Letter of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, to His Son
[Source: The Paston Letters, edited by John Fenn]
William de la Pole wrote this letter to his seven-year-old son, John, on April 30, 1450, as he prepared to go into exile on orders of Henry VI, who was attempting to save his friend and counselor from the commons who wanted his death. Instead, as Suffolk sailed toward Calais, his ship was intercepted by a vessel named Nicholas of the Tower. Suffolk was forced off his own ship, given a mock trial, and beheaded on May 2, 1450, after six strokes from a rusty sword.
My dear and only well-beloved son, I beseech our Lord in
Heaven, the Maker of all the World, to bless you, and to send you ever grace to
love him, and to dread him, to the which, as far as a father may charge his
child, I both charge you, and pray you to set all your spirits and wits to do,
and to know his holy laws and commandments, by the which ye shall, with his
great mercy, pass all the great tempests and troubles of this wretched world.
And that also, weetingly, ye do nothing for love nor dread of any earthly
creature that should displease him. And there as any frailty maketh you to fall,
beseech his mercy soon to call you to him again with repentance, satisfaction,
and contrition of your heart, never more in will to offend him.
Secondly,
next him above all earthly things, to be true liegeman in heart, in will, in
thought, in deed, unto the king our aldermost high and dread sovereign lord, to
whom both ye and I be so much bound to; charging you as father can and may,
rather to die than to be the contrary, or to know anything that were against the
welfare or prosperity of his most royal person, but that as far as your body and
life may stretch ye live and die to defend it, and to let his highness have
knowledge thereof in all the haste ye can.
Thirdly, in the same wise, I
charge you, my dear son, alway as ye be bounden by the commandment of God to do,
to love, to worship, your lady and mother; and also that ye obey alway her
commandments, and to believe her counsels and advices in all your works, the
which dread not but shall be best and truest to you. And if any other body would
steer you to the contrary, to flee the counsel in any wise, for ye shall find it
naught and evil.
Furthermore, as far as father may and can, I charge you
in any wise to flee the company and counsel of proud men, of covetous men, and
of flattering men, the more especially and mightily to withstand them, and not
to draw nor to meddle with them, with all your might and power; and to draw to
you and to your company good and virtuous men, and such as be of good
conversation, and of truth, and by them shall ye never be deceived nor repent
you of.
Moreover, never follow your own wit in nowise, but in all your
works, of such folks as I write of above, ask your advice and counsel, and doing
thus, with the mercy of God, ye shall do right well, and live in right much
worship, and great heart's rest and ease.
And I will be to you as good
lord and father as my heart can think.
And last of all, as heartily and
as lovingly as ever father blessed his child in earth, I give you the blessing
of Our Lord and of me, which of his infinite mercy increase you in all virtue
and good living; and that your blood may by his grace from kindred to kindred
multiply in this earth to his service, in such wise as after the departing from
this wretched world here, ye and they may glorify him eternally amongst his
angels in heaven.
Written of mine hand,
The day of my departing fro
this land.
Your true and loving father