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
