![]() |
My father, Thomas Brakkele, is a prosperous cloth merchant in Leicester with a house in town on High Street. He also rents a manor close to Leicester Forest. Of the seven children born to my mother and father, three survived infancymyself, Richard, and Edward. My mother died in childbirth in 1350. My father did not remarry after my mother's death. He chose instead to foster me and my brother Richard to my mother's family in Warwickshire. We lived there for seven years and were raised alongside my cousins Peter and Isabel Montfort. Peter and I were betrothed when I was 9 years old. My brother Richard has served in several military campaigns to prevent France from stealing English possessions. In recent days, however, England and France have signed a peace treaty. Perhaps Richard, who will inherit most of my fathers property, now will have time to marry. Although my brother Edward is but 14, he has shown great promise as a scholar and now studies with the Order of Preachers. |