Chapter XVII (4)

[119] "The captain and the Earl of Cumberland came of two sisters."--Lord Darcy to Somerset Herald: _Rolls House MS._

[120] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 523.

[121] Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[122] "There was a letter forged in my name to certain towns, which I utterly deny to be my deed or consent."--Narrative of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28. This is apparently the letter which is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 467. It was issued on the 7th or 8th of October (see Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28), the days on which, according to Aske's own confession, he seems to have been in the West Riding.

[123] The oath varied a little in form. In Yorkshire the usual form was, "Ye shall swear to be true to God, the king, and the commonwealth."--Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ The tendency of the English to bind themselves with oaths, explains and partly justifies the various oaths required by the government.

[124] Deposition of William Stapleton: _Rolls House MS._

[125] Henry VIII. to Lord Darcy, October 8th: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 282.

[126] Letters to and from Lord Darcy: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 282.

[127] Henry had written him a second letter on the 9th of October, in which, knowing nothing as yet of the rising in Yorkshire, he had expressed merely a continued confidence in Darcy's discretion.

[128] Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[129] Examination of Sir Thomas Percy: _Rolls House MS._ Demeanour of Sir Thomas and Sir Ingram Percy: _MS._ ibid. first series, 896.

[130] "The said Aske suffered no foot man to enter the city, for fear of spoils."--Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[131] Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. III.

[132] Henry VIII. to Lord Darcy, October 13: _Rolls House MS._

[133] Lord Darcy to the King, October 17: _Rolls House MS._

[134] Lord Shrewsbury to Lord Darcy: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 282. Darcy certainly received this letter, since a copy of it is in the collection made by himself.

[135] Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[136] I believe that I am unnecessarily tender to Lord Darcy's reputation. Aske, though he afterwards contradicted himself, stated in his examination that Lord Darcy could have defended the castle had he wished.--_Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29. It was sworn that when he was advised "to victual and store Pomfret," he said, "there was no need; it would do as it was." Ibid. And Sir Henry Saville stated that "when Darcy heard of the first rising, he said, 'Ah! they are up in Lincolnshire. God speed them well. I would they had done this three years ago, for the world should have been the better for it.'"--Ibid.

[137] Aske's Deposition: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 414.

[138] Examination of Sir Thomas Percy: _Rolls House MS._

[139] Stapleton's Confession: Ibid. A 2, 28.

[140] Examination of Christopher Aske: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 840

[141] Ibid.

[142] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._

[143] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 472.

[144] The Marquis of Exeter, who was joined in commission with the Duke of Norfolk, never passed Newark. He seems to have been recalled, and sent down into Devonshire, to raise the musters in his own county.

[145] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 493.

[146] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 519.

[147] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 495.

[148] This particular proclamation--the same, apparently, which was read by Christopher Aske at Skipton--I have been unable to find. That which is printed in the State Papers from the Rolls House Records, belongs to the following month. The contents of the first, however, may be gathered from a description of it by Robert Aske, and a comparison of the companion proclamation issued in Lincolnshire. It stated briefly that the insurrection was caused by forged stories; that the king had no thought of suppressing parish churches, or taxing food or cattle. The abbeys had been dissolved by act of parliament, in consequence of their notorious vice and profligacy. The people, therefore, were commanded to return to their homes, at their peril. The commotion in Lincolnshire was put down. The king was advancing in person to put them down also, if they continued disobedient.

[149] In explanation of his refusal, Aske said afterwards that it was for two causes: first, that if the herald should have declared to the people by proclamation that the commons in Lincolnshire were gone to their homes, they would have killed him; secondly, that there was no mention in the same proclamation neither of pardon nor of the demands which were the causes of their assembly.--Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[150] Lancaster Herald's Report: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 485.

[151] Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28. Does this solitary and touching faithfulness, I am obliged to ask, appear as if Northumberland believed that four months before the king and Cromwell had slandered and murdered the woman whom he had once loved?

[152] "We were 30,000 men, as tall men, well horsed, and well appointed as any men could be."--Statement of Sir Marmaduke Constable: _MS. State Paper Office._ All the best evidence gives this number.

[153] Not the place now known under this name--but a bridge over the Don three or four miles above Doncaster.

[154] So Aske states.--Examination: _Rolls House MS._, first series, 838. Lord Darcy went further. "If he had chosen," he said, "he could have fought Lord Shrewsbury with his own men, and brought never a man of the northmen with him." Somerset Herald, on the other hand, said, that the rumour of disaffection was a feint. "One thing I am sure of," he told Lord Darcy, "there never were men more desirous to fight with men than ours to fight with you."--_Rolls House MS._

[155] "Sir Marmaduke Constable did say, if there had been a battle, the southern men would not have fought. He knew that every third man was theirs. Further, he said the king and his council determined nothing but they had knowledge before my lord of Norfolk gave them knowledge." Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_.

[156] "I saw neither gentlemen nor commons willing to depart, but to proceed in the quarrel; yea, and that to the death. If I should say otherwise, I lie."--Aske's Examination: _Rolls House MS._

[157] Rutland and Huntingdon were in Shrewsbury's camp by this time.

[158] "They wished," said Sir Marmaduke Constable, "the king had sent some younger lords to fight with them than my lord of Norfolk and my lord of Shrewsbury. No lord in England would have stayed them but my lord of Norfolk."--Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office._

[159] The chroniclers tell a story of a miraculous fall of rain, which raised the river the day before the battle was to have been fought, and which was believed by both sides to have been an interference of Providence. Cardinal Pole also mentions the same fact of the rain, and is bitter at the superstitions of his friends; and yet, in the multitude of depositions which exist, made by persons present, and containing the most minute particulars of what took place, there is no hint of anything of the kind. The waters had been high for several days, and the cause of the unbloody termination of the crisis was more creditable to the rebel leaders.

[160] Second Examination of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 838. It is true that this is the story of Aske himself, and was told when, after fresh treason, he was on trial for his life. But his bearing at no time was that of a man who would stoop to a lie. Life comparatively was of small moment to him.

[161] Uncle of Marjory, afterwards wife of John Knox. Marjory's mother, Elizabeth, to whom so many of Knox's letters were addressed, was an Aske, but she was not apparently one of the Aughton family.

[162] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[163] Instructions to Sir Thomas Hilton and his Companions: _Rolls House MS._ There are many groups of "articles" among the Records. Each focus of the insurrection had its separate form; and coming to light one by one, they have created much confusion. I have thought it well, therefore, to print in full, from Sir Thomas Hilton's instructions, a list, the most explicit, as well as most authentic, which is extant.

"I. Touching our faith, to have the heresies of Luther, Wickliffe, Huss, Melancthon, Œcolampadius, Bucer's _Confessio Germanica_, _Apologia Melancthonis_, the works of Tyndal, of Barnes, of Marshal, Raskall, St. Germain, and such other heresies of Anabaptists, clearly within this realm to be annulled and destroyed.

"II. To have the supreme head, touching _cura animarum_, to be reserved unto the see of Rome, as before it was accustomed to be, and to have the consecration of the bishops from him, without any first-fruits or pensions to him to be paid out of this realm; or else a pension reasonable for the outward defence of our faith.

"III. We humbly beseech our most dread sovereign lord that the Lady Mary may be made legitimate, and the former statute therein annulled, for the danger if the title might incur to the crown of Scotland. This to be in parliament.

"IV. To have the abbeys suppressed to be restored--houses, lands, and goods.

"V. To have the tenths and first-fruits clearly discharged, unless the clergy will of themselves grant a rent-charge in penalty to the augmentation of the crown.

"VI. To have the friars observants restored unto their houses again.

"VII. To have the heretics, bishops and temporals, and their sect, to have condign punishment by fire, or such other; or else to try the quarrel with us and our partakers in battle.

"VIII. To have the Lord Cromwell, the lord chancellor, and Sir Richard Rich to have condign punishment as subverters of the good laws of this realm, and maintainers of the false sect of these heretics, and first inventors and bringers in of them.

"IX. That the lands in Westmoreland, Cumberland, Kendal, Furness, the abbey lands in Massamshire, Kirkbyshire, and Netherdale, may be by tenant right, and the lord to have at every change two years' rent for gressam [the fine paid on renewal of a lease; the term is, I believe, still in use in Scotland], and no more, according to the grant now made by the lords to the commons there under their seal; and this to be done by act of parliament.

"X. The statute of handguns and cross-bows to be repealed, and the penalties thereof, unless it be on the king's forest or park, for the killing of his Grace's deer, red or fallow.

"XI. That Doctor Legh and Doctor Layton may have condign punishment for their extortions in the time of visitation, as bribes of nuns, religious houses, forty pounds, twenty pounds, and so to ---- leases under one common seal, bribes by them taken, and other their abominable acts by them committed and done. "XII. Restoration for the election of knights of shires and burgesses, and for the uses among the lords in the parliament house, after their antient custom.

"XIII. Statutes for enclosures and intakes to be put in execution, and that all intakes and enclosures since the fourth year of King Henry the Seventh be pulled down, except on mountains, forests, or parks.

"XIV. To be discharged of the fifteenth, and taxes now granted by act of parliament.

"XV. To have the parliament in a convenient place at Nottingham or York, and the same shortly summoned.

"XVI. The statute of the declaration of the crown by will, that the same be annulled and repealed.

"XVII. That it be enacted by act of parliament that all recognizances, statutes, penalties under forfeit, during the time of this commotion, may be pardoned and discharged, as well against the king as strangers.

"XVIII. That the privileges and rights of the Church be confirmed by act of parliament; and priests not to suffer by the sword unless they be degraded. A man to be saved by his book; sanctuary to save a man for all cases in extreme need; and the Church for forty days, and further, according to the laws as they were used in the beginning of this king's days.

"XIX. The liberties of the Church to have their old customs, in the county palatine of Durham, Beverley, Ripon, St. Peter's at York, and such other, by act of parliament.

"XX. To have the Statute of Uses repealed.

"XXI. That the statutes of treasons for words and such like, made since anno 21 of our sovereign lord that now is, be in like wise repealed.

"XXII. That the common laws may have place, as was used in the beginning of your Grace's reign; and that all injunctions may be clearly decreed, and not to be granted unless the matter be heard and determined in Chancery.

"XXIII. That no man, upon subpœnas from Trent north, appear but at York, or by attorney, unless it be upon pain of allegiance, or for like matters concerning the king.

"XXIV. A remedy against escheators for finding of false offices, and extortionate feestaking, which be not holden of the king, and against the promoters thereof."

A careful perusal of these articles will show that they are the work of many hands, and of many spirits. Representatives of each of the heterogeneous elements of the insurrection contributed their grievances; wise and foolish, just and unjust demands were strung together in the haste of the moment.

For the original of this remarkable document, see Instructions to Sir Thomas Hilton, Miscellaneous Depositions on the Rebellion: _Rolls House MS._

[164] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._

[165] Lord Darcy to Somerset Herald: _Rolls House MS._

[166] Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VII.

[167] Devices for the Quieting of the North: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 606.

[168] _State Papers_, Vol. I. pp. 507, 508.

[169] Bundle of unassorted MSS. in the State Paper Office.

[170] _Rolls House MS._ second series, 278.

[171] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 476; and compare p. 500. The instructions varied according to circumstances. There were many forms of them, of which very few are printed in the _State Papers_. I extract from several, in order to give the general effect.

[172] The king's words are too curious to be epitomized. The paper from which I here quote is written by his secretary, evidently from dictation, and in great haste. After speaking of the way in which the vow of chastity had been treated by the monks, he goes on:--

"For the point of wilful poverty they have gathered together such possessions, and have so exempted themselves from all laws and good order with the same, that no prince could live in that quiet, in that surety, in that ease, yea, in that liberty, that they lived. The prince must carke and care for the defence of his subjects against foreign enemies, against force and oppression; he must expend his treasures for their safeguard; he must adventure his own blood, abiding all storms in the field, and the lives of his nobles, to deliver his poor subjects from the bondage and thrall of their mortal enemies. The monks and canons meantime lie warm in their demesnes and cloysters. Whosoever wants, they shall be sure of meat and drink, warm clothing, money, and all other things of pleasure. They may not fight for their prince and country; but they have declared at this rebellion that they might fight against their prince and country. Is not this a great and wilful poverty, to be richer than a prince?--to have the same in such certainty as no prince hath that tendereth the weal of his subjects? Is not this a great obedience that may not obey their prince, and against God's commandment, against their duties of allegiance, whereto they be sworn upon the Holy Evangelists, will labour to destroy their prince and country, and devise all ways to shed Christian blood? The poor husbandman and artificer must labour all weathers for his living and the sustentation of his family. The monk and canon is sure of a good house to cover him, good meat and drink to feed him, and all other things meeter for a prince than for him that would be wilfully poor. If the good subject will ponder and weigh these things, he will neither be grieved that the King's Majesty have that for his defence and the maintenance of his estate, so that he shall not need to molest his subjects with taxes and impositions, which loiterers and idle fellows, under the cloke of holyness, have scraped together, nor that such dissimulers be punished after their demerits, if they will needs live like enemies to the commonwealth."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 297.

[173] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 268.

[174] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 268.

[175] He was a bad, violent man. In earlier years he had carried off a ward in Chancery, one Anne Grysanis, while still a child, and attempted to marry her by force to one of his retainers.--Ibid. second series, 434.

[176] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: Ibid. first series, 626.

[177] Shrewsbury to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_; Letters to the King and Council, Vol. V.

[178] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXXVI.

[179] Suffolk to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_; Letters to the King and Council, Vol. V.

[180] It is to be remembered that Darcy still _professed_ that he had been forced into the insurrection by Aske. This is an excuse for Norfolk's request, though it would have been no excuse for Darcy had he consented.

[181] Deposition of Percival Cresswell: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.

[182] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series. Autograph letter of Lord Darcy to the Duke of Norfolk. It is unfortunately much injured.

[183] One of these is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 506. The editor of these Papers does not seem to have known that neither this nor any _written_ answer was actually sent. Amidst the confusion of the MSS. of this reign, scattered between the State Paper Office, the Rolls House, and the British Museum, some smothered in dirt and mildew, others in so frail a state that they can be scarcely handled or deciphered, far greater errors would be pardonable. The thanks of all students of English history are due to Sir John Romilly for the exertions which he has made and is still making to preserve the remnants of these most curious documents.

[184] Henry VIII. to the Earl of Rutland: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 454

[185] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._

[186] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 1805; and see _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.

[187] Deposition of John Selbury: _Rolls House MS._ A 2. 29.

[188] Sir Anthony Wingfield to the Duke of Norfolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 692.

[189] The Duke of Norfolk, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir John Russell, and Sir Anthony Brown.

[190] The Duke of Suffolk feared an even larger gathering: where heretofore they took one man, he warned Norfolk, they now take six or seven. _State Paper Office MS._ first series, Vol. III. Lord Darcy assured Somerset Herald that they had a reserve of eighty thousand men in Northumberland and Durham--which, however, the herald did not believe. _Rolls House MS._

[191] The King to the Duke of Norfolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 278.

[192] _MS. State Paper Office._

[193] The names of the thirty-four were,--Lords Darcy, Neville, Scrope, Conyers, Latimer, and Lumley; Sir Robert Constable, Sir John Danvers, Sir Robert Chaloner, Sir James Strangways, Sir Christopher Danby, Sir Thomas Hilton, Sir William Constable, Sir John Constable, Sir William Vaughan, Sir Ralph Ellerkar, Sir Christopher Heliyarde, Sir Robert Neville, Sir Oswald Wolstrop, Sir Edward Gower, Sir George Darcy, Sir William Fairfax, Sir Nicholas Fairfax, Sir William Mallore, Sir Ralph Bulmer, Sir Stephen Hamarton, Sir John Dauncy, Sir George Lawson, Sir Richard Tempest, Sir Thomas Evers, Sir Henry Garrowe, and Sir William Babthorpe.

[194] Examination of John Dakyn: _Rolls House MS._ first series, p. 402.

[195] They have been printed by Strype (_Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 266). Strype however, knew nothing of the circumstances which gave them birth.

[196] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 511. The council, who had wrung these concessions from the king, wrote by the same courier, advising him to yield as little as possible--"not to strain too far, but for his Grace's honour and for the better security of the commonwealth, to except from pardon, if by any means he might, a few evil persons, and especially Sir Robert Constable."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 27.

[197] "You may of your honour promise them not only to obtain their pardons, but also that they shall find us as good and gracious lord unto them as ever we were before this matter was attempted; which promise we shall perform and accomplish without exception."--Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 476.

[198] Aske, in his Narrative, which is in the form of a letter to the king, speaks of "the articles now concluded at Doncaster, which were drawn, read, argued, and agreed among the lords and esquires" at Pomfret.--_Rolls House MS._

[199] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[200] Instructions to the Earl of Sussex: Ibid. first series, 299.

[201] Scheme for the Government of the North: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 900. In connexion with the scheme for the establishment of garrisons, a highly curious draft of an act was prepared, to be submitted to the intended parliament.

Presuming that, on the whole, the suppression of the monasteries would be sanctioned, the preamble stated (and the words which follow are underlined in the MS.) that--

"Nevertheless, the experience which we have had by those houses that are already suppressed sheweth plainly unto us that a great hurt and decay is thereby come, and hereafter shall come, to this realm, and great impoverishing of many the poor subjects thereof, for lack of hospitality and good householding that were wont in them to be kept, to the great relief of the poor people of all the counties adjoining the said monasteries, besides the maintaining of many smiths, husbandmen, and labourers that were kept in the said houses.

"It should therefore be enacted:

"1. That all persons taking the lands of suppressed houses must duly reside upon the said lands, and must keep hospitality; and that it be so ordered in the leases.

"2. That all houses, of whatsoever order, habit, or name, lying beyond the river of Trent northward, and not suppressed, should stand still and abide in their old strength and foundation.

"3. That discipline so sadly decayed should be restored among them; that all monks, being accounted dead persons by the law, should not mix themselves in worldly matters, but should be shut up within limited compass, having orchards and gardens to walk in and labour in--each monk having forty shillings for his stipend, each abbot and prior five marks--and in each house a governor, to be nominated by the king, to administer the revenue and keep hospitality.

"4. A thousand marks being the sum estimated as sufficient to maintain an abbey under such management, the surplus revenue was then to be made over to a court, to be called the _Curia Centenariorum_, for the defence of the realm, and the maintenance in peace as well as war of a standing army; the said men of war, being in wages in the time of peace, to remain in and about the towns, castles, and fortresses, within the realm at the appointment of the lord admiral, as he should think most for the surety of the realm."

A number of provisions follow for the organization of the court, which was to sit at Coventry as a central position, for the auditing the accounts, the employment of the troops, &c. The paper is of great historic value, although, with a people so jealous of their liberties, it was easy to foresee the fate of the project. It is among the _Cotton. MSS. Cleopatra_, E 4, fol. 215.

[202] _Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 38.

[203] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 523.

[204] Confession of George Lascelles: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 774.

[205] And for another reason. They were forced to sue out their pardons individually, and received them only, as Aske and Lord Darcy had been obliged to do, by taking the oath of allegiance, and binding themselves to obey the obnoxious statutes so long as they were unrepealed.--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 471.

[206] Cromwell.

[207] Robert Aske to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_, Royal Letters.

[208] "Deum deprecantes ut dextram ense firmet caputque tuum hoc pileo vi Spiritûs Sancti per columbam figurati protegat."--Paulus III. Regi Scotiæ: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 269.

[209] "Nec tam muneris qualitatem quam mysterium et vim spiritualem perpendes."--Ibid.

[210] Although the Doncaster petitioners had spoken of "their antient enemies of Scotland," an alliance, nevertheless, in the cause of religion, was not, after all, impossible. When James V. was returning from France to Edinburgh, in the spring of 1537, his ship lay off Scarborough for a night to take in provisions--

"Where certain of the commons of the country thereabout, to the number of twelve persons--Englishmen, your Highness's servants" [I am quoting a letter of Sir Thomas Clifford to Henry VIII.]--"did come on board in the king's ship, and, being on their knees before him, thanked God of his healthful and sound repair; showing how that they had long looked for him, and how they were oppressed, slain, and murdered; desiring him for God's sake to come in, and all should be his."--_State Papers_, Vol. V. p. 80.

[211] Among the records in connexion with the entreaties and warnings of the Privy Council are copies of letters to the same effect from his mother and his brother. They are written in a tone of stiff remonstrance; and being found among the government papers, must either have been drafts which the writers were required to transcribe, or copies furnished by themselves as evidence of their own loyalty. Lady Salisbury's implication in the affair of the Nun of Kent may have naturally led the government to require from her some proof of allegiance.

[212] Reg. Polus, Paulo Tertio: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46. The letter to which I refer was written in the succeeding summer, but the language is retrospective, and refers to the object with which the mission had been undertaken.

[213] "Perceiving by your last letters that there remaineth a little spark of that love and obedience towards his Majesty which your bounden duty doth require, and that by the same as well it appeareth your great suspicion is conveyed to one special point--that is, to the pretended supremacy of the Bishop of Rome--as that you shew yourself desirous either to satisfy his Majesty or to be satisfied in the same, offering yourself for that purpose to repair into Flanders, there to discourse and reason it with such as his Highness shall appoint to entreat that matter with you--for the hearty love and favour we bear to my lady your mother, my lord your brother, and others your friends here, which be right heartily sorry for your unkind proceedings in this behalf, and for that also we all desire your reconciliation to his Highness's grace and favour, we have been all most humble suitors to his Majesty to grant your petition touching your said repair into Flanders, and have obtained our suit in the same, so as you will come thither of yourself, without commission of any other person."--The Privy Council to Pole, Jan. 18, 1537: _Rolls House MS._

[214] Ibid.

[215] "They shall swear and make sure faith and promise utterly to renounce and refuse all their forced oaths, and that from henceforth they shall use themselves as true and faithful subjects in all things; and that specially they shall allow, approve, support, and maintain to the uttermost of their power all and singular the acts, statutes, and laws which have been made and established in parliament since the beginning of the reign of our most dread Sovereign Lord."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 471.

[216] Confession of George Lumley: _Rolls House MS._ first series.

[217] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIX.

[218] Many of them are in the _State Paper Office_ in the Cromwell Collection.

[219] John Hallam deposes: "Sir Francis Bigod did say, at Walton Abbey, that 'the king's office was to have no care of men's souls, and did read to this examinate a book made by himself, as he said, wherein was shewed what authority did belong to the Pope, what to a bishop, what to the king; and said that the head of the Church of England must be a spiritual man, as the Archbishop of Canterbury or such; but in no wise the king, for he should with the sword defend all spiritual men in their right.'"--_Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.

[220] Sir Francis Bigod's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 416. Confession of George Lumley: _Rolls House MS._ The MSS. relating to the later commotions are very imperfect, and much injured.

[221] Lumley's Confession.

[222] Examination of John Hallam: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.

[223] "The King's Highness hath declared by his own mouth unto Robert Aske, that he intendeth we shall have our parliament at York frankly and freely for the ordering and reformation of all causes for the commonwealth of this realm, and also his frank and free convocation for the good stay and ordering of the faith and other spiritual causes, which he supposes shall come down under his great seal by my Lord of Norfolk, who comes down shortly with a mean company after a quiet manner to the great quietness and comfort of all good men. Wherefore, good and loving neighbours, let us stay ourselves and by no means follow the wilfulness of such as are disposed to spoil and to undo themselves and you both, but to resist them in all that ye may, to the best of your power; and so will I do for my part, and so know I well that all good men will do; and if it had not been for my disease which hath taken me so sore that I may neither go nor ride, I would have come and have shewed you this myself for the good stay and quietness of you all, and for the commonwealth of all the country. The parliament and the convocation is appointed to be at York at Whitsuntide, and the coronation of the Queen's Highness about the same time.

"Written in Spaldingmore this 16th day of January.

"ROBERT CONSTABLE, of Flamborough."

--Letter of Sir R. Constable to the Commons of the North on Bigod's Insurrection: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 276.

[224] For this matter see _Rolls House MS._ first series, 276, 416, 1144, and _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 529.

[225] "Captain Aske was at London, and had great rewards to betray the commons; and since that he came home they have fortified Hull against the commons, ready to receive ships by the sea to destroy all the north parts."--Demands of the Rebels who rose with Sir F. Bigod: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 895.

[226] "Robert Aske, in a letter which he sent to Bigod, shewed that he would do the best he could for the delivery of Hallam. And that he spoke not that feignedly, it should appear that the said Aske, after that Bigod was fled, came to the king's commissioners then sitting at Hull about Hallam's examination, and shewed them how that he had heard of a great commotion that should be in the bishoprick and other places, and therefore advised them not to be hasty in proceeding to the execution of the said Hallam.

"Also divers that had been with Bigod in his commotion came to the said Aske, whom he did not apprehend, but bade them not fear, for he would get their pardon."--Deposition on the Conduct of Robert Aske, MS. much injured, _Rolls House_, first series, 416.

[227] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[228] In the first surprise in October, the Privy Council had been obliged to levy men without looking nicely to their antecedents, and they had recruited largely from the usual depôts in times of difficulties, the sanctuaries. Manslayers, cutpurses, and other doubtful persons might have liberty for a time, and by good conduct might earn their pardon by taking service under the crown. On the present, as on many other occasions, they had proved excellent soldiers; and those who had been with Lord Shrewsbury had been rewarded for their steadiness. Under the circumstances he had perhaps been better able to depend upon them than on the more creditable portion of his force. After the pacification at Doncaster, Norfolk was ashamed of his followers; he proposed to disband them, and supply their place with penitent volunteers from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The king, who was already displeased with Norfolk for his other proceedings, approved no better of his present suggestion. "His Majesty," wrote the Privy Council, "marvels that you should be more earnest in the dissuasion of the retainder of them that have been but murderers and thieves (if they so have been), than you were that his Grace should not retain those that have been rebels and traitors. These men have done good rather than hurt in this troublous time, though they did it not with a good mind and intent, but for their own lucre.... What the others did no man can tell better than you. If these men may be made good men with their advancement, his Highness may think his money well employed. If they will continue evil, all the world shall think them the more worthy punishment for that they have so little regarded the clemency of his Highness calling them from their evil doings to honest preferment."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, p. 33.

[229] Duke of Norfolk to the Earls of Sussex: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 534.

[230] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. IV.

[231] "I did not dare assemble the people of the country, for I knew not how they be established in their hearts, notwithstanding that their words can be no better."--Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office._

[232] Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS._ ibid.

[233] "This night I will send two or three hundred horse to them, and have commanded them to set fire in many places of the rebels' dwellings, thinking thereby to make them to steal away, and every man to draw near to his own for the safeguard of his house and goods. I have also commanded them that if the traitors so sparkle they shall not spare shedding of blood; for execution whereof I will send such as I am sure will not spare to fulfil my commandment."--Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS._ ibid.

[234] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 537.

[235] Hall says, at Carlisle, but the official reports, as well as the king's directions, imply that the executions were not limited to one place.

[236] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. II.

[237] "Of the mind of the king towards me I had first knowledge at mine arriving in France; of the which, to shew you the full motive of my mind herein, I was more ashamed to hear, for the compassion I had to the king's honour, than moved by any indignation that I, coming not only as ambassador, but as legate in the highest sort of embassage that is used among Christian princes, a prince of honour should desire another prince of like honour--'Betray the ambassador, betray the legate, and give him into mine ambassador's hands, to be brought unto me.' This was the dishonourable request, as I understand, of the king, which to me I promise you was no great displeasure, but rather, if I should say truth, I took pleasure therein, and said forthwith to my company that I never felt myself to be in full possession to be a cardinal as when I heard those tidings, whereby it pleased God to send like fortune to me as it did to those heads of the Church whose persons the cardinals do represent. In this case lived the apostles."--Pole to Cromwell: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 326, &c.

[238] The value of Pole's accusations against Henry depends so much upon his character that I must be pardoned for scrutinizing his conduct rather closely. In his letter to Cromwell, dated the 2d of May, he insists that his actions had been cruelly misunderstood. Besides making the usual protestations of love and devotion to the king with which all his letters to the English court are filled, he declares, in the most solemn way, that, so far from desiring to encourage the insurgents, he had prevented the Pope from taking the opportunity of putting out the censures which might have caused more troubles. "That he had sent at that time his servant purposely to offer his service to procure by all means the king's honour, wealth, and greatness, animating, besides, those that were chief of his nearest kin to be constant in the king's service."--Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 321.

I shall lay by the side of these words a passage from his letter to the Pope, written from Cambray on the 18th of the same month.

Both the French and Flemish councils, he says, are urging him to return to Italy:--

"Eo magis quod causa ipsa quæ sola me retinere posset, et quæ huc sola traxit, ne spem quidem ullam ostendere videtur vel minimo periculo dignam, cur in his locis diutius maneam, populi tumultu qui causam ipsam fovebat ita sedato ut multi supplicio sint affecti, duces autem omnes in regis potestatem venerint."

He goes on to say that the people had been in rebellion in defence of their religion. They had men of noble birth for their leaders; and nothing, it was thought, would more inspirit the whole party than to hear that one of their own nation was coming with authority to assist their cause; nothing which would strike deeper terror into their adversaries, or compel them to more equitable conditions.

For the present the tumult was composed, but only by fair words, and promises which had not been observed. A fresh opportunity would soon again offer. Men's minds were always rather exasperated than conquered by such treatment. The people would never believe the king's word again; and though for the moment held down by fear, would break out again with renewed fury. He thought, therefore, he had better remain in the neighbourhood, since the chief necessity of the party would be an efficient leader; and to know that they had a leader ready to come to them at any moment, yet beyond the king's reach, would be the greatest encouragement which they could receive.--Reginald Pole to the Pope: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46.

[239] Ibid.

[240] Bishop Hilsey to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXXV.

[241] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 416; much injured.

[242] The Privy Council, writing to the Duke of Norfolk, said: "You may divulge the cause of their activity to the people of those parts, that they may the rather perceive their miserable fortune, that, being once so graciously pardoned, would eftsoons combine themselves for the attempting of new treasons ... not conceiving that anything is done for their former offences done before the pardon, which his Grace will in nowise remember or speak of; but for those treasons which they have committed again since in such detestable sort as no good subject would not wish their punishment for the same."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 43.

[243] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.

[244] Besides his personal interference, Aske, and Constable also, had directed a notorious insurgent named Rudstone, "in any wise to deliver Hallam from Hull."--Ibid.

[245] Sir Ralph Ellerkar called on Constable to join him in suppressing Bigod's movement. Constable neither came nor sent men, contenting himself with writing letters.--Ibid.

[246] Part of Pole's mission was to make peace between France and the Empire. The four sovereigns would, therefore, be the Pope, the King of Scotland, Francis, and Charles. I have gathered these accusations out of several groups among the Rolls House MSS., apparently heads of information, Privy Council minutes, and drafts of indictments. The particulars which I have mentioned being repeated frequently in these papers, and with much emphasis, I am inclined to think that they formed the whole of the case.

[247] The proofs of "an animus" were severely construed.

A few clauses from a rough draft of the indictments will show how small a prospect of escape there was for any one who had not resolutely gone over to the government.

Aske wrote to the commons of the north a letter, in which was written, "Bigod intendeth to destroy the effect of our petition and commonwealth; whereby," Cromwell concluded, "it appeareth he continued in his false opinion and traitorous heart." In another letter he had said to them, "Your reasonable petitions shall be ordered by parliament," "showing that he thought that their petitions were reasonable, and in writing the same he committed treason."

Again, both Constable and he had exhorted the commons to wait for the Duke of Norfolk and the parliament, telling them that the duke would come only with his household servants; "signifying plainly that, if their unreasonable requests were not complied with, they would take the matter in their own hands again."

There are fifty "articles" against them, conceived in the same spirit, of more or less importance.

[248] Sir William Parr to Henry VIII.: _MS. State Paper Office_, Letters to the King and Council, Vol. V. _Rolls House MS._ first series, 76.

[249] Sir William Parr to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series Vol. XXXI.

[250] _Baga de Secretis._

[251] Lord Hussey may have the benefit of his own denial. Cromwell promised to intercede for him if he would make a true confession. He replied thus:--

"I never knew of the beginning of the commotion in neither of the places, otherwise than is contained in the bill that I did deliver to Sir Thomas Wentworth, at Windsor. Nor I was never privy to their acts, nor never aided them in will, word, nor deed. But if I might have had 500 men I would have fought with them, or else I forsake my part of heaven; for I was never traitor, nor of none counsel of treason against his Grace; and that I will take my death upon, when it shall please God and his Highness."

In a postscript he added:

"Now at Midsummer shall be three years, my Lord Darcy, I, and Sir Robert Constable, as we sate at the board, it happened that we spake of Sir Francis Bigod, (how) his priest, in his sermons, likened Our Lady to a pudding when the meat was out, with many words more; and then my Lord Darcy said that he was a naughty priest; let him go; for in good sooth I will be none heretic; and so said I, and likewise Sir Robert Constable; for we will die Christian men."--_MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XVIII.

[252] "And whereas your lordship doth write that, in case the consciences of such persons as did acquit Levening should be examined, the fear thereof might trouble others in like case, the King's Majesty considering his treason to be most manifest, apparent, and confessed, and that all offenders in that case be principals, and none accessories, doth think it very necessary that the means used in that matter may be searched out, as a thing which may reveal many other matters worthy his Highness's knowledge; and doth therefore desire you not only to signify their names, but also to travel all that you can to beat out the mystery."--Privy Council to the Duke of Norfolk: _Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 46.

[253] The list is in the _Rolls MS._ first series, 284. Opposite the name of each juror there is a note in the margin, signifying his connexions among the prisoners.

[254] Compare _Baga de Secretis_, pouch X. bundle 2, and _Rolls House MS._, first series, 284.

[255] Word illegible in the MS.

[256] _MS._ in Cromwell's own hand: _Rolls House_, A 2, 29, fol. 160 and 161.

[257] _Rolls House MS._ first series. 207.

[258] _MS._ ibid. 1401.

[259] Depositions relating to Lord Delaware: _Rolls House MS._

[260] _MS. State Paper Office, Domestic_, Vol. XII.

[261] Ibid.

[262] _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 457.

[263] For instance, Sir Thomas Percy's eldest son inherited the earldom of Northumberland; unfortunately, also his father's politics and his father's fate. He was that Earl of Northumberland who rose for Mary of Scotland against Elizabeth.

[264] Lady Bulmer seems from the depositions to have deserved as serious punishment as any woman for the crime of high treason can be said to have deserved. One desires to know whether in any class of people there was a sense of compunction for the actual measure inflicted by the law. The following is a meagre, but still welcome, fragment upon this subject:--

"Upon Whitsunday, at breakfast, certain company was in the chauntry at Thame, when was had speech and communication of the state of the north country, being that proditors against the King's Highness should suffer to the number of ten; amongst which proditors the Lady Bulmer should suffer. There being Robert Jones, said it is a pity that she should suffer. Then to that answered John Strebilhill, saying it is no pity, if she be a traitor to her prince, but that she should have after her deserving. Then said Robert Jones, let us speak no more of this matter; for men may be blamed for speaking of the truth."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 1862.

[265] _MS. State Paper Office_: ---- to Henry Saville.

[266] A second cause "is our most dear and most entirely beloved wife the queen, being now quick with child, for the which we give most humble thanks to Almighty God, albeit she is in every condition of that loving inclination and reverend conformity, that she can in all things well content, satisfy, and quiet herself with that thing which we shall think expedient and determine; yet, considering that, being a woman, upon some sudden and displeasant rumours and brutes that might be blown abroad in our absence, she might take impressions which might engender danger to that wherewith she is now pregnant, which God forbid, it hath been thought necessary that we should not extend our progress this year so far from her."--Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 552.

[267] _MS. Rolls House_, A 2, 28.

[268] A curious drawing of Hull, which was made about this time, with the plans of the new fortifications erected by Henry, is in the Cotton Library. A gallows stands outside the gate, with a body hanging on it, which was probably meant for Constable's.

[269] "Immediately tofore Sir Robert Constable should receive his rights, it was asked of him if that his confession put in writing was all that he did know. To which he made answer that it was all. Notwithstanding he knew, besides that, sundry naughty words and high cracks that my Lord Darcy had blown out, which he thought not best to shew so long as the said lord was on life, partly because they should rather do hurt than good, and partly because he had no proof of them.

"But what these words were he would not declare, but in generality. Howbeit, his open confession was right good."--_MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. I.

[270] A general amnesty was proclaimed immediately after. "The notable unkindness of the people," Norfolk said, "had been able to have moved his Grace to have taken such punishment on the offenders as might have been terrible for all men to have thought on that should hereafter have only heard the names of sedition and rebellion.

"Yet the king's most royal Majesty, of his most tender pity and great desire that he hath rather to preserve you from the stroke of justice imminent upon your deserts, than to put you to the extremity of the same, trusting and supposing that the punishment of a few offenders in respect of the multitude, which have suffered only for an example to others to avoid the like attemptations, will be sufficient for ever to make all you and your posterities to eschew semblable offences, of his inestimable goodness and pity is content by this general proclamation to give and grant to you all, every of you, his general and free pardon."--_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28; _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.

[271] Like Cuthbert Tunstall, for instance, who, when upbraided for denying his belief in the Pope, said "he had never seen the time when he thought to lose one drop of blood therefore, for sure he was that none of those that heretofore had advantage by that authority would have lost one penny to save his life."--Tunstall to Pole: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 481.

[272] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46.

[273] Ibid. p. 64.

[274] Trials of Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter: _Baga de Secretis_.

[275] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 73.

[276] Pole to Contarini, _Epist._ Vol. II. p. 64. I call the rumour wild because there is no kind of evidence for it, and because the English resident at Antwerp, John Hutton, who was one of the persons accused by Pole, was himself the person to inform the king of the story.--_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 703.

[277] See Appendix to Volume IV

[278] Michael Throgmorton to Cromwell: MS. _penes me_.

[279] Cromwell to Throgmorton: _Rolls House MS._

[280] Robert Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.

[281] Depositions relating to the Protestants in Yorkshire: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XVIII.

[282] The monkish poetry was pressed into the service. The following is from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford. It is of the date, perhaps, of Henry VII.

"Listen, lordlings, both great and small,
I will tell you a wonder tale,
How Holy Church was brought in bale,
Cum magnâ injuriâ.

"The greatest clerke in this land,
Thomas of Canterbury I understand,
Slain he was with wicked hand,
Malorum potentiâ.

"The knights were sent from Henry the king:
That day they did a wicked thing;
Wicked men without lesing,
Per regis imperia.

"They sought the bishop all about,
Within his palace and without:
Of Jesu Christ they had no doubt,
Pro suâ maliciâ.

"They opened their mouths woundily wide,
They spake to him with much pride:
'Traitor! here shalt thou abide,
Ferens mortis tædia.'

"Before the altar he kneelèd down,
And there they pared his crown,
And stirred his braines up and down,
Optans cœli gaudia."

[283] Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.; Miles Coverdale to Cromwell: Ibid. Vol. VII.

[284] William Umpton to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series Vol. XLV.

[285] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.

[286] Crummock Water is a lake in Cumberland. The point of the song must have some play on the name of Cromwell, pronounced as of old, "_Crummell_."

[287] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 683.

[288] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVIII.

[289] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.

[290] Ibid.

[291] Very few of these are now known to be in existence. Roy's _Satire_ is one of the best. It would be excellent if reduced to reasonable length. The fury which the mystery plays excited in the Catholic party is a sufficient proof of the effect which they produced. An interesting letter to Cromwell, from the author of some of them, is among the _State Papers_. I find no further mention of him:--

"The Lord make you the instrument of my help, Lord Cromwell, that I may have liberty to preach the truth. I dedicate and offer to your lordship a 'Reverend receiving of the sacrament,' as a lenten matter declared by six children, representing Christ, the word of God, Paul, Austin, a child, a man called Ignorancy, as a secret thing that shall have an end--once rehearsed afore your eyes. The priests in Suffolk will not receive me into their churches to preach; but have disdained me ever since I made a play against the Pope's councillors, Error, collyclogger of conscience, and Incredulity. I have made a play called _A Rude Commonalty_. I am making of another, called _The Woman on the Rock_, in the fire of faith refining, and a purging in the true purgatory, never to be seen but of your lordship's eye. Aid me, for Christ's sake, that I may preach Christ."--Thomas Wylley, fatherless and forsaken: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. L.

[292] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.

[293] _MS. State Paper Office._

[294] _Rolls House MS._ first series; _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.