Letters: Earl of Oxford to Baron Burghley, September 22, 1572.

BL Lansdowne 14-84, ff. 185-6, Oxford to Burghley, September 22, 1572.
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My Lorde, I receiued yowre letters, when I rather loked to haue sene yowre selfe here, then to haue harde from yow: but sithe it is soo, that yowre Lordship is other wise, affaired withe the busines of the common wellthe, then to be disposede to recreat yowre selfe, and repose ye amonge yowre owne, yet we do hope, after this yow hauinge hade so great a care of the Queens Maiesties seruice, yow will begine to haue sume respect of yowre owne healthe, and take a plesure to duele where yow haue taken paine to builde; My wife (whome I thowght showld haue taken her leue of yow, if yowre Lordship hade come, till yow wowld haue otherwise commanded, is departed vnto the contrie this day: my selfe, as fast as I cane get me ought of towne, doo followe. Where […] I be any way imploide, I am content and desiroues […] wher by I may show my selfe dutifull to her. otherwise if it wer […] that respecte, I thinke ther is more troble then credite to be gotten in suche gouermentes. if ther were any seruice to be done abrode, I hadd rather serue there, then att home, wher yet sume honor were to be gotte; if ther be any settinge forthe to sea, to whiche seruice I beare most affectione, I shall desire yowre Lordship to giue me and gett me that fauoure and credite, that I myght make one. whiche if [...] therbe no suche intention, then I shalbe most willinge to be imploide on the sea costs, to be in a redines withe my contrie man against any invasione. Thus recomendinge my selfe to yowre good Lordshipe, I commite yow to god. from Londone, this 22th of September. by yowre Lordship to commande.

(signed) Edward Oxenford (sec. f; 4+7)

Addressed (O): To singuler good lord, Burley, and lord tresorer of Ingland giue thes att the courte. [seal]

Endorsed: 22 September 1572; the Erle of oxf to my master

Second endorsement: […]; Desires his Lordship to procure him some employment in ye Queenes service: but especially, which hee chyfly bends to, at sea.

Third endorsement: 22 September 1572.

Edward de Vere having wheedled a commission through Queen Elizabeth’s Principal Secretary, William Cecil, to serve as an officer in the 1570 border wars with Scotland, we find him going the same route in hopes of another commission.  Cecil had since been created 1^st Baron of Burghley and had become father-in-law to Edward who had married his daughter, Anne.

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