Description
A fine Privy Council letter, signed by eleven members of the Council, adderssed to Lord Seymour, informing him that according to an Act of Parliament “for raising Moneys by a Poll and otherwise towards the mainteynance of the present Warr”, he has been assessed at “Twenty pounds and one shilling for your selfe and one shilling for your Wife”. 1 page, about 11 x 8 inches, with the integral address leaf, traces of a red wax seal. In fine condition. 21 February 1666. Financing the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667). Throughout 1666, the Privy Council issued emergency taxation letters, enforcing the parliamentary Poll Acts to raise funds from the nobility to maintain the fleet. This letter is signed by Richard Sterne, Archbishop of York; Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester; Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesey; John Lord Belayse; George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley; Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield; and others: a fine array of Royalist signatures on a scarce Privy Council document from early in the reign of King Charles II. Several of these nobles had served his father in the previous reign.