[PHILIP & MARY]: [PHILIP II] (1527-1598) King of Spain 1556-98, King of Portugal 1581-98 & King of England and ...

[PHILIP & MARY]: [PHILIP II] (1527-1598) King of Spain 1556-98, King of Portugal 1581-98 & King of England and Ireland jure uxoris 1554-58 & [MARY I] (1516-1558) Queen of England 1553-58 & Queen consort of Spain 1556-58.
A fine document issued in the names of Philip and Mary, one page (vellum), slim oblong folio, 1st March 1555, being an Exemplification of a Fine, boldly penned in Latin in an accomplished scribal hand (two letters with attractive strapwork) and confirming the sale from John Lindsell to Richard Weston of listed parcels of land (Bradlese [i.e. Bradley's] Mead and Wood etc.) in Roxwell, in the parish of Writtle, Essex. With the seal of the Court of Common Pleas affixed at the foot, the seal tag bearing a notarial mark. The brown wax seal (with a diameter of 5") is largely intact, although somewhat rubbed, and depicts Queen Mary seated on a throne and with two coats of arms to the recto and the Queen riding on horseback to the verso. Some staining, just affecting a few words of text, and some light age wear, otherwise a clean and attractive document. About VGRichard Weston (c.1510-1572) English Judge and Politician, Solicitor General 1557-59 and Justice of Common Pleas 1559-72. In January 1555 Weston purchased, for the sum of £280, the Manor of Skreens in the hamlet of Roxwell, which he made his principal residence; the purchase in the present document presumably being contingent upon this. Weston is buried in Writtle church. His grandson and namesake, the 1st Earl of Portland (1577-1634/35) served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Lord Treasurer under both King James I and King Charles I, and was one of the most influential figures in the early years of Charles I's Personal Rule.The other party to the transaction, John Lindsell (d.1558) was a local Clerk of Assize.An Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain was passed by the English Parliament in April 1554 and, in reality, served as a business contract between England and Spain, specifying what Spain could effect from the union, while at the same time giving assurances that England would not become a satellite of Spain. Under the terms of the marriage treaty, Philip was to enjoy his wife's titles and honours as King of England and Ireland for as long as their marriage should last. All official documents were to be dated with both their names (with Philip's preceding Mary's, as deemed proper for husband and wife, evident in the present example).Mary I, the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon to survive to adulthood, ascended to the throne in 1553 upon the death of her younger half-brother King Edward VI who had succeeded their father in 1547. The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism. In the five years of her reign over 280 religious dissenters were burned at the stake, the executions of the Protestants leading to her posthumous sobriquet 'Bloody Mary'.