My Lord of Canterbury[2.4] hathe received hys crosse, and I was with hym in the kynggs chamber qwan he mad hys homage. I tolde Harry Wylton the demeanyng betwix the kyng and hym; it war to long to wrythe.
As for the prist that dede areste me, I can not understand that it is the pryste that ze mene.
Her is gret pestelens. I purpose to fle in to the contre. My Lord of Oxforthe is come azen fro the se, and he hath geth hym lytyll thank in this countre. Much more thyng I wulde wrythe to zow, but I lak lysore.
Harry Wylton sey the Kyng. My Lord of Ely[2.5] hathe do hys fewthe [his fealty]. God have zow in his blyssyd kepyng.
Wretyn at Lundon on the Fryday be for owr Ladys day, the Natyvite, in gret hast. I pray recomand me to my suster, and cosyn Cler. Be yowr broder, Wm. Paston.
[1.1] [From Fenn, iii. 220.] There is abundant evidence that the year in which this letter was written was 1454. The references to Lord Grey’s offer of a husband for Elizabeth Paston, and to Sir John Fastolf’s going into Norfolk, of which William Paston had before written by anticipation, though a little prematurely, in No. 254, are in themselves sufficient to fix the chronology; but the mention of fealty having been done by a new Archbishop of Canterbury and a new Bishop of Ely removes any possible doubt on the subject.
[1.2] Thomas Billing was made a serjeant in 1453, and about 1469 was appointed Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
[1.3] Edmund, Lord Grey of Ruthyn.—See Letter 250.
[2.1] Stephen Scroope.—See vol. ii. p. 108, Note 4.
[2.2] Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, was appointed chancellor in April 1454.