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The Lyrics of Henry VIII/Manuscript

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Lyrics  |  Manuscript  |  Authors and Composers
The Lyrics of Henry VIII
Appendix 1: Lyrics by Occasion/Theme  |  Appendix 2: Textual/Musical Witnesses  |  Appendix 3: Bibliography

Description of the Manuscript

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The manuscript is vellum (12 by 8.25 inches, 309 by 211 millimetres), with some paper additions as the result of its rebinding in 1950-1. H was obtained by the British Museum in its original bindings; these are wood, covered with leather with a design characterised by roses, fleur-de-lis, and tooling; the covers measure 13 by 8.5 inches, and were once held together by two clasps, now missing. The effect of the cover design is a double-ruled and centred square, in which a series of diamonds are created by diagonal tooling; each of the full diamonds in the centre of the cover contains a fleur-de-lis, while the remaining divisions contain roses. The tools used on the binding have been identified as belonging to a binder operating in London ca. 1520-3.[1] As it currently exists, it is bound in modern covers of maroon leather on boards and consists of the following:

1. One paper page (modern addition).
2. Two vellum sheets, chiefly blank save for the latter, which has written in the bottom right corner of the recto of it “Purchd. of B Quaritch, / 22 April 1882.” These are original and, while unnumbered, match in composition and wear those numbered ff. 129 and 130, listed below as 5(iv).
3. One paper page (modern addition, containing a list of printed texts and notices of this manuscript).
4. One paper page, an addition containing the remains of two paper bookplates,
(i) of “Thomas Fuller: M:D,” with “Stephen Fuller of / Hart Street, Bloomsbury / 1762” written in ink above the arms of Thomas Fuller, and
(ii) of “The Right Honourable / Archibald Earl of Eglinton.”
5. One hundred and thirty vellum sheets comprising the original manuscript. These are made up of sixteen gatherings generally of 8 leaves each, though the first gathering is of ten; i10 lacks the tenth leaf (a stub remains), and xvi8 lacks the first leaf (for which a stub remains as well). The front fly leaves and the end-pages (ff. 129-30) are additional to these gatherings. The physical contents of the manuscript are as below:
(i) 1r-2r: blank, except for some extra-scribal markings (noted below).
(ii) 2v-3r: a numbered (arabic) index of works in the manuscript, listing only pieces having original ink numbering in the manuscript itself, and inaccurate after number 49.
(iii) 3v-128r: 109 pieces, of which 75 are lyrics set to music (with at least a title or incipit provided) and 34 are settings with no words; these run continuously, except for blank faces left on 43r, 97v (which is blank, but ruled for music), and 102v; there are occasional extra-scribal markings (noted below).
(iv) 128v: a blank sheet.
6. 129r-130v: two vellum sheets, chiefly blank save for some extra-scribal markings (noted below), and a pencilled account of the manuscript (dated 1882) on 129v; ff. 129 and 130 match in composition and wear the first two vellum sheets in the manuscript (noted above).
7. One paper page (modern addition) containing the manuscript’s record of treatment.

Foliations 1 through 130 are numbered in pencil in the top exterior corner of the recto face, with an older pagination of 1 (2v) through 251 (128r) in the top exterior corner on both recto and verso; the older pagination is erroneous and is largely erased or crossed out. As well, there is an original ink numbering, roman numerals i-lxxii, of works in the manuscript, typically appearing in the top centre of the recto of the leaf after which a work begins (this, typically on the verso); these almost exclusively enumerate those works with fully-completed lyrics, matching those listed in the index on 2v-3r.

The manuscript shows evidence of five scribal hands, none identifiable,[2] employed in its copying, with deployment as follows:[3] A (2v, 3r [final line], 3v-14r, 18r, 21v-25v, 26v-89v, 90v-124r), B (14v-17v, 18v-21r), C (26r, 119v-120r [correcting and augmenting A], 124v-128r), D (90r), and E (3r)[4]. The differentiation of A and B relies chiefly on the evidence of the texts of the lyrics alone, for the musical notation here is quite similar; this suggests the possibility that textual entry and musical notation were somewhat separated as scribal activities. The contents of the manuscript are listed by A (2v, 3r [final line, “I love vnlovid”]) and E (3r), urging the possibility that the penultimate lyric “I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture” (H 122v-124r) was added slightly later than others listed in the contents; this, coupled with the prominence of A’s hand throughout, suggests A’s role in the production of the manuscript as more than a copyist. The final lyric,“Hey troly loly lo” (H 124v-128r; copied by C), does not appear in the list of contents and is, as with “I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture,” likely also a slightly later addition; this, and further consideration of C’s corrections and additions to both the lyrics and the music first written by A on ff. 119v-120r,[5] suggests C’s involvement in the later history of the manuscript’s compilation in an editorial capacity in addition to his scribal function. Scribe D’s work, which consists of a music-only piece on 90r, may be a later addition as well.

Extra-scribal markings occur infrequently, though not altogether uncommonly, and are chiefly gathered on the sheets which surround the manuscript proper; they appear as follows:

(i) 1r: near the centre on the top is written, in a sixteenth-century hand, “henricus dei gr[aci]a Rex Anglie.”
(ii) 2r: what appears possibly to be a large majuscule “R” with an extended flourish, in the top centre of the sheet.
(iii) 3v: (a) in the top left corner, the name of “Stephen Fuller” in ink; (b) as well, in pencil, the incipit for the piece which begins on this page is given as “[B]enedictus”.
(iv) 55r: (a) in the top right corner is written “henr” in ink and in a sixteenth century hand; (b) the same, “henr,” in the same ink and hand, next to the seventh line of text; and (c) on the same line as the attribution of the piece, in a different hand and in fainter ink than the other markings on this page, “William Cornysh” is written in a sixteenth century hand and rubbed out partially.
(v) 125v-127r: several markings, possibly scribal and approximately “,” occurring (a) one third the way down the left margin of 125v, (b) half way down the right margin of 126r, and (c) one third the way down the left margin of 126v and again near the bottom. Other markings, possibly scribal as well, occur (d) two thirds of the way down the left margin of 126v, and (e), on 127r, at the top of the left margin and half way down the leaf in the same margin.
(vi) 129v: (a) some pen practice, written sideways, downwards on the page from the top right corner; in a different hand, centred near the top of the page, “Ser John Leed in the parishe of benynden / Vynsent Wydderden ys an onest man so sayeth / Nycolas Bonden cuius est contrarium verum est.”
(vii) 130r: in several different hands, (a) near the top right are two smudged pieces of writing, one, running as the pen practice on the previous sheet, and illegible and, the other, “. . . Wydderden”; below this, (b) reads “Vynsent Wydderden ys a kneet”; below this, (c), written as a above, reads “Dauye Jonys ys a kneet” (the last word has been crossed out); to the right of a, (d) reads “John” as well as other smudged words, including what appears to be “Thomas”; below this, (e) reads “Syr John Lede in parishe of Benenden / Benynd[ ] / Leed in parishe Thomas”[6] and directly above this last word “Benynden”; below this, (f) reads “Dauey Jonys in the paryshe of Benynden / ys an onest man so sayeth . . .”; lastly, (g) on the lower right section of the page, running horizontally, “Jane Reve of the paryshe of Mownfeld.”

The manuscript is chiefly in black ink, though slight variations in inking occur throughout, most notably on 90r (hand D, slightly darker), and 119v-120r (in hand C, as on 124v-128r, though A and C are both present on these sheets) and 124v-128r (hand C, slightly darker). Other colours—red, blue, and gold (gilding)—are employed for initial capitals. Typically, initial capitals are block style, stretching the height of both the musical staff and the space left for the text below. There are exceptions and, at times, blank spaces have been left in the manuscript for such initials and remain unfilled.

Date of the Manuscript

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As one of only three remaining early Tudor songbooks, the Henry VIII MS is also surely the latest.[7] The Ritson MS (LRit), containing a version of Henry’s “Pastyme with good companye” (H 14v-15r) with the heading of “The Kynges Ballade” (141v), is dated ca. 1510;[8] the Fayrfax MS (LFay) in which “Svmwhat musyng” (H 120v-122r, LFay 33v-35r) is found, itself associated with Prince Arthur’s court shortly before his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, is dated ca. 1500-1.[9] The best date which can be accurately assigned the Henry VIII MS is ca. 1522, though the majority of its contents are clearly from an earlier time.

Some have placed the lyrics from the manuscript as late as the 1530s. Jungman, for example, has linked Henry’s “Pastyme with good companye” to the state of affairs that existed between the King, Anne Boleyn, and Thomas Wyatt in 1530, and a version of “A robyn gentyl robyn” (H 53v-54r), attributed to Wyatt in the later Devonshire (LDev) and Egerton (LEge) MSS, is set by Cornish in H. Such a late date, however, runs contrary to the evidence provided by the manuscript itself.[10]

The latest date for manuscript composition may be set to that of its binding, ca. 1520-3 in London. This is established by tracing the implements used in creating the design on the manuscript’s leather cover. There are eight roses (Oldham, Bindings #1034; Shrewsbury #75, A.viii.10[2]), and four fleurs-de-lis (Oldham, Bindings #1055; Shrewsbury #74, A.viii.10[1]); the tools that created these designs were used in London by a binding shop identified (but not named) by Oldham. The same fleur-de-lis and roses as those used on H are employed in a similar pattern on Lambeth 94.B.3 (Lyons, 1523) which, in turn, shares a roll design (Oldham, Bindings #878, RCa[1]) with Lambeth 18.D.12 (Basle, 1520).[11] The same fleur-de-lis is also found on BL Additional MS 34,807;[12] as well, as noted by Oldham, the rose is used in conjunction with roll #892 (Bindings RPa[1]; London 1523).[13]

While helping to establish an approximate end-date, information associated with the binding of H does not assist greatly with its precise dating, for it is possible that the tools employed in the design on the bindings of H were in use several years before or after the binding and decoration of H. Moreover, manuscript evidence suggests the likelihood that H saw circulation and use prior to its binding; as one might expect, H shows evidence of trimming after materials were copied into it but, more unusually, trimming appears to have occurred after some marginalia indicative of its use had been entered.[14] Circulation in such a state may help explain the presence in H of the name of John Lede—a man associated with the Church of St. George in Benenden, Kent, ca. 1518[15] and afterward—on 130r, the contents of which appear unaffected by trimming and the location and wear of which suggest its place as the original end sheet.[16]

Whether bound in leather or with vellum end sheets, H appears to have been in circulation some time after ca. 1518. Evidence provided by the lyrics themselves is further suggestive, both urging an earlier date than that of binding to be considered for the majority of the lyrics contained in H, but also establishing a date before which the manuscript could not have been copied in full.

While some of the English lyrics, such as “Svmwhat musyng” (H 120v-122r), hail from before 1500, and several of the instrumental compositions of Henry VIII can be placed quite shortly after the turn of the century,[17] references in several lyrics by Henry and other authors point to events early in, and throughout, the first decade of Henry’s reign.[18] The festivities that celebrated the birth of a prince on New Year’s Day 1511 are reflected in “Adew adew le company” (H 74v-75r). The songs “ENglond be glad pluk vp thy lusty hart” (H 100v-102r) and “Pray we to god that all may gyde” (H 103r) encourage assistance to the King against the French with reference to Henry’s 1513 invasion of France. Moreover, aspects of Henry’s lyrics are echoed in the Interlude of Youth, itself dated between August 1513 and May 1514.[19]

The last occasions to which lyrics in H can be matched, however, suggest a date for the ultimate compilation of H no earlier than mid-1522. Cornish’s “Yow and I and amyas” (H 45v-46r) appears, by its allegorised characters and their described interaction, to be directly associated with the Schatew Vert court pageant-disguising held 5 March 1522; lines in “What remedy what remedy” (H 108v-110r) also reflect the devices employed by Anthony Browne and Henry VIII, and Browne’s motto as well, at the tournament of 2 March 1522 associated with the Schatew Vert pageant. Moreover, but more speculatively, Flood (64-5) assigns Cooper’s “I haue bene a foster” (H 65v-66r) to the play presented by Cornish at Windsor, 15 June 1522; the unattributed “I am a joly foster” (H 69v-71r) is a clear and immediate answer to Cooper’s lyric, thus suggesting the possibility of a similar association as, perhaps, with Cornish’s “Blow thi hornne hunter” (H 39v-40r).[20]

Provenance of the Manuscript

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The early history of the Henry VIII MS itself is difficult to establish, but a reasonable (if conjectural) provenance can be suggested for it, prior to its possession in the eighteenth century by Thomas Fuller, M.D. As William Chappell first put forward, it is most likely that the manuscript was removed from the courtly circles in which it originated to Benenden in Kent,[21] as is documented by the extra-scribal markings on 129v-130r. The manuscript, as Chappell also advanced, may have made its way to Kent on one of the frequent royal visits to the seat of the Guildford family, the manor of Helmsted in Benenden; while Chappell mistakenly asserts that the manuscript was the property of Henry VIII,[22] the basic tenets of his argument are sound and, in acknowledgment of the issue of ownership posed by Chappell, John Stevens has pointed to the possibility that the manuscript was commissioned by Henry Guildford, comptroller to Henry VIII’s household (M&P 386). Such a suggestion is well worth considering, for there is much to confirm Guildford’s strong presence in the activities represented by the manuscript, and to allow for its passage from immediate court circles to his family’s seat (held by his brother, Edward, also a friend to the king) in Benenden; that said, while I will, below, explore this conjectural connection, it is not the only possibility.

As materials for a history of Henry Guildford suitable to our purposes are unavailable in a collected form, and some are in manuscript alone, they are rehearsed here. By Henry VII’s accession, the Guildford family had been settled in Kent and Sussex for some eight generations and, for several generations before Henry Guildford’s service to the king, they had served as comptrollers to royal households.[23] Henry was the third son to Sir Richard Guildford (ca. 1455-1506), a man who rose under Henry VII to become master of the ordnance, armory, and horse, as well as comptroller of the household.[24] In his several roles, Richard had much to do with courtly entertainments, including the jousts for which he was granted the royal manor at Kennington by Henry VII;[25] here, in 1501, Guildford hosted the newly-arrived Katherine of Aragon,[26] whose welcoming pageant (the “Receyt”) he was instrumental in arranging as well.[27] Richard appears to have had quite a large library, and was himself commemorated in a work dealing with the trip that led to his death (1506), the Pylgrymage of Sir Richarde Guylforde.[28]

It was by Richard’s second wife, Jane,[29] that Henry was born in 1489. Jane was at one time a member of Princess Mary’s household and, between 1497 and 1505, was in attendance on the young Prince Henry (b. 1491) as nurse;[30] as well, one of Richard’s functions, on occasion, was to take charge of the royal children.[31]

By the time of the 1509 accession, Henry Guildford was already a member of Henry VIII’s personal household, having been so while the new king was still a prince; being contemporaries and, at some times, under the same charge of Jane, we might say that they grew up together. Guildford was the only member of this household, after the accession, to enter the circle of Henry’s good friends, which itself included Charles Brandon, Edward Howard, Thomas Knyvet, and Guildford’s eldest brother, Edward.[32] During the early years of Henry’s reign, Henry Guildford was often the Master of Revels for court entertainments, appearing in them with a frequency surpassed by few others; Guildford also signed the articles of challenge on the second day of the tournament celebrating the birth of Henry’s son in 1511.[33] Knighted 30 March 1512, Guildford saw frequent advancement by Henry,[34] commanding a force of his own in the 1513 invasion of France, and being honored with the office of the royal standard-bearer; he is also documented as participating in the festivities of that year at the court of Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands.[35] In later years, he would receive letters from Erasmus in praise of the English court (1519), would attend the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520), and accompany Wolsey to the conferences in Calais in 1521; he would also remain a loyal and faithful friend and servant to the king, but would decline in courtly favor over the matter of the king’s divorce ca. 1531, an event that would lead to his retiring from court that year to Benenden, where he died the following year.

While not in possession of the family seat—this was held by his brother, Edward, as with much of the family inheritance[36]—Guildford had enjoyed a level of exposure to the king enjoyed by very few others. Edward, several years senior to his youngest brother and the young king (and, hence, not so close a member of prince Henry’s household), would succeed his father in the Sargent of Armature under Henry VII and VIII,[37] but would not rise as high, nor have a presence so close to the king for as long as his youngest brother.

In addition to Guildford’s participation in the revels, entertainments, and jousts during the early years of Henry’s reign, his role as master of revels, and so forth, it is the level of close familiarity that Guildford had with the king, from the time of the first years of both their lives to the end of Guildford’s, that remains the best argument for his participation in the production of the Henry VIII MS. At every identifiable event represented in the manuscript—the 1511 festivities surrounding the birth of a son, the 1513 war with France and, likely, the entertainments of the same year with the court of Margaret of Austria,[38] and events of 1522 as well—and those that are more generic; the works of H, for example, that suggest their part among the pageants, interludes, and other entertainments and court pastimes—one finds or can presume the participation of Guildford, because of his formal courtly role and his association with the king. Unlike the roles of other figures who are associated and identified with the court activities represented in H, that of Guildford can, in addition to explaining H’s remove to Benenden, also help explain the presence in H of many of the poorer and more amateurish musical settings of Henry’s foreign lyrics. As described by Fallows in his “Henry VIII as Composer,” pieces such as “Gentyl prince de renom” (H 47v-48r) and “HElas madam cel que ie me tant” (H 18v-19r) demonstrate the mediating influence and interaction of a tutor (30-1), and were likely completed in the few years just after 1500 (35). Guildford, as we know, was a member of prince Henry’s household at this time and, while several members of Henry’s Chapel Royal ca. 1510-15 may have been involved with Henry’s tutelage,[39] the Henry VIII MS is not a document akin to what was produced in such circles.[40]

H, rather, appears very much a document of the highest courtly circles, intended for a noble amateur (as its decoration and size suggests) closely connected with Henry’s own childhood and youth, his courtly entertainments and dalliances, and the happenstances of court in a way that is suggestive, chiefly, of the role of Henry Guildford as its commissioner and earliest owner.

One might also note that the circumstances of William Cornish warrant his consideration as the commissioner and, perhaps, owner of H as well. He is the second most represented composer in the manuscript, was almost as active as Guildford in the aspects of courtly life represented by the contents of H (including their joint involvement in the events which mark, temporally, the latest entries into H), and who retired to Hylden, Kent[41] just before his death in 1523. Other possibilities relating to the early provenance of the manuscript have been advanced, most recently and most convincingly by Dietrich Helms, with discussion of the early use of the manuscript as well (Heinrich VIII und die Musik, and in the forthcoming "Henry VIII's Book: Teaching Music to Royal Children").

The passage of H from this point forward to its possession by Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) of Seven Oaks, Kent, is quite unclear,[42] but details from that point forward can be recounted with a much greater degree of certainty.[43] From Thomas Fuller it passed ca. 1762 to Stephen Fuller of Hart Street, Bloomsbury.[44] It next was possessed by Archibald Montgomery, the 11th Earl of Eglinton (1726-96).[45] By the marriage of Montgomery’s daughter and heiress, Mary, it was transferred to Sir Charles Montolieu Lamb (d. 1860) of Beauport Park, Sussex. Through the firm of Quaritch[46] it was sold by the daughter of Mary Montgomery and Lamb to the British Museum, 22 April 1882.

Language of the Manuscript

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H is a court-based song book—a musical miscellany capturing the diverse tastes of the early Tudor court under Henry VIII—and, as such, reflects the work of a number of authors and composers, as well as that of the scribes who produced the document, presumably in London where it was compiled ca. 1522 and bound shortly thereafter. The dialectic forms of English found in this miscellaneous collection, as one might expect in a document of this nature produced in London at this time and intended for courtly circles, are not such that any one regional influence is betrayed, save that of the dialectic melting-pot that London had become by this time.[47] Continental languages are present in lyrics that reflect what might best be termed a light English courtly French and, via incipits that suggest absent texts, Latin, Italian, and Flemish.

Notes

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  1. ↑ Identified and classified by Oldham, there are eight roses (Bindings #1034; Shrewsbury #75, A.viii.10[2]), and four fleurs-de-lis (Bindings #1055; Shrewsbury #74, A.viii.10[1]). Please see also the evidence that the bindings lend to the dating of the manuscript, below.
  2. ↑ None of the scribal hands appear to be Henry VIII's own.
  3. ↑ This is a more complex deployment than has been previously suggested. Greene identifies three hands in five groups of foliations (Early English Carols 333) while Stevens, building on Greene’s work, differs only in noting the inclusion of a fourth on 90r (M&P 386).
  4. ↑ E may also be the hand that made two corrections to 2v.
  5. ↑ These corrections and additions are also in an ink used for lyrics by C alone (on 124v-128r as well).
  6. ↑ “Lede” may, possibly, be read as “Berde,” as have Chappell (Account 385), Greene (Early English Carols 334), and Stevens (M&P 386); though the only possible trace of this is what looks to be an abbreviated form of this surname. It is also likely that the smudged letters which follow d, “John,” on this page could at one time have recognisably read “Berde.”
  7. ↑ Previous discussions of the manuscript’s dating occur in Stevens (MCH8 xvii; M&P 4) and Chappell (“Unpublished Collection” 383-4).
  8. ↑ Stevens (M&P 338).
  9. ↑ Stevens (M&P 351).
  10. ↑ The first textual witness of “Pastyme with good companye” (H 14v-15r), the Ritson MS (LRit), suggests its existence some two decades earlier than Wyatt’s treatment of it; see Siemens (“Thomas Wyatt, Anne Boleyn, and Henry VIII’s Lyric”). “A robyn gentyl robyn” (H 53v-54r) as it appears in LDev and LEge may possibly be more a transcription on the part of Wyatt (LDev 22v) and adaptation (LDev 24r; LEge 37v) of what appears in H than an actual reflection of Wyatt’s input in H; see the textual notes to the lyric in this edition, Mumford (“Musical Settings to the Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt”), and Stevens (M&P 111; MCH8 xvii-xviii).
  11. ↑ Lambeth 18.D.12 contains Archbishop Cranmer’s name and arms.
  12. ↑ BL Additional MS 34,807 is a gathering of theological tracts and others relating chiefly to English church history of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, which was owned by Robert Johnson (d. 1559; an acquaintance of Cranmer’s [see DNB 30.26]; see also Catalogue 1894-1899 93-5).
  13. ↑ Thanks to Phillipa Marks (British Library) for her assistance in examining the markings on H, and for her allowing access to partial notes from Oldham’s files.
  14. ↑ See, for example, see “Hey troly loly lo” (H 124v-128r)—likely a later addition to H, in the hand of C—specifically 126v on which, two-thirds the way down the page in the left margin, the furthest-most-left letter of its marginalia has been severed by trimming. There are also several reader’s marks in the same ink, indicative of use.
  15. ↑ Noted as “Syr John Lede in parishe of Benenden” (130r). Lede’s will, registered on 30 November 1518, bequeaths an undisclosed amount “to the bying of a mas boke to serue in the churche of Benynden . . .” and requests burial in the churchyard of St. George (Wills and Administrations . . . Canterbury PRC 17: roll 14: f. 239r). Lede’s name also appears once on 129v.
  16. ↑ Other names associated with that of Lede are untraceable.
  17. ↑ See Fallows (“Henry VIII as Composer”).
  18. ↑ Moreover, scribal references to Robert Cooper identify him as “D.”, Doctor (66r, and elsewhere), a degree he received from Cambridge in 1507.
  19. ↑ See Lancashire (ed.) for the interlude’s references to Henry’s own lyrics (54-4, and 91 n. 217); for the dating of Youth, see also Lancashire (18).
  20. ↑ For documentation to these arguments, please refer to the commentary associated with the individual lyrics.
  21. ↑ See “Unpublished Collection” (385-6), as well as Stevens (M&P 386).
  22. ↑ “Unpublished Collection” (371).
  23. ↑ See DNB (viii.770 ff.).
  24. ↑ See DNB (viii: 772), Cal. Patent Rolls (21 Henry VII, I:30), and Rolls of Parl. (vi.461). Henry’s grandfather, Sir John Guildford, was comptroller of the household to Edward IV.
  25. ↑ He was also granted annual amounts for maintenance thereof, primarily because of its being used as the scene for many jousts and related events. See Hooker (7-8); for the jousts, see BL Egerton 2358 (42v-44v; accounts for 1501-2) and PRO E.404/82 (bdle. 1).
  26. ↑ BL MS Cotton Claudius C.III (38r).
  27. ↑ See Kipling (Receyt of Lady Katherine). Arrangements of such a kind he had made since the coronations of Henry VII and, later, his consort Elizabeth; there is a grant to Guildford of 100 marks on 23 October 1485 for jousts in association with Henry’s coronation (PRO E.404/79, bdle. 1, #90; PRO E.407/6/137; see also Hooker [81 ff.]).
  28. ↑ Printed in London by Pynson in 1511, and re-edited for the Camden Society in 1851. While anonymous, it may have been written by Thomas Larke, chaplain to Guildford and, in Henry VIII’s reign, prebend to the collegiate church in Westminster.
  29. ↑ Née Vaux, and sometimes referred to as Joan.
  30. ↑ For Jane’s relation to Mary’s household, see Gunn (Charles Brandon 33). Richard was granted the bailivry of Winchelsea ca. 1497 as a reward for Jane’s care of Prince Henry. Heron, the royal treasurer, notes in August 1497 that “the yerely ferm of the baylywick of Winchelsy which my lord of York norysh & hir husbond have taken to ferme pay at Michell” (PRO E.101/44/16); this is reiterated again on 1 October 1499 (BL Additional MS 21,480 (“Memorand”), and in accounts of 1503 and 1505 as well (PRO E.36/123 f. 66r [4 June 1503]; E.101/413/2 pt.3 ff. 57r, 205r [1 April 1505]; BL Additional MS 21,480 f. 195r).
  31. ↑ See, for example, a letter from Guildford to Reginald Bray (undated, but prior to 1503), in which Guildford states that “ye wer yesterday gone or y cowde speke with yow for the kynge comanedde me to wayte on the prynses tyll ye wer gonne” (qtd. in Hooker, 124 n.53).
  32. ↑ See Gunn (Charles Brandon 7); along with Charles Brandon, Guildford was a frequent recipient of clothing gifts from the king (L&P Henry VIII I[i].888, 1144; BL Additional Charters 7925; BL Egerton 3025 f. 26v).
  33. ↑ During these years, Guildford is the figure most often recorded masquing with the king; only Edward Nevill and the Earl of Essex had a greater frequency of appearance (Gunn, Charles Brandon 7-8).
  34. ↑ With Charles Brandon, later Duke of Suffolk, he led a ship and squadron in the naval war with France preceding the land campaign of 1513 (L&P Henry VIII I[i].1661[4], ii.3608; Hall 534), and after the deaths of Edward, Howard, and Knyvet, assumed some of their offices.
  35. ↑ Here, the two courts met in Margaret's "famous centre of courtly love" (Gunn, Charles Brandon 29) for several days of celebration, including of the games, singing, and all night dancing. Of interest also is the nature of the games; Henry, for example, promised a 10,000 crown dowry to a Flemish lady-in-waiting who caught his eye, while Charles Brandon and Margaret of Austria participated in a stylised marriage proposal, which Henry interpreted to her as an actual proposal of marriage. For a description of the festivities and events, refer to CSP Milan (654, 656, 657), Strelka (48, 56-7), Ives (25-6), L&P Henry VIII (I[ii] #s 2255, 2262, 2281, 2355, 2375, 2380, 2391), Gunn (Charles Brandon 29ff.), and Chronicle of Calais (71-4).
  36. ↑ Richard’s will favoured Henry’s half brothers, Edward and George; Edward would inherit the bulk of the estate, George a small homestead, and Henry was to be slimly provided for (£5 annually, until the passing of his mother); the will is abstracted by Hooker (24 ff).
  37. ↑ The first of these is the jousts at Richmond in March of 1506 (see PRO E.36/214 f. 49r). As Hooker notes, the office of the armoury “appears to have been designed to fulfill certain personal wishes of the monarch” (85); as master, Richard and, later, Edward Guildford “was responsible for the smooth functioning of those frequent spectacles and ceremonies” (85); its association was quite clearly with the household (88). As sargent of the armoury, Richard Guildford presided over the ceremonies associated with the christening of Prince Arthur (1487; BL MS Cotton Julius B.XII f. 22v) and, as comptroller of the royal household, those in relation to the creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York (1494; BL MS Cotton Julius B.XII f. 91r), and was present at both the funerals of Henry VII’s third son, Edmund (PRO L.C.2/1 f. 4v), and wife Elizabeth (PRO L.C.2/1 f. 64v).
  38. ↑ One argument for this, though not pursued in this work, is the high proportion of foreign works appearing in the Henry VIII MS which have their witness in Margaret of Austria’s personal chanson albums of roughly the same time (Brussels Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique 11239 & 228). In this group are works by the composers Agricola, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, van Ghizeghem, and Prioris.
  39. ↑ As may have those musicians associated with Henry’s household when prince, though they do not have a strong presence in either H or Henry’s household and Chapel Royal when king. These include Steven Delalaund, Pety John, and Hakenet Delmers (PRO LC Vol. 550, 74r; recording their presence at the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1503/4), only one of which, Delalaund, appears to have moved into Henry’s household when king (PRO LC Vol. 550 fol. 124v; recording the 1509 death of Henry VII).
  40. ↑ For example, LR58, a document of smaller proportions and much less ornamentation, is the type of manuscript produced by such circles.
  41. ↑ It should be noted that two composers represented in H, Cooper and Cornish, had ties to Kent, though not to Benenden in particular. Cooper was rector of Snargate in Kent from 1526 to his death (Grove 5:14); Cornish, master of the Chapel Royal and unarguably its most active member in court entertainments, was granted the manor of Hylden in Kent in 1523, though only months prior to his death (Grove 4:795).
  42. ↑ For Fuller’s possession, refer to the bookplate noted in the Description, above (4[i]). While it is unclear how the manuscript passed from the hands of its commissioner and earliest owner into those of Fuller, this passage may be connected with the great fire of 1672 at the Church of St. George in Benenden that completely destroyed the church and, presumably, forced the movement of some of its holdings; for the details of this fire, see Haslewood (xxi, 167-75).
  43. ↑ These are well documented in Chappell (“Unpublished Collection” 386), Stevens (M&P 386-7), Hamm (65), and British Library (Catalogue of Additions . . . 1822-1887 9).
  44. ↑ “Stephen Fuller of / Hart Street, Bloomsbury / 1762” is written above the bookplate of Thomas Fuller, and in the top left corner of 3v one finds the name of “Stephen Fuller” in ink; while no relation has been able to be established, presumably there is some.
  45. ↑ See his bookplate, described above (4[ii]).
  46. ↑ See Description, above (item 2).
  47. ↑ It should be noted that lack of homogeneity in dialect is very much unlike that found in the Ritson MS (LRit) which, though similar to H in that it is a miscellaneous collection, diverges from H in that its comparatively-homogeneous dialectic forms (in addition to other internal evidence) betray its place as a regionally-produced document (likely at a Franciscan monastery in Devonshire) designed for lay services (at Exeter Cathedral, it has been conjectured).


The Lyrics of Henry VIII
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