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Evil Counsel: The Propositions to Bridle the Impertinency of Parliament and the Critique of Caroline Government in the Late 1620s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2011

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References

1 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger Shakespeare Library, MS X.d.337, fol. 6r.

2 Samuel Harsnet to Henry Vane, 6 November 1629, The National Archives (TNA), SP 16/151/24.

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4 Star Chamber order, 15 November 1629, TNA, SP 16/151/70; Sir Robert Heath’s bill of information, 16 November 1629, British Library (BL), Add. MS 23,967, fol. 24. For the sake of consistency, references throughout will be to the copy of the Propositions embedded in Sir Robert Heath’s bill of information found at BL, Add. MS 23,967, fols. 24r–33r. This is likely an official copy produced for the trial. It is endorsed “Mr Goad,” probably the Star Chamber deputy clerk John Goad; further, it is written on full folio sheets and only on the recto side.

5 Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton, 145.

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16 Particularly the failure of Richard James to corroborate Oliver St. John’s testimony. Defendants’ answers, ca. November–December 1629, Houghton Library, fMS Eng 977, cf. fols. 20v–26v with fols. 27v–28v.

17 Propositions, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fols. 24–25.

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19 I thank Brian Weiser for bringing this point to my attention. Dietz, English Public Finance, 134–40; Sir Julius Caesar’s notes of projects, ca. 1610, BL, Add. MS 10,038, fols. 17r–v.

20 Propositions, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fol. 27.

21 Ibid., fols. 24–27.

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28 Bellany, Politics of Court Scandal, 25–73.

29 Sharpe asserts that the Propositions remained in the custody of Somerset’s client, Sir Robert Cotton; but Rushworth (Historical Collections, 2:50) cites an unnamed witness that Cotton’s library had acquired the Propositions only around 1621–22; cf. Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton, 143–45. Rushworth’s text is supported by a Star Chamber report embedded in Observations Concerninge the high and hono[ra]ble Court of Starrchamber, ca. late 1630s, All Souls College, Oxford, MS 178B, fol. 69r. Another copy of the same Observations is Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS), MS XII.A.38.

30 Rawson to ?, 6 November 1629, BL, Harley MS 383, fol. 90; Dixon to Montagu, 5 November 1629, Historical Manuscript Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Buccleuch, 3 vols. (London, 18991926) (hereafter HMC Buccleuch), 3:344Google Scholar; Dasent, John Roche, ed., Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1629–1630 (London, 1960), 170Google Scholar.

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33 Field and Turner were not detained; copies of Wentworth’s notes, ca. 1629–30, Beinecke Library, Osborn b32, 261–62.

34 Rawson to ?, 6 November 1629, BL, Harley MS 383, fol. 90; Moore to Scudamore, 7 November 1629, TNA, C 115/102/7757.

35 Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton, 48–81.

36 Bellany, “Raylinge rymes,” 285.

37 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, MS X.d.337, fol. 6v.

38 Defendants’ answers, ca. 1630, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 21r–23v.

39 Richard James to Secretary Dorchester, November 1629?, TNA, SP 16/152/78; Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, MS X.d.337, fol. 6v; Wentworth’s notes, ca. 1629–30, Beinecke, Osborn b32, 262.

40 Copies of the answers are in Houghton, fMS Eng 977; Folger, V.a.116; and Northamptonshire Record Office (NRO), FH 2816–23.

41 Heath’s bill of information, 16 November 1629, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fol. 31.

42 Defendants’ answers, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 1r–10v.

43 Cotton’s answer, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 11r, 13v.

44 Wentworth’s notes, June 1630, Sheffield Archives, WWM/Str P/24–25/47.

45 Defendants’ answers, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 21r–23v.

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49 Love (Scribal Publication, 76n) makes a similar point from D’Ewes’s account alone.

50 Ibid., 46.

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52 Moore to Scudamore, 7 November 1629, TNA, C 115/102/7757; transcript, Chateauneuf to Richelieu, 18 November 1629, TNA, Public Record Office (PRO) 31/3/66, fol. 196r; diary of Walter Yonge, BL, Add. MS 35,331, 64.

53 Defendants’ answers, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 8r–26r.

54 Love, Scribal Publication, 177–79.

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65 Wentworth’s notes, 1629–30, Beinecke, Osborn b32, 261.

66 Materials relating to the trial of Lord Balmerino, ca. 1634, BL, Harley MS 4697, fol. 44r.

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70 Starkey to Scudamore, 11 February 1625/6, TNA, C 115/108/8575.

71 Notestein and Relf, Commons’ Debates for 1629, xxviii.

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92 Bakos, Adriana (The Images of Kingship in Early Modern France: Louis XI and Political Thought, 1560–1789 [London, 1997], 3435)Google Scholar traces this parallel to François Hotman’s Francogallia. I would like to thank Cesare Cuttica for this reference.

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97 Dorchester’s notes, May 1630? TNA, SP 16/167/44.

98 Propositions, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fols. 31–32.

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100 Rushworth, Historical Collections, 1:670–71.

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105 Cust, Forced Loan, 23–24.

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108 Cogswell, “Felton,” 369, “The people’s love,” 212.

109 Keeler, Cole, and Bidwell, Commons Debates 1628, 4:130.

110 Rushworth, Historical Collections, 1:459.

111 Notestein and Relf, Commons’ Debates for 1629, 102–3.

112 Cogswell, “Felton,” 378.

113 Dorchester’s notes, May 1630? TNA, SP 16/167/44.

114 Propositions, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fol. 27.

115 Defendants’ answers, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fol. 3r.

116 Tuck, Philosophy and Government, 119, 224; Sharpe, Personal Rule, 33–34, 40–41, 59–60, and 716–17.

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120 Cust, Forced Loan; Keeler, Cole, and Bidwell, Commons Debates 1628, 4:146.

121 Russell (Parliaments and English Politics, 335, 380) is characteristically thorough on this issue.

122 CSPV, 1626–28, 126; Cust, Forced Loan, 58.

123 Russell, Parliaments and English Politics, 381–86; Cogswell, “Felton,” 370–72; cf. Peltonen, Classical Humanism, 290–93.

124 Although the protests may have been sincere; Sharpe, Personal Rule, 42.

125 Keeler, Cole, and Bidwell, Commons Debates 1628, 4:145, 168.

126 CSPV, 1625–26, 508.

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135 Malcolm, Reason of State, 96, 106.

136 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, MS X.d.377, fol. 8r.

137 Ibid., fol. 5v.

138 Defendants’ answers, November 1629, Houghton, fMS Eng 977, fols. 11v, 13r, 21r, 22r.

139 Earl of Bedford’s notebook, ca.1630s, Woburn Abbey, MS 23,131.

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144 Robert Dixon to Lord Edward Mountagu, November 1629, HMC Buccleuch, 3:345.

145 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, X.d.337, fols. 5v–6r.

146 John Pory to Josehp Mead, 12 February 1630, BL, Harley MS 383, fols. 92r–v.

147 Joseph Mead to Martin Stuteville, 17 April 1630, BL, Harley MS 389, fol. 513r.

148 Star Chamber reports, Lambeth Palace, MS 1,253, fols. 99v–101r.

149 Materials relating to the trial of Lord Balmerino, post-1634, BL, Harley MS 4,697, 46v.

150 Privy Council notes, 5 May 1630, BL, Add. MS 72,420, fol. 2v.

151 Wentworth’s notes, June 1630, Sheffield Archives, WWM/Str P/24–25/47; Foster, Stephen, Notes from the Caroline Underground: Alexander Leighton, the Puritan Triumvirate, and the Laudian Reaction to Nonconformity (Hamden, CT, 1978), 1739Google Scholar.

152 Folger, X.d.377 contains a partial transcript of these proceedings, as do Inner Temple Library, Petyt MS 538/39, fols. 366–71, and Bodleian, Rawlinson MS C 839, fols. 2–9. A short note is included in Harvard Law School, MS 1101, fol. 51r, and All Souls College, Oxford, MS 178B, fols. 27v–29r.

153 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, X.d.377, fol. 7v.

154 Sharpe, Personal Rule, 655–56, and Sir Robert Cotton, 180.

155 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, MS X.d.377, fols. 9v–10r; Sanderson, Robert, ed., Rymer’s Foedera, 20 vols. (London, 1704–35), 19:198–99Google Scholar.

156 “An Abstract & all the Proofes of the Conspiracy of Stevenson and other against S[i]r Robert Cotton,” 1630, BL, Add. MS 14,049, fol. 36r.

157 Sir Thomas Puckering’s abstract of John Pory’s letter, 12 May 1631, BL, Harley MS 7000, fols. 309r–v; Sharpe, Personal Rule, 656; Halliwell, Autobiography of D’Ewes, 1:42.

158 Star Chamber proceedings, June 1630, Folger, MS X.d.377, fol. 9r.

159 Sebastian Benefield’s notebook, ca. 1629, BL, Sloane MS 1199, fols. 103r–v.

160 Copies in the Brititsh Library include: Add. MS 23,967, fols. 24–33; Add. MS 69,909, fols. 50r–53v [fragment of “S[i]r R[obert] D[udley] Project” sent to Sir William Fitzer in Frankfort]; Add. MS 72,421, fols. 140–47; Hargrave MS 311, 210r–214v; Hargrave MS 489, fols. 17–25, 26–41, and 42–57 [three copies]; Harley MS 597, fols. 178–84; Harley MS 2,217, fols. 102–7; Harley MS 3,791, fols. 119–30; Stowe MS 152, fols. 40–43; Sloane MS 1,199, fols. 103r–v [fragment in Benefield’s notebook]; Sloane MS 1,200, fols. 77–85; Stowe MS 153, fols. 41–46; Stowe MS 156, fols. 219r–235v; Stowe MS 159, fols. 16r–27.

161 Copies beyond the British Library include: Beinecke, Osborn fb150, fols. 55r–64v; Bodleian, MS Carte 77, fols. 105r–108v [abstract of “Certaine p[ro]posicons made unto King James as it was thought by S[i]r Robert Dudley knight”], fols. 304r–309v [“In Micha[lmas] terme last”], fols. 332r–341 [three copies]; Bodleian, MS Eng. d2912, fols. 159–74; Bodleian, MS Rawlinson A 127, fols. 55–68; Bodleian, MS Rawlinson C 674, fols. 68r–74r; Bodleian, MS Tanner 299/24; Bodleian, MS Tanner 395/23 [abstract]; CUL, MS Gg.4.13, 129–30; Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/1/Oo231 [fragment]; Folger, MS V.a.116, fols. 122r–141v; Folger, MS V.b.277, fols. 232r–240v; Free Library of Philadelphia, Carson Collection, MS LC 14.87, fols. 3r–17r; HALS, MS XII.B.4; HALS, MS XII.B.30 [fragment]; Huntington Library [HL], Hastings Legal Box 4/2; HL, Hastings Military Box 1/9; NRO, FH 2825; NRO, IL 3405; Queen’s College, Oxford, MS 121, fols. 322–328 and 344–51 [two copies]; TNA, SP 16/151/69; Woburn Abbey, MS 33, fols. 2–21.

162 A Machavillian Plot; scribal copies of the Propositions, BL, Hargrave MS 489, fols. 26–41 and 42–57.

163 Isham’s copy of the Propositions, NRO IL 3405.

164 Drake’s notebook, 1630s, University College, London, Special Collections, Ogden MS 7/7, fol. 100v; Sharpe, Reading Revolutions, 83.

165 Sharpe, Personal Rule, 714–30.

166 Ibid., 727–28; Fincham, Kenneth, “The Judges’ Decision on Ship Money in February 1637: The Reaction of Kent,Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 57, no. 136 (November 1984): 230–36, esp. 236CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

167 Heath’s bill, 16 November 1629, BL, Add. MS 23,967, fol. 31.

168 I thank David Como for this reference. Rawdon’s miscellany, 1630s, Beinecke, Osborn fb150, fols. 55r–57v; Appleby, Joyce, “Roydon [Rawdon], Sir Marmaduke,ODNBGoogle Scholar. This is probably also the appropriate reading of the abstract of the Propositions in Bodleian, Tanner MS 395/23.

169 See Sharpe, Kevin, Criticism and Compliment: The Politics of Literature in the England of Charles I (Cambridge, 1987), espGoogle Scholar. 16, 39, 93.

170 Drake’s notebook, 1630s, HL, HM 55603, inside flyleaf.

171 Reeve, Charles I, 91; Russell, Parliaments and English Politics, 416.

172 Cogswell, “Underground Verse,” 294.