| Description: |
| Margaret, former wife of Thomas Malefant, knight. |
| Malefant, Margaret; Thomas |
| Commons in parliament |
| Margaret complains that, after the death of her husband, Lewis Leyson promised Jane Asteley, her mother, that he would bring her safe to London, but he sent counterfeit letters claiming to be from her husband (of whose death she was still then unaware) asking her to hasten to London to comfort him in his sickness. On Whit Sunday, 16 Hen. VI (1 June 1438) at Oucketon, Lewis told her that Griffith ap Nicholas and other enemies were lying in wait for her, but that he would nonetheless take her safe to London. After travelling all that day and until the following evening, she was ambushed in the park of Prys within the lordship of Gower by men of Lewis, and taken by him into the mountains, and starved until Wednesday (4 June 1438), when he took her to Turbervyle's place in the lordship of Glamorgan and imprisoned and threatened her there; on Monday (9 June 1438) she was taken to the church of Tythegston and forced to marry Lewis, despite her protestations, she being with child by her late husband; Lewis then took her to Turbervyle's house at Tythegston and raped her; she was there until Friday after St John the Baptist (27 June 1438), when she came to her mother in London. She asks for a writ of proclamation out of the king's chancery to the sheriff of Somerset, summoning Lewis to appear before the king and his justices to answer for the felony and rape; if he does not appear he is to be attainted for high treason. She also asks for letters under the privy seal ordering Lewis's arrest; that the case be heard in Somerset, the shire nearest to Tythegston; and that her appeal may be valid notwithstanding the alleged marriage between herself and Lewis. |
| The king wishes it, always provided that it does not cause prejudice to marcher lords in future. |
| Glamorgan, Wales; London; Oucketon (Upton), Pembrokeshire, [Wales]; Park of Prys [unidentified], [Glamorgan, Wales]; Lordship of Gower, [Wales]; Twyggeston (Tythegston), [Glamorgan, Wales]; Somerset. |
| Lewse (Lewis) Leyson, also known as Lewse (Lewis) Gethei; Thomas Malefant, knight; Jane Asteley, former wife of Thomas Asteley; Griffith ap Nicholas; Gilbert Turbervyle; Hough, vicar of church of Tythegston. |
|
| Publication note: |
Calendar of Ancient Petitions Relating to Wales, Board of Celtic Studies, History and Law, (University of Wales, 1975), p.38 (brief calendar) Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. V, Hen VI and Edw IV, (Record Commission, 1783), pp.14b-16a (no.28) (transcription of petition on parliament roll)
|
No items
The National Archives
