The chronicle of Calais, in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. To the year 1540. [By R. Turpyn?] Ed. from MSS. in the British Museum / by John Gough Nichols.

  • Turpyn, Richard, 1506-1541?
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chronicle of Calais, in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. To the year 1540. [By R. Turpyn?] Ed. from MSS. in the British Museum / by John Gough Nichols. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    From the time that the town of Calais was surrendered to King Edward the Third in 1347, in the manner so picturesquely described by Froissart, it remained for two hundred and eleven years in most respects an English colony. The poorer inhabitants, to the number of more than seventeen hundred, had been sent away during the siege, * and never returned, finding refuge chiefly at St. Omer’s. When the conqueror commissioned sir Walter de Manny and his two marshals, the earl of Warwick and the earl of Stafford, to take possession of the town, he said, “ Sirs, take here the kayes of the towne and castell of Calys; go and take possessyon there, and putte in prison all the knyhts that be there ; and all other soudyours that came thyder symply to wynne their lyveng, cause theym to avoyde the towne, and also all other men, women, and chyldren ; for I wolde re-people agayne the towne with pure Englysshemen.t’’ This plan Froissart says was fulfilled. “They made all maner of people to voyde, and kept there no mo persons but a preest and two other auncyent personages, such as knewe the customes, lawes, and ordy- naunces of the towne, and to signe out the herytages howe they were de- vyded.” “The kynge sent from London xxxvj burgesses to Calays, who were ryche and sage, and their wyves and chyldren, and dayly encreased the nombre, for the kynge graunted them such liberties and franchysses that men were gladde to go and dwell there.” * The names of the commanders and knights in the army of Edward the Third, at the time of his winning of Calais, with the amount of their respective retinues, and their ar- morial bearings, form the second part of the volume entitled, “ Nomina et Insignia Gen- tilitia Nobilium Equitumque sub Edwardo primo rege militantium. Accedunt classes exercitus Edwardi tertii regis Caletem obsidentis. Edidit Edwardus Rowe Mores, 1748.” The same roll occurs in manuscript in MS. Harl. 246, MS. Harl. 782, and MS. Cotton. Titus, F. m1. p. 262. In the Gentleman’s Magazine for Oct. 1837, is “A brief memoir of the Campaigns of Edward the Third, in the years 1345, 1346, and 1347, ending with the surrender of Calais ; with a Defence or Apology of Edward, as to his conduct to Eustace de St. Pierre and the other Burgesses on the Surrender of that Fortress :” by Christopher Godmond, Esq. the author of a drama entitled ‘‘ The Campaign of 1346,” 8yo. 1836. + Froissart, in Lord Berners’ translation.