Royal Letters Research Articles

Le Gouvernement de la Louisiane Française, 1731-43: Essai d'Histoire Comparative

The withdrawal of the Company of the Indies in 1731 simplified the administrative structure of the Louisiana colony. The council that had heretofore represented the company disappeared. Royal letters patent of 22 May 1731 re-established the Conseil Supérieur according to the 1716 edict, while abolishing the right of some company directors to sit there. These changes implied that the Louisiana government, separated since 1720 from Canada's, again became dependent upon the latter. Then the king named new administrators and councilors, notably Bienville (who arrived in 1733) as gouverneur particulier. As before, the Louisiana government was soon paralyzed by disagreements among its directors. Comparison of Louisiana's government with colonial governments in Canada and in the French West Indies shows that every colonial administration—even though based on the Coutume de Paris—was influenced by the milieu in which it operated.

Writing travels: power, knowledge and ritual on the English East India Company’s early voyages

Most discussions of the relationships between ‘the East’, ‘the West’ and writing have, following Edward Said, involved interpreting the representations of people and places within travel writing, novels and other literary forms. This paper argues that this restricted engagement with practices of reading and writing limits the ways in which the relationships between people involved in the global geographies constructed since the fifteenth century can be understood. Through presenting a detailed discussion of the role of royal letters within the voyages of the English East India Company in the early seventeenth century, it argues that an analysis of ‘how writing travels’ which concentrates on the production, carriage and use of texts as material objects can foreground the active and collective making of global geographies as a contested enterprise involving multiple agents in a variety of sites. This paper presents writing as a global cultural practice and traces its place in the making of an early modern trading network.

Las transmisiones patrimoniales entre los mudéjares aragoneses en época de Jaime II

The inheritances among the Aragonese mudejars during the reign of James II followed a strict regulation described in the Christian ordennances, in the Cuna and the Xara legislation. This regulation had to be respected by the aljamas, by the Crown and also by the royal clerks, although it was often modified according to the historical moment or the particular circumstances. The documentation consulted in the Aragon's Crown Archive, mainly the chancellery's registers and the royal letters, allowed us to know the destination of the sarracen's possessions and other affairs about inheritances.

The Relations of the Assyrian Capital of Nineveh with the City of Harran during the Neo Assyrian Period (911-612 B.C)

The Assyrian period (911-612 BC) is one of the most ancient times in the history of ancient Iraq in general and Assyria in particular. The Assyrians had a significant and direct impact on the ancient Near East with their accomplishments in the fields of military conquests, urban planning and economic development. The Assyrian achievements spread along the geographical boundaries of the Assyrian Empire and the neighboring countries. These Assyrian achievements had a great impact on the definition of the long Assyrian history which ended with the fall of the Assyrian capital "Nineveh" in 612 BC by the Babylonian-Medi alliance. There have been many studies and researches over the history of the Assyrian Empire from various political, cultural and economic aspects. They have considerably contributed to the continuous excavations and modern readings of the cuneiform texts and substantially enriched the relevant researches with a lot of details. What concerns us in this research is the Assyrian relations in the modern Assyrian era in North and North-West of Mesopotamia, the area referred to by many researchers as the Upper Euphrates. This study is intended to investigate the relationship between the Assyrian capital Nineveh and the city of Harran on various political, religious and economic dimensions drawing on the cuneiform texts from contracts, royal letters and the results of archaeological excavations. Though Harran appeared as a big city early in the third millennium BC, its prominent territorial and strategic significance was only evident in the first millennium BC, especially in the Assyrian and Babylonian modern era. The ambitions of the kings during that period to take control of the city of Harran noticeably increased due to its geographic location, scarcity, and welfare. Archaeological excavations proved that Harran was a great city and its strategic geographic location made it a target for conquest and occupation by the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Medieval kings. Harran had an observable value in terms of religion. It was mentioned in the Old Testament as the city of Abraham, PBUH. In addition, the Assyrian kings of the first millennium BC considered the city the main center of worship of the god of the moon.

Review: Glencoe and the End of the Highland War

In my most important source, the Breadalbane Papers (SRO GD 112), the sections I most used were GDI 12/39 and /40. Correspondence, and /43, State Papers including more correspondence. Since 1986, Dr B.L.H. Horn has produced an excellent complete catalogue of GDI 12, entirely rearranging and renumbering these sections in the process. A new GDI 12/39 has been created, consisting of all the letters in the old /39 and /40, and the letters (but not orders) from /43 the most important being Viscount Dundee's letter of 20 July 1689 rearranged in chronological order. The former reference numbers in the old /39 and /40 are included. The new GD 112/40 is the small section of royal letters, formerly /42; the present /42 consists of miscellanea. The one doubtful policy decision was to break up and disperse between sections the original bundles of letters and documents (in 112/43) assembled for different purposes by Breadalbane's agents while defending him against the 1695 treason charge.

Tablets from the Sippar library III. Two Royal Counterfeits

This article continues the publication of tablets from the library of the temple of Šamaš at Sippar begun in volume 52 of this journal. Presented here are the library's copies of two texts which have in common the fact that they are not what they purport to be: Maništūšu's cruciform monument, and a literary letter of Samsu-iluna. Both texts are clearly fictitious compositions which postdate their supposed royal authors by a long time. Their purpose was apparently to supply evidence of historical precedent. The invented evidence which these documents present as fact would be intended to substantiate or advance the claims of those who wrote them. While both tablets are duplicates of known texts, each adds to a greater or lesser degree to our knowledge of these texts, not least by filling lacunae and by confirming or rebutting the restorations of previous editors.The identification of a tablet from niche 8 B as a duplicate of the last column of a large Neo-Babylonian exercise tablet from Ur allows this text to be properly identified for the first time. It is one of several royal letters in Akkadian, some apparently genuine, others certainly bogus, which entered the scribal tradition and survive in late copies. This example purports to be from Samsu-iluna, the son and successor of Hammurapi of Babylon, to Enlil-nādin-šumi, a man whose several titles identify him as a very senior figure, and apparently a royal prince. As is the case with the Cruciform Inscription of Maništūšu, anachronisms in the text mark the composition out as later than it purports to be. Following the formulae which name the letter's addressee and sender the text itself opens with the phrase umma ana narê, an expression that also appears in a probably genuine letter of Nebuchadnezzar I.

Bishops and Politics in the Reign of Edward II: Hamo de Hethe, Henry Wharton, and the ‘Historia Roffensis’

It was a commonplace of the times, featured in royal letters despatched abroad, and of course in the chronicles, that during the reign of Edward II the ‘indiscretum regimen’ of bishops coupled with their ‘taciturnitas’ lay at the root of the manifest political troubles.In 1944 Kathleen Edwards produced two articles on Edward II's bishops, relating respectively to their ‘learning’ and to their ‘political importance’. Fifteen years later, she treated another aspect of the topic, their ‘social origins and provenance’. These articles, based on her 1937 London MA thesis, provide the point of departure for further study, in particular for any prosopographical analysis. However, apart from transcripts of parliamentary proxies (PRO, SC 10) provided by Professor Johnstone and the briefMeditacio de Statu Prelati(BL, MS Royal 5 C. iii), ascribed to Simon de Ghent, printed sources only were used.

The meaning ofsanctioin medieval Danish royal letters

The meaning of<i>sanctio</i>in medieval Danish royal letters

The "Public Sphere," the State, and the World of Law in Eighteenth-Century France

On 20 July 1735 a small pamphlet was published illegally in Paris under the title An Amnesty Granted to the Lawyers.' The Parisian Order of Lawyers, which enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for haughtiness at the time, had just suffered a ritual humiliation in the Parlement (high court) af ter a dispute over protocol with several young magistrates. The Amnesty, whose author probably belonged to the law clerks' raucous Kingdom of the Basoche, spoke for all the underlings of the Palais de Justice eager to gloat over this long-awaited comeuppance.2 The pamphlet, presented as a parody of royal letters of pardon, magnanimously forgave the lawyers their sin of pride, freed them from further punishment, and urged them to humility in the future. At first glance, this distinctly minor work of satirical literatureaccording to police reports it circulated mainly within the Palais de Justice itself and quickly vanished from sight-would hardly deserve inclusion in a discussion of the public sphere.3 One point, however, distinguishes it from other, similar ephemera. Although it precisely followed the legal form of royal letters of pardon, it was issued in the name

The Law of Treason in the English Border Counties in the Later Middle Ages

In the parliament held at Leicester in the spring of 1414, King Henry V was confronted with a long list of grievances on the part of the common folk of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland. A formal petition decried the contempt with which the terms of truces made with Scotland and royal letters of safe conduct were treated. The commons further complained that men of the liberties of Tynedale, Redesdale, and Hexham daily committed “many murders, treasons, homicides … robberies, and other misdeeds,” and that “some of the said persons shelter and support many people of Scotland, counselling and comforting [them] in their robbery and despoiling.” Finally, they said, in contravention of the terms of the truce, men of Scotland “also take them prisoner, keeping them … until they make ransom of their own volition, all this with the aid, assent and comfort of the said persons so enfranchised.”

Homage to a king and country. A bibliography of Swedish Jewish pamphlets

A little-known part of Swedish Jewish bibliography are the many small separate booklets and addresses of homage produced by the Jewish communities in Stockholm, Norrköping, Gothenburg and Karlskrona to honor King and Country. The Jews who settled in Sweden in the 18th century received royal letters of protection. They were very eager to express their appreciation to the king. This started in 1782 with the death of the Dowager Queen, the mother of King Gustaf III, and only a month later there was a new booklet on the birth of an heir to the King and Queen. It was Gustaf III who seven years earlier, in 1775, had allowed the first Jews, Aaron Isaac, to settle in Sweden without converting to Christianity. On such occasions a special service was usually held in the synagogue, with songs and prayers composed especially for the occasion. These were oriented in separate booklets, often presented to the king in a special presentation copy. All pamphlets and booklets listed here are found in the Royal Library of Stockholm or in the Library of Uppsala University.

English Traders on the Guinea Coast, 1657–1668: An Analysis of the East India Company Archive

English trade with Guinea in west Africa was regulated during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by royal letters patent. In 1631 Charles I issued a patent which entitled the Guinea Company, headed by Sir Nicholas Crispe, to the monopoly of trade from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope for a period of thirty-one years. The Guinea Company continued to operate during the Interregnum in spite of increased competition both from freelance merchants, known as interlopers, and from rival European powers. The Council of State in 1651 decided to allow the monopoly to run for a further fourteen years, but restricted the Company to an area lying between two points set twenty leagues to the north of Cormantine, its headquarters in Guinea, and twenty leagues south of the fort at Sierra Leone, leaving the remainder of the coast open to all English traders.The East India Company was eager to gain a part in the Guinea trade because ships calling there on the way to India could exchange a cargo of European manufactured goods for a consignment of gold and ivory which was used to sustain operations at the factories in India. In this way the Company had less need to export large quantities of bullion from England to India, a practice which was both heavily criticized and formally restricted before 1660. In 1649 the East India Company reached an agreement with the Assada adventurers that the Guinea and East India trades should be united, but decided that this scheme could not be effected immediately.

Two Sumerian Literary Letters

Previous articleNext article No AccessTwo Sumerian Literary LettersPiotr MichalowskiPiotr Michalowski Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Cuneiform Studies Volume 30, Number 2April 1978 A journal of ASOR Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1359971 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1978 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Royal and Historical Letters During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland. Volume II, A.D. 1405–1413. With amendments, entered in calligraphy, supplied by the Public Record Office. Edited by &lt;italic&gt;F. C. Hingeston&lt;/italic&gt;. (London: H. M. Stationery Office; distrib. by British Information Service, New York. 1965. Pp. lxxix, 403. $28.00 postpaid)

Royal and Historical Letters During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland. Volume II, A.D. 1405–1413. With amendments, entered in calligraphy, supplied by the Public Record Office. Edited by F. C. Hingeston. (London: H. M. Stationery Office; distrib. by British Information Service, New York. 1965. Pp. lxxix, 403. $28.00 postpaid) Get access Royal and Historical Letters During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland. Volume II, A.D. 1405–1413. With amendments, entered in calligraphy, supplied by the Public Record Office. Edited by Hingeston F. C.. (London: H. M. Stationery Office; distrib. by British Information Service, New York. 1965. Pp. lxxix, 403. $28.00 postpaid.) Elisabeth G. Kimball Elisabeth G. Kimball Princeton, New Jersey Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 73, Issue 3, February 1968, Pages 795–796, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/73.3.795-a Published: 01 February 1968

The Seleucids and the Greek Cities of Western Asia Minor

The most vivid general impression which results from reading the inscriptions of the Greek cities within this part of the Seleucid dominions—of the Koina into which these cities still grouped themselves for half-religious, half-political purposes, and texts of the royal letters and decrees addressed to these recipients–is that all these cities were in a constant ferment of anxiety and activity concerning the retention of their much-prized ‘autonomy’. To seek fresh promises and guarantees on this score was perhaps the main purpose of their frequent and costly embassies to the king during the Seleucid period, and the embassies always seem to have involved the bestowal of ‘crowns’ (that is, gold wreaths) in addition to the numerous complimentary titles and honours–divine and otherwise, temples, monthly (sic) royal birthdays and the like–which they constantly begged him to accept.

ウガリット語文書にあらわれたウガリット王国の性格及びその古代世界諸国との関係

The excavations at Ugarit have produced a host of prose and list texts in Ugaritic and Akkadian ranging from royal letters to economical or administrative lists. Most of the Akkadian texts deal with the royal circle and international affairs. In fact, the Akkadian texts published by Jean Nougayrol in PRU III and IV inform us that Ugarit is one of the best known city-states of antiquity with respect to both of the internal and external political life.This study, however, is to observe the political and economical situations of Ugarit in the ancient Near East World, principally by the use of Ugaritic texts—administrative, political and economical—newly published. The admimistrative documents give us a good picture of the society and its relation to, and regulation by, the government. Aside from the peasants and herdsmen, the people tended to be grouped according to hereditary guilds. Among them there are many groups of, foreign people possibly of craftsmen and merchants. In PRU V, 59 the King of Tyre reports to the King of Ugarit that the Ugaritic ships bound for Egypt sank in a storm off Tyre. PRU V 60 is a letter from the Hittite Emperor to King Ammurapi of Ugarit, alluding to food shortages in Ugarit and to the presence of an enemy. These show us that the political situation of Ugarit was greatly influenced by the political conditions between Hittite and Egypt, and that, nevertheless, Ugarit used to be highly esteemed as an important transit port or city-state all over the ancient world through 1400-1200 B. C. and that she, therefore, enjoyed a free trade with the areas covering Egypt, Hittite, Mesopotamia and even the Aegean.

The Letters of Al-Mustansir bi'llcāh

In the archives of the Da'wat of the Yemen and India a collection of royal letters and decrees (sijillāt) issued by the Fātimid Khalīfa al-Mustanṣir bi'llāh (denoted in the following pages by the letter M.) (died A.H. 487 = A.D. 1094) to the Sulaihids of the Yemen has been preserved, and a manuscript containing this collection of documents has now been acquired by the Library of the School of Oriental Studies, London. The MS. is a modern copy, which belonged to an Ismā'īlī priest in India. I have searched in vain for other copies, but it is quite likely that we might find others in the collections of the Ismā'īlī in the Yemen and India. I give in the following pages a synopsis of the historical matter contained in these documents. Apart from their interesting literary style the letters furnish us with some useful historical data and contemporary evidence for the period covered by them, viz. the forty-four years from A.H. 445 = A.D. 1053 to A.H. 489 = A.D. 1095.

School Life in Mediæval Finland–Mainly in the Town of Viborg, Illustrated by Royal Letters and Local Records

Christianity approached the Scandinavian lands but tardily. By the time of Anskar's death in 865 there were churches at Birka in Sweden, at Hedeby in Schlesvig and at Ribe in south Jutland…. It was not until about 1150 that any effort was made to introduce Christianity to Finland.

Notes on the Family of Betoun in Connection with some Royal Letters of James VI

The following paper has for its raison d'être certain letters, three of James VI. of Scotland, and one of Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, which have never before been made public, I believe, and the originals of which I can submit to the inspection of the Society. They are of no great historical importance, but with the circumstances amid which they were written they will help to throw some light upon the state of society in Scotland during the latter part of the sixteenth century, when James VI. was endeavouring to hold his own and support the dignity of the crown among the contending religious and family parties in Scotland, and was so serving an apprenticeship in kingcraft which ill fitted him for his subsequent place at the head of a peaceful, well-ordered kingdom like England. The letters are addressed to members of the family of Betoun, James Betoun of Creich, and his third cousin, Robert Betoun of Balfour.

Kings' Briefs: Their Purposes and History

Kings' Briefs, under a variety of designations—as Kings' Letters, Orders in Council, Patents of Alms, Letters Patent, Fire Briefs, Church Briefs, Charity Briefs, Commissions, Royal Letters, &amp;c, &amp;c.—have played an important part in the social history of this country, and yet our national historians have been remarkably silent concerning them; as indeed they have been upon many other matters of great social interest. It seems hardly necessary to say that the term “Brief” has several significations. In its more common acceptation it is a short writing or epitome, as an abridgment of a law case, made out for instruction to counsel, or indeed any short statement of facts. But there are “Apostolical Briefs,” being letters or written messages of the Pope, addressed to princes or magistrates, respecting matters of public concern.* It is not to these exclusively that we must look for light in the present instance. The word was, in early times, written “Breve,” and Cowell, in his Law Dictionary, says, “Any writ or precept from the King was called Breve; which we still retain in the name of Brief, the King's Letters Patent to poor sufferers, for Collection.” The general title of “King's Briefs” used in England, is traceable to the fact that these documents, under whatever designation adopted, or for whatever purpose designed, were in later times issued under the direct authority of the sovereign; at first under his personal authority, but later under the authority of the Council, through the Lord Chancellor. But it will be made clear that the Church exercised the right of issuing them, not only prior to, but apparently coeval with the sovereign at one period.