PREFACE.

THE present Volume owes its existence to the casual discovery, among the transcripts by Stowe in the British Museum,* of the Chronicle of Calais, formed, or at least once possessed, by Richard Turpyn, a "burgess there." This appeared to be a fragment which, in a brief compass, contained so much historical information previously unpublished, that I was desirous to recommend it to the patronage of the Camden Society, a suggestion which at once received the approval of the Council.

As it was found, on a further search, that the manuscript stores of the British Museum contained many other papers illustrative of the events commemorated in Turpyn's chronicle, equally unpublished, it was then determined to extend its somewhat scanty dimensions by appending such documents as might contribute to elucidate the history of the town and marches of Calais, during the same period.

Much less has been hitherto published on the history of our continental Borders than on the history of our

CAMD. Soc.

* MS. Harl. 542.

b

Borders next Scotland; although the latter retained their frontier state not quite half a century later than the former. Indeed, with the exception of a brief memoir in the second series of Sir Henry Ellis's Original Letters, the present Editor is not aware of any historical notice of Calais whilst in the possession of the English. It is, therefore, with some confidence as well in the importance as in the novelty of the subject, that he presents this volume to the members of the Camden Society.

At the same time he is fully conscious that a collection of this extent can comprise but a small portion of what should constitute a complete History of the English Border towards France: a work more suited to occupy several future volumes of the Royal publication of State Papers,―the continuation of which, in the substantial and accurate form so well commenced (with reference to the affairs of Cardinal Wolsey's administration, those of Scotland, and those of Ireland), must be desired by every student of English History.

In forming the present series of papers, the Editor soon found that it was necessary to assign several boundarymarks within which it should be confined. It would have been easy to have filled several such volumes with the contemporary letters of ambassadors and other persons employed either in a diplomatic or military capacity in France. The documents which have been admitted will

be found to apply either to the same occurrences which are noticed in Turpyn's Chronicle, or immediately to the history of Calais, and both, with a few supplementary papers of the latter kind, within the period to which the chronicle itself belongs.

It is remarkable that Turpyn's Chronicle extends to the same year, in which the existing register of the Privy Council for the reign of Henry VIII. commences,* and from that source the subsequent administration of Calais may be traced with some minuteness, and dates assigned to other existing documents with far less difficulty than the Editor has experienced in the present work.

In like manner, considerable materials for the earlier history of Calais may be gleaned from the Rolls of Parliament, which terminate in the year 1503. Thus the collection made in these pages furnishes the memorials of a period hitherto less provided than others.

During the seventeen years which elapsed between the year 1540 and the final loss of Calais by the English, there are large materials for its history in the papers of George lord Cobham, who was deputy of the town and marches from 1544 to 1550, and which exist among the Harleian MSS. The papers of one of his predecessors, lord Lisle, which were seized in 1540, form nineteen volumes,

* See Proceedings, &c. of the Privy Council, edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas, vol. vii. p. ii. † See the Index, fol. 1832, pp. 111–115.

Nos. 283 and 284.

which are preserved in the State Paper Office,* whilst a few of them are scattered in the volumes of Cottonian MSS.

There is one year of the period included in the present collection, namely that of King Henry's campaign to Therouenne and Tournay, the documents respecting which have been altogether reserved. This course was adopted, at once to keep the volume within its proposed limits, and also in consequence of the existence of two contemporary journals of the events of that campaign, which it was thought might hereafter be available for a volume correspondent to the present.

A single exception has been made, in favour of a document of a very remarkable character, belonging indeed rather to private than public history, but the private history of some of the most important personages of their day. To this has been applied the title of "secret history of Margaret, duchess of Savoy, and Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk;" for secret it was at the time, and secret it has remained, until its present development.†

* Some interesting extracts from the Lisle correspondence have been recently made by Miss M. A. E. Wood, now Mrs. Green, in her valuable collection of "Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies." It is to the same lady that the Editor has acknowledged his obligations in his note on the queen of France's marriage to the duke of Suffolk, in p. 17.

+ This discovery appeared to the Editor sufficiently important to be brought before the Historical section of the British Archæological Institute on its congress at Winchester in the year 1845; and he had then the honour of reading a paper on the subject at one of the general meetings held in St. John's rooms.

My attention was first directed to the mysterious and enigmatical nature of this document by Mr. E. G. BALLARD, and to the same gentleman I have to acknowledge my obligations for searching out, as well as transcribing, most of the other materials of this volume.

I shall only add, in this place, a few biographical notices of RICHARD TURPYN, the supposed author of the Chronicle of Calais.

He was the grandson of John Turpyn, whose father Nicholas was of Whitchester, in Northumberland; which John by marriage with Elizabeth Kinnesman, heiress of the Paynells and Gobions of Knaptoft in Leicestershire, became possessed of that manor, and left issue his son and heir William Turpyn esquire, who died Sept. 1, 1523. Richard Turpyn, of Calais, was the fifth and youngest son of William.*

I little suspected, until some time after this volume had been in the press, that Turpyn's Chronicle had already placed his name in the memorials of Bale, and all the

* Pedigree in Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. 225, as corrected by Mr. Townsend (see note in p. xvi. hereafter).

"Ricardus Turpyn, ex honesta quadam Anglorum familia natus, et Caleti sub rege Henrico octavo militiam exercens, Anglicè congessit Sui temporis Chronicon, Lib. i. obiitque Caleti circa annum à Christi nativitate 1541, in D. Nicolai templo illic sepultus." Balai Scriptores, fol. Basil. 1559, part*ii. p. 103. (In the Hist. of Leicestershire, iv. 217, the like reference is erroneously made to Pitsæus, who does not notice Turpyn.)