THE PLAGUE (1471).
Source.—Paston Letters, vol. iii., Nos. 675, 681.
Sir John Paston to John Paston.
... I pray you send me word if any of our friends or well-doers be dead, for I fear that there is great death in Norwich, and in other borough towns in Norfolk, for I assure you it is the most universal death that ever I wist in England; for, by my troth, I cannot hear by pilgrims that pass the country nor none other man that rideth or goeth [through] any country, that any borough town in England is free from that sickness; God cease it when it please Him. Wherefore, for God's sake, let my mother take heed to my young brethren that they be not in any place where that sickness is reigning, nor that they disport not with any young people which resort where any sickness is, and if there be any of that sickness dead or infect in Norwich, for God's sake, let her send them to some friend of hers in the country....
Margaret Paston to her son John.
... As for tidings here, your cousin Barney of Wichingham is passed to God, him God assoil. Veyly's wife and London's wife, and Pycard the baker of Twmlond be gone also; all this household and this parish is as ye left it, blessed be God; we live in fear, but we know not whether to flee, for to be better than we be here.
THE DEATH OF HENRY VI. (May 21, 1471).
A. Source.—Chronicles of the White Rose (Warkworth's "Chronicle"), p. 131. (Bohn, London: 1845).
And the same night that King Edward came to London, King Harry, being in ward, in prison in the Tower of London, was put to death, the twenty-first day of May, on a Tuesday night, betwixt eleven and twelve of the clock; being then at the Tower the Duke of Gloucester, brother to King Edward, and many others; and on the morrow he was coffined and brought to St. Paul's, and his face was open that every man might see him. And in his lying, he bled on the pavement there; and afterward at the Black Friars was brought, and there he bled anew and afresh; and from thence he was carried to Chertsey Abbey in a boat, and buried there in our Lady Chapel.
B. Source.—Chronicles of the White Rose (Fleetwood's "Arrival of King Edward IV."), p. 93. (Bohn, London: 1845.)