[Footnote 238-1: See the preamble to the Statute of Uses, 27 Henry VIII. c. 10.]
Sir John Paston now stepped into his father's place, as heir to Caister and to Fastolf's other possessions in Norfolk and Suffolk. But before he could vindicate his rights in any part of them it was necessary that he should wipe out that stain upon his pedigree which had been devised by calumny in bar of the claims made by his father. The case came before the king himself in council. An array of court rolls and other ancient records was produced by the family, to show that they had been lords of the soil in Paston from a very remote period. Some of their title-deeds went back as far as the reign of Henry III., and it was shown that their ancestors had given lands to religious houses in that reign. Indeed, so little truth was there in the imputation that John Paston the father was a bondman, that his ancestors, certainly by the mother's side if not by the father's also, had been the owners of bondmen. The evidences were considered satisfactory, and the family were declared by the king's council to be fully cleared of the imputation. The lands, of which Lord Scales had taken possession for about half a year,[239-1] were restored to Sir John Paston by a warrant under the king's signet, dated on the 26th July, little more than two months after the death of John Paston the father.[239-2]
[Footnote 239-1: _Itin._ W. Worc., 323, where it is said that Lord Scales 'custodivit hospicium in Castre per spacium dimidii . . .' The blank must surely be supplied by the word _anni_.]
[Sidenote: Tournament at Eltham.] After this Sir John Paston was much at court, and Lord Scales became his special friend. Even as early as the following April we find Sir John taking part in a tournament at Eltham, in which the king, Lord Scales, and himself were upon one side.[239-3] But the favour with which he was regarded at court both by the king and the Lord Scales appeared more evidently one year later, [Sidenote: A.D. 1468.] when the king's sister Margaret went over to the Low Countries to be married to Charles, Duke of Burgundy. [Sidenote: Marriage of Margaret, sister of Edward IV., to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.] This match had been more than a year in contemplation, and was highly popular in cementing the friendship of England and Burgundy in opposition to France. On the 1st May 1467 a curious bargain or wager was made by Sir John Paston as to the probability of its taking effect within two years.[239-4] But on the 18th April 1468 he received a summons from the king to be prepared to give his attendance on the princess by the 1st June following, and to accompany her into Flanders.[239-5] Not only he, but his brother John Paston the younger, crossed the sea in the Lady Margaret's train; and we are indebted to the latter for an interesting account of the marriage and of the tournaments which followed in honour of it. Young John Paston was greatly struck with the splendour of the Burgundian court. He had never heard of anything like it, he said, except the court of King Arthur.[239-6] But his brother seems to have found another attraction abroad which fascinated him quite as much as all the pageants and the tournaments in honour of the Lady Margaret.