Volume III Part 13 (1/2)
The council of the north was about to undertake its functions. The Duke of Norfolk was to be the first president, and was to enter upon his duties at the end of January.
[Sidenote: Jan. 12. BiG.o.d raises the people.]
BiG.o.d, consulting only a few monks, a certain John Hallam a retainer of Sir Robert Constable, and one or two other insignificant persons, imagined that before his arrival the vantage-ground of Doncaster might be recovered. Had Lord Darcy, or any capable person, been aware of his intentions, he would have been promptly checked; but he kept his secret, except among his own private confederates, till the 12th of January, when he sent out a sudden circular, through Durham and Richmonds.h.i.+re, inviting a muster at Settington. Discontent is an incautious pa.s.sion.
The clergy gave their help, and a considerable number of people collected, though knowing nothing of the object for which they had been called together.[220] Presently Sir Francis BiG.o.d rode up, and mounting a hillock, addressed the crowd.
”He had invited them thither, he said, to warn them that, unless they looked to themselves, they would be all destroyed. Cleveland had risen, and other parts of the bishopric had risen, and all brave men must follow the example. The Duke of Norfolk was coming down with twenty thousand men. The gentlemen were traitors. The people were deceived by a pretended pardon, which was not a pardon, but a proclamation. None were to have the benefit of it, unless they took the king for supreme head of the Church; and that was against the Gospel. If, therefore, he said, you will take my part, I will take yours. You who will follow me, hold up your hands.”[221]
They did not know BiG.o.d; but in their humour they would have followed any one who had offered to lead them. Every hand went up. ”Who will not go,” they cried, ”strike off his head!”--”Now is the time to rise, or else never. Forward! forward! forward! forward now! on pain of death.
Forward now, or else never; and we shall have captains just and true; and no gentlemen shall stay us.”... The spent force of the great rising could still issue in noise, if in nothing else.
[Sidenote: George Lumley attempts Scarborough, and fails.]
[Sidenote: Hallam fails at Hull, and is taken prisoner.]
Among the crowd was the eldest son of Lord Lumley, taken there, if his own word was true, by little else than curiosity. BiG.o.d saw him; and he was pitched upon to head a party to Scarborough, and seize the castle.
He went unwillingly, with followers little better than a rabble. The townspeople were languid; the castle had been newly entrenched; the black mouths of cannon gaped between the parapets. The insurgents stood gazing for a few hours on their hopeless enterprise, and at the end Lumley stole away out of the town, and left his men to s.h.i.+ft as they could. Hull and Beverley were to be attempted on the same day by Hallam and BiG.o.d. In both cases they hoped to succeed by a surprise. At Hull it happened to be the market day. Hallam went thither in a farmer's dress, with twenty men, the party going in two and two to avoid causing suspicion. He calculated on the a.s.sistance of the crowd who would be collected by the market; but he soon discovered that he was mistaken, and that unless he could escape before his disguise was betrayed, he would be taken prisoner. He had gained the open country with two or three of his followers, when, on looking round, he saw the gates closing. ”Fie!” some one cried, ”will you go and leave your men behind you?” He turned his horse, intending a rescue. At that moment his bridle was seized; and though he drew his sword, and with his servants made a few minutes' defence, he was overpowered and carried to the town gaol.[222]
[Sidenote: BiG.o.d takes Beverley, but is denounced by Aske and Lord Darcy, and is also taken prisoner.]
BiG.o.d's fortune was scarcely better. He succeeded in getting possession of Beverley; but the late leaders, whose names still possessed the most authority, Aske, Darcy, and Sir Robert Constable, lost not an instant in disclaiming and condemning his proceedings. His men fell away from him; he was obliged to fly, and he, too, soon after found himself a prisoner.
[Sidenote: Difficult position of Aske, Sir R. Constable, and Lord Darcy.]
Nothing could have been more fortunate for the government, nothing more vexatious to all intelligent friends of the insurrection, than this preposterous outbreak. If the king desired to escape from the conditions of Doncaster, a fresh commotion furnished him with a fair excuse.
Constable sent out orders,[223] imperiously commanding every one to remain quiet. The Duke of Norfolk, he said, was coming only with his private retinue to listen to the complaints of the people. The king was to follow at Whitsuntide, to hold a parliament in the midst of them.
Their present folly was compromising their cause, and would undo their victory. To the king both he and Aske made the most of their exertions to preserve order, and received for them his thanks and acknowledgments.[224] Yet their position was full of danger; and to move either against the rising or in favour of it might equally injure them; they ruined BiG.o.d; but the country people and the clergy, who were half inclined to suspect them before, saw in their circulars only fresh evidence of treachery;[225] their huge party, so lately with the organization of an army, was gaping and splitting everywhere, and they knew not on which side to turn. BiG.o.d's scattered followers appealed to Aske and Darcy for protection, and Aske at least ventured to engage his word for their pardons. Hallam, who was as popular as he was rash and headstrong, had been taken in arms, and was in the hands of the king's soldiers at Hull. They must either rescue him and commit themselves to fresh treason, or forfeit the influence which they retained. They consulted anxiously. It was still open to them to draw their swords--to fling themselves on the country, and fight out the cause which they saw too clearly was fading away. But they had lost the tide--and they had lost heart, except for half measures, the snare and ruin of revolutionists.
[Sidenote: February. The Duke of Norfolk arrives with an army.]
Aske ventured in person to Hull, and interceded, with indirect menaces, to prevent Hallam's execution; a step which compromised himself, and could not benefit the prisoner.[226] The general consequences which he had foreseen all followed as a matter of course. ”BiG.o.d,” he said bitterly, ”had gone about to destroy the effect of the pet.i.tion.”[227]
The Duke of Norfolk came at the end of the month; but, under fair pretext of the continued disorders, he brought with him an army, and an army this time composed of men who would do his bidding and ask few questions.[228]
[Sidenote: February 3.]
[Sidenote: Commotions in Westmoreland and Northumberland.]
On the 3d of February he was at Pomfret. He was instructed to respect literally the terms of the pardon, but to punish promptly all offences committed since the issue of it. By the gentlemen he was eagerly welcomed, ”being,” he wrote, ”in the greatest fear of the people that ever I saw men.”[229] The East Riding was tolerably quiet; but to the north all was in confusion. The Earl of Westmoreland was in London. The countess was labouring to keep order, ”playing the part rather of a knight than of a lady,” but with imperfect success. The Countess of Northumberland had also exerted herself n.o.bly. But ”there was never so much need of help,” wrote Sir Thomas Tempest to Norfolk, ”as now; Northumberland is wholly out of rule, and without order to be taken in Tyndal and Redesdale, all mischief shall go at large. The barony of Langley and Hexhams.h.i.+re, taking example by them, be almost as evil as they be.”[230] Similar information came in from Richmond and the Dales, and Westmoreland was in worse condition than either. In place of the disciplined army which had been at Doncaster, an armed mob was spread over the country, pillaging and burning. Happily the latter form of evil was the more easy to deal with. ”The gentlemen be in such terror,”
Norfolk said, ”that they be afraid to move for their defence.” ”It shall not be long,” he added, ”ere I will look on these commons;” nor were they slow in giving him an opportunity.
[Sidenote: Feb. 12. The rebels attack Carlisle, but without success.]
[Sidenote: They again rally, and Norfolk goes to look for them.]
About the 12th of February a rabble from Kendal, Richmond, Hexham, Appleby, and Penrith, collected under one of the Musgraves, about eight thousand in number, and attacked Carlisle. They a.s.saulted the walls, but were beaten back in confusion, and chased for many miles by Sir Thomas Clifford. Clifford's troops, hastily levied, contained a sprinkling of the professional thieves of the Border. The tendencies of these men getting the better of them, they began to pillage; and the rebels rallying, and probably reinforced, attacked them, and gained some advantage. Norfolk hurried to the scene, taking care to bring the southern levies with him;[231] and he trusted that he had at last found an opportunity of dealing a blow which would finally restore order, and recover Henry's confidence in him, which had been somewhat shaken. ”I doubt not,” he wrote to Cromwell, ”so to use my company as it shall appear I have seen some wars. This pageant well played, it is likely all this realm shall be in better quiet during our lives. Doubt not, my lord, that I will adventure anything. I know too well what danger it should be to the whole realm if we were overthrown. Now shall appear whether for favour of these countrymen I forbare to fight with them at Doncaster, as ye know the King's Highness showed me it was thought by some I did. Those that so said shall now be proved false liars.”[232]
[Sidenote: A battle is imminent, but the rebels disperse.]