[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.
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 lust; 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 cuntre, 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.
[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 Essex 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.
1450
MAY 27
Trusty and welbelovyd frende, I grete you well.[152.2] . . . . And I pray you sende me word who darre be so hardy to keck agen you in my ryght. And sey hem on my half that they shall be qwyt as ferre as law and reson wolle. And yff they wolle not dredde, ne obey that, then they shall be quyt by Blackberd or Whyteberd; that ys to sey, by God or the Devyll. And therfor I charge yow, send me word whethyr such as hafe be myne adversaries before thys tyme, contynew still yn her wylfullnesse, &c.