316 Charles, Lord Stourton, 8fc. 



the Duke of Suffolk, was proclaymed so near you and -within your lymities and 

 nothing doon to the contrary, with also you' nerenes of blode to th'arche 

 traitor fawtour of all this mischeve.* And where ye call me traitor ye(a) and 

 Rank traitor, without spot or cause, provoking me to shew my selve an yll 

 subject in this troblesome tyme, whiche ye shall never be hable to do, my duty 

 of alegeance resyrved, and this busynes quietyd, assuer your selve I wol set my 

 fote by yours to purge ray selve of that vile name to your greate shame. 



Wher ye also write to me of my greate Syn, [I cannot make no aunswer 

 therunto, for that I know noon suche. For sure I am, — erased.'] I let you 

 wit I have served noon but a King this xx yeres. As for flatery, if you call 

 your words you had to me at Sarum to remembraunce you have small cause to 

 charge me therewith till more tyme of quietnes may serve for the better triall 

 thereof. And to conclude for this present, for that I mynd, as I have alweys 

 hitherunto doon, to live and contynue in the obedience of a goode subjecte, I 

 require you in the quenes highnes behalfe that either you send me by this 

 berer the just copie of yo'' comission or els t'advertise me to what gentlemen of 

 wurship within this shire I may repaire unto, that have seen the verry comission 

 signed with her highnes hand, whiche I wol for duties sake towards her highnes, 

 beinge my soverayn and liege Lady, as redyly obbey to th'uttermost points 

 thereof as any subjecte within this Realme, with my tenants and officers; notwith- 

 standyng your thretyning woords. And in the meane to {while) you shall fynd 

 me obedyent in trust therof notwithstanding my formar ernest intent to have 

 repayred to hir Ma*'' with such poor force of horsemen as I was able, not 

 doubtyng but that you wylbe my dyscharge yf any lak be found in me therof. 

 From " {rest loanting). 



{Docketed) "The copy of Sir John Bonham's Letter answering the Lord 

 Stourton's lewd {i.e. violent) letters, July 1553." 



To the last (No. 47), Lord Stourton then replied. 



(No. 48.) 1553 July. Charles Lord Stourton to Sir John Bonham. {Original 

 at Longleat.) 



" What I have wrytten I have wrytten,f and thereto wyll I answer much to 

 the allege of yo' prowd brags, and all can as you touch me with the proclymacyon 

 of Janne Greye to be nygh me and nothing done by me therin to the contrarye, 

 although it was not nedfuU for me to mak you privye of my doyngs, yet your 



• John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. 



+ As Lord Stourton quotes Scriptural words (John xix., 22) it may here be mentioned that there 

 are Two short Theological Treatises in existence which, strange to say, there is some reason for 

 thinking must have been written by bun. The first, preserved among the papers at Longleat, is a 

 "Discourse on Matrimony." The hand-writing resembles his, and on one of the pages is scribbled 

 (as if the proprietor of the MS. were trying a pen) " Charoll Stourton," spelt as he signs his name in 

 some of the Letters. At the back is written " Qualis rerum lectio, talis legentium profectus." This 

 composition is merely in the rough copy, full of alterations. The second, in the British Museum, is 

 a work of about GO leaves, upon '' The Real Presence," in the form of a " Dialogue between Fraunces 

 Flacher and Tom Tynker." This is a fair copy, in the hand-writing of a clerk : the Introduction 

 commencing " To the moste excellent and vertuous prynces my Lady Marie's Grace ;" and is signed 

 " CaroUus Stourton." At the end these words, " This work ended and compiled the 14 October 1549." 

 Both of them indicate a ready acquaintance with the Bible and the writings of the Fathers. In the 

 Pedigree there is no other Charles Stourton living in 1549. An Edmund Stourton is mentioned by 

 Dugdale among the learned Benedictines of Glastonbury as a writer of several Religious books. 



