Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain (Volume 1 ); From the Commencement of the Twelfth Century to the Close of the Reign of Queen Mary (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846. Excerpt: ...eral reader. But it should be observed that the original phraseology has in every instance been retained, and the strictest attention paid to fidelity in the transcripts and to correctness in the translations. Not a word has been pur- VjoOQ IC PREFACE. Vll posely omitted, inserted, or altered, and, where a supplemental word was necessary to make up the sense, it has been placed within a parenthesis. In those instances where the originals had sustained injury from fire, damp, or other casualty, the words supposed to have been efiaced have occasionally been conjecturally supplied within brackets. A chronological arrangement of the letters has been observed, as far as practicable, and considerable pains have been taken with dates, some of which have been frequently supplied from various minute points of internal evidence in the letters, and from their bearing upon other documents which it would have been tedious always to detail. Whenever any uncertainty existed, the letters have been assigned to the most probable date and vers, prefixed to the year. The sources from which the letters have been obtained are various. The earliest originals are from the valuable collection in the Tower of London, and from the Oflsce of the Duchy of Lancaster; those of a later period from the State Paper Office, the British Museum, the College of Arms, the Rolls- VIU PREFACE. House, the Chapter-House, the Bodleian and Ashmolean Libraries, Oxford, the Bibliotheque du Roi at Paris, and Archives du Royaume, Paris, and also from several private collections. Comparatively few of the letters have been before published, and those which have been printed have appeared only in works which are scarce, or beyond ordinary reach. In difew instances, letters are given from printed books, but ...