The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley

Author:Mary Wellesley [Wellesley, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

Also I wuld ye shuld purvey for your suster to be wyth my lady of Oxford or wyth my lady of Bedford or in summe othere wurchepfull place where as ye thynk best, and I wull help to here fyndyng, for we be eythere of vs wery of othere. I shall telle you more whan I speke wyth you. I pray you do your deveyre herein as ye wull my comfort and welefare and your wurchep, for diuerse causes which ye shall vnderstand afterward, & c.

(Also I would like you to arrange for your sister to be with my lady of Oxford or with my lady of Bedford or in some other reputable place, as you think best, and I will help with her maintenance, for we are both of us weary of each other. I shall tell you more when I speak with you. I pray you do your duty herein, for my comfort and welfare and your reputation, for many reasons which you shall understand afterwards, etc.)71

Despite her somewhat guarded language, it was clear that Margaret was having a difficult time with her daughter and wanted her out of the house. (The daughter must have been Margery [b. 1448], as later letters reveal.) As Margaret hinted, it wasn’t simply a question of a strained relationship, but “diuerse causes which ye shall vnderstand afterward.” Gloys—the scribe and chaplain—would no doubt have been privy to all the information here. It was probably this very familiarity that would enrage John II in the letter quoted three years later.

It is unclear whether Margery indeed found employment with “my lady of Oxford or wyth my lady of Bedford,” but a letter written a month later explains the cause of the difficulty between Margery and her mother. It is written in John Paston III’s own hand and is addressed to his brother John Paston II.72 Margery, it turns out, had fallen in love with Richard Calle, the family’s trusted employee. The Pastons were newly socially elevated and evidently very keen to preserve their status. Calle was from a family of shopkeepers in Framlingham. The affair was a scandal. Calle, evidently unsure about how to broach the subject of a possible marriage, had asked an intermediary to sound out John III, and the conversation had not gone well. John III’s words are cruel. He refers to his “vngracyous sustyr” (meaning she was wicked and miserable, literally without God’s grace) and reports what his response was:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.