POLITICAL HISTORY 



arm at the battle of Barnet.' On the restoration of Edward, the duke of 

 Norfolk again got possession of Caister, and the Pastons were not finally- 

 reinstated until 1476,^ 



In 1470, Edward, being deserted by his followers, fled to Lynn and 

 escaped thence to Flanders. When returning in the next year from Zeeland 

 he again touched the Norfolk coast, and on 1 2 March when off Cromer 

 sent Sir Robert Chamberlain (himself a Norfolk man) ashore to see if he 

 could safely land, but the report being unfavourable he kept on north and 

 landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. The battle of Barnet and the death of 

 Warwick followed in exactly a month, and in a short time the battle of 

 Tewkesbury and the murder of Henry VI in the Tower placed Edward 

 securely on the throne till his death in 1483. 



The concluding years of the reign were not of any great importance locally. 

 In 1477 there was a riot on the land of Roger Townshend at Ludham, during 

 which two ' shooting butts ' were destroyed,' this being probably an enclosure 

 riot. In 1478 the duke of Suffolk was again annoying Paston. He revived 

 his claims to Hellesden and Drayton, and sold Drayton Wood to Richard 

 Ferror, mayor of Norwich, who proceeded to cut it down. Paston took the 

 matter into Chancery, and Ferror declared that he had no idea that Suffolk 

 was not in peaceable possession of the property, though as Paston said, this 

 must have been pure pretence.* The duke paid another hostile visit to 

 Hellesden, luckily while Paston was absent. He appears to have held a court 

 there, and, no doubt to annoy, he ' drew a stew and took plenty of fish.' 

 The steward who wrote an account of these proceedings to Paston adds, 

 apparently with some satisfaction, that the duke was so feeble in the hot 

 weather that he had to be kept on his feet by two retainers. He left the 

 pleasant message for Paston that he wanted no better than to meet him with 

 a spear and have his heart's blood. ^ 



During the short reign of Richard III no very memorable events took 



place in Norfolk. The king is said to have visited Norwich Mn 1483, and 



he certainly had a strong local supporter in Sir John Howard, whom he 



created earl of Norfolk on account of his maternal descent from the Mowbrays 



and who shared his fate at Bosworth in 1485, his name being imbedded in 



the rhyme : — 



Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold, 



For Dickon thy master is bought and sold. 



It may be convenient to point out here that though the Howards were of 

 some antiquity in the county, their first ancestor who can be traced being 

 William Heyward, Haward, or Howard, Chief Justice of Common Pleas in 

 the reign of Edward I, yet they were not of the highest position in it until, 

 partly by ability but chiefly through the great match made by Sir Thomas 

 Howard with the heiress of the Mowbrays, they came to the front in the 

 fifteenth century. That this is the case is shown by the curious letter pro- 

 duced in the Paston Letters when the duchess of Norfolk^ wrote that her 

 husband found it necessary that he should have in Parliament only such 



' Paston Letters, No. 668. ' Ibid. Nos. 778, 779. 



' Gurney MSS. xxii, fol. I. 



* Paston Letters, Nos. 814, 815. ' Ibid. No. 817. 



' Blomefield, op. cit. iv, 173. ' Paston Letters, No. 244. 



491 



