Untitled - Monoskop

THE ROYAL CHANCERY
last renewed in 1543.' And the poet Ronsard, enjoying a 'perpetual' privilege
for his works, granted to him by Henry II on 23 February 1559, hastened to
apply afresh to Francis II on his accession, fearing that someone might claim
that the privilege had automatically lapsed on the death of the sovereign who
had given it ('creignant qu'on voulsist pretendre le Privilege a lui octroye par
nostre diet feu Seigneur et pere estre expire par son deces'). 2
Seen from the point ofview of the chancery, let alone from that of the king in
whose name all Letters Patent were issued from it, grants of book-privileges
formed a very small proportion of its activities and concerned very small
favours. In the course of fifteen days, 15 30 June 1517, and that during a
period when the chancery was moving from place to place and therefore not
operating at full strength, it issued 117 Letters, of which twenty-four were
lettres simples, the category to which book-privileges belonged: only one of these
was a book-privilege (CH 1517, 5). In the 15303, when the extant records are
more complete, it can be seen more clearly what a veritable torrent of Letters
regularly poured out from the chancery. In the second half of 1535, for
instance, a total of i ,687 Letters is recorded, i ,085 of them lettres simples.
It has
been estimated that, if the chancellor held his regular audience for the use of
the seal twice a week, he must have sealed some fifty-five to fifty-seven Letters
at each session, not counting the few for which the fee was waived. 3
Book-privileges cost the Crown nothing to give. There were other favours
which involved some sacrifice: ennoblement of a commoner meant that he and
his family were henceforth exempt from ordinary taxation, naturalisation of a
foreigner meant that his possessions if he died in France could no longer be
claimed as aubaine, and so on. There was no such disadvantage in giving a
short-term monopoly to an author or publisher for a particular new book.
Similarly, as far as the chancellor and his staff were concerned, they had
nothing to lose by facilitating the grant of book-privileges. Indeed the reverse
was true. Unlike present-day civil servants, every operation that went
through their hands tended to bring them not only work but personal profit.
The official fees for drawing up the document and for the use of the seal
provided the funds from which they were paid, and a proportion of the fee
might even be payable direct to them, e.g. is out of a 6s fee to the notary
concerned. 4 Secretaries and clerks could also expect some perquisites. Few
transactions of this kind went through in the sixteenth century without some
customary gift to an official. At Brussels on 20 January 1534 Roger Hang-
ouart, acting on behalf of the city of Lille, paid 563 for a one-year imperial
privilege for the Coutumes of the city which had been recently drawn up, before
1 Daniel
Heartz, Pierre Attaignant, royal printer of music (University of California Press, 1969),
pp. 174, 184,
2 Pierre de Ronsard, CEuvres completes, ed. P. Laumonier (STFM), Vol. x, p. 169.
1 88.
3 H. Michaud, La Grande Chancellerie et les ecritures royales au XVI' siecle (1967), p. 340.
4 Ibid. p. 336, n. i.
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