Beschreibung:

PRIVY COUNCIL OF ELIZABETH I. Letter signed to Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst [later 1st Earl of Dorset] and Sir John Fortescue as Chancellor and Under-treasurer of the Exchequer, Whitehall, 2 February 1598/9, an order to pay £39 to John Goite and Robert Davies the 'Commissaries for the providing & taking up of meete and convenient shipping ... to serve for the transportation of such numbers of horse and foote as are now to be sent into Ireland', the signatories including Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of ESSEX, Robert Cecil [later 1st Earl of Salisbury], Thomas Egerton [later 1st Viscount Brackley], William Knollys [later 1st Earl of Banbury], Roger, 2nd Baron North and John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as both of the recipients, in English, one page, folio , integral address leaf, endorsed by Fortescue on the following day with a note to Vincent Skinner, the exchequer auditor, 'Mr skynner I pray you make an ordre for the somme w[ithi]n written' (some staining, seal tear); [ with ] an autograph note signed (a fragment) by Fortescue, also to Vincent Skinner, 9 March 1598/9, asking about the receipts from the Dover tonnage; and a cut signature of Sir Fulke Greville. Essex had been appointed lord lieutenant in Ireland on 30 December to counter Tyrone's rebellion, and was to leave court to join his army on 27 March 1599. The expense and inefficacy of the expedition were to seal the fall of Elizabeth's last favourite. (3)