XVII. Anonymous Letter to Mr. John Stanhope, Treasurer of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth, reporting the dispersion of the Spanish Armada. Communicated by the Right Hon. the Earl Stanhope, President; together with remarks on the same by Robert Lemon, Esq., F.S.A. In Letters addressed to Augustus W. Franks, Esq. M.A., Director

Abstract

Among several MS. Letters which I purchased at the recent sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's Library, there is one which I think may have some interest for the Society of Antiquaries, and which I therefore take leave to send you for exhibition. You will perceive that it is addressed to one of my family, John Stanhope, who was created in 1605 Lord Stanhope of Harrington. At the time when this letter was written he was Treasurer of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth; and the letter is evidently designed for the information of the Government.

Being written from France in time of war, the letter is expressed with great caution and mystery, and it bears neither signature nor date of year. But it plainly appears I think to have been written in 1588, on the dispersion of the Spanish Armada.