Henry the Sixth: a reprint of John Blacman's memoir, with translation and notes

About this book

This volume is a scholarly re‑print of John Blakman’s early‑sixteenth‑century tract on the “Personality of King Henry VI,” a work that until now has been accessible only in a handful of rare copies. The editor explains that the original manuscript never survived; our knowledge rests on a 1510 printed edition by Robert Coplande, later re‑issued by Thomas Hearne in 1732, whose text has been collated with the Coplande version thanks to the generosity of St Cuthbert’s College, Ushaw. Detailed bibliographic information follows the opening, describing the woodcut of a bearded king, the printer’s devices, and the surrounding marginalia. The introduction also supplies a concise biography of Blakman, a fellow of Merton, Cantor of Eton, and later Carthusian monk, situating his devotional writings within the broader context of Henry VI’s cult and the manuscript tradition.

The prose is dense and archival, reflecting the eighteenth‑century scholarly style of Thomas Hearne and the modern editor’s commitment to preserving original spelling and pagination. Its tone is that of a learned antiquarian, interweaving Latin prayers, detailed collation data, and historical commentary. Readers who relish meticulous textual criticism, the history of early printed books, and the religious politics of late medieval England will find this work rewarding, while those seeking a narrative biography of Henry VI should look elsewhere.

Opening lines

The tract on the Personality of King Henry VI (as I may perhaps be allowed to call it), which is here reprinted, has hitherto been almost inaccessible to ordinary students. It is not known to exist at all in manuscript. We depend ultimately for our knowledge of it upon a printed edition issued by Robert Coplande of London, of which the date is said to be 1510. Of this there may be two copies in existence. This text was reprinted by Thomas Hearne in 1732, in his edition of the Chronicles of Thomas Otterbourne and John Whethamstede, of which 150 copies were issued. …

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