London, BL MS Royal 17 D xv, ff. 311b–326b

This copy from the shop of the stationer John Multon dates from the early 1470s and is thus chronologically close to the original, which must have been composed between Fortescue's pardon in October 1471 and the reversal of his attainder in October 1473. Professionally written, with calligraphic flourishes, sometimes containing caricature heads in the capital letters which adorn opening sentences of each section, it was, however, carelessly copied and there are a number of corrections, mistakes and omissions. It also contains Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, ff. 1a–302a; the Somnium Vigilantis, ff. 302a–310b; the Balet of the Kyng, ff. 327a–332b and the Book of Nurture, ff. 333a–348b. Mistakes in the Declaration have been made good in square brackets from BL MS Harley 1757, which was probably written by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, 1570–88, during the reign of Elizabeth I, ff. 188a–195b; it also contains a fragment of the same work, ff. 204a–207b. Other copies consulted are: BL MS Harley 537, ff. 1a–8b, late sixteenth century, incomplete; two other copies in the BL are MSS Additional 48020, ff. 1a–18b, late sixteenth century (formerly MS Yelverton 21) and 48079, ff. 11a–29b, early seventeenth century (formerly MS Yelverton 86). It is possible that these four manuscripts were copied from a different version from that one used by the Multon shop. They all omit the heading, ‘How Edmond Irensyde gave this lond to the danes’. None of them contain the error made in the Multon version on f. 312b, in which Blanche of Lancaster is described as the daughter of ‘king’ rather than ‘duke’ Henry. Their original could have been Cotton MS Otho B i, since Harley 1757, probably the earliest in this sequence, also contains a complete Governance, ff. 196a–203b, and a complete De Laudibus, ff. 208a–226a. Other copies of the Declaration are London, MS Lambeth 262, ff. 129b–140b; Norfolk, Holkham MS the earl of Leicester; Oxford, Bodleian MS Digby 198, ff. 76a–90a; San Marino, CA, Huntingdon Library MS Ellesmere 1131, ff. 31b–40a; Keswick Hall, near Norwich, John Henry Gurney Esq. no. xxii, ff. 37–9.