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RENT-llOLI. OF Till': DUKI-: OF HUCKINOHAM. 26:i ni;haiu, Hereford, Stallbrd, NorLliain])lou, and Tcrcli, Lord )f Brecknock and of Iloldcrness, and Captain of the Town of ^alais."'^ In 1444, he was created Duke of Jkickingliani, md made Constable of Dover Castle. He married the Lady Anne Neville, daughter of Ivalpli, [virl of Westmoreland, by whom he had issue Huniplirey, blarl of tStaftbrd, who was killed at St. Alban's in his lather's ifc-timc, 1455. The Duke's second son, Lord Henry Stafford, married Margaret lieaufort, so well known to us as Jie Countess of Uichmond and Derby, the mother of Henry VII. The third, and youngest son, was John, Earl of yViltshire. The Duke had also two daughters ; the eldest, A.nne, mari'ied Aubrey do Vere, eldest son and heir of John, Karl of Oxford. On this occasion Dishop Kennett tells us that the Duke received a customary aid from his feodatory tenants : a receipt given to one of them is as follows : — "This Bille endcntj-d tlic 13 day of August (24 II. G) bereth witnesse lliat Kob'. Power fcodary of my Lorde the Duke of Bockyngham hath lescyvcd of Edward Rede Squycre 25s. for a rehf, and 5s. for a teiial)le nydc to the mariage of the heldyst daughter of my seydc lord for the fourth part of a knyght's fee in Adyngrave, in the shire of Buckingham."-* We thus see how a marriage portion could be raised at this period. I Amono- the Paston Letters there is one from the Duke to [.he Viscount Beaumont, who is addressed as his " right putirely beloved Brother," both these peers being Knights ijf the Garter.^ The letter — which is said to be "perhaps ihe only original Letter extant of this great Peer" — is with- but date, but was written probably between 1444 and 1445. It presents a curious picture of his ways and means ; |"or, notwithstanding his large possessions, it relates to an 'unsatisfied debt owing by him to the Viscount. He says, — I *• I perceive by the tenor of your letter your good desire of a certain debt ihat I owe unto you. In good faith, Brother, it is so with me at this time ihat 1 have but easy stuff of money within me, for so much as the season n the year is not yet grown, so that I may not please your said gdod brotherhood, as God knoweth my will and intent were to do, and if I lad it." ^ Allen's History of Yorkshire, ii., 392. tunc, copartners both in peace anil war, ' Kennett's Parochial Anlicj., vol. ii. assistant to one another in all serious and . 372. danj^erous transactions, and through the ^ Whose institution directs that the whole course of their lives, faithful and nights con)])anioiis should be "fellows friendly one towards another." nU bretlu-en, united in all chances of for-