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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.)

sequel of literary biographers.* Such, however, proves to be the case; though we collect but little from them all. Anthony à Wood claims him as a scholar of Oxford, but adds that he was taken thence before he was honoured with a degree.

In the line written at the head of his chronicle, (p. 1,) Turpyn is styled a burgess of Calais. In the list of the garrison made in 1533, his name appears as one of the constabulary, whose duties in the watch and ward of the town are detailed in one of the documents in the Appendix.

* Fuller's account of Turpyn, in his "Worthies of England," under Leicestershire, is as follows: "Richard Turpin was born at Knaptoft in this county, very lately (if not still) in the possession of that antient family, and was one of the gentlemen of the English garrison of Calis in France in the reign of king Henry the Eighth. Such soldiers generally in time of war had too much, in time of peace too little work, to employ themselves therein. Commendable therefore the industry of this Richard, who spent his spare hours in writing of a Chronicle of his Time. He dyed anno Domini 1541, in the thirty-fifth year of the aforesaid king's reign. (Weever's Funerall Monuments, p. 682.) This I observe the rather, that the reader may not run with me on the rock of the same mistake, who in my apprehension confounded him with Richard Turpin the herauld, first Blewmantle and then created Windsor, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth." The reference to Weever is misplaced, as it did not belong (as was not unnaturally imagined by the printer) to the record of Turpyn's death, but to the catalogue of the Heralds which Weever has given in his work. The error of the "thirty-fifth year thirty-fifth year" was made by miscopying Burton (History of Leicestershire), who has it consistently, if not correctly, "1541. 33 Hen. VIII."

His pay in this capacity was eightpence a day. His death is generally stated to have occurred in or about 1541,* when his body was interred in the church of St. Nicholas at Calais; but another authority places it in 1545.†

According to that statement, Richard Turpyn the chronicler was born in 1506, and died in 1545. In such case he was only thirty-nine years of age at the time of his death, and not more than thirty-four at the period when his chronicle ceases. These dates would tend to invalidate his claim to be considered as the author of the Chronicle; for it will be remarked that within a very few years of the time thus determined for his birth, its memorials are very minute and particular, and must have been made by some person of competent age and knowledge. If Richard Turpyn was both born in 1506, and was really the compiler of the chronicle, he must have been indebted for its early portions, at least, to the memoranda of a former writer, or possibly he may have derived his information from some of the official records of the town.

*This date is not to be depended upon for Bale (as quoted in a previous note) says only "circa annum 1541," which may have been merely a guess formed from the period at which the chronicle terminates. I have searched the register of the prerogative court of Canterbury for Turpyn's will in vain.

+ Pedigree, ut supra.

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