Queen Elizabeth I | Letter signed, to Lord North, ordering the supply of horses from Cambridgeshire, 1599

Queen Elizabeth I

Letter signed ("Elizabeth R") at the head, to Roger North, 2nd Baron North, as Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire

ordering the supply of cavalry to London, listing landowners within the county and the number of horses they are to supply, ordering them to "send unto Shordich neere to London, so many horse furnished as is here underwritten to be here by the fourtenth of this August", 1 page, folio, integral address leaf with residue of red wax seal impression, Nonesuch Manor, 4 August 1599, docketed ("Her Ma[jesty]... for the sending up to Shordiche 57 horse by certen principall knights & gentlemen..."), locking slits, strengthened at fold, some fraying, soiling

QUEEN ELIZABETH ORDERS THE REPLENISHMENT OF HER ARMY. By 1599, England had been at war with Spain for more than ten years. The war placed a great strain on Elizabeth's treasury and armed forces: the risk of invasion still remained, despite the defeat of successive Spanish Armadas; England had committed troops in support of Protestant rebels in their long attritional war of independence against Spanish rule; and earlier in the year the Queen had been forced to order her favourite, the Earl of Essex, to quell a dangerous and widespread uprising in Ireland. This letter to Lord North, a courtier and Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, names prominent Cambridgeshire landowners who are to supply horses, including Sir John Cotton, Sir Horatio Palavichini, Ferdinando Paris and others.

PROVENANCE

Christie's, New York, 8 June 1990, lot 176