Cely Letters Explained

The Cely Letters are a collection of family correspondence written in the 15th century, which describe the lives and business activities of a family of London wool merchants.^[1] Key members were Richard Cely and his wife Agnes and their sons Robert, Richard, and George.^[2] This collection is one of the few surviving letter collections from the 15th century, along with the Paston Letters and the Stonor Letters.^[3] While the Paston Letters cover a period spanning over 3/4 of a century, the Cely Letters cover a much shorter period of time between 1472 and 1488. The Cely letters were preserved only because they were used as evidence in a lawsuit.^[4] The Cely Letters are primary sources of information about the English economy and English society at the end of the Wars of the Roses.

See also

• Plumpton Correspondence

Bibliography

• Hanham, Alison. "A fifteenth-century merchant family." History Today (Dec 1963) 13#12 pp 821–829
• Book: Wagner, John A.. ABC-CLIO. 978-1-85109-358-8. Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses. 2001.
• Book: Alison, Weir. Fawcett. 978-0-345-39178-0. Princes in the Tower, the. New York. 2004.
• Book: A&C Black. 978-0-8264-9239-5. Yngve. Victor. Wasik. Zdzislaw. Hard-Science Linguistics. 2006.

Notes and References

1. Book: Wagner, J. A.. Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses. 2001. ABC-CLIO. 1-57607-575-3. Santa Barbara, Calif.. 50174695.
2. Book: Hanham, Alison. The Celys and their World. 1985-12-05. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/cbo9780511522420 . 978-0-521-30447-4.
3. Book: Weir, Alison. The princes in the tower. Ballantine. 1994. 0-345-38372-9. 1st American. New York. en-US. 29616908.
4. Book: Hard-science linguistics. 2006. Continuum. Victor H. Yngve, Zdzisław Wąsik. 978-0-8264-9239-5. London. 70128127.