[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, Melanchthon, 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.