Paston Family Letters

Page 4 of 7

• 1. The Pastons: Who were they?
• 2. Meet the family
• 3. Younger and elder
• 4. Caister Castle
• 5. Loss of the prize: Paston letters on Caister Castle
• 6. King of the castle: Paston letters on Caister Castle
• 7. Find out more
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Caister Castle

The wrangle over Caister is a wonderfully dramatic incident which demonstrates how the tables were turning on the great lords who sought to use the chaos of the Wars of the Roses to feather their nests. It is a tale of David taking on Goliath with the slingshot of the law, and eventually proving through sheer legal tenacity that the pen of the gentry squire had become mightier than the noble's sword.

Caister Castle was the jewel in the crown of Sir John Fastolff's estates, and fell to John Paston Snr through the Fastolff will. The legal wrangles and conflict over its ownership were then to haunt the Paston family for the next 20 years, almost ruining them in legal expenses and putting the life of his sons in mortal jeopardy. For Fastolff's heirs, Yelverton and Howes, refused to accept the Paston ownership, forcing Margaret to take up residence in the castle for a while. She complained bitterly about this to her son John the Elder, as she found Oxnead to be a much more comfortable and less draughty home. Eventually, John the Younger took her place, at about the time that Yelverton and Howes sold their rights to Caister to the Duke of Norfolk, who had always coveted it. Somewhat ironically, John the Younger had once been a servant in the household of this same Duke of Norfolk.

In 1469, as warfare ripped the land, the Duke of Norfolk took advantage of this new 'tempus werre' (time of war) to try and seize Caister, besieging it with 3,000 men. The urgent letters which passed between Margaret and her two sons at this time provide graphic testimony to the violence of the attempt, and her impatience with John the Elder's lackadaisical attitude. We are left in no doubt as to whom she blames for the loss of the castle:

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Published: 2001-01-01