Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/76

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68 INDENTURES BETWEEN January a grant which the earl received on 2 January 1466, 1 that it was made on 5 April in the second year of the king's reign, and the grant of 2 January 1466 also says that the contract was signed at Lichfield. According to this indenture, the earl was to hold the wardenship for twenty years reckoned from the day of Edward's accession to the throne, and the king was to pay him £2,500 ' in great ' in time of war and £1,250 in time of truce or peace, payments being made quarterly and in advance. If ' a power royal of enemies ' appeared, the earl was to be at liberty to - enforce ' the town and castle ' with convenable number of people ', and in case of a siege he was to notify the king, who within six weeks ! shall make that siege to be removed and rescue the said castle and town, and else the said earl shall be excused of all perils that in that case may come '. On the other hand, if a peace or a long truce were signed between England and Scotland, the earl was to be duly warned ' that he may upon that ordain for his soldiers as the case requireth '. And, finally, if the earl wished to resign the wardenship, he must give the king a half-year's warning. Of Edward's indenture with Warwick for the captaincy of Guines two copies exist in Exchequer Accounts 71/5. Both documents are somewhat torn, but at the end of one of them may be read, ' given at the city of Lichfield the 5th . . . second year of the reign of our sovereign lord the king abovesaid ' : and as Edward was not at Lichfield on the 5th day of any month of the second'year of his reign except April, 2 this indenture must have been signed on the .same day on which the agreement for the keeping of the west marches was signed. In this case the bargain was that the earl was to hold the captaincy of Guines for life, and must give the king a half-year's warning if, ' because of infirmity, sickness, lack of payment, or other cause reasonable ', he wished to resign his office. As long as he was captain he was to keep, at the king's wages, a garrison of 50 men-of-arms on foot and 50 archers on foot, and the first quarter's wages were to be paid ' in hand at the making of these indentures ', the rest at the beginning of each quarter by the hands of the treasurer of Calais, who was to be allowed to pay ' the third penny in victuals convenables and at such price as they shall be worth at Calais ' at the time of payment. In time of war 10 men-of- arms on horseback and 20 on foot were to be added to the garrison, and if the castle seemed to be in danger the king and his council, upon warning from the earl, were to send him within twenty days, ' out of the realm of England or out of the town of Calais ', 200 men-of-arms and archers, or less, as the case required, ' with sufficient victual, archery, and habiliments of war for the surety 1 Cal of Patent Rolls, 1461-7, p. 422. 2 Privy Seals.