Volume Vi Part 29 (1/2)

WYLLIAM PASTON.

[Footnote 120-1: [From Fenn, ii. 158.] This letter was unquestionably written in the reign of Henry VII., and not in that of Edward IV., to which Fenn a.s.signed it. The writer, William Paston, was only born in the year 1459, and was still pursuing his studies at Eton so late in Edward's reign as the year 1479, in the end of which year his eldest brother, Sir John Paston, died. The Sir John Paston to whom this is addressed must therefore be the second son of John Paston, Esquire, who was knighted at the battle of Stoke in 1487, and died in 1503. The year in which the letter was written is, however, still doubtful. I do not find by the Privy Seal dates of Henry VII. that such a progress as is here spoken of was ever carried out. Apparently it was intended that, beginning on Monday fortnight after the date of the letter, the King should occupy a fortnight on the way from London to Norwich, and arrive there on Palm Sunday Eve. The year must therefore have been one in which Palm Sunday Eve fell between the 5th and the 11th of April, and Easter Day between the 13th and 19th April. The earliest year that will suit these conditions is 1489, when Easter fell on the 19th April; and that this was the true date of the letter is made probable by several other circ.u.mstances. In 1489 the King was staying at Sheen during March. A great council had certainly met in the end of the year 1488 about the affairs of Brittany, and is very likely to have prolonged its meetings or renewed them from time to time to the 3rd March following.

Moreover, if our date be correct, it supplies an interesting and highly probable fact with regard to Henry, Earl of Northumberland, the fourth of the line of Percy, who was slain in an insurrection in the north in April following, showing that he was with the King at Sheen in the beginning of March, and had undertaken by indenture to protect the Borders against the Scots, not long before he found himself called upon to put down the King's rebellious subjects in Yorks.h.i.+re.]

[Footnote 120-2: Here follows some account relative to a grant from the Crown, etc.--F.]

[Footnote 120-3: John, Lord Dynham.]

[Footnote 121-1: Not Haveningham in Suffolk, but Heveningham, Hevingham, or, as it is now commonly written, Hedingham, in Ess.e.x, the seat of the Earl of Oxford.]

[Footnote 121-2: 11th April.]

[Footnote 121-3: _See_ vol. ii. p. 110, Note 1.]

[Footnote 121-4: Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Calthorpe, was daughter and coheir of Sir Miles Stapleton.]

[[be thys letter delyvered.

_first italic ”d” misprinted as ”a”_]]

1032

THE EARL OF OXFORD TO SIR JOHN PASTON[122-1]

_To the righte wors.h.i.+pfull and my righte intierly belovyd Sir John Paston, Knyghte._

[Sidenote: 1489 / MARCH 12]

Righte wors.h.i.+pfull and righte intierly belovyd, I commaunde me to you.

And acording to the Kyng our soverayne Lordis commaundemente late to me addressid, I desire and pray you that ye woll in all G.o.dely haste, upon the sighte hereof, prepare youre selfe to be in a redinesse with as many personnes as ye herbyfore grauntid to do the Kyng servyce in my company diffensibely arayed and therupon so to resorte unto me in all G.o.dely haste possyble upon a day warnyng, horsid and harnessid, to be at the Kynges wayges. And G.o.d kepe yow.

Writen at my castelle of Hedingham, the xij. day of Marche.

OXYNFORD.

[Footnote 122-1: [Douce MS. 393, f. 79.] The date at which this letter was written is uncertain, but it may very probably have reference, like some later letters in this year, to the King's proposed journey northwards, as it will be seen by the last No.

that he intended to have visited the Earl at Hedingham.]

1033

WILLIAM PASTON TO THE BAILIFF OF MAUTBY[123-1]

_To the Baly of Mawlteby._

[Sidenote: 1489]

Mayster Baly, I recomaunde me on to yow, praynge yow that ye woll sende me be Wylliam Kokkys[123-2] berer her of, iiij. n.o.bylles in golde, putt in to the same boxe that thys byll is in, as thow it wer evydens; for I have tolde the masengere that he schulde brynge me nothyng but evydens, for he is in a manere departyng owt of my servyse, wherfore I wold nott he knew so myche of my counsell. And as for the remenaunte, I wellde ze schulde kepe it tyll I come my selfe.