Writan in my slepyng tyme at after none, on Wytsonday. Also, Sir, yf I have rehersed wyttyngly the text of the Gospell syngularly unto your maistership, I beseche you to be had excused. Your own, H. W.
[87.2] [From Fenn, iii. 278.] The date of this letter is doubtful. The two pieces of intelligence at the beginning were certainly both false rumours, as the writer, indeed, seems to have suspected. Henry VI. never went to Scotland in manner of war, and the Earl of Wiltshire never was made Chancellor. But the time when those rumours seem most likely to have arisen was in the year 1456, when the Duke of York had been deprived of the Protectorate. The Earl of Wiltshire, being of the opposite party to York, was not unlikely to have been talked of as Chancellor, although the Chancellorship was given on the 7th of March to the Archbishop of Canterbury. As to the rumoured expedition against Scotland, we know that in the preceding year James II., in defiance of the truce, laid siege to Berwick, which offered a gallant resistance (Nicolas’s Privy Council Proceedings, vi. 248). This, however, does not appear immediately to have led to open war between the two countries. Diplomatic relations were still carried on till, on the 10th of May 1456, James II. despatched Lyon Herald to the King of England to declare plainly that the Truce of 1453 was injurious to Scotland, and that he did not mean to abide by it (Lambeth MS. 211, f. 146 b). No reply was made to this message till the 26th of July, when an answer was despatched by the Duke of York in the King’s name (see Rymer, xi. 383); but there can be little doubt the desire to punish the insolence of the Scots must have been very general long before.
[88.1] A law was passed in the eighteenth year of Henry VI. to put a stop to the abuse of persons having interest about the Court procuring antedated letters patent, by means of which they were enabled to claim the emoluments of lands or offices granted to them from a date anterior to the actual passing of the grant.—See Hardy’s Introduction to the Patent Rolls of King John, p. xxx.
[88.2] Shere or Shore Thursday, Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday.
[89.1] St. Matthew’s Gospel, chap. xviii. ver. 15, 16, 17, and ver. 21, 22.
[89.2] This relates to papers sent with this letter, and accounts for there being no direction, as the whole was enclosed in a parcel.—F.
[333]
JOHN RUSSE TO JOHN PASTON[90.1]
To my Maister Paston, in haaste.
1456
JUNE 1
Please your good maistirship to wete that my Lord of Norffolk yaf in comaundement to Cristofre and to the balif of Colneise to laboure with us acording to your mocion. And as to Skilly, fermour of Cowhaugh, we enteryd there, and seyd we wold have payment for the half yeer past, and sewrete for the half yeer comynge, or ellys we wold distreyne and put hym out of pocession, and put in a newe fermoure; and so oure demenyng was suche that we toke no distresse, and yit we have hym bounde in an obligacion of xviijli. payabil at Michelmesse without condecion, and vjs. viijd. we receyvid of hym for opocession, for the ferme as yit remayneth on gatherid in the fermourez handes. But I seyd hym I wold be ther ageyn for the recedu of the half yeer ferme past withinne this xiiij. dayes; and he seyd he wold do hise delygence to gather it up. But he spak with Wentworth sethyn, whiche yef hym an uttyr rebuke, as he swor to me, and seyd he wold have hys payment of Skylly, and sewe hise oblygacion this next terme whiche he is bounden in to Wentworth for the yeerly payment of the same ferme; and the seyd Wentworth seyd he wyll takyn an accyon of trespas this next terme ageyn us that were there; and Devyle seyd ye were hender the londes at the begynning of your sute thanne ye be now, and that shalbe knowe be Lammesse next comyng, for he hathe thynges to shewe ye saw nevyr yit. Skilly offerid me xls. to have delyvered hym ageyn hise obligacion, and he wold have put me in pocession of a distresse, and [i.e. if] I wold have delyvered it hym; he seithe he dede nevyr so mad a dede, for Wentworth wold no bettyr mean thane we had takyn a distresse. He shuld sone have remedyed that; but now he seith Skylls is withoute remedy, but he will be payd, &c.