Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

xx INTRODUCTION.
and many of the crown jewels, in order to raise the necessary funds.'
The former were probably in part, if not entirely, the personal
estate of the reigning sovereign, the latter were commonly regarded
as part of the appanage of the crown, and as such inalienable by the
act of any king in such form as to pass the property in them to any
subject of the realm. The same difficulty does not appear to have
presented itself in the way of dealing with these articles abroad, and
they were accordingly, by royal command, sent to Holland. On the 7th
December, 1625, a special warrant under the king's sign manual2 was
directed to the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Holland and others,
reciting that the king had lately appointed the duke and the earl his
ambassadors extraordinary to the States, and had commanded Lord
Compton to deliver up certain specified royal jewels lately in his
custody, and that he had for the same purpose commanded Sir Henry
Mildmay, keeper of the jewel house, to deliver to the said duke and
the said earl, certain rich plate and jewels, particularly specified,
formerly in his custody, all which plate and jewels, it was declared,
had been received by the said duke and the said earl to be disposed
of by them for his majesty's special service according to private
directions given by his majesty. " As the said jewels and plate
are of great value and many of them have long continued as it were
in a continual descent for many years together with the Crown of
England," it was further declared by the king that all this was done
by his own command in order that the said plate and jewels might be
disposed of according to directions given privately by him to the
Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland. Among the specified
articles of plate delivered to the Duke of Buckingham by Sir Henry
Mildmay was the benchers' cup, which is thus described :
" Item. One cupp of Goulde, with a Cover graven on the Body, with an
Alter and an inscription over itt (nil nisi vota) and the similitude of a Temple
graven with a Peramides on the Topp of the cover, and a harnised man on
the Topp thereof holding an Antique Shield in his left hand. Weighing two
hundred ounces and a halfe."
What the " private directions " were, appears from a warrant
This subject is briefly discussed by S. R. Gardiner, " England under Buckingham
and Charles I." London, 1875, vol. i., p. 309.
= Rymer's " Feedera," torn. xviii., p. 236.