_To our right trusty and hertily welbeloved John Paston, Squier._
{_Kateryn, Duchesse_}
{_of Norff._ }
[Sidenote: After 1444 (?)]
Right trusty and entierly welbeloved, we grete you wel hertily as we
kan. And for as moche as we purpose with grace of Jesu to be at London
within bryff tyme, we pray you that your place ther may be redy for us,
for we wole sende our stuff thedir to for [_tofore_, _i.e._ before] our
comyng; and siche agrement as we toke with you for the same, we shall
duely performe yt with the myght of Jesu, who haff you in his blissed
keping.
Wretyn at Eppeworth, ij^de day of Octobre.
[Footnote 71.1: [From Fenn, iii. 16.] The writer of this letter
was the widow of John Mowbray, second Duke of Norfolk, who died
in 1432. After the Duke’s death, she married again no less than
three times; and Fenn thinks this letter, which is dated from
Epworth in Lincolnshire, a seat of the Duke of Norfolk’s, was
probably written during her first widowhood. It must be
remarked, however, that in 1432 John Paston was only twelve
years old at the utmost, so that this letter could hardly have
been written till at least ten years after. It is, besides,
hardly probable that John Paston would have been addressed as
the owner of a ‘place’ in London, before his father’s death in
1444. The exact year, however, is quite uncertain.]
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