Item, if that the sayde Fauconer wilnot gyf no somme of golde for the sayde mariage, the sayde Fastolf wyl take the mariage of the childe that ys eyre to the forsaide Sir Reynolde Cobham, and that the sayde Scrope forto conferme the estat hys moder has made to the saide Fastolf, yf so be that the consel of the saide Fastolf se by thaire avys that hit be for to do, and that the said mariage may be [as] moche worth to the said Fastolf as vc. mark.
Item, ze sende me be Raufm[an an] answare o[f] the letters that y sende yow, that I may have ve[ray] knolage how that hit standys with me ther in al maner of thynges, and that I [h]ave an answare of every article that y wrote to yow.
Item, for as moche as that I am bonden for my Lord Scales[115.1] to my Lord Cardnale[115.2] in vc. mark, the qu[ech] somme he kan not fynd no way to pay hit, on lese then that he sel a parcel of his land; quer fore he sendis ower a man of his called Pessemerche, with whom I wil that ze spek, and se be zore avis whech of the places of my said Lord Scales that standis most cler to be solde; and if the place that is beside W[a]lsyngham stand cler, I have hit lever then the tother; and therfore I pray [z]ow that ze make apointement with the said Pesemerche in the best wise that ze may, athir of the ton place or the tother, and or ze let take hit after xx. zere, havyn[g] rewarde to the verray val therof, and as ze don send me worde be the next massager.
Item, my Lord of Hungerford[116.1] has writen to me for to have the warde of Robert Monpyns[on]is sone, wher of I am agreed that he schal [have] hit like as I has wretyn to hym in a letter, of the whech I send zow a cope closed here in: wher fore I pray zow to enquere of the verray valu of the land that Monpynson haldis of me, and sendis me word in hast; for my said Lord Hungerford sais in his letter that hit is worth bot xls. a zere aboufe the rentis, as ze may se the letter that he sent me, the q[uec]h I send zow be my son Scrope. And I pray zow to demene zow to my said Lord as eesely as ze may in this mater and al other that I have to do with hym, as ze may se be the cope aforesaid. And or (sic) have zow in his kepyng. Wretyn at Roan (?)[116.2] the last day of October. J. Fastolfe.
Endorsed Appunctuamentum factum pro Stephano Scroope anno xxviijº Regis H. vj. ad maritandum.
[113.2] [From the Castlecombe MSS. in the B.M., Add. MS. 28,212, No. 21.] According to the endorsement, this letter should have been written in the year 1449; but the reader will see by the footnotes that there are grounds for doubting the accuracy of this date.
[114.1] The marriage of wards in those days used to be sold to men of property, who would compel them to marry their own sons or daughters, or whatever other persons suited them. The only restriction to this right was, that the ward might, on coming of age, have an action against his guardian in case of disparagement, that is to say, if he was married beneath his station.
[114.2] Sir Reginald Cobham of Sterborough, in Surrey, who died in 1446. He was the father of the notorious Eleanor Cobham, the mistress, and afterwards wife, of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.—Brayley’s Hist. of Surrey, iv. 159.
[114.3] Milicent, wife of Sir John Fastolf, is known to have been alive in the 24th year of Henry VI. (1446). William Worcester says the allowance for her chamber was paid until that date; but as he says nothing more, it has been supposed she did not live longer. Mr. Poulett Scrope also believes her to have died in 1446, on the authority of a contemporary MS., which says she and Fastolf lived together thirty-eight years.—Hist. Castlecombe, 263.
[115.1] Thomas de Scales, 8th Lord.