Why are Herle's letters significant?

The letters written, endorsed, signed or copied by William Herle contain diverse ranges of information, offering a valuable resource for social, political, economic, religious and cultural historians. Herle made regular requests to ministers regarding vacant (or imminently vacant) posts which might be preferred upon him (BL MS Lansdowne 54). His letters are studded with complex syntactical forms, such as protestations of humility and submission, which illustrate the keen awareness demonstrated by early modern letter-writers to maintain and preserve the strict hierarchical structures inherent in Elizabethan society (BL MS Lansdowne 39 f. 189r - 192v). Moreover, as well as their more obvious content of sensitive information, Herle's letters expose his primary impetus behind the pursuit of intelligence: of the construction and maintenance of a patronage alliance based upon the judicious exchange and release of knowledge at politically sensitive moments. Of particular interest is the way his epistolary strategies and the careful composition of his letters - adhering to contemporary letter-writing formulae and social ideas of decorum - are accompanied and enhanced by sensitive and often highly potent intelligence and information. This epistolary aspect of what are primarily intelligence letters reveals the diligent strategies implemented by Herle to prevent the disruption of social hierarchy at the moment of counsel, the private transfer of knowledge in a medium traditionally subject to broadcast, and the often uncomfortable union of potent intelligence and familiar affect.

As well as their textual content, the letters are of value as visual and material artifacts. The marks and annotations made by Herle and his readers on the letters are of importance to scholars interested in the production and reception of manuscript archives: Herle frequently annotated his own letters, writing notes in the margins [TNA SP 12/83/32] and adding manicules (hand-with-pointing-finger symbols) to significant places within the text [BL Cotton Galba C VII fol. 189v] [TNA SP 83/15/49]. The route of the letters through the contemporary postal system can occasionally be discerned from the address leaf of the letter packet [TNA SP 83/15/49], as can the reception and endorsement of the letter after it had been read [TNA SP 12/181/70v]. Many of Herle's letters were originally sent with other documents enclosed within the letter-packet: some of these documents remain attached, while others are archived in separate locations, suggesting that Herle's letters were accorded a certain type of administration after reading. These features of Herle's letters offer the reader a rich resource and entry-point into the study of early modern letters, their writers and readers.