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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1172

England
Civil War
King Charles I (1600-1649)
1643, September 11 - Great Seal of King Charles I (slight imperfections) attached to a vellum document signed Charles R at the head by the King, dated at Oxford, commanding Sir Arthur Aston, then Governor of the Royalist Capital at Oxford, to raise a regiment "of twelve hundred soe furnished and armed as aforesaid Officers", "for the defence of our Royall person, the two houses of Parliament the ptestant Religion the lawes of the land the libtie of the subject and priviledge of parliament... ".
The King refers to the forward preparations of the Parliamentary Army "not onely without our Consent but contrie to severall expsse comandes published by severall pclamations letters and otherwise".
Sir Arthur Aston (1590-1649) commanded the Dragoons at the Battle of Edgehill. The King had been reluctant to commission Aston at the start of the Civil War due to his Catholic tendencies but was persuaded by Prince Rupert. At the request of Queen Henrietta Maria he was appointed Governor of Oxford in August 1643. Aston met a gruesome death at the Siege of Drogheda in 1649 when Cromwell's soldiers beat him with his own wooden leg, believing it to contain gold coins.
A document of great historical significance (23x45cm), the seal 14cm in diameter, framed and glazed within a heavy frame (62x69cm). Accompanied by a bespoke fitted morocco box (22x28x5cm) in which the document was originally housed. For ease of despatch it can be removed from the frame and rehoused within the box.

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Estimate
£4,500 to £5,000

Starting price
£4200