HENRY VIII (1491-1547). Letter signed (“Henry R”) to his treasurer of the chamber, Sir John Heron (1470-1522), Windsor Castle, 28 December 1513.

HENRY VIII (1491-1547). Letter signed (“Henry R”) to his treasurer of the chamber, Sir John Heron (1470-1522), Windsor Castle, 28 December 1513.

One page, 240 x 165 mm., text in a neat secretary hand; addressed on verso "To our trusty and w[elbeloved] … John Heron Treasou[rer]". Matted and framed.

Instructions for an order of 40,000 pounds of saltpetre for the Tower of London. Giovanni Cavalcanti, a Florentine merchant, has contracted to deliver the saltpetre, which is to be “wele tried and good and m[er]chanthable after the fynest making in Naples”, by 9 December 1517 in exchange for £1,000. Heron is accordingly instructed to cancel and return a previous contract with Cavalcanti and a second merchant, Leonardo Frescobaldi, under which they were to have delivered a broader range of military supplies (“Harnesse Saltepeter gonnes [guns] Sables and othir habillyments of warre”) by December 1514.

Henry’s order of saltpetre (one of the constituents of gunpowder) comes at the end of the most militarily successful year of his reign, of which the highlights were the minor victory over the French at the Battle of the Spurs on 30 June, and the annihilation of the Scottish army at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM THE ROGER D. JUDD COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL LETTERS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS