_Defender of the Faith_ (Vol. iii., p. 9.).--By a hasty perusal of the
letter of COL. ANSTRUTHER in your number of the 4th of January, I perceive
that some doubt has been raised whether any of our sovereigns have used the
title of Defender of the Faith, prior to the time of King Henry VIII.
If you will refer to the forth part of Prynne's _Institutes_, pp. 229-30,
and 295-6-7, you will find set out at full length divers letters close and
patent from King Richard II. in the 6th, 11th, and 19th years of his reign,
for suppressing the heresies of Wickliff and his followers. These letters
are addressed to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, William
Archbishop of Canterbury (Courtney), and to Ralfe Crombewell, Chivalier,
and John Lekyll, and the Mayor and Bailiffs of Nottingham, in which King
Richard II. styles himself thus--"Nos Zelo Fidei Catholicae, Cujus Sumus Et
Esse Volumus Defensores," &c.