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Catalogue description Exchequer: Treasury of the Receipt: Royal Wills
| Reference: | E 23 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exchequer: Treasury of the Receipt: Royal Wills |
| Description: |
This series contains royal wills from the Exchequer, Treasury of Receipt. They are the original wills of Richard II (1399), Henry VII (1509) and Henry VIII (1546), as well as an interim testament - the 'second will' of Henry V (1417). E 23/4 contains an unrelated draft warrant and letters patent of the inspeximus of the Close Roll enrolment of Henry VIII's will. Two wills, those of Henry VII and Henry VIII, are essentially death-bed wills, although grounded in part on earlier drafts. One, that of Henry V, is an interim settlement, drawn up at a time when the king was about to depart on a military campaign, and is not a full testamentary disposition. The will of Richard II was drawn up in similar circumstances, on the eve of his departure for Ireland. |
| Date: | 1399-1548 |
| Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Language: | English |
| Physical description: | 4 volume(s) |
| Custodial history: | The will of Richard II was deposited in the Exchequer in the king's own lifetime; whereas that of Henry VIII was transferred to the custody of the Exchequer only in 1566, after twenty years of controversy concerning its authenticity and dispositions concerning the succession. The archival history of all the wills confirms their uninterrupted official custody. In 1610 Arthur Agarde, deputy chamberlain of the Exchequer, specifically remarked on the preservation in the Chapel of the Pyx of the wills of Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the mid-eighteenth century, most records from the Pyx had been consolidated in the Chapter House, Westminster. |
| Publication note: |
The wills of Richard II and Henry V is published in J Nichols, Royal Wills (London 1780). The will of Henry VII is published in T Astle, The will of Henry VII (London, 1775). The will of Henry VIIl is published in Foedera, Conventiones ..., ed T Rymer (17 vols, London, 1704-1735), xv, pp 110-117. |
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