Description:

Charles II of England King 1630 - 1685 Fantastic Charles II signed manuscript document for payment to seaman, officers and ambassadors



Charles II signed manuscript document, circa 1679, 9.25" x 13.5" on thin laid paper. Signed by Charles II along the top margin. Residual red wax seal stain present to left corner. Large royale water mark to paper of a crown and a horn, centrally located. Paper loss along right edge and lower left corner. Overall light ink, expected folds to the paper with slight separations at folds.


A fascinating document dictating payments for numerous officers, seaman, and ambassadors to cover their expenses for their entertainment, wages, salaries of same. The document specifies the amounts of the payment in pounds, the days it covered, the purpose and the directives. A partial transcription of the documents is as follows below:

"Charles II

Whereas by virtue of our letters of privy .. the fifth day of April last past. Woodiro .... Tho ....of the allowance of two hundred pounds by the Week from sume to sume to the Lord .... And Henry Coventry Esqr. Extraordinary ambassador at Breda for their entertainment during that Employment. Whereupon there is none .... The suem of sixteen hundred pounds for two months of sd (said entertainment from the 13th of May last to the eighth of this instant July .... Those are so .... And require you to .... the said sume of sixteen hundred pounds to be registererd upon the art for the ... tax....on the hundred thousand pounds .... Two hundred thousand pounds for the wages and sallaries of officers and seamen: And that you likewise ... sume of two thousand four hundred and eighty pounds for disbursement by ye Lord Carlingford, our late Envoy Extraordinary to the Empire of Germany to be registered upon the said Act in ... next after the sums of thirty thousand pounds which .... We directed to ... For the ... of our Navy on the hundred thousand pounds immediately ...the eighty thousand pounds for the seaman. And lastely that you ... the sums of one hundred and twelve pounds for .... Esqr, secretary of our said Embassy upon his entertainment for two months ... the eighth of July instant to be registered upon the said artillery after the said sume of two thousand four hundred eighty pounds for the Ld. Carlingford upon the said hundred thousand pounds immediately ye said eighty thousand pounds for ye seamen as aforesaid. Given at our court at Whitehall (under?) our signature .... The eleventh day of July in ye nineteenth year of our Reign."

A lovely example of early English history.

Charles II was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, and king of England, Scotland and Ireland from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 until his death. Charles II's father, Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France. A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. The references to Ld Carlingford would date this document after the restoration, and after Carlingford's first diplomatic mission in 1665.

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