Note 106.1 — THE PASTON LETTERS Edward IV.

[From Fenn, iv. 116.] From the mention of Lord Scales in this letter it might be supposed that it was written not later than the year 1469, when Anthony Woodville, the last Lord Scales, became Earl Rivers by the death of his father; but I believe the date to be 1471, and that the writer is simply speaking of Earl Rivers by his old title. In the first place there is no appearance of either of the John Pastons requiring a royal pardon before the year 1471; secondly, it is not probable that either of them would have spoken so slightingly of the value of Lord Scales’s intercession at an earlier period; and thirdly, it seems doubtful whether Edmund Paston could have been old enough to own a war-horse many years before. Finally, we find by Letter 780 following that John Paston, the youngest, succeeded in obtaining a pardon signed by the King on the 17th July 1471. If the reference to the autograph plate in Fenn is correct, this letter was in the hand of his elder brother, Sir John Paston, Knight; but as it is not signed, like most of his letters, ‘John Paston, K.,’ we are inclined to suspect that it was really written by the younger brother, like No. 780.