As for tydyngs, syche as we have here I send yow. My Lord and my Lady[96.1] ar in good hele, blyssyd be God, and my Lord hathe gret labore and cost here in Walys for to take dyvers gentyllmen here whyche wer consentyng and helpyng on to the Duke of Somersettys goyng; and they were apelyd of othyr se[r]teyn poyntys of treson, and thys mater. And bycause the Kyng sent my Lord woord to keep thys contre, is cause that my Lord terythe here thus longe. And now the Kyng hathe geve my Lord power, whedyr he wole do execusyon upon thes gentyllmen, or pardon hem, whedyr that hym lyst; and as fertheforthe as I kan undyrstand yet, they shall have grase. And as sone as thes men be come in, my Lord is perposyd to come to London, whyche I supose schall be within thys fortnyght. The menys namys that be apechyd ar thes, John Hanmer, and Wylliam hys sone, Roger Pulyston, and Edward of Madok; these be men of worchepe that schall come in.
The Comenys in Lancasher and Chescher wer up to the nombyr of a x. ml. [10,000] or more, but now they be downe ayen; and one or ij. of hem was hedyd in Chestyr as on Saterday last past.
Thomas Danyell[96.2] is here in Chesscher, but I wot not in what plase, he hathe sent iij. or iiij. letyrys to Syr John Howard, syne my Lord come hedyr.
And othyr tydynggs her we none here, but that I supose ye have herd before; I supose veryly that it schall be so nye Esterne[96.3] er ever my Lord come to London, that I schal not move [q. mowe? i.e. be able] come home to yow before Estern; wherfor I besech yow, that ye wole wyche save [vouchsafe] that one of your men may send a byll to myne oncyll Clement, or to som othyr man, who that ye wole, in youyr name, that they may delyver me the mony that I am behynd of this quarter syn Crystmas, and for the next quarter, in parte of that some that it plesid yow to grant me by yer; for by my trowthe, the felawchep have not so myche mony as we wend to have had be ryth myche; for my Lord hath had gret costs syn he came hedyr. Wherfore I besech yow, that I may have this mony at Estern, for I have borowyd mony that I must paye ayen after Estern: and I pray to Allmyty God have yow in kepyng.
Wretyn in the Castyll of the Holte, in Walys, the fyrst day of Marche. Your sone and lowly servant, John Paston, the yongest.
[95.3] [From Fenn, i. 284.] ‘The Duke of Somerset’s going’ here referred to cannot well be his flight to Scotland in 1462 (see [No. 512]), though the time of year at which this letter is dated would agree very well with that supposition; for it appears by [Letter 511] that John Paston, the father, was at that time residing in the Temple and not at Caister; nor indeed have we distinct evidence of his being at the latter place before 1464. Moreover, in the beginning of 1463, Somerset had just made his peace with King Edward and been received into favour, but early in 1464 he rebelled again. There can be little doubt, therefore, that this year is the true date.
[96.1] John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and Elizabeth, his wife.
[96.2] This gentleman had a reversionary grant of the constableship of Rising Castle in 1448, 27 Hen. VI. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Howard, and sister of Sir John, afterwards Duke of Norfolk. He is said to have been attainted in the 1 Edw. IV., but fully restored both in blood and possessions in the 14th of the same King. He was esquire of the body to Henry VI.—F.
[96.3] In 1464 Easter Day fell on the 1st of April.