Cecily Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset's letter to Thomas Cromwell, year 1523

Source:

Original letters illustrative of English history, series 1, volume 1, page 218, edited by Henry Ellis, 1825

https://archive.org/details/originallettersi01elliuoft/page/218/mode/2up

Above: Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington and 2nd Baroness Bonville in an 1890 illustration of her damaged effigy at her tomb in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Astley, Warwickshire.

Above: Thomas Cromwell, painted after Hans Holbein the Younger.

Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, 2nd Baroness Bonville (born June 30, 1460, died May 12, 1529) was an English peer, who was also Marchioness of Dorset by her first marriage to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and Countess of Wiltshire by her second marriage to Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire.

The Bonvilles were loyal supporters of the House of York during the series of dynastic civil wars that were fought for the English throne, known as the Wars of the Roses, from 1455 to 1487. When she was less than a year old, Cecily became the wealthiest heiress in England after her male relatives were slain in battle fighting against the House of Lancaster.

Cecily's life after the death of her first husband in 1501 was marked by an acrimonious dispute with her son and heir, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset. This was over Cecily's right to remain sole executor of her late husband's estate and to control her own inheritance, both of which Thomas, Jr. challenged following her second marriage to Henry Stafford, a man many years younger than herself. Their quarrel required the intervention of King Henry VII and the royal council.

Lady Jane Grey, Lady Catherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey were Cecily's great-granddaughters. All three were in the Line of Succession to the English throne. Jane, the eldest, reigned as queen for nine days in July 1553.

The letter:

Cromwell, I woll that yow send to me in hast the trussynn bed of cloth of tyssewe, and the fether bed, wyth the fustyons and a materas longynn to the same wyth the cownterpoynt; also I woll that you delyver all such tents, pavylyons, and hales as you have of myne on to my sonne Lenard, as you tender my plesur. And thys shall be your suffycyant warrant and dyscharge att all tymes. Wrytyn at Bedwell thys present Thorysdaye by foore our Lady daye the Assumpcyon.

CECYL DORSETT.

Note: hales = halls.