Your Majesty's
Good Sister."
This is the form used between Sovereign and Sovereign.
2nd. Commencing with the Queen's titles. In these letters the plural "we" and "our" are employed instead of "I" and "my," and the letters terminate thus:—
"Your Good Friend,
. . . ."
This form is now used almost exclusively for Royal letters to Republics.
In the State Paper Office there is, with only one exception, no record of any letter from a Sovereign of England to the Pope from the time of Henry VIII., when the State Paper Office records commence. The single exception is an original letter from Queen Mary in 1555 to Pope Paul IV. It seems that when the time of her expected confinement drew nigh, she caused letters to be prepared announcing the birth of a son, and signed them in anticipation of the event. When no birth took place, the letters were of course not sent off; but they have been preserved to the present day, and among them is the letter to the Pope. The accompanying paper contains a copy of the beginning and conclusion of it.
There is no trace in the State Paper Office of any letter of credence having been given by James II. to Lord Castlemaine in 1685. The correspondence of the reign of James II. is, however, very defective, and much of it must either have been suppressed or have got into private hands.