as a 'council with the King', with the exceptions that, if the Court was very far from head-quarters, a few of the lords sometimes stayed behind to look after current affairs, and that the council as a whole seems occasionally to have met at Westminster when the Court was not there, either in connexion with the sittings of the Star Chamber, or for special business in the lodgings of one or other of its members.[220] This tradition of propinquity between the Sovereign and his council was, however, broken through by James, who at an early date in his reign took to leaving the lords to transact business at court, while he went hither and thither on his endless hunting journeys.

In the absence of any contemporary _ordinale_ for the Privy Council, some idea of its methods can be gathered from the register of transactions kept by its clerks and from other sources.[221] It is probable that the Queen sometimes sat with the lords, although her attendance is never recorded in the register.[222] The usual president was the Lord Chancellor; the earlier Tudor post of President of the Council was rarely, if ever, filled up by Elizabeth.[223] But the general supervision of the clerks and the preparation of business for consideration, other than that which lay directly within the department of some particular officer, seems to have fallen to the Secretary. The number of councillors was gradually reduced from twenty-four at the beginning to thirteen at the end of the reign. Of these not more than half were generally present at any one sitting. But there appears to have been no fixed quorum; occasionally only two members or even one transacted business. At first three meetings a week sufficed; later they were often held daily, both by morning and afternoon, and even on Sundays. Wednesday and Friday were generally set aside for petitions and other private business, and the remaining days devoted to public affairs. Drafts of proclamations were passed by the Council before they received the royal sign manual, and thus became of the nature of Orders in Council.[224] Where a proclamation was not in question, the conclusions arrived at by the Council were embodied in a minute, and submitted through the Secretary for royal approval. When this had been obtained, any executive action was then taken in the form of warrants or letters to administrative officers, central or local, or to individuals, according to the nature of the business. These required the signature of not less than six councillors, who were not necessarily those present when the business was discussed. Before they were put forward for signature they were subscribed by the Secretary or one of the clerks. Warrants to the Treasurer of the Chamber or other paymasters were also impressed by the clerk with the special seal of the council. The minutes were ultimately placed in the council chest, which is unfortunately lost. But copies or abstracts of those which related to public affairs, or in some cases copies of the letters finally issued, were made by the clerks and from time to time bound up in volumes, of which a series, far from continuous, is preserved.[225] Even at their fullest, however, these 'Acts of the Council' cannot be supposed to form a complete record of its proceedings. Council letters are to be found in many local archives of which no note exists in the register. There were four or five Clerks of the Council who took duty, two at a time, according to a monthly rota, and it is clear that some of them were more business-like than others. But it is also probable that much business of a confidential character was deliberately left without record. In addition to the clerks, there was a Keeper of the Council Chamber door, probably one of the Ushers of the Chamber, and the Messengers of the Chamber were available to carry such letters as could not conveniently be entrusted to the regular staff of the Master of Posts.[226]

The ordinary sittings of the Privy Council were of course held in private, and each member took a special oath of secrecy upon appointment. But on each Wednesday and Friday during term time they resolved themselves into the Court of Star Chamber, and held a public sitting to inquire into cases of riot, libel, disregard of proclamations, and the like. Herein they were exercising the old power of the _curia regis_ to duplicate the functions of the law courts.[227] For Star Chamber purposes they associated with themselves judges, who ranked as 'ordinary' but not 'privy' councillors.[228] 'Ordinary' councillors also were the Queen's 'counsel learned in the law', who included the Attorney- and Solicitor-Generals and the Queen's Serjeants, and the Masters of Requests who, by another exercise of curial jurisdiction, sat in the old 'white hall' at Westminster to deal, under the general direction of the Privy Council, with civil cases arising out of the suits of poor men or of royal servants.[229] The political functions of the Privy Council lie beyond the scope of this study, but their concern with all matters affecting breach of the peace, sedition, heresy, and public health entailed, under more than one of these heads, a general supervision of the stage, which will be the subject for discussion in a later chapter.[230] Similarly, the players, or those of them who were royal servants, came as such under the jurisdiction of the Court of Requests, and some interesting information as to their contracts and disputes is derived from the records of that tribunal.[231]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 84: _22 George III_, c. 82.]

[Footnote 85: Stubbs, i. 382; Round, 68, 76, 82, 112, 140; Tout, 67. By Elizabeth's accession the High Stewardship and High Constableship had reverted to the Crown, and the offices were only temporarily conferred for occasions of state. The Great Chamberlainship was _de iure_ in the same position, but was accepted under a misunderstanding as hereditary in the house of De Vere, Earls of Oxford. The Chief Butlership was hereditary in the house of Fitzalan, Earls of Arundel, and the Earl Marshalship in that of Howard, Dukes of Norfolk. It reverted on the attainder of Thomas 4th Duke in 1572. On 28 Dec. 1597 it was conferred on Robert Earl of Essex, and after his execution on 25 Feb. 1601 was placed in commission. These great offices, granted as hereditaments, are to be distinguished from serjeanties, or grants of land _per servientiam_ to the holders of minor household posts, which thus became hereditary. Grants of serjeanties ceased early in the thirteenth century, and the only household duties exercised by their holders in the sixteenth century were formal ones on special occasions.]

[Footnote 86: The derivation is through the French from O. H. G. _marascalh_ (_marah_, horse; _scalh_, servant). Round, 84, traces an early connexion of the marshal with the stable.]

[Footnote 87: A Squire of the Body held the office of Master of the Horse in 1480 (Nicolas, _Wardrobe Accts. of Ed. IV_). The term 'Master', generally applied to heads of offices in the outer ring of the Household, does not seem to be of very early origin. It probably replaces the fourteenth-century 'Serjeant'. Sir Thomas Cawarden got a 'Mastership' of the Revels in 1544, as he 'did mislyke to be tearmed a Seriaunt because of his better countenaunce of roome and place beinge of the kinges maiesties privye Chamber' (_Tudor Revels_, 2). The Mastership of the Horse was held by Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester (11 Jan. 1559-87), Robert Earl of Essex (23 Dec. 1587-25 Feb. 1601), Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester (deputy Dec. 1597; Master 21 Apr. 1601-2 Jan. 1616), Sir George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham (3 Jan. 1616). The appointment, like that of other 'Masters', but unlike that of the Chamberlain and Steward, was by patent and carried a fee of 1,000 marks (£666 13_s._ 4_d._). Amongst the lesser Stable officers were the royal Footmen, whom we might expect to find in the Chamber.]

[Footnote 88: _H. O._ 19, 55.]

[Footnote 89: For the functions of Hall officers, as understood in the fifteenth century, cf. the 'courtesy' books, especially J. Russell's _Boke of Nurture_, the anonymous _Boke of Kervynge_ and _Boke of Curtesye_ (Furnivall, _Babee's Book_), and R. W. Chambers, _A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book_.]

[Footnote 90: The Treasurers of the Household were Sir Thomas Cheyne (1558-9), Sir Thomas Parry (1559-70), Sir Francis Knollys (1570-96), Roger Lord North (1596-1600), Sir William Knollys, afterwards Lord Knollys (1602-16); the Comptrollers, Sir Thomas Parry (1558-9), Sir Edward Rogers (1559-67), Sir James Croft (1570-90), Sir William Knollys (1596-1602), Sir Edward Wotton, afterwards Lord Wotton (1602-16); cf. _D. N. B._, _passim_ (with some errors); Dasent, vii. 3, 43; _V. P._ vii. 1; _Sp. P._ ii. 227; Wright, i. 355; _Sadleir Papers_, ii. 368; _Carew Correspondence_ (C.S.), 152.]

[Footnote 91: The Lords Steward were Henry Earl of Arundel (1558-64), William Earl of Pembroke (1567-70), Edward Earl of Lincoln (1581-4), Robert Earl of Leicester (1585-8), Henry Earl of Derby (1588-93), Charles Earl of Nottingham (1597-1615), Ludovick Duke of Lennox and afterwards Richmond (1615-24); cf. Dasent, xxviii. 60, 107; _S. P. D. Eliz._ clxxiii. 94; Stowe, 664; _Sc. P._ ix. 611; _Sp. P._ i. 18, 368, 631; ii. 239, 455; iv. 122; _V. P._ vii. 3; _Hatfield MSS._ i. 452; xi. 478; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 75, 77; Hawarde, 84; Camden (trans.), 124, 226, 373, and _James_, 14; La Mothe Fénelon, ii. 332; iv. 437; v. 60; Goodman, i. 178, 191; Cheyney, 28; _Lords Journals_, i. 543, 581; ii. 21, 62, 64, 116, 146, 169, 192, 227, &c.; Wright, _Arthur Hall_, 194-7.]

[Footnote 92: Larson, 132; J. H. Round, _The Officers of Edward the Confessor_ in _E. H. R._ xix. 90.]

[Footnote 93: _Hist. Mon. Abingdon_, ii. 43.]

[Footnote 94: _Constitutio Domus Regis_ in H. Hall, _Red Book of Exchequer_, iii. 807; Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 352: 'Magister Camerarius par est Dapifero in lib[er]acione ... Camerarius qui vice sua servit, ii solid. in die ... Camerarius Candelae, viiiᵈ in die ... Camerarii sine liberacione in domo comedent, si voluerint'; cf. Stubbs, i. 391; Poole, 96; Round, 62.]

[Footnote 95: Round, 112.]

[Footnote 96: _Fleta_, ii. 2: 'Auditis querimoniis iniuriarum in aula regia audire et terminare [Senescallum], assumptis sibi Camerario, hostiario, vel marescallo aulae militibus, vel aliquo illorum, si omnes interesse non possint'; ii. 6: 'Camerarius autem et subminister Camerarii a jurisdictione Senescalli et Marescalli exempti sunt, veluti omnes garderobarii ut in quibusdam; non enim extendit se iurisdictio Senescalli ad modica delicta Camerariorum vel garderobariorum audienda vel terminanda, eo quod ex consuetudine hospitii sunt exempti, dum tamen illi de quibus exigi contigerit curiae coram Senescallo Cameris Regis et Reginae, et garderobae assidue sunt intendentes; sed coram ipsis Thesaurario et Camerario audiantur querimoniae de huiusmodi ministris et subditis suis, et terminabuntur, praesente tamen clerico Regis ad placita aulae deputato; ita quod de finibus et amerciamentis ex huiusmodi placitis provenientibus nihil Regi depereat.']

[Footnote 97: _Flores Historiarum_, iii. 194; cf. _Fleta_, ii. 16.]

[Footnote 98: Tout, 12, 68, 169. The 'Seneschal' and 'chambirleyne' are on the same footing as regards fees and allowances in the ordinances of 1318 (Tout, 270). They are knights, and may be bannerets.]

[Footnote 99: _Fleta_, ii. 6: 'Debet enim Camerarius decenter disponere pro lecto Regis, et ut Camerae tapetis et banqueriis ornentur, et quod ignes sufficienter fiant in caminis, et providere ne ullus defectus inveniatur quatenus officium suum contigerit'; ii. 7: 'Foeda autem Camerarii sunt haec, parata sibi debent esse quaecunque pro corpore suo sint necessaria; videlicet, cibus, potus, busca, et candela; et de caeteris foedis sic statuitur. Camerarii Domini Regis habeant de caetero ab Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Prioribus, et aliis personis Ecclesiasticis, Comitibus, Baronibus, et aliis integram Baroniam tenentibus, rationabilem finem, cum pro Baroniis suis homagium fecerint aut fidelitatem; et si partem teneant Baroniae, tunc rationabilem finem capiant secundum portionem ipsos contingentem.... Permissum est etiam quod Camerarius ex antiqua consuetudine habeat omnia vetera banqueria et tapetos, curtinas et lecta Regis, nec non et omnia ornamenta Camerae usitata et derelicta, et de omnibus exeniis Regi factis Cameram ingredientibus, dum tamen de victualibus aliquam portionem.']

[Footnote 100: Nicolas, _P. C._ vi. ccxix.]

[Footnote 101: _H. O._ 31 (1478): 'A chamberlayn for the King in household, the grete officer sitting in the Kinges chambre.... He presenteth, chargeth, and dischargeth all suche persounes as be of the Kinges chaumbre, except all suche officers of household, as ministre for any vytayle for the Kinges mouthe, or for his chambre; for all those take theire charge at the grene cloth in the countynghouse. This is the chief hed of rulers in the Kinges chambre.... Item, he hath the punition of all them that are longing to the chaumber for any offence or outrage.... The Chaumberlayne taketh his othe and staffe of the King or of his counsayle; he shall at no tyme within this courte be covered in his service.... Within the Kinges gates, no man shall harborow or assigne but this chambyrlayn or ussher, or suche under hym of the King's chambre havyng theyr power. This chamberlayn besyly to serche and oversee the King's chambres, and the astate made therein, to be according, first for all the array longing to his proper royall person, for his proper beddes, for his proper boarde at meale tymes, for the diligent doyng in servyng thereof to his honour and pleasure; to assigne kervers, cupbearers, assewers, phisitians, almoners, knyghts, or other wurshypfull astate for the towell, and for the basyn squires of the body to be attendaunt'; 116 (1493): 'In the absence of the chamberlaine, the usher shall have the same power to command in like manner; alsoe, it is right necessarie for the chamberlaine and ushers to have ever in remembrance all the highe festival dayes in the yeare, and all other tymes, what is longing to their office, that they bee not to seeke when neede is; for they shall have many lookers-on. And such thinges as the ushers know not, lett them resort unto the chamberlaine, and aske his advice at all tymes therein; and soe the ushers bee excused, and the chamberlaine to see that hee reveale himselfe at all tymes, that hee may bee beloved and feared of all such as belong to the chamber.']

[Footnote 102: Goodman, i. 178, speaking of Hunsdon's time: 'The lord chamberlain, there being at that time no lord steward, is the greatest governor in the King's house; he disposeth of all things above stairs, he hath a greater command of the King's guard than the captains hath, he makes all the chaplains, chooseth most of the King's servants, and all the pursuivants; there being then no dean of the King's chapel, he disposeth of all in the chapel.']

[Footnote 103: Young, _Mary Sidney_, 16, gives from _Sydney Papers_, i. 271, and manuscripts several letters of 1574-8 from Lady Sidney to Lord Chamberlain Sussex about her accommodation at court. Heneage reported to Hatton on 2 Apr. 1585 (Nicolas, _Hatton_, 415) the Queen's anger with the Lord Chamberlain for allowing Raleigh to be put in Hatton's lodging. Lord Hunsdon apologizes to Sir Robert Cecil for his ill lodging in 1594 (_Hatfield MSS._ iv. 504).]

[Footnote 104: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 105: Cf. App. F. Secretary Walsingham in 1590 refers an applicant for an audience to the Lord Chamberlain, 'who otherwise will conceave, as he doth alreadie, that I seke to drawe those matters from him' (_Hatfield MSS._ iv. 3).]

[Footnote 106: _Sp. P._ ii. 606. The default was at the reception of Alençon's envoys in Aug. 1578. The Calendar makes Sussex 'Lord Steward', but the original (_Documentos Inéditos_, xci. 270) has 'gran Camarero'. In 1582, at the reception of a lord mayor, 'some young gentilman, being more bold than well mannered, did stand upon the carpett of the clothe of estate, and did allmost leane upon the queshions. Her Highnes found fault with my Lord Chamberlayn and Mʳ Vice-Chamberlayn, and with the Gentlemen Ushers, for suffering such disorders' (Fleetwood to Burghley in Wright, ii. 174).]

[Footnote 107: Cf. ch. vi, p. 205, on the misadventure of Jonson and Sir John Roe in 1603; also Jonson's _Irish Mask_ (1613), 12, 'Ish it te fashion to beate te imbasheters here, and knoke 'hem o' te heads phit te phoit stick?', and Beaumont and Fletcher, _Maid's Tragedy_ (_c._ 1611), 1. ii. 44, 'I cannot blame my lord Calianax for going away: would he were here! he would run raging amongst them, and break a dozen wiser heads than his own in the twinkling of an eye'. John Chamberlain says of Comptroller Sir Thomas Edmondes in 1617 (Birch, i. 385), 'They say he doth somewhat too much flourish and fence with his staves, whereof he hath broken two already, not at tilt, but stickling at the plays this Christmas', and Osborne, _James_, 75, of Philip, Earl of Pembroke, that 'he was intolerable choleric and offensive, and did not refrain, whilst he was Chamberlain, to break many wiser heads than his own [_vide supra_]: Mʳ. May that translated Lucan having felt the weight of his staff: which had not his office and the place, being the Banqueting-house, protected, I question whether he would ever have struck again'. This was in Feb. 1634 (_Strafford Papers_, i. 207).]

[Footnote 108: Machyn, 183, of Mary's funeral, 'All the offesers whent to the grayffe, and after brake ther stayffes, and cast them into the grayffe'; Gawdy, _Letters_, 128, of Elizabeth's, 'I saw all the whit staves broken uppon ther heades'.]

[Footnote 109: _Lord Chamberlains Books_, 811, ff. 178, 206, 236, contains warrants to the Wardrobe for the liveries of Lord Sussex, Lord Howard, and George Lord Hunsdon. The fee of £16 appears in a memorandum of 1606-7 (Nichols, _James_, ii. 125).]

[Footnote 110: The ordinary books of reference give a very inaccurate list of Elizabethan Chamberlains. I have collected the evidence in _M. S. C._ i. 31.]

[Footnote 111: Goodman, i. 178, says that Hunsdon was 'ever reputed a very honest man, but a very passionate man, a great swearer, and of little eminency'. Naunton (ed. Arber, 46) gives a similar account.]

[Footnote 112: Stowe, _Annals_, 936; Birch, _James_, i. 336; Wotton, _Letters_, ii. 40, 41.]

[Footnote 113: _V. P._ xiv. 65; Camden, _James_, 14.]

[Footnote 114: Birch, _James_, i. 382; Camden, _James_, 15; _V. P._ xiv. 100. Philip Herbert himself became Earl of Pembroke at his brother's death on 10 Apr. 1630. He took the parliamentary side in politics, and surrendered his staff on 23 July 1641. Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, although also a parliamentarian, succeeded him from 24 July 1641 to 12 Apr. 1642 (_L. Ch. Records_, v. 96).]

[Footnote 115: _M. S. C._ i. 34, 40. Howard of Effingham is described in the _Revels Accounts_ (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 238) as 'my L. Chamberlayne the L. Haward' on 5 Dec. 1574, and more precisely in the Chamber Order Book of Worcester as 'Lord Chamberlayn in the absence of the E. of Sussex' in Aug. 1575 (Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 533).]

[Footnote 116: Nicolas, _P. C._ vi. ccxxi; cf. p. 37.]

[Footnote 117: Dasent, vii. 3, 43; Wright, i. 355; La Mothe, v. 60; _Sadleir Papers_, ii. 368, 410; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 89, 198, 216; Chamberlain, 100; _D. N. B._]

[Footnote 118: Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 352, 'Portator lecti Regis in domo comedet, & homini suo iii ob. & i summarium cum liberacione sua'; cf. _H. O._ 39, 42, 251. These Wardrobes were distinct, alike from the Great Wardrobe and from the standing Wardrobes, to which the furniture of the permanently equipped palaces was committed (_H. O._ 262).]

[Footnote 119: _H. O._ 39.]

[Footnote 120: Carlisle, 11, assigns the institution of the Gentlemen to Henry VII, but this is inconsistent with the official document of 1638 printed by him (112), which definitely refers it to Henry VIII. He also gives from _Addl. MS._ 5758, ff. 263ᵛ, 269ᵛ, a list described by him as of Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber at the time of the King's 'French expedition, in 1513'. But in the manuscript the list is simply headed 'The Kinges prevy chamber'; it is part of an enumeration of 'the King's Trayne to Bulloyne', is not dated 1513, and probably belongs to 1544. Similarly a list of Gentlemen, printed by Brewer, ii. 871, from _Royal MS._ 7, F. xiv. 100, and dated by him 1516, proves on scrutiny to be certainly later than 1520, and may therefore be later still, while a number of alleged grants to Gentlemen and Grooms of the Privy Chamber between 1510 and 1514 (Brewer, i. 148, 195, 205, 280, 364, 748) may be seen by comparison with other entries for some of the same personages (i. 11, 18, 91, 96, 113, 243, 410, 425, 448, 493, 600, 612) to be merely due to bad abstracting. Evidently Brewer, when working upon his first volume, had not distinguished between a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and a Gentleman Usher of the Chamber, or between a Groom of the Privy Chamber and a Groom of the Chamber. The first clear example of Grooms and Pages of the Privy Chamber which I have come across is in a military list of June 1513 (Brewer, i. 634). Here there are no Gentlemen, but in Sept. 1518 a parallel list of French and English names (Brewer, ii. 1357) has a section of Gentlemen of the Chamber, in which occur, besides French names, those of Sir E. Nevell, Arthur Poole, Nicolas Carewe, Francis Brian, Henry Norris, William Coffyn. I believe the categories of this list to be French rather than English. In 1520 (Brewer, iii. 244) a Chamber list gives the names of four squires for the body followed by 'William Cary in the Privy Chamber', and in the same year a list of quarterly wages due from the Treasurer of the Chamber (Brewer, iii. 408) has, besides four Grooms of the Privy Chamber at 50_s._ each, 'Henry Norris and William Caree of the privy chamber' at £8 6_s._ 8_d._ each. On the other hand, a list of Chamber officers of 1526, probably just before the Eltham Articles (_Lord Steward's Misc._ 299, f. 153), has still no Gentlemen, though it has Grooms of the Privy (here called 'King's') Chamber. As I read these facts, the distinction between the Outer and the Privy Chamber was made in Henry VII's reign or early in Henry VIII's. The Grooms were then divided into two classes. But the institution of the Gentlemen was later and apparently upon a French model. At first, about 1520, one or two Squires were personally assigned to attendance in the Privy Chamber. Then the arrangement was regulated, and a definite class of Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber established, by the Eltham Articles in 1526. As to _status_, the duties of the Gentlemen seem to have been in practice much those of the Squires of Household in the _Liber Niger_ (1478), which were probably already exercised by Chaucer in the same capacity a century before. 'These Esquiers of houshold of old be accustumed, wynter and somer, in aftyrnoones and in eveninges, to drawe to lordes chambres within courte, there to kepe honest company aftyr theyre cunnynge, in talkyng of cronycles of kings and of other polycyes, or in pypeyng, or harpyng, syngyng, or other actes martialles, to help occupy the courte, and accompany straungers, tyll the tyme require of departing' (_H. O._ 46). Stowe (_Annales_, 565), describing the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, calls the Gentlemen 'Esquires of Honour'. Their precedence under Elizabeth was after that of the Esquires of the Body (Carlisle, 86). On the other hand, some of the Gentlemen appointed in 1526 had been Knights of the Body, and the office of Knight of the Body appears shortly after to have become obsolete. Knights are included as chamber officers in the Elizabethan fee lists, but I can find no evidence that any were in fact appointed.]

[Footnote 121: The Grooms were distinguished from the Gentlemen in the post-Restoration court (Chamberlayne, 247) by not wearing sword, cloak, or hat in the Chamber.]

[Footnote 122: _Constitutio Domus Regis_ (_c._ 1135) in Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 356, 'Hostiarius Camerae unaquaque die, quo Rex iter agit, iiijᵈ ad lectum Regis'; cf. _H. O._ 37, and p. 37, _supra_. On the etiquette of Bedchamber service, as inherited from the fifteenth century, cf. Furnivall, _Babee's Book_, 175, 313.]

[Footnote 123: The feminine posts do not appear in the fee lists. _Lansd. MS._ lix, f. 43, gives (_c._ 1588) two ladies at 50 marks (£33 6_s._ 8_d._) and one at £20 as 'The Bed chamber', five at 50 marks as 'Gentlewomen of yᵉ privey Chamber', and four at £20 as 'Chamberers'. The term 'The Queen's Women' appears in the list of liveries for Elizabeth's funeral. Beyond these there were probably only a few women, e. g. a 'lawndrys', employed at court; cf. Cheyney, i. 18. In the New Year Gift lists the official women are mixed up with wives of men officers and others in attendance at court.]

[Footnote 124: Katharine Astley seems to have been First Lady in 1562 (Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 116), Katharine Howard, afterwards Lady Howard of Effingham, from 1572-87 (_Sloane MS._ 814; Nichols, i. 294; ii. 65, 251; _Sp. P._ ii. 661), and Dorothy Lady Stafford in 1587 (_Sp. P._ iv. 14). But Mary Ratcliffe had charge of the jewels from July 1587 to the end of Elizabeth's reign (Nichols, iii. 1, 445; _Egerton Papers_, 313; _S. P. D. Jac. I_, i. 79; _Addl. MS._ 5751, f. 222; _Royal MS. Appendix_, 68), apparently in succession to Blanche Parry.]

[Footnote 125: For the white dresses, cf. App. F; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 170; _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxxxii. 48 (vol. iv, p. 114); L. Cust in _Trans. Walpole Soc._ iii. 12; for the lodging in the Coffer Chamber, doubtless where the 'sweet coffers' were kept, _Sydney Papers_, ii. 38. Elizabeth's predecessors, at least from the reign of Edward II (Tout, 280; cf. _H. O._ 44), had maintained some of the young lads who were royal wards at court under the name of Henchmen, but on 11 Dec. 1565 Francis Alen wrote to Lord Shrewsbury (Lodge, i. 438), 'Her Highness hath of late, whereat some do much marvel, dissolved the ancient office of the Henchmen'.]

[Footnote 126: This may be exemplified from the histories of Robert Dudley and Mrs. Cavendish, of Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth Throgmorton, of Robert Tyrwhitt and Bridget Manners, of Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon, of Essex and Elizabeth Brydges, Mary Howard, Elizabeth Russell and Elizabeth Southwell, and of Pembroke and Mary Fitton.]

[Footnote 127: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 24; _Sp. P._ i. 45; ii. 675.]

[Footnote 128: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi), George Bryan (ch. xv), and John Singer (ch. xv) were Grooms, and Anthony Munday (ch. xxii) and possibly Lawrence Dutton (ch. xv) Messengers of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 129: Cf. ch. iv. I doubt whether the Harbingers were originally Chamber officers, but they seem to be so classed under Henry VIII (_H. O._ 169) and in the Elizabethan fee lists.]

[Footnote 130: An order of 1493 'for all night' is in _H. O._ 109; Pegge, ii. 16, has a long account of the same usage in the post-Restoration Household. John Lyly (ch. xxiii) and Sir George Buck (ch. iii) were Esquires of the Body. A brawl in 1598 between the Earl of Southampton and Ambrose Willoughby, who was in charge of the Presence Chamber as Esquire of the Body after the Queen had gone to bed, is recorded in _Sydney Papers_, ii. 83.]

[Footnote 131: _H. O._ 33 (_c._ 1478), 'In the noble Edwardes [Ed. III] dayes worshipfull esquires did this servyce, but now thus for the more worthy'.]

[Footnote 132: At Elizabeth's funeral the Earl of Shrewsbury had a livery as Cupbearer and the Earl of Sussex as Carver.]

[Footnote 133: Cf. App. F.]

[Footnote 134: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi) became a Sewer of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 135: Brewer, ii. 871 (assigned to 1516, but probably later than 1526). The livery list for Elizabeth's coronation includes 7 Ladies of the Privy Chamber 'without wages' and 11 others 'extraordinary', 4 'ordinary' Esquires of the Body, and 6 Gentlemen Waiters (i. e. of the Privy Chamber) 'unplaced'; that for her funeral 16 Grooms of the Chamber 'in ordinarie' and 23 'extraordinary, but daily attendant', 5 Pages of the Chamber 'in ordinary' and 3 'extraordinary', and a number of Esquires of the Body and Sewers of the Chamber far in excess of anything contemplated by the fee lists.]

[Footnote 136: Batiffol, 93, describes a similar practice in the French household.]

[Footnote 137: Cf. ch. xiii (Queen's, King's).]

[Footnote 138: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi) seems to have passed from the 'extraordinary' to the 'ordinary' status as Groom of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 139: Pegge, v. 49. There were 'xx servientes, unusquisque jᵈ in die' in the _Domus_ of Henry I (Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 356).]

[Footnote 140: Pegge, iii; Tout, 304 (1318): 'Item xxiiij archers a pee, garde corps le roi, qirrount deuaunt le roi en cheminant par pays'; _H. O._ 38 (1478).]

[Footnote 141: Sir Christopher Hatton was Captain of the Guard 1572-87, Sir Walter Raleigh 1587-1603, Sir Thomas Erskine, afterwards Viscount Fenton (1605) and Earl of Kelly (1619), 1603-32.]

[Footnote 142: Halle, i. 14; ii. 294; Pegge, ii. An Elizabethan book of orders for the Pensioners (1601) is in _H. O._ 276.]

[Footnote 143: Cf. App. F.]

[Footnote 144: On the development of the Secretaries, cf. Tout, 175; Davies, 228; Nicolas, _P. C._ vi, xcvii; Cheyney, i. 43; R. H. Gretton, _The King's Government_, 25; L. H. Dibben, _Secretaries in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries_ (_E. H. R._ xxv. 430).]

[Footnote 145: On the Chapel, cf. ch. xii, s.v.]

[Footnote 146: Payments on account of Robert Grene, a court fool, appear in the _Privy Purse Accounts_ for 1559-69 (Nichols, i. 264). Apparently the post was hereditary; a warrant of 1567 for the clothes of 'Jack Grene our foole' is in _Addl. MS._ 35328. C. C. Stopes, _Elizabeth's Fools and Dwarfs_ (_Shakespeare's Environment_, 269), adds from a Wardrobe book of 1577-1600 (_Lord Chamb. Books_, v. 36) 'Thomasina', a dwarf or _muliercula_, and from another (_Lord Chamb. Books_, v. 34) 'The Foole', 'William Shenton our Foole', 'Ipolyta the Tartarian', 'an Italian named Monarcho', 'a lytle Blackamore'. References to Monarcho, including _L. L. L._ IV. i. 101, are collected in _Var._ iv. 345, and McKerrow, _Nashe_, iv. 339. Dee, 7, records a visit from the Queen's dwarf 'Mʳˢ Thomasin' on 7 June 1580.]

[Footnote 147: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 50.]

[Footnote 148: Lafontaine, 45. Numerous records of the musical establishment are collected by Lafontaine from the _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, and by W. Nagel, _Annalen der englischen Hofmusik_ (_Beilage zu den Monatsheften für Musikgeschichte_, Bd. 26), and more completely in the _Musical Antiquary_ (Oct. 1909-Apr. 1913) from the _T. C. Accounts_. The fee lists are not to be relied upon.]

[Footnote 149: This was Mathias Mason. The lutenists also include Robert Hales (1586-1603), Henry Porter (1603), also described in the same year as a sackbut, and Philip Rosseter (1604-23), on whom cf. ch. xv.]

[Footnote 150: John Heywood was certainly a Sewer of the chamber to Henry VIII (cf. ch. xii, s.v. Paul's), and Edward VI had a group of singers holding these posts (Lafontaine, 9), but there is no definite evidence of a similar arrangement under Elizabeth. On Alfonso Ferrabosco, cf. ch. xiv (Italians).]

[Footnote 151: On the relation of the Lord Chamberlain to the Revels in particular, cf. ch. iii. The issues from the Great Wardrobe were mainly upon his warrants.]

[Footnote 152: _H. O._ 37. The post of Clerk of Works is also called an 'office outward' (_H. O._ 54).]

[Footnote 153: Cf. ch. iii, especially Tilney's list of 'standing offices' _c._ 1607. The 'maisters of the standing offices' also appear in the description of James's coronation (Nichols, _James_, i. 325).]

[Footnote 154: Thus the curious fee of £11 8_s._ 1½_d._ a year represents 7½_d._ a day, the regular wages of esquires, serjeants, and many clerks under Edward II (Tout, 270).]

[Footnote 155: The £100 was 'from the King's privy coffers' _c._ 1478 (_H. O._ 41), but by 1508 it was from the Exchequer (Henry, _Hist. of Great Britain_, xii. 454), and here it was still paid in the seventeenth century (Sullivan, 252, from _Pells Order Books_).]

[Footnote 156: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 47, from return of Board of Green Cloth (1576).]

[Footnote 157: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 45, 51. 'Bouche' or 'bouge' of court is clearly from _busca_, bush, firewood. The allowance was as old as 1290, for _Fleta_, ii. 7, notes _cibus_, _potus_, _busca_, and _candela_ amongst the Chamberlain's fees (cf. p. 37). It is set out for each officer in 1318 (Tout, 270) and _c._ 1478 (_H. O._ 15).]

[Footnote 158: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 44.]

[Footnote 159: _H. O._ 34, 'because ray clothinge is not according for the king's knightes, therefore it was left'. But an order of June 1478 (_T. R. Misc._ 206, f. 11) required Lords, Knights, Squires of the Body, and others within the household to wear 'a colour of the kings livery about their nekkes'.]

[Footnote 160: Cheyney, i. 32; Devon, 24, 43, 67, 83; _Abstract_, 8; Pegge, iii. 27; Nichols, _James_, ii. 125; _V. P._ vii. 12; Hentzner, _Itinerarium_ (quoted App. F); _Addl. MS._ 5750, f. 114; _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, v. 90, 91. The 'watchyng clothing' is as old as Edward IV (_H. O._ 38, 41). It seems to have been 4 yards of medley colour at 5_s._ a yard (Sullivan, 253). The sovereigns seem to have made some use of personal colours as distinct from the royal scarlet. Those of Edward VI were green and white (Von Raumer, ii. 71); those of Elizabeth black and white; cf. pp. 142, 161 (1559, 1560, 1564).]

[Footnote 161: Pegge, iii. 92.]

[Footnote 162: Cf. ch. xiii (Queen's).]

[Footnote 163: Cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 164: Carlisle, 90, with a list of many of James's Gentlemen.]

[Footnote 165: The order of 1526 for the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber prescribes that one of them, Henry Norris, 'shall be in the roome of Sir William Compton, not only giveing his attendance as groome of the Kings stoole, but also in his bed-chamber, and other privy places, as shall stand with his pleasure' (_H. O._ 156). Naturally the post had lapsed during female reigns, although a hope of Sir Robert Sidney for a 'Bedchamber lordship' in 1597 suggests that a renewal may have been contemplated (_Hatfield MSS._ vii. 225). James had had Gentlemen of the Bed Chamber in Scotland. Later court usage, represented already by Chamberlayne, 262, in 1669, interpreted 'stole' as 'vestment', but I suspect that in origin it was the close stool, which was kept _c._ 1478 by the Wardrobe of Beds (_H. O._ 40); cf. Marston, _Fawn_, 1. ii. 46, 'Thou art private with the duke; thou belongest to his close-stool'.]

[Footnote 166: Goodman, i. 389, says that the prime gentleman of the bed chamber and groom of the stole was 'a man of special trust' and had a table for guests 'employed in the king's most private occasions'. Viscount Fenton combined the post with that of Captain of the Guard under James. According to Newcastle, 213, the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke laboured in vain to be of the Bed Chamber throughout the reign. Carey, _Memoirs_, 79, 91, describes the heart-burnings to which the office gave rise. Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset, began his career as a Page of the Bed Chamber (Nichols, _James_, i. 600).]

[Footnote 167: _S. P. D. Jac. I_ (8 Nov. 1604). The French ambassador wrote in 1606 (Boderie, i. 56) that the king 'vit combattre les cocqs, qui est un plaisir qu'il prend deux fois la semaine'.]

[Footnote 168: Cf. _D. N. B._. Anne also had a 'jester', Thomas Derry, in 1612 (Cunningham, xliii).]

[Footnote 169: _Abstract_, 46; Devon, 17, 72 and _passim_; _Cott. MS. Vesp._ C. xiv, f. 108; _Addl. MS._ 33378, f. 34ᵛ; _V. P._ x. 102; Sully, 443; Boderie, i. 39, 272, 362. Sir Lewis Lewknor received a formal appointment as Master of Ceremonies by patent, with a salary of £200, on 7 Nov. 1605, but had in fact been exercising the functions since 1603. Amongst his assistants were Sir William Button, who was employed by 1607 and obtained a reversion of the post on 10 Sept. 1612, and John Finett, who ultimately himself became Master, and published a record of his service from 1612 in his _Philoxenis_ (1656).]

[Footnote 170: Worcester to Shrewsbury, 2 Feb. 1604 (Lodge, iii. 88); 'Now, having done with matters of state, I must a little touch the feminine commonwealth, that against your coming you be not altogether like an ignorant country fellow. First, you must know we have ladies of divers degrees of favour; some for the private chamber, some for the drawing chamber, some for the bed-chamber, and some for neither certain, and of this number is only my Lady Arabella and my wife. My Lady Bedford holdeth fast to the bed-chamber; my Lady Harford would fain, but her husband hath called her home. My Lady Derby the younger, the Lady Suffolk, Ritche, Nottingham, Susan, Walsingham, and, of late, the Lady Sothwell, for the drawing-chamber; all the rest for the private-chamber, when they are not shut out, for many times the doors are locked; but the plotting and malice amongst them is such, that I think envy hath tied an invisible snake about most of their necks to sting one another to death. For the present there are now five maids; Cary, Myddelmore, Woodhouse, Gargrave, Roper; the sixth is determined, but not come; God send them good fortune, for as yet they have no mother.']

[Footnote 171: Madox, i. 262; Thomas, 24; Tout in _E. H. R._ xxiv. 496.]

[Footnote 172: Tout, 63.]

[Footnote 173: Madox, i. 267; _P. R. O. Lists and Indexes_, xi. 102; Tout in _E. H. R._ xxiv. 496. The following summary of the history of the wardrobe and chamber in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries is largely based on Tout, _The Place of Edward II in English History_ (1914). Additional material has since been published in J. C. Davies, _The Baronial Opposition to Edward II_ (1918).]

[Footnote 174: _Fleta_, ii. 6, quoted on p. 37.]

[Footnote 175: J. C. Davies, _The First Journal of Edward II's Chamber_ (1915, _E. H. R._ xxx. 662), gives extracts from a Chamber account of 1322-3, including a payment of 7 Jan. 1323 'a iiij clers de Sneyth iuantz entreludies en la sale de Couwyk deuant le Roi et monsire Hugh [le Despenser] de doun le Roi par les mayns Harsik liuerant a eux les deniers xlˢ', which adds an interesting early use of the term 'interlude' to those given in _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 181, 256.]

[Footnote 176: Newton, 351; Ramsay, _Lancaster and York_, i. 317; ii. 466. Henry VIII's Treasurers of the Chamber sometimes kept separate war accounts (Brewer, iv. 1. 82), and there is a similar example as late as 1599 (_R. O. Audit Office_, _Various_, 3, 108).]

[Footnote 177: _P. R. O. Lists and Indexes_, xxxv. 220, and _Cal. Patent Rolls_, both passim.]

[Footnote 178: _C. P. R._, _1 Hen. VI_, p. 3, m. 5 (3 May 1423), _5 Edw. IV_, p. 2, m. 28 (29 June 1465), _1 Rich. III_, p. 5, m. 21 (26 Apr. 1484). I think Newton is wrong in regarding Vaughan's appointment by patent as exceptional. The _Liber Niger_, _c._ 1478 (_H. O._ 42), fully describes the Jewel House, with its 'architectour, called clerk of the King's, or keeper of the King's jewelles, or tresorer of the chambyr', and says 'all thinges of this office inward or outward, commyth and goyth by the knowledge of the Kyng, and his chamberlaynes recorde'.]

[Footnote 179: Sir Gilbert Talbot, Master of the Jewel House in 1680, represented (_Archaeologia_, xxii. 118) that anciently the Master was Treasurer of the Chamber, 'till that branch was taken out and made an office apart; and is now five times more beneficiall than the Jewell-House; all the regulation of expence being apply'd to the remaining parts of the perquisites of the Jewell-House, the fees of the Treasurer of the Chamber and Master of the Ceremonys being left entire'.]

[Footnote 180: Campbell, i. 228, 316; ii. 105, 296, 320, 445. Newton, 351, 353, thinks the exact dates of Edmund Chaderton's and Lovell's appointments uncertain, and supposes the keepership of the jewels to have been detached on the latter occasion. But it was clearly on the former, the date of which is given in _C. P. R._, _1 Rich. III_, p. 5, m. 21, as 26 Apr. 1484. Lovell is described as Treasurer of the King's Chamber on 26 Feb. 1486 and of the Queen's Chamber about the following Easter (Campbell, i. 228, 316). There is no patent for him, and my impression is that both posts had been annexed to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, granted him on 12 Oct. 1485 (_C. P. R._, _1 Hen. VII_, p. 1, m. 18).]

[Footnote 181: Newton, 354, with a full account of Heron's career.]

[Footnote 182: This arrangement had already been legalized by _1 Hen. VIII_, c. 3 (_Statutes_, iii. 2), which authorizes the payment of certain revenues to Heron as General Receiver, 'and to other persons ... hereafter in like office to be deputed and assigned as in the time of the late ... King Henry the vijᵗʰ hath been used', but does not refer to him as Treasurer of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 183: _3 Hen. VIII_, c. 23 (_Statutes_, iii. 45). It is provided by § 6 'that the Kinges forenamed trusty servant John Heron be from hensfurth Tresourer of the Kinges Chamber, and that he by the name of Tresourer of the Kinges Chambre be named accepted and called; and that he and every other persone whom the King hereaftur shall name and appoint to the said roome or office of Tresourer of his Chamber be not Charged ne chargeable for any suche his or their Receipt of any parte or parcell of the premisses as before ys expressed or therefor to accompte answere or make repayment to any persone or persones other then to the King or his heires in his or their Chamber, and not in the said Eschequier'. The Act only had force to 30 Nov. 1512, but it was continued by _4 Hen. VIII_, c. 18, _6 Hen. VIII_, c. 24, _7 Hen. VIII_, c. 7, _14-15 Hen. VIII_, c. 15, and made permanent by _27 Hen. VIII_, c. 62 in 1535 (_Statutes_, iii. 68, 145, 182, 219, 631). The account of this legislation in Newton, 361, treats the Act of _6 Hen. VIII_ as its starting-point.]

[Footnote 184: His salary was at first £10, afterwards £25 a quarter (Brewer, iii. 407). He died on 10 June 1522 (Newton, 358).]

[Footnote 185: A letter in Brewer, iii. 781 (N.D. but dated by Brewer 2 Dec. 1521), speaks of 'Master Myclo the new treasurer in Master Heron is room'. Certain payments were made by John Myklowe, 'late treasurer of the King's chamber', from 1 June 1521 to 1 May 1522, and thereafter by Edmund Peckham (Brewer, iii. 1156), until 1 Jan. 1523. Conceivably Peckham, who had been a clerk in the counting-house, and was cofferer by 1524 (Brewer, iv. 422), may have been Treasurer for a short period between Miklowe and Wyatt, unless indeed these payments belong to a special war loan or subsidy account, such as Wyatt himself rendered in 1524 (Brewer, iv. 82), probably not strictly in his capacity as Treasurer of the Chamber. Miklowe is described as Treasurer on 10 Apr. 1522 and was dead by 28 June 1522 (Brewer, iii. 924, 998). For his earlier history, cf. Brewer, ii. 436; iii. 332; xxi. 2. 426; Ellis, iii. 3, 271.]

[Footnote 186: Wyatt is described as Treasurer in an indenture of 18 Feb. 1523 (Brewer, iii. 1190). In one of Cavendish's memoranda as printed in _Trevelyan Papers_, ii. 12, the name of Sir Thomas has been substituted for that of Sir Henry as a predecessor of Cavendish. This is an error, or more probably a forgery, as Collier edited the volume, and called special attention to the entry. Sir Thomas Wyatt was riding in 1524 on war loan business, payment for which is in his father's account (Brewer, iv. 85). On 21 Oct. 1524 he became clerk of the jewels. It is just possible that the old connexion of the Treasurer with the Jewel House suggested the confusion, on which cf. Simonds, _Sir Thomas Wyatt_, 19.]

[Footnote 187: _H. O._ 159.]

[Footnote 188: Brewer, iv. 1843.]

[Footnote 189: _33 Hen. VIII_, c. 39 (_Statutes_, iii. 879).]

[Footnote 190: Brewer, xx. 2. 452; Dasent, i. 323, 470.]

[Footnote 191: Brewer, xxi. 1. 125, 147; _Trevelyan Papers_, i. 197.]

[Footnote 192: _7 Edw. VI_, c. 2 (_Statutes_, iv. 1, 164).]

[Footnote 193: _1 Mary_, Sess. 2, c. 10 (_Statutes_, iv. 1, 208); Thomas, 15.]

[Footnote 194: Wriothesley to Paget in Brewer, xx. 2. 338 (5 Nov. 1545). A later letter of 11 Nov. (Brewer, xx. 2. 365) refers to debts of the Surveyors' Court 'which is the Chamber'. In 1552 Charles Tuke was called on by the Privy Council to bring his father's accounts to the Lord Chamberlain for view and consideration (Dasent, iv. 164).]

[Footnote 195: _Trevelyan Papers_, ii. 1. The book is now in the R. O. It is in the statement of 1548 that Sir T. Wyatt's name has been inserted.]

[Footnote 196: Dasent, v. 329; vi. 182; _Hatfield MSS._ i. 256.]

[Footnote 197: Cf. ch. xiii (Interluders).]

[Footnote 198: Examples are in _H. O._ 120, 139, 147.]

[Footnote 199: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 200: A fuller account of the Tudor Chamber finance is given by Newton, 360; cf. M. D. George, _The Origin of the Declared Account_ (_E. H. R._ xxxi. 41).]

[Footnote 201: Felton was cofferer in 1553 (_Archaeologia_, xii. 372).]

[Footnote 202: _S. P. D. Mary_, xiv. The fee of £240 represents the old fee of £100 attached to the Treasurership, together with allowances of £100 for board wages, £20 for clerks, £10 for boat-hire, and £10 for office necessaries, which Cavendish's accounts show that he enjoyed. The 1_s._ a day was presumably the fee for the Posts.]

[Footnote 203: Dasent, vii. 15, 27; _S. P. D. Eliz. Addl._ ix. 3.]

[Footnote 204: Nicholas, _Eliz._ i. 264, printed the accounts of Edmund Downing as executor to John Tamworth for 1559-69 from the audited copy in _Harleian Rolls_, A. A. 23. Copies are also in the _Pipe Office Declared Accounts_, 2791, and the _Audit Office Declared Accounts_, 2021, 1. No later Elizabethan Privy Purse Accounts are known, but it appears from the lists of New Year gifts for 1561, 1578, 1579, 1589, and 1600 (Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 108; ii. 65, 249; iii. 1, 445) that Henry Sackford succeeded John Tamworth as custodian of gifts given in cash, and he is described as Keeper at Elizabeth's death (_S. P. D. Jac. I_, vi. 2). His successor was Sir George Home, afterwards (1605) Earl of Dunbar (_S. P. D. Docquet_ of 17 May 1603). Jacobean accounts for 1603-5 are in _Pipe Office Declared Accounts_, 2792, and in _Audit Office Declared Accounts_, 2021. Some extracts are in Cunningham, xviii. In 1617 (_Abstract_, 6) the Privy Purse disposed of £5,000 and an additional £1,100 from New Year gifts.]

[Footnote 205: This estimate is based on the account for 1594-5; doubtless there was some variation from year to year. A memorandum of _c._ 1596 (_Hatfield MSS._ vi. 571) gives the annual assignment to the office by warrant dormant as £13,800.]

[Footnote 206: On 23 July 1581 Heneage wrote to Hatton (Hatton, 181) that he could only grant allowances to couriers sent to Mr. Secretary in France if signed for by the Lord Treasurer, Lord Chamberlain, or Vice-Chamberlain. On 26 May 1590 (_Cecil Papers_, iv. 35) a royal warrant directed Heneage to pay on warrants subscribed by Burghley, as formerly by Walsingham. Both documents refer to temporary arrangements in the absence of a Secretary. When Herbert became Second Secretary in 1600, it was 'doubted that his warrants for money matters will be of no force to the Treasurer of the Chamber, which office depends upon the principal Secretary's warrants' (_Sydney Papers_, ii. 194).]

[Footnote 207: Camden (tr.), 130; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 761; _S. P. D. Eliz._ xl. 20.]

[Footnote 208: Wright, _Eliz._ i. 355; Hatton, 39; Heneage's accounts begin on 15 Feb. 1570.]

[Footnote 209: Camden (tr.), 450; Dasent, xxv. 4.]

[Footnote 210: _Cecil Papers_, iv. 68.]

[Footnote 211: _D. N. B._ from _Lansd. MS._ lxxix, No. 19.]

[Footnote 212: _Sydney Papers_, i. 356, 357, 363, 373, 382.]

[Footnote 213: _Cecil Papers_, v. 500; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 808. Killigrew rendered an account from 16 Dec. 1595 to 3 July 1596.]

[Footnote 214: Birch, _Eliz._ ii. 61; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 809.]

[Footnote 215: Birch, _James_, i. 277; _S. P. D. Jac. I_, lxxxi. 15.]

[Footnote 216: _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, v. 81-3. The recital runs: 'Whereas we have thought fitt to disburden our privy purse of certaine paymentes used of late to be made out of it, And to assigne the said paymentes to be henceforth made by you our Tr_easur_er of our Chamber ... for allowances to players, for playes made before vs., for bullbayting, beare-bayting, and anie other sport shewed vnto vs.' The Treasurer is to pay 'vpon billes rated allowed and subscribed by our Chamberlaine'. Warrants for rewards for plays were still signed by the Privy Council during 1608-14, but by the Chamberlain from 1614.]

[Footnote 217: _Abstract_, 7, 12. During 1603-17 the Treasurer of the Chamber had also had £21,362 for 'extraordinary disbursements'.]

[Footnote 218: The development has been fully worked out by Professor Baldwin.]

[Footnote 219: _H. O._ 159 (1526).]

[Footnote 220: Cheyney, i. 67, 106; Hornemann, 52; Dasent, _passim_. Certain regulations called Orders in Star Chamber (cf. App. D, No. cxx) appear to proceed from the Council sitting in the Star Chamber, but in an administrative, not a judicial, capacity.]

[Footnote 221: Cf. generally for this paragraph Cheyney, i. 65; Hornemann, 19, 49; E. R. Adair, _The Privy Council Registers_ (_E. H. R._ xxx. 698); and prefaces to Dasent, _passim_.]

[Footnote 222: La Mothe, iv. 29 (22 March 1571): 'J'y suys arrivé sur le poinct que ceux de son conseil venoient de débattre, devant elle, les poinctz du tretté.']

[Footnote 223: Hornemann, 54, cites _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxxviii. 55 as evidence that Essex was President of the Council; but surely it was the Council in Ireland. Scaramelli (_V. P._ ix. 567) reports an interview with the Council on 24 Apr. 1603, at which he says the Archbishop of Canterbury, President of the Council, was not present. This suggests that James had appointed a President. 'These Lords of the Council', adds Scaramelli, 'behave like so many kings.']

[Footnote 224: Steele, xiv.]

[Footnote 225: Cf. App. D, _Bibl. Note_.]

[Footnote 226: Robert Laneham was Keeper and describes his functions (Laneham, 59): 'Noow, syr, if the Councell sit, I am at hand, wait at an inch, I warrant yoo. If any make babling, "peas!" (say I) "woot ye whear ye ar?" if I take a lystenar, or a priar in at the chinks or at the lokhole, I am by & by in the bones of him; but now they keep good order; they kno me well inough: If a be a freend, or such one az I lyke, I make him sit dooun by me on a foorm, or a cheast: let the rest walk, a God's name!']

[Footnote 227: Baldwin, 439; Cheyney, i. 81; Dicey, 68, 94.]