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After a marriage linking them floundered, the feuding Lake and Cecil families hurled terrible accusations at each other: adultery, incest, poisoning, impotence, fraud. The resulting scandals impacted the court of King James I and beyond. Luthman's study of the scandals provides a window into the culture, society, and politics of Jacobean England.

George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, is infamous among historians and paleographers of sixteenth-century England for the thousands of documents he has left in his horrible handwriting, or uglyography. Taking this unanimously bemoaned situation as its point of departure, this study uses a selection of Shrewsbury’s surviving letters to explore what more his handwriting can tell us when considered in conjunction with the letters’ contents and the Elizabethan sociocultural interpretations of poor handwriting and disease. In particular, “gout” (the term Shrewsbury himself uses for his infirmity) is described as a paleopathological condition that had significant implications not only for legibility but also for the management of Shrewsbury’s epistolary networks and the discourse of illness found throughout his correspondence with his second wife, Bess of Hardwick, as well as other period figures, specifically Burghley and Elizabeth I.

Cet article propose une édition critique commentée et annotée d’un choix de six lettres extraites de la correspondance entre Robert Cecil (1 er  juin 1563-24 mai 1612), secrétaire d’État de la Reine Elisabeth I re et de Jacques I er , et son fils William Cecil, Vicomte Cranborne (28 mars 1591-3 décembre 1668). Cette édition ne rend pas simplement disponibles des sources particulièrement éclairantes sur la pratique de l’écriture et sa portée sociale parmi les membres les plus puissants de la cour jacobéenne, elle donne aussi l’exemple d’une édition savante de manuscrits de la première modernité, manière la plus évidente de contribuer aux études aussi bien littéraires qu’historiques. The article offers an annotated and commentated critical edition of a selection of six letters chosen from the manuscript correspondence between Robert Cecil (1 June 1563-24 May 1612), Queen Elizabeth I’s and James I’s Secretary of State, and his son William Cecil, Viscount Cranborne (28 March 1591-3 December 1668). In addition to presenting new illuminating material on the practice and significance of handwriting among the Jacobean elite, this contribution may serve as a practical illustration of a scholarly edition of early modern manuscripts, the most obvious way in which the field has contributed to both literary and historical studies.

Cet article établit une chronologie détaillée de la jeunesse de William Cecil, en identifiant et en décrivant les huit écritures pratiquées par William pendant cette période. Il relie, dans la mesure du possible, les remarques de Robert Cecil sur l’écriture de William aux divers développements qu’elle a connus et fait le lien avec les modèles d’écritures proposés dans les manuels imprimés à l’époque. Entre 1599 et 1612 (entre l’âge de huit et vingt ans), William changea d’écriture sept fois. This article establishes a detailed chronology of William Cecil’s early life and identifies and describes eight different hands used in sequence by William during this period. It relates Robert Cecil’s comments on William’s writing, as far as is possible, to specific developments in William’s hands, also linking William’s hands to model hands in contemporary printed handwriting manuals. Between 1599 and 1612 (between, that is, the ages of 8 and 20), William changed his hand seven times.

The enclosure of ancillary material within a letter-packet has long fascinated scholars interested in epistolary networks. This article explores the incorporation of roughly drawn manuscript sketch maps within letter-packets sent between intelligencers and diplomats in northern Europe and the administrative authorities in England in the sixteenth-century. It examines the practical acquisition of such maps by agents at times of diplomatic and/or military crisis, how these agents viewed the composite materials within the letter-packets and how they saw the inclusion of multiple forms of intelligence within dispatches as a method of enhancing their status in the landscape of political information and power.

It is rarely pointed out that in pioneering collective security the Covenant of the League of Nations contained two approaches to that policy: enforced pacific settlement favoured in moderate-minimum form by the British (and in particular Lord Robert Cecil); and guaranteed mutual defence, promoted by President Wilson. Though not incompatible, they had very different political resonances. Enforced pacific settlement could be introduced gently, by limiting the pacific-settlement procedures that states were required to follow. By contrast, guaranteed mutual defence looked like a commitment to fight, not for international law, but for every detail of a controversial political and territorial status quo. Thus the Covenant's central element was a British scheme for enforced delay and inquiry, and its Achilles' heel was Article 10, insisted upon by Wilson but rejected by the Senate. In consequence, the most effective provisions of an incoherent Covenant proved to lie outside the area of collective security, particularly in preventive diplomacy and world services.

Colonel John Hunt, a legendary English mountain climber and guide, died on Nov 7, 1998. His life and achievements are remembered.

Mr. Eden at Geneva (pg. 34). Mr. Baldwin on Sanctions (pg. 34-35). The Budget (pg. 35-36). Defence Loan Foreshadowed (pg. 36-37). Leakage of Budget Secrets (pg. 37-38). Supplementary Navy Estimates (pg. 38). British Public and Ethiopian Defeat (pg. 38-39). League of Nations Union Deputation (pg. 39). Labour Indictment of Government (pg. 39). Mr. Eden's Reply (pg. 39-40). Repeal of Sanctions Demanded (pg. 40). Protest Mass Meeting (pg. 40-41). Lords Debate Collective Security (pg. 41). Premier on Failure of League (pg. 41-42). Export of Dum-dum Bullets by England Denied (pg. 42). Questionnaire to Germany (pg. 42-43). Government and Return of German Colonies (pg. 43). Bill for Abolition of Trial by Peers (pg. 43). New Coal Mines Bill Drafted (pg. 43-44). New Coal Mines Bill Amended (pg. 44). New Coal Mines Bill Withdrawn (pg. 44-45). Government Guarantee for Special Areas (pg. 45). Tithe Bill Second Reading (pg. 45). King George V. Memorial (pg. 45). Air Transport Subsidy (pg. 45-46). Education Bill Passed (pg. 46). Chancellor's Defence of Finance Bill (pg. 46-47). Resignation of Mr. J. H. Thomas (pg. 47). Sir T. Inskip on Military Preparations (pg. 47-48). Proposal to Appoint Minister of Supply Rejected (pg. 48). Five Cruisers Scrapped (pg. 48-49). Coronation Date Fixed (pg. 49). Report of Budget Leakage Tribunal (pg. 49). Statements in House of Commons (pg. 49-50). Sir S. Hoare becomes First Lord of Admiralty (pg. 50). Other Government Changes (pg. 50). Emperor of Ethiopia in London (pg. 50-51). Mr. Chamberlain Condemns Sanctions (pg. 51). Government Decide to Abandon Sanctions (pg. 51). Mr. Eden's Speech (pg. 51-52). Government Condemned by Mr. Greenwood (pg. 52). By Mr. Lloyd George (pg. 52-53). Premier's Defence (pg. 53). Labour Manifesto (pg. 53). Labour Vote of Censure (pg. 53-54). Sir J. Simon's Defence (pg. 54). Premier's Statement (pg. 54-55). Further Statement (pg. 55). National Liberal Conference (pg. 55). Opposition Liberal Convention (pg. 55-56). Lords Debate on the Reading of Speeches (pg. 56). Government and Disturbances in Palestine (pg. 56-57). Mr. Duff Cooper on Anglo-French Friendship (pg. 57). Labour Protest (pg. 57). Lords Debate (pg. 57-58). Premier and Lord Londonderry (pg. 58). Answer to Attacks (pg. 58-59). Mr. Eden and the League (pg. 59). Raising of Sanctions (pg. 59). By-elections (pg. 59). Britain and Montreux Conference (pg. 59-60). Finance Bill Passed (pg. 60). Supplementary Service Estimates (pg. 60). Subsidy for Livestock Industry (pg. 60-61). Problem of Country's Food Supply (pg. 61). Minister of Health on Malnutrition (pg. 61-62). On Social Services (pg. 62). B.B.C. Charter Extended (pg. 62-63). New Telephone Facilities (pg. 63). Hard Case of Jarrow-on-Tyne (pg. 63-64). Mr. Runciman's Survey of Trade and Industry (pg. 64). Government and Lords Reform (pg. 64). Attempt on the King (pg. 64-65). Sir T. Inskip on Defence Programme (pg. 65). Vote of Censure Defeated (pg. 65). Deputation to Premier on Defence (pg. 65-66). Complaints against Police (pg. 66). Effects of Unemployment “Standstill Act” (pg. 66-67). Government Prepare New Regulations (pg. 67). New Regulations Issued (pg. 67). Debate in Parliament (pg. 67-68). Anglo-French-Belgian Conference (pg. 69). Communiqué Issued (pg. 69-70). Mr. Eden's Survey of Foreign Affairs (pg. 70-71). Discussion in Commons (pg. 71). Lords Debate League Reform (pg. 71-72). Lord Cranborne's Statement (pg. 72). Canadian Pilgrims in London (pg. 72). Overcrowding Statistics (pg. 72-73). Anglo-Italian Trade Relations (pg. 73). Ministerial Changes (pg. 73). Parliament Adjourned (pg. 73-74).