[1004]
ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF SURREY, TO JOHN PASTON[87.2]

To myn ryght worshepfull cosyn, John Paston, Esquyer.

1485
OCT. 3

Myn ryght worshipfull cosyn, I recomawnde me hertly to you, thankyng you of your greet kyndnes and lovyng disposicion towardys myn lord and me at all tymes, which I pray God I may leve to see the acquytell ther of to your plesure, prayeng you of your good continuans.

Cosyn, I shewyd you myn mynde that I wolde have myn shildern to Thorpe,[87.3] wher in, God yelde you, it pleasyd you to sey that I shulde have hors of you to help to conveye them thyder; but now I undirstonde myn Lord Fitz Walter[87.4] hath dischargyd myn lordys servauntes thens, affermyng up on them that they shulde have had unfittyng langage of the Kynges Grace. Cosyn, I trust that ye and all the jentilmen of the shire, which have had knowleche of myn lordes servauntes, kan sey that her to for they have not ben of that disposicion to be lavas of theyr tungys, whan they had moore cause of booldnes than they have nowe. I wolde not have thowght myn Lord Fitzwalter wolde have takyn so ferforth displeasure for the keepyng of x. or xij. men at Thorpe; I woot weell ther exceded not iij. mees[88.1] meet, good and bad. I truste, all thow I weer a soel woman, to mayntene so many at the leeste, what so evyr I dyde moore.

I trustyd to have fowndyn myn Lord Fitzwalter better lord to me, seyng whan I was wyth myn Lord of Oxenforth, up on myn desyre and request at that tyme made un to hym, he promysed me to be good lord to myn lord and me, wher of I praye you to put hym in remembrauns, trustyng yit be the meene of you to fynde hym better lord to me her aftyr.

I have fownde myn Lord of Oxenforth singuler very good and kynde lord to myn lord and me, and stedefaste in hys promys, wher by he hath wonne myn lordys service as longe as he leevyth, and me to be hys trewe beedwoman terme of myn lyve; for hym I drede mooste, and yit as hyther to I fynde hym beste. I pray you good cosyn, the rather by your meane, that I may have the continuauns of hys good lordship, and to myn poore power I truste to deserve it. I pray you, cosyn, that thys byll may recomawnde [me][88.2] to myn Lady Brews and to myn cosyn, your wyf.

From Mynster, in the Yle of Shepey, the iijde day of Octobre. I pray you yeve credens to the berer of thys, and to Thomas Jenney, whan he comyth to you. [88.3]Your faythefoull cosyene, E. Surrey.

[87.2] [From Paston MSS., B.M.] This letter must have been written either in 1485 or in 1486. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, was taken prisoner at the battle of Bosworth on the 22nd August 1485, and was not released from confinement till 1487, in which latter year also John Paston, to whom this letter is addressed, was knighted at the battle of Stoke on the 16th June. Most likely the letter is of the year 1485, at the beginning of the Earl’s imprisonment, and when Henry VII. had been just six weeks upon the throne.

[87.3] In Norfolk.—F.