[194] Unfortunately the petition, like so many other documents, is very badly printed. In the Record Office copy it is not ‘grievances, which your poor petitioners lie under,’ but more correctly, ‘which your people lies under.’ The concluding words run, ‘The uniting [not ‘the continuance,’ which makes little sense] of both your kingdoms against the common enemy of their [not ‘the’] reformed religion.’ The thing most wanted for this history is a trustworthy critical edition of the chief authorities. Even the signatures are not certain. The Record copy gives at the head the name of Rutland, which is wanting in the rest. In the same copy the name of Bristol is wanting, which undoubtedly appears wrongly in most editions. It was wanting also in the copy on which the Clarendon Papers were based. Windebank says that he was present, Clarendon Papers ii. 115.
[195] Protocol: Bedford was very shy of doing anything without those by whom he was authorised.
[196] So says the Protocol, which is extant in the State Paper Office, and well deserves to be printed. We find especially ‘the end and conclusion very strange, to desire the Scots to joyne in the reformation of religion.’ Windebank on the same day furnished a report to the King: some points he added, and omitted others.
[197] Forster, Statesmen iii. 126.
[198] Giustiniano 12/22 Sett: ‘Il tenore di queste artificiose lettere che si va da per tutto spargendo, accresce motivo d’alteratione contro ministri et a ribelli sostenta il favore delli primi applausi.’
[199] ‘Honoured from all antiquitie with the title of his majesty’s own chambre.’ Letter of the Privy Council, 11 Sept. in Rushworth iii. 1262.
[200] Windebank to the King, 18 Sept. Clarendon Papers ii. 116.
[201] We see from Giustiniano, 15 Sept., that the rumour was, that in a memorial to the King the formal threat had been expressed, ‘di chiamarlo (il parlamento) da se stessi.’
[202] ‘Di tale ardita resolutione—penetrate dalla regina e da ministri le piu particolari notitie ha mandati in diligenza gli avvisi al re consigliandolo a ridursi celeremente in questa citta per divertire quei pregiuditti che ben grandi gli sono irreparabilmente minacciati, quando non si disponga di convocare senza intervallo di momenti il parlamento.’ (Giustiniano, ib). Montereuil (4 Oct.) also heard of the Queen’s influence (‘que la reine y ait fort porté’) on the summoning of Parliament.
[203] ‘These things made such impression on them, that we discerned as they satt, how well they were disposed—so that we came about.’ So it is stated in the report of the Lord Privy Seal and Chamberlain, dated October 3, in the State Paper Office, a document which is the more welcome since Windebank’s letter about these proceedings, to which he himself refers, is not in the Clarendon collection.