A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



permitting them to live in the county and enjoy their goods in peace.* These 

 were probably friendly Scotch, who for their own safety preferred to inhabit 

 the south. 



On the accession of Edward IV there seem to have been ' insur- 

 rections and false rumours ' in Norfolk, which have escaped the notice of 

 local historians, for in 1462 a commission was sent down to the sheriff of 

 Norfolk and others to inquire into the report that Thomas Brigge and 

 William Willy were stirring up sedition within the city of Norwich and 

 elsewhere in the county.' 



In 1465 Paston was attacked by the earl of Suffolk, who had set up a 

 most ridiculous claim by descent to Fastolf's manor of Drayton, which was 

 held by Paston as one of Fastolfs executors. The duke came down on 

 Paston's house at Hellesden, which was presided over during his absence by 

 his wife and son. Finding the garrison rather too strongly posted, the duke 

 drew off his force, and Paston strongly criticized the earl's pedigree and 

 claim, showing that he was descended from ' a worshipful man of Hull 

 grown by fortune of the world,' who had never had anything to do with 

 Norfolk.' The duke, however, returned later in the year to Hellesden and 

 practically sacked it,* an outrage for which the Pastons in vain endeavoured 

 to get satisfaction from the king. 



That the county was in a very disturbed and lawless condition is shown 

 by what took place in 1467, when Paston was returned to Parliament for 

 Norfolk. His election was objected to by Sir Miles Stapleton and Sir John 

 Howard the sheriff. A new election was held and Paston was again 

 returned, whereupon there ensued a violent quarrel between him and Sir John 

 Howard in the Shire House. Paston was assaulted by one of Howard's 

 men, who struck him twice with a dagger, so that he would have been hurt 

 but for a good doublet he was wearing.' 



A still more remarkable piece of lawlessness was the siege of Caister 

 Castle in 1469 — one of the most amazing episodes in our local history. 

 Caister Castle, it will be remembered, was built by Sir John Fastolf, one of 

 the free-lances of this century, out of the ransom, it is said, and on the plans 

 of a knight whom he had captured in the French wars. In August, 1469, 

 John Mowbray, the then duke of Norfolk, a young man of twenty-five, 

 alleging that he had bought the manor of one Yelverton, one of Fastolf's 

 executors, surrounded the castle with an army of 3,000 men. The siege 

 which followed was not a very sanguinary one, but one of Paston's captains, 

 Daubeney, was killed, and the walls were battered before the castle was 

 surrendered, the defenders' victuals and gunpowder giving out.' Two only of 

 the attackers were killed, but the evil effects of the utter lawlessness of the 

 proceeding on the minds of the common people must have been great. 

 During the deposition of Edward IV by Warwick in 1470, the Pastons, by 

 the aid of the earl of Oxford, temporarily regained possession of Caister. It 

 was probably this aid and the lack of sympathy shown them by Edward when 

 Hellesden was attacked which made them join the Lancastrians in the next 

 campaign. John Paston fought on the losing side, and was wounded in the 



* Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 15 ; pt. iii, m. 5 ; Ibid. 3 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 7, 3. 



' Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. ids'. ' Paston Letters, No. 514. 



' Ibid. Nos. 533, 534. ' Ibid. Nos. 410, 411. * Ibid. Nos. 618-22. 



490 



