"John Peyton’s A Relation of the State of Polonia and the Accession of King James I, 1598–1603*"

The anonymous A Relation of the State of Polonia and the Provinces United with that Crowne, Anno 1598 is the most important early account of Poland written in English. Over the last one hundred years, the work has received considerable attention from British, German, and Polish historians. Two different authors have been proposed, George Carew (c.1556–1612) and William Bruce (c.1560–after 1613), but neither attribution has gone unchallenged. This article is based on a fresh examination of what was long thought to be the only manuscript of this work, British Library Royal MS 18 B I, which makes it possible to determine the date and the circumstances of its production. Following a thorough analysis of the handwriting in the manuscript and the discovery of the watermark, it is now possible to point to the provenance of the manuscript and its components. This new information, in turn, leads to a reassessment of the historical context commonly assigned to A Relation of the State of Polonia. With the help of significant new evidence and formerly overlooked auction catalogues, the author can now be identified as John Peyton (1579–1635). The manuscript itself, I argue, was produced for King James VI and I at the time of his arrival in London in May 1603.