The Earl of Oxford? To Sir Miles Stapleton and Thomas Brewes

133

THE EARL OF OXFORD (?) TO SIR MILES
STAPLETON AND THOMAS BREWES¹

To my ryght trusti and wyth all myn hert intyerly welbelovyd
Sir Mylys Stapelton, Knyght.

      RYGHT trusty and wyth all myn hert entierly wel-
          belovyd, I grete yow wele, and wol that ye wete
          that a gentelman of your ally haghe [hath] ben wyth
me, at whos instans and steryng and by hese good avyes I
wold ful fayne amet [have met] wyth yow at Framyngham;
but I may no lenger abyde here for the strayte comaundment
that I have to be wyth the Kyng. Wherfore I pray yow to
comown wyth Brews and Paston, and to put in artycles be ther
avyses and be your wysdom the indisposicion of the people of
this counte, and what were most necesary to be desierid of the
Kyng and of my Lordis of the Councell for the restreynte
of ther mourmour and the peas, and to sende it me be the
brynger herof, to whom I pray yow gef credens. And the
Holy Ternyte kepe yow. Wretyn at Wynche, the xxj. day
of August.

To my ryght trusty and entierly welbelovyd Thomas
Brewes, Squyer.

      RYGHT trusty and intyerly welbelovid, I grete yow
          wele. And for as mouche as ye were with my wyf
         at Wynche in the name and behalve of the substaunce
of the gentelys of this shyer, and cause my wyf to wryte to
me for to turne agayn into Norffolk, be wheche wrytyng, and
be your report it semyd to me that a gret asemble had be
purposid wythin the counte heer. I therfore sayd unto yow,
wolyng and mevyng yow aftyr your trowth, and as ye know,
that ye do put in artycles the indisposicion of the people, and
what your avyce is to be do for the restreynyng of the same;
and this articles I pray yow set to your seal, and cause other
gentelmen with wham ye have comonyng set ther seales, for
this is necessary, and that I may schew it to the Kyng and to
my Lordis of hese Councell, and that I fayle not here of for
your honeste and myn excuse. And the Ternyte kepe yow.
Wreten at Wynche, the xxj. day of August.

¹ [From Paston MSS., B.M.] The two letters following are from contemporaneous
copies written on the same paper. Being dated the same day as the preceding letter
of the Earl of Oxford, and addressed to the two persons named in the postscript, we
should have every reason to suppose they are the copies there mentioned, were it not
for the circumstance that the Earl of Oxford’s seat at Wynche, near Lynn, in Norfolk,
must have been a good day’s journey from Bury St. Edmunds. The internal evidence,
however, is in other respects so strong that we have no doubt at all upon the subject.
The difficulty as to the date may be accounted for by supposing that these two letters
were really written at Wynche the day before, but that the date 21st August was
filled in by the Earl at Bury St. Edmunds at the time he despatched his letter of the
same date to John Paston.

1450(?)
AUG. 21

1450(?)
AUG. 21