Sir,

This project which I offer to your Sacred Majesty, however (for mine own unworthiness and insufficiency, or the almost last remembrance of the weapon, which I strive to advance) it may seem unworthy of your Gracious view or consideration; yet I am confident, if you please to lay your sacred eyes upon it, you will allow it. For first, it will be honorable to your kingdoms, through the multiplicity of good soldiers; terrible to your opposers, when they hear of such disciplined multitudes, and not troublesome to your subjects because it neither puts them to one penny of extraordinary expense, takes from them one day of their necessary affaires, nor loads them with any trouble or vexation, either of mind or body. Only it ties them to the exercise and performance of that duty, to which they are bound both by the laws of God, nature, and the wholesome statutes of this kingdoms, as the treatise (I hope) will witness, when your Majesty (or any by your Majesty appointed) shall read it. In humble confidence whereof, I rest.

Your Majesties,

Poor vassal and subject,

Gervase Markham

TO
The much honored
Gentlemen, Mr. William
Trumball, Esquire, Eldest
Clarke to his Majesties most
Honorable Privy Council, and
Muster-master-General of all
England.

Sir,

All rivers and rivulets, fountains and waters what soever, come from the sea, and return to the sea, the first, to acknowledge the happiness of their beginnings; the other, to restore the rent & tribute of their duties. So all subjects receive happiness from their Sovereigns, and to them they ought to restore anything that they can call happy within them. Hence, I have presumed in all humility and obedience, to present to his Sacred Majesty, this little treatise of The Art of Archerie and how it may profitably by used in this kingdom, to the advancement of the trained bands (to whose glory and good, your place especially calls you) to the propagation and increase of young soldiers, and to the support and re-edifying, of the now falling, and almost utterly ruined Societies of Bowers and Fletchers, who (as I am credibly informed, and partly know by diverse true observations) are so shaken and decayed in their estates and tradings, that without his Majesty's assist, it is impossible for them to subsist. Then (worthy Sir) be pleased to lay your virtuous hand to this building, and make yourself master of many hearts, and many prayers, which (under your pardon) you may thus effect, by procuring to be inserted into the Letters for Musters; that the supplies may appear with bows and arrows, and to be exercised with the trained bands, as more largely appears in the treatise. This I dare no further urge, but leave it to your own goodness, which can better direct, then I can imagine.

Your Servant,
Gervase Markham

TO
The Worshipful,
the Masters, Wardens,
and Assistants, and to all the
rest of the Worshipful Companies
and Societies of
Bowers and Fletchers
within the Honorable
City of London, and
elsewhere.