HENRY VIII (1491-1547) - photo 1
HENRY VIII (1491-1547) - photo 2
HENRY VIII (1491-1547) - photo 3

HENRY VIII (1491-1547)

Lot 49
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 30 240
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 870757
Lot 49 | HENRY VIII (1491-1547)
Estimate value
£ 25 000 – 35 000
HENRY VIII (1491-1547)

Letter signed (‘Henry R’) to [George Talbot, fourth] Earl of Shrewsbury, Steward of the Household and Lieutenant-General of the expeditionary army in France, Calais, 7 July [1513].

In English. Two pages, 310 x 220mm, written in a secretary hand, integral address leaf, dispatch slits (excellent condition, small repaired splits). Provenance: Sotheby’s, 27 September 1988, lot 82 (sold for £13,500).



Henry VIII urges his Lieutenant-General in France to capture Thérouanne and discusses a plan to enlist German mercenaries away from the French king’s army: a rare military letter written a month before the English victory at the Battle of the Spurs. Henry has received Talbot’s letter sent on 4 July outside ‘Terwyn’ [Thérouanne], where the latter recently received ‘a gentilman of almayne who came out o[f] the frensche King[es] armye shewing that if he coude obteigne a l[ett]er from th[e] emperor directid to the chief capitain nowe being in th[e] frensche King[es] wag[es] com[m]annding hym to leve the frensche King[es] s[er]vice he doubteth not to bringe it to passe’. The king outlines how the German mercenaries might be discouraged from serving Francis I – which would ‘moche diminsshe his strengthe and gretely discourage his armye’ – ordering Talbot to disseminate a proclamation from the Holy Roman Emperor forbidding his subjects to fight against the English, reminding them also of ‘the censures of the churche executed by vertue and auctoritie of the popis bull[es] against all suche almayns and others as shall s[er]ve the said frensche King against us and other the confererat[es] of crist[es] churche’, and of the clause in a treaty recently ratified between the German Emperor and the English king forbidding the same, while a letter to the captain of the German mercenaries inducing him to forsake the French king [and join the English forces] is sought from the ‘farre distannt’ Emperor. Henry has received Talbot’s report on the position at Thérouanne and urges him to lose no time in capturing the town by any measure necessary (‘employe yo[u]rself by batery and other exploit of warre for the getting of that towne’); he notes that espionage and prisoners-of-war will have informed his Lieutenant of Thérouanne’s potential to resist such an attack. He sends ‘sixe last[es] of gonnepowde[r]’ [gunpowder] but no shot, as he knows not what weaponry Talbot has at his disposal, and encloses the confession of a prisoner about the ‘town of Terwyn’ [not present].



George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, was a trusted courtier and soldier to the kings of England: he served under Henry VII during the 1489 expedition to Flanders and was named Lord Steward of the King's Household and a Chamberlain of the Exchequer under Henry VIII. In 1512, the king appointed him Lieutenant-General of the English army sent to invade France. Talbot was tasked with capturing Thérouanne in July, but his vanguard force made little progress against the defending garrison of French and German soldiers. The following month, Henry VIII broke the siege and took Thérouanne with the support of an Imperial force under the Emperor Maximilian at the Battle of the Spurs.



Campaign letters from Henry VIII are rare at auction and the present example, dating from his first invasion of France, is an excellent illustration of the king’s shrewd strategical mind in action just one month before the English defeat of the French in 1513.



For a full transcription of the present letter, please contact the Books Department.

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