Volume Ii Part 32 (1/2)

My lord wole not to Leicestre.[150.7] My Maister Danyell desireth yow thedir. I shall ride thiderward on Friday by tymes.

Wretyn in hast at Wynche,[150.8] the xiij. day of May.

I pray yow to thynk upon my mater to my mastresse your wyf, for my mastresse Anne, for in good feith I haf fully conquered my lady sith ye went, so that I haf hir promisse to be my good lady, and that she shall help me by the feith of hir body.

Your servant,

DENYES.

[Footnote 150.1: [From Fenn, i. 162.] This letter, which Fenn vaguely a.s.signed to the latter part of the reign of Henry VI., may be pretty safely attributed to the year 1450. The mention of Lord Rivers and the Duke of Suffolk could not have been earlier than 1449, as the one was only created lord, and the other duke in 1448, and at a later date than the 13th of May. The reference to the Duke of Suffolk again is not likely to have been long after his decease. Further, there is a strong presumption, from Monday being spoken of as a past date, and Friday as a future, that the letter was written on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Tuesday or Thursday, Monday would have been spoken of as 'yesterday' or Friday as 'to-morrow.' Now, the 13th of May was a Wednesday in 1450. The changes in officers of state mentioned in this letter are, therefore, those consequent on the fall of the Duke of Suffolk. There is, besides, as will be seen by a foot-note, an allusion to the Parliament at Leicester.]

[Footnote 150.2: John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford.]

[Footnote 150.3: Thomas Daniel. --_See_ p. 80.]

[Footnote 150.4: John, Viscount Beaumont.]

[Footnote 150.5: Richard Woodville, created Baron Rivers 29th May 1448; afterwards earl.]

[Footnote 150.6: William de la Pole. --_See_ p. 80, Note 2.]

[Footnote 150.7: Parliament was sitting at Leicester in May 1450.]

[Footnote 150.8: A seat of the Earl of Oxford, near King's Lynn, in Norfolk.]

124

THE EARL OF OXFORD TO JOHN PASTON[151.1]

_To our right trusty and intierly welbeloved John Paston, Esquyer._

[Sidenote: Year uncertain]

Right trusty and right intierly welbeloved, we grete you hertly wele.

And it is so, as ye know wele your self, we haf and long tyme haf had the service of Thomas Denyes, by continuance wherof we wend to haf had his attendaunce at our l.u.s.t; and nevertheless we haf so strictly examynid his demenyng that we fele and pleynly conceyve that the love and effeccion which he hath to a gentilwoman not ferre from yow, and which ye be privy to, as we suppose, causith hym alwey to desire toward your c.u.n.tre, rather than toward suych ocupacion as is behovefull to us.

We write therfore to yow, prayng yow hertly as ye love us, that it like you to do that labour at our instaunce be suych men [_mean_] as your wisdom can seme, to meve that gentilwoman in our behalf for the wele of this mater, undirtakyng for us that we wole shew our bounte to thaym bothe, if it plese hir that this mater take effect, so that be reason she shall haf cause to take it in gree. And if the comyng thider of our persone self shuld be to plesir of hir, we wole not leve our labour in that: wherfore we pray you that ye wole do your part heryn, as ye wole we do for yow in tyme comyng, and that ye se us in hast. The Holy Trinite kepe yow. Wretyn at Wevenho, the xvij. day of May.

The Erle of Oxenford.

OXENFORD.

[Footnote 151.1: [From Fenn, iii. 360.] This letter cannot well be of the same year as the last, but is probably not many years earlier, and certainly not many years later. The reasons against its being of the same year are--first, that it seems to be implied in the letter preceding that the Earl of Oxford was at Winch, near Lynn, in Norfolk, on the 13th May 1450, which makes it improbable that he would be at Wivenhoe in Ess.e.x four days after; and, secondly, that he is not likely to have offered to go into Norfolk (especially after having just come out of Norfolk) on a matter touching the private affairs of one of his own adherents, when he declined to go to the Parliament at Leicester.]

125

SIR JOHN FASTOLF TO SIR THOMAS HOWYS[152.1]

_To my trusty and welbelovyd frende, Sir Thomas Howys, Parson of Castellcombe._

[Sidenote: 1450 / MAY 27]