Volume III Part 10 (2/2)

The loyalists and the rebels alike expected to gain by delay. Letters from all parts of the kingdom were daily pouring in to Aske, full of grat.i.tude, admiration, and promises of help.[165] He had leisure to organize the vast force of which the command had been thrust upon him, to communicate with the Emperor or with the regent's court at Brussels, and to establish a correspondence with the southern counties.

[Sidenote: Both parties expect to gain by delay.]

The Duke of Norfolk escaped an immediate danger agreeing in heart with the general objects of the rising, he trusted that the pet.i.tion, supported by the formidable report which he would carry up with him, might bring the king to consent to a partial reaction; if not to be reconciled to the Pope, at least to sacrifice Cromwell and the heretical bishops.

The weight of the crisis now rested on Henry himself. Cromwell was powerless where his own person was the subject of contention. He had no friends,--or none whose connexion with him did not increase his danger,--while by his enemies he was hated as an incarnation of Satan.

He left his cause in the king's hands, to be supported or allowed to fall.

[Sidenote: Advice of the Privy Council to the king.]

[Sidenote: Which he will not receive.]

But the Tudor princes were invariably most calm when those around them were panic-stricken. From the moment that the real danger was known, the king's own hand was on the helm--his own voice was heard dictating his orders. Lincolns.h.i.+re had again become menacing, and Suffolk had written despairing letters; the king told him ”not to be frightened at his shadow.”[166] The reactionary members of the council had suggested a call of parliament, and a proclamation that if any of the king's subjects could prove the late measures of the government to be against the laws of G.o.d or the interests of the commonwealth, these measures should be undone. They had begged, further, that his Highness would invite all persons who had complaints against Cromwell and the bishops to come forward with their proofs, and would give a promise that if the charges could be substantiated, they should be proceeded against and punished.[167] At such a crisis the king refused either to call a parliament to embarra.s.s his hands, or to invite his subjects to argue against his policy. ”He dared rather to testify that there never were in any of his predecessors' days so many wholesome, commodious, and beneficial acts made for the commonwealth: for those who were named subverters of G.o.d's laws he did take and repute them to be just and true executors of G.o.d's laws.” If any one could duly prove to the contrary, they should be duly punished. ”But in case,” he said, ”it be but a false and untrue report (as we verily think it is), then it were as meet, and standeth as well with justice, that they should have the self-same punishment which wrongfully hath objected this to them that they should have had if they deserved it.”[168]

[Sidenote: November 1.]

On the 29th of October he was on the point of setting off from London; circulars had gone out to the mayors of the towns informing them of his purpose, and directing them to keep watch and ward night and day,[169]

when Norfolk reached the court with the two messengers.

[Sidenote: The insurgent emissaries are detained at the court.]

[Sidenote: The king writes private letters to the lords and gentlemen.]

Henry received them graciously. Instead of sending them back with an immediate answer, he detained them for a fortnight, and in that interval gained them wholly over to himself. With their advice and a.s.sistance he sent private letters among the insurgent leaders. To Lord Latimer and the other n.o.bles he represented the dishonour which they had brought upon themselves by serving under Aske; he implored both them and the many other honourable men who had been led away to return to their allegiance, ”so as we may not,” he said, ”be enforced to extend our princely power against you, but with honour, and without further inconvenience, may perform that clemency on which we have determined.”[170]

[Sidenote: Heralds are sent into the northern towns to combat the delusions to which the people have been exposed.]

By infinite exertion he secured the services, from various parts of England, of fifty thousand reliable men who would join him on immediate notice; while into the insurgent counties he despatched heralds, with instructions to go to the large towns, to observe the disposition of the people, and, if it could be done with safety, to request the a.s.sistance of the mayor and bailiffs, ”gently and with good words in his Grace's name.” If the herald ”used himself discreetly,” they would probably make little difficulty; in which case he should repair in his coat of arms, attended by the officers of the corporation, to the market cross, and explain to the people the untruth of the stories by which they had been stirred to rebellion. The poorest subject, the king said, had at all times access to his presence to declare his suits to him; if any among them had felt themselves aggrieved, why had they not first come to him as pet.i.tioners, and heard the truth from his own lips. ”What folly was it then to adventure their bodies and souls, their lands, lives and goods, wives and children, upon a base false lie, set forth by false seditious persons, intending and desiring only a general spoil and a certain destruction of honest people, honest wives, and innocent children. What ruth and pity was it that Christian men, which were not only by G.o.d's law bound to obey their prince, but also to provide nutriment and sustentation for their wives and children, should forget altogether, and put them in danger of fire and sword for the accomplishment of a certain mad and furious attempt.” They could not recall the past. Let them amend their faults by submission for the future. The king only desired their good. He had a force in reserve with which he could and would crush them if they drove him to it; he hoped that he might be able only to show them mercy and pardon.[171] As to the suppression of the abbeys, the people should learn to compare their actual condition with the objects for which they were founded. Let them consider the three vows of religion--poverty, chast.i.ty, and obedience--and ask themselves how far these vows had been observed.[172]

[Sidenote: Continued irritation in the disturbed counties.]

[Sidenote: Aske's measures of organization.]

[Sidenote: Posts are laid down.]

[Sidenote: Hull is fortified.]

[Sidenote: Rumour of the intended advance of Aske and Lord Darcy.]

The heralds attempted their mission, and partially succeeded; but so hot a fever was not to be cooled on a sudden; and connected with the delay of the messengers, and with information of the measures which the king was procuring, their presence created, perhaps, more irritation and suspicion than their words accomplished good. The siege of Skipton continued; separate local insurrections were continually blazing; the monks everywhere were replaced in the abbeys; and Aske, who, though moderate, was a man of clear, keen decision, determined, since the king was slow in sending up his concessions, to antic.i.p.ate them by calling a parliament and convocation of the northern notables, to sit at York.[173] ”The king's treasure,” which had fallen into his hands, gave him command of money; the religious houses contributed their plate; circulars were addressed to every parish and towns.h.i.+p, directing them to have their contingents ready at any moment to march; and, to insure a rapid transmission of orders, regular posts were established from Hull to Templehurst, from Templehurst to York, from York to Durham, from Durham to Newcastle. The roads were patrolled night and day; all unknown persons in town or village were examined and ”ripped.”[174] The harbour at Hull was guarded with cannon, and the town held by a strong garrison under Sir Robert Constable, lest armed s.h.i.+ps from Portsmouth might attempt to seize it. Constable himself, with whose name we have already become familiar, was now, after Robert Aske and Lord Darcy, the third great leader of the movement.[175] The weather had changed, an early winter had set in, and the rivers either fell or froze; the low marsh country again became pa.s.sable, and rumours were abroad that Darcy intended to surprise Doncaster, and advance towards Nottingham; and that Aske and Constable would cross the Humber, and, pa.s.sing through Lincolns.h.i.+re, would cut off Suffolk, and join him at the same place.[176]

[Sidenote: Nov. 9. Reinforcements are sent to Lord Shrewsbury.]

The king, feeling that the only safety was in boldness, replied by ordering Lord Shrewsbury to advance again to his old position. The danger must have been really great, as even Shrewsbury hesitated, and this time preferred to hold the line of the Trent.[177] But Henry would now hear nothing of retreat. His own musters were at last coming up in strength. The fortification of Hull, he said, was a breach of the engagement at Doncaster; and Vernon, one of the lords of the Welsh Marches, Sir Philip Draycote, and Sir Henry Sacheverell, going to Shrewsbury's a.s.sistance, the line of the Don was again occupied. The head-quarters were at Rotherham, and a depot of artillery and stores was established at Tickhill.[178]

[Sidenote: Projects to seize or murder Aske.]

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