[Footnote 87-2: [From Paston MSS., B.M.] This letter must have
been written either in 1485 or in 1486. Thomas Howard, Earl of
Surrey, was taken prisoner at the battle of Bosworth on the 22nd
August 1485, and was not released from confinement till 1487, in
which latter year also John Paston, to whom this letter is
addressed, was knighted at the battle of Stoke on the 16th June.
Most likely the letter is of the year 1485, at the beginning of
the Earl’s imprisonment, and when Henry VII. had been just six
weeks upon the throne.]
[Footnote 87-3: In Norfolk.--F.]
[Footnote 87-4: John Ratcliff, Lord Fitzwalter, who was summoned
to Parliament in September 1485.]
[Footnote 88-1: A mess was a party of four at dinner.]
[Footnote 88-2: Omitted in MS.]
[Footnote 88-3: These last words were written by the Countess, the
letter by her secretary.--F.]
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