Abstract
William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Robert Recorde, Doctor of Physicke seem unlikely and unevenly matched antagonists. Herbert was a courtier, soldier and magnate, Recorde the son of a merchant and an intellectual. Their clash arose from Recorde’s Crown appointments. In January 1549, Herbert’s men wrecked the iron mill which Recorde had set up for the Crown at Pentyrch near Cardiff, seized property there and pursued Recorde relentlessly for the profits from the operation for 2 years. Later that year Recorde, as comptroller of the Mint at Bristol, refused to hand over its assets to Herbert, and was confined to Court. Part of his next Crown appointment placed Recorde as overall Surveyor of the Dublin Mint, where he suspected Herbert of interference with the intent of diverting profits to his benefit. Matters were brought to a head in 1556 by a letter that Recorde wrote to Queen Mary in which he accused Herbert, by this time Earl of Pembroke, of a range of financial peculations and, as Herbert interpreted it, of traitorous behaviour. At the subsequent trial Pembroke asked for damages of £12,000 but Recorde was fined £1,000 and costs. Portions of Recorde’s case were rebutted with the aid of William Cecil. Unable to pay the fine, Recorde was committed to the Kings Bench prison, Southwark, where he died.
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Notes
- 1.
PRO KB.27/1180 f66. Credit for the discovery of this document goes to the late W. Gwyn Thomas
- 2.
Acts of the Privy Council [APC.]; 1554–1556, p 310
- 3.
Historical Manuscript Commission, Salisbury MSS 1, no. 576 given in extenso in ‘A Collection of State Papers, relating to affairs in the reigns of king Henry VIII, king Edward VI, queen Mary & queen Elizabeth, from 1542 to 1570, transc. from authentik memorials left by W. Cecill lord Burghley, and now remaining at Hatfield House’ by Samuel Haynes London 1740. p 203
- 4.
PRO. SP 11/9 fos.94-7, 104-5.
- 5.
The subject of Recorde’s library is dealt with in Chap. 12.
- 6.
Nichols JG (ed) (1849) Narratives of days of the reformation, Old series 77. Camden Society, Westminster, pp 150–151
- 7.
Recorde’s Latin text is open to differing translations. If it was an original statement much depends on the contemporary meanings of individual words.. If it was a quotation from earlier times, the meaning probably would have been different. Freely translated it might read.... Summoning as witnesses the heavens, the stars, and wise men, never will inimical dissent be extinguished in Britain as long as there is hidden hostility to the true lineage and a false dragon may openly emerge…, but ‘fucati draconis’ might also be read as painted dragon, possibly even red dragon.
- 8.
Public Records Office [PRO.] E 163/13/30
- 9.
PRO. E 101/307/1
- 10.
PRO. E 163/13/30
- 11.
APC, 1554–1556, p 284
- 12.
Calendar of Patent Rolls [CPR.] 1555–1557, Philip and Mary iii, p 554
- 13.
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Challis and Harrison, loc. cit, pp 823–825
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The transcriptions of extracts from the original document will be given in italics.
- 19.
CPR, I Edward VI.-Part VII, pp 193–198
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Rees W, ibid., p 259, footnote 44
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- 23.
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- 24.
Ibid., 279
- 25.
This will be dealt with in the next Chap. 3. ‘The Affair at Clonmines.’
- 26.
Challis 1, 7–8
- 27.
CPR, 1548–1549, pp 303–304
- 28.
Ibid., p 304
- 29.
Challis 1, 238, 241
- 30.
HMC., Salisbury I., p 58, no. 252
- 31.
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- 32.
Challis 1, 259
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- 34.
Challis 1, 63–68
- 35.
This is discussed in the next chapter.
- 36.
Greenwood, loc. cit., p 108
- 37.
Challis 1, 161
- 38.
Harleian MSS. 660, ff. 67, 69
- 39.
APC, 1547–1550, p 180
- 40.
APC, 1555–1557, Phillip and Mary iii, p 389
- 41.
Calendar of State Papers [CSP.] Foreign, 1547–1553, p 199
- 42.
Greenwood, loc. cit, 108–109
- 43.
Calendar of State Papers [CSP] Foreign, 1547–1553., p 199
- 44.
Ibid., p 200
- 45.
CPR 1552, p 144
- 46.
APC, 1551, p 275
- 47.
APC 1551, p 276
- 48.
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Ibid., no. 627
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CSP Ireland, 1503–1578, p 127
- 52.
APC, 1552, pp 88–89
- 53.
CPR, 1549, p 216
- 54.
CSP Domestic Series, Edward VI, 1547–1553; no. 599
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Ibid., nos. 693,695,715,758, 759
- 56.
Ibid., no. 780
- 57.
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By this time Mildmay was deeply involved with a number of Commissions concerned with the nations finances’
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APC, 1552–1553, p 177
- 63.
APC, 1551, p 276
- 64.
Challis II, 112
- 65.
CSP Ireland, 1503–1578, p 116. The terms of the bargain made with Pirrie by the King were that the latter should receive 13 s. 4d. for each pound weight coined. Challis has estimated that returns to the King up to May 1551 amounted to that derived from the minting of 19,910 lb of coins 4d. fine. To produce a return to the King of £24,000, 36,000 lb would need to be minted, i.e. a further 16,090 lb.
- 66.
CSP Domestic Series, Edward VI, 1547–1553; no. 627
- 67.
APC, 1552–1553; p 104
- 68.
CSP Ireland, 1503–1578; no. 416
- 69.
APC, 1552–1553; pp 208, 229
- 70.
Challis I, 306–307
- 71.
Challis CE, Harrison CJ (1973) A contemporary estimate of the production of silver and gold coinage in England, 1542–1556. EHR. XXXVIII, pp 821–835. also Challis I, p 119
- 72.
Harleian Miscellany, ed. T.Osbourne (1740), viii, pp 67–69
- 73.
Ibid., p 103
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Williams, J. (2011). Robert Recorde and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. In: Robert Recorde. History of Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-862-1_3
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