|
Date: |
|
Description: | He wished to visit his brother in the Country for Christmas if his doctor's advice and wife's importunity had not restrained him. The only news is of revels at court in all of which Mr Villars was a principal actor. Last night at a play there were three unknown sisters in strange & curious attire whose beauty caught the eyes of the courtiers and the king's majesty. Married ladies go civil in black & maids very gallant, especially my Lord of Northumberland's daughters, and Isabella Rich was considered the most beautiful. He sends his humblest and affectionate service to Lord Willoughby's lady.
In Sotheby's catalogue the date is given as c. 1614. Since, however, according to the Dictionary of National Biography George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham, was introduced to the King in August 1614 and knighted in April 1615, and since there is reference in the letter to Christmas, the date may be presumed to be early in 1615.
Note: Henry Percy, 9th earl of Northumberland, was then in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity in the Gunpowder plot. A letter of his mentioned in A. Collins, The Peerage of England vol. V, p. 455, dated in 1613 and addressed to King James I, refers to his need to provide for his two daughters. His fine was paid in 1614 but he was not released till 1621. | Subjects: | Country Estates | Temporal: | ?1615 | Source: | Lincolnshire County Council | Identifier: | http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/Re... | Go to resource |
|
|