John Paston claimed Sir John Fastolf's lands under a deathbed spoken will, and the Duke of Norfolk besieged Caister Castle to take them

Sir John Fastolf made a fortune in the Hundred Years' War and built Caister Castle between 1432 and 1446. He died there in November 1459 with no children. His written will named ten executors and told them to found a college at Caister. John Paston, one of the trustees (feoffees) who held Fastolf's estates, said that two days before his death Fastolf made a spoken will leaving him the Norfolk and Suffolk lands for 4,000 marks and the duty to found the college. There were no actual witnesses to it. The other executors and several noblemen challenged Paston. The case was still in the church courts when Paston died in May 1466. On 21 August 1469 John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, laid siege to Caister. William Worcester's notebook speaks of about 3,000 attackers; historians think about 300 is likelier. John Paston III held the castle with about 30 men. Both sides used guns. Two of the duke's men were shot dead, and a defender, John Daubeney, was killed by a crossbow bolt. With powder and food short, the defenders surrendered on terms and walked out. In 1474 a deal with Bishop William Waynflete split the estates. Most of Fastolf's fortune went to Magdalen College, Oxford. The Pastons recovered Caister after the duke died and sold it in 1659. The tower still stands.