AN EDINBURGH auction house’s signed letter from Mary I of England, or Mary Tudor, is expected to fetch up to £20,000 at their next books and manuscripts auction.
Lyon and Turnbull is bringing the find to its Edinburgh Canonmills location on Powderhall Road this February.
As well as the letter, there will be almost 400 other historical objects, including a collection of First World War poetry by Hamish Mann, and an English Civil War medical text.
The letter, signed in Middle English as “Mary the quene”, is expected to go for between £15,000 to £20,000.
The premium art auctioneer will auction the letter to the public next week, both online and in person in their historic saleroom.
Lyon and Turnbull has been auctioning high-ticket items since 1826, which makes them Scotland’s oldest established firm, specialising in Scottish paintings and British works of art.
The main event of next week’s auction will be the letter, signed by Mary Tudor to Willliam, Lord Paget, on the outbreak of Wyatt’s Rebellion in 1554.
In the letter, she issues a decisive call to arms on the threat of insurgence arising at her decision to marry Philip II of Spain and therefore return England to the Catholic Church.
The rebellion was a series of four coordinated uprisings in Devon, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, and Kent, which were unsuccessful,
The auction house state: “This letter is evidence that Mary took the threat of Wyatt’s rebellion extremely seriously, but was perhaps less successful in reflecting on its possible causes.”
They also say that the object contains a “contemporary manuscript endorsement and wafer seal, light damp-staining, a few small holes along folds”.
Lyon and Turnbull will also be auctioning an account of a voyage undertaken by the East India Company ship the Swift, which covers Brazil, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Nicobar Islands, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and will go for around £4,000 – £6,000
They also include a rare 1915 copy of the Persian Gulf Pilot which they say may be the earliest copy to appear at auction to date, and follows the travels of a pilot in the Arabian Gulf.
Dominic Somerville-Brown, books and manuscripts specialist at Lyon & Turnbull said today: “This letter is a document of first-rate historical importance.
“It captures a moment of existential crisis for Mary Tudor and shows her moving decisively to suppress the first major test of her authority as queen.
“Mary presents her right-hand man Lord Paget with a detailed and lengthy account of the threat to her regime and satisfyingly demonstrates her capacity for ruthlessness in the pursuit of her enemies, which the following year she would deploy against heresy, to proverbially bloody effect.
“Mary only reigned for five troubled years, but this letter provides a remarkably full picture of her personality, and gives cause to wonder what she might have made of herself had she lived.”
