"To his most dear lord and friend, Hubert de Burg, Justiciary of England, William, Earl de Warenne, greeting, and sincere love.
"I request and most earnestly beseech you, as my dearest lord and friend, now to assist me in my straitest need with the monies for which you and Sir William the Marshall were sureties (plegii fuistis). For I owe a hundred pounds to the Lord Earl of Arundell, which it behoves me necessarily to pay him on this his demand at the Feast of St. John. I am bound to you also in a similar manner for along time past for monies, with which, thanks to you, you accommodated me in my great trouble. Learn, however, that in my present necessity I have no refuge but with you, for if I could have got assistance from either Jews or Christians, I would not set out any complaint about it before you. Be pleased, therefore, so to act in this matter that you may derive honor from it, and that I may be bound in more abundant gratitude towards you. And be pleased to call to mind that I lent the money at your request and that of Sir William the Marshall. If, however, it would please you that I should forego something of it, know that I am willing to forego as much as you please, on condition that I may receive the residue more promptly. Be assured also that I have never, on any occasion, applied to you in so strict a necessity, for I owe very great debts to those who have taken the Cross, to whom I must both pay their own and give of my own. Wherefore I beseech you so much the more earnestly, by the mutual friendship between us, to act so that I may know you love me. Moreover, be assured that you will have done more for me, and I shall be more grateful to you, if only you will afford me this assistance, than if, after the feast of St. John, you should have given me a thousand pounds. Let me know by Sir Elyas de Marevill, and by Sir Mainard, his brother, what you will be willing to do in this matter. Inasmuch, however, as I have not my great seal with me, I have caused those letters to be sealed with my private seal. I beg you also to give credence to what Sir Elyas de Marevill and his brother. Sir Mainard, may sav to you on my behalf. Farewell."—Latin, Tower MSS, 228.
The brothers Mareville, here acknowledged as the earls' agents, were well known at the English court, having received repeated gifts from Kings John and Henry III, from 1216 to 1222. One was a grant of land in Lincolnshire, which is described as having belonged to the king's enemies, and was avowedly given for the express purpose of supporting Sir Elyas in the royal service.
What was the result of the earl's entreaties, whether the cash was thus obtained or not, is unknown. It was not the last occasion, however, on which this earl was pressed for money. The executors of a Suffolk knight, whose guardian he had been, summoned him into court, in 1232, for not paying his debts.[1]
The next letter, which must have been written between 1232 and 1240, to the same earl, was from one of the most
- ↑ Excerpta e Rot. Finium, i, 227.
