Ryte reverent mayster and most trusty frend in erthe, as lowly as I kan or may, I recomaunde me, &c. Syr, in feyth I was sore aferd that ze had a gret lettyng that ze come not on Wednysday to met, &c. Be myn feythe, and ze had be here, ze schuld haf had ryte good chere, &c., and hafe faryd ryte wele after zour pleser, &c., with more, &c.
Sir John Tatirshall is at one with Heydon, &c., and Lord Skalys hathe made a lofeday[195.2] with the prior and Heydon in alle materys except the matere of Snoryng, &c. And the seyd pryor spake maysterly to the jurrorys, &c., and told hem and [i.e. if] they had dred God and hurt of here sowlys, they wold haf some instruccyon of the one party as wele as of the other. But they were so bold they were not aferd, for they fownde no bonys to sey in her verdyte, as T. T.[196.1] and J. H.[196.2] wold, &c.
A lewde [i.e. illiterate] doctor of Ludgate prechid on Soneday fowrtenyte at Powlys, chargyng the peple that no man schuld preyen for these Lords traytorys,[196.3] &c.; and he had lytyl thank, as he was worthy, &c. And for hyse lewd demenyng his brethir arn had in the lesse favour at London, &c. Doctor Pynchebek and Doctor Westhawe, grete prechowrys and parsonys at London, bene now late made monkys of Charterows at Schene, one at the on place and an other at the other place, &c.
The Chaunceler[196.4] is not good to these Lords, &c., for he feryth the Erle of Marche wyl cleyme by inheritans the Erldam of Ha . . . . .[196.5] &c., of which mater I herd gret speche in Somercede schyre, &c. Wyndham, Heydon, Todynham, Blake, W. Chambirleyn, Wentworth, have late commyssyonys to take for tretorys and send to the next gayl all personys fawtorys and weelwyllerys to the seyd Lords, &c. Mayster Radclyff and ze haf none of commyssyonys directid to zow, &c., for ze bene holdyn favorabil, &c. Wyndham and Heydon bene namyd here causerys of the commyssyonys, &c.
On Moneday last at Crowmere was the ore and the bokys of regystre of the amrelte takyn a wey from my Lord Scalys men be a gret multitude of my Lord Rossys, &c. The Lord Skalys is to my Lord Prince,[196.6] &c., to wayte on hym, &c. He seyth, per Deum Sanctum, as we sey here, he schal be amrel or he schal ly there by, &c. Be my feyth, here is a coysy werd [unsettled world]. Walsham of Chauncery, that never made lesyng, told me that Bokkyng was with my Lord Chaunceler this terme, but I askyd not how many tymys, &c.
As I haf wrytyn to zow oftyn byfor this, Facite vobis amicos de mammona iniquitatis, quia de facto. T. T., J. H., et J. W. [J. Wyndham] cum ceteris Magistri Fastolf fallacibus famulis magnam gerunt ad vos invidiam, quod excelleritis eos in bonis, &c., Judas non dormit, &c. Noli zelare facientes iniquitatem, quoniam tanquam fenum velociter arescent et quemadmodum olera herbarum cito per Dei gratiam decident. Ideo sic in Psalmo: Spera in Domino et fac bonitatem et pasceris in divitiis ejus et delectare in Domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui.[197.1] Et aliter: Jacta cogitatum tuum in Domino et ipse te enutriet.[197.2] Utinam, inquit Apostolus, abscindantur qui vos conturbant,[197.3] &c. Et alibi: Cavete vos a malis et importunis hominibus.[197.4] Precor ergo Deum qui vos et me creavit et suo pretioso sanguine nos redemit, vos vestros et vestra gratiose conservet in prosperis et gratiosius dirigat in agendis.
Scriptum Walsham, feria quarta[197.5] in nocte cum magna festinatione, &c. Utinam iste mundus malignus transiret et concupiscentia ejus.
Vester ad vota promptissimus, Frater J. Brackley,
Minorum minimus.
[195.1] [From Fenn, iii. 346.] This letter belongs to the latter part of the year 1459. After the dispersion of the Duke of York’s army near Ludlow in October of that year, commissions were granted to various persons to arrest and punish his adherents. Even as early as the 14th of October, Lord Rivers and others were commissioned to seize their lands and goods in different counties (see Patent Roll, 38 Hen. VI., p. 1, m. 12, in dorso). But this letter, we are inclined to think, was written about six or seven weeks later, for it will be seen by the next that Bocking, who is here stated to have been with my Lord Chancellor ‘this term,’ must have been in attendance on him before the 7th December, and therefore, we may presume, during Michaelmas term, which ended on the 28th November. It is, however, difficult to judge, from the very slender allusion to Sir John Fastolf, whether this letter was written before or after the old knight’s death. Brackley here speaks of having been quite recently in Somersetshire, which is not unlikely to have been in the middle of October, when the Earls of March, Warwick, and Salisbury withdrew into the West. Brackley, as will be seen, was a great partisan of these Lords, and may very well have accompanied them; but not long before Fastolf’s death he appears to have been at Norwich.
[195.2] Love days were days appointed for the settlement of disputes by arbitration.