Now! Then! At York, Henry VII sells the wardship of Anne Salvain of Thorpe Salvin (Rotherham) to William Hussey, Lord Chief Justice

8 September 1485: At York, Henry VII sells the wardship of Anne Salvain of Thorpe Salvin (Rotherham) to William Hussey, Lord Chief Justice

Henry Ellis, Ed. 1846. Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Vol. 1. London: Richard Bentley. Get it:

Excerpt

To all our subjects, greeting. Know ye that we for the sum of 1,050 marks [£498K in 2024] of lawful money of England have sold the keeping and manage of Anne Salvayn, daughter and heir of Sir John Salvayn, to our trusty and well-beloved William Hussey, our chief justice of our bench, to have the said keeping and manage of the said Anne to she come to the age of 16 years. And over this we promise and grant the said William by these presents that we shall warrant and discharge the said William, his executors and assigns against all men that hereafter shall pretend any title, action or demand for the said custody and marriage against the said William, his executors or assigns in any manner or form. And also we grant to the said William that if the said Anne die, or she come to age of 16 years and be not married by the said William, his executors nor assigns, nor by no-one of them sold, that then we shall repay and content the said William the sum of 600 marks of lawful money of England.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

A mark is customarily two-thirds of a pound sterling (13s. 4d.), but here it is half, which I take to be consistent with the more-or-less contemporaneous Maister Damyan, “His benefyce worthe ten pounde / Or skante worth twenty marke” (Skelton 1843).

Editor Ellis on wardship:

Whenever a tenant of the Crown in capite died, whether an earl, a baron, or a lower vassal, leaving his heir under age, and consequently incapable of performing the personal services due by his tenure, the King took possession of his estate, that he might therewith support the heir, and give him an education suitable to his quality, and at the same time provide a substitute to perform the services required from his land. Thus far the guardianship would appear to have been intended for good. But the King had the power to sell it; or by the grant of it he could enrich a favourite. The King’s female wards could not marry any person, however agreeable to themselves and their relations, without the consent of their royal guardian ; ostensibly, that they might not have it in their power to bestow an estate that had been derived from the crown, on one who was disagreeable to the Sovereign. This was a cruel and ignominious servitude, by which heiresses of the greatest families and most opulent fortunes were exposed to sale, or obliged to purchase the liberty of disposing of themselves in marriage by great sums of money, either from the King, or from some greedy courtier to whom he had granted or sold their marriage.

Etc. etc.

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Original

Richard by the grace of god, etc. To all our subjects, greeting. Know ye that we for the sum of 1050 marks of lawful money of England have sold the keeping and manage of Anne Salvayn, daughter and heir of Sir John Salvayn, knight, to our trusty and well-beloved William Hussey, knight, our chief justice of our bench, to have the said keeping and manage of the said Anne to she come to the age of 16 years: of which sum of 1050 marks the said William hath paid to us the day of making of these presents 850 marks, so that the said William oweth to us of the said sum of 1050 marks but only £100. Of which sum of 850 marks we confess us, the said king, to be paid, and the said William thereof against us to be discharged by these presents. And over this we promit [promise] and grant the said William by these presents that we shall warrant and discharge the said William, his executors and assigns against all men that hereafter shall pretend any title, action or demand for the said custody and marriage against the said William, his executors or assigns in any manner [or] form. And also we grant to the said William that if the said Anne die, or she come to age of 16 years and be not married by the said William, his executors nor assigns, nor by no-one of them sold, that then we shall repay and content the said William the sum of 600 marks of lawful money of England. In witness whereof to these presents we have put to our signet and subscribed them with our hand. Given and written at our city of York the 8th day of September the first year of our reign.

294 words.