Countess Margaret of Devon's letter to Edmund de Stonor, dated January 8, 1380

Source:

The Stonor letters and papers, 1290-1483, volume 1, edited by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, Offices of the Society, London, 1919

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044025059650&view=1up&seq=195

Above: The effigy of Countess Margaret of Devon, photo by own photo on Wikimedia Commons.

Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon (born April 3, 1311, died December 16, 1391) was the granddaughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, and the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377). Her seventeen children included an Archbishop of Canterbury and six knights, of whom two were founder knights of the Order of the Garter. Unlike most women of her day, she received a classical education and was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.

The letter:

Salut et bon amour. Voillez savoir qe come nous avions entenduz yl ya une brief le Roi purchassez devers vous touchant le Manoir de Ermyngton: mes nous ne savions pur qi ne a quel noun: pur qei soiez vous bien avisez et garniz, et nous tenetz pur excusez de nostre promesse du temps passez touchant ceo qe nous vous promettames de vous garnir en cas qe nous purroioms oier dascun tielle briefe. A dieu, qe vous garde. Escript a Exmere le xiij jour de Januere.
La Contesse } la Mere.
de Devans