[274.2] See vol. ii. Nos. 238, 239.
[274.3] Sir John Howard, who was sheriff of Norfolk this year.
[456]
THE EARL OF OXFORD TO JOHN PASTON[275.1]
To owre right trusty and welbeloved John Paston.
Th’erl of Oxenford.
1461
MAY 31
Right trusty and welbeloved, we grete yow well, and pray yow, as oure trust is in yow, that if ye or any of yowre men here that Howard purposith hym to make any aray at owre manor of Wynche, that ye woll lete John Keche, owre kepere ther of, haue wetyng by tymes, for and he have warnyng he will kepe it in to the tyme that we come thedir, with the grace of God, wiche have yow in His kepyng. Wretyn in owre manor of Wyvynho the last day of May. Oxenford.
[275.1] [Douce MS. 393, f. 85.] The date of this letter may, with great probability, be attributed to the year 1461. It certainly cannot be later, as the writer was executed for high treason in February 1462. He was found to have been corresponding with Margaret of Anjou for the restoration of Henry VI., but the discovery must have been much later than May 1461. Sir John Howard, who, for his services to the House of York, was afterwards made Duke of Norfolk, appears to have had great influence just after the accession of Edward IV., which he used in a very overbearing manner; and we have already seen, by the last letter, that the Earl of Oxford’s servant, Thomas Denyes, was at this very time suffering much persecution at his hands.
[457]
THOMAS PLAYTER TO JOHN PASTON[276.1]
To my right good maister, John Paston, in all hast.