The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill: Containing an impartial Account of the most remarkable AFFAIRS of STATE during the Sixteenth Century not mentioned by other Historians: more particularly relating to the Kingdoms of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND, under the Regins of Queen ELIZABETH, MARY, Queen of Scots, and King JAMES. In most which TRANSACTIONS the AUTHOR was Personally and Publicly concerned.

Philadelphia. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Folio Society, London, 1969; large 8vo, 160 x 250mm; green cloth, the front board carrying the arms of Mary, Queen of Scots, impaled with those of Darnley, titled gilt and with the Scots crowned lion rampant also gilt; matching green slip case, fine condition throughout; note that any reference to "jacket" refers to the slip case; pp 184; frontispiece and eight other coloured plates, some of them double page. ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Melville's secretarian and diplomatic career began as a page to Mary, Queen of Scots, in France. Later, when she was in Scotland and he returned there she awarded him a pension and appointed him to her household as a diplomat. In that role he met with Elizabeth of England and was later used as a special emissary to reconcile Elizabeth to Mary's coming marriage to Darnley. He played a major part in important diplomatic missions and when James VI succeeded to the Scots throne following the execution of his mother he used Melville also, Melville later acting for James's then wife, Anne of Denmark. First published in 1683 following a chance discovery of the manuscript in Edinburgh Castle by Melville's grandson the work was recognised as a valuable account of the history of the period.