History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. III

“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 The statute of the declaration of the crown by will, that the same be annulled and repealed.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 To have the Statute of Uses repealed.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the statutes of treasons for words and such like, made since anno 21 of our sovereign lord that now is, be in like wise repealed.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.