Editorial Principles

Summary

This edition provides semi-diplomatic transcriptions of the original manuscript correspondence of Lady Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland, from 7 January 1570 until 25 December 1577. Anne's navigation of epistolary culture was dominated by men: all her extant letters were penned by one of two male secretaries, her surviving letters were addressed only to men, and they were intercepted and assessed for value by male intelligencers and agents. The twenty-five letters in total that it has been possible to identify are transcribed here, including sixteen letters in English sent from Anne to various recipients during her exile in Scotland and later in the Habsburg-ruled Low Countries. Also included are five Latin letters that Anne sent in collaboration with gentlemen exiles, a further Latin petition sent only from Anne, and three examples of correspondence addressed and sent to Anne during her years in exile. The letters are numbered and presented chronologically.

Two of Anne's letters have been edited previously. An address to the Duke of Alva by Anne on behalf of her husband's suit and declaring support for Mary, Queen of Scots, was published in French by Kervyn de Lettenhove in the Relations Politiques. Lettenhove dated this letter to ‘the end of October 1570’. This letter has not been included in the present edition as the original manuscript has not yet been located. Lettenhove's edition of the address to the Duke of Alva from late October 1570 does not record salutations or signatures, but rather summarises the text. It remains unclear whether the original manuscript letter from Anne to the Duke of Alva was itself written in French. Anne did have access to a French secretary, Dr Knott, who was recommended to her by Dr Nicholas Sander, but since the original manuscript is unavailable, this letter cannot be authenticated at present. Another letter, addressed from Anne to her husband the Earl of Northumberland dated 21 March 1572 (Letter 10) was edited and published in the first volume of Registrum Honoris de Mortum, in which many spellings were rendered and abbreviations expanded in Scots. In the present edition a new transcription from the original letter is included which reveals that these Scots spellings were an editorial decision rather than features of the original manuscript.