A collection of documents which, with the exception of the last, relate to the negotiations carried on by Queen Elizabeth I with the kings of Denmark and Poland, and certain towns of the Hanseatic League, in order to obtain for her subjects greater freedom of trading. The items are in various handwritings and have been bound together in one volume, not arranged according to date.
(1) ‘Tractatus pacis inter Henricium Septimum Regem Angliæ et Johannem Regem Daniæ, &c. anno 1490. anno 6 H. 7i. anno septimo Joannis regis’;
(2) ‘Dilucidatio tractatus 1583 de Ruthenica navigatione’ (letters patent);
(3) ‘The king of Denmark his letter to hir ma’tie translated’, dated 5 March 1576;
(4) ‘D. Rogerii cum Anthonio Jenkensono, legati missi ad Danum cum eodem negotiatio super quibusdam in prioribus literis’;
(5) ‘Quærimoniæ mercantorum super Telonia, tractatusque super iisdem, &c.’; there is, first, an account of the customs successively levied on English merchants trading with Denmark, 1540-1575, then the demand of the Queen addressed to the King for the reduction of the duties to their proper amount according to the treaties; then follow abstracts of the treaties from 1449 to 1523, after which is a statement, ‘De piscatione islandica’;
(6) ‘Serenissimæ principi, dominæ Elizabethæ ... Fridericus secundus ... Daniæ ... rex’, letter discussing the terms of a proposed treaty, 3 March 1583;
(7) ‘Generoso ... dno. Francisco Walsyngham ... Nicolaus Kaas’, dated 26 February 1583, also relating to negotiations between the governments of England and Denmark;
(8) (a) ‘Instructions for Denmarke from her ma’ty’ (title from endorsement), given for the direction of the ambassador appointed to treat with the King of Denmark for the opening of the trade to Russia through the Norway seas, probably given in 1583, (b) ‘Instructions for Denmark from the Company of Russia, for Mr Harbert’, (c) ‘The effect of the acte of parliamt for trafficque by subjects into the countreye of the K. of Denmark’, (d) ‘Verba tractatuum de inhibita Anglis navigatione versus Halgalandiam Finnarchiam et Islandiam’, (e) ‘A copie of instructions delyvered to John Chapell touching his message from her ma’tie to the Kinge of Denmark on the behalf of the societie of the marchaunts trading the east parts, for the abrogatinge and lessenynge of certen new exaccons ymposed upon the said merchaunts in theire passage through the Sound, according to the tenor and purpot of hir Mats Lre to the said Kinge conteyning vi speciall points ...’, followed by ‘Tables of the rates of goods which the said John Chapell is to propose if he fail in obtaining those mentioned in his first Instructions gyven hym in June past at his going over with the L. Wylloughbie’, (f) a statement of the arguments against the ‘Last Ghelte’, ‘The hundrede penny’ and ‘Taking of clothes to the kinges use;
(9) (a) an address by the Queen’s ambassador to the King of Denmark on the subjects of dispute mentioned in the preceding, (b) an address by the same to the ‘Commissarii’;
(10) a collection of notes and extracts out of the civil law-books relating to the rights of merchants, with special reference to the edict of Frederick II, king of Denmark;
(11) ‘Negociatio Joa. Herberti, Haderslebii habita 1583;
(12) a collection of documents relating to the negotiations carried on between the governments of England and the city of Elbing, 1583;
(13) ‘Certen pointes to be considered of in the present negociacon betwene her ma’tie and the K. of Denmarck wth answers unto the same, 1583’, the points and answers written in parallel columns;
(14) ‘Elizabetha, &c., serenissimo principi Poloniæ ac domino Stephano eadem Dei gratia ...’, dated 6 July 1583;
(15) ‘Literæ dni oratoris ad D. Cancellarium regni missæ per Christopherum priusquam nostrum iter susciperemus versus Grodnam’, a letter dated 9 February 1584 and signed ‘Johannes Herbertus’;
(16) ‘Reverendissimi dni archiepi Gnesnen. ad S. R. Mtem suam litteræ intercessoriæ pro negotio Anglicano et Elbingensibus missæ Grodnam cum nos ibi essemus’, dated 18 January 1584 and signed ‘Stanisl. Gnesii’;
(17) ‘Privilegia Hanseaticis ab Angliæ regibus concessa à tempore Henrici Tertii, usque ad Henricum quartum’;
(18) documents relating to the negotiations with Stephen king of Poland;
(19) a letter, signed ‘Frauncis Walsingham’, dated July 1584, addressed perhaps to John Herbert;
(20) three undated letters, two from Queen Elizabeth I, one to King Stephen of Poland and one to the government of Elbing, and the other from Francis Walsingham ‘ad Magcum. D. Cancellarium Poloniæ;
(21) ‘Informatio negotii Anglicani ab internunciis civitatis Gedanen. aucta et magcis dnis commissariis regiis Leuartoviæ exhibita ultimo die Augusti, 1584’;
(22) extracts from a book called ‘Liber recessuum’ in the keeping of the Senate of Gedanum (Danzig), taken in 1584; the Latin translation only is given;
(23) ‘Tractatio et sententia in negotio Anglicano magcorum dnorum Palatini Lublinensis: et Lublinensis, Ravensis, Biecensisque Castellanorum, ad id iterato à ma’te regia assignatorum commissariorum’, followed by their letter to the king of Poland, 1 September 1584;
(24) ‘Magnifici dni Zamoski regni Poloniæ cancel. ad Stephanum regem de negotio Anglico judicium, 1584’;
(25) (a) ‘Exemplar D. oratoris lrarum ad Rdum D. Baranovium secretarium R. P. maiorem: quæ cum sequenti narratione Grodnam sunt missæ 11o Septemb. 1584’, (b) ‘Summa colloquii inter ... S. R. ma’tis Poloniæ commissarios et magcum, D. Johem Herbertum S. R. Mtis Angl. orat. ulto Aug. et 1o Septemb. Leopardiæ habiti 1584’;
(26) (a) ‘Reveredissimi dni archiepi Gnesnensis ad S. R. Mtem Poloniæ lræ intercessoriæ scriptæ Leovitii 9o Septembris 1584, et missæ Vilnam cum Christophero et aliis lris dni or.’, (b) ‘Eiusdem lræ unius tenoris (ad duos dominos) ... cum aliis missæ’, (c) ‘Exemplar lrarum D. Nicolai Firleii in Dambrovicza castellani Ravensis ad D. Johannem Sprengel burgrabium Elbingensem’, dated 28 November 1584;
(27) ‘Serenissimæ reginæ Angliæ postulata S. R. Mtie Poloniæ in comitiis Varsaviensib. offerenda mense Februario. ao dni 1585’, followed by sundry letters and documents;
(28) (a) ‘Articuli de quibus domini commissarii regis Poloniæ Levartovienses se ad regiam ma’tem retulerunt, quos ab illa confirmari et concedi Anglis voluerunt’, (b) ‘Articuli de quibus commissarii ... se ad Elbingenses retulerunt, de quibus ipsi cum oratore Angliæ inter se concluderent’;
(29) (a) the latter part of a letter addressed by Queen Elizabeth I, apparently to the king of Poland’s commissaries, dated 16 January 1584, (b) two letters, also dated 16 January, addressed by the Queen, one to the magistrates of Elbing and the other to ‘Georgio Frederico marchioni Brandeburgensi’;
(30) ‘Consiliarii reg. Angliæ ad 4 comissarios Levartovienses’, a letter signed by ten of the privy councillors, 28 January 1584;
(31) ‘Archiep'us Cantuar Archiep'o Gnesnensi’, dated 15 February 1584;
(32) three letters, all dated 16 January 1584, signed by Thomas Bromley, William Burley and C. Howard, addressed to the great officers of Poland; (33) a letter signed ‘Franciscus Walsingham’ addressed to a ‘consiliarius’, no date;
(34) a letter from the governor, assistants and company of merchants trading in the Baltic Sea addressed apparently to the commissaries of Poland, 27 January 1584;
(35) documents relating to the negotiations with the city of Elbing, 1583-5;
(36) ‘Comissio pro causis et controversiis Danicis. 20 Ap. 1600’, apparently a rough draft;
(37) treatise on the diseases of horses and their cure, beginning ‘Sicknesse as in man so in horses is an evill affected contrary to nature hindringe the actions of the body’.