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The History Sale 2015
www.adams.ie4
ALBEMARLE
George Monck Duke of, Observations upon Military & Political Affairs. Written by the Most
Honourable George Duke of Albemarle, &c. Published by authority. London: 1671. pp. [viii],
151, [11]. From the library of Mark Dineley with his armorial bookplate. A fine copy in contem-
porary full calf, rebacked. Covers elaborately tooled in gilt to a floral panel design.
Wing A 864. Exceedingly rare. COPAC locates 4 copies only.
€150 - €250
5
ANNESLEY, ARTHUR, 1ST EARL OF ANGLESEY
England’s confusion: or, a true and impartial relation of the late traverses of state - London:
1659. 4to. pp. 24. A good copy stitched and housed in a quarter morocco binder’s folder.
Wing A 3167A.
Anonymously published, the author is characterised as “one of the few English men that
are left in England” although at that time he was the sitting member for Dublin in Richard
Cromwell’s Parliament. He opens up with a violent onslaught on Oliver Cromwell’s “high hand
of arbitrary power” and his ambition “to have continued his posterity in the same unlimited
dominion; declaring .... his eldest son Richard his successor .... his son Henry Lord Lieutenant
or Viceroy of Ireland, and his daughter [Bridget] Fleetwood married to the Commander in Chief
under him of the army.” Arthur Annesley, a native of Dublin, was the fourth generation of the
family to participate in Irish affairs. His great grandfather Sir John Perrot was lord deputy;
his grandfather was an undertaker in the Plantation of Munster after the defeat of the earl of
Desmond, and his father, Baron Mountnorris, a major player in the Plantation of Ulster. Taking
the parliamentary side during the civil war, his major contribution was to foil a projected alli-
ance between the marquis of Ormond and the Scots forces in Ulster under General Monroe.
Arthur Annesley acted as an intermediary for Charles II after his appointment as president of
the council of state. Following the Restoration, he became vice-treasurer and receiver-general
for Ireland, 1660-1667. Late in life he earned honourable mention as the only peer who dissent-
ed from the vote declaring the existence of an Irish “Popish Plot.” Davies’ Restoration pages
77-78 assesses Annesley as one of the best informed pamphleteers of the time. His books
were disposed of by public auction in October 1686 and significantly the Dictionary of National
Biography credits him with being “perhaps the first Peer who devoted time and money to the
formation of a great library.” Sweeney 164 quoting the 1st issue of the 1st edition.
€100 - €150
Lot 4
Lot 5