[115.2] John Kemp, Archbishop of York, afterwards of Canterbury; or, if this document be some years earlier, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester.
[116.1] Walter, 1st Lord Hungerford, died in August 1449, and was succeeded in the title by his son Robert.
[116.2] The name is a little indistinct from the decay of the paper, but the first and last letters are clear, and it is scarcely possible to doubt that Rouen was the place here intended. Yet if this be so, the letter must be much earlier than the date assigned to it in the endorsement.
[98]
RICHARD, EARL OF WARWICK, TO SIR THOMAS TODENHAM[117.1]
To owr ryght trusty and welbelovyd Frend, Ser Thomas Todenham.
1449(?)
NOV. 2
Ryght trusty and welbelovyd frend, we grete you well, hertely desyryng to here of yowr welfare, which we pray God preserve to yowr herts desyr; and yf yt please yow to here of owr welfare, we wer in goud hale atte the makyng of this lettre, praying you hertely that ye wyll consider owr message, which owr Chapleyn Mayster Robert Hoppton shall enforme you of. For as God knowyth we have gret besynesse dayly, and has had here by for this tyme. Wherfor we pray you to consyder the purchas that we have made wyth one John Swyffhcotte, Squier of Lyncolnshyr, of lxxx. and viijli. by yer, whereuppon we must pay the last payment the Moneday nexte after Seynt Martyn’ day, which sum ys CCCC. and lviijli.; wherfor we pray you wyth all owr herte that ye wyll lend us xli., or twenty, or whet the seyd Maister Robert wants of hys payment, as we may do for you in tym for to com; and we shall send yt you ageyn afor Newyers day wyth the grace of God, as we ar trew knyght. For there is nonne in your cuntre that we myght wryght to for trust so well as unto you; for, as we be enformyd, ye be owr well wyller, and so we pray you of goud contynuaunce.
Wherfore we pray you that ye consyder our entent of this mony, as ye wyll that we do for you in tym to com, as God knowyth, who have you in hys kepyng.
Wreten atte London, on All Salwyn [All Souls’] day, wyth inne owr loggyng in the Grey Freys [Friars] wyth inne Newgate. Ric., Erle Warwyke.[117.2]
[117.1] [From Fenn, i. 84.] Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, afterwards famous as the ‘King-maker,’ succeeded to the title in 1449, and this letter is not unlikely to have been written in that very year. Certainly it is not many years later. In 1449 and 1450 Warwick was probably in London to attend the Parliament.