Preface. 19 Apr 1566. By patent dated the 25th Jan. 1565, he [Richard Turpin] was promoted to be Windsor Herald, and so created on Maundy Thursday the 19th of April following. Some years after, being in pecuniary difficulties, he was suspended from receiving the profits of his office because he owed certain sums to his successor Bluemantle and to York herald, but he was restored by the Earl Marshal on the 19th July, 1570, having previously presented the following petition to his grace, — how long before does not appear, for it is undated :

To the right honorable the duke of Norffolkes grace.

Shevveth unto your good grace your poor oratour Richard Turpyn, alias Wyndsor heraulde of arms, so it is, gracious honorable lord. That, whereas your saide oratour was a pursuyvant of armes in Caleys, at the losse therof, and there dwelled and inhabyted, his wages beinge ther above xU'. by the yere, and his londes above c. markes by the yere, as also his goods, plate, and moveables, and others esteemed above and better than uhi^li. so that by mysfortune of the saide losse of Caleys [he] was spoyled of londes, goodes, and wages, as also havinge ther another ofFyce of the Queues Majestie called by the name of Clarke of the Victuals, and their havinge the victuallinge, lodginge of all the workemen Shevveth unto your good grace your poor oratour Richard Turpyn, alias Wyndsor heraulde of arms, so it is, gracious honorable lord. That, whereas your saide oratour was a pursuyvant of armes in Caleys, at the losse therof, and there dwelled and inhabyted, his wages beinge ther above xU'. by the yere, and his londes above c. markes by the yere, as also his goods, plate, and moveables, and others esteemed above and better than uhi^li. so that by mysfortune of the saide losse of Caleys [he] was spoyled of londes, goodes, and wages, as also havinge ther another ofFyce of the Queues Majestie called by the name of Clarke of the Victuals, and their havinge the victuallinge, lodginge of all the workemen Shevveth unto your good grace your poor oratour Richard Turpyn, alias Wyndsor heraulde of arms, so it is, gracious honorable lord. That, whereas your saide oratour was a pursuyvant of armes in Caleys, at the losse therof, and there dwelled and inhabyted, his wages beinge ther above xU'. by the yere, and his londes above c. markes by the yere, as also his goods, plate, and moveables, and others esteemed above and better than uhi^li. so that by mysfortune of the saide losse of Caleys [he] was spoyled of londes, goodes, and wages, as also havinge ther another ofFyce of the Queues Majestie called by the name of Clarke of the Victuals, and their havinge the victuallinge, lodginge of all the workemen by that meanes now at this present 1 am greatly indebted, to ray utter undoyenge, oneles that your honorable lordshipp wyll and comaunde my company the kings andheraulds of amies that I may enjoie all such larges, comodities, and proffyts as shall growe to me by vertue of my saide offyce, I beinge an herauld of armes, seinge that I have not offended the prince, nor no part of your grace's comandements and decrees set forth by your grace, nor being no droncard, dycer, nor carder, no ruffyan, nor no spot of vylonny. I trust none of my companye can stayne me. Howbeit certain of my company hath dysbarred me of all my droytes and comodytees dew to me by my sayde servyce, which I have served by the space of this xx^i yeres in my saide call, and hath not received one penny out of the saide ofFyce syns the first of Aprill last past, so that, most honorable Lord, I have ben fayne to laye to gage all my rayment and my wyffes, with all suche poore stuff as I had. Furthermore I have served as paynfuUy and as daungerously as ony in the sayde offyce hath done, for ther hath ben no service thes xxiiijt' yeres past done beyonde the seas but lyghtly I have been at them, and I trust I am as well able to serve as any other are in the sayde offyce, and that wyll I stande to their judgementts, as also my good lord of Warwycke wyll testifie, with others, of my honest and paynfull service lately done with the sayde lord of Warwyck in Newhaven in Normandye, when ther I served under his lordship. Therefore, honorable lord, for so moche as I have loste all my londes and goodes which I was well able to lyve in Caleys before the losse thereof, and now a poore man, and not able to lyve oneless your good lordship do comaunde the saide companye the kings and heraulds of arms that I may receive all suche dewties and droicts as shall growe, with all other comodities, as all other the heraulds hathe, and so by that means I trust in God, with your good lordship's favour, shortely to come to some end with my credytors, that I am indebted unto, and to be at lyberty, and so yerely to paye unto them a portition of my saide proffitts, as shall growe unto me. And your saide poore oratour, accordinge to his bounden dewtie, shall dayly praye to God for your noble grace in moche felicitie, with th'increase of the same, long to contenewe.

Preface. 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 William¹.

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 Bale², and all the sequel of literary biographers³. Such, however, proves to be the case ; though we collect but Httle from them all. Anthony a Wood claims him as a scholar of Oxford, but adds that he was taken thence before he was honoured with a degree.

Note 1. Pedigree in Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. 225, as corrected by Mr. Townsend (see note in p. xvi. hereafter).

Note 2. "Ricardus Tui'pyn, ex honesta quadam Anglorum familia natus, et Caleti sub rege Henrico octavo miUtiam exercens, Anglice congessit Sui temporis Chronicon, Lib. i. obiitque Caleti circa annum a Christi nativitate 1541, in D. Nicolai templo illic sepultus." Balaei Scriptores, fol. Basil. 1359, part ii. p. 103. (In the Hist, of Leicestershire, iv. 217, the hke reference is erroneously made to Pitsaeus, who does not notice Turpyn.)

Note 3. 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^^A year " was made by miscopying Burton (History of Leicestershire), who has it consistently, if not correctly, " 1541. 33 Hen. VIII"

Preface. The present Volume owes its existence to the casual discovery, among the transcripts by Stowe in the British Museum¹, 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 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. commences², 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 Parliament³, 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 MSS⁴. The papers of one of his predecessors, lord Lisle, which were seized in 1540, form nineteen volumes, which are preserved in the State Paper Office⁵, 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 development⁶.

Note 1. MS. Harl. 542.

Note 2. See Proceedings, &c. of the Privy Council, edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas, vol. vii. p. ii.

Note 3. See the Index, fol. 1832, pp. 111—115.

Note 4. Nos. 283 and 284.

Note 5. 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.

Note 6. This discovery appeared to the Editor sufficiently important to be brought before the Historical section of the British Archaeological 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.