Sir John Fastolf to John Fastolf and John Kirteling

97

SIR JOHN FASTOLF TO JOHN FASTOLF AND
JOHN KIRTELING²

To my ryght tristy and welbelovede Cosin and Frende, John
Fastolf, and Sir John Kirtelinge, Parson of Arkesay.

     TRUSTY and welbeloved frendz, y grete yow wel. And
          for as moche as y have appointed with my sone, Stephen
          Scrope, lyke as y sende yow the appointement writen
hereafter in this letter, the whiche appointement y woll ye ful-
fylle be the avys of my counsel in that at longeth to my party,
like as hit ys writen.

     Thys ys the appointement made be twene Sir John
Fastolf, Knight, and Stephen Scrope, Squier, in the maner
as here after hit ys writen:—

    Fyrst, for as moche as the mariage of the saide Stephen
Scrope was solde¹ to Sir William Gascoyng, the Chefe Justice
of Englonde, for v^c. [500] marke, with the whiche mariage
was deliverd in hande to the sayde Gascoyng the maner of
Wyghton on the Wolde, in Yorke schyre, with the aperte-
nance of the saide maner; and whan the sayde Gascoyng hade
hym, he wolde have solde hym agayn, or maried the saide
Stephen Scrope ther [where] he schulde have byn despareiged:
wherefore, at the request of the sayde Scrope and hys frendes,
the saide Fastolf boght the ma[ri]age of the saide Scrope of
the saide Sir William Gascoyng for v^c. marke, wherby the
saide Fastolf hath mariage of the saide Stephen Scrope, or elles
to have the saide somme of v^c. marke that he payde for hym,
like as hit ys above sayde.

     Item, for as moche as the sayde Stephen Scrope ys comyn
to the saide Fastolf, sayinge that he hath fownde wey to be
maried at his lyst, and also for his worschippe and profyt, so
that the saide Fastolf woll consent therto, that ys to say, to
Fauconeris doughter of London, that Sir Reynalde Cobham²
had weddid.

     Item, for as hit ys the saide Fastolf ys wille to forther and
helpe the saide Scrope in any wize ther he may be fortherede,
the sayde Fastolf consenteth that the sayde Scrope marie hym
to the Fauconeris doughter, with that that the sayde Fauconer
gyf to the sayde Fastolf the saide somme of v^c. marke, the
whiche he payde for the saide Scrope.

     Item, yf that the sayde Stephen Scrope pay or do pay the
somme afore sayde of v^c. marke sterling, than the sayde Sir
John Fastolf and Dame Mylicent,³ his wyf, schall make astate
of the said maner of Wyghton on the Wolde in Yorke schyre,
with the apertenaunce of the sayde maner, to the saide Stephen
Scrope and to the woman, the whiche schalbe his wyf, and to
here eyres of here bodyes begete be twix hem two.

     Item, yef the sayde Stephen dye with oute eyre of his body
begeten, than the sayde maner of Wyghton, after the descece
of the saide hys wyf, schall retourne agayne to the sayde
Fastolf and Dame Mylicent, his wyf, and to the eyres of the
sayde Mylicent.

     Item, yf so be that the sayde Fauconer wilnot pay the
sayde somme of v^c. marke, bot peraventure wolde gyf a lesse
somme, then the sayde Fastolf wyl deliver to the mariage of
the saide Scrope certayn londe, havynge rewarde to the somme
that the sayde Fauconer wil gyf, havyng rewarde to the affer-
rant of xl. pounde worthe land and v^c. mark of golde.

     Item, if that the sayde Fauconer wilnot gyf no somme of
golde for the sayde mariage, the sayde Fastolf wyl take the
mariage of the childe that ys eyre to the forsaide Sir Reynolde
Cobham, and that the sayde Scrope forto conferme the estat
hys moder has made to the saide Fastolf, yf so be that the
consel of the saide Fastolf se by thaire avys that hit be for to
do, and that the said mariage may be [as] moche worth to the
said Fastolf as v^c. mark.

     Item, ze sende me be Raufm[an an] answare o[f] the
letters that y sende yow, that I may have ve[ray] knolage
how that hit standys with me ther in al maner of thynges,
and that I [h]ave an answare of every article that y wrote to
yow.

     Item, for as moche as that I am bonden for my Lord
Scales¹ to my Lord Cardnale² in v^c. mark, the qu[ech] somme
he kan not fynd no way to pay hit, on lese then that he sel a
parcel of his land; quer fore he sendis ower a man of his
called Pessemerche, with whom I wil that ze spek, and se be
 

zore avis whech of the places of my said Lord Scales that
standis most cler to be solde; and if the place that is beside
W[a]lsyngham stand cler, I have hit lever then the tother;
and therfore I pray [z]ow that ze make apointement with the
said Pesemerche in the best wise that ze may, athir of the ton
place or the tother, and or ze let take hit after xx. zere,
havyn[g] rewarde to the verray val[u] therof, and as ze don
send me worde be the next massager.

     Item, my Lord of Hungerford¹ has writen to me for to
have the warde of Robert Monpyns[on]is sone, wher of I am
agreed that he schal [have] hit like as I has wretyn to hym in
a letter, of the whech I send zow a cope closed here in: wher
fore I pray zow to enquere of the verray valu of the land that
Monpynson haldis of me, and sendis me word in hast; for
my said Lord Hungerford sais in his letter that hit is worth
bot xls. a zere aboufe the rentis, as ze may se the letter that
he sent me, the q[uec]h I send zow be my son Scrope. And
I pray zow to demene zow to my said Lord as eesely as ze
may in this mater and al other that I have to do with hym, as
ze may se be the cope aforesaid. And or (sic) have zow in
his kepyng. Wretyn at Roan (?)² the last day of October.

                                                                            J. FASTOLFE.

Endorsed—Appunctuamentum factum pro Stephano Scroope anno xxviij^o Regis
H. vj. ad maritandum.

    ² [From the Castlecombe MSS. in the B.M., Add. MS. 28,212, No. 21.] According
to the endorsement, this letter should have been written in the year 1449; but the
reader will see by the footnotes that there are grounds for doubting the accuracy of
this date.

     ¹ The marriage of wards in those days used to be sold to men of property, who
would compel them to marry their own sons or daughters, or whatever other persons
suited them. The only restriction to this right was, that the ward might, on coming
of age, have an action against his guardian in case of disparagement, that is to say, if
he was married beneath his station.

     ² Sir Reginald Cobham of Sterborough, in Surrey, who died in 1446. He was
the father of the notorious Eleanor Cobham, the mistress, and afterwards wife, of
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.—Brayley’s Hist. of Surrey, iv. 159.

     ³ Milicent, wife of Sir John Fastolf, is known to have been alive in the 24th year
of Henry VI. (1446). William Worcester says the allowance for her chamber was
paid until that date; but as he says nothing more, it has been supposed she did not
live longer. Mr. Poulett Scrope also believes her to have died in 1446, on the
authority of a contemporary MS., which says she and Fastolf lived together thirty-eight
years.—Hist. Castlecombe, 263.

     ¹ Thomas de Scales, 8th Lord.

     ² John Kemp, Archbishop of York, afterwards of Canterbury; or, if this
document be some years earlier, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester.

    ¹ Walter, 1st Lord Hungerford, died in August 1449, and was succeeded in the
title by his son Robert.

     ² The name is a little indistinct from the decay of the paper, but the first and last
letters are clear, and it is scarcely possible to doubt that Rouen was the place here
intended. Yet if this be so, the letter must be much earlier than the date assigned to
it in the endorsement.

OCT. 31

1449(?)
OCT. 31

1449(?)
OCT. 31

1449(?)
OCT. 31