"I KNOW I HAVE THE BODIE, BUT OF A WEAK AND FEEBLE WOMAN, BUT I HAVE THE HEART AND STOMACH OF A KING" (QUEEN ELIZABETH I)
(ELIZABETH I, HENRY VIII, JAMES I, CHARLES I, et al.). Cabala: Sive Scrinia Sacra. Mysteries of State & Government. London, 1654. Two parts bound in one volume.
First editions of both parts of this major collection of official correspondence from the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, featuring the first publication of Elizabeth's renowned Spanish Armada Speech (1588), a printing of Henry VIII's 1533 letter "Touching his Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England," and a letter from Ann Boleyn written from the Tower shortly before her execution, along with first or early printings of letters from James I, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Donne, Francis Bacon and other key figures in the often perilous tumult of court rivalries, religious furor and foreign intrigue. $3500.
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