A Medieval Family: The Pastons Of Fifteenth-Century England, by Frances and Joseph Gies

It has been some time since I last read a book by Frances and Joseph Gies, having read their examination of a life in a Medieval castle during some point in my youth. That said, this particular book has a lot to offer the reader, especially as it amounts to a nonfiction novel of a family of English gentry named the Pastons over three generations spanning from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 to the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, which consolidated the family position as solid and well-respected and prosperous members of the gentry. The primary source for this intriguing and entertaining narrative are the voluminous letters written by three members of this family, each of whom was rather different in personality but that contributed in their own ways to the well-being of the family. The first was John I Paston, a well-regarded lawyer whose legal expertise, including the exploitation of widow’s houses and the drafting of wills, led to the drastic increase of his family’s holdings in Norfolk. The second was his wife (twenty-four years younger) Margery, who was a brave defender of her married family’s interests, even holding the family’s manor houses and castles while being besieged (literally) by their enemies. The third of the prolific writers of the family was John II, the eldest son of the family, whose unsuccessful attempts at marriage and siring an heir were balanced by his success in diplomatically resolving some longstanding family concerns.

In many ways, the Pastons are a family that can be understood well by people today. The family was ferocious in defending their interests, took advantage of the law as well as charming others, sought to maximize their family holdings, had their daughters elope with others. They fought each other over wills in order to control properties and income, struggled to have enough ready cash to pay off their debts and to live in a standard appropriate to their rising class, including to draw attention among the higher nobles and even royals that this family interacted with as a member of one of the top 1000 families of the entire realm of England in its small but important middle class. The family was litigious, quarrelsome, and yet filled with a great deal of tenderness and love expressed through their writings to each other. They mixed in their letters an obsessive concern with honor and profit, a great interest in education and law, as well as a deep and somewhat troubling interest in local gossip, and concern about what others were thinking or saying about them. And these letters have been saved for prosperity, to be read and enjoyed centuries afterward, letters that have a great value, some of which are the sole primary documentation of various historical events of the 15th century.

This book is written with engaging prose, containing (as much as possible) the words of the Pastons themselves translated into modern English to aid in comprehension, and despite the rather prosaic nature of much of the discussion, at times the letters rise to sublime prose. Among the most touching letters are those written between husbands and wives, reflecting tender concern as well as practical advice and counsel. The husband and wife team of historians, whose work is full of excellent and well-regarded efforts that deal with Medieval life, have done yeoman’s labor in showing that despite the gulf of time and social custom (including the prayers said for the dead and concern for the souls of others that are ubiquitous in these letters), that the same flaws and virtues existed in people then as now, as to make them kindred souls and people not very much unlike ourselves. Who knows which people among us will have among our writings works that are well-respected hundreds of years ago, well-respected enough even to help overcome the libels of one as famous as William Shakespeare, whose slanders of Sir John Falstoff still ring hundreds of years later as well. Were this book a source on the Hundred Years War or the War of the Roses alone, it would be a worthy effort. As a picture of a middle-class family whose concerns ring true even now, it is a minor masterpiece of history about ambitious commoners and their search for a stable place in an unstable world.