The Castle
of Montecchio
Vesponi
Tuscany - Italy
Work that I started on John Hawkwood in 1998, led to the letters and formed part of a lecture given at the British Institute in Florence in 2006. Significantly this was the place from which they had been written in 1392
Title of the Lecture was “A Soldier Tale John Hawkwood”
The John Hawkwood Letters
In 1923, while working on page after page of Latin script of an early 15th century Court scribe, Mr A H Thomas, Archivist of the Guildhall Library of the City of London , suddenly found himself reading English (i).
Thomas was translating the manuscripts into the Calendar of Pleas and Memorandum of the City of London AD 1381-1412(ii), when he came across the words of John Hawkwood, Knight, English words, letters, copied onto the vellum.
A rare find, these Hawkwood letters were at that time, thought to be the earliest known private letters written in English (iii). Hawkwood wrote from Italy in 1392/3 two private letters, written in his native English.
In 1411 they were copied, along with an Endenture written in April 1393 (also in English by Hawkwood’s, Squire, John Sampson and his friend Thomas Cogasale) onto the Membrane Rolls for the Court of the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London. They were to be placed in evidence in a case to establish the ownership of the property Leaden Hall in the City of London, by the heirs of the late Sir John Hawkwood, (c1320-1394) Captain General of the Armies of the Florentine Republic.
Having lived and worked in Italy for nearly thirty years, John Hawkwood was aged c73 when the letters were written. Newly retired, he was in the process of winding up his business affairs in Florence, in preparation for his return to Sible Hedingham in Essex.
In the first letter, the shorter of the two, Hawkwood was writing from
Florence, on the 7th of November in the winter of 1392, to Thomas
Cogasale, his close old friend and uncle to his son-in-law, William di Cogasale. The letter gave notice as to who was to arrive, his squire*, (John Sampson) bringing a verbal message:
“Dere S” I grete you wel and do you to wytyn pt at the makyng of pis letter I was in god poynt I thank god…I sende Johan Sampson bryngere of pis letter to you enformed of certeyn things quiche he schal tellyn you be mouthe qwerfore I preye you pat ye levyn hym as my persone Wrytn at Florence pe vii day Novembre
John Haukwode Chivaler” (1)
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The second letter to Thomas Cogasale is longer and reinforces the reasons for Hawkwood’s squire, (John Sampson) arrival, together with a request for help and assistance. It solicits his “well beloved” friend's well-being, and names other old and trusted friends:
Dere trusty & welbiloved frend hertliche I grete you wel desiryng to heren god tidynges of youre welfare & preying you pt ye be helping & couseillyng to my welbiloved squyer Jankyn Sampson touching pt he hath to pursue for me atte pis tyme will & nameliche for my sauf condutes & touching my will & purpose I praye you pt ye wele yeve & credence to the forsaid Jankyn Sampson of al that he wele sayen you by mouthe & also I preye you ptye wele speke to Hopky Rikyngdon & to Jankyn Serjaunt Robert Lyndeseye & alle myn other frendes pt peri don as pe forsaid Jankyn Sampson seth to you touching my will Tristy frend pe holy gost have you in his kepyng written at Florence pe xx day of Feverer pe yer of oure lord mccclxxxxiii (i)
There is a third item in English, (not reproduced here) but on the Manuscript
Membrane in this sequence, an Endenture, a legal document. This
was written by Thomas Cogasale and John Sampson from Cogsale’s home,
New Hall in Boreham in the county of Essex. This is a longer, legally worded
document, and may be regarded as the nuncupative will of John Hawkwood with
regard to his English properties, nominating and setting up trusts and trustees. It
is dated 20th April the twentieth year of the reign of Richard II, (1393). (i)(ii)(iv)
This evidence of authenticity is safe, in so far as they are attributable
in times, dates, the places sent to, and the persons both sending and receiving
them.
Although it is not possible to say definitively that these letters originally had been written by John Hawkwood himself, they contain information both sensitive and private. Even if Hawkwood had not written them, they were certainly written at his direction, and he had been able to read exactly what was written. Both letters show writer and recipients to have been at ease with written English.
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The letters deserve consideration in their own right, rather than as mere
paragraphs lost in the wealth of written material on the life and times of
John Hawkwood.
As the earliest known letters written in English, (still the case today), they offer a unique contribution to our history, with regard to both Hawkwood himself, and to the development of the English language. There are documents written before this date where occasional English words were used when there were no Latin or French alternatives, but as letters these are unique. (v)
In the 1390's, English was essentially an oral language, and the written form was used by very few.
English was the language of neither the King nor the Courts of Law, but of the people. Its increasing use in written form was part of the movement that was to establish the identity of English speaking peoples. It developed from a natural desire to use their language, rather than that of former invaders, the Romans and the French.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1349-c1400) was a contemporary of John Hawkwood, and both men had simultaneous connections with Italian States and their bankers. Both were Englishmen abroad. Chaucer had been sent to Italy to raise monies for King Edward III and to arrange dynastic marriages. There he would have met and been influenced by, the poetry of Petrarch (1304-1374) and heard of the poems of Boccaccio (1313-1375), both men writing in the vulgate Italian, the language of their people.
Hawkwood's letters show that the great soldier knight, for so many years
defender of the Florentine State, had never severed his fealty or ties with
England, either in business or friendship. In spite of his fame in Italy,
he was still concerned for his family, his friends and for his soul.
It is significant that at such an early stage in its use in written
communications, this high ranking man chose to use English for his letters
They stand as early landmarks in the development of a language now both written
and spoken all over the world.
Valerie Nicholson ©2006
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Mr A H Thomas, M.A (late of St Catherine’s Collage Cambridge)
* Esquire one ranking under a knight under the feudal system
(i) CLA /024/01/02/041 London Metropolitan Archives, Pleas and Memorandum Rolls, membrane 8
(ii) Calendar of Select Pleas and Memorandum of the City of London 1381-1412 published Cambridge: At the University Press 1932 Editor A H Thomas, M.A.
(iii) London Topographical Record Vol XII notes on the history of Leaden Hall O U P 1923
(iv) John Temple-Leader and Giuseppe Marcotti 1889 p308
(v) Prejudice and promise in XVth century England
C L Kingsford Oxford (Clarendon) 1925
(vi) New Hall, Boreham in the County of Essex, now New Hall School, Chelmsford
Valerie Nicholson ©2006
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