[Footnote 120-1: [From Fenn, ii. 158.] This letter was
unquestionably written in the reign of Henry VII., and not in that
of Edward IV., to which Fenn assigned it. The writer, William
Paston, was only born in the year 1459, and was still pursuing his
studies at Eton so late in Edward’s reign as the year 1479, in the
end of which year his eldest brother, Sir John Paston, died. The
Sir John Paston to whom this is addressed must therefore be the
second son of John Paston, Esquire, who was knighted at the battle
of Stoke in 1487, and died in 1503. The year in which the letter
was written is, however, still doubtful. I do not find by the
Privy Seal dates of Henry VII. that such a progress as is here
spoken of was ever carried out. Apparently it was intended that,
beginning on Monday fortnight after the date of the letter, the
King should occupy a fortnight on the way from London to Norwich,
and arrive there on Palm Sunday Eve. The year must therefore have
been one in which Palm Sunday Eve fell between the 5th and the
11th of April, and Easter Day between the 13th and 19th April. The
earliest year that will suit these conditions is 1489, when Easter
fell on the 19th April; and that this was the true date of the
letter is made probable by several other circumstances. In 1489
the King was staying at Sheen during March. A great council had
certainly met in the end of the year 1488 about the affairs of
Brittany, and is very likely to have prolonged its meetings or
renewed them from time to time to the 3rd March following.
Moreover, if our date be correct, it supplies an interesting and
highly probable fact with regard to Henry, Earl of Northumberland,
the fourth of the line of Percy, who was slain in an insurrection
in the north in April following, showing that he was with the King
at Sheen in the beginning of March, and had undertaken by
indenture to protect the Borders against the Scots, not long
before he found himself called upon to put down the King’s
rebellious subjects in Yorkshire.]
[Footnote 120-2: Here follows some account relative to a grant
from the Crown, etc.--F.]
[Footnote 120-3: John, Lord Dynham.]
[Footnote 121-1: Not Haveningham in Suffolk, but Heveningham,
Hevingham, or, as it is now commonly written, Hedingham, in
Essex, the seat of the Earl of Oxford.]
[Footnote 121-2: 11th April.]
[Footnote 121-3: _See_ vol. ii. p. 110, Note 1.]
[Footnote 121-4: Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Calthorpe, was
daughter and coheir of Sir Miles Stapleton.]
[[be thys letter delyvered.
_first italic “d” misprinted as “a”_]]
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