Chapter 3 No.3

Death of Charles the Bold

The allusions to public affairs contained in the letters about this time are of some interest. News came from Rome that a great embassy, consisting of Earl Rivers, Lord Ormond, Lord Scrope, and other lords of England, had been honourably received by the pope, but after their departure had been robbed of their plate and jewels at twelve miles' distance from Rome. On this they returned to the city to seek a remedy for the property they had lost was worth fully a thousand marks. Defeat of the Duke of Burgundy by the Swiss. In the same letter mention is made of the conquest of Lorraine by the Duke of Burgundy, and his disastrous expedition into Switzerland immediately after. By the first of these events the prospects of Margaret of Anjou were seriously impaired, and the French king paid less attention to her interests. In the second, the victorious career of Charles the Bold had been already checked by the first great defeat at Grandson. His vanguard had been broken, his artillery captured by the Swiss, his whole army repulsed, and booty of enormous value left in the hands of the enemy. 'And so,' as Sir John Paston reports the matter, 'the rich saletts, helmets, garters, nowches gilt, and all is gone, with tents, pavilions, and all; and so men deem his pride is abated. Men told him that they were froward karls, but he would not believe it. And yet men say that he will to them again. God speed them both!'299.1

His death. A.D. 1477, 5th Jan.

This expectation, as we know, was verified, and the result was that the defeat of Charles at Grandson was followed by another still more decisive defeat at Morat. Yet Charles, undaunted, only transferred the scene of action to Lorraine, where he met with his final defeat and death at Nancy. The event made a mighty change. The duchy which he had nearly succeeded in erecting into an independent kingdom, and which, though nominally in feudal subjection to France, had been in his day a first-rate European power, now fell to a female. The greatness of Burgundy had already departed, and the days of its feudal independence were numbered. To England the state of matters was one of deep concern, for, should France 300 turn hostile again, the keeping of Calais might not be so easy, unless the young Duchess Mary could succeed in organising a strong government in the Low Countries. A Great Council was accordingly convoked by the king, and met on the 18th of February. The world, as Sir John Paston wrote, seemed to be 'all quavering.' Disturbance was sure to break out somewhere, so that 'young men would be cherished.' A great comfort this, in Sir John's opinion, and he desires his brother John to 'take heart' accordingly.300.1

299.1 No. 889.

300.1 No. 900.

Conclusion of the Family History

John Paston and Margery Brews.

His brother John, however, found occupation of a more peaceful character. About this very time he had met with a lady named Margery Brews, daughter of Sir Thomas Brews, and had clearly determined in his own mind that she would be a desirable wife for him. In the spring of the year 1476, he had heard that a certain Mrs. Fitzwalter had a sister to marry, and thought his brother Sir John might negotiate a match for him in that quarter;300.2 but the affair fell through, apparently because his brother refused to stand surety that he would make her a jointure of 50 marks a year.300.3 Not many months, however, passed away, when he and Dame Elizabeth Brews were in correspondence about his proposed marriage with her daughter. He had promised the mother not to speak his mind to the young lady herself till he had come to an agreement with her parents; but Margery, I suppose, had read his purpose without an explicit declaration, or had forced it out of him. At all events she was no coy heroine of the modern type, but had a very decided mind upon the subject, and gave her mother no peace with her solicitations to bring the matter to effect.300.4

A.D. 1477, Feb.

Her mother, for her part, was not unwilling, and believing that pecuniary matters might be easily arranged with her husband, wrote to John Paston in February, reminding him that Friday was Valentine's Day, when every bird chose him a mate. She also invited him to visit her on Thursday night, 301 and stay till Monday, when she hoped he would have an opportunity of speaking to her husband. In fact, she showed herself quite eager for the match, and alluding apparently to some difficulty made by her husband to terms that had been already offered, said it was but a simple oak that was cut down at the first stroke.301.1 Thus encouraged, John Paston persevered in his suit, and Margery wrote him very warm and ardent letters, calling him her well-beloved valentine, and vowing that she would accept him with half the 'livelode' he actually possessed.301.2 The question, however, was how much the father could afford to give along with his daughter, and what Margaret Paston and Sir John could do that they might have a reasonable settlement. Sir John Paston's answer was very discouraging. He felt himself in no condition to help his brother, and after pointing out the difficulty of acting on some of his suggestions, he added in a surly fashion: 'This matter is driven thus far forth without my counsel; I pray you make an end without my counsel. If it be well, I would be glad; if it be otherwise, it is pity. I pray you trouble me no more.'301.3

Margaret Paston, however, showed a mother's heart in the affair, and consented to entail upon the young people her manor of Sparham, if Sir John would consent to ratify the gift, and forgo his prospective interest in the succession. Even to this Sir John would not quite consent. He wished well to his brother, owned that it would be a pity the match should be broken off, and did not wonder at what his mother had done; but he saw reasons why he could not 'with his honesty' confirm it. He did not, however, mean to raise any objection. 'The Pope,' he said, 'will suffer a thing to be used, but he will not license, nor grant it to be used nor done, and so I.' He would be as kind a brother as could be, and if Sir Thomas Brews was afraid he might hereafter disturb John Paston and his wife in the possession of the manor, he was quite ready to give a bond that he would attempt no such thing. The manor was not his, and he professed he did not covet it.301.4

302 Sir John seems really to have desired his brother's happiness, though from his own bad management he knew not how to help him.302.1 Hitherto he had been the mediator of all such schemes for him, probably because the younger brother believed his prospects to be mainly dependent upon the head of the house; and I am sorry to say he had been employed in the like duty even after John Paston had begun to carve for himself. For it is clear that after receiving those warm letters from Margery Brews, in which she called him her valentine, and was willing to share his lot if it were with half his actual means, he had commissioned his brother once more to make inquiries about a certain Mistress Barly. Sir John's report, however, was unfavourable. It was 'but a bare thing.' Her income was insignificant, and she herself was insignificant in person; for he had taken the pains to see her on his brother's account. She was said to be eighteen years of age, though she looked but thirteen; but if she was the mere girl that she looked, she might be a woman one day.302.2

Perhaps, after all, like Captain Absolute, John Paston had more a mind of his own in the matter than might be inferred from his giving so many commissions to another to negotiate a wife for him. At all events, if he had not made up his mind before, he seems really to have made it up now, and he steered his way between difficulties on the one side and on the other with a good deal of curious diplomacy, for which we may refer the reader to the letters themselves.302.3 In the end, though Sir John seems to have been in vain urged by his mother to show himself more liberal,302.4 all other obstacles were removed, and during the autumn of the year 1477 the marriage took effect.302.5

Before Christmas in that same year, it had become apparent that children would soon follow of their union;302.6 and after the New Year John Paston took Margery to her father's house to be with her friends a short time, while yet she could go about with ease.302.7 Their eldest child was born in the following summer, and received the name of Christopher.302.8 Other 303 children followed very soon,303.1 and by the time they had been seven years married, John and Margery Paston had two lads old enough to be sent on messages,303.2 besides, in all probability, one or more daughters. It was, however, their second son, William,303.3 that continued their line, and became the ancestor of the future Earls of Yarmouth.

The Duke of Suffolk again gives trouble.

In the spring of 1478 Sir John Paston was again involved in a dispute with a powerful nobleman. The Duke of Suffolk revived his old claim to Hellesdon and Drayton, and ventured to sell the woods to Richard Ferror, the Mayor of Norwich, who thereupon began to cut them down. Sir John brought the matter into Chancery, and hastened up to London. Ferror professed great regret, and said he had no idea but that the manor was in peaceable possession of the duke, adding that if Sir John had sent him the slightest warning, he would have refrained from making such a bargain. This, however, was a mere pretence; for, as Sir John remarked to his brother, he must certainly have spoken about the matter beforehand with some well-informed men in Norwich, who would have set him right.303.4 At all events Ferror went on with what he had begun, and nearly the whole of Drayton wood was felled by Corpus Christi Day, the 20th day of May. Whetley, a servant of Sir John Paston, who had been sent down from London on the business, writes on that day to his master that the duke had made a formal entry into Hellesdon on Wednesday in Whitsun week. He dined at the manor-house, 'drew a stew, and took plenty of fish.' I suppose from what follows that he also held a court as lord of the manor. 'At his being there that day,' writes Whetley, 'there was never no man that played Herod in Corpus Christi play better and more agreeable to his pageant than he did. But ye shall understand that it was afternoon, and the weather hot, and he so feeble for sickness that his legs would not bear him, but there was two men had great pain to keep him on his feet. And there ye were judged. 304 Some said "Slay"; some said "Put him in prison." And forth come my lord, and he would meet you with a spear, and have none other 'mends for the trouble ye have put him to but your heart's blood, and that will he get with his own hands; for and ye have Hellesdon and Drayton, ye shall have his life with it.'304.1

It appears, however, that the Duke of Suffolk was not in high favour with the king, and it was considered at this time that Sir John Paston's influence at court was very high. Although the affair with Anne Haute had been broken off, it was expected that he would marry some one nearly related to the queen's family; and Margaret Paston thought it a strong argument for the match, if her son could find it in his heart to love the lady, that it would probably set at rest the question of his title to Hellesdon and Drayton.304.2 This ambitious hope was not destined to be gratified. We know not even who the lady was that is thus referred to; and as to the dispute with the Duke of Suffolk, it remained unsettled at least a year and a half-in fact, as long as Sir John Paston lived.304.3

The manor of Oxnead.

Two or three months after the beginning of this dispute, William Paston the uncle accompanied the Duke of Buckingham into Norfolk on pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham. At his coming he brought a report that there was likely also to be trouble in the manor of Oxnead, which belonged to his mother Agnes, the widow of the judge. The nature of this trouble is not stated; but apparently it was either occasioned, like the other, by a claim of the Duke of Suffolk, or it was feared the duke might attempt to profit by it. 'Wherefore I pray you,' writes Sir John Paston to his brother, 'take heed lest that the Duke of Suffolk's council play therewith now at the vacation of the benefice, as they did with the benefice of Drayton, which by the help of Mr. John Salett and Donne, his men, there was a quest made by the said Donne that found that the Duke of Suffolk was very patron, which was false; yet they did it for an evidence.' Whether the duke's council attempted the same policy on this occasion, we cannot say; but by some means or other the Paston family 305 were hindered from exercising their right of presentation, so that they very nearly lost it. A rector named Thomas, presented to the living by Agnes Paston three years before, died in March 1478. On the 5th August following, Agnes Paston made out letters of presentation in favour of Dr. Richard Lincoln, but for some reason or other this presentation did not pass; and eight days later she presented a certain Sir William Holle, who we are told ran away. Her rights, however, were contested; and after the benefice had remained more than a year vacant, some insisted that it had lapsed to the bishop by the patron not having exercised her rights within six months. She had, however, as a matter of fact, delivered Sir William Holle his presentation within that period; and though he did not avail himself of it, she was, after a good deal of trouble, allowed to present again.305.1

Walter Paston.

In the spring of 1478 Margaret Paston had a serious illness, and, thinking that it would carry her off, she made her will. She lived, however, six years longer, and the will she had made was superseded by another dated on the 4th of February 1482.305.2 For in the interval considerable changes took place in the family, which we shall mention presently. At this time she had five, if not six, sons and two daughters, but the daughters were both of them married; and, as we have already intimated, she was particularly anxious about her son Walter, who was now at Oxford being educated for the priesthood.305.3 He had not yet taken orders, when his mother, finding some benefice vacant, of which she expected to have the disposal,305.4 thought of conferring it upon him, and took advice upon the matter of Dr. Pykenham, Judge of the Court of Arches. She was told, however, that her intention was quite against the canon law for three reasons: first, because her son had not received the tonsure, which was popularly called Benet; secondly, he had not attained the lawful age of four-and-twenty; and thirdly, he would require to 306 take priest's orders within a twelvemonth after presentation to the benefice, unless he had a dispensation from the Pope, which Dr. Pykenham felt sure he could never obtain.306.1 His progress at Oxford, however, seems to have given satisfaction to his tutor, Edmund Alyard, who reports on the 4th March 1479 that he might take a bachelor's degree in art when he pleased, and afterwards proceed to the faculty of law.306.2 This course he intended to pursue; and he took his degree at Midsummer accordingly,306.3 then returned home to Norwich for the vacation. His career, however, was arrested by sudden illness, and he died in August. He left a will, hastily drawn up before his death, by which it appears that he was possessed of the manor of Cressingham, which he bequeathed to his brother John Paston, with a proviso that if ever he came to inherit the lands of his father it should go to his other brother Edmund. He also possessed a flock of sheep at Mautby, which he desired might be divided between his sister Anne Yelverton and his sister-in-law Margery, John Paston's wife.306.4

Clement.

Of Margaret Paston's other sons one named Clement is mentioned in Fenn's pedigree of the family; but he is nowhere spoken of in the correspondence. I presume that Fenn was not without authority for inserting his name in the family tree, and I have surmised that he was one of the 'young soldiers,' about whom Margaret Paston was solicitous, who went over to Calais in 1475. He may perhaps have died soon after. The absence of his name, especially in his mother's will, is at least strong presumptive evidence that he was not alive in 1482. Edmund and William. Edmund Paston, another brother, was probably of about the same age as Walter, perhaps a year or two older; and the youngest of the family was William, who in the beginning of the year 1479 was learning to make Latin verses at Eton.306.5 He must have been at this time barely nineteen years of age;306.6 but he had precociously fallen in love with a certain Margaret Alborow. He writes to his brother John 307 Paston how he first became acquainted with her at the marriage of her elder sister,-that she was not more than eighteen or nineteen (which was just about his own age); that she was to have a portion in money and plate whenever she was married, but he was afraid no 'livelode' or lands till after her mother's decease. His brother John, however, could find out that by inquiry.307.1 As might have been expected, this calf-love came to nothing. I do not know if William Paston ever married at all. At a more advanced age his brother Edmund writes to him offering to visit on his behalf a widow, who had just 'fallen' at Worsted, whose deceased husband had been worth ￡1000, and had left her 100 marks in money, with plate of the same value, and ￡10 a year in land.307.2

For Edmund Paston himself the same kind of office had been performed in 1478 by his brother John, who, having heard while in London of 'a goodly young woman to marry,' spoke with some of her friends, and got their consent to her marrying his brother. She was a mercer's daughter, and was to have a portion of ￡200 in ready money, and 20 marks a year in land after the decease of a stepmother, who was close upon fifty. This match, however, did not take effect, and about three years later Edmund Paston married Catherine, the widow of William Clippesby.307.3

Death of Agnes Paston;

The year 1479 was, like several of the years preceding, one of great mortality, and it was marked by several deaths in the Paston family. The grave had not yet closed over Walter Paston, when news came to Norwich of the death of his grandmother, old Agnes Paston, the widow of the judge. At the same time John Paston's wife, Margery, gave birth, in her husband's absence, to a child that died immediately after it was born.307.4 This perhaps was a mere accidental coincidence. Two months later Sir John Paston found it necessary to go up to London on business, partly, it would seem, about his dispute with the Duke of Suffolk, and partly, perhaps, to keep 308 watch on the proceedings of his uncle William with regard to the lands of his grandmother; for it appears that his uncle, who immediately on his mother's death laid claim to the manor of Marlingford,308.1 had been making certain applications to the escheator on the subject, which were naturally viewed with jealousy. On his arrival in town, Sir John found his chamber ill ventilated, and his 'stuff not so clean' as he had expected. He felt uneasy for fear of the prevailing sickness, and some disappointments in money matters added sensibly to his discomfort.308.2 and of Sir John Paston. He fell ill, and died in November. John Paston was on the point of riding up to London to have brought down his body with that of his grandmother, who had been kept unburied nearly three months, to lay them both in Bromholm Priory, beside his father. But he was met by a messenger, who told him that his brother had already been buried at the White Friars, in London.308.3

We cannot close the record of Sir John Paston's life without a certain feeling of regret. The very defects of his character give an interest to it which we do not feel in that of his father or of his brother John. He is a careless soldier, who loves adventure, has some influence at court, mortgages his lands, wastes his property, and is always in difficulties. Unsuccessful in love himself, he yet does a good deal of wooing and courting disinterestedly in behalf of a younger brother. He receives sprightly letters from his friends, with touches of broad humour occasionally, which are not worse than might be expected of the unrestrained freedom of the age.308.4 He patronises literature too, and a transcriber copies books for him.308.5 With his death the domestic interest of the Paston Letters almost comes to an end, and the quantity of the correspondence very greatly diminishes. The love-making, the tittle-tattle, and a good deal of the humour disappear, and the few desultory letters that remain relate, for the most part, either to politics or to business.

The title to Marlingford and Oxnead.

As soon as the news of his death arrived in Norfolk, John Paston wrote to his mother, desiring that his brother Edmund would ride to Marlingford, Oxnead, Paston, Cromer, and 309 Caister, to intimate his right of succession to the tenants of these different manors, and to warn those of Marlingford and Oxnead to pay no rents to the servants or officers of his uncle William.309.1 These two manors, the reader will remember, belonged to Agnes Paston; and her son William, with whom she lived, had doubtless watched the old lady's failing health, and made preparations even before her actual decease to vindicate his claim to them as soon as the event occurred.309.2 The manors, however, having been entailed under Judge Paston's will, properly descended to Sir John Paston, and after his death to his brother John. In accordance, therefore, with his brother's instructions, Edmund Paston rode to Marlingford on Sunday before St. Andrew's Day, 'and before all the tenants examined one James, keeper there for William Paston, where he was the week next before St. Andrew; and there he said that he was not at Marlingford from the Monday unto the Thursday at even, and so there was no man there but your brother's man at the time of his decease' (we are quoting a letter of William Lomnour to John Paston). 'So by that your brother died seised. And your brother Edmund bade your man keep possession to your behoof, and warned the tenants to pay no man till ye had spoken to them.' In the afternoon Edmund went on to Oxnead, where a servant named Piers kept possession for Sir John Paston, and he found that William Paston's agent was not there at the time, but had ordered another man to be there in his place. Whether that amounted to a continuance of the possession of William Paston, was a point to be considered.309.3

As usual in such cases, farmers and tenants had everywhere a bad time of it until uncle and nephew were agreed. John Paston's men threatened those of his uncle William at Harwellbury, while, on the other hand, his uncle William's men molested those of John Paston at Marlingford.309.4 During the interval between Agnes Paston's death and that of Sir John, the tenants at Cromer had been uncertain who was to be their lord, and at Paston there was a similar perplexity.309.5 Sir John's 310 bailiff ordered the Paston tenants to pay no rents to Mr. William Paston; but one Henry Warns wrote to Mr. William of the occurrence, and ordered them to pay none to any one else. After Sir John's death Warns still continued to be troublesome, making tenants afraid to harrow or sow lest they should lose their labour, pretending that John Paston had given him power over everything he had himself in the place.310.1 Things went on in this unpleasant fashion for a period of at least five years.310.2

Death of Margaret Paston.

Margaret Paston survived her son Sir John five years, and died in 1484, in the reign of Richard III.310.3 In her very interesting will, made two years before her decease, a number of bequests of a religious and charitable kind show how strongly she felt the claims of the poor, the sick, and the needy, as well as those of hospitals, friars, anchoresses, and parish churches. From the bequests she makes to her own family, it appears that not only John Paston, her eldest surviving son, but his brother Edmund also, was by that time married, and had children. To Edmund she gives 'a standing piece white covered, with a garlick head upon the knop,' 'a gilt piece covered, with a unicorn,' a feather bed and a 'transom,' and some tapestry. To his wife Catherine she leaves a purple girdle 'harnessed with silver and gilt,' and some other articles; and to their son Robert, who must have been quite an infant, all her swans marked with 'Daubeney's mark,' to remain with him and his heirs for ever. Various other articles are left to her daughter Anne, wife of William Yelverton, to her son William, to John and Margery Paston, and to their son William and to their daughter Elizabeth (apparently Christopher Paston, the eldest child, was by this time dead), and also to Constance, a natural daughter of Sir John Paston. She also left ￡20 to John Calle, son of her daughter Margery, when he should come to be twenty years of age, and if he died before that, it was to be divided between his brothers William 311 and Richard when they grew up. To Margery Calle herself and her husband Richard she left nothing.311.1

300.2 No. 890.

300.3 No. 892.

300.4 Nos. 894, 895, 896.

301.1 No. 896.

301.2 Nos. 897, 898.

301.3 Nos. 902, 909.

301.4 Nos. 910, 911.

302.1 No. 913.

302.2 No. 903.

302.3 Nos. 901, 904, 905, 913, 915.

302.4 No. 916.

302.5 No. 923.

302.6 Ibid.

302.7 No. 925.

302.8 No. 936.

303.1 No. 982.

303.2 No. 999.

303.3 He was a lawyer of some eminence, received the honour of knighthood from Henry VIII., and was Sheriff of Norfolk in 1517-18. He died in 1554. It was his grandson, another Sir William, whose name is so well known in Norfolk as the founder of the North Walsham Grammar School.

303.4 Nos. 929, 930.

304.1 No. 932.

304.2 No. 933.

304.3 No. 956.

305.1 Nos. 934, 935, 936, 937, 943.

305.2 Nos. 932, 978.

305.3 No. 931.

305.4 Oxnead, which was certainly vacant at the date which I have supposed to be that of Margaret Paston's application to Dr. Pykenham, was in her mother-in-law Agnes Paston's gift; but it is not at all unlikely that this was the living in question, as she may reasonably have expected to be able to prevail upon the old lady to give it to her grandson.

306.1 No. 941.

306.2 No. 949.

306.3 Nos. 945, 946.

306.4 No. 950.

306.5 No. 942. See a previous letter of his, No. 939, and also a notice of his schooling as early as August 1477, when Margaret Paston writes to Sir John to pay for his board and school-hire, gowns, and other necessaries (No. 917).

306.6 No. 842.

307.1 No. 942.

307.2 No. 974.

307.3 No. 975. There is an oversight in the preliminary note to this letter. The date is certainly 1481, and no later, as Margaret Paston in her will makes bequests not only to Edmund and his wife Catherine, but to their son Robert, who must therefore have been born before February 1482.

307.4 No. 952.

308.1 No. 953.

308.2 No. 956.

308.3 No. 962.

308.4 906-908.

308.5 No. 695.

309.1 No. 962.

309.2 No. 940.

309.3 No. 963.

309.4 Nos. 970, 982, 983.

309.5 No. 957.

310.1 Nos. 852 and 853, which by inadvertence I have assigned to the year 1474. They are undoubtedly of the year 1479, the former being written just before Sir John Paston's death, and the latter after it.

310.2 No. 998.

310.3 The exact date is given as the 4th November 1484 in a calendar prefixed to an old MS. missal in the possession of the late Mr. C. W. Reynell.

311.1 No. 978.

Times of Richard III. and Henry VII.

Richard III.

The personal interest of the correspondence is not altogether exhausted, although, as we have already remarked, it is very greatly diminished after the death of Sir John Paston. But the political interest of the remaining letters is so great, that they are almost more indispensable to the historian than the preceding ones. The brief and troubled reign of Richard III. receives illustration from two letters of the Duke of Norfolk to John Paston. The first was written in anticipation of Buckingham's rebellion, requiring him to make ready and come to London immediately with 'six tall fellows in harness,' as the Kentish men were up in the Weald, and meant to come and rob the city.311.2 Again, on the Earl of Richmond's invasion, the duke desires Paston to meet him at Bury with a company, to be raised at the duke's expense.311.3 There is also a copy of King Richard's proclamation against Henry Tudor,311.4 of which, however, the text is preserved in other MSS.

Henry VII.

The troubles of the reign of Henry VII. at first were scarcely less in magnitude than those of the tyrant whom he overthrew. But somehow or other the new king had the art of discovering who was to be trusted and who was not. John Paston was soon found out to be a man deserving of confidence. Very early, indeed, in Henry's reign, he must have acquired some influence at court. John Paston Sheriff of Norfolk. Two months had not elapsed after the battle of Bosworth when we find him Sheriff of Norfolk. The Duke of Suffolk writes to him to issue proclamations in the king's name against certain rebels who were in confederacy with the Scots.311.5 The Countess of Surrey writes to him to intercede with my Lord Fitzwalter and the Earl of Oxford in behalf of her imprisoned husband.311.6 Lady Fitzhugh, a daughter of the great Kingmaker, calls him her 312 son, and requests his favour for her daughter Anne, wife of the fugitive Yorkist rebel Francis, Viscount Lovel, whose pardon she was making importunate suit to obtain.312.1 The king himself writes to him,312.2 and the Earl of Oxford addresses letters to him as his 'right well beloved councillor.'312.3 The earl, of course, was his old friend, and we may presume it was through his influence that Paston was recommended to the king's favour.

Lambert Simnel's rebellion.

So much honour, trust, and confidence had already been bestowed on him when the rebellion of Lambert Simnel broke out in the second year of Henry's reign. Of that commotion we have some interesting illustrations, by which it is clear that the gentry of Norfolk were at first doubtful of the success of the king's cause, and that many were indisposed to obey his summons to battle. Sir William Boleyn and Sir Harry Heydon had gone as far as Thetford on their way towards Kent, when they received advice which induced them to return. Sir Edmund Bedingfield wrote to John Paston, he believed that they would not go if the king wanted them. But there were similar rumours about John Paston himself, and it was even said that he meditated mischief. It is true he had actually waited on the king, in the train, apparently, of the Earl of Oxford, one of the two generals to whom the military powers of the whole kingdom were at this time intrusted; but it was suspected, perhaps owing to the application made to him on her account, that after my lord's departure from the king he had been with the Viscountess Lovel, whose husband was among the rebel leaders. 'But wrath said never well,' adds Bedingfield in reporting this rumour to John Paston himself. It was evident that he had enemies, and it was necessary to conduct himself at such a critical period with extreme discretion.312.4

Fear of invasion on the East Coast.

At this time the rebels had not yet landed in England. Nothing had been known of their movements till very lately; but the Earl of Lincoln had been in Flanders with the Lady Margaret of Burgundy, the chief organiser of the conspiracy. The East Coast, it was supposed, was chiefly threatened; and 313 the king had made a progress through Suffolk and Norfolk to animate the people to loyalty. Commissions of array had been issued for the Eastern Counties on the 7th April. On the 15th Henry kept his Easter at Norwich; after which he went on to Walsingham, and thence to Coventry.313.1 News came, however, that seemed to show the East Coast was in no immediate danger. The rebels had left the Low Countries, but they had gone to Ireland. The gentlemen of the Eastern Counties were informed that the king would put them to no further charge at that time, but hoped the country would be ready on reasonable warning.313.2

Battle of Stoke.

The extraordinary farce enacted in Ireland-the recognition of Lambert Simnel as the son of Clarence, his coronation in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and his enthusiastic and universal reception by a people to whom political truths have been at all times unimportant, and rebellion a mere amusement,-these were facts that could not have been easily realised by sober-minded Englishmen. The news, indeed, could scarcely have reached England very much in advance of the rebel hosts themselves, which presently crossed the sea and landed at Furness in Lancashire.313.3 In less than a fortnight they penetrated into the heart of England, where they were met by the king's forces and suffered a complete overthrow in the battle of Stoke. John Paston knighted. In that battle John Paston was with the king's army, and seems to have done some distinguished service, in recognition of which he was knighted by the king upon the field of battle. The same honour was conferred at that time upon fifty-one persons besides himself, while thirteen others were made knights bannerets.313.4

Deputy to the Earl of Oxford as Admiral.

Sir John Paston, as he was now called, continued to maintain his influence with the Earl of Oxford and the king. The earl was Lord High Admiral, and he made Sir John his 314 deputy; in which capacity we find letters addressed to him about a whale taken off the coast of Norfolk,314.1 and deputations waiting upon him at Caister from the corporation of Yarmouth,314.2 besides some correspondence with the earl as Admiral.314.3 He got his brother William into the earl's service; and though ultimately the earl was obliged to dismiss him as being 'troubled with sickness and crased in his mind,'314.4 William Paston certainly continued many years in the earl's household. He became, in fact, a means of communication between the earl and his brother, and in one case we have an important letter addressed to the earl by the king on the subject of the war in Britanny, copied out by William Paston and forwarded to Sir John.314.5

The war in Britanny.

The eager interest with which this war in Britanny was watched by Englishmen-the anxiety to learn what had become of English volunteers, and of the forces sent thither afterwards by the king's authority-is shown in several of the letters.314.6 The facts relating to the whole affair, and their true chronology, had been a good deal confused and mis-stated until the late Mr. Spedding, in editing Lord Bacon's History of Henry VII., compared the testimony of the Paston Letters with that of other original sources.314.7 But it would take up too much space, and involve writing a complete history of the times, to show what important light is thrown upon this and other subjects of interest in the reign of Henry VII. by the scattered notices of political events contained in these letters; and we must be content, for the remainder of the period, briefly to indicate the matters of public interest referred to.

The Earl of Northumberland.

The rising in the North, in which the Earl of Northumberland 315 was slain, is the subject of two letters;315.1 and, closely connected with this subject, if our chronology is to be relied on, is an intended progress of the king into Norfolk a few weeks earlier, which was abandoned for some reason not explained. The Great Council which Henry had summoned on the affairs of Britanny appears to have been dissolved on the 3rd March 1489. Two days before it separated, the Earl of Northumberland was appointed to protect the kingdom against the Scots, and entered into indentures with the king at Sheen 'for the keeping out of the Scots and warring on them.' But instead of having an outward enemy to contend with, before two months had elapsed he found himself called upon to put down the revolt in Yorkshire, and he was killed on the 28th April.

Intended royal visit to Norfolk.

The king, if his original designs had been adhered to, would by this time have passed through the Eastern Counties, kept his Easter at Norwich, and gone on to Walsingham.315.2 In the course of his progress he was to have visited the Earl of Oxford at his mansion at Hedingham in Essex, where William Paston, Sir John's brother, was staying in the earl's service. Sir John himself had notice from the earl to come to him with the same number of men 'defensably arrayed' as he had before granted to do the king service;315.3 and in anticipation of the royal visit to Norfolk, William Paston sent orders to the Bailiff of Mautby to have his horse Bayard well fed, whatever it cost, that the animal might look fat and sleek when the king came.315.4 This order, however, it must be observed, is provisional, 'if Bayard be unsold'; and perhaps the proviso may point to the reason why the royal progress was abandoned. The subsidy which caused the rising in Yorkshire was heavily felt over the whole kingdom besides; and though at another time a royal progress might have been very popular, the king doubtless saw that it would be unadvisable to add to the expenses of his subjects at a time when they were so severely taxed already.

Creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York.

In No. 1058 we have a list of the persons who were made Knights of the Bath on the creation of Henry, the king's 316 second son (afterwards Henry VIII.) as Duke of York, in November 1494.316.1

Perkin Warbeck.

In July 1495, the corporation of Yarmouth write to Sir John Paston about the capture of five captains of Perkin Warbeck's host, who landed at Deal with about 140 men, when an invasion was attempted by the pretender. Whatever encouragement was given to Perkin abroad, his appearance off the coast of Kent gave little satisfaction to the inhabitants, who killed or took prisoner every man that set foot on the land. Perkin, leaving his friends to their mercy, sailed away, only creating a little disquietude as to where he would next make his appearance. One of the captains taken, whose name was Belt, said he knew he had no hope of mercy, and therefore did not mind revealing the plans of his comrades. They meant to gain possession of Yarmouth or to die for it.316.2 If this was said in good faith, the rebels must have been so discouraged by their reception at Deal, that they changed their plans and went to Ireland. But it may of course have been said purposely in order to mislead. It was, however, effectual in creating some alarm about the safety of the town. The corporation received a promise from Sir John Paston that aid should be forthcoming, if required; but the very next day intelligence was received that the rebel fleet had sailed westward,316.3 and doubtless before many days more all serious alarm was at an end.

Edmund de la Pole.

The next political letter refers to Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, whose first escape from England was made in the summer of 1499. The king was then staying at Godshill, in the Isle of Wight, where the Earl of Oxford was with him; and the latter wrote to Sir John Paston on the 20th August to make inquiry what persons had accompanied the fugitive, or were privy to his departure, commanding him to take into 317 custody every one whom he could find to have been any way concerned in the matter, or any 'suspect' person who seemed to be 'of the same affinity,' found hovering near the sea coasts.317.1 Writs were issued the very same day to the sheriffs of the Eastern Counties to prevent persons leaving the kingdom without a licence.317.2

Coming of Catherine of Arragon to England.

The next letter after this is a notification from the king to Sir John Paston, given on the 20th May 1500, that Catherine of Arragon, the affianced bride of Arthur, Prince of Wales, was expected in England in the following May. Sir John Paston was required to be ready to give his attendance at her reception at that date; but owing to a change of plans, she did not arrive before October 1501.317.3

Meeting of Henry VII. and Philip of Castile.

After this there is nothing more relating to public matters during Sir John Paston's life; but we must not pass over without notice the very curious account given in No. 1078-a letter which, though among the Paston papers, has no obvious connection with the Paston family at all-of the meeting between Henry VII. and Philip, King of Castile, at Clewer, near Windsor, in January 1506. It is well known how Philip, who until the death of his mother-in-law, Isabella of Spain, was only Archduke of Austria, had set out from Flanders to take possession of his new dominions, when, meeting with a storm at sea, he was driven upon the coast of England, and was for some time entertained by Henry at his court. This letter gives a minute description of the meeting between the two kings, and of the persons by whom they were accompanied, noting the apparel and liveries of all present, after the fashion of court newsmen. The scene unquestionably must have been a striking one; but we must refer our readers for the particulars to the letter itself.

311.2 No. 994.

311.3 No. 1002.

311.4 No. 1001.

311.5 No. 1006.

311.6 No. 1004.

312.1 No. 1008.

312.2 No. 1010.

312.3 No. 1012.

312.4 No. 1014.

313.1 See Spedding's Notes in Bacon's Henry VII.-Works of Bacon, vi. 55, 56.

313.2 No. 1015.

313.3 It was but on the 5th May, as Spedding has pointed out (Bacon, 56) that the principal party of the rebels landed in Ireland. On the 4th June they had crossed the Channel and landed in Lancashire. The coronation of Lambert Simnel took place on Ascension Day, the 24th May.-Rolls of Parl. vi. 397.

313.4 No. 1016 and Note at p. 187 (vol. vi.).

314.1 Nos. 1029, 1030.

314.2 No. 924.

314.3 Nos. 1049, 1050, 1051.

314.4 No. 940.

314.5 No. 913.

314.6 Letters 1026, 1030, 1036. An allusion to this war occurs in Barclay's Ship of Fools, f. 152 b.:

'The battles done, perchance in small Britain,

In France, in Flanders, or to the worldes end,

Are told in the quere, of some, in wordes vain

In midst of matins in stead of the Legende,

And other gladly to hear the same intend

Much rather than the service for to hear.'

314.7 Spedding's Bacon, vi. 68, 72, 84, 97-8, 101-2.

315.1 Nos. 1037, 1039.

315.2 No. 1031.

315.3 No. 1032.

315.4 No. 1033.

316.1 No. 1058.-This list agrees pretty well with the names given in the description of the ceremony printed by me in Letters and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII., vol. i. p. 390. But besides some variations in spelling and a difference in one place as to the Christian name, this list includes the names of Lords Harington and Clifford, who are not only not mentioned in the other as having been made Knights of the Bath on this occasion, but who seem to be excluded by the statement that there were only twenty baths and beds provided besides those of the prince himself.

316.2 No. 1059.

316.3 No. 1060.

317.1 No. 1065.

317.2 Letters and Papers Ric. III. and Hen. VII., vol. ii. p. 377.

317.3 No. 1066.

Sidenote: John Paston knighted.

sidenote printed at beginning of paragraph

Footnote 312.2:

missing "2" added

Social Aspect of the Times

State of society.

Thus far have we followed the fortunes of the Paston family and the history of the times in which they lived, as 318 illustrated by their correspondence. The reader must not, however, imagine that we have by any means exhausted the materials before us, either in their social or in their political bearings. Indeed, to whatever length we should prolong these observations, we could not but leave an ample harvest of facts to be gathered in by others, nor have we attempted more than to bring the leading points of the story into one connected narrative. Of the general condition of society revealed to us by this remarkable correspondence, we have left the reader to form his own impressions. But a few very brief remarks upon this subject may perhaps be expected of us before we conclude.

Education.

The first thing which strikes the most casual observer on glancing over these letters, is the testimony they afford to the state of education among the people at the period in which they were written. From the extreme scarcity of original letters of such an early date, we are too easily led to undervalue the culture and civilisation of the age. But these letters show that during the century before the Reformation the state of education was by no means so low, and its advantages by no means so exceptionally distributed, as we might otherwise imagine. For it is not merely that Judge Paston was a man of superior cultivation, and took care that his family should be endowed with all those educational advantages that he had possessed himself. This was no doubt the case. But it must be remembered that the majority of these letters were not written by members of the Paston family, but were only addressed to them; and they show that friends, neighbours, lords, commoners, and domestic servants possessed the art of writing, as well as the Pastons themselves. No person of any rank or station in society above mere labouring men seems to have been wholly illiterate. All could write letters; most persons could express themselves in writing with ease and fluency. Not perhaps that the accomplishment was one in which it was considered an honour to excel. Hands that had been accustomed to grasp the sword were doubtless easily fatigued with the pen. Old Sir John Fastolf evidently feels it a trouble even to sign his name, and in his latter years invariably allows 319 others to sign it for him. Men of high rank generally sign their letters, but scarcely ever write them with their own hands. And well was it, in many cases, for their correspondents that they did not do it oftener. Whether, like Hamlet, they thought it 'a baseness to write fair,' and left such 'yeoman's service' to those who had specially qualified themselves for it; or whether, absorbed by other pursuits, they neglected an art which they got others to practise for them, the nobility were generally the worst writers of the day. Their handwriting and their spelling were on a par, and were sometimes so outrageous, that it requires no small effort of imagination to comprehend the words, even if we could be sure of the letters.319.1

Eton College.

Education, nevertheless, was making undoubted progress, both among high and low. Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, had been founded by Henry VI. only a few years before old Judge Paston died. His grandson and namesake, William Paston, as we have seen, was sent to the former place for his education, and was learning to construct Latin hexameters and pentameters there in 1479. His progress, it is true, seems to have been but indifferent. What was to be expected of a young gentleman of nineteen, whose attention, even while at school, was distracted by the thought that he had already met with one who might be a partner for life? Nevertheless, in that same letter in which he writes to his brother John what he knows of Mistress Margaret Alborow, he sends him also a specimen of his performances in Latin versification. It is not a very brilliant production, certainly, but the fact of his sending it to his elder brother shows that John Paston too had gone through a regular classical training on the system which has prevailed in all public schools down to the present day.

Oxford.

It has, moreover, been remarked that the illustrations both of Eton and of Oxford life in the fifteenth century bear a 320 striking resemblance to the well-known usages of modern times. It is true Walter Paston's expenses at Oxford were not great, even if we take into consideration the much higher value of money in that day. For a period of probably half a year they amounted to no more than ￡6: 5 s.: 5? d.320.1 Yet when he became B.A. he gave a banquet, as graduates have been accustomed to do since his day, for which he was promised some venison from Lady Harcourt, but was disappointed.320.2 Even the expenses attending the graduation, however, do not appear to have been very heavy. 'It will be some cost to me, but not much,' wrote Walter Paston in his own case, though he had been disappointed in the hope of passing at the same time as Lionel Woodville, the queen's brother, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, who apparently would have borne a portion of the expenses of his fellow-graduates.320.3

From the letters just referred to we are reminded that it was at this time usual for those who received a liberal education not only to take a degree in arts but to proceed afterwards in the faculty of law. At the universities, unfortunately, law is studied no longer, and degrees in that faculty are now purely honorary.

Mode of computing dates.

Some other points may be suggested to us, even by the most superficial examination of the contents of these volumes. The mode in which the letters are dated by their writers shows clearly that our ancestors were accustomed to measure the lapse of time by very different standards from those now in use. Whether men in general were acquainted with the current year of the Christian era may be doubted; that was an ecclesiastical computation rather than one for use in common life. They seldom dated their letters by the year at all, and when they did it was not by the year of our Lord, but by the year of the king's reign. Chronicles and annals of the period, which give the year of our Lord, are almost always full of inaccuracies in the figures; and altogether it is evident that an exact computation of years was a thing for which there was considered to be little practical use. As to months and days, the same remark does not apply. Letters were very 321 frequently dated in this respect according to what is the general usage now. But even here, as the reader will not fail to observe, there was a much more common use of Festivals and Saints' days, and when a letter was not written on a day particularly marked in the Calendar, it was frequently dated the Monday or Wednesday, or whatever day of the week it might happen to be, before or after such a celebration. Agnes Paston even dates a letter during the week by the collect of the Sunday preceding:-'Written at Paston in haste, the Wednesday next after Deus qui errantibus.'321.1

Mode of reckoning.

Of their modes of computing other things we have little indication in these volumes except in money accounts, which are always kept in Roman figures. No separate columns are set apart in MSS. of this date (although for the convenience of the reader this has sometimes been done in print) for the different denominations of pounds, shillings, pence, and marks, so that it would have been impossible for the best arithmetician easily to cast up totals after the modern fashion. The arithmeticians of that day, in fact, had a totally different method of reckoning. They used counters, and had a counting-board or abacus, on which they set up the totals.321.2 An instance of this occurs in the first volume, where John Paston, in superintending the works at Caister Castle, or, as we now rather suspect, at Mautby, thought it advisable to change the room in which his coffers and his 'countewery' should be set. In connection with this incident one other point is worthy of observation. On taking the measure of the new room, John Paston's wife reported that he would find it less convenient than the former one. 'There is no space,' she wrote, 'beside the bed, though the bed were removed to the door, to set both your board and your coffers there, and to have space to go and sit beside.'321.3 When it is considered that the room in question was a 'draught chamber,' that is to say, that it contained a privy in 322 addition to the furniture which Paston intended to introduce, want of space ought certainly to have been a very serious objection.

Manner of living.

The neglect of sanitary considerations in domestic architecture-indeed, in domestic matters generally-was no doubt a prolific source of disease and pestilence. Yet the general plan of daily life pursued by our ancestors was, it must be owned, more wholesome than that of the nineteenth century. It is well known that they were early risers. Innumerable patent kinds of artificial light did not tempt them to waste the natural hours of rest either in study or in dissipation. Their meals too were earlier. Their dinner was at noon, if not before; and after dinner, in the long summer days, it was customary to take some additional repose. Thus Henry Windsor concludes a letter to John Paston-'Written in my sleeping time at afternoon, on Whitsunday.'322.1 This practice of sleeping in the daytime was so universal that in the case of labourers it was only thought necessary to keep it within certain limits, and to restrict it by Act of Parliament to a quarter of the year, from the middle of May to the middle of August.322.2

Sending dinners out.

A curious practice in relation to dining mentioned in Letter 423 has already been incidentally alluded to. It was the year after Sir John Fastolf's death, and John Paston's wife had gone out of Norwich to reside at Hellesdon. Paston's increased importance in the county was shown by the Mayor and Mayoress of Norwich one day sending their dinners out to Hellesdon, and coming to dine with Margaret Paston. Of this kind of compliment we have another illustration in More's History of Richard III. It is well known how, when just after the death of Edward IV. the Earl of Rivers and Lord Richard Grey were conducting the boy king Edward V. up to London, they were overtaken by the Duke of Gloucester at Stony Stratford, and placed under arrest. As the story is reported by More, Gloucester at first treated his prisoners with courtesy, and at dinner sent a dish from his own table to Lord Rivers, praying him to be of good cheer, for all 323 should be well enough. 'And he thanked the duke,' continues the historian, 'and prayed the messenger to bear it to his nephew the Lord Richard with the same message for his comfort, who he thought had more need of comfort as one to whom such adversity was strange; but himself had been all his days in ure therewith, and therefore could bear it the better.'

Chivalry and courtesy.

The courtesies of life were certainly not less valued in those rough unquiet days than in our own. Although men like Caxton lamented the decline of chivalry, its civilising influence continued, and its most important usages were still kept up. Among the books which William Ebesham transcribed for Sir John Paston at the rate of twopence a leaf, was one which was called The Great Book, treating of 'the Coronation and other Treatises of Knighthood,' 'of the manner of making joust and tournaments,' and the like.323.1 His library, or that of his brother John, contained also 'the Death of Arthur,' the story of Guy of Warwick, chronicles of the English kings from C?ur de Lion to Edward III., the legend of Guy and Colbrand, and various other chronicles and fictions suited to knightly culture; besides moral treatises, like Bishop Alcock's Abbey of the Holy Ghost, and poetical and imaginative books, such as the poems of Chaucer-at least his Troilus and Cressida, his Legend of Ladies (commonly called The Legend of Good Women), his Parliament of Birds, the Belle Dame sauns Mercie, and Lydgate's Temple of Glass. Books like these formed part of the recreations of a country gentleman. They contained, doubtless, the fund of ideas which fathers communicated to their children around the winter fire. And the children were the better qualified to appreciate them by an education which was entirely founded upon the principles of chivalry.

The training of the young.

It was in accordance with these principles, and to maintain a true sense of order in society, that the sons of knights and gentlemen were sent at an early age to serve in other gentlemen's houses. Thus John Paston the youngest was sent to be brought up in the family of the Duke of Norfolk; and so 324 common was this practice, so necessary was it esteemed to a young gentleman's education, that, as we have seen, his father was reproached for keeping his elder brother at home and unemployed. In a new household, and especially in that of a man of rank, it was considered that a youth would learn something of the world, and fit himself best for the place he was to fill in it. It was the same also, to some extent, with the daughters of a family, as we find Margaret Paston writing to her son Sir John to get his sister placed in the household either of the Countess of Oxford or of the Duchess of Bedford, or else 'in some other worshipful place.'324.1 This we have supposed to be his sister Margery, who (no doubt for want of being thus taken care of) shortly after married Richard Calle, to the scandal and disgust of the whole family. His other sister, Anne, was placed in the household of a gentleman named Calthorpe, who, however, afterwards desired to get rid of her, alleging that he wished to reduce his household, and suggested that she 'waxed high, and it were time to purvey her a marriage.' It is curious that the prospect of her being sent home again does not seem to have been particularly agreeable even to her own mother. Margaret Paston wonders why Calthorpe should have been so anxious to get rid of the young lady without delay. Perhaps she had given him offence, or committed some misdemeanour. Her mother therefore writes to her son John the youngest in London to see how Cousin Clere 'is disposed to her-ward,' that she may not be under the necessity of having her home again, where she would only lose her time, and be continually trying her mother's patience, as her sister Margery had done before her.324.2

Want of domestic feeling.

And was this, the reader may well ask, the spirit of domestic life in the fifteenth century? Could two generations of one family not ordinarily live together in comfort? Was the feeling of older people towards children only that they ought to be taught the ways of the world, and learn not to make themselves disagreeable? Alas! I fear, for the most part it amounted to little more than this. Children, and especially daughters, were a mere burden to their parents. 325 They must be sent away from home to learn manners, and to be out of the way. As soon as they grew up, efforts must be made to marry them, and get them off their parents' hands for good. If they could not be got rid of that way, and were still troublesome, they could be well thrashed, like Elizabeth Paston, the aunt of the last-mentioned young ladies, who, as will be remembered, was allowed to speak to no one, was beaten once or twice a week, and sometimes twice in one day, and had her head broken 'in two or three places' in consequence.325.1

Such a state of matters, however repulsive to our feelings, is by no means unaccountable. That age was certainly not singular, however much mistaken, in its belief that a sense of what is due to the State is more important than a sense of what is due to the family. Our ancestors forgot the fact-as we too, in this age of enforced schooling are too apt to leave it out of account-that the most important part of education, good or bad, must inevitably be that which a child receives at home. They were rewarded for their forgetfulness by a loss of natural affection, for which their high sense of external order afforded but imperfect compensation. Admirable as the feudal system was in maintaining the necessary subordination of different classes, it acted most injuriously upon the homes, where all that makes up a nation's real worth must be carefully tended in the first instance. Wardships. The very foundation of domestic life was in many cases vitiated by a system which put the wardship and marriage of heirs under age at the disposal of their superior lords. In the case of an important landowner who held of the Crown, it was a regular matter of bargain and sale. The wardship and marriage were granted away to such a person as could offer the Treasury a satisfactory sum for the privilege; and if the heir took it upon himself to marry without licence of such person, he incurred a heavy fine.325.2 Thus was the most sacred of all 326 human relations made a matter of traffic and sale, and the best feelings of the human heart were systematically crushed by considerations the most sordid.

Remarks of a Venetian on the English.

The absence of domestic affection among the English people generally was, in fact, a subject of observation to foreigners in that day. The earliest extant report of a Venetian ambassador on the state of this country was written in the reign of Henry VII., and in this we find some very strong comments on the subject, showing that the cold-heartedness of parents towards their children, the want of tenderness in husbands towards their wives, the mercenary way in which marriages were contracted by parents or guardians for the young people under their charge, was such as to shock the sensibility of strangers from the warmer lands of the South. To the Italian mind it seemed as if there was no real human nature in Englishmen at all. There was licentiousness among them, to be sure, but our Venetian almost doubted whether in high or low society an Englishman was ever known to be in love. He had witnessed nothing of the sort himself. On the contrary, he had seen young noblemen content to marry old widows for the sake of fortunes, which they hoped to share soon with younger partners; and he suspected that although Englishmen were very jealous husbands, the most serious offences against married life might be condoned for money.326.1

Freedom of manners.

It is impossible to deny that these comments, except the last, which we would fain hope was a mistake, must have been largely justified. The Paston letters bear strong additional testimony to the general truth of what our Italian critic saw in England. Yet, acute as his observation was, an ambassador from the stately Signory of Venice was perhaps not altogether 327 in a position to read the deepest mysteries of the English heart. To this day the warmth of the English nature lies covered by a cold exterior; yet even in the external manners of the people the genial Erasmus found touches which our Venetian cared not for, and did not deign to notice. While feudalism still kept down the natural emotions, insisting on a high respect for order, there was a freedom in social intercourse, and in England more than elsewhere, which has long ago been chilled among ourselves by the severity of Puritanism. In his own amusing way Erasmus tells us how in this delightful island ladies and gentlemen kissed each other freely whenever they met, in the streets or in their houses. There were kisses when you came, and kisses when you went away-delicate, fragrant kisses that would assuredly tempt a poet from abroad to stay in England all his days.327.1 So the witty Dutchman informed a friend in the unrestrained freedom of epistolary correspondence. And we may believe that in most cases the severity of home was mitigated by a greater freedom of communication with the world outside. Only in cases of very severe displeasure were the daughters of a family shut up for a time, like Elizabeth Paston, and forbidden to speak to any one. For the most part, they received the salutations of strangers, and conversed with them without reserve, as marriage was quite understood to be a thing which depended entirely upon arrangements made by their parents.

Urbanity.

With all this, there was an urbanity of manners, a courtesy of address, and a general external refinement, on which more recent times have not improved. And in these things England was pre-eminent. Our Venetian could not help noticing that the English were a very polite people. Another Italian of that day, Polydore Vergil, has recorded that in this respect they resembled his own countrymen. The hard schooling which they received at home, the after-training elsewhere in the houses of 'worshipful' persons, had taught them from their early years to consider above all things what was due to others. In every relation of life, in the freest social intercourse, the honour due to parents, to strangers, to noblemen, or to kings, 328 was never for a moment forgotten. In the most familiar letters the son asks his father's or mother's blessing, and the wife addresses her husband as 'right worshipful.' When people talked to each other on the street, they did so with heads uncovered. Even kings at the mention of other potentates' names took off their hats with reverence.328.1

Importance of maintaining authority.

An age which, with all its many drawbacks, cultivated ideas such as these cannot be looked upon as despicable or barbarous. We could have wished to see something more of the element of love in families-something more of the easy rule of natural affection occasionally superseding the hard notions of feudal or parental discipline. But the anxiety to uphold authority, to preserve honour for whom it was due, to maintain social and political order in spite of influences which were conspicuously at work breaking it up before men's eyes, was a true and wholesome feeling, to the strength of which we owe a debt unspeakable even in these days of progress. At no time in England's history was there a stronger feeling of the needful subordination of the different parts of society to each other; but under a king incapable of governing, this feeling bred a curse, and not a blessing. The great lords, who should have preserved order under the king, fell out among themselves, and in spite of the fervid loyalty of the age, the greatest subject became a kingmaker.

The Earl of Warwick's household.

That civil war should have broken out in a state of society like this need occasion no surprise. The enormous retinues of feudal noblemen were in themselves sufficiently dangerous to the peace of the kingdom, and when the sense of feudal subjection to one sovereign was impaired, the issue could not be doubtful. At the table of the great Earl of Warwick, Stow informs us that the flesh of six entire oxen was sometimes consumed in a single meal. With the profuse hospitality of the Middle Ages, he entertained not only all his regular dependants, but all chance comers who had any acquaintance in his household. 329 Visitors were also allowed to carry off joints from his table, and the taverns in the neighbourhood of Warwick's inn were actually full of his meat.329.1 Such a nobleman had no difficulty in obtaining friends to fight for him in the day of battle. He maintained, in fact, what might be called a little standing army at all times, and if an emergency arose, doubtless many who had dined at his table would flock to his standard, and take his wages.329.2

The Tudor policy.

The causes which had produced the wars of the Roses were carefully watched by the Tudor sovereigns, and one by one rooted out. Laws were passed against noblemen keeping large retinues, and were not suffered to remain a dead letter. The nobility of England learned to stand in awe of the Crown in a way they never did before, and never have done since. Every branch of the royal family, except the reigning dynasty, was on one pretext or another lopped away. Every powerful nobleman knew that just in proportion as he was great, it was necessary for him to be circumspect. Under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, birth and rank counted for very little, and the peers became submissive instruments, anxious, and indeed eager, to carry out the sovereign's will. In short, the unity of a divided nation was restored under a set of politic kings, who enforced the laws, kept down the nobility, and, in spite of their despotism, were generally loved by the people.

319.1 A notable example of this is afforded by the letters of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, which will be found printed in my Letters and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII. His successor in title, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the favourite of Henry VIII., wrote quite as barbarous a hand, and outraged orthography in a manner equally bewildering.

320.1 No. 931.

320.2 No. 946.

320.3 No. 945.

321.1 No. 34.

321.2 The modern mode of adding up columns of arabic numerals was called Algorism or Awgrym. Thus Palsgrave gives as an example of the use of the word-'I shall reken it syxe times by aulgorisme, or you can caste it ones by counters.'-Promptorium Parv. i. 18.

321.3 No. 224.

322.1 No. 332.

322.2 Statute 6 Hen. VIII. ch. 3.

323.1 Nos. 695, 987.

324.1 No. 704.

324.2 No. 766.

325.1 No. 94, and p. 155 of this Introduction.

325.2 We have already referred, at p. 154, to the case of Stephen Scrope, whose wardship was sold by his stepfather, Sir John Fastolf, to Judge Gascoigne, but was afterwards bought back again to prevent the judge marrying him to one of his own daughters, both the original sale and the redemption being equally against the will of Stephen Scrope himself, who complained that Fastolf had 'bought and sold him like a beast.' The particulars of these transactions are not obtained from the Paston Letters, but there will be found several notices of another wardship, viz. that of Thomas Fastolf of Cowhaw, kinsman of Sir John Fastolf, which was bought by Sir John of the king, and committed by patent to John Paston and Sir Thomas Howes, and which became the subject of a good deal of controversy.-See Nos. 248, 263, 266, 267, 271, 292, and 352.

326.1 Italian Relation of England (Camden Soc.), pp. 24-27.

327.1 Erasm. Epp. lib. v. 10.

328.1 Italian Relation, pp. 22-32; Polydore Vergil, 14-15. Henry VII., in conference with the Spanish ambassador, De Puebla, always took off his hat when the names of Ferdinand and Isabella were mentioned (Bergenroth's Spanish Calendar, vol. i. p. 10). I have also seen notices of the same custom elsewhere.

329.1 Stow's Chronicle, 421.

329.2 See No. 760.

Footnote 329.2:

missing "2" added