Advances to Philip Burlamachi and others for secret service

This document lists payments to two London merchants employed in his ‘Majesties secrett service’ and £1374 13s 4d (about £172,600 today) to the Dutch moneylender, Philipp Calandrin ‘to defraye the interest of his Majesties Jewells pawned att Amsterdam’. King Charles I pawned many of the ‘Roiall and Princely Ornaments and Jewells’ to raise funds for his military campaigns and to supply ammunition in the Civil War. The pawned jewels included the large diamond set in gold known as the 'Mirror of Great Britain'; a lozenge-shaped diamond called the 'lettre H. of Scotlande' and 'The Three Brothers' comprising three large table-cut bulas rubies (spinels), a great pointed diamond and four pearls.