_Edmund Clere to John Paston._
To my well-beloved Cousin, John Paston, be this delivered.
Right well-beloved cousin, I recommend me to you, letting you wit such
tidings as we have.
Blessed be God, the King is well amended, and hath been since
Christmasday, and on Saint John's day commanded his almoner to ride to
Canterbury with his offering, and commanded the Secretary to offer at
Saint Edward's.
And on the Monday afternoon the Queen came to him, and brought my Lord
Prince with her. And then he asked what the Prince's name was, and the
Queen told him Edward; and then he held up his hands and thanked God
thereof. And he said he never knew till that time, nor wist not what
was said to him, nor wist not where he had been while he hath been sick
till now. And he asked who were godfathers, and the Queen told him, and
he was well pleased.
And she told him that the Cardinal[16] was dead, and he said he knew
never thereof till that time; and he said one of the wisest Lords in
this land was dead.
[16] Kemp, Archbishop of Canterbury.
And my Lord of Winchester and my Lord of Saint John were with him on
the morrow after Twelfth day, and he speak to them as well as ever he
did; and when they come out they wept for joy.
And he saith he is in charity with all the world, and so he would all
the Lords were. And now he sayeth Matins of Our Lady and evensong, and
heareth his Mass devoutly; and Richard shall tell you more tidings by
mouth.
THE BATTLE OF ST. ALBANS (+May 21, 22, 1455+).
=Source.=--_Archæologia_, vol. xx., p. 519.
Be it known and had in mind that the 21st day of May the twenty-third
year of the reign of King Henry the sixth, our Sovereign Lord the King
took his journey from Westminster toward Saint Albans, and rested at
Watford all night; and on the morrow betimes he came to Saint Albans,
and with him ... gentlemen and yeomen to the number of two thousand and
more. And upon the twenty-second day of the said month above rehearsed
assembled the Duke of York, and with him came in company the Earl of
Salisbury, the Earl of Warwick with divers knights and squires unto
their party into the field, called the Key Field, beside Saint Albans.
Furthermore, our said sovereign Lord the King, hearing and knowing of
the said Duke's coming with other Lords aforesaid, pitched his banner
at the place called Boslawe in Saint Peter Street, which place was
called aforetime Sandiford, and commandeth the ward and barriers to be
kept in strong wise; the aforesaid Duke of York abiding in the field
aforesaid from seven of the clock in the morning till it was almost
ten without any stroke smitten on either party. The said Duke sent to
the King our sovereign Lord, by the advice of his Council, praying and
beseeching him to take him as his true man and humble subject; and
to consider and to tender at the reverence of Almighty God, and in
way of charity the true intent of his coming--to be good and gracious
sovereign Lord to his liegemen, which with all their power and might
will be ready at all times to live and die with him in his right.
"Moreover, gracious Lord, please it your Majesty Royal of your great
goodness and righteousness to incline your will to hear and feel the
righteous party of us your subjects and liegemen; first, praying and
beseeching to our Lord Jesus of his high and mighty power to give unto
you virtue and prudence, and that through the mediation of the glorious
martyr Saint Alban to give you very knowledge to know the intent of our
assembling at this time; for God that is in Heaven knoweth that our
intent is rightful and true. And therefore we pray unto Almighty Lord
Jesus, these words--_Domine sis clipeus defensionis nostræ_. Wherefore,
gracious Lord, please it your high Majesty to deliver such as we will
accuse, and they to have like as they have deserved and done, and ye to
be honoured and worshipped as most rightful King, our governor. For
and we shall now at this time be promised, as afore this time is not
unknown, of promises broken which full faith fully hath been promised,
and there upon great oaths made, we will not now cease for none such
promise, surety, nor other, till we have them which have deserved
death, or else we to die therefore."
And to that answered the King our sovereign Lord and said: "I, King
Henry, charge and command that no manner of person, of what degree, or
state, or condition that ever he be, abide not, but void the field, and
not be so hardy to make any resistance against me in mine own realm;
for I shall know what traitor dare be so bold to raise a people in mine
own land, wherefore I am in great distress and heaviness. And by the
faith that I owe to Saint Edward, and to the Crown of England, I shall
destroy them every mother's son, and they be hanged, and drawn, and
quartered, that they may be taken afterward, of them to have example to
all such traitors to beware to make any such rising of people within my
land, and so traitorously to abide their King and governor. And for a
conclusion, rather than they shall have any Lord here with me at this
time, I shall this day, for their sake, and in this quarrel myself live
or die."
Which answer come to the Duke of York, the which Duke, by the advice
of the Lords of his Council, said unto them these words: "The King our
sovereign Lord will not be reformed at our beseeching nor prayer, nor
will not understand the intent that we be come hither and assembled
for and gathered at this time; but only his full purpose, and there
none other way but that he will with all his power pursue us, and if
taken, to give us a shameful death, losing our livelihood and goods,
and our heirs shamed for ever. And therefore, since it will be none
otherwise but that we shall utterly die, better it is for us to die
in the field than cowardly to be put to a great rebuke and a shameful
death; moreover, considering in what peril England stands in at this
hour, therefore every man help to help power for the right thereof,
to redress the mischief that now reigneth, and to quit us like men
in this quarrel; praying to that Lord that is King of Glory, that
reigneth in the Kingdom celestial, to keep us and save us this day
in our right, and through the help of His holy grace we may be made
strong to withstand the great, abominable and cruel malice of them that
purpose fully to destroy us with shameful death. We therefore, Lord,
pray to Thee to be our comfort and Defender, saying the word aforesaid,
_Domine sis clipeus defensionis nostræ_."
And when this was said, the said Duke of York, and the said Earl of
Salisbury, and the Earl of Warwick, between eleven and twelve of the
clock at noon, they broke into the town in three divers places and
several places of the aforesaid street. The King being then in the
place of Edmond Westby hundredor of the said town of Saint Albans,
commandeth to slay all manner men of lords, knights, and squires and
yeomen that might be taken of the foresaid Duke of York. This done,
the foresaid Lord Clifford kept strongly the barriers that the said
Duke of York might not in any wise, with all the power that he had,
enter nor break into the town. The Earl of Warwick, knowing thereof,
took and gathered his men together, and furiously brake in by the
garden sides between the sign of the Key and the sign of the Chequer
in Holwell street; and anon as they were within the town, suddenly
they blew up trumpets, and set a cry with a shout and a great voice,
"A Warwick! A Warwick! A Warwick!" and unto that time the Duke of
York might never have entry into the town; and they with strong hand
kept it, and mightily fought together, and anon, forthwith after the
breaking in, they set on them manfully. And of them that were slain
and buried in Saint Albans, forty-eight. And at this same time were
hurt Lords of name--the King, our sovereign Lord, in the neck with an
arrow; the Duke of Buckingham, with an arrow in the visage; the Lord
of Stafford in the hand, with an arrow; the lord of Dorset, sore hurt
that he might not go, but he was carried home in a cart; and Wenlock,
knight, in like wise in a cart sore hurt; and other divers knights and
squires sore hurt. The Earl of Wiltshire, Thorpe, and many others fled,
and left their harness behind them cowardly, and the substance of the
King's party were despoiled of horse and harness. This done, the said
Lords, that is to wit, the Duke of York, the Earl of Salisbury, the
Earl of Warwick, come to the King, our Sovereign Lord, and on their
knees besought him of grace and forgiveness of that they had done in
his presence, and besought him of his Highness to take them as his
true liegemen, saying that they never intended hurt to his own person,
and therefore the King our sovereign Lord took them to grace, and so
desired them to cease their people, and that there should no more harm
be done; and they obeyed his commandment, and let made a cry in the
King's name that all manner of people should cease and not so hardy to
strike any stroke more after the proclamation of the cry; and so ceased
the said battle, _Deo gratias_.