On the one hand, plagues, hunger and wars, on the other - the prose of life. Running errands, love, family relationships. What was it like in the Middle Ages? You will not be surprised!
Sir John did not humbly accept the prospect of losing Caister forever. He had lost this lock twice before and had regained it twice. He temporarily limited himself to proposing that John III speak to the Duchess of Norfolk and establish "her and her entourage's attitude toward me and you, and whether it is possible to take over Caister again and with their goodwill; also ask you to find out what garrison and headquarters is in Caister and send a spy back and forth so that he can find out their secrets ". He added a cautionary tale about the prevailing political atmosphere:
The great unrest in the north [of England] reigns, they say; therefore, pay attention to your actions, and especially to your speech, lest […] no one thinks that you support someone against the king's will.
Plague
But this letter from Sir John, written from Bishop Waynflete's Winchester office to John III in Norwich, concerned more of the sudden outbreak of the plague in Norwich than of the Prince's occupation of Caister:
Please let me know if any of our friends and well-wishers have died, as I fear Great Plague in Norwich and other Norfolk Townships [has fallen]. For the sake of God, let my mother take care that my younger brothers do not stay anywhere where the disease is prevalent, or that they do not play with other youth, who live where the plague is permanent; and if there are any dead or infected… in Norwich, then by God, let him send [the children] to some of his friends in the country, and do the same. […] Let my mother go to the country with the whole household.
His relationship with Anne Haute, after three years of "being for the word", was very loose; although they were still "destined" - that is, engaged - they rarely saw each other. “I almost spoke to Mrs. Anna Haute,” he wrote, “but it didn't. However, in the coming time, I hope to settle things with her anyway; now she has agreed to talk to me and hopes that I will be glad to her, as she says ”. At the same time John III was courting Lady Elizabeth Bourchier, widow of Sir Humphrey Bourchier killed at Barnet and Sir John inquired about the progress his brother was making in this field. “You managed to do something, but I don't know how; let me know if things are going good or worse. ”
The article is an excerpt from the book Life of a Medieval Family which has just been released on the market
At some point in the summer of 1471, Sir John managed to get a hundred marks from his mother, and she in turn borrowed that amount from her cousin Elizabeth Clere. Before November, Elizabeth was asking for money that one of her friends desperately needed. Margaret preferred to write to John III, who is currently in the capital, rather than to address it directly to his brother:
What I must do, I do not know, for verily I have nothing, nor can I get anything, even if I go to the dungeon; therefore talk to your brother and let me know how soon he will get it. Otherwise, I have to sell all my wood and he will lose more than a hundred marks when I die ; [because] if I sold them now, each one would give me a hundred marks less than it is worth, because at this time a lot of wood is sold in Norfolk.
Death tamed
The painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from 1562, "The Triumph of Death" shows how often the people of the Middle Ages and early modern times faced the ultimate - accidents, wars, diseases, punishments and plagues were part of everyday life. Echoes of these situations can also be heard in Paston's letters.
She was worried again that people had started gossiping about her financial troubles; and the fact that her problems with lack of money was well known was "to my heart like a spearhead", especially in view of Sir John's indifference to his mother's troubles and his lavish management of "all the money he had been given."
The epidemic was still raging in Norwich.
Your cousin [John] Berney of Witchingham has gone to God. […] Veyly's wife and Lodon's wife and Picard, a baker from Tombland [the old Norwich marketplace], also died; all the members of the household and our parish are as [when] you were leaving, thank God; we live in fear, but we do not know, so by running away, we will be safer than here.
Regardless of the plague, at the end of the letter she posted a traditional errand list and sent money, despite the declared lack of them, to buy sugar and dates , also inquiring about the prices of pepper, cloves, mace (nutmeg), ginger and cinnamon as well as almonds, rice, saffron and A Coruna raisins, which may have been cheaper in London than in Norwich. Around the same time, Margaret's third son, Edmund, wrote John III a letter mainly about shopping in London. Edmund wanted from there:
three yards of purple chamotte [fine wool] 4 sec [shillings] per yard; a dark purple cap, for the price of 2 pp. and 4 d [pence]; a roll of yellow kersey [carded wool] - I suppose it will cost 2 pp; corset made of blue-gray fabric, price:6 d .; three dozen red and yellow laces for the price of 6 d; three pairs of clogs [everyday shoes]. […] Let them not be tall; long enough and wide enough to cover the heel.
He conveyed Margaret's greetings and blessing, and the wish that John “buy a cask [barrel] of Malmasia for her. […] And if you send him home, she asks [Margaret] to wrap him in linen, lest the coachmen bite him, because - as he says - it happened so before. "
Family life in the Middle Ages was very different from ours
Edmund, who had just graduated from the Staple Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery [Hospidia Cancellarie], was looking for a job and asked John to find him "some kind of profitable service." […] I would like the service to be quite easy until I get out of debt ". As might be expected, Sir John did not return Elizabeth Clere one hundred marks, and Margaret lamented it in a letter to John III:
I remember what we had before and how lightly it was spent, with a small profit for all of us, and now it happens to us that we cannot help one another, without a peculiar disadvantage for us - either by selling wood, or by land, or such things are necessary in our homes. […] I worry when I think about it […]. [Sir John] writes to me that he spent forty pounds during this period. The sum is great, and I am free to believe that much of it could be saved. Your father, God bless his soul, has labored with great things, as I believe [Sir John] is doing now, and he has not spent half [that much] on them in such a short time, and has done rightly indeed.
The memory of her timid husband prompted Margaret to mention one more thing that her eldest son did not see: five years after John I's death, his burial site at Bromholm Monastery still did not have a tombstone . "It is a shame and a thing that is said a lot in this land." Indeed, two months earlier Sir John had asked his brother for the exact dimensions of the site for the Bromholm tombstone, but had acted sluggishly on this matter. "I think of your brother's approach," Margaret continued, "that he is not eager to write to me, and therefore I will not burden him with a letter from me." And about the aforementioned wine cask
I would send you money for him, but I do not dare to expose them to robbery, for there are many thieves here in the area. A man named John Loveday had his shirt torn off on his way home. I suppose if you ask Townshend or Playter or some other good countryman to lend them to you for me when they return home, he will teach it for me, and I will pay them.
Finally, she reported that her former ally and agent Ja-mes Gresham had "gotten sick and was still sick." She heard that Sir John had been advised to bring him to court. "For God's sake, let him not be unfavorable, for it would soon put an end to his life. Remember how good he was and how kind he was to us in his full strength. […] Remember this, otherwise our enemies will rejoice. ”
His mother's critical words did not make a noticeable impression on Sir John, who in early 1472 blithely wrote to her that his pardon had come and he spent Christmas holidays pleasantly visiting his aunt Elizabeth (Paston-Poynings), at that time married to Sir George Browne and the Archbishop of York. At the latter's house, he was greeted “joyfully, very warmly and as warmly as I could wish for; and if I were sure that Caister would be ours again, then I would have come home [still] today. " He was concerned about his personal possessions in Caister, so he urged John III, who had returned home for Christmas, "Do what you can to bring back my things, my books, and festive garments as and bedding." III found it necessary to pay Lady Brandon, the wife of Sir William Brandon. He also delivered the news:the king "made a wonderful feast for the Christmas of the Lord" .
Widows
In Norwich, John III tried unsuccessfully "to make peace with my lord of Norfolk or my mistress, but everyone tells me that the lady speaks well of me in spite of everything." The trial of two widows who fell during the siege of Caister was still hanging in the air ; the previous fall, Sir John had suggested that his brother check to see if they were "married from that season or not, for it seems to me that the harlots have already [re] remarried; if so, then their appeal will be annulled. ”
The article is an excerpt from the book The Life of a Medieval Family which has just been released on the market
John's private investigation into the case has at least partially confirmed the correctness of the tactic chosen. A servant, who prudently signed only the initials "R.L.", reported that he had spoken to "a woman who was the wife of a South Walsham fuller, and now she had married a man named Tom Steward, residing in St. Giles Parish, Norwich, and the woman said to me, that she had not appealed at all, but had been deceitfully brought to the New Inn in Norwich, and there was Mr. Southwell [the Prince's man] and urged her to introduce herself as his widow "- in other words:to bring the case to court. However, "she confessed that she would not do anything more in this matter and that is why she took a [new] husband" . The second widow accepted the money to open a trial in court, but the whole case was eventually dropped.
The article is an excerpt from the book Life of a Medieval Family which has just been released on the market.