A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



The earl of Oxford backed them up so that by 8 November, the day fixed 

 for the election, their adherents came to Ipswich in their best array ' with as 

 many cleanly people ' as they could get for their worships. The county was 

 full of private strifes. Land-snatching and ward-lifting were common, and 

 ' it stood right wildly without a mean may be that justice be had.' The 

 obvious remedy seemed to be a strong sheriff, but that was impossible to get 

 as parties stood. In 1454 the sheriff, Thomas Sharburne, did not return the 

 writ for the knights of the shire, alleging intimidation by the duke of Nor- 

 folk's men and tenants. He saw he was to be overborne, and rode away 

 refusing to hold the shire. Next year Norfolk worked hard to keep out the 

 Lancastrians, the most to be feared being Sir Thomas Tudenham. The 

 Suffolk levies probably arrived with the duke too late for the first battle of 

 St. Albans (1455), but one Suffolk man gained uneviable notoriety there. Sir 

 Philip Wentworth, a valiant kidnapper of wards, 1 bore the king's standard, but 

 cast it down and fled into hiding in Suffolk. Norfolk swore he ought to be 

 hanged. After the rout of Ludlow the Yorkists were in peril, and Tuden- 

 ham, Chamberlayn, and Wentworth were ordered to take as traitors and 

 imprison all well-wishers of the lords. 2 The rapid change of 1460 when 

 York landed turned the tables, 3 and the late commissioners for traitors were 

 glad of letters of protection from March and Warwick, while the countess of 

 Suffolk had assured her position with the winning side by marrying her son 

 John to Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of the duke of York. From this 

 time on, though the territorial rivalry of the two dukes Edward IV later 

 restored the dukedom to John did not cease, they were both adherents to the 

 house of the White Rose. In February, 1462, the Lancastrians, Sir Thomas 

 Tudenham, John earl of Oxford and Aubrey Veer his son and heir, John 

 Clopton, and William Tyrrell were all arrested on suspicion of having been in 

 treasonable correspondence with Margaret the queen, and with the exception of 

 Clopton, were beheaded on Tower Hill. 4 The Veer tenants were arrested 

 and all their lands confiscated : Sir Thomas Tudenham's went to John Wenlock 

 lord of Wenlock. Sir John Clopton of Long Melford had a general pardon, 6 

 turned his coat, and set about, along with Sir Thomas Waldegrave and 

 Sir Gilbert Debenham, the raising of men and ships to defend the coast 

 against Margaret's Scots and French allies. The county was absorbed in 

 the factious troubles of the two dukes. The king threatened to send a com- 

 mission under the duke of Clarence to inquire into the rioting which attended 

 their disputes. The Suffolk folk loved neither their duke nor his mother, 

 and accused them of harbouring traitors and countenancing the extortioners 

 whom the king had already tried to get hold of, to the filling of their 

 own pocket. The sheriff too and his officers indicted men for their own 

 profit, and Sir Gilbert Debenham and the under-sheriff fell out over this 

 at the Bury assizes. In October, 1463, Queen Margaret sailed from 

 France, but the coast was well guarded and the county levy was turned 

 out to resist her. Sir John Wingfield, William Jermy, John Sulyard, and 

 Thomas Heigham were appointed commissioners for treason.' John Gerveys, 



1 Pasfon Letters (ed. Gairdncr), i, 336 ; Fain Letters (ed. 1789), iii, 212. 



* Fain Letters, iii, 349. ' Paston Letters-(ed. Gairdner) i, 519. 



* Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), i, 84 ; Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, pp. 28, 132, &c. 



* Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, pp. 113, 195. ' Ibid. p. 348. 



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