‘This copy has doubtless been a transcript of an original letter of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III., and written just before his seizure of the crown.
‘Raby Castle is in the county of Durham.’
Fenn adds that it does not appear clearly who this Lord Nevill was. But as the letter was found in Raby Castle after the great rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in 1569, it was evidently addressed to one of that family of Nevills, the heads of which were Earls of Westmoreland. In 1483 the Earl of Westmoreland’s name was Ralph Nevill, but he died in the year following, and was succeeded in the title by Ralph, son and heir of his brother, John, Lord Nevill, who was slain at Towton. It was this Ralph, then heir-presumptive to the earldom, who is here called Lord Nevill. He had got his father’s attainder reversed in 1472, and his title of Lord Nevill was recognised. See G. Ele’s Peerage, viii. 112.
[993]
ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK, TO JOHN PASTON[72.1]
On to Jan Paston, in haste.
Not after 1483
Mastyr Paston, I pray yow that it may plese yow to leve yowr logeyng for iij. or foro days tyl I may be porved of anodyr, and I schal do as musche to yowr plesyr. For Godys sake, say me not nay; and I pray yow rekomaund me to my Lord Chambyrleyn. Yowr frend, Elizabeth.
[72.1] [From Fenn, ii. 292.] This is a holograph letter of Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, the sister of Edward IV. There can be little doubt that the Lord Chamberlain referred to is the Lord Hastings who has been very frequently mentioned in this correspondence; and if so, the letter cannot be later than 1483, as he was beheaded in that year on the 13th June, by order of the Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester. We may therefore place it for convenience among the letters of Edward V.’s time, though undoubtedly it may be a few years earlier. Facsimiles of the original, both back and front, are given by Fenn. It is endorsed in the hand of John Paston, the younger (certainly not in that of his brother Sir John, as Fenn supposed)—‘Littra Ducisse Suff.’