A Medieval Family The Pastons Of Fifteenthcentury England Frances Gies by Frances Gies, Joseph Gies 9780060172640, 9780062016744, 0060172649, 0062016741 instant download after payment.

The Paston family of Norfolk, England, has long been known to medieval scholars for its large collection of personal correspondence, which has survived five centuries. Until now, however, they have remained virtually unknown to the general reading public. Revealing a wealth of information about the manners, morals, lifestyles, and attitudes of the late Middle Ages, the letters also tell a story of three generations of the fifteenth-century Paston family that reads like a historical novel full of memorable characters:

•   Margaret Paston, the indomitable wife and mother who fought the family’s battles;

•   her husband, John Paston I, tough, hardheaded, and thrice confined to Fleet Prison but never yielding to his enemies;

•   daughter Margery, who scandalized family and friends by falling in love with the Paston bailiff, Richard Calle;

•   lighthearted, chivalric Sir John; and

•   cheerful, sensible John III, who against all odds succeeded in marrying for love.

A Medieval Family traces the family history from 1420, through the stormy Wars of the Roses, to the early 1500s. The family’s story, extracted from their letters and papers and told largely in their own words, shows a side of history rarely revealed: the lives and fortunes not of kings and queens but of ordinary people with problems, tragedies, and moments of happiness.

book description 2:

The fascinating story of the fortunes of one medieval family over the course of a century, from bestselling historians Frances and Joseph Gies.

The Pastons were members of the English gentry—a tiny group of roughly 1,000 households sandwiched between the ruling nobility and the peasants, and a rough analog for the contemporary “middle class.” Their existence was fairly typical, but for the fact that it was recorded in an extraordinary collection of nearly 1,000 letters which have survived to this day. Through these letters, which cover the years from 1421 to 1484, and the lives of thr