Desires to hear of his ‘durat prosperite and welfare.’ Hopes he will protect him as he has done, if any man will put him to any wrong. Has land in Lytyl Pagrave and in Lytyldonham, called Strangys, which he wishes to sell to Paston before any other, on condition that he will ‘keep it counsel’ from John Pagrave till he and the writer have accorded.
At Sporle, Friday, after Ascension Day, 33 Hen. VI.
[23.1] [From MS. Phillipps, 9735, No. 252.]
[282]
MEMORIAL TO HENRY VI[23.2]
Tradatur J. P.
1455
MAY 21
Moste Cristen Kyng, ryght hygh and myghty Prince, and our mooste redoubted souverayn Lorde, we recomaunde ws as humblye as we suffice unto your hygh excellence, where unto please it to wete that for so moche as we hyre and understand to our grettyst sorowe erthlye that our ennemyes of approuved experience, such as abyde and kepe theym sylf under the whyng of your Magestee Royall, have throwen unto the same ryght stedyousely and ryght fraudulentlye manye ambyguytees and doubtes of the fayth, lygeaunce, and dewtee that, God knowyth, we beere unto your Hyghnesse, and have put theym yn as grete devoyr as they coude to enstraunge ws from your mooste noble presonce and from the favour of your goode grace; whych goode grace to ws ys and owe to be our singuler and mooste desyred yoie and consolacion: We at thys tyme be comyng wyth grace as your true and humble liege men, toward your seyd Hygh Excellence to declare and shew therto at large owr sayd fayth and ligeaunce, entendyng wyth the mercye of Jesu yn the seyd comyng, to put ws yn as diligent and hertye devoyr and dewtee as onye your lyege men on lyve to that at may avaunce or preferre the honnour and wellfare off the sayd Mageste Royalle and the seurte of the sayd most notable person; the whych [we] beseche our blessed Creature to prosper [in] as grete honnor, yoie, and felicitie as ever had onye prince erthlye, and to your sayd Hyghnesse so to take, accept, and repute ws, and not to plese to geve trust or confidence unto the sinistrez, maliciouse, and fraudulent laboures and rapportes of our sayd ennemyes unto our comyng to your sayd moste noble presence; where unto we beseche humblye that we may be admitted as your liege men, to th’entent to show ws the same; wheroff yerstenday we wrote our lettres of our entent to the ryght reverent fadre yn God, the Archebysshop of Caunterburye,[24.1] your Chauncellr of England, to be shewed to your sayd Hyghnesse, whereoff, forsomoch as we be not acerteyned whethyr our sayd entent be by hys fadrehode shewed unto your seyd goode grace or not, we sende thereoff unto thys closed a copy of our said lettres of our disposicion toward your sayd Hygh Excellence and the honnour and weele of the land, whereynne we wolle persevere wyth the grace of our Lorde.
[23.2] [From Fenn, iii. 178.] This is a copy of the memorial drawn up by the Duke of York and the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury just before the first battle of St. Albans, which the Duke of Somerset and his friends would not allow to be presented to the King. Although this copy is without date, the original was dated at Ware, the 21st May.—See Rolls of Parl. v. 281, where the whole document is cited.
[24.1] Fenn states that on the margin of the MS., in a hand nearly coeval with the letter itself, is written, ‘Memorandum quod dict’ literæ (?) Dominorum direct’ Archiepiscopo Cant. est apud . . . . .’ What followed is lost, the paper being torn. The letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, however, will be found quoted at full length in the Rolls of Parliament, v. 280-1.