Countess d'Eu, my niece, and your kinswoman, (Comitisse Auge neptis nostre et cognate vestre), I inform you that she is come here, and I and she (ego et ipsa) have already spoken with my lord the king, and he, readily and kindly receiving us, has appointed us a day on the Octaves of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, wherever he may be. We affectionately implore therefore your love, on which we place the greatest possible reliance, that you would be present on the day appointed, because I believe the affairs of our lord the king, and my own, mil be brought to a happy and prosperous conclusion, by the intervention of your council and assistance. And this, as you love us and the said countess, both for the sake of our lord the king, and of ourselves, on no account omit to do. Farewell." — Orig. Latin, Tower MSS, 629.
The importance attached to deeds being expressly witnessed by every party interested, is well shown in the following application to the feudal lord of Sussex, and William, the sixth Earl de Warenne. The writer, W. de Avrenches, having been taken and imprisoned as a rebel by King John in 1216, was released on payment of a large ransom, to raise which, he and his mother, Cecilia, had sold the manor of Sutton, near Seaford, to the Abbey of Robertsbridge, and their seals remain affixed to the Latin original.[1]
"To his most dear Lords William, Earl de Warenne, the Lord William de Aubeney, Earl of Sussex, and Sir Gilbert de Aquila, William de Avrenches (Abrincis), and Cecilia, his mother, greeting.
"Since we cannot have your presence at the drawing up the deeds between us and the abbot and monks of Robertsbridge, concerning the manor of Sutton, near Seaford, we beg and earnestly intreat that you will be pleased to be witness as to these our deeds, on which your names have been put in writing (ascripti) as witnesses, in order to ensure certainty. Farewell."
The next letter is a curious exhibition of the urgent needs occasionally experienced by feudal chiefs of wide domains and high connection. No tradesman striving to keep up appearances, by offering large reduction in prices, could use greater urgency to raise ready money than this great earl.
It will be observed that three distinct debts are alluded to in the letter: one due to the Earl of Arundel, probably arising from his guardianship of Hugh de Albini when a minor; another thankfully acknowledged of money lent on a former occasion by the Justiciary to Earl de Warenne; and a third, the main subject of the letter, of money lent by the earl at the request of the Justiciary and William the Marshal, on which he offers discount for prompt payment.
- ↑ Sir H. Ellis's Orig. Letters, 3 Ser. 1 v. p. 25.
