How to read the Paston Letters #13

Welcome to our read-along of the Paston Letters, the correspondence of a fifteenth-century gentry family who lived through the Wars of the Roses, one letter at a time.

We started here; and you can find every instalment so far here. If you’d like to join us, please sign up here:

Last week we stood with Margaret Paston in May 1448 on the streets of Norwich, where some in-your-face provocation by one of the Pastons’ enemies precipitated a dangerous brawl involving some of the family’s servants.

The danger was twofold: physical and reputational. With daggers drawn – and, at one stage, a two-handed sword – serious injury, in a heated moment, was only ever inches away. But serious injury would bring serious legal consequences, and was better avoided even when tempers ran high; in this case, the worst wound anyone sustained was a grazed hand. Then again, bruised pride could cause trouble just as much as lacerated flesh. Margaret was worried about lasting damage to the Pastons’ good name from the insults that had been hurled at her family in public, and about the risk of violent retaliation against either the family chaplain – one of the young men who’d been in the frontline of the fight – or her husband John in London.

This week’s letter isn’t strictly a Paston letter, in the sense that it’s neither composed by nor addressed to a member of the Paston family. But it was written just nine days after the last one, and its subject is a street brawl that turns into more than just handbags. It seems a useful point of comparison for the profound anxieties Margaret was left to shoulder – and a reminder that, as bad as things were, they could always be worse.1

Let’s dive straight in. As usual – and there’s one phrase here for which this might be particularly relevant – try reading out loud if you’re struggling to make sense of individual words.

On the outside of the folded paper, the address:

To my worschypfull and reuerent Lord John Vicont Beaumont

And on the inside:

Ryȝth worschypfull and my reuerent and most spesiall Lord y recomaund me vn to ȝowre good grace in the most humble and lowly wyse that y canne or may, desyryng to her of ȝowre prosperite and well fare as to my most syngeler ioy and spesiall comfort.

And ȝyf hyt plees ȝowre hygnes as towchyng the soden aventewre that fell latly at Couentre, plees hyt ȝowre lordshyp to here that, on Corpus Christi even last passed be twene viij and ix of the clok at afternoon Syr Umfrey Stafford had browth my mayster Syr James of Vrmond toward hys yn from my lady of Shrewusbery and retorned from hym toward hys yn, he met with Syr Robert Harcowrt comyng frome hys modere toward hys yn and passed Syr Vmfrey and Richard hys son came sumwhat be hynde. And when they met to gyder they fell in handes to gyder and Syr Robert smot hym a grette stroke on the hed with hys sord. And Richard with hys dagger hastely went toward hyme and as he stombled, on of Harcowrtus men smot hym in the bak with a knyfe, men wotte not ho hytt was reddely. Hys fader herd noys and rode toward hem and hys men ronne before hym thyder ward. And in the goyng downe of hys hors, on, he wotte not ho, be hynd hym smot hym on the hede with a nege tole, men know not with vs with what wepone, that he fell downe. And hys son fell downe be fore hym as good as dede. And all thys was don, as men sey, in a Pater Noster wyle. And forth with Syr Vmfrey Stafford men foloed after and slew ij men of Harcowrttus, on Swynerton and Bradshawe, and mo ben hurt, sum ben gonne and sum be in pryson in the jayll at Couentre.

And be fore the coroner of Couentre vp on the syȝth of the bodyes, ther ben endited as prynsipall for the deth of Richard Stafford, Syre Robert Harcowrt and the ij men that ben dede. And for the ij men of Harcowrtus that ben dede ther ben endited ij men of Syr Vmfrey as prynsipall. And as ȝytte ther hath ben no thyng fownden before the Justice of the Pees of Couentre of thys riot be caws the shreffe of Warwyk shyre is dede and they may not sytt in to the tyme ther be a new shreve. And all thys myschef fell be cawse of a nold debate that was be twene heme for takyng of a dystres as hyt is told.

And All myȝthty Jesu preserve ȝowre hye astat, my spesiall lord, and send ȝow long lyve and good hele. Wryten at Couentre on Tewusday next after Corpus Christi day &c.

Be ȝowre own pore servand John Northwood

So: we have a new cast of characters in a different place – although, as we’ll see in a moment, this letter has a Norfolk connection, and presumably a Paston one. (How else, after all, would it end up in an archive with the ‘Paston Letters’?)