Genealogical Chronicle Roll, in Middle English, illuminated manuscript on vellum

33 double-folded leaves (ie. a single-sided roll of 14 or 15 membranes folded concertina-style and rebound as a book; approximately 13,632 mm. long), each 'leaf' 350mm. by 213mm., complete, 3 columns, approximately 34 lines in dark brown ink of an accomplished English textura, paragraph marks and titles in red, numerous 2-line initials in burnished gold or blue with contrasting blue or red penwork, the generations of biblical descent framed in red, green or blue, historical kings and their supposed ancestors in red or blue circles topped with burnished gold crowns (255 in total), all joined by coloured lines of descent: burnished gold on blue ground for main biblical line, red or green for the others, five diagrams in blue, green and red ink inserted into text including: (a) 'TO' map (fol. 2r; 45mm diameter), (b) the various levels or "forme of the shippe [Noah's ark] after Joseph the Jue" (2v; 70mm. by 65mm.; see detail), (c) the 42 mansions of the people of Israel (4v; 106mm. by 100mm.), (d) the Tabernacle of Israel (5r; 100mm. by 100mm.), and (e) the Temple (17r; 75mm. diameter), one large 5-line initial in burnished gold on blue and pink ground touched with white penwork (fol. 1v), one 7-line initial in blue and pink with white penwork on burnished gold ground with elaborate floral infill, with foliate border extensions terminating in acanthus leaves, burnished gold ivy leaves and bezants filling the upper and right-hand margins (fol. 1v), one large illuminated roundel enclosing Adam and Eve naked and holding fig leaves either side of an apple tree in which a serpent with a human head and lion's front paws is coiled, framed in pink, white, burnished gold and blue concentric rings, in bright and fresh condition (fol. 1v; 77mm. diameter), single added leaf at end of text with late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century additions, first two leaves slightly discoloured from having been open at some time and final leaves with some large smudges of ink, otherwise in outstanding condition, nineteenth-century brown leather binding over sturdy pasteboards, gilt-tooled around fore-edge and outer edge of the interior of both front and back boards, "M.S.S.  Genealogy" gilt-tooled on spine, front board now detached and back board loose, else strong in binding

A hitherto unrecorded manuscript of a genealogical chronicle almost certainly produced for Edward IV (1442-83) or a member of his close circle

provenance

1. Commissioned by King Edward IV for himself or a member of his immediate circle from a workshop in London or Westminster, and  presumably presented by Edward IV to a member of his entourage.

3. Subsequently appearing among the property of the family of the Hills-Trevor, later Barons Trevor; the bookplate of Brynkinalt library, case M, shelf 5, on the front pastedown; and by family descent.

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text

The text is part of the so-called 'Considerans' group of genealogical chronicles, which were produced for propagandistic purposes for a number of royal and aristocratic patrons in the fifteenth century (see Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 1996, no. 116, for fuller discussion). These chronicles were produced in a variety of more or less abridged versions in Latin or more accessibly in Middle English. The present manuscript is a hitherto unrecorded copy of the 'Long English' redaction of the genealogy of Edward IV, containing the fullest version of that text in Middle English. It was almost certainly prepared for Edward IV as propaganda in his struggle with the Lancastrians for the British throne, and aimed ultimately at providing justification for Edward's seizure of the throne in 1461 from Henry VI, by demonstrating that he, and not Henry or any of his kin, had better ancestral claim. It begins with Creation; depicted here in the roundel which is nestled between three columns of text, the middle of which begins: Adam was made in damasthene feeld by the hand of god and put in aplace of delites called paradise ... From here the columns diagrammatically trace the descent of the various lineages of the Old Testament, pausing to note occasional points of British reference, such as the prominence given to the line of Noah's son Japheth, as for of hym came kynges of bretayn that nowe is called englond (beginning fol. 2v). Relying heavily on the popular pseudo-history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, the author of the tract traced these biblical lines of descent side by side with the supposed descendants of Japheth, including Tros, the eponymous founder of Troy (4v-5r), and Brute, the eponymous founder of the line of the Britons, who was put oute of Italie and tok with hym a gret multitude of peple. and thei went in to the lond of greke. and ther they delyvered out of bondage myche peple of the troianys ... [and Brutus] went in to an yle called logres and there he had answer of deana the goddesse to go in to france and so forth toward the west. And there he shuld fynde an yle called albion. And whan he came thedir he slue the gianntes. And after he made a cite and called it newe troy. that nowe is called london (8v-9r). After this the line of Brutus is traced to King Arthur (23v), alongside that of the Old Testament kings which terminates in the Virgin Mary and Christ (21v-22r), and from here the lines of the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon kings take over in a flurry of burnished gold crowns down to King Alfred and his offspring (27r). At this stage three crucial lines of descent dominate, those of the kings of Wessex, the dukes of Normandy (and their associates and relatives the Mortimers) and the kings of Wales, culminating in the descent of Edward IV from the uniting of these lines. Thus, while Henry VI's genealogy had its roots in the Anglo-Saxon kings, Edward IV could claim descent from the earlier rulers of the British Isles - the Britons and their eponymous hero and the supposed founder of London, Brutus.

This manuscript can be dated quite precisely. As A. Allan has shown ("Yorkist Propaganda : Pedigree, Prophecy and the 'British History' in the Reign of Edward IV", in Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, 1979), it appears likely that Edward IV commissioned new copies of the text upon the birth of each of his children, and so the extant manuscripts can be dated by the children who do (or do not) appear. The earliest is British Library, Lansdowne 456 which includes no children and so predates 1466; the second and third are Copenhagen, Kongl. Bibl. NKS 1858, folio, and Yale, MS. Marstone 242 which include Elizabeth (born 1466) but no others  (sold in our rooms 15 June 1959, lot 194; illustrated in Shailor, The Medieval Book, 1991, p. 94); the fourth and fifth are Bodleian MS. E. Mus. 42 (described and reproduced in K. L. Scott, Dated and Dateable English Manuscript Borders c. 1395-1499, 2002, pp. 88-9) and Oxford, Corpus Christi College 207, which include Mary (born 1467); the sixth Bodleian, Lyell MS. 33 which includes Cecily (born 1469); the seventh British Library, Harley Roll C9 which includes both Edward and Margaret (born 1470 and 1472; note however that here the text is in Latin not Middle English); the eighth St. John's College, Oxford MS. 23, which includes Richard (born 1473). From this, it is clear that the present manuscript was written between the birth of Prince Edward on 2 November 1470 and Margaret on 10 April 1472, and as Edward IV was deposed and in exile from October 1470 to March 1471 it cannot have been written then, but must date to the months immediately after his return from exile. It is then an otherwise unrecorded stage of the text written between the birth of Edward and Margaret, and is apparently the only recorded Middle English copy to survive between the years 1469 and 1473. As such, it belongs to a unique historical context, that is the period of Edward's crushing of the Lancastrian forces, and the imprisonment and execution of his rival Henry VI; acts that demanded justification much more substantial than mere political necessity or personal safety, and in which the present manuscript no doubt played an important role.

Complete Middle English manuscripts with illumination are extremely rare, and those which can be so securely dated are even more so, and the present manuscript would appear to be one of only eight known complete and illuminated copies, and is the only one presently in private hands.

The manuscript is also of historical interest for the additions made to it in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. On the verso of the last leaf and the flyleaf a sixteenth-century hand continued the genealogical line from Edward IV down to Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and added a commentary (apparently ending in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587), as well as adding to a few of those above (note in particular the Protestant erasure of the word 'pope' throughout and its replacement with bisshop). Subsequently, another hand of much the same date, whose entries terminate with the notice of the death of Elizabeth I, continued the pedigree to James I (1566-1625) and added notes regarding current affairs, such as the outbreak of plague of 1603-4 in the citty of London and the subbs., which killed in one year 37,149 people, and 3000 in one week alone, and a contemporary reference to the Gunpowder Plot, detailing how a number of bloody papists ... plotted most devilishly the subversion of this land by blowing up the whole house wth gunpowder ... but it pleased almighty God to expose their plot and they did after most worthily suffer death for the same.

illumination

The scribe is known from a number of other manuscripts (see Scott for a complete list) and appears to have begun his career during the reign of Henry VI, using various workshops at different periods for the illumination of his writings. The roundel in the present manuscript is very close to that of Oxford, Corpus Christi College 207 (illustrated Scott, pl. 427), sharing the same general posture of the figures as well as a number of specific details such as the multi-coloured frill-topped 'crocodile-like' tail of the Serpent; but the present miniature seems to be more detailed in its rendering than the Corpus manuscript (see in particular Adam's and Eve's facial features, their hair and the Serpent's hairy clawed paws). In addition, the scene seems better composed, with the rocky hills which rise on each side in the background creating a 'frame' for the scene, and emotional depth added through the Serpent suggestively winking at Eve as she is about to bite the apple and commit the first sin. Scott, in her survey of the nine other extant examples of the work of this shop, concluded that in the majority of the known miniatures a number of artists had worked together, and minor changes in personnel between commissions most probably explains the differences here.