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Auction: 17020 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 803

Autographs
Queen Mary I
1553-54 Patent, grant or Deed under the great seal of England of Mary I, dated in the first year of her reign. Headed "Maria On Gratia Anglie" with elaborate initial enclosing hand-painted illustration of the Queen on throne, and other heraldic devices with illustrations with large English rose, lion and griffin. This document is a deed to an estate in Shropshire; it lists two previous medieval owners as Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. On the reverse is written, "belonging to Lord Clive's Estate at Oakley Park", which is in Shropshire and probably refers to Robert, Lord Clive (of India), 1725-74.


The vellum document bears the Great Seal of Mary I attached with green and white string (the Tudor livery colours).


The first great seal of Mary I; depicting her Royally enthroned under a canopy in robes of state crowned and holding an orb and sceptre, flanked by the Royal arms (Plantagenet/Tudor) and the Tudor Rose - both imperially crowned. The reverse shows her riding a charger (presumably side-saddle) towards a rose bush. To the right of her head is the Royal Badge of France imperially crowned (alluding to her claim to the French throne). On the saddle blanket are the badges of Aragon (pomegranate) and of Castile (a tower) displayed in alternating lozenges. These allude to her mother, Catherine of Aragon's illustrious Spanish ancestry.


A magnificent and rare document from this Queen's short reign. Photo

Mary I (1516 – 1558) was the Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her executions of Protestants led to the posthumous sobriquet "Bloody Mary". She was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife Catherine of Aragon to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother Edward VI (son of Henry and Jane Seymour) succeeded their father in 1547.

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Sold for
£4,200