"letters patents" meaning in English

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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "ref": "1589, Richard Hakluyt, “Iohn Cabots Patent”, in The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 509:",
          "text": "The letters patents of king Henry the ſeuenth granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his three ſonnes, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, for the discouerie of new and vnknowen lands.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 29, column 2:",
          "text": "If you do wrongfully ſeize Herford's right, / call in his Letters Patents that he hath / By his Atturneyes generall, to ſue[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1753, Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Eſq., volume VII, London: J. and P. Knapton, page 176:",
          "text": "(which I have kept as carefully as I would Letters Patents, ſince they intitle me to what I value more than titles of honour.)",
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        }
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        "Archaic form of letters patent."
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  "word": "letters patents"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "ref": "1589, Richard Hakluyt, “Iohn Cabots Patent”, in The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 509:",
          "text": "The letters patents of king Henry the ſeuenth granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his three ſonnes, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, for the discouerie of new and vnknowen lands.",
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          "ref": "1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 29, column 2:",
          "text": "If you do wrongfully ſeize Herford's right, / call in his Letters Patents that he hath / By his Atturneyes generall, to ſue[…]",
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        },
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          "ref": "1753, Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Eſq., volume VII, London: J. and P. Knapton, page 176:",
          "text": "(which I have kept as carefully as I would Letters Patents, ſince they intitle me to what I value more than titles of honour.)",
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