“Ryght trusty frend I comand me to yow preyĩg yow to call to yoʳ mynd that lyek as ye and I comonyd of it were necessary for my Lady and you all hyr Serũnts and teñnts to have thys p’lement as for õn of the Burgeys of the towne of Maldon syche a man of worchep and of wytt as wer towardys my seyd Lady and also syche on as is in favor of the Kyng and of the Lords of hys consayll nyghe abought hys p’sone. Sertyfyĩg yow that my seid Lady for her parte and syche as be of hyr consayll be most agreeabyll that bothe ye and all syche as be hyr fermors and teñntys and wellwyllers shold geve your voyse to a worchepfull knyght and on’ of my Ladys consayll Sʳ John Paston whyche standys gretly in favore wͭ my Lord Chamberleyn and what my seyd Lord Chamberleyn may do wͭ the Kyng and wͭ all the Lordys of Inglond I trowe it be not unknowyn to you most of eny on man alyve. Wherefor by the meenys of the seyd Sʳ John Paston to my seyd Lord Chamberleyn bothe my Lady and ye of the towne kowd not have a meeter man to be for yow in the perlement to have yoʳ needys sped at all seasons. Wherefor I prey yow labor all syche as be my Ladys serũntts tennts and wellwyllers to geve ther voyseys to the seyd Sʳ John Paston and that ye fayle not to sped my Ladys intent in thys mater as ye entend to do hyr as gret a plesur as if ye gave hyr an Cˡͥ [100_l._] And God have yow in hys kepĩg. Wretyn at Fysheley the xx day of Septebyr.—J. ARBLASTER.” (62) On the effects of the reign of Charles the Fifth in Spain and his overthrow of the liberties of Castile, see the general view in Robertson, iii. 434, though in his narrative (ii. 186) he glorifies the King’s clemency. See also the first chapter of the sixth book of Prescott’s Philip the Second, and on the suppression of the constitution of Aragon by Philip, Watson, Philip the Second, iii. 223. The last meeting of the French States-General before the final meeting in 1789 was that in 1614, during the minority of Lewis the Thirteenth. See Sismondi, xiii. 342. (63) The legal character of William’s despotism I have tried to set forth almost throughout the whole of my fourth volume. See especially pp. 8, 617; but it is plain to everyone who has the slightest knowledge of Domesday. Nothing can show more utter ignorance of the real character of the man and his times than the idea of William being a mere “rude man of war,” as I have seen him called. (64) On the true aspect of the reign of Henry the Eighth I have said something in the Fortnightly Review, September 1871.