Note 138.2 — THE PASTON LETTERS Henry VI (continued 3)

[From Fenn, i. 174.] The only years during the married life of John and Margaret Paston (except when their eldest son was a mere child), in which the Sunday preceding Ascension Day fell some time before the 10th of May, were 1456 and 1459. In the former year the King could not either have been or have intended to be at Leicester on the 10th of May. In 1459 the Privy Seals show that he was at Northampton on the 14th, 18th, and 19th of May, and it is quite possible he may have been at Leicester on the 10th. In 1464 Edward IV. was at Leicester in May, and the Sunday before Ascension Day was the 6th of May; but it is not probable this letter was written in that year, for two reasons. In the first place, Margaret Paston could hardly have hoped for an answer from her husband—who may be presumed to have been in London—in time to have sent his son to be at Leicester on the 10th; secondly, Letter 375, which is evidently of the same year as this, would probably have been signed ‘John Paston, K.’ (i.e. Knight).

139.1 To be mean, i.e. to be a mediator. Fenn has not apprehended the phrase, which he has modernised ‘to bemoan.’