lamps[1], or to furniſh her attire from head to foot[2], which was frequently very coſtly, as one ſingle robe in the fifth year of Henry II ſtood the city of London in upwards of fourſcore pounds[3]. A practice ſomewhat ſimilar to that of the eaſtern countries, where whole cities and provinces were ſpecifically aſſigned to purchaſe particular parts of the queen’s apparel[4]. And, for a farther addition to her income, this duty of queen-gold is ſuppoſed to have been originally granted; thoſe matters of grace and favour, out of which it aroſe, being frequently obtained from the crown by the powerful interceſſion of the queen. There are traces of it’s payment, though obſcure ones, in the book of domeſday and in the great pipe-roll of Henry the firſt[5]. In the reign of Henry the ſecond the manner of collecting it appears to have been well underſtood, and it forms a diſtinct head in the antient dialogue of the exchequer[6] written in the time of that prince, and uſually attributed to Gervaſe of Tilbury. From that time downwards it was regularly claimed and enjoyed by all the queen conſorts of England till the death of Henry VIII; though after the acceſſion of the Tudor family the collecting of it ſeems to have been much neglected: and, there being no queen conſort afterwards till the acceſſion of James I, a period of near ſixty years, it’s very nature and quantity became then a matter of doubt: and, being referred by the king to the then chief juſtices and chief baron, their report of it was ſo very unfavorable[7], that queen Anne (though ſhe claimed it) yet never thought proper to exact it. In 1635, 11 Car. I, a time fertile of expedients for raiſing money upon dormant precedents in our old records (of
- ↑ Civitas Lundon. Pro oleo ad lampad. reginae. Mag. rot. pip. temp. Hen. II. ibid.
- ↑ Vicecomes Berkeſcire, xvi l. pro cappa reginae. (Mag. rot. pip. 19—22 Hen. II. ibid.) Civitas Lund. cordubanario reginae xx s. Mag. Rot. 2 Hen. II. Madox hiſt. exch. 419.
- ↑ Pro roba ad opus regina, quater xx l. & vi s. viii d. Mag. Rot. 5 Hen. II. ibid. 250.
- ↑ Solere aiunt barbaros reges Perſarum ac Syrorum—uxoribus civitates attribuere, hoc modo; haec civitas mulieri redimiculum praebeat, haec in collum, haec in crines, &c. Cic. in Verrem. lib. 3. cap. 33.
- ↑ See Madox Diſceptat. epiſtolar. 74. Pryn. Aur. Regin. Append. 5.
- ↑ lib. 2. c. 26.
- ↑ Mr Prynne, with ſome appearance of reaſon, inſinuates, that their reſearches were very ſuperficial. Aur. Reg. 125.
