POLITICAL HISTORY 



gentleman, of Bury St. Edmunds, was rewarded by the grant for life of the 

 manor of Brent Bradford, 1 lately held by Lord Roos, while Sir James Luttrell 

 lost his Suffolk manors. 2 Thomas Colte got Acton, which had been confiscated 

 from the earl of Wiltshire, and Sir John Scotte received Clopton, late 

 Lord Beaumont's. 3 This was only an interlude in the county rivalry. The 

 duke of Norfolk held his court at Framlingham and the duke of Suffolk held 

 his at Wingfield Castle. There they lived like princes with their councils 

 and their soldiers, wielding almost absolute power over their adherents. The 

 Fastolf inheritance was coveted by both. The duke of Norfolk called his 

 adherents out of Suffolk to besiege the manor house of Caister which John 

 Paston had inherited from Sir John Fastolf, and Sir John Heveningham, Sir 

 Thomas Wingfield, Sir Gilbert Debenham, and Sir William Brandon were all 

 captains at the siege. 4 In this uproar the preparations for the Lancastrian 

 rising of 1470 5 were almost unnoticed, and the earl of Oxford was busy dis- 

 posing himself with all the power he could at Bury in conjunction with 

 his brother, who was raising Norfolk. The duke of Suffolk was true to 

 Edward IV, and during the short restoration of Henry VI, compelled his men 

 of the borough of Eye to pay the men enlisted for the Yorkist army. 8 But 

 the speedy return of Edward IV in March, 1471, though Veer was able to 

 prevent the possibility of his landing on the coast, was followed by his pro- 

 clamation in Suffolk by Lord Howard. Oxford and his adherents suffered 

 further forfeiture, and Richard duke of Gloucester 7 was granted the lordships 

 of Lavenham, Mendham, Cockfield, &c, lately belonging to the earl, and 

 also Borsted, Shelley, &c, belonging to Robert Harleston. The earl was not 

 deterred however from making another attempt, and in May, 1473, he was 

 hovering round the coast. 8 One hundred gentlemen in Norfolk and Suffolk 

 had agreed to rise to meet him, but wind and weather did not serve, and 

 though he actually landed at St. Osyth's he did not tarry long. The same 

 year Edward IV made a progress through the county. The duke of Norfolk 

 died in 1475, and Sir Robert Wingfield was made controller of his estate 

 during the minority of his daughter. Suffolk's position was perilously near 

 the crown, and his son the earl of Lincoln was regarded as the heir after 

 Richard of Gloucester. The final triumph of the Lancastrians in 1485 found 

 the duke still supple enough to join the winning side. 



By 20 October, after Bosworth field, which was fought on 22 August, 

 he was calling out the county levies in the name of Henry VII. Lord 

 Lovell, 9 after the failure of his rising in i486, tried to escape by Suffolk ports, 

 and his hiding-place in the Isle of Ely was denounced to the sheriff by 

 Margaret countess of Oxford, his wife's aunt. She straitly charged the 

 sheriff to watch the ports and creeks, but the fugitive gained a refuge in 

 Flanders, where he found the preparations for the Lambert Simnel expedition 

 in full swing. Along with the duke's eldest son he returned in Lambert's 

 cause. The Suffolk levies 10 were turned out, and money was not to be accepted 

 in lieu of service by Sir William Clopton and Sir William Cornwallis of 

 Thrandeston. The duke did not openly approve of his son's action. Both 



1 Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 443. ' Ibid. p. 231. 



3 Ibid. p. 116; 1467-77, p. 18. ' Fenn Letters (ed. 1789), iv, 405. 



5 Ibid, ii, 54. * Paston Letters (cd. Gairdner), ii, 413. 



7 Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 297. 8 Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), ii, 138. 



9 Ibid, ii, 339. I0 Ibid, v, 363. 



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