I am not at this present to use any superfluous circumstances wherefore
I hope you will conceive never the worse, and bear with the haste of my matter.
Her Majesty has of late by Sir John Foscue and my lord Chief
Justice employed my service for the getting her of money wherewith to supply a
stock to buy the Tin yearly in Cornwall and Devonshire.
I found out sufficient and of the most able Merchants, willing and
ready with their money to lend it to supply her Majesty without any penny of
Interest, to pay her this present year ten thousand pound, every half year to
wit five thousand pound.
I advertised the lord Chief Justice.
Since I have heard nothing till Thursday last, when overnight I
received from Sir John Foscue, a letter that at three of the clock in the
afternoon next day they were appointed by her Majesty to be with me about this
matter of the Tin; at noontime I had a messenger from Sir John Foscue, that he
had not found himself that morning well, and therefore he would next day be at
the same hour with me, which was Friday, that is yesterday. I attended till six
expecting their coming. I saw they came not, I marveled, and sent a man both to
Sir John Foscue to know how he did, and to my Lord Chief Justice, that if it
were any matter concerning her Majesty’s service if there were any let, that
they could not come that they would signify the matter by letter. Sir John was
sick and this day sent me word he takes physic.
My lord Chief Justice, for that he was joined to come with Sir John
Foscue, will know her Majesty’s pleasure further, tomorrow at the Courte.
In the mean season I find they have reported nothing of the matter
as they resolved to do when they were with me. They have not advertised her Majesty
that the money was to be had, but contrary rather if it ^be^ true that I do hear,
that her Majesty has no money in her coffers for this purpose. to what end is
that when she has it ready prepared by her Merchants. Why should it be told her
what she wanted in her coffers, and not what her Majesty might have without any
interest, and the gain of seven thousand pound from her Merchants, and hereafter
a matter of fifteen thousand pound a year proved as clear as the sun does shine.
For, the Quantity of Tin being supposed Ten hundred thousand pound, and that
her Majesty shall buy it for four marks the hundred, that is 26l and a
Mark the thousand, who does not see, that selling the same for 4s a
hundred that is two and forty pound a thousand weight of Tin, that her Majesty
gains fifteen thousand pound a year, and thus the Merchants to buy it of the Queen
have agreed with me.
Now it moves me not a little, that I should be thus set a work for
her Majesty’s service, and when with my great labor I have effected it, to be
thus mocked; if they meant it at the first to overthwart it why should they
abuse me in her Majesty’s name to deal with the Merchants, and when I have done
it, neither to let her Majesty understand it putting them in trust, and sending
them of purpose to assist me? But contrary by their silence to neglect the time,
and with impertinent matters of her Majesty’s want of money in her coffers, to
hide from her the readiness of the Merchants to furnish this service?
I have written to her Majesty, hoping she will not suffer me employing
myself in her service to be rewarded for my labor with a mock, nor herself to
be thus abused to have a matter of seven thousand pound this year with a more
assured profit in the years following, (by negligence, dullness, or abuse (for
one of these it must be) to be overseen and lost, especially putting her Majesty
to no further cost or travail then to the telling it into her exchequer.
My desire therefore unto you is this, that you will be acknowledged
to ^her^ Maiestie that I have made you privy that I have written unto her, and
for that I fear in time enough my letter should not be read, & that my hand
is too troublesome for her Majesty, that I had desired you, to move her Majesty
for answer thereof, whereby it may be she will make you read the letter and
then she shall not be ignorant how her service is conveyed.
And for so much as I find so many that her Majesty has
put in trust in this cause yet when it comes to the point they give her the slip,
I would most earnestly desire you for our old acquaintance, friendship and
affinity sake to join with me in this service, and to offer your help to me in
this matter to her Majesty for I do assure you that it will have an acceptable
end to her Majesty and that counselor shall have no small advantage over the
other which have I cannot tell what to term it so slowly and dully or corruptly
abused from time to time her Majesty’s Intentions touching this matter.
And thus much I assure you, to encourage you the more, that let
her Majesty call back this countermand, which stopps the Preemption, and let it
be declared as it was of her Majesty’s Resolution, to take it into her hands.
And the money shall be presently supplied by the Merchants. And her Majesty
shall have cause to give you thanks, and I shall be glad my travail shall not
be so lost. Thus with my earnest desire to you to consider the cause according
to the haste, and not according to the disordered disposition of my letter, I
will end and take my leave. For if her Majesty does not presently countermand
this last resolution, procured from her by concealing the merchants readiness
to furnish her with money, she is like to lease the benefit of this year, and
hereafter the whole cause.
One thing I also am to remember that is where I have Named
Alderman Banning to her Majesty who has been very prompt and forward to bring
one the rest of his Companions to this service, for some cause to desire her Majesty
not to let his name to be seen or known for some respects in her Majesty’s service.
I wrote of him only that her Majesty might both know his diligence and that for
my dealing with the Merchants he might witness hereafter, how far everything
was proceeded in before this unlooked for countermand.
Your assured friend and loving brother.
(signed) Edward Oxenford
Addressed (in Oxford’s hand): To the right honorable and his very
well-beloved friend, Sir Robert Cecil, her Majesty’s principal secretary and
Master of her Wards. [seal]
Endorsed: June 1599; Earl
of Oxford to my Mr; 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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