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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
The sword and dagger now exhibited, accompanied by drawings thereof, (Plate XIV.) are said to be those taken from King James IV. after the discovery of his body on Flodden Field, an assertion not recently made, but supported by a tradition of long standing.
page 335 note * The length of the blade from the hilt to the point is 3 feet and three-eighths of an inch. The hilt is 6 inches and seven-eighths.
The one side of the blade is inscribed “Maestro Domingo;” on the other apparently the words “Espoir conforte le gveval.”
The blade of the dagger is 
inches, and the hilt 5½ in length.
page 337 note a The following is the whole letter, written probably in 1680:
Madam,
I beseech God preserve you, & make you happy; I pray lett yor lord know that I do count my selfe very much obliged unto him, & wish him as well as may be; I pray lett him know that I have the sword that was our great ancestors at the battle of Flodden ffeild, with wch wee have a tradition in our ffamily, hee killd the King of Scottland; this sword was always much esteemed by my ffather; I do now give it unto yor lord my nephew; I have taken order it shall be brought unto him; I give it upon this condition and no other, that he leave it to the heirs males of himselfe, wch I hope will be many, and their heirs males; for want of such, unto my nephew Thomas his brother; and for want of his heirs males, to returne unto my heirs. God blesse you all, I am near my death, and with that will averre my innocence, that am
Yor La'p's ffaithfull humble
Servt and unkle,
William Howard
Address on the cover:
For my Lady
The Countesse of Arrundell.
page 338 note a Chalmers.
page 339 note a Tytler.
page 339 note b Chronicle, p. 564.
page 339 note c Printed by Sir Henry Ellis, in vol. i. of his first series of Original Letters, p. 88.
page 339 note d Aikman, 2, 19b.
page 340 note a Sir Henry Ellis states that, king James the Fourth being under excommunication at the time of his death, it became necessary to have the Pope's permission for his interment in consecrated ground, and quotes from the MS. Vitellius, B. II. f. 54, the licence of Leo X., dated 29 Nov., 1513, for his interment at St. Paul's, but adds no funeral for him there appears to have taken place.