[SCOTT, Thomas, attributed .] Robert Earle of Essex his ghost, sent from Elizian: to the nobility, gentry, and communaltie of England.

£2,250 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Handsomely bound by Sangorski Sutcliffe [SCOTT, Thomas, attributed .] Robert Earle of Essex his ghost, sent from Elizian: to the nobility, gentry, and communaltie of England. ‘Printed in Paradise’ [i.e. London: John Beale?] . 1624. Two parts in one vol., small 4to. Twentieth-century red morocco signed by Sangorski Sutcliffe, London, boards with gilt lozenge at centres, spine with raised bands lettered directly in gilt, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges, house in a red morocco and cloth slipcase; pp. [2], 18, [2 (blank)], [2], 11, [1 (blank)], woodcut initials, typographic headpieces; first and final leaf lightly dust-soiled, otherwise very good; bookplates of Walter T. Shirley II (1933-1992), an American real estate developer, to front pastedown, and of the Fox Pointe Collection to front free endpaper. First edition, very rare, of this anonymous attack on the proposed ‘Spanish Match’, the marriage negotiations between the future Charles I and the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, thinly disguised as an autobiographical sketch of the second Earl of Essex. Attributed to the radical Protestant polemicist Thomas Scott (c. 1580-1626), this anti-Spanish pamphlet denounced the protracted and deeply unpopular diplomatic effort to unite Prince Charles (later Charles I) with the Catholic daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations for the match, pursued between 1614 and 1623, became a lightning rod for debates over England’s foreign policy and religious identity during the reign of James VI I, fu

• Binding: Hardcover

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