Certain Speeches made upon the day Yearly Election of Officers in the City of Gloucester.

£1,800 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

**Rare.**Wing D1932 (BL and Bodley in UK; Harvard, W. A. Clark [lacking the initial Gloucester coat of arms leaf and the second “Copy of verses” leaf], Texas [ESTC states this copy is defective but the librarian confirms it is complete] and Yale in USA. A collection of speeches marking the 10th anniversary of the Siege of Gloucester. The book opens with a full-page woodcut of the new arms of the city of Gloucester which were presented to the city in 1652 in celebration of their triumph over the Royalist forces, the motto - “Fides Invicta Triumphat” (Unconquered Faith Triumphs) - gives a sense of why these altered arms were declared void after the Restoration. Facing the arms is a 16 line poem by Samuel Kenrick (“one of the Ministers of the City”) which praises “Regall power oppos’d” and a country “over-runne by bloudy men”. Dorney dedicates the book to the Mayor William Capell and the major dignitaries of the city before stating that he chose to present his speeches in this volume in order to present them to Gloucester and its people as a reminder of their former struggles. Gloucester became one of the key battle grounds in the English Civil War and the siege of Gloucester in 1643 was a vital victory for the parliamentarian forces. Colonel Edward Massey was ordered by the King to surrender Gloucester on August 10 but refused and successfully defended the heavily besieged city. The taking of Gloucester was deemed so important to the King that he demanded Prince Rupert have a n

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.