and they sell Caister to the Duke of Norfolk.
The result of this allegation was that Yelverton and Howes took it upon them, as executors of Sir John Fastolf, to recommend to Archbishop Bourchier that the Duke of Norfolk should be allowed to purchase the manor of Caister and certain other lands in Norfolk, and that the money received for it should be spent in charitable deeds for the good of Fastolf’s soul. The transaction was not yet completed,[243.3] but the duke immediately proceeded to act upon it just as if it were. He did not, indeed, at once take possession of the place, but he warned the tenants of the manor to pay no money to Sir John, and his agents even spoke as if they had the king’s authority. On the other hand, Sir John had the support of powerful men in the king’s council—no less persons than the great Earl of Warwick and his brother, the Archbishop of York, who had lately been Lord Chancellor, and was hoping to be so again. The Earl of Warwick had spoken about the matter to the duke even in the king’s chamber, and the archbishop had said, ‘rather than the land should go so, he would come and dwell there himself.’ Archbishop Nevill. ‘Ye would marvel,’ adds the correspondent who communicates the news to Sir John Paston, ‘ye would marvel what hearts my lord hath gotten and how this language put people in comfort.’ It had its effect upon the Duke of Norfolk, who saw that he must not be too precipitate. He was urged on, it seems, by the duchess his wife, but he would go and speak to her and entreat her.[243.4]
On the other hand, Yelverton and Howes seem to have been pretty confident that my Lord of York would not be chancellor again unless their bargain with the duke was ratified. The Nevills were no longer regarded with favour at court. The coolness which had existed between the king and Warwick ever since the marriage with Elizabeth Woodville had last year come to an open rupture, and the Archbishop of York had [244] been at the same time dismissed from the office of chancellor. Soon after the new year a reconciliation was effected through the medium of private friends, and the archbishop conducted his brother the Earl of Warwick to the king at Coventry.[244.1] But real confidence was not restored, and party spirit was anxious that it never should be. Nor could the public at large, perhaps, imagine the deep grounds of distrust that Warwick had already given to his sovereign.
Sir John Paston, nevertheless, was advised to put his trust chiefly in the friendship of the Nevills and in the probable reinstatement of the archbishop as Lord Chancellor. Another means, however, was not to be neglected. Sir Thomas Howes might be gammoned, or bullied, or got over in some way. He and Yelverton did not agree so well that it need be a very hard matter to separate them. Sir John’s friends hoped to secure for him the good offices of the Bishop of Ely and a certain Master Tresham, who, it was thought, could put it nicely to Sir Thomas Howes half in jest and half in earnest, putting him ‘in hope of the moon shone in the water,’ and telling him that such efforts were made ‘that either he should be a pope, or else in despair to be deprived de omni beneficio ecclesiastico for simony, lechery, perjury, and double variable peevishness, and for administering without authority.’ Such were a few of the humours of the controversy.[244.2]
Sir John ‘wages’ men. A.D. 1469.
Better, however, than the friendship of the great, was the security to be derived from keeping Caister well guarded; and Sir John Paston immediately set about ‘waging’ men to add to the little garrison.[244.3] With this he seems to have been much occupied from November till January following, when by repeated letters from the king he was commanded to desist from making any assembly of the lieges, and to appear personally before the council at Westminster.[244.4] The matter, apparently, was hung up for a time without any decision being come to by the council. The friendship of Archbishop Nevill could have done little to recommend the cause of Sir John Paston to the king. On the other hand, if favour had anything to do with the result, his cause was warmly advocated by [245] Lord Scales, the king’s own brother-in-law, on account of Sir John’s intended marriage with his kinswoman, Anne Haute.[245.1] And it is certain that Judge Yelverton had conferences with Lord Scales in the hope of coming to some kind of understanding. But King Edward, as we have already said, had a real desire to be impartial in the disputes and quarrels of his subjects; and doubtless it was from a feeling of this that Sir John Paston and his mother rejoiced to hear that it was the king’s intention to visit Norwich in the course of the ensuing summer. The rumour of this intention, it was believed, had a powerful influence in inducing the Duchess of Suffolk to remain at her family seat at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, that she might be out of the way if sent for by the king, and plead age or sickness as her excuse.[245.2] The attempt made by her son to dispossess Sir John Paston at Hellesdon could best be judged of on the spot. And in Norfolk, too, the king would learn what was thought of the Duke of Norfolk’s claim to Caister.
So it was hoped that the king’s presence in the county would tell most favourably on Sir John Paston’s interests. And there was one circumstance in particular of which advantage might be taken. As Edward was to go from Norwich on pilgrimage to Walsingham, his way would of necessity lie through Hellesdon and Drayton. The lodge whose walls the Duke of Suffolk had caused to be broken down could hardly fail, from its conspicuous position, to meet his eye, and perhaps some friend in the king’s suite could be got to call his attention to it and tell him the story of the outrage. This Thomas Wingfield engaged to do, and promised to get the king’s own brother, the Duke of Gloucester, to join him in pointing out the ruin. Promises were also obtained from Earl Rivers, the queen’s father, and from her brother Lord Scales and Sir John Woodville, that they would urge the king to command the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to forbear claiming title to the lands of Sir John Fastolf. And by the time the king took his departure from Norwich the Pastons were encouraged to believe that steps had already been taken to end their controversy with one if not with both dukes. Unfortunately the [246] belief, or at least the hope that it gave rise to, proved to be utterly unfounded.[246.1]
The ruined lodge is shown to the king.
The king rode through Hellesdon Warren on his way, as it had been expected that he would do. The ruined lodge was pointed out to him by William Paston, Sir John’s uncle; but his answer was altogether at variance with what the Woodvilles had led them to expect. The king said the building might have fallen by itself, and if it had been pulled down, as alleged, the Pastons might have put in bills at the session of Oyer and Terminer held by the judges when he was at Norwich. William Paston replied that his nephew had been induced to hope the king himself would have procured an amicable settlement with both the dukes, and therefore had forborne to vindicate his rights by law. But the king said he would neither treat nor speak for Sir John, but let the law take its course.[246.2]
[239.1] Itin. W. Worc., 323, where it is said that Lord Scales ‘custodivit hospicium in Castre per spacium dimidii . . .’ The blank must surely be supplied by the word anni.