I beseech your Majesty to pardon my importunity, at this present,
and once again in this cause to trouble you with my letters. Also for my short
writing, since I rather am now in so short a time to possess you with the
matter, then with the Circumstance.
There were with me a few days past sent from your Majesty Sir John
Foscue & my Lord Chief Justice about the matter of Tin, who declared to me that
your Majesty was resolved to take into your hands the preemption of Tin, and
that it was your pleasure I should proceed in that which I had advertised your
Majesty to get you the money with which the Tin might be bought of the country.
I declared to them that I had in readiness merchants very
sufficient which were willing and ready to lend their money but for that I had
not of long hard from your Majesty I feared lest you had forgotten it or at the
least not determined to proceed any further by some persuasion. Wherefore I had
neglected this time to entertain the Merchants in the same humor. I therefore
desired a day or two again to refresh it again with them, whereto they agreed.
I did so. I found the merchants steadfast in their mind willing
and with great alacrity forward to do your Majesty’s service in this. Alderman
Banning was the messenger between them and me, he did their message, I received
we parted, then after for that I could not travel up and down myself, I made
Alderman Banning once again to reiterate their resolution as repeated from me
to know whither I mistook any word or speech, they all sent me word back again
that I rightly conceived them and I mistook them in no one point or word.
Hereupon I advertised my lord Chief Justice, in which advertisement
I sent their requests and conditions, concerning which I referred some to his
opinion and required to hear from him.
These conditions and such matters at this time for brevity sake I
am to refer to a fitter time hereafter to inform your Majesty. Only this I am
here to let you understand, that the Merchants were willing and in readiness
with their money to have lent you the money which should be a stock for the whole
Commodity, your Majesty should not lay out one penny, you shall pay no
interest, every six months they [....] would have paid you five thousand pound,
which is ten thousand pound a year. They would take no years but when they had
done your Majesty this service, and that you had proof of the same, and that
they had restored the ancient price in Turkey of this commodity then to
accepted such conditions as your Majesty should think most profitable for yourself
.
These things I advertised, time ran on, the Merchants were moved I
wondered. And to make me more wonder, my wife coming from the court, told me that
your Majesty said to her you heard not that there was any money gotten.
On Wednesday last the Merchants were resolved to meet together for
the collection of the money and to portion every man’s part with great willingness
and forwardness. But then strange to me to hear it, a commandment delivered
from the Lord Mayor that they should no further think of that matter, for her
Majesty had no money and therefore was determined this year to let it alone and
they might buy as they had done before.
How your Majesty is persuaded I am not privy, but by your Majesty’s
favour I muse what eloquence should move you, to leave seven thousand ^l^
gained so easily that you are put to no further cost than telling it in your
exchequer.
Again I think myself very evil recompensed for my service to be employed
and when I have performed it, with all the faith and diligence I can; then, it,
and myself upon no reason with so great a loss to your Majesty to be rejected
and neglected.
I dare not say how much your Majesty is abused, but I find myself
much grieved to be set on to compass this money, and having compassed it to be
turned out with such a mockery. I beseech your Majesty in whose service I have
faithfully employed myself, (I will not entreat that you suffer it yourself
thus to be abused,) but that you will not suffer me thus to be flouted scorned
& mocked.
I fear I am too long and that my hand is too troublesome to read,
further the letter too long, wherefore I will end adding this only. That to
inform your Majesty that you were to lay out any one penny is a foul abuse, and
this on my credit and duty I do affirm to your Majesty in whomsoever the fault is
so far to abuse themselves. How can it be said you have no money, when behold
so sufficient Merchants are ready without any Interest to lend you the money?
Perhaps they have told you that they have heard none named, or
know of any. How can Sir John Foscue say so? How can my lord Chief Justice say it
when I did assure them I had gotten Merchants and the money to be ready
whensoever they should give me warning to bring forth these Merchants with their
money?
They may say they had none named to them, they know that I told
them the Merchants desired not to be seen in it till your Majesty had taken the
preemption. They mislike it not they told me that that order for the preemption
should be done within two or three days? I never hard since from them. I
prepared the Merchants to be ready till now this new alteration hath confounded
all.
Wherefore if your Majesty will have it done I am to advertise you it
will be done. Money is to be had that shall stand you in never a penny. And
therefore if it stand with your pleasure, it behooves your Majesty to make a
stay again of this new deceit, and to suffer the former order of preemption to
go forward, which in a year or two will be fifteen thousand pound a year.
Thus in haste I crave your Majesty’s pardon, for I thought it
better for me to make a fault in my writing, than that your Majesty should
suffer any loss by so great abuse and to inform your Majesty how necessary that
it is if your pleasure be not to lease a commodity, made ^so^ ready to your
hands, to countermand this last order,
and to give commandment that the order of your preemption be not altered, least
the Merchants having prepared this money and being provided to furnish your service,
disposing it otherwise and upon some other employments, the like facility and
opportunity to effect it be never had again.
Your Majesty’s
most humble
subject and servant
(signed) Edward Oxenford
Addressed (in Oxford’s hand): for her most excellent Majesty.
[seal]
Endorsed: June 1599; Earl of Oxford to her Majesty; concerning Tin.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare. May 26, 2020. “A less well known effect of the Reformation was that many young Catholic men who had taken religious orders in order to receive an education began to lead lives at large from monastic discipline. Like Erasmus and Rabelais they took up the pen.”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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