‘Notes of (Col Sydney) Amba from the com: wealth of eng: to ye Kg of Sweden Ch: Gustavus'

MSS/0240

‘Notes of (Col Sydney) Amba from the com: wealth of eng: to ye Kg of Sweden Ch: Gustavus'

c. 1660

item

Paper; ff. v + 14.
Folio.
Cloth binding, red (pages repaired).

'Notes of (Col Sydney) Amba from the com: wealth of eng: to ye Kg of Sweden Ch: Gustavus' (heading, fol. 1). Algernon Sidney (1622-83), second son of Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester, was Ambassador to Denmark and Sweden in 1659-60. Several headings in these notes agree verbatim with chapter headings in Sidney's Discourse concerning Government, first printed in 1698 (see donor's letter, fols. ii verso-iii). Sidney's conviction and execution after the Rye House plot (1683) depended chiefly on the evidence of a manuscript treatise, to which the present MS may relate, of his support for the doctrine that there are cases when it is justifiable to resist the existing government. Etching of Sidney, 19th cent., fol. v, after a painting by Justus van Egmonde, 1664, in the possession of John Thane, with a facsimile signature.

Sidney, Algernon (1622-1683), Republican

SAL/MS/240
MS 240

Said by the donor to have been found among deeds of an old country family in Oxfordshire which included documents submitted to Sir Orlando Bridgeman (who presided at the trial of regicides). Presented by Benjamin Williams, FSA, 6 Dec. 1849 (fol. iv). Proc., 1st ser., 2 (1849-53), 30 (letter of presentation, 2 Nov. 1849), 56; see also the donor's letter, 5 Jan. 1850 (fols. i-iii verso), to Robert Lemon conc. the repair of the MS and his views on its connection with the Discourse, provenance, etc. Council Minutes, 19 Feb. 1850 relate to the restoration of the MS.