Volume III Part 11 (1/2)
In Suffolk's camp at Lincoln a suggestion was started whether Aske's attack might not be antic.i.p.ated,--whether, by a swift, silent enterprise, it might not be possible to seize and carry off both him and Sir R. Constable. Two volunteers were found who offered to make the experiment. One of them, Anthony Curtis, a cousin of Aske, ”for private malice, said that if he might have licence, he would find sureties, and would either kill his kinsman or be killed himself.”[179] Another attempt for Aske's destruction was made by the Duke of Norfolk, who had no objection to a coalition of n.o.blemen against Cromwell, but disdained the dictation of an unknown upstart. He supposed that he might tempt Lord Darcy to an act of treachery, and sent a questionable proposal to him by the hands of a servant of Lord Hussey, a certain Percival Cresswell. The attempt failed; but Cresswell's account of his mission is not a little curious.
[Sidenote: November 10.]
[Sidenote: The Duke of Norfolk sends Percival Cresswell to Lord Darcy.]
[Sidenote: The anteroom at Templehurst.]
[Sidenote: The Duke of Norfolk desires Lord Darcy to betray Aske.]
[Sidenote: Darcy will not stain his coat for the best dukedom in France.]
[Sidenote: November 11.]
He arrived at Templehurst on Friday, November the 10th, shortly before dinner. Lord Darcy was walking with Aske himself, who was his guest at the time, and a party of the commons in the castle garden. Cresswell gave him a letter from Norfolk, which was cautiously worded, in case it should fall into wrong hands, and said he was charged also with a private message. The danger of exciting suspicion was so great that Darcy had a difficulty in arranging a separate conversation. He took Cresswell into the castle, where he left him in an anteroom full of armed men. They gathered about him, and inquired whether Cromwell, ”whom they called most vilipendiously,” was put out of the king's council. He replied that the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Oxford, Lord Suss.e.x, and Sir William Fitzwilliam were with the king. ”G.o.d save the king!” they said; ”as long as n.o.blemen of the true blood rule about the king all will be well. But how of Cromwell? Is he put from the council or no?” Cresswell said that he was still on the council. ”Then, whatsoever the Lord Darcy say to you,” they answered, ”show the king and the lords that until our pet.i.tions are granted we will take no pardon till we have our will.”
Darcy had by this time secured a private room and a few private moments.
He called Cresswell in. ”Now tell your message,” he said. ”The Duke of Norfolk desires you,” announced the messenger, ”to deliver up Aske, quick or dead, but if possible, alive; and you shall so show yourself a true subject, and the king will so regard you.”[180] Darcy replied like a n.o.bleman. He had given his faith, he said, and he would not stain his coat.[181] He wrote a few lines to Norfolk. ”Alas, my Lord!” his letter said, ”that you, being a man of so great honour, should advise or choose me to betray any living man, Frenchman, Scot, yea, or even Turk. To win for me or for mine heirs the best duke's lands that be in France, I would not do it to no living person.”[182] The next morning, after ma.s.s, he again called Cresswell to him, and bade him tell the king that he had never done better service either to him or to his father than he was doing at that moment, and if there was to be peace, he recommended that the answer to the pet.i.tion should be returned instantly.
The king had written more than one answer; but in each draught which he had made there was a reservation attached to the promise of a general pardon, excluding in one instance ten persons, in another, six, from the benefit of it;[183] and they were withdrawn all of them in deference to the protests of the Duke of Norfolk. Ellerkar and Bowes were dismissed on the 14th of November, ”with general instructions of comfort.”[184]
Norfolk himself, with other commissioners, would return to the north at the end of the month with a final reply.
[Sidenote: Rebel council at York.]
[Sidenote: Advice of Sir Robert Constable to make sure the northern counties.]
The ill-humour of the insurgents was meanwhile increasing; division had begun to show itself; the people suspected the gentlemen, the gentlemen, feared the people, and noisy demonstrations showed Aske that a state of inaction was too dangerous to continue. On the return of Bowes and Ellerkar a hasty council was called at York. The question was put whether they should wait or not for the arrival of the commissioners.
Especial exasperation had been caused by a letter of Cromwell to Sir Ralph Evers, in which it was said that, ”unless the commons would be soon pacified, there should be such vengeance taken that the whole world should speak thereof.”[185] It was proposed to cut short further parley, and leave the cause to be decided by the sword. Darcy had already selected an agent to the court of Brussels, to beg that arms and ammunition might be sent at once to Hull.[186] Sir Robert Constable declared openly, ”that if his advice might be taken, seeing he had broken one point in the tables with the king, he would yet break another, and have no meeting. He would have all the country made sure from Trent northward; he doubted not they would have joined with them all Lancas.h.i.+re and Ches.h.i.+re, which would make them strong enough to defend themselves against all men; and then,” he said, ”he would be content to condescend to the meeting.”[187]
Had this advice been taken, the consequences might have been serious; but the fatal moderation of the leader prevailed over the more audacious but safer counsel. The terms offered by the government should be first discussed, but they should be discussed in security. The musters should rea.s.semble in full force.[188] They had summoned a northern parliament and convocation. The two a.s.semblies should sit at Pomfret and not at York, and should meet at the time of the conference.
[Sidenote: November 26.]
[Sidenote: Aske again collects his army.]
[Sidenote: The king is reluctant to grant a general pardon.]
Thus, on the 26th of November, as the king's commissioners approached the borders of Yorks.h.i.+re,[189] the news reached them that the beacons were again burning, and the force of the commons was again collecting.
The conference, if conference there was to be, must be held with their hands on their sword-hilts. The black squadrons, with St. Cuthbert's banner, would be swarming on the banks of the Don as before.[190] They had brought down extensive powers, but the king had refused absolutely to grant a complete pardon. Five or six of the worst offenders, he insisted, should be surrendered; and if the rebels were obstinate, Norfolk had been directed to protract the discussion, to win time by policy, that he might himself come to them; and in the meantime to consent to nothing, to promise nothing, and yet do and say nothing ”which might give them warning and respite to fortify themselves.”[191]
[Sidenote: The Duke of Norfolk returns to Doncaster,]
[Sidenote: And sends a messenger entreating the king to give way.]
But the waters had fallen low; the ground was hard; the sharpest winter had set in which had been known for years. The force which Shrewsbury had with him could not now hold its position in the face of the vast numbers which were collecting. When the number of the rebels who had rea.s.sembled was known, Sir John Russell was sent back from Nottingham to tell the king that his conditions could not be insisted upon, and to entreat him not only to grant the full pardon, but to promise also to hold a parliament in person at York.
[Sidenote: Council and convocation at Pomfret.]
[Sidenote: Nov. 27. Gallant conduct of the Archbishop of York.]
[Sidenote: The northern convocation p.r.o.nounce against the Reformation.]
Ignorant what the answer would be, Norfolk, with the other commissioners, went on to Doncaster, having prepared his way by a letter to Lord Darcy, to do away the effect of his late overtures.[192] He arrived at the town on the 28th of November. On Monday the 27th, the northern notables, laity and clergy, had a.s.sembled at Pomfret.