Beschreibung:

MANUSCRIPT] Indenture on vellum with three attached seal tags and two (of three) seals, written in a very fine English chancery hand, dated the 23rd of November in the 32rd year of the reign of Henry VIII i.e. 1541. William Fitzwilliam, 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr (the brother of Katherine Parr, wife of Henry VIII) settles various manors (including Tolleshunt Magna, Tollesbury etc. of Essex) on his wife, Anne, née Bourchier. Single sheet of vellum scalloped on the upper edge, folded at the foot, signed by William, Earl of Southampton, the Lord Privy Seal; Sir Anthony Browne; and Sir Thomas Wriothesley. 21 1/2 x 17 /2 inches (55 x 44 cm), approximately 52 lines, annotated in two contemporary hands on the verso. Soiling to the verso, minor creases, generally in sound condition. Apparently [Sir Thomas] Phillipps manuscript 27735, so annotated on the reverse. Parr married Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier, daughter of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex in 1527, though (as she was ten years old at the time of marriage) they did not live together until 1539. In 1543, less than two years after this document granted her lands, he had the marriage annulled because of blatant adultery, and he seized all of her lands and titles (and was thereby being created Earl of Essex). His sister Catherine was the last of the wives of Henry VIII. Uncle to Edward VI, who was crowned at the age of nine, Parr was the young king's foremost advisor (a position of enormous power) until the latter's death at the age of fifteen. Under Mary I he was briefly imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of high treason, for his attempt to put Lady Jane Gray on the throne after Edward's death. After Mary's execution and Elizabeth's accession he enjoyed renewed court favor. He died in 1571, and was buried (as a Knight of the Garter) at the expense of Queen Elizabeth, who bore the expense of the funeral. C