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The Rebellion of the Earls, 1569

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

R. R. Reid
Affiliation:
Lond

Extract

A popular movement like the Rebellion of the Earls can always be treated from two distinct standpoints, the national and the local. Hitherto, the Rebellion has always been treated from the national standpoint, with the result that, so far as I am aware, there is no book dealing with the Rebellion alone. All accounts of it must be sought in general histories such as those named below. I would specially mention the chapter in the ‘Cambridge Modern History’ in which Mr. Law has anticipated all the conclusions which I have been able to draw from my own examination of the sources. The local point of view, on the other hand, has been almost wholly ignored, and affords more opportunity for investigation; to it, therefore, I have confined myself. I cannot pretend that the essay is exhaustive, as circumstances have prevented me from investigating the local sources, such as Corporation and Town Records, Parish Registers and the like. Nevertheless, this contribution may not be wholly without value, since it is based on a careful study of the material preserved at the Public Record Office and in the British Museum.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1905

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References

page 175 note 1 Humberston's Survey, in Public Record Office, K. R. Miscellaneous Books, 37 and 38 (henceforth referred to as Humberston).

page 175 note 2 Ibid.

page 175 note 3 E.g., Gargrave writes to Cecil in Feb. 1570 that in Yorkshire ‘the sheriff has small force, the liberties are so many and so great.’ Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 219, cf 27 Henry VIII. c. 24. Humberston also gives a good deal of information on the numerous Courts Leet in the North.

page 176 note 1 27 Henry VIII. c. 24, ‘An Act concerning Power of Pardon for Treasons.’ Aimed specially at the County Palatine of Durham, the Act was not without effect in other liberties, e.g. Hexhamshire. The prominent part taken in the Rebellion by Durham men is striking. Dr. Lapsley has shown how tenacious of their semi-independence the St. Cuthbert's men were. (Lapsley, The County Palatine of Durham.)

page 176 note 2 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., especially No. 595 under the year 1537.

page 176 note 3 Sharpe, , Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, p. x (henceforth referred to as Sharpe)Google Scholar.

page 176 note 4 Hunsdon to the Privy Council, Dec. 31, 1569. Foreign Calendar, El. ix. No. 568.

page 177 note 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 255, 257.

page 177 note 2 Ibid.

page 177 note 3 S. P. Dom. Add. El. xii. 68, and Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 74. 81.

page 177 note 4 S. P. Dom. Add. Mary, viii. 55, 71, 83; S. P. Dom. Add. El. xii. 68; Hatfield MSS. part i., No. 1211; Cotton MSS. Calig. B. ix. 6. This paper is entitled ‘Causes of the decay of servitors [i.e. retainers and tenants bound to military service] of the borders chefely in the Middle Marches of England.’ These are given as: ‘(1) The long peace; (2) Exactions of owners and possessioners; (3) Her Majesty's possessions there leased to inland men [i.e. not belonging to the Borders]; (4) Absence of captains and keepers of castles, fortes, and houses of defence; (5) Private quarrels among the gentlemen; (6) The dearth and scarcity of horses; (7) The sale of horses into Scotland.’ The paper is undated and placed among those of Mary's reign, but internal evidence would transfer it to Elizabeth's reign, and a comparison with Hunsdon's, Instructions in 1568 (Cal. Sc. P. ii. 778)Google Scholar would seem to fix its date in that year. The paper is a decidedly interesting one. The other references are to particular illustrations of the general statement.

page 177 note 5 Cotton MSS. Calig. B. ix. 6; and S. P. Dom. Add. Mary, viii. 55; Foreign Calendar, (1563) No. 1280.

page 177 note 6 Influenced by his wife Anne, daughter of the Earl of Worcester, he opposed Elizabeth's ecclesiastical legislation (Spanish Calendar, i. No. 294) and ultimately made a profession of the Catholic faith. (Sharpe, Northumberland's confession.)

page 177 note 7 Sadler Letters, ii. 58, 79, 108. Elizabeth seems to have suspected that Northumberland was intriguing with the French on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots. A little later he certainly offended the Scottish Queen by claiming and keeping as treasure trove a sum of money on its way to her from Spain.

page 178 note 1 S. P. Dom. Add. El. xii. 24, 25.

page 178 note 2 Ibid. 10, 24, 25.

page 178 note 3 Ibid. 23.

page 178 note 4 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 665, 670, 671.

page 178 note 5 Cunningham, Growth of English Industry.

page 178 note 6 Lansdowne MSS. 5. 47.

page 178 note 7 Journal of the House of Lords. The bill was read a first time Dec. 4, and a second time Dec. 5, but not a third time.

page 178 note 8 See Appendix.

page 178 note 9 Teulet, , Papiers d' état, tome ii. p. 83Google Scholar.

page 179 note 1 S. P. Dom. El. xl. 86.

page 179 note 2 Sharpe, ‘Leonard Dacre’; Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 257.

page 179 note 3 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 35–38.

page 179 note 4 Ibid. p. 257.

page 179 note 5 Foreign Calendar, El. viii. p. 540.

page 179 note 6 Ibid. p. 541.

page 179 note 7 Ibid. pp. 549–50.

page 179 note 8 2 & 3 Ph. and Mary, c. I.

page 179 note 9 Cotton MSS. Calig. B. ix. 6.

page 179 note 10 Ibid.

page 180 note 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 66; and Cal. Sc. P. ii. p. 487. There were several of these Commissions: in 1557 (S. P. Dom. Add. Mary, viii. 55, 71), in Nov. 1568 (Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 65), and in July 1569 (Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 78), but unfortunately their reports seem to have perished with the other records of the Council of the North.

page 180 note 2 Foreign Calendar, El. viii. 540, 541.

page 180 note 3 Humberston.

page 180 note 4 Ibid.

page 180 note 5 Calig. B. ix. 6; S. P. Dom. Add. Mary, , viii. 92, 106Google Scholar; Hatfield MSS., part i. 1212, 1213; Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 225. It is in the quarrel between Sir John Forster and the Percies that we doubtless find the explanation of the continuance of Forster in his Wardenship. He was evidently quite unfit for the position, but he was useful as a check on Northumberland.

page 180 note 6 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 60.

page 180 note 7 Calig. B. ix. 6.

page 180 note 8 Ibid.

page 181 note 1 Rogers, , Hist, of Agr. and Prices, iv. 305–6Google Scholar.

page 181 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 308.

page 181 note 3 Humberston.

page 181 note 4 Cunningham, ii. p. 24.

page 181 note 5 Humberston. These remarks, like the evidence, apply only to Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, Durham, and the North Riding. In the West and East Ridings, which were specially concerned in the Pilgrimage of Grace, the conditions were quite different, most of the land being arable, not pasture. These two Ridings so closely resemble the Midlands that Yorkshire was naturally included with the country south of the Trent in the agrarian legislation of 1517 and succeeding years, while the counties north of the Tees had to wait till 1555 for similar legislation. Even then, the Tillage Act seems to be more concerned with the decay of houses and castles, and with the disappearance of the horsemen, than with the progress of enclosure. The most important enclosure, apart from those on the Crown lands referred to in the text, was that of the Forest of West-ward, near Carlisle, in 1569 (Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. Eliz. vii. pp. 82, 367). The Earl of Northumberland, however, seems to have been moved only by a desire to preserve the fallow deer, which were disturbed by the cattle driven into the forest by the farmers, who thus saved them from the Scots.

page 181 note 6 Ibid. Humberston writes thus: ‘To the honor [of Cockermouth] belong many customary tenants who hold their land by copy of the Court Roll to them and their heirs doing suit to the lord's court, service by himself and all his family to the Borders when necessity shall require, and paying his fine at the lord's will after the death, alienation, or exchange of any lord and tenant; which custom hath heretofore been by the lords of that honor so reasonably used as all the most of the customary tenants of the Earls in all the counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, York, and the Bishopric of Durham, have in all their ancient grants and copies, to hold to them and their heirs according to the custom of the honor of Cockermouth. The like grants have been made by the lords of manors within the county of Cumberland, wherewith the tenants thought themselves well pleased and in good estate.’

page 182 note 1 S. P. Dom. Add. El. xii. 23.

page 182 note 2 As far back as 1562 it had been suggested that the tenants should be deprived of their custom, and they sent to Northumberland a petition that he would intercede for them. Lansdowne MSS. 5, 43.

page 182 note 3 S. P. Dom. Add. El. xii. 69, 70, It is interesting to note that in 1568 Hunsdon is instructed to reassure the tenants at Etell, &c., who feared the loss of their custom (Cal. Sc. P. 778).

page 182 note 4 Sharpe, p. 143.

page 183 note 1 E.g. Sir Francis Englefield, Sir Nicholas and Dr. Morton, Thomas Markenfeld.

page 183 note 2 Gee, , The Elizabethan Clergy, p. 169Google Scholar.

page 183 note 3 5 Eliz. c. 1. Test Act, in the sense that the oath of supremacy was made the condition of office, in certain directions.

page 183 note 4 Hatfield MSS. i. 1024, and Camden Misc. ix.

page 183 note 5 S. P. Dom. El. xxxvi. 65. The passage occurs in a memorial on the dangers likely to arise from Mary's marriage with Darnley.

page 183 note 6 Lansd. MSS. 102, 79. The paper is a summary of the dangers of England, sent from Cecil by Mr. Sampson to the Duke of Norfolk. See also Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance, notes, and the Calendar of the Register of the Inns of Court.

page 183 note 7 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 529; Cat. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 64.

page 183 note 8 Camden Misc. ix.

page 183 note 9 Ibid.

page 184 note 1 Camden Misc. ix. E.g. The sons of Sir Thomas Metham; Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 224.

page 184 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 139.

page 184 note 3 See p. 180, note 5. Francis Norton speaks of his own quarrel with Northumberland, Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 390.

page 184 note 4 Fénelon, La Mothe, Correspondance, i. 258Google Scholar.

page 185 note 1 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 941.

page 185 note 2 See Sussex's opinion as expressed to Cecil Oct. 22, 1568 (Hatfield MSS. i. 1201).

page 185 note 3 S. P. Dom. El. xlvii. 36. These notes in Cecil's hand are interesting because they contain a clause omitted from the Treaty offered at York, to the effect that the marriage with Bothwell is to be undone by order of law and Parliament.

page 186 note 1 Sharpe. Northumberland in his Confession explicitly states that the proposal was made to him by Christopher Lassells, that he disapproved, and that at Mary's instance he broke the matter to Norfolk a week after the latter's arrival at York.

page 186 note 2 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 822.

page 186 note 3 His house, Norton Conyers, was two miles from Ripon (Cal. Sc. P. ii. 959).

page 186 note 4 His reconciliation with the Catholic Church was effected in 1567. (See next note.)

page 186 note 5 Confession in Sharpe, and Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 403.

page 187 note 1 Surtees Soc., Testamenta Eboracensia, and Wills and Inventories.

page 187 note 2 Richard Norton's wife was Susan, d. of Lord Latimer (Sharpe).

page 187 note 3 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 403.

page 187 note 4 Ibid. It was probably for this reason that Christopher was executed while his brothers William and Marmaduke were pardoned.

page 187 note 5 Ibid. Sharpe.

page 187 note 6 Haynes, p. 594.

page 187 note 7 S. P. Dom. El. lxvii. 59. It is true that this evidence is from a tainted source, since Strelly or Stirley was a spy, also that Christopher denied it. Yet we know that his brother Francis was concerned in the scheme and the probability is that Christopher was the agent.

page 188 note 1 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 779. Perhaps the riot caused by the Dacres at Carlisle Assizes in the beginning of August was really an attempt to seize Carlisle. The Government seems to have thought so. (Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 55 ff.)

page 188 note 2 At least two other attempts are alleged, but no dates can be fixed, tempting as it is to take a hint from the night attack on the scouts at Berwick on Sept. 3. For. Cal. El. viii. pp. 540, 542.

page 188 note 3 Cal. S. P. Spanish, El. ii. p. 96, 97. Friendship for Spain was no new thing with Northumberland (Sp. Cal. i. p. 565). Nor was he alone in offering it; Norfolk and others did the same from the beginning of the reign (Sp. Cal. i. p. 107).

page 188 note 4 Made known to Elizabeth, through Arundel, (Cal. Sc. P. ii. 940)Google Scholar.

page 188 note 5 S. P. Dom. El. lxvii. 59, and Camden, , Annales (3rd ed.), p. 112Google Scholar. The disorder of the Border, especially in the Middle March, is shown by the murder of the keeper of Harbottle (Hatfield MSS. i. 1214) and the fight between Forster's men and Northumberland's retainers (ibid. 1213).

page 189 note 1 For, Cal. El. 1569–71, no. 412.

page 189 note 2 S. P. Dom. El. xlix. 71.

page 189 note 3 Ibid. 83. This order was distincly unpopular, for it extended the obligation of providing harquebusiers to persons hitherto exempt. Cf. S. P. Dom. El. lix. 1.

page 189 note 4 Fénelon, La Mothe, Correspondance, i. 218Google Scholar.

page 189 note 5 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 79.

page 189 note 6 Alba had closed the Flemish ports in April 1569.

page 189 note 7 Spanish Calendar, ii. p. 179.

page 189 note 8 Sharpe, p. 151.

page 189 note 9 Ibid. p. 76.

page 190 note 1 Cal. Sc. P. ii. 829.

page 190 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 65.

page 190 note 3 Ibid. p. 73.

page 190 note 4 Spanish Calendar, ii. p. 174.

page 191 note 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 390; Sharpe, Francis Norton.

page 191 note 2 Foreign Cal. El. ix. no. 416.

page 191 note 3 Coram Rege Rolls, 1233; Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 82.

page 191 note 4 S. P. Dom. El. lxxxv. 33.

page 191 note 5 Sharpe, p. 195.

page 191 note 6 S. P. Dom. El. lxxxi. 57.

page 192 note 1 Ibid.

page 192 note 2 Sharpe, Northumberland's Confessîon.

page 192 note 3 Ibid.

page 192 note 4 Fénelon, La Mothe, Correspondance, ii. 339Google Scholar. Many of them were in London in November, seeking from the French Ambassador passports to go to France.

page 192 note 5 Note the increasing frequency and urgency of the messages sent by Northumberland to the Spanish Ambassador; Span. Cal. El. ii. pp. 199, 201, 211.

page 193 note 1 Fénelon, La Mothe, Correspondance, i. 258 ff., and ii. 215Google Scholar.

page 193 note 2 Sharpe, Northumberland's Confession.

page 193 note 3 Cal. Sc. P. ii. p. 682.

page 193 note 4 Fénelon, La Mothe, and Lettres de Catherine de Medici, Tome iii. 274, 281Google Scholar.

page 193 note 5 Cal. Sc. P. ii. p. 690. Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 94.

page 194 note 1 ibid. 91.

page 194 note 2 Ibid. 86.

page 194 note 3 Doubt has been thrown on the suggestion that the Earl's arrest was intended from the first. It seems certain, however, that this really was the case; cf. Elizabeth's letter of reproach to Sussex for failing to secure them, and De Guaras' Report of the rooms prepared in the Tower for prisoners of great position (Span. Cal. El. ii. p. 204).

page 194 note 4 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 89.

page 194 note 5 Ibid. p. 90.

page 194 note 6 Ibid. p. 98.

page 194 note 7 Ibid.

page 194 note 8 Ibid. p. 99.

page 194 note 9 Ibid.

page 194 note 10 Ibid. p. 98.

page 194 note 11 Ibid. pp. 103, 104.

page 194 note 12 Ibid. pp. 101, 102, 103. Northumberland said he had heard he was to be arrested; cf. Sharpe, p. 22. Bowes writes that it was commonly reported that ‘Her Majesty had commanded Sussex to take Northumberland and send him up moffeled. My lady excuseth feare upon intelligence from London, or the Cort, or, as I take it, from both.’

page 194 note 13 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 103; Cotton MSS. Calig. C. i. 377

page 194 note 14 Ibid. p. 405.

page 195 note 1 Sharpe, p. 10.

page 195 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add, El. vii. p. 100.

page 195 note 3 Sharpe, p. 16.

page 195 note 4 Lansdowne MSS. 15, 95.

page 195 note 5 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add El. vii. p. 112.

page 195 note 6 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 138.

page 195 note 7 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 237.

page 195 note 8 ibid. p. 129; Sharpe, p. 125.

page 195 note 9 The boy had been killed by an accident in May 1569, and Leonard Dacr claimed that the title went to heirs male in general.

page 195 note 10 See Scottish Calendar.

page 196 note 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 135; Teulet, , Relations Politiques, Tome 5, p. 50Google Scholar.

page 196 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 103, 104; Sharpe, p. 23.

page 196 note 3 Ibid. pp. 109, 158, 186, 189, 575; Sharpe, p. 65.

page 196 note 4 Sharpe, p. 35.

page 196 note 5 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 119.

page 196 note 6 Sharpe, Northumberland's Confession; Hatfield MSS. part i. p. 502.

page 196 note 7 Humberston.

page 196 note 8 Doubtless she was moved by fear for her brother, the Duke of Norfolk.

page 196 note 9 Sharpe, Northumberland's Confession; Hatfield MSS. part i. 469–71. The whole of this examination of Thomas Bishop is interesting.

page 197 note 1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 107, 108.

page 197 note 2 Coram Rege, Easter Term, 1570. Indictment of the Nortons at London.

page 197 note 3 Ibid. and Lans. MSS, 52, 2.

page 198 note 1 S. P. Dom. El. lix. 38.

page 198 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 135.

page 198 note 3 Surtees Soc., Memorials of Ripon, ii. p. 257Google Scholar.

page 198 note 4 Sharpe, p. 61, Bowes, reports, ‘Dayley the people flee from theys parts to thErles—nothing avails, for they still steal after them.’ Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. 112Google Scholar.

page 198 note 5 Ibid. p. 129.

page 198 note 6 Sharpe, p. 62; cf. Sadler, , ii. 24, ‘I learn all Cleveland, Allertonshire, Richmondshire and the Bishopric are all wholly gone unto them such is their affection to the cause of religion, by means whereof they are grown to the force of great numbers, but yet confused, without order, armour, or weapon … The people of this country being so hollow-hearted, and so unwilling to bring victuals to the camp; albeit we use all the means we can, both fair and foul, to enforce them thereunto’ (12 15, 1569)Google Scholar. Sussex writes (26 Nov.), ‘At the beginning of these matters, the people were so affected to the Earls for the cause they had in hand, that what was had for the Queen's services was got out of the flint, and those that came, save a number of gentlemen, liked better the other side.’

page 199 note 1 Sharpe, loc. cit.

page 199 note 2 Cunningham, p. 49.

page 199 note 3 The most important, i.e. the Nortons and Bishop, were taken to London.

page 199 note 4 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 228.

page 199 note 5 13 El. c. 16.

page 199 note 6 Ibid. Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. p. 257.

page 200 note 1 13 El. c. 3.

page 200 note 2 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 288, 289, 290, 308; Humberston's Survey.

page 200 note 3 Camden Misc. vol. iii. ‘Relation of disorders committed against the Commonwealth, 1627’; by that time all the chief castles were in ruins.

page 200 note 4 Cal. S. P. Dom. Add. El. vii. pp. 177, 178, 181, 195, 205. Churches and castles were stripped of their lead roofs and soon fell into decay. The behaviour of this army seems to have been quite disgraceful, and it was to the greed of its leaders that so many wealthy rebels owed their pardons.

page 200 note 5 13 El. c. 12.

page 201 note 1 14 El. c. 13.

page 201 note 2 Holinshed, and Calendar of Scottish Papers.

page 201 note 3 S. P. Dom. El. xl. 41.