Dating: Text composed in 1566 or 1567. Christopher W. Brooks (see Plowden entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) states that Plowden's "well-known defence of the claim of Mary of Scotland to the throne of England" was composed in 1566; Mortimer Levine (Stanford, 1966) suggests it was composed in early 1567. This fair copy has been dated, probably by Pearson, to 1580.
With contemporary foliation, occasional shoulder notes, and page catchwords throughout. Margins ruled in light brown ink.
With table of contents.
Treatise, in two parts, advocating for the succession of Mary Queen of Scots to the English throne. Part I elucidates the theory of the King's two bodies, "the Bodie Politique" and "the Bodie Naturall;" opposes the idea that "He borne beyond the Sea cannott be ... discended of English blood;" and argues that "the Lawe or maxime of forraigne Birth" cannot be extended to the Crown "because it is a Bodie Politique." Part II (from fol. 76) argues that Mary "is not out of the Legiance of [th]e Crowne of England", and reproduces the opinion of King Henry VII, "touching the Comodities [and] incomodities that this Realme should haue, if it discended to the Queene of Scottes". A prologue explaining the causes for the writing of this book decries the "Ignorance" and "p[re]sumpc[i]on" of the authors of two earlier tracts, "Allegations against the Surmised Title of the Queen of Scots and the Favorers of the Same" (anon., printed 1565) and "Declaration of the Succession of the Crowne Imperiall of Inglande" (John Hales, printed 1563).