PhotoLONDON — Forty-three letters written by Queen Elizabeth I, her chief minister Lord Burghley and her secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham, have been donated to the American Trust for the British Library by Mark Pigott, an American businessman. Mr. Pigott, whose company, Paccar, donated $1.35 million to the British Library in 2008, had previously lent the letters to the library after buying them at an auction in 2010, for around $400,000. The letters show Elizabeth’s increasing distrust of the Scottish queen, who was her first cousin once removed, since in the eyes of a Catholic faction, Mary had a greater claim to the throne of England. “Use but olde trust and new diligence,” Elizabeth wrote in 1584 — in one of the four letters written by the English queen herself. The British Library plans to digitize the letters.

Source: New York Times December 21, 2017 18:00 UTC