Gundreda de Beaumont to Roger Bigod
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:24 pm
The Countess of Norfolk writes thus to Roger Bigod--
I have been thinking and praying lately on the matter of your actions against my husband--your late father's--will. And as I was at mass the other day the subject came up in a reading from Proverbs: "If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness." You raised your hand against your father's wishes, and struck with wickedness a blow against his friends. Paul of Tarsus enjoined the Ephesians: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land," but you did not do so. How can I, then, in good conscience do other than to honor his will and shepherd his seat in the name of my own sons, who showed nothing but loyalty and adoration to their father? What right have you to pick over your father's corpse, and claim this and that like a carrion crow? No right, as the King himself made clear in affirming my husband's will, and I shall not lift a finger to feed your ungrateful and traitorous ambition.
Rest in the outer darkness where you belong.
I have been thinking and praying lately on the matter of your actions against my husband--your late father's--will. And as I was at mass the other day the subject came up in a reading from Proverbs: "If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness." You raised your hand against your father's wishes, and struck with wickedness a blow against his friends. Paul of Tarsus enjoined the Ephesians: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land," but you did not do so. How can I, then, in good conscience do other than to honor his will and shepherd his seat in the name of my own sons, who showed nothing but loyalty and adoration to their father? What right have you to pick over your father's corpse, and claim this and that like a carrion crow? No right, as the King himself made clear in affirming my husband's will, and I shall not lift a finger to feed your ungrateful and traitorous ambition.
Rest in the outer darkness where you belong.