[92.1] Francis, Viscount Lovel, married Anne, daughter of Alice, Lady Fitzhugh.
[1009]
MARGARET, COUNTESS OF OXFORD, TO JOHN PASTON[92.2]
To my right trusti and welbiloved John Paston, Shrieve of Norffolk and Suffolk.
1486
MAY 19
Right trusti and welbiloved, I recomaund me unto you. And for as moche as I am credebly enfourmed that Fraunceis, late Lorde Lovell, is now of late resorted into the Yle of Ely, to the entente by alle lykelyhod, to finde the waies and meanes to gete him shipping and passage in your costes, or ellis to resorte ageyn to seintuary, if he can or maie;
I therfor hertily desire praie you, and neverthelesse, in the Kinges name, streitly chargie you that ye in all goodly haste endevore your self that suche wetche or other meanes be used and hadde in the poorts, and creks, and othre places wher ye thinke necessary by your discrecion, to the letting of his seid purpose; and that ye also use all the waies ye can or maie by your wisdom, to the taking of the same late Lorde Lovell. And what pleasur ye maie do to the Kings Grace in this matier, I am sure, is not to you unknowen. And God kepe you.
Wretyn at Lavenham, the xix. day of May. Margaret Oxynford.[93.1]
[92.2] [From Fenn, ii. 338.] The date of this is quite certain from the subject to which it refers, as well as from the fact of John Paston being at the time Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. Francis, Viscount Lovel, was one of the principal adherents of Richard III., and was attainted after the accession of Henry VII. in 1485. For some time he lay concealed, but in the spring of 1486 he attempted to raise an insurrection along with Humphrey and Thomas Stafford, who had broken out of their sanctuary at Colchester. He is said to have been drowned in the Trent in 1487, in endeavouring to escape after the battle of Stoke. But according to another story he lived in concealment for some time after.
[93.1] Margaret, daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and sister of Richard, the great Earl of Warwick, was the first wife of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford.—F.