Award Texts: Katerine's Pelican

When the time came for my dear friend Katerine atte Wyshe de la Rye (aka Kateryne Blak aka Catherine de Sant Marti) to get a Pelican, I knew her scroll should be in Middle English.  So I went to the Anthology of Chancery English on line (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=toc;idno=ChancEng), a collection of documents from the Signets of Henry V and his son transcribed in the original Middle English.  I managed to play mix and match with phrases and spellings from various documents to create a wholly Middle English text.  Where I couldn't find a particular word, I went to the on-line Middle English Dictionary for help.

For the blazon, I researched heavily in the Middle English Dictionary's examples of heraldic blazonry.  I am tickled by the spelling "asure" for the more usual heraldic term "azure."

Here is the end result:

By Kenric þe kynge and Avelina þe quene to our servant Katerine atte Wyshe de la Rye, right trusti and most beloued we grete yow wel wiþ al our herte.  And for asmoche as we and our counsail hier been acertained as wel be þe effecte and euidence of your werkes as be þe credible reportes and writinges maad vn to vs and to our said counsail fro tyme to tyme of þe singulier diligence & þe fulnotable and laborious seruice þat ye doon vn to þe Reaume of þe Est, & willing & praing yow alwey so to continue, for-that we do by thys lettir endowe, ablen & veste yow in perpetuite wiþ þe estate, title, and right of þe ordre of þe Pellican & ferremore do endowe, ablen & vest yow wiþ armes by lettirs patentes: Asure, a fesse argent doubly cotised golde.  So that our indowment to yow may be knowen sekirly we wol ye ordeine that hit be saised in to oure handes.  Yeuen at Carrillion þe .ix day of Juin, in þe fourti-sefnthe yere of þe Sociate.