_To the ryght wurchypfull and my verry good [lady and cosyn, Dame
Elyzabet][288-2] Brews._
[Sidenote: 1477 / JUNE 11]
Ryght wurchepful and my cheff lady and cosyn, as hertly as I can,
I recomaunde me to yow. Madam, lyeketh yow to undyrstand that the cheff
cause of my wrytyng to yow at thys season ys thys: I wot well yt ys not
unremembred with yow the large comunycacyon that dyvers tymes hathe ben
had towchyng the maryage of my cosyn Margery, yowyr dowghter, and my son
John; of whyche I have ben as glad, and now late wardes as sory, as evyr
I was for eny maryage in myn lyve. And wher or in whom the defawte of
the breche ys, I can have no perfyte knowlage; but, madam, yf yt be in
me or eny of myn, I prey yow assygne a day when my cosyn yowyr husbond
and ye thynk to be at Norwych to wardes Salle, and I wyll com theder to
yow; and I thynk or ye and I departe, that the defawte schall be knowe
where yt ys, and also that, with yowyr advyse and helpe and myn to
gedyrs, we schall take some wey that yt schal not breke; for yf yt dyd,
yt wer non honoure to neyther partyes, and in cheff to them in whom the
defawte ys, consyderyng that it ys so ferre spokun.
And, madam, I prey yow that I may have perfyte knowlage be my son
Yelverton,[288-3] berar here of, when thys metyng schall be, yf ye thynk
it expedyent, and the soner the better, in eschewyng of worsse; for,
madam, I know well, yf yt be not concludyd in ryght schort tyme, that as
for my son he entendyth to doo ryght well by my cosyn Margery, and not
so well by hym sylf, and that schuld be to me, nor I trust to yow no
gret plesur, yf yt so fortunyd, as God deffend, Whom I beseche to send
yow your levest desyers.
Madam, I besech yow that I may be recomawndyd by this bylle to my cosyn
yowr husbond, and to my cosyn Margery, to whom I supposyd to have gevyn
an othyr name or thys tyme.
Wretyn at Mawteby, on Seynt Barnaby is Day.
By your,