=Source.=--Ellis's _Original Letters_, second series, vol. i., pp.
95-96. (London: 1827.)
_To the King our Sovereign Lord._
Beseecheth meekly your poor liegeman and humble orator Thomas Hostell,
that in consideration of his service done to your noble progenitors
of full blessed memory, King Henry IV. and King Henry V., whose souls
God assoil; being at the Siege of Harfleur, there smitten with a dart
through the head, losing one eye and his cheek-bone broken; also at the
battle of Agincourt, and after, at the taking of the Carracks[10] on
the sea, there with a rod of iron his plates smitten in sunder, and
sore hurt, maimed and wounded; by means whereof he being sore enfeebled
and bruised, now fallen to great age and poverty; greatly in debt, and
may not help himself; having not wherewith to be sustained nor relieved
but of men's gracious alms; and being for his said service never yet
recompensed nor rewarded:--it please your high and excellent Grace, the
premises tenderly considered, of your benign pity and grace, to relieve
and refresh your said poor orator, as it shall please you, with your
most gracious alms at the reverence of God and in work of charity; and
he shall devoutly pray for the souls of your said noble progenitors and
for your most noble and high estate.
[10] Carracks = ships. The event took place at the siege of Harfleur,
1416. "After a long fight the victory fell to the Englishmen, and they
took and sunk almost the whole navy of France, in which there were many
ships, hulks, and carracks, to the number of five hundred, of which
three great carracks were sent to England" (Hall's _Chronicle_).