Petition

Petition from Alice, the widow of John Richard of Killingworth (who had been killed at Agincourt). The petition requests that letters patent be granted by the king and the chancellor to award her alms with which to support her family.

Catalogue reference: SC 8/301/15046

Translation

To the gracious lord and very reverent father in God, the Chancellor of England

[Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester]

Your poor, continual oratrix and poor widow Alice, lately wife to one John Richard of Killingworth [Kylyngworthe], prays humbly that whereas the said John put himself greatly in debt in order to mount and array himself at the time he crossed the sea with our very sovereign lord the king towards the parts of Normandy, and there the said John did service to our said lord the king at the siege of Harfleur [Hareflew] according to his power, and also at the battle of Agincourt [Auzyncourte], where he was killed, after which [ms stained] the said Alice lost all of her goods and chattels that she had throughout the world on account of the debt of her abovesaid husband, and she has nothing from which she can live without the alms of good Christian people from which to sustain herself and her three children, of whom two are sons, one aged only three months and the other one year. May it please your very noble lordship in reverence to God to grant to the said Alice both the gracious letters patent of our lord the king in alms and your own very honourable letters patent […] for two years past in relief of the poor estate of the abovesaid supplicant and of her abovesaid three children, for God and as a work of charity.

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